Maya Civilization Quiz

Maya Civilization

• The Maya were the first to build large cities in present-day Guatemala around 300 B.C.
• The Maya Golden Age, or the Classic Period, began around 250 A.D., with city-states flourishing from the Yucatán Peninsula to Central America.
• Before developing large population centers, the Maya lived dispersed across the land.
• The Maya innovated farming techniques to thrive in tropical environments.
• To cultivate land, the Maya cleared forests.
• They built raised fields along riverbanks to elevate crops above annual floodwaters and ensure sufficient food production for rapidly growing cities.
• Maya cities, though thriving, never formed a single empire.
• Numerous city-states existed, with Tikal and Calakmul being the most powerful.
• Inter-city state conflicts and warfare were prevalent.
• Regular trade between city-states created substantial wealth.
• Traded goods included daily necessities like honey, salt, and cotton, and luxury items like feathers, precious stones, and jaguar hides.
• The Maya featured a distinct social hierarchy.
• Each city was governed by a ruler, typically male.
• Women occasionally governed independently or as representatives of their young sons.
• The nobility managed various functions, including military leadership, public works, tax collection, and law enforcement.
• Scribes, painters, and sculptors held high esteem.
• Merchants formed a middle class, with the wealthiest becoming part of the nobility.
• Farmers constituted the majority of Maya society, cultivating maize, beans, squash, fruit trees, cotton, and flowers.
• Slavery existed in certain cities, typically involving prisoners of war.
• The Maya civilization made significant advancements in learning and the arts.
• They developed a complex polytheistic religion.
• Mayan cities are renowned for their towering stone temples and palaces.
• Temples often rested on pyramid-shaped platforms and served as places for priests to perform rituals and sacrifices.
• Some temples also functioned as burial sites for rulers, nobles, and priests.
• The Maya devised a hieroglyphic writing system that remained undeciphered by scholars until recent decades.
• Mayan priests became experts in mathematics and astronomy to precisely measure time for ceremonies.
• They created a solar calendar with 365 days and a number system incorporating the concept of zero.
• Around 900 A.D., Maya city building ceased, marking the beginning of their civilization's decline.
• The reasons for this decline are debated, with potential explanations including overpopulation, disease, drought, or peasant revolts against the priesthood and nobility.
• By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, most Maya inhabited farming villages.