Maya and Aztec

Ancient Mesoamerican civilizations

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Olmec civilization

Category: Olmec

After the symposium on “Regional Perspectives in Olmec problem” in 1983, the term “Olmec” decided to use a narrow sense: a society and the archaeological culture, which existed on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the II – I millennium BC. The earliest traces of habitation were found in the area of […]



San Lorenzo

Category: Olmec

The first and most ancient capital of Indian America is San Lorenzo (1400-900 years. BC). It is situated on a natural plateau, the slopes of which were modified to create numerous residential terraces. According to archaeologists, it lived up to 5 thousand people. The city is still patronized the almighty god of the jaguar. His […]



La Venta

Category: Olmec

The second ritual center-city of the first level was the Olmecs of La Venta. The town was located a large architectural complex consisting of two churches and a few pyramidal platforms. Ancient settlers have chosen this place as early as 1400 BC, where they erected one of the oldest settlements. La Venta was built with […]



San Andres, Tres Zapotes, Laguna de los Cerros and Las Limas

Category: Olmec

Another ancient settlement – San Andres. Between 1400 and 1150 years. BC flooding occurred here, perhaps, flooding of San Andres, where the higher layer 10 is pure mud. This apparently led to the rise of La Venta. In San Lorenzo, the earliest layers relate to hunt phase (1500-1350 years. BC), Bahio (1350-1250 years. BC) and […]



Olmec art

Category: Olmec

Olmec stone heads are giant basalt boulders weighing 30 tons and having an average circumference of about 7 meters and a height of 2,5 meters. Each head has its own “face” with the view looking out into space. At the head wearing helmets, helmets with chin strap. The first such stone head was discovered by […]



Conquest of the Aztecs

Category: Aztec

Cortes First March to Tenochtitlan Upon arrival, Cortes founded a town and called it Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. At about the same time he had all ten of his ships scuttled and sank so that his followers could not escape Emperor Montezuma’s ambassaders eventually appeared in the Spanish camp. They brought with them […]



The Aztecs Arrive in the Valley of Mexico

Category: Aztec

Following the collapse of Teotihuacan, the Toltecs swept down from the north and wiped out the few remaining survivors and took over the Valley of Mexico. They set up a capital in Tula under a ruler named Topiltzin. Then, Tula itself fell to invaders in 1224. The fall of Tula led the way for the […]



European Influence and conquest of the Maya

Category: Maya

The earliest known contact by Europeans probably occurred during the last voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1502. However, the existence of the Maya did not become fully known to the outside world until 1517, when three ships commanded by Francisco Hernandez de Cordova landed at Cape Catoche. They arrived back in Cuba almost dead from […]



Pre-Maya Civilizations

Category: Maya

By the 1840’s most historians and archaeologists believed that the Mayan Civilization could not have been built by an indigenous cul­ture. Originally, archaeologists believed that the Mayan civilization must have built by people who were descendants of Egypt. Most of this theory was based on the fact that they both had pyramids. No one believed […]



Aztec Religion

Category: Aztec

The Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures believed that several successive worlds (4) had existed before ours, and each time mankind had been wiped out by some catastrophic event. This series of worlds were called the “Four Suns.” and the age that we now live in is the fifth. The ancient Aztecs believed that two beings […]