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189-588: To his contemporaries, "Vay" Morley was one of the leading Mesoamerican archaeologists of his day. Although more recent developments in the field have resulted in a re-evaluation of his theories and works, his publications, particularly on calendric inscriptions, are still cited. In his role as director of various projects sponsored by the Carnegie Institution, he oversaw and encouraged many others who later established notable careers in their own right. His commitment and enthusiasm for Maya studies helped inspire

378-549: A Master of Arts degree at Harvard, awarded in 1908. In 1912, at the urging of executive committee member William Barclay Parsons , the Carnegie Institution announced it would fund a department of anthropology. In December the board announced it was seeking proposals for an appropriate project; three proposals were submitted, including one from Morley to explore and excavate Chichen Itza. The Institution approved Morley's proposal in December 1913 and one month later hired him to direct

567-461: A complex calendric system , a tradition of ball playing , and a distinct architectural style , were diffused through the area. Villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms , and large ceremonial centers were built, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian , jade , cacao , cinnabar , Spondylus shells, hematite , and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization knew of

756-672: A cave in Oaxaca. Earlier maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in Panama , c. 5500 BCE. Slightly thereafter, semi- agrarian communities began to cultivate other crops throughout Mesoamerica. Maize was the most common domesticate, but the common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, jicama , tomato and squash all became common cultivates by 3500 BCE. At the same time, these communities exploited cotton , yucca , and agave for fibers and textile materials. By 2000 BCE, corn

945-431: A cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion ). Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area. This term is now fully integrated into the standard terminology of precolumbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica , which refer to northern Mexico and

1134-514: A different cycle unrelated to rainfall. This forced the abandonment of settlements in the more arid or overfarmed locations. Evidence suggests a profound change in religion in this period. Chacoan and other structures constructed originally along astronomical alignments, and thought to have served important ceremonial purposes to the culture, were systematically dismantled. Doorways were sealed with rock and mortar. Kiva walls show marks from great fires set within them, which probably required removal of

1323-475: A few generations was probably also due to migrations of people from surrounding areas. Innovations such as pottery, food storage, and agriculture enabled this rapid growth. Over several decades, the Ancestral Puebloan culture spread across the landscape. Ancestral Puebloan culture has been divided into three main areas or branches, based on geographical location: Modern Pueblo oral traditions hold that

1512-453: A further example found of this distinctive statuary. These structures had frescoes which again exhibited a non-Maya style, or at least a hybrid of Maya and non-Maya. They also worked on the reconstruction of el Caracol , a unique circular building believed (and later confirmed) to be an observatory . A separate archaeological dig, this one under the Mexican government, had also commenced working

1701-683: A guest of Edward Thompson, where he assisted with the dredging of the Cenote Sagrado. On his return trip to the US he carried with him artifacts taken from the cenote, to be deposited at Harvard's Peabody Museum. In the summer of 1907, Morley went to work for the School of American Archaeology (SAA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico , where for two months he undertook fieldwork in the American Southwest . Here he studied

1890-424: A large system of easy transportation, as timber was not locally available. Analysis of strontium isotopes shows that much of the timber came from distant mountain ranges. Throughout the southwest Ancestral Puebloan region, the inhabitants built complexes in shallow caves and under rock overhangs in canyon walls. Unlike earlier structures and villages atop mesas, this was a regional 13th-century trend of gathering

2079-518: A large-scale popular work on ancient Maya society, which he completed and published in 1946. The Ancient Maya was to be one of his more successful works (outside of his popular writings in magazines), and has been posthumously revised and reprinted several times, although since the 1980s Morley's name is no longer listed as the main author. Morley last visited Yucatán and the Hacienda Chenku in spring of 1948, just months before his death. He escorted

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2268-505: A lasting one, and the site today is among the most visited of pre-Columbian ruins in all of Central America and Mexico, with in excess of a million visitors per year. After almost twenty years, Carnegie's Chichen Itza project wound to a close in 1940, its restorative and investigative work complete and its objectives substantially met. Morley and his second wife Frances moved from the Hacienda Chichén, their home for many years, and rented

2457-679: A legendary Toltec ruler called Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl after the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl ( K'ulk'ulkan in Yucatec). Morley was in general opposed to ideas that other external groups had influenced the Maya, but in this case, since the conquest occurred in the "degenerate" Post-Classic phase he found it acceptable. This view of the Toltec invasion of Yucatán became the one maintained by

2646-495: A letter of introduction signed by the Honduran president Francisco Bertrand did they allow him to continue. Morley produced extensive analyses (he filed over 10,000 pages of reports) on many issues and observations of the region, including detailed coastline charting and identification of political and social attitudes which could be viewed as "threatening" to U.S. interests. Some of these reports bordered on economic spying, detailing

2835-747: A low plateau that breaks up the Sierra Madre chain between the Sierra Madre del Sur to the north and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south. At its highest point, the Isthmus is 224 m (735 ft) above mean sea level. This area also represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean in Mexico. The distance between the two coasts is roughly 200 km (120 mi). The northern side of

3024-535: A party to the ruins of Uxmal in February, on what was possibly his last visit to a Maya ruin. He died in Santa Fe on September 2, 1948, aged 65, two years after the publication of The Ancient Maya . He was buried in a plot in Santa Fe's Fairview Cemetery; his second wife Frances Rhoads Morley was interred in the same plot upon her death in 1955. Morley's personal research library is preserved and available for consultation at

3213-656: A period commonly known as the Tikal Hiatus . The Late Classic period (beginning c. 600 CE until 909 CE) is characterized as a period of interregional competition and factionalization among the numerous regional polities in the Maya area. This largely resulted from the decrease in Tikal's socio-political and economic power at the beginning of the period. It was therefore during this time that other sites rose to regional prominence and were able to exert greater interregional influence, including Caracol, Copán , Palenque , and Calakmul (which

3402-457: A range of structures that included small family pit houses , larger structures to house clans , grand pueblos , and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. They had a complex network linking hundreds of communities and population centers across the Colorado Plateau . They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The kiva , a congregational space that

3591-740: A regionally important center during the Postclassic. The latter portion of the Postclassic is generally associated with the rise of the Mexica and the Aztec Empire . One of the more commonly known cultural groups in Mesoamerica, the Aztec politically dominated nearly all of central Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Mexico's southern Pacific Coast (Chiapas and into Guatemala), Oaxaca, and Guerrero . The Tarascans (also known as

3780-461: A significant presence of Mexican influences such as El Tajín , but more particularly Toltec. The evidence indicated that the site had been inhabited since at least the mid-Classic, but that a particular florescence had occurred in the Post-Classic, when the site was apparently a major power. From the combined results of their work, that of others, and some documented tales of contact-era Maya peoples,

3969-422: A single polity , but rather that individual "city-states" maintained a somewhat independent existence, albeit one with its fluctuating conquests and local subservience to more dominant centers. In support of his view, Morley devised a 4-tier classification system of relative importance, which he ascribed to all of the then-known main Maya sites (about 116); many more sites are now known, and his classification system

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4158-482: A single stage. Most houses faced south. Plazas were almost always surrounded by buildings of sealed-off rooms or high walls. There were often four or five stories, with single-story rooms facing the plaza; room blocks were terraced to allow the tallest sections to compose the pueblo's rear edifice. Rooms were often organized into suites, with front rooms larger than rear, interior, and storage rooms or areas. Ceremonial structures known as kivas were built in proportion to

4347-632: A smooth, leveled surface in the bedrock or removing vegetation and soil. Large ramps and stairways in the cliff rock connect the roads above the canyon to sites at the bottom. The largest roads, built at the same time as many of the great houses (1000 to 1125 CE), are: the Great North Road, the South Road, the Coyote Canyon Road , the Chacra Face Road , Ahshislepah Road, Mexican Springs Road ,

4536-566: A source of debate, and the hoped-for answers to the mystery of the Classic Maya decline elusive (wholesale "Mexicanisation" by invading forces ruled out by the lack of these indicators in the central and southern sites). However, the Carnegie excavations did add significantly to the corpus of available information, and are notable for their scope alone, if not for fine details and quality of research. The site's reconstruction by Carnegie has proved to be

