Mesoamerican civilization Maya Aztecs. History of Ancient America

Almost all stages of the ancient history of mankind are represented in the New World

Introduction

Cultural areas of the Americas

By the time the Spanish ships arrived off the east coast of the New World, this vast continent, including the West Indies, was inhabited by many Indian tribes and peoples at various levels of development. Most of them were hunters, fishermen, gatherers or primitive farmers; only in two relatively small areas of the western hemisphere - in Mesoamerica and the Andes - did the Spaniards meet highly developed Indian civilizations. The highest cultural achievements of pre-Columbian America were born on their territory. By the time of its “discovery”, in 1492, up to 2/3 of the entire population of the continent lived there, although in terms of size these areas accounted for only 6.2% of its total area. It was here that the centers of origin of American agriculture were located, and at the turn of our era, the original civilizations of the ancestors of the Nahua, Maya, Zapotec, Quechua, Aymara, etc.

In the scientific literature, this territory was called Middle America or the Zone of High Civilizations. It is divided into three regions:

northern - Mesoamerica
southern - Andean region (Bolivia - Peru)
intermediate region between them (southern Central America, Colombia, Ecuador)

In the intermediate zone, the development of local peoples, although it reached a significant degree, did not rise to the heights of statehood and civilization. The arrival of European conquerors interrupted any independent development of the aboriginal population of these areas. Only now, thanks to the work of several generations of archaeologists, are we finally beginning to understand how rich and vibrant the history of pre-Columbian America was.

Historical processes

The Novyi Svet is also a unique historical laboratory, since the process of development of local culture took place on the whole independently, starting from the Late Paleolithic era (30-20 thousand years ago) - the time of the settlement of the continent from Northeast Asia through the Bering Strait and Alaska - until it was put to an end by the invasion of European conquerors. Thus, almost all the main stages of the ancient history of mankind can be traced in the New World: from primitive hunters of mammoths to the builders of the first cities - centers of early class states and civilizations. Already a simple comparison of the path traversed by the indigenous population of America in the pre-Columbian era, with milestones in the history of the Old World, gives an extraordinary amount to identify general historical patterns.

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

Cultural contacts of the New and Old Worlds

Jade anthropomorphic mask. Olmec culture. 1 thousand BC

The Indian civilizations of the New World managed to reach their apogee without the most important technical achievements of antiquity, which included the smelting of iron and steel, the breeding of domestic animals (especially draft and pack animals), wheeled transport, the potter's wheel, plow agriculture, the arch in architecture, etc. In the Andean region, the processing of non-ferrous metals, gold and silver was carried out as early as the 2nd millennium BC. e., and by the time the Europeans arrived, the Incas widely used in their practice not only bronze weapons, but also bronze tools. However, in Mesoamerica, metals (except iron) appeared already at the end of the civilizations of the classical period (I millennium AD) and were used mainly for the manufacture of jewelry and religious objects.

Mesoamerica

The rapid progress of archaeological research in the most important centers of Middle America, combined with the efforts of linguists, ethnographers, historians, anthropologists, and others, now makes it possible, albeit in the most general form, to trace the main stages in the development of ancient civilization in the New World, to identify its characteristic features and features.

It will be, of course, only about the most prominent Indian civilizations of Mesoamerica and the Andean region.

A special cultural and geographical region - Mesoamerica (or Mesoamerica) - is the northern region of the zone of a highly developed civilization of the New World and includes Central and Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize (formerly British Honduras), the western regions of El Salvador and Honduras. In this area, characterized by a variety of natural conditions and a motley ethnic composition, by the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. there was a transition from the primitive communal system to the early class state, which immediately put forward the local Indians among the most developed peoples of Ancient America. In the over 1,500 years that separate the emergence of civilization from the Spanish conquest, the boundaries of Mesoamerica have undergone significant changes. In general, the era of civilization within this cultural and geographical area can be divided into two periods:

early, or classical (border AD - IX century AD)
late, or postclassical (X-XVI centuries AD)

In the 1st millennium AD e. the zone of high cultures of Mesoamerica did not include Western and Northwestern Mexico. The northern border of civilization then passed along the river. Lerma and coincided with the northern limits of the Teotihuacan culture. The southern borders of Mesoamerica were at the same time the southern border of the Maya civilization, passing along the river. Ulua in Western Honduras and the river. Lempa in Western El Salvador. In the postclassic time, the western (the Tarascan state) and part of the northern (Zacatecas, Casas Grandes) regions of Mexico are also included in Mesoamerica, thereby significantly expanding its total territory.

"Olmec problem"

Giant stone head in a helmet. Olmec culture. La Venta (Tabasco, Mexico). I millennium BC

Among the most significant Mesoamerican cultures of the classical period are Teotihuacan (Central Mexico) and Mayan (southern Mexican regions, Belize, Guatemala, western El Salvador and Honduras). But first, a few words about the "first civilization" of Mesoamerica - the culture of the "Olmecs" on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico (Tabasco, Veracruz). The population of these areas at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. (800-400 BC) reached a high level of culture: at this time, the first “ritual centers” appeared in La Venta, San Lorenzo and Tres Zapotes, pyramids were built from adobes (adobe) and clay, carved stone monuments were erected with plots of predominantly mythological and religious content.

Among the latter, giant stone anthropomorphic heads in helmets stand out, sometimes weighing up to 20 tons. The "Olmec" style of art is characterized by low-relief carvings in basalt and jade. Its main motive was the figure of a weeping chubby child with features of a jaguar attached to it. These “jaguar babies” were adorned with elegant jade amulets, massive Celtic axes (the Olmecs had a cult of a stone ax as a symbol of fertility), and giant basalt steles. Another notable feature of the “Olmec” culture was the following ritual: hiding places with offerings to the gods in the form of hewn blocks of jade and serpentine, Celtic axes and figurines made of the same materials, etc., with a total weight of tens of centners, were arranged in deep pits in the central squares of the settlements. These materials were delivered to the "Olmec" centers from afar: for example, to La Venta - from a distance of 160 and even 500 km. Excavations at another "Olmec" village - San Lorenzo - also revealed giant heads and rows of ritually buried monumental sculptures in a purely "Olmec" style.

According to a series of radiocarbon dates, this refers to 1200-900 years. BC e. It was on the basis of the above data that the hypothesis was formulated that the "Olmecs" were the creators of the earliest civilization of Mesoamerica (1200-900 BC) and all other highly developed cultures of Mesoamerica - Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Maya, etc. - descend from it. At the same time, today we have to say that the "Olmec" problem is still very far from its solution. We do not know about the ethnicity of the carriers of this culture (the term "Olmec" is borrowed from the name of those ethnic groups that settled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico on the eve of the conquest). There is no clarity about the main stages in the development of the Olmec culture, the exact chronology and material signs of these stages. The general territory of distribution of this culture, its socio-political organization is also unknown.

In our opinion, the culture of the "Olmecs" with all its manifestations reflects a long path of development: from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. to the middle - the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC. e. It can be assumed that "ritual centers" with monumental sculpture appear in Veracruz and Tabasco around the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e. (perhaps even in 800 BC), as in La Venta. But everything that is presented there archaeologically in 800-400 years. BC e., fully corresponds to the level of "chiefdoms", "unions of tribes", i.e., the final stage of the primitive communal era. It is significant that the first examples of writing and calendar known to us appear on the "Olmec" monuments only from the 1st century BC. BC e. (stele C in Tres Zapotes and others). On the other hand, the same "ritual centers" - with pyramids, monuments and calendar hieroglyphic inscriptions - have been presented in Oaxaca since the 7th-6th centuries. BC e., and without inscriptions - in mountainous Guatemala, among the Mayan ancestors, at least from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Thus, the question of the “ancestor culture” that gave rise to all the rest is no longer relevant for Mesoamerica: apparently, there was a parallel development in several key areas at once - the Mexico City Valley, the Oaxaca Valley, mountainous Guatemala, the Mayan plains, etc.

Teotihuacan

50 km northeast of Mexico City, where high mountain ranges part, forming a large and fertile valley (this is an offshoot of the Mexico Valley), there are the ruins of Teotihuacan - in the past the capital of the ancient civilization of Central Mexico, an important cultural, political, administrative, economic and religious center not only of this region, but of all Mesoamerica in the 1st millennium AD. e.

According to scientists, by 600 AD. e. - the moment of the highest prosperity - the total area of the city was over 18 square meters. km, and the population - from 60 to 120 thousand people. The main ritual-administrative core of Teotihuacan, which had already developed by the 1st century BC. n. e., was carefully planned around two wide streets-axes intersecting at right angles and oriented to the cardinal points: from north to south, Road of the Dead Avenue is over 5 km long, and from west to east, an unnamed avenue up to 4 km long.

It is interesting that at the northern end of the Road of the Dead there is a gigantic array of the Pyramid of the Moon (42 m high), built of mud brick and lined with uncut volcanic stone. By its design and appearance it is an exact copy of its older sister, the Pyramid of the Sun, located on the left side of the avenue and representing a grandiose five-tiered structure with a flat top, on which the temple once stood. The height of the colossus is 64.5 m, the length of the sides of the base is 211, 207, 217 and 209 m, the total volume is 993 thousand cubic meters. m. It is assumed that the construction of the pyramid required the work of at least 20 thousand people for 20-30 years.

At the intersection with the transverse avenue, the Road of the Dead ends in a vast complex of buildings erected on one giant low platform and united under the common name "Cutadella", which in Spanish means "citadel". One of the main researchers of the city, R. Millon (USA), believes that this is the "tekpan" (Aztec palace) of the ruler of Teotihuacan. In this ensemble of graceful buildings, a temple stands out in honor of the god Quetzalcoatl - the Feathered Serpent, the patron of culture and knowledge, the god of air and wind, one of the main deities of the local pantheon. The temple building itself is completely destroyed, but its pyramidal base, consisting of six gradually decreasing stone platforms, placed on top of each other, has been perfectly preserved. The facade of the pyramid and the balustrade of the main staircase are decorated with the sculpted heads of Quetzalcoatl himself and the god of water and rain Tlaloc in the form of a butterfly. At the same time, the teeth of the heads of the Feathered Serpent were painted with white paint, and the eyes of butterflies had false pupils made of obsidian discs.

To the west of Ciutadella is an extensive complex of buildings (approximately 400 x 600 m in area). which archaeologists consider as the main city market. Along the main avenue of Teotihuacan - the Road of the Dead are the ruins of dozens of magnificent temple and palace structures. To date, some of them have been excavated and reconstructed so that anyone can get a general idea of their architecture and painting. Such, for example, is the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl or the Palace of the Feathered Snail (part of the premises of the palace has stone square columns with low-relief images of the Feathered Snail). The palace is a vast complex of residential, public and storage spaces grouped around courtyards.

The walls of buildings are made of adobe or stone, plastered and often either painted in some bright color or (especially inside) have colorful frescoes. The most outstanding examples of Teotihuacan frescoes are also presented in the Temple of Agriculture, in the Tetitla, Atetelko, Sakuala and Tepantitla groups. They depict people (representatives of the elite and priests), gods and animals (eagles, jaguars, etc.). A peculiar feature of the local culture is also anthropomorphic (probably portrait) masks made of stone and clay (in the latter case - with multi-color coloring). In the III-VII centuries. n. e. in Teotihuacan, the original style of ceramics (cylindrical vessels-vases with and without legs with fresco painting or carved ornament and burnishing) and terracotta figurines are widely used.

