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Forgotten Cities, Lost Civilizations of Mesoamerica, Legacy, Conquest and Demise · Matrix Wisdom, A Hidden History Podcast

• 0:09
  The phenomenon of the Olmec heads and their mysterious
• 0:12
  origins is observed in the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the
• 0:16
  early pre Classic period. With the development of the
• 0:19
  Olmec culture, the first representations of political
• 0:23
  power are witnessed. There, expressed through
• 0:25
  monumental sculpture and large scale architecture, the dominant
• 0:30
  figure of the rulers appears and alludes to forms of government
• 0:33
  exercised by individuals who can convene to populations through
• 0:38
  ideological management and other coercion mechanisms.
• 0:42
  The sociopolitical complexity thus emerged encouraged the
• 0:46
  development of similar forms in other areas of Mesoamerica,
• 0:50
  which would later lead to the appearance of the first
• 0:52
  stratified societies made-up of actual states, such as the cases
• 0:57
  of Toyota Huacan in the Mexican Highlands, Monte Alban in Oaxaca
• 1:02
  and the city states of the Maya area during the Classical
• 1:05
  period. The corollary of this process
• 1:08
  was made-up by some societies of the Post Classic period that
• 1:12
  reached superstate levels, as happened with the Mexico who
• 1:16
  settled in the Mexican Highlands and came to establish a true Pan
• 1:20
  Mesoamerica empire. Having made this brief
• 1:24
  introduction, it is now time to enter the specific study of each
• 1:28
  of the ancient Mexican societies that are considered most
• 1:31
  important in the political development of Mesoamerica.
• 3:10
  Olmec society has been the subject of multiple
• 3:13
  interpretations. Indeed, while some have
• 3:16
  identified it as an art style that stimulated the cultural
• 3:20
  development of other regions, others have seen it as a Society
• 3:24
  of missionaries who travelled to distant regions, promoting the
• 3:27
  exchange of ideas and the development of religious
• 3:30
  institutions. It has also been considered a
• 3:34
  classist and military empire that demanded tribute from
• 3:37
  neighboring communities and extended its commercial networks
• 3:41
  through the conquest of territories or as a hierarchical
• 3:45
  society that carried out long distance exchanges with other
• 3:48
  communities that were at the same level.
• 3:51
  Whatever these interpretations, Olmec society made-up without a
• 3:56
  doubt the first prominent expression of political power
• 3:59
  that is known in the entire Mesoamerica area.
• 4:03
  In the classic pre period 2000 BC to 2000 AD, there was the
• 4:08
  gestation, apogee and decline of this culture which has left a
• 4:13
  deep mark that lasts until the present.
• 4:16
  The representations of political aspects in the Olmec world are
• 4:20
  precise through many archaeological remains, among
• 4:23
  which sculpture stands out. Particularly the so-called
• 4:27
  colossal heads, which have been. Considered portraits of the
• 4:31
  rulers, representations of political power are also found
• 4:36
  in the minor arts, for example, in offering at La Venter,
• 4:40
  comprising various figurines of individuals in an attitude of
• 4:44
  the council meeting. In Olmec art, power is also
• 4:48
  symbolized. Through certain distinctive
• 4:50
  features that reveal a combination of forces of nature
• 4:54
  and man being in this sense of relevance to the figure of the
• 4:58
  Jaguar that must have meant that power of the rulers.
• 5:02
  How did the Olmecs merge themselves politically and
• 5:06
  extend their hegemony to the rest of Mesoamerica?
• 5:09
  To ponder this question, it is vital to make some
• 5:12
  considerations about the origins of this society that according
• 5:17
  to specialists should not be in the so-called Olmec nuclear zone
• 5:21
  in the states of Tabasco and Veracruz, where the critical
• 5:25
  Olmec centres of San Lorenzo and La Venta, but outside of it.
• 5:29
  Regarding its social organization, it is considered
• 5:33
  that the predominant form was the Chieftom.
• 5:36
  Towards the early pre Classic period, Mesoamerica societies
• 5:40
  had reached their fullness as agricultural societies and
• 5:44
  established long distance exchange mechanisms which
• 5:47
  facilitated obtaining resources and raw materials necessary to
• 5:51
  develop their economic, social and political activities.
• 5:56
  This system allowed several. 1000 individuals to be brought
• 5:59
  together in the major population centers, as evidenced by
• 6:03
  archaeological evidence in the central Mexican Highlands,
• 6:06
  Oaxaca, and the western part of the Mayan area, specifically in
• 6:10
  the state of Chiapas. One of the most notable
• 6:15
  specialists in the Olmec culture and archaeology of the Chiapas
• 6:19
  region considers that it could have.
• 6:21
  Been in this last region where the origin of what would later
• 6:25
  become the first state of mesoamerica according to Romney,
• 6:30
  in the Pacific coastal zone of chiapas, a society existed which
• 6:34
  he is called mokaya, which early began A differentiation process
• 6:38
  with the rest of the groups that.
• 6:40
  Occupied the same area. This difference was because they
• 6:44
  merged a form of political organization higher than that of
• 6:47
  their neighbors, corresponding to Chieftain in his opinion.
• 6:52
  Although the origins of the. Olmecs are because of a
• 6:55
  multiplicity of roots corresponding to the early
• 6:58
  formative period. The primary influence probably
• 7:01
  came from the Mokaias of the Chiapas coast.
• 7:05
  For this author. During the Lacona phase 1650 to
• 7:09
  1500 BC, the Mokayas of the Soconusko, particularly those of
• 7:14
  the Mazatan area, developed the first simple chieftains of
• 7:17
  Mesoamerica, which other early formative groups imitated.
• 7:22
  Subsequently, the Gulf Coast groups moved further afield and
• 7:26
  developed a system of social stratification based on
• 7:29
  pyramidal chieftains, thus giving rise to the Olmec
• 7:32
  civilization which later influenced much of Mesoamerica,
• 7:36
  including the region of Sokonusko.
• 7:39
  According to Romney, both the Mokaias of Chiapas and the
• 7:43
  Olmecs of the Gulf Coast were speakers of a mixes Zukian
• 7:47
  language. However, the author maintains
• 7:50
  that to understand the later developments of the Olmec
• 7:53
  culture, it is necessary to attend to its multiple roots and
• 7:57
  the constant interaction of this society with other
• 8:00
  linguistically, ethnically, and culturally different groups.
• 8:04
  It also shows that the competition between the simple
• 8:08
  chieftains must have been intense, and that it was because
• 8:11
  of the characteristics of these simple policies based on solid
• 8:15
  competencies and rudimentary systems of legitimation, that
• 8:19
  the ideological system of the Olmecs spread at great speed.
• 8:24
  Both this ideology and its concepts of government seem to
• 8:28
  have been attractive to local Khaki Case, who saw in this
• 8:31
  model an effective means to solve persistent political
• 8:34
  problems. With their much more advanced
• 8:38
  system, the Olmecs were laying the foundations of civilization.
• 8:42
  In Romney's opinion, the Olmec system of the Gulf Coast appears
• 8:47
  as an aggressive political entity which should be
• 8:49
  considered as the first state to emerge in Mesoamerica and also
• 8:54
  as the first multi ethnic political organization.
• 8:57
  Subsequently, the process mentioned above by turning again
• 9:01
  towards the Olmec nuclear zone, prompted profound changes that
• 9:06
  culminated in the emergence of the first complex civilization
• 9:09
  of Mesoamerica, which had the first significant capital of
• 9:13
  Olmec society at the San Lorenzo site.
• 9:17
  The most unmistakable evidence of the political level reached
• 9:20
  by this site, which had its leading development in the early
• 9:24
  formative period, early pre Classic, and which, as noted
• 9:28
  above, was the first important city of the Olmecs, is the many
• 9:32
  colossal heads there found. 10 colossal heads have been in San
• 9:36
  Lorenzo to date. Another seven have been
• 9:39
  discovered at other sites in the nuclear zone, especially at
• 9:43
  Tresaportis and La Venta. Each of these heads differs from
• 9:47
  the others by its size, weight and specific sculptural
• 9:51
  features. However, they share certain.
• 9:54
  General details such as large volume.
• 9:57
  Monumental sculptures representing individuals heads
• 10:00
  and having a helmet. These sculptures represent the
• 10:04
  rulers, which refers to centralized power.
• 10:07
  They have thick lips, high cheekbones, flabby cheeks, a
• 10:11
  frown and highly marked corners of the lips.
• 10:14
  In terms of facial features, the enormous eyes are slightly
• 10:18
  sunken, and in the ears they always wear earmuffs that can be
• 10:22
  of various shapes and materials. Researcher Henry Romano, who has
• 10:27
  conducted recent research in San Lorenzo, shows that the height
• 10:31
  of the colossal heads ranges from 1.47 to 3.40 meters and
• 10:36
  that their weight varies between 6 and 50 tons.
• 10:41
  Referring to the sculptural features of the heads, this
• 10:44
  author points out that the helmet present in all of them
• 10:48
  seems to represent a garment made of leather and carries
• 10:52
  exclusive status Insignia of actual figures or governors.
• 10:56
  Besides beads and greenstone ornaments, feathers, tassels,
• 11:00
  ropes, and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic elements that define
• 11:04
  the category of the individual represented.
• 11:07
  Motifs and elements symbolizing birds are frequently found,
• 11:11
  which, according to the author, could show the existence of
• 11:15
  family dynasties identified by a totemic animal.
• 11:19
  He also mentions that the strings that appear on the seven
• 11:22
  headed helmets of San Lorenzo should be interpreted as another
• 11:26
  motif associated with power, as they are tools considered
• 11:30
  essential for subsistence in the tropical forest.
• 11:33
  In the opinion of ciphers, the transformation of everyday
• 11:37
  instruments into ceremonial objects is frequent in Olmec
• 11:40
  culture, as evidenced by the commonly used and ritual axis
• 11:45
  that have been found. Each ruler represented likely
• 11:49
  corresponds to a sequence of commands in a period and to a
• 11:52
  specific lineage. It may be the figure of a chief,
• 11:56
  if this society is considered a chieftom of great hierarchy or
• 12:00
  the big man of a community of a certain rank.
• 12:03
  If, On the contrary, it was at an early stage, then it may be
• 12:07
  the figure of a kind of king or central ruler.
• 12:10
  In such early times of Mesoamerican development.
• 12:14
  There are no other sites either in sculpture or painting
• 12:18
  representations of the figure of rulers which shows that the
• 12:21
  Olmecs were the first society that merged and developed a
• 12:25
  power complex political which also made its influence felt
• 12:28
  throughout the Mesoamerican area.
• 12:32
  Towards the middle Pre classic La Venta emerged as an important
• 12:36
  regional center on the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
• 12:39
  Many authors point out that because of its architectural
• 12:43
  features and layout, this center can be considered the first in
• 12:46
  Mesoamerica in which a defined concept of urbanism is observed.
• 12:51
  It represents the consolidation of the Olmec political system.
• 12:56
  In the center. There are also colossal heads
• 12:59
  that represent either or more rulers of different times.
