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Maya civilization, literature review
The impact of the Spanish conquest
Maya civilization, literature review
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Tikal Tikal, once a great city to the Maya culture located in Guatemala. Tikal was a center for agricultural production as well; which typically yielded Maze, beans and other native plants. As in nature all places in the world are subject to seasonal drought from which any thriving city must have a well put together contingency plan, and in this case the Maya utilized reservoirs to store water in such occasions. Along with most cities comes a governmental structure which consisted primarily of kingship. This extraordinary city center played home to the Maya people for many years; why was Tikal made, who made it, where was it made, When was it made are all questions we will delve deeper into. Why was Tikal Made Tikal was built by the Maya people out of necessity of infrastructure. Tikal, located in Guatemala was considered the biggest city that housed people from the Maya early classical era. The need for such a city rests upon the beliefs and daily activities the Maya people valued. Some of the reasons for creating Tikal would be their agricultural background along with spiritual, ...
Teotihuacan was a huge metropolis in what is now southern Mexico. It became a large city before 100CE and reached the height of its size from about 600-650CE. At its height it was home to roughly 125,000 inhabitants. There is a permanent springs nearby the ancient city, and satellite photos have indicated the presence of a possible irrigation system with canals used to water farm sites. Although the age of the irrigation canals has yet to be established it seems to be highly probable that this canal system was created concurrently with the development of the city. This conclusion is also supported by a lack of rural population, which would have been necessary to provide food for such a large population if there wasn’t agriculture within the city. Because the food was not brought in from a great distance, the travel expenditure to get the food to the population would have been low. This allowed there to be a dense population concentration within the urban area. The expense of moving goods in the new world seems to have been a factor that limited the size of cities.
Before the end of the 20th century archeologist began making progress in translation of the ancient writing. Discoverers believed to have solved the mystery of the Maya when archeologists J.Eric Thompson, after conducting many excavations, concluded the people of Tikal were peaceful and free from conflict. After his analysis of the hieroglyphs believe declared the Maya people were spiritual and used Tikal as ceremonial site. As studies of the Maya people continued translation of the hieroglyphs went undispu...
The word Tikal in Maya translates as "place of spirits." The city of Tikal thrived and expanded from 800 B.C. Until AD 900, spanning most of the known periods of Archaeological classification. At its peak around AD 750 100,000 lived here today known as the Guatemalan rain forest. Tikal is located west of Caribbean of the Gulf of Mexico. The site contains hieroglyphics, steal, paintings, engravings and hundreds of structures in excellent condition, including the tallest pyramid the Maya ever built.
The Maya didn’t discover metallurgy until late in the Classic period and used it only to produce jewelry and decorations for the elite. Artists and their numerous assistants cut and filled the stones used for palaces, pyramids, and housing, aided only by levers and stone tools. Each wave of construction represented the mobilization of thousands of laborers.
The templo mayor, sits in the of a square ceremonial precinct of the four-quarter system, the center of the city of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan was the capital city for the Aztecs. The Templo’s represented the access through the city as well as to the celestial and under world. The significance of its twin temples dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the war god, Tlaloc, the rain god, and the sculpture of the moon goddess, Coyolxauhqui goes with a story which the Aztecs would hold rituals to show the importance of it.
The Mayans were a great powerful group of people that followed what they believed in, build big beautiful temples. The Maya build a big temple inside the big jungle of southern Mexico. The temple is so big that you can see it from high in the sky. You can still see the temple today, but the temple lays in ruins because of the thick jungle that have grown over it. At that temple, they sacrificed people for the gods. If the Mayans had died out because of all the desices the Spanish brought we could have learned more about them.
The Maya religion required a highly complicated method of worship that demanded bloodletting and sacrificial rituals that were often fulfilled by the kings and queens. These efforts were necessary because it was believed to "feed" the gods. It was the sacred duty and responsibility of the ruler to often feed the gods with their own blood. The believed their rulers had the power to pass in and out body to the spirit world and acted as messengers to the celestial world.[109]
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society. The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198).
A land dominated by two colossal pyramids and an extensive sacred avenue, Teotihuacan became considered a spiritual land to most inhabiters. Teotihuacan itself means, “the place where the Gods were created” or “where men became Gods”, reflecting the belief of the Aztecs that the creation of the universe occurred on that very land. (Jarus, Owen. 2012) The Temple of Quetzalcoatl along with the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon, all stand out as the monumental distinguishing characteristics of Teotihuacan. Standing sixty three meters tall and two hundred and fifteen meters square in the heart of the city, shadowed by the massive mountains of Cerro Gordo you’ll find the Pyramid of the Sun. (History.com Staff. 2009) It’s no secret that to this day it is one of the largest structure ever erected during the ancient Americas. Traveling west among the silhouettes of the mountains lies the second largest structure in Mesoamerica, the Pyramid of the Moon. Holding equal historical and religious value as the ...
