The mysterious

Mayans

The Mayan civilization spread to the Yucatan Peninsula. It included more than 40 cities of 5,000 to 50,000 people each.

The Maya cities were split into two areas the highlands and the lowlands

The highlands traded with those in the lowlands.This way, people all over could get things they did not

have nearby.

Location

Southern LowlandsCovered by a rainforestContained scattered savannas and swampsGrew cropsPlayed an important role in transportation route

Northern HighlandsAlso comprised of forests – much drier, mainly

grew small thorny treesClimate: Much cooler and drier; fertile soilVolcanic Highlands: Source of obsidian, jade, and

other precious metals used to develop a tradeSubject to tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquakes

Location

Mayan society was split up into many distinct city-states, often warring, which usually surrounded temples

Traveling merchants served not just as traders but also as ambassadors to neighboring lands and allied people

Traded mainly in exotic and luxury goods such as rare animal skins, cacao beans, and finely crafted works of art which rulers coveted as signs of special status

Cacao beans were used as money

Government

Cacao beans used as money

Set up as a hierarchy King and ruling familyPriestsHereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)WarriorsProfessionals and artisansPeasantsSlaves

Social Structure

King and ruling familyRuled from the city-kingdoms such as TikalRuled by semi-divine right and believed their connection

with the gods was maintained by ritual human sacrificeOften had names associated with the jaguar

PriestsMaintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted

knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics

Social Structure

Mayan King

Mayan King

Mayan Priest

Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class)Owned most of the land and cooperated with the kings and

priests by organizing military forces and participating in religious rituals

WarriorsMayan kingdoms fought constantly with each other and

warriors won tremendous prestige by capturing high-ranking enemies

Captives were usually made slaves, humiliated, tortured, and ritually sacrificed

Social Structure

Mayan Warrior outfits and a male and female warrior

Professionals and artisansArchitects and sculptors supervised construction of the large

monuments and public buildingsPeasants

Fed the entire societySlaves

Provided physical labor for the construction of cities and monuments

Often had been captured in battle

Social Structure

The Maya believed their rulers were related to the gods.

Priests were the most educated people and planned religious ceremonies.

Professional warriors fought battles against other cities.

Merchants organized the transportation and distribution of trade.

Upper Class

The lower classes lived outside the city. The women worked in the house, and the men hunted and farmed.

The lower class supported the upper class with food and labor, and the upper class led religious ceremonies for them in return.

Slaves were the lowest class and consisted of orphans, slaves’ children, and people who owed money.

Majority of Mayan society was lower class

Lower Class

Had several gods to represent all of natureBelieved in cosmologyHad different gods in the different levels of the world

Upperworld – 13 levelsMiddleworld – where human’s are Underworld – 9 levels, mirror image of

worlds above

Religion

A popular bloodletting ritual was for a Mayan to pierce his own tongue and thread a thin rope through the hole, thus letting the blood run down the rope

Sometimes they would catch the blood on paper and burn it, so the smoke reaches the gods

Mayan kings and queens gave blood more often than villagers

Bloodletting

They believed the gods needed blood to prevent disasters and the end of the world.

Blood is a metaphor for control and to see spiritually deeper

Blood and pain bring “vision serpent”Used sting ray spines to poke the tongue an inch through

Bloodletting

Stingray spine

The Mayas had several methods of giving the human sacrifices.  Often, the priests took the victim to the altar at the temple.  Then

the priests cut the heart out of the living victim and presented it to the god.

In another method, the priests tied the victim to a wooden pole.  Then they threw spears and arrows at the victim's chest in the area of the heart.

Sacrifices

In the third type of sacrifice, they threw the victim into a sacred well.  the most famous of these wells is the Well of Sacrifices at Chichén Itzá.  

If victims survived the fall and did not drown, the priests pulled them back out of the well.  The Mayas believed the gods had chosen to spare these victims.  

The priests then asked the victims what messages they brought back from the gods.  The victims received special treatment from then on since the Mayas believed they had spoken to the gods.

Sacrifices

Mayans use slash and burn method to clear land for farming

Main food source is from farming: Mayans plant corn (maize), cacao, bananas, squash, beans, and cotton for weaving.

Used bees for honey and waxMeat was rarely eaten because it is

expensive and/or hard to find.Dogs and turkeys were the main animals kept

as pets and/or food.

Agriculture

Best soils were found in southern highland valleys where volcanic eruptions have enriched the earth

Spring-like climate and fertile valleys have made southern highlands a popular place to settle, despite volcanic threats

• Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production

Agriculture

Terracing for crops

The Maya calendar was complex and served a variety of purposes

Shaman used the day a child was born in the 20-day cycle to forecast its future.

Recorded recurring cosmological cycles, such as the sun, the moon, and Venus, some of the most important objects in the sky.

By combining astronomy and mathematics, calculated the length of the solar year at 365.242 days– about 17 seconds shorter than the figure reached by modern astronomers

Inventions / Technology

The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of Mayan beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012,  which is said to be the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Calendar.

To support this, several astronomical alignments and numerological formulae related to this date

Will the world end in 2012?

The Maya built cities without using metal tools. The Maya built observatories for priests to study the

stars.They developed religious and agricultural calendars.They created a number system and were the first to

include “0”.They developed a writing system that included both an

alphabet and hieroglyphics wrote in bark paper books.

Inventions / Technologies

Mayan Calendar and Observatory

Around 900 A.D., for reasons still not proven, the Mayas suddenly started to decline.  The theories proposed by archaeologists for their collapse are very diverse and most likely will remain a mystery forever.  Due to this, the theories that caused the disintegration of this incredible civilization deserve to be looked at in more detail.

The Mystery

increased warfare over foodpeople may have rebelled against the kings, who

demanded too much of them causing a civil warThe top of the government hierarchy fell a partforeign invasion from the SpanishClimate change, scientists found odd levels of

oxygen in different areasecological problems caused by destruction of the

forests epidemic diseases like the bubonic plaguenatural disasters (earthquake, long drought)

Theories

When the Spanish conquistadors stumbled over Mayan ruins six hundred years later, they didn’t believe that the ancestors of the indigenous people--whom they described as “savages”--had built these architectural wonders. 

Explorer - Spanish