Mayans Began to develop around 300 A.D. in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador Known as “The People of the Jaguar”

Characteristics of a Civilization Intensive agricultural techniques like animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation A social hierarchy Organized religion and education Development of complex forms of economic exchange Development of new technologies

Agriculture Maize Cacao

Agriculture Soil in Mesoamerican lowlands was thin and quickly lost fertility –Mayans built terraces to retain the silt and therefore greatly improved agricultural production Raised maize, cotton, and cacao –Cacao was a precious commodity consumed mostly by nobles and even used as money Cacao tree

Cities

Cities: Tikal From about 300 to 900, the Maya built more than eight large ceremonial centers –All had pyramids, palaces, and temples Some of the larger ones attracted dense populations and evolved into genuine cities –The most important was Tikal –Small city-kingdoms served as the means of Mayan political organization

Cities: Tikal Tikal was the most important Mayan political center between the 4 th and 9 th Centuries –Reached its peak between 600 and 800 with a population of nearly 40,000 The Temple of the Jaguar dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region which had a population of about 500,000

Tikal: Temple of the Jaguar 154 feet high Served as funerary pyramid for Lord Cacao, Maya ruler of the late 6 th and early 7 th centuries

Social Hierarchy A Mayan Priest A Mayan Warrior

Social Hierarchy King and ruling family Priests Hereditary nobility (from which came the merchant class) Warriors Professionals and artisans Peasants Slaves

Social Hierarchy King and ruling family –Ruled from the city- kingdoms such as Tikal –Ruled by semi-divine right and believed their connection with the gods was maintained by ritual human sacrifice –Often had names associated with the jaguar Priests –Maintained an elaborate calendar and transmitted knowledge of writing, astronomy, and mathematics A Mayan King

Social Hierarchy 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 Warriors –Mayan 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 Hierarchy Professionals and artisans –Architects and sculptors supervised construction of the large monuments and public buildings Peasants –Fed the entire society Slaves –Provided physical labor for the construction of cities and monuments –Often had been captured in battle

Religion and Education Human Sacrifice and Bloodletting Ritual

Bloodletting Rituals Mayans believed the shedding of human blood would prompt the gods to send rain to water the maize Bloodletting involved both war captives and Mayan royals Mayan queen holds a bowl filled with strips of paper used to collect blood.

Economic Exchange Mayan symbol for movement

Economic Exchange 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 used as money

New Technologies Mayan Calendar Observatory at El Caracol

New Technologies Excelled in astronomy and mathematics –Could plot planetary cycles and predict eclipses of the sun and moon –Invented the concept of zero and used a symbol to represent zero mathematically, which facilitated the manipulation of large numbers –By combining astronomy and mathematics, calculated the length of the solar year at days– about 17 seconds shorter than the figure reached by modern astronomers Mayan numerical system

New Technologies: Calendar Mayan priests developed the most elaborate calendar of the ancient Americas Interwove two kinds of year –A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle –A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty “months” of thirteen days each Believed each day derived certain characteristics from its position on both the solar and ritual calendars and carefully studied the combinations –Lucky and unlucky days

Art and Writing Mayan writing

Mayan Decline By about 800, most Mayan populations had begun to desert their cities –Full scale decline followed everywhere but in the northern Yucatan Possible causes include foreign invasion, internal dissension and civil war, failure of the water control system leading to agricultural disaster, ecological problems caused by destruction of the forests, epidemic diseases, and natural disasters