Ambar Morales Helen Adriano Karla Jiménez

The Mayas

Religion • Mayan religion was characterized by the

worship of nature gods (especially the gods of sun, rain and corn), a priestly class, the importance of astronomy and astrology, rituals of human sacrifice, and the building of elaborate pyramidical temples. They were polytheist.

When was the civilization born?• An important culture developed in

parts of central America and the Yucatan peninsula to the north in 1500 B.C. • These people called the Mayas

established a great civilization and built many cities in tis region of middle America.

Gods

Government • The Mayans

developed a hierarchical government ruled by kings and priests. They lived in independent city-states consisting of rural communities and large urban ceremonial centers. There were no standing armies, but warfare played an important role in religion, power and prestige. Religion was woven into all facets of daily life and was the major unifying factor of the civilization.

Laws Mayan laws has usual laws like us. They collected evidence and presented it before reaching their final decision. If you committed a crime, and you were found guilty after a judge had heard your case, you would be punished. Punishments were either getting all your possessions sold into auction, hair cut short, death, heavy fines, getting thrown into jail or sold into slavery. If your punishment was death, the most often way die was to be thrown off a cliff. But, Mayan laws were fair and reasonable.

Main cities • Maya cities were not formally planned like the

cities of highland Mexico and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial and administrative center surrounded by a vast irregular sprawl of residential complexes.

Art • The art of the Maya, is a reflection of their lifestyle and

culture. It was an important trade merchandise. The art was composed of delineation and painting upon paper and plaster, carvings in wood, Obsidian, bone, shells, Jade and stone, clay and stucco models, and terracotta figurines from molds. The technical process of metal working was also highly developed but as the resources were scarce, they only created ornaments in this media. Music was very appreciated and there is also proof of Theater plays being held in the public ceremonies. The Maya Kings commissioned finely crafted works to furnish their palaces and attest to their sovereignty and Warfare victories, among them, carved thrones and throne backs, where a king might reign supported by depictions of ancestors or gods

Mathematical advances • The Mayas created a number system to

count and record information. Dots stood for single numbers. For example, three dots in a row represented the number three. Bars stood for groups of five. Unlike our number system, which is based on 10,the Maya's number system based on 20.

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Decline of civilization

• Around A.D. 900, Mayan civilization began to decline. The people stopped building cities. They moved back into villages. The reasons probably included drought, crop failures, war, disease, overuse of natural resources, or a people’s rebellion against their leaders. Today ,however, million of Mayas live in middle America. Many continue some of the cultural traditions of their Mayan ancestors.

Thanks