EarlyCivAlmanacV2 1/14/05 10:01 AM Page 1 Early Civilizations in the Americas Almanac EarlyCivAlmanacV2 1/14/05 10:01 AM Page 3 Early Civilizations in the Americas Almanac Volume 2 Sonia Benson Deborah J.Baker,Project Editor Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page iv Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanac Sonia Benson Project Editor Rights Acquisitions and Management Composition and Electronic Prepress Deborah J. Baker Shalice Shah-Caldwell, William Sampson Evi Seoud Editorial Imaging and Multimedia Manufacturing Michael D. Lesniak, Sarah Hermsen, Kelly A. 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Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535 No part of this work covered by the Permissions Hotline: copyright hereon may be reproduced or 248-699-8006 or 800-877-4253, ext. 8006 used in any form or by any means— Fax: 248-699-8074 or 800-762-4058 graphic, electronic, or mechanical, in- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Benson, Sonia. Early civilizations in the Americas. Almanac / Sonia G. Benson ; Deborah J. Baker, project editor. p. cm. – (Early civilizations in the Americas reference library) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-7876-9252-2 (set : hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-7876-7679-9 (v. 1) – ISBN—0-7876-7681-0 (v. 2) – ISBN 0-7876-9395-2 (e-book) 1. Indians–Antiquities–Juvenile literature. 2. America–Antiquities–Juvenile—literature. I. Baker, Deborah J. II. Title. III. Series. E77.4.B46 2005 980’.012–dc22 2004020163 This title is also available as an e-book. ISBN 0-7876-9395-2 (set). Contact your Thomson Gale representative for ordering information. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page v Contents Reader’s Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Timeline of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Words to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxvii Volume 1 Chapter 1: Introduction to Early American Civilizations . . 1 The World’s First Civilizations (box) . . . . . . . 5 Steps to Civilization: Worldwide Firsts (box). . . . 6 Sumer, Mesopotamia: The Cradle of Civilization (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 2: Before the Rise of Civilization: The First Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 v Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page vi Chapter 3: Early Andeans: From Nomads to City Folk . . 35 The First Mummies (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 New World Camelids (box) . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Chapter 4: Chavín Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Oracles (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Chapter 5: Nazca Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 An Alternative Idea about the Nazca Lines (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Chapter 6: Moche Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Finding the Lord of Sipán (box) . . . . . . . . . 94 Chapter 7: Tiwanaku Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 The Tiwanaku Ruins (box). . . . . . . . . . . 113 A Little Help from the Ancients (box). . . . . . 117 Chapter 8: Wari Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chichaand the Reciprocity Ceremony (box) . . 131 Chapter 9: Kingdom of Chimor . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Chapter 10: The Rise of the Incas . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The Chroniclers of the Inca Empire (box). . . . 168 The Inca Rulers (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Chapter 11: Inca Government and Economy . . . . . . 179 The Administrative Hierarchy (box) . . . . . . 187 Chapter 12: Inca Religion, Arts, and Sciences. . . . . . 199 Inca State Ceremonies (box) . . . . . . . . . . 209 Runasimi: The Quechua Language (box) . . . . 214 Inca Medicine (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Chapter 13: Daily Life in the Inca Empire. . . . . . . . 221 The History of the Potato (box) . . . . . . . . 234 vi Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanac Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page vii Chapter 14: The Conquest of the Incas . . . . . . . . 241 The Smallpox Epidemic (box) . . . . . . . . . 244 The Last Words of the Last Conquistador (box) . 255 Where to Learn More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlix Volume 2 Chapter 15: Early Mesoamerican Peoples . . . . . . . 261 Timeline of Early Mesoamerica (box) . . . . . . 268 Chapter 16: Olmec Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Chapter 17: Zapotecs and Monte Albán . . . . . . . . 299 The First Mesoamerican Calendar Systems (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Chapter 18: Teotihuacán . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Teotihuacán and the Aztec Legend of the Fifth Sun (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 Chapter 19: Mystery of the Maya . . . . . . . . . . . 333 A Note about Rain Forests (box) . . . . . . . . 340 Chapter 20: The Rise and Fall of Maya Cities . . . . . . 347 San Bartolo (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Chapter 21: Maya Religion and Government. . . . . . 371 The Epic Tale of the Hero Twins (box) . . . . . 376 Chapter 22: Maya Arts and Sciences. . . . . . . . . . 391 Deciphering the Work of Scribes (box) . . . . . 394 The Bonampak Murals (box). . . . . . . . . . 404 Chapter 23: Maya Economy and Daily Life . . . . . . . 415 Xocolatl:The Drink of the Gods (box). . . . . . 430 Contents vii Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page viii In the Eye of the Beholder (box) . . . . . . . . 432 The Lacandón Maya (box). . . . . . . . . . . 435 Chapter 24: Toltec Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Two Early Societies of the United States (box) . . 452 Chapter 25: The Rise of the Aztecs . . . . . . . . . . 457 Two Spanish Sources: Sahagún and Díaz (box). . 468 The Man behind the Emperors (box) . . . . . . 472 Chapter 26: Aztec Government and Economy . . . . . 477 The Aztec Kings and Emperors, 1376 to 1521 (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Chapter 27: Aztec Religion, Culture, and Daily Life . . . 501 Chapter 28: The Conquest of the Aztecs . . . . . . . . 