MAYAN CIVILIZATION

COUNTRY, HISTORY & CIVILIZATION

The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a
term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike
other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical
block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican
states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. This concentration
showed that the Maya remained relatively secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples.

At its height, Mayan civilization consisted of more than 40 cities, each with a population between
5,000 and 50,000. Among the principal cities were Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas,
Calakmul, Palenque, and Río Bec. The peak Mayan population may have reached two million people,
most of whom were settled in the lowlands of what is now Guatemala.

The Maya refer to both a modern-day people who can be found all over the world as well as their
ancestors who built an ancient civilization that stretched throughout much of Central America, one that
reached its peak during the first millennium A.D.

The Maya civilization was never unified; rather, it consisted of numerous small states, ruled by
kings, each apparently centered on a city. Sometimes, a stronger Maya state would dominate a weaker
state and be able to exact tribute and labor from it.

The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and
noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-
Columbian Americas— as for their stunning accomplishments are still evident today: it was they who
first cultivated chocolate, chilli peppers, vanilla, papayas, maize, beans, squashes, and pineapples. The
Maya built causeways and reservoirs, created great works of sculpture and symbolic artwork, carved
fantastic jade masks and wove rich colorful textiles.

The Maya also developed astronomy, calendrical systems, sophisticated mathematical system
and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial
architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces, courts for playing ball, plazas and observatories, all
built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest
and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of
rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles
and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples. The Maya also invented elastic a
long time before the process of vulcanization, or rubber-making, was discovered..

CONTRIBUTIONS
Astronomy
The Maya studied the heavenly bodies and recorded information on the development of the sun,
the moon, Venus, and the stars. Of all the world's ancient calendar systems, the Maya and other
Mesoamerican systems are the most complex, intricate and accurate. Calculations of the congruence of
the 260-day and the 365-day Maya cycles is almost exactly equal to the actual solar year in the tropics,
with only a 19-minute margin of error. Maya astronomer-priests looked to the heavens for guidance.
They used observatories, shadow-casting devices, and observations of the horizon to trace the complex
motions of the sun, the stars and planets in order to observe, calculate and record this information in
their chronicles, or "codices". Mayan astronomy was very important in Mayan society because of its
religious significance. It was used to depict the order in the universe and the relation between the gods
and the terrestrial world. Celestial objects and their movements were associated with the passage of time
and prediction of future events. Mayan astronomy was performed by Mayan priests and they were highly
respected individuals, enjoying social status on par with the Mayan nobility. Mayans also associated
certain celestial objects with deities and the movements of constellations and stars, which according to
Mayan beliefs, influenced the course of human life on earth.
Ball Courts
The Maya loved their games, and had ball courts in every city, much like present-day stadia. The
games were of extraordinary significance to the Maya and were frequently played during religious
celebrations, lasting for up to 20 days. The courts were situated at the foot of sanctuaries to pay tribute
to the gods and goddesses. Ball courts were expansive, each with a stone hoop mounted on a divider at
one side. Ball courts are one of the most frequent feature of Mesoamerican civilisations. Mayans were
among the earlier civilisations to feature ball courts in their cities. The Mayan version of the ball game
included two teams who moved a ball with their hips, hands and arms, but without touching it with their
hands. Often the objective of the game was to put the hall through a hoop at the opposite end of the field
to score points. In this, the ball game of Mayans somewhat resembled modern basketball. Some of these
hoops were placed at 10 feet while others were placed at a height of 20 feet.

Chocolate
The ancient Maya were the first to discover the many uses of the cacao bean between 250 and
900 AD. They mixed the cacao bean with pepper and cornmeal to make a fiery chocolate drink. Sugar
was rare in those days, which was a blessing considering there was no dental care to speak of. As a
consequence, the Maya did not suffer from sugar-related conditions such as diabetes or obesity.
However, sugary modern-day chocolate and chocolate drinks can be traced back to the Maya. Cacao
beans were also used as glue by being boiled and mixed with different bases, and were even considered
valuable enough to be used as currency.

Hallucinogenic Drugs
The Maya took great pride in their customs and traditions. Every occasion was feted in a grand
way, and people with special powers known as shamans conducted rituals for the gods. The shamans
took stimulating drugs to induce trance-like states during these rituals in order to make contact with the
spiritual world. These substances affected the body in such a way that pain was not felt, and energy was
increased. A number of these substances have subsequently been used as pain relief in modern medicine.

Law and Order

In the Mayan Empire, laws were standardized across every state and were applicable to all levels
of society. If someone broke the law, they would go to court where punishments were meted out
according to the crime. Victims of theft were personally involved in the process of justice. Murder was
uncommon because the punishment was so extreme. If you were found guilty of murder, you would face
execution and reparations from the victim’s family in terms of goods or land. The families could be
granted a house, goods, cattle, or land, which might leave the perpetrator’s whole family with nowhere
to live as a consequence of a guilty verdict.

