Seung+Wan+and+Chan+Woo''s+Maya+Project

=**Mayan Empire -ChanWoo Park & Seungwan Kang**=

=**Geographic Location of the Mayan Empire**= This map is the region of Mayan Empire of A.D. 250 to A.D. 800 where 8 to 10 million Indians lived in southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. The Mayans lived in three separate-sub areas with different environmental and cultural differences: volcanic mountains-comprised highlands in south, and lowlands in central and northern regions.

= = =Origins of the Empire: How d**id i**t get started?=

Mayan history starts in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C. with nomadic hunters and farmers. Around 300B.C., the golden age of the Mayan Empire, Maya farmers began to expand their lands both in the highland and lowland regions including Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan, and etc. As a result, Maya civilization grew to 40 city-states.



**The map of City-States in Mayan Empire **
=Economic System:=

Agriculture:
The Mayans built underground caves called cenotes to store rainwater in places where there were not enough ground water for irrigation or other usages. Due to the damp climate, the Mayans could not store their crops for long period of time. Therefore, they developed the farming mathod:


 * irrigation
 * terracing
 * slash and burn to clear land for farming[[image:kyle-history/machu-picchu-terraces.jpg width="418" height="269" align="right" caption="Terracing"]]
 * Managed Fallows
 * Forest Gardens
 * Shifting Cultivation
 * Wild Harvesting

Main crops produced: corn(maize), cacao, maguey, bananas, squash, beans, chili peppers, avocado, cotton for weaving, and bees for honey and wax.

Trade :
The Mayans had a complex system of trade throughout their entire history. They had strong commercial ties with other Mesoamerican cultures from all over Central and South America. The trade network began as a linear route from Guatemalla to Mexico.

Goods:
Items traded were the mentioned crops above, Salt, Cotton, Vanila, Obsidian, Animal furs, Bird feathers, Shell, and other resources such as Pyrite, Quartz, Magnatite, Clay and Cin

The Mayans also traded wood, thatch, and fibers for buildings, baskets, rope, nets, and bark cloth which was colored and woven into clothing and textiles. The Animals and aquatic species were also traded for adornments and ritual objects. nabar.

Jobs:
Mayans had many jobs including stonemasons, feather workers, warriors, priests, farmers, architects, artisans, scribes, traders, slaves, craftsmen, etc.

=Social System:=

Social Classes

 * At the top**: Nobles and Priests


 * Middle** Class: Craftsmen, Traders, and Warriors


 * Bottom:** Farmers, Slaves, and Peasants.........................[[image:mayan-grounds_lg.jpg width="335" height="240" align="right" caption="The huts of Mayans"]]

Furthermore, the art they created honored their gods, their leaders, and their daily life.
 * Craftsmen:** The Maya wove beautiful fabrics. They also made musical instruments such as drums, shell horns and castanets.


 * Slaves:** mostly, they were captured from warring tribes. They worked in the home of noble families. And often, they cared the children.

Language they used:
Two main Mayan languages of the Classic period: Yucatecan and Cholan. There were other 30 separate languages which were subdivided

Family:
A typical Maya family would consist of about five to seven members.Houses were usually one-room huts built of interwoven poles covered with dried mud. Most of the families had meals of corn, squash and beans, supplemented with the occasional turkey or rabbit.

Education:
Only the higher classes (Priests, chiefs, war leaders, etc.) were educated properly. The lower class people had to learn from their family, friends and generations. The elders taug ht the younger ones whatever there was to learn throughout their lives..

Religion:
The religion of Mayan Empire was similar to the belief of Hindu. The Mayan religion was polytheistic, con sisting of nature gods. Mayans often participated in ritual bloodletting, and mutilating themselves as a sacrifice to the gods. They often sacrificed animals,and humans who were captured from neighboring tribes thinking that humans were created for the purpose of honoring the gods.

At that time, the astrology was also important to the Mayan religion because each god was associated with a certain period of time.

The Mayans believed in Afterlife thinking that souls will go to either underworld, or heaven. Most souls went to the underworld and the underworld was represented by a jaguar. For Heaven, only sacrificed and who had died in childbirth were allowed.

Differences between sexes:
Mostly for the males, they were expected to work on the farm but for the females, they were expected to take care the children, cleaning house, and the making food.

Daily life:
The men mainly focused on farming. The women liked to decorate their body using beads, oyster shells, dark green stones, and jewels.

