Brayden Horn

The Mayan civilisation

The Mayans were a fascinating civilization they had many different languages and over
100,000 inhabitants. The Mayans spanned for over 2,000 years (1000 B.C. - 1524 A.D.). The
Mayans took the central American part of the globe so many thousands of years ago. Any where
from Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Chiapas, Yucat, and Campeche is where you
would have found them ruling. Speaking of ruling the only way to be a ruler was through family
inheritance. Meaning the throne was passed down generation to generation. One of the great
leaders who ruled over the Mayans was Lord Pakal he was known for making the Mayand most
notable surviving buildings and scripture.
The Mayans were kind of unique in the way they chose to split up their governments
unlike most they chose to make a bunch of smaller city states made up of rural communities and
large urban memorials and such. They Mayans religion was a little strange they were polytheistic
and worshiped multiple Gods. Now most of these Gods were revolved around nature like the sun
God Kinich Ahau or the maize (corn) God Yum Kaax. The Mayans also are especially known for
their astronomical buildings and calendars they used for rituals etc. The Mayans spoke many
languages but the main two were split between north and west in the north they spoke Yucate
and in the west Tzeltal was the language of choice.
Now the calendars were kind of confusing, they had different lengths of 260 days which
was called Tzolkin. Now the Tzolkin was combined with 365 day vague solar year which was
known as the haab. Both of those were combined to form a synchronized cycle lasting 52 haab
which was is known as the calendar round. The Mayans are probably most remembered through
their architecture they built temples, places and houses that were off the hook in quality and just
pure beauty so much that a lot of them are still here today. Its fascinating to think one that you
can still go and visit a place that was built thousands of years ago and to think that they built all
of this stuff without any of the tool we have today!
What type of jobs would the people would have had to make such an amazing place. The
jobs consisted of farmers, engineers, architects, priests, feather workers, and stone men. The
Mayans were extremely hard workers experts say that it was heavily understood that everyone
must work hard and everyone had an understood role. The mayans traded many goods with other
people these goods consisted of sult, cotton, mantels, slaves, feathers, fruit, flint, chert, obsidian,
honey, colorized shells, cocoa, copper, tools, and ornaments. The May And social class had
nobles which were the leaders like lord Pakal the next were the commoners meaning just your
old regular people. Finally were the serfs and slaves meaning they just worked for other people
they either had debt to or they were yea you know slaves. Women in the Mayan culture were
treated just the same ven a woman was ruler once! These titles of the social classes are pretty
much self explanatory of themselves were the rulers and ruled over everything commoners were
the warriors and just normal workers and slaves were slaves.
So furthermore the Mayans were one of the most powerful, intelligent, and
famous civilisations to this date. They accomplished almost more than any other with the
 Brayden Horn

calendars, architecture, and astronomical discoveries. So the Mayans according to what they
accomplished they were on of the most successful civilizations ever.