Ancient Indian tribes of the Mayans and Aztecs. Ancient civilizations: Mayans and Aztecs. North American culture

The Incas. Mayan. Aztecs. The names of these peoples and the locations of their states are often confused. Historians, despite their proximity, believe that they developed completely independently.
The Incas. State: Tawantisuyu. The western coast of South America, starting from the northern territories of modern Chile upwards. One thousand two hundred years BC. - the first ruler of Manco Capac, the last to lead a revolt against the Spaniards - Tupac Omaru (1570-1572). The Inca banner resembled a rainbow. There is no monetary system; benefits are distributed according to the established order.
Aztecs (the self-name of the Mexica, hence the current “Mexico”). They came to the south of Mexico from the north of the continent in the thirteenth century. The Aztecs (North American Indians are not at all as savages as the European colonialists imagined) built Tenochtitlan, the future Mexico City, on an island infested with snakes, and became the rulers of local tribes. But in 1519 the Aztecs saw the Spaniards, and six years later their empire ceased to exist. Presumably, by this time the Indians were 95% wiped out by smallpox and chickenpox, introduced by Columbus in 1492, and spreading to both continents. A huge, unknown, literally Martian world, equal in culture to Egypt, has moved into the realm of legends.
For a warrior and a priest, it is considered quite permissible to compose sublime poetry in his spare time. Let's listen to three excerpts of original hymns of the Nahua ethno-linguistic group - to which our Aztecs belong:

May our land endure forever!
May the mountains stand indestructible!
so says Ayokuan Kuetspaltzin
here in Tlaxcala, in Huexotzinco
Let them satisfy everyone without exception
and brown maize and cocoa.
May the Earth endure forever!
(by Ayokuan Kuetzpaltzin)

We, Mexica, got drunk in Michuacan,
we were invited to a feast, we went for the booty
We arrived and were completely tipsy from the battle.
...And they saw how our soldiers fled
how the gold trembled and the banners made of quetzal feathers faded
If only the soldiers did not become prisoners
Hurry up so this doesn’t happen to you
If young warriors become prisoners,
they will be sacrificed, doomed to slaughter
if this happens, what will we do?
We will roar fiercely like jaguars
We, eagles, old men, will squeal like eagles
avoid captivity, fear slaughter
Hurry up so this doesn’t happen to you!
(“Song of the Old Men”, author - military leader Aishacatl)

I've arrived, I'm getting up
and now I will sing songs.
I will grow songs
for you, my friends.
I am the voice of God, I own flowers.
I am Temilocin and I have come
make friends here

(Temilocin from Tlatelolco)

Mayan. The territory is just south of the future possessions of the Aztecs. The beginning of civilization is a thousand years BC. By the ninth century, Mayan society was in decline, the reason for which, as follows from the conclusions of geologists, was long-term drought caused by changes in ocean currents. What remained were truncated pyramid-temples, a complex irrigation system and a perfect calendar.

1. Inca City, Machu Picchu, territory of modern Peru, altitude - 2.5 km. Polygonal masonry is characteristic - stones of various shapes are precisely adjusted to each other, like puzzles or a mosaic. The Incas also built pyramids, but these temples never reached the splendor of similar Mayan structures.
2. One of the many Mayan pyramids, in what is now Mexico. Apparently, they were not originally intended to perform bloody rituals. However, the Aztecs who came to these lands used them (as the Spaniards claim) for mass executions of prisoners of war, broadcasting horror throughout their habitat.
3. Angkor (Angko - Khmer. “City of Capitals”), the territory of present-day Cambodia. Built at the beginning of the 9th century. AD, existed as a settlement until the 15th century. The largest city in the world in the Middle Ages (and now comparable in size only to the American Los Angeles), covers an area of ​​24 by 8 km.
Each new ruler establishes a new capital center, marking it with a huge five-tower temple symbolizing the sacred Middle Mount Meru, until, finally, construction depletes all the reserves of tufa and sandstone in the country. In 1431, the Khmer state lost the war to neighboring Siam. Almost a million inhabitants of Angkor scatter in the jungle or die on the spot at the hands of Siamese soldiers.
Angkor Wat is the palace and temple complex of the capital, now, despite all the efforts of archaeologists and reconstructors, it is covered with vegetation and is practically uninhabited.
4. One of the centers of the capital, reconstruction on a reduced scale. The real Angkor Wat, an earthly paradise, is surrounded by an extensive square garden and a system of wide (190 m) canals.
Full volume with illustrations - Litres History of almost everything-1

By the time Columbus “discovered” America (1492), it was inhabited by many Indian tribes and ethnic groups, most of which were at a primitive stage of development. At the same time, some of them, living in Mesoamerica (Central America) and the Andes (South America), reached the level of highly developed ancient civilizations, although they were far behind Europe: the latter was by that time experiencing the heyday of the Renaissance.

The meeting of two worlds, two cultures and civilizations had different consequences for the meeting parties. Europe borrowed many of the achievements of Indian civilizations; in particular, it was thanks to America that Europeans began to consume potatoes, tomatoes, corn, beans, tobacco, cocoa, and quinine. In general, after the discovery of the New World, the development of Europe accelerated significantly. The fate of ancient American cultures and civilizations was completely different: the development of some of them actually ceased, and many completely disappeared from the face of the earth.

Available scientific data indicate that there were no centers of their formation on the American continent ancient man. The settlement of this continent by people began in the Late Paleolithic era - approximately 30-20 thousand years ago - and came from Northeast Asia through the Bering Strait and Alaska. The further evolution of the emerging communities went through all known stages and had both similarities and differences from other continents.

An example of a highly developed primitive culture of the New World is the so-called Olmec Culture, existed on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the 1st millennium BC. Much remains unclear and mysterious regarding this culture. In particular, the specific ethnic group - the bearer (the name “Olmec” will be conditional) of this culture is not known, the general territory of its distribution, as well as the features of the social structure, etc., have not been determined.

It is important to note that, however, with all this, the available archaeological information allows us to say that in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The tribes inhabiting Verascus and Tabasco reached a high level of development. They will have the first “ritual centers”, they build pyramids from adobe and clay, and construct monuments of monumental sculpture. An example of such monuments were huge anthropomorphic heads weighing up to 20 tons. Relief carving on basalt and jade, the production of celtic axes, masks and statues are widespread. In the 1st century BC. there will be the first examples of writing and calendar. Similar cultures existed in other areas of the continent.

Ancient cultures and civilizations developed by the end of the 1st millennium BC. and existed until the 16th century. AD - before the arrival of Europeans. In their evolution, two periods are usually distinguished: early, or classical (1st millennium AD), and late, or postclassical (X-XVI centuries AD)

Among the most significant cultures of Mesoamerica of the classical period are Teotihuacan. originated in Central Mexico. The preserved ruins Note that Teotihuacan - the capital of the civilization of the same name - indicate that it was the political, economic and cultural center of all Mesoamerica with a population of 60-120 thousand people. Crafts and trade developed most successfully in it. Archaeologists have discovered about 500 craft workshops, entire neighborhoods of foreign merchants and “diplomats” in the city. Craftsmanship products are found throughout almost all of Central America.

It is noteworthy that almost the entire city was a unique architectural monument. Its center was carefully planned around two wide streets intersecting at right angles: from north to south - the Road of the Dead Avenue, over 5 km long, and from west to east - an unnamed avenue up to 4 km long.

At the northern end of the Road of the Dead rises the huge silhouette of the Pyramid of the Moon (height 42 m), made of raw brick and lined with volcanic stone. On the other side of the avenue there is an even more grandiose structure - the Pyramid of the Sun (height 64.5 m), on the top of which a temple once stood. The place where the avenues intersect is occupied by the palace of the ruler. Note that Teotihuacan is the “Citadel”, which is a complex of buildings that included the temple god Quetzalcoatl - The Feathered Serpent, one of the main deities, patron of culture and knowledge, god of air and wind. All that remains of the temple is its pyramidal base, consisting of six decreasing stone platforms, as if placed on top of each other. The facade of the pyramid and the balustrade of the main staircase are decorated with sculpted heads of Quetzalcoatl himself and the god of water and rain Tlaloc in the form of a butterfly.

Along the Road of the Dead there are the remains of dozens more temples and palaces. Among them is the beautiful Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, or Palace of the Feathered Snail, reconstructed today, the walls of which are decorated with fresco paintings. There are also excellent examples of such painting in the Temple of Agriculture, which depicts gods, people and animals. The original monuments of the culture in question will be anthropomorphic masks made of stone and clay. In the III-VII centuries. Ceramic products—cylindrical vessels with picturesque paintings or carved ornaments—and terracotta figurines are widely used.

Note that Teotihuacan culture reached its highest peak by the beginning of the 7th century. AD At the same time, at the end of the same century, the beautiful city suddenly perishes, destroyed by a gigantic fire. The causes of this disaster still remain unclear - most likely as a result of the invasion of militant barbarian tribes of Northern Mexico.

Aztec culture

After the death, we note that Teotihuacan Central Mexico plunged into troubled times of interethnic wars and civil strife for a long time. As a result of repeated mixing of local tribes with newcomers - first with the Chichemecs, and then with the Tenochki-pharmacies - in 1325 on the desert islands of the lake, we note that the capital of the Aztecs was founded in Texcoco Note that Tenochtitlan. The emerging city-state grew rapidly and by the beginning of the 16th century. turned into one of the most powerful powers in America - the famous Aztec Empire with a huge territory and a population of 5-6 million people. Its borders extended from Northern Mexico to Guatemala and from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

The capital itself - Note that Tenochtitlan - has become big city with a population of 120-300 thousand inhabitants. The island city was connected to the mainland by three wide stone causeway roads. According to eyewitnesses, the Aztec capital was a beautiful, well-planned city. His ritual administrative center was a magnificent architectural ensemble, which included a “sacred area” surrounded by walls, inside which the main city temples, dwellings of priests, schools, and a ground for ritual ball games were located. There were no less than magnificent palaces Aztec rulers.

basis economy The Aztecs were agriculture, and the main cultivated crop was corn. It should be emphasized that it was the Aztecs who were the first to grow cocoa beans And tomatoes; they will be the authors of the word “tomatoes”. Many crafts were at a high level, especially gold coinage. When the great Albrecht Durer saw Aztec gold items in 1520, he declared: “Never in my life have I seen anything that moved me so deeply as these objects.”

Reached the highest level spiritual culture of the Aztecs. This was largely due to the effective education system, which included two types of schools, in which the male population is educated. In schools of the first type, boys from the upper class were brought up, who were destined to become a priest, dignitary or military leader. Boys from ordinary families studied in schools of the second type, where they were prepared for agricultural work, crafts and military affairs. Schooling was compulsory.

System of religious-mythological ideas and cults The Aztecs were quite complex. At the origins of the pantheon were the ancestors - creator god Ome teku aphids and his divine consort. Among the active ones, the main deity was the god of the sun and war Huitzilopochtli. War was a form of worship of this god and was elevated to a cult.
It is worth noting that the god Sintheoble, the patron of corn fertility, occupied a special place. The protector of the priests was Lord Quetzalcoatl.

Yacatecuhali was the god of trade and patron of merchants. In general, there were many gods. Suffice it to say that every month and every day of the year had his god.

Developed very successfully the science. It was based on philosophy, which was practiced by sages who were highly respected. The leading science was astronomy. Aztec stargazers easily navigated the starry picture of the sky. Satisfying the needs of agriculture, they developed a fairly accurate calendar. taking into account the position and movement of stars in the sky.

The Aztecs created a highly developed artistic culture. Among the arts has achieved significant success literature. Aztec writers created didactic treatises, dramatic and prose works. The leading position was occupied by poetry, which included several genres: military poems, poems about flowers, spring songs. The greatest success was enjoyed by religious poems and hymns, which were sung in honor of the main gods of the Aztecs.

No less successfully developed architecture. In addition to the beautiful ensembles and palaces of the capital already mentioned above, magnificent architectural monuments were created in other cities. Moreover, almost all of them were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors. Among the amazing creations is the recently discovered temple in Malinalco. This temple, which had the shape of a traditional Aztec pyramid, is notable for this. that it was all carved right into the rock. If we consider that the Aztecs used only stone tools, then one can imagine what a gigantic effort the construction of this temple required.

In the 1980s, as a result of earthquakes, excavations and excavations, the Main Aztec Temple was opened in the very center of Mexico City - Note that Templo Major. The sanctuaries of the main god Huitzilopochtli and the god of water and rain, patron of agriculture, Tlaloc, were also discovered. Remains of wall paintings and samples of stone sculpture were discovered. Among those found, a round stone with a diameter of more than 3 m with a bas-relief image of the goddess Coyol-shauhki, the sister of Huitzilopochtli, stands out. Stone figurines of gods, corals, shells, pottery, necklaces, etc. were preserved in deep hiding pits.

The Aztec culture and civilization reached its peak at the beginning of the 16th century. At the same time, this flowering soon came to an end. The Spaniards captured Tenochti Glan in 1521. The city was destroyed, and on its ruins a new city grew - Mexico City, which became the center of the colonial possessions of the European conquerors.

Mayan civilization

Mayan culture and civilization became another amazing phenomenon of pre-Columbian America, which existed in the 1st-15th centuries. AD in southeastern Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. A modern researcher of the region, G. Lehman, called the Mayans “the most fascinating of all the civilizations of ancient America.”

Indeed, everything connected with the Mayans is shrouded in mystery and mystery. Their origin remains a mystery. The mystery will be their choice of settlement - the rugged jungles of Mexico. It is important to note that the ups and downs in their subsequent development are both a mystery and a miracle.

In the classical period (I-IX centuries AD), the development of Mayan civilization and culture proceeded along a steep upward trajectory. Already in the first centuries of our era, they reached the highest level and amazing perfection in architecture, sculpture and painting. The emerging large and populous cities became centers of craft production, marked by a real flowering of painted ceramics. In ϶ᴛᴏ time, the Mayans created the only developed hieroglyphic writing, as evidenced by inscriptions on steles, reliefs, and small plastic objects. The Mayans compiled an accurate solar calendar and successfully predicted solar and lunar eclipses.

The main type of monumental architecture there was a pyramidal temple installed on a high pyramid - up to 70 m. If you consider that the entire structure was erected on high pyramidal hills, you can imagine how majestic and grandiose the entire structure looks. This is exactly how the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque appears, which served as the tomb of the ruler like the pyramids Ancient Egypt. The entire structure was covered with hieroglyphic relief inscriptions, which decorate the walls, the crypt, the lid of the sarcophagus and other objects. A steep staircase with several platforms leads to the temple. In the city there are three more pyramids with temples of the Sun, the Cross and the Foliated Cross, as well as a palace with a five-story square tower, which apparently served as an observatory: on the top floor there is a stone bench on which the astrologer sat, peering into the distant sky. The walls of the palace are also decorated with reliefs depicting prisoners of war.

In the VI-IX centuries. achieve the highest successes monumental sculpture and Mayan painting. The sculptural schools of Palenque, Copan and other cities achieve rare skill and subtlety in conveying the naturalness of the poses and movements of the characters depicted, which are usually rulers, dignitaries and warriors. Small plastic works are also distinguished by amazing craftsmanship - especially small figurines.

The surviving examples of Mayan painting amaze with the elegance of their design and richness of color. The famous frescoes of Bonampak will be recognized as masterpieces of pictorial art. It is worth noting that they talk about military battles, depict solemn ceremonies, complex rituals of sacrifice, graceful dances, etc.

In the 1st-10th centuries. Most Mayan cities were destroyed by the invading Toltec tribes, but in the 11th century. Mayan culture was revived again in the Yucatan Peninsula and in the mountains of Guatemala.
It is worth noting that its main centers are the cities of Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan.

Still developing most successfully architecture. It is important to note that one of the remarkable architectural monuments the postclassical period will be the pyramid of Kukulcan - the “Feathered Serpent” at Chichen Itza. To the top of the nine-step pyramid, where the temple is located, there are four staircases bordered by a balustrade, which begins at the bottom with a beautifully executed snake head and continues in the form of a snake body to the upper floor. The pyramid symbolizes the calendar, since the 365 steps of its stairs correspond to the number of days in the year. It is worth noting that it is also notable for the fact that inside it there is another nine-step pyramid, in which there is a sanctuary, and in it there is an amazing stone throne depicting a jaguar.

The “Temple of the Magician” pyramid in Uxmal will also be very original. It is worth noting that it differs from all others in that in horizontal projection it has an oval shape.

By the middle of the 15th century. Mayan culture enters into a severe crisis and declines. When the Spanish conquerors entered at the beginning of the 16th century. to Mayan cities, many of them were abandoned by their inhabitants. The reasons for such an unexpected and sad ending to a thriving culture and civilization remain a mystery.

Ancient civilizations of South America. Inca culture

In South America, almost simultaneously with the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica, at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, an equally mysterious Chavin culture, similar to the Olmec, although not related to it.

At the turn of our era, in the northern part of the coastal zone of Peru there will be Mochica Civilization, and in the south - Nazca civilization. Somewhat later, in the mountains of northern Bolivia, an original Tiahuanaco culture. These civilizations of South America were in some respects inferior to the Mesoamerican cultures: they did not have hieroglyphic writing, an accurate calendar, etc. But in many other ways - especially in technology - they were superior to Mesoamerica. Already from the 2nd millennium BC. The Indians of Peru and Bolivia smelted metals, processed gold, silver, copper and their alloys and made from them not only beautiful jewelry, but also tools - shovels and hoes. It is worth noting that they had developed agriculture, built magnificent temples, created monumental sculptures, and produced beautiful ceramics with polychrome painting. Their fine fabrics made of cotton and wool became widely known. In the 1st millennium AD the production of metal products, ceramics and textiles reached a large scale and a high level, and it was this that constituted the unique variety of South American civilizations of the classical period.

The Postclassical period (X-XVI centuries AD) was marked by the emergence and disappearance of many states in both the mountainous and coastal zones of South America. In the XIV century. The Incas create the state of Tauatin-suyu in the mountainous zone, which, after long wars with neighboring small states, manages to emerge victorious and subjugate all the others.

In the 15th century it turns to the gigantic and famous Inca Empire with a huge territory and a population of about 6 million people. At the head of the huge power was a divine ruler, the son of the Sun Inca, who relied on a hereditary aristocracy and a caste of priests.

The basis economy was agriculture, the main crops of which were corn, potatoes, beans, and red peppers. The Inca state was distinguished by its efficient organization of public works, called "mita". Mita implied the obligation of all subjects of the empire to work one month a year on the construction of government facilities. It is worth noting that it made it possible to gather tens of thousands of people in one place, thanks to which short time irrigation canals, fortresses, roads, bridges, etc. were built.

From north to south, the Inca Country is crossed by two paraplegic roads. one of which had a length of more than 5 thousand km. These highways connected to each other big amount cross roads, which creates an excellent network of communications. Along the roads at certain distances there were postal stations and warehouses with food and necessary materials. There was a state post office in Gauatinsuyu.

Spiritual and religious life and matters of cult were the responsibility of the priests. The supreme deity was considered Viracocha - Creator of the world and other gods. Other deities were the golden sun god Inti. god of weather, thunder and lightning Ilpa.
It is worth noting that a special place was occupied by the ancient cults of the mother of the Earth Mama Pacha and the mother of the sea Mama (Sochi. The worship of the gods took place in stone temples, decorated inside with gold.

State regulated all aspects of life, including the personal life of citizens of the empire. All Incas were required to marry before a certain age. If this did not happen, then the issue was decided by a government official at his discretion, and his decision was binding.

Although the Incas did not have real writing, this did not prevent them from creating beautiful myths, legends, epic poems, religious hymns, and dramatic works. Unfortunately, little has been preserved of this spiritual wealth.

Highest flourishing culture the Incas reached at the beginning XVI V. At the same time, prosperity did not last long. In 1532, the most powerful empire of pre-Columbian America submitted to the Europeans almost without resistance. A small group of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro managed to kill Inca Atahualpa, which paralyzed the will to resist his people, and the great Inca Empire ceased to exist.

INTRODUCTION

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

By the time the Spanish ships appeared off the eastern coast of the New World, this huge continent, including the islands of the West Indies, was inhabited by many Indian tribes and peoples at different levels of development.

Most were hunters, fishermen, gatherers, or primitive farmers; Only in two relatively small areas of the Western Hemisphere - in Mesoamerica and the Andes - did the Spaniards encounter highly developed Indian civilizations. The highest cultural achievements of pre-Columbian America were born on their territory. By the time of its “discovery”, in 1492, up to 2/3 of the entire population of the continent lived there, although in size these areas accounted for only 6.2% of its total area. It was here that the centers of origin of American agriculture were located, and at the turn of our era, the distinctive civilizations of the ancestors of the Nahuas, Mayans, Zapotecs, Quechuas, and Aymara emerged.

In the scientific literature, this territory is called Middle America or the Zone of High Civilizations. It is divided into two regions: northern - Mesoamerica and southern - Andean region (Bolivia - Peru), with an intermediate zone between them (southern Central America, Colombia, Ecuador), where cultural achievements, although they have reached a significant degree, have not risen to the heights of statehood and civilization. The arrival of European conquerors interrupted any independent development of the indigenous population of these areas. Only now, thanks to the work of several generations of archaeologists, are we finally beginning to understand how rich and vibrant the history of pre-Columbian America was.

The New World is also a unique historical laboratory, since the process of development of local culture occurred generally independently, starting from the Late Paleolithic era (30-20 thousand years ago) - the time of settlement of the continent from Northeast Asia through the Bering Strait and Alaska - and until then until it was put an end to by the invasion of European conquerors. Thus, almost all the main stages of the ancient history of mankind can be traced in the New World: from primitive mammoth hunters to the builders of the first cities - centers of early class states and civilizations. A simple comparison of the path traveled by the indigenous population of America in the pre-Columbian era with the milestones of the history of the Old World provides an unusually large amount of information for identifying general historical patterns.

The term “discovery of America” by Columbus, which is often found in the historical works of various authors, also requires some clarification. It has been rightly pointed out more than once that this term is factually incorrect, since before Columbus the shores of the New World were reached from the east by the Romans and Vikings, and from the west by the Polynesians, Chinese, and Japanese. It must also be taken into account that this process of interaction and interchange between two cultures was not one-sided. For Europe, the discovery of America had enormous political, economic and intellectual consequences.

The continent of America, from the period of its discovery and still holds many mysteries. Before the conquest of the continent by Europeans, it was an original cohesion of several cultures. Scientists are deeply engaged in the study of the three most striking civilizations, the history of which goes back hundreds of years - these are the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. Each of these civilizations has left for us a lot of evidence of its existence, from which we can judge the era of their heyday and sudden decline or partial disappearance altogether. Each culture contains a huge cultural layer that has been studied and is still being studied, expressed in the works of architecture, evidence of writing, in the remains of crafts, as well as in the language that has reached us. Every time we encounter the ancient culture of Latin America and not rarely with the modern one, we find a lot of interesting things in it and even more that are unsolved and surrounded by an aura of mysticism. Just look at the myth about the fairyland "El Dorado". Many fragments of the distant era of the existence of the Inca, Aztec and Mayan civilizations, unfortunately, have been lost forever, but much remains with which we are directly in contact, but it also gives us ways to unravel much, sometimes inexplicable, to us, modern people, regarding the art in general of those distant worlds. The problem of studying these ancient cultures until recently was the “closedness to the eyes and minds of scientists around the world” of Latin America itself. With great obstacles and intervals during breaks, work related to excavations and searches for architectural treasures was and is being carried out. Only recently, with the exception of literary information, has access to territories and places associated with the habitation of ancient tribes and peoples been expanded. People who have been there and talk about what they saw seem to be filled with the most unusual impressions of what they experienced and saw. They enthusiastically talk about places where religious ceremonies were supposedly once performed, about ancient Indian temples, about many things that we could not clearly imagine if we had not seen them in reality. Listening to them, you imagine and understand all the greatness and value of the monuments of ancient civilizations; they carry with them a truly huge layer of information necessary for understanding and correctly perceiving the existence of our ancestors and the history of human development in general.

To summarize the three cultures, I would like to give a general verbal portrait of each, emphasizing their uniqueness. Among the ancient civilizations of America we can distinguish the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. The roots of these great civilizations are lost in the mists of time. Much remains unknown about them, but it is known that they reached a high level of development. The Mayans, Aztecs and Incas had enormous achievements in astronomy, medicine, mathematics, architecture and road construction. The Mayans had a very accurate calendar, although they did not have telescopes or other special devices for observing the sky. The Aztec and Inca calendars are very similar, however, to the Mayan calendar. The Aztecs were a very warlike people who in the 13th century lived in the Anahuac Valley, where the city of Mexico is now located, the territory of which was subsequently expanded as a result of long wars of conquest and turned into the main political zone of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec state, whose population was 60,000 people before the conquest began.

