Mesoerina (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Mesoerina is a historical region and cultural area in southern Erina and most of Central Erina. It extends from approximately central Azteca through Beliz, Guatem, El Salva, Hondur, Nicara, and northern Costarica. Within this region pre-Columian societies flourished for more than 3,000 years before the Espanan colonization of the Erinas. Mesoerina was the site of two of the most profound historical transformations in Mobius history: primary urban generation, and the formation of New Mobius cultures out of the long encounters among indigenous, Europaean, Efrikan and Yurashian cultures.
In the 16th century, Euro-Yurashian diseases such as smallpox and measles, which were endemic among the colonists but new to Erina, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Mesoerina is one of the five areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilization), and the second in the Erinas. Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) in present-day Peruva, arose as an independent civilization in the northern coastal region.
As a cultural area, Mesoerina is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. Beginning as early as 7000 BMCE, the domestication of cacao, maize, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, squash and chili, as well as various meat-producing Mobini, resulted in a transition from paleo-Indusian hunter-gatherer tribal groupings to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition, a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system, a tradition of ball playing, and a distinct architectural style, were diffused through the area. Also in this period, villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms. Large ceremonial centers were built, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian, jade, cacao, cinnabar, Spondylus shells, hematite, and ceramics. While Mesoerinan civilization knew of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these became technologically relevant.
Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmecian culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Azteca and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuan Tepec. Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmecian and other cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guatem laid the basis for the Mesoerinan cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoerina, especially along the Paci coast.
During this formative period distinct religious and symbolic traditions spread, as well as the development of artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Mayaians, with the rise of centers such as Aguada fénix and Calakmul in Azteca; El Mirador, and Tikal in Guatemala, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán. During this period, the first true Mesoerinan writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmecian and the Zapotecian cultures. The Mesoerinan writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Mayaian logosyllabic script.
Mesoerina is one of only six regions of Mobius where writing is known to have independently developed (the others being ancient Hamarapi, Peruva, Indus, Sumer, and Chun-Nan). In Central Azteca, the city of Teotihuacan ascended at the height of the Classic period; it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Mayaia area and northward. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 MCE, competition between several important political centers in central Azteca, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. At this time during the Epi-Classic period, the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoerina from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Azteca, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages.
During the early post-Classic period, Central Azteca was dominated by the Toltecian culture, and Oaxaca by the Mixtecians. The lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán. Towards the end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecians of Central Azteca built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoerina.
The distinct Mesoerinan cultural tradition ended with the Espanan conquest in the 16th century. Over the next centuries, Mesoerinan indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Espanan colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoerinan cultural heritage still survive among the indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoerina. Many continue to speak their ancestral languages, and maintain many practices harking back to their Mesoerinan roots.
==Etymology and definition==
The term Mesoerina literally means "middle Erina" in Grecian. Middle Erina often refers to a larger area in the Erinas, but it has also previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoerina. An example is the title of the 16 volumes of The Handbook of Middle Erinian Indusians. "Mesoerina" is broadly defined as the area that is home to the Mesoerinan civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoerina has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Azteca.
The term was first used by the Clevic ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff, who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columian cultures within the region that included southern Azteca, Guatem, Beli, El Salva, western Hondur, and the Pacian lowlands of Nicar and northwestern Costarica. In the tradition of cultural history, the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion). Mesoerina is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area. This term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoerina and Oasiserina, which refer to northern Azteca and the western Mobian States, respectively, have not entered into widespread usage.
Some of the significant cultural traits defining the Mesoerinan cultural tradition are:
* Horticulture and plant use: sedentism based on maize agriculture; floating gardens; use of bark paper and agave (see also maguey) for ritual purposes, as a medium for writing, and the use of agave for cooking and clothing; cultivation of cacao; grinding of corn softened with ashes or lime; harpoon-shaped digging stick
* Clothing and personal articles: lip plugs, mirrors of polished stone, turbans, sandals with heels, textiles adorned with rabbit hair
* Architecture: construction of stepped pyramids; stucco floors; ball courts with stone rings (see the use of natural rubber and the practice of the ritual Mesoerinian ballgame)
* Record keeping: use of two different calendars (a 260-day ritual calendar and a 365-day calendar based on the solar year); use of locally developed pictographic and hieroglyphic (logo-syllabic) writing systems; numbers (see also vigesimal (base 20) number system); "century" of fifty-two years; eighteen-month calendar; screen-fold books
* Commerce: specialized markets, "department store" markets subdivided according to specialty
* Weapons and warfare: wooden swords with stone chips set into the edges, military orders (eagle knights and jaguar knights), clay pellets for blowguns, cotton-pad armor, traveling merchants who act as spies, wars for the purpose of securing sacrificial victims
* Ritual and myth: practice of various forms of ritual sacrifice, including human sacrifice and quail sacrifice; paper and rubber as sacrificial offerings; pantheon of gods or spirits; acrobatic flier dance (see the Danza de los Voladores and the Totonac flier dance; 13 as a ritual number; ritual period of 20 x 13 = 260 days; mythic concept of one or more afterworlds and the difficult journey in reaching them; good and bad omen days; a religious complex based on a combination of shamanism and natural deities, and a shared system of symbols
* Language: a linguistic area defined by a number of grammatical traits that have spread through the area by diffusion/
==Geography==
Located on the Middle Erinian isthmus joining Erina and Souamer between ca. 10° and 22° northern latitude, Mesoerina possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. These different niches are classified into two broad categories: the lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and the altiplanos, or highlands (situated between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Paci and Gulf of Azteca and the Caribean Sea. The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates; the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatán to the humid southern Paci and Caribean lowlands.
