The Mayan Civilization: Mesoamerican America

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. The Maya civilization extended throughout the present-day southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana, Campeche and Yucatán. The Maya area also extended throughout the northern Central American region, including the present-day nations of Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and extreme northern El Salvador. The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely defined zones: the southern Pacific lowlands, the highlands, and the northern lowlands. The Maya highlands include all of elevated
Their kings were powerful and claimed to be descended from the Gods and the planets. The Maya culture began around 1800 B.C. in the lowlands of the Yucatan and southern Mexico. For centuries, their culture slowly advanced, but as of yet they had no concept of kings or royal families. It wasn't until the middle to late preclassic periods(300 B.C. or so) that evidence of kings began to appear at certain Maya sites. The founding King of Tikal's first royal dynasty, Yax Ehb' Xook, lived sometime in the Preclassic period. By 300 A.D., kings were common and the Maya began building stelae to honor them: large, stylized stone statues which describe the King, or "Ahau," and his accomplishments. The Maya Kings claimed descent from the Gods and planets, laying claim to a quasi-divine status, somewhere between humans and Gods. A Maya king was groomed from birth to rule. A prince had to pass through many different initiations and rites. As king, he was supreme head of the military and was expected to fight and participate in any armed conflicts entered into by his city-state. He also had to participate in many religious rituals, as he was a conduit between humans and the Gods. Kings were allowed to take multiple
It did not matter who you were but if you committed a crime you would be punished. Some of the punishments were things like a fine, or having all of your possessions sold or auctioned , or being sold into slavery or possibly getting thrown into a jail for a very long time.Mayan law was pretty fair. If you committed a lesser crime, your hair would be cut short. Short hair was a sign of disgrace. The Mayans believed that criminals did not act on their own but were being controlled by evil spirits. Although they believed this, criminals were still being punished. The most serious offense was murder and the punishment. They collected evidence and presented it before reaching their final decision. If you committed a crime, and you were found guilty after a judge had heard your case, you would be punished. Punishments were either getting all your possessions sold into auction, hair cut short, death, heavy fines, getting thrown into jail or sold into slavery. If your punishment was death, the most often way die was to be thrown off a