Maya’s Civilization

Aries and Eliza

The Mayans Location Ancient Civilization in located in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and parts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and HondurasMaya came thousands of years before the AztecsTheir god is called "God of Maize"Their first houses and shelters are almost 4,000 years oldTheir civilization of city states weren't part of a centrally controlled empire, but they were more of a loos civilization each with its own ruling family

The Mayans Writing System

The Maya were the only Native American society that had a complete writing system of their own, their language fully represents a spoken language

Mayan symbols are similar to the hieroglyphics but their mostly Phonetic. Their symbols represent sound instead of ideas

The Mayas had 100s of phonetic symbols they can communicate with

Lots of things that we discovered about their language and writing were found carved into stones and woods painted on poetry or in a paper book called Codex

The Mayan Religion

The temples were built for the most important gods, you could also use them as astronomical observatories

They thought that the gods created constellations in the sky to show messages

How were they discovered?

The Spanish discovered them, the Spanish boat landed on the Yucatan Peninsula in 1511. They were planning to reach Cuba but the currents made them go west and they reached the Peninsula of Yucatan. They were captured by the Mayans and scarified. Only two were left alive, their names were Geronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, they both escaped and probably started telling people about the Mayans and that is how they were discovered.

Where are the Mayans Now ?

After the Spanish had conquered the individual city states by the end of the 17 century the major centers of power all fallen, but the Mayan people didn’t go anywhere, they still occupy the same land they have lived in for 1,000 of years

The Maya civilization didn’t fall as fast as the Incas or Aztecs

Thank you

Hope you Learned something about the Mayans