Ancient Mesoamerica Powerpoint created by Robert Martinez Additional

Ancient Mesoamerica Powerpoint created by Robert Martinez Additional material: Terri Kerr

STANDARD AND ELEMENT • SSWH 1 Analyze the origins, structures, and interactions of societies in the ancient world from 3500 BCE/BC to 500 BCE/BC. • e. Explain the rise of the Olmecs.

Essential Questions (please answer in your notebooks) • Who were the Olmecs? • What was their legacy to Mesoamerican history? • How did they come to be a civilization?

In the Americas, the Olmec, in what we know today as Mexico, lived from 1200 to 1400 B. C. E…. .

The Olmecs were an urban society supported by surpluses of corn, beans, and squash.

Like most early societies, they mastered irrigation techniques and constructed large-scale buildings.

They were a polytheistic and shamanistic people whose mainly worshipped the jaguar feathered serpent.

• They developed a system of and a writing and a calendar.

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Their civilization demonstrated that the same patterns of civilizations can develop without exposure to other civilizations.

In addition, the Olmec did not develop in a river valley like other ancient civilizations.

However, the Olmec did have access to water from streams and water, no but no major river system served as the generator of agricultural production or as the hub of culture and transportation.

Their existence disproves the hypothesis that river valleys are essential for the emergence of early civilizations.