The Aztecs had extensive knowledge in the field of astronomy, which they inherited from more ancient cultures. The Aztec civilization also inherited the architecture of the pyramids, sculpture and painting. The Aztecs mined and processed gold, silver, and coal. They built many roads and bridges. The Aztecs developed the art of dance and many sports; theater and poetry. They had a ball game very similar to today's basketball. And, according to legend, the captain of the team that once lost had his head cut off. The Aztecs had a very good education, teaching such disciplines as religion, astronomy, the history of laws, medicine, music and the art of war. The Inca state reached its apogee in the 10th century. Its population numbered more than 12 million people. The Inca religion had a cult of the sun god, according to which they appointed their emperors. Society was not built on the principles of democracy, as it was divided into classes. The people had to engage in agriculture or crafts and were obliged to cultivate the land. Trade was poorly developed. The capital of the Inca Empire had communications with the entire territory of the empire through magnificent bridges and roads.

Next, the subject of my more detailed consideration will be the Aztec civilization. It was not for nothing that I chose the Aztecs, since I was interested in the fact that their culture has survived to this day and numerous Aztec tribes live in our time, living in their ancestral lands.

THE INCAS

inca mayan calendar aztec

It's getting light. The rays of the sun, breaking into the morning sky, painted the snowy peaks of the Andes in pale pink colors. Here, at an altitude of 4,300 meters above sea level, the Indians, greeting the dawn, rejoice in the warmth that drives away the cold of the night. The sun's rays have already illuminated the temple of the sun in the center of the capital of the Inca state, the city of Cusco (which means center of the world ). The golden walls of the temple shone in the sun. In the Inca garden in front of the temple, statues of llamas, vicuñas and condors cast in pure gold sparkled. As a sign of reverence for the sun god, Indians passing by the temple blow air kisses. They believe that the sun gives them life and provides them with everything they need - how grateful they are for these generous gifts!

XIV-XVI centuries on the western coast of South America the power of a powerful golden empire . Thanks to the leadership of talented architects and engineers, Inca social life reached a very high level. The territory of the state covered all the lands from the southern regions of modern Colombia to Argentina and reached a length of 5000 km. The Incas believed that they conquered almost the entire world , - wrote in the magazine National Geographic . And those lands that still remained outside the borders of their state, in their opinion, did not represent any value. However, in another part of the world, no one even knew about the existence of their state.

Who are the Incas? What is their origin?

When the rise of the Inca culture began (1200-1572), all previous outstanding civilizations of South America disappeared from the arena of history or were rapidly approaching decline. The Inca country was located in the southwestern part of the continent, stretching from north to south for many thousands of kilometers. During its heyday, 15-16 million people lived on its territory.

Legends tell about the origin of this people. Sun God IntiI watched with sadness the life of people on earth: after all, they lived worse than wild animals, in poverty and ignorance. One day, taking pity on them, the Inca sent his children to the people: his son Manco Capakaand daughter Mama Oklio. Having given them a staff made of pure gold, the divine father ordered them to settle where the staff would easily enter the ground. This happened near the village of Pakari-Tambo, which lies at the foot of the Uanakauri hill. In fulfillment of the divine will of the Sun, his children stayed and founded a city called Cusco. They gave religion and laws to the people who lived there, taught men how to cultivate the land, mine rare metals and process them, and taught women how to weave and run a household. Having created the state, Manco Capac became its first Inkoy- the ruler, and Mama Oklio - his wife.

According to the Incas' worldview, the supreme creator of the Universe and the creator of all other gods was Kon-Tiksi Viracocha.When creating the world, Viracocha used three main elements: water, earth and fire. The Inca cosmos consisted of three levels: the top - celestial, where the Sun and his wife-sister Moon live, directly influencing the life of mankind; the middle one, in which people, animals and plants live; the lower one is the habitat of the dead and those who are about to be born. The last two worlds communicate through caves, mines, springs and craters. Communication with the upper world is carried out through the mediation of the Inca, who carried out the will of the Sun on Earth.

The official state ideology was cult of the Sun (Inti).White llamas were sacrificed to him almost daily, burning them at the stake. In order to ward off epidemics and attacks from enemies, to win the war and for the health of the emperor, tall, beautiful children under the age of 10 were given to the Sun without any flaws. The second-ranking deity was considered Mama Kilja- patroness of women, women in labor, then god of lightning and thunder(Il-yapa), goddess of the morning star(Venus) and many other divine stars and constellations.

The sacred forces, whose cults were especially widespread among the general public, included spirits. They lived in rocks and caves, in trees and springs, in stones and in the mummies of their ancestors. They prayed to the spirits, made sacrifices, and dedicated certain days to them. Places where gods or spirits lived were called "huaca".

All religious ritual in Incan society was the responsibility of the priests. The high priest was the Inca's brother or uncle. He wore a sleeveless red tunic and wore an image of the Sun on his head. He often decorated his face with colorful parrot feathers. He was forbidden to marry or have children out of wedlock, to eat meat, or to drink anything other than water. The rank of high priest was for life. His duties included observing the exact rules of the solar cult, the coronation of the great Inca and his marriage.

The Incas emerge from the fog of legend and myth around 1438, when they defeated the neighboring Chaika people. The organizer of this victory, the son of the ruler of Cusco-Viracocha, Inca, accepted supreme power, and with it the name Pachacuti. The historicity of his personality is beyond doubt.

Further expansion of the Incas unfolded mainly in the southern and southeast directions. In the mid-15th century, the Incas intervened in the struggle between the Aymara chiefdoms and, as a result, subjugated the area around Lake Titicaca with relative ease. Here the Incas took possession of colossal herds of llamas and alpacas. Pachacuti declared animals royal property. From now on, the armies of Cuzco no longer needed Vehicle ah, clothes and food.

Together with his heir, Tupac Yupanqui, Pachacuti organized a large northern campaign, during which the Inca state finally established its status as an empire seeking to unite the entire ancient Peruvian ecumene. The Inca expansion on the plateau near Titicaca brought them close to confrontation with the kingdom of Chimor. The ruler of the latter, Minchansaman, also began to expand his possessions. However, both the highlanders and the inhabitants of the lowlands tried to delay an open clash. Both experienced difficulties when they found themselves in an unusual landscape and climatic zone.

Tupac Yupanqui led an army into mountainous Ecuador, where he had to wage a grueling fight against local tribes. The Incas tried to make forays into the coastal plain of Ecuador, but the hot, swampy land turned out to be unattractive for people accustomed to mountain air. Moreover, its large population actively resisted.

In the late 60s - early 70s of the 15th century, a decision was made to attack Chimor. Victory remained with the Incas, although the peace concluded by the kingdom of Chimor was relatively honorable for the latter. Only after the uprising that broke out soon was the coastal state finally defeated. Chimor lost all possessions outside the Moche, and Incan military posts were established in this valley itself.

After the death of Pachacuti, Tupac Yupanqui went to new trip. Without much difficulty they subjugated the small states and tribes of the central and south coast Peru. The Incas encountered stubborn resistance only in the small valley of Cañete, south of Lima. Even easier than the capture of the southern coast of Peru was the conquest of thousands of kilometers of space south of Titicaca. Small groups of cattle breeders, farmers and fishermen in local oases were not able to provide significant resistance to his army.

After the southern campaign of Tupac Yupanqui, the empire reached its natural borders. The peoples living on the plateau in mountain valleys and in the oases of the Pacific coast. The Inca rulers tried to expand the boundaries of their state also to the east. Tupac Yupanqui's successor, Huayna Capac, defeated the Chachapoya tribes in the Eastern Cordillera. However, the Incas could not advance further east - into the Amazon.

The eastern border was the only one that needed constant protection. Here the Incas built a series of fortresses, and on the territory of modern Bolivia, these fortresses were even connected by a stone wall stretching along the ridges of the mountains for almost 200 km.

Under Huayna Capac (1493-1525), the Inca Empire reached its apogee of development. After his death, an internecine war broke out between two contenders for the Inca throne - Atahulpa and Huascar, which ended in the victory of Atahulpa. Pizarro took advantage of this struggle and lured Atahulpa into a trap. Having taken a huge ransom of gold from Atahulpa, the Spaniards then executed him and placed him on the throne. younger brother Huascara Manco Capac. The latter soon rebelled, but was unable to recapture Cuzco and took his supporters to the northwest of the capital, where he created the so-called Novoinsky kingdom in a remote mountainous region. Its last ruler was executed by the Spaniards in 1572.

The Incas called their state Tawantinsuyu - "Land of Four Parts". Indeed, the empire was divided into four parts (suyu) - provinces. They were not administrative territorial units in the modern sense. Rather, they were symbolic areas representing the four cardinal directions. Chinchaisuyu's territory extended to the central and northern coastal and mountainous regions, up to the northern border that today divides Ecuador and Colombia along the Ancasmayo River. The second province, Collasuyu, was located to the south and covered the plateau, part of Bolivia, northern Argentina and the northern half of Chile. The third - Antisuyu - lay in the east in the area of ​​​​the Amazonian jungle. The fourth - Kontisuyu - extended to the west, all the way to the ocean. The center of these four parts, the starting point was Cusco, located at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level.

In turn, the provinces were divided into districts, which were governed by an official appointed by the Inca. The district included several villages. Each of them belonged to one or even several genera. The clan owned a strictly defined area of ​​land. From the communal land, each man received an allotment (tupa), and the woman received only half of it.

All land in the empire was divided into three parts: the fields of the community, the “land of the Sun” (the income from it went to support the priests and sacrifices), as well as the fields of the state and the Inca (intended to supply the state apparatus, warriors, builders, the Inca himself and his retinue , in case of natural disasters, as well as a fund for widows, orphans and the elderly). The lands of the priestly fund and the state were cultivated by free residents in their free time, after the family plots were cultivated. This extra work was called minka. It was perceived as a necessary, feasible and sacred contribution of everyone to the common cause.

The standard of living of ordinary community members and their families was almost the same (amount of food, clothing, quality of houses and utensils). There were no starving poor. Those who could not work were provided with the necessary minimum by the state.

The basis of the Inca economy was agriculture and animal husbandry. They cultivated the same plants and those. the same animals as everywhere in Peru. Natural conditions forced the creation of irrigation structures: dams, canals. The fields were arranged in terraces. The land was cultivated by hand, using special sticks the size of a man.

Craft production was well organized. The bulk of goods were produced in the community, and the most skilled potters, gunsmiths, jewelers and weavers were resettled in Cusco. They lived at the expense of the Incas and were considered public servants. The best of their works were used for religious purposes and gifts; tools and weapons were stored in state warehouses. The Incas achieved great success in metallurgy. Copper and silver deposits were developed. Weaving received special development. The Incas knew three types of looms on which they could even make carpets.

There were no purchase and sale relations; they were replaced by developed regulated state exchange, the functions of which were to meet the needs of residents of different climatic zones. The form of exchange was fairs - city and village, held every ten days.

The socio-political organization of the Incas was very original and fully consistent with its goals. The primary and basic unit of Inca society was the family, led by the father, who was called purek. The highest level of government was represented by four suyuyuk-apu, who were the supreme leaders of the four suyu. Above them stood only Sapa Inca (“The Only Inca”) - the ruler of all Tawantinsuyu, the sovereign coordinator of her life, who had another official title Intip Churin("Son of the Sun"). It was believed that he descended to earth in order to fulfill the will of the Sun. Sapa Inca subjects also called themselves "the Incas"and considered themselves God's chosen people.

Only a man of royal blood could sit on the throne in Cusco. The future Inca prepared for a difficult role for a long time: he comprehended the secrets of existence, studied religion, various sciences and kipu - knotted letter. He was also taught good manners and military skills.

Sapa Inca was deified as Intip Churin - Son of the Sun. According to the beliefs of Tawantinsuyu's subjects, the prosperity and misfortunes of the empire and the entire people depended on the health and well-being of their ruler. Sapa Inca was deified as the “son of the Sun” with all the manifestations of cult service to the ruler that flowed from this fact. But the most interesting and unusual institution that contributed to the ideological strengthening of the power of the Sapa Inca was one of the oldest, called “panaka”. Panaka is the totality of all the direct descendants of the ruler in the male line, except for his son, who became the successor. The successor son inherited the throne, but not the father's wealth. The Inca's property remained his property even after the death of the ruler. Of course, the Panaka actually controlled the valuables, but symbolically they belonged to the mummies of Sapa Inca and his coya. Preserved through the process of mummification, dressed in royal attire, their corpses sat on thrones in the palaces that belonged to the rulers during their lifetime. They served the rulers as if they were alive, trying to forestall their every desire, satisfy any need, “fed” them, “watered them” and pleased them in every possible way. The deceased emperors were carried on palanquins so that they had the opportunity to “go” to visit each other, to visit the living Incas, who not only worshiped their predecessors, but consulted with them on the most pressing issues, and during such negotiations members served as intermediaries in the conversation Panaki. From time to time, royal mummies were taken to the central square of Cusco to participate in certain ceremonies. Thus, most of the empire's resources "belonged to the dead." This fact speaks of the theocratic nature of statehood in Tawantinsuyu. As a sign of imperial power, he wore a maskpaichu on his head - a headband made of the finest red wool, decorated with korikenke feathers (a rare type of falcon that lives in the Andes).

In his palace, the Inca sat on a low, carved mahogany throne. Visitors could not see his face - he was separated from them by a curtain. The Inca had hundreds of concubines at his service, and up to eight thousand servants from among the representatives of noble families served him. Fifty of them had access to the ruler and were replaced every seven to ten days.

During his travels, he was protected by a guard dressed in shiny "uniforms" decorated with gold and silver jewelry. The Inca was carried in a stretcher made of gold (only the frame was wooden). After his death, the Inca's body was embalmed. The mummy was seated on a golden throne, and a golden statue of the emperor was installed next to it. By the time the Spaniards arrived in Tahuantinsuyu, the veneration of the mummified remains of emperors already had the significance of a state cult. Speaking about social differences in Tawantinsuyu, it should be noted that they were determined by origin and personal merit. There were two groups of nobility in the empire: metropolitan and provincial. In Tawantinsuyu, one could also be included in the category of aristocracy for outstanding achievements in the military field, for exceptional engineering abilities and for talent in science, art, and literature.

There were categories in the empire that remained outside the social structure of the communal sector. These are Yanakona, Aklya, Kamajok and Mitmak, and a person’s belonging to one of these categories could be combined with belonging to others.

The term "Yanaqona" denoted all those who were not subject to conscription. public Works and not subject to taxes, but personally dependent on their masters. Unlike the community members, they were completely deprived of the means of production.

A category close to Yanacona was formed by Aklya - women who, even in childhood, were assigned to serve the Sun. Most aklyas, however, did not perform priestly functions, but were engaged in spinning and weaving. The procedure for forming the Aklya Institute was as follows. Every year, beautiful, intelligent girls of four or five years old were selected throughout the country and placed at the temples of the main cities of the provinces. Here they learned music, singing, as well as cooking, spinning and weaving. At the age of 10 - 13, the brides were “certified”: some were elevated to the rank of “mothers - servants of Inti”: they performed religious rites in honor of Inti and performed some other sacred duties, others continued to perform the usual functions for aklya, that is, they were part of the servants and They worked not only at churches, but also in the houses of the Kuskan aristocracy. Therefore, it was quite typical for Yanaqona men to be given wives from among the Aklya as a reward for their service, regardless of whether these Yanaqona were already married or not. The institution of aklya existed not only among the Incas, but also in the kingdom of Chimor, and even earlier - among the Mochica.

The Camayoc are the least studied population group of ancient Peru. They were professional specialists in certain types of work, had a narrow specialization and were personally, and not indirectly through the community, dependent on the administration. The Kamayok were on government pay, but they had no chance of getting into administrative positions because their qualifications were too limited.

The Mitmaq constituted the largest part of the population in the non-communal sector of Tawantinsuyu. The term "mitmak" denoted migrants who were forcibly deported en masse from one region of the empire to another. This kind of practice was determined by both political and economic considerations. The population from the central regions was moved to the border regions, and the newly conquered or prone to rebellion - to long-pacified areas or to the opposite outskirts of the empire. With the help of settlers, large state farms were organized on virgin lands or on insufficiently intensively cultivated lands, which were sometimes given great strategic importance. Among other groups of “government workers,” the Mitmaks stood closest to ordinary community members. For two years after the resettlement, they remained dependent on the state, after which they began to engage in ordinary agricultural labor, maintaining the traditional organization.

The objective social and property stratification of Inca society did not completely coincide with the officially recognized scale of social divisions. In Inca society, in principle, no one was free to choose either their place of residence, their type of occupation, or the time allocated to certain types of activity, or even the choice of a spouse. All this was regulated, on the one hand, by custom, and on the other, by the practice of public administration.

In the Inca Empire, ten age categories of citizens were legalized. For men, the first three groups consisted of children under nine years of age (“playing children”); fourth group - from 9 to 12 years (hunting with snares); fifth - from 12 to 18 years (livestock protection); sixth - from 18 to 25 (military or courier service); seventh - from 25 to 50 years (purekhs who paid taxes and worked for public needs); eighth - from 50 to 80 (raising children); the ninth - from 80 onwards (“deaf elders”) and the tenth group - the sick and infirm without age restrictions. The women's classification was somewhat different from the men's, but its principles were the same.

When entering the adult age category, the person's name changed. The first name was given in infancy and, as a rule, reflected the impression of the child (for example, Oaklew - innocent, pure). A person received a second name during puberty. It was final and characterized the inherent qualities of a person.

The imperial ambitions of the Incas pushed them to create a certain class of citizens of low birth who would be able to perform various types of work aimed not only at satisfying their own needs, but above all, at providing everything necessary for the highest aristocracy of the empire. Although the Incas did not spare their subjects in their work, they nevertheless forced them to spend a lot of time participating in various festivals, religious rites, state ceremonies and celebrations. It must be recognized that such generosity on the part of the state strengthened the connection between the imperial power and the people, whose life was thus diversified and, to some extent, made easier.

In this labor-intensive society, people's lives were strictly regulated. The state indicated where they should live, what crops to grow on their plot of land, how and what to wear, and even with whom to marry.

A simple subject of Tawantinsuyu could find moral support primarily in the family and community (aylyu), created through the male line. The aylyu consisted of several families who lived next to each other and engaged in collective labor. In a large village several communities could live, each of which occupied its own complex of walled buildings. Each community revered its ancestors and had the right to a certain place in the main village square during holidays.

An Aylew man, upon marriage, received from the Sapa Inca (the state) an allotment of land (topu) large enough to support himself and his wife. The size of such plots depended on the fertility of the soil in a particular area, but if the topu was equal to two acres, then in this case the head of the family received two more after the birth of each son and one for the maintenance of his daughter. As the owner of a topu, a married man automatically became a pureh, the head of a tax-paying family unit. It should be noted that although formally the land plot was allocated to the man (only after marriage), it was, in fact, issued to both the husband and wife as one whole, emphasizing their equal share in bearing the tax burden. Moreover, within the Andean cultural tradition, both men and women viewed their work roles as complementary to each other, considering them useful and necessary for the survival of all family members. Within the Aylew itself, a spirit of solidarity prevailed. The men worked together to build houses for the newlyweds, and when one of them was called upon to work his mita (tax), serve his labor service, or serve in the army, those who remained at home would work on his topo on behalf of his family. During the spring sowing season, men and women worked side by side, singing religious hymns. The men, lined up in a row, dug up the ground using a chaquital (a foot plow used like a shovel) - a long stick with a footrest above a bronze tip. They were also followed by women lined up in a row, who were breaking clods of earth with the help of a hoe with a wide bronze blade, called a “lamp”.

To meet the food needs of the empire, the Incas had to take a new approach to the use of land, and they successfully coped with this by creating terraces on the slopes of mountains, straightening the beds of some rivers, filling or draining swamps, and directing water to desert areas. Inca agricultural terraces (Andenes) have been preserved in great numbers. They made it possible to make agriculture possible where it had previously been unimaginable. Today in Peru, thanks to the Incan Andenes, about 6 million acres of land are regularly cultivated.

In addition to working in the fields, community members performed hundreds of other duties: they made pottery, weaved baskets, made chicha (strong maize beer), and were engaged in spinning and weaving in order to meet the needs of both their own family and the state for fabrics and clothing.

Great attention was paid to cleanliness and neatness of clothing in Inca society. Men wore short knee-length trousers (a sign of maturity) and sleeveless shirts, while women wore simple long woolen dresses, which were pulled over the head and cinched at the waist with a wide, elaborately decorated belt. On their feet were sandals made of llama wool. In cold weather, all Incas wore long and warm cloaks.

In Inca society, no one had the right to spend time in idleness. Even pregnant women were rarely freed from daily menial tasks. Expectant mothers were allowed not to go to the fields only in the late stages of pregnancy, but in other cases they were obliged to do all the work as long as they had enough strength. However, from the Incas' point of view, children were a valuable addition to the family, as future additional labor force. Therefore, abortion was legally punishable by death, to which both the mother herself and all those involved in her crime were subjected.

Although the Incas required everyone to work, they took into account a person's abilities and state of health. The sick and infirm did not have to earn their living. They received everything they needed - food and clothing - from government warehouses. They were assigned tasks that they could perform in accordance with their physical condition. At the same time, the extremely pragmatic Inca regime did not allow the infirm to distract the strong and healthy inhabitants of the country from work to provide themselves with special care. Therefore, according to the law, a person deprived of the ability to work due to a physical defect could start a family only with a similar disabled person.

Old people also received special attention from the state. It was believed that a person reached old age at about fifty years of age. Such people were no longer considered full-fledged workers, and they were exempted from both labor service (mita) and taxation in general. However, until they were completely deprived of physical strength, the old people were instructed to perform tasks that did not require much effort: they collected brushwood in the forests, looked after infants, cooked food, drove chicha, weaved ropes and ropes, provided all possible assistance with harvesting.

In the Inca Empire there were four permanent army formations of 40,000 people, the command of which was subordinate to the ruler of the entire people.

The Inca army was the largest in pre-Columbian America. It was mainly a "civilian" army. All men aged 25 to 50 fit for military service were required to serve military service for five years. Each province supplied both privates and "officers" personnel. Each underwent rigorous military training from the ages of 10 to 18. The training was led by professional military men, usually from the lower ranks of officers, who taught their students how to use weapons of defense and attack, introduced them to the basics of hand-to-hand combat, taught them to overcome water obstacles, besiege enemy fortifications, give smoke signals and other things useful in war.

After completing lengthy military training, young people in their aylyu, in the presence of a state inspector, took something like final exams in military affairs. The sick and disabled were not subject to military training. When war broke out, the youth of the community, having undergone extensive military training, were sent to the battlefield with the unit to which they were assigned based on the administrative structure of the empire.

The structure of the Inca army exactly corresponded to the administrative and organizational structure of the state and society.

The Inca army was distinguished by high discipline: the death penalty was threatened even for absence without the knowledge of the military leader. In battle, in addition to conventional weapons, psychological weapons were also used - various frightening sounds, wild screams, the sounds of flutes made from the bones of defeated enemies and the roar of wooden drums with human skin stretched over them. It should also be noted that the Incas often won victories by the power of words, that is, through diplomatic negotiations, during which the “sons of the Sun” invited the enemy to submit voluntarily.

Unlike the Aztecs, the Incas waged wars not in order to obtain human sacrifices to implement the messianic idea of ​​​​sustaining the life of the Sun (and therefore the whole world), but to expand the empire and obtain new subjects (additional labor).

In Tawantinsuyu the laws were unwritten, but they were all divided into civil and criminal. Blasphemy, atheism, idleness, laziness, lies, theft, adultery and murder were unacceptable. The question of guilt was decided by judges - community leaders and representatives of the nobility. The laws were based on clear principles: the officials responsible for the decimal division were accomplices in each case; the instigator of the crime was punished, not the perpetrator; an offense committed by an aristocrat was considered a more serious offense than the same offense of a commoner (the Supreme Inca himself considered such a case).

The punishments used were expulsion, scourging, torture, and public reproach, but the most common measure was the death penalty (hanging, quartering, stoning). Persons who threatened the security of the state were placed in cells infested with poisonous snakes or predatory animals. The villages in which they lived were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants were executed. With such harsh laws, crime in the country was extremely low.

