Essay on the Mayan civilization The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization which was created a long time ago, but was at his peak around 600-800 A.D. They are known principally for their impressive advancement in different knowledge like astronomy, mathematics, arts…but also for their architectures in which they constructed unique buildings and pyramids that still today remain an incredible work of delicacy and are strongly living through the ages. However, the civilization disappeared between the 8th and 9th century, at everyone’s surprises. Still today, the reason of how and why this society collapsed remain unknown, but many theories were created in order to understand this mystery. In this essay, different theories will be explained like …show more content…
According to archeologists, there would have been an epidemic of the planthopper-borne virus, which created the maize mosaic virus (MMV). This virus was a real devastation and transmitted by the Peregrinus maidis, an insect situated mainly in the lowland (Dintinger). This insect was known to like the maize, in which he transferred the virus. Unfortunately, the Mayan were very adept of this plant, it was one of the main component of their life since it was easy to harvest and it could be produced in large quantities in no time, but mainly was a huge part of their culture. It was so important for them that they even had a God of the maize called Hun Hunahpu, who was represented as a young, healthy and handsome man. He was also wearing a headdress made out of maize (British Museum). For them, maize was clearly their most important crop, literally in most of their food offering to the gods and even sacrifices were made in the honour of this crop as well as a lot of ritual to bring a good year of maize: “These ceremonies were accompanied by music and dancing, they could include processions, feasting, ritual ball games as well as sacrifices and prayers” (British Museum). Sometimes during these ceremonies, someone people would give from their own blood as a personal sacrifice to the gods (British Museum). In fact, it was the main composure of their alimentation, as well as their culture. When the maize became infected, it was difficult to adapt, they lost one of their most precious ways of survival. Not only they lost this food option, but some people got sick by eating them and ingesting the virus, which would have been later share with other individuals (Dintinger). In brief, their main cultural aspect was possibly the cause of their
Upon arrival in the Americas, Europeans set out to make wheat the standard grain in the lands they had discovered; the establishment of wheat was both functional, as it was a staple of the European diet, as well as an attempt to institutionalize European control. While wheat did gain some ground in the Americas, especially among the upper classes, it failed to surmount maize as the “the foundation of indigenous livelihood.” The persistence of maize as a staple of the indigenous way of life is not shocking, as J. Eric Thompson writes: “Maize was a great deal more than the economic basis of Maya civilization: it was the focal point of worship, and to it every Maya who worked the soil built a shrine in his own heart.” The Americas were not
In Europe, there were several advances being made that would affect our society today. However, simultaneously, societies across the world in the Americas would too be making these types of advances as well. One society in particular were the Maya. These people made technological strides that the Europeans themselves could not even fathom. But, what was their most remarkable achievement? One will find that their achievements of their trade network, a convenient method of transporting goods and messages; architecture, intricate buildings built in large cities on a massive scale; and number system, which takes into consideration some of our key principles in today’s math, have a momentous buildup to the Maya’s most remarkable achievement—their complex calendar, an astonishing nearly accurate calendar that governed Mayan society and is still seen in our own society today.
Forgotten and lost, this city laid wrapped in vegetation, covered with forest it once commanded. Its temples as side trees, webbed with vines, and walls of ferns. Tropical rain lashing at the crumbling surfaces of stone architecture built by armies of workers. The darkness of the night guided by owls and the day by parrot shrieks. Statues of gods lay along the remaining stone hedges. It was not till 1839 the American lawyer John Lloyd Stephens and English artist Fredrick Caterwood, rediscovered the magnificence of the Tikal Mayan civilization. Development in the Mayan society began with hunters and gatherers leading to sedentary life and agriculture. Then early Maya civic then the highest point of the Tikal at middle Maya civilization.
When the Spanish began to arrive in Mexico and in Central America in the early 15th century, one of the many civilizations they found was the Maya. The Maya, building upon the Olmec culture, were located in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, southern Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Even though they had many similarities, the Maya were separated by language differences. Because of that they were organized into city-states. Since there wasn’t a single city-state powerful enough to impose a political structure, the period from 200 A.D. to the arrival of the Spanish was characterized by the struggle of rival kingdoms for dominance.
... into society also came with a new social responsibility to make sure that the crops would never fail. For once a society had made this unique and vital bond with the crop, with deep meaning. For a modern mind, the Mayan methodology of working with maize, and how it became to dominate life far beyond a means of food, becoming the backbone of their religion, it is truly amazing and great, the Mayans for one were not simple folk their attitude towards maize was clearly one of great spirituality. The Mayan mind believed or realized that not only had the gods given them maize, the gods would continually need to be thanked for giving them a great crop and they cultivated it and through it thanked and worshiped the gods for feeding them, and allowing them to grow and excel. In the end, the relationship between Man and maize was a contract between the gods and the earth.
