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    Maya Civilization: A Complete Overview Of The Maya History & Maya Mythology
    Maya Civilization: A Complete Overview Of The Maya History & Maya Mythology
    Maya Civilization: A Complete Overview Of The Maya History & Maya Mythology
    Ebook65 pages1 hour

    Maya Civilization: A Complete Overview Of The Maya History & Maya Mythology

    By Eric Brown

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    About this ebook

    Discover The Maya History & How They Lived!



    This book's coverage begins with the development of the Maya through the ancient eras, starting with their founding in Belize as a hunter-gatherer society in the Pre-Classic Period all the way through the Classic and Post-Classic Period during which they had flourished into the civilization they are known for today. The Maya was composed of several city-states that spanned the area, all with soaring stone architecture structured for its citizens and a network of roads and passages to make trading and travel easier for commerce.



    Understanding the mystical nature of the Maya religion and their belief in the balance of the universe are keys to understanding how the Maya lived and worshipped. They believed in balance between all individuals and worked hard to always praise the gods who created them with their own godly blood. They believed the gods destroyed previous civilizations before them because those peoples refused to worship, and the Maya made certain they would not share that same fate. This is clear in their cities, where the temple is the center of most of the plaza city-states.



    Maya architecture is left standing to this day, even after centuries of weathering and excavation from archaeologists. Their limestone structures were created carefully and mapped out using their mathematical skills, and they even used cement to hold stones together while also planning out the expansion of their temples to hold tombs.



    Inside this book, you will find the following:



    - The history of the Maya people and where their civilization began and expanded from



    - How the name “Maya” came to be used for these peopleThe growth of the Maya as they became a booming society during the Classic Period



    - When colonists began to interact with the Maya civilizations in Central America



    - Results of the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica and what it meant for the Maya



    - Why archaeologists believe the Maya empire fell



    - Details on the Maya religious tradition of human sacrifice and what that entailed



    - Other ways Maya sacrificed members of their society to the gods in religious gestures



    - Insights on the Maya gods and what they stood for to the Maya people



    - Maya creation myths and how they believe previous civilizations of people were created and destroyed



    - How the traditional game of Poc-a-Toc was played and how it was more of a religious ritual than just a ballgame



    - The astonishing accuracy of the Maya calendar as they charted the sun, planets, and the moon using only their naked eye



    - The Caste War of Yucatán and how the Maya worked to get back their lands and rights during the Spanish colonization



    - How Spanish colonization has influenced ancient Maya religions



    - How the Maya number system worked and how to read their numbers



    - The types of architectural structures found in their city-states and what each could be used forTypes of arts the Maya excelled in such as embroidery, textile, painting, and carving



    - What traditional Maya folk medicine entailed and the types of treatments for the sick



    - Facts on traditional Maya cultural aspects and way of life such as the meals they ate, the clothes they wore, and their social classes



    - Where the descendants of the Maya reside today and how they fight to preserve their heritageAnd more!



    Don’t wait another moment to enjoy from this information – Get your copy of Maya Civilization right away!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Williams
    Release dateAug 19, 2018
    Author

    Eric Brown

    Twice winner of the British Science Fiction Award, Eric Brown is the author of more than twenty SF novels and several short story collections. His debut crime novel, Murder by the Book, was published in 2013. Born in Haworth, West Yorkshire, he now lives in Scotland.

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    • 4/5
      It give me some information that i never know before, I was thought that Maya civilization already gone, But after I watch Movie that the artist is descendant of Maya people it blown my mind . This intresting thing to know about :)

    Book preview

    Maya Civilization - Eric Brown

    holder.

    Introduction

    ––––––––

    Congratulations on downloading Maya Civilization, and thank you for doing so.

    The following chapters will discuss what we famously refer to as the Maya Civilization—its history and the identity of its people. This civilization was believed to have sprouted around 1800 BCE during the Pre-Classic Period in what is now modern-day Belize. This book will cover their evolution from being a collection of small tribes into becoming an empire that sprawled across Mesoamerica and built flourishing city-states. In the Classic Period, the Maya reached their peak in terms of their artistic and mathematical development, their knowledge of astronomy, as well as the evolution of their calendar. They built huge pyramids that served as their temples, and those structures still stand today as historical sites.

    Along with the history of their evolution, this book will also dive into the culture and religion of the Maya, with emphasis on their traditions, architecture, and technology. The Maya are especially famous for their tradition of human sacrifice, and this book will share information on that particular ritual, as well as on the reasons why the Maya became known for it. This book delves into many aspects of their culture to illustrate how they lived and grew as a civilization despite the frequent wars between the city-states. Lastly, this book also looks into the descendants of the Maya who are now mostly residing in Yucatán, Mexico and how they strive and fight to keep their traditions alive.

    There are plenty of books on this subject on the market, so thanks again for choosing this one! Every effort was made to ensure it is full of as much useful information as possible. Please enjoy!

    Chapter 1:

    The Maya People

    ––––––––

    The Maya were the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America, and they once inhabited lands composed of modern-day Mexico, as well as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize to its south. This indicates that the Maya people had clustered in the central region of the South American continent, most likely to ensure they would be safe from the invasion of other Mesoamerican peoples.

    Within that central region, the Maya are believed to have lived in three separate areas with unique characteristics: the northern Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula; the southern lands in northern Guatemala and in Mexico, Belize, and west Honduras; and in the mountainous terrain of southern Guatemala. The Maya of the lowland region is thought to have been the one to build the great stone cities we’ve come to associate with the entire civilization.

    The term Maya for the civilization comes from the city of Mayapan, which was the last capital city of the Kingdom during the Post-Classic Period. These same regions today are still home to thousands of archaeological sites of the Maya Kingdom, many of which are still not fully explored. The most important cities include Chichen Itza, Coba, Copan Kalakmul, Tikal, and Uxmal. Surveys and excavations have been conducted by historians to learn more about this ancient people, and tourists are permitted to visit some of the sites.

    People who trace their origin to the Maya refer to themselves by the terms Yucatec in the north and Quiche in the south. These are descendants of the civilizations that lived on the same lands of Mesoamerica as their Maya ancestors. These descendants practice a somewhat modified version of the thousand-year-old rituals. They consider themselves linked to their ancestors through their similar languages and traditions and through their ethnic bonds. There are as many as 70 versions of the Maya language in the area, with most descendants also fluent in modern-day Spanish. Languages such as K’iche’, Mam, and Q’anjob’al, which are common mainly in the regions of Guatemala, all have Mayan roots.

    The Maya people were mostly farmers, with corn or maize being their staple crop. They also grew beans, squash, sweet potato, chili peppers, cocoa beans, vanilla beans, and tomatoes, as well as a variety of fruits. They used a farming technique called milpa, or what we call today as slash-and-burn farming. They would clear the land by cutting down all the trees and bushes and burning the foliage in the spring before the rainy season. Then they would plant their crops. This technique meant that the crop would only be fertile for a few years, so they also had to practice crop rotation every few seasons

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