4725-509: A strong constitution, Morley saw his health deteriorate over the years spent laboring in the Central American jungles under often adverse conditions. Several times, he was incapacitated by recurring bouts of malaria and he had to be hospitalised after separately contracting colitis and then amoebic dysentery the following year. During the 1930s, it also became evident that he had developed cardiac difficulties , which would plague him for

4914-480: A technological departure from previous construction techniques. Major Puuc sites include Uxmal , Sayil , Labna , Kabah , and Oxkintok . While generally concentrated within the area in and around the Puuc hills , the style has been documented as far away as at Chichen Itza to the east and Edzna to the south. Chichén Itzá was originally thought to have been a Postclassic site in the northern Maya lowlands. Research over

5103-417: A veneer of small sandstone pieces, which were pressed into a layer of binding mud . These surfacing stones were often arranged in distinctive patterns. The Chacoan structures together required the wood of 200,000 conifer trees, mostly hauled – on foot – from mountain ranges up to 70 miles (110 km) away. One of the most notable aspects of Ancestral Puebloan infrastructure

5292-448: A view was formed that Chichen Itza had actually been invaded and conquered sometime in the 10th century by Toltec warriors from the far west, who maintained their hold over the local Maya for another century or so, only in turn to be replaced by a later mixed Maya-Mexica group known as the Itza . Later evidence suggested that the actual year of this invasion was 987, and identified its leader with

5481-703: A widespread practice among Ancestral Puebloans. Ancestral Pueblo people in the North American Southwest crafted a unique architecture with planned community spaces. Population centers such as Chaco Canyon (outside Crownpoint, New Mexico ), Mesa Verde (near Cortez, Colorado ), and Bandelier National Monument (near Los Alamos, New Mexico ) have brought renown to the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. They consisted of apartment complexes and structures made of stone, adobe mud, and other local material, or were carved into canyon walls. Developed within these cultures,

5670-494: Is Pico de Orizaba , a dormant volcano located on the border of Puebla and Veracruz . Its peak elevation is 5,636 m (18,490 ft). The Sierra Madre mountains, which consist of several smaller ranges, run from northern Mesoamerica south through Costa Rica . The chain is historically volcanic . In central and southern Mexico, a portion of the Sierra Madre chain is known as the Eje Volcánico Transversal , or

5859-491: Is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize , Guatemala , El Salvador , and parts of Honduras , Nicaragua and Costa Rica . As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. In

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6048-475: Is a list of some of the specialized resources traded from the various Mesoamerican sub-regions and environmental contexts: Mesoamerican architecture is the collective name given to urban, ceremonial and public structures built by pre-Columbian civilizations in Mesoamerica. Although very different in styles, all kinds of Mesoamerican architecture show some kind of interrelation, due to very significant cultural exchanges that occurred during thousands of years. Among

6237-619: Is another Classic-period polity that expanded and flourished during this period, but the Zapotec capital exerted less interregional influence than the other two sites. During the Early Classic, Teotihuacan participated in and perhaps dominated a far-reaching macro-regional interaction network. Architectural and artifact styles (talud-tablero, tripod slab-footed ceramic vessels) epitomized at Teotihuacan were mimicked and adopted at many distant settlements. Pachuca obsidian, whose trade and distribution

6426-453: Is argued to have been economically controlled by Teotihuacan, is found throughout Mesoamerica. Tikal came to dominate much of the southern Maya lowlands politically, economically, and militarily during the Early Classic. An exchange network centered at Tikal distributed a variety of goods and commodities throughout southeast Mesoamerica, such as obsidian imported from central Mexico (e.g., Pachuca) and highland Guatemala (e.g., El Chayal , which

6615-516: Is characterized by fine hatching, and contrasting colors are produced by the use of mineral-based paint on a chalky background. South of the Anasazi territory, in Mogollon settlements, pottery was more often hand-coiled, scraped, and polished, with red to brown coloring. Certain tall cylinders were likely ceremonial vessels, while narrow-necked jars, called ollas , were often used for liquids. Pottery from

6804-466: Is concerned, its reputation for soundness and quality has been downgraded somewhat in the light of recent reappraisals; yet he is still regarded as an important contributor to the field. Many Mayan scholars and archaeologists had their first research opportunity and employment under Morley's tutelage working on the various Carnegie projects. Of these, perhaps the two most notable were J. Eric S. Thompson and Tatiana Proskouriakoff . Thompson shortly became

6993-696: Is located 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City. Other volcanoes of note include Tacana on the Mexico–Guatemala border, Tajumulco and Santamaría in Guatemala, Izalco in El Salvador, Arenal in Costa Rica, and Concepción and Maderas on Ometepe , which is an island formed by both volcanoes rising out of Lake Cocibolca in Nicaragua. One important topographic feature is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec ,

7182-449: Is marked by the rise and dominance of several polities. The traditional distinction between the Early and Late Classic is marked by their changing fortune and their ability to maintain regional primacy. Of paramount importance are Teotihuacán in central Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala; the Early Classic's temporal limits generally correlate to the main periods of these sites. Monte Albán in Oaxaca

7371-409: Is not rigid. The Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups: the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands. The southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala , southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize . The northern lowlands cover the remainder of the northern portion of

7560-477: Is now seen as an arbitrary one, contradicted in places by the sites' texts which can now be (substantially) read. Other ideas Morley put forward include the proposal that the ancient Maya were the first in Mesoamerica to domesticate maize ( Zea mays ssp. mays ), with the wild variety known as teosinte being its progenitor . Recent genetic studies have shown Morley to be largely correct in this, although

7749-696: Is one notable difference between Mesoamerica and the cultures of the South American Andes. Other animals, including the duck , dogs , and turkey , were domesticated . Turkey was the first to be domesticated locally, around 3500 BCE. Dogs were the primary source of animal protein in ancient Mesoamerica, and dog bones are common in midden deposits throughout the region. Societies of this region did hunt certain wild species for food. These animals included deer, rabbit , birds, and various types of insects. They also hunted for luxury items, such as feline fur and bird plumage. Mesoamerican cultures that lived in

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7938-804: Is that Ancestral Puebloans responded to pressure from Numic -speaking peoples moving onto the Colorado Plateau, as well as climate change that resulted in agricultural failures. The archaeological record indicates that for Ancestral Puebloans to adapt to climatic change by changing residences and locations was not unusual. Early Pueblo I Era sites may have housed up to 600 individuals in a few separate but closely spaced settlement clusters. However, they were generally occupied for 30 years or less. Archaeologist Timothy A. Kohler excavated large Pueblo I sites near Dolores, Colorado , and discovered that they were established during periods of above-average rainfall. This allowed crops to be grown without requiring irrigation. At

8127-506: Is the Chaco Road at Chaco Canyon, a system of roads radiating from many great house sites such as Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, and Una Vida. They led toward small outlier sites and natural features in the canyon and outside. Through satellite images and ground investigations, archaeologists have found eight main roads that together run for more than 180 miles (300 km), and are more than 30 feet (10 m) wide. These were built by excavating into

8316-640: Is the largest lake in Mesoamerica. Lake Chapala is Mexico's largest freshwater lake, but Lake Texcoco is perhaps most well known as the location upon which Tenochtitlan , capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded. Lake Petén Itzá , in northern Guatemala, is notable as where the last independent Maya city, Tayasal (or Noh Petén), held out against the Spanish until 1697. Other large lakes include Lake Atitlán , Lake Izabal , Lake Güija , Lemoa and Lake Xolotlan . Almost all ecosystems are present in Mesoamerica;

8505-613: The Cora and Huichol , the Chontales, the Huaves, and the Pipil, Xincan and Lencan peoples of Central America. Central American Area: Los Naranjos By roughly 6000 BCE, hunter-gatherers living in the highlands and lowlands of Mesoamerica began to develop agricultural practices with early cultivation of squash and chili. The earliest example of maize dates to c. 4000 BCE and comes from Guilá Naquitz ,

8694-607: The Itza at Tayasal and the Kowoj at Zacpeten , remained independent until 1697. Some Mesoamerican cultures never achieved dominant status or left impressive archaeological remains but are nevertheless noteworthy. These include the Otomi , Mixe–Zoque groups (which may or may not have been related to the Olmecs), the northern Uto-Aztecan groups, often referred to as the Chichimeca , that include

