Maya

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Maya
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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Mayan cities were city-states. Each ruler a god.
  Cities unified by a common language, culture,
  and roads.

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Cities were centers for religion and trade. They
  had temples, pyramids, and ball courts.
• Tikal was almost 50 square miles and had a
  population of 55,000 people

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• The pyramid at Tikal is 212 feet high. It was
  the tallest building in the Americas until 1903.
  It was built so that Jupiter and Venus align over
  the pyramid.

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• The pyramid at Chichen Itza was built so that a
  shadow crept down the stairs like a snake only
  during the fall/spring equinox.
• This pyramid had 91 steps on 4 staircases plus
  the top 365

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Artisans made cotton cloth, jade/gold ornaments.
  Priests studied astronomy. Merchants traded by
  land/sea. Laborers built pyramids. Architects
  designed buildings.
• Farmers built raised fields that could drain
  water. Also terraced hillsides.

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Maya offered blood sacrifices to Gods. Gods
  could be good, evil, or both. Also human
  sacrifice.
• Itzam Na- creator God- also fire, rain, crops,
  earth- becomes Quetzalcoatl- most powerful ruler
  adopts the name Quetzalcoatl- like Caesar/Romans

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Had the most accurate calendar in the world.
  Only .0002 of a day off our modern calendar!
• Two calendars- one 260 day religious calendar- 13
  months 20 days each, one 365 day solar calendar-
  18 months 20 days each

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Maya- 1200 BC-900 AD

• Mayan writing- glyphs- over 800
• Books called codex written on paper made from
  bark
• Also invented concept of zero

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Maya Timeline

• Lowland Maya descendents of Olmec- arrive 1000BC
• 550 AD- fall of Teotihuacan- breakdown of
  centralized power at Tikal
• Increased power of local elites- more building
  projects and growing population- scarce food-
  competition for land-warfare
• 900 AD Toltec invade N. Yucatan- power shifts
  from Tikal to Chichen Itza.

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Mayan Timeline

• About 1200 Chichen Itza abandoned- power shifts
  to Mayapan- a walled city
• Revolt destroyed Mayapan in 1441
• By the arrival of Spaniards, empire dead.
• Toltec migrate to Valley of Mexico where they are
  destroyed.
• Legend of Quetzalcoatl lives on

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• Civilizations worshipping the Feathered Serpent
  included the Olmec, Mixtec, Toltec, Aztec, who
  adopted it from the people of Teotihuacan, and
  the Maya.

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