Mesoamerican Science and Technology

MESOAMERICAN
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
WHAT IS MESOAMERICAN?
Mesoamerica is derived from the Greek and means "Middle America." It refers to a
geographical and cultural area which extends from central Mexico down through
Central America, including the territory which is now made up of the countries of
Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It is therefore seen as partly in
North America, and encompassing a large part of Central America.
The term Mesoamerica was first used by Paul Kirchoff, a German-Mexican

archaeologist who coined the term in 1943 and was instrumental in defining it. His
definition was based on geographic limits, ethnic composition, and cultural
characteristics at the time of the conquest.
Cultural anthropologists and archaeologists mainly use the term Mesoamerica, but
it is handy for visitors to Mexico to be familiar with it when trying to grasp an
understanding of how Mexico developed over time and the different ancient
civilizations that originated here. Many people are only familiar with the Aztecs
and the Maya, but there were, in fact, several other important civilizations in the
region.
Mayan rubber was made approximately 3,000
years before Firestone did for modern day tires.
They made the substance by mixing the sap from
rubber trees with the juice of morning glory vines.
The morning glory juice kept the rubber from
being too brittle; different proportions of rubber to
morning glory juice would give the rubber different
properties. According to an LA Times science news
article, the varying rubber concoctions were used
for many things, based on a MIT study,
“Mesoamericans were able to produce bouncy
rubber balls for the Mayas’ ceremonial games,
resilient rubber sandals and sticky material used to
glue implements to handles, the research shows.”
The Aztec farmers were very ingenious in creating
new fields to grow their crops. After having been
chased off of their land by King Culhuacan for
sacrificing his daughter to their god, they fled to
an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. (Week 6,
Lecture 2) They were extremely limited on space,
but devised a way to build new agricultural lands,
called chinampas. The chinampas were fenced
plots of approximately 30 m x 2.5 m and were
created by filling the plot with mud and
vegetation. These plots would built be parallel to
each other creating canals and an irrigation
system that would water the crops as well as allow
boat travel.

The Inca people built roads that wove through their empire,
including up into the Andes Mountains (Week 6, Lecture 3). In all
there are over 40, 000 km of roads in the system, but they were
laid out something like today’s highways, “Two main roads made
up the Inca Road system, one along the coastline of South
America between Tumbes (Peru) and Talca (Chile), and one
through the Andes highlands between Quito (Ecuador) and
Mendoza (Argentina).” The roads were meant for foot travel and
pack llamas to traverse. I am lucky enough to have walked on
these roads during a trip I took to Peru in March of 2011. While I
was there we traveled to Machu Picchu and I was able to see first
hand the remnants of this amazing travel system. These were not
only dirt paths; many places are made from stone cobbles and
include bridges and drainage systems with culverts. An amazing
feat for a people without the help of the wheel!
cultures certainly have a focus on time; however, the Maya had an obsession with it. They tracked and measured the synodic period
Venus, which is 584 Earth days. The 365-day Mayan calendar year was more precise than the Gregorian calendar. They devised
e different calendrical systems: the tzolkin (sacred calendar), the haab (civil calendar), and the long count. The tzolkin is a cycle of
days (thirteen months of twenty days each) and the haab is the solar cycle. These two calendars were combined in an interlocking
hion to produce a cycle of 18,980 days, which was known as a calendar round, about fifty-two years. The longest cycle in Mayan
mology is 26,000 years, which corresponds to the precession of the equinox. The Maya are either more ancient than science allows
hey had more sophisticated technology than we know of. Perhaps someone passed down this knowledge to them? Is it coincidental
the beginning of the fifth Age was 3000 BC , which corresponds to the birth of the Jewish and Chinese calendars? (
bidden History)
quite some time researchers have been documenting the astronomical alignments of ancient archaeological and megalithic stone
s all over the world. But discovery of their geodesic alignment has been more recent. Geodesy refers to the theory and practice of
veying to determine the position of specific points on Earth's surface. It is distinguished from plane surveying in that it deals with
as whose dimensions are so great that the curvature of the Earth must be taken into account. Geometric geodesy involves the
ation of a mathematical model of Earth, while physical geodesy studies Earth's gravity field. Geodesic studies are referred to in
ny practical fields of endeavor, including mineral resource location, reduction of the effects of natural hazards, cartography, and
dy of Earth's propagation of gravitational and electromagnetic energy. The discovery of the precise alignment of Mayan sites along
90th parallel is significant because it demonstrates that the Maya were aware of Earth's curvature and knew the advanced formulas
d in geodesy.
American engineer named Hugh Harleston Jr. journeyed to Teotihuacan. What Harleston's
investigations had shown was that a complex mathematical relationship appeared to exist among
the principal structures lined up along the street of the dead (and indeed beyond it). This
relationship suggested something extraordinary, namely, that Teotihuacan might originally have
been designed as a precise scale-model of the solar system. At any rate, if the centre line of the
Temple of Quetzacoatl were taken as denoting the position of the sun, markers laid out northwards
from it along the axis of the Street of the dead seemed to indicate the correct orbital distances of
the inner planets, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn (represented by the so-called 'Sun' Pyramid),
Uranus (by the 'Moon' Pyramid), and Neptune and Pluto by as yet unexcavated mounds some
kilometers farther north. (The Giza Death Star)
Members:
Jasher A Tejero
Billcharlie Bual
Jessie Gallano
Jaypee Lupian
Jason Pairat

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MESOAMERICAN

The term Mesoamerica was first used by Paul Kirchoff, a German-Mexican

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