The architecture of the city is dominated by buildings on pyramidal foundations of various heights, while the design of the latter is characterized by a combination of vertical and inclined surfaces (vertical “panel and slope” style).

Fragment from the pictorial Codex Nuttal. Mixtec culture. XIII-XV centuries AD

The ritual-administrative center of Teotihuacan described above was surrounded on all sides by residential areas in the form of clusters of block houses (up to 60 m long), planned along the cardinal points along a regular network of narrow straight streets. Each block consisted of residential, utility and utility rooms, divided around rectangular courtyards and apparently served as a habitat for a group of related families. These are one-story, flat-roofed buildings made of mud brick, stone and wood. They are usually concentrated into larger units - "quarters" (Spanish: barrio), and those, in turn, into four large "districts".

Teotihuacan was the largest craft and trade center in Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have found up to 500 craft workshops in the city (of which 300 are workshops for processing obsidian), quarters of foreign traders and "diplomats" from Oaxaca (Zapotec culture) and from Maya territory. Products of the Teotihuacan masters are found in the 1st millennium AD. e. from northern Mexico to Costa Rica. There is no doubt that the cultural, economic (and probably political) influence of the city during its heyday extended to most of Mesoamerica.

And suddenly at the end of the 7th century. n. e. a huge city suddenly perishes, destroyed by the flames of a gigantic fire. The causes of this catastrophe are still unclear. However, it should be recalled that Teotihuacan was in the 1st millennium AD. e. northern outpost of the zone of Mesoamerican civilizations. It directly bordered on the colorful and restless world of the barbarian tribes of Northern Mexico. Among them we find both settled farmers and wandering tribes of hunters and gatherers. Teotihuacan, like the ancient agricultural civilizations of Central Asia, India and the Near East, constantly felt the pressure of these warlike tribes on their northern border. Under a certain set of circumstances, one of the enemy campaigns inland, apparently, ended with the capture and destruction of Teotihuacan itself. After this terrible defeat, the city never recovered, and new, more powerful forces advanced to the forefront of Mesoamerican history - the city-states of Azcapotzalco, Cholula, Xochicalco and later, from the 9th century. n. e., - the state of the Toltecs.

Maya civilization of the classical period (I-IX centuries AD)

Geography and history of the Maya

"Temple of the Inscriptions". Mayan culture. Palenque. 8th century AD

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

But the Maya did not know metals, a plow, wheeled carts, domestic animals, a potter's wheel. In fact, if we proceed only from the range of their tools, they were still people of the Stone Age. The origin of the Mayan culture is shrouded in mystery. We only know that the appearance of the first "classical" Maya civilization dates back to the turn of our era and is associated with the forested lowland areas in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. For many centuries, populous states and cities existed here. But in the IX-X centuries. the heyday ended with a sudden cruel catastrophe. The cities in the south of the country were abandoned, the population was sharply reduced, and soon the tropical vegetation covered the monuments of its former grandeur with its green carpet.

After the 10th century The development of the Mayan culture, although already somewhat altered by the influence of foreign Toltec conquerors who came from Central Mexico and from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, continued in the north - on the Yucatan Peninsula - and in the south - in the mountains of Guatemala. The Spaniards found there more than two dozen small Indian states, constantly at war with each other, each of which had its own dynasty of rulers. By the beginning of the Spanish conquest in the XVI century. Maya Indians occupied a vast and diverse territory in terms of natural conditions, which included the modern Mexican states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as all of Guatemala, Belize, the western regions of El Salvador and Honduras.

The boundaries of the Maya region in the 1st millennium AD. e., apparently, more or less coincided with those mentioned above. Currently, most scientists distinguish three large cultural and geographical areas or zones within this territory:

Northern (Yucatan Peninsula)
Central (Northern Guatemala, Belize, Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico)
Southern (mountainous Guatemala)

The beginning of the classical period in the lowland forest areas of the Maya is marked by the emergence of such new features of culture as hieroglyphic writing (inscriptions on reliefs, steles, lintels, ceramic paintings and frescoes, small plastic items), calendar dates according to the Maya era (the so-called Long Count - the number of years that have elapsed from the mythical date 3113 BC), monumental stone architecture with stepped "false" vault, the cult of early stelae and altars, a specific style of ceramics and terracotta figurines, original wall paintings.

Architecture

Architecture in the central part of any big city Maya I millennium AD e. represented by pyramidal hills and platforms of various sizes and heights. Inside, they are usually built from a mixture of earth and rubble and lined on the outside with hewn stone slabs, fastened with lime mortar. On their flat tops there are stone buildings: small buildings of one to three rooms on high tower-shaped base pyramids (the height of some of these pyramid-towers, such as, for example, in Tikal, reaches 60 m). These are probably temples. And the long multi-room ensembles on low platforms framing the inner open courtyards are most likely the residences of the nobility or palaces, since the ceilings of these buildings are usually made in the form of a stepped vault, their walls are very massive, and the interiors are relatively narrow and small in size. Narrow doorways served as the only source of light in the rooms, so coolness and twilight reign inside the surviving temples and palaces. At the end of the classical period, the Maya appeared sites for ritual ball games - the third type of the main monumental buildings of local cities. The basic unit of planning in Mayan cities was rectangular paved squares surrounded by monumental buildings. Very often, the most important ritual and administrative buildings were located on natural or artificially created elevations - "acropolises" (Piedras Negras, Copan, Tikal, etc.).

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

Monumental sculpture and painting

In the VI-IX centuries. The Maya achieved the highest success in the development of various types of applied art, and above all in monumental sculpture and painting. The sculptural schools of Palenque, Copan, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras achieved at this time a special subtlety of modeling, harmony of composition and naturalness in the transfer of the depicted characters (rulers, priests, dignitaries, warriors, servants and prisoners). The famous frescoes of Bonampak (Chiapas, Mexico), dating back to the 8th century. n. e., represent a whole historical narrative: complex rituals and ceremonies, scenes of raids on foreign villages, sacrifice of prisoners, festivities, dances and processions of dignitaries and nobles.

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

New in Maya city research

Notable changes have also undergone in recent times and ideas about the nature, structure and functions of the major Mayan "centers" of the 1st millennium AD. e. Extensive research by US archaeologists in Tikal, Tsibilchaltun, Etzne, Seibal, Bekan, and others revealed the presence there of a significant and permanent population, handicraft production, imported products, and many other features and characteristics characteristic of an ancient city both in the Old and New Worlds.

A real sensation in Mayanism was the discovery by the American researcher Michael Coe of polychrome painted ceramics from the most magnificent burials of Mayan aristocrats and rulers of the 1st millennium AD. e. Comparing the plots presented on these clay vases with descriptions of the exploits of the twin heroes in the underworld from the Maya-Kiche epic Popol-Vuh (XVI century), the scientist drew attention to their partial coincidence. This allowed Ko to suggest that the images and inscriptions on each vessel describe the death of the Mayan ruler, the long journey of his soul through the terrible labyrinths of the kingdom of the dead, overcoming various obstacles and the subsequent resurrection of the lord, who ultimately turned into one of the heavenly gods. All the ups and downs of this dangerous journey completely repeated the myth of the adventures of the twin heroes in the underworld from the epic Popol Vuh. In addition, the American researcher found that the inscriptions or their individual parts, presented on almost all painted polychrome vases of the 6th-9th centuries. n. e., are often repeated, i.e., have a standard character. The reading of these "standard inscriptions" (the so-called revival formula) was successfully carried out by the Soviet scientist Yu. V. Knorozov. Thanks to this, a completely new, previously unknown world has opened before us - the mythological representations of the ancient Mayans, their concept of life and death, religious beliefs and much more. - a more detailed description.

Aztec civilization

State formation

After the death of Teotihuacan, Central Mexico for many decades becomes the scene of dramatic and stormy events: more and more waves of militant barbarian tribes of the “Chichimeks” invade here from the north and northwest, sweeping away the islands of the Teotihuacan civilization that still survived in Azcapotsalco, Portezuelo, Cholula, etc. Finally, at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. as a result of the confluence of these two streams - the alien (“Chichimec”) and the local (Teotihuacan) - in the northeast of the region, a powerful Toltec state arises with its center in the city of Tule Tollan (Hidalgo, Mexico).

But this public education was short-lived. In 1160, the invasion of new groups of barbarians from the north crushed Tollan and ushered in another period of instability in the political history of Mesoamerica. Among the militant newcomers were the tenochki-Aztecs (Aztecs), a semi-barbarian tribe sent to search for a better life by the instructions of their tribal god Huitzilopochtli. According to legend, it was divine providence that predetermined the choice of a place for the construction of the future Aztec capital - Tenochtitlan in 1325: on the deserted islands in the western part of the vast Lake Texcoco. At that time, several city-states fought for leadership in the Mexico Valley, among which the more powerful Azcapotzalco and Culhuacan stood out. The Aztecs intervened in these intricacies of local politics, acting as mercenaries for the most powerful and successful masters.

In 1427, the Aztecs organized a "tripartite league" - an alliance of the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan (Takuba) - and began to consistently conquer the adjacent regions. By the time the Spaniards arrived at the beginning of the 16th century. the so-called Aztec empire covered a vast territory - about 200 thousand square meters. km - with a population of 5-6 million people. Its borders stretched from northern Mexico to Guatemala and from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

Aztec capital - Tenochtitlan

The capital of the "empire" - Tenochtitlan - eventually turned into a huge city, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich was about 1200 hectares, and the number of inhabitants, according to various estimates, reached 120-300 thousand people. This island city was connected to the mainland by three large stone dam roads, and there was a whole flotilla of canoes. Like Venice, Tenochtitlan was cut through by a regular network of canals and streets. The core of the city was formed by its ritual and administrative center: the "sacred site" - a walled square 400 m long, inside which were the main city temples ("Templo Mayor" - a temple with sanctuaries of the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, etc.), dwellings of priests, schools, a playground for a ritual ball game. Nearby were ensembles of magnificent palaces of the Aztec rulers - "tlatoani". According to eyewitnesses, the palace of Montezuma II (more precisely, Moctezuma) consisted of up to 300 rooms, had a large garden, a zoo, and baths.

Around the center crowded residential quarters inhabited by merchants, artisans, farmers, officials, warriors. In the huge Main Market and smaller quarterly bazaars, local and imported products and products were traded. The general impression of the magnificent Aztec capital is well conveyed by the words of an eyewitness and participant in the dramatic events of the conquest - soldier Bernal Diaz del Castillo from the Cortes detachment. Standing on top of a high stepped pyramid, the conquistador gazed in amazement at the strange and dynamic picture of the life of a huge pagan city: “And we saw a huge number of boats, some came with various cargoes, others ... with various goods ... All the houses of this great city ... were in the water, and from house to house it was possible to get only by suspension bridges or boats. And we saw ... pagan temples and chapels, reminiscent of towers and fortresses, and they all sparkled with whiteness and aroused admiration.