All the settlements of Tawantinsuyu were connected by an elaborate system of magnificent roads, paved with stone and framed by a barrier. They were intended for walking. There were two main roads that crossed the Inca Empire from end to end. One of them began at the northern border of the empire, near the equator (modern Ecuador), and ended at the Maule River. The total length of this road is about 5250 km. The second road connected the northern coast (Tumbes) with the south. Both roads crossed Mountain peaks, swamps, impenetrable jungles, fast-moving rivers, over which rope bridges made of agave fibers hung, and were connected by a series of transverse roads. Along each of them, approximately 25 km from each other, there were inns, and every 2 km there were post posts (chukly). This is another achievement. The Inca postal service was unmatched by any other ancient civilization. Special couriers-runners (chaskis) with a white headband transmitted messages along the relay race, running along 2 km of their section. There were to be two couriers at each post at the same time. One was resting; the other was awake and closely watching the section of road that passed through his post. As soon as the chaski on duty noticed the approaching courier, he immediately ran out to meet him and received an oral or bundled message along the relay. Since the distances were short, a high delivery speed was achieved: 2000 km was covered in three to five days. Chaska's work was very hard, so the state postal service used (at the expense of mita) healthy, fleet-footed and especially hardy young people from 18 to 20 years old.

The Inca Empire's excellent postal service was modeled after the earlier Peruvian cultures of the Mochica and Chimu courier services. However, the Incas improved and expanded the postal service of their predecessors. They covered the entire territory of the empire with a network of post posts, starting from the south of what is now Colombia all the way to central Chile. It is also important to take into account that the organization of both the postal service and other state events, including monumental construction, did not cost the empire anything. Work of this kind was the responsibility of the residents of the community in whose territory the work was carried out. Acting as a chaska, 18-20 year old boys performed their labor duties on a mita basis. How difficult the work of the couriers of the Incan postal service was is eloquently evidenced by the following fact: while others, according to the Mita, had to work for the state for three months (for example, in the mines), the Chaskis worked for only a month.

People traveled along the roads of Tawantinsuyu on foot. The only means of transport were palanquins, but the privilege of using them belonged to the Inca himself, members of the royal family and a few noble persons and state officials. As for the means for transporting goods, in this case llamas were actively used. It is noteworthy that the empire could simultaneously use up to 25 thousand lamas! And yet, a person had to deliver the bulk of the cargo himself, on his own back.

Regarding the presence of writing among the Incas, there is an opinion, especially among non-specialists, that they used knotted writing in this capacity - the quipu. This is not entirely accurate. The fact is that what is traditionally called knotted writing performed completely different functions than those performed by writing. It was only an excellent means of recording, first of all, statistical data. With the help of quipus, special people (kipukamayok), who had undergone special training and belonged to highly respected officials of the empire, recorded all the information that should have been recorded or about which Cuzco should have been informed: the number of population or troops, the number of weapons or crops, livestock lamas, etc. The khipu consisted of several laces. One, thicker one, was the base; many thinner multi-colored cords of various lengths and with a certain number of knots were attached to it. This record was based on the Inca decimal counting system. The position of the knot on the lace corresponded to the value of the digital indicators. It could be one, ten, a hundred thousand or even ten thousand. In this case, a simple knot denoted the number “1”, a double knot – “2”, a triple – “3”. In order to read a knot entry, it was necessary to know not only the place occupied by a knot on a lace, but also the color of the corresponding lace. The colors of the laces were symbolic. White meant silver and peace, yellow meant gold, black meant illness or time, red meant army. The Kipukamayoks, who mastered the art of knotted writing, could decipher more abstract concepts from the color of these notes. For example, white meant not only silver, but also peace, black meant illness (as well as time). It is very possible that initially the knotted writing of the “sons of the Sun” also served as a kind of Inca calendar. This, in particular, is evidenced by another name for the Kipukamayoks - “kilyakipok”. The Incas used the term “quilla” to designate the “monthly year” of their calendar, and also called their moon goddess.

The importance of the quipu was so great in Tahuantinsuyu that one of the Spanish chroniclers even wrote about this: “...The entire Inca Empire was ruled through the quipu.” It has reached our time a large number of piles of copies. They differ primarily in size. The largest pile that has come down to us is 165 cm long and 6 cm wide. Often, bundles were lowered into the grave so that they would accompany the deceased on his final journey.

It is believed that the Incas had a writing system that was different from what Europeans were accustomed to considering as writing. That's why they simply didn't recognize her. Chroniclers mention special canvases kept in temples, on which “everything that needed to be known about the past” was painted, and about messages from rulers drawn on fabrics. Most likely it was a pictographic script, accessible only to the nobility; Moreover, some scientists are inclined to consider images on ceramic vessels - kero - as inscriptions. It is noteworthy that in the Quechua language, which supposedly did not have a written form, nevertheless, already in the pre-Hispanic period there were words that indicated the opposite. For example, "kilka" ("kelka") - "writing" ("writing"), "kilkangi" - "write", "kilyaskuni" - "read".

In recent years, a point of view expressed in a similar interpretation simultaneously in the works of two prominent researchers has begun to win its adherents. According to this point of view, writing was known to the Incas, but it looked like a lot of peculiar square or rectangular images decorating ancient Peruvian textiles, as well as kero vessels. Such pictographic writing, if, of course, it can be considered writing, was also known to the pre-Inca cultures of this country. The idea that these images are signs of writing was first expressed by the Peruvian archaeologist Victoria de la Jara. She came to this conclusion on the basis of a fundamental, many-month study of tissues preserved in the Paracas burial grounds. Victoria de la Jara found that 16 basic characters are most often repeated on South American fabrics. From the same angle, these signs are studied by the German scientist, professor at the University of Tübingen, Thomas Barthel. He managed to discover up to 400 different signs (tocapu) on the fabrics and vessels of ancient Peru, which in all cases had exactly the same spelling. Apparently, these signs were not just a decorative ornament. However, there is no clear evidence that Tokapu signs are indeed written language.

Despite the fact that there are no ancient written texts of Inca literature, it is still known that it had a fairly high level. There were religious and secular hymns, legends, myths, ballads, prayers, short epics, poems and fables, songs and elegies. Their authors lived in the palaces of rulers. Among them there are poets-philosophers and lyricists, but their work remains nameless.

The Inca drama in verse is called the pearl of world drama. "Apu-Ollantay."She talked about a courageous and noble commander, a native of the provincial aristocracy, who dared to fall in love with the daughter of the great Pachacuti himself - Cusi Coyliur ("Laughing Star") - and achieve her reciprocal love. To this day, this drama is still performed on the stage of the Indian theater of Latin America.

The Incas were good musicians. There were only five sounds in their sound series (do, re, fa, sol, la), but this did not stop them from playing bone and metal flutes, drums, tambourines and vessels with water, the neck of which was covered with leather, as well as reed or clay Andean pipes. The inhabitants of Tawantinsuyu often danced to the sounds of music. The dances were mainly of a magical and ritual nature, but sometimes they were performed simply for pleasure. There were several types of dance: men's military, shepherd's, secular, folk.

The inhabitants of the great empire of the sun could not only dance. Among them were good mathematicians, astronomers, engineers and doctors. The basis of Incan science was mathematics. It was based on the decimal system and marked the beginning of the development of statistics. Mathematics has found wide application in astronomy. Observatories were located throughout Peru, where the days of the solstices and equinoxes were determined, and the Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, the constellations of the Pleiades, and the Southern Cross were observed. The Incan solar year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, plus one additional month of five days.

Tawantinsuyu had its own geographers and cartographers who made beautiful relief maps, as well as historians. There was even a post of official historian of the empire, who was elected from the relatives of the great ruler.

But medicine is recognized as the most developed science in the state. Diseases were considered a consequence of sin, so priests and healers practiced medicine. They treated with magical techniques, fasting, bloodletting, gastric and intestinal lavage, as well as herbs. In severe cases, they resorted to operations (craniotomy, amputation of limbs). They used a special method of treating wounds - with the help of ants, as well as painkillers, such as coca, which was highly valued. Evidence of the effectiveness of Inca medicine was the longevity of the inhabitants of the empire - 90-100 years.

A brilliant example of the urban planning art of the Incas is their capital - the city of Cusco. Cusco was the capital and symbol of the empire - a fairy tale of stone and gold. Here were the residence of the Inca, the main authorities, the ritual center and city services. It was an important economic and cultural point where funds were distributed, taxes were paid and the most important educational institutions were located, where for four years they taught everything that the Incas achieved.

The city is considered one of the largest capitals in the world during the Conquest. In the 16th century about 200 thousand inhabitants lived in it and there were more than 25 thousand houses, painted in bright colors, decorated with marble and jasper, gold door and window frames. Cusco even had running water and sewerage. The city was built according to a pre-developed plan and was distinguished by thoughtfulness. Such a high location of the Inca capital (more than 3000 m above sea level) is surprising. The valley in which Cusco is located is surrounded on all sides by mountains and is only open to penetration from the southeast. The outline of the city resembled the body of a puma, which is why it was the symbol of the city. The imperial capital was divided into upper Cusco - Hanan Cusco and lower - Urin Cusco.

In the center of Cusco there was the “Plaza of Joy”, bordered by the largest golden chain in the history of mankind (length - 350 steps). The square and surrounding streets are surrounded by a complex of shrines and temples. The main one is considered Temple of the Sun, Its walls were lined with gold plates. Inside the structure there was an altar with an image of a huge disk of the sun from which rays emanated. Along the walls of the temple, on golden thrones covered with carpets, sat the mummies of the late rulers of the empire. In addition to the service of the priests, a kind of monasteries were created, the building of one of them was reconstructed, this monastery belonged to the temple of the sun at Pachacamac, near Lima. The most beautiful girls. From the age of eight, they underwent special training to serve virgins destined for the sun . Archaeological excavations show that the Incas also performed human sacrifices. They sacrificed children to apu - the gods of the mountains. The frozen bodies of children were found on the peaks of the Andes.

Adjacent to the great temple is the palace-residence of the high priest and five beautiful buildings in which his assistants lived. These buildings were covered with thatch, into which gold threads were woven. Was nearby temple of the moon, lined with silver. His altar in the form of a night deity was guarded by the mummies of the deceased Inca spouses.

On the other side of the building complex were the shrines of Thunder, Lightning and Rainbow. And not far from it was the fantastic golden garden of Cusco - half natural, half artificial. If you believe the legends, the water came here through golden gutters, and in the center of the garden there was also an octagonal fountain covered with gold. The entire world of the Incas was reproduced here from gold in life-size: eared fields, shepherds and llamas with cubs, trees and shrubs, flowers and fruits, birds and butterflies. The Inca people gave the unique creations of skilled craftsmen to pay a ransom for the life of the last supreme Inca - Atahualpa (1532-1572).

There were many amazing things in Cusco, but nevertheless the citadel Machu Picchu(about 1500) is considered the main miracle of South America. The Last Fortress Incas Machu Picchu is located high in the Andes, 120 km east of the capital, on very rough terrain, but the builders of the fortress were able to turn the disadvantages of the landscape into advantages, achieving unity of architectural structures with environment. The pointed battlements of the main fortress tower seem to be part of the mountain, and the stone terraces are in strict accordance with the curves of the rocks. All buildings in Machu Picchu are located at different heights, so there are more than 100 stairs in the citadel. The center of the fortress city is considered to be “the place where the Sun is tied” - an observatory carved into the rock. Next to it are the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows (with the three largest trapezoidal windows in Peru) and the palace of the high priest. This is the first part of the city. Its second part - the Royal Quarter - consists of a semicircular fortress tower emerging from the rocks. The Princess's Palace is the residence of the ruler's wife and Royal Palace The Incas. The third part of the fortress was a block of residential buildings for ordinary residents. The entire city was surrounded by powerful ramparts.

Most of the pre-Columbian art has been found in burials on the coast. Fewer objects with plot images were found in the mountains, and they date mainly from the Wari-Tiaunaco era or even earlier. During the Predina period, the geometric style dominated here everywhere.

Inca art is poorly known. The figurines that archaeologists find in burials are poorly individualized and, most likely, are associated with the world of lower mythology, with the veneration of spirits and ancestors. Inca vessels and fabrics are covered with geometric patterns or decorated with artistically perfect, but plot-inexpressive images of people and animals. Only under the influence of the Spaniards did a unique figurative style of lacquer painting on goblets develop in Cusco, however, the subjects presented on vessels of the 16th-17th centuries are not of a purely Indian nature.

As for the Incan statues, they were made primarily not from stone, but from precious metals. Naturally, all this was immediately melted down by the conquistadors. Stone sculptures were mainly broken with hammers. The images of the Incan deities were destroyed so diligently and consistently that we now practically do not know what they exactly looked like.

Around 1530, the Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro, having learned from stories about the golden treasures of Peru, moved there from Panama with his army - Peru at that time was weakened by internecine war. Atawalpa, heading towards the capital, defeated Prince Vascar, his half-brother and legitimate heir to the throne, and took him prisoner.

Pizarro and his soldiers, having reached with difficulty the city of Cajamarca in the interior of the country, were warmly received by the usurper Atavalpa. However, the Spaniards, having captured him by cunning, deprived him of his throne and killed thousands of his warriors, who were completely unprepared to fight back.

However, even captivity did not prevent Atavalpa from continuing the internecine war. He sent messengers to Cuzco to kill his half-brother Inca Vascar and hundreds of other members of the royal family. By this, he, without knowing it, played into Pizarro’s hands.

Noticing that the Spaniards were partial to gold and silver, Atavallpa promised in exchange for his release to give Pizarro so many gold and silver statues that they could fill a huge room. But Atawalpa's plan failed. He's been fooled again! After the promised ransom was paid, Atawalpa, Inca XIII, whom the priests considered an idolater, was baptized as a Catholic and then strangled.

The capture and murder of Atawalpa was a fatal blow to the Inca state. However, the Indians continued to fight, so death throes lasted for forty years.

When reinforcements arrived, Pizarro and his soldiers rushed to Cuzco, the city of untold treasures of the Incas. Driven by a thirst for gold, the Spaniards cruelly tortured the Indians in order to find out from them the secrets of hidden treasures, and everyone who tried to resist them was intimidated into silence.

Accompanied by Prince Manco II, who was Vascar's brother and would become the next Inca (Manco Inca Yupanca), Pizarro and his soldiers raided Cuzco and plundered all the gold treasures. They melted most of the gold statues into ingots and sent them to Spain. It's no wonder that Spanish ships, filled with Peruvian treasures, were coveted prey for British pirates! Pizarro himself, having plundered a lot of goods. He went to the coast of the mainland and in 1535 founded a new capital there, the city of Lima.

Clearly seeing how greedy and treacherous the conquerors were, Manco Inca Yupanqui rebelled. Other revolts against the Spaniards broke out, but eventually the Indians were forced to retreat and fortify themselves in more remote areas. One of the places where the Indians may have taken refuge was located in the mountains holy city Machu Picchu.

The last Inca was Tupac Amaru (1572), son of Manco Inca Yupanqui. At this time, Spanish viceroys ruled Peru. The Viceroy of Toledo decided to destroy the Incas at any cost. Gathering a large army, he headed to the Vilcapampa region. In the jungle, Tupac Amaru was captured. Together with his pregnant wife, he was taken to Cusco; they faced the death penalty. An Indian from Cañar was the executor of the sentence. One blow - and the Inca was beheaded, at that moment a mournful sigh was heard from thousands of Indians gathered in the market square. His associates were tortured to death or hanged. So quickly and brutally the reign of the Incas was put to an end.

Gradually, the lives of the Indians, who had long been treated as slaves, began to be influenced by the rulers appointed by Spain, as well as Catholic monks and priests, which had both positive and negative effects. negative sides. Many Indians had to work in the gold and silver mines, one of which, silver, in Potos, Bolivia. To escape the terrible reality, the Indians began to use coca leaves, which had narcotic properties. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that Peru and Bolivia gained independence from Spain.

How do the descendants of the Incas live today? Like other modern cities, Peru's capital, Lima, is a bustling city with a population of millions. But in provincial areas, time seems to have stopped a hundred years ago. In many remote villages, Catholic priests still have enormous influence. A simple Indian peasant will not go anywhere as willingly as to the Catholic Church in the village square. Statues of saints in long robes, colorful lamps, a gilded altar, candles, mysterious services and especially dances and celebrations - all this brings at least some variety to his life. However, despite the fact that this diversity may be pleasing to the eye, the peasant continues to cling to his former beliefs. In addition, many Indians continue to use coca leaves, which are attributed mystical properties.

Thanks to the resilience inherent in the descendants of the Incas (many of whom were already of mixed ancestry), they were able to preserve their vibrant traditional dances and Huayno folk music. Although Indians are usually wary of strangers at first, their inherent hospitality is sure to emerge. Those who are personally acquainted with the modern descendants of the Incas - who observed their daily struggle for life, tried to show interest in them and become more familiar with their life - will not remain indifferent to their history!

MAYAN

The Mayan Indians are not indigenous to the land of Guatemala and Honduras, they came from the north; it is difficult to say when they settled the Yucatan Peninsula. Most likely in the first millennium BC, and since then the religion, culture, and whole life of the Mayans have been connected with this land.

More than a hundred remains of large and small cities and settlements, the ruins of majestic capitals built by the ancient Mayans, have been discovered here.

Many of the names of Maya cities and individual structures were assigned to them after the Spanish conquest and, therefore, are not the original names in the Mayan language, nor their translations into European languages: for example, the name "Tikal" was coined by archaeologists, and "Palenque" is a Spanish word " fortress".

Much still remains unsolved in the history of this amazing and unique civilization. Let’s take the word “Maya” itself. After all, we don’t even know what it means and how it got into our vocabulary. For the first time in literature, it is found in Bartolome Columbus, when he describes the meeting of his legendary brother Christopher, the discoverer of America, with an Indian canoe boat that sailed “from the province called Maya.”

According to some sources from the period of the Spanish Conquest, the name “Maya” was applied to the entire Yucatan Peninsula, which contradicts the name of the country given in Landa’s message - “u luumil kutz yetel keh” (“country of turkeys and deer”). According to others, it referred only to a relatively small territory, the center of which was the ancient capital of Mayapan. It has also been suggested that the term "Maya" was a common noun and arose from the contemptuous nickname "Ahmaya", that is, "powerless people." However, there are also such translations of this word as “land without water,” which, undoubtedly, should be recognized as a simple mistake.

However, in the history of the ancient Maya, much more important questions still remain unresolved. And the first of them is the question of the time and nature of the Mayan peoples’ settlement of the territory on which the main centers of their civilization were concentrated during the period of its greatest prosperity, usually called the Classical era (II - X centuries). Numerous facts indicate that their emergence and rapid development occurred everywhere and almost simultaneously. This inevitably leads to the idea that by the time they arrived in the lands of Guatemala, Honduras, Chiapas and Yucatan, the Mayans, apparently, already had a fairly high culture. It was uniform in nature, and this confirms that its formation had to take place in a relatively limited area. From there, the Mayans set off on a long journey not as wild tribes of nomads, but as carriers of a high culture (or its rudiments), which was to blossom into an outstanding civilization in the future, in a new place.

Where could the Mayans come from? There is no doubt that they had to leave the center very high and certainly more ancient culture than the Mayan civilization itself. Indeed, such a center was discovered in what is now Mexico. It contains the remains of the so-called Olmec culture, found in Tres Zapotes, La Vente, Veracruz and other areas of the Gulf Coast. But the point is not only that the Olmec culture is the most ancient in America and, therefore, it is “older” than the Mayan civilization. Numerous monuments of Olmec culture - the buildings of religious centers and the features of their layout, the types of structures themselves, the nature of written and digital signs left by the Olmecs and other remains of material culture - convincingly indicate the kinship of these civilizations. The possibility of such a relationship is also confirmed by the fact that ancient Mayan settlements with a well-established culture appear everywhere in the area of ​​interest to us precisely when the active activity of the Olmec religious centers suddenly ended, that is, somewhere between the 3rd - 1st centuries BC.

Why this great migration was undertaken can only be guessed at. Resorting to historical analogies, it should be assumed that it was not of a voluntary nature, because, as a rule, migrations of people were the result of a fierce struggle against the invasions of nomadic barbarians.

It would seem that everything is extremely clear, but even today we cannot with absolute confidence call the ancient Mayans the direct heirs of the Olmec culture. Modern science about the Maya does not have the necessary data for such a statement, although everything that is known about the Olmecs and the ancient Maya also does not provide sufficiently compelling reasons to doubt the relationship (at least indirectly) of these most interesting cultures of America.

The fact that our knowledge about the initial period of the history of the ancient Maya is not distinguished by the desired accuracy does not seem to be something exceptional.

The huge pyramids, temples, palaces of Tikal, Vashaktun, Copan, Palenque and other cities of the classical era still keep traces of destruction caused by human hands. We do not know their reasons. A variety of theories have been expressed on this matter, but none of them can be called reliable. For example, the uprisings of peasants, driven to the extreme by endless exactions, thanks to which rulers and priests satisfied their vanity by erecting giant pyramids and temples to their gods.

The Mayan religion is no less interesting than their history.

The universe - yok kab (literally: above the earth) - was imagined by the ancient Mayans as worlds located on top of each other. Just above the earth were thirteen heavens, or thirteen “heavenly layers,” and beneath the earth were nine “underworlds” that made up the underworld.

In the center of the earth stood the “Primordial Tree.” At the four corners, strictly corresponding to the cardinal points, four “world trees” grew. In the East - red, symbolizing the color of the dawn. In the North - white. An ebony tree - the color of the night - stood in the West, and a yellow tree grew in the South - it symbolized the color of the sun.

In the cool shade of the "Primal Tree" - it was green - was paradise. The souls of the righteous came here to take a break from the backbreaking labor on earth, from the suffocating tropical heat and enjoy plentiful food, peace and fun.

The ancient Mayans had no doubt that the earth was square, or at most rectangular. The sky, like a roof, rested on five supports - “heavenly pillars”, that is, on the central “Primordial Tree” and on four “colored trees” that grew along the edges of the earth. The Mayans seemed to transfer the layout of ancient communal houses to the universe around them.

The most surprising thing is that the idea of ​​thirteen heavens arose among the ancient Mayans also on a materialistic basis. It was the direct result of long-term and very careful observations of the sky and study of the movements of celestial bodies in the smallest details accessible to the naked human eye. This allowed the ancient Mayan astronomers, and most likely the Olmecs, to perfectly understand the nature of the movements of the Sun, Moon and Venus across the visible horizon. The Mayans, carefully observing the movement of the luminaries, could not help but notice that they were not moving along with the rest of the stars, but each in its own way. Once this was established, it was most natural to assume that each luminary had its own “sky” or “layer of the sky.” Moreover, continuous observations made it possible to clarify and even specify the routes of these movements during one annual journey, since they actually pass through very specific groups of stars.

The Mayan star routes of the Sun were divided into segments equal in time for their passage. It turned out that there were thirteen such periods of time, and in each of them the Sun stayed for about twenty days. (On Ancient East astronomers identified 12 constellations - signs of the Zodiac.) Thirteen twenty-day months made up the solar year. For the Mayans, it began with the spring equinox, when the Sun was in the constellation Aries.

With a certain amount of imagination, the groups of stars through which the routes passed were easily associated with real or mythical animals. This is how the gods were born - the patrons of the months in the astronomical calendar: “rattlesnake”, “scorpion”, “bird with the head of a beast”, “long-nosed monster” and others. It is curious that, for example, the familiar constellation Gemini corresponded to the constellation Turtle among the ancient Mayans.

If the Maya's ideas about the structure of the universe as a whole are clear to us today and do not raise any particular doubts, and the calendar, which is striking in its almost absolute accuracy, has been thoroughly studied by scientists, the situation is completely different with their “underground worlds.” We cannot even say why there were nine of them (and not eight or ten). Only the name of the “lord of the underworld” is known - Hun Ahab, but even this still has only a tentative interpretation.

The calendar was inextricably linked with religion. The priests, who studied the movements of the planets and the changing seasons, knew exactly the dates of sowing and harvesting.

The ancient Mayan calendar attracted and now continues to attract the closest and most serious attention of researchers studying this outstanding civilization. Many of them hoped to find answers to countless unclear questions from the mysterious Mayan past in the calendar. And although the calendar itself could not, quite naturally, satisfy most of the interests of scientists, it still told a lot about those who created it two thousand years ago. Suffice it to say that it is thanks to the study of the calendar that we know the Mayan base-2 counting system, the form of writing numbers, and their incredible achievements in the field of mathematics and astronomy.

The ancient Mayan calendar was based on a thirteen-day week. The days of the week were written down in digital characters; the date necessarily included the name of the month; there were eighteen of them, each of which had its own name.

Thus, the date consisted of four components - terms:

• the number of the thirteen-day week,
• name and serial number of the day of the twenty-day month,
• name (name) of the month.

The main feature of dating among the ancient Mayans is that any date on the May calendar will be repeated only after 52 years; moreover, it was this feature that became the basis of the calendar and chronology, taking the form of first a mathematical, and later a mystical fifty-two-year cycle, which is also commonly called calendar circle. The calendar was based on a four-year cycle.

