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77 pages

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Definitively tracing the evolution and history of the Maya civilization from the arrival of migrating 'first peoples' to the end of the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican World with the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. A span of some thousands of years are concisely covered in one volume in a thorough study of the evolution of a complex Maya society. A new world of understanding about the ancient Maya civilization has been opened up from new archaeological discoveries and studies.

Easy to read and very interesting, providing first an overview, then a chapter by chapter journey through major events in Maya history.

Sujets

Mesoamérica

Maya civilization

Mesoamerica

Mayan

Ancient

HIStory

Maya

Civilization

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Publié par	Spangenhelm Publishing
Date de parution	23 octobre 2016
Nombre de lectures	2
EAN13	9781943066070
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0015€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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History of the Maya
by Njord Kane

History of the Maya
By Njord Kane

© 2015 by Njord Kane. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in anywritten, electronic, recording, or photocopying form withoutwritten permission of the author, Njord Kane, or the publisher,Spangenhelm Publishing. You must not circulate this book in anyformat.
Books may be purchased by contacting the publisherand author at: spangenhelm.com
Published on: March 1, 2016 by SpangenhelmPublishing
Interior Design and Cover by: Njord Kane
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919659
ISBN-13: 978-1-943066-070
ISBN-10: 194306607-8
1. Maya 2. Mayan 3. History 4. Mesoamerica
First Edition.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 - Who were the Maya?
Chapter 2 - The Paleo-Indian Period
Chapter 3 - The Archaic Period
Chapter 4 - The Preclassic Period
Chapter 5 - Early Preclassic
Chapter 6 - Middle Preclassic
Chapter 7 - Late Preclassic
Chapter 8 - The Classic Period
Chapter 9 - The Post-classic Period
Chapter 10 - The Spanish Conquest of theMaya
References

For Jose' Luis and Kara Jo

Preface
This book tells the Maya story chronologically froman anthropologist’s point of view. Starting from the “FirstPeoples” that migrated into the Americas as hunter-gathers (thePaleo-Indians) following herds of megafauna, such as Mammoth. Intothe gradual progression of settling and forming into a complexsociety.
The Maya were a major indigenous pre-Columbiancivilization of the Yucatan Peninsula and are members of a modernAmerican Indian people of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and parts ofHonduras who are the descendants of this ancient civilization.[199]Which is correct to use when referring to these people, is it'Maya' or is it 'Mayans?' Is it a 'Maya' or a 'Mayan'archaeological site? We see the words, Maya and Mayan usedinterchangeably without discrimination. So, which is correct, do weuse Maya or Mayas or Mayan or Mayans?
The adjective 'Mayan' is used in reference to thelanguage or languages, whereas the noun “Maya”[mah-yuh][199] isused when referring to the people, places, and or culture, etc.,without distinction between singular or plural. This convention isthe most widespread among Mayanists (scholars who study and writeabout the Maya). This distinction arose in the field oflinguistics, where the "Mayan" adjective started to be used todefine the linguistic family that incorporates the differentdialects spoken by the Maya people. In sum, “Mayan” are theirlanguages and “Maya” for everything else in reference.
The purpose of this book is to provide a concise andup to date historical chronicle about the Maya. With so many recentdiscoveries by archeologists studying the Maya and their ruins,many things that we had previously knew of the Maya civilizationhave changed. This makes the Maya story as previously taught out ofdate and needing to be retold. This book tells the Maya storycurrent to Today's discoveries, presented in short chapters tomaintain the reader's enthusiasm through each epoch of Mayahistory.
We start our story about the Maya from firstexistence as an identifiable and distinct people that had migratedinto the Americans many thousands of years ago. We will bring youto their progression from hunter-gathers into agriculturalsettlements that grew into city-states. A journey through the riseand decline of the Maya civilization.
This book is not the single work of the author, butthe combined works of hundreds of years of thousands of researchersspending lifetimes trying to unravel the mystery of the Maya. Therehas been so many recent discoveries by modern researchers, the Mayastory has almost been rewritten from what we thought we used toknow about their obscure history.
The Beginnings of a People

