The Regions: Central America |
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The following objects originated in Central America:
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Three great civilisations evolved in Middle America: Olmecs, Maya and Aztec. Further south a series of empires developed, culminating in the Incas immediately before the arrival of Europeans.
The earliest were the Olmecs. About 4500 years ago they built the first ceremonial centres in what is now Mexico, with huge temple mounds and massive stone carvings. These centres lasted for 1200 years.
The earliest great Mexican city was Teotihuacan, founded 2200 years ago. It included the vast Pyramid of the Sun. The pottery faces on display here were found on the site of the city.
The Mayan civilisation in Yucatan and Guatemala started about 1700 years ago and lasted for over 1200 years , until the arrival of the Spanish. Their astronomers developed a complex calendar, recorded in a system of writing.
The Aztecs ruled over 25 million people in the Valley of Mexico and surrounding highlands from 1438 until the Spanish conquest in 1519. The Aztec capital at Tenochtitlan grew to be a city of 200,000 people. (The population of London at the same time was about 60,000). Most Aztec people lived in small houses made of dried mud.
The Spanish conquest destroyed Aztec and Maya power, bringing smallpox and colonial rule enforced with firearms, and new cities such as Mexico City on the site of Tenochtitlan, which was flattened. But the spirit of Middle American Indian nations has survived in the countryside to the present day.