Hello my fellow Steemians!!

I’ve never really spoke about one of my interests here in steemit. So I had the idea to start writing about it.

Having said that, I’ll start a series of posts that will consist of a History course.

We will focus on the people from Meso America. The Mayans, the Aztecs, The olmecs and other’s.

I would like to start by saying that these cultures are very different from each other on virtually every aspect from the languages they spoke, the Aztecs had only language while the Mayan’s had more than 20, to the time period they lived in. The Maya’s where around for millennia when the Aztecs showed up and then lasted only for a few centuries.

During this course we are going to look at all the aspects of the Meso American people’s but now it’s a good time to clarify that the study of these cultures is divided into three chronological time periods:

1. The Preclassic (2000 B.C. - 200 A.D.) This is a time when the characterised by the rise of the Olmec people. The first great civilisation of Meso America, who build pyramids, stone effigies of their leaders and started a trade practise with the surrounding cultures.

2. The Classic (200 A.D. - 900 A.D.) - This is when larger cities began to appear and the Mayan civilisation too. The Zapotec’s also raised and came to an end in this time period. The great city of Teotihuacan appeared on this time line, it was the biggest city the America’s had ever seen and by 300 A.D. they where gaining control over the entire region using military expeditions. However they fell as quickly has they where risen. By 650 A.D. the city was burned to the ground. By 850 A.D. all of the classic period cities where covered in moss…

3. Post Classic (900 A.D. - 1500A.D.) - The Aztecs migrated into the valley of Mexico around the year 1250. By 1427 they controlled all of Meso America from their capital until the Spanish arrived and defeated them.

Olmec Civilisation Emerges!

The Olmec civilisation is considered by many the mother culture of Meso America and one of the six cradles of civilisation. Together with: Egypt, Sumerian, Shang Cultures of China, Indus Valley of India, Costal Cultures of Peru.

Their three main cities where:

1. San Lorenzo (1700 B.C - 1000 B.C.)

2. La Venta (1000 B.C. - 400 B.C.)

3. Tres Zapotes (300 B.C. - 300 A.D.)

The origin og the name “Olmec” is pretty funny. It’s actually the name the Aztecs used to call that land “Olman” meaning “land of rubber” However the Olman had nothing to do with the long gone Olmec’s, but the name sticked.

They had several monuments like the “red palace” who got that name from being made, mainly of a reddish mud. The La Venta’s pyramid who stood 30 meter’s tall and had more than 100 000 cubic meter’s of dirt. Also the first hieroglyphs where found in Tres Zapotes ( by far the smallest city of the three, it’s even considered a Epi-Olmec city, meaning a transition between Olmec and their end)

And the famous colossal heads:

This head’s are Cleary the most famous piece of Olmec art.

There are 17 known heads, mainly from those three major cities. However the biggest one is not from there and it’s unfinished. This is the head of “La Cobata” it weighs an impressive 40 tons. Most of the heads with between 10 to 20 tons (the smallest of all weighs 6 tons)

They are all unique… each one of them depict, clearly, a different person with a different expression. The emotions range from sadness to anger to smiling. It’s defiantly not showing us generic people. The main theory is that it shows Olmec’s ruler’s.

However they all have some similarities, they are all male, they all wear a helmet and they all have flat noses and full lips. This has lead many people to say that they are showing Africans or black people… this would make things a bit more complicated. However it is said that some people in that region have some of those characteristics.

The heads at San Lorenzo and La Venta where found at key points on the north south axis of the sites, indicating they could be part of a procession. In one head of San Lorenzo they found a small vestige of red paint, indicating that they could have been decorated.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this heads is that, according to some scholars belief, they came from Tuxtla mountain, some 90 kilometres away… not easy to transport even today…

There are some theories that defend the Olmecs having some contact with people from the “Old World” mainly the Phoenicians. While this can be extremely critiqued by many, there are a few aspects that are hard to explain other wise.

Among other’s we have La Venta’s monument 16, depicting a man with a beard wearing a turban and curled shoes. We can see four hieroglyph in the monument (the older we have by the way) One footprint stands alone and it means traveler in later Mesoamerican writing. Other depictions show us man with tick beards, high cheekbones and turbans, not matching Mesoamerican facial features at all.

The Olmecs also laid the foundations of what would become Mayan culture, with the first writing, using the same numeric system, depictions of shamanism, art and the foundation of the calendar’s.

They build impressive palaces, the gigantic heads and enormous ball courts (later adapted by the Mayans.) and other impressive monuments.

As always, thank you for reading.

Photos (except Logo) from Pixabay.com

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