The Maya lived in southern Mexico and northern Central America, specifically in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Their empire spread over 125,000 square miles.
The geography of the Yucatan is mostly rainforest, with some mountainous areas.
A Growing Civilization
Archaeologists believe the Maya started working the land as early as 1800 B.C.
They began by building small farming villages.
By 200 A.D., some villages grew into cities.
Warriors fought over land and power.
No single ruler united the entire Mayan kingdom.
Rule and law were spread across 20 separate areas, each with its own ruler and noble class, centered around different city-states.
The ruler of a city-state did not interfere with the ruling of other city-states as long as they paid tribute.
Cities / Temples
Mayan cities were built around religious centers.
Some cities had great palaces.
The Maya built flat-topped pyramids made of limestone, where Mayan priest-kings held religious rituals.
Chichen Itza was a major religious center with many stone pyramids and structures.
Sacrifices were made to the gods on top of these pyramids.
An Economy Based on Agriculture
As Mayan cities grew, farmers needed to produce more food.
They farmed the sides of hills by carving them into flat terraces.
They built raised fields in the wet lowlands.
They burned trees and plants in forests to clear land for farming.
They moved good soil to areas with poor soil.
They dug water systems (irrigation) to bring water to dry areas.
Today, Mayan farmers still till the land and live in houses built in the traditional way.
Chultuns
Chultuns are small, man-made cave structures.
They served as some of the earliest forms of refrigeration.
They were used to store extra food supplies for longer periods.
Agriculture
Using these techniques, they grew corn, beans, and squash.
They traded their extra food between the highland and lowland people, and with people in Central America and Mexico.
In return, they received goods they couldn’t produce themselves, such as jade, feathers, and cacao beans.
Cacao beans held great value, used as money, and were restricted to only the most important Mayans.
Obsidian, a glass-like volcanic rock, was also traded and used as money.
Mayan Rulers
The Maya practiced polytheism, worshipping many gods.
They also worshipped their rulers and thought their rulers could influence the gods.
One Mayan ruler was named Pascal, who ruled for 68 years and was a priest and a warrior.
Priest-kings like Pascal killed animals and sometimes people as offerings to the gods.
The city of Palenque built a temple to record his achievements.
Social Structure
Mayan society was divided into three separate groups:
Kings and priests at the top
Artisans, tradesmen, and merchants in the middle and lower classes
Farmers at the lowest class
Sacrifices to the Gods
The Maya wanted to keep the gods happy and prevent disaster.
They believed that the gods needed blood.
Priest-kings like Pascal killed animals and sometimes people as offerings to the gods.
Prisoners and slaves were painted blue before being led up the staircases of a pyramid.
Many would die from stabbing arrows from onlookers, or they would be skinned alive.
Mayan Gods
Hun Hunahpu: The maize god and father of the hero twins. He was the most important deity for the Maya and brought about the creation for the present world age.
Chac: The god of rain, thunder, and lightning. He was both adored and feared and portrayed as both a benefactor and a violent warrior.
Gukumatz: The feathered snake god who taught the Maya the arts of civilization, including codes of law, agriculture, fishing, and medicine.
Ixchel: The Earth and Moon Goddess. She was also the goddess of creativity, weavers, childbirth, medicine and reason, and a bringer of the storms.
Recreation
The Mayan Ball Game involved players trying to hit a solid rubber ball through a stone ring using their leather-padded elbows, wrists, and hips.
People from all levels of Mayan society watched and placed bets on the outcome of the game.
Slaves, land, and homes could be won and lost during a game.
The losing team was sacrificed, and the captain of the defeated team was beheaded.
Some Mayans still play the game, though human sacrifice is strictly off limits.
Achievements of the Mayans
Hieroglyphs: They formed the first pre-Columbian writing system in the Americas.
Each picture stood for an object and/or a sound.
Some hieroglyphs stood for whole ideas, such as life or happiness.
Historians believe the writing used 800 different glyphs.
Hieroglyphs were carved on stone columns and record books called a codex.
The Spanish burned Mayan documents, and only four books with Mayan writings are believed to exist.
Astronomy:
They knew exact moon phases and were able to predict sun and moon eclipses.
They created very precise 365-day calendars for harvesting and a 260-day calendar for religious events.
Calendar:
The Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths..
The 260-day count is known as the Tzolkin.
The Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haab' to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haab', called the Calendar Round
Mathematics:
Were the first to use the symbol of zero (binary math)
Thought to be the first to use 0 as a placeholder, even before the babylonians
The number system was based on units of 20.
End of the Mayans
The collapse of the Classic Mayan civilization is one of the great mysteries.
The Mayan culture thrived for about 600 years.
By 900 C.E., the Maya had abandoned their cities to the jungle.
Possible causes:
Populations of the cities grew too fast for the farming system.
Long periods of drought causing crop failure.
Warfare was very bloody, hand-to-hand fighting with clubs and spears.
Invaders from central Mexico helped to destroy the city-states.
Some theories are:
The Disaster Theory
The Warfare Theory
The Famine Theory
Civil Strife Theory
Environmental Change Theory
The Maya civilization did not disappear; more than 6 million Maya live today in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize.
While the city-states of the Classic period lowlands may have been abandoned in the tenth century, the Maya people did not disappear.