7th Grade World History

The Mayas

The Mayas were one of the first great civilizations of the Americas. The Mayas were the most technologically advanced out of the great civilizations of the Americas. They lived in an area known as Mesoamerica, which stretches from Mexico to northern central America. They lived on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Yucatan Peninsula consisted of two geographical regions, the highlands and the lowlands. The lowlands contained many rainforests which had thin soil and too many plants, making it hard for the Mayans to farm. Therefore, they created a system known as slash-and-burn agriculture. They would first burn down the trees to allow space for farming. The burnt trees would then act as fertilizer for the thin soil, allowing crops to grow.

There were three Mayan periods. The first was the Pre-Classic period. During this time, the Mayas were just beginning to develop the skills that would make the civilization very advanced.

The second period was the Classic period. This was when the Maya civilization reached its peak. Most of the large Mayan cities were built during this period. Maya cities were very complex and advanced. There were large core areas where most of the main buildings were located. Most of the Mayans lived around and near the core, usually about 3-5 miles from it.

The Post-Classic period was the last period of the Mayas. During this period, the empire collapsed and fell into ruin. Historians believe in several reasons on how the empire collapsed. Theories include include warfare, food shortages, natural disasters, and many other reasons.

Mayan Society

Mayan cities were ruled by god-kings. The Mayan social structure was divided into nobles and commoners. The nobles included the king, officials, and priests. These people lived in luxury. The majority of the people were the commoners. Most commoners were farmers. There were some middle-classed people as well. Lower ranking nobles and higher ranking commoners made up this class. There were also some soldiers, minor officials, and skilled artisans in this class. The basic social unit in Mayan society was an extended family. This was a group of several related families living together.

The Mayan social structure

Religion

Mayan gods represented natural phenomena. They performed many rituals to honor their gods. One of the most popular rituals is the Mayan ball game. They used this to communicate with their gods. Another type of ritual was blood sacrifice, where they sacrificed humans to the gods.

Achievements

The Mayas were one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas. They were advanced in many subjects. One of these subjects was their writing. Their writing was the most complex writing system out of all of the other systems found in the ancient Americas. their writing was based on hieroglyphs, or symbols. Maya scribes kept records in books called codices.

The Mayas were also very advanced with astronomy and math. They plotted the positions of celestial objects without a telescope. They also created a very accurate calendar. The Mayas also had an advanced number system and were one of the first civilizations to understand the concept of 0.

The Mayas also built many large buildings and were very advanced in architecture. They built huge temples all with individual stone blocks. They did not use machines to do their work but used their own strength instead. They built many different pyramids, temples, and other types of buildings.

Mayan pyramid