Pre-Columbian Science and Tech: Olmec and Maya

• Lesson focuses on the Evidences of Science and Technology during Pre-Columbian Times specifically from 1500 B.C to A.D 1500

Olmec Civilization

• Considered the first great Mesoamerican civilization.
• Thrived along the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico in Veracruz and Tabasco from about 1200 to 400 B.C.
• "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec.
• Constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros.
• Evidence suggests they practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
• Traded obsidian, ceramics, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers, and polished mirrors of limenite and magnetite.
• Monuments and major pieces of art such as masks and figurines.
• Known to cultivate cacao, rubber, and salt.

Maya Civilization

• Ancient Mayans were a diverse group of indigenous people.
• Lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• Credited with remarkable scientific achievements in astronomy, engineering, medicine, and mathematics.
• Made great progress in agriculture and technology.
• Tracked the movement of the stars and planets across the sky.
• Could accurately predict celestial events such as eclipses.
• Venus was the most important astronomical object.
• Discovered an accurate calendar.
• Ritual calendar developed in Mesoamerica used a count of 260 days.
• Each day was given a name, like days of the week, with 20 day names represented by symbols.
• Written language made up of about 800 glyphs or symbols, representing words or syllables combined in many ways.
• Talented in building elaborate temples and great cities without metal tools, possibly producing rubber products.

Aztec Civilization

• Established their city of Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City, in 1325 A.D.
• Tenochtitlan served as the capital and center of the Aztec Empire.
• Served as the capital until the Aztecs were conquered by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1520.
• Saw an eagle perched on a cactus on marshy land near the southwest border of Lake Texcoco.
• Took this as a sign to build their settlement there.
• Constructed causeways and canals for transportation in Tenochtitlan.
• Known as a violent people.
• Expanded their empire through ruthless warfare
• Had a reputation for human sacrifices in elaborate rituals involving the removal of beating hearts to appease their gods.
• Developed dugout canoes for transporting themselves and goods throughout canals, lakes and waterways found in the valley of Mexico.
• Astronomy highly important, included in calendar.
• Calendar consisted of a ritual.
• Aztecs had a Tonalpohualli - 'Counting' of 260-day cycle.
• Calendar used a 260 ritual days
• It was based on astronomical observations.
• Calendar was broken down into units (sometimes referred to as trecenas) of 20 days.
• Each day had its own name, symbol, patron deity, and augury.
• A 20-day group ran simultaneously with another group of 13 numbered days.
• Aztecs had a Xiuhpohualli - 'Counting of the Years'.
• Signified when particular religious ceremonies and festivals should be held.
• Calendar was divided into 18 groups of 20 days, each with its own festival.
• Aztec ritual and civil cycles returned to the same places relative to each other every 52 years.
• Created the Badianus Manuscript.
• Was created by Aztec artists in 1552.

