1. Geography: Use the map provided . . . .
Identify where the Incan, Mayan, Olmec, and Aztec civilizations were located. Label them on the map! In what modern countries would you have found these civilizations? Label them on the map! (Inca) The Maya empire included the modern-day countries of Guatemala, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, and Honduras. The Aztec empire included modern Mexico's central region. The Olmec empire also included a certain part of central Mexico. On the other hand, the Inca empire inhabited the Southern Hemisphere and modern countries like Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
2. Religions:
Were these empires polytheistic or monotheistic? o Name at least one god from each civilization. What they were the god of?
http://mayaincaaztec. com/religion. html http://www. ancient. eu/Olmec_Civilization/ Aztec- The Aztec religion was polytheistic as it believed in many gods. They held a belief in successive worlds that had existed before ours and each time mankind had been wiped out by some catastrophic event, with this series of worlds were called the "Four Suns," and the age that we now live in is the fifth. Certain gods that the Aztecs believed in was their supreme god, Uitzilopochtli, who was the god of the sun at its brightest, and his mother was called Coatlicue. The importance of the sun god grew as the Aztecs conquered more and more territory, in addition to other gods that were deeply respected included Tlaloc with his mask of snakes and as the god who piled clouds on mountain-tops and made it rain. Another important god included the god of the night sky, Tezcatlipoca.
Maya- The Maya practiced a religion that included sacrificial victims and it was a polytheistic religion that held that the earth had been created then destroyed by calamities and evens over and over. Now, the Mayans worshipped a wide array of deities but their exact order of importance is not known. However, it is believed that the ancient Mayans called their supreme god Hunab Ku, who was the creator of the universe, and so sacred, that he took no part in everyday human affairs. The next important god included, Itzamna, who was believed to have been the son of Hunab Ku and was the god of books and writing and the patron of science and learning with Itzamna commonly portrayed as a dragon-like monster. The next important deity was a goddess who was the wife of Itzamna, Ix Chebal Yaz, who was associated with childbearing, the arts, and medicine as well as other gods Ah Puch, the lord of death, Ek Chua, the guardian of merchants, and Chac, who was a long-nosed creature with fangs who was responsible for lightning, thunder, and storms.
Inca- The Inca had a polytheistic religion in which they believed in the god Viracocha who created the earth, stars, and all living things, and they believed that they had created the moon and the sun by plucking them from an island in Lake Titicaca, and Inti, another god, was the god of the sun...
