Introduction
The people of Mesoamerica were and still are a mixed package of mystery and history, with their past literally written in stone. In this essay I will discuss my two chosen Mesoamerican societies, the Olmecs and the Aztecs and the common features that they share, such as ball courts, temple pyramids, calendrical and writing systems and the significance of similarities and differences between them, to better my understanding of the social structure of these two amazing societies.
Who are they?
The name Olmec means “the rubber people” in Nahuatl (Palka, 2000), which was the language spoken by the Aztecs. The Olmecs are considered one of the oldest civilisations of the Mesoamerican societies that lived in what is now known as Mexico
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The pro mother culture archaeologists, like Richard Diehl, believed that the Olmecs were advanced for their time, leading other societies in art, architecture and social structures. Archaeologists against the mother culture, like David Grove, believed that the Olmecs were one society amongst many in the Mesoamerican area and that they all evolved around the same time (Scarre, 2013).
In Nahuatl Aztec means “people from Aztlan”. The Aztec people lived between 1345 CE to 1521 CE on the island city of Tenochtitlan in Lake Texcoco, in the Basin of Mexico. It is said that they migrated from Aztlan to central Mexico and referred to themselves as “Mexica”. The Aztecs are quite well known to archaeologists as they left numerous written records of their existence. They were an extremely sophisticated culture. Renowned for their warfare tactics, they were skilled warriors. Gaining a lot of their power through strong political marriage alliances, they ruled with a strong military presence. The Aztecs fought against the invasion of Mexico when the Spanish landed in 1519 but it wasn’t until 1521 that their rule ended in defeat by their enemies and the Spanish combined forces (Palka,