Shield Flower’s ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers in the Americas across the sea for at least five millennia after agriculture made a significant comeback in the Old World. They had no interest in farming. There were just no plants like wheat or peas there. In the future, the Native Americans became well-known for their reliance on beans, squash, and corn. However, the plant known as teosinte, the original form of corn, was just a tuft of wild grass with tiny kernels, much smaller than baby corn found today. While ancient wheat was almost identical to modern wheat, teosinte was far less nutrient-dense.
The ladies of Mexico worked tirelessly for thousands of years to transform those little tufts into what we now know as ears of corn; they would sometimes plant the larger kernels from the largest tufts in the same way that they would experiment with other plants. They followed the deer and other game in the meantime, along with their menfolk. A person was remained hungry even after eating and scraping out the kernels from the ears of corn that had grown to a considerable size. In due course, the ladies realized that they were better fed when they had maize together with beans. The development of agriculture was a lengthy, drawn-out process that happened in stops and starts—far more so than in Europe. The change did finally come about: by 3500 bce, a small number of communities in Mexico had begun cultivating corn seriously; by 1800 bce, many more had followed suit. However, in contrast to the Old World, there had been several millennia of delay—a fact that, as Shield Flower’s descendants would learn, would matter much in the future.
Some inhabitants in Mesoamerica’s coastal and riverine regions had built permanent towns despite not having access to notable, high-protein plants since they could devote themselves to gathering various seafood species all year round. These people would have been more interested in the advantages of farming than others since they already had a tradition of living sedentary lives. The Olmecs first gathered in remarkable settlements around 1500 bce, close to the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico on what is known as Mexico’s isthmus.
They were mostly dependent on the maize and beans they grew. Their population increased quickly in comparison to other civilizations, and they constructed big, strong structures to store extra food. They distributed the required work, and the divisions made made it possible for certain groups of people to rise to greater authority than others. They created a calendar, and skilled sculptors became more proficient. They carved enormous sculptures of their heads in homage to gods, chiefs, or heavenly chiefs—we’re not sure which precisely. Later in the history of their descendants, other talented people invented writing by inscribed symbols on tablets that stood in for words, including the name of the Venusian deity, Ten Sky. These people expressed appreciation to their gods and took pleasure in their accomplishments, as shown by the sculptures and inscriptions they left behind.
It should come as no surprise that the Olmec influence grew as the maize and bean cultural complex moved east and west over the isthmus, inspiring others with its majestic features. Soon, massive stone pyramids emerged from the forest canopy towards the east. After learning to weave twisted strands of wild cotton into beautiful material, the Maya artisans who created them added paint produced from plant pigments or lime, and soon multicolored pennants flew in the breeze.
To commemorate the victories of their kings and to stake their claim to grandeur, they etched their words on enormous slabs of stone and placed them in front of the pyramids for all to see. Occasionally, they adorned ceremonial jars and plates with somewhat smaller figures. These developed into true poetry. For instance, a talented artisan created a hot chocolate cup one day around the year 800 as a present for a young royal. “He who gave the open space its place, who gave Jaguar Night his place, was the Black-Faced Lord, the Star-Faced Lord,” he said, glorifying both a mighty ruler and a creator deity at the same time.
Their intellectual speculations never carried the masses completely, though. The Maya waged bloody wars on their lesser neighbors when their population beyond what their territory could support or when they need a certain resource. As a result, a number of kingdoms rose to great prominence but eventually succumbed. No one Maya state was in a permanent position to rule others. The decisive victory of a particular royal lineage frequently led to the construction of the monumental architecture that has stood the test of time during what scholars refer to as the “classic” period, which lasted until roughly 800–900. In the “postclassic” period, most Maya kingdoms remained relatively small. Even yet, a lot of them ike Chichen Itza in the center of the Yucatán Peninsula were really remarkable.
In the meantime, other cultures influenced by the Olmecs spread and prospered to the west. For instance, the civilization of Monte Alban, which was located close to modern-day Oaxaca, governed over a vast valley, with delegates from several village councils making up the central authority. And beginning in 200 BCE, a city state by the name of Cuicuilco prospered in the central basin in the center of Mexico. Up until the day in the first century CE when neighboring Mount Xitle erupted and lava entirely buried the town, its strength much outweighed that of its neighbors. The volcano did its job so effectively that Mexican archaeologists had to use dynamite to unearth even a portion of the city. A power vacuum was created by Cuicuilco’s withdrawal, but it would not remain. By then, almost everyone in central Mexico was a maize planter, and as a result, many of them had big populations and amazing arts and crafts.