Major Ancient Civilizations in Mesoamerica

The first shared inheritance is maize. It was bred from a wild grass called teosinte, which looks nothing like corn: a handful of hard kernels in a brittle spike, each in a shell hard enough to break a tooth. Farmers in the Balsas River valley of Mexico began selecting it around 9,000 years ago, and over thousands of years turned it into the cob — one of the great feats of plant breeding in history, done without any written science.

Maize eaten alone can make people ill, because the body cannot use the niacin it contains. Mesoamerican cooks soaked and cooked the grain in water with lime or wood ash — nixtamalization — which releases the niacin, adds calcium, and makes the dough for tortillas. When maize was carried to Europe and Africa without the technique, the disease called pellagra followed it.

The second shared inheritance is the calendar. A 260-day ritual count runs alongside a 365-day solar year, and the two return to the same starting day together only once every 52 years — the Calendar Round. The Mexica marked its completion with the New Fire ceremony, putting out every fire in the land and kindling a new one on a hilltop at midnight.

Hold on to the timescale. About 2,700 years separate the height of the Olmec from the fall of the Aztec, and about 500 years separate the Aztec from us. The Aztec knew they were heirs of older peoples: excavations at their Great Temple have found Olmec masks and figures they buried there as offerings.

Mesoamerica runs roughly from central Mexico through Guatemala, Belize, and into Honduras and El Salvador. It was one cultural world, but it was never one state. Before studying each civilization, it helps to know what they all shared.

Maize

The first shared inheritance is maize, or corn. It was bred from a wild grass called teosinte, which looks nothing like corn. Teosinte has a handful of hard kernels in a brittle spike, each in a shell hard enough to break a tooth. Farmers in the Balsas River valley of Mexico began selecting it around 9,000 years ago. Over thousands of years, by choosing which seeds to plant, they turned it into the cob. It was one of the great feats of plant breeding in history, done without any written science.

Maize eaten alone can make people ill, because the body cannot use the niacin (a B vitamin) it contains. Mesoamerican cooks soaked and cooked the grain in water with lime or wood ash. This process is called nixtamalization. It releases the niacin, adds calcium, and makes the dough for tortillas. When maize was carried to Europe and Africa without the technique, the disease called pellagra followed it.

The calendar

The second shared inheritance is the calendar. A 260-day ritual count runs alongside a 365-day solar year. The two return to the same starting day together only once every 52 years. This cycle is called the Calendar Round. The Mexica (the Aztec) marked its completion with the New Fire ceremony: every fire in the land was put out, and a new one was kindled on a hilltop at midnight.

Other shared ideas

The book lists more that these peoples held in common: stepped pyramids, the ballgame, a bar-and-dot number system that included zero, screenfold books, and long-distance trade in obsidian, jade, cacao and quetzal feathers.

• Mesoamericans made wheels — on clay toys — but had no draft animals, so wheeled carts were never built.
• Cacao beans were used as money. Spanish records list prices in cacao beans, and describe counterfeiters filling empty husks with earth.
• Rubber was being made in Mesoamerica more than 3,000 years before Charles Goodyear, by mixing latex (the sap of the rubber tree) with the juice of the morning glory vine.
• The oldest known ball court, at Paso de la Amada in Chiapas, is about 3,650 years old.

Keep the timescale in mind

These cultures are often listed in a simple order — Olmec, then Maya, then Aztec — but they overlapped and were separated by enormous spans of time. About 2,700 years separate the height of the Olmec from the fall of the Aztec. About 500 years separate the Aztec from us. The Aztec knew they were heirs of older peoples: excavations at their Great Temple have found Olmec masks and figures that the Aztec buried there as offerings.

Mesoamerica is a big region that stretches from central Mexico through Guatemala and Belize into Honduras and El Salvador. It was never one country. But for thousands of years its peoples — the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec and others — shared many of the same foods, ideas and games.

People in town and field

• Farmers grew maize (corn), their most important food.
• Cooks soaked and cooked the maize with lime or wood ash. This made it healthier and turned it into dough for tortillas.
• Day-keepers knew the calendar. Their job was to know what day it was and what that day meant.
• Ballplayers played a ball game with a heavy rubber ball on a long court.
• Traders carried obsidian, jade, cacao beans and bright feathers over long distances.
• Builders raised stepped pyramids that rise like giant staircases.
• Writers painted books that fold up like an accordion, called screenfold books.

Animals and plants

• Teosinte — a wild grass with a few hard kernels. Farmers slowly changed it, over thousands of years, into maize.
• Cacao — the tree whose beans make chocolate. The beans were also used as money!
• Morning glory vine — its juice was mixed with the milky sap of rubber trees to make bouncy rubber.
• Quetzal — a bird whose long green feathers were a treasure.
• There were no horses, oxen or other big animals to pull carts.

Things they made

• Calendars — one count of 260 days ran beside a year of 365 days. The two lined up again only once every 52 years.
• Rubber balls — made more than 3,000 years before rubber was made in Europe or the United States.
• Ball courts — the oldest known one, at Paso de la Amada in Chiapas, Mexico, is about 3,650 years old.
• Wheels — on little clay toys! With no animals to pull carts, they never built wheeled carts.
• Obsidian blades — made from sharp volcanic glass.

The Aztec knew they came after older peoples. At their Great Temple, they buried Olmec masks and figures as special gifts.