MEPX
Chapter 8 of 10All chapters
  1. 1How we know
  2. 2Mesopotamia
  3. 3Ancient Egypt
  4. 4The Indus and early China
  5. 5Ancient Greece
  6. 6Rome
  7. 7Persia and the Near East
  8. 8The ancient Americas
  9. 9Africa and wider Asia
  10. 10Why civilizations fall

Chapter 8 of 10

The ancient Americas

Developed in isolation.

Mesoamerica

Olmec, Maya, Zapotec and later Mexica societies built cities, pyramids and calendars. Maya writing is fully developed and largely deciphered.

  • Maya astronomy tracked Venus and eclipses with high precision.
  • Tenochtitlan rivalled the largest European cities in population.

The Andes

The Inca ruled a vast mountain empire without wheeled transport or a writing system as usually defined, using terraces, roads, storehouses and knotted quipu records.