The death of an empire

Tenochtitlan was captured by Cortes after a three-month siege and a fierce struggle in 1521. And right on the ruins of the Aztec capital, from the stones of its palaces and temples, the Spaniards built a new city - Mexico City, the rapidly growing center of their colonial possessions in the New World. Over time, the remains of the Aztec buildings were covered with multi-meter layers of modern life. Under these conditions, systematic and extensive archaeological research of Aztec antiquities is almost impossible. Only occasionally, during earthworks in the center of Mexico City, stone statues are born - the creations of ancient masters.

Therefore, the discoveries of the late 70-80s became a real sensation. 20th century during the excavations of the main temple of the Aztecs - "Templo Mayor" - in the very center of Mexico City, on Zocalo Square, between the cathedral and the presidential palace. Now the sanctuaries of the gods Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war, the head of the Aztec pantheon) and Tlaloc (the god of water and rain, the patron of agriculture) have already been opened, the remains of fresco paintings and stone sculpture have been discovered. Particularly prominent are a round stone with a diameter of more than three meters with a low-relief image of the goddess Koyolshauhka - the sister of Huitzilopochtli, 53 deep hiding places filled with ritual offerings (stone figurines of gods, shells, corals, incense, ceramic vessels, necklaces, skulls of sacrificed people, etc.). The newly discovered materials (their total number exceeds several thousand) expanded the existing ideas about the material culture, religion, trade, economic and political relations of the Aztecs during the heyday of their state at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century.

Civilizations of South America

What tribes and peoples inhabited Peru in ancient times? The vast majority believe that they were the Incas. And it seems right. When in 1532 the Spanish conquistadors set foot on Peruvian soil, the whole country, as well as Ecuador, Bolivia and Northern Chile, were part of the gigantic Inca empire, or, as the Incas themselves called their state, Tahuantinsuyu. The total length of Tahuantinsuyu along the Pacific coast was over 4,300 km, and the population was at least 6 million people. However, the Incas were only the outer facade of ancient Peru, behind which, as in Egypt or Mesopotamia, a long and glorious past was hidden.

Early Civilizations - Chavin, Mochica, Nazca, Tiahuanaco, Chimu

At the end of II millennium BC. e. in the mountains of the northeastern regions of the country, the mysterious Chavin culture suddenly appeared, synchronous with the “Olmec” monuments of Mesoamerica and close to them in character (the cult of a cat predator - a jaguar or puma, stone pyramidal temples, elegant ceramics, etc.). From the turn of our era, in the coastal zone of Peru, the Mochica civilization appeared in the north, and the Nazca civilization in the south. Simultaneously with them or a little later in the mountains of Bolivia and Southern Peru a dynamic and original culture of Tiahuanaco (named after its central settlement - Tiahuanaco, near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca) was formed. What is characteristic of all these early Peruvian-Bolivian civilizations?

First of all, they were born independently, simultaneously or almost simultaneously with the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica, but without any noticeable connections with them. Further, although the ancient Peruvians developed neither hieroglyphic writing nor a complex calendar, their technology was generally superior to that of the Mesoamerican population. At a time when the Mesoamericans still lived entirely in the Stone Age, the Indians of Peru and Bolivia from the 2nd millennium BC. e. they knew metallurgy, processed gold, silver, copper and their alloys and made from them not only jewelry and weapons, but (as in the case of copper) even the tips of agricultural tools - "digger sticks" and hoes. They, especially the creators of the Mochica culture, made magnificent ceramics with polychrome painting and figured modeling. Their fabrics of cotton and wool were fine and perfect. But especially elegant types of these products - tapestries, decorative fabrics, brocade and muslin - have, perhaps, no equal in the ancient world. Their beauty was only enhanced by the brightness of the dyes prepared from various plants (for example, indigo) and minerals. These three important components of the local culture - metal products, ceramics and fabrics (well preserved in the dry and warm climate of the coast) - give a unique originality to all the named ancient Peruvian civilizations of the 1st millennium AD. e.

The subsequent period (from the 10th century AD and later) was marked by an increase in the expansion of the population of the mountainous regions (especially Tiahuanaco) to the Pacific coast zone. Then several new states arise here, the largest of which was Chimu, located in the north of this area, approximately from Timbeg to Lima. Its capital, Chan Chan, occupied an area of about 25 sq. km and had a population of up to 25 thousand people. In the center of the city there were ten huge rectangles 400 × 200 m, enclosed by walls 12 m high - palace ensembles of local kings. Around - residences of a smaller size, where officials, artisans and other groups of citizens lived. After the death of the king, they buried him in his palace with all the riches, and the successor built himself a new building, more like a castle or fortress than an ordinary house. It was in Chimu that a unified network of irrigation canals was first created and roads were built connecting the mountains and the coast. And this, in turn, explains both the impressive achievements of the local culture and the significant concentration of the population in cities and villages.

Inca state

At the same time, in the mountainous zone with its rugged relief, a large number of valleys and rivers almost isolated from each other, a number of small warring states simultaneously arose. But only one of them - the state of the Incas in the Cuzco Valley - having a more perfect organization of the army and the apparatus of power and distinguished by the militancy of its inhabitants, managed to break the resistance of its neighbors and become the dominant force in the region. This happened only a century before the arrival of the Spaniards, in the 15th century. n. e.

The size of the Inca empire grew at an unprecedented rate. Between 1438 and 1460 Inca Pachacuti conquered most of the mountainous regions of Peru. Under his son Topa Inca (1471-1493), a significant part of Ecuador and the territory of the state of Chimu were captured, and a little later - the south of the Peruvian coastal zone, the mountains of Bolivia, and northern Chile. At the head of a huge power was the divine ruler of the Sapa Inca, who was assisted by a hereditary aristocracy connected with the ruler by blood relationship, as well as a priestly caste and a whole army of officials who controlled all aspects of life.

Rural communities carried a heavy burden of all kinds of taxes and labor duties (work on the construction of roads, temples and palaces, in mines, military service, etc.). The population of the newly conquered lands was forcibly moved from their native places to remote provinces. The empire was connected by an extensive network of stone-paved roads, along which, at certain distances, there were post stations with recreation facilities and warehouses with food and necessary materials. Both foot runners and riders on llamas regularly traveled along the roads.

Spiritual life and questions of the cult were entirely in the hands of the priestly hierarchy. The worship of the creator god Viracocha and the heavenly planets was carried out in stone temples, decorated with gold inside. Depending on the circumstances, sacrifices to the gods varied from the usual llama meat and maize beer in such cases to the killing of women and children (during the illness or death of the supreme Inca).

However, this largest and best organized empire of pre-Columbian America became easy prey for a handful of Spanish adventurers led by Francisco Pizarro in the 16th century. n. e. The murder of the Inca Atahualpa in 1532 paralyzed the will to resist the local Indians, and the powerful Inca state collapsed in a matter of days under the blows of the European conquerors.

The Incas, Aztecs and Maya are mysterious tribes that have disappeared from the face of the earth. Until now, scientific excavations and all kinds of research are being carried out in order to study their life and the reasons for their disappearance. In this article we will talk about one interesting tribe. The Aztecs lived in the 14th century in what is now Mexico City.

Where did they come from

The number of this Indian people was about 1.3 million people. The homeland of the Aztecs, according to legend, was the island of Aztlan (translated as "country of herons"). Initially, the members of this tribe were hunters, but then, having settled on the ground, they began to engage in agricultural and handicraft work, although it was a rather warlike tribe. The Aztecs, in order to start leading for quite a long time, were looking for suitable lands. They did not act at random, but in accordance with the instructions of their god Huitzilopochtli. In his opinion, the Aztecs should have seen an eagle sitting on a cactus and devouring the earth.

This happened

Despite the strangeness of this sign, after 165 years of wandering around Mexican soil, the Aztecs still managed to meet this mysterious bird with unusual behavior. At the place where this happened, the tribe began to settle down. The Aztecs named their first settlement Tenochtitlan (translated as "fruit tree growing from stone"). Another name for these lands is Mexico City. Interestingly, the Aztec civilization was created by several tribes. Scientists believe that at least seven tribes who spoke related languages took part in this, the most common of which was Nahuatl. Now it and similar dialects are spoken by more than 1 million people.

Bottoms and tops

Can the Aztec civilization serve as an example for the modern organization of society? Equality fighters would certainly not like the Aztec division into aristocrats and plebeians. Moreover, members of high society possessed all the best. They lived in luxurious palaces, wore magnificent clothes, ate delicious food, had many privileges, and held high positions. The plebeians worked the land, traded, hunted, fished and lived poorly in special quarters. But after death, everyone got an equal chance to get into the underworld, the abode of the goddess of death Miktlan, or go to a better world. Since warriors in the Aztec world enjoyed special respect, those who died on the battlefield could accompany the sun from sunrise to zenith, as well as those who were sacrificed. Women who died in childbirth received the honor to accompany the sun from zenith to sunset. "Lucky" can be considered those who were killed by lightning or drowned. They ended up in a heavenly place where Tlalocan lived.

Fathers and Sons

The tribe referred to in this article paid great attention to the education of children. Until the age of 1, they were brought up at home, and after that they had to attend special schools. Moreover, both boys and girls, although the latter, most often, having married, sat at home and looked after the household and children. Commoners were trained in craft skills, military affairs. Aristocrats studied history, astronomy, social science, rituals, and government. The children of members of high society were not white-handed. They worked in public works, cleaned in temples, and participated in rituals. Honor, respect and various privileges awaited the elderly.

Aztec culture

No wonder this lost civilization attracts attention today. The Aztecs were excellent craftsmen, so buildings, sculptures, stone and clay products, fabrics, and jewelry were of high quality. The Aztecs were especially distinguished by the ability to make a variety of products from the bright feathers of tropical birds. Aztec mosaics and ornaments are also famous. The aristocrats were fond of literature. Many of them could compose a poem or write an oral work. Legends, tales, poems, descriptions of the rites of this people have survived to this day. Paper for books was made from the bark. The calendars that this tribe created are also interesting. The Aztecs used a solar and ritual calendar. In accordance with the solar calendar, agricultural work and religious work were carried out. It consisted of 365 days. The second calendar, which includes 260 days, served for predictions. The fate of a person was judged by the day on which he was born. Until now, many treasure hunters dream of finding Aztec gold. And they lived in their time very richly. This is evidenced by the stories of the Spanish conquerors. They say that the rich Aztecs, especially in the capital Tenochtitlan, ate and slept on gold. Golden thrones were set up for their gods, at the foot of which there were also golden ingots.

Aztec religion

People from this tribe believed that there were several gods who controlled the forces of nature and the fate of people. They had gods of water, maize, rain, sun, war and many others. The Aztecs built huge, ornate temples. The largest was dedicated to the main deity Tenochtitlan and was 46 meters high. Rites and sacrifices were held in the temples. The Aztecs also had an idea of the soul. They believed that its habitat in a person is the heart and blood vessels. The pulse beat was taken as its manifestation. According to the Aztecs, the gods put the soul into the human body even at the time when he was in the womb. They also believed that objects and animals possess souls. The Aztecs imagined that there was a special connection between them, allowing them to interact on an intangible level. The Aztecs also thought that every person has a magical double. His death led to the death of man. As a sacrifice, the Aztecs offered their own blood to their idols. To do this, they performed the rite of bloodletting. In general, the Aztecs brought human sacrifices in huge quantities. It is a known fact that 2,000 people were sacrificed during the consecration of the Great Temple. The Aztecs thought about the end of the world and believed that a large amount of blood could appease the gods and maintain world balance.