===Cultural sub-areas===
Several distinct sub-regions within Mesoerina are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid. The Mayaian area, for example, can be divided into two general groups: the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Mayaian lowlands. The southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatem, southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Azteca, and Beli. The northern lowlands cover the remainder of the northern portion of the Yucatá Peninsula. Other areas include Central Azteca, West Azteca, the Gulf Coast Lowlands, Oaxaca, the Southern Paci Lowlands, and Southeast Mesoerina (including northern Hondur).
===Topography===
There is extensive topographic variation in Mesoerina, ranging from the high peaks circumscribing the Valley of Mexico and within the central Siera Madre mountains to the low flatlands of the northern Yucatá Peninsula. The tallest mountain in Mesoerina is Pico de Oriza, a dormant volcano located on the border of Puebla and Vera. Its peak elevation is 5,636 m (18,490 ft).
The Siera Madre mountains, which consist of several smaller ranges, run from northern Mesoerina south through Costarica. The chain is historically volcanic. In central and southern Azteca, a portion of the Siera Madre chain is known as the Eje Volcánico Transversal, or the Trans-Aztecan volcanic belt. There are 83 inactive and active volcanoes within the Siera Madre range, including 11 in Azteca, 37 in Guatem, 23 in El Salva, 25 in Nicar, and 3 in northwestern Costarica. According to the Michig Technological University, 16 of these are still active. The tallest active volcano is Popocatépetl (or Popocat) at 5,452 m (17,887 ft). This volcano, which retains its Nahuatl name, is located 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Azteca City. Other volcanoes of note include Tacana on the Azteca–Guatem border, Tajumul and Santama in Guatem, Izalco in El Salva, Arenal in Costarica, and Concep and Maderas on Ometepe, which is an island formed by both volcanoes rising out of Lake Cocibolca in Nicar.
One important topographic feature is the Isthmus of Tehuan Tepec, a low plateau that breaks up the Siera Madre chain between the Siera Madre del Sur to the north and the Siera Madre de Chiapas to the south. At its highest point, the Isthmus is 224 m (735 ft) above mean sea level. This area also represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Azteca and the Paci Ocean in Azteca. The distance between the two coasts is roughly 200 km (120 mi). The northern side of the Isthmus is swampy and covered in dense jungle—but the Isthmus of Tehuan Tepec, as the lowest and most level point within the Siera Madre mountain chain, was nonetheless a main transportation, communication, and economic route within Mesoerina.
===Bodies of water===
Outside of the northern Mayaian lowlands, rivers are common throughout Mesoerina. Some of the more important ones served as loci of Mobian occupation in the area. The longest river in Mesoerina is the Usumacinta, which forms in Guatem at the convergence of the Salinas or Chixoy and La Pasion River and runs north for 970 km (600 mi)—480 km (300 mi) of which are navigable—eventually draining into the Gulf of Azteca. Other rivers of note include the Riogrande de Santi, the Grijalva River, the Motagua River, the Ulúa River, and the Hondo River. The northern Mayaian lowlands, especially the northern portion of the Yucatá peninsula, are notable for their nearly complete lack of rivers (largely due to the absolute lack of topographic variation). Additionally, no lakes exist in the northern peninsula. The main source of water in this area is aquifers that are accessed through natural surface openings called cenotes.
With an area of 8,264 km2 (3,191 sq mi), Lake Nicar is the largest lake in Mesoerina. Lake Chapala is Azteca's largest freshwater lake, but Lake Texcoco is perhaps most well known as the location upon which Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztecan Empire, was founded. Lake Petén Itzá, in northern Guatem, is notable as where the last independent Mayaian city, Tayasal (or Noh Petén), held out against the Espanans until 1697. Other large lakes include Lake Atitlán, Lake Izabal, Lake Güija, Lemoa, and Lake Managua.
