PRESENTATION

HOA-I
21ARC14

INTRODUCTION TO DESERT AND MOUNTAINOUS

CULTURES
Presentation by:
Dayanidhi A.P
Simran S
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 Content
• The Rise of Early American Civilizations
• Civilizations Develop from Africa to the Americas
• Golden Age of the Maya
• Aztec City on the Water’s Edge
• Birth of the Inca Empire
• Early societies in the sahara
• Early societies and cultures of thar desert
• Early societies and cultures in the north America
• Bibliography

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The Rise of Early American Civilizations

1. Our understanding of the history of humans living and working

together begins in Africa more than a million years ago. Over time,
humans began to migrate and eventually inhabited six continents:
Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the two Americas.
2. As people settled down to farm, their lives changed. People learned
to irrigate fields. They developed ways to store food. Populations
grew. Between 4000 and 2000 BCE, towns and villages in various
places developed into cities. People constructed buildings and
worshipped gods.
3. They made pottery and wove cloth. The city-dwellers chose leaders
and developed laws. Some people governed and others served.
Civilizations were born.

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Civilizations Develop from Africa
to the Americas
• The earliest civilizations arose in fertile river valleys in Africa and
Asia.
• These civilizations flourished along the banks of the Nile, the
Indus, the Yellow, the Tigris, and the Euphrates Rivers.
• By 1000 BCE, new civilizations arose in the Americas. These early
American civilizations are called preColumbian civilizations.
• This is because they developed long before Christopher
Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas in 1492.
• Three of these preColumbian civilizations were the Maya, the
Aztec, and the Inca.

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Mesoamerica

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 Mesoamerica: The Maya and the Aztec

• Mesoamerica, or Middle America, was home to the Maya and the

Aztec civilizations.
• This region lies north of the Equator in an area called the tropics. It
includes a portion of present-day Mexico in North America and parts
of Central America.
• It occupies much of the isthmus that joins the continents of North and
South America.
• The present Central American countries of Guatemala, Belize,
Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica are all
part of Mesoamerica.
• Mesoamerica has very diverse landscapes, including dry coastal
deserts and wet inland rainforests.
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 South America: The Inca
• The Inca civilization began high in
the Andes Mountains of present-day
Peru.
• It grew to include parts of Ecuador,
Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
• The landscape and climate vary
greatly across this enormous stretch
of land.
• Deserts and warm valleys lie
beneath frigid snow-capped peaks.
• Llamas and alpacas are native to its
mountain areas. These long-necked
animals were domesticated to carry
heavy loads and provide wool.
• Cougars and chinchillas also share
this habitat with a wide variety of
birds, amphibians, and fish.
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 Golden Age of the Maya

The Maya were one of many groups of people who settled in Mesoamerica.
They formed agricultural villages at least as early as 1800 BCE. Over time, they
established a civilization.
• As many as five million people inhabited an area that stretched from the
highlands of Guatemala to the plains of Yucatán
• Between 250 and 900 CE, writing, religion, and art flourished. In certain
respects, this era was the golden age for the Maya culture. The Maya were
not ruled by a single ruler.
• The Maya lived in citystates scattered across considerable distances. Some of
these city-states were larger than others. Each had a powerful lord who
governed his own city and surrounding areas. The city-states both traded and
fought with one another.

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 Division of Societies

• Maya society was divided into classes with lords in the highest class.
Well educated priests were also among the noble, or highest, classes. Both kings and priests lived in
palaces close to city centers. Powerful nobles usually lived in the largest houses. Craftsmen lived in
smaller homes that were often farther away from the city center. Farmers lived next to their fields
that were even farther away

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 Pyramids, Temples, Gods, and
Sacrifice

• Maya city-states were centers of both government and religion. Each

center had some unique architectural designs.

• However, all centers had stone pyramids and temples. Some of the
pyramids served as burial monuments to honor dead kings.

• Temples occupied the top level of the pyramids, purposefully close to

the heavens and the gods. These temples were reserved for rulers and
priests.