8883-886: The Kaqchikel at Iximche in the Guatemalan highlands. The Pipil resided in El Salvador , the Nicarao were in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica , and the Ch'orti' were in eastern Guatemala and northwestern Honduras . In central Mexico, the early portion of the Postclassic correlates with the rise of the Toltec and an empire based at their capital, Tula (also known as Tollan ). Cholula , initially an important Early Classic center contemporaneous with Teotihuacan, maintained its political structure (it did not collapse) and continued to function as

9072-502: The Mayan languages , after a stela inscription he found there which recorded a Maya Long Count Calendar date in the 8th cycle (i.e., "8- tuns "; the name could also literally mean "eight stones"). During this time, Morley established a reputation for trustworthiness with the local Yucatec Maya around Mérida, who were still suffering from the depredations of the Caste War of Yucatán against

9261-463: The Mesoamerican calendars —were rather the other way around; even in the later stages of Maya history, their region came under significant influences drawn from central Mexico, such as the Toltec "invasion". However, the Maya did also exert a widespread influence over neighboring contemporary cultures, one which was significant and not to be overlooked. In common with most other Maya scholars, Morley

9450-918: The Monte Alto Culture may have preceded the Olmec. Radiocarbon samples associated with various sculptures found at the Late Preclassic site of Izapa suggest a date of between 1800 and 1500 BCE. During the Middle and Late Preclassic period, the Maya civilization developed in the southern Maya highlands and lowlands, and at a few sites in the northern Maya lowlands. The earliest Maya sites coalesced after 1000 BCE, and include Nakbe , El Mirador , and Cerros . Middle to Late Preclassic Maya sites include Kaminaljuyú , Cival , Edzná , Cobá , Lamanai , Komchen , Dzibilchaltun , and San Bartolo , among others. The Preclassic in

9639-611: The Oshara tradition , which developed from the Picosa culture . The people and their archaeological culture are often referred to as Anasazi , a term introduced by Alfred V. Kidder from the Navajo word anaasází meaning 'enemy ancestors' ( anaa– 'enemy', -sází 'their ancestors') although Kidder thought it meant 'old people'. Contemporary Puebloans object to the use of this term, with some viewing it as derogatory. The Ancestral Puebloans lived in

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9828-477: The Postclassic are differentiated by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of the various political entities throughout Mesoamerica. The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian period precedes the advent of agriculture and is characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Big-game hunting, similar to that seen in contemporaneous North America, was a large component of the subsistence strategy of

10017-673: The Purépecha ) were located in Michoacán and Guerrero. With their capital at Tzintzuntzan , the Tarascan state was one of the few to actively and continuously resist Aztec domination during the Late Postclassic. Other important Postclassic cultures in Mesoamerica include the Totonac along the eastern coast (in the modern-day states of Veracruz , Puebla , and Hidalgo ). The Huastec resided north of

10206-646: The Ulúa River , and the Hondo River . The northern Maya lowlands, especially the northern portion of the Yucatán peninsula, are notable for their nearly complete lack of rivers (largely due to the absolute lack of topographic variation). Additionally, no lakes exist in the northern peninsula. The main source of water in this area is aquifers that are accessed through natural surface openings called cenotes . With an area of 8,264 km (3,191 sq mi), Lake Nicaragua

10395-463: The Yucatán Peninsula . Other areas include Central Mexico, West Mexico, the Gulf Coast Lowlands, Oaxaca , the Southern Pacific Lowlands, and Southeast Mesoamerica (including northern Honduras ). There is extensive topographic variation in Mesoamerica, ranging from the high peaks circumscribing the Valley of Mexico and within the central Sierra Madre mountains to the low flatlands of the northern Yucatán Peninsula. The tallest mountain in Mesoamerica

10584-400: The pre-Columbian era , many indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii) the formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with

10773-490: The sandstone landscape. In areas where resistant strata (sedimentary rock layers), such as sandstone or limestone , overlie more easily eroded strata such as shale , rock overhangs formed. The Ancestral Puebloans favored building under such overhangs for shelters and defensive building sites. All areas of the Ancestral Puebloan homeland suffered from periods of drought and erosion from wind and water. Summer rains could be unreliable and produced destructive thunderstorms. While

10962-411: The wheel and basic metallurgy , neither of these became technologically relevant. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec . Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas , Oaxaca , and Guatemala laid the basis for

11151-572: The "Complex of a Thousand Columns", although the columns number fewer than one thousand), un-Maya-like in both execution and arrangement, added confirmation to earlier speculations that Chichen Itza was something of an enigma. This arrangement had much more in common with the architectural styles of civilizations in central Mexico (more than a thousand kilometres away) than that of the Classic or Pre-Classic Maya. In particular, this complex and some others which were gradually revealed appeared to have much in common with structures built at Tula , believed to be

11340-404: The "Short Count", which only identified an event within a span of about 260 years, it was difficult to pin down in which particular span an event referred to in the inscriptions occurred. Towards the end of the project Morley's work on these was to be superseded somewhat by a more-comprehensive analysis made by Hermann Beyer in 1937. In this work, Beyer would note: I frequently have differed with

11529-422: The "Sky City", in New Mexico. Before 900 CE and progressing past the 13th century, the population complexes were major cultural centers. In Chaco Canyon, Chacoan developers quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling 15 major complexes. These ranked as the largest buildings in North America until the late 19th century. Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with

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11718-500: The "old school". In retrospect, these breakthroughs may have been realized earlier had it not been for Morley's, and later Eric Thompson's, almost "on principle" position against the phonetic approach. Consequently, most of Morley's attempts to advance understanding of the Maya script have been superseded. Morley's particular passion was the study of the Maya calendar and its related inscriptions, and in this respect, he made useful expositions that have withstood later scrutiny. His talent

11907-427: The "standard" interpretation against which competing views had to be measured. However, major advances made in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing and refinements in archaeological data which have been made since that time have now called into question much of this former "standard" interpretation, overturning key elements and significantly revising the Maya historical account. As far as Morley's own research

12096-432: The 12th and 13th centuries. The main reason is unclear. Factors discussed include global or regional climate change, prolonged drought, environmental degradation such as cyclical periods of topsoil erosion or deforestation, hostility from new arrivals, religious or cultural change, and influence from Mesoamerican cultures. Many of these possibilities are supported by archaeological evidence. Current scholarly consensus

12285-409: The 16 volumes of The Handbook of Middle American Indians . "Mesoamerica" is broadly defined as the area that is home to the Mesoamerican civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico. The term was first used by

12474-432: The 16th century. Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles , which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoamerican cultural heritage still survive among

12663-523: The 1925–26 season, Thompson became well-acquainted with Morley, the two of them along with their wives (the newly married Thompson was in fact on his honeymoon ) making several side-trips together. However, at the end of the 1926 season, Thompson left Carnegie's employ to take up a post offered by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. This post offered Thompson far greater freedom and diversity for his research. Thompson and Morley were to remain close and like-minded colleagues in spite of this move. Towards

12852-459: The 1930s and led by the anthropologist Robert Redfield as a Carnegie research associate, collected data and examined the cultural contrasts of indigenous Maya experience at four "levels" of community — a traditional indigenous village, a peasant village, a town, and a city — which were analyzed in social anthropological terms as 'types' representing different degrees of societal isolation and homogeneity. Slightly built and not noted for possessing

13041-545: The American Great Plains , in areas near the Cimarron and Pecos Rivers and in the Galisteo Basin . Terrain and resources within this large region vary greatly. The plateau regions have high elevations ranging from 4,500 to 8,500 feet (1,400 to 2,600 m). Extensive horizontal mesas are capped by sedimentary formations and support woodlands of junipers , pinyon , and ponderosa pines , each favoring different elevations. Wind and water erosion have created steep-walled canyons, and sculpted windows and bridges out of

13230-686: The American Southwest began to leave their historic homes and migrate south. According to archaeologists Patricia Crown and Steadman Upham, the appearance of the bright colors on Salado Polychromes in the 14th century may reflect religious or political alliances on a regional level. Late 14th- and 15th-century pottery from central Arizona, widely traded in the region, has colors and designs which may derive from earlier ware by both Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon peoples. The Ancestral Puebloans also excelled at rock art , which included carved petroglyphs and painted pictographs . Ancestral Pueblo peoples painted Barrier Canyon Style pictographs in locations where

