the Mayas
The Maya Civilization is considered one of the most advanced cultures in the western hemisphere prior to the arrival of the Europeans to America. They lived in a region that is now the Mexican states of Veracruz, Tabasco,Chiapas Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan, and the countries of Guatemala, Belice, El Salvador and the western region of Honduras. Their culture is divided in three periods: The Preclassic, that lasted from about 2000 B.C. to A.D. 300, the Classic, From A.D. 300 to 900 and the Postclassic covering from A.D. 900 to 1521. According to the Maya Long Count Calendar, the creation of the world takes place in the year A.D. 3114. Their origin is linked to the Olmecs, but information obtained from their traditions in Maya books like the Chilam Balam and the Popol Vuh, indicates they came from the Orient crossing the sea. The earlier Mayas were farmers living in small and dispersed villages (around 1500 BC) in constructions made of pole and thatch, but as the population increased they created cities (by AD200) with great stone buildings, pyramids palaces, plazas and courts to play ball. The cities were ceremonial centers, and only the high class lived there, the rest of the population lived in small
2. Sabloff A. Jeremy. The new archeology and the ancient Maya. HPHLP,1990. By the year AD 250 the rise of the Maya culture began, marking the Classic period, during this time their civilization consisted of more than 40 cities, with 5,000 to 50,000 people on each. Some of the most important cities were Bonampak, Copan, Tikal, Palenque and Rio Bec. At their peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 people, mostly in the area of what is now Guatemala. The mayor cities featured pyramidal temples or palaces overlaid with limestone highly ornamented with reliefs, and beautiful sculptures which make the Mayas one of the greatest civilizations in the history. After AD 900, when the Postclassic period starts their civilization declined, leaving great cities and ceremonial centers abandoned, is unknown the cause of this decline, of the possible factors suggested by some scholars are natural disasters, disease, foreign invasions or the exhaustion of the agricultural land. Some cities in the Yucatan peninsula, such as Mayapan, Chichen Itza and Uxmal continued to flourish for some time until the Spanish Conquest. 4. Manzanilla Linda y lopez Leonardo. Atlas historico de Mesoamerica. Edicciones Larousse, 1993. The Mayas created a complex system of writing using hieroglyphs, which they wrote using paper made from the inner bark of wild fig trees, and in carvings made in stone or wood. Their symbols represent complete words and sounds or a mixture of both. Some of their surviving writing works made in paper are called codices (Dresden Codex, Perez Codex Etc.), we have two writings made in Quiche language but wrote in Latin, done by Mayas after the Spaniard's arrival; one them, the Chilan Balam is about rites religion, literature and past events, the second; the Popol Vuh, is the book of advise, and is considered the Maya's Bible. 5. http://www.civilization.ca/members/civilz/maya/mmc09eng.h
Some common words found in the essay are:
Popol Vuh, Toltecs Aztecs, Rio Bec, Moon Venus, Spanish Conquest, Central America, Maya's Bible, Count Calendar, Yum Kaax, El Salvador, ceremonial centers, 900 postclassic, cities ceremonial, popol vuh, ad 300, mayas believed, cities ceremonial centers, maya civilization, ad 900,
Approximate Word count = 1298
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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