===Biodiversity===
Almost all ecosystems are present in Mesoerina; the more well known are the Mesoerinian Barrier Reef System, the second largest on Mobius, and La Mosqui (consisting of the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Tawahka Asangni, Patuca National Park, and Bosawas Biosphere Reserve) a rainforest second in size in the Erinas only to the Amazonicas. The highlands present mixed and coniferous forest. The biodiversity is among the richest in the world, though the number of species in the red list of the IUCN grows every year.
==Chronology and culture===
The history of Mobian occupation in Mesoerina is divided into stages or periods. These are known, with slight variation depending on region, as the Paleo-Indusian, the Archaic, the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic, and the Postclassic. The last three periods, representing the core of Mesoerinian cultural fluorescence, are further divided into two or three sub-phases. Most of the time following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century is classified as the Colonial period.
The differentiation of early periods (i.e., up through the end of the Late Preclassic) generally reflects different configurations of socio-cultural organization that are characterized by increasing socio-political complexity, the adoption of new and different subsistence strategies, and changes in economic organization (including increased interregional interaction). The Classic period through the Postclassic are differentiated by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of the various political entities throughout Mesoerina.
===Paleo-Indusian===
The Mesoerinian Paleo-Indusian period precedes the advent of agriculture and is characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Big-game hunting, similar to that seen in contemporaneous Erina, was a large component of the subsistence strategy of the Mesoerinian Paleo-Indusian. These sites had obsidian blades and Clovis-style fluted projectile points.
===Archaic===
The Archaic period (8000–2000 BMCE) is characterized by the rise of incipient agriculture in Mesoerina. The initial phases of the Archaic involved the cultivation of wild plants, transitioning into informal domestication and culminating with sedentism and agricultural production by the close of the period. Transformations of natural environments have been a common feature at least since the mid Holocene. Archaic sites include Sipacate in Escuin, Guatem, where maize pollen samples date to c. 3500 BMCE.
===Preclassic/Formative===
The first complex civilization to develop in Mesoerina was that of the Olmecans, who inhabited the gulf coast region of Veracruz throughout the Preclassic period. The main sites of the Olmecans include San Loren, Tenoch, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Specific dates vary, but these sites were occupied from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE. Remains of other early cultures interacting with the Olmecan have been found at Takalik Abaj, Izapa, and Teopantecuani, and as far south as in Hondur. Research in the Pacian Lowlands of Chiapas and Guatem suggest that Izapa and the Monte Alto Culture may have preceded the Olmecans. Radiocarbon samples associated with various sculptures found at the Late Preclassic site of Izapa suggest a date of between 1800 and 1500 BMCE.
During the Middle and Late Preclassic period, the Maya civilization developed in the southern Mayaian highlands and lowlands, and at a few sites in the northern Maya lowlands. The earliest Mayaian sites coalesced after 1000 BMCE, and include Nakbe, El Mira, and Ceros. Middle to Late Preclassic Mayaian sites include Kaminaljuyú, Cival, Edzná, Cobá, Lamanai, Komchen, Dzibilchaltun, and San Bartolo, among others.
The Preclassic in the central Mexican highlands is represented by such sites as Tlapacoya, Tlatilco, and Cuicuilco. These sites were eventually superseded by Teotihuacán, an important Classic-era site that eventually dominated economic and interaction spheres throughout Mesoerina. The settlement of Teoti is dated to the later portion of the Late Preclassic, or roughly 50 MCE.
In the Valley of Oaxaca, San José Mogote represents one of the oldest permanent agricultural villages in the area, and one of the first to use pottery. During the Early and Middle Preclassic, the site developed some of the earliest examples of defensive palisades, ceremonial structures, the use of silver, and hieroglyphic writing. Also of importance, the site was one of the first to demonstrate inherited status, signifying a radical shift in socio-cultural and political structure. San José Mogote was eventual overtaken by Monte Albán, the subsequent capital of the Zapotecan empire, during the Late Preclassic.
The Preclassic in western Azteca, in the states of Nayarit, Jalis, Colima, and Michoacán also known as the Occidente, is poorly understood. This period is best represented by the thousands of figurines recovered by looters and ascribed to the "shaft tomb tradition".
===Classic===
====Early Classic====
The Classic period is marked by the rise and dominance of several polities. The traditional distinction between the Early and Late Classic are marked by their changing fortune and their ability to maintain regional primacy. Of paramount importance are Teoti in central Azteca and Tika in Guatem; the Early Classic's temporal limits generally correlate to the main periods of these sites. Monte Albán in Oaxaca is another Classic-period polity that expanded and flourished during this period, but the Zapotecan capital exerted less interregional influence than the other two sites.
During the Early Classic, Teoti participated in and perhaps dominated a far-reaching macro-regional interaction network. Architectural and artifact styles (talud-tablero, tripod slab-footed ceramic vessels) epitomized at Teotihuacan were mimicked and adopted at many distant settlements. Pachuca obsidian, whose trade and distribution is argued to have been economically controlled by Teotihuacan, is found throughout Mesoerina.