13419-413: The Ancestral Puebloans originated from sipapu , where they emerged from the underworld . For unknown ages, they were led by chiefs and guided by spirits as they completed vast migrations throughout the continent of North America. They settled first in the Ancestral Puebloan areas for a few hundred years before moving to their present locations. The Ancestral Puebloans left their established homes in

13608-433: The Carnegie payroll and was duly dispatched to Copán to gather data for reconstructive drawings of that site. Morley's support of Proskouriakoff was to prove fortuitous to Maya scholarship, as she went on to a lengthy and successful career with the Carnegie Institution and was lauded as one of the foremost Maya scholars of her time. Morley maintained that ancient Maya society was essentially a united theocracy , and one which

13797-560: The Carnegie staff. However, this was in the midst of the Great Depression and funds for hiring were scarce; it was also not clear whether Morley had the appropriate authority to do so. After several entreaties, Morley again came up with an innovative funding scheme whereby he devised two campaigns to raise money by subscription to send Proskouriakoff to Copán and the Yucatán . These were successful, and in 1939, Proskouriakoff transferred onto

13986-698: The Chiapas highlands, and Kaminaljuyú in the central Guatemala highlands, were important southern highland Maya centers. The latter site, Kaminaljuyú, is one of the longest occupied sites in Mesoamerica and was continuously inhabited from c. 800 BCE to around 1200 CE. Other important highland Maya groups include the Kʼicheʼ of Utatlán , the Mam in Zaculeu , the Poqomam in Mixco Viejo , and

14175-542: The Chinle, Animas, Jemez , and Taos Rivers. The larger rivers were less directly important to the ancient culture, as smaller streams were more easily diverted or controlled for irrigation. The Ancestral Puebloan culture is perhaps best known for the stone and earth dwellings its people built along cliff walls, particularly during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III eras, from about 900 to 1350 CE in total. The best-preserved examples of

14364-687: The European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica is one of the six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilization ), and the second in the Americas, alongside the Caral–Supe in present-day Peru . Mesoamerica is also one of only five regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed (the others being ancient Egypt , India , Sumer , and China ). Beginning as early as 7000 BCE,

14553-510: The Field Museum in Chicago has been studying a group of Ancestral Puebloan villages that relocated from the canyons to the high mesa tops during the late 13th century. Haas believes that the reason to move so far from water and arable land was a defense against enemies. He asserts that isolated communities relied on raiding for food and supplies, and that internal conflict and warfare became common in

14742-494: The German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff , who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Guatemala , Belize , El Salvador , western Honduras , and the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica . In the tradition of cultural history , the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as

14931-544: The Great Houses were elite, wealthier families. They hosted indoor burials, where gifts were interred with the dead, often including bowls of food and turquoise beads. Over centuries, architectural forms evolved but the complexes kept some core traits, such as their size. They averaged more than 200 rooms each, and some had 700 rooms. Rooms were very large, with higher ceilings than Ancestral Pueblo buildings of earlier periods. They were well-planned: vast sections were built in

15120-638: The Hacienda Chenku, now within the city of Mérida, Yucatán. After the close of the Chichen Itza Project, Morley began spending more time in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had lived half of the year every year since 1910. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1940. He was appointed director of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico , following the death of Edgar Lee Hewett in 1946. He also began work on

15309-454: The Isthmus is swampy and covered in dense jungle—but the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as the lowest and most level point within the Sierra Madre mountain chain, was nonetheless a main transportation, communication, and economic route within Mesoamerica. Outside of the northern Maya lowlands, rivers are common throughout Mesoamerica. Some of the more important ones served as loci of human occupation in

15498-457: The Laboratory of Anthropology Library in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In his day, Morley was widely regarded as one of the leading figures in Maya scholarship, in authority perhaps second only to Eric Thompson, whose views he mostly shared. From the late 1920s through to perhaps the mid-1970s, the reconstruction of ancient Maya society and history pieced together by Morley, Thompson and others constituted

15687-753: The Mesa Verde and the Bandelier areas. Evidence also suggests that a profound change took place in the Ancestral Pueblo area and areas inhabited by their cultural neighbors, the Mogollon . Historian James W. Loewen agrees with this oral tradition in his book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong (1999). No academic consensus exists with the professional archeological and anthropological community on this issue. Environmental stress may have caused changes in social structure, leading to conflict and warfare. Near Kayenta, Arizona , Jonathan Haas of

15876-519: The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian. These sites had obsidian blades and Clovis -style fluted projectile points . The Archaic period (8000–2000 BCE) is characterized by the rise of incipient agriculture in Mesoamerica. The initial phases of the Archaic involved the cultivation of wild plants, transitioning into informal domestication and culminating with sedentism and agricultural production by

16065-478: The Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica , especially along the Pacific coast. In the subsequent Preclassic period , complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya , with the rise of centers such as Aguada Fénix and Calakmul in Mexico; El Mirador , and Tikal in Guatemala, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán . During this period,

16254-539: The Mexican government, Morley, his field director Earl H. Morris , artists Ann Axtell Morris and Jean Charlot , and several others began their first explorations. They selected an area within what appeared to be the central plaza of the site, where the capitals of some columns lay exposed. Much to their surprise they uncovered row upon row of free-standing columns — surprising since such columns hardly ever figured in Classic Maya architecture . This complex (now called

16443-515: The Mexican government. Over the years, he was to act almost as their representative in several matters, although he was equally careful not to upset the Mexican and U.S. governments. His directorship over all of the Institute's activities in the Maya region soon ran into difficulty. Because of cost and schedule overruns as well as criticisms of the quality of some of the research produced, the Carnegie board began to believe that managing multiple projects

16632-514: The Olmec include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán , La Venta , and Tres Zapotes . Specific dates vary, but these sites were occupied from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE. Remains of other early cultures interacting with the Olmec have been found at Takalik Abaj , Izapa , and Teopantecuanitlan , and as far south as in Honduras . Research in the Pacific Lowlands of Chiapas and Guatemala suggest that Izapa and

16821-475: The Pueblo II became more self-contained, decreasing trade and interaction with more distant communities. Southwest farmers developed irrigation techniques appropriate to seasonal rainfall, including soil and water control features such as check dams and terraces. The population of the region continued to be mobile, abandoning settlements and fields under adverse conditions. There was also a drop in water table due to

17010-531: The Study of Maya Hieroglyphs (1915). During the First World War (1914–1918), Morley gathered intelligence about and reported on the movements of German operatives in the region, information in which the U.S. Government had a keen interest. According to subsequent investigations, Morley was one of a number of ONI operatives working in the region under the guise of conducting scholarly research. Their mission

17199-602: The Sun Dagger petroglyph at Fajada Butte a popular example. Many Chacoan buildings may have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. The Chacoans abandoned the canyon, probably due to climate change beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. Immense complexes known as "great houses" embodied worship at Chaco. Archaeologists have found musical instruments, jewelry, ceramics, and ceremonial items, indicating people in

17388-568: The Totonac, mainly in the modern-day states of Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz. The Mixtec and Zapotec cultures, centered at Mitla and Zaachila respectively, inhabited Oaxaca. The Postclassic ends with the arrival of the Spanish and their subsequent conquest of the Aztecs between 1519 and 1521. Many other cultural groups did not acquiesce until later. For example, Maya groups in the Petén area, including

17577-559: The Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. There are 83 inactive and active volcanoes within the Sierra Madre range, including 11 in Mexico, 37 in Guatemala, 23 in El Salvador, 25 in Nicaragua, and 3 in northwestern Costa Rica. According to the Michigan Technological University, 16 of these are still active. The tallest active volcano is Popocatépetl at 5,452 m (17,887 ft). This volcano, which retains its Nahuatl name,

17766-504: The West Road, and the shorter Pintado-Chaco Road. Simple structures like berms and walls are sometimes aligned along the roads. Some tracts of the roads lead to natural features such as springs, lakes, mountain tops, and pinnacles. The longest and best-known of these roads is the Great North Road, which originates from different routes close to Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl. These roads converge at Pueblo Alto and from there lead north beyond

17955-614: The World by H. Rider Haggard , based on tales of the "lost cities" of Central America, was a particular favorite of the young Morley. Morley graduated with an A.B. in American Research from Harvard in 1907. His first field trip to Mexico and Yucatán was in January of the same year, when he visited and explored several Maya sites, including Acanceh , Labna , Kabah , Uxmal , Zayil , and Kiuic . He spent several weeks at Chichen Itza as