• 13:03
  Within the extensive material culture recovered in La Venta,
• 13:07
  there is a fabulous collection of figurines called Ofrenda,
• 13:11
  representing a council, meeting or assembly of actual figures.
• 13:15
  The figurines of this offering are all standing, forming a
• 13:18
  circle and surrounded by what appears to be a stellar.
• 13:23
  All individuals present cranial deformation and the
• 13:26
  characteristic facial features of Olmec art.
• 13:30
  It is worth mentioning that many of these figurines were made.
• 13:33
  Of jade, a material external to the region, which shows that the
• 13:37
  raw material was obtained through exchange.
• 13:40
  It has been determined that the Olmecs established a unique long
• 13:44
  distance exchange system, Mesoamerica, in scope to buy
• 13:48
  products and materials not available.
• 13:50
  In their environment of the imported.
• 13:54
  Materials. Many were used to make
• 13:56
  ornamental objects such as beads for necklaces, earmuffs,
• 14:00
  bracelets, pectorals, votive axes, and others.
• 14:06
  Politician of the entire Mesoamerica region.
• 14:10
  The existence of such ornamental pieces, together with the
• 14:14
  abundant finely carved figurines, small sculptures and
• 14:17
  many delicate ceramic objects, shows that it was a society with
• 14:21
  artisan specialization oriented to satisfy the demands of the
• 14:26
  main characters and the ruling elite.
• 14:28
  Concerning this, it should be noted that.
• 14:31
  Although there were already social differences in other
• 14:34
  parts of Mesoamerica shown. Above all, in the Mortuary
• 14:38
  offerings in the Olmec, these differences are especially
• 14:41
  relevant. The quantity and quality of the
• 14:44
  objects found show a society with a well established
• 14:48
  hierarchy, political power and economic wealth went hand in
• 14:52
  hand, which made-up the most significant development because
• 14:56
  of its high socio political complexity.
• 14:59
  A vital aspect that must be considered when studying the
• 15:03
  political history of the Olmecs is precisely the integration
• 15:07
  achieved between the religious and the political aspects.
• 15:11
  The territorial expansion and the Olmec cultural influence in
• 15:15
  Mesoamerica bear the stamp of their religion, supported by the
• 15:19
  cult of the Jaguar and the forces of the earth in the Olmec
• 15:23
  nuclear zone made-up of San Lorenzo, Tris, Zaputis, La
• 15:28
  Venta, Laguna de Los Eros, and others, the features of the
• 15:31
  Jaguar cult are widely spread both in time and space.
• 15:36
  This motif is repeatedly represented in paintings,
• 15:40
  sculptures, ceramics, and other objects such as jade ornaments,
• 15:44
  Obsidian. Beyond this nuclear zone, Olmec
• 15:48
  features have been located, sometimes more substantial and
• 15:52
  sometimes more weakly expressed, in the central Mexican
• 15:55
  Highlands, western Mexico, Oaxaca, and of course, in areas
• 16:00
  of the Mayan area. They appear.
• 16:02
  In some places such as Izapa, Teo Pantico, Anitlan, Diablo
• 16:07
  Rojo, Chacatzingo, Takali, Kabai, Clatilco, Clapacoya, La
• 16:12
  Blanca, Caminaluyu, Amtitlan and San Bottolo Petin, Guatemala.
• 16:19
  In most places, sculptures samples predominate, whose
• 16:22
  zoomorphic or anthropomorphic shape is characterized by
• 16:26
  flaming eyebrows. Oval and oblique eyes.
• 16:29
  Crossed bands, geometric motifs, thick lips, Brindle mouths, and
• 16:34
  other styles. The same forms are represented
• 16:37
  with altars. They also present samples of
• 16:40
  mural painting and pictograms on rocks, always with Olmec motifs.
• 16:46
  Some authors, such as Stacey Dalton and Windsor Lopez, argue
• 16:50
  that Olmec society had enough elements of a political order to
• 16:54
  consider it an actual state. Others, such as Alfonso Caso,
• 16:59
  Ignacio Bernal and Michael Coe even proposed that the Olmecs
• 17:04
  made-up an empire at the Mesoamerica level, still lacking
• 17:08
  the evidence to support it. Based on other authors
• 17:11
  approaches, estimates that the incredible sophistication and
• 17:15
  power of San Lorenzo and Leventa without opponents in terms of
• 17:19
  quality and quantity of their works, must have given them
• 17:22
  dominance over other chieftains in the Gulf.
• 17:26
  The discoveries related to the incredible power achieved by the
• 17:29
  sight of San Lorenzo during the time of its heyday offer,
• 17:33
  according to Low, additional support for the idea of an early
• 17:37
  Olmec state. This author thinks the same
• 17:40
  concerning the Leventosite, considering that it fulfilled
• 17:43
  the requirements to make up a state in the middle formative.
• 17:47
  Among other factors, Lowe points out that the demolition of the
• 17:51
  old idea that considered that the pre classical or formative
• 17:54
  period, as its name shows and traditional chronology assumed,
• 17:58
  was only the formative stage of the so-called high cultures of
• 18:02
  the classical period, represented mainly by the many
• 18:05
  Mayan and Teotihuacan lordships, and moved the origin of the
• 18:09
  complexity and the probable origin of the state to at least
• 18:13
  1500 years earlier than previously thought.
• 18:18
  Regarding the Olmec presence in the other areas of Mesoamerica
• 18:22
  outside the Gulf Coast, particularly notorious in
• 18:25
  sculptural art, much has been argued about whether it was the
• 18:29
  effect of the influence, diffusion, militaristic
• 18:32
  religious commercial expansion, or else of the ideological
• 18:37
  dominance exercised by the Olmecs of the Gulf.
• 18:40
  Whatever the reason, their remarkable political development
• 18:43
  allowed them to maintain hegemony in their region during
• 18:47
  the pre Classic period and establish close ties with other
• 18:50
  societies, some of which would come to play a significant role
• 18:54
  in Mesoamerica. Such was the case of the Mayans
• 18:57
  after the Olmec era ended towards the end of that period.
• 19:02
  Zapotecans, Mesoamerica Suppose you want to study a society that
• 19:08
  offers a long lasting historical continuity, like Mesoamerica
• 19:12
  itself. In that case, that is
• 19:15
  undoubtedly the Oaxacan represented by the Zapotecs, who
• 19:19
  made their political hegemony felt in the Oaxaca region and
• 19:23
  beyond towards the rest of the world.
• 19:26
  The most characteristic example of the political complexity
• 19:29
  reached by Oaxaca is the impressive city of Monty Alban,
• 19:33
  the actual first urban center of Mesoamerica.
• 19:37
  This city has a well planned architectural plan on a NS axis
• 19:42
  in which a series of buildings and stepped pyramids have
• 19:45
  perfectly aligned that form of a rectangle on a plateau from
• 19:49
  which the entire valley of Oaxaca is dominated.
• 19:53
  Several buildings are aligned in the central part of the
• 19:56
  rectangle that fulfilled different functions, including
• 19:59
  what has been considered an astronomical observatory.
• 20:03
  The walls of the buildings are ornamented with freezes and
• 20:07
  tombstones that show scenes of individuals in an attitude of
• 20:10
  movement, which is why they have been called Monte Alban Dancers.
• 20:15
  The city also has courtyards for ball games.
• 20:18
  One question that should be asked is where and at what
• 20:22
  moment did inequality arise in Oaxaca and how did Monte Alban
• 20:27
  emerge as the Zapotec's great regional center and capital?
• 20:32
  The answer is found in the minor sites of the early pre classic
• 20:35
  period of the Oaxaca Valley. The first site extension of its
• 20:40
  area, the significant number and complexity of its platforms, and
• 20:44
  the magnitude of its pyramid are clear examples of structures
• 20:48
  that show the existence of a great variety of buildings, such
• 20:51
  as temples, palaces, sculptural enclosures, and a great range of
• 20:56
  elitist and typical residences. The author adds that the
• 21:00
  elegance and differences between 5 critical tombs found in La
• 21:04
  Venta point to the social differences that existed in that
• 21:08
  Center for Henry Romano. Towards the Middle Formative
• 21:12
  period, the Olmecs of the Gulf reached the hierarchy sufficient
• 21:16
  to establish a state type organization, which was also
• 21:19
  being appreciated in other regions of Mesoamerica such as
• 21:23
  the Pacific Ocean coast of Guatemala, where the site La
• 21:27
  Blanca achieved A preponderant political level in the region,
• 21:30
  including the Sokonusko area as an advanced chieftom.
• 21:36
  As an early stage or as an entire state, the archaeological
• 21:40
  evidence allows us to place Olmec society as the most
• 21:43
  developed politically in its time.
• 21:46
  Its main elements of social, economic, political and artistic
• 21:51
  order can be observed since the emergence of San Lorenzo in the
• 21:54
  early pre classic. The Lorenzo phases between 1350
• 21:58
  and 900 BC and are merged during the heyday of LA Venta, Nicaste
• 22:04
  Basin and Remplas phases between 900 and 300 BC.
• 22:09
  In the opinion of the archaeologist Tony Disanza,
• 22:12
  based on the research she develops in the San Lorenzo area
• 22:15
  in Veracruz, Mexico. The colossal Olmec heads made
• 22:19
  from basalt imported to the nuclear zone from the Tuxplas
• 22:23
  region in Veracruz, illustrate the institutionalization of
• 22:27
  political rank and its legitimacy among the Olmecs.
• 22:31
  With San Lorenzo, it is considered that the emphasis
• 22:34
  given to the portraits of rulers becomes a notable characteristic
• 22:38
  of a society in which the government exercised by dynastic
• 22:41
  families was of great importance.
• 22:44
  This means, according to ciphers, that the elites at the
• 22:48
  top of the social stratification sought to legitimize and
• 22:52
  reinforce their power through monumental sculpture.
• 22:55
  From this account, the dead rulers were sacralized and
• 22:59
  considered mediators between the mythical past and their time,
• 23:03
  which invested their descendants with great social prestige and
• 23:07
  reinforced their right to rule. The Olmecs over 1000 years
• 23:12
  established a particular style reflected in their material
• 23:15
  culture, which has been recognized by all researchers
• 23:19
  who agree that theirs was the first society to reach the
• 23:23
  highest levels of hierarchy. Sociopolitical was hitherto
• 23:27
  known in Mesoamerica. Recent investigations have
• 23:30
  concluded that it achieved appreciable authority over the
• 23:34
  rest was San Jose Muguti in the Ettla Valley, one of the three
• 23:39
  that make up the region of the central valleys of Oaxaca.
• 23:42
  It began its development around 1500 BCA, time in which there is
• 23:48
  already evidence of the social complexity that characterizes
• 23:51
  sedentary communities, such as indications of craft,
• 23:55
  specialization activities, public architecture, and long
• 23:58
  distance commerce. According to the Mesoamerica
• 24:02
  Research Group, the oldest remains of occupation in the San
• 24:06
  Jose Muguti area, Spiridian phase 1500 to 1400 BC,
• 24:11
  correspond to small groups that build simple houses made of
• 24:15
  perishable material to ensure their subsistence through
• 24:18
  hunting and gathering, complemented with incipient
• 24:21
  agriculture based on the cultivation of corn.
