Doomsday predictions and harmony with nature: 7 misconceptions about the Maya, Aztecs and Incas

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These cultures were not strikingly developed at all, and there were also many differences between them.

1. These are the oldest civilizations in America

A common misconception is that there were no pre-civilizations in America before and except for the Maya, Aztecs and Incas. But this is not the case. The emergence of the most famous cultures of the Western Hemisphere happened very shortly before their conquest - of course, by historical standards.

The Inca Empire was born Berezkin Yu. E. Inca. The historical experience of the empire. - L. 1991 only in the XIII century through the efforts of the legendary ruler Manco Capaca. The Aztec state is even younger: its appearance dates back to the XIV-XV centuries. So, the cities of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan were founded in 1325, and the ruling dynasty existed from 1376. Already in 1517 the Aztecs met the Spaniards, and in 1521 the newcomers from Europe subjugated them. That is, in fact, the Aztec state did not exist for 200 years.

At the same time, there were many other civilizations before the Incas and Aztecs. So, in those territories where the Incas created their empire, there was a whole scattering of other cultures: Moche Berezkin Yu. E. Mochica: the civilization of the Indians of the northern coast of Peru in the 1st-7th centuries. - L. 1983 (I – VIII centuries AD), famous for its geoglyphs Nazca (II – VI centuries AD), Chachapoya (VI – XV centuries AD) and others.

Moche culture ear jewelry. The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Thad Zajdowicz / Flickr

Nazca geoglyph "Dog". Photo: Raymond Ostertag / Wikimedia Commons

Ruins of the fortress of Cuelap, which belonged to the Chachapoya. Photo: Elemaki / Wikimedia Commons

Famous for its pyramids, Teotihuacan, in which the Aztecs found only ruins, was a developed city with a population of 100-200 thousand people in the II century AD. NS. Before the Aztecs, there were also very promising cultures in this area in the cities of Choula and Xochicalco. And even before the founding of their state, the Aztecs interacted with the inhabitants of Coluacan and the Tepanecs.

The Olmec culture is considered the most ancient culture of Mesoamerica, the decline of which began at the dawn of the 1st millennium BC. NS.

Teotihuacan. Alley of the Dead and the Pyramids of the Sun. Photo: Ralf Roletschek / Wikimedia Commons

Ruins of the pyramid at Cuicuilco. Photo: Thelmadatter / Wikimedia Commons

Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Xochicalco. Photo: Giovani V / Wikimedia Commons

Jadeite Olmec mask. Photo: Wikipedia Loves Art participant "futons_of_rock" / Wikimedia Commons

Some of these civilizations died on their own, others went into oblivion under the blows of stronger ones - for example, the same Incas.

Only the Maya can be considered truly ancient of the cultures named in the title. By the time of occurrence Gulyaev V. I. Ancient civilizations of America. - M. 2008 (II millennium BC - III century AD) it is the same age as Ancient Greece and Rome.

Ruins of Lamanai - the oldest Mayan city. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Sculptures in the city of Tula, which belonged to the warlike civilization of the Toltecs, which disappeared in the 13th century. Photo: Luidger / Wikimedia Commons

2. The cultures of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans were very similar

This is not true. To begin with, all these peoples lived in different parts of America and spoke different languages: Maya-Quiche among the Maya, Nahua among the Aztecs and Quechua among the Incas. The Aztecs inhabited Gulyaev V. I. Ancient civilizations of America. - M. 2008 land of modern Central Mexico, Maya - its eastern part, the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as the region of Guatemala and Belize. And the Incas occupied Berezkin Yu. E. Inca. The historical experience of the empire. - L. 1991 a vast territory of the western coast of South America. Today these lands are part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.

Territory of the Mayan civilization on the map of Mesoamerica. Image: Hellerick / Wikimedia Commons

Empire of the Incas. Image: L'Américain / Wikimedia Commons

The Aztec Empire in 1519. Image: Aldan-2 / Wikimedia Commons

There were other significant differences as well.

For example, the Maya and Aztecs had a well-developed writing system. Whether it existed among the Incas in a more or less familiar form for us is not known for certain. But this people used the so-called knot writing - kipu (“knot” in the Quechua language). The system involved reading on variously knitted ropes - with knots, pebbles and pieces of wood, leaves and stems of plants.

The kipu, which could number in the thousands, was complex and unwieldy. But this did not prevent the Incas from “writing down” and transmitting from generation to generation the most important information about mythology, history and law. Kipa was used both by officials to preserve statistical information and by ordinary people.

The Maya and Aztecs built pyramids, but the Incas did not. But the latter erected Jarus O. Machu Picchu: Facts & History - Abandonment of Machu Picchu. Live Science Machu Picchu is a stunning city at almost 2,500 meters above sea level.

3. Maya predicted the coming of the apocalypse

In the civilizations of pre-Columbian America, astronomy and astrology were developed, there were fairly accurate calendars. Some adherents of New Age religions decided that the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world in December 2012. Allegedly, the ancient Americans knew that a space catastrophe would occur.