The Aztec civilization perished because of the greed of the Spaniards. It happened at the beginning of the 16th century, but the imagination is still excited by the life story of a tribe that disappeared from the face of the earth. Whether Aztec gold brings happiness, everyone will decide for themselves.

INTRODUCTION

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Most of them were hunters, fishermen, gatherers or primitive farmers; only in two relatively small areas of the western hemisphere - in Mesoamerica and the Andes - did the Spaniards meet highly developed Indian civilizations. The highest cultural achievements of pre-Columbian America were born on their territory. By the time of its “discovery”, in 1492, up to 2/3 of the entire population of the continent lived there, although in terms of size these areas accounted for only 6.2% of its total area. It was here that the centers of origin of American agriculture were located, and at the turn of our era, the original civilizations of the ancestors of the Nahua, Maya, Zapotec, Quechua, Aymara arise.

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

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

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

The continent of America from the period of its discovery and still holds many mysteries. Before the conquest of the continent by Europeans, it was an original cohesion of several cultures. Scientists are deeply engaged in the study of the three most striking civilizations, whose history goes back hundreds of years - these are the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. Each of these civilizations left for us a lot of evidence of its existence, by which we can judge the era of their heyday and the sudden decline or partial disappearance altogether. Each culture carries a huge cultural layer studied and still being studied, expressed in the creations of architecture, evidence of writing, in the remains of handicraft art, as well as in the language that has come down to us. Faced every time with the ancient culture of Latin America and not infrequently with the modern one, we find a lot of interesting things in it and even more unsolved and surrounded by a halo of mysticism. What is one myth about the fabulous country "El dorado". Many fragments of the distant era of the existence of the civilizations of the Incas, Aztecs and Maya, unfortunately, have been lost forever, but much remains with which we are in direct contact, but it also gives us ways to unravel a lot, sometimes inexplicable, to us, modern people, regarding the art in general of those distant worlds. The problem of studying these ancient cultures until recently was that Latin America itself was "closed to the eyes and minds of scientists all over the world". With great obstacles and intervals in the breaks, excavations and searches for architectural treasures have been and are being carried out. Only recently, with the exception of literary information, has access been expanded to territories and places associated with the habitation of ancient tribes and peoples on them. People who have been there and talk about what they saw seem overwhelmed with the most unusual impressions from what they experienced and saw. They enthusiastically talk about the places where, allegedly, religious rites were once performed, about ancient Indian temples, about many things that we could not clearly imagine without seeing in reality. Listening to them, you imagine and understand all the greatness and value of the monuments of ancient civilizations, they carry with them a truly huge layer of information necessary for understanding and correct perception of the existence of our ancestors and, in general, the history of human development.

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

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

Further, the subject of my more detailed consideration will be the civilization of the Aztecs. I chose the Aztecs for a reason, because I was interested in the fact that their culture has survived to this day and numerous tribes of the Aztecs live in our time, living in their ancestral lands.

THE INCAS

inca mayan calendar aztec

It's getting light. The rays of the sun, breaking into the morning sky, painted the snowy peaks of the Andes in pale pink colors. Here, at an altitude of 4300 meters above sea level, the Indians, meeting the dawn, rejoice in the warmth that drives away the cold of the night. The sun's rays have already illuminated the temple of the sun in the center of the capital of the Inca state, the city of Cusco (which means center of the world ). The golden walls of the temple shone in the sun. Statues of llamas, vicunas, and condors cast in pure gold sparkled in the Inca garden in front of the temple. As a sign of reverence for the sun god, Indians passing by the temple send air kisses. They believe that the sun gives them life and provides them with everything they need - how grateful they are for these generous gifts!

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

Who are these Incas? What is their origin?

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

Legends tell about the origin of this people. Sun God IntiI watched with sadness the life of people on earth: after all, they lived worse than wild animals, in poverty and ignorance. Once taking pity on them, the Incas sent their children to the people: a son Manco Capacaand daughter Mama Oklio. Having given them a staff of pure gold, the divine father ordered them to settle down where the staff would easily enter the ground. It happened not far from the village of Pakari-Tambo, lying at the foot of the Wanakauri hill. In fulfillment of the divine will of the Sun, his children stayed and founded the city, which they named Cusco. They gave religion and laws to the people who lived there, men were taught to cultivate the land, mine rare metals and process them, and women were taught to weave and run a household. Having created the state, Manco Capac became its first Inca- the ruler, and Mama Oklio - his wife.

In accordance with the worldview of the Incas, the supreme creator of the universe and the creator of all other gods was Kon-Tiksi Viracocha.Creating the world, Viracocha used three main elements: water, earth and fire. The space of the Incas consisted of three levels: the upper one is heavenly, the Sun and his wife-sister Luna live there, directly influencing the life of mankind; the middle one, in which people, animals and plants live; the lower one is the dwelling place of the dead and those who are to be born. The last two worlds communicate through caves, mines, springs and craters. Communication with the upper world is carried out through the mediation of the Inca, who carried out the will of the Sun on Earth.

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

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

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

From the mists of legend and myth, the Incas emerge around 1438 when they defeat the neighboring Chaika people. The organizer of this victory, the son of the ruler of Cuzco-Viracocha Inca, took the supreme power, and with it the name of Pachacuti. The historicity of his personality is beyond doubt.

Further expansion of the Incas unfolded mainly in the southern and southeastern directions. In the middle of the 15th century, the Incas intervened in the struggle between the Aymara chiefdoms and, as a result, relatively easily subjugated the area around Lake Titicaca. Here the Incas took possession of colossal herds of llamas and alpacas. Pachacuti declared animals royal property. From now on, the armies of Cuzco did not feel the need for vehicles, clothing and food.

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

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

In the late 60s - early 70s of the XV century, it was decided to attack Chimor. The victory remained with the Incas, although the peace concluded by the kingdom of Chimor was relatively honorable for the latter. Only after the uprising that soon broke out, the coastal state was finally defeated. Chimor lost all possessions outside Moche, and Inca military posts settled in this valley itself.

After the death of Pachacuti, Tupac Yupanqui set off on a new campaign. Without much difficulty, the small states and tribes of the central and southern coast of Peru were subordinated to them. The Incas met with stubborn resistance only in the small valley of Cañete, south of Lima. Even easier than the capture of the southern coast of Peru was the conquest of thousands of kilometers of space south of Titicaca. Small groups of herders, farmers and fishermen in the local oases were not able to put up any noticeable resistance to his army.

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

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

Under Huayne Capac (1493-1525), the Inca Empire reached its apogee. After his death, an internecine war broke out between two pretenders to the Inca throne - Ataulpa and Huascar, which ended in the victory of Ataulpa. Pizarro took advantage of this struggle, luring Ataulpa into a trap. Taking a huge ransom in gold from Ataulpa, the Spaniards then executed him and placed Huascar's younger brother Manco Capac on the throne. The latter soon raised an uprising, but was unable to recapture Cuzco and led his supporters northwest of the capital, where he created the so-called Novoinsk kingdom in a remote mountainous region. Its last ruler was executed by the Spaniards in 1572.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were no sales relations, they were replaced by a developed regulated state exchange, the functions of which were to meet the needs of residents of various climatic zones. The form of exchange was fairs - urban and rural, arranged every ten days.

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

Only a husband of royal blood could be on the throne in Cuzco. The future Inca prepared for a difficult role for a long time: he comprehended the secrets of life, studied religion, various sciences and quipu - knot letter. He was also taught good manners and martial arts.

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

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

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

There were categories in the empire that remained outside the social structure of the communal sector. These are yanakona, aklya, kamayok and mitmak, and a person's belonging to one of these categories could be combined with belonging to others.

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

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

Camaioc is the least studied population group of ancient Peru. They were professional specialists in certain types of work, had a narrow specialization and personally, and not indirectly through the community, depended on the administration. Kamayok were on state allowance, but they had no chance to break into administrative posts due to too limited qualifications.

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

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

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

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

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

In this society subject to intensive labor, people's lives were strictly regulated. The state told them where to live, what crops to grow on their land, how and what to wear, and even whom to marry.

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

A man who was a member of the Ailyu, after marriage, received from Sapa Inca (from the state) a land plot (topu) large enough for him to feed himself and his wife. The size of such plots depended on the fertility of the soil in a particular area, but if the top was equal to two acres, then in this case the head of the family received two more after the birth of each son and one for the maintenance of his daughter. As the owner of a topu, a married man automatically became a pureh, the head of a tax-paying family hearth. At the same time, it should be noted that although formally the land allotment was allocated to a man (only after marriage), it, in fact, was given to both husband and wife as one whole, emphasizing their equal share in bearing the tax burden. Moreover, within the Andean cultural tradition, both men and women viewed their work roles as complementary, considering them useful and necessary for the survival of all family members. The spirit of solidarity prevailed in the ailyu itself. The men worked together to build houses for the newlyweds, and when one of them was called to work out his mita (tax), serve his labor service or serve in the army, those who remained at home, on behalf of his family, were engaged in processing his top. During spring sowing, men and women worked side by side, singing religious hymns. Men, lined up in a row, dug up the ground with the help of a chaquitalia (a foot plow, which was worked like a shovel) - a long stick with a footboard over a bronze point. They were also followed by women lined up in a row, who broke up clods of earth with a hoe with a wide bronze blade, called a "lamp".

In order to meet the food needs of the empire, the Incas had to take a new approach to the use of land, and they successfully coped with this by creating terraces on the slopes of the mountains, straightening the course of some rivers, filling up or draining the swamps, directing water to desert areas. Agricultural terraces of the Incas (andenes) have been preserved in great numbers. They made it possible to make agriculture possible where it could not even be dreamed of before. Today in Peru, thanks to the Inca andenes, about 6 million acres of land are regularly cultivated.

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

Cleanliness and neatness of clothing in Inca society was given great attention. Men wore knee-length short trousers (a sign of maturity) and sleeveless shirts, while women wore simple long woolen dresses that were worn over the head and tied at the waist with a wide, elaborately decorated belt. On his feet were sandals made of llama wool. In cold weather, all the Incas wore long and warm cloaks.

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

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

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

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

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

After completing a long military training, young people in their ailya, in the presence of a state inspector, passed something like final military examinations. The sick and crippled were not subject to military training. When the war broke out, the youth of the community, having undergone lengthy military training, went to the battlefield with the unit to which they were assigned based on the administrative structure of the empire.

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

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

Unlike the Aztecs, the Incas waged wars not in order to obtain human sacrifices to implement the messianic idea of \u200b\u200bmaintaining the life of the Sun (and therefore the whole world), but to expand the empire and obtain new subjects (additional labor force).

