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The Maya civilization started up at around 1500 BC. The Maya had only small towns built at this time and had a quite small population. This was the beginning of a great civilization and many discoveries to come.
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The Maya are known for their outstanding architecture. They first started to produce temples by the year 50 BC. These temples then grew from stone to the exquisite standard of the Maya people.
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The Maya people had sustainable economies for farming and living a common life by 200 AD. The Maya people had sustainable farming and would dine on corn, beans, and squash.The Maya also began to build ceremonial structures and buildings.
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The Maya civilization would practice many different kinds of farming. In about 250 AD the Maya used a type of farming method known as slash-and-burn agriculture. This meant that the Maya would cut and burn parts of a forest and use the ashes as fertilizer for the new crops planted within the area.
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By 250 AD the Maya had found their gods. The one god they worshiped was the corn god, the Maya people were greatly influenced by corn ( it was their biggest crop.) The Maya also worshiped the rain god; everything they did was affected by rain, whether their crops would fail or not, which is almost a life or death situation.
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In the year 300 AD the Maya start to record information about their rulers. They did this by carving monuments (stelae carvings). The Maya used limestone and carved on one or more sides.
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The year 300 AD was the dawn of the “Classic Maya”. This was the “golden age” for the Maya with over 40 cities located all across South America. With each city came about 50,000 people and the Maya may have had up to 2,000,000 people at their peak!
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During the year 840, the Maya civilization loses traction with its people. No more writings are uncovered in this time. This could mean that there were communication or religious problems among them.
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From the early 9th century the Maya hit their demise without warning. This boggles the minds of many how such a high intellect civilization could literally disappear off the face of the earth. Although there are many theories to how this might have happened; such as an environmental change, war, or overuse of land.
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Present day, even though the Maya were highly advanced in intellect they never could get out of the stone age. The Maya did have one of the most sophisticated civilizations in the world and made much progress in agriculture, astronomy, and language, but they never could get out of that loop. So just picture what it would be like if they discovered modern day technology.