Mathematics
Maya mathematics constituted the most sophisticated mathematical system ever developed in
the Americas. The Maya counting system required only three symbols: a dot representing a value of
one, a bar representing five, and a shell representing zero. These three symbols were used in various
combinations, to keep track of calendar events both past and future, and so that even uneducated people
could do the simple arithmetic needed for trade and commerce. That the Maya understood the value of
zero is remarkable - most of the world's civilizations had no concept of zero at that time. Mayans also
had a concept of zero at a time when many other contemporary civilisations in the world were unfamiliar
with it. In the Mayan system, a single digit was represented by a dot, the zero was represented by a shell
and a line depicted 5. For advanced computations, Mayans used a base-20 system to denote larger
numbers. Along with astronomy, mathematical knowledge also played an important role in helping the
Maya develop their calendar.

Mayan Art
The Maya developed highly sophisticated artforms. They created art in a variety of materials,
including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco and finely painted murals.
Wood carving is believed to have been common but only a few artifacts survive. Stone stelae are
widespread at Maya sites. The most famous among them, from Copan and Quirigua, are outstanding for
their intricateness of detail. The cities of Palenque and Yaxchilan are famous for their decorative lintels
including the renowned Yaxchilan Lintel 24. Several Maya stairways have been decorated with a great
variety of scenes, like at Tonina. Zoomorphs are large boulders sculpted to resemble living creatures.
Maya Zoomorphs are highly complicated relief ornamentation, especially those at Quirigua. The Maya
had a long tradition of mural painting, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Among the best preserved
Maya murals is a full-size series of paintings at Bonampak. The Maya also created an elite chipped
artifact known as eccentric flint, which are technically very challenging to produce. Mayan steps were
decorated with a variety of scenes such as the one found at Tonina. Zoomorphs are large rocks sculpted
in the shapes of animals such as those found Quirigua. The Maya had a long tradition of wall painting,
dating back to around 300 or 200 BC. Among the best-preserved Mayan wall paintings is a large-scale
example at Bonampak.

The Mayan Calendar

The famous Maya calendar was based on the system common in Mesoamerican cultures but it
was the Maya who developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication. The Maya calendar uses 3
different dating systems: the Tzolkin (divine calendar), the Haab (civil calendar) and the Long Count.
Tzolkin combines a cycle of 20 named days with another cycle of 13 numbers, to produce 260 unique
days. There are several theories for the 260 day count of Tzolkin including it being based on the human
gestation period; agricultural cycle of the region; and positions of the planet Venus. The Haab was the
solar calendar with 365 days. It consisted of 18 months of 20 days each, followed by 5 extra days, which
were considered unlucky and known as Wayeb. The Long Count was a non-repeating calendar
representing the number of days since the start of the Maya era. The right-most position counts single
days, the next position is a block of 20; the next is a block of 18 to make the calendar match the
approximate 360 days length of a year; the remaining positions follow their vigesimal number system.

Mayan Writing System

Mayans also excelled in lingual sciences and were able to develop an advanced language of their
own, which is the mark of a complex civilisation. The Mayan written language was unique in that it
made use of both phonetic and symbolic alphabets, later called glyphs. The phonetic glyphs, called
syllabograms, strung together different phonetic voices to build a single word. Logograms, or the
symbolic glyphs, were used to depict a word with the help of a single image. Mayans had nearly 800 of
these glyphs and by mixing both types of glyphs, Mayans had a very flexible language which was used
for effective communication, for penning down books and writing inscriptions on stone slabs.

The writing system of the Maya civilization, known as the Maya script, is believed to be the only
complete writing system in Mesoamerica, i.e. they could write everything they could say. According to
current data, the earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to 3rd century BCE. This
would also make the Maya one of three known civilizations where writing developed independently, the
others being China and Mesopotamia.

Rubber
The Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of agriculture. The Maya took the latex from
rubber trees and mixed it with juice from morning glory vines to produce rubber. Earliest use of rubber
in Mesoamerica has been dated to 1600 BCE, several millennia before vulcanization was developed in
the 19th century. The Maya, like several other Mesoamerican cultures, used bouncy rubber balls to play
the famous Mesoamerican Ballgame.

Sacbe
Mayan roads, called sacbe, were a marvel of Mayan technology. The sacbe were built between
different Mayan cities, helping the travellers and merchants in journeying along the route. The roads
were made of concrete, raised above the bed of the surrounding region and were as wide as 10 metres.
The roads had a mortar-joined stone foundation on top of which cast-in-place concrete was laid. They
were topped with limestone to give them a white outlook. Finally, a side wall of stone masonry was
propped to keep the structure in place. So well-built were these Mayan roads that many of them are still
extant today.