The Ancient Mayans lived in areas of Central America like the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico between 2000 BC and 1500 AD. Their civilization was organized into kingdoms ruled by a hereditary monarchy and high priest kings. The Mayans engaged in intensive agriculture growing crops like corn and beans and had an advanced calendar and mathematical systems, leaving behind great architectural sites like temples before eventually declining.

1. Ancient Mayans By: Shannon Cohen

2. The Ancient Mayans lived in certain areas around Central America. These places are The Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico. These areas lie south of the tropic of cancer and is north of the equator. These places usually consisted of two different regions, the highlands and the lowlands. Some of these settlements were also built by volcanoes. These areas were very important for trading due to the fact that different regions could produce different materials.

3. The Mayan civilization time period is over a span of 3000 years, its from 2000 B.C.- 1500 A.D. This was also broken up into 3 time periods pre- classic 2000 B.C.- 250 A.D. to the second time period, the classic period, from 250 A.D. to 900 A.D. and lastly the post classic period from 900 A.D. – 1500 A.D.

4. The Ancient Mayan government was a hereditary monarchy. This consisted of a spiritual union that had temporal elements. The high priest was also the king and makes all the important decisions for the kingdom. He also has control over the rituals and ceremonies. There were four provincial governors in the system all from royal families and they two had their own government. There was also a council of advisors to help the king keep order in the villages or towns. They were also military commanders. This is how the Mayan government system was organized and ran.

5. The Mayan economy was bases primarily on food and agriculture. Food and raw materials such as corn, beans, honey, fruit, cloth, meat, fish, salt, and jade were traded in the market place. Also a portion of there crops would be given to the government and their Gods.

6. The Ancient Mayans followed a calendar that consisted of 260 says and has names for the twenty. Examples of some of these names are Ik’ (wind) and Chikchan (snake). The calendar got numbered 1 to 13 and then they would start over again counting. The believed in many gods and did human sacrificing or gave blood in order to please their Gods. Bloodletting was also important due to the fact that a serpent would appear and their ancestors would come out of its mouth and speak to them. When their was a crisis going on in Chichen Itz, one of the Mayan nations hundreds of voluntaries would scarf ice them selves in order to please the Gods.

7. The Mayans also believed in the spiritual powers of the universe. They believed that it was divided in four different layers and that they were the people of the earth, the thin layer between the real world and spiritual world. They saw birth and skulls as representations of the circle of life. They also saw skulls as the birth of your spiritual life.

8. What they Mayans contributed to the world was amazing architecture, knowledge and the ability to predict things way before their time. They are technically and mathematically more advance in some areas then even we are today.

9. The Mayan writing system is arguably one of the most complex and visually sticking writing systems in the world. They use images of people and animals as symbols for lettering. Each symbol can have more then one meaning.

10. The ancient Mayans had slaves and used them for human sacrificing or daily sacrificing depending on the tribe. They were there to do the work of the Mayans.

11. When we look back at the Mayans are we see in their work a reflection of their past lifestyle and culture. The art was done in different forms some were paintings some were sculptures, done on canvas and some were carvings. Their art was usually painted by priests or a person of royalty. Their work reflects the Mayan society and culture.

12. The ancient Mayans were killed off by a group of Spanish missionaries. They fought a long bloody battle with them, but really killed them is the disease that they had brought over from Europe with them. They have disappeared ever since then.

13. The ancient Mayans created a mathematical system for them selves and also created a calendar that has been able to predict advents that has taken place today.

14. Thank you =)

15. Work Cited Bill of birds gallery http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/guatemala/pics/happy-mayan.jpg Headline Zone http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/americas_enl_1134552198/img/1.jpg Maya http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/meso/cultures/maya.html The ancient Mayans http://www.digitalmeesh.com/maya/geography.htm Lost Civilizations http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-geography.html Professor Tax http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rdaniels/Blogpix/mayan.gif Mayan Economy http://www.angelfire.com/mech/maya/economy.html MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22082459/ns/technology_and_science-science/

16. Mayan Sacrifice www.historywiz.com U.S.W.G.O http://uswgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/MayanCalendar031109.gif Think Quest http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0310200/beliefs.html Ancient American Cosmology http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/ Vision Magazine http://www.visionmagazine.com/archives/0801/images/maya.jpg Ancient scripts http://www.ancientscripts.com Neatorama http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/19/ Wayfaring Info http://www.wayfaring.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/tikal-national-park-2.jpg