Unfortunately, there is not enough reliable data on the origin of both the components - the components of the calendar date and the listed cycles. Some of them originally arose from purely abstract mathematical concepts, for example, “vinal” - a twenty-day month - according to the number of units of the first order of the Mayan decimal system. It is possible that the number thirteen - the number of days in a week - also appeared in purely mathematical calculations, most likely associated with astronomical observations, and only then acquired a mystical character - the thirteen heavens of the universe. The priests, interested in monopolizing the secrets of the calendar, gradually dressed it in increasingly complex mystical robes, inaccessible to the minds of mere mortals, and ultimately it was these “robes” that began to play a dominant role. And if, from under the religious robes - the names of the twenty-day months, one can clearly see the rational beginning of dividing the year into equal time periods - months, the names of the days rather indicate their purely cultic origin.

Thus, the Mayan calendar, already in the process of its inception, was not devoid of elements of a socio-political nature. Meanwhile, the institution of change of power by birth, characteristic of the earliest stage of the formation of class society among the Mayans, gradually died out. However, the four-year cycle as the basis of the calendar remained intact, for it continued to play an important role in their economic life. The priests managed to emasculate the democratic principles from it and put it entirely at the service of their religion, which now protected the “divine” power of omnipotent rulers, which eventually became hereditary.

The Mayan year began on December 23, that is, on the day of the winter solstice, well known to their astronomers. The names of the months, especially in the ancient calendar, clearly show their semantic and rational charge.

The Mayan year consisted of 18 months of 20 days each. In the Mayan language, the time periods were called: 20 days - vinal; 18 Vinal - Tun; a tun was equal to 360 kin (days). To align the solar year, 5 days were added, called mayeb, literally: “unfavorable.” It was believed that on this five-day period the year “dies”, and therefore on these last days The ancient Mayans did nothing to avoid bringing trouble upon themselves. The tun was not the last unit of time in the Mayan calendar. With an increase of 20 times, cycles began to form: 20 tuns made a katun; 20 katuns - baktun; 20 baktuns - pictun; 20 pictuns - kalabtun; 20 kalabtuts - kinchiltun. The Alautun included 23,040,000,000 days, or kin (suns). All dates preserved on steles, monoliths, codices and in records made by the Spaniards of the early colonial period have a single point of reference. We would call it “Year One,” from which the Mayan counting of time begins. According to our chronology, it falls in 3113 BC, or, according to another system of correlation, in 3373 BC. It is interesting to note that these dates are close to the first year of the Hebrew calendar, which falls in 3761 BC. - year of the supposed creation of the Bible. The Mayans skillfully combined two calendars: Haab - solar, consisting of 365 days, and Tzolkin - religious, of 206 days. With this combination, a cycle of 18,890 days was formed, only at the end of which the name and number of the day again coincided with the same name of the month. It’s like November 15th, for example, always fell on Thursday. Such a significant significance of astronomical science would not have been possible without a perfectly developed counting system. The Mayans created such a system. It is similar to the one that the Arabs adopted from the Indians and later passed on to the Europeans, who only then were able to abandon the primitive Roman system.

The Mayans surpassed this system before the Romans conquered Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula, and long before the Arabs brought the decimal counting system to Europe. It is believed that it was invented in India in the 7th century. AD and that the Arabs passed it on to the Europeans only several centuries later. The Mayans used their own decimal system at least from the 4th century. AD - in other words, 1600 years ago.

The Mayans created the most accurate calendars of antiquity.

Little information about the ancient Maya is available to us, but what is known comes from descriptions of the Spanish conquerors and deciphered Mayan writings. The work of domestic linguists under the leadership of Yu.V. played a huge role in this. Knorozov, who was awarded a doctorate for his research. Yu.V. Knorozov proved the hieroglyphic nature of the writing of the ancient Mayans and the consistency of the so-called “Landa alphabet”, a man who “stole” the history of an entire people, finding in their manuscripts content that contradicts the tenets of the Christian religion. Using three surviving manuscripts, Yu.V. Knozorov counted about three hundred different writing signs and determined their reading.

Diego de Landa, the first provincial, burned the Mayan books as heretical. Three manuscripts have reached us containing records of priests with a description of the calendar, a list of gods, and sacrifices. During archaeological excavations Other manuscripts have also been found, but their condition is so deplorable that they cannot be read. There is very little opportunity to obtain more information by deciphering the inscriptions carved on stones and temple walls, since they were not spared by the nature of the tropics and some hieroglyphs cannot be read.

Many private collections are replenished through the illegal export of parts or a complete complex of structures from the country. The confiscation occurs so carelessly, with non-compliance with the rules of archaeological excavations, so much is lost irretrievably.

The territory where the Mayan civilization developed once occupied the modern southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche and Yucatan, the Peten department in Northern Guatemala, Belize and part of Western El Salvador and Honduras. The southern borders of the Mayan possessions were closed by the mountain ranges of Guatemala and Honduras. Three quarters of the Yucatan Peninsula is surrounded by sea, and the land approaches to it from Mexico were blocked by the endless swamps of Chiapas and Tabasco. The Mayan territory is distinguished by an extraordinary diversity of natural conditions, but nature has never been too generous to humans here. Every step on the path to civilization was achieved by the ancient inhabitants of these places with great difficulty and required the mobilization of all human and material resources of society.

The history of the Maya can be divided into three major eras in accordance with the most important changes in the economy, social institutions and culture of local tribes: Paleo-Indian (10,000-2000 BC); archaic (2000-100 BC or 0) and the era of civilization (100 BC or 0 - 16th century AD). These eras, in turn, are divided into smaller periods and stages. The initial stage of the classical Mayan civilization occurs around the turn of our era (1st century BC - 1st century AD). The upper boundary dates back to the 9th century. AD

The earliest traces of human presence in the area of ​​​​the spread of Mayan culture were found in central Chiapas, mountainous Guatemala and part of Honduras (X millennium BC).

At the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. In these mountainous regions, early agricultural cultures of the Neolithic type appeared, the basis of which was maize farming.

At the very end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The development of the tropical jungle region by the Mayan tribes begins. Individual attempts to settle on the fertile, game-rich lands of the plains had been made earlier, but mass colonization of these areas began precisely from that time.

At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The milpa (slash-and-burn) farming system was finally taking shape, progressive changes were observed in the production of ceramics, house-building and other areas of culture. Based on these achievements, the mountain Maya tribes gradually developed the forested lowland areas of Peten, eastern Chiapas, Yucatan and Belize. The general direction of their movement was from west to east. During their advance into the interior of the jungle, the Mayans used the most advantageous directions and routes, and above all river valleys.

By the middle of the 1st millennium BC. the colonization of most of the lowland jungle region was completed, after which the development of culture here proceeded completely independently.

At the end of the 1st millennium BC. in the culture of the lowland Maya, qualitative changes are occurring: in cities there are palace complexes, former sanctuaries and light small temples are transformed into monumental stone structures, all the most important palace and religious architectural complexes are separated from the general mass of buildings and are located in the central part of the city on special elevated and fortified places, writing and a calendar are formed, painting and monumental sculpture are developed, magnificent burials of rulers with human sacrifices appear inside the temple pyramids.

The formation of statehood and civilization in the lowland forest zone was accelerated by a significant influx of population from the south from the mountainous regions, where, as a result of the eruption of the Ilopango volcano, most of the land was covered with a thick layer of volcanic ash and turned out to be uninhabitable. The southern (mountainous) region appears to have given a powerful impetus to the development of Maya culture in the Central region (Northern Guatemala, Belize, Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico). Here the May civilization reached the peak of its development in the 1st millennium AD.

The economic basis of the Mayan culture was slash-and-burn maize farming. Milpa farming involves cutting down, burning and replanting an area of ​​tropical forest. Due to the rapid depletion of the soil, after two or three years the plot must be abandoned and a new one must be looked for. The main agricultural tools of the Mayans were: a digging stick, an ax and a torch. Local farmers, through long-term experiments and selection, managed to develop hybrid high-yielding varieties of the main agricultural plants - maize, legumes and pumpkin. The manual technique of cultivating a small forest plot and the combination of several crops on one field made it possible to maintain fertility for a long time and did not require frequent changes of plots. Natural conditions (soil fertility and abundance of heat and moisture) allowed Mayan farmers to harvest here on average at least two harvests per year.

In addition to the fields in the jungle, near each Indian dwelling there was a personal plot with vegetable gardens and groves of fruit trees. The latter (especially breadfruit"Ramon") did not require any care, but provided a significant amount of food.

The successes of ancient Mayan agriculture were largely associated with the creation by the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. a clear and harmonious agricultural calendar, strictly regulating the timing and sequence of all agricultural work.

In addition to slash-and-burn, the Mayans were familiar with other forms of agriculture. In the south of Yucatan and Belize, agricultural terraces with a special soil moisture system were found on the slopes of high hills. In the Candelaria River basin (Mexico) there was an agricultural system reminiscent of the Aztec “floating gardens”. These are the so-called “raised fields”, which have almost inexhaustible fertility. The Mayans also had a fairly extensive network of irrigation and drainage canals. The latter removed excess water from swampy areas, turning them into fertile fields suitable for cultivation.

The canals built by the Mayans simultaneously collected rainwater and supplied it to artificial reservoirs, served as an important source of animal protein (fish, waterfowl, freshwater edible shellfish), and were convenient routes of communication and delivery of heavy cargo by boats and rafts.

The Mayan crafts are represented by ceramic production, weaving, the production of stone tools and weapons, jade jewelry, and construction. Ceramic vessels with polychrome painting, elegant figured vessels, jade beads, bracelets, tiaras and figurines are evidence of the high professionalism of May artisans.

During the Classic period, trade developed among the Mayans. Imported May ceramics from the 1st millennium AD. discovered by archaeologists in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Strong trade ties were established with Teotihuacan. In this huge city, a large number of shards of May ceramics and carved jade items were found. Here was a whole quarter of Mayan traders, with their homes, warehouses and sanctuaries. There was a similar quarter of Teotihuacan traders in one of the largest Mayan cities of the 1st millennium AD. Tikal. In addition to land trade, sea transportation routes were also used (images of dugout rowing boats are quite common in works of art of the ancient Mayans, dating back to at least the 7th century AD).

The centers of May civilization were numerous cities. The largest of them were Tikal, Palenque, Yaxchilan, Naranjo, Piedras Negras, Copan, Quirigua. All these names are late. The true names of the cities are still unknown (the exception is Naranjo, which is identified with the fortress of the "Broad of the Jaguar", known from the inscription on a clay vase).

Architecture in the central part of any major Mayan city of the 1st millennium AD. represented by pyramidal hills and platforms of various sizes and heights. On their flat tops there are stone buildings: temples, residences of the nobility, palaces. The buildings were surrounded by powerful rectangular squares, which were the main unit of planning in Mayan cities. Row dwellings were built of wood and clay under roofs made of dry palm leaves. All residential buildings stood on low (1-1.5 m) platforms lined with stone. Typically, residential and ancillary buildings form groups located around an open rectangular courtyard. Such groups were the habitat of a large patriarchal family. The cities had markets and craft workshops (for example, processing flint and obsidian). The location of a building within the city was determined by the social status of its inhabitants.

A significant group of the population of Mayan cities (the ruling elite, officials, warriors, artisans and traders) was not directly connected with agriculture and existed due to the vast agricultural district, which supplied it with all the necessary agricultural products and mainly maize.

The nature of the socio-political structure of Mayan society in the classical era cannot yet be determined unambiguously. It is clear that, at least during the period of its greatest prosperity (VII-VIII centuries AD), the Mayan social structure was quite complex. Along with the bulk of communal farmers, there was a nobility (its stratum consisted of priests), and artisans and professional traders stood out. The presence of a number of rich burials in rural settlements indicates the heterogeneity of the rural community. However, it is too early to judge how far this process has gone.

At the head of the hierarchical social system was a deified ruler. Mayan rulers always emphasized their connection with the gods and performed, in addition to their main (secular) functions, a number of religious ones. They not only had power during their lifetime, but were also revered by the people even after their death. In their activities, the rulers relied on the secular and spiritual nobility. From the first, the administrative apparatus was formed. Despite the fact that little is known about the organization of management among the Mayans during the classical period, the presence of a management apparatus is undeniable. This is indicated by the regular layout of May cities, an extensive irrigation system and the need for strict regulation of agricultural labor. The latter was the task of the priests. Any violation of the sacred order was regarded as blasphemy, and the violator could end up on the sacrificial altar.

Like other ancient societies, the Mayans had slaves. They were used for various household jobs, worked in the gardens and plantations of the nobility, served as porters on the roads and rowers on merchant boats. However, it is unlikely that the share of slave labor was significant.

After the 6th century AD in the May cities, a system of power based on the rules of inheritance is being consolidated, that is, a dynastic regime is being established. But in many respects, the classical Maya city-states remained "chiefdoms" or "chiefdoms." The power of their hereditary rulers, although sanctioned by the gods, was limited - limited by the size of the territories they controlled, the number of people and resources in these territories, and the comparative underdevelopment of the bureaucratic machinery available to the ruling elite.

There were wars between the Mayan states. In most cases, the territory of the defeated city was not included in the state borders of the winner. The end of the battle was the capture of one ruler by another, usually followed by the sacrifice of the captured leader. The goal of the May rulers' foreign policy was power and control over their neighbors, especially control over land suitable for cultivation and over the population in order to cultivate these lands and build cities. However, not a single state has been able to achieve political centralization over a significant territory and has not been able to retain this territory for any long period of time.

Approximately between 600 and 700 AD. AD Teotihuacan troops invaded Mayan territory. Mostly mountainous areas were attacked, but even in the lowland cities at this time, Teotihuacan influence increased significantly. The Mayan city-states managed to resist and quite quickly overcame the consequences of the enemy invasion.

In the 7th century AD. Teotihuacan perishes under the onslaught of the northern barbarian tribes. This had the most serious consequences for the peoples of Central America. The system of political unions, associations and states that had developed over many centuries was disrupted. A continuous series of campaigns, wars, relocations, and invasions of barbarian tribes began. This whole motley tangle of ethnic groups of different languages ​​and cultures was inexorably approaching the western borders of the Maya.

At first, the Mayans successfully repelled the onslaught of foreigners. It is to this time (late 7th-8th centuries AD) that most of the victorious reliefs and steles erected by the rulers of the May city-states in the Usumacinta River basin date back to: Palenque, Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan. But soon the forces of resistance to the enemy dried up. Added to this was the constant hostility between the Mayan city-states themselves, whose rulers, for any reason, sought to increase their territory at the expense of their neighbors.

A new wave of conquerors moved from the west. These were the Pipil tribes , whose ethnic and cultural affiliation has not yet been fully established. The first to be destroyed were the May cities in the Usumacinta River basin (late 8th - first half of the 9th century AD). Then, almost simultaneously, the most powerful city-states of Peten and Yucatan perish (second half of the 9th - early 10th centuries AD). Over the course of just 100 years, the most populous and culturally developed region of Central America fell into decline, from which it never recovered.

The lowland areas of the Maya did not turn out to be completely deserted after these events (according to some authoritative scientists, up to 1 million people died in this area within one century). In the 16th-17th centuries, a fairly large number of inhabitants lived in the forests of Peten and Belize, and in the very center of the former “Ancient Kingdom”, on an island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza, there was the populous city of Taysal - the capital of the independent Mayan state, which existed until the end of the 17th century .

In the northern region of Mayan culture, in Yucatan, events developed differently. In the 10th century AD The cities of the Yucatan Mayans were attacked by warlike Central Mexican tribes - the Toltecs. However, unlike the central Maya region, this did not lead to catastrophic consequences. The population of the peninsula not only survived, but also managed to quickly adapt to the new conditions. As a result, after a short time, a unique culture appeared in Yucatan, combining May and Toltec features.

The cause of the death of the classical Mayan civilization still remains a mystery. Some facts indicate that the invasion of the warlike Pipil groups was not the cause, but the result of the decline of the May cities at the very end of the 1st millennium AD. It is possible that internal social upheavals or some serious economic crisis played a certain role here.

The construction and maintenance of an extensive system of irrigation canals and “raised fields” required enormous community efforts. The population, sharply reduced as a result of the wars, was no longer able to support it in the difficult conditions of the tropical jungle. And she died, and with her the May classical civilization died.

The end of the classical Mayan civilization has much in common with the death of the Harappan culture in Ancient India. And although they are separated by a rather impressive period of time, typologically they are very close. Perhaps G.M. is right. Bograd-Levin, who connects the decline of civilization in the Indus Valley not only with natural phenomena, but primarily with the evolution of the structure of sedentary agricultural cultures. True, the nature of this process is not yet clear and requires further study.

After the 10th century, the development of Mayan culture continued on the Yucatan Peninsula. This peninsula was a flat limestone plain with no rivers, streams or lakes. Only a few natural wells (deep karst sinkholes in limestone layers) served as sources of water. The Mayans called these wells “cenotes.” Where there were cenotes, the centers of the classical Mayan civilization arose and developed.

In the 10th century AD The warlike Toltec tribes invaded the Yucatan Peninsula. The capital of the conquerors becomes the city of Chichen Itza, which arose in the 6th century. AD Having settled in Chichen Itza, the Toltecs and their allied tribes soon spread their influence over most of the Yucatan Peninsula. The conquerors brought with them new customs and rituals, new features in architecture, art and religion.

As the power of other political centers in Yucatan grew, the hegemony of Chichen Itza began to increasingly displease them. The rulers of Chichen Itza demanded more and more tributes and extortions from their neighbors. The ritual of human sacrifice in the “Sacred Well” of Chichen Itza caused particular indignation among residents of other May cities and villages.

The “Sacred Cenote” was a giant round funnel with a diameter of 60 meters. From the edge of the well to the surface of the water there was almost 21 meters in height. Depth - over 10 meters, did not count the multi-meter thickness of silt at the bottom. Dozens of people were required for sacrifices, and they were regularly supplied by subordinate cities.

The situation changed after the ruler Hunak Keel came to power in the city of Mayapan. At the beginning of the 13th century, he was able to unite the forces of three cities: Itzmal, Mayapan and Uxmal. In the decisive battle, the troops of Chichen Itza were defeated, and the hated city itself was destroyed.

In the subsequent period, the role of Mayapan and its ruling dynasty, the Cocoms, sharply increased. But the rule of the Kokoms also turned out to be fragile. In the 15th century, as a result of a fierce internecine struggle, Yucatan was divided into one and a half dozen small city-states, waging constant wars among themselves in order to capture booty and slaves.

The basis of the economy of the Yucatan Mayans, just as in the classical era, remained milpa agriculture. His character remained virtually unchanged, and his technology was as primitive as ever.

The craft also remained at the same level. The Yucatan Mayans did not have their own metallurgy and metal came here from other areas through trade. Trade acquired an unusually large scale among the Yucatan Mayans. They exported salt, textiles and slaves, exchanging all this for cocoa and jade.

On the eve of the arrival of Europeans, several large trading centers existed in Mayan territory. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico there was the city of Chiquiango - a large trading post where Aztec merchants, Yucatan merchants, and residents of the south came. Another shopping center - Simatan - stood on the Grijalva River. It was the terminus of a long overland route from the Valley of Mexico and a transshipment point for numerous goods. At the mouth of the same river was the city of Potonchan, which controlled not only trade in the lower reaches of the Grijalva River, but also sea routes along west coast Yucatan. The Mayan state of Acalan with its capital Itzalkanak was a major trading center. The favorable geographical location allows local residents to conduct lively intermediary trade with the most remote areas of Honduras and Guatemala.

The Yucatan Mayans conducted brisk maritime trade with neighbors near and far. Their most important cities stood either directly on the sea coast, in convenient bays and bays, or near the mouths of navigable rivers. There was a long sea route around the entire Yucatan Peninsula: from Xicalango in the west to the southern Gulf of Honduras in the east. This route was actively used by traders from Akalan.

For sea travel, dugout boats were still used, some of which were designed for 40 or even 50 people. These boats sailed both with oars and under sails. In a number of cases, ships also used a sewn-on side, made either from flat planks or from reeds, generously coated with resin.

The Yucatan Mayan society was divided into two main classes: the nobility (spiritual and secular) and the communal. In addition, there were various kinds of dependent people, including slaves.

The nobility (aristocracy) constituted the ruling class and occupied all the most important political positions. It included not only dignitaries, but also military leaders, the richest merchants and community members. A special stratum among the nobility was the priesthood. The priesthood played a huge role in public life, since not only issues of religious worship, but also scientific knowledge, as well as almost all art, were concentrated in its hands. Free community members made up the majority of the population. These included farmers, hunters, fishermen, artisans and small traders. The community members were not homogeneous. The lower stratum was a special group of poor people who were economically dependent on the nobility. Along with her, there was also a layer of wealthy community members.

There were quite a lot of slaves in Yucatan, most of whom belonged to the nobility or wealthy community members. The bulk of the slaves were men, women and children captured during frequent wars. Another source of slaves was debt slavery, as well as slavery for theft. In addition, persons who were in connection or marriage with slaves fell into slavery. There was trade in slaves both within the country and for export. All power in the Mayan states belonged to the ruler - Halach-vinik. This power was hereditary and passed from one member of the dynasty to another. Halach-vinik carried out general administration of the state, directed foreign policy, was the supreme military commander, and performed some religious and judicial functions. The Halach-Viniki received various kinds of tributes and taxes from the population under their control.

Under Halach-vinik there was a council of especially noble and influential dignitaries, without whom he did not make important decisions.

Administrative and judicial powers in small towns and villages were carried out by batabs appointed by Halach-vinik. Under the batab there was a city council consisting of the richest and most respected persons. The executive officials were called holpons. Thanks to them, direct control was carried out by Halach-vinik and the Batabs. The lowest rung in the administrative ladder was occupied by minor officials - tupils, who performed police functions.

By the time the Spaniards arrived, Yucatan was divided between 16 independent small states, each of which had its own territory and ruler. The most powerful among the ruling dynasties were the Shiu dynasties. Kokomov and Kanul. None of these states was able to unite the territory into a single whole. But each ruler tried to carry out such a unification under his own auspices. As a result, from 1441, a civil war raged on the peninsula, which was superimposed by numerous civil strife. All this significantly weakened the Mayan forces in the face of external danger. Still, the Spaniards were unable to conquer Yucatan the first time. For twenty years the Mayans resisted, however, they were unable to maintain their independence. By the middle of the 16th century, most of their territory was conquered.

The Mayans, as if defying fate, settled for a long time in the inhospitable Central American jungle, building their white-stone cities there. Fifteen centuries before Columbus, they invented an accurate solar calendar and created the only hieroglyphic writing in America, used the concept of zero in mathematics, and confidently predicted solar and lunar eclipses. Already in the first centuries of our era they achieved amazing perfection in architecture, sculpture and painting.

But the Mayans did not know metals, plows, wheeled carts, domestic animals, or the potter's wheel. In fact, based on their set of tools, they were still Stone Age people. The origin of the May culture is shrouded in mystery. The appearance of the first Mayan civilization dates back to the turn of our era and is associated with the forested lowland areas in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. For many centuries, populous states and cities existed here. But in the 9th-10th centuries. the heyday ended with a sudden and cruel catastrophe.

Cities in the south of the country were abandoned, the population dropped sharply, and soon tropical vegetation covered the monuments of their former greatness with their green carpet. After the 10th century The development of Mayan culture, although already somewhat modified by the influence of foreign conquerors - the Toltecs, who came from central Mexico and the Gulf Coast, continued in the north - on the Yucatan Peninsula - and in the south - in the mountains of Guatemala. In the 16th century The Maya Indians occupied a vast and varied natural conditions a territory that included the modern Mexican states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Rio, as well as all of Guatemala, Belize, and the western regions of El Salvador and Honduras.

Currently, most scientists distinguish within this territory three large cultural-geographical regions or zones: Northern (Yucatan Peninsula), Central (Northern Guatemala, Belize, Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico) and Southern (mountainous Guatemala).

Beginning of the Classical period in the lowlands forest areas marked by the emergence of such new cultural features as hieroglyphic writing (inscriptions on reliefs, steles), calendar dates for the Mayan era (the so-called Long Count - the number of years that have passed from the mythical date 3113 BC), monumental stone architecture with a stepped “false” vault, the cult of early steles and altars, a specific style of ceramics and terracotta figurines, original wall paintings.

