ancient mayan civilization group work (3)

7/31/2019 Ancient Mayan Civilization Group Work (3)

1/45

Done by: Juliana, Carlen and Hubert


2/45

The Ancient Mayan civilization is known to havebegan 2600BC. It was established in the pre-classic/Formative period.

The Maya civilization was one of the most dominantindigenous societies in Mesoamerica.Mesoamerica is a term used to describe Mexico andcentral America before the Spanish conquest.


3/45

The Mayan Civilization was located in central America which nowknown as the areas of Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico

The area lies between theTropic of cancer and the equator

The empire was enormous,Scattered through out the rainForests. There were more then 20Different areas.

Each one of these areas could beconsidered as different states

which had their own rulers,Surrounded by smaller cities, villages And farmlands


4/45

Because of the lush rain forests they had to clear away vast amounts of trees to build their structures. There was no ground water, large reservoirs had to be builtunderground to store rain water.

Trade routs had to be created by clearing away pathsthrough the forests


5/45

The Mayans survival depended largely on agriculture Mayan survival depended largely on agriculture. But theireconomy was based on the trade of valuable items, such as jade and the green feathers (green was a sacred colour thethe Maya). The feathers were called Quetzal feathers .

The Maya traded jade for sculpture and jewellery, quetzalfeathers and animal pelts (such as those from jaguars) forroyal costumes (eventually these kingdoms had largefamilies of aristocracy who demanded fine and luxuriousclothes and adornments), obsidian for weapons and pyritefor mirrors. (They did not use any metal.)They used cacao beans as money and cermaics.


6/45

Trade in mayan ancient civilisation were more centredprimarily around foods like fish, squash, potatoes,corn, honey, beans, turkey, fruits, chocolate drinks.

Trade were secondly base on raw materials such aslimestone, marble, jade, wood, copper and gold; andmanufactured goods like weapons.The types of trade varied greatly regionally with

specific districts of kingdoms typically specializing in aspecific trade which contained workers of every skillset needed to produce their designated specialty.


7/45

. The Maya relied on a strong middle class of skilledand semi-skilled workers and artisans which producedboth commodities and specialized goods

. The specialist class would sell their services and createluxury goods based upon their specific skill set .

. The king is on top of the game to cooperate with otherkingdom.

. All classes of Maya society invested in other venturessuch as mass farms, large workshops and public works.


8/45

Commodities Artists were considered to beamongst the most importanttradesmen in Maya society andowning art from specific artist was a symbol of great wealth.


9/45

The Mayans were extremely religious and believed in various gods.They believed in a multi layered universe, in their religion this universeconsisted of 13 heavens and 9 underworlds. Earth was believed to beone of the layers of this universe.Earth was considered the divider between the various underworlds andheavens.Different gods ruled the different planes.

Hunab Ku- creator god. He was believed to be directly involved in thecreation of the universe. His name directly translated means only god Major Celestial gods-kin (god of the sun)

- Uh (god of the moon)-Noh Ek (god of Venus)-Xaman Ek (god of the north star)

Had many lesser gods as well eg(god of rain, wind etc)


10/45

The Mayan rulers believed that the were divine and that they were directly descended from the gods. They proved this by tracing the genealogies back.

The Mayans had many rituals and ceremonies

Human sacrifice this was necessary because they believed itallowed for successful agriculture, trade and health

Because the Mayan rulers were considered descendants from thegods, their blood was the ideal sacrifice. The would offer theirblood through Blood-letting ceremonies- noble pierced theirtongues or genitals to shed blood as an offer to the gods. They

would also capture nobles from other cities and sacrifice them.


11/45


12/45

The ball game was a deadly sport played amongst the Mayan people. It took place

in a stone court with inward sloping walls and a stone rings hung high up onthe walls.

The aim of the game was to get a rubber ball (4kg) through the hoops withoutusing any hands. Game ended when the ball touched the ground or if someonemanaged to get the ball into the hoops (which was extremely difficult toachieve)

The games were filled with religious importance. Religious leaders, nobles andrulers attended the games.

Winners were treated as heroes, looser were often killed as punishmentOldest ball court discovered dates back to 1700 BC. Its is 73meters long, 7m wide

and 1,8 m high


13/45


14/45


15/45

The lives of women were not very well documented Women were considered very important in society The bared the children and propagated culture by doing so. While boys were raised to hunt, girls were taught to lookafter the household and how to keep the domestic religiousshrine.They were also involved in economical, governmental andfarming activities.Men and womens task were separate but equal. Eg. Menproduced the food, but women processed it. Women were also associated with religious beliefs. Themoon goddess is an extremely important god whoproduced the Mayan population.


