Mayan Civilization
Introduction
The Mayan civilization had territory in what is today known as southern Mexico and the
northern parts of Central America (Mesoamerica), including the land now occupied by
the nations of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. the Maya were centered
in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
This civilization flourished from about 1800 B.C.E. to 900 C.E., at which point the civilization
was destroyed by the Spanish.
Political
The Maya were not a centralized state but rather made of several city-states. Each city-state
was ruled by its own ruler.
CITIES
Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Chichen Itza, Tayasal and Uxmal
each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya
population may have reached 2,000,000. Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed
plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the ball games that
were ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and
supported by a large population of farmers.
Some of the most important cities were:-
Chichen Itza – Tayasal – Uxmal.
Religion
The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods (Polytheistic: Poly means
many and theistic means the belief in a deity -god). These gods were related to nature,
including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn.
Rulers were believed to be descendants of the gods and their blood was the ideal
sacrifice, either through personal bloodletting or the sacrifice of captives of royal
blood.. . The Maya believed in a scary afterlife where the soul had to travel through a dark
underworld, Xibalba (shee bal bah), a place of fright where where mean gods would
torment them.
Gods
Izmana –The most important Maya god. Itzamna was the god of fire who created the Earth. He
was ruler of heaven as well as day and night. The Maya believed that he gave them the
calendar and writing. It is thought that his name means "lizard house"
Kukulcan - Winged God - Feather Serpent.
Bolon Tzacab - Also known by the name Huracan (similar to our word for hurricane), Bolon
Tzacab was the god of storms, wind, and fire. Maya mythology said that he caused a great flood
to come when the Maya angered the gods. His name means "one leg".
Chaac - was the god of rain and lightning. He had a lighting axe that he used to strike the clouds
and produce rain and storms.
Maya Mythology
Maya mythology tells the story of how man was created from maize. One popular tale told how
the gods opened Maize Mountain where the first seeds to plant maize were found.
Popular figures in Maya mythology
The Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. They fought demons as well as the lords of the
underworld.
Gukumatz - was a culture hero who taught the Maya, the arts of civilization,
including codes of law, agriculture, fishing and medicine. He came from an ocean,
and eventually returned to it. According to Mayan legend, Gukumatz will return to
the Earth during the End Times. He also represents the forces of good and evil.
Divine Kings
At the top of Maya society were the kings, or “kuhul ajaw” (holy lords), who claimed to
be related to gods. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and
people on earth. In some ways the kings were thought to be gods themselves. They followed
a hereditary succession. They performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals
so important to the Maya culture.
Priests
The priests were responsible for performing rituals to keep the people in the favor of the gods.
They were very powerful.
In the Book of the Jaguar Priest, the duties of the priests are described in detail. Some of the
duties included:
To impersonate the gods
To predict the future
To work miracles
To build tables of eclipses
To avert famine, drought, plagues, and earthquakes
To insure adequate rainfall Afterlife
Maya Calendar
A big part of the Maya religion included the stars and the Maya calendar. Some days were
considered lucky days, while other days were considered unlucky. They set their religious
ceremonies and festivals according to the position of the stars and the days of their calendar.
They believed that the world was created in 3114 BC. This was the zero date in their calendar.
The Maya predicted that the world would come to an end on December 21, 2012.
Maya Architecture
The Maya civilization is famous for its architecture. Many city-states built large palaces,
pyramids, and other public buildings that are still standing today. The buildings were covered
with carvings and statues to honor their gods as well as to commemorate their kings.
Pyramids
Pyramids The Maya are perhaps most known for their many majestic pyramids. They built two
kinds of pyramids. Both types of pyramids were similar in many ways. They each had the
familiar pyramid shape. They each had steep steps up the side that would allow someone to
climb to the top. They each were built for religious purposes and for the gods. However, they
had their differences as well.
The first type of pyramid had a temple on the top and was meant to be climbed by the priests to
make sacrifices to the gods. The stairs going up the sides of these pyramids were steep, but not
too steep for the priests to climb. The most important religious ceremonies were held at the top
of these pyramids.
The second type of pyramid was a sacred pyramid built to a god. These pyramids were not to
be climbed or touched by humans. There were still steps going up the sides of these pyramids,
but they were often too steep to climb without a lot of effort. These pyramids were sometimes
built with secret doors, tunnels, and traps.
Famous Pyramids
El Castillo - This pyramid was built as a temple to the god Kukulcan in the city of Chichen Itza.
The total height of the pyramid is just under 100 feet. Each side of El Castillo has 91 steps.
When you add up the steps on all four sides and then add in the top platform as a step, you get
365 steps, one for each day of the year.
La Danta - This pyramid is thought to be one of the largest pyramids in the world by total
volume. It is 250 feet tall and has a volume of 2.8 million cubic meters.