• 24:24
  The material culture included ceramic objects such as pots and
• 24:29
  bowls of very crude elaboration. In the phase called long Lands,
• 24:34
  1400 to 1150 BC, the density of the population increased and so
• 24:40
  did the number of constructions being characteristic of this
• 24:43
  phase. The appearance of one room
• 24:45
  constructions with an interior altar and staggering access,
• 24:49
  which are the first public buildings in the area.
• 24:52
  The diversity in the shape of the houses suggests the
• 24:56
  existence of differentiation of the community in social classes.
• 25:00
  It also signifies A notable population increase supported by
• 25:04
  a more intense agricultural production, an extreme which is
• 25:08
  also observable by the variability of the ceramic
• 25:11
  forms. During the San Jose phase 1150
• 25:16
  to 850 BC, irrigation based agriculture significantly
• 25:20
  increased production and demography.
• 25:23
  While in other communities in the valley the extension of the
• 25:26
  villas was barely 2 hectares, in San Jose Mugote it reached up to
• 25:31
  30 hectares. The main characteristic of this
• 25:35
  phase was the construction of platforms made of river stone
• 25:39
  and sandstones, which served as a base for buildings more
• 25:42
  significant than one or two bodies in which the first bas
• 25:46
  reliefs with abstract representations of birds and
• 25:49
  cats have been identified. During this time, San Jose
• 25:54
  Muguti was the largest settlement in the central
• 25:57
  valleys of Oaxaca and took part in long distance exchange
• 26:00
  networks that connected with essential sites such as San
• 26:04
  Lorenzo and others in Veracruz, from where it imported ceramics
• 26:09
  and also raw materials such as minerals and precious stones.
• 26:14
  According to Windsor Lopez, who relies on the opinions of
• 26:18
  Geoffrey Flannery, the forms of the social organization of this
• 26:21
  phase could correspond to tribal type communities organized in
• 26:25
  larger villages. Such an advanced aspect is
• 26:29
  deduced from the discovery in burials located under the floors
• 26:33
  of the houses and patios, whose characteristics show they were
• 26:37
  tombs belonging to individuals of high hierarchy, probably
• 26:41
  leaders, since they have the shape of elongated pits provided
• 26:45
  architectural details, and the buried ones appear accompanied
• 26:48
  by rich offerings different from those of the rest of the
• 26:52
  population. The interaction with other areas
• 26:56
  of Mesoamerica can be seen in the presence of ceramics from
• 26:59
  the Chiapas coast and the Olmec nuclear zone.
• 27:03
  San Jose Mogote is contemporary with important sites in other
• 27:07
  areas such as Chiapa de Corzo in Chiapas, Teo Pantequanitlan in
• 27:11
  Guerrero, Clatilco in the Altiplano of Mexico,
• 27:15
  Chalcatzingo in Morelos, and San Lorenzo and Manati in Veracruz.
• 27:20
  The latter 2 linked, as mentioned previously, with the
• 27:23
  Olmec Societies of the Gulf during the Guadalupe and Rosario
• 27:29
  phases 800 to 500 BC, corresponding to the Middle Pre
• 27:34
  Classic. The settlement of San Jose
• 27:36
  Mogote reached an area of 70 hectares and had Adobe buildings
• 27:40
  for administrative or religious functions settled on paths
• 27:44
  platforms of one or two bodies. The best example of this type of
• 27:49
  construction is Building 1, built around 650 BC.
• 27:54
  On a large platform have also been located 13 structures of
• 27:58
  various kinds and a sculptural monument comprising a tombstone
• 28:02
  in low relief representing an individual, probably a captive,
• 28:07
  accompanied by the Glyph 1 earthquake, The oldest sample
• 28:11
  calendrical writing in the Mesoamerica area.
• 28:16
  In the opinion of Stefano Crocop, during the phases
• 28:19
  mentioned above, various sites in the Etla Valley could have
• 28:23
  reached the category of chieftains, the main one being
• 28:26
  San Jose Mogote, probably Kazoobi ceramic sculpture found
• 28:32
  in Monte Alban, 47 centimeters high.
• 28:35
  It acted as the governing political center of an
• 28:38
  autonomous political entity in one of the valley branches,
• 28:42
  including twenty villages. Finally, towards the Monte Alban
• 28:46
  1 and 2 phases, 500 BC to 200 AD groups of settlers from the
• 28:52
  Ettler Valley seem to have moved towards the Oaxaca Valley to
• 28:55
  found Monte Alban. This hypothesis is supported
• 28:59
  because ceramic and architectural types related to
• 29:02
  San Jose Magote have been found on this site.
• 29:06
  What can be sustained is that the evolutionary development of
• 29:10
  San Jose Mogote was fundamental to stimulate the appearance of
• 29:14
  the great urban center of Oaxaca, known as Monte Arban,
• 29:17
  which, at the confluence of the great valleys of the current
• 29:21
  state, became one of the significant Mesoamerican
• 29:24
  capitals. Mount Alban, around 500 BC,
• 29:34
  during the heyday of San Jose Magute.
• 29:36
  It was founded in the valley of Oaxaca, which would become the
• 29:40
  great city of Monte Alban, the capital and significant center
• 29:44
  of Zaputic culture. The founding of Monte Alban,
• 29:48
  which in the opinions of Marcus Winter represents the first city
• 29:52
  in the New World, began a stage characterized by communities
• 29:56
  with several thousand inhabitants, the construction of
• 29:59
  monumental stone buildings, the use of writing and the calendar,
• 30:03
  as well as a marked and growing differentiation between social
• 30:07
  groups. All of this took place in the
• 30:10
  late formative period between 500 BC and 250AD, also known as
• 30:16
  the Early cities. Monte Alban quickly reached
• 30:20
  15,000 inhabitants and became the dominant center of all the
• 30:25
  communities of the Oaxaca Valley and the central city of the
• 30:28
  Zapotex for more than 1000 years.
• 30:31
  There were, among other buildings, markets, temples,
• 30:35
  palaces and storage and drainage systems in that city.
• 30:40
  Of its buildings, one of the most important is the so-called
• 30:43
  dancers, which comprises A pyramidal platform and has 300
• 30:48
  gravestones outside that contains scenes of individuals
• 30:52
  in an attitude of movement. The archaeologist Joyce Marcus
• 30:56
  has interpreted these scenes as representations of captive
• 31:00
  sacrificed by the mutilation of their genitalia.
• 31:03
  It is most likely that they were captured in military activities,
• 31:07
  which implies a regular army. In this late formative period,
• 31:12
  the great city's population consisted mainly of an elite
• 31:16
  composed of priests and political leaders,
• 31:18
  administrators, artisans and merchants.
• 31:22
  According to Winter, the dominance that Monte Alban
• 31:25
  exercised over the central valleys of Oaxaca and at the
• 31:29
  regional level seems to have been due above all to
• 31:32
  innovations such as the development of astronomy,
• 31:36
  calendar writing and religion, to a range of specialized
• 31:40
  knowledge that the elite could wield to control subordinate
• 31:43
  groups. According to the same author,
• 31:47
  during the classical period 250 to 800, the city continued its
• 31:52
  growth until reaching about 30,000 inhabitants, distributed
• 31:56
  in six square kilometers. The construction of monumental
• 32:00
  buildings continued and other second and 3rd order centres
• 32:04
  emerged in the valley of Oaxaca, thus establishing a hierarchy of
• 32:08
  settlements and political power. Likewise, during this period,
• 32:13
  status relationships were formalized by forming at least
• 32:17
  three differentiated social classes, as seen by the various
• 32:21
  sizes and luxuries that the Monte Arban residences present.
• 32:25
  Winter One O 3 believes that ball courts and temples were
• 32:29
  integrated into palaces as a reaffirmation of power.
• 32:34
  The above adds the importance that the Zapotecs gave to their
• 32:37
  funeral customs as manifestations of power and
• 32:40
  wealth. In their elegant tombs they
• 32:43
  captured in both painting and sculpture the images of rulers
• 32:47
  and close relatives as a way of symbolizing the
• 32:50
  institutionalization of elite rule.
• 32:53
  An exciting piece of information regarding the level of political
• 32:57
  development of the Zapotex of Monte Alban is made-up by the
• 33:01
  content of a group of 40 tombstones in Building J, which
• 33:05
  is believed to have been an observatory.
• 33:07
  The inscriptions on the tombstones have been interpreted
• 33:11
  as records of places conquered even outside the valley in an
• 33:14
  expansionist zeal. Winter shows that towards the
• 33:19
  end of the classical period, the urban centres of Oaxaca ceased
• 33:23
  to function and were abandoned, among other causes, because of
• 33:27
  socio political changes caused by the lack of capacity of high
• 33:31
  status families and of the rulers to maintain enforce their
• 33:34
  political system based on the exploitation of the subordinate
• 33:38
  group. The origin of Monte Alban and
• 33:42
  its state apparatus resulted from a confederation between
• 33:45
  previously autonomous political entities that organized to
• 33:49
  neutralize conflicts among themselves.
• 33:52
  This would show that Monte Alban in a neutral and defensive place
• 33:56
  corresponded to mainly political and military factors and would
• 34:00
  explain its role as a decision making Center for a larger
• 34:04
  political entity. Whatever the causes of the
• 34:07
  emergence of Monte Arban, it is undeniable that through this
• 34:11
  city the Zapotex developed a solid political system that
• 34:15
  allowed a relative socio economic and political
• 34:18
  stability, maintained for more than 1000 years and made-up a
• 34:23
  form of state organization endowed with coercion
• 34:26
  mechanisms. Toyota Huacan Toyota Huacan was
• 34:32
  the first of the great urban centers of the Basin of Mexico
• 34:35
  and the place where the most complex forms of sociopolitical
• 34:39
  organization known until then emerged.
• 34:42
  Aspects such as the enormous size of the city, the complexity
• 34:46
  of its urban organization, its dominance over nearby regions,
• 34:50
  and the influence it exerted on the entire Mesoamerica area
• 34:54
  account for the above. For selecting the point where
• 34:58
  the city was built, the proximity of Obsidian deposits
• 35:02
  in places such as Otoomba and Sierra de Las Novajas, together
• 35:06
  with springs in the area, and its proximity to the lake system
• 35:10
  of the Lake Tetskoku. The valleys privileged position
• 35:13
  on the access route between the Gulf Coast and the base of
• 35:16
  Mexico also played an important role.
• 35:20
  These factors made it possible for the site to control and
• 35:23
  exploit specific critical resources for its development.
• 35:28
  According to Manzanilla, another powerful reason that influenced
• 35:31
  the city's location was pyroclastic minerals such as
• 35:35
  tizontally basalt and stuff used for construction, and were
• 35:39
  extracted from the subsoil through tunnels.
