Essay

DAKARAI ARMSTEAD
BENSON

Maya's civilization was big.  The biggest city was El Mirador, founded in 150 B.C., and had a population of 80,000 people by A.D. 100.  It was abandoned around A.D. 150.  Tikal, ruled by it's king Stormy Sky, later became the largest city, with some 100,000 people around A.D. 450.  Most cities were impressive and planned in grids.  Mayan civilization was unique and strong.


The arts in Maya were very creative.  They were skilled craftspeople making stone sculptors, jade carvings, decorated pottery, paintings, advanced tools, and gold and copper objects.  They also had to use art design the roads and shipping lanes to encourage trade.  They used shapes for some of their numbers; that's how math was like art.  Their mathmatical system counted in 20s, and used three artistic symbols: a bar for "five" a dot for "one" and a shell for "zero." The arts in Maya had a big impact on their transportation and math.


Mayan writing was incredible.  The various groups spoke nearly 30 closely related languages and dialects, including the Mayan and Huastec.  The Maya had 800 distinct hieroglyphs, with the first evidence of language written on stela and walls of buildings beginning in 300 B.C.  Bark cloth paper codexes were being used no later than the 1500s, and all but a handful were destroyed by Spanish.  Mayan peoeple were one of the first civilizations to use such sophisticated writing.

 Maya had a very interesting religion.  Offerings were thrown into cenotes, and placed in tombs. The Maya pierced their tongues, earlobes, genitals or other body parts for the blood sacrifice.  Animals (mostly jaguars) were sacrificed, and there were human victims, including high ranking enemy warriors who were captured, tortured and sacrificed.  Their religion was based on sacriifces.


There was a distinct class system in ancient Maya times. Between the ruling class and the farmer/laborer, there was an educated nobility who were scribes, artists and architects. Evidence of their skill and innovation remains in works of stone, stucco, jade, bone, pottery, obsidian and flint. There is no evidence of a priesthood and it is likely that priestly duties were performed by the ruler.  All these people had an important role.
 Government was an important part of the Maya civilization.  Priests ran governments, ruled cities, led ceremonies and performed many other jobs. Maya priests were also the rulers of cities.  Every day they would perform services after climbing the hundreds of temple steps.  Maya priests might have caused the collapse of the Maya when the lesser Mayas (farmers) got tired of having to obey the commands of the priests and abandoned the cities.  Government was one of the main parts of the Maya civilization.

Maya civilization is regarded as the most technologically advanced of all pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. It can be classified as a stone age civilization which had just begun experimenting with metals by the time of Spanish conquest. A lack of draft animals (like old world domesticated horses, oxen, donkeys, etc.) in the ancient Americas may explain lack of use of wheels and therefore the need of paved roads. Obsidian (volcanic glass) was a major material for various cutting tools and weapons due to its cleaved sharpness.  Technology was something to explore.

Maya was a very interesting culture.  The people were skilled craftspeople making stone sculptures, jade carvings, decorated pottery, paintings, advanced tools, and gold and copper  objects.  Their writing used 800 distinct hieroglyphs.  Religion in Maya their religion was based on sacrifice. Maya was a very great civilization.

Get your facts right

It's important to have your facts right because if you dont you will look like a fool and you could get a bad grade on a project.  To get your facts right you should research your topic until you get your facts right.  One tip is to never use wikipedia because anybody can go on there and change things so never use wikipedia.  You should check a relable text book and other sites on the internet.  So always make sure your facts are right.