• Pyramid-temple complexes often surrounded a central plaza where

public ceremonies and festivals took place.

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Pyramids, temples and gods

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 Belief in gods
• The Maya’s belief in gods and
goddesses helped them explain the
mystery of life itself. They believed that
gods controlled everything.
• The gods were responsible for the
rising and setting of the sun and the
phases of the moon. They were
certainly responsible for floods and
droughts as well as sickness and
health.
• The Maya gave thanks for a bountiful
harvest, a cured disease, or a victory in
battle. They offered sacrifices, or
precious gifts, to the gods.
• Sacrificial blood, both of animals and
humans, was a common offering.
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 Agriculture
• In highland areas, the Maya
cut terraces into the slopes of
mountains.
• They practiced multicropping
on this flat land, planting and
harvesting the land multiple
times throughout the year.
• Their crops included beans,
tomatoes, squash, chili
peppers, and pumpkins.
• Maize, or corn, was the main
food throughout Mesoamerica
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 Hunting and Gathering
• Some Maya hunted game in
the forests, including deer,
rabbits, and other small
mammals. They raised
turkeys and dogs for food.
• They raised stingless bees
for honey, which they used to
sweeten foods and drinks. In
coastal communities, the
Maya ate fish and turtles as
well. It is important to
remember that the Maya were
not the first civilization to live
in Mesoamerica.
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 Chichén Itzá
• Chichén Itzá served as an important
Maya center.
• Chichén Itzá is located in an arid
region of the northern Yucatán
Peninsula.
• The Maya believed that Chichén Itzá’s
Well of Sacrifice was the home of gods
who controlled the rain. The Maya
offered sacrifices to the rain gods.
• They did so because they believed
that their fields would be watered.
• This well continued to serve as a
sacrificial site for centuries after
Chichén Itzá’s decline as a major
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Map Of Chichen Itza

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 The End of a Golden Age
• The End of a Golden Age The golden age
of the Maya came to an end between 800
and 900 CE. City-states were mostly
abandoned. No more stone statues were
raised to kings. Populations decreased
and farmers dispersed. People of the
inland rainforests left for the drier Yucatán
Peninsula

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Aztec City on the Water’s Edge
• Tenochtitlán was the capital of the Aztec
Empire in the 1300s and 1400s.
• This empire existed more than 500 years after
the Maya abandoned their great inland city-
states.
• The ancestors of the people now known as the
Aztec migrated from the north.
• By 1325 CE, they had settled in the Valley of
Mexico.
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Layout of Tenochtitlán

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• Other people had lived in
Mexico’s fertile valley for
thousands of years before the
Aztec arrived. Many groups
were competing for space
• The Aztec had several
temporary homes, all of which
they were eventually forced to
leave.
• The land the Aztec finally
claimed may seem an unlikely
choice—two swampy islands
in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

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 Aztec Beginnings in Lake
Texcoco
• On the lakeshore, the Aztec built mud huts and lived on food from
the lake: frogs, fish, and algae. They hunted deer, rabbits, coyotes,
armadillos, and snakes.
• They raised bees, turkeys, and ducks. They gathered grasshoppers
and worms for food.
• The Aztec adapted to their swampy environment by creating
habitable
land from the lake bottom.
• They built gardens, called chinampas, in the middle of Lake Texcoco.
• They cultivated corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, amaranth, and
chilies. Members of the ruling class grew fruit trees in their small
personal gardens. Crops grew throughout the year in Mesoamerica’s
tropical climate.
• As food supplies expanded, Tenochtitlán grew.