18144-438: The accepted view but would prove to be ever more fruitful as their work continued. By the mid-1970s, it had become increasingly clear to most that the Maya writing system was a logosyllabic one, a mixture of logograms and phonetic components that included a fully functional syllabary . These realizations led to the successful decipherment of many of the texts which had been impenetrable (and almost "dismissed") by Morley and

18333-528: The activities of local competitors and opponents of large U.S. companies present in the region, such as the United Fruit Company and International Harvester . As his later work proved, Morley was also a genuine scholar and archaeologist with an abiding interest in the region. However, his research activities in this period seem to have played a largely secondary role to his espionage duties. The authors of research into his spying proclaim Morley "arguably

18522-477: The amount of winter snowfall varied greatly, the Ancestral Puebloans depended on the snow for most of their water. Snow melt allowed the germination of seeds, both wild and cultivated, in the spring. Where sandstone layers overlay shale, snow melt could accumulate and create seeps and springs, which the Ancestral Puebloans used as water sources. Snow also fed the smaller, more predictable tributaries, such as

18711-683: The area. The Ancestral Puebloan homeland centers on the Colorado Plateau, but extends from central New Mexico on the east to southern Nevada on the west. Areas of southern Nevada, Utah, and Colorado form a loose northern boundary, while the southern edge is defined by the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers in Arizona and the Rio Puerco and Rio Grande in New Mexico. Structures and other evidence of Ancestral Puebloan culture have been found extending east onto

18900-665: The area. The longest river in Mesoamerica is the Usumacinta , which forms in Guatemala at the convergence of the Salinas or Chixoy and La Pasión River and runs north for 970 km (600 mi)—480 km (300 mi) of which are navigable—eventually draining into the Gulf of Mexico . Other rivers of note include the Río Grande de Santiago , the Grijalva River , the Motagua River ,

19089-446: The beginnings of its domestication ( 12,000 to 7,500 years ago) pre-dates the establishment of anything resembling Maya society. In general, Morley held that the ancient Maya had been the pre-eminent civilization of Mesoamerica, from which other cultures had drawn their influences. It is now accepted that other societies (such as the Zapotec and Olmec ) preceded that of the Maya and the influences—such as development of writing and

19278-479: The best secret agent the United States produced during World War I". Shortly after the war several of Morley's contemporaries voiced their misgivings over the duplicitous nature of the espionage work that Morley and several of his colleagues had been suspected of. One notable critic, the famous anthropologist Franz Boas , published a letter of protest in the December 20, 1919 edition of The Nation . Without naming

19467-439: The bulk of the texts and inscriptions still defied all attempts at decipherment, despite much concerted effort. It was Morley's view, and one that found wide support, that these undeciphered portions would contain only more of the same astronomical, calendric and perhaps religious information, not actual historical data. He wrote in 1940, "time, in its various manifestations, the accurate record of its principal phenomena, constitutes

19656-457: The canyon limits. Along roadways were only small, isolated structures. Archaeological interpretations of the Chaco road system are divided between an economic purpose and a symbolic, ideological or religious role. The system was discovered in the late 19th century and excavated in the 1970s. By the late 20th century, aerial and satellite photographs helped in the study. Archaeologists suggested that

19845-661: The capital of the Toltecs and which was located about 100 km north of present-day Mexico City . Over the next few seasons, the team expanded their digs, recovering other anomalous structures from the earthen mounds, such as the Temple of the Jaguar and the Temple of the Warriors. In 1927 they discovered an older structure underneath this latter, which they called the "Temple of the Chacmool " after

20034-488: The central Mexican highlands is represented by such sites as Tlapacoya , Tlatilco , and Cuicuilco . These sites were eventually superseded by Teotihuacán , an important Classic-era site that eventually dominated economic and interaction spheres throughout Mesoamerica. The settlement of Teotihuacan is dated to the later portion of the Late Preclassic, or roughly 50 CE. In the Valley of Oaxaca , San José Mogote represents one of

20223-575: The close of the period. Transformations of natural environments have been a common feature at least since the mid Holocene. Archaic sites include Sipacate in Escuintla , Guatemala, where maize pollen samples date to c. 3500 BCE. The first complex civilization to develop in Mesoamerica was that of the Olmec , who inhabited the Gulf Coast region of Veracruz throughout the Preclassic period. The main sites of

20412-557: The collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 CE, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula , ensued. At this time during the Epi-Classic period, the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages . During

20601-539: The continuation of the Chaco Canyon elite system, which had seemingly collapsed a century earlier. Other researchers instead explain these motifs as part a wider Pueblo style or religion. During the period from 700 to 1130 CE ( Pueblo I and II Eras ), the population grew fast due to consistent and regular rainfall which supported agriculture. Studies of skeletal remains show increased fertility rather than decreased mortality. However, this tenfold population increase over

20790-533: The control of a Toltec empire. Chronological data refutes this early interpretation, and it is now known that Chichén Itzá predated the Toltec; Mexican architectural styles are now used as an indicator of strong economic and ideological ties between the two regions. The Postclassic (beginning 900–1000 CE, depending on area) is, like the Late Classic, characterized by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of various polities. The main Maya centers were located in

20979-475: The dismantling of their religious structures was an effort to symbolically undo the changes they believed they caused due to their abuse of their spiritual power, and thus make amends with nature. Most modern Pueblo peoples (whether Keresans , Hopi , or Tanoans ) assert the Ancestral Puebloans did not "vanish", as is commonly portrayed. They say that the people migrated to areas in the southwest with more favorable rainfall and dependable streams. They merged into

21168-470: The documentation of other non-calendric aspects of the Maya script; the comprehensiveness of some of his publications suffered much as a result. Some leading figures from a later generation of Mayanists would come to regard his publications as being inferior in detail and scope to that of his predecessors, such as Teoberto Maler and Alfred Maudslay — poorer quality reproductions, omitted texts, sometimes inaccurate drawings. Mesoamerica Mesoamerica

21357-426: The domestication of cacao , maize , beans , tomato , avocado , vanilla , squash and chili , as well as the turkey and dog , resulted in a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal groupings to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition , a vigesimal numeric system,

21546-417: The dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatán to the humid southern Pacific and Caribbean lowlands. Several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits

21735-559: The early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, and Oaxaca by the Mixtec . The lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán . Towards the end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in

21924-588: The elite family whose burials associate them with the site practiced matrilineal succession. Room 33 in Pueblo Bonito, the richest burial ever excavated in the Southwest, served as a crypt for one powerful lineage, traced through the female line, for approximately 330 years. While other Ancestral Pueblo burials have not yet been subjected to the same archaeogenomic testing, the survival of matrilineal descent among contemporary Pueblo peoples suggests that this may have been

22113-496: The end of the Chichen Itza project, Morley came across the drawings of a young artist and draftsperson, Tatiana Proskouriakoff , who as an unpaid excavator had accompanied a 1936–37 University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition to the Maya site of Piedras Negras . The quality of her reconstructive panorama drawings (depicting what the site "might have looked like" when in use) so impressed Morley that he determined to enroll her onto

22302-455: The field's most dominant figure and its uncontested expert. Together with Morley, he was most responsible for promulgating the view of the ancient Maya as peaceable astronomers, obsessed with time and calendric observations. This view became the prevailing one for the next several decades. Proskouriakoff also went on to establish a stellar career and a lifelong association with the Carnegie Institution; however, her researches ultimately provided

22491-520: The first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures. The Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya logosyllabic script . In Central Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan ascended at the height of the Classic period; it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. Upon

22680-506: The forerunners of contemporary Pueblo peoples although specific site to modern group connections are unclear. Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the United States are credited to the Pueblos: Mesa Verde National Park , Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Taos Pueblo . Pueblo , which means "village" and "people" in Spanish, was a term originating with the Spanish explorers who used it to refer to

22869-658: The form of a 300-year period of aridity called the Great Drought. This also led to the collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization around Lake Titicaca in present-day Bolivia. The contemporary Mississippian culture also collapsed during this period. Confirming evidence dated between 1150 and 1350 has been found in excavations of the western regions of the Mississippi Valley , which show long-lasting patterns of warmer, wetter winters and cooler, drier summers. In this later period,

