Ancient

MAYA

CIVILIZATION

Presentation byYasser Musa

November 11, 2010

Path of the Maya (Asia to the Americas)

The story of the Maya begins during the Fourth Ice Age about 60,000 years ago

So much water was trapped in the ice caps that the level of the sea was lower than today and a land bridge about 1,000 miles wide connecting Asia and North America at the Bering Strait was exposed.

The first humans to inhabit the Americas came across this land bridge

It is believed the first humans reached Central America about 15,000 years ago.

The first identifiable culture, Clovis, existed around 10,000 BC

From 8,000 BC to 2,000 BC the inhabitants of Central America gradually became more agrarian and they domesticated beans, corn, peppers, squash and other plants.

During this time there was still no jungle, just savannah and grassland and some trees. Evidence indicates that a tropical jungle climate appeared in Central America only quite recently, after the Mayan civilization was well underway. Towards the end of this period, some recognizably Mayan villages appeared and pottery and ceramics appeared. Some villages had a temple.

CLOVIS culture was originally named for a small number of artifacts found between 1936 and 1938 at Blackwater Locality No. 1, an archaeological site near Clovis, New Mexico.

Periods of MAYA Civilization

Paleo-Indian Period – 7000BCArchaic – 2000 BC

Pre- Classic – 1000 BC – 300AD

Classic – 300 - 900AD

Post- Classic – 900 – 1500AD

How did the MAYA develop such a

complex and great civilization?

1.The Maya area is ecologically diverse (rich in

resources)

2.They developed strong systems of agriculture that

allowed the growth in populations

3.They developed specialization in people (a)

farmers (b) builders (c ) artists and craftmakers (d)

writers/scribes (e) politicians

4.They had an organized system of trade and

exchange

5.They had a strong belief system – power of the

gods

10 Key ACCOMPISHMENTS of

the Ancient Maya

LANGUAGE / MATH / ASTRONOMY / ARCHITECTURE / ART / AGRICULTURE / WRITING / RELIGION-POLITICS / TRADE/

TECHNOLOGY

1.LANGUAGE

Before 2000 BC a single Mayan language developed = Proto Mayan

After migration to other places new languages developed

Huastec – Veracruz

Yucatec – Yucatan

Mam/Quiche – Guatemala

In Belize (during Classic Period 300-900 AD) 2 main languages spoken

Yucatec – Northern 2/3 of the country

Cholan – South

TODAY Maya languages in Belize =

Yucatec – San Antonio and Succotz in Cayo and in communities in

Orange Walk and Corozal

Mopan = San Antonio, Toledo

Ketchi – other Toledo communities eg. San Pedro Columbia and Jalacte

2. MATHEMATICS

Maya mathematics was a vigesimal system based on 20 and multiples of 20. It

was also one

Of the earliest systems to incorporate the concept of ZERO.

Multiples of 20 eg. 20, 400, 800 etc.

Numerals = three symbols (a) dot for 1 (b) bar for 5 and (c ) shell for ZERO

Stucco carving with numbers

3. ASTRONOMY

Chichen Itza, Caracol Observatory, Mexico

The Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures began using their

365 day calendar by at least 100 BC. Our calendar , which was

developed by Pope Gregory XIII, did not come into use until

AD 1582, nearly a hundred years after the arrival of Columbus

and more than 1650 years after the Maya began employing their

relatively accurate 365 day calendar.

4. ARCHITECTURE

Artist drawing of El Mirador, Guatemala

Layout of Lubaantun, Toledo, Belize

El Castillo,Xunantunich, Cayo, Belize

Classic Period 700 AD

East frieze

Border of signs which stand for the

planet Venus and the different days

of th Maya calendar

Cerros, Corozal Late pre-Classic site 400 BC – 250 AD, monumental masks

represents the Eveningstar, the Morningstar, Setting Sun and Rising Sun

The name Lubaantun means "place of fallen stones". This is an apt name for

this site because of the dry masonry style of architecture found only in Southern

Belize. The pyramids at Lubaantun are man-made stone platforms on top of

which stood perishable buildings. The large pyramids and temples are constructed of dressed stone without any mortar.

The most famous crystal skull is the Mitchell-Hedges "skull of doom," allegedly

discovered by a 17-year old Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1924 or 1927 while

accompanying her adoptive father on an excavation of the ancient Mayan city

of Lubaantun in Belize, where the elder Mitchell-Hedges believed he would

find the ruins of Atlantis. The evidence collected by Joe Nickell proves beyond

a reasonable doubt that Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull at a Sotheby's sale

in 1943 for £400.

The largest of Altun Ha's temple-pyramids, the "Temple of the Masonry Altars", is 54 feet (16 m) high. A drawing of this structure is the logo of Belize's leading brand of beer, "Belikin".

