Caridad+Gil

toc =My Code Of Conduct=


 * 1) I will not say my adress on the Internet.
 * 2) I will not say my telephone number on the internet.
 * 3) I will not chat with people I don´t know on the Internet.
 * 4) I will not upload photos of my friends or other people without their permission.
 * 5) I will not create an account without my parents permission.
 * 6) I will not tell my account´s password to anybody.
 * 7) I will put a difficult password on my account so that anybody can guess it.
 * 8) I will not put my complete name or date of birthday on my account.
 * 9) I will not insult or say bad things about anybody on the Internet.
 * 10) I will try to be safe whenever I log on the Internet.


 * I will follow this ten advices to keep myself safe online.**

=**__OLD NEWSPAPER:__ Pre-Columbian Civilizations in America**=

// In this page I'm going to write about the civilizations that existed in America before Christopher Colombus discovered it .//

media type="custom" key="27222784"

Before Christopher Colombus discovered America in the year 1492 with the support of the Catholic Monarchs, there were some other civilizations inhabiting the continent, (called the pre-Columbian civilizations because they existed before Columbus' discovery). The most important ones were: the Incas, the Mayas and the Aztecs. It is said that the continent of America (including North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean) was populated by Asian people, who migrated to the continent through the frozen Bering Strait during an Ice Age more or less in the year 25,000 BC, and then moved to the south.


 * ** Creation of the pre-Columbian civilizations **

At first, migrants were nomadic hunter-gatherers and were organized in big groups. They also made craftswork. Then, the Ice Age finished more or less 12,000 years ago, and many of the animals extinguished, so hunters had to change their hunting strategies and tools. As climate became warmer, people invented agriculture as well as livestock, and they became sedentary. Due to this changes, population began to grow, and so the first villages were established; and then, as society had became more complex, the first civilizations were created.

__ **THE INCAS** __
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and its administrative, political and military center was located in Cusco (current Peru), which was its capital. The official language of the empire was Quechua. The empire comprised current Ecuador, Peru, north and central Chile, western and south Bolivia, northwest Argentina and a small part of southern Colombia. The Inca civilization arose in the highlands of Peru (valley of the river Urubamba) in the early 13th century, and the last Inca stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in the year 1572.

The empire was governed and controlled by an emperor called the Inca, who represented the God of Sun on Earth, and had absolute powers. The empire consisted of a central government and it was divided into four territories called suyus (Chinchay Suyu, Anti Suyu, Kunti Suyu and Qulla Suyu). The Sapa Inca, who was considered as divine and in which the Inca (emperor) depended, was the head of religion and claimed to be descendant of god Inti.
 * ====** Government **====

Inca's religion was polytheistic, and had local and universal gods. They believed in reincarnation and thought that dead was a passage to the next world that was full of difficulties. The Incas also made human sacrificies (especially child sacrificies) during or after important events. The most important gods in Inca's religion were:
 * ==== **Religion** ====
 * -Inti:** sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cusco (home of the sun)
 * -Viracocha:** great creator god (created all living things)

The Inca civilization was based on agriculture as they cultivate different plants to obtain food and to make medicines. They understood the cultivation of the soil and developed cultivation and irrigation methods. Some of the plants and vegetables they cultivated were: tomatoes, potatoes, cotton, corn, beans... Livestock was aslso very important in the Inca Empire. The Incas mostly raised llamas and alpacas, from which they got wool and meat, and also were used as pack animals.
 * ====** Agriculture and livestock **====

> Architecture was the most important of the Inca arts, characterized by its big stones, as well as textiles reflecting different motifs.Inca's measures were based on human body parts (fingers, palms, cubits wingspans...) Machu Picchu is one of the most important Inca villages still preserved nowadays, built around the year 1450 in a mountain ridge in Cusco. Inca calendrics (lunisolar calendars) were tied to astronomy, as Inca astronomers understood equinoxes, solstices and more astronomy phenomena. The Incas also knew about maths. Numerical information of administration, calendrics and engineering were stored in the knots of quipu strings (threads used as recording devices).
 * ====** Arts and technology **====

**__VIDEO OF THE INCA CIVILIZATION__** media type="youtube" key="3F7G0VeqAeY" width="515" height="323"

**__ THE MAYAS __**
The Maya civilization, that was divided in independent city-states, was a civilization from pre-Columbian America that occupied the territories of current Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Yucatán Peninsula. This civilization is known for its art, architecture and mathematical and astronomical systems as well as for being the only pre-Columbian civilization that fully developed writing system. In the Maya civilization existed several languages (Mayan languages), and some of them are still spoken in some parts of Central America nowadays. The most widely accepted theory of the creation of the Maya civilization says that the first clearly Maya settlements were established around the year 1,800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific Coast. And it eventually disappeared in the year 1697,when the Spanish conquered Tayasal (capital of the Itza Mayas), and so the last Mayan kingdom disappeared. Anyway, nowadays there are descendants of the Mayas living in the territories of Central America they used to inhabit.

