Mesoamerica

The first inhabitants in Mexico

The first inhabitants in Mexico settle in the north of the country around 20,000 years ago, but as the rest of prehistoric people they depended on hunting and began moving south to concentrate in the Valley of Mexico because of its climate and abundance of natural resources. This region is known historically as Mesoamerica, a term that refers to the geographicarea.

The region of Mesoamerica covered what we know now as Mexico, Guatemala and part of Honduras and El Salvador.

Mesoamerican civilization began to emerge around 2500 BC, as agriculture increasingly provided a reliable food source that could support larger and larger populations. Freed from having to constantly search for food, the formerly nomadic peoples were able to establish permanentsettlements. The shift from a hunting-gathering existence to one that revolved around agriculture and village life also gave people more time to devote to architectural and cultural pursuits. This made possible large public projects such as irrigation canals and temples, as well as the creation of fired clay objects such as dishes and containers.

For the study of Mesoamerican cultures, expertshave grouped them into three periods:
Pre-Classic (2500 BC – 200 AD)
Classic (200-900 A.D.)
Post-Classic (900 -1521 A.D.)

Mesoamerican cultures

The Olmec Culture

One of the first major Mesoamerican civilizations was established by the Olmec, a people who flourished between about 1500 and 600 BC in the swampy lowlands of what are now the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz.

Manyscholars consider Olmec civilization to be one of the primary cultures from which subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations drew many of their beliefs, traditions, and architectural styles.

The Olmec appear to have been the source of the widespread worship of several Mesoamerican deities. They began developing mathematics, used a calendar based on observation of the planets, and produced a varietyof intricate jade figurines.

Between 900 and 400 BC the major sites of the Olmec were destroyed. Their language is completely unknown and in fact the word Olmec  is of a Nahuatl origin and means “inhabitants of the rubber country”.

Due to the wetness of the region no human remains have been found to let us know exactly how did the olmecs look like, but their artistic representation such asthe monumental stone heads do. The Olmecs were above all carvers of stone.  Olmec sculptures are usually three demensional, to be seen from all the sides, not just from the front.

The colossal heads are a typical representation of an Olmec sculpture. These heads can be 2.85 meters in height and weight many tons.It is believed that these colossal heads are the portraits of mighty Olmec rulers.The Olmec  gods were associate with the forces of nature. The Olmecs believed that in some distant time in the past, a woman and cohabitated with a jaguar, this union gave birth to a new race combining the lineaments of jaguar and men.

The Teotihuacan Culture                 the classic period

The city-state of Teotihuacán, in Nahuatl means “the place were gods live” located in the Valley ofMexico about 40 km (25 mi) northeast of modern-day Mexico City, in turn became a powerful cultural center.

Teotihuacán flourished as an important commercial and religious center between about AD 100 to 650. It had a population of about 125,000 at its height, making it one of the largest cities in the world.

Teotihuacan was the first city theocratic and military government these means thepriests also carry out military duties. This group took decisions and controlled everything connected to trade. The rest of the society was composed by craftsmen. There were almost no farmers.

Religion was one of the major inheritances left by Teotihuacan to Mesoamerica. Many of the gods that emerged from this culture continued to be worshiped right up to the Spanish conquest. Deities began to...