The Mayan Civilization: Mexico And Central America

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The Mayan Civilization

The Mayan Civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of what is now Mexico and Central America (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador). The Empire reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D.

The Maya excelled at many disciplines: written language, accurate calendars, agriculture, astronomy, mathematics and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork.
Indeed, the earliest Maya (1800 BC) were agricultural, growing crops such as corn, beans, and manioc and in addition to agriculture they started to excel at architecture with pyramid-building and city construction.
Then the Classic Period (AD 250) was considered as the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities and each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. The Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.
Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero to better measure numbers and the development of a complex calendar …show more content…

900 and since the 19th century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline. Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could not sustain the population anymore so they decided to leave and settle in another new environment. Others argue that constant warfare increasing among competing city-states led alliances between them to break down. Others say that some catastrophic environmental change–like an extremely intense period of drought caused their decline as they could no longer be able to feed

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