16/45


17/45

Painting: Very few Mayan paintings have been found because

of the humidity. Most of them were destroyed

many years ago.


18/45

Ceramics:-Pottery was known as social currency -Accompanied the dead nobles into the grave

-Intricate and beautifully carved -palace scenes, courtly ritual, mythology, divinatory glyphs.-incense burners and hand/mold made furines show many

scenes and characters from daily life, including rulers etc.

-fresco (pianted onto the wet clay)


19/45


20/45

Culturally the area is divided into three sections: thenorthern, central and southern regions. The earliestevidence of the Maya civilization is found in thesouthern region. At Izapa carvings depict gods and

the Maya writing system. The central region includes the southern lowlands,

Here is where the Classic Maya f lourished, along theUsumacinta River Where their living wood would be, wash, drink and grow their crops.

The northern region was the northern lowlands,It was populated by the Mayans to the Late Classicperiod.


21/45

Mayan Society, ClassSystem

There was a distinct class system inancient Maya times. Between the rulingclass and the farmer who was also know tobe a labourer, The scribes were theeducated, artists and architects. And they

were a class just above the farmers.Evidence of their skill and innovationremains in works of stone, jade, bone,pottery and flint. And most decision

making was done by the ruler/king, who was the head of the tribe.


22/45

Slaves were made up of orphans, criminals, prisoners of warand other enemies and the children of slaves. They didmajority of the physical labour. They were not necessarily treated badly but they were at the lowest level of Mayan

society. They were also used mostly for human sacrifice.


23/45

On public occasions the king appeared dressed in f lowing white robes, decorated with gold and precious stones, wearing on his head a golden circlet decorated to show who was the king.

The provincial governors were nobles of the four royalfamilies, and were supreme within their own governments.

The rulers of towns and villages formed a lower order of nobility, not of royal blood. The king usually acted on theadvice of a council of lords and priests.

The lords alone were military commanders, and each lord

and inferior official had for his support the produce of acertain portion of land which was cultivated in common by the people.


24/45

Crimes were punished with death - frequently by throwing over a precipice - enslavement, fines, or rarely,by imprisonment.

The code was merciful, and even murder could sometimesbe compounded by a fine.


25/45

Relationships with othermarriage

Children were subject to parents untilof an age to marry, which for boys wasabout twenty.

The children of the common people

were trained only in the occupation of their parents, but those of the nobility were highly educated, under the careof the priests, in writing, music,history, war, and religion.

The daughters of nobles were strictly secluded, and the older boys in each village lived and slept apart in a publicbuilding. Birthdays and otheranniversaries were the occasions of family feasts.


26/45

Unique and spectacular architecture, Mesoamericanarchitectural , construction of pyramids with carvedstone in order to create a stair-step design Eachpyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine sat atits peak. During this "height" of Maya culture, thecentres of their religious, commercial and bureaucraticpower grew into large cities, including Chichen Itza,Tikal, and Uxmal


27/45

Beside the construction of the pyramids, mayan couldconstructed temples , palaces , ceremonial platforms .Palaces: The Mayas built palaces for their rulers. Onenoble family ruled each city Maya Temples: Temples were places of worship, andhome to the many priests of the Maya civilization. Atthe foot of the temple was typically where the Mayas

placed their ball courts.


28/45


29/45


30/45


31/45

Communication The order to read Maya glyphs is also not as

straightforward. Maya glyphs are read in"paired columns", meaning that the firstglyph block is on the top left, the second isimmediately to the right of the first, the thirdis under the first, the fourth under thesecond, and so forth. This yields a zigzaggingreading order.

When you arrive at the bottom of this "pairedcolumn", you will then go back up to the topand start the next paired column. In fact,scholars label glyph block horizontally with

letters (A, B, C) and vertically with numbers(1, 2, 3). Hence, the reading order would be A1, B1, A2, B2,until you hit the bottom. Then you start at C1, D1, C2, D2, etc.


32/45

Communicated with their gods Bloodletting was one of the ways they

communicated with their gods.