5. ART

Themes1. Record political events

2. Repressent mythological and cosmological concepts (eg.

Water Lily Jaguar and Re-birth of corn god

Types

Painting

Carvings

Sculpture

Jade Head, Altun Ha, Belize District (Classic Period c. 600AD) 9.7 lbs

(sculpture)

Room mural (painting – Stucco relief) Bonampak, Mexico

Painted ceramicPolychrome plate, showing Maya scribe

Lamanai Mask, sculpture, Belize, limestone, Classic Period c. 600-900 AD

Nim Li Punit(Big Hat, 250 – 900 AD Classic)

Longest carved free standing

Monument at 17 meters

Records dates on the calendar

From 721 to 790 AD, under the

Ruler Lord K’awil Han Kinich.

Crocodile incense burnerMaya, Santa Rita site, Belize,

about AD 1500-1540 (Postclassic period)

Eccentric FlintGuatemalaClassic Period

Mirror Bearer, 6th century

Mexico or Guatemala; Maya

Wood, hematite

H. 14 1/8 in. (35.9 cm)

6. AGRICULTURESeveral farming techniques

1. Forest Gardens

1. Along the fertile river valley –

system of short fallow periods

1. On less fertile lands – MILPA –

slash and bur

1. Seasonally flooded lands –

built network of canals or

raised fields

1. In the hills they constructed

miles and miles of agricultural

terraces

THE FOREST GARDENWe often think of the rainforest as untouched by humans, or "virgin forest." In reality, it can be understood as the garden of the ancient Maya: the product of millennia of management by forest gardeners who cultivated the cycle of milpa, forest garden, and forest. In fact, 90% of plants in the forest are useful to humans, indicating considerable human influence. The Maya Forest remains the second most biodiverse place in the world (the Amazon forest is the first). The legacy of the ancient Maya forest gardeners is continued by the Maya farmers of the El PilarForest Garden Network.

www.mayaforestgardeners.org

fallow 1 |ˈfalō|adjective(of farmland) plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation or to avoid surplus production

Yum Kaax -the god of corn

Since ancient times corn [maize] is the most important Maya food and thus the god of maize is the most important of the Maya gods. Unlike English there are three different names for corn. The green plants of corn and green ears of corn are called elote; dried corn is called mazorca. Each kernel of corn is considered sacred to the Maya and not to be wasted, because it not only contains the power to sustain man but also represents the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.

Chocolate

avocado

craboo

Custard apple

Chilli peppers

Yucca

AnimalsThe Maya raised dogs and turkeys for food, and a stingless bee for the production of honey.They also domesticated the white tail deer and kept the coati-mundi (pisote) as pets.

Coat-mudi, a mammal in the racoon family

7. WRITINGLOGO-SYLLABIC system

1. Logograms2. Syllabograms – clusters of consonants and vowels – spell out/ reading logograms +

render rare words

3. 400AD – Caracol Stela = earliest form of inscribed monuments found in Belize

4. Subject – dynastic information/ruling elite (birth, ascension, death and marriage of rulers)

5. Books – only 4 remain (see samples)

6. Paper – Amate/fig tree – bark – fiber - pulp / Painted with thin coat of lime blaster/ Figures and text painted on surface

7. Reading : ruling elite/ruling families

Stela 20 from the site of

Caracol in Belize was broken

into many pieces in antiquity.

The fragmentary upper part of

the stela was excavated in

2002. It portrays a Caracol

ruler, who became king in AD

400, standing atop a sacred

mountain. His portrait depicts

icons associated with his

divine power, including the belt

with anthropomorphic and

zoomorphic heads, and the

jadeite belt plaques.

Pages from the Dresden Codex

8. RELIGION and POLITICS

ACTUN TUNICHIL MUCNAL,CAYO, BELIZE

Kinich Ahau,

Maya Sun God

Some of the rules that governed kingship can beelicited from the information about the reignsof individual kings. The concept of rulership ofsites was very important, and most sites tracedkingship from an original founder by giving eachruler a successor number. Copán, for example,had sixteen rulers in a period of four centuries,while Tikal notes twenty-nine kings insomewhat more than six hundred years.Although only about twenty percent of Mayarulers name their parents, the examplesavailable indicate that descent from father toson was common, although sometimessuccession passed through a set of brothersbefore returning to the son of the first-ruling

Lord Water Lily Jaguar, Copan, Honduras

(Classic Period)

9. TRADE

10. TECHNOLOGY

Many Mayan tools (including weaponry) were made from bone, parts of animals, soil,

stone, metal/copper, and wood, all of which were usually used to create most of the

Mayan tools. The blades of weapons were usually sharpened greatly, and cut to work in

a divine yet easy way, for both the person using it, and in some cases the person it was

being used on. Farming tools were usually made with wood, stone, and some ride to

hold it all together. These tools made a big difference in the quality of their crops.

Farming tools in particular were made to relieve any extra work and make current work

easier.

The Mayan people's shelter consisted mostly of temples, small huts, and sub-shelters

(of their temples). Most of their shelters where made from rock, and occasionally wood,

which was usually used to support other smaller shelters. The Mayans only real method

of transportation was by foot, unless on water, then they traveled by canoe.