The architecture and art of the Maya civilization were influenced by many external cultural and trade exchanges. These influences were found in the conquests, both direct and indirect, that resulted in the thoughts and ideas of the Maya. While the core area of the Maya civilization extended for more than 1000 km, influences from outside can be detected in places as far as central Mexico and El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. However, it is important to note that the Maya did not originate the calendar and writing advancements that are associated with their civilization. These advancements were brought to the Maya through interactions with other Mesoamerican civilizations, which is why the Maya civilization shares many features with other civilizations in the region. The Maya civilization is known for its fully developed astronomical and mathematical systems, as well as its unique architecture and art. It is considered a Mesoamerican civilization, and its written language is only fully known in the pre-Columbian Americas.
Geography
The Maya culture spread across the southern Mexican states, Guatemala, Belize, Northern El Salvador, and western Honduras.
The rest of the Yucatán Peninsula encompasses the northern flatlands. Belize and El Salvador, the northern part of Guatemala, and the Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo comprise the southern flatlands. The uplands are situated immediately north of the southern flatlands, and encompass all of the elevated land in Guatemala. The central flatlands and the northern flatlands are the broadly defined regions that make up the different areas of the Maya civilization.
Culture
Religion
The priest of the Maya had the job of interpreting and giving an outlook on the past or future based on the number of relations in their calendars. They closely associated the ceremonies and rituals with the terrestrial and celestial cycles which were inscribed and observed as separate calendars. The Maya believed in the cyclical nature of time. Similar to the Inca and Aztec, who came later, they also believed in the power of cyclical time.
The skies above, the netherworld below, and the Earth consisted of three significant realms, as per the Maya’s faith. Scholars still lack complete comprehension of many aspects of the Maya’s religious customs. Visual representations, such as ancient artifacts, portray the ritualistic act of extracting the heart as an offering, performed by a priest who incises the individual’s chest, while their limbs are restrained. The Maya engaged in the practice of human sacrifice during certain ceremonies.
In their art, the Maya’s concept of an ideal body is also influenced by the appearance of this youthful deity, as shown. The belief in the Maya god of maize, which is illustrated by this philosophy, is a central religious figure. Maya belief is closely tied to the life cycle of maize. “Positive” qualities are not the only permanent characteristics of Maya gods, as both good and evil traits exist. While some of these traits reoccur regularly, the Maya religious tradition encompasses a wide variety of supernatural beings.
Architecture
Some cave sites in the modern Maya Highlands of Chiapas are still used. Among the Maya, there are also myths about the origin of caves. Additionally, there are cave sites that are important to the Maya. While the stepped pyramids are the most easily recognizable and often dramatic structures of the Maya, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years.
The Maya cities were built somewhat haphazardly and incorporated natural features to a great extent. Some cities were built on hills, using the natural elevation to raise impressive temples and towers, while others grew into sprawling municipalities on the flat limestone plains of Mexico. The architecture of each city was dictated by the independent topography of its location, resulting in a haphazard yet impressive integration of natural features.
Art
The Maya civilization was one of the few ancient civilizations that had artists attached to their work. Recently, the translation of the Maya script has revealed the discovery of great iconographic and artistic perfection. The lost technique of Late Pre-classic murals has been discovered, which survived through the centuries due to the unique chemical characteristics of its beautiful turquoise blue color, known as Blue Maya. What has survived mostly are the murals at the ancient building of Bonampak and other Maya ceramics and pottery funerary. We only have hints of the advanced painting of the Maya classic. Maya art has been considered one of the most beautiful and sophisticated in the ancient world.
Writing and Literacy
The Maya writing system, often referred to as hieroglyphs, is the only known writing system of the New World Pre-Columbian era, representing the spoken language of its community. It contains over 500 glyphs, with many localities having unique and rarely seen glyphs. Although superficially resembling the Ancient Egyptian writing system, the Maya writing system has distinct differences and a larger number of glyphs.
Unfortunately, the Spanish conquistadors displayed little interest in the knowledge that the Maya societies had on the dire affects of conquest. Consequently, the ability to write and read the script still persisted among individuals who knew it, but declined in many Maya centers after or during the decline. Although the knowledge and skill of writing in Maya script persisted among segments of the population, many Maya centers went into decline during the Classical Maya period, which coincided with the arrival of Europeans who had little use for Maya script.
Mathematics
Politics
Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in power, most regional kingdoms in the 9th century CE never completely disappeared from the political landscape. It is worth noting that each kingdom was associated with a particular ruling dynasty, but the name of the kingdom did not necessarily correspond to any specific locality within its territory. While there were larger kingdoms that controlled extended territories and smaller polities that extended their patronage over smaller towns and neighborhoods, the capital city of these kingdoms was usually not larger than its surrounding cities. Overall, the Maya Classic polity was characterized by a small hierarchical state headed by a hereditary ruler.
Mayanists have accepted the approach that focuses on the monumental spaces of the Maya, considering them as embodiments of the diverse activities of the royal household. This approach particularly emphasizes the centrality of the king and the royal household, and considers the role of spaces and places in defining moral and aesthetic values, as well as establishing social hierarchy and power in society.
Agriculture
In Mesoamerica, the clearance of trees was linked to the cultivation of maize, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops, as indicated by pollen records in lake sediments. Aerial photographs reveal elevated fields connected by canals, offering proof of these various farming systems that continue to exist today. In certain regions, it is now believed that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting played a vital role in sustaining the large populations of the Classic period, in contrast to the previous notion that a temporary agricultural system supplied most of their sustenance. The ancient Maya employed a wide range of advanced techniques for food production.
The traditional forms of agriculture are still practiced by contemporary Maya peoples, who are facing changing pressures from population change, economic systems, cultural change, climate change, and the availability of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
The Maya Collapse
There is no universally accepted theory to explain this collapse. The decline of the Maya’s southern lowland centers went into a period of decline during the 9th and 8th centuries, characterized by the abandonment of large-scale architectural construction and monumental inscriptions.
Evidence suggests that the Maya population exceeded the environmental capacity due to the overhunting and potential exhaustion of large animals, as well as the impact of climate change and disease epidemics. Non-ecological theories categorize the decline of the Maya into several categories, including the collapse of key trade routes, peasant revolts, foreign invasions, and overpopulation.
Legacy
Today, numerous Mayan languages persist as main languages. The consequence of the fusion of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest concepts and cultures is the unique collection of customs and convictions that the Maya and their offspring uphold across the Maya region. Neither upon the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas, nor during the decline of the Classic period, did the Maya people ever vanish.