How many qualities is maya made up of

In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system. By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. The environment also held other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility and marine shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.

From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.

Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family by marriage and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.

As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change—like an extremely long, intense period of drought—may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization.

Drought would have hit cities like Tikal—where rainwater was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation—especially hard. All three of these factors—overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought—may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities buried under a layer of rainforest green. The majority of them live in Guatemala, which is home to Tikal National Park, the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal.

Roughly 40 percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent. The Mayan Civilization. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century.

From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate However, a look at the traits which have kept the Maya culturally and physically viable to date - their hold on the land, devotion to their communities, and a deeply held system of belief - offer some hope.

The Maya have managed to maintain many of the old ways in agriculture and trade. Like their ancestors, most Maya households engage in corn farming and many produce crafts, such as woven textiles , for sale in markets.

Unlike their pre-Conquest ancestors, however, many of the men must also leave their villages for the lowlands where they work part of the year on coffee and cotton plantations.

The ancient Maya calendar has also survived remarkably well. In the Maya highlands, many communities still have shaman-priests or "day-keepers", whose job it is to keep track of the round of days according to the Maya calendar, and to conduct traditional rituals for individuals and the larger community.

Maya rituals follow both terrestrial and celestial cycles, which Maya priests were expert at reading. Maya civilization depended on maize or corn and the Maya maize god was of central importance. Like the Aztecs, Mayans practiced human sacrifice, although not to the extent of the Aztecs.

Auto-sacrifice, or bloodletting, by rulers, priests and nobles was common. Great pyramids held temples and tombs amid huge central plazas in every Maya city. Religion was central and a vital component of Mayan life. A Maya city can be recognized from the stepped pyramids, huge plazas and expansive palaces built for kings and nobles. The Maya had a bewildering number of gods, with at least named deities. This is partly because each of the gods had many aspects.

Some had more than one sex; others could be both young and old; and every god representing a heavenly body had a different Underworld face, which appeared when the god "died" in the evening.

His wife was Ix Chel , the goddess of weaving, medicine and childbirth; she was also the ancient goddess of the Moon. The role of priests was closely connected to the calendar and astronomy. Priests controlled learning and ritual, and were in charge of calculating time, festivals, ceremonies, fateful days and seasons, divination, events, cures for diseases, writing and genealogies.

The Maya clergy were not celibate, and sons often succeeded fathers. All Maya ritual acts were dictated by the day Sacred Round calendar , and all performances had symbolic meaning. Sexual abstinence was rigidly observed before and during such events, and self-mutilation was encouraged in order to furnish blood with which to anoint religious articles. The elite were obsessed with blood - both their own and that of their captives - and ritual bloodletting was a major part of any important calendar event.

Bloodletting was also carried out to nourish and propitiate the gods, and when Maya civilization began to fall, rulers with large territories are recorded as having rushed from one city to the other, performing bloodletting rites in order to maintain their disintegrating kingdoms.

For the Maya, blood sacrifice was necessary for the survival of both gods and people, sending human energy skyward and receiving divine power in return. A king used an obsidian knife or a stingray spine to cut his penis, allowing the blood to fall onto paper held in a bowl. Kings' wives also took part in this ritual by pulling a rope with thorns attached through their tongues. The blood-stained paper was burned, the rising smoke directly communicating with the Sky World. Human sacrifice was perpetrated on prisoners, slaves, and particularly children, with orphans and illegitimate children specially purchased for the occasion.

Before the Toltec era, however, animal sacrifice may have been far more common than human - turkeys, dogs, squirrels, quail and iguana being among the species considered suitable offerings to Maya gods.