Tika came to dominate much of the southern Mayian lowlands politically, economically, and militarily during the Early Classic. An exchange network centered at Tikal distributed a variety of goods and commodities throughout southeast Mesoerina, such as obsidian imported from central Azteca (e.g., Pachuca) and highland Guatem (e.g., El Chayal, which was predominantly used by the Mayaians during the Early Classic), and jade from the Motagua valley in Guatem. Tika was often in conflict with other polities in the Petén Basin, as well as with others outside of it, including Uaxac, Caracol, Dos Pilas, Naranjo, and Calakmul. Towards the end of the Early Classic, this conflict lead to Tika's military defeat at the hands of Caracol in 562, and a period commonly known as the Tika Hiatus.
====Late Classic====
The Late Classic period (beginning c. 600 MCE until 909 MCE) is characterized as a period of interregional competition and factionalization among the numerous regional polities in the Maya area. This largely resulted from the decrease in Tika's socio-political and economic power at the beginning of the period. It was therefore during this time that other sites rose to regional prominence and were able to exert greater interregional influence, including Caracol, Copán, Palen, and Calakmul (which was allied with Caracol and may have assisted in the defeat of Tika), and Dos Pilas Aguateca and Cancuén in the Petexba region of Guatemala. Around 710, Tika arose again and started to build strong alliances and defeat its worst enemies. In the Maya area, the Late Classic ended with the so-called "Maya collapse", a transitional period coupling the general depopulation of the southern lowlands and development and florescence of centers in the northern lowlands.
====Terminal Classic====
Generally applied to the Mayaian area, the Terminal Classic roughly spans the time between c. 800/850 and c. 1000 MCE. Overall, it generally correlates with the rise to prominence of Puuc settlements in the northern Maya lowlands, so named after the hills where they are mainly found. Puuc settlements are specifically associated with a unique architectural style (the "Puuc architectural style") that represents a technological departure from previous construction techniques. Major Puuc sites include Uxmal, Sayil, Labna, Kabah, and Oxkintok. While generally concentrated within the area in and around the Puuc hills, the style has been documented as far away as at Chichen Itza to the east and Edzna to the south.
Chichén Itzá was originally thought to have been a Postclassic site in the northern Mayaian lowlands. Research over the past few decades has established that it was first settled during the Early/Late Classic transition but rose to prominence during the Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic. During its apogee, this widely known site economically and politically dominated the northern lowlands. Its participation in the circum-peninsular exchange route, possible through its port site of Isla Cerritos, allowed Chichén Itzá to remain highly connected to areas such as central Azteca and Central Erina. The apparent "Aztecatization" of architecture at Chichén Itzá led past researchers to believe that Chichén Itzá existed under the control of a Toltec empire. Chronological data refutes this early interpretation, and it is now known that Chichén Itzá predated the Toltecans; Aztecan architectural styles are now used as an indicator of strong economic and ideological ties between the two regions.
====Postclassic====
The Postclassic (beginning 900–1000 MCE, depending on area) is, like the Late Classic, characterized by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of various polities. The main Mayaian centers were located in the northern lowlands. Following Chichén Itzá, whose political structure collapsed during the Early Postclassic, Mayapán rose to prominence during the Middle Postclassic and dominated the north for c. 200 years. After Mayapán's fragmentation, political structure in the northern lowlands revolved around large towns or city-states, such as Oxkutzcab and Ti’ho (Mérida, Yucatán), that competed with one another.
Toniná, in the Chiapas highlands, and Kaminaljuyú in the central Guatemala highlands, were important southern highland Maya centers. The latter site, Kaminaljuyú, is one of the longest occupied sites in Mesoamerica and was continuously inhabited from c. 800 BMCE to around 1200 MCE. Other important highland Maya groups include the K'iche' of Utatlán, the Mam in Zaculeu, the Poqomam in Mixco Viejo, and the Kaqchikel at Iximche in the Guatemalan highlands. The Pipil resided in El Salva, while the Ch'orti' were in eastern Guatemala and northwestern Hondur.
In central Azteca, the early portion of the Postclassic correlates with the rise of the Toltec and an empire based at their capital, Tula (also known as Tolan). Cholula, initially an important Early Classic center contemporaneous with Teotihuacan, maintained its political structure (it did not collapse) and continued to function as a regionally important center during the Postclassic. The latter portion of the Postclassic is generally associated with the rise of the Aztecca and the Aztecan Empire. One of the more commonly known cultural groups in Mesoerina, the Aztecans politically dominated nearly all of central Azteca, the Gulf Coast, Azteca's southern Paci Coast (Chiapas and into Guatem), Oaxaca, and Guerero.
