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Aim: How should the Aztecs and Inca be remembered in history?
Periods 3 - 4 The Aztec Origin Myth: The Gods told the Aztecs to search for an eagle perched atop a cactus holding a snake in its beak. Their God Huitzilopochtli guided them to Lake Texcoco.
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Recall the Previous Mesoamerican Civilizations
The Olmecs: c BCE – 400 BCE Teotihuacan: 1st-7th centuries CE Maya in the Yucatan Classical Period: 250 – 900 CE ACHIEVEMENT Colossal heads Planned city Many temples Planned cities Hieroglyphics
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I Who were the Aztecs? The Aztecs were nomads from Northern Mexico.
1200s CE they moved south to Lake Texcoco and conquered the natives. They built their capital city Tenochtitlan on the lake, connected by bridges and tunnels.
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The Aztecs Continued… C) Tenochtitlan formed an alliance with 2 other cities, Texcoco & Tlacopan. Tenochtitlan soon became the most powerful city of the alliance. The empire expanded by conquering more cities. Some became part of the empire, others were forced to pay tribute.
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Eagle & Jaguar Warriors
The Aztecs Continued… D) The bulk of Aztec armies were made up of commoners required to do military service. Military achievement, particularly the taking of prisoners, was the only vehicle for upward social movement available for commoners. Signature weapon atlatl; a spear thrower. Eagle & Jaguar Warriors
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The Aztecs Continued… E) Like the Mayans, the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency. There were organized marketplaces. Despite not having the wheel or using pack animals, the Aztecs practiced long-distance trade! “On reaching the market-place... we were astounded at the great number of people and the quantities of merchandise, and at the orderliness... Every kind of merchandise was kept separate and had as fixed place marked for it…” Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in The Conquest of New Spain (circa 1568)
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The Aztecs Continued… F) Chinampas were artificial floating islands anchored to the bottom of the lake. Crops were transported to market by the canals.
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The Aztecs Continued… G) The Aztec religion was polytheistic. Like the Mayans, they believed that the sun fought darkness every night and needed human sacrifice to rise in the morning. If a person died a normal death, his or her soul would have to pass through the nine lives of the underworld before reaching Mictlan, the realm of the dead. A warrior who died in battle or a woman that died in childbirth would go straight to the sun god in the sky. Priests sacrificed up to 20,000 people a year. During times of peace, Aztecs had “flower wars” (fake wars) in order to obtain sacrificial victims. Like the Mayans, the Aztecs also played the ritual ball game.
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The Aztecs Continued… Tlaloc was the rain god. The Aztecs believed that the cries and tears of newborn children were sacred to the god, and, therefore, many ceremonies for Tlaloc involved the sacrifice of children. Huitzilopochtli “Hummimngbird of the left”. He founded Tenochtitlan. Tonatiuh was the sun god. Quetzalcoatl “the Feathered Serpent” was patron of knowledge and learning.
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Aztec Pyramid of the Moon
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Aztec Human Sacrifice
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The Aztecs Continued… H) Like the Mayans, the Aztecs had multiple calendars based on their study of astronomy. They had 2 main ones: 1. 1st was 365 days. Used to plan farming. 2. The 2nd was a sacred calendar that determined the dates of rituals. Every 52 years, the 2 calendars would align. Aztecs feared the world could end. To prevent disaster, they had a New Fire Festival. Aztecs invented hieroglyphics for their language, Nahuatl. Made books of tree bark called codices. J) Aqueducts
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The Aztecs Continued… Above is an Aztec sun calendar. Notice the Sun God Tonatiuh in the center. His tongue is waiting sacrificial human blood. An Aztec Codex
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The Aztecs Continued… K) Aztec society
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The Aztecs Continued… Long distance merchants were a special class due to the dangers! If they were to die while traveling, the soul would go directly to the paradise of the Sun God! Women often were able to run business out of their homes. Polygamy (multiple wives) was legal, but adultery was punished by death. In divorce property was divided equally. Most Aztec houses (including those of the commoners) had an attached sauna for steam bathing!
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Aztecs… Cannibalism Confirmed?
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Jan. 25, 2005 New finds from an archaeological site near Mexico City support certain written and pictorial evidence concerning Aztec human sacrifice that historians previously doubted because the accounts seemed too exaggerated to be true… Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés ( ), whose men conquered the Aztecs in 1519, wrote in a letter that his soldiers had captured an Aztec man who had roasted a baby at breakfast time. While it probably would be impossible to validate that specific account, the Aztec site at Ecatepec, north of Mexico City, has just yielded the remains of eight children whom the Aztecs likely sacrificed… Aztec expert Leonardo Lopez Lujan… recently revealed the results of chemical tests conducted on the residue found on the stucco floors of some Aztec temples. The residue contained iron, albumen, and genetic matter suggestive of human blood. "We now have the physical evidence to corroborate the written and pictorial record," Lopez Lujan said…”
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Recall the South American Civilizations that Preceded the Inca!