The Mayan civilization was located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the first American civilizations, it lasted from about 1000 B.C.-1542 A.D. Their civilization flourished during the Sixth Century. They built many temples and over forty cities. The Mayan population consisted of almost fifteen million people who were all living in one of the many cities. The Mayan people were extremely religious and believed in multiple gods which meant they were polytheistic. Their most commonly worshiped god was the Maize God, or god of corn, as corn was the most grown and most relied on crop. The Mayans grew all of their own food so they needed to have useful farming methods. The one they used most often was the slash and burn method, which involved cutting down trees and burning them to make the soil fertil which was necessary to grow crops. This method worked for many years, but soon started to backfire. The Mayans were ahead of their time, but that did not prevent their mysterious decline which occurred between the years 800 A.D.-900 A.D. Although it is not known exactly why the powerful empire fell, but there are various probable theories. The mysterious decline of the Mayans may have been caused by
The Mayans lived in Southern Mexico and Central America in their capital, Tikal, which is in present day Guatemala. The Mayans were known for their engineering, one structure they were famous for is their pyramid temple in Tikal (Document 1). This pyramid was the tallest structure in the Americas up until the 20th century and is still standing today. The government must have been strong and well organized in order to carry out such a large task. The Mayan religion had multiple gods and this pyramid was most likely devoted to one or used as a place for sacrifices. Another accomplishment of the Mayans was the creation of their calendar. An extra document that would be useful is one that explains how the calendar was created. The Mayans must have studied astronomy and math to a great length. Similar to the Ancient Egyptians, they wrote with symbols and pictures known as glyphs that were used in the calendar. These glyphs were gods, such as Zotz (Document 2). The use of glyphs is an acknowledgement of a writing system, which is another accomplishment.
This paper explores information gather from several articles that report on the Mayan Civilization throughout the years of their rise, their conquering, and their fall, as well as their interactions with other civilizations, specifically the Spanish. The Mayan civilization dates back before the 16th century, before they were conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors and the civilization diminished. During their reign, the Maya civilization thrived in what is now parts of Southern Mexico and Central America. However, their supremacy was struck down when the Spanish and their beliefs
Unlike the Incas and the Aztecs, the Mayans were not one unified empire. They were a series of city-states in the same area, linked to one another by language, trade, and certain cultural similarities. However they often went to war with each other over resources, power, and influence. Wars and major raids were led by the ahau (King). It is believed that many cities, especially larger ones, had large, skilled armies. Most Mayan cities had to build walls around them for defense in case a rival city was going to attack. Sometimes they got so desperate that some buildings in the city would be disassembled for stone to build a wall. Between 700 and 900 A.D. most of the Mayan cities in the central and southern regions of the civilization had been abandoned. The cause of the civilizations decline is unknown, but warfare almost certainly had something to do with their
The buildings were decorated with masks and crests carved in stone and stucco and generally painted red, by the large amount of limestone available in Peten Maya lands , lime and mixing was easily produced impressive allowing the construction of pyramids and palaces , usually in the Preclassic pyramids were crowned with three wooden temples and thatch , known as " triadic complexes " , during the classic had one or two rooms with the Maya vault feature . To make walls , they used blocks in two rows , then topped with small stones , and other materials, in Tikal , El Naranjo , Wala ' , and many other sites , found pieces of steles and obsidian as filler , as previous structures . Imperfections in the path layers were offset stucco decorations . What we see now , is the last stage of construction, but in reality it is not uncommon to find more than 5 construction phases . The Stucco Limestone was made with cooked, and mixed with an organic glue extracted from a tree known locally endemic Holol Petén, mixed with lime and sascab, a natural mineral like limestone. The building known of the Maya is the Temple I or the Great Jaguar in Tikal, which served at the famous Tomb Hasaw K'a...
The Maya culture has a long history that started in about 1000 BC. The history of the Maya is divided up into four different time periods: The Middle Preclassic Period, Late Preclassic Period, Classic Period, and Postclassic Period. The Middle Preclassic Period was when the small areas started to become city-like in the way that they started to build larger temples. The Late Preclassic Period was when the cities began to expand with paved roads and massive pyramids. The Classic Period was the time the Maya civilization hit it’s peak. Populations were growing rapidly and the structure of politics was formed. The Postclassic Period was when warfare was on the rise and cities were being abandoned(Coe 2005). This paper will focus on the Classic Period due to the fact that that is the greatest time period in Maya history.