This civilization was a hierarchical state divided in several independent city-states, each one with its own capital and with its own local ruler. However, the supreme ruler was called the 'halach uinik' or 'ajaw', who took part on terrestrial and spiritual issues (political and religious powers), and who ruled over the city-state he lived as well as in the rest of the city-states' local rulers. The title of ajaw was hereditary. The priests had the same social category as the ajaw, as they represented gods. They were in charge of making rituals, sacrificies, astronomy, religious education...
 * ====** Government **====

> Mayan religion was polytheistic and worshipped nature forces as if they were gods (sun, rain, corn...). Mayan life depended strongly on religion because politics and sciences were connected to it. In this religion, there were two types of gods: gods of good and gods of evil, that had the same divinity and were constantly fighting.Mayas also believed that there cosmos had three major planes: the Earth, the underworld beneath and the heavens above. Some of the Mayan gods were:
 * ====** Religion **====
 * -Hunab Ku:** creator God
 * -Kinich Ahau:** God of the Sun
 * -Chaac: **God of the rain
 * -Ah Puch:** God of death

Mayan civilization was based on agriculture and they had diverse and sophisticated agriculture methods as well as permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens and wild harvesting. Mayan people cultivated beans, cocoa, cotton, pumpkins, avocados, tabacco, corn, sweet potatoes... They were also dedicated to hunting and fishing, and to tame animals such as dogs, ducks, bees (from which they obtained honey)... Do you want to know more about Mayan agriculture and livestock?
 * ====** Agriculture and livestock **====

Mayan art is characterised for a high level of aesthetic and artisanial sophistication.
 * ====** Arts and technology **====

The most easily recognizable Mayan architecture are the rock stepped pyramids, that were used as temples. Cave sites are also important for Mayan architecture, and some of them are still used by modern Mayas.
 * Architecture **



Mayan writing system was a combination of phonetic (sounds) symbols and logograms (representations of words or morphemes) and is usually classified as a logographi or logosyllabic writing system.In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. Most of Mayan scripts have been found on funeral pottery that describe afterlife. The first Mayan script that has been found date back to 200-300 BC.
 * Writing system **

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system. The Maya civilization as well as other close civilizations, developed 'number 0', which they represented with the picture of a shell. Number 1 was represented with a dot, and number 5 with a bar.
 * Mathematics **



The Mayas produced accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets were used to predict eclipses and other celestial events such the heliacal and cosmical risings and settings of Venus. The accuracy of their astronomy and the "theoretical" calendar derived from it was superior to any other known at that time.
 * Astronomy **

**__VIDEO OF THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION__** media type="youtube" key="pXpdruZ04R4" width="445" height="323" **INTERESTING FACT:** The Mayan calendar, better said the 13th period on Mayan calendar, was supposed to end on 21 December 2012 AD, thus the whole world thought that day was going to be the end of the world, as another of the Mayan predictions. Anyway, the NASA and some mesoamerican experts denied that it meant the end of the world, actually it could just mean the end of an era. People all around the world was afraid of this, even the ones that didn't really believe it was going to be the end of the world. Some people even went to specific places where 'the end of the world was not going to reach', as they said; other ones enclosed themselves in underground shelters; and the rest, just didn't do anything. Finally, December 21 arrived and nothing happened. -End of World in 2012? Maya "Doomsday" Calendar Explained (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC)

__** THE AZTECS **__
The Aztec Empire comprised the territories of current north and central Mexico.It began as an alliance of three Nahua city-states: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, that ruled the territories in and around the Valley of Mexico from the year 1428, until they were defeated by the Spanish conquistadors and their native allies under Hernán Cortés in the year 1521. The empire's capital was Tenochtitlán, which by the arly 16th century became the largest city in pre-Columbian Americas. The language Aztec people spoke was Nahuatl, that was one of the Uto-Aztecan languages.

The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a system of tribute than a single unitary of government. Although the type of government is referred as and empire, and there was an emperor ruling over all the territories, most of the areas within the empire were divided into independent city-states (called //altepetl// in Aztec language), and each one was ruled by a king (called //tlatoque//). Later, something similar to a bureaucracy was established in the empire. -Do you want to know more about the Aztec's government?
 * ====** Government **====

The Aztec religion was polytheistic as they worshiped several gods, however, the most important gods for the Aztec were: the god of Sun, War, Human Sacrifice and the patron of Tenochtitlan (Huitzilopochtli). Like other Mesoamerican religions, it had human sacrifices in connection with a large number of religious festivals which were held according to the Aztec Calendar. It is said that only in the capital city of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, between 10,000 and 80,400 people were sacrificed. The Aztec had a large pantheon (they sometimes adopted gods from other regions' religion). Other gods from the Aztec mythology were:
 * ====**Religion[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Huitzilopochtli_telleriano.jpg/220px-Huitzilopochtli_telleriano.jpg width="225" height="245" align="right"]]**====
 * -Tlaloc:** god of rain
 * -Tezcatlipoca:** god of destiny and fortune
 * -Quetzalcoatl:** god of civilization and order