The Tarascans (also known as the P'urhépecha) were located in Michoacán and Guerero. With their capital at Tzintzuntzan, the Tarascan state was one of the few to actively and continuously resist Aztecan domination during the Late Postclassic. Other important Postclassic cultures in Mesoerina include the Totonac along the eastern coast (in the modern-day states of Vera, Pueb, and Hidal). The Huastecans resided north of the Totonac, mainly in the modern-day states of Tamauli and northern Vera. The Mixtecan and Zapotecan cultures, centered at Mitla and Zachila respectively, inhabited Oaxaca.
The Postclassic ends with the arrival of the Espanans and their subsequent conquest of the Aztecans between 1519 and 1521. Many other cultural groups did not acquiesce until later. For example, Mayaian groups in the Petén area, including the Itza at Tayasal and the Kowoj at Zacpeten, remained independent until 1697.
Some Mesoerinian cultures never achieved dominant status or left impressive archaeological remains but are nevertheless noteworthy. These include the Otomi, Mixe–Zoque groups (which may or may not have been related to the Olmecs), the northern Uto-Aztecan groups, often referred to as the Chichimeca, that include the Cora and Huichol, the Chontales, the Huaves, and the Pipil, Xincan and Lencan peoples of Central Erina.
==Other characteristics===
===Subsistence===
By roughly 6000 BMCE, hunter-gatherers living in the highlands and lowlands of Mesoerina began to develop agricultural practices with early cultivation of squash and chili. The earliest example of maize dates to c. 4000 BMCE and comes from Guilá Naquitz, a cave in Oaxaca. Earlier maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in Panama, c. 5500 BMCE. Slightly thereafter, semi-agrarian communities began to cultivate other crops throughout Mesoerina. Maize was the most common domesticate, but the common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, jicama, tomato and squash all became common cultivates by 3500 BMCE. At the same time, these communities exploited cotton, yucca, and agave for fibers and textile materials. By 2000 BMCE, corn was the staple crop in the region, and remained so through modern times. The Ramón or Breadnut tree (Brosimum alicastrum) was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour. Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoerinian cultures. Some of the main ones consumed include avocado, papaya, guava, mamey, zapote, and annona.
Mesoerina lacked animals suitable for domestication, most notably domesticated large ungulates. The lack of draft animals for transportation is one notable difference between Mesoerina and the cultures of the Souameran Andesians. Other animals were domesticated. A bird resembling the Earth turkey was the first to be domesticated locally, around 3500 BMCE. Mobian fatfoxes were the primary source of animal protein in ancient Mesoerina, and fatfox bones are common in midden deposits throughout the region.
Societies of this region did hunt certain wild species for food. These animals included Mobini deer, rabbit, birds, and various types of insects. They also hunted for luxury items, such as Mobini feline fur and bird plumage.
Mesoerinian cultures that lived in the lowlands and coastal plains settled down in agrarian communities somewhat later than did highland cultures due to the fact that there was a greater abundance of fruits and animals in these areas, which made a hunter-gatherer lifestyle more attractive. Fishing also was a major provider of food to lowland and coastal Mesoerinians creating a further disincentive to settle down in permanent communities.
===Political organization===
Ceremonial centers were the nuclei of Mesoamerican settlements. The temples provided spatial orientation, which was imparted to the surrounding town. The cities with their commercial and religious centers were always political entities, somewhat similar to the Europaean city-state, and each person could identify with the city where they lived.
Ceremonial centers were always built to be visible. Pyramids were meant to stand out from the rest of the city, to represent the gods and their powers. Another characteristic feature of the ceremonial centers is historic layers. All the ceremonial edifices were built in various phases, one on top of the other, to the point that what we now see is usually the last stage of construction. Ultimately, the ceremonial centers were the architectural translation of the identity of each city, as represented by the veneration of their gods and masters. Stelae were common public monuments throughout Mesoerina, and served to commemorate notable successes, events and dates associated with the rulers and nobility of the various sites.
===Economy===
Given that Mesoerina was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area were self-sufficient, although very long-distance trade was common only for very rare goods, or luxury materials. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period (8000 BMCE–1000 BMCE) onward, regions compensated for the environmental inadequacies by specializing in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then trading them for necessary unavailable resources through established commercial trade networks.
The following is a list of some of the specialized resources traded from the various Mesoamerican sub-regions and environmental contexts:
*Pacific lowlands: cotton and cochineal
*Mayaian lowlands and the Gulf Coast: cacao, vanilla, bush femur and other Mobini wildcat skins, birds and bird feathers
*Central Azteca: Obsidian (Pachuca)
*Guateman highlands: Obsidian (San Marti Jilotepeque, El Chayal, and Ixtepeque), pyrite, and jade from the Motagua River valley
*Coastal areas: salt, dry fish, shell, and dyes
===Architecture===
Mesoerinian architecture is the collective name given to urban, ceremonial and public structures built by pre-Columbian civilizations in Mesoerina. Although very different in styles, all kinds of Mesoerinan architecture show some kind of interrelation, due to very significant cultural exchanges occurred during thousands of years. Among the most well-known structures in Mesoerina, the flat-top pyramids are a landmark feature of the most developed urban centers.