But the apocalypse never happened. And in fact, the Maya did not predict it either in 2012 or in any subsequent year.

According to the ideas of this people, time was divided into large cycles - baktuns. For a long period, a calendar of 13 baktuns was known, the last of which, according to generally accepted interpretations, ended at the end of 2012. But this did not mean at all that the Indians were waiting for the end of the world on this date. It is symbolic that it was in 2012 that archaeologists found another Mayan calendar, already calculated for 17 baktuns.

By the way, at the same time one of the cycles of the calendar of the Aztecs, which divided Gulyaev V. I., The ancient civilizations of America, ended. - M. 2008 time for 52-year segments.

4. The Indians were at their peak at the time when they were conquered by the Europeans

There is a stereotype that the colonialists who came to America destroyed the local cultures, which were in the prime of their development - almost more civilized than the Europeans themselves. But this is not entirely true.

Maya civilization was Gulyaev VI Ancient civilizations of America. - M. 2008 in deep decline, when the Spanish colonialists appeared. After the 9th century, the population of Mayan cities fell sharply, and a little later the people stopped erecting monumental buildings. The reasons for this cataclysm are called:

• a long period of drought in the second half of the 9th century;
• ineffective and unstable economic system;
• invasions of external enemies (for example, the Toltecs);
• a general crisis that affected all the peoples of Central Mexico at that time.

At the same time, the cultures of the Aztecs and Incas before the arrival of the Spaniards were generally on the rise and actively developed. Although their achievements were quite relative and varied in importance depending on the areas of activity. For example, these civilizations did not know the wheel. And even the Maya, judging by the archaeological data familiar with him, did not use the wheel in the economy and transport. Researchers find only children's toys with wheels. But it is quite possible that such elements were simply ineffective in the climate of those places.

Before the advent of the colonialists, the Aztecs and Incas managed to subjugate many other peoples. However, it was played by V. I. Magidovich, I. P. Magidovich. Essays on the history of geographical discoveries. The era of great discoveries. - Kursk, 2003 a cruel joke with them: the conquistadors actively attracted disgruntled tribes to their side, which in many respects ensured such a rapid decline of indigenous American civilizations.

5. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, none of the Indians knew metallurgy

Indeed, the Aztecs and Maya were not able to Gulyaev V. I. Ancient civilizations of America. - M. 2008 to smelt products neither copper nor bronze. At the time of the arrival of the conquistadors, they were in a state of the Stone Age. Nevertheless, archaeologists find bronze and copper items in the settlements of these peoples. Apparently, the Aztecs and Mayans traded Alberto R. Maya people. - M. 1986 them for food from their southern neighbors.

But the Incas successfully smelted Lielais A. Gold of the Incas. - Riga. 1974 bronze, copper, gold, silver and lead. Fine jewelry of this culture is known, in which precious metals were considered gifts of the gods of the Sun and Moon.

But by the standards of Europe and Asia, where iron began to be used already at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. BC, these achievements of the Incas are more than modest.

6. Indians have always lived in harmony with nature

Films and books about Indians create an image of people who feel an inextricable connection with the wild. Cities inscribed in the landscape, the corresponding religion - almost quivering eco-activists loom in the minds of the masses. But in reality, everything is not so simple.

For example, the primitive level of technical and technological development led to the fact that the Indians mainly used the slash-and-burn farming system - they cut down forests for fields for agriculture. And this is not at all environmentally friendly.

If the land is used continuously for several seasons, it quickly stops yielding. With the slash-and-burn system, farmers, after depletion of the soil, most often simply develop Slash-and-burn agriculture. Britannica next field. Trees are cut down, their remains are burned out and a new area is sown. With this method of cultivating the land, the forests disappear quite quickly.

The slash-and-burn system was actively used by the Maya. Gulyaev V. I. the reasons for the extinction of their civilization.

7. The ancient cultures of South America were completely destroyed

You can often hear that the Europeans destroyed the culture of the indigenous population of America, along with the population itself. But such statements are made only out of ignorance.

First, the descendants of ancient civilizations in Latin American countries still live. In Mexico, 30% of the 130 million population is Estimaciones y proyecciones de la población por entidad federativa. República Mexicana are Indians, and 60% are mestizo, whose ancestors are Europeans and Indians. The situation is approximately the same in other countries of the region. This is not at all the same as the small handfuls of indigenous people on the reservations of North America (1.6% of the US population, for example).

Secondly, the culture of the indigenous population is also preserved. Although she, of course, experienced a strong European influence, primarily Catholicism. But it is thanks to the Catholic monks and Spanish officials who recorded and translated the tales of the Indians that there is a large number of written sources about the history of the American aborigines.

One of the indicators of the preservation of culture is also considered the liveliness of the native language. About 1.4 million Mexicans speak the Aztec dialect - Nahua, and 800 thousand - in Maya-Quiche. Inca Quechua is spoken by People Cluster: Quechua. Joshua Project 12 million Hispanics. And the Guarani Indian language is spoken by 90% of the population of Paraguay, although this is rather an exceptional case.