Mesoamerican civilization: Did you mean...?

The Aztec civilisation spanned from around 1300 CE until 1521, and at its greatest extent, the empire covered most of Northern Mesoamerica. Although we refer to these peoples as ‘Aztecs,’ that is not what they called themselves. They were...

A ceramic vessel with painted scenes of Maya players of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Guatemala, 700-800 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

The Mesoamerican civilizations were a group of advanced, pre-Columbian cultures that flourished in parts of present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador from around 1500 BCE to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century...

The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador...

A representation of the Tonalpohualli – ‘Counting of the Days’ 260-day calendar used by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Two systems ran simultaneously with a group of 13 numbered days combined with a group of 20 name days. Thus, each day had...

An 18th-century illustration showing a Mesoamerican using the traditional method of collecting insects to make the prized cochineal dye. (The Newberry Library)

A sculpture of the Mesoamerican god known to the Aztecs as 2 Rabbit who often represented the pulque gods. These gods represented the alcoholic drink pulque and were also known as the Centzon Totochtin (400 Rabbits). 1100-1300 CE. (Poza Larga...

A circular obsidian mirror from ancient Mesoamerica. Aztec, 1325-1521. Width: 10 inches /26 cm. (British Museum, London)

Red slip effigy of a dog. Made in Colima, Mexico, 100 BCE-300 CE. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

An obsidian blade from Teotihuacan, Mexico. Length 10.5 inches (26.5 cm). (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)