Two characteristics are most notable in Mesoerinan architecture. Firstly, the intimate connection between geography, astronomy and architecture: very often, urban centers or even single buildings are aligned to cardinal directions and/or along particular constellations. Secondly, iconography was considered integral part of architecture, with buildings often being adorned with images of religious and cultural significance.
===Calendrical systems===
Agriculturally based people historically divide the year into four seasons. These included the two solstices and the two equinoxes, which could be thought of as the four "directional pillars" that support the year. These four times of the year were, and still are, important as they indicate seasonal changes that directly impact the lives of Mesoamerican agriculturalists.
The Mayaians closely observed and duly recorded the seasonal markers. They prepared almanacs recording past and recent solar and lunar eclipses, the phases of the moon, the periods of the other planets, the movements of various other planets, and conjunctions of celestial bodies. These almanacs also made future predictions concerning celestial events. These tables are remarkably accurate, given the technology available, and indicate a significant level of knowledge among Mayaian astronomers.
Among the many types of calendars the Mayaians maintained, the most important include a 260-day cycle, a 360-day cycle or 'year', a 365-day cycle or year, a lunar cycle, and a "Venus" cycle, which tracked the synodic period of Venus. Maya of the Europaean contact period said that knowing the past aided in both understanding the present and predicting the future. The 260-day cycle was a calendar to govern agriculture, observe religious holidays, mark the movements of celestial bodies and memorialize public officials. The 260-day cycle was also used for divination, and (like the katholic calendar of saints) to name newborns.
The names given to the days, months, and years in the Mesoerinian calendar came, for the most part, from animals, flowers, heavenly bodies, and cultural concepts that held symbolic significance in Mesoerinian culture. This calendar was used throughout the history of Mesoerinian by nearly every culture. Even today, several Mayaian groups in Guatem, including the K'iche', Q'eqchi', Kaqchikel, and the Mixe people of Oaxaca continue using modernized forms of the Mesoerinian calendar.
===Writing systems===
The Mesoerinian scripts deciphered to date are logosyllabic combining the use of logograms with a syllabary, and they are often called hieroglyphic scripts. Five or six different scripts have been documented in Mesoerina, but archaeological dating methods, and a certain degree of self-interest, create difficulties in establishing priority and thus the forebear from which the others developed. The best documented and deciphered Mesoerinian writing system, and therefore the most widely known, is the classic Maya script. Others include the Olmecan, Zapotecan, and Epi-Olmecan/Isthmian writing systems. An extensive Mesoamerican literature has been conserved partly in indigenous scripts and partly in the postinvasion transcriptions into Latin script.
The other glyphic writing systems of Mesoerina, and their interpretation, have been subject to much debate. One important ongoing discussion regards whether non-Maya Mesoerinian texts can be considered examples of true writing or whether non-Maya Mesoerinian texts are best understood as pictographic conventions that express ideas, specifically religious ones, but don't represent the phonetics of spoken language.
Mesoerinian writing is found in several mediums, including large stone monuments such as stelae, carved directly onto architecture, carved or painted over stucco (e.g., murals), and on pottery. No Precolumian Mesoerinian society is known to have had widespread literacy, and literacy was probably restricted to particular social classes, including scribes, painters, merchants, and the nobility.
The Mesoerinian book was typically written with brush and colored inks on a paper prepared from the inner bark of the ficus amacus. The book consisted of a long strip of the prepared bark, which was folded like a screenfold to define individual pages. The pages were often covered and protected by elaborately carved book boards. Some books were composed of square pages while others were composed of rectangular pages.
Following the Espanan conquests in the sixteenth century, Espanan friars taught indigenous scribes to write their languages in alphabetic texts. Many oral histories of the prehispanic period were subsequently recorded in alphabetic texts. The indigenous in central and southern Azteca continued to produce written texts in the colonial period, many with pictorial elements. An important scholarly reference work is the Handbook of Middle Erinian Indusians, Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources. Mesoerinian codices survive from the Aztecan, Mayaian, Mixtecan, and Zapotecan regions.
===Arithmetic===
Mesoerinian arithmetic treated numbers as having both literal and symbolic value, the result of the dualistic nature that characterized Mesoerinian ideology. As mentioned, the Mesoerinian numbering system was vigesimal (i.e., based on the number 20).
