During the eleventh century, many of the Maya city-states in Mesoamerica fell apart. But the Maya experienced a brief revival in 1250 following the collapse of Chichen Itza. The revival would be brief as the great Maya civilization completely crumbled in the fourteenth century until the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. The Mayan revival following the collapse of Chichen Itza is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History during 1250 AD.
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The Maya city of Chichen Itza was built around AD 800. It grew until it became the most powerful force in the northern Yucatan. At its peak, Chichen Itza ruled over thousands of people. It was regarded as the largest of all Maya cities. Its military captured other cities and the tribute that these cities paid made Chichen Itza very rich. The city was a popular pilgrimage site because of its temples and its sacred pool. The sea trade centered in the nearby Isla Cerritos also made it very wealthy. Its influence extended as far east as Nohmul in present-day Belize and south into Seibal in Guatemala.
“El Caracol, observatory of Chichen Itza”
Around 1050, the central Mexican city of Tula was destroyed and the Toltec people who lived in it fled from their homes. Some went south, while others later ventured north to the Yucatan Peninsula and invaded the city of Chichen Itza. Stone reliefs in Chichen Itza showed the violence with which the Toltecs conquered the city. The Toltecs celebrated their victory with the construction of a tzompantli (skull rack), Chac Mool, and Temple of the Warriors. The city continued to reign until it was conquered by Mayapan, but by then it was not as important as it once was.
The Rise of Mayapan and Brief Maya Revival
The city of Chichen Itza continued to exist after it was conquered by the Toltecs, but it was not as influential as it once was. The rulers of Chichen Itza also built an alliance with the rulers of Uxmal and Mayapan in the years that followed. War later broke out between the allied cities and the city of Izamal after its ruler kidnapped the wife of the king of Chichen Itza. King Hunak Keel of Mayapan later turned on his former allies and conquered Chichen Itza. Mexican mercenaries and the people of Izamal also helped him destroy the great Maya city.
Because of this victory, Mayapan became the most powerful Maya state in the Yucatan Peninsula. A local noble family called the Cocom also emerged as powerful rulers of Mayapan for the next two hundred years. Mexican mercenaries and Maya priests helped the Cocom family impose peace and order. The people of Mayapan traded with neighboring Belize, Honduras, and central Mexico which added to their wealth. The Cocom family continued to rule until they were overthrown by the Xiu noble family in 1440.
References:
Picture By Bruno Girin – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Demarest, Arthur Andrew. Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Sharer, Robert J., and Loa P. Traxler. The Ancient Maya. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
“THE HUNAC CEEL EPISODE.” Chilam Balam: Appendices: Appendix C. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.
The Chimu people of Peru expanded their territory starting around 1250 after they conquered neighboring states, such as those in the Lambayeque and Casma Valleys. They were still expanding when the Incas rose to power and took what the Chimu empire had conquered years before. The Chimu’s expansion in Peru is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History during 1250 AD.
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The Chimu people claimed that their ancestors sailed to present-day Peru from the north by means of rafts. Eleven rulers succeeded their first king when he died. This type of leadership continued until another king rose to rule the kingdom alone. They inherited the territory and culture of the Moche Empire which had crumbled around AD 700.
Chan Chan
They settled near the irrigated fields of the valley which allowed them to grow food and feed their people. The small settlement eventually grew into a city which they called Chan Chan. The Chimu city became so magnificent that it contained as much as ten palace complexes and five pyramids which they used for rituals.
Expansion
The Chimu people started to build road networks which allowed them to move their troops around their territories easily. These roads also allowed them to conquer neighboring kingdoms starting around 1250. The Chimu conquered the Casma Valley in the south, and in 1350, they invaded the Lambayeque Valley (Sican culture) in the north. The Chimu rulers allowed each conquered territory to be governed by local leaders who answered directly to them and used captive peoples as farm workers. The Chimu Empire continued to expand until they were conquered by the powerful Incas in 1470.
References:
Picture By Håkan Svensson – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Bulliet, Richard W. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Cremin, Aedeen. The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Richmond Hill, Ont.: Firefly Books, 2012.
Moore, Jerry D. A Prehistory of South America: Ancient Cultural Diversity on the Least Known Continent. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2014.