Chapter1
Who were the Maya?
The Maya are an indigenous people whose culture hadbuilt a thriving ancient city-state civilization inMesoamerica.
MesoAmerica is the location that lies in the areafrom Mexico to South America. An area considered to be the 'middle'of the Americas and is also known as the Central Americas.
Along with the Maya, there are many other indigenouscultures in the Mesoamerican area. Some of these other cultures arethe Mexica (Aztecs), Mixtec, Purepecha, Huastec, Olmac, Toltec,Zapotec, and Teotihuacan.
These indigenous Mesoamerican cultures are creditedwith the creation and innovation of many inventions. They usedadvanced mathematics to engineer and build great pyramid templesthat still stand after thousands of years. They were clear mastersof observed astronomy and created highly accurate calendars. Theymaintained stable enough societies to allow the practicing of finearts and integrated it into a complicated writing system thatbalanced both math and writing into a complex theology. The Mayaare credited as being the first culture in the New World to utilizea fully developed written language.
They practiced elective medicine and for the mostpart, used an intensive agriculture system to maintain hugepopulations.
The Mesoamericans had discovered the wheel, but theabsence of draft animals and an often demanding terrain made humanlabor the most utilized means for the transportation of goods andbuilding materials. Suitable bovine or equine were not introducedinto the Americas until later when Europeans brought them over.

Map showing the area where Ancient Maya were locatedin Mesoamerica.[235]
The areas dominated by the Maya are known today asthe southern Mexican states: Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, QuintanaRoo, and Tabasco. The Maya civilization spread all the way throughthe nations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. A verylarge expanse of city-states that ruled the area linked by traderoutes.
Descendants of the ancient Maya civilization livetoday in the Yucatán Peninsula of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, andparts of Honduras and El Salvador.
The proximity of the Mesoamerican people to eachother in the region led to a high degree of cultural interactionbetween each other. The consistent interaction between Mesoamericancivilizations within the region created a cultural diffusion thatallowed Mesoamericans to share a great degree of their culturalpractices and knowledge with each other.
Mesoamericans continually influenced each other, evenwhen their interaction wasn't always peaceful. The writing andepigraphy used to create the famous 'Maya Calender' weren't even ofMaya origination. They had assimilated it into their own culturefrom neighboring cultures in their region.
The writing used in the region had come from previouscultures and evolved over time within each different Mesoamericanculture. Script and usage becoming slightly altered or modified aseach unique scribe used it in relation to their own culture.
The Maya people were not necessarily known as beinggreat inventors themselves, but were instead great innovators thatabsorbed others advancements and continued to develop upon themwithin their own culture. The culture of the ancient Maya seemed topromote the application of inventions of the many other nearbycultures in the area and sought ways to improve upon them on theirown.
Like many of the other Mesoamerican cultures, theMaya did not have a separation between religion and government.Church and State were one of the same. They considered the gods tobe the everyday rulers of their daily lives and depended on theirpriests and rulers to ensure that the gods were appeased and didn'tdestroy the earth or extinguish the essential life sustainingSun.
The Maya religion required a highly complicatedmethod of worship that demanded bloodletting and sacrificialrituals that were often fulfilled by the kings and queens. Theseefforts were necessary because it was believed to "feed" the gods.It was the sacred duty and responsibility of the ruler to oftenfeed the gods with their own blood. The believed their rulers hadthe power to pass in and out body to the spirit world and acted asmessengers to the celestial world.[109]
Geographically, the Maya were formed individually asindependent city-states. They used a government structure thatallowed their individual rulers a great deal of individualgovernance within their own municipalities, instead of a strongcentralized governing structure ruled by an emperor or empress.
The Maya civilization wasn't a single unified empire,but were instead a multitude of separate entities that shared acommon cultural background. They shared several similarities withthe Greeks, in that the Maya were religiously and culturally anation, but were politically separate sovereign city-states.

The center of Tikal, one of the most powerfulClassic Period Maya cities.[200]
Maya city centers were the epicenters for trade,religious, and other cultural activities which also included somelocal administration.[201] There were many Maya cultural centerslocated in what's considered "the Maya Area" that spreads across alarge expanse covering a wide range of climate conditions. Theirculture spanned across mountain ranges into semi-arid plains andreached into the thick labyrinths of the rain forests. A diversearea that allowed for a diversity of trade.

Map of the Maya Area in the Yucatánpeninsula.[1]
The period of time before the arrival of ChristopherColumbus and European expansion to the Americas is called the'Pre-Columbian Period.' The Pre-Columbian period of Maya hist