The Maya

What does it mean to be powerful?

Geography• The Maya occupied the

Yucatan Peninsula, Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador from 450 B.C.to A.D. 1550

• The built 40-80 cities in the jungles of Meso-America

• Moved to the desert edge in Yucatan

City States

• Each city had a royal family they considered deities

• Although each city and the land around it(city-state) had their own dynasty, they traded on white roads and built alliances or attacked one another

Writing, Numbers and Calendars• 1st MesoAmerican civilization to

have a full system of writing• Wrote laws and histories onto

Stelae, columns of stone placed in the market place

• Developed the concept of zero and could count using dots and lines and had complex math problems that helped them construct perfectly laid out cities

• Famous for their calendars, 365 days, 1st civilization to have that many days, 18 months to match the moon, 24 cycles before rebirth, in 2012 some said Mayan calendars predicted end of world but was beginning of a new cycle

Religion• Hunab Ku- the almighty god, sole

god, chief god• Ixchel- Jaguar goddess of life• Kinich Ahau- Sun god• Chaac- Rain god• Lacandon-god of under world• Itzamna – Creator god, god of

healing• Blood letting of humans and

animals key to appeasing gods, often ripped the heart of a human out their chest while they were alive, used a straight knife, often sacrificed baby jaguars like Olmec and then would sacrifice the servants of the king to their gods

Weapons• Atlatl- extended throwing

arm for spear• Spear-wood tip, obsidian

inserted in• Club- more important to

captured enemies for sacrifice

• Battle Paddle- Large paddle with razor sharp obsidian in the edges, sharper than any swordcould cut a man in two with two swings

Leadership

• Kings seen as deity, would make offerings with High priest to gods and would be expected to communicate with the gods

• Put on displays of power, and pageantry

• Would never lead an army into war

The Ball Game• Mayan invented a ball game

played in leagues• In league play the losers would

be whipped with”jungle cord”• Could not use hands, but could

battle for position and use hips, heads and legs to get ball about the size of a basketball and almost as heavy as a bowling ball up and through a hoop

• Games would last all day and in the championship the winning captain and sometimes whole team would offer themselves to be sacrificed