Architecture in the central part of any major Mayan city of the 1st millennium BC. represented by pyramidal hills and platforms of various sizes and heights. They are usually built internally from a mixture of earth and crushed stone and faced externally with slabs of cut stone held together with lime mortar. On their flat tops there are stone buildings: small buildings of one to three rooms on high tower-shaped pyramids - bases (the height of some of these pyramids - towers, as, for example, in Tikal, reached 60 m). These are probably temples. And long multi-room ensembles on low platforms framing internal open courtyards are most likely residences of the nobility or palaces, since the ceilings of these buildings are usually made in the form of a stepped vault, their walls are very massive, and the interior spaces are relatively narrow and small in size. The only source of light in the rooms was the narrow doorways, so coolness and twilight reigned inside the surviving temples and palaces. At the end of the Classic period, the Mayans began to have sites for ritual ball games - the third type of main monumental buildings of local cities. The basic planning unit of Mayan cities was rectangular paved plazas surrounded by monumental buildings. Very often, the most important ritual and administrative buildings were located on natural or artificially created elevations - “acropolises” (Piedras Negras, Copan, Tikal).

Row dwellings were built of wood and clay under roofs made of dry palm leaves and were probably similar to the huts of the Mayan Indians of the 16th-20th centuries, described by historians and ethnographers. In the classical period, as well as later, all residential buildings stood on low (1-1.5 m) platforms, lined with stone. A detached house is a rare phenomenon among the Mayans. Typically, residential and utility rooms form groups of 2-5 buildings located around an open rectangular courtyard (patio). This is the residence of a large patriarchal family. Residential "patio groups" tend to be combined into larger units - like a city "block" or part thereof.

In the VI-IX centuries. The Mayans achieved the highest success in the development of various types of non-applied art, and above all in monumental sculpture and painting. The sculptural schools of Palenque, Copaca, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras at this time achieved special subtlety in modeling, harmonious composition and naturalness in the rendering of the depicted characters (rulers, priests, dignitaries, warriors, servants and prisoners). Famous frescoes of Bonampak (Chiapas, Mexico), dating back to the 8th century. AD, represent a historical narrative: complex rituals and ceremonies, scenes of raids on foreign villages, sacrifices of prisoners, celebrations, dances and processions of dignitaries and nobles.

Thanks to the work of American (T. Proskuryakova, D. Kelly, G. Bernin, J. Kubler, etc.) and Soviet (Yu.V. Knorozov, R.V. Kintalov) researchers, it was possible to convincingly prove that monumental Mayan sculpture of the 1st millennium. AD - stele, lintels, reliefs and panels (as well as hieroglyphic inscriptions on them) are memorial monuments in honor of the deeds of the May rulers. They talk about the birth, accession to the throne, wars and conquests, dynastic marriages, ritual rites and other important events in the life of secular rulers of almost two dozen city-states that existed, according to archaeologists, in the Central Maya region in the 1st millennium AD. uh..

The purpose of some pyramidal temples in Mayan cities is now being defined completely differently. If previously they were considered the sanctuaries of the most important gods of the pantheon, and the pyramid itself was only a high and monolithic stone pedestal for a temple, then recently, under the bases and in the thickness of a number of such pyramids, it was possible to discover magnificent tombs of kings and members of ruling dynasties (the discovery of A. Rus in the Temple Inscriptions, Palenque). The nature, structure and functions of the major May “centers” of the 1st millennium AD have undergone noticeable changes in recent times. Extensive research by US archaeologists in Tikal, Tsibilchaltun, Entz, Ceibal, Becan. revealed the presence there of a significant and permanent population, handicraft production, imported products and many other features and characteristics characteristic of ancient city both in the Old and New Worlds. Investigating the magnificent burials of the May aristocrats and rulers of the 1st millennium AD, scientists have suggested that the images and inscriptions on each clay vessel describe the death of the May ruler, the long journey of his soul through the terrible labyrinths of the kingdom of the dead, overcoming various kinds of obstacles and the subsequent resurrection of the ruler, who ultimately turned into one of the heavenly gods. In addition, the American scientist Michael Ko found that the inscriptions or individual parts thereof, presented on almost all painted polychrome vases of the VI-IX centuries. AD, are often repeated, that is, they are of a standard nature. Deciphering these inscriptions opened up a completely new, previously unknown world - the mythological ideas of the ancient Mayans, their concept of life and death, religious views and much more.

Each Mayan city-state was headed by Halach-vinik, which means "real person". It was a hereditary title passed from father to eldest son. In addition, he was called ahab -"lord", "lord". The havach-vinik possessed the highest administrative power, combined with the highest priestly rank. The supreme leaders, priests and advisers formed something like a State Council. Khavach-vinik appointed, perhaps from among his blood relatives, batabs - leaders of villages that were feudally dependent on him. The main functions of the batabs were maintaining order in subordinate villages and regular payment of taxes. They could be officials or heads of clans, like the Calpullecs of the Astecs or the Curaca of the Incas. Like them, they were military leaders. But in case of war, the right of command was exercised by the kon. There were also less important positions, including kholpop - “head of the mat.” There was also a whole priestly clergy there, but the most common name for the priest was ah kin.

The Ah kin kept the highly developed Mayan science - the great-great-grandfather's astronomical knowledge about the movement of the stars, the Sun, the Moon, Venus and Mars. They could predict solar and lunar eclipses. Therefore, the power of the priests over collective beliefs was considered absolute and supreme, sometimes even pushing aside the power of the hereditary nobility.

At the base of the social pyramid were the masses of community members. They lived far from urban centers, in small settlements, sowing maize to support their families and nobles. It was they who created ceremonial centers, pyramids with temples, palaces, ball stadiums, paved roads and other structures. They mined huge blocks of stone for the construction of those monuments that amaze archaeologists and delight tourists. They were woodcarvers, sculptors, porters, performing the functions of pack animals that did not exist in Mesoamerica. In addition to performing such work, the people paid tribute to the havach-vinik, presented gifts to the local ahabs, sacrificed maize, beans, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, fabrics, poultry, salt, dried fish, wild boars, honey, wax, jade, corals and shells to God. When the Spaniards conquered Yucatan, the population was called Masehualloob, a term undoubtedly of Nahua-Mayan origin.

Among the Mayans, land was considered public property and was cultivated jointly, although there were private plots owned by the nobility. Bishop of Yucatan Diego de Landa wrote: “In addition to their own plots, all the people cultivated the fields of their lord and collected enough for themselves and his house.”

This remark about the Maya's manufactured relationships sheds light on two important points. First, it becomes clear that the Masehualloob were obliged to cultivate the lands intended to support the priestly aristocracy. In this “general slavery,” an entire community found itself enslaved by agents of the state, in contrast to what happened under slavery, when slaves belonged to a specific owner. The despotism of such a system is obvious. Secondly, as A. Rus noted, it is impossible not to notice that, whatever slavery and despotism were, they carried a certain positive principle: the one who cultivated the land - at least for Ahab or the ruler - masehual took a part that provided for him and his family . This means that neither he nor his family members experienced the famine that the Indians have constantly suffered from for almost five centuries.

Morley suggested that the Mayans had another social category - slaves - pentakoob. Their exploitation was different from that under “general slavery.” A community member could become a slave in the following cases: by being born of a slave; being captured in war; being sold on the market. But no matter what the social groups of slaves and declassed members of society were called, their position was very close to the position of similar categories in other Mexican societies or the Yanakuns in Tawantinsuyu.

The economy of the society was based on agriculture. It is generally accepted that maize constituted 65% of the Mayan diet. It was cultivated using the slash-and-burn system, with all the ensuing consequences: soil impoverishment, decreased yields, and forced change of plots. However, the diet was replenished with beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, himaka, kamote, and for dessert - tobacco and numerous fruits. Nevertheless, some researchers question the predominance of maize in Mayan agriculture: it is possible that there were areas where maize was not cultivated, and the population was completely satisfied with tuber plants or seafood, rivers and lakes.

The fact that in almost all archaeological centers the presence of “ramona”, a plant superior to maize both in nutritional properties and in yield, is also suggestive of some thought. Moreover, cultivating it did not require much effort. Some researchers believe that this is what replaced maize during crop failures.

Be that as it may, the Mayans knew how to get the highest return from the land. Terraces in mountainous areas and canals in river valleys, which increased irrigated areas, helped in this. The length of one of these, which brought water from the Champoton River to Etzna, a city in the west of Yucatan, reached 30 km. The Mayans were not vegetarians: they consumed turkey meat and the meat of specially raised dogs. They liked bee honey. Hunting was also a source of meat products, which were seasoned with pepper and salt when eaten. Pepper was grown in gardens, and salt was extracted from special salt mines.

Crafts and trade were an important part of the economy. The craft apparently flourished - balls were made for ritual games, paper for drawn books or codices, cotton codes and ropes, henequin fibers and much more. Trade, like the Aztec pochteca, was a very important sector of the economy. In the territory of the present state of Tabasco, barter trade was traditionally carried out between the more northern Aztecs and Mayans. They exchanged salt, wax, honey, clothing, cotton, cocoa, and jade jewelry. Cocoa beans and shells acted as “exchange coins.” The city-states were connected by dirt roads, trails, and sometimes paved highways - like the one that stretches 100 km between Yaxhuna (near Chichen Itza) and Coba on the east coast. Rivers, of course, also served as routes of communication, especially for traders.

If such a developed communication system had not existed, Cortes would probably have been lost in the dense Peten jungle when he went to punish the rebellious Olid. Bernal Diaz more than once admired, noting the irreplaceable help that the Mayan road maps provided to the conquistador troops. And even when we get to the very south of the rest of Mesoamerica on our journey, we will find the same Mayans embarking on their brave journeys to the most remote corners of the region. Columbus saw all this too.

In all of Mesoamerica there was no people who would have achieved more significant success in the sciences than the Mayans, a people of extraordinary abilities, did. The high level of civilization was determined primarily by astronomy and mathematics. In this area, they truly found themselves in pre-Columbian America beyond any competition. Their achievements are not comparable to any others. The Mayans surpassed even their European contemporaries in these sciences. At least 18 observatories from Petén's heyday are currently known to exist. Thus, Vashaktun occupied an exceptional position and was considered a particularly important center, since it was the names that determined the solstice and equinox points. Researcher Blom conducted a series of experiments on central square Washaktuna. Based on calculations of the exact latitude and longitude of the city, he was able to unravel the fascinating secret of the ancient ensemble, which consisted of temples and pyramids surrounding a square square oriented to the cardinal points. " Magic secret“It turned out that the priests located on the top of the observatory pyramid, thanks to the landmark temples, established with mathematical accuracy the point of sunrise during the solstices and equinoxes.

From the 6th or 7th century. in accordance with the decisions of the learned Council in Xochicalco, the Mayans established a civil year of 365 days. By means of a complex system of calendar correlation, later called the supplementary series, they brought this year into conformity with the actual length of the solar year, which, according to modern calculations, is 365.2422 days. This calculation turned out to be more accurate than the leap year calendar, introduced according to the calendar reform of Pope Gregory XIII 900 or even 1000 years later, in the last quarter of the 16th century.

There are many mysteries in the history of the Mayans. The reason for the Mayan cultural decline is another mystery in Mayan history. It should be noted that something similar happened throughout Mesoamerica. There are many theories interpreting the causes of this phenomenon - earthquakes, climatic disasters, epidemics of malaria and yellow fever, foreign conquest, intellectual and aesthetic exhaustion, military weakening, administrative disorganization. Morley argued that "the main cause of the decline and disappearance of the Old Empire was the decline of the agricultural system." Blom agreed with this opinion, stating that "the Mayans exhausted their land because they used primitive methods of processing it, as a result of which the population was forced to go in search of new places to grow their crops." However, archaeologists A.V. Kidder and E. Thompson rejected this “agricultural” version. Moreover, Thompson was ready to accept the version of “cultural extinction”, but completely rejected the idea that the population could leave their territories.

Other researchers have put forward the theory of a powerful uprising, which is associated with the broken and overturned Tikal monuments.

Having deeply studied the theories of the decline of the Maya culture, Rus came to the conclusion: “It is obvious that there were insoluble contradictions between the limited capabilities of backward agricultural technology and the growing population. They became increasingly worse as the proportion of the unproductive population relative to farmers increased. The increasing construction of ceremonial centers, the complication of ritual, and the increase in the number of priests and warriors made it increasingly difficult to produce an agricultural product sufficient in quantity for this population.

Despite the deeply rooted belief in the gods and obedience to their representatives on earth in the minds of the Indians, generations of farmers could not help but resist the ever-increasing oppression. It may very well be that exploitation reached its limit and became completely unbearable, thereby provoking peasant uprisings against theocracy like the Jacquerie in France in the 14th century. It is also possible that these events coincided with increased influence from outside, especially since the period of extinction of Mayan culture coincides with the migration of the tribes of the Mexican Highlands. These peoples, in turn, experienced a period of general turmoil due to the invasion of barbarian tribes from the north, pushing them to the south. The migrations literally shuffled the groups of Indians located along the route of the settlers, and produced a real chain reaction that led to the outbreak of the spark of a peasant uprising.”

Aztecs

By the time the Spaniards arrived at the beginning of the 16th century, the so-called Aztec Empire covered a huge territory - about 200 thousand square meters. km - with a population of 5-6 million people. Its borders extended from Northern Mexico to Guatemala and from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico. The capital of the empire, Tenochtitlan, eventually turned into a huge city, the area of ​​which was about 1200 hectares, and the number of inhabitants, according to various estimates, reached 120-300 thousand people. This island city was connected to the mainland by three large stone roads - dams, and there was a whole flotilla of canoes. Like Venice, Tenochtitlan was cut through by a regular network of canals and streets. The core of the city formed a ritual and administrative center: the “sacred area” - a walled square 400 m long, inside which were the main city temples (Temple Mayor - a temple with sanctuaries of the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl), priests’ homes, schools, playground for a ritual ball game. Nearby were ensembles of magnificent palaces of Aztec rulers - “tlatoani”. According to eyewitnesses, the palace of Montezuma (more precisely, Moctezuma) II consisted of up to 300 rooms, had big garden, zoo, baths. Residential areas inhabited by merchants, artisans, farmers, officials, and warriors were crowded around the center. In the huge Main Market and smaller quarterly bazaars, local and transported products and products were traded. General impression the magnificent Aztec capital is well conveyed by the words of an eyewitness and participant in the dramatic events of the conquest - soldier Bercal Diaz del Castillo from Cortez’s detachment. Standing on top of a high step pyramid, the conquistador looked in amazement at the strange and dynamic picture of life in the huge pagan city: “And we saw a huge number of boats, some came from various loads, others... with a variety of goods... All the houses of this great city... were in the water, and from house to house it was possible to get only by hanging bridges or by boats. And we saw... pagan temples and chapels that resembled towers and fortresses, and they all sparkled with whiteness and aroused admiration.” Tenochtitlan was captured by Cortez after a three-month siege and fierce struggle in 1521. And right on the ruins of the Aztec capital, from the stones of its palaces and temples, the Spaniards built a new city - Mexico City, the rapidly growing center of their colonial possessions in the New World. Over time, the remains of Aztec buildings were covered by multi-meter layers modern life. Under these conditions, it is almost impossible to conduct systematic and extensive archaeological research of Aztec antiquities. Only from time to time, during excavation work in the center of Mexico City, stone sculptures are born - the creations of ancient masters. Therefore, the discoveries of the late 70s and 80s became a real sensation. XX century during excavations of the Main Temple of the Aztecs - "Templo Mayor" - in the very center of Mexico City, in Zocalo Square, between cathedral and the presidential palace. Now the sanctuaries of the gods Huziopochtli (god of the sun and war, head of the Aztec pantheon) and Tlaloc (god of water and rain, patron of agriculture) have already been opened, the remains of fresco paintings and stone sculpture have been discovered. Particularly notable are a round stone with a diameter of over three meters with a low-relief image of the goddess Coyolshauhki - the sister of Huitzilopochtli, 53 deep pits - hiding places filled with ritual offerings (stone figurines of gods, shells, corals, incense, ceramic vessels, necklaces, skulls of sacrificed people). Newly discovered materials (their total number exceeds several thousand) expanded existing ideas about the material culture, religion, trade, economic and political relations of the Aztecs during the heyday of their state at the end of the 15th-16th centuries.

The Aztecs were in that initial phase of social development when the alien captive slave was not yet fully included in the economic mechanism of the emerging class society, when the benefits and advantages that slave labor could provide were not yet fully realized. However, the institution of debt slavery had already emerged, extending to the local poor; the Aztec slave found his place in the new, developing relations of production, but he retained the right of redemption, which, as we know, the “classical” slave was deprived of. Of course, foreign slaves were also involved in economic activities, but the labor of a slave has not yet become the basis of the foundations of this society.

Such an underestimation of slave labor in a highly developed class society can apparently be explained by the still significant surplus product that arose due to the use of an abundantly fruiting agricultural plant like corn, the extremely favorable conditions of the Mexican high plateau for its cultivation and the highest culture of agriculture inherited Aztecs from the former inhabitants of Mexico.

The senseless destruction of thousands of captive slaves on the sacrificial altars of Aztec temples was elevated to the basis of the cult. Human sacrifice became the central event of any holiday. Sacrifices were performed almost daily. One person was sacrificed with solemn honors. So, every year the most beautiful young man was chosen from among the captives, who was destined to enjoy all the benefits and privileges of the god of war Tezcatlipoca for a year, so that after this period he would appear on the sacrificial stone-altar. But there were also such “holidays” when the priests sent hundreds, and according to some sources, thousands of prisoners to another world. True, the reliability of such statements belonging to eyewitnesses of the conquest is difficult to believe, but the gloomy and cruel Aztec religion, which did not recognize compromises with mass human sacrifices, knew no limits in its zealous service to the ruling caste aristocracy.

It is not surprising that the entire non-Aztec population of Mexico was a potential ally of any enemy of the Aztecs. The Spaniards took this situation into account superbly. They saved their cruelty until the final defeat of the Aztecs and the capture of Tenochtitlan.

Finally, the Aztec religion presented another “gift” to the Spanish conquerors. The Aztecs not only worshiped the Feathered Serpent as one of the main inhabitants of the pantheon of their gods, but also well remembered the history of his exile.

The priests, trying to keep the people in fear and obedience, constantly reminded of the return of Quetzalcoatl. They convinced the people that the offended deity, who had gone to the east, would return from the east to punish everyone and everything. Moreover, the legend said that Quetzalcoatl was white-faced and bearded, while the Indians were mustacheless, beardless and dark-skinned!

The Spaniards came to America and conquered the continent.

Perhaps there is hardly another similar example in history when it was religion that turned out to be the decisive factor in the defeat and complete destruction of those whom it was supposed to serve faithfully.

White-faced Spaniards with beards came from the East.

Oddly enough, the first, and at the same time unconditionally, to believe that the Spaniards are the descendants of the legendary deity Quetzalcoatl, was none other than the omnipotent ruler of Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma, who enjoyed unlimited power. Fear of the divine origin of foreigners paralyzed his ability to resist, and the entire hitherto mighty country, along with a magnificent military machine, found itself at the feet of the conquerors. The Aztecs should have immediately removed their ruler, distraught with fear, but the same religion, which inspired the inviolability of the existing order, prevented this. When reason finally conquered religious prejudices, it was too late.

As a result, the giant empire was wiped off the face of the earth, and the Aztec civilization ceased to exist.

The Aztecs belonged to the last wave of Indian tribes that moved from the more northern regions of the American continent to the Valley of Mexico. The culture of these tribes at first did not have any clearly defined features, but gradually they crystallized into a single strong whole - the Aztec civilization.

Initially, the tribes lived separately in their village and satisfied their living needs by cultivating the land. These resources were supplemented whenever possible by tribute from conquered peoples. At the head of the tribe was a hereditary leader, who simultaneously performed priestly functions. Religious ideas were characterized by a complex polytheistic system based on the worship of nature, highlighting the veneration of one or more gods in special cults.

One of these tribes that settled in the region of the Mexican lakes were the Tenochki. Around 1325 they founded the city of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), which later became the capital of the most powerful state in Mexico. Initially, the tenochki became dependent on the city of Culuacan. It was a significant city-state that played an important role in the Valley of Mexico. Another major center of this time was the city of Texcoco, located on the eastern shore of the Mexican lakes. About seventy cities paid tribute to its ruler Kinatzin (1298-1357). His successor Techotlal managed to unite all the dialects of the Valley of Mexico into one Aztec language.

In the middle of the 14th century, the Tepanec tribes, led by the ruler Tesosomoc, occupied a dominant position in the Valley of Mexico. The city of Azcapotzalco becomes the capital of the Tepanecs. In 1427, Tesosomoc was succeeded by his son Mastl. He tried to increase the dependence of the conquered tribes on the Tepanecs and even interfered in the internal affairs of his allies. The Indians collected tribute from the conquered tribes, but they did not know how to force other tribes to pay tribute without declaring a new war on them and without taking new campaigns. Mastla's policies led to the unification of a number of cities under their control. Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan and Texcoco formed an alliance, rebelled and overthrew the Tepanecs. Mashtla was killed, his city was burned, and his people, contrary to the customs of that time, were annexed to the allied tribes. The land was distributed to soldiers who distinguished themselves during the war. This circumstance marked the beginning of the formation of a rich and influential military stratum in Aztec society.

The Aztec state was a fragile territorial entity, similar to many territorial kingdoms of antiquity. The nature of its economy was polymorphic, but the basis was intensive irrigated agriculture. The range of crops grown by the Aztecs was typical of the Valley of Mexico. These are corn, zucchini, pumpkin, green and red peppers, many types of legumes and cotton. Tobacco was also grown, which the Aztecs smoked mostly in hollow reed stalks, like cigarettes. The Aztecs also loved chocolate made from cocoa beans. The latter also served as a means of exchange.

The Aztecs converted large areas of barren swamps, which flooded during the rainy season, into areas covered with a network of canals and fields, using a system of chinampas (“floating gardens”).

The Aztecs had few domestic animals. They had several breeds of dogs, one of which was used for food. The most common poultry are turkeys, possibly geese, duck and quail.

Crafts played a significant role in the Aztec economy, especially pottery, weaving, as well as stone and wood processing. There were few metal products. Some of them, for example, finely forged copper knives in the shape of a sickle, served along with cocoa beans as a means of exchange. Gold was used by the Aztecs only for making jewelry, and silver was probably of great value. The most important thing for the Aztecs was jade and stones that resembled it in color and structure.

The only type of exchange among the Aztecs was barter. The means of exchange were cocoa beans, feather shafts filled with gold sand, pieces of cotton fabric (cuachtli) and the copper knives mentioned above. Due to the high costs of human labor for transportation in the Aztec state, it was reasonable to bring the places of production of products and products as close as possible to the places of their consumption. Therefore, the population of the cities turned out to be extremely diverse both professionally and socially, and many artisans spent a significant part of their time working in the fields and vegetable gardens. Over long distances it was profitable to move only the most expensive or light in weight and small in volume products - for example, fabrics or obsidian; but the local exchange was unusually lively.

Each village held a bazaar at certain intervals, attracting people from the most remote places. There was a daily market in the capital. The entire system of tributary obligations that the Aztecs imposed on the defeated provinces was determined by the possibility of organizing the delivery of certain categories of handicraft products to the capital from afar, with the obvious impossibility of establishing equally long-distance transportation of food. The government authorities therefore sold fabrics and other light products from the provinces at a low price to residents of the capital region. They also had to pay with agricultural products, thereby becoming interested in expanding their production and sales. Trade thus flourished, and anything could be bought in the market of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

In the social structure of Aztec society, the following five groups were distinguished: warriors, priests, merchants, commoners, slaves. The first three estates constituted the privileged classes of society, the fourth and fifth groups constituted its exploited part. The classes were not homogeneous. There was a certain hierarchy within them, determined by the size of property and social status. All classes were clearly separated, and this could be determined even by clothing. According to one of the laws introduced by Montezuma I, each class had to wear its own type of clothing. This also applied to slaves.

The military nobility played a decisive role in Aztec society. The title tekuhtli (“noble”) was usually given to people who held important government and military positions. Most civilian officials were in fact the same military officers. The most noble ones who distinguished themselves in battle in the war formed a kind of “order”, a special union of “Eagles” or “Jaguars”. The nobility received in-kind allowances and land plots from the tlatoani. No one except nobles and leaders could, on pain of death, build a house with two floors. There was a difference in punishments for offenses for a noble person and a commoner. Moreover, class norms were often more cruel. So, if a person who was in enemy captivity was of “low origin,” then he was not threatened with expulsion from the community and family, while the “noble” was killed by his compatriots and relatives themselves. This reflected the desire of the elite of society to maintain the strength of their position.