__** Aztec's Human Sacrifices **__ Human sacrifice was a very complex ritual. Every sacrifice had to be meticulously planned from the type of victim to specific ceremony needed for the god. The sacrificial victims were usually warriors but sometimes slaves, depending upon the god and needed ritual. The higher the rank of the warrior the better he is looked at as a sacrifice. The victim(s) would be housed, fed, and dressed accordingly. This process could last up to a year. When the sacrificial day arrived, the victim(s) would participate in the specific ceremonies of the god. These ceremonies were used to exhaust the victim so that he would not struggle during the ceremony. Then five priests, known as the Tlenamacac, performed the sacrifice usually at the top of a pyramid. The victim would be laid upon the table, held down and then have his heart cut out.

Aztec agriculture was highly developed. Some of the methods that the Aztec used to cultivate were: **Chinampa** (a method of farming that used small, rectangular areas to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Mexican valley. They were artificial islands created for the crops); **terracing** (in which walls of stone were created in hillsides, then filled in to create deeper soil that could be used). Some of the most common crops in the Aztec Empire were corn, squash, pumpkins, beans, avocados, tomatoes... Livestock was also important, but not as much as agriculture because there were not too much domestic animals. The Aztec raised turkeys, and haunted ducks and geeses, wich they ate. They also domesticated dogs, wich sometimes they ate as well.
 * ====**Agriculture and livestock**====

Art would have to go to the upper classes, who generally were the keepers of the precious objects in the empire.The Aztec didn't keep their art for themselves, Ancient Aztec art was traded, and much of the materials used were imported from other peoples. The most important art that the Aztec did was sculpture, as they did any size wooden or stone sculptures related to gods, governors and nature. The biggest sculptures they did used to represent gods and kings, and the smallest ones animals and common objects. Because of the Aztec's phisic knowledge, they used a few techniques on how to melt gold and silver and then combine it with precious stones to make jewelry to decorate themselves. Aztec people also used coloured feathers (each type of feather from a different bird) to create ornaments for themselves as well as masks and to decorate carpets. The Aztec wanted to show off their power, thus they built great and monumental buldings related to religion and gods. The most common type of building in the Aztec Empire were the pyramid temples. Two of the most impresive Aztec constructions were Tepoztlan temple and Malinalco, both excavated in rock. Aztec painting is connected with architecture and colour is very important for their art. Mosaics are also very common in Ancient Aztec art.
 * ====**Arts and technology**====
 * Sculpture:**
 * Metalwork and jewelry:**
 * Architecture:**
 * Painting:**





__** Aztec Maths **__ The Aztec left the most extensive mathematical writings of all the pre-Columbian people. They created a vigesimal numbering system with no number 0, in which they represented numbers with dots (represented one unit), bars (5 units), flags (20 units), feathers (400 units) and kind of bags (8,000 units). Do you want to learn more about the Aztec maths? (spanish)



__** Aztec calendar **__ Because of the Aztec calendar, is evident the Aztec's knowledge in maths and astronomy. The Aztec invented their calendar for measuring time in days, months and years in a very accurate way. It waas located in the main temple of the capital of the empire, Tenochtitlan. The calendar is 3.6 m of diameter and it is 103 years older than the Gregorian calendar, which is nowadays used all around the world.

__** VIDEO OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE **__ media type="youtube" key="xN2Bk6zOJms" width="465" height="351" align="center"

**Video: pre-Columbian civilizations**
**Here you have another video about the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas for you to learn more about the topic.** media type="youtube" key="6E9WU9TGrec" width="655" height="396" align="center"

PREZI PRESENTATION
media type="prezi" key="iduawrloabok" width="550" height="400"

VOKIS
Here there are 3 vokis talking about the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas.
 * 1. The Incas**
 * 2. The Mayas**
 * 3. The Aztecs**


 * 1.media type="custom" key="27328950" 2.media type="custom" key="27328960" 3.media type="custom" key="27329070"**

INTERVIEW
media type="custom" key="27431524"

ADVERTISEMENT
media type="custom" key="27432386"

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
By doing this social science webpage about the pre-Columbian civilization in America that existed before Christopher Columbus got there, I have learnt many things about the Incas, the Mayas and the Aztecs, and I have discovered how those civilizations were formed, how they lived, their customs...

Thanks to this information, I think that these pre-Columbian civilizations were really intelligent and were more advanced in science, mathematics and astronomy than any country in Europe. They developed really curious mathematical systems, solar calendars and irrigation methods. However, they were really cruel (but who was not cruel at that time?) as they did many human sacrifices. In my opinion, it is curious how Gods were so important for them, and how many different gods they worshiped. Actually, all their customs, in general, were very courious and strange for us nowadays and even for Europeans after America was discovered.

PERSONAL CHOICE: COMIC
media type="custom" key="27531512"