Interesting Facts about Maya Pyramids
Maya pyramids had a flat top. The pyramids of the Aztecs were very similar to those of the
Maya. The main difference was that the Aztec would sometimes build more than one temple on
the top of a pyramid.
Many times new pyramids were built on top of old pyramids. Archeologists have found several
more pyramids inside and under existing pyramids.
Some pyramids served as burial chambers for kings similar to the ancient Egyptians.
Many Maya buildings and temples were aligned with celestial events such as the path of the
sun.
Palaces
Each Maya city-state would have a large palace inside the city for their king and the royal family.
These palaces were sometimes large monuments to powerful kings. One of the most famous
palaces is the palace at Palenque built by King Pakal. It was a large complex of many buildings
and courtyards including a tall tower that looked over the city. It was covered with colorful
hieroglyphics and carvings of the king and his family.
Maya Palaces:
Palaces are found at all of the major Maya sites. These buildings were located in the
heart of the city, near the pyramids and temples so important to Maya life. In some
cases, the palaces were very large, multi-storied structures: this may indicate a
complicated bureaucracy was in place to rule the kingdom. The palaces were home to
the king and the royal family. Many of the King’s tasks and duties were carried out not in
the temples but in the palace itself. These events might have included feasts,
celebrations, diplomatic occasions and receiving tribute from vassal states.
Ball Courts
The Maya also built giant ball courts where they would play their game with a rubber ball. Some
major cities had multiple courts. Sometimes ball courts were attached to temples. The courts
had two long stone walls, sometimes built with sloped sides.
The Disaster Theory:
Early Maya researchers believed that some catastrophic event may have doomed the
Maya. An earthquake, volcanic eruption or sudden epidemic disease could have
destroyed cities and killed or displaced tens of thousands of people, bringing the Maya
civilization crashing down. These theories have been discarded today, however, largely
because of the fact that the decline of the Maya took about 200 years: some cities fell
while others thrived, at least for a while longer. An earthquake, disease or other
widespread calamity would have snuffed out the great Maya cities more or less
simultaneously.
The Warfare Theory:
The Maya were once thought to have been a peaceful, pacific culture. This image has
been shattered by the historical record: new discoveries and newly deciphered
stonecarvings clearly indicate that the Maya warred frequently and viciously among
themselves. City-states such as Dos Pilas, Tikal, Copán and Quirigua went to war with
one another quite often: Dos Pilas was invaded and destroyed in 760 A.D. Did they war
with one another enough to cause the collapse of their civilization? It’s quite possible:
war brings with it economic disaster as well as collateral damage that could have
caused a domino effect in the Maya cities.
The Famine Theory:
Preclassic Maya (1000 B.C. - 300 A.D.) practiced basic subsistence agriculture: slash-
and-burn cultivation on small family plots. They planted mostly corn, beans and squash.
On the coast and lakes, there was some basic fishing as well. As the Maya civilization
advanced, the cities grew, their population growing much larger than could be fed by
local production. Improved agricultural techniques such as draining wetlands for
planting or terracing hills picked up some of the slack, and improved trade also helped,
but the large population in the cities must have put great strain on the food production.
A famine or other agricultural calamity affecting these basic crops could certainly have
caused the downfall of the ancient Maya.
Civil Strife Theory:
As the populations in the large cities boomed, great strain was placed on the working
class to produce food, build temples, clear rainforest, mine obsidian and jade and do
other labor intensive tasks. At the same time, food, was becoming more and more
scarce. The idea that a hungry, overworked working class might overthrow the ruling
elite is not too farfetched, especially if warfare between city-states was as endemic as
researchers believe.
Environmental Change Theory:
Climate change may also have done in the ancient Maya. As the Maya were dependent
on the most basic agriculture and a handful of crops, supplemented by hunting and
fishing, they were extremely vulnerable to droughts, floods, or any change in the
conditions that affected their food supply. Some researchers have identified some
climatic change that occurred around that time: for example, the coastal water levels
rose towards the end of the Classic period. As coastal villages flooded, people would
have moved to the large inland cities, placing strain upon their resources while at the
same time losing food from farms and fishing.
So…What Happened to the Ancient Maya?:
Experts in the field simply do not have enough solid information to state with clear-cut
certainty how the Maya civilization ended. The downfall of the ancient Maya was likely
caused by some combination of the factors above. The question seems to be which
factors were most important and if they were linked somehow. For example, did a
famine lead to starvation, which in turn led to civil strife and warring upon neighbors?
That doesn't mean that they've giving up trying to find out. Archaeological digs are
ongoing at many sites and new technology is being used to re-examine already
excavated sites. For example, recent research, using chemical analysis of soil samples,
indicates that a certain area at the Chunchucmil archaeological site in Yucatan was
used for a food market, as had been long suspected. Mayan glyphs, long a mystery to
researchers, have mostly been deciphered.
