Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations

The Teaching Company

Ancient Maya Civilization

The Inka and Their Predecessors

Taught by: Professor Brian M. Fagan—University of California at Santa Barbara
Professor Fagan takes you into some of the sophisticated chiefdoms and civilizations that developed in the Americas over the past 3,500 years, including the Pueblo cultures of the North American Southwest and the Mississippian culture of the South and Southeast. You will also learn about Mesoamerican civilization, the primordial Olmec culture of the lowlands, and the spectacular Ancient Maya civilization.
Moving to the highlands, you will visit the city-states of Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca and Teotihuacán near the Valley of Mexico. Professor Fagan also describes the rise of Aztec civilization, followed by a journey to the Andes, where the beginnings of Andean civilization on the arid north coast of Peru culminated in the Moche civilization of the first millennium A.D. Finally, you explore the southern highlands, with the rise of Tiwanaku near Lake Titicaca, the Chimu civilization of the coast, and the huge Inka empire.
The series closes with a lecture on the closing centuries of prehistoric times during the European age of discovery and summarizes the main issues and themes of the course—what was involved in the archaic world, the appearance and spread of modern humans, food production, and the development of states.