The Americas In Ancient Times - Maya Culture

THE AMERICAS IN ANCIENT TIMES HIST 1301 | History Maya Culture The Teotihuacanos undoubtedly had an impact on Maya culture starting in the fourth century CE, but there is evidence of urbanisation and fast population increase much earlier—before 600 BCE—in the Maya heartland of Central America. Village life may have originated much earlier, but by 600 BCE, there were several tiny settlements throughout Central America's lowlands, each displaying examples of highly developed construction, irrigation systems, ceramics, and religious customs. A few strong Maya city-states had formed by 250 BCE. During the Early Classic era (250–600 CE), Tikal, Calakmul, El Mirador, and a few more significant cities were present. Before 150 CE, El Mirador, which had a peak population of around 100,000, was a major metropolis. However, Tikal and Calakmul were just as remarkable. Each of them featured a significant number of pyramid-shaped structures that formed a magnificent skyline across the cleared areas of bush. Since access to water for cultivation and drinking was crucial in the lowlands, where rainfall was frequently inadequate, the majority of the main cities were constructed adjacent to big, shallow lakes. The Maya created a form of slash-and-burn agriculture to cultivate maize, squash, beans, and cacao for the expanding urban populations in these cities because the tropical soil in the region is likewise not very fruitful. Though perhaps not directly, Olmec culture undoubtedly had an impact on the Maya. For instance, the were-jaguar is one of the Olmec-derived elements found in certain Maya artwork. A ceremonial ball game modelled by the previous Olmec variant was also played by the Maya. The Maya calendar had a potential Olmec influence as well. This was made up of two separate calendars, the 365-day Vague Year calendar and the 260-day Sacred Round calendar, which worked together to produce a 52-year cycle for measuring time and assigning ceremony dates to significant mythical events carried out by the gods. From around 250 CE to approximately 900 CE, the Classic period marks the beginning of the Maya age of glory. The Maya world saw a significant increase in urbanisation during this period, with the emergence of over forty distinct citystates in various regions. Older sites like Tikal and Calakmul, as well as more recent ones like Palenque, Copan, Yaxchilan, and Piedras Negras, were among the most potent. Every one had its own "divine lords," or rulers. These strong chieftains controlled the city-state's religious rites and ceremonies, the building of temples, and—most importantly—the battles they fought against other Maya city-states. These kinds of conflicts were frequently used to subdue adversaries, maintain order among neighbours, and maybe even fulfil significant ceremonial roles. Additionally, they permitted the collection of tribute in the form of artwork, textiles, animal products, salt, and agricultural products like maize and cocoa from defeated foes. In addition, labour may be used as recompense when vanquished adversaries provided labour to the triumphant city-state. However, kings only seldom attempted to subjugate captured citystates. Despite sharing many cultural traits, these stayed autonomous in most cases. The reverence of family ancestors, who were seen as bridges between heaven and earth, was central to Maya religious rituals. Houses contained shrines where people could worship to the ancestors and undergo ritual bloodletting; dead family members were usually buried under the floor. In fact, the great stone temples themselves resembled these family shrines in many aspects, and the kings who passed away served as the nation's spiritual forefathers. These temples typically had spacious graves. The intricate Maya calendar governed ritual procedures, and the gods' actions were contingent upon the season and the position of specific celestial bodies. Rituals like as bloodletting, which released a holy element called chu'ulel in the blood to facilitate connection with the ancestors, were supervised by shamans and priests. The same held true for the human sacrifice of captured rival leaders and other war prisoners. We know more about the Maya and later versions of the Olmecs than about their ritual ball game, about which we can only hypothesise. The game was an important part of religious ritual, and the goal was to recreate scenes from Maya mythology. On long Ishaped courts with steep walls on either side, two teams of four players each donned ceremonial protective padding and transferred the ball to one another without using hands or feet. It looked like the goal was to get the ball through a ring of stones without letting it fall to the ground. The game could be very deadly, as the usage of padding suggests; the ball was made of solid rubber and had a potential weight of over seven pounds. The real risk, though, was when the game's ceremonial goal was to sacrifice losing team captains or perhaps the whole losing squad. The fact that the Maya developed a writing system that has been deciphered and read by researchers is one of the reasons we know so much about them compared to certain other Mesoamerican civilizations. The writing system found in Mesoamerica was significantly less developed than this one, with intricate characters and a phonetically based system. It made it possible for the Maya to etch their own history on stone monuments, including priceless political histories, ceremonial descriptions, combat diaries used for propaganda, and genealogy. In the ninth century CE, the classical Maya civilization began to disintegrate and subsequently declined quickly. Over the course of a century or so, alliances fell apart, wars increased in frequency, luxury goods manufacturing came to an end, and towns transformed from bustling metropolises to deserted wasteland. Historians and archaeologists have been debating the cause of this collapse for a long time, but many questions remain. Epidemic illnesses, invasions, natural catastrophes, internal upheavals, and environmental deterioration are some of the suggested reasons. It's possible that more than one of them had an impact; a single cause wasn't expected to occur. For instance, research conducted in the past several decades has identified the environmental issues brought on by population expansion. Large-scale deforestation brought about by this increase resulted in soil erosion. The Mayan civilization's large population and need for high agricultural yields rendered it more susceptible to climatic fluctuations or a run of unfavourable harvests brought on by crop disease. Such issues would have increased pressure on both common people and elites, leading to chaos, conflict, and maybe internal uprisings. Whatever the case, the Maya civilization's Classic period ended around 900 CE. However, the Maya did not finish with this. A resurgence of Maya civilization would occur on the Yucatán Peninsula, far north of the ancient centres of power, and last until the sixteenth century and the advent of the Spanish.