Mesoamerica: Cultural Region

CULTURAL CHRONOLOGY OF MESOAMERICA

2000 BC AD 250 AD 1000 AD 1521

Preclassic Classic Postclassic

Early occupation—Hunter-gatherers maybe as early as 14,500 years ago.

Between 2000 and 1500 BC permanent settlements, pottery, and agriculture.

This is followed by social hierarchies, centralized governments, and specific
religious concepts.
 MESOAMERICA
Mesoamerican communities and cultures share many
similarities. There are more similarities within the
Mesoamerican area than with areas outside of the region.

Similarities include:
• Agriculture
• Architecture and Technology
• Numeric system
• Calendars
• Writing
• Religion
MESOAMERICA

Similar religious beliefs

• Worldview
• Animism
• Polytheism
• Shamanism
• Ancestors
• Transactions
• Sacrifice and Offerings
• Blood sacrifice
Worldview

EARTH SURFACE
DISK
 HUMAN HABITATION

ORDER
 MOUNTAIN

CROSSROADS

DEITIES AND ANCESTORS

CAVE
WATER/SEA
SKY/HEAVENS -13 LAYERS
UNDERWORLD-9 LAYERS
 CAVE

MOUNTAIN WORLD TREE

CROSSROADS
WORLD TREE
WORLD TREE

CEIBA
CAVES AS PORTALS

XIBALBA
 ANIMISM
AND
POLYTHEISM
CHAAC
This is the famous Maya rain god.
The story says that he carried an
ax in one hand with which he
struck the clouds to make it rain.
Another legend tells that Chaac
was the brother of the sun god and
together they defeated their
adoptive parents. In this legend, it
is also said that Chaac committed
adultery with his brother’s wife for
which he was punished, and when
he cries in repentance, the sky
becomes cloudy, and it rains.

In the Yucatán Peninsula, he was

considered the protector of
agriculture, so even today rituals
are offered for a good harvest.

He is often depicted with a huge

nose, bulging eyes, and a body full
of reptile-like scales.
CHAC
ITZAMNÁ

This is one of the most important gods of

the Maya. He is often depicted as a
toothless old man with a large nose. He
was the son of the creator god Hunab Ku
and, he was associated with the sun god
Kinich Ahau as well as the goddess Ix
Chel. There are many stories and myths
about him since he was considered a
cultural hero, because of his
contributions to the cultivation of corn,
the creation of calendars, and the
discovery of Maya medicine.
The god Itzamná is the symbol that
represents wisdom as well as the
teaching of knowledge.
IX CHEL
Ix Chel is known as La Blanca and is
one of the most important goddesses
in the vast Maya Pantheon. She was
wife to Itzamná, one of the most
powerful gods. Together they
fathered 13 children, including Yum
Kaax; corn god and Ek Chuah; god
of merchants, cocoa, and war.

A legend tells that Itzamná fell in love

with her while weaving on a
backstrap loom, of which she was
the inventor.
She was the lady of the moon and
was thought to have control over its
cycles.

Like all the Maya Gods, Ix Chel had

other attributes such as being the
goddess of fertility, harvests,
sexuality, and pregnancy, so women
entrusted her with the protection of
their children.
KINICH AHAU
He is the Sun god of Maya culture.
Often represented by a jaguar,
eagle, or deer; animals that depicted
power. It is said that he was a
generator of light, time, heat, and the
four directions that the universe had
in its vast expanse. However, the
most common representation of this
great god was an old man with a
prominent nose dressed in
invaluable garments, a mocking
gesture, and crossed eyes.