Initially, in Aztec society, a man could achieve high position through personal activity and his children could take advantage of his elevation for their own development. However, they could take the position of their father only thanks to equivalent services to the tribe. At the same time, the tlatoani, when choosing applicants for the vacant position, and therefore for all the privileges inherent in it, more often gave preference to the son of the one who had previously held this position. This practice contributed to the transformation of the nobility into a closed class. To this we can add the principle of dividing land in newly conquered territory. The tlatoani and his commander-in-chief received the largest portion, followed by the rest of the nobles who distinguished themselves in war. In simple wars, no land was received, except for a few “bravest” ones. All this led to the emergence of a special agricultural nobility in Aztec society.

The priesthood was one of the privileged classes of Aztec society. The Aztec conquerors were extremely interested in strengthening religion, because it, preaching war as the highest valor and the Aztecs as its most worthy bearers, provided an ideological justification for the policy of conquest that they pursued throughout their independent history. The priests walked in the forefront during military campaigns. They were the first to greet warriors returning home at the gates of the capital.

Temples increased their wealth through gifts and voluntary donations. These could have been gifts of land or part of the tribute of the nobility and the Tlatoani. The donation of the population could be for a variety of reasons: fortune telling, prediction, offerings for the sake of the success of their activities. The temples also had their own handicraft production. All income went to the maintenance of the priesthood and the conduct of numerous religious rituals.

The life of the priesthood was regulated by certain norms. The priest guilty of having an affair with a woman was secretly beaten with sticks, his property was taken away, and his house was destroyed. They also killed all those who were involved in this crime. If a priest had unnatural tendencies, he was burned alive.

Since trade played an important role in the Aztec state and the ruling elite was interested in its development, rich merchants also occupied a privileged position. This class also includes rich artisans, who often combined their craft with trading in their own products.

The nobility, as well as rich merchants or artisans, could not and did not engage in agriculture. It was the lot of community members and, less often, special categories slaves

Slaves occupied the lowest social rung in the hierarchy of Aztec society. The sources of slavery among the Aztecs were varied. Selling into slavery for theft was practiced. Debt slavery was widespread. Betrayal towards the state or one's immediate master was also punished involuntarily. However, the most characteristic of ancient Aztec society was patriarchal slavery. Parents could sell their “negligent” children into slavery. This happened more often in lean years, when extensive slave trade took place.

The slave trade in the Aztec state was widespread. Merchants usually acted as intermediaries here. Most large markets The slave trades were located in two cities - Azcapotzalco and Isocan. Slaves were exchanged for a variety of things - fabrics, capes, precious feathers, etc. The cost of a slave varied depending on his merits, but his usual price was 20 capes. Slaves were sold not only to nearby areas, but also to foreign lands.

The use of slave labor was common. Slaves performed a variety of jobs in their master's house: they moved heavy loads, cultivated crops, and harvested crops in the fields. Often the slave owner used the slave not only in his own household, but also assigned him to a kind of hire, for example, as a porter in merchant caravans. All earnings in this case went to the slave owner. Slave labor was widely used in large construction projects: the construction of temples, bridges, and dams. Thus, the labor of slaves was varied and was a direct product of the economic activities of the state.

The degree of dependence on the slave owner was different, as a result of which there were different categories of slaves: from those under the full power of the slave owner, to those groups that owned land and had families.

The Aztec state included about 500 cities and other settlements, divided into 38 administrative units headed by local rulers or specially sent managers. To collect tribute, monitor the royal lands and official plots, there were special officials - kalpishki, appointed from the military class. There was also local legal proceedings. Local courts considered only minor crimes, or those that were easily demonstrable. The bulk of cases of ordinary citizens were decided by these courts.

To record cases in certain institutions there was a special staff of “scribes”. In most cases, records were made using pictography, however, sometimes May hieroglyphic writing was also used.

Along with customary law, legal norms also appear that stand outside the boundaries of customary law and reflect the era of early class relations. First of all, this is the protection of property rights. In Aztec society, the unlawful taking of someone else's property and encroachment on property was considered a crime and entailed punishment. Violation of property rights was punished very severely. Thus, for highway robbery, the perpetrator was publicly stoned to death. For theft in the market, the thief was publicly beaten (with sticks or stones) right at the scene of the crime by special ministers. Anyone who captured the spoils of war was also severely punished.

The most important object of law was land. There was a significant influence of communal relations here. Private landownership relations were just beginning to take shape. This is reflected in the relevant standards. For example, if someone illegally sold someone else's land or mortgaged it, then as punishment he was turned into a slave. But if he moved the boundaries, he was punished by death.

Diverse interpersonal relationships in Aztec society were regulated by marriage and family norms. Their most characteristic feature was the unlimited power of the father and husband. The basis of the family was marriage, the procedure for concluding which was equally a religious and legal act. It was built, as a rule, on the principle of monogamy, but polygamy was also allowed for the wealthy. There were two types of inheritance - by law and by will. Only sons inherited. The penalty for adultery was death in various ways. Blood relatives were punished by death for intimate relationships: the perpetrators were hanged. However, levirate marriages were allowed. Drunkenness was severely punished. Only people over fifty could consume intoxicating drinks, and in a strictly defined quantity. Young people caught drinking were punished at school, sometimes beaten to death.

The Aztec culture absorbed the rich traditions of the peoples who lived in Central Mexico, mainly the Toltecs, Mixtecs and others. The Aztecs had developed medicine and astronomy, and had the rudiments of writing. Their art flourished in the 14th - early 16th centuries. The main monumental structures were tetrahedral stone pyramids with a temple or palace on the truncated top (the pyramid at Tenayuca north of Mexico City). The houses of the nobility were built of adobe and faced with stone or plastered; the premises were located around a courtyard. The walls of religious buildings were decorated with reliefs, paintings, and patterned masonry.

The cities had a regular layout, partly due to the division of land between clans into rectangular plots. The central square served as a place for public meetings. In Tenochtitlan, instead of streets there were canals with pedestrian paths on the sides - the city was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco and connected to the shore by numerous dams and bridges. Drinking water was supplied through aqueducts. The deities of wind, rain and crops associated with agriculture, as well as the god of war, were most revered. The ritual of human sacrifices to the god Huitzilopochtli was widespread among the Aztecs.

The monumental religious sculpture - statues of deities, ornamented altars - amazes with its grandeur and heaviness (the statue of the goddess Coatlicue is 2.5 m high). The so-called “Sun Stone” is famous. Realistic stone sculptures of heads are world famous: “Eagle Warrior”, “Dead Man’s Head”, “Sad Indian”. Particularly expressive are small stone or ceramic figurines of slaves, children, animals or insects. A number of architectural monuments contain remains of wall paintings with images of deities or marching warriors. The Aztecs masterfully made feather jewelry, polychrome ceramics, stone and shell mosaics, obsidian vases, and the finest jewelry.

The rich and distinctive Aztec culture was destroyed by the Spanish conquest of 1519-21.

Stone of the Sun (Piedra del Sol). The "Aztec Calendar", a monument of Aztec sculpture from the 15th century, is a basalt disk (diameter 3.66 m, weight 24 tons) with carved images indicating years and days. In the central part of the disk is the face of the sun god Tonatiuh. In the Stone of the Sun they found a symbolic sculptural embodiment of the Aztec idea of ​​time. The Sun Stone was found in 1790 in Mexico City, and is now kept in the Museum of Anthropology.

The Aztec calendar (calendario azteca) - the chronology system of the Aztecs, had features similar to the Mayan calendar. The basis of the Aztec calendar was the 52-year cycle - a combination of a 260-day ritual sequence (the so-called sacred period or tonalpohualli), consisting of a combination of the weekly (13 days) and monthly (20 days, indicated by hieroglyphs and numbers) cycles, with the solar or 365- day year (18-20 day months and 5 so-called unlucky days). The Aztec calendar was closely associated with religious cult. Each week, days of the month, hours of the day and night were dedicated to different deities.

The ritual of the “new fire”, performed after 52-year cycles, had ritual significance.

Pictographic writing with hieroglyphic elements, used by the Aztecs, has been known since the 14th century. The material for writing was leather or paper strips folded into a screen.

There was no specific system for the arrangement of pictograms: they could follow either horizontally or vertically, or using the boustrophedon method.

CONCLUSION

The peoples of pre-Columbian America went through three stages in their development: primitive, created by Indian tribes who were in the early stages of the development of human society; a higher level, which is characterized by a combination of early class and primitive elements, and the stage of highly developed class civilizations.

Primitive society took place throughout America. The life of the tribes was completely typical for primitive man. The worldview was also typical: the world and way of life were illuminated by myths, and nature was inhabited by spirits and supernatural forces.

But a high level of civilization was still characteristic of the peoples living in Mesoamerica and in the Central Andes zone.

Meso-American civilizations appeared almost simultaneously, around the turn of our era, arising on the basis of previous local cultures of the archaic period and reaching their peak in the Aztec state, which, however, never managed to overcome the boundary of the territorial kingdom.

The ancient civilizations of America are very close in character to the most ancient centers of high cultures of the Old World (Mesopotamia, Egypt, India), although both are separated by a huge chronological period of three to four millennia. This similarity is also expressed in motifs of fine art that are similar in theme and artistic form, performing a similar function: glorifying the power of the king, affirming its divine origin and educating the population in the spirit of unquestioning submission to it.

At the same time, despite the general patterns of development, character traits, ideological basis, value system with a strong emphasis on spirituality were fundamentally different from the philosophy of the Christian world. The great civilizations of America collapsed under the onslaught of Europeans.

The ancient civilization of America remains a storehouse of knowledge for all areas of the scientific world. Ethnographers discover a lot of little-studied or not-studied-at-all tribes and peoples living in remote areas of the Amazon River basin. Historians and archaeologists, through archaeological finds and other evidence, are discovering for themselves and the world unknown episodes in the history of the ancient world of America. Evidence of this can be the fact of the attention of scientists and the pilgrimage of tourists to the cities of Machu Picchu and Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.

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A people who inhabited Central and South America shortly before the Spanish conquest of Mexican lands in 1521. The history of the Aztecs is the history of multiple associations of tribal groups that had their own city-states and royal dynasties. “Aztec” also refers to the powerful alliance of the majestic city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, cities that established their dominance in what is now Mexico between 1400 and 1521.

Aztec civilization, Indian cities and their life.

City-states and settlements Aztec civilization were built on the vast mountain plateaus of the Mexican valley, on which the capital of Mexico is located today. These are fertile lands with a total area of ​​6.5 thousand square meters. km, - lands extending approximately 50 km in length and width. The “Valley of Mexico” lies at an altitude of 2500 meters above sea level and is surrounded on all sides by volcanic mountains 5 thousand meters high.

The Aztec civilization came to these lands because of Lake Texcoco, which could supply thousands of people with fresh water and food. The lake was fed by streams and mountain runoff, periodically overflowing its edges and overflowing hundreds of meters. However, the lake supplied local residents drinking water, created a habitat for fish, mammals and birds. The Triple Alliance of city-states controlled vast territories from the borders of Guatemala to what is now northern Mexico. The coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico, the mountain gorges of Oaxaca and Guerrero, the tropical forests of Yucatan - all this belonged to the Aztec civilization. Thus, the Indians had at their disposal all kinds of Natural resources, which were not observed in their original locations.

The languages ​​of the Nahuatl group were dominant in the Aztec civilization. Nahuatl dialects were adopted as a second language and played the role of intermediary language in almost all territories of South America during the period of Spanish colonization. The linguistic heritage of the Aztecs is found in multiple toponyms - Acapulco, Oaxaca. Historians estimate that about 1.5 million people still use the Nahuatl language or its variants in daily communication. The Aztec civilization spoke exclusively Nahuatl languages. The languages ​​of this group have spread from Central America to Canada and include about 30 related dialects. The Aztec civilization, the Indians of this empire, were great experts and lovers of literature. They collected entire libraries of pictographic books with various descriptions of religious rites and ceremonies, historical events, tribute collections, and simple registers. The Aztecs used bark as paper. Unfortunately, most of the books belonging to the ancient Aztecs were destroyed by the Spanish during the conquest. Nowadays, scientists studying the ancient Aztec people have to work with grains of surviving written information. The first information about the Aztec Indians was received, not surprisingly, during the conquest.

Five letters, reports, to the king from Cortez contained primary information about the Indians of America. 40 years later, a soldier, a participant in one of the Spanish expeditions, Bernal Diaz Castillo, compiled a true history of the Spanish conquest, which described in detail the Tenochs and their brotherly peoples. The first information sheets about aspects of Aztec lifeand cultures were compiled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries - all kinds of ethnographic descriptions created by the Aztecnobles and Spanish monks. The most valuable example of such writing that has survived to this day is the multi-volume manuscript “General History of New Spain.”

Aztec culture by means of language was connected with the cultural complex of the Nahua peoples. According to myths and Indian legends, the tribes that later formed the once majestic and powerful Aztec empire came to the Anahuac Valley from the northern lands. The location of the Anahuac Valley is known for sure - this is the territory of the modern capital of Mexico, but it is not known for certain where the Aztecs came to these lands from. Researchers constantly put forward their theories about the historical homeland of the Indians, however, they all turn out to be false. According to legends, the ancestors of the Aztecs came from the north, from a place called Aztlan. According to legend, the Indians were led to new lands by the god Huitzilopochtli - “god of the hummingbird”, “left-handed hummingbird”.

American Indians settled in the place indicated to them by the gods themselves - the well-known legend about the eagle sitting on a cactus, about the eagle from the prophecy about the new land of the Aztecs. Today, this legend - an eagle eating a snake - is depicted in the design of the Mexican flag. Thus, according to legend, the Aztecs, back in 1256, found themselves in the lands of the Valley of Mexico, surrounded by cliffs and washed by the waters of Lake Texcoco. Before the arrival of the Aztec tribe, the lands of Lake Texcoco were divided between the dominant city-states. The Aztecs, recognizing the power of the ruler of one of the cities, settled on his lands and built their city, their great capital - Tenochtitlan. According to historical data, the city was built in 1325 AD. Today, the former capital of the Aztecs is the historical center of Mexico City. According to beliefs, the local population received the Aztecs with hostility; they were considered uncivilized and uneducated, and most importantly, unimaginably cruel. However, the Indian tribes that came did not respond to aggression with aggression - they decided to learn; and they took all the knowledge they could from their neighbors.

The Aztecs absorbed the Vedas of the surrounding tribes and peoples close to them. The main source of development of the tribes was the knowledge and experience of the ancient Toltecs, and the Toltec tribes themselves as teachers. For the entire Aztec people, the Toltecs were the creators of culture. In the language of this people, the word “Toltecayotl” was synonymous with the word “culture”. Aztec mythology identifies the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the city of Tollan (modern Tula in Mexico). Along with their knowledge, the Aztecs also absorbed the traditions of the Toltecs and peoples close to them. Among the traditions were the foundations of religion. Such borrowings primarily include the myth of the creation of the world, which describes four suns, four eras, each of which ended with the death of life and a universal catastrophe. In Aztec culture, the current fourth era, the fourth sun, escaped destruction thanks to the self-sacrifice of the supreme god - the god Nanahuatl, which means “all wounded.”

It is known that the Aztec capital was divided into 4 districts called meycaotl, each of which was headed by an elder. Each district - meykaotl, in turn, was divided into 5 smaller quarters - calpulli. The Calpulli of the Aztecs were originally patriarchal families, clans, and the areas uniting them - meykaotl - phratries. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to the lands of the Aztecs, one community lived in one dwelling, house - a large patriarchal family of several generations - sencalli. Land, belonging to the tribe, were divided into sectors, which were looked after by separate Aztec household communities - sencalli. In addition, at each more or less large village there were lands allocated for the needs of priests, rulers and military leaders, the harvest from which went to support the corresponding castes of society.

Aztec tribes and features of the development of the empire.

The lands of the American Indians were always cultivated jointly - a man and a woman. However, upon marriage, a man received rights to personal use of land. Land plots, like the community's land itself, were inalienable. The life of the Aztecs was built according to certain social canons, violations of which were strictly punished. At the head of each Aztec quarter, the calpulli, stood its own public council, which included only elected elders of the Aztec tribe. Leaders of phratries and elders involved in public council, were also part of the tribal council - the council of the Aztec leader, which included the main leader of the tribe. A similar social structure was observed in all tribes without exception.

Aztec tribe, The social system of the Indians was divided into castes of free people and slaves. Slaves could be not only prisoners of war, but also debtors who fell into slavery, as well as poor people who sold themselves and their families. Aztec slaves always wore collars. It is not known for certain in which sectors of agriculture and other Aztec households slave labor was involved; most likely, they were used in the construction of large-scale structures - palaces and temples of the Aztecs, as well as as servants, porters and artisans of low professions.

On the lands conquered by the ancient Indians, military leaders were given tributaries as trophies for their service, whose status was comparable to that of serfs. But not only slaves were artisans; large communities always had their own artisans from free people. Thus, in the Aztec empire, in addition to residual communal relations, there was a complete absence of rights to land, coupled with private property, i.e. rights to slaves, agricultural products and crafts. It is obvious that, along with private property and dominant relations - master and subordinate, in the Aztec tribes there were also remnants of the primitive communal system characteristic of Europe BC. Slaves, or “tlacotin” among the American Indians, constituted an important social caste, distinct from prisoners of war.

City of Tenochtitlan was a slave capital. The rules of behavior for slaves, and slave life itself, were very different from what could be observed in Europe of that era. Slavery among the Aztecs was more like slavery during classical antiquity. First of all, slavery was personal, not inherited; the children of a slave were free from birth. A slave in the Aztec tribe could own personal property and even personal slaves. Slaves had the right to redeem themselves, or to win their freedom through labor and service. Also, in cases where slaves were treated cruelly or slaves had children with their owners, they could protest their slavery and become free people.

The American Indians respected traditions. Thus, in most cases, upon the death of the owner, slaves were inherited as private property. However, slaves who particularly distinguished themselves by their service and labor to the previous owner were freed. Another feature and property of slavery among the Aztecs: if in the market a slave could, due to the carelessness of his owner, run out of the market wall and step on excrement, then he was given the right to appeal his slavery. In case of victory, the slave was washed, given clean clothes and released. Cases of such emancipation of slaves occurred quite regularly among the American Indians, since a person who prevented a slave from escaping and who helped the owner was declared a slave instead of a fugitive.

In addition, a slave could not be given away or sold without his consent, unless the authorities declared the slave disobedient. In general, increased controls were applied to unruly slaves, the wild Indians; they were forced to wear wooden shackles around their necks and hoops on their hands everywhere. Shackles served not only as a distinctive feature exposing the slave’s guilt, but also as a device that complicated the process of escape. Before such slaves were resold, the new owner was informed how many times he had tried to escape and how many times he had been resold before.

A slave who made 4 unsuccessful attempts to escape was, in most cases, given up for sacrificial rites. In some cases, free Aztecs could become slaves as punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could be given into slavery twice as much or to the widower of the murdered man. Slavery also punished unpaid debts, debts of sons, fathers and mothers. Parents had the right to sell a child into slavery only in cases where the authorities declared their offspring to be a disobedient, wild Indian. A similar fate awaited the disobedient students. And the last important distinguishing feature is that the Aztecs had the right to sell themselves into slavery.

In some cases, voluntary slaves who were captured Aztec civilization, were awarded a vacation in order to enjoy the price of their freedom, after which they were transferred to the possession of the owner. A similar fate awaited unsuccessful gamblers, old courtesans and prostitutes. It is also known that some captive slaves were treated as debtors and offenders, according to all the rules of slave ownership. In South America during the dawn of the Aztec Empire, sacrifices were widespread and ubiquitous.

However, the Aztecs practiced them on a grand scale, sacrificing both slaves and freemen on each of their many calendar holidays. There are known cases described in Aztec chronicles when hundreds and thousands of people were sacrificed every day. So during the construction of the main temple - great pyramid Aztecs in 1487, about 80 thousand prisoners of war and slaves were sacrificed in four days. It is not entirely clear how a city with a population of 120 thousand inhabitants and several tribes of Indians accommodated such a number of prisoners and slaves, how they were able to catch them, much less execute them, taking into account the fact that Atzizotl personally sacrificed to the gods. However, the fact remains. It is also worth noting that the Aztec tribe did not always sacrifice people; Animals often played the role of alms to the gods. As is known, the Aztecs specially bred animals for such purposes, for example, llamas.

There were also donations of things: communities broke their most valuable property for the glory of the gods. In addition, individual gods and their cults required special alms: The Cult of Quetzalcoatl, along with human sacrifices, demanded the sacrifice of hummingbirds and butterflies. Self-sacrifice was also practiced in the Aztec tribes. During special rituals, people deliberately wounded themselves, performed ceremonial bloodletting, and wore shackles and clothes with spikes on the back. Blood occupied a dominant position in Aztec religion and ceremonies. Indeed, in local mythology, the gods shed their blood more than once to help humanity. So in the myth of the rebirth of the world - the myth of the fifth sun, the gods sacrificed themselves so that people could live.

The rituals, traditions and religion itself of the ancient Aztecs prepared people for the highest sacrifice, for the sacrifice of human life. The ritual of sacrifice took place according to the canons: the victim’s skin was painted blue using chalk; the sacrifice was carried out on the supreme square of the temple or pyramid; the victim was laid down, and the process of sacrifice began. The heart, the first to be separated from the body, was always stored by the Aztecs in a special stone vessel. The victim's belly was ripped open with a stone knife - obsidian was not capable of opening the flesh, and the Indians did not discover iron for themselves.

At the end of the ritual, the victim was thrown down the stairs of the temple, where the priests picked her up and later burned her. The sacrifices of the ancient Indians were in most cases voluntary, with the exception of the sacrifices of prisoners of war. Before the ritual of sacrifice, captured soldiers were treated like slaves, however, without the possibility of pardon and release. The ancient Aztecs also had other types of sacrifice, for example, torture. The victims were burned, shot with arrows, drowned, and parts of their bodies were fed to sacred animals. The Aztec tribe was famous for its cruelty. The line between sacrificial torture and torture of captured soldiers and nobles is difficult to keep track of.

Inca Empire

Like all enlightened peoples of antiquity, the Incas clothed the origins of their origins in the form of myths.
The most famous of them was conveyed to us by Garcilaso de la Vega in his Commentaries. He wrote it down from memory, from the words of his Indian contemporaries. This myth tells that Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Ocllo, fulfilling the will of their father Sun-Inti, emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca to convert the savages who inhabited the surrounding lands to the path of civilization and create a great empire. From their father, they received a magical golden rod, which was supposed to show them where to establish the center of their state. Not far from the village of Pakari-Tambo, which lies at the foot of the Huanakauri hill, Manco Capac stuck this rod into the ground, and by the will of divine providence it went into it with great ease. This was a sign that the capital of the future empire was to be founded there. Such a manifestation of the highest will is quite comparable to an eagle holding a snake in its beak on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, where, as we remember, the Aztecs founded their state.

The main hero of Inca mythology was Manco Kalik. Like Quetzalcoatl among the Nahuas and Bochica among the Chibcha, he simultaneously combined the characteristics of a demigod and a great leader who led his subjects onto the path of civilization. Indeed, something truly great had to happen in order to preserve in the memory of generations down to the present day the legends about this man and the founder of the state, elevated to the level of a deity, which outlived time itself and the consistently destroyed culture at the origins of which he stood.

From there, the settlers reached the valley where the village of Pakari-Tambo was located. There they settled. Several centuries later, it was from this place that they began the conquest of the Cusco region and subsequently created their own state there. After Manco Capac, Tahuantinsuyu was ruled by 12 of his Inca successors. However, from the first of them, who lived in the 13th-14th centuries, Sinchi Roqui, Lloque Yupanqui, Maita Capac, Capac Yupanqui, Inca Roqui and Yahuara Huacaca, only names have reached us. True story The empire began with Viracocha Inca, who ruled in the first half of the 15th century. His ignominious flight to the village of Caquia, in the Shakishauan valley, to escape the Chancas, led to his son Cusi Yupanqui Pachacutec becoming a hero liberator of the Incas.

All the deeds of the Incas, since the era of Pachacutec, were preserved for posterity with extreme care, since the Incas themselves highly valued their glory and had a clear understanding of the meaning of history. The constant focus of their activities to glorify Tawantinsuyu is evidenced by the creation of a special honorary post of the official historian of the empire, elected from the panaka of each Inca, in other words, from the numerous relatives of the ruler left by him after death, especially wives and children. The history of the empire was passed down from generation to generation, so that all its most important events were always fresh in the memory of the Quipucamayoc of each Panaka, even after the Spanish conquest. Valcárcel wrote that when the Spaniards came to Cuzco, they received the first information about the history of the Incas during the time of Vaca de Castro (Cristobal Vaca de Castro) from the surviving Quipucamayocs of each Panaka, who never mixed with each other.
It is thanks to this that we know about the battles of Pachacutec with the Aymara Cola on the shores of Lake Titicaca, about his campaigns against the peoples of the south of present-day Peru right up to the coast, and about everything else too.