O’Brien, Patrick. Atlas of World History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Tellier, Luc-Normand. Urban World History: An Economic and Geographical Perspective. Québec: Presses De L’Université Du Québec, 2009.
Around 1150, the ancient Puebloans (Anasazi) moved down from the mesa tops and started to carve their homes on the cliff sides. Many of these cliff dwellings were constructed between 1200 and 1250. The construction of these magnificent houses and kivas are chronicled on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History around this period. Some of these magnificent cliff dwellings can be found in the Cliff-Fewkes Canyon at present-day Mesa Verde National Park. At its height, it was the home to 33 separate cliff dwellings with more than 500 rooms and around 60 kivas. Many of the rooms were used as dwellings while others were used as storage areas.
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The largest of the villages that were constructed within the Cliff-Fewkes Canyon at Mesa Verde was the Cliff Palace. It had around 220 rooms and 23 kivas. The village probably housed around 250 to 350 inhabitants, and also featured a round tower and two to four-story buildings—one of which showed remnants of impressive colorful wall paintings.
Another large village called the Sunset House had 30 rooms and four kivas carved out a ledge. This village was accessible via trails near the Cliff Palace and Little Long House. Other cliff dwellings include the Mummy House with 12 rooms and two kivas, Oak Tree House with 55 living rooms and six kivas, and the New Fire House which was built on two ledges. The New Fire House had 20 residential rooms on the top ledge, three kivas, and a number of dwellings on the lower ledge.
“Square Tower House”
Other cliff dwellings that were built on the nearby Navajo Canyon include the Square Tower House, Little Long House, and other smaller structures. The Square Tower House was made up of 70 residential rooms plus seven kivas and was named after the square four-story building on the site. The Little Long House was located northwest of the Square Tower House.
Kivas
A structure called the Sun Temple was built with two layers of D-shaped walls separated by compartments and contained two kivas inside. It stood side by side with an extension which contained several compartments, a kiva, and a circular area which was constructed as the base of a tower. The roof of the Sun Temple was long gone, and another tower of unknown purposes stood nearby.
A kiva called the Fire Temple, meanwhile, was carved 100 feet below the Fewkes Canyon and has an unconventional rectangular shape. It was used for rituals and other religious ceremonies. Its location was near a source of water that was an indication of its religious importance to the Ancient Puebloans.
References:
Picture By Rationalobserver – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Peregrine, Peter N., and Melvin Ember, eds. Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 6: North America. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2001.
Rohn, Arthur H., and William M. Ferguson. Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006.
Apart from the famed Machu Picchu, the ancient Peruvian city of Cuzco was the Incas’ most important center. Cuzco was the cradle of Inca civilization. They started to settle this great city around the twelfth century. The Inca migration to the city of Cuzco appeared on the Bible Timeline Poster withWorld History around AD 1200.
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The Incas had two origin stories. Both stories featured the mythical sibling-couple Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo. In the Pacariqtambo Legend and Lake Titicaca Legend, the Inca king Manco Capac and Inca Queen Mama Ocllo were created by the sun god Inti (the creator god also Viracocha played a part in the creation of the couple). In the first legend, the couple was created in and emerged from one of the three caves in a place called Pacariqtambo which, according to tradition, was said to be located 33 kilometers from the great Inca city of Cuzco.
The second legend, meanwhile, asserted that the couple was created in the Lake Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia. In both legends, they were told to go and civilize the world. Manco Capac was given a golden staff which he used along the way to test whether they had arrived in their promised land. The same golden staff sank on the ground when they arrived in the Cuzco Valley.
Cuzco
The word “Cuzco” was taken from the Aymara and Quechua word “Qusqu” which was derived from the phrase qusqu wanka or Rock of the Owl (in reference to the Ayar siblings which included the Inca ancestors of Mama Ocllo and Manco Capac). The Cuzco Valley region was considered as the cradle of the Inca civilization. According to tradition, Manco Capac taught the people who settled there the science of agriculture, while Mama Ocllo taught the women the art of spinning and weaving. The small community gradually grew until the first Inca people extended their influence beyond the valley and into the regions inhabited by other tribes.
“Although the Inca did not have moderns tools, each stone was cut so precisely that it is impossible to slip a knife between each heavy slab.”