The importance of this Maya God

was such that the rulers in the
classical era of Mayan culture used
the word “kinich” in their titles. Kinich
Ahau was idolized with dances and
sacrifices for being a being of war
with which they sought to obtain
protection.
HUN NAL YE
According to the Popol Vuh, Hu Nal
Ye is known as the first father and
his name in Maya means “first seed
of corn”. Also, this ancient book of
the Maya tells that man was created
from this seed. It narrates that Hun
Nal Ye built a house divided into
eight parts oriented towards all the
cardinal points of the universe.
At the center of his creation, he
placed three stones to indicate its
beginning, as well as a huge tree
that represented the four winds of
life, and that was the bridge between
heaven, earth, and the underworld:
the ceiba tree.
This Maya God was the father of the
Hunahpú and X’Balamque twins,
who descended into the underworld
to search for him. These famous
twins fought great fights with the
lords of Xibalbá.
AH PUCH
He is the god of death in the Maya
Pantheon and was also called the Flatulent
(Kisin), the Lord of Death (Yum Kimil), and
was the sovereign of the lowest of nine
underground worlds of the Maya. His
image is depicted as a being with exposed
ribs and spine with black details
suggesting decomposition.
Ah Puch is considered the opposing side
of the god Itzamná, the god of life. The
name of the fleshless god has two
hieroglyphs; the first represents the head
of a corpse with its eyes closed and the
second the head of the god himself with a
truncated nose, gaunt jaws accompanied
by a flint knife. His representations in the
world were owls, dogs, and bats, animals
considered by the Maya to be bad omens.

A legend tells that this god went out at

night to visit the houses of the sick to feed
on them or take them to Xibalbá. The
living had the advantage of being able to
hear his bells and necklaces that moved
with every step that the god took to hide
from him.
GOD L LORD OF THE
UNDERWORLD
The name of this Maya Pantheon
deity is unknown. What we do know,
is that he is related to the night and
the underworld, as well as death and
the moment of creation of the
cosmos. As in the other powerful
gods of the Maya culture, his image
is represented through an old man
with jaguar ears and black painted
body parts.

One of the most distinctive features

of this god is a kind of hat decorated
with owl feathers of the horned
species. His back is covered by a
huge jaguar skin or he appears
naked showing the flaccidity of his
belly.
KUKULCÁN GOD
He is the most well-known god of the
Maya Pantheon. He is the deity of
water, wind and some suggest that
Kukulcán and Quetzalcóatl are the
same being.

The importance of Kukulcán can be

verified in the majestic Chichén Itzá,
one of the most important cities in the
Maya world, where its founders, the
Itzaes, worshiped the feathered serpent
through offerings and integrating it into
their architecture.
EK CHUAH
The duality of the Maya gods is
perfectly represented with Ek
Chuah, while he was the god of
merchants and cocoa, he was
the god of war, chaos, and
destruction too. His benevolent
side was represented by a man
with a large cane that worked as
a lance and carrying various
items on his back. His warrior
side always appeared fighting
and defeating enemies or, on
the contrary, being defeated by
other warrior gods.
 ANIMISM
AND
POLYTHEISM
MOUNTAIN
CAVES ARE PORTALS TO THE
UNDERWORLD
MOUNTAINS FOR DEITIES AND
ANCESTORS
Lady Xook of Yaxchilan conjuring an
ancestor
Priests and Shamans

Priesthood consisted of a hierarchy of

professional priests serving as
intermediaries between the population and
the deities.

Their basic skill was the art of reading and

writing. The priesthood as a whole was the
keeper of knowledge concerning the
deities and their cult, including
calendrics, astrology, divination, and
prophecy. In addition, they were experts
in historiography and genealogy.

Priests were usually male and could

marry.

Shamans connected our world with the

spiritual world.

Kings were priests and main priests came

from the nobility.
Rituals

Sacred rites for birth, death,

renewal, agriculture, rain,
prosperity, war, etc.

Offerings and gifts

Altered consciousness
Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of
consciousness in healing rituals and religious ceremonies.

The Maya drank balché (a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus) in group
ceremonies to achieve intoxication. Ritual enemas and other psychoactive substances
were also used to induce states of trance.

Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec used peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl:
Psilocybe spp.) and the seeds of ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), that contain mescaline,
psilocybin and lysergic acid amide, respectively.

The skin of the toad Bufo spp. contains bufotoxins with hallucinogenic properties and
was used during the Olmec period.

Jimson weed (Datura stramonium), wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), water lily
(Nymphaea ampla) and Salvia divinorum were used for their psychoactive effects.