According to legends, the founder of the Inca “empire” was the legendary Manco Capac, who bore the title Inca as a sign of his divine origin. There are several versions of the origin of Tawantinsuyu. According to one of them, Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Ocllo, fulfilling the will of their sun father - Inti and moon mother - Quilla, came out of the waters of Lake Titicaca to turn the savages who inhabited the surrounding lands onto the path of civilization and create a great " empire." From their father they received a magical golden rod, which was supposed to show them where to establish the center of the state. Not far from the village of Pakaritampu, which lay at the foot of the Huanakauri hill, Manco Capac stuck this rod into the ground, and by the will of divine providence it entered it with extraordinary ease. This was a sign that the capital of the future “empire” should be founded here.
In many ways, this myth is close to the myth of Tenochtitlan, built by the Aztecs on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Today it is hardly possible to definitively answer whether Manco Capac really existed or is a mythical character. He combined the features of a demigod and a great leader who, like the legendary Maya-Toltec Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan, led his subjects onto the path of civilization. The legendary Manco Capac founded a small state in the Cusco Valley. The emergence of this state, which later turned into the greatest “empire” of pre-Columbian America, can be roughly dated to the first half of the 13th century.

We still imagine what happened next very superficially. There are several different, sometimes very contradictory interpretations of the history of the Incas, especially its initial stage. The Incas began to emerge little by little from the fog of all kinds of myths and legends only around 1437 or 1438. In that harsh time for the inhabitants of Cusco, they encountered a worthy, strong opponent - the neighboring Indians - the Chancas.
According to one legend, the beginning of the war was unsuccessful for the Incas, and soon the Chancas, led by their victorious commanders Anco-Huallo, Astu and Tamai Huaranca, were already standing in front of the gates of Cuzco, like the great Carthaginian commander Hannibal in front of the Collin Gate of Rome. The panic began.
At the most critical moment of the many-hour bloody battle for Cuzco, when the initiative changed hands more than once and it was completely unclear who would be favored by capricious fortune, an ambush detachment of selected Inca warriors struck the rear of the advancing countless hordes of Chunks. The Incas have won! It was the bloodiest and most brutal battle in the history of ancient American wars. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of soldiers died on both sides. One of the Incas' most dangerous enemies was defeated and then turned into an ally.

Soon after this legendary and very difficult victory, Inca Pachacuti (or Pachacutec) became the ruler of the Incas.
Pachacuti Inca (1438-1471) was one of the key figures in the history of the Inca "empire". The year 1438 should probably be considered the beginning of its creation. The historicity of his personality is beyond doubt. He reorganized the army, increasing its combat effectiveness and increasing the number of generals. Under Pachacuti, the Incas' military campaigns took place in the southern and southeastern directions: in an exceptionally stubborn struggle, the Incas captured the lands of the Aymara Indians along the shores of Lake Titicaca, took possession of colossal herds of llamas and alpacas (a type of llama) - almost hundreds of thousands of heads. For those times, it was an outstanding victory and enormous wealth. From now on, the armies of Cuzco no longer needed vehicles, clothing and food. The capture of these herds meant no less to the Incas than the later capture of their treasures meant to the Spaniards. Pachacuti declared animals “royal” property, and founded the richest temples on the islands of Lake Titicaca. As a result of his conquests, the foundations of the huge Incan “empire” were laid, and he himself, in fact, became the first “emperor” of the Incas - the “creator” “emperor”. Pachacuti was one of the most outstanding personalities in ancient American history - warrior, politician, philosopher, historian, architect, poet.

While the winner of the Chunks and Aymara, Pachacuti, fought near Lake Titicaca, his heir grew up, Tupac (Topa) Yupanqui, whose military glory would later eclipse his father’s. (It is believed that Pachacuti had about 100 sons and 50 daughters in total.) The relationship between Pachacuti and Tupac Yupanqui, as often happens between strong personalities, even when they are closely related, was apparently tense, if not outright hostile. However, in the great northern campaign they both acted together. As a result, the northern border of Tahuantinsuyu ran through the territory of modern Ecuador, and the size of the Inca state became equal to the area of ​​modern Great Britain.
In 1471, shortly before the death of his father Pachacuti, Tupac Yupanqui became the new Inca. Tupac Yupanqui (1471-1493) significantly expanded the boundaries of the Incan “empire”, uniting the entire ancient Peruvian ecumene, and entered the pre-Columbian history of South America as an “emperor” - a conqueror.
Legends tell different stories about the numerous military campaigns of this Peruvian Alexander the Great. According to one of them, unexpectedly and quickly invading Chimor - the largest state on the territory of Peru, the most dangerous for the Incas - he quickly took possession of it. The ruler of Chimora, the powerful Minchansaman, did not expect such a powerful blow from the north, where the Chimorans did not have a common border with the Incas, and therefore no fortifications. The victory over Chimor, which was more developed than the Inca state, stretched along a narrow (50-70 km) and long (about 1 thousand km) strip along the coast, gave the Incas access to the Pacific Ocean. One by one, the rich Peruvian coastal valleys and the capital of Chimora at the mouth of the Moche River were captured. The largest city pre-Hispanic South America Chan-Chan (area 26 km) with a population of about 20-30 thousand people. After the defeat, Chan-Chan was deserted.
Having conquered Chimora, the Incas apparently captured untold wealth. The Spaniards did not find such treasures anywhere in America as in the tombs of the “kings” and nobles of Chimora they plundered. Their total cost was a fantastic amount for those times - about a million (!) Spanish gold castellanos. It can be assumed that most of the gold that the Indians collected as a ransom for Inca Atahualpa, who was captured later, in 1532, by the Spaniards, was either looted on the coast by the Incas sixty years earlier, or, at least, processed by the hands of the most skilled Chimora craftsmen - jewelers stolen from Chan Chan to Cuzco.

There were no more trips to the north. This is explained quite simply: the Incas were mountain dwellers and felt out of place when they found themselves in an unusual natural and climatic zone located several kilometers below their own. This is partly why the Incas’ forays into the coastal plain of Ecuador were unsuccessful: the hot, swampy terrain turned out to be unattractive for people accustomed to the clean, cool mountain air. In addition, in the mountainous regions of Ecuador, the armies of Tupac Yupanqui had to fight grueling and not always successful battles with freedom-loving and warlike local tribes. It is possible that the Ecuadorian leaders sent some kind of irregular tribute to the Incas, but they largely retained their independence. There was no further advance of the Incas north to the Chibcha-Muica Indians and even further north, towards Mesoamerica.
If the aged Pachacuti still witnessed the conquest of Chimora (around 1471) (perhaps he was one of the initiators of this campaign), then the new southern campaign took place after his death. Tupac Yupanqui's march to the south is the largest military operation in the history of pre-Columbian America.

At the head of a huge army, Tupac Yupanqui moved through the lands of present-day Bolivia into the northern part of modern Argentina, then crossed the Andes again, entered the deserted Atacama Desert in the north of the territory of present-day Chile, moving more than a thousand kilometers to the south. But he was unable to cross the Maule River. Having encountered courageous and fierce resistance from the Chilean Araucanavi (Mapuche), he was forced to stop. Here lies the southern border of Tawantinsuyu.
Thus, the “empire” included vast territories located in southwestern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina and northern Chile, approximately equal in area to all its other lands. It is difficult to say whether the Incas knew, when undertaking a southern campaign, that in that area there were rich deposits of copper and precious metals. In any case, it seems that this area was the ultimate goal of Tupac Yupanqui.
Although after Tupac Yupanqui there were attempts to expand the borders of the state even further, including to the east (in the humid and hot Amazon, Incan troops died or returned from there with nothing), in general the borders of the “empire” remained almost unchanged. The followers of Pachacuti and Tupac Yupanqui had to think not so much about conquest as about protecting the borders of their huge “empire.” For this purpose, the Incas built a number of fortresses along the eastern border of Tawantinsuyu and connected them with a stone wall stretching along the ridges of the mountains almost 200 km long - an American version of the Great Chinese wall. True, unlike its ancient Chinese counterpart, the “Great Wall of Peru” was not so powerful, having rather a symbolic meaning. Its height did not exceed the height of a man, and therefore it was suitable only for repelling the onslaught of an enemy unfamiliar with the art of a proper siege. Only the eastern border of the “empire” required constant protection from Tahuantinsuyu’s warlike neighbors - the Guarani Indians, Diaguita, etc.
In 1493, Tupac Yupanqui died, poisoned, according to some legends, by one of his many concubines. His youngest son, a native of the city of Quito (Ecuador), Huayna Capac (1493-152?), who found himself on the throne thanks to the cunning palace intrigues of his uncle, the famous military leader Huaman Achachi, inherited a huge “empire”, which had no equal in all of Indian history. America. From north to south, it extended for almost 5 thousand km, and its territory was 2,754 thousand km 2. Huayna Capac worthily completed the work of his father and grandfather, seizing Ecuadorian lands and defending the borders of the “empire” in the southeast from the claims of the warlike Chiriguanos to carangas, and in the south - the indomitable Chilean Araucanas.

However, first of all, he had to set about establishing order within the “empire,” which had grown enormously as a result of the campaigns of his grandfather and father. Dozens of large and hundreds of small pucaras, with garrisons of soldiers, sometimes numbering several thousand soldiers, ensured the protection of the “empire” from both external and internal enemies who rebelled against the Incan rule of the “kingdoms” and “provinces” that peacefully or violently entered into composition of Tahuantinsuyu (and there were many of them - more than 200: Bilkas, Jauha, Bombao, Cajamalca, Guanca, Bombacome, Quito, Carangi, Hatunkana, Ayavire, Chuquiaba, Parna and others).

Participants in the largest uprising (on the island of Puna, off the coast of present-day Ecuador) were dealt with very cruelly: every tenth rebel was thrown into the sea or stabbed, beheaded, quartered, stoned to death, hanged, etc. Not everything was calm at court either. “emperor”: one of his many uncles, the Inca Hualpaya, tried to poison him in order to free the throne for his own son... It failed.

Huayna Capac was the last Inca to rule Tahuantinsuyu before the arrival of the Spaniards. During the years of his long reign, most of which he spent in the north, in the city of Quito, this ruler managed to do a lot to strengthen the Incan “empire”, remaining in the people’s memory as an “emperor”-administrator, “emperor”-peacemaker. When Huayna Capac suddenly died (from the plague or from smallpox, or perhaps from some other disease, the epidemic of which then swept the entire north of the “empire”), without having time to name an heir, his eldest legitimate son, the arrogant Huascar, ascended the throne in Cuzco .
At that time, in Quito, Huayna Capac's favorite city (the northern capital of Tahuantinsuyu), one of Huascar's half-brothers, the independent and power-hungry Atahualpa, ruled. Having decided to use the death of his father in his own interests and the interests of the clan of the Kyoto (Ecuadorian) aristocracy, he stated that Huayna Capac, when dying, bequeathed to divide Tawantinsuyu into two parts: supposedly such a huge “empire” had become difficult to govern from one center, and that the northern half of the state he should rule - Atahualpa. As a result, when far in the north (in Panama) a “pack of hungry dogs” - Spanish conquistadors - led by the adventurer Francisco Pizarro, was preparing to conquer the treasures of the legendary Tahuantinsuyu - the most powerful tree of the non-American “empire” - a merciless struggle for the throne broke out between two brothers, which led to a bloody feud.
In the end, in 1532, the ambitious Atahualpa won, under whose command were the best Inca military leaders who had served his father - Quisquis (Keskis) and Chilco-Chim (Calcuchima) - and selected troops, selflessly devoted to him, trained under Huayna Capaque - Inca Guard. In this internecine war, the “empire” lost its former power.

Huascar was captured and imprisoned, but it was he who was the truly legitimate heir to the throne, since he was the son of Huayn Capac and his sister, i.e., according to the Inca rules, a legitimate wife - coyo. However, Atahualpa was only a bastard, that is, an illegitimate son from the marriage of Huayn Capac with his beloved wife, or rather, his concubine - the incomparable beauty Tokto Coca, the daughter of the leader of the Cara tribe (the former “king” of the city of Quito). Despite the capture of Huascar, the population of Tahuantinsuyu still recognized Huascar as the legitimate Inca.
At the end of 1532, or at the beginning of 1533, Huascar was killed on the orders of his usurper brother, and then Atahualpa himself fell at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors (1533).

Other Incas ascended the throne... The last of them was Tupac Amaru, executed by the Spaniards only in 1572. However, after the conquest of the “empire” by the Spaniards, the power of the Inca “emperors” was largely illusory. They “ruled” only in the very remote, high-mountainous regions of Tahuantinsuyu, which had not yet been conquered by the conquistadors, where in 1539 the so-called New Inca kingdom was created with its center in Vilcabamba.

Inca cities: Vilcabamba - Vilcasuaman - Vitcos - Gran Pajaten - Ingapirca - Incalyahta - Incahuasi (Ayacucho) - Incahuasi (Cañete) - Corihuairachina - Cusco - Machu Picchu - Moray - Ollantaytambo - Paititi - Payhan - Paccaritampu - Pachacamac - Pisac - Puca Pucara - Puma Punku - Raqchi - Sacsayhuaman - Tambo Colorado - Tambomachay - Tarahuasi - Tipon - Tiwanaku - Tucume - Tumebamba - Huamanmarca - Huinay Huayna - Uchkus Incañan - Uchuy Cosco - Chinchero - Choquequirao - Chincal - Yucay - Gran Vilaya - Vilcavain - Guitarrero (cave) - Pañamarca - Apurimac - Toro Muerto - Pikimachay - Pumacocha - Cumbe Mayo - Quenco - Coricancha - Moray - Picillacta - Puyupatamarca - Raqchi - Rumicolca - Tambomachay - Tarahuasi - Tipon - Huayna Picchu - Huamanmarca - Huinay Huayna - La Libertad - Gran Pajaten - Temple of the Sun - Temple of the Moon - El Brujo - Lambayeque - Lima - Acaray - Aspero - Buena Vista - Cantamarca - Paramonga - Pachacamac - Pucllana - Puruchuco - Puno - Silustani - Xicairumoco - Tacna - Toquepala - Huancavelica - Huanuco

Mayan civilization

Maya - a group of Indian peoples related by language. Where did these peoples come from? How did they appear in the jungles of Central America? There is no exact answer to these and other questions. Today, one of the main points of view on this issue is that America was settled from Asia through the Bering Strait during the Upper Paleolithic period, i.e. approximately 30 thousand years ago.
The Mayans are one of the brightest civilizations of pre-Columbian America. This is a “mystery culture”, a “phenomenon culture” full of contradictions and paradoxes. It has raised a huge number of questions, but not all have answers. The Mayans, living practically in the Stone Age (they did not know metals until the 10th century AD, wheeled carts, ploughs, pack and draft animals), created an accurate solar calendar, complex hieroglyphic writing, used the concept of zero before the Arabs and Hindus, predicted solar and lunar eclipses, calculated the movements of Venus with an error of only 14 seconds per year, and achieved amazing perfection in architecture, sculpture, painting and ceramics. They worshiped their gods and at the same time obeyed kings and priests, built temples and palaces under their leadership, performed ritual ceremonies, sacrificed themselves, and fought with their neighbors.
The Mayans created cities that were extraordinary in themselves, built only on muscle power. And for some reason, almost all cities of the classical period bear traces of violent destruction. Currently, more than 200 ruins of ancient cities are known. Complete list of famous Mayan cities Here.

In ancient times, the Mayans represented various groups that shared a common historical tradition. Due to this, the characteristics of their cultures were similar, their physical features were the same, and they spoke languages ​​belonging to the same linguistic branch.
When studying the Mayan civilization, several periods are distinguished. Their names and chronology are as follows:
- Early Preclassic (about 2000 - 900 BC)
- Middle Preclassic (900 – 400 BC)
- Late Preclassic (400 BC – 250 AD)
- early classical (250 – 600 AD)
- late classical (600 – 900 AD)
- postclassical (900 – 1521 AD)

This one is strict scientific information, in no way explains why the Mayan cities began to decline, their populations to decline, and civil strife to intensify.
But the processes that finally destroyed the great civilization, which took place during the colonial period, which lasted from 1521 to 1821, are completely obvious. Great humanists and Christians - not only did they introduce influenza, smallpox and measles - but formed their colonies on the American continent with fire and sword.
What previously did not benefit the Mayans - fragmentation and the absence of a single control center of the state - did not benefit the conquerors either. Each city was a separate warlike state, and more and more efforts had to be made to seize the territory.

And the Mayan cities were built with great skill and scope. Worth mentioning are Lamanai, Cahal Pech, El Mirador, Calakmul, Tikal, Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Copan. Some of these cities existed for more than a millennium. The ruins of each of them are a gift to archaeologists, historians and tourists.
Of great interest are the ideas of an extinct civilization about time and space. The cyclical time of the Maya, associated with natural and astronomical phenomena, was displayed in various calendars. According to one of the predictions, the next (last) cycle will end on December 22, 2012. The end of the cycle will be marked by a flood, after which this world will perish, a new universe will be born and a new cycle will begin... Well, we have every chance to verify the reliability of the Mayan predictions.

During the 1st - early 2nd millennium AD, the Maya people, speaking various languages ​​of the Maya-Kiche family, settled over a vast territory, including the southern states of Mexico (Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo), the current countries of Belize and Guatemala and western regions of El Salvador and Honduras. These areas, located in the tropical zone, are distinguished by a variety of landscapes. In the mountainous south there is a chain of volcanoes, some of which are active. Once upon a time, powerful coniferous forests grew here on generous volcanic soils. In the north, the volcanoes give way to the limestone mountains of Alta Verapaz, which further north form the limestone Petén plateau, characterized by a hot and humid climate. Here the center of development of the Mayan civilization of the classical era was formed. The western part of the Petén plateau is drained by the Pasion and Usumacinta rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern part by rivers carrying water to the Caribbean Sea. North of the Petén plateau, humidity decreases with the height of forest cover. In the northern Yucatecan Plains, tropical rainforests give way to shrubby vegetation, and in the Puuc Hills the climate is so arid that in ancient times people settled here along the shores of karst lakes (cenotes) or stored water in underground reservoirs (chultun). On the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient Mayans mined salt and traded it with the inhabitants of the interior regions.

It was initially believed that the Maya lived in large areas of tropical lowlands in small groups, practicing slash-and-burn agriculture. With the rapid depletion of soils, this forced them to frequently change their settlement sites. The Mayans were peaceful and had a special interest in astronomy, and their cities with tall pyramids and stone buildings also served as priestly ceremonial centers where people gathered to observe unusual celestial phenomena. According to modern estimates, ancient people The Maya numbered more than 3 million people. In the distant past, their country was the most densely populated tropical zone. The Mayans knew how to maintain soil fertility for several centuries and transform lands unsuitable for agriculture into plantations where they grew maize, beans, pumpkins, cotton, cocoa and various tropical fruits. Mayan writing was based on a strict phonetic and syntactic system. The decipherment of ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions has refuted previous ideas about the peaceful nature of the Mayans: many of these inscriptions report wars between city-states and captives sacrificed to the gods. The only thing that has not been revised from previous ideas is the exceptional interest of the ancient Mayans in the movement of celestial bodies. Their astronomers very accurately calculated the cycles of movement of the Sun, Moon, Venus and some constellations (in particular, the Milky Way). The Mayan civilization, in its characteristics, reveals commonality with the nearest ancient civilizations of the Mexican Highlands, as well as with the distant Mesopotamian, ancient Greek and ancient Chinese civilizations.

In the archaic (2000-1500 BC) and early formative periods (1500-1000 BC) of the preclassic era, in the lowlands of Guatemala, small semi-wandering tribes of hunters and gatherers lived, eating wild edible roots and fruits, as well as game and fish. They left behind only rare stone tools and a few settlements that definitely date back to this time. The Middle Formative Period (1000-400 BC) is the first relatively well-documented era of Mayan history. At this time, small agricultural settlements appeared, scattered in the jungle and along the banks of the rivers of the Peten plateau and in the north of Belize (Cuelho, Colha, Kashob). Archaeological evidence suggests that in this era the Mayans did not have pompous architecture, class divisions or centralized power. However, during the subsequent Late Formative Period of the Preclassic era (400 BC - 250 AD), major changes occurred in Mayan life. At this time, monumental structures were built - stylobotes, pyramids, ball courts, and rapid growth of cities was observed. Impressive architectural complexes are being built in cities such as Calakmul and Zibilchaltun in the north of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), El Mirador, Yashactun, Tikal, Nakbe and Tintal in the jungle of Peten (Guatemala), Cerros, Cuello, Lamanay and Nomul (Belize), Chalchuapa ( Salvador).

There was a rapid growth of settlements that arose during this period, such as Kashob in northern Belize. At the end of the late formative period, barter trade developed between settlements remote from each other. The most prized items are items made from jade and obsidian, sea shells and quetzal bird feathers. At this time, sharp flint tools and the so-called appeared for the first time. eccentrics - stone products of the most bizarre shape, sometimes in the form of a trident or the profile of a human face. At the same time, the practice of consecrating buildings and arranging hiding places where jade products and other valuables were placed was developed. During the subsequent Early Classic period (250-600 AD) of the Classical era, Mayan society developed into a system of rival city-states, each with its own royal dynasty. These political entities revealed commonality both in the system of government and in culture (language, writing, astronomical knowledge, calendar). The beginning of the early classical period approximately coincides with one of the oldest dates recorded on the stele of the city of Tikal - 292 AD, which, in accordance with the so-called. The "long count of the Maya" is expressed in numbers 8.12.14.8.5. The possessions of individual city-states of the classical era extended on average 2000 square meters. km, and some cities, such as Tikal or Calakmul, controlled significantly larger territories.
Political and cultural centers Each state entity had cities with magnificent buildings, the architecture of which was local or zonal variations of the general style of Mayan architecture. The buildings were located around a vast rectangular central square. Their facades were usually decorated with masks of the main gods and mythological characters, carved from stone or made using relief techniques. The walls of long narrow rooms inside buildings were often painted with frescoes depicting rituals, holidays, and military scenes. Window lintels, lintels, palace staircases, as well as free-standing steles were covered with hieroglyphic texts, sometimes interspersed with portraits, telling about the deeds of the rulers. On lintel 26, in Yaxchilan, the ruler's wife is depicted helping her husband put on military regalia. In the center of Mayan cities of the classical era, pyramids rose up to 15 m high. These structures often served as tombs of revered people, so kings and priests practiced rituals here that aimed to establish a magical connection with the spirits of their ancestors.

The ritual ball game was important in the Mayan religion. Almost every major Mayan settlement had one or more similar sites. It is, as a rule, a small rectangular field, on the sides of which there are pyramidal platforms from which the priests watched the ritual. Meanwhile, there was a cult of the game. In the Popol Vuh, an invaluable collection of Mayan myths, the ball game is mentioned as a game of the gods: the death deities Bolon Tiku (or as they are called in the text, the Lords of Xibalba, i.e. the underworld) and two brothers of the demigod Hun competed in it. Ahpu and Xbalanque. Thus, the players initiated on stage one of the episodes of the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, masculine and feminine, snake and jaguar. The Mayan ball game, like similar games of other peoples of Mesoamerica, contained elements of violence and cruelty - it ended with human sacrifice, for which it was started, and the playing fields were framed with stakes with human skulls.

Most northern cities built in the Postclassic era (950-1500) lasted less than 300 years, with the exception of Chichen Itza, which survived until the 13th century. This city shows architectural similarities to Tula, founded by the Toltecs around 900, suggesting that Chichen Itza served as an outpost or was an ally of the warlike Toltecs. The name of the city is derived from the Mayan words "chi" ("mouth") and "itsa" ("wall"), but its architecture is in the so-called. Puuc style, violates the classical Mayan canons. For example, stone roofs of buildings are supported on flat beams rather than on stepped vaults. Some stone carvings depict Mayan and Toltec warriors together in battle scenes. Perhaps the Toltecs captured this city and over time turned it into a prosperous state. During the Postclassic period (1200-1450), Chichen Itza was for a time part of a political alliance with nearby Uxmal and Mayapan, known as the League of Mayapan. However, even before the arrival of the Spaniards, the League had collapsed, and Chichen Itza, like the cities of the classical era, was swallowed up by the jungle. In the Postclassic era, maritime trade developed, thanks to which ports emerged on the coast of Yucatan and nearby islands, for example, Tulum or a settlement on the island of Cozumel. During the Late Postclassic period, the Mayans traded slaves, cotton, and bird feathers with the Aztecs.
According to Mayan mythology, the world was created and destroyed twice before the third, modern era began, which began in European terms on August 13, 3114 BC. From this date, time was counted in two chronology systems - the so-called. long count and calendar circle. The long count was based on a 360-day annual cycle called tun, divided into 18 months of 20 days each. The Mayans used a base-20 rather than a decimal counting system, and the unit of chronology was 20 years (katun). Twenty katuns (i.e. four centuries) made up a baktun. The Mayans simultaneously used two calendar time systems - a 260-day and a 365-day annual cycle. These systems coincided every 18,980 days, or every 52 (365-day) years, marking an important milestone at the end of one and the beginning of a new time cycle. The ancient Mayans calculated time forward to 4772, when, in their opinion, the end of the current era would come and the Universe would once again be destroyed.