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

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

All the settlements of Tahuantinsuyu were interconnected by a well-thought-out system of magnificent roads, paved with stone and framed by a barrier. They were meant for walking. The two roads that crossed the Inca empire from end to end were considered the main ones. One of them began at the northern border of the empire, near the equator (modern Ecuador), and ended at the Maule River. The total length of this road is about 5250 km. The second road connected the northern coast (Tumbes) with the south. Both roads crossed mountain peaks, swamps, impenetrable jungle, fast-flowing rivers, over which rope bridges were hung from agave fibers, and were connected by a series of transverse roads. Along each of them, approximately 25 km apart, there were inns, and every 2 km - postal posts (chukly). This is another achievement. The Inca postal service was unparalleled in any other ancient civilization. Special couriers-runners (chaskies) with a white headband passed messages on the relay, running 2 km of their section. Two couriers were supposed to be at each post at the same time. One rested; the other was awake and carefully watched the stretch of road that passed through his post. As soon as the watchman on duty noticed the approaching courier, he immediately ran out to meet him and received an oral or nodal message on the relay. Since the distances were short, a high delivery speed was achieved: 2000 km were covered in three to five days. The work of the chaska was very hard, therefore, in the state postal service, healthy, swift-footed and especially hardy young people from 18 to 20 years old were used (at the expense of the mita).

The magnificent postal service of the Inca empire was modeled after earlier Peruvian cultures, the Mochica and Chimu courier service. However, the Incas improved and expanded the postal service of their predecessors. They covered the entire territory of the empire with a network of postal posts, starting from the south of present-day Colombia up to the central part of Chile. It is also important to consider that the organization of both the postal service and other state events, including monumental construction, did not cost the empire anything. Works of this kind were made the duty of the inhabitants of the community on whose territory these works were carried out. Performing the role of a chaska, 18-20-year-old boys performed their labor service on the basis of a mita. How difficult the work of the couriers of the Inca postal service was is eloquently evidenced by the following fact: while others, according to the myth, had to work for the state for three months (for example, in mines), the chasquis worked only a month.

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

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

The significance of the quipu was so great in Tahuantinsuyu that one of the Spanish chroniclers even wrote about this: "... The entire Inca empire was ruled by means of the quipu." A large number of copies of the quipu have survived to our time. They differ primarily in size. The largest kippah that has come down to us is 165 cm long and 6 cm wide. Often knots were lowered into the grave to accompany the deceased on his last journey.

It is believed that the Incas had a written language different from what the Europeans used to consider writing. So they just didn't recognize her. The chroniclers mention special canvases kept in temples, on which “everything one needed to know about the past” was drawn, and about the messages of the lords painted on fabrics. Most likely it was a pictographic letter, available only to the nobility; moreover, some scholars are inclined to consider images on ceramic vessels as inscriptions - kero. It is noteworthy that in the Quechua language, which supposedly did not have a written form, nevertheless, already in the pre-Hispanic period, there were words that testified to the opposite. For example, "sprat" ("kelka") - "writing" ("letter"), "kilkangi" - "to write", "kilyaskuni" - "to read".

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

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

The pearl of world drama is the Inca drama in verse "Apu-Olyantai".She told about a courageous and noble commander, a native of the provincial aristocracy, who dared to fall in love with the daughter of the greatest Pachacuti - Kusi Koylur ("Laughing Star") - and achieve her reciprocal love. To this day, this drama is still on the stage of the Indian theater of Latin America.

The Incas were good musicians. There were only five sounds in their sound range (do, re, fa, salt, la), but this did not prevent them from playing bone and metal flutes, drums, tambourines and water vessels, the neck of which was covered with leather, as well as reed or clay Andean pipes. To the sound of music, the people of Tahuantinsuyu often danced. The dances were mostly magical and ritual in nature, but sometimes they were performed just for fun. There were several types of dance: male military, shepherd, secular, folk.

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

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

But medicine is recognized as the most developed science in the state. Diseases were considered the result of sin, so priests and healers were engaged in medical practice. They treated with magic tricks, fasting, bloodletting, washing the stomach and intestines, as well as herbs. In severe cases, they resorted to operations (craniotomy, amputation of limbs). They used a special way of treating wounds - with the help of ants, as well as painkillers, such as coca, which was highly valued. Evidence of the effectiveness of Inca medicine was the longevity of the inhabitants of the empire - 90-100 years.

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

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

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

The palace-residence of the high priest and five beautiful buildings, in which his assistants lived, adjoin the great temple. These buildings were covered with straw, which was woven with golden threads. Nearby was temple of the moonlined with silver. Its altar in the form of a night deity was guarded by the mummies of the deceased spouses of the Incas.

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

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

Most of the monuments of pre-Columbian art are found in burials on the coast. Fewer objects with plot images were found in the mountains, and they date mainly from the Huari-Tiaunaco era or even earlier. In the pre-Dinsk period, the geometric style dominated here everywhere.

The art of the Incas is not well known. The figurines that archaeologists find in burials are weakly individualized and, most likely, are associated with the world of lower mythology, with the veneration of spirits and ancestors. Inca vessels and fabrics are covered with geometric ornaments or decorated with artistically perfect, but thematically inexpressive images of people and animals. It was only under the influence of the Spaniards that a peculiar figured style of lacquer painting on cups developed in Cusco, but the plots presented on the vessels of the 16th-17th centuries are not of a purely Indian character.

As for the Inca statues, they were made mainly not from stone, but from precious metals. Naturally, all this was immediately melted down by the conquistadors. Stone statues were mostly smashed with hammers. Images of Inca deities were destroyed so diligently and consistently that we now practically do not know how they looked exactly.

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

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

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

Noticing that the Spaniards were not indifferent to gold and silver, Atavalpa promised in exchange for his release to give Pizarro so many gold and silver statues that they could fill a huge room. But Atawalpa's plan failed. He's been wrapped around his finger again! After the promised ransom was paid, Atavallpa, Inca XIII, whom the priests considered an idolater, was baptized as a Catholic and then strangled.

The capture and murder of Atavalpa was a mortal blow to the state of the Incas. However, the Indians continued to fight, so death agony stretched out for forty years.

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

Accompanied by Prince Manco II, who was Vascar's brother and was to become the next Inca (Manco Inca Yupanca), Pizarro and his soldiers broke into Cuzco and plundered all the golden treasures. They melted most of the golden statues into ingots and sent them to Spain. No wonder the Spanish ships, overflowing with the treasures of Peru, were desirable prey for British pirates! Pizarro himself, having plundered a lot of good. He went to the coast of the mainland and in 1535 founded a new capital there, the city of Lima.

Seeing clearly how greedy and treacherous the conquerors were, Manco Inca Yupanqui started a revolt. Other mutinies broke out against the Spaniards, but in the end the Indians still had to retreat and fortify themselves in more remote areas. One of the places where the Indians may have taken refuge was the sacred city of Machu Picchu, located in the mountains.

The last Inca was Tupac Amaru (1572), son of Manco Inca Yupanqui. At this time, Spanish viceroys ruled Peru. The Viceroy of Toledo decided to destroy the Incas at all costs. Gathering a large army, he went to the region of Vilkapampa. In the jungle, Tupac Amaru was captured. Together with his pregnant wife, he was taken to Cusco - they were awaiting the death penalty. An Indian from Canyar was the executor of the sentence. One blow - and the Inca was beheaded, at that moment there was a mournful sigh of a thousand Indians gathered in the market square. His associates were tortured to death or hanged. So quickly and brutally ended the rule of the Incas.

Gradually, the lives of the Indians, who for a long time were treated as slaves, began to reflect the influence of the rulers appointed by Spain, as well as Catholic monks and priests, which had both positive and negative sides. Many Indians had to work in the gold and silver deposits, one of which is silver in Potos, Bolivia. To get away from the terrible reality, the Indians began to use coca leaves, which had narcotic properties. And only at the beginning of the XIX century, Peru and Bolivia gained independence from Spain.

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

Thanks to the resilience of the descendants of the Incas (many of them already of mixed origin), they managed to preserve their vibrant traditional dances and Huayno folk music. Although at first the Indians are usually wary of strangers, their inherent hospitality will certainly manifest itself. Those who are personally acquainted with the modern descendants of the Incas - who watched their daily struggle for life, tried to show interest in them and get to know their life better - they will not remain indifferent to their history!

MAYAN

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

More than a hundred remnants of large and small cities and settlements, the ruins of majestic capitals built by the ancient Maya, were found here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fact that our knowledge of the early history of the ancient Maya is not as accurate as desired does not appear to be exceptional.

Huge pyramids, temples, palaces of Tikal, Vashaktun, Copan, Palenque and other cities of the classical era still keep traces of destruction caused by human hand. We do not know their reasons. There are various theories on this subject, but none of them can be called reliable. For example, the uprisings of the peasants, driven to the extreme by endless requisitions, thanks to which the rulers and priests quenched their vanity by erecting gigantic pyramids and temples to their gods.

The Mayan religion is no less interesting than their history.

The universe - yok kab (literally: above the earth) - was represented by the ancient Maya in the form of worlds arranged one above the other. Directly above the earth were thirteen heavens, or thirteen "heavenly layers", and below the earth were hidden nine "underworlds" that made up the underworld.

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

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

The ancient Maya had no doubt that the earth was square, or at most rectangular. The sky, like a roof, rested on five props - "heavenly pillars", that is, on the central "Original Tree" and on four "colored trees" that grew along the edges of the earth. The Maya, as it were, transferred the layout of the ancient communal houses to the universe surrounding them.

Most surprising of all, the idea of thirteen heavens arose among the ancient Maya also on a materialistic basis. It was the direct result of long and very careful observations of the sky and the study of the smallest details of the movement of heavenly bodies accessible to the naked human eye. This allowed the ancient Mayan astronomers, and most likely the Olmecs, to perfectly master the nature of the movements of the Sun, Moon and Venus across the visible sky. The Maya, carefully observing the movement of the luminaries, could not help but notice that they do not move along with the rest of the stars, but each in its own way. Once this was established, it was most natural to assume that each luminary had its own "sky" or "sky layer". Moreover, continuous observations made it possible to refine and even specify the routes of these movements during one year's journey, since they really pass through quite definite groups of stars.

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

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

If the Mayan ideas about the structure of the universe as a whole are clear to us today and do not cause any particular doubts, and the calendar, which strikes its almost absolute accuracy, has been thoroughly studied by scientists, the situation is quite different with their "underground worlds". We can't even say why there were nine of them (rather than eight or ten). Only the name of the “lord of the underworld” is known - Hun Ahab, but even it still has only a hypothetical interpretation.

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

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

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

Thus, the date consisted of four components - terms:

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

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

Unfortunately, sufficient reliable data on the origin of both the components - the terms of the calendar date, and the listed cycles have not been preserved. Some of them originally originated from purely abstract mathematical concepts, for example, "vinal" - a twenty-day month - according to the number of units of the first order of the Mayan vigesimal counting system. It is possible that the number thirteen - the number of days in a week - also appeared in purely mathematical calculations, most likely associated with astronomical observations, and only then acquired a mystical character - the thirteen heavens of the universe. The priests, interested in monopoly possession of the secrets of the calendar, gradually dressed him in more and more complex mystical robes, inaccessible to the minds of mere mortals, and in the end it was these “robes” that began to play a dominant role. And if from under religious attire - the names of twenty-day months, one can clearly see the rational beginning of the division of the year into segments of the same time - months, the names of the days rather testify to their purely cult origin.

