Mayan Civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period according to the Mesoamerican, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and western Salvador to as far away as central Mexico, more than 1,000 km from the central Maya area. The many outside influences found in Maya art and architecture are thought to have resulted from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.

The Maya peoples survived the Classic period collapse and the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and sixteenth-century Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area; they maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs resulting from the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Millions of people speak Mayan languages today. In 2005 the Retinal Achy, a play written in the Ache language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Pre classic period

Main article: Pre classic Maya

Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Discoveries of Maya occupation at Cello, Belize have been carbon dated to. The people built monumental structures. The Maya calendar, which is based on the so-called Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, begins on a date equivalent to 11 August.

The most widely accepted view, as of 2010, is that the first clearly Maya settlements were established around in the So Conoco region of the Pacific Coast. This period, known as the Early Pre classic was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.

Important sites in the southern Maya lowlands include Naked, El Matador, Civil, and San Barolo. In the Guatemalan Highlands, Karin emerged around. For many centuries it controlled the jade and obsidian sources for the Petén and Pacific Lowlands. The important early sites of Izabal, Tamale Abad, and Chocolates at around were the main producers of Cacao. Mid-sized Maya communities also began to develop in the northern Maya lowlands during the Middle and Late Pre classic, though these lacked the size, scale, and influence of the large centres of the southern lowlands. Two important Pre classic northern sites include Kitchen and Dibble charlatan. The first written inscription in Maya hieroglyphics also dates to this period.

Scholars disagree about the boundaries that define the physical and cultural extent of the early Maya and neighbouring Pre classic Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmos culture of the Tabasco lowlands and the Mixer –Toques- and Zapata-speaking peoples of Chiapas and southern Oaxaca, respectively. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone, and evidence suggests that these cultures and the formative Maya influenced one another. Tamale Abuja, in the Pacific slopes of Guatemala, is the only site where Olmos features have been clearly succeeded by Mayan ones.

Around a widespread decline and abandonment of Maya cities occurred – called the Pre classic Collapse. This marked the end of the Pre classic era.