There would be human and animalsacrifices during the festivals. Not allsacrifices ended in death.

bloodletting was usually a personalsacrifice. People would stab or prickthemselves. It was their own blood that wasoffered as a tribute to their gods during worship.

When nobles offered blood, a drop wassmeared on a bit of bark. The bark wasburned and the smoke floated to heaven where it could be consumed by the gods.


33/45

InventionsThe Mayans were the first people who had a symbol for zero. They alsohad a counting system wherenumbers were able to be representedusing only three symbols: a dot, a bar

and a symbol for zero. Largenumbers were expressed using place values.The Mayan counting system allowedthe people to record long periods

and conduct drainage system .


34/45


35/45


36/45

The Mayans were skilled farmers, and had their own farms, and clearedroutes through jungles and swamps, they traded food too. While the Maya diet varies, maize remains the primary their mainmeal. Made with addition of lime. This was prepared by hand into flatsurface cooked on a griddle that is traditionally supported on threestones.


37/45

Chocolate was the favourite drink of the upperclasses. Cacao beans, as well as pieces of copper,

were a common medium of exchange. Very littlemeat was eaten, except at ceremonial feasts,although the Maya were expert hunters andfishers. They also ate dogs and monkeys.


38/45

Chile peppers, beans andsquash are still grown in

the family farm plot(milpa) right along withthe maize, maximizingeach crop's requirementsfor nutrients, sun, shade

and growing surfaceThe Maya farmercultivated corn, beans,cacao, Chile, bananas, andcotton, and obtained both

honey and wax from bees.


39/45


40/45

-The Huipil : this was a loose, sheet-like rectangular garment made from white fine cotton. A hole was cut out in order for the head to fitthrough. It could be worn loose or tucked into a skirt. They were used

to represent their religion and also what tribe the come from. Thedifferent tribes all had different designs, colours and lengths. It wasseen as a sign of respect to wear another tribes huipil within their village, but a disgrace to wear another tribes huipil within ones own village.

-Farmers wore loincloths or plain material wrapped around their wastes.Moccasins were worn made from deerhide.

-Women and men both wore sandals.


41/45

Hair:- The hair sash was either woven into the hair or prapped

around the head, this depended on different tribes.The colours, motifs, designs and widths of the hairsash also depended on the different tribes. On specialoccasions, hair sashes which were more intricate and woven with finer fabrics were worn on special

occasions.


42/45

An important ceremony named the "Descent of theGods" marked the conversion from childhood topuberty. Both boys and girls (aged 16 and 12respectively) wore special jewelry, which was latersymbolically removed: boys white beads in their hairand girls a red shell in their belts representing their virginity. A short time after this ceremony, parentsbegan to think of marriage for their children.


43/45

http://www.digitalmeesh.com/maya/history.htm http://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htm http://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/p/maya.htm www.mayan archaeology.tripod.com/id2.html www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/ maya .html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_Maya_sociey http://library.thinkquest.org/5891/society.htm
http://www.digitalmeesh.com/maya/history.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/p/maya.htmhttp://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/p/maya.htmhttp://www.mayanarchaeology.tripod.com/id2.htmlhttp://www.mayanarchaeology.tripod.com/id2.htmlhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_Maya_socieyhttp://library.thinkquest.org/5891/society.htmhttp://library.thinkquest.org/5891/society.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_Maya_socieyhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://www.criscenzo.com/jaguarsun/maya.htmlhttp://www.mayanarchaeology.tripod.com/id2.htmlhttp://www.mayanarchaeology.tripod.com/id2.htmlhttp://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/p/maya.htmhttp://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/p/maya.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/256-ancient-mayan.htmhttp://www.digitalmeesh.com/maya/history.htm


44/45

http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.html http://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Ma ya/Food.html

http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323

http://www.precolumbianwomen.com/ http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/may a/mmc12eng.shtml
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Maya/Food.htmlhttp://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Maya/Food.htmlhttp://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323http://www.precolumbianwomen.com/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc12eng.shtmlhttp://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc12eng.shtmlhttp://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc12eng.shtmlhttp://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc12eng.shtmlhttp://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc12eng.shtmlhttp://www.precolumbianwomen.com/http://www.precolumbianwomen.com/http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=2277323http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.htmlhttp://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Maya/Food.htmlhttp://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Maya/Food.htmlhttp://clccharter.org/kurt1/ancient%20civilization/Maya/Food.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.htmlhttp://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-history.html


45/45

ancient mayan civilization group work (3)

Documents