MAYAN

(Southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras)

Agriculture

 Shifting Agriculture
Maya people used slash and burn agriculture, a farming method where trees and other
plants are first cut down, then the entire area to be planted is burned. The Maya would
then plant in the rich ash that resulted.

 Raised Bed Farming

Maya also farmed field raised up from the bajos, or low, swampy areas. They created
these fertile farm areas by digging up the mud from the bottom and placing it on mats
made of woven reeds two feet above the water level. Each field provided two or three
crops a year.

 Terrace Farming
the Maya made terraces on the steep hillsides. Small fields are cut into a hillside and
held with a retaining wall. These create a series of steps that reduce water runoff and
erosion and can be planted with maize or other crops.
AZTEC
(Mexico)
Economy

 Due to its island location the Aztec economy was based primarily on agriculture in the
form of chinampas. Also referred to as ‘floating gardens’ chinampas were mounds of dirt
and other debris built up in the shallow, swampy areas of Lake Texcoco which
surrounded Tenochtitlan.
 tribute system - The main sources of income for the empire were tribute and taxation.
The conquered regions paid tribute to the emperor and the Aztec citizenry paid taxes
(with the exception of priests, nobles, minors, orphans, invalids, and beggars). ...
Regions that failed to pay tribute were severely punished. Chalco, Tepanec, Tlacopan,
Texcoco, Culhuacan, and Chichimec

INCAS
(Along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to
the Maule River in central Chile)
Agriculture

 Ayllu means group of family that possess farmland

 Tupu means area of land for maize cultivation
 had a large diverse agriculture
 Agriculture was a community practice
 MAYAN
(Southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras)
Infrastructure
Temple-pyramids were the most striking feature of a Classic Maya city. They were built
from hand-cut limestone blocks and towered over all surrounding structures. Although
the temples themselves usually contained one or more rooms, the rooms were so
narrow that they could only have been used on ceremonial occasions not meant for
public consumption. The alignments of ceremonial structures could be significant.

AZTEC
(Mexico)
Astronomy

 Aztec calendar
Xiuhpohualli (the first, or solar, calendar) consisted of 365 days, divided into eighteen
months of twenty units each, plus an additional period of five empty days at the end of
the year.
Tonalpohualli (the second, or "day count," calendar) was made up of 260 days. It
contained two smaller cycles, an ordered sequence of 20 named days and a sequence
of days numbered from 1 to 13. The 13-day cycle was particularly important for religious
observance, and each of the 20 numbered cycles within the ritual year was associated
with a different deity.

INCAS
(Along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of modern Ecuador to
the Maule River in central Chile)
Infrastructure

 Building of kilometers of paved roads in the most rugged terrain.

 bridges were built to connect roads through rivers and deep canyons.