THE MAYANS
G'day folks,
The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico
and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising
modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in
Mexico, and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and
Honduras.
The ancient
Maya, whose early settlements date back to about 2,000 B.C., lived in
present-day southern Mexico and northern Central America. As a civilization,
they are recognized for their sophisticated calendar systems and hieroglyphic
writing as well as their achievements in areas such as agriculture and
architecture.
Around 250 A.D., the Maya entered what’s now known as the Classic
Period, an era in which they built flourishing cities with temples and palaces,
and population size peaked. However, by the end of the Classic Period, around
900 A.D., almost all of the major cities in what was then the heart of Maya
civilization—the southern lowlands region, in present-day northern Guatemala
and neighboring portions of Mexico, Belize and Honduras—had been abandoned. The
collapse didn’t happen all at once; instead, it’s believed to have occurred
over time from place to place, between about the late 8th and 925. Exactly why
any of this transpired, though, is a mystery.
Scholars have
suggested a number of potential reasons for the downfall of Maya civilization
in the southern lowlands, including overpopulation, environmental degradation,
warfare, shifting trade routes and extended drought. Rather than a single
cause, it’s likely that a complex combination of factors was behind the
collapse. What is certain is that the Mayans didn’t disappear in the aftermath
of the collapse. Instead, cities in the northern lowlands region, such as
Chichen Itza and later Mayapan (both located in present-day Yucatan, Mexico),
rose to prominence. The Maya also established cities in the highlands region,
such as Q’umarkaj (in present-day Guatemala).
The Spanish
conquistadores arrived in the early 1500s and the last independent Mayan city,
Nojpeten (in present-day Guatemala), fell to Spanish troops in 1697. The
ancient cities were largely forgotten until the 19th century, when their ruins
started to be uncovered by explorers and archeologists. Today, the Maya
continue to reside in their ancestral homelands in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize,
Honduras and El Salvador.
Clancy's comment: I'm always amazed at how sophisticated some of these cultures were.
I'm ...
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