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Maya had a complex society (Classic period 300 - 900 AD)Most artistic and cultural achievement came about during the Classic
period 300 - 900 AD. The Maya developed a complex, hierarchical society
divided into classes and professions. Centralized governments, headed
by a king, ruled territories with clearly defined boundaries. These borders
changed as the various states lost and gained control over territory.
Mayan centers flourished in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El
Salvador. The major cities of the Classic period were Tikal (Guatemala),
Palenque and Yaxchilán (Chiapas, Mexico), Copán and Quirigua
The Northern Yucatán (where present day Cancun is located) was sparsely populated for most of the Classic period with only a few cities such as Dzibilchaltún (near Mérida) and Xpuhil, Becán and Chicanná (near Chetumal). During the 9th century the population centers of the central lowlands declined significantly. This decline was very rapid and is attributed to famine, drought, breakdowns in trade, and political fragmentation. Fragmentation from large states into smaller city-states focused resources on rivalries between cities including not just wars, but competitions of architecture and art between rival cities. As the cities in the lowlands declined, urban centers sprung up in the Northern Yucatán, including Uxmal (near Mérida).
The Mayan civilization was the height of pre-Columbian culture. They made significant discoveries in science, including the use of the zero in mathematics. Their writing was the only in America capable of expressing all types of thought. Glyphs either represent syllables or whole concepts and were written on long strips of paper or carved and painted on stone. They are arranged to be red from left to right and top to bottom in pairs of columns. The Mayan calendar begins around 3114 BC, before Maya culture existed, and could measure time well into the future. They wrote detailed histories and used their calendar to predict the future and astrological events. Fray Diego de Landa, second bishop of the Yucatán ordered a mass destruction of Mayan books in 1562 and only three survived. |
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