Maya

Agriculture is the process of changing the natural environment to produce more food. The items below show some of the agricultural and non-agricultural ways that the Maya obtained food.

The following things are some of the agricultural methods the Maya used. These methods involve changing the natural environment to increase the amount of available food.

Maya farmers often grew crops in one area for only a few years before the soil began to lose its nutrients. Then they moved on to a new area. They cut and burned land to quickly clear new fields for planting. Sometimes this method is called slash-and-burn agriculture.

Many Maya settlements were in steep, hilly areas. Maya farmers carved steps into hillsides to make flat areas to plant on. These steps were called terraces.

Other Maya settlements were in swampy, marshy regions with little available farmland. The Maya dug soil from the swamps to build raised mounds above the water. They planted crops on these platforms above the swamps.

The following are non-agricultural methods. The Maya did use these methods to obtain food. But hunting and gathering do not involve changing the environment to produce more food.

• • The Maya picked berries from bushes growing in the forest.

  • They also gathered nuts, herbs, and other wild plants.

  • The Maya used bows and arrows, spears, and traps to hunt wild animals.

  • They hunted animals such as deer, crocodiles, quail, monkeys, and turtles. Which weapon do you think they used to hunt each animal?

The passage below comes from the Popol Vuh (POH-pohl Voo), one of the few surviving books written by the Maya. It tells one version of the Maya's creation story. Read the passage. Then answer the question below.

When the world was first formed, the gods wanted to make creatures who would honor and worship them. First, the gods made creatures out of mud. But the mud creatures had no souls, and when they tried to move, they crumbled. The mud creatures could not praise the gods. So the gods destroyed the mud creatures, and tried again.

Next, the gods made creatures out of wood. The wood creatures could walk and speak, but they did not remember who created them. They did not worship the gods. The gods sent a flood to destroy the wood creatures.

The gods searched far and wide to find something else to make their creatures from. Finally, they found a mountain filled with maize, or corn. They ground the maize and mixed it with water to form the bodies of four humans. When the humans were made, they praised the gods and gave thanks for their creation. This was the beginning of the Maya people.

The Maya believed the universe was a predictable place. In other words, they thought that events repeated themselves in cycles over time.

Cycles in the sky

Because they saw the universe as predictable, the Maya carefully observed and recorded the world around them. They searched for patterns that could predict the future. One place where they found many patterns was the sky.

The Maya believed the sun, moon, and planets were gods who traveled through the sky repeating cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. The Maya carefully tracked and recorded the positions of these celestial bodies, creating complex records called almanacs. These almanacs allowed the Maya to predict seasons, weather patterns, and even solar eclipses!

Maya calendars required special training to read and interpret.

Why was it important to be able to read the calendars?

Almost everything in the Maya world revolved around the calendars. So, the people who could read the calendars had a lot of power. They controlled decisions such as these:

• • when farmers should plant and harvest crops

  • when people could hold ceremonies and festivals

  • when their cities would go to war

No one else could question their decisions, since no one else could read the calendars.

How did the Maya build their temples?

The temples were built by Maya commoners, who were required to perform a certain amount of labor every year.

Temples were usually built from limestone. The Maya had no metal tools, so they cut the limestone with chisels made from harder rocks such as granite. Each stone was carefully shaped and laid in place, held together with a cement-like mortar. The temples were often covered with a bright red stucco, a type of plaster made from mud.

Maya temples often remind people of the pyramids in Egypt. The following passages describe pyramids built by each culture.

The passages show that Egyptian and Maya pyramids shared these characteristics:

• • They were built from limestone. Limestone was common in both Egypt and Central America. Limestone was also softer and easier to carve than other types of rock. Both civilizations used limestone to build their pyramids.

  • They contained tombs where kings were buried. Egyptian pyramids were designed to be tombs. Maya pyramids were designed to be temples, but they sometimes contained tombs as well.

But only Maya pyramids had these characteristics:

• • They were used for public religious ceremonies. Maya pyramids all contained temples at the top where priests would perform religious ceremonies. Some scholars believe that Maya pyramids represent mountains and the temples at the top represent caves. The Maya saw caves as sacred places with special connections to the gods.

  • They had outdoor stairways leading to the top. Maya pyramids had temples on top. Stairways allowed priests to enter the temples to perform religious ceremonies. Egyptian pyramids were not designed to be entered regularly. Once a king was buried in the pyramid, all entrances were sealed.

How was the ball game played?

Many details about the ball game have been lost. But archaeologists use evidence from surviving ball courts, paintings, and carvings to learn about the game.

Two teams played against each other using a hard rubber ball. They could hit the ball with any body part except for hands or feet. Each team probably guarded one end of the long, narrow courts. Teams scored points by hitting the ball into the other team's end zone.

Some courts had stone rings on either side. If a team knocked the ball through the ring, they won instantly. This didn't happen often, however, since the rings were small and high above the ground.

Can you think of any modern sports that have similar rules?

For many years, scholars believed Maya writing was impossible to translate. A woman named Tatiana Proskouriakoff (tah-TYAH-nuh prohs-KOOR-yuh-kawf) helped to change that idea. The passage below tells her story.

In the 1950s, Tatiana Proskouriakoff was an architect studying ancient Maya ruins. One of those ruins had many carved stone pillars. The carvings showed images of people with lists of symbols and dates below. No one knew what the carvings meant. Most scholars thought the images were unknown gods and the symbols and dates were meaningless.

But as Proskouriakoff studied the pillars, she began to notice patterns. First, she realized that the dates in each group of pillars were never further apart than the length of a human lifespan. Then, she noticed that certain symbols appeared in a regular order within each group. Proskouriakoff started to doubt the idea that the carved figures were gods. She hypothesized that they were real people—the rulers of the ancient Maya city. She proposed that the dates on the pillars were important days in the lives of each royal figure.

Proskouriakoff proved her hypothesis by translating two Maya words that told the history of each king and queen. Her discovery helped scholars begin to translate other Maya words, too. Today, scholars can read more than 80% of Maya writing.

Tatiana Proskouriakoff figured out that the pillars described Maya rulers.

• The dates on the pillars matched the length of human lifespans. Proskouriakoff realized the dates for each statue were never more than 60 years apart. This suggests the events could have happened to humans. If the dates referred to things that happened to gods, they could have been hundreds or thousands of years apart, since gods were believed to live forever.

• The pattern of symbols suggested that the pillars recorded historical events. Proskouriakoff noticed several symbols that appeared over and over. By studying the pattern of symbols and dates, Proskouriakoff realized that the symbols showed when new rulers were born and when they took power.

Many of the Maya's achievements were motivated by their religious beliefs.

The importance of religion

Religion was a central part of the Maya's lives. Their beliefs shaped how they acted, leading the Maya to develop some of their greatest achievements.

Astronomy

The Maya believed the celestial bodies were gods. They carefully recorded their positions in the sky, believing that these positions held the key to predicting the future. They used these records, or almanacs, to predict seasons, weather, and even solar eclipses.

Written records

The Maya believed events repeated themselves over time, so they needed to carefully study the past in order to be prepared for the future.

Civilizations that don't have a written language must pass on information orally, or by talking. By developing a writing system, the Maya could record their knowledge in books. They could gather much more information and study the records to look for patterns.

Temples

The Maya believed their gods could be dangerous when unhappy. One Maya creation story said that the gods destroyed other creatures who would not worship them.

The Maya believed they could keep the gods happy by performing certain rituals and ceremonies. They built elaborate temples where the ceremonies would take place. These temples were designed to honor the gods and keep them happy.