Inca Civilization

• Flourished in the Andean region of South America from the early 15th century A.D until its conquest by the Spaniards in the 1530s.
• Machu Picchu, a famous surviving archaeological site, was built as a retreat for an Incan emperor.
• "Machu Picchu" means "Old Peak" or "Old Mountain" in the Quechua language.
• The compound contains more than 100 separate flights of stairs.
• Had an empire called "Land of the Four Corners".
• Largest empire of Inca
• Empire originated at the city of Cuzco in what is today Peru.
• Featured "Innovative Engineering and Valuable Resources".
• The most empire's important agricultural region was CHINCHAYSUYU or Northern Region.
• Territory covered much of modern day Peru, Ecuador, and part of Colombia.
• The Western Amazon was ANTISUYU Eastern Region
• Had a rainforest environment marked by heavy rainfall, high humidity, and lush vegetation.
• CONTISUYU Western Region
• Vertical slopes rose from sea level to ~19,000 feet (5,800 meters) in altitude.
• The Southern Region was COLLASUYU
• Colla meant "Colla" means "high plain".
• Extensive grassland that was ideal for llama and alpaca herding
• Source of salt, potatoes, gold, silver, and copper.
• They were rich in maize (corn) and dried Ilama, coca leaves and alcohol.
• Other consumable goods include sweet potatoes, quinoa, beans and chili peppers.
• Incas were known for performing mummification An important part of Inca funerary rites.
• The month of November was described as being the "month of carrying the dead".
• People would try to feed mummies of their ancestors.
• Cumpi (finest Inca textiles) were reserved for Inca nobility and the emperor himself.
• Clothes were woven out of wool from dried llamas and alpaca or vicuna wool and cotton.
• Objects were made out of gold and silver
• Used gold to make ritual objects, trinkets, and jewelry.
• Combinations of gold and silver, and gold and copper (called tumbaga) were also used
• Stone-working involved fitted building stones together perfectly without using any mortar.
• In stone-working an object as thin as a razor blade could not be inserted between the stones.
• Calendars were essentially lunisolar.
• Two calendars maintained in parallel, one solar and one lunar.
• Twelve lunar months fall 11 days short of a full 365-day solar year.
• Equinoxes, solstices, and Venus cycles are observed.
• Incas used Quipu
• served used as mnemonic devices or to record numerical data
• could record history and literature.
• Successful skull surgeries were preformed.
• Surgery involved cutting holes in the skull in order to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation caused by head wounds.
• Physical measures were based upon human body parts.
• Fingers, the distance between thumb to forefinger, palms, cubits, and wingspans were among those units used.
• Thatkiy or thatki, or one pace was the most basic unit of distance.
• Inca Weapons Included: Bronze or bone-tipped spears, Two-handed wooden swords with serrated edges, Clubs with stone and spiked metal heads, Woolen slings and stones, Stone or copper headed battle-axes, and Bolas (stones fastened to lengths

Medieval Technologies (A.D 400- A.D 1300)

• The time period is generally referring to the same time from 500 to 1500 A.D.
• Military advancements such as the trebuchet siege weapon.

Military Technologies:

• The counterweight trebuchet - revolutionized the trebuchet siege weapon.
• The use of counterweights and hurling huge stones to very far distance.
• The longbow, with massed, disciplinary archery, was used by the English against the French during the hundred years’ war (1337 – 1453). Accurate and contributed to eventual demise of the medieval knight class.
• Steel crossbow was the first hand-held mechanical crossbow. European innovation came with several different cocking aids to enhance draw power.
• Plate armour appeared by the end of the 14th century
• Chain was made from thousand of metal rings, and was a long clock called a hauberk.

Other Medieval Advancements:

• The Blast furnace made it possible for cast iron which first appeared in the middle Europe around 1150.
• The Hourglass was dependable, affordable and accurate measure of time.
• The vertical windmills are a pivot able post mill efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
• Spectacles is constructed of convex lenses for the far-sighted.
• Chess originated in India in the 6th century and spread through Persia and the Muslim world to Europe. Current form evolved from the 15th century.
• Mirrors were constructed during the late 12th century.
• Oil paint invented by a Flemish painter, Jan van Eyck, around 1410 who introduced a stable oil mixture. It was was used to add details in tempera paintings.
• A special type of water mill driven by a tidal rise and fall called a tide mill.
• The Spinning wheel was probably invented in India, though its origins are ambiguous. It Replaced the earlier method of hand spinning.

Agricultral Innovations

• Important in the cultivation of rich, heavy, often wet soils of Northern Europe the heavy wheeled plough made agricultural practices more modern.
• Horse collar allowed more pulling power such as with heavy ploughs. Hourseshoes let horses adapt to rocky terrain, mountains and carry heavier loads
• Artesian well is composed of a thin rod with a hard iron cutting edge placed in borehole. Underground water pressure forces water up the hole withoutpumping.
• Wheeel barrows were used for various construction, mining and farming purposes involving carrying matieral from place to place.

Other Events

• By 1000s, the first universities were developed.
• By 1100s, modern universities emerged throughout Western Europe such as Oxford and Cambridge in England.
• Crises erupted during the 14th century.
• A plague called the Black Death came about
• Quarantine technique came about
• It was established for initially a 40 day period.
• The quarentine was introduced by the Republic of Ragusa to prevent the spreading of diseases.