Recent Discoveries in Mesoamerica - Essay Example

The paper "Recent Discoveries in Mesoamerica" is an outstanding example of an essay on anthropology. Mesoamerica is a term used to refer to a region in the Americas that shares some common cultural practices among other things. It extends from central Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and finally to El Salvador. These places are historically united by the fact that they were occupied by pre –Colombian societies before their colonization by Spain in the 15th century. In this essay, we will explore some of the recent discoveries that have occurred in this region that has resulted in a change in the mindset of scholars about the perceptions that they previously held about this region (Lindsay 2002).
Recent discoveries have revealed that Mesoamerica to be the only place in North and South America where written language existed during ancient times. Different writing systems have been discovered in this region dating back over 1000BC and some of them remain undeciphered up until today. For a long time, scholars believed that ancient Mesoamerica to have been a peaceful region but due to recent discoveries have resulted in a paradigm shift about this believes. In 1970, a fortification was discovered at Becan by archeologists studying this region. This was a defensive fortification that aided the inhabitants of this place in their warfare activities hence presenting us with the evidence on the prevalence of warfare in this region. Furthermore, there have been recent discoveries of structures that resemble palisades which might have been used during warfare. The discovery of Maya city also presented us with evidence of the level of civilization that was already in existence in Mesoamerica during the ancient times. The city had thousands of structures including roads, terraces, and caves. The gigantic structures discovered in Mesoamerica such as the Great Pyramid of Cholula located in Puebla Mexico is one of the largest structures of its kind and it. It is the world’s largest pyramid and also regarded as the world’s largest monument (Lindsay 2002).