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1800 BCE
Early Maya
Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250. The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. -
Period: 1800 BCE to 799
The Exhausted Environment
Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power -
Period: 1800 BCE to 250
The Mayan Religion
The Maya were deeply religious and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain, and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or “kuhul ajaw” or (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture. -
Period: 1800 BCE to 799
Mayan Frourishment
One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system. -
300 BCE
Mayan Farms
The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions. -
250
Mayan Population
The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque, and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000. -
500
Mayan Hieroglyphs
The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900 and since the 19th-century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline. -
900
Mayan Pottery
The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900, however, and since the 19th-century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline. -
900
Theories
From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories. -
Period: to
Mayan Things
Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments. Mayan people also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices, so far four of these codices are known to have survived.
