Maya, aztec & inca civilizations

1. Quiz
• List three early civilizations of Central and
South America.
• How did these early civilizations determine
what day it was? Describe what it looked
like.

2. Great Civilizations of
Central & South America
Aztec, Maya, and Inca

3. Objectives:
• Identify North, Central and South America on a
Map.
• Identify regions in Mesoamerica and South
America inhabited by the Aztec, Maya and Inca.
• Discuss the arts and culture of the early
civilizations of Central and South America
• Create artworks related to the cultures of Central
and South American early civilizations.

5. Mesoamerica
• Mesoamerica – the region where North and
South America meet.
• Mesoamerica has been home to many great
civilizations, including the
– Olmecs
– Maya
– Toltecs
– Aztecs

6. Aztec Arts
• Aztecs had many types of art and artists like
stone-workers, who carved statues; scribes, who
painted pictograms; potters, who would make pots
for various things; and feather-workers, who
would create beautiful head dresses among other
things.
• Music and dance were a significant part of Aztec
life. Music and dance were closely linked to
religion. The most common instruments were
rattles, whistles, trumpets, flutes, copper bells, and
shells. Everyone took part in dances performed
especially for the gods, including peasants.

7. Calendars
• Calendars: Like the Maya and other
American civilizations, the Aztecs had two
cycles to their calendar, one a 365-day solar
year and one a 260 ritual year. Combined,
they made a 52-year 'Calendar Round'. The
Aztecs believed bad things happened at the
end of a Calendar Round.

8. Aztec Calendar
• The Aztecs believed that the world had
already been created and destroyed four
times and their Fifth World was doomed.
• The Aztec calendar was an adaptation of the
Mayan calendar

9. Aztec Calendar

10. The 20 Aztec Day Signs

11. Names of Days
• These symbols were combined with a number give
the date, such as Three Vulture.
• The days were named after familiar creatures or
everyday things, such as lizard or water. Each day
also had its own god.
• Children were often named after the day on which
they were born, a custom that still continues in
some parts of Mexico up to the present day.

12. Mayan Calendar

13. Ballgames
• For some 3,000 years, the Maya played games with a
rubber ball. The best known took place in the ballcourt
that was a feature of every city.
• This was usually an alley formed by two parallel
structures, some remains of which have survived. Rules
varied, but two teams – each consisting of two or three
players – were usually involved, and points were scored
by hitting the ball at a ring of markers.
• The game was both a sport to bet on and a metaphor
for the cosmos, with the ball seen as the sun moving in
and out of the underworld. Sometimes the game's
winners would sacrifice the losers to the gods.

14. Ball-game players used only their hips
and knees to hit a solid rubber ball
through the ring.

15. Temple Tomb
Pyramid Temple 1 at
Tikal was built in the
700s AD as a memorial
to a Maya king. Nine
stone platforms were
built above the burial
chamber, to create a tall
pyramid shape reaching
up to the sky.

16. Project: Create your own Aztec Calendar
• Trace a circle onto a piece of
8.5x11 paper. Use a large lid,
stencil or compass.
• Draw an image of a sun in the
middle of the circle radiating
outward towards the edges.
• Evenly draw out several smaller
circles inside the large circle.
• Draw or trace at least 10 day signs
around the smaller circles.
• Color your design with pencil
colors or markers.

17. Project:
Mayan Clay Vessel

22. Inca Art
• There were many Inca craftsmen in the
Andes. They were expert architects who
constructed stone walls. The artisans also
made silver alpacas that show their great
skills.
• The Inca craftsmen achieved a high degree
of respect and honor because of their skills
in arts and crafts. They sculpted pottery
which featured geometric designs painted in
black, red, brown, yellow, and white.

23. Inca Arts & Crafts
• Metalworkers make ornaments, tools, and
weapons out silver, copper, gold, and
bronze. They excelled at working metals
like silver, copper, and gold. Female statues
are found with Inca offerings to the gods.
Because llamas were very protected in the
Andean region, lots of stylized llama
figures were made by metalworkers.

24. • Inca weavers wove beautiful textiles from alpaca,
llama, and vicuña wool and from cotton
• The Inca were very famous for their ideas of
handling and working materials they used for
public buildings. The Inca used stones that
weighed many tons in the building. The stones
were brought by labors from quarries using rollers,
wedges, ropes, and inclined planes.
• Another favorite of the Incas was music played on
woodwinds (which include flutes and panpipes,
and trumpets made of shell and ceramics) and
drums. They played haunting melodies for
ceremonies or just for fun.

25. Machu Picchu

26. Tumi Knife
Ceremonial Knife

27. Jaguar Vessel

28. • http://library.thinkquest.org/27981/
• http://www.studystack.com/studytable-36108
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonpl