2500-900 A.D.

Yucatan Peninsula & Central America

Settled in dense rain forests and cleared land for living and

farming
The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely

defined zones: the southern Maya highlands, the southern (or central) Maya lowlands, and the northern Maya lowlands.
The southern Maya highlands include all of elevated terrain in

Guatemala and the Chiapas highlands.

 The southern lowlands lie just north of the highlands, and

incorporate the Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo and northern Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador.
The northern lowlands cover the remainder of the Yucatn

Peninsula, including the Puuc hills.

Chichn Itz- Center of Mayan trade, Largest Mayan city- Tikal (modern day Guatemala)

 Arranged into city-states (ajawil, ajawlel, or ajawlil) Every city-state had a ruling chief
Ruling chief usually a man though sometimes women

served (ajaw)
Nobles under the chief led the military, collected

taxes, and enforced laws

 Traders No carts or transportation, carried goods on

back Traded honey, cocoa, and feathers

Farming Method Cleared rainforests and created raised fields that caught rain water Channels drained excess water Crops mostly corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton.

 Polytheistic Over 160 Gods

God of Death God of Rain

 Sacrifices took place on top of tall pyramids

Sacrifice needed to keep order in the universe In some Maya rituals people were killed by having their arms

and legs held while a priest cut the person's chest open and tore out his heart as an offering. This is depicted on ancient objects such as pictorial texts, known as codices.
No clear concept of good or bad decided by season

Suicides, sacrifices, women who died in childbirth, and

warriors went straight to heaven

 Chief at the top

Considered god-like
Moved on to sons when sons born, blood

sacrifice of chiefs blood To be king, have to take a captive and use captive as part of ceremonial sacrifice
Ruling nobles

 Priests important because only they could perform

religious ceremonies needed for success in war and good harvests

Majority of Mayas were farmers Men cultivated while women made food Paid taxes in food and helped build temples Beauty standards skull deformation, piercings,

and tattoos

 Hieroglyphs just recently deciphered

 Books kept on bark Ball games Rubber ball forbidden to use open hands or feet usually

used hips Captain of losing team or other members sometimes sacrificed Most building materials are limestones from quarries
Urban design consists of fresh water wells (cenotes), (sacbeob)

causeways to connect great plazas , royal acropolis, great pyramid temples and occasionally ball-courts.

 Math

Priests decided

ceremony times Numbering system included zero

 Calendar
365 day solar

calendar 260 day calendar based on the orbit of Venus

 Around 900 A.D., Mayan cities abandoned.

This collapse, current theories fall into two categories:

non-ecological and ecological.

Non-ecological theories of Maya decline are divided into

several subcategories, such as overpopulation, foreign invasion, peasant revolt, and the collapse of key trade routes.
Ecological hypotheses include environmental disaster,

epidemic disease, and climate change.