Home > Maya civilization
:This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. See Maya people for a discussion of the modern Maya.The Maya are a people of southern Mexico and northern Central America with some 3,000 years of rich history. The Maya were part of the Mesoamerican Pre-Columbian cultures. Contrary to popular myth, the Maya people never "disappeared"; millions still live in the region, many of them still speak one of the Maya family of languages.
1 Origins
Archaeological evidence shows the Maya started to build ceremonial architecture some 3000 years ago. There is some disagreement as to the borders and difference between the early Maya and their neighboring Pre-Classic Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmec culture. The Olmec and early Maya seem to have influenced each other.
The earliest monuments consist of simple burial mounds, the precursors to pyramids erected in later times.
Eventually, the Olmec culture faded after spreading their influence into the Yucatan peninsula, present-day Guatemala, and other regions.
The Maya developed the famed cities of Tikal, Palenque, Copán and Kalakmul , as well as Dos Pilas, UaxactunUaxactun (pronounced Wash-ak-toon is an ancient ruin of the Maya civilization, located in the Peten department of Guatemala, some 40 km (25 miles) north of Tikal. The name is sometimes spelled as Waxaktun . Since the decipherment of the ancient Maya heiro, Altun HaAltun Ha is the name given ruins of an ancient Maya city in Belize, located in the Belize District about 30 miles (50 km) north of Belize City and about 6 miles (10 km) west of the shore of the Caribbean Sea. Altun Ha" is a modern name in the Maya languag, BonampakBonampak is an ancient Maya site in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, about 30km (20 miles) south of the larger site of Yaxchilan and the border with Guatemala. It is small Maya site, which was a dependency of Yaxchilan. All of the structures seem to have bee and many other sites in the area (see list of sites , below). They developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered empire consisting of numerous independent city-stateA city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. City-states were common in the ancient period. A city state was sovereign, although many cities were joined in formal or informal leagues under a high king. Many historical empires or leagues weres. The most notable monuments are the pyramids they built in their religiousReligion sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. Borobudur, a Buddhist stupa built between 750 and 850 Adriaen centers and the accompanying palaces of their rulers. Other important archaeological remains include the carved stone slabs usually called stelae (the Maya called them Tetun, or "Tree-stones"), which depict rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogyGenealogy is the study and tracing of family pedigrees. This involves collecting the names of relatives, both living and deceased, establishing the relationships between them based on primary, secondary and/or circumstantial evidence or documentation, and, warFor other uses of War, see War (disambiguation). War is conflict, between relatively large groups of people, which involves physical force inflicted by the use of weapons. Other terms for war include armed conflict hostilities and police action''. See Lim victories, and other accomplishments.
The Maya participated in long distance trade in Mesoamerica and possibly further lands. Important trade goods included cacaoCacao Tree Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Subkingdom: Tracheobionta Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Subclass: Dilleniidae Order: Malvales Family: Sterculiaceae Genus Theobroma Species cacao Binomial name Theobroma cacao L. The Cac, salt, and obsidian; see also: Obsidian use in Mesoamerica.