• 35:43
  About the latter, several studies have shown that in
• 35:46
  Teotihuacan, the exploitation of Obsidian deposits was carried
• 35:50
  out and artifacts were produced that were exchanged beyond the
• 35:54
  Basin of Mexico. It is known, for example, that
• 35:58
  the green Obsidian from Cerro de Las Navajas was taken to regions
• 36:02
  as far away as the Mayan area, where it has been found in small
• 36:06
  quantities and regional contexts.
• 36:08
  In this way we observe it in Comin Al Uyu and Mexicanos
• 36:13
  Amtitlan. Between BC100AD, the most
• 36:19
  revolutionary and dramatic changes occurred in the
• 36:21
  settlement pattern of the Valley of Mexico, when Toyota Huracan
• 36:25
  emerged as a centre of unusual size and population.
• 36:29
  They presuppose that specific population rearrangements must
• 36:33
  have occurred because of coercive pressures and emphasize
• 36:37
  the extraordinary nature of the monuments and public
• 36:40
  architecture of Toyota Huracan, such as the pyramids of the Sun
• 36:43
  and the Moon, the economic specialization activities of the
• 36:48
  Carzada de Los de Ade with the part time and full time artisans
• 36:52
  who produced artefacts for exchange.
• 36:55
  They show that although population nucleation is
• 36:59
  observed in the big city, small rural sites occasionally could
• 37:03
  have been used as a temporary residence by people who lived
• 37:06
  mainly in Totohuacan. Finally, they consider that
• 37:11
  agriculture had an enormous intensification during this time
• 37:15
  in the site's surroundings. Manzanilla warns that the
• 37:18
  Mikaotli phase 100 to 200 began with the Carzada de Los Muertos
• 37:24
  line and the consequent displacement of the population
• 37:27
  towards its margins. In this phase, the rest of the
• 37:31
  city was built, taking as reference lines parallel and
• 37:35
  perpendicular to the central axis.
• 37:38
  Also corresponding to that time was the construction of the
• 37:41
  Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, which came to represent an alternative
• 37:45
  ritual focus to that of the Pyramid of the Moon, as well as
• 37:49
  the construction of the Temple of Agriculture, of the Viking
• 37:51
  group, which had residential functions, and of the structure
• 37:55
  that covered the Temple of Quetzalcoatl.
• 37:59
  According to Rene Milion, the Mika Otli phase made-up when the
• 38:03
  city of Toyota Huacan reached its maximum extension and
• 38:06
  largest population since it covered an area of 22.5 square
• 38:11
  kilometers and could host up to 45,000 inhabitants.
• 38:17
  Regarding the next phase, called Clamir LOLPA 200 to 400,
• 38:22
  Manzanilla comments that the construction of many public
• 38:25
  works continued, both about the layout of streets and drainage
• 38:29
  and water supply systems, as well as the lifting of
• 38:32
  administrative buildings. Among them stands out the great
• 38:36
  complex in front of the Citadel on the other side of the Carzada
• 38:40
  de Los Muertos, which is considered the largest structure
• 38:43
  in the city, since it covered an area larger than that of the
• 38:46
  citadel itself. The residential neighborhoods
• 38:50
  Clamille, L'olpa, Tepantitla, Tetitla and Zakwala are also
• 38:55
  from the same period, whose buildings comprise several rooms
• 38:59
  of different levels around open courtyards.
• 39:02
  They also have domestic sanctuaries and an external wall
• 39:06
  surrounds each set. The neighborhoods called Guaje,
• 39:10
  Cueno and Los Comerciantes, considered neighborhoods of
• 39:13
  foreigners, also correspond to the time.
• 39:17
  Based on what has just been exposed on the enormous
• 39:20
  additional information available on the subject, it can be
• 39:23
  concluded that this site functioned as the headquarters
• 39:26
  of an entirely state-run social organization.
• 39:30
  The archaeological evidence is in this sense overwhelming and
• 39:34
  categorical. Toyota Huacan is made-up
• 39:38
  together with the later Mexico state, the maximum example of
• 39:41
  this level of complexity in Mesoamerica, not only because of
• 39:46
  the volume of its constructions and the urban layout of the
• 39:49
  city, but also, among other reasons, because of the
• 39:52
  population concentration, the diffusion of its elements
• 39:56
  throughout the Basin of Mexico and beyond.
• 39:58
  It's developed religious ritual and high artisan specialization
• 40:03
  achieved. It is also worth remembering
• 40:06
  that Toyota Huracan achieved the control and mining exploitation
• 40:10
  of specific resources such as Obsidian, available in its
• 40:14
  vicinity. Toyota Huacan elements in the
• 40:18
  Mayan area, in places of the Pacific Coast or in the
• 40:21
  Highlands of Guatemala, such as Kaminaluyu or Mexicanos,
• 40:25
  highlight the interaction between this great city and
• 40:28
  remote areas. A relationship in the
• 40:32
  relationships case between Toyota Huacan and Kaminaluyu.
• 40:36
  Given the evidence, it can be shown that the central exchange
• 40:39
  corresponded to certain specific classes of goods, especially of
• 40:43
  a luxury type, that could have been exchanged as gifts.
• 40:47
  Certain Obsidian vessels and objects fall perfectly into this
• 40:51
  category, as do senses of great aesthetic value.
• 40:55
  It is also considered that another fundamental reason
• 40:58
  luxury goods from Toyota Huracan were imported to these remote
• 41:02
  places was the desire of the local elites to achieve, through
• 41:06
  the control of this activity, elements of status that would
• 41:09
  reinforce their hegemony. Regarding the form of
• 41:13
  sociopolitical organization of Teotihuacan, Manzanilla shows
• 41:18
  how paradoxical it is to verify that despite the much existing
• 41:22
  archaeological information, it has not been possible to
• 41:26
  establish to date exactly what this organization was like.
• 41:30
  Based on various Teotihuacan pictorial manifestations, such
• 41:35
  as those of the Tipantitla neighborhood, it can be deduced
• 41:38
  that the group with the highest social position was that of the
• 41:42
  priests, identifiable by their bag of copal.
• 41:46
  This author considers that the Teotihuacan government was
• 41:49
  collective and was in the hands of a group whose most
• 41:52
  represented function was the priestly one, which was not
• 41:55
  exempt from power struggles. As the author suggests.
• 42:00
  It is probable that the priests of the collective government
• 42:03
  were heads of conical clans on which the division into
• 42:06
  districts of the city was structured, and that they
• 42:09
  therefore functioned as representatives of the various
• 42:12
  groups that inhabited it. It should be noted that religion
• 42:16
  played a fundamental role in Totihua Khan, as testified,
• 42:20
  because the most significant structures in the city are the
• 42:24
  pyramids of the moon and the sun.
• 42:27
  Likewise, the temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl and the mural
• 42:31
  such as the Klarlokan are magnificent examples of the cult
• 42:35
  that the Teotihuanarkos gave to their principal deities, the
• 42:38
  Feathered serpent and the God of rain, Klarlok.
• 42:43
  Many authors have seen Teotihuacan as an expansionist
• 42:46
  state or as an empire extended by Mesoamerica.
• 42:50
  However, despite influences on architecture and art, it is
• 42:54
  impossible to speak of Teotihuacan conquests or
• 42:58
  invasions as long as there is insufficient material evidence.
• 43:02
  There are no direct representations of kings or
• 43:06
  rulers or military apparatus, so the idea of an expansionist
• 43:10
  priestly state is challenging to sustain.
• 43:14
  This contrasts with illusions or representations of individuals
• 43:18
  who hold power, identified as rulers in almost all
• 43:22
  Mesoamerican sites of the Classical period and even
• 43:25
  earlier times, While in the main archaeological centres of
• 43:30
  Mesoamerica the discovery of burials of important figures
• 43:33
  confirms the existence of well established social and political
• 43:37
  hierarchies. In Toyota Huakan it has not been
• 43:40
  possible to locate the tomb of any ruler.
• 43:43
  However, towards the end of the 1990s, excavations conducted at
• 43:48
  the Pyramid of the Moon uncovered the tomb of a
• 43:51
  character buried in a special enclosure with magnificent
• 43:54
  offerings showing a social and possibly political position of
• 43:58
  great relevance. It is not clear yet whether it
• 44:02
  is a figure of a ruler or a priest.
• 44:05
  Other burials have not had the same relevance, and the
• 44:08
  collective burial of 200 individuals found in the temple
• 44:11
  of Quetzalcoatl points in another direction.
• 44:16
  Regarding the fall of Teotihuacan around the year 650,
• 44:21
  it has been established that the central part of the city was
• 44:24
  burned and looted. The causes at the end of
• 44:27
  Teotihuacan were, among others, economic and political
• 44:31
  mismanagement, government rigidity and excessive
• 44:34
  bureaucracy. Despite its disappearance as a
• 44:38
  political and religious centre of great importance, Teotihuacan
• 44:42
  continued to be a place of great historical and cultural value
• 44:45
  for the later socio political centres that emerged in the
• 44:49
  Central Highlands, particularly for the Toltec and Mexico
• 44:52
  societies which legitimized his power in the city of the gods
• 44:58
  Toyota Huacan cultural elements continued to develop once Toyota
• 45:02
  Huacan disappeared in various areas of Mesoamerica.
• 45:06
  After the fall of Toyota Huacan towards the Late Classic, other
• 45:11
  political entities gained importance in the Mexican
• 45:14
  Highlands Oaxaca and Veracruz. From the Altiplano, Hochikalko
• 45:19
  stands out in Morelos, a very elaborate architecture and firm
• 45:24
  evidence of significant political and religious
• 45:26
  development. Also in the Puebla Tlacscala
• 45:30
  region, there are the sites of Cholula and Kakaksla, the first
• 45:34
  with impressive architecture because of the volume of the
• 45:37
  buildings and the second with actual examples of mural
• 45:40
  painting in which characters from other regions of
• 45:43
  Mesoamerica stand out. Also in the Highlands there was
• 45:48
  a centre of excellent dimensions and well elaborated architecture
• 45:52
  called Cantona, which shows a high sociopolitical level and a
• 45:56
  regional authority. Outside the Altiplano in the
• 46:00
  northern part of the Gulf Coast, a centre of great relevance
• 46:04
  known as El Tajin developed a vibrant and diverse architecture
• 46:10
  is observed in it with a unique style in Mesoamerica.
• 46:14
  Among its buildings, the pyramid of the niches stands out, which
• 46:18
  has 365 niches in its various bodies, equal to the number of
• 46:23
  days of the year. The site has the most
• 46:26
  significant number of ball games in a single centre in
• 46:29
  Mesoamerica, highlighting the importance of such activity.
• 46:33
  All the sites mentioned played an essential role in the
• 46:36
  political dynamics of the late classic Mesoamerica 600 to 900.
• 46:42
  However, none of them imposed authority over their
• 46:45
  competitors. Although the experience left by
• 46:48
  Teotihuacan was counted on, these groups did not develop a
• 46:52
  political system so strong as to achieve the hegemony of a single
• 46:56
  centre until the appearance of Tula and the Toltecs.
• 47:00
  However, they marked continuity in the development of
• 47:04
  Mesoamerica societies whose economic and political ties went
• 47:08
  beyond the areas of Central Mexico.