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 Birth of the
Inca Empire
• In the 1300s, the Aztec created an empire in Mexico and the
Inca built an empire in the Andes. These civilizations developed
nearly 3,000 miles apart. There is no evidence to suggest that
the two empires had any direct knowledge of one another.
• According to legend, the sun god chose the birthplace of the
Inca civilization. He chose Cuzco, located in a beautiful valley
in present-day Peru, as the place where the Quechua people
should settle.
• They lived mostly in small farming communities for about 200
years.
• Then, in 1438 CE, a powerful enemy threatened the Quechua’s
way of life. The Quechua defeated this enemy, greatly
increasing their power
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Machu Picchu is a testament to the power and ingenuity of the Inca
empire. Built without the use of mortar, metal tools, or the wheel,
Machu Picchu stands as an archaeological wonder of the ancient
world.

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 Pyramid of Power

• The Inca believed that the Sapa Inca

was descended from Inti, the
sun god.
• Heredity determined who would
become emperor, meaning that when
the emperor died, his son would
become the next ruler.
• If the Sapa Inca had more than one
son, he chose the strongest of his sons
to replace him.

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 Government organizations
• The Inca did not use any form of money. Like
the Aztecs, they had a tribute, or tax, system.
The government collected tribute in two ways.
• First, people paid a goods tax based on the
number of people in their ayllu.
• For example, commoners only kept about one
third of their harvest. They sent two thirds to the
gods and nobles.
• People also paid tribute with pottery, textiles,
and gems
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 Early societies in the sahara

• WScientists suggest at least three waves of human movement and

periods of wetness between 130,000 and 10,000 BCE.
• During these periods, Africa’s Sahara region was a patchwork of
forests, grasslands, and lakes. Within these settings, human
inhabitants eked out a living.
• Before the Sahara became a desert between 7,000 and 4,000 BCE,
this vast region included fishing communities around lakes and rivers
toward its southern and expanding frontiers, pastoral communities to
the north and east, and the spread of tropical cereal grains in environs,
including grasslands, to the south.

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 Map of the Sahara Desert
• The Sahara is a
desert that stretches
across Northern
Africa and is home to
many peoples,
including the Berbers,
Egyptians, Sudanese,
and Arabs.

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Here are some early societies
and cultures in the Sahara:

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 Berbers
• Some say the Berbers
have been in the Sahara
since before the 7th
century, making them one
of the oldest cultures in
the region. Archaeologists
consider the Berbers the
original inhabitants of the
Sahara, dating back to
10,000 BC.

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 Kingdom of Kush

• Established in 1070 BCE,

the Kingdom of Kush was
one of the first
civilizations to develop in
Sub-Saharan Africa. It
developed to the south of
Egypt along the upper
Nile River in a region
known as Nubia.

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 The Nok Culture
• The Nok culture is
generally regarded as
one of the earliest iron
age cultures in the part of
Africa south of the
Sahara. It is said to have
existed between about
the 5th and 2nd century
BCE.

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 Bantu people
• The Bantu people were
early Africans from
Sahara who spread
culture and language to
various parts of Africa.
Their skills included
agriculture and
ironworking, which helped
promote extensive trade.

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 Nabta Playa
• Located in the Nubian
desert about 14,000
years ago, Nabta Playa
was part of the Green
Sahara. The region was
inhabited by people who
practiced astronomy and
cattle worship rituals.

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 Kiffians
• The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric
industry, or domain, that existed between
10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara,
during the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human
remains from this culture were found in
2000 at a site known as Gobero, located in
Niger in the Ténéré Desert.

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 Geography of Sahara
• Geography was a major factor in the
development of West African societies.
Settled communities grew south of the
Sahara, where the land permitted farming.
Geography also influenced trading
patterns.

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 Climate Conditions
• People The Sahara desert despite its
harsh climate has been inhabited by
various groups of people, who pursue
different activities. Among them are the
Bedouins and Tuaregs. These groups are
nomadic tribes rearing livestock such as
goats, sheep, camels and horses.