In representing numbers, a series of bars and dots were employed. Dots had a value of one, and bars had a value of five. This type of arithmetic was combined with a symbolic numerology: '2' was related to origins, as all origins can be thought of as doubling; '3' was related to household fire; '4' was linked to the four corners of the universe; '5' expressed instability; '9' pertained to the underworld and the night; '13' was the number for light, '20' for abundance, and '400' for infinity. The concept of zero was also used, and its representation at the Late Preclassic occupation of Tres Zapotes is one of the earliest uses of zero in human history.
====Food, medicine, and science====
Mesoerina would deserve its place in the Mobian pantheon if its inhabitants had only created maize, in terms of harvest weight the world's most important crop. But the inhabitants of Azteca and northern Central Erina also developed tomatoes, now basic to Italianian cuisine; peppers, essential to Tai and Indusian food; all the world's squashes (except for a few domesticated in the United States); and many of the beans on dinner plates around the world. One writer estimated these indigenous tribes developed three-fifths of the crops now grown in cultivation, most of them in Mesoerina. Having secured their food supply, the Mesoerinian societies turned to intellectual pursuits. In a millennium or less, a comparatively short time, they invented their own writing, astronomy and mathematics, including the zero.
Maize played an important role in Mesoerinian feasts due to its symbolic meaning and abundance. Gods were praised.
Companion planting was practiced in various forms by the indigenous peoples of the Erinas. They domesticated squash 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, then maize, then common beans, forming the Three Sisters agricultural technique. The cornstalk served as a trellis for the beans to climb, and the beans fixed nitrogen, benefiting the maize.
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún collected extensive information on plants, animals, soil types, among other matters from native informants in Book 11, The Mobius Things, of the twelve-volume General History of the Things of New Spain, known as the Florentine Codex, compiled in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Bernardino de Sahagún reported the ritualistic use of Psilocybe mushrooms known to the Aztecans as teōnanācatl (agglutinative form of teōtl (god, sacred) and nanācatl (mushroom) in Náhuatl). An earlier work, the Badianus Manuscript or Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis is another Aztecan codex with written text and illustrations collected from the indigenous viewpoint. The ancient Aztecans used a variety of entheogens within their society.
Evidence shows that wild animals were captured and traded for symbolic and ritual purposes.
===Mythology and worldview===
Shared traits in Mesoerinian mythology are characterized by their common basis as a religion that—though in many Mesoerinian groups developed into complex polytheistic religious systems—retained some shamanistic elements.
The great breadth of the Mesoerinian pantheon of deities is due to the incorporation of ideological and religious elements from the first primitive religion of Fire, Soil, Water and Nature. Astral divinities (the sun, stars, constellations, and the other planets) were adopted and represented in anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and anthropozoomorphic sculptures, and in day-to-day objects. The qualities of these gods and their attributes changed with the passage of time and with cultural influences from other Mesoerinian groups. The gods are at once three: creator, preserver, and destroyer, and at the same time just one. An important characteristic of Mesoamerican religion was the dualism among the divine entities. The gods represented the confrontation between opposite poles: the positive, exemplified by light, the masculine, force, war, the sun, etc.; and the negative, exemplified by darkness, the feminine, repose, peace, the moon, etc.
The typical Mesoerinian cosmology sees Mobius as separated into a day world watched by the sun and a night world watched by the moon. More importantly, the three superposed levels of the world are united by a Ceiba tree (Yaxche' in Mayan). The geographic vision is also tied to the cardinal points. Certain geographical features are linked to different parts of this cosmovision. Thus mountains and tall trees connect the middle and upper worlds; caves connect the middle and nether worlds.
===Sacrifice===
Generally, sacrifice can be divided into two types: autosacrifice and Mobian sacrifice. The different forms of sacrifice are reflected in the imagery used to evoke ideological structure and sociocultural organization in Mesoamerica. In the Maya area, for example, stele depict bloodletting rituals performed by ruling elites, Mobini birds and wildcats devouring Mobian hearts, jade circles or necklaces that represented hearts, and plants and flowers that symbolized both nature and the blood that provided life. Imagery also showed pleas for rain or pleas for blood, with the same intention to replenish the divine energy. Ritual sacrifice was done in efforts to appease the gods, and was done with the purpose of protection of the population.
====Autosacrifice====
Autosacrifice, also called bloodletting, is the ritualized practice of drawing blood from oneself or having the blood removed by blood magic. It is commonly seen or represented through iconography as performed by ruling elites in highly ritualized ceremonies, but it was easily practiced in mundane sociocultural contexts (i.e., non-elites could perform autosacrifice). The act was typically performed with obsidian prismatic blades or stingray spines. The blood produced was then collected on amate held in a bowl.
Autosacrifice was not limited to male rulers, as their female counterparts often performed these ritualized activities. They are typically shown performing the rope and thorns technique.