23058-495: The growing populations into close, defensible quarters. There were buildings for housing, defense, and storage. These were built mostly of blocks of hard sandstone, held together and plastered with adobe mortar. Constructions had many similarities, but unique forms due to the unique rock topography. The best-known site is at Mesa Verde, with a large number of well-preserved cliff dwellings. This area included common Pueblo architectural forms, such as kivas, towers, and pit-houses, but

23247-473: The hard sciences and who had graduated at the top of his class in civil engineering at PMC—was initially unsupportive of his ambitions. Seeing little scope for employment opportunities in archaeology, the Colonel encouraged his son to study engineering instead. Sylvanus duly enrolled in a civil engineering degree at PMC, graduating in 1904. Nonetheless immediately upon graduating from PMC Sylvanus got his wish, and

23436-466: The images were protected from the sun yet visible to the public. Designs include human-like forms. The so-called "Holy Ghost panel" in the Horseshoe Canyon is considered to be one of the earliest uses of graphical perspective where the largest figure appears to take on a three-dimensional representation. Recent archaeological evidence has established that in at least one great house, Pueblo Bonito,

23625-453: The indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoamerica. Many continue to speak their ancestral languages and maintain many practices hearkening back to their Mesoamerican roots. The term Mesoamerica literally means "middle America" in Greek. Middle America often refers to a larger area in the Americas, but it has also previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoamerica. An example is the title of

23814-530: The individual language sounds as spoken by the scribes who had written them (with the possible exception of an occasional rebus -like element, as had already been demonstrated for Aztec writing ). The convincing evidence which was to overturn this view became known only after Morley's death, starting with Yuri Knorozov 's work in the 1950s. Over the next decades other Mayanists such as Proskouriakoff, Michael D. Coe , and David H. Kelley would further expand upon this phonetic line of enquiry, which ran counter to

24003-472: The lives and achievements of actual personages. He also believed that the southern centers such as Copán and Quiriguá had been united in the Classical period under what he termed the "Old Empire". This empire mysteriously collapsed, but the remnants later migrated to the northern sites (such as Chichen Itza) to form a "New Empire". It is now generally accepted that at no time was the Maya region united under

24192-503: The lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and the altiplanos , or highlands (situated between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea . The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates ;

24381-421: The lowlands and coastal plains settled down in agrarian communities somewhat later than did highland cultures because there was a greater abundance of fruits and animals in these areas, which made a hunter-gatherer lifestyle more attractive. Fishing also was a major provider of food to lowland and coastal Mesoamericans creating a further disincentive to settle down in permanent communities. Ceremonial centers were

24570-544: The majority of Maya writing." He also wrote that he doubted that any toponym would be found in the texts. He supposed that the Maya writing system was one based chiefly upon ideographic or pictographic principles, and that if present any elements of phoneticism would always be "overshadow[ed]" by the ideographic meaning assigned to each glyph." That is to say, in Morley's view each glyph substantially represented words, ideas and concepts in toto , and did not separately depict

24759-411: The majority of Mayanists. However, recent research from the mid-1990s onwards has now questioned this orthodoxy, to the point where many now hold an actual invasion did not take place, but the similarities in style are largely due to cultural diffusion and trade, and that in fact there is evidence that the diffusion in this period flowed in both directions. The chronology of Chichen Itza continues to be

24948-466: The massive roof – a task which would require significant effort. Habitations were abandoned, and tribes divided and resettled far. This evidence suggests that the religious structures were abandoned deliberately over time. Pueblo oral history holds that the ancestors had achieved great spiritual power and control over natural forces. They used their power in ways that caused nature to change and caused changes that were never meant to occur. Possibly,

25137-603: The more well known are the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System , the second largest in the world, and La Mosquitia (consisting of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve , Tawahka Asangni, Patuca National Park , and Bosawás Biosphere Reserve ) a rainforest second in size in the Americas only to the Amazonas . The highlands present mixed and coniferous forest. The biodiversity is among the richest in

25326-675: The most well-known structures in Mesoamerica, the flat-top pyramids are a landmark feature of the most developed urban centers. Ancestral Puebloans The Ancestral Puebloans , also known as the Anasazi and by the earlier term the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah , northeastern Arizona , northwestern New Mexico , and southwestern Colorado . They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from

25515-463: The name of the people who were reputed to be its former inhabitants. Over the next three centuries after the Conquest, the site remained relatively undisturbed until the arrival of Stephens and Catherwood , although several plantations were established nearby. At the time its full extent was not at all clear, but today it is recognised as one of the largest Maya sites in the Yucatán region. How long ago

25704-498: The necessary sponsorship for projects that would ultimately reveal much about ancient Maya civilization. Morley also conducted espionage in Mexico on behalf of the United States during World War I, but the scope of those activities only came to light well after his death. His archaeological field work in Mexico and Central America provided suitable cover for his work with the United States' Office of Naval Intelligence investigating German activities and anti-American activity. Morley

25893-400: The north of Tikal ). Believing that there must be many more as-yet unknown ancient Maya sites in the area, Morley advertised a "bounty" in return for news of such sites to the local chicleros , who ranged through the jungles seeking exploitable sources of natural gum ; in due course he was rewarded with the information which led to its rediscovery. He also bestowed its name, uaxactun , from

26082-496: The northern lowlands. Generally applied to the Maya area, the Terminal Classic roughly spans the time between c. 800/850 and c. 1000 CE. Overall, it generally correlates with the rise to prominence of Puuc settlements in the northern Maya lowlands , so named after the hills where they are mainly found. Puuc settlements are specifically associated with a unique architectural style (the "Puuc architectural style") that represents

26271-558: The northern lowlands. Following Chichén Itzá, whose political structure collapsed during the Early Postclassic, Mayapán rose to prominence during the Middle Postclassic and dominated the north for c. 200 years. After Mayapán's fragmentation, the political structure in the northern lowlands revolved around large towns or city-states, such as Oxkutzcab and Ti’ho ( Mérida, Yucatán ), that competed with one another. Toniná , in

26460-415: The nuclei of Mesoamerican settlements. The temples provided spatial orientation, which was imparted to the surrounding town. The cities with their commercial and religious centers were always political entities, somewhat similar to the European city-state , and each person could identify with the city where they lived. Ceremonial centers were always built to be visible. Pyramids were meant to stand out from

26649-471: The number of rooms in a pueblo. A small kiva was built for roughly every 29 rooms. Nine complexes each had a Great Kiva, up to 63 feet (19 m) in diameter. T-shaped doorways and stone lintels marked all Chacoan kivas. Although simple and compound walls were often used, great houses usually had core-and-veneer walls: rubble filled the gap between parallel load-bearing walls of dressed, flat sandstone blocks bound in clay mortar. Walls were covered in

26838-466: The off-season to give a series of lectures on his finds. Although primarily involved with the work at Chichen Itza, Morley also took on responsibilities which extended Carnegie-sponsored fieldwork to other Maya sites, such as Yaxchilan , Coba , Copán , Quiriguá , Uxmal , Naranjo , Seibal and Uaxactun . Morley rediscovered the last of these sites (located in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala , to

27027-449: The oldest permanent agricultural villages in the area, and one of the first to use pottery. During the Early and Middle Preclassic, the site developed some of the earliest examples of defensive palisades , ceremonial structures, the use of adobe , and hieroglyphic writing . Also of importance, the site was one of the first to demonstrate inherited status , signifying a radical shift in socio-cultural and political structure. San José Mogote

27216-446: The opinions of Dr. Sylvanus G. Morley. This is easily explained by the fact that he is one of the few archaeologists who have studied the hieroglyphs of Chichen Itza. While I agree with his results on the inscriptions of the Old Empire cities which contain many dates and time periods, I find that his method of dealing solely with calendrical matter fails at Chichen Itza, since there are but few hieroglyphs of that nature. The later years of

27405-618: The past few decades has established that it was first settled during the Early/Late Classic transition but rose to prominence during the Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic. During its apogee, this widely known site economically and politically dominated the northern lowlands. Its participation in the circum-peninsular exchange route, possible through its port site of Isla Cerritos , allowed Chichén Itzá to remain highly connected to areas such as central Mexico and Central America. The apparent "Mexicanization" of architecture at Chichén Itzá led past researchers to believe that Chichén Itzá existed under

