Mayan History Research Paper

“In the Western Hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Mayans” (Background Essay). The Mayans were an adept civilization and accomplished many exceptional things during their time. Their deeds include things such as a number system, immense cities, and a vast trade network but there is no Mayan achievement more remarkable than their calendars. The Mayans created three calendars: a sacred calendar called tzolkin, a solar calendar called haab, and a long cycle calendar.

The first sign of Mayan Civilization comes from as early as 600 BCE in the Mesoamerican region, known today as Guatemala. The Mayan civilization did not begin to flourish until 250 CE, known as the classical period of the Mayan civilization. The Mayans were a complex and advanced society. Spiritual beliefs and religion had a major role in every aspect of life. The Mayans believed in an enormous array of gods and goddess. These deities often took on the roles of more than one symbolization at different times throughout their myths.

Were the Mayans really the savages everyone has made them out to be, or were they just normal, misunderstood citizens, just trying to make it through another day. The Mayans are not only one of the most mysterious cultures in history, but one of the most intelligent early civilizations, discovering things such as the concept of zero, and how to make accurate 365-day calendars. It is agreed upon that the people of Maya were way ahead of their time, but how much did they really know? They settled in Yucatan (now Mexico) between 2600 BC and 1800 BC and were the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America.

The Mayan empire was a very complex civilization. The Mayan empire who was a civilization that was located in Mexico and parts of South America. Their civilization lasted nearly 3,000 years before their empire collapsed. Astronomy to the mayans was very important because in their society they believed that the stars where messages from the gods. Since the mayans were polytheistic they believed that each star was a deity or god. They believed in many gods and where religious, they had a god for everything. The mayans like the aztecs thought the sun was a god. There obsession with the stars lead to many discoveries.

The Mayans were an advanced civilization that lived for over 600 years with an estimated population of over 19 million. Scientists, historians and archeologists have been able to prove their level of advancement in different ways. Mayans aligned their limestone structures such as palaces and temples to celestial bodies with mathematical precision. They became effective farmers and their understanding of Agriculture led them to improve the productivity of their main source of nutrition which was corn (Maize). (Olver, 2015) Their knowledge of Astronomy led them to create the most accurate calendar in the ancient world. They also created a writing system and had a government system with laws and punishment assigned to those who broke their laws. (Criscenzo del Rio, 2000)

The Maya were known for their agriculture, trade, science and religion. They had a complex writing system and developed a calendar from observing the earths movements around the sun. One can’t say that just one

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization that settled what we now know as South America. The Maya had no central ruler to run their huge empire. They set up what they called city-state and it consisted of separate areas each had its own ruler and class system. The Mayans were also known for building pyramids and temples and they built them all without metal tools. The Mayan also developed a written language and created a calendar. The Mayans were a very religious people they had many different gods and rituals. One of these rituals was human sacrifice. The Mayan people believed that human sacrifices pleased the gods and was needed to keep the world in balance. It is still a mystery as to the why the Mayans civilization declined some believe it was

The Mayan Indians were the indigenous tribe of the Yucatan Peninsula (parts of modern Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala).The Mayan empire was at its peak from 300 A.D.-900 A.D. They planted corn, beans, squash, avocados, chili peppers, and cacao beans that they used to make a chocolate drink. The Mayans were strong because they had huge harvests and extra food. Mayan culture was destroyed in the 1500s when Spain conquered Mexico. The Mayans are important because of their discoveries. They created a calendar that is almost exactly what we use today, invented the idea of zero and a symbol for it, and figured out how long it takes for Venus to orbit the sun.

The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the use of a written language having over 800 symbols and producing the first 365 day calendar. They maintained an in-depth understanding of astrological cycles that would assist in planning harvesting cycles and predicting solar eclipses. The Mayan’s

All remnants of the distant past are romantic, but ancient Maya civilization has a special fascination. It is a "lost" civilization, whose secrets lie deep in the mysterious tropical forest. The style of Maya architecture and sculpture seems alien and bizarre.

The ancient Mayan people are one of the most brilliant and successful civilizations. They lived in Mesoamerica, which is modern day Central America. They are well-known for their trade routes, calender, architecture, and number system. They were very advanced especially because they were so isolated from the rest of the world. The Mayan inventions were all very important and all contributed to the great society they had created.

To the Mayan science and religion were the same. Mathematics and astronomy were related to religious rituals. The Mayan believed in the cyclical nature of time. The Mayan religion was characterized by the worship of the nature god. There are four Mayan main gods Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl), Bolon Tzacab, Chac, and Itzamna.

When most people think of the Mayans, they think end of the world prediction in 2012. Everyone knows the movie 2012 which portrayed the end of the world predicted by the Mayan calendar. What many do not know is that the Mayans developed three separate calendars; the Long Count, the Tzolk’in, and the Haab, which were represented by glyphs or pictures that were used in their daily lives in many different ways. The Mayans kept time in a very different way than we do today. The Mayans may not have invented the calendar, but they certainly developed it further, and still use their version today.

The culture of the Mayans was very complex. Their religion included more than 160 Gods who all had to do with the forces of nature. They

The Mayans were legendary for their skill in mathematics. The Mayans created the concept of zero! They made zero because they said zero is the meaning of nothing. As you can tell, we still use zero a lot in present day so that was very important in our history. To add on in the math subject they had calendars. They put hieroglyphics(symbol that means a word), on days to say it was a good day or bad or a ceremony day or anything else. For making the calendars their priests studied the moon and stars to calculate the numbers of days and amount of years, months, and other sources of time.