• 47:11
  The different Mesoamerica areas were integrated as seen in the
• 47:15
  distribution and repetition of many features of material
• 47:18
  culture and ideological forms, including religion.
• 47:24
  Toltecs. Towards the 9th century of our
• 47:27
  era, a group of unique characteristics appeared in
• 47:31
  Central Mexico that, unlike contemporary or predecessor
• 47:35
  groups, will achieve A notable and extensive hegemony over
• 47:39
  other political entities, not only in this part of
• 47:42
  Mesoamerica, but from other remote areas.
• 47:46
  The critical element that made the Toltecs a unique and
• 47:49
  different society is their way of exercising power based on
• 47:54
  solid militarism, which will dominate the political scene in
• 47:57
  Mesoamerica throughout the post Classic period.
• 48:01
  Under the guidance of Mixcuatl, leader and ruler of the Toltecs,
• 48:06
  these from Jalisco or the southern part of Zacatecas,
• 48:10
  settled for the first time in the Valley of Mexico in the
• 48:13
  Culhuacan region, possessing essential resources for the
• 48:17
  settlement of human groups. Here they began a series of
• 48:21
  conquests that led them to control and dominate the entire
• 48:25
  Valley of Mexico and some neighboring regions.
• 48:28
  And indigenous chronicles tell that Myxcoatl was the father of
• 48:32
  Acato Topiltin, better known as Quetzalcoatl, a character who
• 48:37
  became the most exciting figure in ancient Mexico, with maternal
• 48:43
  roots in Hochikako, where the God Quetzalcoatl was worshipped.
• 48:47
  The son of Mixcoatl became a priest of this deity and adopted
• 48:51
  his name. After defeating the usurper of
• 48:55
  his father's throne, Quetzalcoatl came to impose
• 48:58
  himself as the undisputed. Leader of the.
• 49:00
  Toltecs, whom he led to another region, where around the year
• 49:04
  980 he founded the city of Tula, which became in posterity the
• 49:09
  capital of this town. The ruler Quetzalcoatl built a
• 49:14
  large city and for this he imported artists and artisans
• 49:18
  from various places who had a culture superior to that of the
• 49:22
  Toltecs. Thus, he managed during his
• 49:25
  government to design and build one of the busiest cities in
• 49:29
  Mesoamerica, which will be enriched with the contributions
• 49:32
  of successive rulers. Until the artistic complex
• 49:36
  called Toltec style was created, the buildings mainly were richly
• 49:41
  decorated with beautiful columns and panels with scenes of
• 49:44
  Jaguars, Pumas, snakes and eagles.
• 49:48
  Devouring hearts from this account, the city also had the
• 49:52
  magnificent sculptures called Atlanteans, representing richly
• 49:57
  dressed warriors with weapons in hand, the large pectoral of
• 50:00
  butterflies on the chest, the turquoise crown and trimmed
• 50:04
  feathers, and the skirt held back by a circular ornament.
• 50:09
  Their faces, like the others from Tula, are expressionless.
• 50:13
  The sculpture of the reclining guard known as Chuck Mool was in
• 50:17
  the centre of the staircase of the Great Pyramid of Tula and
• 50:20
  held a trade destined to receive offerings.
• 50:23
  The site had the largest ball court in Mesoamerica during that
• 50:27
  time. Because of his careful emphasis
• 50:31
  on the worship of the God Quetzalcoatl, the ruler of Tula
• 50:34
  came into conflict with the followers of the God Tez Cutley
• 50:38
  Poker and was forced to abandon the Toltec throne, starting an
• 50:42
  exile that led him a. According to indigenous
• 50:45
  accounts, to settle in the distant Yucatan peninsula in the
• 50:48
  Mayan area, where he took possession of the city of
• 50:51
  Chichenitsa and installed the cult of Quetzalcoatl, as well as
• 50:55
  most of the characteristic elements of the Toltec culture,
• 50:58
  which were. Reflected in the site
• 51:00
  architecture. After Quetzalcoatl left the city
• 51:04
  of Tula, he was succeeded by rulers of minor importance,
• 51:08
  according to Bernard's opinion. Among them we can mention
• 51:12
  Tekpan, Khatsin and Huymark, 2 rulers who brought innovations
• 51:16
  to the city and maintained the hegemony of Tula over other
• 51:20
  societies, which they subjugated through war and demanded
• 51:24
  tributes as luxury objects destined for the elites who held
• 51:29
  power. The last ruler of Tula was
• 51:32
  Huymark, who, according to indigenous chronicles, reigned
• 51:35
  for a very long period. The decline of the Huemark reign
• 51:40
  and the subsequent fall of Tula around 12/24 was because of the
• 51:45
  increasingly growing presence of groups of foreigners, mainly who
• 51:48
  are Stekos, who are imposing new religious cults.
• 51:53
  Adding to this was a series of calamities, including prolonged
• 51:56
  droughts and invasions by nomadic warrior groups from the
• 52:00
  north. The lack of in kind tributes
• 52:03
  caused Tula's political debacle, especially if one considers that
• 52:07
  the city's rulers had become accustomed to basing their
• 52:10
  economy on such tributes, forgetting about internal
• 52:14
  production. It is.
• 52:15
  Possible to conclude that the definitive fall of Tula was the
• 52:19
  consequence of both internal upheavals and external
• 52:22
  pressures? However, the importance of this
• 52:25
  city persisted for a long time, mainly because it established
• 52:29
  the socio political pattern that would characterize the
• 52:32
  militaristic states of later times throughout Mesoamerica and
• 52:36
  had its maximum expression in the Aztec Empire, interestingly.
• 52:42
  After the fall of Tula around the 13th century, fresh waves of
• 52:47
  nomadic peoples from the north moved into central Mexico in the
• 52:50
  late post Classic period. The generic name knows these
• 52:54
  nomadic groups as Chichimecas. A word of Nahuatl origin that
• 52:59
  means lineage of dogs. Bernard mentions that the
• 53:03
  Chichimec groups were not entirely barbarian.
• 53:06
  But semi nomadic populations that came to found some places
• 53:10
  like Lucky Mother in Zacatecas, which certainly did not have the
• 53:14
  refinement other cities of the time, since their buildings were
• 53:18
  made of uncut stone with walls, without stucco and lacking mural
• 53:22
  painting and sculptures. The Chichimeka stage was
• 53:26
  characterized, according to Reyes and Odena, by a permanent
• 53:30
  state of war between different groups.
• 53:32
  Which was not an obstacle. To the development of an economy
• 53:35
  that, although dependent on taxes, also continued to be
• 53:39
  based on trade long distance. This trade reached Nicaragua in
• 53:44
  the South and to the southwestern United States in
• 53:47
  the north. Factors such as alliances,
• 53:50
  rearrangements, wars, migrations, conquests, and long
• 53:54
  distance trade created a dynamic in which ethnic groups did not
• 53:59
  remain unchanged but experienced certain miscegenation.
• 54:04
  The Chichimeca groups that moved from the north were finding
• 54:07
  accommodation in the Basin of Mexico and its surroundings,
• 54:10
  having as headwaters Klarmanalco, Amaku, Mekan,
• 54:14
  Hochi, Milko, Chimahuakan, and Tenanco Tipopolia.
• 54:20
  Among those from the north was the group of Mexico, who,
• 54:24
  despite their minor importance and having played a minor role
• 54:27
  in the fall of Tula, would eventually establish the most
• 54:31
  notable empire in Mesoamerica. Mexicas.
• 54:36
  Aztecas The mythical origin of the Mexico is found in a cave in
• 54:42
  the also mythical area of Aslan, from which the name Aztecs
• 54:46
  comes. From There they started on a
• 54:49
  migration that would take them to the Basin of Mexico.
• 54:53
  They were commanded by their primary deity during their
• 54:56
  journey, Huitzilopostli, a warrior God identified with the
• 55:00
  sun. While the latter guided them on
• 55:03
  the spiritual level, skilled leaders did so on the military
• 55:07
  level, forging a short time an image of a warrior group of
• 55:11
  great courage, ambition and skill.
• 55:14
  At first, the Mexico were used as mercenaries by groups that
• 55:18
  had already fully settled in this part of Mexico, among them
• 55:22
  by the Ascapotzalco lordship, to which they had to pay tribute.
• 55:27
  From then on their fame grew, coming to be one of the most
• 55:31
  skilful and fierce warrior groups in the entire basin.
• 55:35
  The Mexico founded their capital towards the middle of the 14th
• 55:39
  century on an island in Lake Texkoku and gave it the name of
• 55:43
  Tenochtitlan. The basin was densely populated
• 55:47
  and politically fragmented into many city states, each of which
• 55:51
  exercised control over the surrounding territory.
• 55:54
  A certain balance characterized relations between these cities,
• 55:58
  the product of constant competition to expand the.
• 56:01
  Areas of influence. Searching for new tributaries?
• 56:05
  However, when a state or capital shaped its leadership in some
• 56:09
  territory, it ended up imposing its dominion, as happened, for
• 56:13
  example, with the Toltec lordships of Kulhuakan Chichi,
• 56:17
  maker of Tenayuka, a Tomi of Saltokan, and Akul Hua of
• 56:21
  Koartlinchen. The relative balance that
• 56:25
  maintained the competition between all these forces was
• 56:28
  broken around 1371, when the Typanic state of Asca Putsalko
• 56:34
  was merged under the leadership of Tezo Zomok.
• 56:37
  Despite Azkaputzalco being the leading power in the Basin of
• 56:41
  Mexico, towards the end of the 14th century the Aqua Hua Manor
• 56:45
  of Texaco began its expansion to the eastern end, imposing using
• 56:50
  arms its dominion over several agricultural centers in the
• 56:53
  basin S. From this account, the hegemonic
• 56:58
  position of this center allowed it to establish essential
• 57:01
  alliances with other essential groups in the area.
• 57:05
  It should be mentioned that one of the most outstanding rulers
• 57:08
  of Texcoco was Nezahu El Coyoto, whose 41 year government
• 57:13
  represented a unique model in the Mexican Highlands.
• 57:17
  After the Tipanicus of Asca Putsalko was defeated around
• 57:21
  1440, a conjunction of forces led by the kings Iskoatl and
• 57:26
  Nezahua Koyutl, an alliance was established in which, besides
• 57:31
  Tenochtitlan and Tesko, Klakopa Nor Takuba was included with
• 57:36
  Tutokuyuhatsin as ruler. This is how, according to
• 57:41
  Obregon, Texcoco became the most dangerous rival of Asgaputsarko,
• 57:46
  a situation that would later lead to a warlike confrontation
• 57:50
  between the two dominions. This Triple Alliance, initially
• 57:55
  circumscribed to the Lake Region of the Central Highlands,
• 57:58
  undertook a strong expansionist development through military
• 58:01
  conquests or voluntary adhesions, which would lead it
• 58:04
  to achieve the political military dominance of a short
• 58:07
  time all Central and Southern America to the West of the
• 58:11
  Isthmus of Tehuan Tepic, reaching their outposts even to
• 58:15
  the Sokonusko region. For the group settled in the
• 58:18
  Guatemalan Highlands, such a situation was worrying, since to
• 58:22
  some extent it was feared that the expansion of a militaristic
• 58:26
  state as powerful as the Mexico which commanded the Triple
• 58:30
  Alliance would end up subjugating them and forcing
• 58:33
  them to pay permanent taxes under the pain of military
• 58:36
  invasions. The capital of the Triple
• 58:39
  Alliance was the island city of Tenochtitlan, founded by the
• 58:42
  Mexico in the 14th century on an island in Lake Texcoco.
