Interactive Notebook Set Up 952019 Incan Mayan Civilizations
Interactive Notebook Set Up 9/5/2019 Incan & Mayan Civilizations This will be on one page
Mayan City-State Incan Empire
Mayan City-States Settled the Yucatan Peninsula of present-day Mexico Mayan ruins have been found throughout the area The height of Mayan civilization dates from approximately 250 -900 CE
Mayan City-States Decentralized patchwork of 50 citystates & kingdoms Connected by trading, marriage, and warfare All city-states shared common language, culture, and so on Most important city was called Tikal
Mayan City-States Most Maya were farmers They supplied resources for an elaborate trading network These farmers were relatively poor, but owned their land Farmers grew: maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, chili peppers, tomatoes
Mayan City-States Would trap rich river silt with terraces to replenish the fertility of the thin, poorly drained topsoil of southern Mexico Found other ways to trap and store rainwater to cover droughts
Mayan City-States gained wealth/influence through trade in Mexico & Central America Mostly for precious stones Canoes used to trade along rivers Goods were carried by humans overland no wheels yet; no large domesticated animals
Mayan City-States Religion was the center of Mayan life Mayan kings was BOTH political leaders AND spiritual leaders Performed rituals and ceremonies to satisfy the gods
Mayan City-States Kings built temples to display power and connection to gods Huge temples and pyramids built where thousands could gather for special religious ceremonies and festivals
Mayan City-States Believed in 2 levels of existence: (1) the daily physical life they lived (2) the “Otherworld, ” a spiritual world of gods, the souls of ancestors, and other supernatural creatures Actions on 1 level could affect things on the other level
Mayan City-States Some ceremonies also included a ritual ball game This games is called pok-a-tok Rubber balls batted back and forth across a walled court Symbolized back & forth struggle between this world and the next
Mayan City-States High-ranking captives, prisoners of war contestants Execution of losers immediately follows the match Most Maya ceremonial centers, towns and cities had courts
Chichen-Itza - Ball Court
A Goal in the Ball Court at Chichén Itzá, Mexico
Mayan City-States Images on Mayan temples, sacred objects, and pottery are our best sources on Mayan Religion Human sacrifice and bloodletting rituals was part of SOME religious ceremonies
Mayan City-States Mayans developed accurate calendars Calendar of 365. 242 days (17 seconds off) These were used to predict eclipses, schedule religious ceremonies, and determine times to plant and harvest
Mayan City-States One of the first Meso-American culture to develop a writing system Only within the past 25 years have we made any breakthroughs in translating Mayan writing Maya recorded: genealogy of their kings & royal families, mythology, history, ritual practices, and trade
Mayan City-States Mayan priests were excellent mathematicians and astronomers Developed very complex math The Mayan independently invented “Zero”
Collapse of the Maya Unclear as to why the Maya collapsed Political disunity? Agricultural breakdown from warfare? From over-farming? Long-term drought? Malnutrition, sickness, famine, high death rates Probably a combination of all of these factors
Collapse of the Maya Though the Maya dominance began to falter in around 900 CE it is debatable whether the Maya “collapsed” There are still millions of people descended from the Mayans living in the Yucatan Peninsula
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