The modern city of Cuzco is nestled in a valley located on an elevated portion of the plateau. It is bounded by mountains which, in the past, served as natural defensive walls against marauding tribes. Despite the arid surroundings, the city is fed by rivers that run from the mountains and into the valley. According to early Spanish chroniclers, the pre-Columbian city of Cuzco had long and narrow streets lined with low houses that were made of clay and reeds. Magnificent royal palaces and plazas dotted the ancient city. It was home to the Inca’s holiest place, the Temple of the Sun, where other tribes gathered together after a long journey.
The city was heavily fortified with defensive walls and towers that were made up of heavy blocks of stones. What made these structures amazing (even for the Spanish conquistadores) was that the stones were quarried outside of Cuzco, and were transported to the city without the aid of draft animals, such as llamas and donkeys. Although the Inca did not have moderns tools, each stone was cut so precisely that it is impossible to slip a knife between each heavy slab. The Inca structures still exist today—a testament to the Inca masons’ outstanding skills and their people’s ingenuity.
References:
Picture By No machine-readable author provided. Xauxa assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5, Link
“City of Cuzco.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed October 25, 2016. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/273.
Cremin, Aedeen. The World Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2007.
Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Peru: With A Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas. London: J.B. Lippincott &, 1833.
In 1811, a lawyer and amateur historian named Henry Brackenridge “discovered” the Cahokia mounds and wrote a detailed account of the place to a friend, then president Thomas Jefferson. His discovery, however, was largely ignored by the American public even after his accounts of the site were published in newspapers. Interest for it was only revived in the second half of the twentieth century. Over the years, many of the Cahokia mounds failed to survive the ravages of time after these were flattened to give way to farms, houses, and shops. Luckily, a sizable number of these mounds still exist to provide valuable information about the place called Cahokia, as well as the people who once lived there. Cahokia is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History around 1200 AD.
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Cahokia was an ancient Mississippian culture and place that flourished between 1000 and 1400 along the banks of the Mississippi River near present-day Collinsville, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. It started as a small agricultural community which depended on the cultivation of corn. It grew over the years to become the largest trade center in the northeastern part of present-day United States. Henry Brackenridge estimated that at its peak, Cahokia was home to around 10,000 to 12,000 people. Recent research concluded that the population ranged from anywhere between 10,000 and 30,000, which meant that Cahokia was one of the largest prehistoric communities in North America. Religious leaders, secular rulers, merchants, farmers and hunters made up the highly organized and complex Cahokian society.
“Monks Mound in summer. The concrete staircase follows the approximate course of the ancient wooden stairs”
Cahokian Mounds
The hallmark of the Mississippian Culture, particularly in Cahokia, was the presence of the enormous earth mounds. Based on the size of the earthworks built on the site, the Cahokia community possessed a large labor force that built these massive mounds. These were of different shapes and sizes. Some of the most common were the platform mounds. These angled earthworks were usually square or rectangular at the base and featured a flat top where storehouses, temples, royal palaces, or charnel houses once stood.
The height and size of the platform mound were determined by the status of its occupant, so that the higher the mound, the higher the occupant’s status was in society. The largest and tallest of these was the Monks Mound which was named after the Trappist Monks who occupied it in the 19th century. It was constructed at the center of the archeological site as a four-leveled terrace. A palisade or defensive wall enclosed the Monks Mound as well as the other sizable mounds within Cahokia proper (the center of the city). This meant that the Monks Mound was possibly the site of a royal residence. Smaller platform mounds that were occupied by farmers, tradesmen, and merchants surrounded the palisade.
Cone-shaped and ridge-top (hayrick) mounds were also present in Cahokia. The two other types of mounds served different purposes. Cone-shaped mounds had circular bases with softly rounded tops. These often served as burial mounds. Ridge-top mounds featured rectangular bases that rose to a narrow ridge at the top and served as markers for the communities and sometimes, burials grounds.
More than a thousand years ago, a distinct North American culture flourished on the banks of the Mississippi River. This culture was named after the great river which became the lifeline of the people who lived near its banks. It was also the hallmark of the Mississippian culture where the massive earth monuments or mounds were left behind. The mysterious decline of the Mississippian Culture and their abandonment of the flat-topped mound bases for temples appeared on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History in AD 1190.