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

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

The Mayan year consisted of 18 months of 20 days each. In the Mayan language, periods of time were called: 20 days - Vinal; 18 vinals - tun; a tun was equal to 360 kins (days). To equalize the solar year, 5 days were added, called mayeb, literally: "unfavorable". It was believed that in this five-day period “the year dies”, and therefore in these last days the ancient Maya did nothing to avoid getting into trouble. The tun was not the last unit of time in the Mayan calendar. With a magnification of 20 times, cycles began to form: 20 tuns made up a katun; 20 katuns - baktun; 20 baktuns - piktun; 20 pictuns - kalabtun; 20 kalabtuts - kinchiltun. The alautun included 23,040,000,000 days, or kins (suns). All dates preserved on stelae, monoliths, codices and records made by the Spaniards of the early colonial period have a single point of reference. We would call it "Year One," from which the Mayan count of time begins. According to our chronology, it falls on 3113 BC, or, in accordance with a different system of correlation, on 3373 BC. It is curious to note that these dates are close to the first year of the Jewish calendar, which falls on 3761 BC. - the year of the alleged creation of the Bible. The Maya skillfully combined two calendars: Khaab - solar, consisting of 365 days, and Tzolkin - religious, of 206 days. With such a combination, a cycle of 18890 days was formed, only after which the name and number of the day again coincided with the same name of the month. It's like November 15, for example, it certainly happened every time on Thursday. Such a significant importance of astronomical science would not have been possible without an ideally developed system of counting. The Maya created such a system. It is similar to the one that the Arabs adopted from the Indians and later passed on to the Europeans, who only then were able to abandon the primitive Roman system.

The Maya surpassed this system before the Romans conquered Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula, and long before the Arabs brought the decimal system to Europe. It is believed that it was invented in India in the 7th century. AD and that the Arabs did not pass it on to the Europeans until several centuries later. The Maya, on the other hand, used their similar decimal system at least from the 4th century BC. AD - in other words, 1600 years ago.

The Maya created the most accurate calendars of antiquity.

Little information about the ancient Maya is available to us, but what is known comes from descriptions of the Spanish conquerors and deciphered Maya scripts. A huge role in this was played by the work of domestic linguists under the guidance of Yu.V. Knorozov, who was awarded a doctoral degree for his research. Yu.V. Knorozov proved the hieroglyphic nature of the writing of the ancient Maya and the viability of the so-called "Landa alphabet", a man who "stole" the history of an entire people, finding content in his manuscripts that contradicted the postulates of the Christian religion. Using three surviving manuscripts, Yu.V. Knozorov counted about three hundred different signs of writing and determined their reading.

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

Many private collections are replenished through the illegal export of parts or a complete set of structures from the country. The confiscation takes place so casually, with non-compliance with the rules of archaeological excavations, so much is lost forever.

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

The history of the Maya can be divided into three major eras in accordance with the most important changes in the economy, social institutions and culture of local tribes: Paleo-Indian (10000-2000 BC); archaic (2000-100 BC or 0) and the era of civilization (100 BC or 0 - XVI century AD). These eras, in turn, are divided into smaller periods and stages. The initial stage of the classical Maya civilization falls approximately at the turn of our era (I century BC - I century AD). The upper border belongs to the 9th century. AD

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

At the turn of III and II millennia BC. in these mountainous regions, early agricultural cultures of the Neolithic type appear, the basis of which was maize agriculture.

At the very end of the II - the beginning of the I millennium BC. The development of the Mayan tribes of the tropical jungle begins. Separate attempts to settle on the fertile, game-rich lands of the plains were made before, but the mass colonization of these areas began precisely from that time.

At the end of the II millennium BC. the milp (slash-and-burn) system of agriculture is finally taking shape, progressive changes are observed in the production of ceramics, house-building and other areas of culture. Based on these achievements, the tribes of the mountain Maya gradually mastered the forest lowlands of Peten, eastern Chiapas, Yucatan and Belize. Their general direction of movement was from west to east. In the course of their advance into the interior of the jungle, the Maya used the most advantageous directions and routes, and above all the river valleys.

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

At the end of the 1st millennium BC. Qualitative changes are taking place in the culture of the plains of the Maya: palace complexes appear in cities, former sanctuaries and light small temples turn into monumental stone structures, all the most important palace and religious architectural complexes stand out from the general mass of buildings and are located in the central part of the city on special elevated and fortified places, writing and a calendar are being developed, painting and monumental sculpture are developing, magnificent burials of rulers with human victims inside the temple pyramids appear.

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

The economic base of the Mayan culture was slash-and-burn maize agriculture. Milp farming consists of clearing, burning, and planting a patch of rainforest. Due to the rapid depletion of the soil, after two or three years, the site must be abandoned and a new one must be sought. The main agricultural tools of the Maya were: a digging stick, an ax and a torch. Through long-term experiments and selection, local farmers have managed to develop hybrid high-yielding varieties of the main agricultural plants - maize, legumes and pumpkins. The manual technique of processing a small forest area and the combination of crops of several crops on one field made it possible to maintain fertility for a long time and did not require frequent change of plots. Natural conditions (soil fertility and abundance of heat and moisture) allowed Maya farmers to collect here an average of at least two crops per year.

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

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

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

The canals built by the Maya simultaneously collected and brought rainwater into artificial reservoirs, served as an important source of animal protein (fish, waterfowl, freshwater edible mollusks), were convenient ways of communication and delivery of heavy loads on boats and rafts.

The craft of the Maya is represented by ceramic production, weaving, the production of stone tools and weapons, jade jewelry, and construction. Polychrome-painted ceramic vessels, graceful shaped vessels, jade beads, bracelets, diadems and figurines are evidence of the high professionalism of May artisans.

In the classical period, the Maya developed trade. Imported May ceramics of the 1st millennium AD. discovered by archaeologists in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Strong trade ties were established with Teotihuacan. In this vast city, a large number of shards of May ceramics and carved jade gizmos were found. Here was a whole quarter of Mayan traders, with their dwellings, warehouses of goods and sanctuaries. A similar quarter of Teotihuacan traders existed in one of the largest Mayan cities of the 1st millennium AD. Tikal. In addition to land trade, sea routes were also used (images of dugout rowing boats are quite common in the works of art of the ancient Maya, starting at least from the 7th century AD).

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

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

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

The nature of the socio-political structure of Maya society in the classical era cannot yet be unambiguously determined. It is clear that, at least in the period of its highest prosperity (7th-8th centuries AD), the Mayan social structure was quite complex. Along with the bulk of community farmers, there was nobility (its layer was made up of priests), artisans and professional merchants stood out. The presence of a number of rich burials in rural settlements testifies to the heterogeneity of the rural community. However, it is too early to judge how far this process has gone.

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

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

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

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

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

In the 7th century AD. Teotihuacan perishes under the onslaught of the northern barbarian tribes. This had the most serious consequences for the peoples of Central America. The system of political unions, associations and states that had evolved over many centuries was violated. A continuous period of campaigns, wars, migrations, and invasions of barbarian tribes began. This whole motley tangle of ethnic groups, different in language and culture, was inexorably approaching the western borders of the Maya.

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

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

The low-lying areas of the Maya after these events did not turn out to be completely deserted (according to some authoritative scientists, up to 1 million people died in this territory in just one century). In the XVI-XVII centuries, a fairly large number of inhabitants lived in the forests of Peten and Belize, and in the very center of the former "Old Kingdom", on an island in the middle of Lake Peten Itza, there was a populous city of Taysal - the capital of an independent Mayan state that existed until the end of the XVII century.

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

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

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

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

After the 10th century, the development of Maya culture continued in the Yucatan Peninsula. This peninsula was a flat calcareous plain, where there are no rivers, no streams, no lakes. Only a few natural wells (deep sinkholes in limestone layers) served as sources of water. The Maya called these wells "cenotes". Where there were cenotes, the centers of the classical Maya civilization arose and developed.

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

As the power of other political centers in the Yucatan grew, hegemony Chichen Itza became more and more dissatisfied. The rulers of Chichen Itza demanded more and more tributes and requisitions from their neighbors. The rite of human sacrifice in the “Sacred Well” of Chichen Itza aroused particular indignation among the inhabitants of other May cities and villages.

"Sacred Cenote" was a giant round funnel with a diameter of 60 meters. From the edge of the well to the surface of the water was almost 21 meters high. Depth - more than 10 meters, did not consider the multi-meter thickness of silt at the bottom. For sacrifices, dozens of people were required and they were regularly supplied by subordinate cities.

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

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

The basis of the economy of the Yucatan Maya, as well as in the classical era, was mile farming. His character remained virtually unchanged, and the technology was as primitive as ever.

The craft also remained at the same level. The Yucatan Maya did not have their own metallurgy, and the metal came here from other regions through trade. Trade, on the other hand, acquired an unusually large scope among the Yucatan Maya. They exported salt, fabrics and slaves, exchanging it all for cocoa and jade.

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

The Yucatán Maya carried on a brisk maritime trade with near and far neighbors. Their most important cities were located either directly on the sea coast, in convenient bays and gulfs, or near the mouths of navigable rivers. Around the entire Yucatan Peninsula: from Xicalango in the west to the southern part of the Gulf of Honduras in the east, there was a long sea route. This route was actively used by merchants from Akalan.

For sea travel, dugout boats were still used, some of which were designed for 40 and even 50 people. These boats went both on oars and under sails. In a number of cases, a sewn-in board was also used on ships, made either from flat boards or from reed, abundantly smeared with resin.

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

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

There were quite a lot of slaves in the Yucatan, most of which belonged to the nobility or wealthy community members. The bulk of the slaves were men, women and children captured during frequent wars. Debt slavery, as well as slavery for theft, served as another source of the appearance of slaves. In addition, persons who were in connection with or married to slaves fell into slavery. There was a trade in slaves both domestically and for export. All power in the Mayan states belonged to the ruler - Halach-vinik. This power was hereditary and passed from one member of the dynasty to another. Khalach-vinik carried out the general administration of the state, led foreign policy, was the supreme military leader, and performed some religious and judicial functions. Halach-viniki received various tributes and taxes from the population subject to them.

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

The administrative and judicial power in small towns and villages was exercised by batabs appointed by Khalach-vinik. Bataba had a city council, consisting of the richest and most respected persons. Officials-performers were called holpons. Thanks to them, direct control was exercised by Khalach-vinik and the Batabs. The lowest rung in the administrative ladder was occupied by petty officials - tupil, who performed police functions.

By the time the Spaniards arrived, Yucatan was divided between 16 independent small states, each of which had its own territory and ruler. The most powerful among the ruling dynasties were the Shiu dynasties. Kokomov and Kanul. None of these states was able to unite the territory into a single whole. But each ruler tried to implement such a union under his own auspices. As a result, since 1441, a civil war raged on the peninsula, which was superimposed by numerous civil strife. All this significantly weakened the Mayan forces in the face of external danger. And yet the Spaniards could not conquer the Yucatan the first time. For twenty years the Maya resisted, however, they could not maintain their independence. By the middle of the 16th century, most of their territory had been conquered.

