Maya (250-700)
Social
- very stratified society
- noble class included priests and leading warriors
- middle class was merchants and specialists such as
- lower class was peasants
Political
- king was divine, descended from gods
- the king was often male but sometimes female
- kingdom was hereditary - eldest son
- royal dynasties were supported by priests and warrior nobles
- had important, independantcity-states like Tikal (northern Guatemala), Copán, Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén Itzá (a total of about 25)
- the largest city-states were Tikal and Copan with about 30,000 residents each
- each city had a number of towns and villages attached to it
- city-states warred with each other, but these were often ritualistic and intended to catch the other's ruler instead of destroy their city
- decline in 800s possibly due to horrid weather, lack of an effective government, increased war disrupting trade and causing economic problems, and population growth and overfarming damaging the environment and causing food shortages, famine, and disease such as plague
Interaction
- southern mexico into northern central america
- highland region and lowland region
- lowlands to the north include the dry scrub forest of the Yucatán Peninsula and the dense, steamy jungles of southeastern Mexico and northern Guatemala
- highlands further south are a range of cool, cloudy mountains from southern Mexico to el Salvador
- limestone, a material used for building, was in great supply
Culture
- blend of Olmec and local customs
- their king was divine and performed ceremonies that kept the visible and invisible order of the universe
- he bound together the nine levels of the underworld, the earth, and the three levels of heaven that made it possible for humans to talk to the gods and their ancestors
- when he died, there were big ceremonies to prepare him for his journey to the underworld as well as to mark the ascension of the new lord; the people of the city-state were in great danger until a new lord could maintain order
- a bit of ancestral veneration, polytheistic - around 160 gods
- gods represented things (like corn, death, rain, and war) and were associated with a cardinal direction and a color (white = north, black = west, yellow = south, red = east, green = center)
- gods could be good, evil, or both
- one god was the two-headed jaguar god of the underworld
- prayed to gods, offered food, flowers, and incense
- also pierced and cut their bodies and offered their blood as nourishment for the gods; the frequent shedding of royal blood was necessary to connect the people to the gods, and this was often painful
- the bloodletting enabled the bleeding guy to hallucinate, seeing a Vision Serpent which showed Venus warriors and ancestors, who in turn answered questions about the future; the hallucinations were another way to contact one's ancestors
- human sacrifices! usually of captured enemies
- at Chichén Itzá captives were thrown into a sinkhole lake called a cenote with gold, jade, and other offerings
- human sacrifice pleased the gods and kept the world in balance
- Venus warrior cult secured captives for sacrifice - their blood was an addition to their rituals. Some were tortured for years to give blood at many ceremonies; a captive of high standing was killed at the coronation of Maya rulers
- king's other sons (not eldest who became the next king) often joined the priesthood
- playing of the ball game kept the sun and moon on their normal cycles and brought rain; players tried to move a solid rubber ball without using their hands or feet; members of the losing team might be sacrificed
- the ball game was more complicated and dangerous than that of the Olmecs: rulers played against captive rulers while wearing protective paddings, in a t-shaped court. When the captive leader lost he was tied to a rubber ball and dropped from the high temple walls or bounced down the stone steps
- pyramids were built as religious structures and could be used as tombs
- tombs contained murals, pottery, and jewelry; individual Maya rulers were shown realistically
- the afterlife was dangerous but survivable. Souls of living humans were transported in large dugout canoes across the water of life, paddled by the gods. As death approached, the boat sank, dropping the souls in to Xibalba, an underground place that stank of rotting corpses and disease and was home to demi-gods with nasty breath and horrid fart who wanted to kill human souls. If you made it through, you became an ancestor.
- time was a burden carried on the back of a god; at the end of a day, month, or year, one god would put it down and another would pick it up; a day could be lucky or unlucky depending on the nature of the god
- an accurate calendar was developed to know when the god would change, and what god needed to be honored that day
- each day had two gods, one from the solar calendar and one from the ritual calendar
- to get safely through a day, a person had to know the names of the two gods controlling that day, their relations, and what had to be done to keep them happy; therefore the Maya were obsessed with good and bad days
- a 260-day religious calendar had 13 20-day months
- a 365-day solar calendar had 18 20-day months with a separate period of 5 days at the end
- these calendars were linked together so that you could find your day in both cycles and determine when to plant crops, attack enemies, and crown new rulers
- calendars were based on observation of planets, sun, and moon
- there was also the Long Count, a linear calendar; after several creations and destructions, a new creation occurred (August 13, 3,114 BCE). This could be destroyed after 4,772 CE or maybe 142,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (nonillion) years later
- astronomy and mathematics were so advanced that they were only .0002 off
- math system included zero and was base-20
- shell = zero, dots = 1 through 4, bar = five
- artwork included giant pyramids, temples, palaces, and elaborate stone carvings dedicated to the gods and important rulers
- pyramids were up to 212 feet high (and possibly more)
- steles were markers used to mark special dates or buildings
- architecture had ornamental detailing both on the interior and exterior
- Maya cities had ball courts, where a religious and political game was played
- huge tomb-pyramids were topped with tombs and palaces and surrounded by smaller mounds that were private dwellings; the tops were often connected by wide causeways used by royal and religious processions
- developed a paper from bark
- developed a writing system with about 800 glyphs, some of which were whole words and some of which were syllables
- recorded important historical events by carving in stone or writing in a bark-paper codex; only three survived
- we have deciphered Maya, in part thanks to Maya books after the Spanish conquest, including the Popol Vuh.
- 4,000,000 people speak Maya today
Economics
- trade linked the independent Maya city-states
- cities traded local products like salt, flint, feathers, shells, and honey
- manufactured good were also traded including cotton textiles and jade ornaments
- they didn't have a uniform currency but cacao beans sometimes acted as one
- agriculture-based
- growing of maize, beans, and squash
- utilized slash-and-burn agriculture as well as raised beds above swamps and on hillside terraces
- maize and vegetables grown in swamps were fertilized with swamp lilies
- the city-states traded with each other through a complex river system and roads built be forced labor
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