Preview

The Rise Of The Mayan Civilization

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
334 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Rise Of The Mayan Civilization
According to NASA researchers, the Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica was one of the densest populations in human history. Around 800 A.D., after two millennia of steady growth and during the peak of the Mayan Empire, its population reached an all-time high. It averaged 1,550 people per square mile. In comparison, Mexico State, which homes the outskirts of Mexico City’s Metropolitan Area, averaged 1,196 people per square mile in 2014.

It is surprising to learn that one of the most important mysteries to unveil from the Mayan culture, are not the apocallipse predictions, the cause of it’s collapse or if they were actually visited by aliens. The greatest mystery concerning the Mayan civilization is, how did they produce adequate food to feed a population of millions who built the famous Mayan monumental architecture in a rain forest environment with an inadequate water supply and extremely poor limestone soils? …show more content…
They had to master techniques for an effective water management. “The biggest threat we face doing fieldwork in the Mayan region is dying of thirst,” experts explained. Even the rainforest experiences an annual dry season; the trees hang on by tapping groundwater. “The Maya couldn’t use groundwater because it was 500 feet below them, and they had no technology to reach it, so they depended on
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Early Mayan Civilization
    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Early Mayan Civilization

    The Maya was thought of to be one among the best ancient Native American civilizations within the Americas, and probably the planet. Archaeologists discovered and dug up and studied several of the civilization sites trace the Mayas to thousands of years ago. Their ancestors migrated from Asia across the Bering Sea and Alaska to the Americas and also the Yucatan Peninsula throughout the last ice age. Early Mayan settlements originate to 2400 B.C.. They engineered huge stone pyramids and temples to honor their gods and preserve their faith. They additionally accomplished advanced achievements in arithmetic and astronomy, that were recorded in hieroglyphs. Their lives rotated around their king and sacrificial blood. Their cultural achievements…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dbq9 Civilization Of The Americas Analysis
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dbq9 Civilization Of The Americas Analysis

    The Mayans were civilized people who had many advance in their culture. they were known for their big buildings, their observations, and smarts in math and, the Mayans ruled the land of Mexico. Temples and pyramids started being built . One of the temples, in the city of Tikal, was the tallest structure in the Americas until the twentieth century ( Documen1 ). That is proof that the Mayan architecture was great and the people had high architectural skills. The Mayans also had their own system of hieroglyphic writing. With them, they were able to write books, write on stones, and create an advanced writing system and recorded history . With their observatories they were able to study the stars helped create…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did The Mayan Code Contribute To Its Downfall
    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How Did The Mayan Code Contribute To Its Downfall

    The Mayans used carvings and scripts to portray themselves as an Agricultural society that relied heavily on farming. The Mayans would have had to clear more and more land to make space (Stromberg). With a such high population, if something had happened to the food supply, the Mayan population would have fallen, and later, the culture, which is another theory (Perl 14). It was argued that the Code didn’t actually portray anything about the downfall of Mayan Civilization and didn’t accurately portray Maya. As most of Mayan Agriculture did not need terracing, something that is usually used in a purely agricultural society, and that since only a small amount were found in Mayan ruins, Mayan societies could not have structured intensive agriculture and the scripts that portrayed that were untrue, and merely emphasizing a particular aspect of Mayan culture (Culbert…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did The Mayans Contribute To The Decline Of Mayan Society
    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did The Mayans Contribute To The Decline Of Mayan Society

    The droughts were also another setback for Mayan agricultural growth. The need to modify the…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Mayan Tribe Research Paper
    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Mayan Tribe Research Paper

    The Mayans lived in three different sectors with different “environmental and cultural differences”(history.com). These sectors were broken down with communities living in the northern lowlands near the Yucatan Peninsula. Another community to the south in the “lowlands in the Peten district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras. Then southern Maya highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala”(history.com). These lowland areas “had a tropical climate with warm temperatures year round. The rain forests in the lowlands provided a good source of food, although farming was difficult” (Hyde 6). The Mayans in the southern lowland sector reached their highest point around 250 to 900 A.D. This society built amazing stone cities and shrines that have left explorers, scholars and travelers spellbound for centuries. The Mayans were farmers; they began to expand their attendance in the fields of the highland and lowland areas. They cultivated many crops such as crops such as corn, beans, squash and cassava-a starch from a root, which is also the source of Tapioca. A large population of farmers surrounded Mayan cities, and although the “Maya practiced a primitive type of ‘slash-and-burn’ agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Collapse Of The Mayans: Yucatan Peninsula In Guatemala
    • 194 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Collapse Of The Mayans: Yucatan Peninsula In Guatemala

    The Mayans were an empire that was mostly made of forests and reached from the Yucatan Peninsula in South modern-day Mexico to modern-day Guatemala. The main obstacle for this empire was the forest, which took up most of the possible farmland. Trees got in the way of the sun, and took much of the nutrients and water in the soil. They also took up space that could be used for more crops. To solve this problem, the Mayans used a farming method called slash-and-burn. They cut down the trees, burned them, and the nutrients that the tree had would go in the soil in the form of ashes. One complication of this was the fact that, if someone burns the ground, it will be scorched and dry. This led to the use of sinkholes, or large depressions in the…

