The Maya Civilization

The Maya were the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America, and they once inhabited lands composed of modern-day Mexico, as well as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize to its south. This indicates that the Maya people had clustered in the central region of the South American continent, most likely to ensure they would be safe from the invasion of other Mesoamerican peoples.

Within that central region, the Maya are believed to have lived in three separate areas with unique characteristics: the northern Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula; the southern lands in northern Guatemala and in Mexico, Belize, and west Honduras; and in the mountainous terrain of southern Guatemala. 15 ..........

The term “Maya” for the civilization comes from the city of Mayapan, which was the last capital city of the Kingdom during the Post-Classic Period. 16 .......... The most important cities include Chichen Itza, Coba, Copan Kalakmul, Tikal, and Uxmal. Surveys and excavations have been conducted by historians to learn more about these ancient people, and tourists are permitted to visit some of the sites. 

People who trace their origin to the Maya refer to themselves by the terms Yucatec in the north and Quiche in the south. These are descendants of the civilizations that lived on the same lands of Mesoamerica as their Maya ancestors. 17 .......... They consider themselves linked to their ancestors through their similar languages and traditions and through their ethnic bonds. There are as many as 70 versions of the Maya language in the area, with most descendants also fluent in modern-day Spanish. Languages such as K’iche’, Mam, and Q’anjob’al, which are common mainly in the regions of Guatemala, all have Mayan roots. 

18 .......... They also grew beans, squash, sweet potato, chilli peppers, cocoa beans, vanilla beans, and tomatoes, as well as a variety of fruits. They used a farming technique called milpa, or what we call today “slash-and-burn” farming. They would clear the land by cutting down all the trees and bushes and burning the foliage in the spring before the rainy season. Then they would plant their crops. This technique meant that the crop would only be fertile for a few years, so they also had to practice crop rotation every few seasons to ensure a healthy harvest. Besides farming, the Maya were also artisans, with extreme devotion to ceramics, painting, weaving, and textile work. 

The Maya were said to have been “discovered” in the 1840s by English explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. 19 .......... 

20 ..........The spread of Catholicism and the Spanish language also overshadowed the Maya culture and forced its people to assimilate to a changing environment of colonization. The majority of their ancient documents were destroyed by the Spaniards, but a few bark books remain. Their history was also etched in stone, pottery, and cave drawings, giving modern archaeologists valuable insight into this civilization.