n early September of the year 683 C. E., a Maya man named Chan Bahlum grasped a sharp obsidian knife and cut three deep slits into the skin of his penis. He insert­ ed into each slit a strip of paper made from beaten tree bark so as to encourage a continuing flow of blood. His younger brother Kan Xu I performed a similar rite, and other members of his family also drew blood from their own bodies. The bloodletting observances of September 683 c.E. were political and religious rituals, acts of deep piety performed as Chan Bahlum presided over funeral services for his recently deceased father, Pacal, king of the Maya city of Palenque in the Yu­ catan peninsula. The Maya believed that the shedding of royal blood was essential to the world's survival. Thus, as Chan Bahlum prepared to succeed his father as king of Palenque, he let his blood flow copiously. Throughout Mesoamerica, Maya and other peoples performed similar rituals for a millennium and more. Maya rulers and their family members regularly spilled their own blood. Men commonly drew blood from the penis, like Chan Bahlum, and women often drew from the tongue. Both sexes occasionally drew blood also from the earlobes, lips, or cheeks, and they sometimes increased the flow by pulling long, thick cords through their wounds. According to Maya priests, the gods had shed their own blood to water the earth and nourish crops of maize, and they expected human beings to honor them by imitating their sacrifice. By spilling human blood the Maya hoped to please the gods and ensure that life-giving waters would bring bountiful harvests to their fields. By inflicting painful wounds not just on their enemies but on their own bodies as well, the Maya demonstrated their conviction that bloodletting rituals were essential to the coming of rain and the survival of their agricultural society. This agricultural society was the product of a distinctive tradition. Human groups migrated to the Americas and Oceania long after they had established communities throughout most of the eastern hemisphere, but long before any people began to experiment with agriculture. Their migrations took place during ice ages, when gla­ ciers locked up much of the earth's water, causing sea levels all over the world to de- cline precipitously-sometimes by as much as 300 meters (984 feet). For thousands of years, temporary land bridges joined ( In this Mayan regions that both before and after the ice ages were separated mural from by the seas. One land bridge linked Siberia with Alaska. Another Bonampak in modern Mexico, war Maya (MY-uh) captives prepare to be sacrificed by Yucatan (yoo-kah-TAN) their captors. joined the continent of Australia to the island of New Guinea. Human groups took advantage of those bridges by migrating to new lands. AMERICAS When the earth's temperature rose and the 13,000 B.C.E. Human migration to North America glaciers melted, beginning about eighteen thou­ from Siberia sand years ago, the waters returned and flooded 8000-7000 B.C.E. Origins of agriculture in Mesoamerica low-lying lands around the world. Eventually, the 4000 B.C.E. Origins of maize cultivation in Mesoamerica seas once again divided Asia from America by 3000 B.C.E. Origins of agriculture in South America the body of water known as the Bering Strait, and 1200-100 B.C.E. Olmec society they also separated Australia and New Guinea. 1000-300 B.C.E. Chavfn cult By that time, however, human communities had 200 B.C.E.-750 C.E. Teotihuacan society become well established in each of those areas. 300-1100 C.E. Maya society The return of high waters did not put an end 300-700 C.E. Mochica society to human migrations. Human groups fanned out from Alaska and ventured to all corners of North, OCEANIA Central, and South America. Beginning about 60,000 B.C.E. Human migration to Australia and New Guinea 3000 B.C. E. coastal peoples of southeast Asia 3000 B.C.E. Origins of agriculture in New Guinea built large sailing canoes and established human 3000 B.C.E. Austronesian migrations to New Guinea settlements in the previously uninhabited islands 1500-500 B.C.E. Lapita society of the Pacific Ocean. By about 700 C. E. human 1500 B.C.E.