History of Ancient Mesoamerica

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the history of ancient Mesoamerica, tracing the social and political development of the region's great civilizations (Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and related) from the birth of maize farming and the earliest villages up to the eve of the Spanish conquest. We will explore the growth of cities; the independent development of hieroglyphic writing systems, astronomy, and mathematics; contrasting patterns of political organization and religious practice; and the legacy of pre-conquest belief and practice that survives today throughout the region. Our approach throughout will be historical, addressing the broad patterns of social development and cultural elaboration that transpired across and between different regions and groups, including the signature features of Olmec civilization, the rise and fall of the Classic Maya, the powerful city of Teotihuacan, and the multiple contesting city-states of the post-Classic era that were subsumed within the Aztec empire.