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 Early societies and cultures of
thar desert
• In the history of India, the Thar Desert always had
a backseat due to its harsh weather conditions
and apprehensions flowing from the adverse
weather conditions. Ignorance of the region for
long in writings of the discipline has pushed the
region under the carpet and if any approach has
been made to explore its history, it has been
mainly in terms of the nomadic (Mer, Rebari, etc.)
and professional groups like musicians
(Maganiyars, Bhopa, etc.) and folk artists
(Kalbeliyas, Dum, etc.).
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• Three-quarters of the state is the Thar
Desert, which forms part of the South
Asian desertscape that moves through
Pakistani Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan.
The remaining one quarter of the state
consists of the gently rolling Aravalli range
that undulates north and northeast into the
plains of the Yamuna and the Chenab
rivers, and connects to the Malwa plateau
in the southeast.

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 ‘Thar’- name origin
• The word 'thul' is the source of the desert's
name, the Thar. The great Indian desert is
the 9th largest sub-tropical desert in the
world and the biggest wool-producing area
in India. This biome has sand hillocks and
sand ridges. The local people refer to the
sand ridges as 'thul' or 'thal'.

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 History of Thar
• About 5,000 years ago, this desert was the
site of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa,
ancient cities that supported a civilization
contemporaneous with ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and Minoan Crete.

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 Who are the tribes in the
Thar Desert?
• Meeting the people of the Thar Desert –
MATHINI TRAVEL
• The Thar is home to various ethnic groups,
Hindu and Muslim mostly, who have
developed very specific customs and
traditions. Among them we find the
Bishnois, protector of nature, the 'gypsy'
(Banjaras, Bhopas, Sapera ..), the Bhils,
known as fine archers, and the Garasias,
Sahariyas and Rabaris.
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 Lifestyle and Culture
• The Thar live in the harsh environment
of the Thar Desert, which explains why
they are always running after their
water, camel, donkeys, etc.
• The Thari marry early, often during
teenage years.
• They wake up early and herd the
animals with the females waking up
earlier than the men.
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 Early societies and cultures in the
north America
• The Maya, Aztec, and Inca are examples of pre-Columbian
civilizations that developed before Christopher Columbus's
first voyage to the Americas in 1492. These civilizations are
considered indigenous groups that developed a variety of
cultural traits.
• The Sacred City of Caral-Supe is the oldest center of
civilization in the Americas, dating back 5,000 years. The
Mississippi River Valley was a nearly limitless source of
resources for early people.
• North American native cultures were more widely dispersed
than the Mayan, Aztec, and Incan societies. They did not have
the same population size or organized social structures.
• Many Indians still practiced hunting and gathering, although
the cultivation of corn had made its way north.
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 North america

• In North America, the complex Pueblo

societies including the Mogollon,
Hohokam, and Anasazi as well as the
city at Cahokia had peaked and were
largely memories.
• The Eastern Woodland peoples were
thriving, but they were soon
overwhelmed as the number of English,
French, and Dutch settlers increased.
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 Caral - The Oldest Civilization
• With more than 5 thousand years old,
Caral is considered the oldest
civilization in the American continent.

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 The North American Indian
heritage
• The date of the arrival in North America of
the initial wave of peoples from whom the
American Indians (or Native Americans)
emerged is still a matter of considerable
uncertainty.
• The glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch
(about 1,800,000 to 11,700 years ago)
coincided with the evolution of modern
humans, and ice sheets blocked ingress into
North America for extended periods of time
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 City Development
• Although great architectural and scientific
advances did occur in Mesoamerica, there was
markedly less in the way of metallurgy,
transportation networks, and complex commerce
than among the contemporary civilizations of
Asia, Europe, and sections of Africa.
• Cities appeared first among the Olmec in the
strategic narrows between Mexico and Central
America and among the Maya in portions of
Guatemala, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Honduras.

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 Bibliogarphy
• https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/01/
CKLA_G5U2_Early-American-
Civilizations_SR.pdf
• https://kwasikonadu.info/blog/2018/3/18/
early-societies-of-the-sahara
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/ancient-
sub-saharan-african-civilization-
culture.html
• https://www.nigerheritage.org/desert-
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THANK
YOU
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