Mayan%20Civilization

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Mayan Civilization

• Who are these people?

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Origin

• The Maya lived in what is now southern Mexico
  into northern Central America. The Yucatan
  Peninsula.
• The Maya began to grow as a civilization from
  2000 B.C. to 400 B.C. By A.D. 250, the Maya were
  a flourishing civilization.

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Where they lived
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Urban Centers

• The Classic Period 250 to 900 A.D.
• The Maya built advanced cities such as Tikal,
  Copan, Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichen Itza.
• Independent city-states ruled by a god-king.
  Center for religious ceremonies and trade.

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Urban Centers contd

• These cities featured pyramids, temples, palaces,
  and elaborate stone carvings dedicated to gods.
  Tens of thousands of people lived in these
  cities.
• Each Maya city featured a ball court in which
  they played a game that had religious
  significance.

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Chichen Itza
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Agriculture Trade

• Cities were linked through alliances and trade.
• Exchanged salt, flint, feathers, shells, and
  honey, as well as craft goods like cotton
  textiles and jade ornaments.
• Grew maize, beans, and squash.
• Used slash and burn techniques as well as
  planting on raised beds over swamps and hillside
  terraces.

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Kingdoms

• Successful farming led to accumulation of wealth
  and the development of social classes (like
  feudal Europe at the same time).
• Kings holy, heriditary.
• Nobles priests and leading warriors
• Merchants and skilled artisans
• Peasants (the majority)

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Mayan Religion

• Polytheistic, believed that many gods influenced
  daily aspects of life.
• Believed that each day was a living god whose
  behavior could be predicted with the aid of a
  system of calendars

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Religious Practices

• Made offerings of food, flowers, and incense.
• Pierced and cut into bodies and offered their
  blood.
• Sometimes used human sacrifice, usually captured
  enemies.
• Believed that this pleased the gods and kept the
  world in balance.

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Mayan Math

• Their religious beliefs led to the development of
  the calendar, math, and astronomy.
• Time was a burden on the back of a god, who would
  pass it off to another god the next day.
• A day would be lucky or unlucky depending on the
  nature of the god.

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Calendar

• Developed a 260 day religious calendar, which
  consisted of thirteen 20-day months.
• Also developed a 365 (like ours!) day solar
  calendar which consisted of eighteen 20-day
  months.
• The two calendars were linked together like gears
  so that any day could be identified in both
  cycles.
• Helped identify best times to plant crops, attack
  enemies, and crown new rulers.

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Calendar contd
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Calendar contd

• The Mayan calendar was based on careful
  observation of the planets, sun, and moon
  (astronomy).
• Accuracy were able to calculate the solar year
  at 365.2420 days, only .0002 of a day short of
  the calendar we use today.

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Mayan Math

• They used a system that had the concept of zero.
• Base-20 system (we use a base-10)
• Shell symbol for zero
• Dots for numbers one through four
• A bar for five
• They used numbers for their calendar and
  astronomical work.

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Written Language

• The Maya also had the most developed writing
  system in the ancient Americas.
• System consisted of around 800 hieroglyphic
  symbols or glyphs.
• Some stood for words, others syllables.
• Used stone or bark-paper recordings called a
  codex to keep records.
• Creation story called the Popol Vuh.

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Decline

• No one knows for certain why the Maya declined
• Around 800 A.D. they began to abandon their
  city-states.
• Invaded by the Toltec from the north.
• Warfare caused problems with the economy and
  trade.
• Over-population and over-farming were problems as
  well.
• By 1500, when the Spanish arrived, the Maya were
  a collection of small, weak city-states.

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