Maya Civilization

Civil Strife Theory:
As the populations in the large cities boomed, great strain was placed on the working class to produce food, build temples, clear rainforest, mine obsidian and jade and do other labor intensive tasks. At the same time, food was becoming more and more scarce. The idea that a hungry, overworked working class might overthrow the ruling elite is not too farfetched, especially if warfare between city-states was as endemic as researchers believe.
These cave sites include Jolja Cave, the cave site at Naj Tunich, the Candelaria Caves, and the Cave of the Witch. There are also caveorigin myths among the Maya. Some cave sites are still used by the modern Maya in the Chiapas highlands.
Theories about the collapse:
The disaster theory: Early Maya researchers believed that some catastrophic event may have doomed the Maya. An earthquake, volcanic eruption or sudden epidemic disease could have destroyed cities and killed or displaced tens of thousands of people, bringing the Maya civilization crashing down..
For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas the Maya numbered 200 to 400 people per square mile. But suddenly, all was quiet. And the profound silence testified to one of the greatest demographic disasters in human prehistory -- the demise of the once vibrant Maya society.
Maya Civilization
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The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatá around 2600 n B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras.
• The Maya wrote using 800 individual signs or glyphs, paired in columns that read together from left to right and top to bottom. Maya glyphs represented words or syllables that could be combined to form any word or concept in the Mayan language, including numbers, time periods, royal names, titles, dynastic events, and the names of gods, scribes, sculptors, objects, buildings, places, and food. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were either carved in stone and wood on Maya monuments and architecture, or painted on paper, plaster walls and pottery
Mathematics
• In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20(vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system.Also, the preclassic Maya and their neighbors had independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC.
Writing and Hieroglyphics
The Maya writing system is considered by archaeologists to be the most sophisticated system ever developed in Mesoamerica. architecture, or painted on paper, plaster walls and pottery.
The Maya performed important rituals in many caves and left behind large numbers of artifacts, but there are very few caves that contain murals or hieroglyphic writing on their walls.
The warfare theory :
The Maya were once thought to have been a peaceful, pacific culture. This image has been shattered by the historical record: new discoveries and newly deciphered stonecarvings clearly indicate that the Maya warred frequently and viciously among themselves. War brings with it economic disaster as well as collateral damage that could have caused a domino effect in the Maya cities.
So…What Leabharlann Baiduappened to the Ancient Maya?
Experts in the field simply do not have enough solid information to state with clear-cut certainty how the Maya civilization ended. The downfall of the ancient Maya was likely caused by some combination of the factors above. The question seems to be which factors were most important and if they were linked somehow. For example, did a famine lead to starvation, which in turn led to civil strife and warring upon neighbors?
Architecture
• Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classicperiod and beyond. There are also cave sites that are important to the Maya.
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