-700 C.E. Austronesian migrations to Pacific islands beings hnrl established communities in almost every habitable part of the world. Although they were separated by large bodies of water, by no means did human migrants to the Americas and Oceania lead completely isolated lives. On the contrary, there were frequent and sometimes regular interactions between peoples of different societies within the Americas and within Oceania. It is likely that at least fleeting encounters took place as well between peoples of the eastern and western hemispheres, although very little evidence survives to throw light on the nature of those encounters in early times. Yet even as they dealt with peoples of other societies, the first inhabitants of the Americas and Oceania also established distinctive societies of t heir own. Despite their different origins and their distinctive political, social, and cultural traditions, peoples of the Americas and Oceania built societies that in some ways resembled those of the eastern hemi­ sphere. Human communities independently discovered agriculture in several regions of North America and South America, and migrants introduced cultivation to the inhabited Pacific islands as well . W ith agriculture came increasing populations, settlement in towns, specialized labor, formal political au­ thorities, hierarchical social orders, long-distance trade, and organized religious traditions. The Ameri­ cas also generated large, densely populated societies featuring cities, monumental public works, imperial states, and sometimes traditions of writing as well. Thus, like their counterparts in the eastern hemisphere, the earliest societies of the Americas and Oceania reflected a common human tendency toward the development of increasingly complex social forms. EARLY SOCIETIES OF MESOAMERICA Much is unclear about the early population of the Americas by human communities. Several archaeologi­ cal excavations suggest that at least a few human groups had made their way to the Americas by 15 ,000 B.C.E. or earlier, although it is not clear whether they arrived by land or by water. However, it is clear that large-scale migration to the Americas began after 13,000 B.C.E., as humans made their way in large 68 PART I THE EARLY COMP L E X S O CIETIES, 3500 TO 500 e c E numbers across the Bering land bridge. Once in the Americas, humans quickly populated all habitable regions of the western hemisphere. By 9500 B.C.E. they had reached the southernmost part of South America, more than 17,000 kilometers (1 0,566 miles) from the Bering land bridge. The earliest human inhabitants of the Americas lived exclusively by hunting and gath­ ering. Beginning about 8000 B.C.E., however, large game animals became scarce, partly because they did not adapt well to the rapidly warming climate and partly because of over­ hunting by expanding human communities. By 7500 B.C.E. many species oflarge animals in the Americas were well on the road to extinction. To survive, some human communi­ ties supplemented the foods they gathered with fish and small game. Others turned to agriculture, and they gave rise to the first complex societies in the Americas. The Olmecs EARLY A G RIC U L T U R E IN ME 5 DAME RIC A By 8000 to 7000 B.C.E. the peoples of Mesoamerica-the region from the central portion of modern Mexico to Honduras and El Salvador-had begun to experiment with the cultivation of beans, chili peppers, avocados, squashes, and gourds. By 4000 B.C.E. they had discovered the agricultural potential of maize, which soon became the staple food of the region. Later they added tomatoes to the crops they cultivated. Agricultural villages appeared soon after 3000 B.C.E., and by 2000 B.C.E. agriculture had spread throughout Mesoamerica. Early Mesoamerican peoples had a diet rich in cultivated foods, but most large ani­ mals of the western hemisphere were not susceptible to domestication. For that reason, Mesoamericans were unable to harness animal energy as did the peoples of the eastern hemisphere. As a result, human laborers prepared fields for cultivation, and human por­ ters carried trade goods on their backs. Mesoamericans had no need for wheeled vehicles, which would have been useful only if draft animals had been available to pull them. cERE M oN 1 A L cENTER 5 Toward the end of the second millennium B.C.E., the tempo of Mesoamerican life quickened as elaborate ceremonial centers with monu­ mental pyramids, temples, and palaces arose alongside the agricultural villages. These were not cities like those that existed in the eastern hemisphere, because only members of the ruling elite, priests, and those who tended to their needs were permanent residents. Instead, most people lived in surrounding villages and gathered in the ceremonial centers only on special occasions or on market days. DLMEC5: THE "RUBBER PEOPLE" The earliest known ceremonial centers of the ancient Americas appeared on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, near the modern Mexican city of Veracruz, and they served as the nerve center of the Olmecs, the first complex society of the Americas. Historians and archaeologists have systematically studied Olmec society only since the 1940s, and many questions about them remain unanswered. Even their proper name is unknown: the term Olmec (meaning "rubber people") did not come from the ancient people themselves but derives instead from the rubber trees that flourish in the region they inhabited.