• 58:47
  It made-up the political and religious centre where a good
• 58:50
  part of the dominant group was located and lived and ended up
• 58:54
  being a splendid and extensive city that had beautiful palaces,
• 58:59
  warehouses and a large ceremonial centre in which the
• 59:03
  Templo mayor stood out, dedicated to two of the main
• 59:06
  Aztec deities, Huytsilopochhtli and Tlaloc.
• 59:10
  It should be noted that the cult of the God who it sulopuchly
• 59:14
  required human sacrifice on a large scale, which made the
• 59:18
  Mexico culture considered bloody in the eyes of Europeans.
• 59:22
  The so-called Sompantli were structures destined for placing
• 59:26
  the skulls of the sacrificed victims, something that was
• 59:29
  repugnant to the conquerors. The most spectacular and
• 59:34
  monumental creations of Mexico art corresponded to
• 59:37
  representations of religiosity and stories of power, in which
• 59:41
  the forms inherited from previous cultures such as the
• 59:44
  Toltec and Teotihuacan are clear.
• 59:48
  Impressive monuments such as the Piedra del Sol, the Coetley QE
• 59:53
  and Coel Hauji, and the Piedra de Tizoc are part of
• 59:57
  Tenochtitlan's magnificent artistic corpus bequeathed for
• 1:00:01
  posterity. This city, according to Solis,
• 1:00:04
  must have brought together between the 15th and 16th
• 1:00:07
  centuries of our era the most influential artists who working
• 1:00:12
  at the service of the Mexico leaders.
• 1:00:14
  Were the architects. Not only of the city's
• 1:00:17
  remarkable architecture, but also of critical monumental
• 1:00:20
  sculptures made from rugged rocks such as basalt and
• 1:00:24
  andesite. It is undeniable that the form
• 1:00:28
  of political organization achieved by the Mexico and their
• 1:00:31
  allies was that of an actual state in which aspects such as a
• 1:00:36
  high demographic density, a reasonably complex state
• 1:00:39
  religion, an extraordinary military apparatus, and an
• 1:00:43
  expansionist character stood out which included orders such as
• 1:00:47
  the Eagle and Tiger Knights as well as high volume long
• 1:00:50
  distance trade. This society also had
• 1:00:54
  educational and public service institutions such as had never
• 1:00:58
  been observed before in Mesoamerica.
• 1:01:01
  Regarding the hierarchical levels within the sociopolitical
• 1:01:05
  structure of the Mexico, it must be said that at the head was the
• 1:01:09
  sovereign ruler, also known as Sue Platoani.
• 1:01:13
  The kings were called Platochis, then followed in descending
• 1:01:17
  order of the scale, the pilis or nobles, priests, warriors,
• 1:01:22
  merchants, makihualis or ordinary people.
• 1:01:26
  According to the Mendocino Codex, the essential sovereigns
• 1:01:30
  who held power throughout the history of the Mexico are
• 1:01:33
  Izkoator, Moctezuma Ilhua Kamina, Aksaya Katlo, Tizok
• 1:01:39
  Ahuitsoto and Moctezuma Hokoyutsin, although all of them
• 1:01:44
  brought glory and fame to Mexico.
• 1:01:46
  Tin Ottitlan as stated in said codex where the number of
• 1:01:50
  peoples conquered by each of them is noted.
• 1:01:52
  The last one, also known as Moctezuma the second, reigned at
• 1:01:57
  the precise moment of the Spanish whose presence and
• 1:02:00
  excessive ambition caused the defeat and collapse of Mexico
• 1:02:03
  society and the end of the pre Hispanic era for Mesoamerica.
• 1:02:08
  The last Mexico tlatoani to confront the Spanish and be
• 1:02:12
  defeated and killed by them was Coalte Moc, thus ending one of
• 1:02:17
  the greatest empires of the ancient world.
• 1:02:20
  Mesoamerica Finally, it should be shown that from the
• 1:02:24
  territorial point of view, the basic political.
• 1:02:27
  Unit within the Empire that emerged because of the conquests
• 1:02:30
  made by Tenochtitlan and the Triple Alliance was the
• 1:02:34
  altipetal or town. It is a concept that, according
• 1:02:38
  to Obregon, can be defined as a territory with a sovereign or
• 1:02:42
  independent government, to which the families of various
• 1:02:46
  communities or Kalpultin paid tribute.
• 1:02:49
  Internally, it was characterized by excellent stability, respect
• 1:02:54
  for traditional organizational forms, culture and common
• 1:02:58
  customs. This author adds that when one
• 1:03:01
  of these peoples managed to militarily subject others and
• 1:03:05
  impose taxation on them, it reached the next level of
• 1:03:08
  political organization, lordship.
• 1:03:11
  Called in the Nahuatl language Clato Kyoto.
• 1:03:15
  This comprised a group of towns with their local rulers
• 1:03:19
  recognized as superior political authority, the clatoani of the
• 1:03:23
  mayor, to which they were integrated.
• 1:03:26
  Each of these manners or kingdoms concentrated political
• 1:03:30
  and administrative functions serving as a point of commercial
• 1:03:33
  exchange or market and functioned as a cultural focus
• 1:03:37
  for the independent areas. We have just seen the great
• 1:03:44
  complexity reached at the end of the post classic period by the
• 1:03:48
  groups settled in the base of Mexico, particularly by the
• 1:03:51
  Mexico and the Triple Alliance in what can be considered the
• 1:03:55
  highest degree political development in Mexico.
• 1:03:58
  However, it is essential to remember that this development
• 1:04:02
  resulted from over 3000 years of the constant evolution of the
• 1:04:06
  different socio political groups that made-up the so-called
• 1:04:10
  Mesoamerican sub areas. As we saw throughout this
• 1:04:14
  document, social and political complexity crystallizes for the
• 1:04:18
  first time in Olmec society during the pre classic period or
• 1:04:22
  period of Kachikali societies and the early states.
• 1:04:26
  Later it gains more elaborate forms in Teotihuacan, which is
• 1:04:31
  made-up in the first State Society of Mesoamerica and
• 1:04:34
  maintains its hegemony throughout the Classic period or
• 1:04:38
  time of the full States and stratified societies.
• 1:04:42
  It's cultural influence was apparent throughout the
• 1:04:44
  Mesoamerica area, as had happened with the Olmecs, but
• 1:04:48
  with the difference that with Toyota Huacan it was possible to
• 1:04:52
  merge the most important urban centre of this period which
• 1:04:56
  could have his home to over 200,000 inhabitants, including
• 1:05:00
  immigrants from other regions of Mesoamerica such as the Mayans,
• 1:05:04
  Sapotex and people from the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
• 1:05:08
  With the fall of Teotihuacan, several city states emerge that
• 1:05:12
  developed and maintained a regional hegemony until the
• 1:05:16
  appearance of the Toltecs at the beginning of the post classic.
• 1:05:19
  They from Tula, their capital, established a new Mesoamerica
• 1:05:24
  Order based on military power, which inaugurates the stage of
• 1:05:27
  the militarist states or military lordships.
• 1:05:31
  Finally, the rise, peak, and fall of the Mexico State are
• 1:05:35
  reached, which is the excellent synthesis of the entire
• 1:05:38
  Mesoamerica experience and the culmination of all the
• 1:05:41
  political, religious, and social forms hitherto known in the
• 1:05:45
  region, thus representing what could be considered as a stage
• 1:05:49
  of highly stratified imperialist societies.
• 1:05:54
  The oldest paleontological remains known in Central America
• 1:05:57
  were found in 1874 by some peasants in El Bosque, Esteli,
• 1:06:03
  Nicaragua. This find comprised fossil bones
• 1:06:07
  of giant sloths, horses, deer, and turtles, some of which
• 1:06:11
  appeared with breaks made by hunters with laminated Jasper
• 1:06:14
  instruments. Others had been scorched.
• 1:06:17
  These skeletal remains, whose age ranges between 16,000 and
• 1:06:22
  30,000 years, show Hunter's existence, who used fire and
• 1:06:26
  very rustic stone instruments to corner and kill their prey.
• 1:06:31
  The set of footprints petrified in the mud that was found on the
• 1:06:34
  shores of Lake Zolotlon Managua, corresponding to humans, adults
• 1:06:39
  and children, as well as deer, bison and wading birds.
• 1:06:43
  That towards the 6000 BC they were fleeing the telluric
• 1:06:48
  activity of a volcano, probably that of Messiah.
• 1:06:51
  The whole is known as Huellas de Akahua Linka.
• 1:06:55
  The first inhabitants of Central America arrived in the region
• 1:06:59
  probably around 20,000 years ago.
• 1:07:01
  The primitive populations were nomads who haunted large mammals
• 1:07:05
  now extinct and completed their diet with wild fruits, seeds,
• 1:07:10
  tubers, fish, crabs and shells. They were protected from the
• 1:07:14
  rains, storms and inclement weather in caves where they lit
• 1:07:18
  bonfires and whose walls they leftover.
• 1:07:21
  One graphite engraved. An example of this is the caves
• 1:07:26
  of San Sebastian, Gracias, Honduras and Corinto, El
• 1:07:30
  Salvador. About 3500 years ago, forced by
• 1:07:35
  the decline of the herds of large animals, nomadic hunters
• 1:07:39
  changed their way of life. They then had to dedicate
• 1:07:42
  themselves to collecting fruits, tubers, legumes, crustaceans,
• 1:07:47
  hunting birds, smaller mammals and reptiles.
• 1:07:50
  Such changes facilitated the formation of permanent
• 1:07:54
  settlements, the abandonment of wandering life, the discovery of
• 1:07:58
  agriculture and pottery and the institutionalization of
• 1:08:01
  religious activities. Around 12,000 BC, La Victoria
• 1:08:07
  Ocos San Marcos was the main economic, political and
• 1:08:11
  religious centre of the South Coast of Guatemala.
• 1:08:14
  There, bar type ceramics have been found which were decorated
• 1:08:18
  using cylinder seals, clay figurines representing naked
• 1:08:22
  women with bulging genitalia, and Obsidian artifacts made in
• 1:08:26
  the Altiplano. During that same period, the
• 1:08:29
  settlers of Chalchuapa, El Salvador used ceramics and orcos
• 1:08:34
  type figurines. Maya.
• 1:08:38
  Most Olmec cities gradually depended on the emerging Mayan
• 1:08:42
  theocratic group as the populations abandoned Olmec
• 1:08:46
  theocratic military leaders. Evidence of this change is found
• 1:08:50
  in the new sculpture and pottery and the inscriptions that appear
• 1:08:53
  on them. The first Mayan settlements were
• 1:08:57
  El Hobo, Takali, Kabach, Chokolo, El Baol and Chalchuapa.
