The Ancient Mayans

Neck:

Mayan city states like Tikal, Uaxactűn, and Calakmul were made up of suburbs which surrounded the main city.⁶ There were about 40 Mayan cities with populations that varied from 5,000 to 50,000 people per city, each with their own government.⁷ Cities were ruled by a divine ruler who was believed to be part god-part human.⁸

Head:

K’inich Yax K’uk Mo’ ruled the city of Copan from 426 CE to 437 CE.¹ K’uk Mo’ was one of the founders of Copan and is Credited with bring much wealth to Copan.² Lady Ol Nal was another prominent leader of the Mayans. She ruled over the city of Palenque from 583 CE to 605 CE.³ She is one of the most well documented women rulers in history and stands out among the rest of the world at the time.⁴ Along with her own legacy, she is also the great grandmother of Pakal the Great who was one of, if not the most famous rulers in Mayan history.⁵

Pen:

Most ancient Mayan texts were destroyed after the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, who believed that the writings represent superstition and the lies of the devil.¹⁷

Remaining Pre-colonial textual production primarily recorded the movement of the moon, stars and planets, or important dates connected to natural phenomena, for instance solar eclipses.¹⁸

Arms:

During the classic period (200-900 CE) weapons were limited to obsidian spears, wood clubs, and shields.⁹ Raids and battles done by city-states were led by their respective king.¹⁰ There was a lot of inter-state conflict, one of the most notable being in 562 CE when the city Calakmul defeated the city Tikal.¹¹

Ribs:

Gender influenced the division of labor: Mayan men tend to work outside of the home, as wage labor or in cornfields, while women tend to work within the household, in craft production, child-rearing, or housekeeping.²⁶ Mayan texts emphasize the role of both genders.²⁷

Heart:

Religious​ ​Beliefs

Polytheistic and animistic.

Notably, religion was a significant part of everyday life rather than a special event, “planting corn or building a house is as much of a ritual as the burial of the dead.”²⁸

Hands:

The Mayans built structures to control water flows and make land easier to farm,¹² ¹³ along with building structures for religious purposes like step pyramids.¹⁴ They combined art in their architecture, carving murals on their structures,¹⁵ and scientifically focused on astronomy, creating calendars based off of the stars.¹⁶

Legs:

The Mayans were an agrarian society,²⁹ with 90% of Mayans working as farmers or laborers.³⁰ Peasants were used to farm and clear the land,³¹ while sometimes being employed in the lower levels of bureaucracy.³² The middle class was made of civil servants, merchants, craftsmen, and artists,³³ while priests and rulers were upper class.³⁴

Spine:

The Mayans were not centralized, instead composed of many small class-based kingdoms and city-states where elders and priests held power.¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ Leaders had the role of running public rituals to worship gods,²² and projected power through the grandeur of their cities, with conquered cities not being annexed but run by magistrates known as batabs who collected taxes.²³ The scattered populations made it hard for governments to be oppressive,²⁴ and the Mayans were only unified through their collective culture, beliefs, and language.²⁵

The Ancient Mayans

Feet:

Trade routes helped to unify the Mayans, along with the transport of goods.³⁵ A good commonly traded was obsidian, which was valued for both practical and ritual purposes.³⁶ These trade routes relied on the water, as it was more economical and allowed for longer journeys.³⁷