Ancient Mexico

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Slide 1

Ancient Mexico

Mayan, Incan, and Aztec Civilizations

By: Mrs. Meredith Sanders

Slide 2

Teotihuacan

4 well-known buildings in this ancient city:

Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon

Temple of Quetzalcoatl

Temple of the Jaguars

Slide 3

Olmecs

They were the first major Indian Tribe.

Olmec means “rubber people.”

Two major cities were San Lorenzo and La Venta.

They used a form of picture writing; had a number system and calendar.

Slide 4

“Rubber people”

The Aztec Indians gave the tribe this name because the Olmecs supplied them with sap from rubber trees.

Slide 5

Mayas

Appearance: Short in height, straight black hair, painted their bodies, had tattoos, valued crossed-eyes and flat foreheads

Three eras: pre-classic, classic, and post-classic

Mayans used glyphs in their writing.

Slide 6

Glyphs

Their glyph writing (picture) expanded largely using about 800 different glyphs.

Slide 7

Mayan Religion

Worshipped many different gods

Each day, month, city, and occupation had its special god or goddess

Had a variety of religious festivals and celebrations

Most ceremonies includes human sacrifices

In many ceremonies, the priests cut themselves to get blood to present to the gods

Their religion taught that there were 13 layers of heaven above the earth & 9 underworlds below

Worshipped the dead

Slide 8

Human Sacrifices

The Mayas had 3 methods of giving the human sacrifices:

The priests took the victim to the altar at the temple and cut the heart out of the living victim and presented it to the god.

The priests tied the victim to a wooden pole and threw spears and arrows at the victim’s chest in the area of the heart.

They threw the victim into a sacred well. If they survived the fall and did not drown, the priests pulled them back out of the well; believing that the god spared that victim.

Slide 9

Worshipping the Dead

They believed the dead became one with the gods.

They worshipped their ancestors at many religious ceremonies.

They also built pyramids over the sacred remains of their dead rulers.