What the Ancients Did for Us - The Aztecs and Maya 3/3

What the Ancients Did for Us - The Aztecs and Maya Part 3

Series examining the innovations and inventions of ancient civilisations. Roving reporter Hermione Cockburn describes Aztec and Mayan inventions.

The Aztecs and the Mayas - known collectively as Mesoamericans - have been processing rubber and latex for over 3500 years (imagine a world without rubber or chewing gum) and they also invented the rubber ball and used it in their deadly ball game where the losing team would be sacrificed.

As an alternative to iron these inventive people made their knives, spears and arrow heads from Obsidian, an extremely sharp stone. Nowadays, surgeons use Obsidian instead of steel scalpels.

They understood the healing power of the rainforest and its plants - amazingly three quarters of all our medicine comes from plants - and in their hands, the wild yam formed the basis of world's first birth control pill. They understood quinine and many European settlers preferred to attend the local Aztec healer rather than their own doctor.

More than half the foods we eat originated in the New World, including potatoes, tomatoes, maize and turkey. But there was one thing that the Aztecs loved above all: chocolate. To them, the cacao bean was so precious they used it as their currency.

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• Aztec
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[ohnoesfedzilla]

aw weres teh rest! lol

[swingbeeper]

i love Hermione Cockburn!!

Intelligence is a very attractive trait!

[ChickenFriedSushi]

Jade settings in the teeth. Original pimpin'

[thoostorm4]

@AdawehiMeliLayton veryimportantmiho

[drugssexandtrumpets]

do you think herminone lives up to her name?

[Navlek79]

now they make world class chocolate in europe but they don't have cacao. they make cheese in europe and they don't have much grazeland for cows.

[qkills]

she is also has, indeed.

[imperatorcaesar100]

she is also has physical beauty too.

[AdawehiMeliLayton]

Like we are going to tell a wanna be about valuable info so the europeaners can't change it and say it theirs.