Ancient Mayans Research Paper

Chandler Goode

Mr. Faello

American History Honors

18 September 2015

The Ancient Mayans

The ancient Mayans were an ancient civilization indigenous to Mexico and Central America, specifically the lands comprised of modern day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. Their origins are still being debated and no one knows for sure how they came to be but Dr.Takeshi Inomata says the most likely explanation is “Mayan culture developed as part of a broader social movement that unfurled across Mesoamerica — a region extending from central Mexico to Central America — between the years 1500 and 800 BC.” The Mayans had a very simple system of economy. They did not use any form of money, they traded goods. There were two types of goods traded by the Mayans: Prestige items and Subsistence items. Prestige items were things gold, copper, jade, ritual items, etc. that were a symbol of higher status. Subsistence items were things like food, clothing, tools, etc. that were

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