HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The Maya Empire and Civilization
The Maya Empire, centred in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century AD. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya, however, were abandoned by AD 900.
The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica, present Mexico and Central America. Unlike other scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centred 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. The Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with distinct environmental and cultural differences: the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the Petén district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. Most famously, the Maya of the southern lowland region reached their peak during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (AD 250 to 900), and built the great stone cities and monuments that have fascinated explorers and scholars of the region. The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 BC. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn, beans, squash and cassava.
About 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions. The Middle Pre-classic Period also saw the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits, as well as their number system and their famous calendar from the Olmec. In addition to agriculture, the Pre-classic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.
The Classic Period, which began around AD 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities. Each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000. Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the ball games that were ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers.
The Maya were deeply religious and worshipped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.
The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica. Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of a complex calendar system based on 365 days.
Though early researchers concluded that the Maya were a peaceful society of priests and scribes, later evidence–including a thorough examination of the artwork and inscriptions on their temple walls–showed the less peaceful side of Maya culture, including the war between rival Mayan city-states and the importance of torture and human sacrifice to their religious ritual. From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by 900 AD.
Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories. Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population.
Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power. As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos.
Finally, some catastrophic environmental changes–like an extremely long, intense period of drought– may have wiped out the Classic Maya Civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal, where rainwater was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation. All three of these factors may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands.
Exercise
A. Match the following words from the text with their meanings.
B. Find the words in the text and fill in the crossword puzzle.
ACROSS
2. people who follow each other in time or order
4. a loss of power, prosperity, or status
5. complete regard to every detail
6. a union or association formed for mutual benefit
DOWN
1. complete disorder and confusion
3. very complicated and detailed
7. to use all of something so that there is none left
C. Choose the best answer.
a. When did the Mayan Civilization take its height?
i. sixth century AD.
ii. ninth century AD.
iii. 250 AD.
b. Why were they unlikely to be invaded by the Mesoamericans?
i. They had scattered to many places.
ii. They were concentrated in a particular area.
iii. They lived together with their relatives.
c. What has fascinated researchers about the Mayans from the southern lowlands?
i. the stone cities
ii. the cultural differences
iii. the pyramid building
d. Which period of the Mayan civilization is considered the golden age?
i. The Medieval Period
ii. The Classic Period
iii. The Pre-Classic Period
e. Whom did the Mayans consider their god?
i. the nature
ii. the king
iii. the people
f. According to the scholars, which of the following is not the cause of Maya downfall?
i. environmental exhaustion
ii. internal warfare
iii. foreign invasion
D. Answer the following questions.
a. What were the Mayans good at?
b. Where had they settled?
c. What was their population at its peak?
d. Name some of the gods of the Mayans.
e. How did the kings serve the people?
f. Mention some of the advancements made by the Maya.
g. What were the three possible causes of the downfall of the Mayan civilization?
.gif
)