27594-614: The people also adopted design details from other cultures as far away as contemporary Mexico . These buildings were usually multistoried and multipurposed, and surrounded by open plazas and viewsheds . Hundreds to thousands of people lived in these communities. These complexes hosted cultural and civic events and infrastructure that supported a vast outlying region hundreds of miles away linked by transportation roadways. Built well before 1492 CE, these towns and villages were located in defensive positions, for example on high, steep mesas such as at Mesa Verde or present-day Acoma Pueblo , called

27783-541: The people's particular style of dwelling. The Navajo people, who now reside in parts of former Pueblo territory, referred to the ancient people as Anaasází , an exonym meaning "ancestors of our enemies", referring to their competition with the Pueblo peoples. The Navajo now use the term in the sense of referring to "ancient people" or "ancient ones", whereas others ascribe the meaning of Anasazi to "those who are different from our people"; (lit. Ana = "different from us" + asaza = "the old ones"). Hopi people use

27972-469: The pit-house, a common feature in the Basketmaker periods. Ancestral Puebloans are also known for their pottery. Local plainware pottery used for cooking or storage was unpainted gray, either smooth or textured. Pottery used for more formal purposes was often more richly adorned. In the northern portion of the Ancestral Pueblo lands, from about 500 to 1300 CE, the pottery styles commonly had black-painted designs on white or light gray backgrounds. Decoration

28161-415: The present, with some commentators noting the dangers and suspicion it throws upon others engaged in legitimate archaeological fieldwork, particularly those who work or seek to work in "sensitive" government-controlled areas. Morley was to devote most of the next two decades to fieldwork in the Maya region, overseeing the seasonal archaeological digs and restoration projects, returning to the United States in

28350-668: The primary convincing evidence which later disproved much of what had been maintained by Thompson and Morley. In 1925, a young English Cambridge anthropology student named John Eric Sidney Thompson wrote to Morley seeking employment with the Carnegie programme on digs in Central America. Thompson had studied Morley's 1915 work and from that taught himself Maya calendrics , which were a particular passion for Morley. The Carnegie Institution at Morley's urging accordingly hired Thompson, and he soon found himself at work in Chichen Itza, involved with its architectural reconstruction (for which task Thompson had no particular qualifications). During

28539-453: The project would increasingly concentrate on completing the restorative work on the principal structures, for Morley always had an eye on the dual purpose of the project: to research, but also rebuild to generate the promised revenue from tourism. The net research result of their excavations revealed Chichen Itza to be an unusual mixture of building styles: not only was there a wide variety of Maya styles such as Puuc , Rio Bec and Chenes, but

28728-465: The project, but instability in Yucatán (an aftershock of the Mexican Revolution ) and the World War, among other factors, would postpone action on the proposal for a decade. Excavation work at Chichen Itza did not begin until the 1923–24 field season. While the Chichen Itza project was on hold, Morley conducted several expeditions in Mexico and Central America on behalf of the Carnegie Institution. He also published his first major work, An Introduction to

28917-477: The region drove them out after several months of occupation. When the Spanish returned to Yucatán in 1542 they finally succeeded in establishing a capital at another Maya city, T'ho (or Tiho ), which they renamed Mérida. Chichen Itza had evidently been functionally abandoned long before the Spanish first came, although the local indigenous Yucatec Maya still lived in settlements nearby, and even within its former boundaries (but in recently built wooden huts, not

29106-460: The remainder of his life. Nevertheless, although he "detested" the jungle conditions, he persevered in his work with evident enthusiasm. In between overseeing the projects and conducting his own researches, Morley published several treatises on Maya hieroglyphics and his interpretations on their meaning. These include a survey of inscriptions at Copán (1920) and a larger study (a massive tome of over 2,000 pages in five volumes) encompassing many of

29295-416: The rest of the city, to represent the gods and their powers. Another characteristic feature of the ceremonial centers is historic layers. All the ceremonial edifices were built in various phases, one on top of the other, to the point that what we now see is usually the last stage of construction. Ultimately, the ceremonial centers were the architectural translation of the identity of each city, as represented by

29484-470: The road's main purpose was to transport local and exotic goods to and from the canyon. The economic purpose of the Chaco road system is shown by the presence of luxury items at Pueblo Bonito and elsewhere in the canyon. Items such as macaws , turquoise and seashells, which are not part of this environment, and imported vessels distinguished by design, prove that the Chaco traded with distant regions. The widespread use of timber in Chacoan constructions required

29673-573: The same time, nearby areas that suffered significantly drier patterns were abandoned. Ancestral Puebloans attained a cultural "Golden Age" between about 900 and 1150. During this time, generally classed as Pueblo II Era, the climate was relatively warm and rainfall mostly adequate. Communities grew larger and were inhabited for longer. Highly specific local traditions in architecture and pottery emerged, and trade over long distances appears to have been common. Domesticated turkeys appeared. After around 1130, North America had significant climatic change in

29862-555: The site had been functionally abandoned (not including the ongoing presence of local Maya farmers) was not immediately apparent, although it appeared to have been recently, in comparison with the seemingly older abandoned sites of the central and southern Maya region. By 1922 the turbulent political situation in Mexico had stabilized somewhat, clearing the way for work to begin on the Carnegie Institution's Chichen Itza project. Morley and Carnegie Institution President Charles Merriam visited Chichen Itza in February 1923. The Mexican government

30051-437: The site had been surveyed, photographed and documented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Desire Charnay , Augustus Le Plongeon , Teoberto Maler , Alfred Maudslay , Eduard Seler , and Edward H. Thompson , although only Le Plongeon and Thompson had conducted any significant excavation, and their efforts would pale in comparison to the Carnegie project. In 1924, armed with a renewable ten-year digging concession from

30240-435: The site; the two projects divided the areas to excavate, continuing side-by-side for several years, in a somewhat guarded but nonetheless cordial fashion. While Morris oversaw day-to-day operations, and Charlot sketched the murals, Morley occupied himself with copying all the inscriptions he could find, particularly the date portions. Since most of these inscription dates at the site were recorded in an abbreviated form known as

30429-406: The sites and architecture of the ancient Pueblo peoples (Anasazi). Morley made some significant contributions to the definition of a particular "Santa Fe" style of pre-Columbian architecture. After the assignment Morley went to work permanently for the SAA, and over the next several years alternated his fieldwork assignments between the Southwest, and Mexico and Central America. Morley completed

30618-417: The sites he had investigated in the Petén region (1932–38). Chichen Itza is about 120  km (75  miles ) southeast of Mérida , on the inland plains of north-central Yucatán . It had been known to Europeans since the first recorded visits by the 16th century conquistadores . During the conquest of Yucatán , the Spanish attempted to establish a capital at Chichén Itzá, but resistance by Maya in

30807-409: The southern regions of Ancestral Pueblo lands has bold, black-line decoration and the use of carbon-based colorants. In northern New Mexico, the local black-on-white pottery tradition, the Rio Grande white wares , continued well after 1300 CE. Changes in pottery composition, structure, and decoration are signals of social change in the archaeological record. This is particularly true as the peoples of

30996-715: The space restrictions of these alcoves resulted in far denser populations. Mug House, a typical cliff dwelling of the period, was home to around 100 people who shared 94 small rooms and eight kivas, built right up against each other and sharing many walls. Builders maximized space use and no area was off-limits. Not all the people in the region lived in cliff dwellings; many colonized the canyon rims and slopes in multifamily structures that grew to unprecedented size as populations swelled. Decorative motifs for these sandstone/mortar structures, both cliff dwellings and not, included T-shaped windows and doors. This has been taken by some archaeologists, such as Stephen Lekson (1999), as evidence of

31185-425: The stone buildings themselves). The name "Chichen Itza" is known from the earliest recorded Spanish accounts —such as Diego de Landa 's— of these local inhabitants, for whom the site had long been a place of pilgrimage and ceremony. The name ( chich'en itza in modern Yukatek orthography) means roughly "mouth of the well of the Itza ", the "well" being the nearby Sacred Cenote (water-filled sinkhole) and "Itza" being