The Early Preclassic Era is the time period when the beginnings of agriculture emerge in Maya culture. The earliest evidence of agricultural field burning and cultivation of maize along with other crops dates well before the beginning of the Early Preclassic period. Agriculture was already being practiced in some areas of Guatemala that were settled by distinctively Maya groups.
Diamond, Jared M. (2005) "The Maya Collapses.” Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 157-77.
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society.
In his career of fascinating research, Larry Peterson has specialized in the geophysics and geology. Not bound by his specific major, Peterson was puzzled by the disappearance of the Mayan peoples. By using his studies to examine the layers of Earth’s crust Peterson hoped to find clues, and possibly the hidden answer, the strange demise of the Mayan Civilization. The Mayans lived thousands of years ago and mysteriously vanished between the years 800 and 1000 A.D. (Peterson 2005) Theories of the Mayan dissolution, commonly known as “The Terminal Classic Collapse”, fluctuate from possible foreign intrusion to internal warfare to widespread disease; each theory strongly backed by scientific research. Though all these theories are plausible, so
The Mayan civilization was located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the first American civilizations, it lasted from about 1000 B.C.-1542 A.D. Their civilization flourished during the Sixth Century. They built many temples and over forty cities. The Mayan population consisted of almost fifteen million people who were all living in one of the many cities. The Mayan people were extremely religious and believed in multiple gods which meant they were polytheistic. Their most commonly worshiped god was the Maize God, or god of corn, as corn was the most grown and most relied on crop. The Mayans grew all of their own food so they needed to have useful farming methods. The one they used most often was the slash and burn method, which involved cutting down trees and burning them to make the soil fertil which was necessary to grow crops. This method worked for many years, but soon started to backfire. The Mayans were ahead of their time, but that did not prevent their mysterious decline which occurred between the years 800 A.D.-900 A.D. Although it is not known exactly why the powerful empire fell, but there are various probable theories. The mysterious decline of the Mayans may have been caused by
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This quote from Arthur C. Clarke nicely represents the admiration that studying the Mayan, Aztec and Incan civilizations can inspire. In the current age of technology it is very hard to imagine these ancient civilizations accomplishing their many deeds without any modern tools or computers. The Mayan, Aztec and Incan civilizations of Central and South America made major advancements in engineering, math, astronomy, writing agriculture, and trading.
The European and Mayan civilizations had inverse experiences during the Classical era, but they were similar in some aspects. While the Mayans were basking in their glorious success as a civilization, the Europeans stood in their shadow. However, after the Renaissance Era, it was as if the Mayans stood in the shadow of the European revival. These two societies have a definite inverse relationship, in that while one was succeeding, the other was squandering. For example, the forward thinking of the Mayans and their knowledge of arithmetic and science was overshadowed by the revolutionary ideas created by European scientists, the fact that the Mayans had created a complex, and accurate calendar wasn’t nearly as celebrated as a European man who got hit by an apple.
Pyburn, K. Anne, and Traci Ardren. "The Fall Of The Ancient Maya: Solving The Mystery Of The Maya Collapse." Latin American Antiquity 16.2 (2005): 225-226. Academic Search Premier.
The factors that lead to the “collapse” of civilizations are almost directly related to those that created it. Archaeologists characterize collapse by a number of elements, some of which we have evidence for, others we do not. Most archaeologists are unsure of exactly what caused the decline of most civilizations in the ancient world, yet there are many clues to some of the events that could have contributed. The collapse of the ancient Roman Empire, the Mesoamerican Mayan, and the Egyptian cultures will be discussed in the following paragraphs, with a focus on the uniqueness of each.
The Maya culture has a long history that started in about 1000 BC. The history of the Maya is divided up into four different time periods: The Middle Preclassic Period, Late Preclassic Period, Classic Period, and Postclassic Period. The Middle Preclassic Period was when the small areas started to become city-like in the way that they started to build larger temples. The Late Preclassic Period was when the cities began to expand with paved roads and massive pyramids. The Classic Period was the time the Maya civilization hit it’s peak. Populations were growing rapidly and the structure of politics was formed. The Postclassic Period was when warfare was on the rise and cities were being abandoned(Coe 2005). This paper will focus on the Classic Period due to the fact that that is the greatest time period in Maya history.