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The Ancient Maya civilization had an advanced trade system consisting of short, medium, and long trade routes, along with a robust market for a range of goods and materials. Modern researchers have made use of a variety of methods to understand the Maya economy, including evidence from excavations, illustrations on pottery, scientific "fingerprinting" of materials such as obsidian, and examination of historical documents.

The Maya did not use "money" in the modern sense. There was no universally accepted form of currency which could be used anywhere in the Maya region. Even valuable items, such as cacao seeds, salt, obsidian, or gold tended to vary in value from one region or city-state to another, often rising in value the farther away these items were from their source. There were two kinds of goods commercialized by the Maya: prestige items and subsistence items. Prestige items were things like jade, gold, copper, highly decorated pottery, ritual items, and any other less-practical item used as a status symbol by upper-class Maya. Subsistence items were used on a daily basis, such as food, clothing, tools, basic pottery, salt, and so on.

Subsistence Items

Early Maya city-states tended to produce all of their own subsistence items. Basic agriculture - mostly production of corn, beans, and squash - was the daily task of the majority of the Maya population. Using basic slash-and-burn agriculture, Maya families would plant a series of fields which would be allowed to lie fallow at times. Basic items, such as pottery for cooking, were made in homes or in community workshops. Later on, as the Maya cities began to grow, they outstripped their food production and food trade increased. Other basic necessities, such as salt or stone tools, were produced in certain areas and then traded to places that lacked them. Some coastal communities were involved in the short-range trade of fish and other seafood.

Prestige Items

The Maya had a bustling trade in prestige items as early as the Middle Preclassic period (about 1000 B.C.). Different sites in the Maya region produced gold, jade, copper, obsidian, and other raw materials. Items made from these materials are found at nearly every major Maya site, indicating an extensive trade system. One example is the famous carved jade head of sun god Kinich Ahau, discovered at the Altun Ha archaeological site in present-day Belize. The nearest source of jade to this monument was many miles away in present-day Guatemala, near the Maya city of Quiriguá.

The Obsidian Trade

Obsidian was a precious commodity to the Maya, who used it for adornments, weapons, and rituals. Of all of the trade items favored by the ancient Maya, obsidian is the most promising for reconstructing their trade routes and habits. Obsidian, or volcanic glass, was available at a handful of sites in the Maya world. It is much easier to trace obsidian to its source than other materials like gold. Obsidian from a particular site not only occasionally has a distinct color, like the greenish obsidian from Pachuca, but an examination of the chemical trace elements in any given sample can nearly always identify the region or even the specific quarry from which it was mined. Studies matching obsidian found in archaeological digs with its source have proven very valuable in reconstructing ancient Maya trade routes and patterns.

Advances in the Study of Maya Economy

Researchers continue to study the Maya trade and economy system. Studies are ongoing at Maya sites and new technology is being put to good use. Researchers working at the Yucatan site of Chunchucmil recently tested the soil in a large clearing long suspected of having been a market. They found a high concentration of chemical compounds, 40 times greater than in other samples taken nearby. This suggests that food was extensively traded there. The compounds can be explained by bits of biological material decomposing into the soil, leaving traces behind. Other researchers continue to work with obsidian artifacts in their reconstruction of trade routes.

Lingering Questions

Although dedicated researchers continue to learn more and more about the ancient Maya and their trading patterns and economy, many questions remain. The very nature of their trade is debated. Were the merchants taking their orders from the wealthy elite, going where they were told, and making the deals they were ordered to make - or was there a free market system in effect? What sort of social status did talented artisans enjoy? Did the Maya trade networks collapse along with Maya society in general around 900 A.D.? These questions and more are debated and studied by modern scholars of the ancient Maya.

The Maya and Trade

Maya economy and trade remains one of the more mysterious aspects of Maya life. Research into the area has proven tricky, as the records left behind by the Maya themselves in terms of their trade are scarce. They tended to document their wars and the lives of their leaders much more completely than their trading patterns.

Nevertheless, learning more about the economy and trading culture of the Maya can shed much light on their culture. What sort of material items did they value, and why? Did extensive trading for prestige items create a sort of "middle class" of traders and skilled artisans? As trade between city-states increased, did a cultural exchange - such as archaeological styles, worship of certain gods, or advances in agricultural techniques - also take place?

McKillop, Heather. "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives." Reprint edition, W. W. Norton & Company, July 17, 2006.

Wilford, John Noble. "Ancient Yucatán Soils Point to Maya Market, and Market Economy." The New York Times, January 8, 2008.

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How Did the Mayans Use Trade to Create an Ancient Economy?

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The ancient Mayan economy included an extensive trading network for commerce in basic goods as well as prestige items, such as gold and jade.

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The ancient Maya, a diverse group of indigenous people who lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, had one of the most sophisticated and complex civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. Between about 300 and 900 A.D., the Maya were responsible for a number of remarkable scientific achievements-in astronomy, agriculture, engineering and communications.

The Ancient Maya

Mayan civilization lasted for more than 2,000 years, but the period from about 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., known as the Classic Period, was its heyday. During that time, the Maya developed a complex understanding of astronomy. They also figured out how to grow corn, beans, squash and cassava in sometimes-inhospitable places; how to build elaborate cities without modern machinery; how to communicate with one another using one of the world's first written languages; and how to measure time using not one but two complicated calendar systems.

Did you know? The written language of the Maya was made up of about 800 glyphs, or symbols. Each one represented a word or a syllable, and could be combined with the others in an almost infinite number of ways. As a result, there were three or four different ways to write almost every word in the Mayan language.

Mayan Astronomy and Calendar-Making

The Maya strongly believed in the influence of the cosmos on daily life. Consequently, Mayan knowledge and understanding of celestial bodies was advanced for their time: For example, they knew how to predict solar eclipses. They also used astrological cycles to aid in planting and harvesting and developed two calendars that are as precise as those we use today.

The first, known as the Calendar Round, was based on two overlapping annual cycles: a 260-day sacred year and a 365-day secular year. Under this system, each day was assigned four pieces of identifying information: a day number and day name in the sacred calendar and a day number and month name in the secular calendar. Every 52 years counted as a single interval, or Calendar Round. After each interval the calendar would reset itself like a clock.

Because the Calendar Round measured time in an endless loop, it was a poor way to fix events in an absolute chronology or in relationship to one another over a long period. For this job, a priest working in about 236 BC devised another system: a calendar that he called the Long Count. The Long Count system identified each day by counting forward from a fixed date in the distant past. (In the early 20th century, scholars found that this "base date" was August 11 or August 13, 3114 BC.) It grouped days into sets, or cycles, as follows: baktun (144,000 days), k'atun (7,200 days), tun (360 days), uinal or winal (20 days) and kin (one day).

The Long Count calendar worked the same way that the Calendar Round did-it cycled through one interval after another-but its interval, known as a "Grand Cycle," was much longer. One Grand Cycle was equal to 13 baktuns, or about 5,139 solar years.

Pyramid at Chichén Itzá

The Maya incorporated their advanced understanding of astronomy into their temples and other religious structures. The pyramid at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, for example, is situated according to the sun's location during the spring and fall equinoxes. At sunset on these two days, the pyramid casts a shadow on itself that aligns with a carving of the head of the Mayan serpent god. The shadow forms the serpent's body; as the sun sets, the serpent appears to slither down into the Earth.

Mayan Technology

Remarkably, the ancient Maya managed to build elaborate temples and great cities without what we would consider to be essential tools: metal and the wheel. However, they did use a number of other "modern" innovations and tools, especially in the decorative arts. For example, they built complicated looms for weaving cloth and devised a rainbow of glittery paints made from mica, a mineral that still has technological uses today.

Until recently, people believed that vulcanization-combining rubber with other materials to make it more durable-was discovered by the American (from Connecticut) Charles Goodyear in the 19th century. However, historians now think that the Maya were producing rubber products about 3,000 years before Goodyear received his patent in 1843.

How did they do it? Researchers believe that the Maya discovered this process accidentally, during a religious ritual in which they combined the rubber tree and the morning-glory plant. Once they realized how strong and versatile this new material was, the Maya began to use it in a variety of ways: to make water-resistant cloth, glue, bindings for books, figurines and the large rubber balls used in the ritual game known as pokatok.

The Decline of the Maya

Despite the Maya's remarkable scientific achievements, their culture began to decline toward the beginning of the 11th century. The cause and scope of the decline is a matter of some debate today. Some believe that the Maya were wiped out by war, while others attribute their demise to the disruption of their trade routes. Still others believe that the Maya's agricultural practices and dynamic growth resulted in climate change and deforestation. While much of what was left of the ancient Maya culture was subsumed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, the legacy of Mayan scientific achievement lives on in the discoveries that archeologists continue to make about this amazing ancient culture.

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Mayan Scientific Achievements - Science, Technology & Religion

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Between about 300 and 900 A.D., the Mayan were responsible for a number of remarkable scientific achievements-in astronomy, agriculture, engineering and communications.

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Maya gods, goddesses and deities, along with the religious beliefs attached to them, changed over the course of several millennia. This creates much confusion that I will try to dissipate in this article.

A depiction of the maize god from the murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala

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The Maya Cosmos: The Underworld, the Earth and the Sky

Despite strong continuities, Maya cosmography (i.e. worldview), mythology and religious beliefs have changed through time and the influence of other cultures such as the Olmecs, Teotihuacan, Toltecs, Aztecs and Spanish catholics is noticeable.

The Classic Maya conceived the universe as a threefold world composed of the earth, the celestial realm (i.e. the sky above), and the Underworld (" Xibalba " in Maya Quiché) below. The earth is seen as a caiman or a turtle floating in the primordial sea.

The world of the living (i.e. the Earth) is divided in four quadrants organised according to the cardinal directions. West and East are determined by the points where the sun rises and sets during the winter and summer solstices. North is linked with the Sun at its zenith and the South with the Sun at its nadir and consequently with the Underworld. Each direction is associated with a specific colour. At the centre of the world grows the cosmic tree.

The watery underworld was the dwelling place of the gods and also the resting place of the ancestors. This is where the souls of the people would go after they passed away.

Waterways to the afterlife

Caves and bodies of water, such as lakes were considered passageways to underworld. They were "liminal" (i.e. "transitional") places occupying a position on both sides of a boundary between the two worlds: the world of the living (i.e. earth) and the world of the dead, ancestors and deities (i.e. the underworld). As such, they were, and still are, important loci for religious ceremonies.

Ceramic plate with Maize god emerging from the earth symbolized by a turtle shell. The elements underneath the shell represents the primordial sea (Late Classic Period A.D. 680-750) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The idea of a watery underworld is supported by observing the natural environment. The Maya area is a giant karstic plateau characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves created by the dissolution of the limestone bedrock.

The world's longest cave systems are found in the Yucatan Peninsula and the most dramatic features of this type of topography are cenotes. Cenotes are natural pits, or sinkholes, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath.

Cenote Samula Dzitnup near Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico.

The Lowlands (mainly the Yucatan Peninsula), are almost totally devoid of surface waterbodies such as rivers, streams and lakes, except for cenotes and seasonal swamps. Consequently, for the Maya, water is related to the underground and probably because of the mist that can be seen often at the entrance of many caves in the area, it is believed that the clouds and the rain come from the underworld.

In Maya art, the "portals to the netherworld" (i.e. lakes, cenotes, caves, etc) are represented by so-called "quadrilobed medallions" (i.e. elements looking like stylised four-leaf clovers) or T-shaped elements.

In many ways, the celestial realm is an empty place that the sun and the clouds travel through. At night, the sun descends into the underworld under the guise of a jaguar. At dawn, the sun rises like a bird.

Xibalba is more than just a different geographic/topographic location. Like Lewis Carroll's underground wonderland, the Maya underworld is a peculiar place where physical laws are different from those of the world of the living. Interestingly, dates written in Maya hieroglyphs on the walls of many caves do not make sense. They are incoherent (for human beings). Time and space are warped in the underworld which mirrors the world of the living, but things (and behaviours) are inverted, distorted and bizarre. In the underworld, trees are the roots of the trees that grow above ground. The Lacandon Maya still represent trees with the roots mirroring the branches. Similarly, sociocultural norms of the living are inverted in the underworld.

More recent sources suggest a celestial realm with 13 layers and 9 layers for the underworld, but these have been shown to be of Christian influence. Sixteenth century Christian worldviews were heavily influenced by Dante's work, particularly his description of Inferno's nine circles.

Ancient Maya Deities

Due to the time depth of the Maya culture and the various influences from elsewhere in Mesoamerica, the pantheon of Maya gods and deities is particularly rich and the nature of Maya religious beliefs makes it difficult to grasp for the western eye.

The seemingly well ordered polytheistic nature of the Maya pantheon derived in large measure from the study of Maya manuscripts written in hieroglyphs from the time just before the Spanish Conquest (i.e. "Postclassic Codices"), which were the most accessible collections of Maya text and images in the early years of Mesoamerican archaeology.

One of the first and highly successful attempts to organise the various Maya deities represented in the Codices was made by German scholar Paul Schellhas in 1897. Since then, our knowledge of Maya iconography and epigraphy has grown immensely thanks to the discovery of thousands of artefacts (painted pottery, carved monuments, mural paintings, etc.). We now know that some Codex deities can be linked to non-Maya gods and that Maya religion didn't evolve in a vacuum, but was opened to influences from other Mesoamerican cultures (and vice versa).

A dozen or so Maya gods are well identified and can be found throughout the corpus of Maya iconography. Many of them have their counterparts elsewhere in Mesoamerica. For example, the Mexica (i.e. Aztecs) god and the Maya god Chaak are both gods of rain and lightning. But, for the rest, there is much confusion.

To the ancient Maya, all things, living as well as inanimate, had an inherent "power" which could be manifested in supernatural beings (i.e. "deities"). The Maya also believed in a host of lesser supernatural beings such as the Way (pronounced "why") who were spirit alter-egos. Ancestors too, were part of that supernatural world and their role was to intercede, with the gods, for the living.

Maya gods could simultaneously exist in several forms or aspects. Pawahtuun, for example, was a quadripartite divinity who stood at the four corners (cardinal directions) of the universe. Quite commonly deities were paired, expressing primary cosmic oppositions such as light vs darkness, wet vs dry (there are only 2 seasons in the Maya area: the rainy season and the dry season). Many other deities appear to be linked to specific Maya cities or even dynasties and the territory they controlled.

Supernatural beings were characterized by a variety of criteria such as function, sex, direction, age, colour, etc., and attributes such as glyphs, symbols, iconographic elements and so on. Some of these elements could change to reflect the various aspects of the deity.

In the texts and iconography, certain features distinguish supernatural beings from historical characters:

goggle eyes

prominent front teeth / snout

so called "god-markings"

combination of various animal and human attributes

Major Maya Gods and Goddesses

The number and variety of groups which fall under the term "Maya" lead to a long and diverse list of gods. It wouldn't make sense to list them all, so I have selected the most relevant.

All these divinities are named on the monuments, painted vessels and in the surviving codices, but not all the names have been deciphered and in some instances we still use the letter designation (i.e. God A, God B, etc) devised by German scholar Paul Schellhas. The gods from the Classic and Preclassic periods, in particular, are rarely known with certainty.

Itsamnaaj / Itzamna, The Supreme Creator (God D)

In Maya mythology as understood from various early colonial sources, Itzamna was the name of the supreme creator deity, lord of the heavens, day and night and inventor of books and writing. In these sources, he is connected with Hunab Ku, the creator of the universe ( Hunab Ku very likely refers to the Christian God), but also with K'inich Ajau (the sun deity) and Yaxcocahmut (a bird of omen). He is also said to be the father of the Pawahtuuns/ Bacabs (fourthfold deities of the earth's interior).

In the codices, Itzamna is represented as God D, an old man with toothless jaws and sunken cheeks.

In Maya Classic iconography, the main representations of Itsamnaaj are God D and his avian manifestation, the so-called Principal Bird Deity (maybe an earlier version of Yaxcocahmut).

Iconographic attributes:

Large squinting eyes

Roman nose (typical of old gods)

Toothless jaws

Logogram of his name sometimes attached to the front of his head

K'inich Ajaw, The Sun God (God G)

Originally designated as "God G" by Schellhas, K'inich Ajau (also spelled "K'inich Ahaw"), literally means "Sun-eyed Ruler" or "Sun-faced Ruler".

K'inich Ajaw is easily recognisable by his large square squinting eyes, his aquiline (roman) nose, his upper T-shaped incisors, the tendril-like elements curling from each corner of his mouth and a "string" (called "cruller" in studies of Maya iconography) running below his eyes and looping above his nose. The K'in ("Sun") logogram is commonly found attached to his head or body.

In Classic Maya iconography, K'inich Ajaw is often associated with kings and royal dynasties. Some of his aspects include a Water Bird and a Jaguar (the so-called "Jaguar God of the underworld" which represents the sun during his nocturnal journey through the underworld). In his nightly aspect, he is connected with warfare, as the presence of his face on war shields indicates.

Iconographic attributes:

Large squinting eyes

Aquiline (roman) nose

Upper T-shaped incisors

Tendril-like elements curling from each corner of his mouth

K'in ("Sun") logogram over his ears and sometime covering his forehead

A string twisting and looping above his nose between his eyes (known as the "cruller")

God GI, another Sun Deity

A major deity during the Classic period whose hieroglyphic name remains undeciphered, God GI is easy to confuse with Chaak. His association with water is expressed by a number of shark attributes: prominent shark upper tooth, Xoc monster (i.e. mystical shark-like creature) often worn as headdress, water lilies and aquatic birds. All these aquatic elements refer to the underworld, the watery netherworld of the ancient Maya.

GI is also linked to the sun as indicated by jaguar attributes, the K'in ("Sun") hieroglyph that he sometimes wears and also his association to aquatic birds, which are symbols of the diurnal sun in ancient Maya mythology.

These iconographic elements along with a number of representations indicate that GI was the rising sun.

Iconographic attributes:

Chaak / Chaac or Chac, The Rain God (God B)

Due to the climate pattern of Central America and the importance of rain for agriculture, the most important deities all over Mesoamerica were the rain gods. In the Maya area, the rain maker was Chaak. He was the embodiment of lightning, thunder and, by extension, rain and water.

He had four main aspects, each linked to the cardinal directions and each associated with a specific colour (East is red, North is white, West is black and South is yellow).

Originally designated God B by Schellhas, Chaak has reptilian attributes. In Classic Maya iconography, he is often depicted with a human body. He wears Spondylus shell over his ears, he commonly has a long protruding snout, and tendril-like elements curling from each corner of the mouth. He carries a serpentine axe that symbolize thunderbolts ( K'awiil, see below).

Iconographic attributes:

Protruding snout /upper lip

Spondylus shell over each ear

Tendril-like elements curling from each corner of the mouth

Serpentine axe (K'awiil)

Yum Kaax, The Maize God (God E)

According to the Popol Vuh, human-beings were created by the gods with maize (corn) flour and water.

Beyond the creation myths, the Maya still identify strongly with their staple crop and the agricultural cycle is still used as an analogy for the cycle of life, death and rebirth, and the succession of generations in a family.

In the Postclassic Codices, maize is embodied by Schellhas's "God E" depicted as a young man wearing an ear of a corn as his headdress and sometimes the glyph Kan, which is itself a symbol for corn. He is often shown with an elongated head.

In Postclassic times the Maize god seems to have been conflated with Yum Kaax, a deity of agriculture. In the book of Chilam Balam, there are several designations for the Maize God that relate to the various stages of corn growth.

Iconographic attributes:

Maize/corn elements

Glyph Kan ("Maize")

Elongated head

Netted jade skirt

Spondylus covering the loin

In Classic Maya iconography, two manifestations of the Maize god have been identified; the so-called " Foliated Maize God" and the so-called " Tonsured Maize God ".

The "Tonsured Maize God" typically wears a netted jade skirt and a belt with a large Spondylus shell covering the loins, and his head is shaved (hence the nickname). The "Foliated Maize God" (God E in the codices) is depicted as a corn plant with its cobs being shaped like the deity's head.

The "Tonsured Maize God" seems to be associated with creation and resurrection myths and the agricultural cycle.

The Popol Vuh (the only existing text concerning creation beliefs), explains in Book 1 how the gods tried and failed to make humans out of mud and then wood, but both failed.

The gods created the world and all living things except humans. The animals could not speak or praise their gods, however, and so the gods declared, "we must make a provider and nurturer. How else can we be invoked and remembered on the face of the earth?" They try to create human beings, but fail because the creatures "have no heart" and do not remember their makers. They try again, this time making people out of wood, but this also fails and the creatures are destroyed by a great flood. Those not destroyed by the deluge are set upon by their dogs, by their cooking pots and tortilla grinders, by all of the things of the earth they have misused and mistreated.

In Book 4, humans are finally made out of maize.

At first, the gods make out of maize four men who had the understanding of existence as the gods themselves. This troubles the gods who understand that humans should not have the same gifts as their creators. They confer among themselves, saying, "Aren't they merely 'works' and 'designs' in their very names? Yet they'll become as great as gods unless they procreate, proliferate at the sowing, the dawning, unless they increase. Let it be this way: now we'll take them apart just a little." The gods introduce mortality to humanity and only let them understand things that were close to them. The gods then provide the men with wives and "right away they were happy at heart again, because of their wives" and they forget that once they knew everything and were like the gods. The men and women content themselves with having children and planting crops and appreciating the gifts the gods have given them.

K'awiil / Bolon Ts'akab, The God of Lightning (God K)

K'awiil is the Maya deity of lightning and in Classic Maya iconography, he is often seen held as a scepter by Maya rulers. He is recognisable by a mirror sign on his forehead from which an axe-blade sticks out, an upturned snout and a snake as one of his legs.

He is God K of the Postclassic codices. In 16th-century Yucatán, K'awiil was refered to as Bolon Dzacab ("He of nine generations"). The lightning deity is the god of agricultural abundance.

Iconographic attributes:

Simon Martin, a Maya epigrapher, gives a great lecture on the relationship between royalty and particular gods and mythic events. Watch in full below:

Ek' Chuwah / Ek Chuaj, Merchant Deity (God M)

Only found in the Postclassic codices, Ek' Chuwah ("Black Scorpion") was a merchant deity and also the patron of cacao.

In Maya iconography, God M is depicted as black-and-white ( Dresden Codex) or entirely black ( Madrid Codex) and carrying a bundle of merchandise on his back. He is often confused with God L, but he has a long nose instead of God L's Roman one, and his large lower lip is drooping. He lacks God L's feather hat.

Iconographic attributes:

Black face/body

Long nose

Drooping lower lip

War and Merchant God (God L)

Although his name has not been deciphered yet, God L was a very important aged divinity. In Classic Maya iconography, he is often represented smoking cigars and wearing a large hat made of black-tipped owl feathers.

He was a god of war and of merchants during the Classic period.

Iconographic attributes:

Large hat made of black-tipped owl feathers, often with the head of the bird as well

Face is often blackened

Large eyes

Pawahtuun / Bacab, Divinity of earth and water (God N)

Also referred to as Bacab, God N is a quadripartite deity who stands at the four corners of the world holding both the sky and the earth. In Maya iconography, they are often represented as old men.

In Postclassic Yucatan, each of the four Pawahtuns -named Cantzicnal, Hosanek, Hobnil and Saccimi- presided over one of the four cardinal directions. They had one associated colour and one Year Bearer day (The Bacabs presided over the end of the year):

Cantzicnal : North : White (year bearer: Muluc)

Hosanek : South : Yellow (year bearer: Cauac)

Hobnil : East : Red (year bearer: Kan)

Saccimi : West : Black (year bearer: Ix)

According to some sources, the Bacabs were the sons of Itzamnaaj, the creator god. Pawahtun was a major patron of scribes.

Iconographic attributes:

Ix Chel / Chak Chel, Goddess of Childbirth and Healing (Goddess O)

Ix Chel ("Lady Rainbow") was the goddess of childbirth and healing. Her other manifestation, Chak Chel ("Great Rainbow") is represented in the Dresden Code as an aged woman and was also a patroness of weaving. According to some sources, she is Itzamnaaj 's spouse.

In 16th-century Yucatan, the cult of Ix Chel was quite popular and she even had a sanctuary on the island of Cozumel.

Iconographic attributes:

Snakes and spindles in her hair

Aged often toothless face

Clawed hands and feet

Crossed bones on the skirt

Moon Goddess (Goddess I)

The Moon goddess appears frequently in Classic Maya iconography. She is shown as a young woman, often with bared breasts, holding a rabbit (the Maya saw the shape of a rabbit in the moon), and commonly seated in the moon's crescent.

The Maya generally assume the moon to be female, and the moon's phases are accordingly conceived as the stages of a woman's life. Consequently, the moon goddess is associated with sexuality, procreation, fertility and growth.

She is the patroness of the month of Ch'en (meaning "well"). The "Moon has gone to her well" is a Maya expression referring to New Moon when the lunar disk is not visible.

Iconographic attributes:

Young woman

Often bared breasts

Rabbit

Moon crescent

The Death Gods (God A and A')

In Maya art, many supernatural beings are connected with death and the underworld (" Xibalba", "the place of fright"). They are all marked with symbols pertaining to death (disembodied eyes, defleshed jaws and heads, crossed bones, marks of putrefaction, etc.), or the Underworld (jaguar attributes, deer attributes, "%" sign, glyph Akbal "darkness", etc).

Among all the denizens of Xibalba, two stand out (although they are likely two manifestations of the same deity):

God A: "Hun-Came" ("One Death") in the Popol Vuh and "Humhau" or "Yum Kimil" in 16th-century Yucatan. He is also called "xib" ("fright") or "kisin" (referring to "flatulence" and "stench").

God A': "Vucub-Came" ("Seven Death") in the Popol Vuh and "Uac Mitun Ahau" in 16th-century Yucatan

During the Classic period, the head of the skeletal God A serves as the hieroglyph for the day Kimi ("Death") also spelled " Kame/ Came" in Quiché. The word Came is part of the name of the rulers of Xibalba in the Popol Vuh ("One Death" and "Seven Death").

Iconographic attributes:
God A God A'

Young man depicted in the act of self decapitation

Akbal ("Darkness") sign

Crossed-bones sign

Black line over the eyes

"%" sign

Hun Ajaw & Yax Bahlam, The Hero Twins

In the Maya world, the cultural heroes are two twins: Hun Ajaw ( Hunahpu in the ) and Yax Bahlam ( Xbalanque in the ). Their adventures are recounted in the 16th-century Quiche Popol Vuh. The myth of the hero twins begins with the story of their father and uncle and their death in the underworld. Classic and Preclassic Maya iconography indicate that various versions of the myth existed and that the young heroes had many adventures.

According to the Popol Vuh, their father, Hun Hunahpu, and their uncle, Vucub Hunahpu, who were also twins, were tricked and killed by the Lords of the Underworld. Hun Ajaw and Yax Bahlam later avenged their father when they defeated these deities in a ballgame.

In Maya iconography, the twins are represented as handsome young men, usually wearing white headbands and god-markings. Hun Ajaw also is also covered with black spots while Yax Bahlam has patches of jaguar skins.

Iconographic attributes:
Hun Ajaw

Young man

White headband

God-markings

Black spots

Pictogram (hero's head) - this is used as a variation of the day sign "Ajaw"

Yax Bahlam

Young man

White headband

God-markings

Patches of jaguar skin

Short beard

Glyph: prefix Yax + pictogram (hero's head) - this is used as a head variant of the number "nine"

Hun Ajaw (Hunahpu) and Yax Bahlam ( Xbalanque) became great ballplayers and were summoned to a ballgame by the underworld lords. In their first game, the lords tried to use a skull as a ball, to which the Hero Twins refused. However, they had to undertake several trials in various underworld houses such as the "House of Bats" where Hunahpu was decapitated. The lords hung his head over the ballcourt and announced that it would be used as the ball at the next match. Yet, Xbalanque fashioned a temporary head for his brother's body and persuaded a rabbit to impersonate the ball, so he could retrieve Hunahpu 's head and restore him whole.

The Way (pronounced "why", plural: wayob), Maya Spirit-Companion or Co-essence

Wayob are supernatural beings, often in animal form, with whom a person shares his/her consciousness. In other words, a Way is a spiritual alter-ego with which a person remains in communion throughout life. They are "companion spirits".

The bonds between a person and his/her Way is so strong and close that when the co-essence is wounded or destroyed, the owner grows ill or dies too.

This concept is widespread in Mesoamerica. It was brought to public attention by Carlos Castaneda's 1968 book: The Teachings of Don Juan.

Previous anthropological work on Nahuatl shamanism, though, had explored the topic and made the distinction between the , a spirit companion attached to a person by fate or fortune, and the (also Nahual or Nawal), a shape-shifting witch.

The Way is neither Nagual nor Tonal, and both at the same time. It's a "co-essence", both attached to and independent from its owner. In a way, it's like Peter Pan's shadow. Co-essences take many forms such as an animal (e.g., reptile, bird, jaguar), a celestial phenomenon (e.g., rain, lightning, wind, rainbow), an inanimate object and even a composite creature.

The root for the word Way in Mayan languages is "sleep" with various semantic extensions including "other spirit", "dream", "witchcraft", " nagual " and "animal transformation".

Wayob manifest themselves to their owner in their dreams and, whilst they are incorporeal most of the time, they roam when their owner is asleep. Maya co-essences then can be described as a person's double from the "dreamtime" and, by extension, the netherworld (sleep is sometimes equated with death in Maya culture).

Kukulkan, the "Feathered Serpent"

As a deity, Kukulkan was associated with the rise of Chichen Itza during the Terminal Classic and Mayapan in the Postclassic. The worship of the Feathered Serpent by the Maya was heavily influenced by the cult of Quetzalcoatl which originated in central Mexico and spread all over Mesoamerica.

According to some scholars, the Maya origins of Kukulkan can be found in the so-called "Vision Serpent" of the Classic period. Others, though, have pointed out that based on comparisons with representations of fish in Classic Maya iconography, the prevalence of the aquatic theme in Classic Maya art, as well as the importance of the watery underworld in Maya mythology, elements that were thought to be feathers could very well represent "fins" instead. So, Kukulkan is most likely a case of a foreign religious belief adapted to fit an old local religious belief. It's a good example of Maya religious syncretism.

Nevertheless, by the Postclassic period, the Mexican Feathered Serpent was an important deity in the Maya area and was used to promote the Itza's political and commercial agenda.

In the Popol Vuh, where the creator god was associated with wind and rain, the feathered serpent, called Qucumatz ( Q'uq'umat), was associated with water and clouds, safely transporting the sun across the sky and into the underworld.

Serpent head (Kukulkan) at the base of El Castillo (Chichen Itza, Mexico). By Frank Kovalchek [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Human Sacrifice in Maya religion

One commonly held idea is that human sacrifice was a widespread practice amongst the Maya but, in truth, there is scarce evidence of this in the archaeological record.

As far as we know, no human remains have ever been recovered from excavations in the Maya area with marks suggesting the person was indeed sacrificed. Cut marks on the ribs, from removal of the heart, or on the cervical vertebrae from decapitation can be due to a number of reasons, so alone they cannot be definitive evidence that sacrifice was at play. Further evidence is required.

One good example comes from Teotihuacan ( Valley of Mexico) where the remains of 12 people were found inside the Pyramid of the Moon; their heads hacked off AND their hands bound behind their backs. This strongly suggests that human sacrifice occurred, as people are rarely buried with their hands bound behind their backs. However, nothing similar has ever been found in the Maya area.

For the Maya, evidence of human sacrifice mainly comes from depictions in Maya art, but these are rare, and the chronicles of 16th-century bishop of Yucatan Diego de Landa who led a violent campaign against Maya religious beliefs and practices.

More common, though, was "bloodletting", animal sacrifice and incense burning. Bloodletting, also called "autosacrifice", is the self-cutting or piercing of an individual's soft body part (e.g. tongue, ear, penis) to let blood. The blood was collected on a piece of paper which was then burnt as an offering to the gods.

One of the most striking illustrations of bloodletting is to be found on a series of sculptures from Yaxchilan. Lintel 24 (below) represents the king of Yaxchilan, Itzamnaaj Bahlam II ("Shield Jaguar II"), holding a flaming torch over his wife, Lady K'ab'al Xook, who is pulling a thorny rope through her tongue. Scrolls of blood can be seen around her mouth.

In 16th-century Yucatan, Maya rituals were quickly labelled by the Spanish conquerors as idolatry, superstition, or even devil worship. Landa's Inquisition was marked by a conspicuous level of physical abuse and cultural destruction.

On July 12, 1562, Landa ordered a number of Maya codices and thousands of "cult images" (including statues) to be burned. The conquest of the Maya by the Spanish was a long and brutal process and even to some contemporary observers, the pervasive use of torture was abhorrent. Landa justified his actions by claiming that human sacrifice was widespread amongst the Maya and he evidently coerced many confessions by torture.

Although the ancient Maya did engage in human sacrifice, it was not as commonplace as usually described. The dredging of the so-called Cenote of Sacrifice (most commonly referred to as "Sacred Cenote") at Chichen Itza in 1905-1908 by Harvard University archaeologists, yielded 50 human crania.

Even if we considered these to be all from sacrificial victims (although think of burials at sea for sailors, water disposal in Hindu tradition etc.), Chichen Itza was occupied at least from the 7th-century until the 13th-century and remained a place of pilgrimage well into the 16th-century. That is at least eight centuries. Even just one sacrifice a year would equate with 800 people hurled into the Cenote over that period. Obviously, the numbers do not support the idea of commonplace human sacrifice.

It seems that human sacrifice amongst the Maya during the Classic period was primarily linked to warfare with the eventual execution of (some) elite captives (although, they were more useful alive as they could be exchanged for a ransom). It is also important to acknowledge our biases. Would we call the execution of a death row prisoner or a war prisoner as "human sacrifice"? Do we ever call the killing of people by the Inquisition "human sacrifice"?

How do we know what we know: Sources on Maya religious beliefs

There is a variety of sources from which we have learnt about Maya religious beliefs:

Ethnohistorical sources

Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples' customs by examining historical records.

For the Maya, the main historical record is Diego de Landa Relación de las cosas de Yucatán written around 1566. The book includes information concerning the Maya language, hieroglyphs, religious beliefs. rituals and culture in general.

The Popol Vuh

The is a 18th-century translation of the creation narrative of the Maya K'iche by Dominican friar Francisco Ximenez. Initially preserved through oral tradition, the Popol Vuh which translates as the "Book of Counsel" was written in the 16th century. Preclassic and Classic Maya art show that earlier and different versions of the myth existed.

The Popol Vuh is made up of five parts:

1. The preamble which explains the purpose of the book.

2. Book 1 is an account of the creation of the world and of all living beings, mainly the many trials by the gods to create human beings.

3. Book 2 recounts how the Hero Twins killed the bird demon Vucub Caquix and his sons.

4. Book 3 is the story of the father and uncle of the Hero Twins, Hun Hunahpu (also spelled "Junjunajpu") and Vucub Hunahpu (also spelled "Wukub Junajpu'b"), how they were tricked by the gods of the underworld and how they were eventually killed. This is followed by the account of the early life of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu (also spelled "Junajpu") and Xbalanque (also spelled "Xb'alanke"), and their quest to avenge their father.

5. Book 4 focuses on the Maya themselves.

The Maya Vase Database includes a photographic essay on the Popul Vuh using Maya artefacts and paintings on vases.

You can also learn more by reading Dr Davies's article:

The Books of Chilam Balam

The Books of Chilam Balam were written in the Yucatec Mayan language using the Latin alphabet during the 17th and 18th centuries. Both language and content indicate that parts of the books date back to the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatan (1527-1546).

The manuscripts are attributed to a legendary author called Chilam Balam (a chilam is a priest, particularly an oracle, and balam is a common surname meaning "jaguar"). There are nine known books of Chilam Balam. Each of them was kept in a different town in the Yucatan Peninsula. The most important are those from Chumayel, Mani and Tizimin.

These books are concerned with some aspects of local history, Maya myths, calendrical matters, medicinal recipes and even a few Spanish traditions.

Ethnographic studies

Ethnography is the scientific description of peoples and cultures with their customs and habits.

Altar for a Maya Day Ceremony

There are many ethnographic studies such as the work of Frans and Gertrude Blom on the Maya Lacandon of Chiapas or Charles Wisdom on the Maya Chorti.

The Codices

The codices are Maya books from the Postclassic and Early Colonial periods written in hieroglyphs. Only four books have survived; Dresden Codex (74 pages), Madrid Codex (112 pages), Paris Codex (22 pages) and the controversial Grolier Codex. Most of the codices were destroyed by conquistadors and Catholic priests in the 16th century. Some codices have been recovered from archaeological excavations, but they had degraded into unopenable lumps of plaster and paint.

A copy of the Dresden Codex

Archaeology

Our last source regarding Maya gods and religious beliefs is the archaeological record; iconography (painted ceramics, sculpture, wall paintings, stucco, etc.), and epigraphy.

If you want to learn more about this, have a look at Dr Davies's article:

References Cited

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Maya Religion, Gods, Cosmos and religious rituals (KS2)

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Ancient Maya gods and religion is a fascinating topic that is too often misrepresented due to poor knowledge and much fantasy. In this article, archaeologist and Maya specialist Dr Diane Davies gives the latest scientific insights on Maya Gods and religious practice.

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HISTORY'S HISTORIES You are history. We are the future.

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Essential Themes ​Beliefs: ​ Why do people live the way they do? Culture: ​ How do we know what we know about human history?

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Maya - Geography of Mexico Video Lesson - by Instructomania A History Channel for Students

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The Mayan civilization flourished in the rainforests of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, reaching its apex around A.D. 700-900 before falling into a swift and somewhat mysterious decline. The Maya were expert astronomers and traders: they were also literate with a complicated language and their own books. Like other civilizations, the Maya had rulers and a ruling class, and their political structure was complex. Their kings were powerful and claimed to be descended from the gods and the planets.

The Mayan City-States

The Mayan civilization was large, powerful, and culturally complex: it is often compared to the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Central Mexico. Unlike these other empires, however, the Maya never unified. Instead of a mighty empire ruled from one city by one set of rulers, the Maya instead had a series of city-states that only ruled the surrounding area, or some nearby vassal states if they were powerful enough. Tikal, one of the most powerful Mayan city-states, never ruled much farther than its immediate borders, although it did have vassal cities such as Dos Pilas and Copán. Each of these city-states had its own ruler.

Development of Mayan Politics and Kingship

The Mayan culture began around 1800 B.C. in the lowlands of the Yucatan and southern Mexico. For centuries, their culture slowly advanced, but as of yet, they had no concept of kings or royal families. It wasn't until the middle to late preclassic periods (300 B.C. or so) that evidence of kings began to appear at certain Mayan sites.

The founding king of Tikal's first royal dynasty, Yax Ehb' Xook, lived sometime in the Preclassic period. By A.D. 300, kings were common, and the Maya began building stelae to honor them: large, stylized stone statues that describe the king, or "Ahau," and his accomplishments.

The Mayan Kings

The Mayan kings claimed descent from the gods and planets, laying claim to a quasi-divine status, somewhere between humans and gods. As such, they lived between two worlds, and wielding "divine" power was part of their duties.

The kings and royal family had important roles at public ceremonies, such as the ball games. They channeled their connection to the gods through sacrifices (of their own blood, of captives, etc.), dance, spiritual trances, and hallucinogenic enemas.

Succession was usually patrilineal, but not always. Occasionally, queens ruled when no suitable male of the royal line was available or of age. All kings had numbers that placed them in order from the founder of the dynasty. Unfortunately, this number is not always recorded in the king's glyphs on stone carvings, resulting on unclear histories of dynastic succession.

Life of a Mayan King

A Mayan king was groomed from birth to rule. A prince had to pass through many different initiations and rites. As a young man, he had his first bloodletting at the age of five or six. As a young man, he was expected to fight and lead battles and skirmishes against rival tribes. Capturing prisoners, particularly high-ranking ones, was important.

When the prince finally became king, the elaborate ceremony included sitting on a jaguar pelt in an elaborate headdress of colorful feathers and seashells, holding a scepter. As king, he was supreme head of the military and was expected to fight and participate in any armed conflicts entered into by his city-state. He also had to participate in many religious rituals, as he was a conduit between humans and the gods. Kings were allowed to take multiple wives.

Mayan Palaces

Palaces are found at all of the major Mayan sites. These buildings were located in the heart of the city, near the pyramids and temples so important to Maya life. In some cases, the palaces were very large, multistoried structures, which may indicate that a complicated bureaucracy was in place to rule the kingdom. The palaces were homes to the king and the royal family. Many of the king's tasks and duties were carried out not in the temples but in the palace itself. These events might have included feasts, celebrations, diplomatic occasions, and receiving tribute from vassal states.

Classic-Era Mayan Political Structure

By the time the Maya reached their Classic Era, they had a well-developed political system. Renowned archaeologist Joyce Marcus believes that by the Late Classic era, the Maya had a four-tiered political hierarchy. At the top were the king and his administration in major cities like Tikal, Palenque, or Calakmul. These kings would be immortalized on stelae, their great deeds recorded forever.

Following the main city were a small group of vassal city-states, with lesser nobility or a relative of the Ahau in charge: these rulers did not merit stelae. After that were affiliated villages, large enough to have rudimentary religious buildings and ruled by minor nobility. The fourth tier consisted of hamlets, which were all or mostly residential and devoted to agriculture.

Contact with Other City-States

Although the Maya were never a unified empire like the Incas or Aztecs, the city-states nevertheless had much contact. This contact facilitated cultural exchange, making the Maya much more unified culturally than politically. Trade was common. The Maya traded in prestige items like obsidian, gold, feathers, and jade. They also traded in food items, particularly in later eras as the major cities grew too large to support their population.

Warfare was also common: skirmishes to enslave people and take victims for sacrifice were common, and all-out wars not unheard of. Tikal was defeated by rival Calakmul in 562, causing a century-long hiatus in its power before it reached its former glory once again. The powerful city of Teotihuacan, just north of present-day Mexico City, wielded great influence on the Mayan world and even replaced the ruling family of Tikal in favor of one more friendly to their city.

Politics and the Decline of the Maya

The Classic Era was the height of the Mayan civilization culturally, politically, and militarily. Between A.D. 700 and 900, however, the Maya civilization began a swift and irreversible decline. The reasons the Mayan society fell are still a mystery, but theories abound. As the Maya civilization grew, warfare between city-states grew as well: entire cities were attacked, defeated, and destroyed. The ruling class grew as well, placing a strain on the working classes, which may have resulted in civil strife. Food became a problem for some Maya cities as the population grew. When trade could no longer make up the differences, hungry citizens may have revolted or fled. The Mayan rulers might have avoided some of these calamities.

McKillop, Heather. "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives." Reprint edition, W. W. Norton & Company, July 17, 2006.

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The ancient Maya had a complex political system with a king at the top. Learn how the king led this civilization of city-states in Central America.

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The Maya, a mighty civilization that peaked around 600-900 A.D. and was centered in present-day southern Mexico, Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, had an advanced, complex writing system. Their "alphabet" consisted of several hundred characters, most of which indicated a syllable or a single word. The Maya had books, but most of them were destroyed: only four Maya books, or "codices," remain. There are also Maya glyphs on stone carvings, temples, pottery, and some other ancient artifacts. Great strides have been made in the last fifty years in terms of deciphering and understanding this lost language.

A Lost Language

By the time the Spanish conquered the Maya in the sixteenth century, Maya civilization had been in decline for some time. The conquest-era Maya were literate and had kept thousands of books, but zealous priests burned the books, destroyed temples, and stone carvings where they found them and did all they could to repress Maya culture and language. A few books remained, and many glyphs on temples and pottery lost deep in the rainforests survived. For centuries, there was little interest in ancient Maya culture, and any ability to translate the hieroglyphs was lost. By the time historical ethnographers became interested in the Maya civilization in the nineteenth century, the Maya hieroglyphs were meaningless, forcing these historians to start from scratch.

Maya Glyphs

Mayan glyphs are a combination of logograms (symbols that represent a word) and syllabograms (symbols that represent a phonetic sound or syllable). Any given word can be expressed by a lone logogram or a combination of syllabograms. Sentences were composed of both of these types of glyphs. A Mayan text was read from top to bottom, left to right. The glyphs are generally in pairs: in other words, you start at the top left, read two glyphs, then go down to the next pair. Often the glyphs were accompanied by a larger image, such as kings, priests or gods. The glyphs would elaborate on what the person in the image was doing.

History of Deciphering of the Maya Glyphs

The glyphs were once thought of as an alphabet, with different glyphs corresponding to letters: this is because Bishop Diego de Landa, a sixteenth century priest with extensive experience with Maya texts (he burned thousands of them) said so and it took centuries for researchers to learn that Landa's observations were close but not exactly right. Great steps were taken when the Maya and modern calendars were correlated (Joseph Goodman, Juan Martíñez Hernandez and J Eric S. Thompson, 1927) and when glyphs were identified as syllables, (Yuri Knorozov, 1958) and when "Emblem Glyphs," or glyphs that represent a single city, were identified. Most of the known Maya glyphs have been deciphered, thanks to countless hours of diligent work by many researchers.

The Maya Codices

Pedro de Alvarado was sent by Hernán Cortés in 1523 to conquer the Maya region: at the time, there were thousands of Maya books or "codices" which were still used and read by the descendants of the mighty civilization. It's one of the great cultural tragedies of history that nearly all of these books were burned by zealous priests during the colonial era. Only four badly battered Maya books remain (and the authenticity of one is sometimes questioned). The four remaining Maya codices are, of course, written in a hieroglyphic language and mostly deal with astronomy, the movements of Venus, religion, rituals, calendars and other information kept by the Maya priest class.

Glyphs on Temples and Stelae

The Maya were accomplished stonemasons and frequently carved glyphs onto their temples and buildings. They also erected "stelae," large, stylized statues of their kings and rulers. Along the temples and on the stelae are found many glyphs which explain the significance of the kings, rulers or deeds depicted. The glyphs usually contain a date and a brief description, such as "penance of the king." Names are often included, and particularly skilled artists (or workshops) would also add their stone "signature."

Understanding Maya Glyphs and Language

For centuries, the meaning of the Maya writings, be they in stone on temples, painted onto pottery or drawn into one of the Maya codices, was lost to humanity. Diligent researchers, however, have deciphered nearly all of these writings and understand pretty much every book or stone carving that is associated with the Maya.

With the ability to read the glyphs has come a much greater understanding of Maya culture. For example, the first Mayanists believed the Maya to be a peaceful culture, dedicated to farming, astronomy, and religion. This image of the Maya as a peaceful people was destroyed when the stone carvings on temples and stelae were translated: it turns out the Maya were quite warlike, often raiding neighboring city-states for pillage and victims to sacrifice to their Gods.

Other translations helped shed light on different aspects of Maya culture. The Dresden Codex offers much information about Maya religion, rituals, calendars, and cosmology. The Madrid Codex has information prophecy as well as daily activities such as agriculture, hunting, weaving, etc. Translations of the glyphs on stelae reveal much about the Maya Kings and their lives and accomplishments. It seems every text translated sheds some new light on the mysteries of the ancient Maya civilization.

Arqueología Mexicana Edición Especial: Códices prehispánicas y coloniales tempranos. August, 2009.

Gardner, Joseph L. (editor). Mysteries of the Ancient Americas. Reader's Digest Association, 1986.

McKillop, Heather. "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives." Reprint edition, W. W. Norton & Company, July 17, 2006.

Recinos, Adrian (translator). Popol Vuh: the Sacred Text of the Ancient Quiché Maya. Norman: the University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.

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The ancient Maya had a complex written language consisting of hundreds of different characters or glyphs which indicated a syllable or a single word.

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HISTORY'S HISTORIES You are history. We are the future.

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​ A long, long time ago, about 2500 BCE, an ancient tribe of Central American Indians called the settled in the rainforests of the Yucatan of Central America. About two thousand years later, around 400 BCE, a new people suddenly appeared. Despite the time difference, there is probably a link between the Olmecs and the Maya. From around 400 BCE until 900 CE, the Maya were civilization in . Mesoamerica

​Throughout Central America, the Maya built hundreds of religious centers and cities, each filled with huge pyramids and temples, and always at least one ball court. The roads that they built to link these centers of religion and learning ran for miles through the jungles and swamps that surrounded them. The Maya studied art, architecture, medicine, drama, music, dance, and magic. They even believed that mirrors were , a way to communicate with their gods.

Today, you will begin your study of the Maya, a people who built a civilization that lasted 1500 years. As always, you will begin your study with geography. Remember that geography is the study of how people interact with their environment. The place a people settle can influence - even determine - everything from the type of government they have and their religious practices to the types of jobs they work at and the kind of clothing they wear. The places the Maya settled posed challenges, as you will see. The challenges, however, did not stop the Maya people from building the longest lasting, most dominant civilization in the Americas.

Maya society was highly organized and their city states served as centers for religion and government. The Maya people had a written language and enjoyed entertainments such as dancing and public ball games.

The Maya civilization stretched from southern Mexico in the north - an area referred to as the lowlands that included a hot coastal plain along the Pacific Ocean and a tropical rainforest in the Yucatan Peninsula - to the highlands of modern-day Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. The lowlands in the north produced crops. The main crop for the Maya was maize, or corn. However, Maya farmers also grew squash, beans, chili peppers, cacao, cotton for the weaving of light cloth, and for the manufacture of heavy cloth and rope. The northern lowland climate is hot, and infrequent rainfall means that there are few permanent rivers or lakes. Large sinkholes filled with rainwater provided precious water for settlers in that part of the lowlands.

The southern lowlands were different from the northern lowlands. The southern lowlands include tropical rainforest. Notably, this area included the Yucatan peninsula of southeastern Mexico. The Yucatan Peninsula separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. This area gets as much as 160 inches of rainfall annually. Additionally, it is fed by the mighty Usumacinta River. The result is a series of rivers that were vital to the Maya for the transportation of both people and trade goods.

The highlands to the south are a wide section of valleys and volcanic mountains that are a part of the Sierra Madre range. A narrow coastal plain along the Pacific Ocean forms it southern boundary. Although the area is subject to tsunamis, volcanoes and earthquakes, the soil here is fertile and the climate is pleasantly cooler than the lowlands to the north.

The mountains of the volcanic Highlands were the source of obsidian, jade and cinnabar (shown in the masks below), hematite and other precious metals and minerals. Because many of these items were mined in caves high in the mountains and because caves had a sacred place in Maya mythology, stones such as obsidian and jade took on sacred significance. These minerals also formed the foundation of Maya trade. Although the lowlands were not the source of any of these trade goods, the lowlands still played an important trade role as the origin of the transportation routes

Many dangerous animals occupied the forested region of the peninsula. They included jaguars, caiman (a small but fierce type of crocodile), the bull shark, and many species of poisonous snakes. The Maya tried their best to avoid those animals while they hunted the forest for foods that included deer, turkey, peccaries and tapirs (both members of the pig family), rabbits, and large rodents such as the peca and the agouti. Many varieties of monkeys and beautifully plumed quetzal (a type of bird) occupied the upper canopy of the rainforest.

We call the peoples who inhabited the broad, stretch of land described above the Maya. Their name comes from the ancient Yucatan city of Mayapan, the last capital of one of the Maya kingdoms. ​​​

do you think archaeologists might have a hard time finding the ruins of Maya cities?

Many of the Maya centers of religion and learning - their cities - were built in the rainforest, on the Yucatan Peninsula. Because of that, many Maya sites remained a mystery for hundreds of years. The rainforest is a dense tangle of trees and vines. Historically, archaeologists could not use airplanes or helicopters to track down cities hidden in the rainforest. They had to travel on foot. Additionally, all archaeological work stopped from September to May because of the rain. During those months, it is just too wet to conduct an archaeological dig. Traditionally, dig teams worked from May to August, but those months are among the hottest on the calendar. In spite of those difficulties, some archaeologists have been willing to brave the dangers of the rainforest to learn more about the mysterious Maya. With the use of new technologies , scientists have been able to advance their studies and are continually discovering more fascinating details about the size and strength of the mighty Maya civilization. ​

The rainforest - home to many Maya cities - made crossing land difficult. Geographic features that make travel difficult are called natural barriers . The land of the Maya had many natural barriers. In addition to the rainforest, the Maya - and any potential invaders - had to contend with many large bodies of water. In fact, because most of the ancient Maya civilization was on a peninsula , it was surrounded on three sides by water. On the left side of the peninsula is the Gulf of Mexico. On the right side is the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Honduras. To the south is the Pacific Ocean. Those bodies of water made it easy for the Maya to see the approach of invaders and also made it easier to defend the land. In part, because of its geography, the Maya civilization was able to survive for 1500 years.

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Essential Themes Geography: ​ Why do people live and build where they do? Review: What is geography? ​

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ancient maya civilization daily life - story for kids

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New data suggests climate-specifically, severe drought-played a key role in the collapse of ancient Maya civilization.

Subjects

Anthropology, Biology, Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, Social Studies, World History

Ancient Maya civilization thrived thousands of years ago in present-day Central America. Anthropologists and archaeologists thought Maya culture originated in the northern reaches of what is now Guatemala about 600 B.C.E., and migrated north to the Yucatan Peninsula beginning around 700 C.E.

Throughout the film Quest for the Lost Maya, a team of anthropologists led by Dr. George Bey discovers the Maya may have been in the Yucatan as far back as 500 B.C.E. This new evidence indicates the Maya of the Yucatan had a very complex social structure, distinctive religious practices, and unique technological innovations that made civilization possible in the harsh jungle.

Archaeologists have long puzzled over the collapse of Mayan civilization. What led to the massive depopulation of major Maya cities in the 900s? Scientists have considered war and political factors, but this segment of Quest for the Lost Maya suggests another explanation.

In a University of Florida lab, Dr. Mark Brenner evaluates sediment cores that have produced new data that suggests climate-specifically, severe drought-played a key role in the decline of ancient Maya civilization. This segment of Quest for the Lost Maya outlines how scientists use snail shells and sediment layers from the bottom of a lake to create a picture of climate conditions at various periods in the ancient past.

Although climate was likely a major factor of the Mayan collapse, it's not the only one. Civilizations carefully balance a host of factors-political, environmental, military, and cultural. Troubles in one area often lead to problems in other areas.

Media Credits

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Editors

National Geographic Society

Anne Haywood, National Geographic Society

other

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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New data suggests climate-specifically, severe drought-played a key role in the collapse of ancient Maya civilization.

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King Pakal of the Maya city of Palenque ruled his people for almost seventy years. His tomb, discovered in 1952, contained a wealth of information about this mysterious ancient culture.

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Ancient Aztec and Mayan traditional music by Ricardo Tlalli Lozano. Song: Jaguars Path