The Chavin: c. 900 BCE – 200 CE The Moche: 200 – 600 CE ACHIEVMENTS Temple complex at Chavin de Huantar Skilled artists and potters
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II The Inca – 1535 CE Geography: 2,500 miles along the Andes mountains in western South America. Altitudes up to 22,000 feet! The Inca chewed coca leaves to help acclimate to the lower oxygen. Lake Titicaca is the highest elevated lake in the world!
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The Inca Continued… The legendary founders of the Inca dynasty, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, were sent down to Earth by the Sun and emerged from Lake Titicaca to found their empire.
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The Inca Continued… B) Government: Absolute monarchy led by the Sapa Inca. Capital at Cuzco. Empire was divided into 4 large districts. C) The Incas conquered a vast territory using alliances. When the Inca won new territories they moved a trusted leader to a newly conquered territory. Network of messengers who traveled quickly due to the Incan road system: 25,000 miles of roads, bridges, tunnels and causeways. In contrast, the Roman Empire built twice as many miles of road, but it took them 600 years. Like the Aztecs, the Inca did not use the wheel.
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Incan Roads and Bridges
Incan bridges had a pair of stone anchors on each side of the canyon with cables of woven grass linking these two pylons together.
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The Inca Continued… C) The Incan religion (like the Aztecs) had a pantheon of gods. The Inca also venerated countless huacas (minor spirits that inhabited places, things and sometimes people). Emperors were descended from the sun god, Inti. Inti only showed his wrath when there was an eclipse, at which point the Inca priests would sacrifice people and animals to appease him. Inti, the Incan Sun God
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The Inca Continued… There were 2 types of Incan mummies:
Emperors were mummified due to the belief that their soul comes back to the body. These mummies were paraded around, clothed and even fed! 2. Young girls were left to die in the Andes as sacrificial victims. Due to the dry climate, they became well preserved. Unfortunately the Spanish conquistadors destroyed most of the Emperor mummies.
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Final Moments of Incan Child Mummies' Lives Revealed Jul 29, 2013 by Joseph Castro, LiveScience
“... Archaeologists analyzed hair samples from the frozen mummies of the three children, who were discovered in 1999, entombed within a shrine near the 22,100-foot summit of the Argentinian volcano Llullaillaco. The samples revealed that all three children consistently consumed coca leaves (from which cocaine is derived) and alcoholic beverages, but the oldest child, the famed "Maiden," ingested markedly more of the substances… After being selected for the deadly rite, the Maiden likely underwent a type of status change, becoming an important figure to the empire; the other two children may have served as her attendants… They found that the children came from a peasant background, as their diet consisted mainly of common vegetables, potatoes in particular. But in the year leading up to their deaths, they ate "elite" food, including maize and dried llama meat, and appeared to have been fattened up in preparation for the sacrifice. Additionally, the 13-year-old Maiden consumed more of the elite food than the Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl, who were both 4 to 5 years old…”
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Roasted guinea pig is a delicacy!
The Inca Continued… D) Inca used domesticated llamas, alpaca, and guinea pig. E) Main crops were potatoes, coca leaves, corn (made into an alcoholic beverage chicha), quinoa (a high protein grain). Due to the Andes mountains, the Inca practiced Terrace farming (cut steps into the mountains). Roasted guinea pig is a delicacy!
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The Inca Continued… A modern Incan woman grinding corn into chicha (an alcoholic beverage). Incan terrace farming
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The Inca Continued… F) Incan Society: Patrirarchal, but some female goddesses were revered. Women could choose to become a Virgin of the Sun (a servant at a temple), or she could marry within her social class. The only divorces allowed after this time were of childless women.
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The Inca Continued… G) Quipu were knotted colored strings that were used as a counting system. Some historians believe it may also have been a “writing” system!
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III Machu Pichu “Machu Pichu is tangible evidence of the urban Inca Empire at the peak of its power and achievement—a citadel of cut stone fit together without mortar so tightly that its cracks still can’t be penetrated by a knife blade. The complex of palaces and plazas, temples and homes may have been built as a ceremonial site, a military stronghold, or a retreat for ruling … The Inca had no written language, so they left no record of why they built the site or how they used it before it was abandoned in the early 16th century… When Machu Picchu was built some 500 years ago the Inca had no iron, no steel, and no wheels… some experts maintain that fewer than a thousand individuals lived here… While indigenous peoples knew of the site, Peru’s Spanish conquerors never did—a fact which aided Machu Picchu’s isolation, and preservation, over the centuries.” - natgeo.com
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HW Questions Did geography help or hurt the Aztecs and Inca?
Fill in your Period 3 chart for the Aztecs and Inca. Did geography help or hurt the Aztecs and Inca? What is the evidence for cannibalism in Aztec society? How were Incan mummies similar or different to ancient Egyptian mummies? How should we remember the Aztecs and Inca? *At least 2 paragraphs. Use specific evidence.
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Key Vocabulary Ayllu Aztecs Chinampas Coca leaves Codices Cuzco Flower wars Huacas Huitzilopochtli Inca Inti Lake Texcoco Lake Titicaca Machu Pichu Quetzalcoatl Quipu Sapa Inca Tenochitlan Tlaloc Yucatan
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