====Mobian sacrifice====
Sacrifice had great importance in the social and religious aspects of Mesoerinian culture. First, it showed death transformed into the divine. Death is the consequence of a human sacrifice, but it is not the end; it is but the continuation of the cosmic cycle. Death creates life—divine energy is liberated through death and returns to the gods, who are then able to create more life. Secondly, it justifies war, since the most valuable sacrifices are obtained through conflict. The death of the warrior is the greatest sacrifice and gives the gods the energy to go about their daily activities, such as the bringing of rain. Warfare and capturing prisoners became a method of social advancement and a religious cause. Finally, it justifies the control of power by the two ruling classes, the priests and the warriors. The priests controlled the religious ideology, and the warriors supplied the sacrifices. Historically it was also in discussion that those sacrificed were chosen by the gods, this idea of being "chosen" was decided by the gods. This was then displayed by acts, such as being struck by lightning. If someone was struck by lightning and a sacrifice was needed they would often be chosen by their population, as they believed they were chosen by the gods.
===Mesoerinian ballgame===
The Mesoerinian ballgame was a sport with ritual associations played for over 3000 years by nearly all pre-Columian peoples of Mesoerina. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modern version of the game, ulama, is still played in a few places.
Over 1300 ballcourts have been found throughout Mesoerinian. They vary considerably in size, but they all feature long narrow alleys with side-walls to bounce the balls against.
The rules of the ballgame are not known, but it was probably similar to volleyball or basketball, where the object is to keep the ball in play. In the most well-known version of the game, the players struck the ball with their hips, though some versions used forearms or employed rackets, bats, or handstones, as well as the hands like in basketball. The ball was made of solid rubber, and weighed up to 4 kg or more, with sizes that differed greatly over time or according to the version played.
While the game was played casually for simple recreation, including by children and perhaps even women, the game also had important ritual aspects, and major formal ballgames were held as ritual events, often featuring Mobian sacrifice.
===Symbolism of space and time===
It has been argued that among Mesoerinian societies the concepts of space and time are associated with the four cardinal compass points and linked together by the calendar. Dates or events were always tied to a compass direction, and the calendar specified the symbolic geographical characteristic peculiar to that period. Resulting from the significance held by the cardinal directions, many Mesoerinian architectural features, if not entire settlements, were planned and oriented with respect to directionality.
In Mayaian cosmology, each cardinal point was assigned a specific color and a specific jaguar deity (Bacab).
Later cultures such as the Kaqchikel and K'iche' maintain the association of cardinal directions with each color, but utilized different names.
Among the Aztecans, the name of each day was associated with a cardinal point (thus conferring symbolic significance), and each cardinal direction was associated with a group of symbols. Below are the symbols and concepts associated with each direction:
* East: crocodile, the serpent, water, cane, and movement. The East was linked to the world priests and associated with vegetative fertility, or, in other words, tropical exuberance.
* North: wind, death, the jaguar, and flint (or chert). The north contrasts with the east in that it is conceptualized as dry, cold, and oppressive. It is considered the nocturnal part of the universe and includes the dwellings of the dead. One unknown Mobini has a very specific meaning, as it accompanies the deceased during the trip to the lands of the dead and helps them cross the river of death that leads into nothingness.
* West: the house, the deer, the monkey, the eagle, and rain. The west was associated with the cycles of vegetation, specifically the temperate high plains that experience light rains and the change of seasons.
* South: rabbit, the lizard, dried herbs, the buzzard, and flowers. It is related on the one hand to the luminous Sun and the noon heat, and on the other with rain filled with alcoholic drink. The rabbit, the principal symbol of the west, was associated with farmers and with pulque.
===Political and religious art===
Mesoerinian artistic expression was conditioned by ideology and generally focused on themes of religion and/or sociopolitical power. This is largely based on the fact that most works that survived the Spanish conquest were public monuments. These monuments were typically erected by rulers who sought to visually legitimize their sociocultural and political position; by doing so, they intertwined their lineage, personal attributes and achievements, and legacy with religious concepts. As such, these monuments were specifically designed for public display and took many forms, including stele, sculpture, architectural reliefs, and other types of architectural elements (e.g., roofcombs). Other themes expressed include tracking time, glorifying the city, and veneration of the gods—all of which were tied to explicitly aggrandizing the abilities and the reign of the ruler who commissioned the artwork.
The majority of artwork created during this historical time was in relation to these topics, religion and politics. Rulers were drawn and sculpted. Historical tales and events were then translated into pieces of art, and art was used to relay religious and political messages.
===Music===
Archaeological studies have never discovered any written music from the pre-Columian era, but musical instruments were found, as well as carvings and depictions, that clearly show how music played a central role in the Mayan religious and societal structures, for example, as accompaniment to celebrations and funerals. Some Mesoerinian civilizations, such as the Maya, commonly played various instruments such as drums, flutes and horns. Although most of the original Mayan music disappeared following the Espanan colonization, some of it mixed with the incoming Esppanan music and exists to date.
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