Mushroom stones dating from 3000 BC have been found in ritual contexts in
Mesoamerica.

Archaeological evidence of peyote use dates back to over 5000 years. Several
chroniclers, mainly Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, described their effects in the sixteenth
century.
Sacrifice and Bloodletting
Autosacrifice

Lady Xook of Yaxchilan conjuring an

ancestor
Human Sacrifice
 MESOAMERICA

Shared a numeric system, calendar, and used writing

 NUMERICS

ZERO

ONE

FIVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmZjPVT2M20
CALENDAR Calendric Systems

Tzolkin 260 days, 20

days combined with 13
numbers, oldest and
most important, ritual
CALENDAR Calendric Systems

Tzolkin 260 days, 20 days

combined with 13
numbers, oldest and most
important, ritual

Haab 365 days, 18

months of 20 days and 5
unlucky days

Calendar round: 52 years

CALENDAR

4 Ahau 8 Kumku
5 Imix 9 Kumku
6 Ix 10 Kumku

Calendar round: 52 years

Mesoamerican Time Periods

Long Count
Representation Days ~ solar years
subdivisions
0.0.0.0.1 1 k'in 1 1/365
0.0.0.1.0 1 winal = 20 k'in 20 0.055
0.0.1.0.0 1 tun = 18 winal 360 0.986
0.1.0.0.0 1 k'atun = 20 tun 7,200 19.71
1.0.0.0.0 1 b'ak'tun = 20 k'atuns 144,000 394.3

Long count: start from a zero point (3114 BC, the end of a prior cycle).
Divided into cycles of approx. 394 years (baktun)
 AD 143 and 156

La Mojarra Monument
 WRITING SYSTEMS

PICTOGRAPHY = PICTURES ACT AS SIGNS

LOGOGRAPHY = SYMBOL REPRESENTS THE WORD

SYLLABARY = SIGN STANDS FOR A SYLLABLE

ALPHABET = SIGN STANDS FOR PHONEME

MAYA WRITING = LOGOSYLLABIC
GLYPH CAN REPRESENT A WORD OR A SYLLABLE
Maya writing on paper: Codex (codices)

The Dresden Codex

• 78 pages on 39 double-sided sheets, with an overall length of 11.7 feet.; four pages
are empty.
• Each sheet measures 8.1 in by 3.9 in and originally, the codex had been accordion-
folded.
• Written by six different scribes. The images were painted with very fine brushes in
colors made of vegetable dyes--red, black, and Maya blue.
• Around 250 of the approximately 350 signs of the Dresden Codex have been
decoded. Most comment on the accompanying images in short phrases.
• There are also numbers, consisting of bars (meaning "five"), dots (meaning "one")
and stylized shells (meaning "zero").
• The Dresden Codex contains astronomical tables of great accuracy. It is most famous
for its Lunar Series and Venus table. The lunar series has intervals correlating with
eclipses. The Venus Table correlates with the apparent movements of the planet. The
codex also contains almanacs, astronomical and astrological tables, and ritual
schedules.
• The specific numerical references have to do with a 260-day ritual cycle and the
codex also includes instructions concerning new-year ceremonies as well as
descriptions of the Rain God's locations.
CODEX ZOUCHE-NUTTALL

The codex derives its name from Zelia Nuttall, who first published it in 1902,
and Baroness Zouche, its donor

33 feet long (11 meters), two narratives, one side important

centers/settlements, the other is genealogy, marriages, political and military
feats of 8 Deer Jaguar Claw
 9 Flower 6 Stone
8 Deer Jaguar Claw Copal Ball 9 Eagle 7 Eagle
AD 1011 with an Arrow Garland of AD 992
AD 1015 Cacao Flowers

9 Monkey
Clouds Quetzal 5 Crocodile
of Jade Sun of Rain
AD 1012

12 Motion
13 Serpent Bloody Tiger
Serpent of AD 993
Flowers
AD 1051 3 Water
Heron

3 Lizard Jade
Ornament

4 Crocodile Serpent 4 Dog Tame 11 Water

Ball of Fire Coyote Bluebird Jewel
AD 1060 AD 1058 AD 1009