• 1:09:03
  However, from 200 AD, economic political power shifted to
• 1:09:07
  Balberta esque Winkler, where a well fortified Acropolis was
• 1:09:12
  built. From this center, its rulers
• 1:09:15
  exercised political and economic control over the inhabitants of
• 1:09:19
  the village. Communities settled between the
• 1:09:21
  Coyote and Achiguate rivers with a particular interest in those
• 1:09:25
  that had cocoa crops. To increase the coercive power
• 1:09:29
  of their warriors, they bought weapons in Pachuca, Mexico, from
• 1:09:33
  the Toyota Huacan people, who, besides controlling the Obsidian
• 1:09:37
  deposits near their great city, monopolized the production and
• 1:09:41
  trade of war material in much of Mesoamerica.
• 1:09:45
  The Balberta leaders adopted other Toyota Huacan cultural
• 1:09:48
  manifestations, such as using the talud board in pyramidal
• 1:09:52
  constructions and the use, during the celebration of
• 1:09:55
  religious ceremonies, of censors decorated with effigies and
• 1:09:59
  ornaments, as well as tripod cylindrical vessels ornamented
• 1:10:03
  with iconographic motifs. As for their closer regional
• 1:10:08
  relations, they promoted greater commercial exchange between the
• 1:10:12
  South Coast, the Altiplano, western El Salvador, and
• 1:10:15
  especially with Kaminalyuyu in the valley of Guatemala, which
• 1:10:19
  also provided them with Obsidian weapons.
• 1:10:23
  Between 400 and 600 AD, the rulers of Montana Los Chatos
• 1:10:28
  Escuintla displaced the rulers of Balberta and made their
• 1:10:32
  Acropolis the main political, religious, and commercial center
• 1:10:36
  of the South Coast. Between 400 BC and 250 AD, the
• 1:10:42
  Politico religious leaders of the South Coast used a
• 1:10:45
  particular type of writing and dating different from the one
• 1:10:49
  later invented by the Mayans. For example on Stella one of El
• 1:10:55
  Baul in Esquintla the year 36 of our era is inscribed on Stella 5
• 1:11:01
  at Takalika Bach AD 103 and 126 and in Monument 11 and altar 12
• 1:11:09
  there are non calendrical inscriptions like what happened
• 1:11:14
  in Takalika Bach and Salinas Lablanca at the end of the late
• 1:11:17
  pre classic. The Olmecs were also displaced
• 1:11:20
  by Mayan people in Chaochuapa, Koskutlan, Atikizaya and
• 1:11:25
  Akahutla where these Mayan groups introduced new cultural
• 1:11:29
  elements. Among them we can mention the
• 1:11:33
  Osulutan ceramics that exhibited significant Theodhuakan
• 1:11:36
  influence and was the object of commercialization in the central
• 1:11:40
  Acropolis of the Altiplano and South Coast of Guatemala.
• 1:11:44
  Pyramidal temples and Stella, of which Monument 1 is a
• 1:11:48
  significant example as it shows that a new one had displaced the
• 1:11:52
  Olmec calendrical system. However, this apogee was
• 1:11:56
  interrupted around the year 260 AD because of the eruption of
• 1:12:01
  the Ilopango volcano that, by destroying cities and crops,
• 1:12:05
  forced the population of the major cities to leave the region
• 1:12:09
  and settle in places far from the volcanoes.
• 1:12:13
  Between 609100AD, a powerful theocratic military state was
• 1:12:19
  merged in the Santa Lucia Cotsulmalgwapa region, which
• 1:12:23
  controlled the agricultural wealth of the area and the
• 1:12:26
  commercial exchange of the cities of the Pacific Coast with
• 1:12:29
  those of the Altiplano. The power centre was in the
• 1:12:33
  urban complex made-up of Bilbao, El Castillo and El Bao which
• 1:12:37
  occupied over 6 kilometres squared.
• 1:12:40
  Artisan activities, elaboration of weapons with Obsidian brought
• 1:12:45
  from El Chayal and San Martin, Hilotopeque artistic jade
• 1:12:50
  figurines, political and religious activities were
• 1:12:53
  combined in this Acropolis In the place.
• 1:12:57
  Besides achieving extraordinary political economic power, this
• 1:13:01
  new manner had its writings and numbering system.
• 1:13:05
  It spread artistic pieces with their characteristics, with the
• 1:13:08
  characteristics of the so-called Kotsumalgoapa style as seen in
• 1:13:13
  the stellar sculptures and other monuments found.
• 1:13:17
  This sculpture is human, animal or godheads attached to the
• 1:13:21
  walls of buildings, sculpted panels, colossal heads, large
• 1:13:25
  stone receptacles, stellar and altars.
• 1:13:28
  The representation of plants and vines is typical of the style.
• 1:13:33
  The Kotsumalguapa sculptures represent rulers dressed with
• 1:13:37
  objects related to the ball game, such as yokes and axes,
• 1:13:41
  while making offerings to some divinity or interacting with
• 1:13:45
  other characters. Samples of this style have been
• 1:13:48
  found from Suchiti peques to Juti Appa and in the Antigua
• 1:13:52
  Valley, Sakata peques. Outside the Acropolis it has
• 1:13:57
  been in Pelogodo, Suchiti peques, where most sculptures of
• 1:14:01
  this style have been located. Between 1876 and 1886, German
• 1:14:08
  researchers extracted several sculptures from the Bilbao site
• 1:14:12
  and took 31 of them to the Volkerkunda Museum Ethnographic
• 1:14:16
  Museum in Berlin, Germany. Some 2 centuries after the
• 1:14:20
  eruption of the Ilopango volcano, there was an economic
• 1:14:24
  and political revival in Quilipa and Tazuma with Mayan rulers who
• 1:14:28
  established trade relations with the Acropolis of the Mayan
• 1:14:31
  lowlands, as well as with Querigua, Guatemala, Copan,
• 1:14:36
  Honduras, and the region of Nicoya, Costa Rica.
• 1:14:40
  Excavations in the area have brought to light many
• 1:14:43
  distinctive elements of the Mayan culture, such as jade
• 1:14:47
  figurines, Stella fine orange and goblet ceramics, closed ball
• 1:14:52
  courts, shell necklaces, inlaid snails and teeth, as well as
• 1:14:56
  local themes or steam baths. The investigations carried out
• 1:15:01
  in Hoya de Ceren in San Juan O Pico, El Salvador, a settlement
• 1:15:06
  that had been buried during the eruption of the caldera volcano
• 1:15:10
  around 600 AD, have allowed us to know what the houses were
• 1:15:14
  like, as well as the household and work items used by most of
• 1:15:18
  the population, the pipiles. Group.
• 1:15:23
  Because of the violent political changes in the mid or late 8th
• 1:15:26
  century of our era in Cholula, Mexico, one of the last
• 1:15:30
  acropolises of the flourishing Teo Tejuacan dominion, its
• 1:15:34
  rulers, priests, military elite, artists and artisans migrated
• 1:15:39
  first to Veracruz and later to Sokonusko and Tejuan Tepic.
• 1:15:44
  However, they did not stay long in their new settlements because
• 1:15:48
  they were also expelled from them at the beginning of the 9th
• 1:15:50
  century. They then went to regions
• 1:15:53
  located South of the isthmus of Tehuan Tipic, where Teotihuacan
• 1:15:58
  maintained its commercial presence and exercised an
• 1:16:01
  artistic and religious influence for several centuries.
• 1:16:05
  Declarations that kakikes gave in Nicaragua to Fry Francisco
• 1:16:09
  Bobadelia in 1528, as well as the names of many places, allow
• 1:16:15
  us to suggest that a part of them settled in Kotsumal, Guapa
• 1:16:19
  and Kuachiniquilapa in Guatemala, another in Quijuatan,
• 1:16:24
  Aguilares, Santa Maria and Tazuma in El Salvador, and the
• 1:16:28
  rest populated the Gulf of Fonseca and the island of
• 1:16:32
  Ometepe, Nicaragua. This is how the informants from
• 1:16:37
  Bobadilla remembered their origin.
• 1:16:39
  The places mentioned in the text could have been Ticoman and
• 1:16:43
  Mihuatlan, 2 towns near the Acropolis of Cholula, Mexico.
• 1:16:48
  Little by little the members of this migration were taking over
• 1:16:52
  the cocoa plantations in the Esquintla and Izalcos regions,
• 1:16:56
  Sonsonate, El Salvador, monopolizing the trade in this
• 1:16:59
  product and that of dyes, indigo and scarlet medicinal plants,
• 1:17:04
  balsam, sarsaparilia, Obsidian weapons and jade ornaments.
• 1:17:10
  Subsequently, they made the inhabitants of the village
• 1:17:12
  communities into tributaries, who twice a year gave them salt,
• 1:17:17
  cotton, blankets, mats, dyes, cocoa, gourds and mercados,
• 1:17:22
  ticomatis pom chili, rubber, herbs and medicinal roots,
• 1:17:28
  honey, dried fish and shrimp. In addition, the communities
• 1:17:32
  provided them with porters or clamamis to transport goods from
• 1:17:36
  one region to another. After the fall of Tula Hidalgo,
• 1:17:41
  Mexico, the primary center of theocratic military power of the
• 1:17:45
  Toltecs in Onahuac, the defeated rulers and a large part of the
• 1:17:49
  members of their armies began a new migratory armed movement
• 1:17:53
  towards what is currently the Guatemalan Highlands and the
• 1:17:57
  coastal region between Sokonusko and the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa
• 1:18:01
  Rica. During this new stage, the main
• 1:18:05
  papillion centers of political religious power were Escuinte,
• 1:18:08
  Peque, San Miguel, Tejuan, Tepeque, Chipi, Lapa, Santa Ana,
• 1:18:14
  Mixtan, Texkuaco and Massagua between the Coil Latte and
• 1:18:18
  Michitoya rivers, as well as Cuscatlan, Guaitan, Tekpan,
• 1:18:24
  Izalco, Nonuaco, Mazajuat and the Sanctuary of Mittla or
• 1:18:29
  Miktlan, 3 leagues from Lake Guira.
• 1:18:33
  According to Juan de Tokemada 153 Kuscotlan, City of Medals,
• 1:18:39
  was founded by Topiltsin Oxitl, Quetzalcoatl, the second, the
• 1:18:43
  last of the sovereigns of Tula in 1524.
• 1:18:48
  The descendants of these migrations were called Pipil by
• 1:18:51
  the Tlucks Garlands, who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado
• 1:18:55
  because they spoke Nahuatl as children.
• 1:18:58
  The Spanish conquerors found the peoples did not have a unified
• 1:19:02
  political power, but several independent lordships, each
• 1:19:06
  governed by a Lord Klatoani, associated by a council of
• 1:19:10
  elders and four captains. Antonio de Herrere Ito de Cilias
• 1:19:15
  noted in his chronicle that in each town the Klatoani was at
• 1:19:20
  the same time the most excellent judge, helped by 4 lieutenants
• 1:19:24
  who were careful to provide their home and the things of the
• 1:19:27
  Republic, such as war, government, affairs of sowing
• 1:19:31
  and marriages. They also helped him in
• 1:19:34
  consulting the priests on administration matters,
• 1:19:37
  reporting to the Lord of their efforts.