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The ancient Mississippians built mounds of different sizes and shapes. Some of the most striking and intriguing were the flat-topped platform mounds. These massive earthworks were usually quadrilateral and circular in shape and were made up of rocks, log mantles, clay, and soil. The largest of these is the Monk’s Mound at Cahokia which covered an area of about six hectares (around 15 acres) at the base and reached a height of up to 30 meters (around 98 feet). Most were built around AD 800 and beyond until the Mississippian culture faded around the twelfth century.
“Monks Mound”
Flat-topped mounds primarily served as bases for temples and mortuary shrines. They were also used as platforms for tribal council meetings and as ceremonial stages. In rare instances, the mounds were used as bases for houses of tribal and religious leaders. The mounds were enlarged over the years as tribal chieftains died and were replaced by another. The areas around the flat-topped platform mounds were restricted to the general population and protected by defensive walls or palisades.
Decline
The end of the construction of these flat-topped mounds came around the twelfth century when the Mississippian Culture underwent a rapid decline. It is possible that over-hunting and deforestation which were worsened by climate change and erosion played a part in the disappearance of the native Mississippians. The invasion of other tribes and the onset of diseases were also possible causes for the collapse of the Mississippian culture. Whatever the reason, the Mississippian flat-topped mounds were largely abandoned when the Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century.
References:
Picture By Skubasteve834 – EN.Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
“An Introduction to North America’s Native People: Mississippian Period.” NATIVE PEOPLES of NORTH AMERICA. Accessed October 25, 2016. http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/mississ.html.
Murphree, Daniel S. Native America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2012.
Young, Biloine W., and Melvin L. Fowler. Cahokia, The Great Native American Metropolis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Jerusalem was taken from the city’s Christians rulers by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187 according to the Bible Timeline Chart with World History. The defeat of the Christian rulers in the Battle of Hattin only hastened the fall of Jerusalem. News of Jerusalem’s loss later pushed the rulers of Europe to launch the Third Crusade.
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The great Muslim ruler Saladin was born Yusuf ibn Najm al-Din Ayyub Salah al-Din. He was one of the most unusual Muslim rulers as he was not an Arab, a Turk, or a Persian. His Kurdish family migrated from Dvin in Armenia and into Tikrit (present-day Iraq) before he was born. His father, Najm al-Din Ayyub, was the warden of Tikrit who saved Zengi, the Turkish ruler of Mosul, when he escaped from the city. His family was later forced to leave Tikrit when his uncle, Shirkuh, killed a man.
Saladin was born during the night that they left Tikrit in 1139. They traveled to Mosul where Zengi (now back as the city’s ruler) welcomed them in payment for his debt. Nur ad-Din, Zengi’s son, succeeded his father several years later. Saladin grew up during a time when European Crusaders flowed into the Holy Land and conquered some territories. He, along with his uncle, served Nur ad-Din after he rose as ruler of Mosul.
In Jerusalem, King Baldwin III died and was succeeded by his younger brother Amalric I in 1163. Eager to enlarge his territory, Amalric attacked Fatimid Egypt which, by that time, had weakened. The more powerful vizier Shawar asked for Nur ad-Din’s help to defend Egypt from Amalric. Nur ad-Din sent Turkish troops he needed and they were led by Shirkuh and his young nephew, Saladin. Together with the Fatimid troops, they defeated Amalric’s soldiers and drove them back to Jerusalem.
Saladin in Egypt and the Collapse of the Fatimid Dynasty
But Shirkuh was an ambitious man, and he wanted Egypt for himself. Shawar quickly realized that the alliance was a mistake, so he offered an alliance to Amalric. Together, they attacked and drove out Shirkuh, Saladin, and the Turkish troops out of Egypt. Shirkuh, however, never forgot about Egypt and his dreams of conquering it. He returned to Egypt with Saladin and the Turkish troops to defeate their enemies in 1167. Shawar, meanwhile, knew that he would not last in his position, so he went to Shirkuh to bargain with him in 1169. Saladin and his men stopped him when he was near the camp, took him somewhere else, and killed him.
