Mayan Agriculture

The Mayans got food by growing crops, hunting or catching animals, and raising livestock. The Mayan people were very skilled at farming. They had a lot of knowledge about the seasons and calendars. This helped them with farming their crops. The Mayans had three different agricultural techniques. Farmers in the highlands used the technique of step farming. In the swampy lowlands, the Mayans used the raised earth platforms technique. Farmers in the forest environment used slash and burn so they could plant crops in a flat surface. They also built canals for irrigation. Crops in the Mayan civilization consisted of sweet potatoes, corn, beans, chiles, and squash. They hunted wild turkey, deer, ducks monkeys, and caught fish. Mayan women also took

Glyphs are symbols that represent different words, sounds, or objects. Together, the Mayans used the hieroglifs to create sentences and tell stories. The Mayan writing system also had numbers. Their numbers were written using bars and dots. A bar represented 5, a dot represented 1, and a circle represented 0. The Mayan people were great at science. Astronomy was one of their most advanced fields. The Mayas studied stars and planets. They could even predict eclipses. Using their knowledge, the Mayans created a very aculate 360 day calendar. The Mayas were very religious people. Their religion was a polytheistic religion which means that they believed in more than one god. For the Mayas, they believed in over 160 gods. They believed that they could be either punished or rewarded by the gods. Religion was the center of Mayan life. The Mayans believed that gods were everywhere but the lived in heaven. Earth was for the living, heaven was for the gods, and the underworld was for demons. Priests were the ones who performed rituals and sacrifices. Like the Aztecs, the Mayas believed that blood gave the gods strength. The Mayan people had a sacred calendar that was used by the

The only reasons a Maya would go to heaven was if she died in childbirth or if he/she was sacrificed. SOme Mayan gods include Zamn, Chac, Ah Mun, Ah Puch, and Ek Chuha. The Mayas were people that lived from 2000 BCE to 1500 CE. They lived in what is now Central America. If the Mayan Civilization still existed today, it would be in parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Mayas share a few physical attributes. They tend to have lazy looking eyes, and their teeth tend to be shovel shaped. Some Mayas have large front teeth with a gap in between. Other similar features include inverted breastbones, crooked fingers, and large or heavy earlobes. All Mayan cities were built the same way. In the center of the city would be a plaza. Surrounding the plaza were temples, pyramids, a ball court, and a palace for the city ruler. The plaza was used as a market and meeting place. The capital of the Mayan Civilization was Tikal. This was one of the largest Mayan cities. Being the capital, Tikal was the center of Mayan life such as agriculture, trade, art and religion.One of the greatest historical mysteries is the Mayan mystery. No one seems to know what happened to this great