Review Of ' The Mayan Era '

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

The video did a very good job at picturizing what our readings taught us. The video, Dawn of The Maya, shows how the people in the Yucatan put fire to their rainforests for more land for building and farming. This correlates with what Jared Diamond and Gugliotta stated. Both of these authors made claims that go further than the documentary how the environment affected the Maya. They talked about how long droughts affected those in the lower part of the Yucatan. All of the readings agree with the video when it comes to how advanced the Maya were. There has yet be one author that I have read that has stated otherwise. The video does make a point to say that the Maya fought bloody wars of conquest across Mexico and Central America. Many of the authors we read would refute that claim. Many believe that the wars the Maya fought were specifically for sacrifices. Sheets put is as a power struggle where there was no winner or loser because it was never ending. The Maya were not a peaceful civilization. They believed, like the Aztecs, that they needed human sacrifice for the sun to move. Unlike the readings, the documentary goes into detail on how excavation works. The video uses a ground penetrating system to see if there are tombs in the ground. The documentary goes into a lot of detail prior to the collapse of the Maya. Most of our readings start at the end while this documentary starts at the height of the Maya civilization. Which is really

The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.

The ancient Maya once occupied a vast geographic area in Central America. Their civilization inhabited an area that encompasses Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and parts of the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, as well as Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. "From the third to the ninth century, Maya civilization produced awe-inspiring temples and pyramids, highly accurate calendars, mathematics and hieroglyphics, and a complex social and political order" ("Collapse..." 1). Urban centers were important to the Maya during the Classic period; they offered the Mayans a central place to practice religion.

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

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years, 1000 BC-AD 1542. Many aspects of this culture continue yet today. The Ancient Maya in their time had actually refined writing.

The ancient Mayan civilization settled in the Yucatan Peninsula in around 900 AD. This civilizations was one of the most advanced of its times. They created their own religion, language, mathematical structure, a very precise calendar, and many other things.

The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica. The growth of the great Mayan civilization is as much a mystery as its disappearance. The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D (http://www.history.com/topics/maya#). As a youth growing up in Belize Central America, I was very much intrigued by the Mayan civilization as we would regularly take educational field trips to the massive stone temples of Xunantunich and Altun Ha. Both Mayan ruins were no more than 50 miles away from my childhood home. Most of what we know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments. The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn.

The Mayans civilization is believed to be one of the world's most intriguing civilization on Earth. The Mayans originated around 2600 B.C. in Yucatan. They were mostly known for their classical civilizations in Mesoamerica. They were never unified as one but rather consisted of numerous different cities, each of the cities apparently had their own king. The indigenous people of Mexico soon rose to prominence around A.D 250. Some of the countries they rose to prominence would be modern day Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador and northern Belize. The Mayan civilization was superior to the Aztec and Inca civilization in sections of astrology, agricultural methods, and architecture.

The ancient Maya were a group of American Indian peoples who lived in Southern Mexico. Their descendants, the modern Maya,live in the same regions today.

The Mayan people of the Yucatan Peninsula have endured great changes over their history, but many changes have occurred more recently as documented in the book by Cindy Hull. During a study in which she lived in Yaxbe for several decades, Hull examined the effects that this change has had on the people of the village and the Mayan people at large. Initially, Hull found that much was different about living with the people because she was used to the US Midwest. She was not used to the diet or to the family structure she found among the people, but she quickly adjusted to the changes and became a member of the village. Her task while she was there was to discover the social structure of the clan and how the culture has changed over time. She conducted a longitudinal study (one in which she became an integral member of the tribe) because she wanted to understand the people from a basal level. She believed that, despite the differences to what she experienced in her normal life, that the hardships she would face would get her closer to understanding the culture she was studying.

The Mayan Civilization at its height was one of the greatest civilization to ever reign on the planet. Their advances in astronomy and mathematics well in advance has helped present civilizations to prosper. But one of the great questions is what happened to the Mayans? Why did they collapse? What caused them to collapse? It is a question that had gone unanswered for decades until some of the worlds great historians and scientist finally concluded to three reasons why the Mayan Civilization collapsed. The Mayans Collapse was fast and occurred due to Deforestation and Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Internal and Exterior Rivalry.

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 ancient Mayans were a very well developed society with a very accurate calendar, skilled architects, artisans, extensive traders and hunters. They are known to have developed medicine and astronomy as well. All of this was developed while the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.

Many decades ago, northern Central America and southern Mexico cultures developed complex political and social ranks. Researchers today know this region as Mesoamerica, known for its rich soil, abundant amount of rainfall, and agriculture. (Judge & Langdon, 2012) The Mesoamericans, Aztec and Mayan tribes, developed into complex civilizations for multiple reasons. These societies were advanced and complex for their time in areas, such as architecture, agriculture, militarism, and education. Each had unique religion and political systems as well. The rise and fall of both were due to several factors.