• 1:19:39
  They also gave their opinion on everything.
• 1:19:44
  In 1576, after visiting the Izalkos region, Diego Garcia de
• 1:19:49
  Palacio commented that the papiles had laws to punish those
• 1:19:53
  who made fun of those they tried to assassinate.
• 1:19:55
  Their rulers, the warriors, were armed with bows and arrows,
• 1:19:59
  Makahuitel or species of swords, with Obsidian incrustations,
• 1:20:04
  Spears with points heartened to fire, or with Obsidian points,
• 1:20:08
  clubs and cotton curas that covered their entire body.
• 1:20:12
  The tips of the arrows were made of Flint.
• 1:20:15
  Pedro de Alvarado, conqueror of Guatemala and Coscotlan.
• 1:20:19
  In a letter to Hernan Cortes informed him that the pipiles
• 1:20:23
  used corsets with three cotton fingers and even on their feet
• 1:20:27
  and arrows and long Spears. And in falling people on foot he
• 1:20:32
  killed them all. It was to scare because they all
• 1:20:35
  had the most 30 palm lances all raised.
• 1:20:40
  Another description of what the weapons of these Indians were
• 1:20:43
  like is given by Herrera and Tordicilias when writing.
• 1:20:47
  Some fought with bows and arrows, with very sharp Flint
• 1:20:50
  points, and they wore rounds of artificially woven reeds covered
• 1:20:55
  with the skins of tigers, lions and deer.
• 1:20:58
  Some were dressed in the skins of eagles and other birds, and
• 1:21:02
  of tigers, lions for gallantry and bravery.
• 1:21:06
  They also carried swords of tough poisonous wood, which they
• 1:21:10
  called makanas. On the Spanish island, the
• 1:21:13
  priestly group depended on the klatoani, who supported ritual
• 1:21:17
  actions, human sacrifices, interpretation of the ritual
• 1:21:21
  calendar to reinforce the community's submission to their
• 1:21:25
  political power. The chief priest was called
• 1:21:28
  Techti and the second Tehua Matlini, the one who interpreted
• 1:21:32
  the Tonola Martel, or ritual calendar.
• 1:21:36
  Around 1485, a few decades before the Spanish conquest, the
• 1:21:41
  Kacchiquel started a series of wars against the pupils and took
• 1:21:45
  away their territories on the slopes of the Fuega, Iagua
• 1:21:48
  volcanoes, Chorotegas and Nicaraguas.
• 1:21:54
  Among the migrations to the Central American area of
• 1:21:57
  Teotihuacan people is carried out at the beginning of the 9th
• 1:22:01
  century by groups from Sokonusko and Teo and Tipic to free
• 1:22:05
  themselves from the tributes, jobs and dangers of death to
• 1:22:08
  which they were subjected. There the the product of such
• 1:22:12
  population movement was the foundation of settlements in
• 1:22:15
  Choluteca, Honduras, in Cuajinikulapa, Gulf of Fonseca
• 1:22:20
  and the Rivas region in front of the island of Omatepe in Lake
• 1:22:24
  Kotzibolka, Nicaragua. The latter was known as
• 1:22:29
  chorotegas, cholotegas and mangues.
• 1:22:32
  Based on testimonies given to Freito Ribio de Benevente,
• 1:22:36
  better known as Mottolinia, by indigenous chiefs, Frai Juan de
• 1:22:40
  Toquemada referred to this migration in the following
• 1:22:43
  terms. According to what is said among
• 1:22:47
  the natives of this land, mostly the old ones, they say that the
• 1:22:50
  Indians of Nicaragua and those of Nikoya, who by another name
• 1:22:55
  call themselves Munguis, formerly had their room in the
• 1:22:58
  depopulated area of Zokonochko, which is in the governorate of
• 1:23:02
  Mexico. The Chorotegas subdued the
• 1:23:06
  populations of the Great Lakes region as well as the groups
• 1:23:09
  that inhabited the mountains of the Segovias and Chontales, who
• 1:23:13
  were originally from South America and the Caribbean and
• 1:23:16
  had been the creators of many petroglyphs, in which it
• 1:23:19
  contains broad and diverse information about their way of
• 1:23:23
  life and religious conceptions. After the fall of Tula Hidalgo,
• 1:23:28
  Mexico, the main center of theocratic military power of the
• 1:23:32
  Toltecs, the overthrown rulers and members of their armies
• 1:23:36
  began an armed migratory movement towards the Guatemalan
• 1:23:39
  Highlands, as well as towards the coastal region between
• 1:23:42
  Sokunusko and the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.
• 1:23:47
  They arrived in Nicaragua around the year 1200, and although they
• 1:23:52
  did not subdue the Churatigas, they took part of their
• 1:23:55
  territory from them, evicting them from what is now the Rivas
• 1:23:59
  region. There are many written
• 1:24:01
  testimonies about this population movement, for
• 1:24:04
  example, the Indigenous Chronicles Popol vu Anales de
• 1:24:08
  Los Cocciqueles and Tidal de Los Senores de Totonicapan referred
• 1:24:13
  to the emigration of the Guatemalan Highlands.
• 1:24:17
  Mottolinia 158 collected information about the one who
• 1:24:21
  went to the region of the Great Lakes of Zolotlan and
• 1:24:24
  Cochibolka. By the South Sea was a great
• 1:24:27
  fleet of Akalis or boats and brought and landed in Nicaragua,
• 1:24:31
  which is over 350 leagues from Mexico, and gave war to natives
• 1:24:36
  who were populated there, and dismantling them they threw them
• 1:24:40
  out of their dominion and those natural descendants of that old
• 1:24:44
  Istakmikskoatul populated there. This armed Toltec penetration
• 1:24:49
  caused the division of the Chorotegas into Dirianis,
• 1:24:52
  Nagrandanos and Nikoyas, the first populated Jalteva,
• 1:24:58
  Diriomu, Diria, Diriamba, Nikino, Homo Messiah, Nindiri
• 1:25:03
  and Managua. The Nagrandanos in Mabiti
• 1:25:07
  Subtiava, where a language related to the Kloperniko of
• 1:25:11
  Guerrero, Mexico was spoken, Pasoltega, Quezal, Guaqua,
• 1:25:15
  Telika, Yokokobiagua and Mabiti, and the Nikoyas the Guanacaste
• 1:25:21
  region. The Nikoyas subdued the Chipcha
• 1:25:25
  population of South American origin, who controlled the
• 1:25:28
  Guanacaste region, the Pacific coastal zone, and the Central
• 1:25:32
  Valley of what is now Costa Rica.
• 1:25:35
  For this reason, the buildings of Guayabo Turialba, probably
• 1:25:39
  the largest Acropolis in Costa Rica, can serve Andean and
• 1:25:43
  Mesoamerican architectural and artistic elements, as Chipchas
• 1:25:47
  first ruled it and later by Choratigas.
• 1:25:52
  While politically and religiously dominating the
• 1:25:54
  peoples of the Guanacostea and Central Valley region, the
• 1:25:57
  Nikoyas were assimilating elements of the chipcha culture,
• 1:26:01
  especially metallurgy, which distinctly produced pieces with
• 1:26:05
  new techniques. Distinctly Mesoamerican motifs,
• 1:26:09
  manifestations of Nikoya art and crafts, sumptuary and ceremonial
• 1:26:14
  ceramics, jade figurines, ornaments have been found in the
• 1:26:18
  Central Acropolis of Mesoamerica.
• 1:26:21
  Unlike other conquest processes in Mesoamerica, the victors
• 1:26:25
  assimilated the language, the forms of economic and social
• 1:26:29
  organization, and even specific religious manifestations.
• 1:26:33
  The Teotihuacan and Toltec migrations that occurred on the
• 1:26:36
  Pacific Coast imposed the language Nahuatl and its
• 1:26:40
  religious organization. The new settlers often
• 1:26:44
  designated the settlements that they founded with the names of
• 1:26:48
  their places of origin. Such were the cases of
• 1:26:51
  Kuachiniquilapa, Chinameca, and Ometepe, which correspond with
• 1:26:56
  Kuachiniulapa, Chinameca and Ometepec.
• 1:26:59
  In Mexico. Political, Religious
• 1:27:02
  Organization. Chorotegas and Nicaraguans were
• 1:27:05
  governed using a theocratic military system in which the
• 1:27:09
  tete, or central ruler was considered a kind of God and was
• 1:27:13
  above the priestly group. He was advised and supported in
• 1:27:17
  administrative tasks by the monixico or council.
• 1:27:22
  The office of Tete was hereditary and patrilineal,
• 1:27:25
  while that of the members of the Monixico was renewed every four
• 1:27:29
  moons. From the latter.
• 1:27:31
  The Monixico, chaired by the Tete, watched over community
• 1:27:35
  interests, attended to the requirements of justice,
• 1:27:38
  administered the activity in the Tianqwei Saw market, watched
• 1:27:42
  over the defense of their territories and crops, and
• 1:27:45
  prepared military campaigns. The Tete had an elite group of
• 1:27:50
  Tapali GUI, or warriors, in charge of solving military
• 1:27:54
  affairs. Their weapons comprised bows,
• 1:27:58
  arrows, palm tree darts, axes, Spears and stone maces.
• 1:28:04
  The priestly group comprised Tamagazquez and Guegues.
• 1:28:08
  The first was to interpret the ritual calendar, organizing
• 1:28:12
  dances, especially the game of the flying stick, and ritual
• 1:28:16
  songs, performing human sacrifices and transmitting
• 1:28:19
  religious teaching. The Guegues were celibate adult
• 1:28:23
  men who wore a ticomate with tobacco around their neck,
• 1:28:27
  probably to drive away certain evil spirits and forces.
• 1:28:31
  His office comprised attending to the people who came to
• 1:28:35
  confess their faults and impose labour penances on them in the
• 1:28:38
  temples so that the gods would forgive their faults.
• 1:28:43
  Churotegas and Nicaraguans carried out flowery wars against
• 1:28:47
  the insubordinate communities to frighten them and provide
• 1:28:50
  themselves with the prisoners they had to sacrifice and skin
• 1:28:53
  on the main festivities. During these ritual sacrifices,
• 1:28:58
  the priests used the blood of the victims to sprinkle the
• 1:29:01
  altars, walls and steps of the temples and smeared their faces.
• 1:29:06
  They burned the heart in senses, they clothed themselves with
• 1:29:09
  their skin, together with those attending the ritual, they
• 1:29:13
  consumed the meat, and they placed their heads on stakes in
• 1:29:17
  front of the temples. During religious celebrations,
• 1:29:21
  songs were sung in which the main historical deeds were
• 1:29:24
  remembered and dances were performed, such as the flying
• 1:29:28
  stick and the game of Kua Uma Lakatosli.