Mesoamerica

12 Pages 2990 Words

The cultural area known as Mesoamerica covers most of Southern Mexico and Central America. It¡¯s topography and ecology include semi arid deserts in the north, mountainous terrains and steamy rainforests in the South. To the East lies the Gulf coast and the Yucatan peninsula, a limestone jetty with a system of underground rivers, where water is scarce. It shares some distinct cultural traits that were disseminated by what is known as the Olmec of the Gulf Coast.
The Olmecs (1000 - 400 B.C.) are considered ¡°the mother culture¡± because they were the first people to have developed a centralized government. They were the first long-distance traders of Mesoamerica and apparently spread ¡°civilization¡± as well as their trade goods. They had a strong influence on peoples as far south as Guatemala and as far east as the Zapotec center of Monte Alban. They were the first to create the famous Mesoamerican ballgame which later was included in the cosmology of the Maya, the Teotihuacanos, the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, the Toltecs, and later the Aztecs or Mexica.
It is to them that scholars have attempted to link the Maya and Central Mexican Calendars as well as early writing. The calendric system of the Maya and of Central Mexico are based on a numeric system that included the concept of zero. Zeros mark completion and are part of a cycle. The calendar is really a calendric system with a 360 day solar count with 18 months containing 20 days each. Each day has its own name. At the end of the 18 months is one small month with 5 days of fear and calamity. This was intermeshed with a 260 day ritual calendar of 20 day names and 13 numbers. These two calendars created what is known as the calendar round that functioned like two circular gears that pushed time in a spiral motion. The calendar round does not repeat any of its combination of days for a period of 52 years. The Aztecs renewed their cycle with a ¡°new fire ri...