Shirkuh ruled Egypt and controlled the Fatimid caliph al-Adid from then on. He did not get to enjoy his new status for long as he died two months later. The rule of Egypt passed to Saladin, after his death. Seven months after he rose as the ruler of Egypt, Saladin faced the threat of a combined Crusader and Byzantine force. He easily toppled this alliance as the Crusaders and the Byzantines were poorly equipped and often fought against each other. He drove their army back to the Holy Land and returned to Egypt to rule on Nur ad-Din’s behalf.
In 1171, Nur ad-Din ordered Saladin to remove the young Fatimid ruler al-Adid so that Egypt would be in Turkish hands. Saladin thought that this was not a good idea at that time but later changed his mind. He finally followed Nur ad-Din’s instruction just as when the caliph became so ill. Caliph al-Adid died not knowing that he was removed from his position and that he was the last of the Fatimids to rule Egypt.
Saladin ruled Egypt from then on. He gradually became so powerful that he began to rule it without paying heed to Nur ad-Din’s orders. For example, he attacked the Crusader castle of Montreal from Egypt while Nur ad-Din closed in on the same castle from the north. He bowed out of this battle and returned to Egypt. He lost Nur ad-Din’s trust because of this, and his former master started his plans to remove Saladin from Egypt. But the Turkish ruler died of throat infection before he could carry out his plans in 1174. His young son, Al-Salih Ismail, was left to rule his kingdom.
Saladin knew this was his chance to wrest the Holy Land and Syria for himself, so he went to Damascus and presented himself as the boy’s guardian. He also married Nur ad-Din’s widow and the young Al-Salih conveniently died in 1181. With the Turkish rulers out of the way, Saladin was now free to rule Syria and Egypt.
Division in the Holy Land
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Baldwin IV the Leper succeeded his father Amalric II as King of Jerusalem. As Baldwin was just a child when his father died, Miles of Plancy stepped up to become his regent. Raymond III of Tripoli and other noblemen challenged his claim as regent. When Miles was killed, his widow married the Lord of Oultrejourdain called Reynald of Chatillon. Reynald had a history of being an all-around troublemaker. His antics would help bring about the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin.
With Miles of Plancy dead, Raymond III of Tripoli was free to arrange the marriage of Baldwin IV’s sister Sybilla to another nobleman. The couple had a son which they named as Baldwin V, but Sybilla’s new husband also died. Their son was later named as his uncle Baldwin IV’s co-ruler, while his mother married another nobleman named Guy of Lusignan.
Between 1177 and 1178, Saladin wore down Baldwin IV’s attempts to strengthen his kingdom. In 1182, Reynald of Chatillon led a raid on a caravan bound for Syria. It angered Saladin as the caravan was under his protection. He decided to attack the Crusader states in the same year. Reynald provoked Saladin once again when he announced his plans of invading Mecca via the Red Sea. Saladin attacked them for the second time in 1183 because of this.
King Baldwin IV knew that he needed to face Saladin in battle. The problem was that he had leprosy. So he allowed his new brother-in-law, Guy of Lusignan, to lead his army into battle. Guy replaced Raymond III of Tripoli as regent, but he and his army did not confront Saladin in battle—a move which made him unpopular in Jerusalem. Baldwin IV removed his brother-in-law as regent and brought back Raymond III of Tripoli. He also announced that his nephew, Baldwin V, would succeed him as king. But the young boy died in 1185, followed by the king a year later.
The throne of Jerusalem was vacant, and both Raymond and Guy fought to occupy it. Guy, Sybilla, and the ever-present Reynald of Chatillon later staged a coup to remove Raymond III as ruler of Jerusalem. Raymond was forced to seek an alliance with Saladin in hopes that he would get Jerusalem back. While he was negotiating with Saladin, however, Reynald of Chatillon raided another Syria-bound caravan. Saladin demanded payment for the damages. Reynald refused and even defied Guy who asked him to pay up.
“Dome of the Rock and West Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives”
The Battle of Hattin and the Fall of Jerusalem
Guy knew that this was the last straw for Saladin, so he sent his knights to make peace with Raymond. His strategy failed as Saladin’s men who lurked in Raymond’s territory killed the knights that he sent. In July of the same year, Saladin brought as much as 30,000 soldiers with him and besieged Raymond’s stronghold in Tiberias. Guy and his troops tried to attack Saladin in the Battle of Hattin, but infighting, lack of water, and the unbearable heat of the valley made it hard for them to win.