529 The Conquistadores (box) . . . . . . . . . . . 534 The Toll of Epidemics on the Native Populations of Mexico (box). . . . . . . . . . 542 Where to Learn More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlix viii Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanac Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page ix Reader’s Guide Many American history books begin with the year 1492 and the discovery of the Caribbean Islands by Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506). For the great civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America, though, 1492 proved to be the beginning of the end of their civiliza- tion. The products of thousands of years of history—the great cities, the architecture, markets, governments, economic sys- tems, legal systems, schools, books, holy shrines—even the daily prayers of the people—were about to be willfully elimi- nated by the conquering European nations. The rupture would prove so deep that many aspects of pre-Hispanic Amer- ican culture and tradition were forever deleted from the human memory. Fortunately, some of the important history of the early civilizations has survived and more is being re- covered every day. The three-volume Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world’s first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose ix Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page x in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains re- gion of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bo- livia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. Recent studies show that the first cities in the Americas may have arisen as early as 2600 B.C.E.in the river valleys of present-day Peru. The earliest evidence of civilization in Mesoamerica dates back to about 2000 B.C.E. When the Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) ar- rived in Mesoamerica and the Andes in 1521 and 1531, re- spectively, they found many native societies, but they were most amazed by two great empires–the Aztecs and the Incas. In the early sixteenth century the Aztecs and the Incas had spectacular cities that could rival those of Europe in size, art and architecture, organization, and engineering. These capi- tal cities ruled over vast empires—the Aztecs with a popula- tion of more than 15 million and the Incas with a population of about 12 million—with remarkable efficiency. The Spaniards at that time could not have understood how many civilizations had preceded those of the Aztecs and the Incas, each one bringing its own advances to the empires they witnessed. In the Andes, many of the key ingredients of civilization were in place by 2600 B.C.E.in early urban centers. From that time forward, the Andean culture was adopted, de- veloped, and slowly transformed by the societies of the Chavín, the Moche, the Nazca, the Wari, the Tiwanaku, and the Chimú, among many others, before the Incas rose to power. Mesoamer- ican civilization apparently had its roots in the early societies of the Olmecs and Zapotecs, whose ancestors were living in pre- sent-day central Mexico by 2000 B.C.E. The Mayas skillfully adopted the calendars, glyph-writing, art and architecture, as- tronomy, and many other aspects of these earlier civilizations, adding greatly to the mix. The people of the great city of Teoti- huacán and later the Toltecs created vast empires that unified the Mesoamerican culture. Later the Aztecs created a govern- ment that encompassed all of these early civilizations. Early Civilizations of the Americas: Almanac presents the story of this development—the dates, locations, sites, his- tory, arts and sciences, religions, economies, governments, and eventual declines of the great ancient American civiliza- tions. Volume 1 features an overview of ancient civilization x Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanac Almanac 2 FM 1/27/05 1:20 PM Page xi in general and a brief summary of modern theories about the earliest immigrants and early life in the Americas. The re- mainder of the volume focuses on the rise of the Andean civ- ilization from the early urban centers to the Inca empire. Vol- ume 2 focuses on the rise of the Mesoamerican civilizations from the Olmecs through the Aztecs. A note about the use of the word “civilization” in these volumes. The word “civilization” is used here to con- vey the type of organization and the size of a society, and cer- tainly not to make a quality judgment about whether the so- ciety was sophisticated or refined. Besides the civilizations that arose in Mesoamerica and the Andean region, there were thousands of indigenous (native) societies throughout the two American continents with varying levels of the kind of organization experts call “civilization.” The civilizations fea- tured in Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library are the New World civilizations that developed around the same time and with some patterns similar to the first civiliza- tions of the Old World: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Val- ley, and China. Their history has been little known until the last century; indeed, only recent studies have included the Americas in the list of the world’s first civilizations. Features Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanaccontains nu- merous sidebar boxes that highlight people and events of spe- cial interest, and each chapter offers a list of additional sources that students can consult for more information. The material is illustrated by 192 black-and-white photographs and illustra- tions. Each volume begins with a timeline of important events in the history of the early American civilizations, a “Words to Know” section that introduces students to difficult or unfamil- iar terms, and a “Research and Activity Ideas” section. The vol- umes conclude with a general bibliography and a subject index so students can easily find the people, places, and events dis- cussed throughout Early Civilizations in the Americas: Almanac. Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library The two-volume Early Civilizations in the Americas: Al- manacis one of two components of the three-volume U•X•L Reader’s Guide xi