EXPLORING THE WONDERS OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA (IN-PERSON)

This course is a general survey of the major formative cultures of Mesoamerica. We will begin with the Olmec, the earliest culture in Mesoamerica to explain how urbanization and agriculture began. Then we will turn to the Classic Maya to explore the rise of Mayan culture through their art, their own written texts, and through archaeology in order to understand and highlight their social, political, religious, and economic structures. We will then explore the little known but most powerful of Mesoamerican cultures, the Teotihuacanoes who conquered the Maya and changed the face of Mesoamerica for several hundred years. Finally, we will end our course with lectures on the mighty Aztec Empire and the arrival of the Spanish.