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Map of Pre-Columbian states of Mexico just before the Spanish conquest. The pre-Columbian (or prehispanic) history of the territory now making up the country of Mexico is known through the work of archaeologists and epigraphers, and through the accounts of Spanish conquistadores, settlers and clergymen as well as the indigenous chroniclers of the immediate post-conquest period.
Mesoamerican is the adjective generally used to refer to that group of pre-Columbian cultures. This refers to an environmental area occupied by an assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology in the Americas for more than three thousand years.
The city reached its peak in 450 CE when it was the center of a powerful culture whose influence extended through much of the Mesoamerican region. At this time, the city covered over 30 km 2 (over 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 square miles), and perhaps housed a population of 150,000 people, with one estimate reaching as high as 250,000. [ 33 ]
Many pre-Columbian civilizations established permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, and complex societal hierarchies. In North America, indigenous cultures in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the Middle Archaic period built complexes of multiple mounds, with several in Louisiana dated to 5600–5000 BP (3700 BC–3100 BC).
Overview of the central plaza of the Maya city of Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico), an example of Classic period Mesoamerican architecture. Mesoamerican architecture is the set of architectural traditions produced by pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, traditions which are best known in the form of public, ceremonial and urban monumental buildings and structures.
Xochimilco was the most important city of the Xochimilca people, one of the Nahua tribes that migrated to the Mesoamerica region. At the same time it was the name of the altepetl of this group and historically referred to both interchangebly. [1]
The Maya Region of Mesoamerica is one such. [3] It, in turn, is further subdivided physiographically into at least three regions, i.e. the Maya Lowlands , Highlands , and Pacific . [ 4 ] The first of these second-order subdivisions, which fully encompassed Belize, is still further subdivided into northern, central, and southern portions, called ...
One of the most enduring classifications of archaeological periods & cultures was established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.