The Christian forces experienced a crushing defeat in Hattin, and all the noblemen were captured. Saladin treated the Christian noblemen with courtesy, and they were eventually set free. But he singled out Reynald of Chatillon whom he beheaded with his own sword. He also ordered his men to execute all Knight Templars and Hospitallers who joined the battle.
One by one, the cities of the Holy Land surrendered to Saladin’s army, and the refugees were forced to flee to Jerusalem. The holy city’s residents panicked when they heard that Saladin’s troops were headed their way, but Balian of Ibelin arrived and led the defense of the city. On the 20th of September 1187, Saladin and his warriors arrived outside the walls of Jerusalem. Although they were willing to fight, the residents knew that they were no match for the Muslim forces on the other side of the walls.
Balian was forced to negotiate with Saladin to save the city’s residents. Because of Balian’s efforts, Saladin agreed to let Jerusalem’s Christian residents leave the city unharmed. He accepted Jerusalem’s surrender and entered it in victory the same year. The Muslims then removed the cross from the Dome of the Rock. Once again, Jerusalem was in Muslim hands.
References:
Picture By बिप्लब आनन्द – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Gibb, H. A. R., Kātib Al-Iṣfahānī, ʻImād Al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad, and Ibn Shaddād, Bahāʼ Al-Dīn Yūsuf Ibn Rāfiʻ. The Life of Saladin: From the Works of ʻImād Ad-Dīn and Bahāʼ Ad-Dīn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Nicolle, David, and Christa Hook. The Third Crusade 1191: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the Struggle for Jerusalem. Oxford: Osprey, 2006.
Founded around 800 AD, the northern lowland Maya city of Chichen Itza continued to flourish even after its southern Maya neighbors had declined around 900 AD. At its peak, Chichen Itza was possibly the largest and densely populated Maya state. But the Maya domination of one of its magnificent cities ended when refugees from the destroyed Toltec city of Tula arrived at its fringes and saw an opportunity to take over. The Toltecs were later driven out of Chichen Itza during 1180 according to the Bible Timeline Chart with World History.
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The Toltecs occupied the great city of Tula for less than a century before they were driven out by mysterious forces. The city showed evidence of fire and widespread destruction because of internal strife. It was also possible that external threats, such as climate change and warfare brought the empire down. The Toltecs left the city in the eleventh century and dispersed in neighboring areas while others continued further south into the tropical areas of present-day Mexico. Those who migrated south traveled once again into the Yucatan Peninsula and conquered the great city of Chichen Itza.
The Toltec conquerors left behind traces of their violent domination of the Maya city. Reliefs that showed Toltec warriors besieging the city and violently taking captives were found in Chichen Itza. The Toltec also left behind one of the most distinct signs of their presence: the tzompantli or skull rack. The Toltec introduced the large-scale sacrifice of war captives in Chichen Itza. They commemorated their victory by building a large skull rack displayed on a platform (still intact and can be viewed). They later constructed several Chac Mool statues in Chichen Itza where they placed the hearts of sacrificial victims and hurled captives as human sacrifice in the Sacred Cenote (sacred pool which was the site of pilgrimage and worship during the Maya heyday).
The descendants of the Toltec conquerors who ruled Chichen Itza were later deposed by Hunac Ceel, the ruler of Mayapan, in the late twelfth century. The great Maya city was also largely abandoned during the 1200s, but pilgrims continued to visit the Sacred Cenote even after many of the Chichen Itza inhabitants fled the city.
“Chichén Itzá Tzompantli”
References:
Picture By Anagoria – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Evans, Susan Toby, and David L. Webster. Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. London: Routledge, 2010.
Foster, Lynn V. Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World. New York: Facts on File, 2002.
Kowalski, Jeff Karl, and Cynthia Kristan-Graham. Twin Tollans: Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, 2007.
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, and George W. Brainerd. The Ancient Maya. Stanford Cal.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1968.
