Mayans  

Mayans

The Maya of Mesoamerica created one of the most sophisticated ancient civilizations that flourished in America 1000 years before Columbus.

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Mayans

10 events | No comments | 1 - 1000

1

Maya continuity

The Maya, occupying the triangle of land framed by the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, have the longest identifiable history of any American people. Social customs, language and physical characteristics suggest an unbroken link...

1

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100

Emergence of Classical Maya civilization

The earliest Mayas are thought to have migrated from the northwest coast of California to the Guatemalan highlands during the 3rd millennium BC. From that homeland, Yucatec and Cholian speakers settled the northern and central lowlands between 1500 BC...

100

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200

Mayan agriculture

The Mayan civilization in all stages – formative, flourishing, declining, and continuing – has been based on agriculture. Indian corn, or maize, was domesticated from a wild grass in central Mexico about 7,000 years ago and sustained most sedentary...

200

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292

Mayan script, calendar and astronomy

The two most enduring achievements of the Mayas were their calendar and their writing system. Neither of these was original, but both were more efficient than those of earlier Mesoamerican peoples...

292

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300

Mayan religion

Religion permeated all phases of Mayan life. In ancient days religious rites were conducted in temples by priests, and the government was administered by the aristocracy. Law and taxation, for example, were interpreted as religious principles and...

300

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400

Mayan art and architecture

Their remarkable accomplishments in mathematics, astronomy, and writing were more than matched by their truly magnificent art and architecture. The plaza of each Mayan community was marked by at least one pyramid, topped by a temple...

400

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500

Mayan society

Mayan society, like all complex societies, was highly stratified. Slaves did the hard labor in the fields and in construction. On the next social rung were common peasants who worked the land to give the surplus necessary to feed the civilization and...

500

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600

Government

Each Mayan center was governed by a hereditary priest-king, although some very few states may have had ruling queens in earlier times, before the sixth century. The typical ruler in the late classical period was considered to be a descendant of the sun...

600

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700

Classic Collapse

Between about AD 700 and 900, the Mesoamerican world was shaken by the cataclysmic decline of the great cultural centers. The reasons for this collapse are not fully understood, but the phenomenon was general...

700 - 900

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1000

Post-Classic period and Spanish invasion

But as the great Maya centers of the southern lowlands and highlands were abandoned or declined, Maya cities in the Yucatan and in the Guatemala highlands expanded and carried on some of the traditions, along with considerable cultural influences from...

1000

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