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

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

The cities in the south of the country were abandoned, the population was sharply reduced, and soon the tropical vegetation covered the monuments of its former grandeur with its green carpet. After the 10th century The development of the Maya culture, although already somewhat altered by the influence of foreign conquerors - the Toltecs, who came from central Mexico and from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, continued in the north - on the Yucatan Peninsula - and in the south - in the mountains of Guatemala. In the XVI century. Maya Indians occupied a vast and diverse territory in terms of natural conditions, which included the modern Mexican states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Rio, as well as all of Guatemala, Belize, the western regions of El Salvador and Honduras.

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

The beginning of the classical period in the lowland forest areas was marked by the appearance of such new features of culture as hieroglyphic writing (inscriptions on reliefs, steles), calendar dates for the Mayan era (the so-called Long Count - the number of years that have passed from the mythical date of 3113 BC), monumental stone architecture with a stepped “false” vault, the cult of early stelae and altars, a specific style of ceramics and ter crayfish figurines, original wall painting.

Architecture in the central part of any major Mayan city of the 1st millennium BC. represented by pyramidal hills and platforms of various sizes and heights. Inside, they are usually built from a mixture of earth and rubble and lined on the outside with hewn stone slabs, fastened with lime mortar. On their flat tops there are stone buildings: small buildings of one to three rooms on high tower-shaped pyramids - bases (the height of some of these pyramids - towers, as, for example, in Tikal, reached 60 m.). These are probably temples. And the long multi-room ensembles on low platforms framing the inner open courtyards are most likely the residences of the nobility or palaces, since the ceilings of these buildings are usually made in the form of a stepped vault, their walls are very massive, and the interiors are relatively narrow and small in size. Narrow doorways served as the only source of light in the rooms, so coolness and twilight reign inside the surviving temples and palaces. At the end of the classical period, the Maya appeared sites for ritual ball games - the third type of the main monumental buildings of local cities. The basic unit of planning in Mayan cities was rectangular paved squares surrounded by monumental buildings. Very often, the most important ritual and administrative buildings were located on natural or artificially created elevations - "acropolises" (Piedras Negras, Copan, Tikal).

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

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

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

The purpose of some pyramidal temples in the Mayan cities is now determined in a completely different way. If before they were considered the sanctuaries of the most important gods of the pantheon, and the pyramid itself was only a high and monolithic stone pedestal for the temple, then recently, under the bases and in the thickness of a number of such pyramids, it was possible to find magnificent tombs of kings and members of the ruling dynasties (discovery of A. Rus in the Temple of Inscriptions, Palenque). Significant changes have recently taken place in the nature, structure and functions of the major May "centers" of the 1st millennium AD. Extensive research by US archaeologists in Tikal, Tsibilchaltun, Enz, Seibal, Bekan. revealed the presence there of a significant and permanent population, handicrafts, imported products, and many other features and characteristics characteristic of the ancient city in both the Old and New Worlds. Examining the magnificent burials of the May aristocrats and rulers of the 1st millennium AD, scientists suggested that the images and inscriptions on each clay vessel describe the death of the May ruler, the long journey of his soul through the terrible labyrinths of the kingdom of the dead, overcoming various obstacles and the subsequent resurrection of the lord, who ultimately turned into one of the heavenly gods. In addition, the American scientist Michael Koh established that the inscriptions or their individual parts, presented on almost all painted polychrome vases of the 6th-9th centuries. AD, are often repeated, that is, they have a standard character. The deciphering of these inscriptions opened up a completely new, previously unknown world - the mythological representations of the ancient Maya, their concept of life and death, religious beliefs and much more.

Each Mayan city-state was led by Halach-vinikwhich means "real person". It was a hereditary title passed down from father to eldest son. In addition, he was named ahav -"master", "master". Khavach-vinik held the highest administrative power, combined with the highest priestly rank. The supreme leaders, priests and advisers formed something like the Council of State. Khavach-vinik appointed, possibly from his blood relatives, Batabs - the leaders of the villages, who were in relation to him in feudal dependence. The main functions of the batabs were to maintain order in the subordinate villages, the regular payment of taxes. They could be officials or heads of clans, like the Calpullecs of the Aztecs or the Curacas of the Incas. Like those, they were military leaders. But in the event of war, the right of command was exercised by the nakon. There were also less important positions, among which holpop - "the head of the mat." There was also a whole priestly clergy, but the most common name for a priest is ah kin.

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

At the base of the social pyramid were masses of community members. They lived far from urban centers, in small settlements, sowing maize to support their families and nobles. It was they who created ceremonial centers, pyramids with temples, palaces, stadiums for ball games, paved roads and other structures. They mined huge blocks of stone for the construction of those monuments that amaze archaeologists and delight tourists. They were wood carvers, sculptors, porters, who performed the functions of beasts of burden that did not exist in Mesoamerica. In addition to performing such work, the people paid tribute to the khavach-vinik, brought gifts to the local Ahavas, sacrificed maize, beans, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, fabrics, poultry, salt, dried fish, wild boars, honey, wax, jade, corals and shells to the god. When the Spaniards took over the Yucatán, the population was called masehualloob, a term no doubt of a Nahua Mayan entity.

The land of the Maya was considered public property and was cultivated jointly, although there were private allotments belonging to the nobility. Bishop Diego de Landa of Yucatan wrote: "In addition to their own plots, all the people cultivated the fields of their master and collected a sufficient amount for themselves and his house."

This remark about Maya produced relationships sheds light on two important points. First, it becomes clear that the masehualloob were obliged to cultivate the lands intended for the maintenance of the priestly aristocracy. In this “general slavery”, the whole community was enslaved by the agents of the state, in contrast to what happened during slavery, when the slaves belonged to a specific owner. The despotism of such a system is obvious. Secondly, as A. Rus noted, it is impossible not to notice that, whatever slavery and despotism were, they carried a certain positive beginning: the masehual who cultivated the land - at least for an ahav or lord - took a part that provided for him and his family. And this means that neither he nor his family members experienced hunger, from which the Indians have been constantly suffering for almost five centuries.

Morley suggested that the Maya had another social category - slaves - pentakoob. Their exploitation was different than under "general slavery". A community member could become a slave in the following cases: having been born from a slave; having been taken prisoner in the war; being sold on the market. But no matter how the social groups of slaves and declassed members of society were called, their position was very close to the position of similar categories in other Mexican societies or the Yanaquns in Tahuantinsuyu.

The society's economy was based on agriculture. It is generally accepted that maize made up 65% of the diet of the Maya Indians. It was cultivated using the slash-and-burn system, with all the ensuing consequences of this phenomenon: soil impoverishment, reduced yields, forced change of plots. However, the diet was replenished with beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, himaka, camote, and for dessert - tobacco and numerous fruits. Nevertheless, some researchers question the predominance of maize in Maya agriculture: it is possible that there were areas where maize was not cultivated, and the population was quite satisfied with tuberous plants or seafood, rivers and lakes.

Some reflections are also suggested by the fact that in almost all archaeological centers the presence of "ramon" was found - a plant that surpasses maize both in nutritional properties and in yield. In addition, its cultivation did not require much effort. Some researchers believe that this is what replaced maize during crop failures.

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

An important article of the economy was craft and trade. The craft obviously flourished - balls were made for ritual games, paper for drawing books or codes, cotton codes and ropes, henken fibers and much more. Trade, like that of the Aztec posteca, was a very important sector of the economy. In what is now the state of Tabasco, there was traditional barter between the more northern Aztecs and the Maya. They exchanged salt, wax, honey, clothing, cotton, cocoa, jade jewelry. Cocoa grains and shells acted as "bargaining coins". The city-states were interconnected by dirt roads, paths, but sometimes paved highways - like the one that stretches for 100 km between Yashhuna (near Chichen Itza) and Coba on the east coast. Rivers, of course, also served as channels of communication, especially for merchants.

If such a developed system of communications did not exist, Cortes would certainly have been lost in the dense Peten selva when he went to punish the rebellious Olid. Bernal Diaz admired more than once, noting the indispensable help that the Mayan road maps provided to the conquistador detachments. And even when we get on our journey to the very south of the rest of Mesoamerica, we will find all the same Maya, embarking on their courageous wanderings to the most remote corners of the region. Columbus saw this too.

In all of Mesoamerica, there was no people who would have achieved more significant success in the sciences than the Maya, a people of extraordinary abilities, did. A high level of civilization was determined primarily by astronomy and mathematics. In this area, they really found themselves in pre-Columbian America without any competition. Their achievements are incomparable to any others. The Maya surpassed even their European contemporaries in these sciences. Currently, at least 18 observatories of the heyday of Pétain are known to exist. Thus, Vashaktun occupied an exceptional position and was considered a particularly important center, since it was precisely the names of the solstice and equinox points that were determined. Researcher Blom conducted a series of experiments in the central square of Washaktun. Based on calculations of the exact latitude and longitude of the city, he was able to unravel the fascinating secret of an ancient ensemble of temples and pyramids that surrounded a square, oriented to the cardinal points. The “Magic Secret” turned out to be the method by which the priests, located at the top of the observatory pyramid, thanks to the landmark temples, set the point of sunrise at the solstice and equinox periods with mathematical accuracy.

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

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

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

Having deeply studied the theories of the decline of the Maya culture, Rus came to the conclusion: “It is obvious that there were irresolvable contradictions between the limited possibilities of backward agricultural technology and the growing population. They became more and more aggravated as the share of the unproductive population in relation to the farmers increased. The growth in the construction of ceremonial centers, the complication of ritual, the increase in the number of priests and warriors made it increasingly difficult to produce an agricultural product sufficient in quantitative terms for this population.

