Mesoamerican civilization: Did you mean...?

The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador...

The Aztec civilisation spanned from around 1300 CE until 1521, and at its greatest extent, the empire covered most of Northern Mesoamerica. Although we refer to these peoples as ‘Aztecs,’ that is not what they called themselves. They were...

The Mesoamerican civilizations were a group of advanced, pre-Columbian cultures that flourished in parts of present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador from around 1500 BCE to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century...

A ceramic vessel with painted scenes of Maya players of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Guatemala, 700-800 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

The Mycenaean civilization flourished in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700-1100 BCE), peaking from the 15th to the 13th century BCE. The Mycenaeans extended their influence throughout the Peloponnese in Greece and across the Aegean from Crete...

Obsidian is a dark volcanic glass which provides the sharpest cutting edge available in nature. Ancient Mesoamerican cultures greatly esteemed the properties of obsidian, and it was widely traded across the region. Obsidian was used to create...

The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE. The Inca Empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. It was the largest empire ever seen in the Americas...

The Minoan civilization flourished in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 - c. 1450 BCE) on the island of Crete located in the eastern Mediterranean. With their unique art and architecture, and the spread of their ideas through contact with other...

A representation of the Tonalpohualli – ‘Counting of the Days’ 260-day calendar used by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Two systems ran simultaneously with a group of 13 numbered days combined with a group of 20 name days. Thus, each day had...

An 18th-century illustration showing a Mesoamerican using the traditional method of collecting insects to make the prized cochineal dye. (The Newberry Library)