Pre-Columbian Science and Technology: Olmec & Maya

Evidences of Science and Technology During Pre-Columbian Times

• Lesson focuses on the period from 1500 BC to AD 1500 in the New World.

Olmec Civilization

• Considered the first great Mesoamerican civilization.
• Thrived along the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico, mainly in Veracruz and Tabasco.
• Flourished approximately from 1200 to 400 BC.
• The name "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the Aztec language.
• Constructed permanent city-temple complexes, including San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros.
• Evidence suggests they practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
• Engaged in trade involving obsidian, ceramics, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers, and polished mirrors of limenite and magnetite.
• Left behind monuments and major art pieces such as masks and figurines.
• Known for cultivating cacao, rubber, and salt.

Maya Civilization

• Consisted of a diverse group of indigenous people.
• Inhabited parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• Made remarkable scientific achievements in astronomy, engineering, medicine, and mathematics.
• Excelled in agriculture and achieved breakthroughs in technology.

Astronomy

• Tracked the movement of stars and planets and accurately predicted celestial events like eclipses.
• Considered Venus the most important astronomical object.

Calendar

• Developed an accurate calendar.
• The ritual calendar in Mesoamerica used a count of 260 days.
• Each day had a name, similar to days of the week, with 20 day names represented by symbols.
• The calendar operated simultaneously with a group of 13 numbered days.

Language and Architecture

• The Mayan written language consisted of approximately 800 glyphs or symbols that represented words or syllables.
• Glyphs could be combined in many ways.
• Talented builders who constructed elaborate temples and great cities without metal tools.
• Produced rubber products.

Aztec Civilization

• Established Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City, in 1325 AD.
• Tenochtitlan served as the capital city and center of the Aztec Empire.
• The city remained the capital until the Spanish conquest led by Hernan Cortes in 1520.
• The Aztecs interpreted an eagle perched on a cactus on marshy land near the southwest border of Lake Texcoco as a sign to build their settlement.
• In Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs built causeways and canals for transportation.
• Known as a violent people who expanded their empire through warfare.
• They had a reputation for human sacrifices in elaborate rituals.

Aztec Technology

• Aztecs developed dugout canoes to transport themselves and goods through the canals, lakes, and waterways.
• Astronomy was an important component in the creation of the Aztec calendar.
• The Aztec calendar consisted of ritual cycles
• Aztec medicine was advanced, with the creation of ointments and drinks.
• Aztec innovation was recorded in the Badianus Manuscript, created by Aztec artists in 1552.

Inca Civilization

• Flourished in the Andean region of South America from the early 15th century AD until the Spanish conquest in the 1530s.
• Machu Picchu is one of their most famous sites, built as a retreat for an Incan emperor.
• In the Quechua language, "Machu Picchu" means "Old Peak" or "Old Mountain."
• The compound at Machu Picchu contains more than 100 separate flights of stairs.
• The Inca Empire referred to as Tawantinsuyu, meaning the "Land of the Four Corners".
• Largest empire of Inca Originating at the city of Cuzco in what is present-day Peru.
• A system of roads that stretched to almost 25,000 miles, was created to support the empire.
• Quechua was the official language.

Regions of the Inca Empire

Chinchaysuyu (North Region)

• Contained the empire's most important agricultural region where the territory covered much of modern-day Peru, Ecuador, and part of Colombia.

Antisuyu (East Region)

• Located in the upper Amazon where it had a rainforest environment marked by heavy rainfall, high humidity, and lush vegetation.

Contisuyu (West Region)

• Vertical slopes rise from sea level to 19,000 feet (5,800 meters) in altitude. A land of dramatic peaks, volcanoes, and deep gorges.

Collasuyu (South Region)

• Colla means "high plain," was ideal for llama and alpaca herding, and was a source of salt, potatoes, gold, silver, and copper.
• Rich in maize (corn), dried llama, coca leaves, and alcohol;
• Other consumables include sweet potatoes, quinoa, beans and chili peppers.
• Practiced mummification as an important part of their funerary rites.

CUMPI:

• The finest Inca textiles were reserved for Inca nobility and the emperor. Clothes were created out of wool from dried llama and alpaca or vicuna wool and cotton.
• Inca used gold and combinations of gold and silver, and gold and copper, to make ritual objects, trinkets and jewelry.
• Inca craftsmen produced the Inca's highly skilled stone-working
• Constructed buildings with stones fitted together perfectly without using any mortar.
• Used both solar and lunar Inca Calendars.
• The device to record numerical data known as Quipu was used to record history and literature.
• Inca performed successful skull surgeries.
• Inca used the human body to define physical measures like fingers, forefingers, palms, cubits, and wingspans
• The most basic unit of distance and thatkiy or thatki, or one pace. Examples of weaponry: 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

The State of Science and Technology During The Middle Ages

• Generally referring to the same period of time from 500 to 1500 AD.
• Covers the time from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
• Saw major technological advances.

Military Technologies

• Counterweight trebuchet, it uses siege weapons.
• Launching huge stones in the eastern Mediterranean basin.
• Massed, disciplinary archery was used by the English against the French
• This tactic was used with Longbows during the hundred year’s war (1337 – 1453).
• The longbow was powerful, accurate and contributed to eventual demise of the medieval knight class.
• The steel crossbow was the first handheld mechanical crossbow.

The European Innovation had different cocking aids that enhance draw power

Complete Full Plate Armour

• Appeared by the end of the 14th century.
• The armour chain was made from thousand of metal rings
• Consisting of a long clock called a hauberk.
• Plate armour is considered the best in personal armour in terms of body protection. This showed the skills involved in working metal.
• Iron was the most important material

Other Medieval Inventions:

The first Blast furnace or cast iron:

• Appeared in the middle Europe around 1150.

Was made from dependable and durable material:

• The Hourglass.

A pivot-able post mill:

• Vertical windmills were efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
• The spectacles, convex lenses to help far-. sighted people. Chess was originated from India in the 6th century and had spread through Persia and Europe -.The game evolved to its current form from the 15th century.

Mirrors:

• The mirrors were made in 1180 by Alexander Neckham, who suggested removing the lead from behind the glass to show an accurate reflection.

Oil Paint

• Flemish painter Jan van Eyck invented the technique to create paintings from a variety of surfaces. The technology was introduced ca 1410

Tide Mill

• a special type of water mill driven by a tidal rise and fall. Is estimated to have been in use for 1,400 years

Spinning Wheel

• invented in India, This technology Replaced the earlier method of head spinning,

Agriculture

• Used heavy wheel ploughs to cultivate the land, especially in parts of Northern Europe.

Medieval Agriculture

• Used Horse collars with heavy plows.

Artesian Well

• Composed of a thin rod with a hard iron cutting edge placed in borehole and repeatedly struck with a hammer and pumping. There were various other inventions as well

By 1000s, the first universities were developed. By 1100s, modern universities emerged throughout Western Europe such as Oxford and Cambridge in England. In the 14th century, Crisis of the Late Middle Ages was underway. A plague called Black Death came. Quarantine technique was established, initially a 40-day period, the Quarantine was introduced by the Republic of Ragusa to prevent the spreading of the diseases.