The Maya

By: Melody Nguyen

The Maya

Geography Affects Early Maya

The Beggining

Farming

Earlier than 1000 Bc Mayans began to clear land for farmland. Their source of food was deer and monkeys! A natural resource for shelter were trees. Mayan traded obsidian, a rock used for weapons.They build plazas for public gatherings and did terrace farming.

Mayan Trade

Mayan cities in the lowland traded with cities in the highland. This concept allowed everyone get items that they didn't have nearby. Warm lowlands were good for growing rubber trees, cotton, and cacao. Chocolate was known as the food of gods and rulers. Highlands had valuable stones like jade and obsidian.

Sacrafice

Mayans had special ball courts where they hit the ball into a hoop without using their hands or feet. The losers were sacrificed. They battled by cities for power and land.

In bloody warfare, enemies were caught and spared their life for gods. Some say warfare started the Mayan downfall.

Maya Classic Age

Mayan Cities

Mayans' classic period was in 250-900 A.D. There were 40 cities with 5,000-50,000 people each. Goods were grown and traded in one area. They traded with other areas making everything available. A Mayan ruler named Pacal built a huge temple in his honor. The cities were all elaborate.

Mayan Civilization Declines

In the 900, mayans left their cities for the hillsides for unknown reasons. Some theories are overpopulation and the decreased food caused by warfare, demanding kings caused rebellions, dry weather that caused the decrease of crops, or not one specific reason.