How Did The Mayans Influence The Aztec Civilization

The Olmec, Mayan, and the Aztec Indians were very advanced civilizations for the 14th, 15th, and 16th century. They would used different kinds of resources found around them to create the technology they used to survive. For example the Olmec and the Mayans used cotton to create all kinds of garments, the Mayans also created a number system and their weapons and armor to go to war, the Aztecs adopted an education on how to hunt, how to fight, jewel cutting, metal polishing, song composition, science of the heavens, planing trees and flowers, cooking, cleaning, and many other things. Many cultures were influenced by these three civilizations as they had spread across the world and still use many of their techniques in our everyday lives.

The Olmecs were the first civilization to be found in the Americas but as time went on they began to disappear. As soon as their was no trace of the Olmec culture the Mayans began to grow and were incredibly influenced by the Olmec, they developed an accurate number system using lines, dots, and some sort of nut. The Mayans constantly went to war like Document 2 shows us with the Mayan battle song, but soon they started to mysteriously die out as well. The Aztec Indians soon began to grow in Mexico after the Mayans disappeared. Document 5 shows us that “Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conqueror of the Aztec Empire” described the capital of “Tenochitlan”. He wrote that he observed “fresh water which came from Chapultepec” because the Aztecs were so involved in farming they used these agricultural islands to “plant and harvest their food” like Document 7 shows. Cortes also said that bridges were on the three causeways, and built certain “intervals so the water could go from one part of the lake to another”. He also mentioned that the houses on the land and built on water “could only be reached by wooden drawbridges or by canoe.” He described the temples that he observed as “towers or fortresses in these cities.” In Document 4, “Spanish Friar Juan de Torquemada” described “King Nezahualpilli of Texcoco”, it was a city state allied with the Aztec Empire. He writes “he was a great astronomer; that he was much concerned with understanding the movement of the celestial bodies.” Nezahualpilli, was inclined to the study of these things and would search his kingdom for people who had such knowledge and would bring them to his court, eventually developing an accurate celestial calendar.
In Document 1, Francisco Hernandez, a Spanish naturalist, described the use of the “Maguey plant”.

The Aztecs would use this plant for firewood, fencing fields, roof tiles, plates, dishes, paper, thread for all types of garments like shoes, and cloth. They would make nails out of the horns of this plant and would use its juice for wine, vinegar, honey, and sugar. Document 3, shows us the “Discourses of the Elders” this was written by an unknown author in the 16th century, an Aztec noblewoman described the education of “noble boys” and “noble girls”. The adults had begun to teach the boys how to battle, hunt, shoot a blowgun, hurl stones, how to use a shield and a hand sword, they also learned to throw hand spears, netting, and snaring. Other were taught “the different crafts” such as feather work, how feathers and plumes were arrayed, mosaic work, goldsmithery, jewel cutting, metal polishing, song composition, music, the science of the heavens, the study of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Others took to the fields or the flower gardens to teach them how to sow seeds, to plant trees and flowers, work the land. Girls were taught cleaning, cooking, sprinkling, making beverages, how to spindle, different kinds of embroidery, and dyeing of rabbit

fur.
In conclusion, we can see that we have all this information and facts about these civilizations because of the writings they kept on scribes, as shown in Document 6. We know that they had a scribe for each branch of knowledge. Some that consisted of annals, putting down the order that things occurred in, which years they happened in, giving the month, the day, and hour. Others were in charge of the “genealogies, recording lineages of rulers, lords, and noblemen, registering the newborn and deleting those who had died. Some painted frontiers, limits, and boundary markers of the cities, provinces and villages, distribution of fields and whom they had belonged to. Other scribes kept law books dealing with rites and ceremonies. Priests also recorded all matters to do with their religion and calendar. The philosophers were in charge with painting all the sciences which they had discovered, and teaching all songs in which they had incorporated their scientific findings and historical knowledge. From all these scribes we get the cultures that we have now which are still influenced by the Mesoamerican civilizations.