Mabel

Religion

The Maya believed in recurring cycles of creation and destruction. The Mayans thought that the earth was flat and had four corners. Some Mayans believed that the sky was multi-layered and was supported at the corners by four, extremely powerful, Gods who were called "Bacabs". Others believed that the corners were held up by four trees of different color and species, and a single silk/cotton tree at the center. Heaven was also believed to have layers. Thirteen of them, and each layer had it's own God. Not very much is known about the Mayan pantheon. There are AT LEAST about 166 named Gods. Some Gods had more than one gender. Others could be both young and old, every God representing a heavenly body had a different face in the Underworld. The God's new face appeared in the evening when the God "died". "The Underworld was a cold,unhappy place and was believed to be the final destination of most Mayans after death". Mayan nobles were believed to be half God and half man.

Religion

Food/Crops

The main crop that the Mayans grew was corn. However, they also grew beans, squash and fruit trees. Red and black beans were a main part in a Mayan diet.

Food/Crops

The ball game

The Mayas had a ballgame similar to the Incas and Aztecs. The Mayan ball game was called Pitz(or Pok-A-Tok) and was part of Mayan social, religious, and political life. The ball itself could range in size from a softball to a soccer ball. The goal was to hit the ball into stone hoops in the wall without the use of their hands.

Sports

Daily life

Daily Life

Mayan commoners were at the lowest part of the social pyramid. At the top were the kings and nobles. Daily life depended on social class. Most nobles were elite warriors, priests, scribes, or government officials. In the middle were the artisans, weavers, potters, and warriors. Mayan commoners, called Memba Uinicoob, worked as porters, limestone quarries, or servants to the noble class, but most were farmers. Mayan culture depended on agriculture for food and trade, most Mayans were farmers during the growing season. Women worked daily in their homes, cooking,grinding corn, raising the children, gardening,checking beehives, and weaving cloth for their clothes or to sell. Men and boys went off to tend fields called Milpas, where corn, beans, or squash grew together. There were no draft animals, like horses,so manpower did all the work. The Mayans had no metal but used obsidian and flint to perform daily tasks. The Mayan commoner families all slept together in a one-room house, in the morning,they ate a type of porridge called Saka that was made with cornmeal mixed with maize/corn and flavored with either chilies or honey. Maya men and boys wore simple loin-cloths and added a cape if it was cold and women and girls wore blouses and long skirts. Maya noble families lived in larger, stone houses at the center of a Maya city. Both noble women and men wore fancy clothes and elaborate jewelry. Noble Maya families pretty much ate the same thing as the commoner families but they ate more meat. Maya nobles drank chocolate and an alcoholic beverage they called Blache.

Archaeological Sites

Many of the ancient Mayan temples and buildings are still standing today. Two of these temples are, Chichen Itza and Tulum. Chichen Itza is a Mayan temple built in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. It thrived from about 600 AD to about 1221, when the power of the region shifted to Mayapan(Mayan city at the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula). The temple has a total of 365 steps!One for each day of the year.Each of the temples sides have 91 steps.The top platform makes the 365th. Tulum is an ancient Mayan city that stands about 130 km south of Cancun. Tulum was built late in the 13th century as a seaport, trading mainly turquoise and jade.

Archaeological sites

Human sacrifice

The ancient Mayans performed human sacrifices to please/nourish the gods. Usually, only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed. Lower status captives were used as labor force. There were several different methods of sacrifice that the Mayans used. Decapitation and heart removal being the most common. Most of the sacrifices happened after the victim was tortured(beaten, scalped, burned, etc). If heart removal was the method they decided on, it took place in the courtyard or on the summit of a high pyramid/temple. The person being sacrificed was painted blue and wore a headdress while being held down by four attendants representing the cardinal directions(north,east,south,west). The official(or Nacom)used a sacrificial knife to slice the persons chest to pull out the heart. Then, the Nacom would pass the heart to the priest(or Chilan) and he would smear the blood of the heart onto an image of the God they were worshiping. After the blood was smeared, the body was tossed down to the bottom of the temple or the courtyard where an assistant priest would skin it, leaving only the hands and feet. Then they would give it the the Chilan to wear for the dance of rebirth.

Human Sacrifice