Most of what modern historians know about the ancient Mesoamerican people called the Chichimeca came from the records of the Aztecs (Mixeca) who acknowledged them as their ancestors, as well as the accounts of the early Spanish settlers of northern Mexico, particularly those of Gonzalo de las Casas. The Chichimeca were also associated by the Aztec as the direct ancestors of the Toltec people whose empire they later adopted. The Chichimec Nomads are recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during 1170 AD.
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The early Spanish accounts of the northwestern Mesoamerican people called Chichimeca were informative but also riddled with prejudice. The term “Chichimeca” itself was considered derogatory as it had various unpleasant meanings in the Nahuatl language, including “sons of dogs” and “rope suckers.” It was the Nahuatl equivalent of the term “barbarians” as many of them lived a nomadic lifestyle, engaged in hunting, and resisted the Spanish efforts to colonize them. The term, however, did not represent a single group of people, but different groups that lived north of the Valley of Mexico, including nomads, semi-nomads, and sedentary agriculturalists.
“Map of the location of prominent Chichimeca peoples around 1550.”
One of the earliest accounts of the Chichimeca people came from Gonzalo de las Casas wherein he noted that the Chichimeca, just like dogs, hunted so they could eat (hence, the “sons of dogs” term). According to Las Casas, they were proficient in using bows and arrows and were known as fierce warriors who frequently fought their own people, as well as the Spanish colonizers. He noted that there were four Chichimeca tribes (nations): the Zacatecos whose name means “grass” in Nahuatl, the Guachichiles who were known for their colorful and elaborate headdresses, the peaceful Pames tribe, and the fierce Guamari. Other tribes, such as the Otomis, Tepehuan, Caxcanes, and Tecuexes, were added to the list of Chichimeca people later on.
The Spanish conquistadores labeled the Chichimeca barbaric because, unlike their neighbors in central and southern Mexico, they did not seem to practice any religion. The Tepehuan, however, worshiped carved idols and practiced ritual cannibalism which they seemed to have adopted from the southern tribes. Later research also showed that northern Chichimec semi-nomads worshiped the sun and the moon. Unlike central and southern Mesoamerican peoples, they sacrificed deer instead of human hearts to their deities.
References:
Picture By Grin20 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Gradie, Charlotte M. “Discovering the Chichimecas.” The Americas 51, no. 1 (1994): 67-88.
Russell, Philip L. The Essential History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present. Routledge, 2015.
A mysterious Mesoamerican people called the Toltec rose from their obscure origin to prominence after the fall of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan around 650 AD. It is possible that the Toltecs descended from the Chichimecas, a nomadic Nahua people who came from the north, as well as the Nonoalcas who were remnants of the Teotihuacan population that migrated north when the city fell. These people switched from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one around 650 AD. Tula, the Toltec capital that was also known as Tollan (Palace of the Reeds), was nothing more than a tiny village at that time. The Toltec’s capitol in Tula was overthrown during 1170 according to the Bible Timeline with World History.
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The population of Tula grew as the years passed, and the city was home to around 30,000 inhabitants at its peak. Its influence reached from the southwestern frontier of the present-day United States and into the city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula. They folded into their empire the neighboring nomadic tribes which added troops to the Toltec military and allowed them to become a Mesoamerican military power during the ninth century. What pushed the Toltecs to conquer the neighboring tribes was their veneration of the Mesoamerican god of war and strife, Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirrors), who required periodic human sacrifice to be pacified. Traces of the ruthlessness of the Toltecs were found in the Maya city of Chichen Itza where they erected a tzompantli (skull rack) and the Chac Mool (Toltec reclining figure with hollowed center where the heart of a captive was placed) after they subdued the Maya residents.
After a period of expansion, the Toltecs mysteriously disappeared when they abandoned the magnificent city of Tula. The city itself had declined by the end of the eleventh century, and Toltecs migrated to other areas. Archeological evidence recovered from the site showed that the Toltecs left the city because of a combination of internal strife and external threats. The twelfth century ushered in a drastic climate change that resulted in widespread droughts. The city also showed signs of a violent end, such as fire and destruction, that perhaps contributed to its collapse by 1100 AD. The Toltecs reached a near-mythical status in the years that followed. They were later venerated by the Mixeca or Aztecs as their ancestors.