    • 194 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mayan Items For Sale Essay
    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mayan Items For Sale Essay

    The Maya love precious Jade. They traded fruits, vegetables, salt, animal furs, feathers, and cotton. When they were farming they had techniques. One technique is the slash and burn. The slash and burn is in forested areas. The process includes cutting the growth in an area, burning it and using the resulting field to plant it in, using the ashes as added soil nutrition. After several years, the nutrition would be used up. They would burn down and plant in another area, leaving the first area to grow back. The economic goal of the Mayas was to produce lots of fruits, vegetables, salt, animal furs, feathers, and cotton in order to have plenty of items to trade for the precious Jade that they loved so much.…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mayan Environmental Issues
    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mayan Environmental Issues

    In early civilization, a complex society known as the Maya resided in lowlands of Mesoamerica. At the time that they lived, the Mayans were considered to be one of the most advanced societies. Their culture and their cultural influences on other societies are constantly being studied even today. The Mayans were known to be prosperous people with a growing population, rich agricultural, unique architecture, and sacrificial religious beliefs. Knowing this information, many wonder what caused such an advanced society to suddenly disappear. One theory explains that environmental stresses at the time may have lead the Mayans to their end.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mayan, Incan, Aztec Empires
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mayan, Incan, Aztec Empires

    The Mayan civilization was strongest from 300 to 900 A.D. It was located in what is now Central America.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Ap World History Essay
    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ap World History Essay

    Heirs of the Olmecs: the Maya 1) The Maya lived in the highlands of Guatemala a. Besides maize, they also cultivated cotton and cacao b. Tikal was the most important Maya political center, 300900 C.E. c. Maya warfare: warriors had prestige; captives were slaves or victims d. Chichén Itzá, power by the 9th century; loose empire in Yucatan e. Maya decline began in 800 C.E.; many Mayans deserted their cities C. Maya Society and Religion 1) Maya society was hierarchical a. Kings, priests, and hereditary nobility at the top b. Merchants were from the ruling class; they served also as ambassadors c. Professional architects and artisans were important d. Peasants and slaves were majority of population 2) The Maya calendar had both solar and ritual years interwoven 3) Maya writing was ideographic and syllabic; only four books survive 4) Religious thought a. Popol Vuh, a Maya creation myth, taught that gods created humans out of maize and water b. Gods maintained agricultural cycles in exchange for honors and sacrifices c. Bloodletting rituals honored gods for rains 5) The Maya ball game: sporting, gambling, and religious…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Maya and Aztec
    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Maya and Aztec

    The ancient Maya created one of the most surprising civilizations of pre-Columbian America: it arose, flourished, and vanished in a little under a thousand years in the unprepossessing environment of the tropical rain forest, leaving behind hundreds of massive ruins to excite the wonder and attention of European travelers. The Maya confined themselves to a single, unbroken area deriving from the natural lowlands of Mesoamerica, which includes the Yucatan Peninsula and the Northern Gulf Coast, and the Southern Highlands that are not characteristically “Maya”. The Classic period of the lowland Maya lasted from A.D. 300 to 900 (Fagan).…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mayan Disappearance Essay
    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mayan Disappearance Essay

    They had little contact with those in the Old World, and therefore all of the Maya advancements occurred without help from anyone outside pf their civilization (Hammond). The Maya did, however, utilize long-distance trade (Minster). The Maya, who were primarily farmers, practiced grotesque human and blood sacrifice (Wesney). Their empire was made of city-states that were led by well-revered rulers who commanded powerful armies (Minster). The rulers of these city-states participated in regular blood sacrifice, and their blood was said to hold the Maya Empire together. The Maya people created a calendar that is only differs from the calendar today by thirty-three seconds and were very advanced in astronomy (Video). They were polytheistic and built hundreds of pyramids for sacrifice to and worship of their many gods. Along with their large pyramids, the Maya built temples and made stone carvings (Minter). The largest Maya city was Takal, which was home to over one-hundred thousand people at its peak (Wesney). The Maya civilization began to decline around 800 CE, and they left their once-great empire in 900 CE and disappeared into the jungle, leaving behind no obvious reason as to why they did so (Ghose).…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why The Mayan's Collapse?
    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why The Mayan's Collapse?

    The second theory for the Mayan’s collapse was due to environmental changes brought on by a lack of forests. Once land was cleared, it would quickly lose its ability to absorb solar radiation. This would cause any water in it to take much longer to evaporate. Without water evaporating, clouds and rain wouldn’t be able to form. This would make growing and maintaining crops much more difficult, as the water from nearby rivers would not be enough, and any water from the Gulf of Mexico would have too much salt in it to work as a way to water crops; salt will kill most plants. A lack of rain also puts a toll on the…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mayan Accomplishments
    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mayan Accomplishments

    The Mayans are one of the most interesting and mysterious history civilizations out there. Nobody knows where they came from, how they managed to build their amazing stone cities in the rainforest without any stone tools, or why they seemed to die out at around 900 ce. Their accomplishments in astronomy and the understanding of time were great, and their cities were breathtaking.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mayan Civilization
    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mayan Civilization

    which had not occurred in earlier societies of the Maya. The fact that similar patterns of…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics