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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now\u00a0Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the\u00a0sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery,\u00a0hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind
\nan astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic\u00a0artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned\u00a0by A.D. 900, however, and since the 19th century scholars have\u00a0debated what might have caused this dramatic decline.<\/p>\n
Locating the Maya<\/strong> Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250<\/strong> The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one\u00a0of the greatest cities ever built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Its\u00a0size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence\u00a0proves that the Maya flourished centuries before the Classic Period.<\/p>\n Cities of Stone: The Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900<\/strong> The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a\u00a0stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and\u00a0inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation\u00a0as the great artists of Mesoamerica. Guided by their religious Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the\u00a0early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of\u00a0hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history\u00a0and culture became known. Most of what historians know about the Life in the Rainforest<\/strong> Mysterious Decline of the Maya<\/strong><\/p>\n From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something\u00a0unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations.\u00a0One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were\u00a0abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had Soruce: History<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous\u00a0societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe Mexico and Central\u00a0America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike other\u00a0scattered indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were
\ncentered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan\u00a0Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican\u00a0states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and the western part of Honduras and\u00a0El Salvador. This concentration showed that the Maya remained
\nrelatively secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples.\u00a0Within that expanse, the Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with\u00a0distinct environmental and cultural differences: the northern Maya\u00a0lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the\u00a0Peten district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of\u00a0Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya\u00a0highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. Most\u00a0famously, the Maya of the southern lowland region reached their peak\u00a0during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D. 250 to 900),\u00a0and built the great stone cities and monuments that have fascinated\u00a0explorers and scholars of the region.<\/p>\n
\nThe earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the\u00a0beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The\u00a0earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize),\u00a0beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic
\nPeriod, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to\u00a0expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions. The\u00a0Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of the first major\u00a0Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican
\npeoples, such as the Zapotec, Totonac, Teotihuac\u00e1n and Aztec, the\u00a0Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits–as well as\u00a0their number system and their famous calendar–from the Olmec.\u00a0In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more\u00a0advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction\u00a0and the inscribing of stone monuments.<\/p>\n
\nThe Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age\u00a0of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40\u00a0cities, including Tikal, Uaxact\u00fan, Cop\u00e1n, Bonampak, Dos Pilas,\u00a0Calakmul, Palenque and R\u00edo Bec; each city held a population of
\nbetween 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population\u00a0may have reached 2,000,000.\u00a0Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples\u00a0and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the ball games that were\u00a0ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities\u00a0were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers.\u00a0Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of “slash-and-burn”\u00a0agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming\u00a0methods, such as irrigation and terracing.\u00a0The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related\u00a0to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn.\u00a0At the top of Maya society were the kings, or “kuhul ajaw” (holy\u00a0lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary\u00a0succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods\u00a0and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious\u00a0ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.<\/p>\n
\nritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and\u00a0astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of a\u00a0complex calendar system based on 365 days. Though early researchers\u00a0concluded that the Maya were a peaceful society of priests and
\nscribes, later evidence–including a thorough examination of the\u00a0artwork and inscriptions on their temple walls–showed the less\u00a0peaceful side of Maya culture, including the war between rival Mayan\u00a0city-states and the importance of torture and human sacrifice to\u00a0their religious ritual.<\/p>\n
\nMaya comes from what remains of their architecture and art,\u00a0including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and\u00a0monuments. The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in\u00a0books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices\u00a0are known to have survived.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability\u00a0to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate.\u00a0Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates,\u00a0where the centralized management of water resources (through
\nirrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This\u00a0was the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries\u00a0of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there\u00a0were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no
\nobvious need for an irrigation system.\u00a0By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate\u00a0of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though\u00a0foreign invaders were disappointed by the region’s relative lack of\u00a0silver and gold, the Maya took advantage of the area\u2019s many natural\u00a0resources, including limestone (for construction), the volcanic rock\u00a0obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt. The environment also held\u00a0other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers (used\u00a0to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine\u00a0shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.<\/p>\n
\ncollapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though\u00a0scholars have developed several competing theories.\u00a0Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the\u00a0environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain\u00a0a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant\u00a0warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military,\u00a0family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down,\u00a0along with the traditional system of dynastic power. As the stature\u00a0of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals\u00a0and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic\u00a0environmental change–like an extremely long, intense period of\u00a0drought–may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought\u00a0would have hit cities like Tikal–where rainwater was necessary for\u00a0drinking as well as for crop irrigation–especially hard.\u00a0All three of these factors–overpopulation and overuse of the land,\u00a0endemic warfare and drought–may have played a part in the downfall\u00a0of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the\u00a0Yucatan, a few Maya cities–such as Chich\u00e9n Itz\u00e1, Uxmal and\u00a0Mayap\u00e1n–continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya\u00a0were living in agricultural villages, their great cities buried\u00a0under a layer of rainforest green.<\/p>\n