The Maya were an ancient civilization that developed in Mesoamerica between 2600 BC and 900 AD. They excelled at agriculture, writing, mathematics, and astronomy. At their peak between 300-900 AD, the Maya created powerful city-states and a wealthy empire across Central America, demonstrating more advanced achievements than contemporary European societies. However, the Maya empire began a gradual decline starting in the 9th century AD due to factors like overpopulation, warfare, and drought. While their great cities were abandoned, the Maya people and culture still exist today with over 6 million Maya peoples carrying on ancestral traditions.

1. Maya
The Wisest Empire
Ailah May Parinas
Will

2. The Maya
Much of Maya history is shrouded in mystery. The Mayan people began to settle in the Yucatan
area of what is now Mexico between 2600 BC and 1800 BC. As the centuries rolled on, their
culture and religion developed. Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing,
calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive
architecture and symbolic artwork.
The Olmec spread their civilization to the Mayas. Before Rome became great, the Mayas had
already established an empire which extended over much of Central America. When Europe
was in the Dark Ages, they created the most advanced civilization in Central America (300-900
AD).
The Mayas were considered as the wisest empire in the Americas in terms of knowledge and
morality. Their city-states were powerful and wealthy. But then 3 cities of Mayapan, Chichen Itza,
and Uxmal began a series of long civil wars for supremacy which lasted several centuries. This
weakened the Maya people. In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadores came and destroyed them.

3. Mayan’s Religion & Beliefs
Religion was central to Maya life. They were polytheistic and worshipped many gods, especially the
serpents, rain god and the maize. Almost every aspect of life had its own god. They called themselves
“children of the serpent” because to them a snake was god. Their temples and palaces of huge stone
blocks were ornamented with sculptures of serpents and unique Maya geometrical design.
Ritualised sacrifice was usually performed in public by religious or political leaders piercing a soft body
part, most commonly the tongue, ear or foreskin, and collecting the blood to smear directly on
the idol or collecting it on paper, which was then burned.
Joralemon notes it is "virtually certain" that blood from the penis and the vagina were the most sacred
and had "extraordinary fertilizing power" and that such rituals were essential for the regeneration of the
natural world, particularly cultivated plants. In one dramatic variant men and women "gathered in the
temple in a line, and each made a pierced hole through the member, across from side to side.”

4. The Maya believed deeply in the cyclical nature of life – nothing was ever `born’ and
nothing ever `died’. In Mayan belief, however, one did not die and go to a `heaven’ or a
`hell’ but, rather, embarked on a journey toward Tamoanchan (place of the misty sky).
The only ways in which a soul travel instantly to Tamoanchan were through death in
childbirth, as a sacrificial victim, in warfare, on the ball court, or by suicide. It was because
of this cyclical view that the Maya did not believe there was anything wrong with human
sacrifice. Those people who were offered to the gods did not `die' but simply moved on.
The reason for sacrifice was that the Mayans believed that the only way for the sun to rise
was for them to sacrifice someone or something every day to the gods.

5. Pokatok
Pok-A-Tok is a fast-paced ball game played by the Maya of
Central America. It is their most famous game. Pok-A-Tok
was played by two teams.
The objective of the game was to get a ball through a narrow
stone hoop placed on the court wall. Players were not
allowed to use their hands or feet - only their head,
shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hips.
Spectators sat on stone benches and bet wildly on who
would win. Whenever a player could score a point, he could
demand jewelry from the spectators. Hence, once a person
shot a ball, the spectators ran for the gates to avoid paying,
For the Maya, Pok-A-Tok was more than just a challenging
game. It symbolized the struggle of life over death, and war
and hunting. It was often played by prisoners of war and the
members of the losing team were offered as sacrifices to the
gods.
Pok-A-Tok games would go on without interruption for long
periods of time, often for days. Scoring was so difficult that
when a player managed to finally get the ball through the
ring located high up on the wall, the game usually ended.

6. Mayan
Calendar
The Mayas invented a calendar because they were
fascinated by time, which they needed to know in
order to hunt, plant, and offer sacrifices to the
gods. Their calendar was more precise and
accurate than any used in Western Europe until
the 18th century, It began in 3000 BC and ended
in 2012 AD.
For longer calculations, the Maya devised what is
known as the Long Count Calendar and is this
which has attracted so much international
attention in recent years regarding the end of the
world on 21 December 2012 CE.
Because the Maya Calendar ends in the year 2012,
it led to a prediction that the world would end.
The prediction was denied by the Maya ancestors
and scholars.

7. More About Mayans
-The Mayas were great builders of cities and irrigation systems, Their pyramids rivaled that of
the Nile. They made fine jewelry in jade of birds, animals and flowers. Weaving was a sacred
art to them.
-Their most important legacy to the world is the growing of corn (mais), the staple food and
plant in South America. They were the first people to produce corn and cook tortillas.
-They were the only ancient American people to have advanced (ideographic) writing and
history. Maya priests recorded many historical events, traditions and legends in manuscripts,
some of which have survived.
-They had a class system of ruling priests and warrior nobles, followed by skilled workers, and
lastly, peasants and slaves. They had no work animals, so they used slaves to carry goods
through long distances.

8. -Maya priests also made advances in math and astronomy. They
invented a number system that included zero, and used this system
to accurately measure days and years. They charted eclipses and the
movement of planets. The astronomy of the Mayas surpassed that
of other ancient empires.
-The people had a high moral code. Polygamy was taboo
(forbidden), and adultery was a serious crime. It was required of
every Maya to respect the gods, the rulers, parents and elders.

9. Maya’s Decline and Fall
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.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this
mysterious decline is unknown.
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.
In the modern age the Maya still farm the same lands and travel the same rivers as their ancestors did
from the north in the Yucatan down to Honduras. The claim that the Maya somehow vanished, simply
because their cities were found abandoned, is not only inaccurate but insulting to the over six million
Maya who carry on the traditions of their ancestors.

10. More Facts
-They believed that flattened foreheads were beautiful. While their skulls were still soft
babies had wooden frames attached to them to flatten them. The Mayans also believed
that being cross-eyed was attractive. So they tied a bead on the front of a child's head
so it dangled between their eyes. The child would get cross-eyes by looking at the bead.
-The Mayans also tattooed themselves and they filed their teeth.
-Mayan nobles put clay on top of their noses to make a long ridge. Rich Mayans also
wore jewelry made from jade.
-Dead Mayans were buried under the floors of their houses.
-Both boys and girls got married in the early or mid teens. Their parents chose a partner
for them helped by a matchmaker.

11. Quiz
1. What was the Mayan’s most famous game called?
2. What kind of empire was the Mayas?
3. When did the Mayan calendar ended?
4. What is the place of the misty sky called or the afterlife?
5. What is the Mayan’s most important legacy to the world?

12. Quiz
1. What was the Mayan’s most famous game called?
-Pokatok
2. What kind of empire was the Mayas?
-The Wisest Empire
3. When did the Mayan calendar ended?
- 2012 AD/ December 21 2012 CE
4. What is the place of the misty sky called or the afterlife?
-Tamoanchan
5. What is the Mayan’s most important legacy to the world?
-Growing of corn/maize