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

AZTECA

By the time the Spaniards arrived at the beginning of the 16th century, the so-called Aztec Empire covered a vast territory - about 200 thousand square meters. km - with a population of 5-6 million people. Its borders stretched from northern Mexico to Guatemala and from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico. The capital of the empire - Tenochtitlan - eventually turned into a huge city, the area of which was about 1200 hectares, and the number of inhabitants, according to various estimates, reached 120-300 thousand people. This island city was connected with the mainland by three large stone roads - dams, there was also a whole flotilla of canoes. Like Venice, Tenochtitlan was cut through by a regular network of canals and streets. The core of the city formed a ritual and administrative center: a "sacred site" - a walled square 400 m long, inside which were the main city temples ("Templo Mayor" - a temple with sanctuaries of the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the temple of Quetzalcoatl), the dwellings of priests, schools, a playground for a ritual ball game. Nearby were ensembles of magnificent palaces of the Aztec rulers - "tlatoani". According to eyewitnesses, the palace of Montezuma (more precisely, Moctezuma) II consisted of up to 300 rooms, had a large garden, a zoo, and baths. Around the center crowded residential quarters inhabited by merchants, artisans, farmers, officials, warriors. In the huge Main Market and smaller quarterly bazaars, local and imported products and products were traded. The general impression of the magnificent Aztec capital is well conveyed by the words of an eyewitness and participant in the dramatic events of the conquest - the soldier Bercal Diaz del Castillo from the Cortes detachment. Standing on top of a high stepped pyramid, the conquistador gazed in amazement at the strange and dynamic picture of the life of a huge pagan city: “And we saw a huge number of boats, some came with various cargoes, others ... with various goods ... All the houses of this great city ... were in the water, and from house to house it was possible to get only by suspension bridges or boats. And we saw ... pagan temples and chapels, reminiscent of towers and fortresses, and they all sparkled with whiteness and aroused admiration. Tenochtitlan was captured by Cortes after a three-month siege and a fierce struggle in 1521. And right on the ruins of the Aztec capital, from the stones of its palaces and temples, the Spaniards built a new city - Mexico City, the rapidly growing center of their colonial possessions in the New World. Over time, the remains of the Aztec buildings were covered with multi-meter layers of modern life. Under these conditions, it is almost impossible to conduct a systematic and extensive archaeological study of Aztec antiquities. Only occasionally, during earthworks in the center of Mexico City, stone statues are born - the creations of ancient masters. Therefore, the discoveries of the late 70-80s became a real sensation. 20th century during the excavations of the main temple of the Aztecs - "Templo Mayor" - in the very center of Mexico City, on Zocalo Square, between the cathedral and the presidential palace. Now the sanctuaries of the gods Huitziopochtli (the god of the sun and war, the head of the Aztec pantheon) and Tlaloc (the god of water and rain, the patron of agriculture) have already been opened, the remains of fresco paintings and stone sculpture have been discovered. Particularly prominent are a round stone with a diameter of more than three meters with a low-relief image of the goddess Koyolshaukhka - the sister of Huitzilopochtli, 53 deep pits - caches filled with ritual offerings (stone figurines of gods, shells, corals, incense, ceramic vessels, necklaces, skulls of sacrificed people). The newly discovered materials (their total number exceeds several thousand) expanded the existing ideas about the material culture, religion, trade, economic and political relations of the Aztecs during the heyday of their state at the end of the 15th-16th centuries.

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

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

The senseless destruction of thousands of captive slaves on the sacrificial altars of the Aztec temples was elevated to the basis of a cult. Human sacrifice has become the central event of any holiday. Sacrifices were made almost daily. One person was sacrificed with solemn honors. So, every year, the most beautiful young man was chosen from among the prisoners, who was destined to enjoy all the benefits and privileges of the god of war Tezcatlipoca for a year, so that after this period he would be on the sacrificial altar stone. But there were also such "holidays" when the priests sent hundreds, and according to some sources, thousands of prisoners to another world. True, it is hard to believe in the authenticity of such statements, which belong to eyewitnesses of the conquest, but the gloomy and cruel, uncompromising religion of the Aztecs with mass human sacrifice knew no limits in its zealous service to the ruling caste aristocracy.

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

Finally, the Aztec religion gave the Spanish conquerors another "gift". The Aztecs not only worshiped the Feathered Serpent as one of the main inhabitants of the pantheon of their gods, but also remembered well the story of his exile.

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

The Spaniards who came to America conquered the continent.

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

The white-faced Spaniards who wore beards came from the East.

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

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

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

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

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

In the middle of the XIV century, the dominant position in the Valley of Mexico was occupied by the Tepanec tribes, headed by the ruler Tesosomok. The capital of the Tepaneks becomes the city of Atzkapotzalko. In 1427 Tesosomoku was succeeded by his son Mashtl. He tried to increase the dependence of the conquered tribes on the Tepanecs and even interfered in the internal affairs of his allies. The Indians levied tribute from the conquered tribes, but they did not know how to make other tribes pay tribute without declaring a new war on them and without undertaking new campaigns. Mashtla's policies led to the amalgamation of a number of cities subordinate to them. Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan and Texcoco formed an alliance, rebelled and overthrew the power of the Tepanecs. Mashtla was put to death, his city burned, and his people, contrary to the customs of the time, joined to the allied tribes. The land was distributed to soldiers who distinguished themselves during the war. This circumstance marked the beginning of the formation of a rich and influential military stratum in the Aztec society.

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

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

The Aztecs had few domestic animals. They had several breeds of dogs, one of which was food. The most common poultry are turkeys, perhaps geese, ducks and quails.

A significant role in the Aztec economy was played by handicrafts, especially pottery, weaving, as well as stone and wood processing. There were few metal items. Some of them, for example, thinly hammered sickle-shaped copper knives, served alongside cocoa beans as a medium of exchange. Gold was used by the Aztecs only for making jewelry, and silver was probably of great value. Jade and stones resembling it in color and structure were of paramount importance among the Aztecs.

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

Each village, at certain intervals, arranged a bazaar that attracted people from the most remote places. The daily market was in the capital. The whole system of tributary obligations that the Aztecs imposed on the conquered provinces was determined by the possibility of organizing the delivery of certain categories of handicraft products to the capital from afar, with the obvious impossibility of establishing an equally long-distance transportation of food. The fabrics and other light products coming from the provinces were therefore sold by the state authorities at a low price to the inhabitants of the metropolitan area. The same had to pay with products Agriculture, thereby becoming interested in expanding its production and marketing. Trade thus flourished, and anything could be bought in the market of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

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

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

Initially, in Aztec society, a man could achieve a high position through personal activities, and his children could take advantage of his elevation for their own device. However, they could take the position of the father only thanks to equivalent merits to the tribe. At the same time, when choosing applicants for a vacant position, and therefore for all the privileges inherent in it, the tlatoani more often preferred the son of the one who held this position earlier. This practice contributed to the transformation of the nobility into a closed estate. To this we can add the principle of division of land in the newly conquered territory. The tlatoani and his commander-in-chief received most of it, then the rest of the distinguished warriors from among the nobility followed. Simple wars did not receive land, except for a few units of the “most brave”. All this led to the emergence of a special agricultural nobility in the Aztec society.

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

Temples increased their wealth through gifts and voluntary donations. It could be donations of land or part of the tribute to the nobility and tlatoani. The donation of the population could be for a variety of reasons: divination, prediction, offerings for the sake of the success of their activities. It was at the temples and their own handicraft production. All income went to the maintenance of the priesthood and the conduct of numerous religious rites.

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

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

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

The lowest social step in the hierarchy of the Aztec society was occupied by slaves. The sources of slavery among the Aztecs were varied. Selling into slavery for theft was practiced. Debt slavery was widespread. Treason against the state or one's immediate master was also punished involuntarily. However, the most characteristic of the ancient Aztec society was patriarchal slavery. Parents could sell their "negligent" children into slavery. This happened more often in lean years, when there was a widespread slave trade.

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

The use of slave labor was commonplace. Slaves performed a wide variety of work in their master's house: they dragged weights, cultivated crops, and harvested crops in the fields. Often the slave owner used the slave not only in his own household, but also defined him as a kind of hire, for quitrent, for example, as a porter in merchant caravans. Everything earned in this case went to the slave owner. Slave labor was widely used in the implementation of major construction projects: the construction of temples, bridges, dams. Thus, the labor of slaves was diverse and was a direct product of the economic activity of the state.

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

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

To record cases in various institutions, there was a special staff of "scribes". In most cases, entries were made using pictography, however, May hieroglyphic writing was also sometimes used.

Along with customary law, legal norms appear that stand outside the boundaries of customary law and reflect the era of early class relations. First of all, it is the protection of property rights. In the Aztec society, the illegal taking of another's property, encroachment on property was considered a crime and entailed punishment. Violation of property rights was punished very severely. So, for robbery on the roads, the guilty person was publicly stoned to death. For theft in the market, a thief was publicly beaten (with sticks or stones) right at the crime scene by special ministers. Severely punished and the one who seized the spoils of another.

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

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

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

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

The monumental cult sculpture - statues of deities, ornamented altars - amazes with grandiosity, heaviness (the statue of the goddess Coatlicue is 2.5 m high). The so-called "Stone of the Sun" is famous. Realistic stone sculptural images of heads are world-famous: "Warrior-Eagle", "Head of the Dead", "Sad Indian". Particularly expressive are small stone or ceramic figurines of slaves, children, animals or insects. On a number of architectural monuments, the remains of wall paintings with images of deities or marching warriors have been preserved. The Aztecs skillfully made feather decorations, polychrome ceramics, stone and shell mosaics, obsidian vases, and the finest jewelry.

The rich and distinctive culture of the Aztecs was destroyed as a result of the Spanish conquest of 1519-21.

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

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

Of ritual significance was the rite of "new fire", performed after 52-year cycles.

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

There was no definite system for the arrangement of pictograms: they could follow both horizontally and vertically, and using the boustrophedon method.

CONCLUSION

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

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

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

Meso-American civilizations appear almost simultaneously, around the turn of our era, having arisen on the basis of previous local cultures of the archaic period and reach their peak in the Aztec state, which, however, did not have time to overcome the boundary of the territorial kingdom.

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

At the same time, despite the general laws of development, the characteristic features, the worldview basis, the system of values with a strong emphasis on spirituality, were fundamentally different from the philosophy of the Christian world. The great civilizations of America collapsed under the onslaught of Europeans.

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

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economy

The peoples of Mesoamerica had much in common in material and spiritual culture. But there were also differences between the Maya and the inhabitants of the Mexican Highlands, including the Aztecs. The Maya were engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture in areas cleared from the forest. When the site was depleted, it was abandoned and a new one was cleared. The Maya developed high-yielding varieties of corn, legumes, and squash. The abundance of heat and moisture allowed them to harvest two or three crops a year. A network of drainage channels brought excess water out of the swamps, turning them into fertile fields. In the channels there were fish, waterfowl, shellfish - an important help in the diet of the Maya. The canals also served to deliver heavy loads by boats and rafts.

The Aztecs farmed in the valleys and on the slopes of the mountains, but they were the most productive chinampas- "floating gardens" created on Lake Texcoco around the capital of Tenochtitlan. There they grew fruits, flowers and vegetables. The chinampas were artificial islands, formed by scooping mud along the swampy shores of the lake and folding it into heaps, reinforced with reed wickerwork, and then trees, with their roots firmly binding the earth. The soil of the chinampas was constantly fertilized with fresh silt. Of the animals, the Aztecs bred turkeys and dogs used for meat. The Aztecs supplemented agriculture with hunting, fishing and gathering. Collected wild plants, mushrooms, honey and edible insects.

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Story Aztecs before their appearance in the second half of the XII century. in Central Mexico is full of mysteries. They called their homeland the island of Astlan ("where the herons live"). The location of the island is still unknown, but it is from it that the word "Aztec" comes from. The nomadic Aztec hunters were very warlike and subjugated many Indian tribes. A powerful empire arose with the capital Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City).

The Aztecs were skilled farmers, they were excellent at pottery and weapon crafts, they knew the secrets of metal processing. When Hernan Cortes came into possession of the Aztec ruler Montes-we, he, in order to stop the advance of the conquerors, sent his ambassadors to meet them with gifts for the Spanish king. Among the many treasures were beautiful works of Indian masters - magnificent dishes, exquisite jewelry, perfect figurines of animals. Such generosity, however, did not save Montezuma and his people from insidious destruction.

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