Ancient
A Brief History of the Mayan Civilization
The Maya are a group of people of southern Mexico and northern Central America with some three thousand years of loaded history. The Maya were a division of the Mesoamerican Pre-Columbian civilizations. Dissimilar to popular belief, the Maya people never vanished completely, there are millions that still live in the area, and a lot of them still speak one of the many Maya languages (A Brief History of the Mayan Civilization, 2011). The Maya are perhaps the most well-known of the traditional civilizations of Mesoamerica. Mayan history began in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., Mayan history grew to fame around A.D. 250 in contemporary southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize (Mayan History, n.d.).
Building on the innate inventions and thoughts of previous civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya advanced astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya are well-known for complicated and extremely ornamented ceremonial architecture, comprising temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all constructed without metal apparatus. Mayan history demonstrates that they were also accomplished farmers, clearing large pieces of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, constructing large underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were similarly accomplished as weavers and potters, and cleared paths through jungles and swamps to encourage far-reaching trade networks with far-away peoples (Mayan History, n.d.).
Dissimilar from the cultures of the Valley of Mexico, the only era in which the urban centers were significant to the Mayas was throughout the Classic era from 300 to 900 AD. The culture of the Mayas, nevertheless, did not change much from the classic era to the modern era, for Maya culture was mostly tribal and rural all during the Classic era. What differentiates Classic from post-Classic Maya culture was the significance of urban centers and their arrangements in the spiritual life of the Mayas and the degree of educated culture (Mayan History, n.d.).
The Mayas were in no way a true urban civilization. Their urban centers were nearly completely used as spiritual centers for the rural population adjacent to them. Consequently, the turn down of the urban centers after 900 AD did not entail colossal social change so much as spiritual change. It is thought by some scholars that the desertion of the cities was mainly due to religious converting from the north. Nonetheless, the Classic era saw an outburst of cultural inspiration all throughout the area occupied by the Mayan tribes. They got a lot of cultural structures from the north, but also formulated a lot of cultural advances that intensely prejudiced all succeeding cultures all through Mesoamerica. Much of Maya culture, but especially the spiritual thinking of time, is still a very important feature of Native American life in Guatemala and Honduras today (Mayan History, n.d.).
In regards to the Early Classic era, there is little proof found of Mayans in the Northern region, in the Yucatan. There are a few secluded sites that are linked to that era, but they are more strongly linked stylistically with the Teotihuacan culture from the northern region near the present day Mexico City. That culture experienced a fall down at just about 600 AD for unidentified causes. That fall down ended their pressure in the Mayan areas, and marks the division between the Early and the Late Classic eras. In the Late Classic era the Mayan civilization thrived and attained its utmost heights (Periods in Maya Civilization, 2011).
In the Terminal Classic era, the Maya cities in the Central area suffered fall down. The crest of Maya culture moved to the north, to the Puuc Hills, centered at Uxmal. The Puuc architectural style is defined by different construction styles. The pressure of Puuc style architecture at Chichen Itza is easily seen in the older southern section, in the Nunnery Annex, the Iglesia and other small buildings in this region. Some Puuc style frontages can be seen in the older buildings uncovered where the external building had dropped away. The inside temple in El Castillo is also nearly pure Puuc Mayan. Only a hundred years after the fall down of the central Mayan cities, the cities in the Puuc hills also buckled, ending the Classic period (Periods in Maya Civilization, 2011).
The Post-Classic era is distinguished by the power of the Yucatan by the Toltec culture of central Mexico. This military culture brought the cult of Quetzelcoatl, renamed Kulkulcan by the Mayan, to the region. They account for the beginning of the Chacmool figures into the...
Whether this is in fact the case will be explored in the next section. The Case for Mayan Culture Researchers that do not agree with Haug and others argue that the Mayan culture has continued throughout history and has been passed down to individuals that are still alive today within areas of Central America. There is some agreement regarding this between various researchers that have studied Mayan culture, rituals, and architecture.
Mayan People The mystery for the collapse of the Mayan civilization has been a major focus for researchers in the field of archaeology for many years. What happened to Mayan people is one mystery that many people have been questioning about; they wondered how such a strong and a stable civilization which had flourished for about twenty-seven hundred years disappear without rational and clear explanation. However, there are different theories that
Mayan People There are many historical mysteries which have fascinated human and encouraged investigation. Among the most often examined and theorized over are the potential reasons for why the Mayan civilization suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth. Scholars, conspiracy theorists, and all manner of investigators have looked into the culture, the people, and the environment in the vain effort to finally determine exactly what happened to this large population.
Seafloor Sediments Mayan Mysteries the Mystery What caused the collapse of the Mayan Civilization? In 800 A.D. The Mayan Civilization was thriving in a region from southern Mexico to northern Honduras. These indigenous people (numbering over two million) were competent astronomers, they were successful farmers -- they converted hillsides into fertile fields for crops like maize (corn) and squash -- they built impressive facilities, created an accurate calendar and discussed philosophy. And they
" 4. Social and Political Life There is a general paucity of information about the actual societal and political structure of the Olmec. While there is not much evidence to build a comprehensive picture of the daily and social life of these people, there is enough available data from certain archeological sites to provide some reasonable speculations. One of the assumptions that is derived from the excavation of sites at San Lorenzo and
Culture, Continuity and Change The Mayan people In 800 A.D there existed the Maya Empire that comprised of many powerful city-states that spread south to Mexico and North to Honduras. The Maya culture was at its peak with massive temples lined up However a hundred yeas later the cities were in remains, unrestricted and just left alone for the jungle to reign. It still remains a great mystery of how the Mayan
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