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Mayans. Time period. Mayan civilization, 250-900 AD They lived in Central America. Shelter. The Mayan pyramids were carved out of stone in with stairs reaching to the top of the pyramid. Each pyramid was a shrine.
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Time period • Mayan civilization, 250-900 AD • They lived in Central America
Shelter • The Mayan pyramids were carved out of stone in with stairs reaching to the top of the pyramid. Each pyramid was a shrine. • The lesser people, like the workers, had one room houses. They were made with poles, mud, and stones. They covered the top with leaves for a roof. Their building supplies were limited so they basically used man power. They usually used limestone for mortar. • The people with better social standing lived in better buildings.
Fashion • Mayans wore fancy clothing wove by women. They also wore wear jaguar skin skirts. • They wore a net overskirt made of jade, shark shell belt, and a jade-netted collar. • Other clothing consisted of wearing many quetzal and eagle feathers on headdresses. • The men wore a shirt, a hat, pants, and a belt. • The women wore a skirt, blouse, and a shawl.
Food • The Mayans hunted animals for their meat. Some animals were deer, monkey, tapir, and peccary, fowl, turtles, and the iguana. They were also lived by the coast so they could eat fish, lobster, shrimp, conch, and shellfish. They mostly eat fruits and vegetables. For supper they usually had better food that was more nutritious. When they added chocolate or tobacco to a meal it was for a special occasion and if they added beer or wine it was ceremony.
Alphabet/Language • The Mayan numbers were: one dot for a one, one line for a five, and a foot ball looking symbol for the 0. • The Mayans writing tools were most likely made of animal hair and quills. • There is an estimated 30 glyphs. Glyphs are like pictures and signs. • Their writing system is called logo syllabic(system of writing that uses a combination of logographic and syllabic signs). • The Mayans used symbols made up of glyphs rather then a whole alphabet. • Many of there words have more then one meaning. • They read left to right.
Games/ Leisure • The Maya played a game called pok-a-tok. • Pok-a-tok is a combination of soccer and basketball. • The object of the game was to put a rubber ball through a hoop 9m high. • The ball could only hit off from the waist or the butt. • The losers would be sacrificed.
Values/Rules • The Mayan people punished crimes with death, usually they threw the person over a high ledge, or in rare cases imprisonment. • Children had to do whatever their parents wanted until they were of age to marry. The age that they were allowed to marry was almost anytime for the girls and about twenty for the boys. • The Mayan people had judges and juries similar to what we have today.
Marriage/Family • The Mayan family was very structured. The men hunted and farmed. The woman cooked, weaved, sewed, and helped in the fields if necessary. • Children didn’t go to school unless they were born from a noble family. • Children helped their mother with chores and the girls babysat their younger siblings. • There were a few rules of marriage that had to be followed: 1.People of the same gender were forbidding to marry and anyone who violated the law became outcasts. 2.A person could not marry anyone who was related to you. 3.A person could not have more than one wife. 4.A person could not marry out of his own rank. 5.A person could not marry without the consent of the chief of the district.
Religious Beliefs • The Mayan people believed that the earth was a flat square with the tree of life in the middle. Each of the four points were either south, north, west, and east. Each point had its own colour and deity. The Mayan world was divided into three layers: the Heavens, the Earth , and the Underworld. • The Mayan people believed that each person had more than one soul inside their body. They believed that the other soul that lived inside of the human body was an animal or phenomena that protected that person. They also believed that in some special cases the person could change into the other soul that lived inside their body. • The Mayan people believed that limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and regularly sacrificed humans to please their water god. • To the Mayan people believed war was a ritual that had to happen every year so that they could gain human beings for their sacrifices. Warriors fought fiercely in battle because they believed that if they died on the battle field, they would be happy forever in the afterlife. They also believed that capture by the enemy was worse than being dead.
The Mayan people believed in bloodletting. The household elders cut themselves once a day to worship their gods. Kings and queens cut their tongues and genitals every day and then drag a rope of thorns through the hole so it would bleed more. Then they would catch the blood on a piece of paper and burn it. The priests were supposed to be able to see the gods and see what the gods wanted them to do. This is how they knew when to go to war, plant crops, and build temples. • The Mayan people believed in human sacrifice. The greatest human sacrifice was to have your heart removed. They would paint the victim completely blue and then place on a table that arced the victims chest upward. The victims arms and legs were held by minor priests and the main priest would use a sharp stone to cut out his heart. He would then remove the heart while it was still beating and place it in a bowl. Then the hear t was burned. If the victim was a great warrior, after his heart was removed and burned, they would roll the body down the steps of the temple where the crowd would eat his body. The main priest would wear his skin and dance in it. • The Mayan people believed that their priests could talk to the gods. The priests had the most power out of anyone in the city. The priests decided when to plant, when people could marry, and who to sacrifice. • Every 20th day they held a religious festival. The priests would climb the temple dressed in jaguar masks. Mayan dancers would dance in front of the temple wearing huge headdresses.
Art/Music/Dance • The Maya knew many different types of dance. They wore colorful dance costumes and huge headdresses. Their dances included the Monkey, the Grandfather, the Shadow of the Trees, and the Centipede. • The Mayas had many different instruments they used to make music. They played the wooden or tortoise shell drums, ceramic maracas, pottery flutes, ocarinas, and trumpets. • The Mayas made beautiful art. They made little pottery figures that were used in religious ceremonies, carvings, stucco reliefs, statues, ceramics, and murals. They were one of the few civilizations that the artists put their name on their work. They also wove beautiful fabrics.
Government • The Mayan's were not ruled by one monarch. Every city was like a state or country with it's own monarch. They are ruled by both priests and monarchs. • The ruler was called a Halach Vinic. He was political ruler and religious leader. His position was hereditary. One big city had power over the surrounding villages and farms. • The priests position was also hereditary.
Technology • They used paint brushes made of deer hair. They made pots and figures out of clay • The Mayan's had developed a very accurate and precise calendar. The Mayans predicted that the world would end on Sunday, December 23, 2012. • They transported everything using human power because they did not use pack animals or carts because of the terrain.
