One thousand-seven hundred years ago the Maya, Aztec, and Inca thrived. Although a commonly asked question is do they count as a civilisation. In this essay I will be saying why or why not they do based on three criteria one: do they have full time specialists, two: how they plan their cities, finally three: art, architecture, and scientific achievement.
MAYA
Even though the Maya did have farmers and hunters not all their jobs were based around agriculture. They had many other jobs such as an ambassador to speak to other nations, an astronomer to chart the stars and make the calendars, an architect to go to design the buildings, engineers to make roads, a priest to perform religious ceremonies, stonemasons to shape the stone, and…show more content… Kind of like the Aztec their urban planning wasn’t as complicated as the Mayans but it still worked nicely. Sections of towns were built in line with the central plazas, ushnu, and royal residences, these were all facing the sunrise. There are usually groups of three or more buildings surrounding an opened yet walled patio, this is called a mini complex (kancha). Other Incan buildings were built parallel to the plazas. Lots of city blocks were never exactly spuare because of pedestrian road called cutting through them . Learning about Incan architecture was my favourite to research because they made such beautiful buildings. They used yucay limestone, green sacsayhuaman diorite porphyry, and black andesite for all of their buildings. For the actual building process they used hard stones and bronze tools. They move the big blocks using ropes, logs, poles, leavers, or ramps. Buildings are rectangular with only one entrance and only had one room because separating walls won’t really used the Inca Empire. Most homes for only one story but in Cuzco (the capital) there were sometimes three story buildings. For science and technology they had some very astonishing achievement.Like the Mayans and the Aztec they also figured out a calendar but they had twelve months, each month had three weeks, and one week was ten days. Giving them three hundred-sixty days but the days where the moon wasn’t up or it wasn’t visible they would add on extra days to even it out , giving them a total of three hundred- sixty-five days per year. Just like our calendar. They also were incredibly advanced in medicine. They were able to cure urinary tract infections and respiratory disorders like a cough or bronchitis