The families of rulers were entrusted with the obligation to perform the rite of bloodletting at every important event in the life of city-states, be it the consecration of new buildings, the onset of the sowing season, the beginning or end of a military campaign. According to Mayan mythology, human blood nourished and strengthened the gods, who, in turn, gave strength to people. It was believed that the blood of the tongue, earlobes and genitals had the greatest magical power. During the bloodletting ceremony, thousands of people gathered in the central square of the city, including dancers, musicians, warriors and nobles. At the climax of the ceremonial action, the ruler appeared, often with his wife, and with a plant thorn or an obsidian knife he bled himself, making a cut on the penis. At the same time, the ruler's wife pierced her tongue. After this, they passed a rough agave rope through the wounds to increase the bleeding. Blood dripped onto strips of paper, which were then burned in the fire. Due to blood loss, as well as under the influence of drugs, fasting and other factors, ritual participants saw images of gods and ancestors in puffs of smoke.

Mayan society was built on the model of patriarchy: power and leadership in the family passed from father to son or brother. Classic Maya society was highly stratified. A clear division into social strata was observed in Tikal in the 8th century. At the very top of the social ladder were the ruler and his immediate relatives. Next came the highest and middle hereditary nobility, who had varying degrees of power, followed by retinues, artisans, architects of various ranks and status, below were rich but humble landowners, then simple communal farmers, and on the last steps were orphans and slaves . Although these groups were in contact with each other, they lived in separate city neighborhoods, had special duties and privileges, and cultivated their own customs.

The ancient Mayans did not know the technology of metal smelting. They made tools mainly from stone, but also from wood and shells. With these tools, farmers cut down forests, plowed, sowed, and harvested crops. The Mayans did not even know the potter's wheel. When making ceramic products, they rolled clay into thin flagella and placed them one on top of the other or molded clay plates. Ceramics were fired not in kilns, but on open fires. Both commoners and aristocrats were engaged in pottery. The latter painted vessels with scenes from mythology or palace life.
Until now, the disappearance of the Mayan civilization is a subject of debate among researchers. At the same time, there are two main points of view regarding the disappearance of the Mayan civilization - ecological and non-ecological hypotheses.

Ecological hypothesis based on the balance of the relationship between man and nature. Over time, the balance has been upset: an ever-growing population faces the problem of a lack of quality soil suitable for farming, as well as a shortage drinking water. The ecological extinction hypothesis of the Maya was formulated in 1921 by O. F. Cook.
Non-ecological hypothesis covers theories of various kinds, from conquest and pestilence to climate change and other catastrophes. The version of the Mayan conquest is supported by archaeological finds of objects that belonged to another people of medieval Central America - the Toltecs. However, most researchers doubt the correctness of this version. The assumption that the cause of the crisis of the Mayan civilization was climate change, and especially drought, is expressed by geologist Gerald Haug, who studies climate change. Also, some scientists associate the collapse of the Mayan civilization with the end of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico. Some scholars believe that after Teotihuacan was abandoned, creating a power vacuum that also affected Yucatan, the Mayans were unable to fill this vacuum, which ultimately led to the decline of civilization.
In 1517, the Spaniards appeared in Yucatan under the leadership of Hernandez de Cordoba. The Spanish introduced diseases from the Old World that were previously unknown to the Mayans, including smallpox, influenza, and measles. In 1528, colonists under the leadership of Francisco de Montejo begin the conquest of northern Yucatan. However, due to geographical and political disunity, it would take the Spaniards about 170 years to completely subjugate the region. In 1697, the last independent Mayan city of Tayasal was submitted to Spain. Thus ended one of the most interesting civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica.

Mayan cities:

Guatemala: Aguateca - Balberta - Gumarkah - Dos Pilas - Ichimche - Ishkun - Yaxha - Kaminaljuyu - Cancuen - Quirigua - La Corona - Machaquila - Misco Viejo - Naachtun - Nakbe - Naranjo - Piedras Negras - Saculeu - San Bartolo - Ceibal - Cival - Tayasal - Takalik Abah - Tikal - Toposhte - Huaxactun - El Baul - El Mirador - El Peru

Mexico: Akanmul - Akanseh - Balamku - Bekan - Bonampak - Ichpich - Yaxchilan - Kabah - Calakmul - Coba - Comalcalco - Kohunlich - Labna - Mayapan - Mani - Nokuchich - Oshkintok - Palenque - Rio Bec - Sayil - Sakpeten - Santa Rosa Stampak - Tancah - Tonina - Tulum - Uxmal - Haina - Tsibilchaltun - Chacmultun - Chacchoben - Chikanna - Chinkultik - Chichen Itza - Chunchukmil - Shkipche - Xpujil - Ek Balam - Edzna

Belize: Altun Ha - Karakol - Kahal Pech - Kueyo - Lamanai - Lubaantun - Nim Li Punit - Xunantunich

Honduras: Copan – El Puente

Salvador: San Andres - Tazumal - Hoya de Seren

Aztec Civilization

Aztecs (asteki) (self-identified) mē xihcah) - Indian people in central Mexico. Number of over 1.5 million people. The Aztec civilization (XIV-XVI centuries) had a rich mythology and cultural heritage. The capital of the Aztec Empire was the city of Tenochtitlan, located on Lake Texcoco (Spanish). Texcoco), where the city of Mexico is now located.

In Nahuatl, the native language of the Aztecs, the word “Aztec” literally means “someone from Aztlan,” a mythical place located somewhere in the north. The modern use of the word "Aztec" as a term encompassing peoples related by trade, custom, religion, and language was proposed by Alexander von Humboldt and adopted by 19th-century Mexican scholars as a means of distinguishing contemporary Mexicans from the indigenous Indian populations.
The Aztecs themselves called themselves “mexica”, or “tenochka” and “tlaltelolca” - depending on the city of origin (Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco). As for the origin of the word “meshika” (ast. Mexico, from which, in fact, the word “Mexico” comes), then very different versions of its etymology are expressed - the word “Sun”, in the Nahuatl language, the name of the Aztec leader - Mexitli (Mexitli, Mextli), a type of algae growing in Lake Texcoco.

The Aztec culture is associated with a cultural complex known as the Nahua due to its common language. According to legend, the various groups that would become the Aztecs came to the Anahuac Valley, around Lake Texcoco, from the north. The location of these valleys and lakes is known for sure - this is the heart of modern Mexico City, but it is not known for certain where the Aztec people come from.
Legend has it that the ancestors of the Aztecs came from the north, from a place called Aztlan, and belonged to the last of the seven Nahuatlacs(“Nahuatl speakers”, from the word “tlaca” meaning “person”). According to legend, the Aztecs were led by the god Huitzilopochtli, which means “left-handed hummingbird.” There is a well-known legend about an eagle sitting on a cactus on an island in the middle of a lake and eating a snake - an image from a prophecy that said that a new house should be founded in such a place. This scene - an eagle eating a snake - is depicted on the Mexican flag.

So, in 1256, the Aztecs stopped on a rock washed by a spring and surrounded by thickets aueuete. This was Chapultepec, then a forest. Lake Texcoco stretched out before them.
By the time the Aztecs arrived, the lands around Lake Texcoco had long been divided between coastal city-states. Recognizing the supreme power of the ruler of the city of Azcapotzalco, the Aztecs settled on two small islands and built Tlatelolco (Tlaltelolco). Tenochtitlan (city of Tenocha) was founded in 1325. Over time it got bigger artificial island, now this place is the center of Mexico City.
According to legend, when the Aztecs arrived in the Anahuac Valley, the local population considered them the most uncivilized group, but the Aztecs decided to learn; and they took all the knowledge they could from other peoples, mostly from the ancient Toltecs (whom they may have confused with the more ancient civilization Teotihuacan). For the Aztecs, the Toltecs were the creators of all culture, the word "Toltecayotl" was synonymous with culture. Aztec legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tollan (modern Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico), which they also identified with the more ancient Teotihuacan.

The Aztecs adopted and combined some traditions with their own; among them is the myth of the creation of the world, which describes four great eras, each of which ended in a universal catastrophe. Our era - Nahui Ollin, the fifth era, the fifth sun or the fifth creation - escaped destruction thanks to the self-sacrifice of the god Nanahuatl, which means “all in wounds” (in Russian usually translated “all in buboes”; the smallest and humblest god who suffered from pain caused by a serious illness; he turned into the Sun). This myth is associated with the ancient city of Teotihuacan (literally - “place of transformation into a god”), which was already abandoned and abandoned at the time when the Aztecs came to the valley of modern Mexico City.

Another myth describes the Earth as the creation of two twin gods - Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. Tezcatlipoca lost his foot during the creation of the world, so he is depicted without a foot and with an exposed bone. In some varieties of the cult, Quetzalcoatl is also called the white Tezcatlipoca.
The Aztec Empire, like most European empires, was quite ethnically diverse; it was more of a unified system of tribute collection than a unified system of government. Although cities under Aztec rule were subject to heavy tribute, excavations show a steady increase in the wealth of the commoners after the subjugation of these cities. Trade was carried out even with enemy cities. The only people to defeat the Aztecs, the Purépecha, were the main producers of copper axes.
The main administrative contribution of the Aztecs was the system of communications between conquered cities.

In Mesoamerica, there were no draft animals or wheeled vehicles, and roads were built for travel on foot. Usually the construction of roads was part of the tribute. The roads were constantly monitored so that even women could travel alone; travelers could rest, eat, and even visit the restroom every 10-15 kilometers. Also, messengers constantly plied along these routes ( Painani), keeping the Aztecs informed of the latest events.
The creation of the Aztec empire led to one of the largest population explosions - the population of Mesoamerica increased from 10 to 15 million people.

The most important official of the government of Tenochtitlan, Europeans usually call the Aztec emperor. From the Nahuatl language, the title of the emperor is Huey Tlatoani (Act. HueyTlahtoani) roughly translates to "Great Orator". Tlatocque (at. tlatoque- “orators”) were the aristocracy, the highest class of society. The Tlatoani's power grew with the rise of Tenochtitlan. By the time of Ahuizotl's reign, the title "tlatoani" can already be considered an analogue of the imperial one, but, as in the Holy Roman Empire, it was not inherited.
From 1397 to 1487, the empire was led by Tlacaelel ( Tlahcaé lel from Nahuatl - “brave heart”). He could become tlatoani, but chose to remain in the shadow of the jaguar's mat. Tlacaelel was a nephew tlatoani Itzcoatl and brother of Chimalpopoca and Motecuzoma Ilhuicamina, and bore the title "Cihuacoatl" (after the goddess Chihuacoatl, the equivalent of an advisor). As it is written in Ramirez's manuscript: “what Tlacaelel ordered was carried out as quickly as possible.” He was a tough reformer, he created a new structure for governing the country, ordered the burning of most Aztec books, claiming that they were all lies, and rewrote the history of the Aztecs. In addition, Tlacaelel reformed the religion, placing the tribal god Huitzilopochtli on the same level as the ancient gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. His exploits include (perhaps exaggerating) the introduction of the custom of “flower wars” and the establishment of constant human sacrifices so that the Sun continued to move across the sky.
By the time of the Conquest, the Aztec state occupied the territory from the Gulf of Mexico to Pacific Ocean, from the mouths of the Balsas and Panukodo rivers to the Mayan lands. Separate colonies existed on the lands of Guatemala. On the other hand, the city-state of Tlaxcala in the north of the Pueblo Valley did not submit to the Aztecs.

Traditionally, society was divided into two social strata, or classes: the macehualli, or peasantry, and the pilli, or nobility. Initially, the status of the nobility was not inherited, even among sons pilly had better access to resources and training, so it was easier for them to become pilly. Over time, social status began to be inherited. In a similar way, Aztec warriors became pilly thanks to his military achievements. Only those who took captives in war could become permanent warriors, and over time, military glory and the spoils of war made them pilli. Once an Aztec warrior captured four or five captives, he was called tekihua, and he could achieve the rank of Eagle or Jaguar. Later he could gain rank tlacateccatl or tlacochcalcatl. To become tlatoani, it was necessary to capture at least 17 prisoners. When a young man came of age, he did not cut his hair until he captured his first captive. Sometimes two or three young men united for this purpose, then they were called yak. If after a certain time - usually three battles - they could not take a prisoner, they became masehualli. It was considered a disgrace to be a warrior with long hair, signifying the absence of prisoners, but there were also those who preferred to be macehualli.

The rich spoils of war led to the emergence of a third class that was not part of the traditional Aztec society - post office, or traders. Their activities were not exclusively commercial; the Poste were also good spies. The warriors despised them, however, one way or another, they gave them the loot in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves and other goods.

Slaves, or tlacotin, also formed an important class distinct from prisoners of war. This slavery was also very different from that observed in the European colonies, and had many similarities with the slavery of classical antiquity. Firstly, slavery was personal, not inherited, the children of a slave were free. A slave could have personal property, and even his own slaves. Slaves could buy their freedom, and slaves could be freed if they were able to prove that they had been mistreated, or had children with their owners, or were married to their owners.
Typically, upon the death of the owner, those slaves whose work was highly valued were freed. The remaining slaves were passed on as part of the inheritance.

An Aztec could become a slave as punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could be given as a slave to the widow of the murdered man at her request. A father could sell his son into slavery if the authorities declared his son disobedient. Debtors who did not pay their debts could also be sold as slaves.
In addition, the Aztecs could sell themselves as slaves. They could remain free long enough to enjoy the price of their freedom - about a year - after which they went to a new owner. This was usually the lot of unlucky gamblers and old "auini" - courtesans or prostitutes.
Although it was possible to drink pulque, a fermented drink with a low alcohol content, the Aztecs were forbidden to get drunk before reaching the age of sixty. Violation of this prohibition was punishable by death.

As in modern Mexico, the Aztecs were passionate ball players, but in their case it was tlachtli, an Aztec version of the ancient Mesoamerican game ulama. This game was played with a solid rubber ball the size of a human head. The ball was called "ollie", where the Spanish "ule" comes from. hule), meaning rubber.
According to other sources, the ball was made of stone, and playing it was characterized by extraordinary cruelty - the weight of the ball was so great that it was a big problem to throw it into a special ring located high enough without causing physical harm to oneself. A good "incentive" to play was the fact that members of the losing team were sacrificed.
Aztec cities usually had two special complexes for this game. Players could hit the ball with their hips. The goal of the game was to throw the ball through a stone ring. The lucky player who managed to do this was given the right to take away the audience's blankets, so victory was accompanied by running, screaming and laughter. People bet on the results of the game. The poor could stake their food, the pillis could stake their wealth, the "tekutli" ( owners) could put their concubines or even cities on the line, and those who had nothing put their freedom on the line and risked becoming slaves.
The ritual ball game ended with the sacrifice of the best player or captain of the winning team (however, according to other sources - the captain and players of the losing team).

In Mesoamerica and South America, during the heyday of the Aztec state, sacrifices were widespread; however, the Aztecs practiced them on a special scale, sacrificing people on each of the 18 holidays of their sacred calendar.
It should be noted that a person was not always sacrificed. Animal sacrifices were frequent, for which the Aztecs bred a special breed of llamas. They also sacrificed things - they broke them in honor of the gods. The cult of Quetzalcoatl required the sacrifice of butterflies and hummingbirds. Self-sacrifice was also practiced; during special ceremonies, people inflicted wounds on themselves, performing ritual bloodletting, and wore special thorns that constantly wounded the body.
Blood was central to Mesoamerican cultures. There are many myths in which the Nahua gods sacrifice their blood to help humanity. In the myth of the Fifth Sun, the gods sacrifice themselves so that people can live. (All sacrifices are to maintain the energy of the sun, which, according to the Aztecs, gives them life)
All this prepared people for the highest sacrifice - human sacrifice. Usually the victim's skin was painted with blue chalk (the color of the sacrifice); then the victim was brought to the top platform of a huge pyramid. Here the victim was laid on a stone slab, the victim’s stomach was cut with a ritual knife (it is difficult to open the chest with an obsidian knife), after which the victim’s heart was taken out and raised up to the Sun. The heart was placed in a special stone vessel - kuauchikalli or chak-mool, and the body was thrown onto the stairs, from where the priests dragged it away. The sacrifice was considered (and, as a rule, was) voluntary, but not in cases of prisoners. If faith was not enough, drugs could be used. Then the body parts were disposed of in various ways - the entrails were fed to animals, the skull was polished and displayed in tzompantli, and the rest was either burned or cut into small pieces and offered as a gift important people. Recent (2005) archaeological evidence indicates the removal of muscle and skin from some of the remains discovered in a large temple complex.
There were other types of human sacrifice, including torture. The victim was shot with arrows, burned or drowned. It’s difficult to keep track of the measure here. Aztec chronicles describe how some 84,400 captives were sacrificed over four days to build the main temple. However, it is unclear how urban population 120,000 people, was able to catch, accommodate and get rid of such a number of captives, especially considering the fact that Ahuitzotl sacrificed them with his own hands. This equates to 17 sacrifices per minute for four days. Some scholars believe that the number of casualties could not have exceeded 3,000 and that the number of deaths was inflated for war propaganda purposes.

The Aztecs led the so-called « flower wars » (Spanish) guerrasfloridas) - special raids to capture captives, to perform sacrifices, which they called neshtlahualli - this was a kind of “debt payment to the gods” so that the sun could shine during the next 52-year cycle. The human soul-heart and soul-blood are necessary so that the world does not collapse - this idea underlay the practice of capturing people in subjugated lands, and the population was ordered to meet warriors with flowers in their hands (one of the reasons that gave the name “flower wars”).
It is not known whether the Aztecs performed sacrifices before they came to the Anahuac Valley, or whether they absorbed this custom as they absorbed many other customs and cultures. The sacrifices were originally dedicated to Xipe Totec, a northern Mesoamerican deity. Aztec records claim that human sacrifice began during the reign of Tisoc. During the reign of Tlacaelel, human sacrifice became an integral part of Aztec culture, not only for religious but also for political reasons.

There is little information regarding Aztec cannibalism. There are only a few reports of cannibalism since the Conquest, none of which involve widespread ritual cannibalism. Typical reports of Aztec cannibalism:

Cortez writes in one of his letters that his soldiers caught an Aztec roasting a baby for breakfast.

Gomarra writes that during the capture of Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards invited the Aztecs to surrender because they (the Aztecs) had no food. The Aztecs invited the Spaniards to attack, only to be captured and eaten.

In Bernardino de Sahagún's books there is an illustration showing an Aztec being roasted by an unknown tribe. The caption under the illustration says that this was one of the dangers that threatened Aztec traders.

In the annals of Ramirez, compiled by the Aztecs after the conquest, in the Latin alphabet, it is written that at the end of the sacrifice, the meat of the victim's palms was given as a gift to the warrior who captured it. According to the chronicle, meat was supposed to be eaten, but in fact it was replaced with turkey.

In his book, Juan Bautista de Pomar states that after the sacrifice, the body of the victim was given to the warrior who captured the victim, and then the warrior boiled it so that it could be cut into small pieces in order to offer them as gifts to important people in exchange for gifts and slaves; but this meat was rarely eaten, since it was believed that it had no value; it was replaced with turkey or simply thrown away.

Mochica Civilization

Among the early Peruvian civilizations, the Mochica culture (beginning and mid-1st millennium AD) deserves close attention. The section of the northern coast that constituted the Mochica territory is a hilly desert 30-40 km wide, bounded by the ocean and mountains, cut at intervals of 15-30 km by the valleys of small rivers originating in the Cordillera ranges. Two such valleys, Moche and Chicama, formed the core of the Mochica lands. The development of the Mochica culture covers five periods: 1-2 - the era of formation, 3 - the time of its rapid development, 4 - heyday, 5 - decline. The era from the end of the 2nd century to the beginning of the 4th (approximately 2nd - 5th centuries AD) was a time of radical restructuring of Mochic society, as evidenced by the widespread distribution of copper tools, the achievement of technological excellence in the production of ceramics, the construction of monumental complexes, the walls of which later they began to decorate with narrative paintings, the flowering of the art of vase painting and sculptural representation of the human face, and finally, the emergence of that socially stratified pantheon of deities, which serves as the object of this study. In the period of the 3rd or from the end of the 2nd centuries, the Mochica expansion began in the valleys south of the Moche (in Viru - the center of the Gallinazo, Santu, Nepeño culture), which was apparently expressed in the establishment of control over local population(to Viru), then in mass migration (to Santa). During the 5th century, these lands were lost again.
The origins of Mochika remain unclear, but the Salinar culture and the traditions of earlier antiquities such as Kupisnike played a significant role in its development. Appearing on the eve of our era, Mochica existed until the 7th century, reaching its peak in the 3rd – 6th centuries. Its economic basis was highly developed irrigation agriculture. Natural fertilizers were widely used, primarily guano, which was mined on the coastal islands. The main agricultural tool was a digging stick made of hard wood with a long blade, sometimes copper. Agriculture was supplemented by the breeding of llamas and guinea pigs. Fishing and marine industries have traditionally played a major role in the economy. Small reed boats were used for fishing and sailing to offshore islands and along the coast.

The creators of the Mochica culture were excellent metallurgists and jewelers. At least already in the 2nd century. AD they melted copper, alloyed it with gold and silver. Probably, the technique of casting from a lost wax model and gilding of products by etching was known. Metal was used both for making jewelry and luxury items, and in everyday life (needles, awls, spindle whorls, fish hooks, etc.). In general, the metallurgy and metalworking of the Mochica culture are close to the Colombian tradition.
Both huge pyramids and dwellings were built from rectangular mud bricks - adobes. On the bricks of the large pyramids of the Moche Valley, geometric imprints were discovered, which are interpreted as signs of the communities that carried out labor duties in the construction of the monumental structures of the Moche capital. The walls of temple buildings were covered with frescoes of mythological content. Images of mythical characters and scenes are found on objects made of metal and wood, on textiles and in huge quantities on ceramics.
The dead were buried in narrow pits, covered with rods and adobe. The dead were laid on their backs, wrapped in mats. Ordinary burials contained several vessels and other things. Along with such burials, richer ones are also known, for example, the burial of a “warrior-priest” in the Viru Valley, where an elderly man in a copper mask was buried, accompanied by the remains of a child, two women and a man. The grave contained a huge number of vessels, wooden staffs with carved inlaid pommels, feather items, headdresses and other items.

On the northern outskirts of the Mochic territory, in Sipan (Lambaeque Valley), the burial of a ruler was found, made between the middle of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In the thickness of the adobe platform on which the temple buildings once stood, a rectangular grave was discovered, in which there was a wooden coffin with the remains of a man lying on his back. In his hands he held something like a golden scepter. The lower part of the face was covered with a golden mask, the body was wrapped in cloth. Below and above him there was a huge number of things of a prestigious nature - headdresses, gold jewelry with inlay, feather jewelry, precious shells, gold and bronze plates that replaced armor, gold standards, etc. The ruler was accompanied by two women and several men. A dog was buried with one of them. Countless ceramic vessels were discovered in the tomb.
In the same platform, another grave was found, plundered by professional grave robbers - huaqueros. It produces a number of magnificent pieces of jewelry. The presence of rich burials was also noted in the pyramids of the Moche Valley.

The center around which the Mochic association formed at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD was the Moche and Chicama valleys, although Early Mochic materials were also found further north, in the Piura valley. In the 2nd-3rd centuries, the construction of pyramids began in the Moche Valley. Judging by the iconography and archaeological data, by the middle of the 1st millennium, the Mochica had already formed a state. It was at this time that its expansion to the south began, first to the Viru and Santa valleys, and in the 6th century, and further, to the Nepeña valley. In the following valleys - Casma and Culebras - there are no materials from the Mochica culture, but they were discovered even further south, in the Huarmey valley. Around the same time, the cultural territory expanded to the north, up to the Leche Valley.
In the 7th century, the Mochica civilization declines, and the southern valleys fall out of its control. It is possible that at that time there were two associations: a northern one with a center in Pampa Grande and a southern one, the capital of which was located on the site of the Galindo settlement, in the middle reaches of the Moche River. At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century, as a result of the Inca invasion, the Mochica culture was conquered and ceased to exist.

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