Ancient Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica included highland central Mexico, the Guatemalan Sierra and the tropical forest and coastal plains of Mexico and Belize.

The area supported some of the world’s greatest civilisations, including:

• Central Mexican Teotihuacan (100 BC-AD 750), which became the first major centre of power.
• The Zapotec (500 BC-AD 1100) who first dominated the Oaxaca Valley mountain tops, followed later by valley-floor Mixtec (AD 1100-1540) traders.
• The Huastec (A.D. 1000-1500) of the Gulf Coast.
• The Maya (1800 BC-AD 1700), who lived in southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and western Honduras.
• The Mexica/Aztecs (AD 1150-1520) of Central Mexico.

Each society had its own style of stone temples and palaces. Many had writing and an accurate calendar.

Trade and the exchange of ideas linked these cultures, but no single power ever ruled the whole territory.

In this section

• Maya trade after the arrival of the Spanish
• Trade
• Decorating the body
• Dr. Thomas Gann: amateur archaeologist and donor
• The Codex Fejervary-Mayer: History
• A window onto another world
• Mesoamerican screenfolds: annals and dream books
• Reading the dream books

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