31374-604: The stone dwellings are now protected within United States' national parks , such as Navajo National Monument , Chaco Culture National Historical Park , Mesa Verde National Park , Canyons of the Ancients National Monument , Aztec Ruins National Monument , Bandelier National Monument , Hovenweep National Monument , and Canyon de Chelly National Monument . These villages, called pueblos by Spanish colonists, were accessible only by rope or through rock climbing. These astonishing building achievements had modest beginnings. The first Ancestral Puebloan homes and villages were based on

31563-437: The suspected archaeologists, Boas' letter denounced these Central American operatives who had "prostituted science by using it as a cover for their activities as spies". Ten days after the letter was published, the American Anthropological Association censured Boas for this action in a 21-to-10 formal vote on a resolution distancing the AAA from Boas' views. The ethical debate surrounding such "archaeologist-spies" continues into

31752-399: The term Hisatsinom , meaning "ancient people", to describe the Ancestral Puebloans. The Ancestral Puebloans were one of four major prehistoric archaeological traditions recognized in the American Southwest, also known as Oasisamerica . The others are the Mogollon , Hohokam , and Patayan . In relation to neighboring cultures, the Ancestral Puebloans occupied the northeast quadrant of

31941-513: The time following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century is classified as the Colonial period. The differentiation of early periods (i.e., up through the end of the Late Preclassic ) generally reflects different configurations of socio-cultural organization that are characterized by increasing socio-political complexity , the adoption of new and different subsistence strategies , and changes in economic organization (including increased interregional interaction). The Classic period through

32130-403: The various Pueblo peoples whose descendants still live in Arizona and New Mexico. This perspective was also presented by early 20th-century anthropologists, including Frank Hamilton Cushing , J. Walter Fewkes , and Alfred V. Kidder . Many modern Pueblo tribes trace their lineage from specific settlements. For example, the San Ildefonso Pueblo people believe that their ancestors lived in both

32319-411: The veneration of their gods and masters. Stelae were common public monuments throughout Mesoamerica and served to commemorate notable successes, events, and dates associated with the rulers and nobility of the various sites. Given that Mesoamerica was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area were self-sufficient, although very long-distance trade

32508-478: The western United States, respectively, have not entered into widespread usage. Some of the significant cultural traits defining the Mesoamerican cultural tradition are: Located on the Middle American isthmus joining North and South America between ca. 10° and 22° northern latitude , Mesoamerica possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. These different niches are classified into two broad categories:

32697-483: The world, though the number of species in the red list of the IUCN grows every year. The history of human occupation in Mesoamerica is divided into stages or periods. These are known, with slight variation depending on region, as the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic , and the Postclassic . The last three periods, representing the core of Mesoamerican cultural fluorescence, are further divided into two or three sub-phases. Most of

32886-533: Was able to attend Harvard University in pursuit of an undergraduate degree in archaeology. The focus of his studies at Harvard shifted from Ancient Egypt to the pre-Columbian Maya, at the encouragement of Peabody Museum director F. W. Putnam and the young Alfred Tozzer , a recently appointed professor at Harvard's Anthropology department. Morley's interest in the Maya may have stirred even earlier than this, according to his student contemporary at Harvard and later colleague Alfred V. Kidder . The 1895 novel Heart of

33075-456: Was allied with Caracol and may have assisted in the defeat of Tikal), and Dos Pilas Aguateca and Cancuén in the Petexbatún region of Guatemala. Around 710, Tikal arose again and started to build strong alliances and defeat its worst enemies. In the Maya area, the Late Classic ended with the so-called " Maya collapse ", a transitional period coupling the general depopulation of the southern lowlands and development and florescence of centers in

33264-461: Was almost exclusively devoted to astronomical observations and mystically noting (even "worshipping") the passage of time . These ideas (which Thompson's later work would develop to its fullest extent) are now extensively modified, and although astronomical and calendric observations were clearly important to the Maya, the people themselves are now seen in more historical, realistic terms—concerned also with dynastic succession, political conquests, and

33453-404: Was almost unmasked on occasion. In one incident in 1917, Morley was prevented from photographing an old Spanish fort by a party of Honduran soldiers who had been distrustfully monitoring his presence. He protested strongly to the local authorities, proclaiming his credentials as an archaeologist ought to be above suspicion. The local authorities remained unmoved, and only when Morley had arranged for

33642-518: Was already at work restoring the massive pyramid, El Castillo . Morley gave Merriam a tour of the area he believed would be best for excavation and restoration, a mound complex then known as the Group of One Thousand Columns (which included the Temple of Warriors). When Morley and his team returned in 1924 to commence their excavations, Chichen Itza was a sprawling complex of several large ruined buildings and many smaller ones, most of which lay concealed under mounds of earth and vegetation. Some areas of

33831-463: Was an immigrant to the United States from newly independent Belgium , where his father had been a judge in the Belgian Supreme Court . When Morley was ten years old, he moved with his family to Colorado , and his secondary education was completed at Buena Vista and Colorado Springs . It was during his later schooling in Colorado that Morley first developed an interest in archaeology, and in particular Egyptology . However his father—a man trained in

34020-400: Was born in Chester, Pennsylvania , the eldest of six children. His father, Colonel Benjamin F. Morley, was at the time vice-president and professor of chemistry, mathematics and tactics at Pennsylvania Military College (PMC). His mother Sarah also had a connection with the college, where her father Felix de Lannoy had been a professor of Modern Languages. Felix (Sylvanus' maternal grandfather)

34209-400: Was common only for very rare goods, or luxury materials. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period (8000 BCE– 1000 BCE) onward, regions compensated for the environmental inadequacies by specializing in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then trading them for necessary unavailable resources through established commercial trade networks. The following

34398-420: Was eventually overtaken by Monte Albán , the subsequent capital of the Zapotec empire , during the Late Preclassic. The Preclassic in western Mexico, in the states of Nayarit , Jalisco , Colima , and Michoacán also known as the Occidente, is poorly understood. This period is best represented by the thousands of figurines recovered by looters and ascribed to the " shaft tomb tradition ". The Classic period

34587-420: Was not Morley's forte. In 1929, the overall directorship of the programme was passed to A. V. Kidder , and Morley was left to concentrate on Chichen Itza. Apart from the archaeological investigations which were the main purpose of the Carnegie programme's efforts under Morley, the programme also sponsored the undertaking of comparative field research on modern Yucatec Maya communities. This research, conducted in

34776-412: Was not so much to make innovations, but rather to publicise and explain the workings of the various systems. He was particularly proficient at recovering calendar dates from well-worn and weathered inscriptions, owing to his great familiarity with the various glyphic styles of the tzolk'in , haab' and Long Count elements. Yet in his focus on calendric details, he would often overlook or even neglect

34965-412: Was particularly interested in the mysterious nature of the Maya script . The essentials of the calendric notation and astronomical data had been worked out by the early 20th century, and by the 1930s John E. Teeple had solved (with Morley's encouragement) the glyphs known as the "Supplementary Series", proving that these referred to the lunar cycle and could be used to predict lunar eclipses . However,

35154-413: Was predominantly used by the Maya during the Early Classic), and jade from the Motagua valley in Guatemala. Tikal was often in conflict with other polities in the Petén Basin , as well as with others outside of it, including Uaxactun , Caracol , Dos Pilas , Naranjo , and Calakmul . Towards the end of the Early Classic, this conflict lead to Tikal's military defeat at the hands of Caracol in 562, and

35343-506: Was the staple crop in the region, and remained so through modern times. The Ramón or Breadnut tree ( Brosimum alicastrum ) was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour. Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoamerican cultures. Some of the main ones consumed include avocado , papaya , guava , mamey , zapote , and annona . Mesoamerica lacked animals suitable for domestication, most notably domesticated large ungulates . The lack of draft animals for transportation

35532-528: Was to seek out evidence of pro-German and anti-American agitation in the Mexico-Central America region and to look for secret German submarine bases (which proved non-existent). Morley's archaeological work provided a ready excuse to travel the countryside armed with photographic equipment, and he himself traveled more than 2,000 miles (over 3,200 km) along the coastlines of Central America in search of evidence for German bases. Several times Morley needed to convince suspicious soldiers of his bona fides , and

35721-462: Was used mostly for ceremonies, was an integral part of the community structure. Archaeologists continue to debate when this distinct culture emerged. The current agreement, based on terminology defined by the Pecos Classification , suggests their emergence around the 12th century BCE, during the archaeologically designated Early Basketmaker II Era . Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers identified Ancestral Puebloans as

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