Yucatán

B) The following are seven attractions that made the cut of 21 that I feel should have made the final list of seven world wonders: Roman Colosseum: Rome, Italy Built in 70 A.D., the Roman Colosseum is the largest amphitheater (round, unroofed, arena) stadium ever erected in the Roman Empire. With the ability to hold 50,000 spectators, the Roman Colosseum was built for the entertainment of the Roman people. The Colosseum held various events/games, such as gladiator face offs and battles between…

excavation in these countries and of the few books that survived, the Spanish conquistadors. These Books are The Madrid, Dresden, Paris and Grolier codices are named after the city which they currently resided in. Then there is the Chiliam Balam of the Yucatan Mayas, and the Popol Vuh. The Popol Vuh which is seen by many as the only real account of religion, my many as the only real account of Mayan religion, myths and stories. The Popol Vuh was written by the Quiche Mayans of the highlands of…

When the Spanish arrived in what is now Mexico, they were shocked by the level of complexity of Mesoamerican civilizations, but particularly by their penchant for human sacrifice. While human sacrifice is well documented among the Aztec of Central Mexico it is not as well documented among the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. There is debate among archaeologists as to whether many of the burials claimed to be evidence of human sacrifice among the Maya should be reinterpreted as funerary, citing…

Spanish ships and began colonizing one island after another. Unsatisfied with what they’ve discovered the Spanish Conquistadors felt that new riches were abound to a land west of the Antilles. A group of Spaniards led by Hernan Cortes set out to the Yucatan peninsula in 1519 and promptly claimed the land for the Spanish crown. Upon arrival the native Mexics thought of him and his men as deities given their weapons and ships. Thinking he was the returning god Quetzalcoatl as foretold in their…

Down in History The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya covered a wide territory of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. This concentration helped its people develop one of the most astonishing and unique cultures in the antique world, where the level of knowledge,…

A language is a powerful tool for expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Language also serves as one of the primary contextual clues in determining where any one person is from in the world or region. Moreover, language also serves as the driving force for culture development within societies. The concept that language directly affects culture development is the prominent hypothesis within the anthropological community. The primary language taught to any person during their early growth and…

Spanish Conquistadors and the Fall of the Aztecs The fall of the Aztec Empire was due to the determination and destruction of the Spaniards. They did not respect the Natives’ religions at all. They almost destroyed all of the Natives’ culture, and now we know very little about Natives. The Spaniards’ greed and obsession with power, this was their main motivation to conquer the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs’ religion is what got them into the most trouble. They sacrificed humans for their Gods, which…

The dire wolf, or Canis dirus, is a wolf that lived during the Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and became extinct between 10,000 to 16,000 years ago during the ice age. It was native to North America and thousands of Dire Wolf skeletons were found and stored in La Brea tar pits in southern California, where it is believed to be the most common mammal in the area. Remains of the Dire wolf have also been found across a broad range of habitats in North America, which include the…

Collapse Throughout history there have been many civilizations and complex societies that have come and gone, these people were forced off their land by disease, human impact on the environment, warfare, and environmental and climate change all have been used by historians and archaeologist to explain the collapse of these civilizations. This essay will focus on two of these complex societies, the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest and the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and exam the…

The K-T or the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, was a mass extinction over unknown origin that took out an estimated 60-75 percent of all the species on earth 66 million years ago, most famously the dinosaurs. It was the end of the Cretaceous period and the Mesozoic Era and created the beginning of the Cenozoic Era that is still happening today. Geologically speaking this extinction happened in a very short amount of time. Although the most well known species to go extincted during this time was…