=Rise to Power= During its Classic period (250–950 A.D.), Maya civilization reached a zenith. At its peak, around 750 A.D., the population may have reached 13 million. **Scientific accomplishments ** The Mayan Calendar

The Maya developed a sophisticated calendar with a count of 250 days.This calendar gave each day a name, much like our days of the week. The 20 day names, each represented by a unique symbol, were numbered from 1 to 13. So after the count of thirteen was reached, the next day was numbered 1 again. The Maya also tracked a vague solar year in which they counted 365 days per year. But since fractions were not used back then, there were errors in the calculation of the days each year causing the calendar to drift with regard to the actual solar year. The 365-day year contained months that were also given names, so that the count goes Zero Pohp to 19 Pohp, then continues with Zero Wo. Also, there was a special five-day month called Wayeb composed of 5 days which were considered unnamed and unlucky. This calendar was used for centuries, probably even before the beginning of writing. media type="youtube" key="swVhvY-6LM4" height="315" width="560"



Mayan Mathematics
Instead of using the denary system like we do today, the Maya had a base number of 20. They used bars and dots for counting.A dot stood for one and a bar stood for five.Because the base of the number system was 20, larger numbers were written down in powers of 20. It's just like in our denary system; for example 22 = 2 x 10 + 2. But in the Maya system, this would be 1 x 20 +2, because they used 20 as base. It was very easy to add and subtract using this number system, but they did not use fractions. Maya merchants often used this system to do calculations. It was an important factor in their trading. **Technological accomplishments ** The ancient Maya built elaborate temples and great cities without using essential tools, the metal and the wheel. But they did use some modern tools which is still used to this day. Historians think the Maya produced rubber products about 3,000 years before the first American had discovered vulcanization (combining rubber with other materials to make it more durable).

Astrology
media type="youtube" key="2P7MaGCyuwk" height="315" width="560"

**Decline of Mayan Empire**
Historians are not sure of what led to decline, but they had many theories. ..
 * Disease which might be came together with Spaniard conquerors could have wiped out much of the population.[[image:kyle-history/quetzacoatl_pyramid_(1).jpg width="288" height="205" align="right"]]

> Natural disasters such as earthquake or hurricane might have destroyed the settlement and Mayan chose to move rather than rebuild.
 * Those who survived from the disease chose to move elsewhere[[image:kyle-history/mayan_temple2.jpg align="right"]]
 * Mayan farmers abandoned their lands because they could not grow for long period of time on the highlands.
 * Widespread warfare between 40 other City-States or other tribes.

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7. Impact on the world: How did this civilization influence history? What important lessons does this civilization teach us?
The year 2012 is regarded as the ‘end year’ of the 5125-year-long cycle of the Maya (or Mayan) Long Count calendar. There is an interpretation that this year will mark as the beginning of a new age. Some think this will mark the end of the world.

The architecture of the Mayas had a great influence in the architecture of today, especially Central America. Their use of color, open space, and texture provide ideas and guidelines in today’s architecture. For example, due to their dependency in agriculture, the cities increased in population, which led to the need of additional buildings. But instead, the Mayans used their own technique – superimposition, where a new building is constructed on top of an old building. Or in most cases, the old building was encased in a new larger one. The building concealed inside is usually well preserved. These styles are quite evident in Central America today. ==

Videos:== media type="youtube" key="Et5ICDNm74s" height="315" width="420"media type="youtube" key="CuqTwJP5HRg" height="315" width="420"

Useful Websites
[|Mayan Civilization] [|Brainpop]

MLA Citation:
<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">BookRags. "The Impact of Mayan Architecture Summary | BookRags.com." //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">BookRags.com | Study Guides, Lesson Plans, Book Summaries and more //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. BookRags, 20 Apr. 1926. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.bookrags.com/research/the-impact-of-mayan-architecture-scit-011234/>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Day, Nancy. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Your travel guide to ancient Mayan civilization. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> Minneapolis: Runestone, 2001. Print.

<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">"MAYAN FACTS." //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">MAYAN FACTS //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. Mayan, 2 May 2005. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.mayafacts.blogspot.com/

<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Martin, Phillip. "The Ancient Maya Empire for Kids - The Mayas ." //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">The Ancient Maya Empire for Kids - The Mayas //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. Phillip Martin, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://mayas.mrdonn.org/>.

<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">"Mayan Life." //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">MAYAN INDIANS //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. N.p., 10 Oct. 1996. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.mayanindians.com/mayan-life.html>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Sharer, Robert J. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Daily life in Maya civilization. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. Print.

<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">"The Rise and Fall of the Maya Empire — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts." //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">History.com — History Made Every Day — American & World History //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. History.com, 23 Apr. 2007. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.history.com/topics/maya>