Everything you'd ever want to know about the Maya civilization

The Maya civilization is one of the biggest and most famous of pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. 

For over 3,000 years, the Mayas lived throughout the Maya Region, which consisted of parts of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and all of Guatemala and Belize. 

Though their civilization is long gone, their legacy and descendants live on to this day. 

But who were the Maya? What do we know about them? What language did they use? What about the Maya calendar? Did they use human sacrifice?

Here is everything you need to know.

Who were the Mayans?

The Maya are an ethnolinguistic group of people in Mesoamerica. They lived in the Maya Region and interacted with neighboring civilizations, such as the Aztecs and Olmecs, throughout their long history. 

What are some major Mayan cities?

The Maya never formed a traditional empire like the Incas or Aztecs, or at least not a long-lasting one. Rather, they formed a network of city-state kingdoms with different complex trade networks and diplomatic relationships.

Some major Maya cities include Tikal, Palenque, Calakmul, Chichen Itza, Ki'che', Mayapan, and Nojpeten.

During the 9th century BCE, however, the Maya civilization saw a major societal collapse, which saw many thriving cities in the South of the Maya Region abandoned, such as Tikal, Palenque, and Calakmul. Why this happened is unclear, and the subject remains the focus of intense scholarly debate. However, it was not the end of the Maya civilization, as activity continued in the Yucatan Peninsula area. 

Regardless, different cities waxed and waned in importance throughout Maya history. At one point, it is theorized that Chichen Itza essentially ruled the entire Yucatan Peninsula for at least a century. One of the closest things to a local empire in the Maya Region was the League of Mayapan, a confederation of different Maya peoples from Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Mayapan, and others. However, this eventually fell apart, too.

Maya city-states in the Yucatan Peninsula were further divided into different provinces or sorts known as kuchkabalo'ob (singular: kuchkabal). The exact nature and formation of these governing systems are not yet fully understood.

What language did the Mayans speak?

Scholars believe that thousands of years ago, the Maya people spoke only one language. However, as time went on, multiple languages began to form. 

Different language groups, such as Mamean, Yuvatecan, and Huastecan, formed over time. Those families, too, began to form into more languages, to the point where dozens of different Maya languages were used. A couple were known to have been more dominant throughout the Maya Region, such as Ch'olan, which was used widely and in almost all texts from the Classic Maya era, though whether that meant it was a lingua franca or rather a language for rituals or the upper class remains uncertain.

Regardless, the Maya language group is incredibly large and remains spoken by millions of people.

What was the Mayan writing system like?

The Maya writing system was very sophisticated and complex, one of the most developed in the region. 

The writing system was made up of Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, and out of all Mesoamerican writing systems, it is by far the most deciphered and understood. 

It is made up of a series of logograms, which are written characters or symbols meant to represent meaning rather than an individual letter. This is similar to Chinese writing, and while Europeans had called them hieroglyphics due to their superficial similarities to Egyptian writing, the two are entirely different. 

Coupled with these logograms are syllabic signs, which indicate phonetic pronunciation.

In modern times, most Maya language speakers tend to use the Latin alphabet, but revivalist movements looking to reuse the glyphs do exist. 

How were Mayan societies structured?

Mayan society structure could vary in some respects from city to city, but there were some similar structures. 

At the top was a ruler known as an ajaw, who functioned as the head of state. This position was usually hereditary, and a royal household was usually formed around it. This royal household would then essentially be the center of Mayan societies. 

The nobility and middle class also existed, and their composition was heavily influenced by hereditary occupation. For example, if one's father was a farmer or merchant, one would inherit that position. 

This effectively meant that class mobility was rather difficult for the Maya. 

What were the main religious beliefs of the Mayans?

Maya religion spanned the entirety of the Maya Region. 

The Mayas were polytheistic, with a wide variety of gods. These include the creator god Itzamma, the nature god Yum Kaax, the sun god Kinich Ahau, and many more. 

Other important religious and mythological figures include the jaguar gods, mythical heroes, howler monkey gods, and ancestors used in ancestor worship.

Worship for the Maya took the form of important rituals, pilgrimages, prayer, purification, and sacrifices. These ceremonies were led by the Maya priesthood, though how they functioned in the Classic Maya period is unknown. However, what is certain is that they existed and played roles in religious life. 

A large part of religion revolved around the calendar, which helped dictate religious life. Important festivals were dedicated to different gods and celebrated by certain occupations. 

Religious ceremonies and traditions also surrounded warfare, hunting, and agriculture. 

What is the Popol Vuh?

The Popol Vuh is a Maya religious-historical text about the K'iche people. It tells the Mayan creation myth, the history of the K'iche people, and the most famous Maya myth, that of the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. This is the oldest known Mayan myth to have survived into the modern day. 

How did the Mayans practice astronomy?

Mayan astronomy is less an exact science and more similar to astrology. In other words, it involves attaching religious belief to the movements of stars, the sun, and the moon and to how those movements impact the Earth. 

Mayan astronomy is very extensive, however, and there was a belief in how the stars influenced everything from harvest seasons to one's destiny. Some believe the Maya had their version of a zodiac system. But most of this has been lost to time.

What role did human sacrifice play in Mayan culture?

Many indigenous civilizations in the Americas were known to have practiced human sacrifices. While not as prolific as the Aztecs, who became especially infamous for large-scale human sacrifices, it was still an important part of Maya culture. 

The Maya believed that their gods needed to be nourished through blood offerings. Human sacrifice was part of this and was considered the highest form of blood offering one could give. 

Sometimes, this only took the form of bloodletting, which saw blood cut from people without necessarily killing them, that was then used in rituals. 

Another famous form of human sacrifice was the Sacred Cenote, a naturally occurring sinkhole in Cichen Itza, where people were thrown inside. 

However, the two most famous forms of Maya human sacrifice were decapitation and heart removal. The latter was practiced in the Classic Maya era but became especially widespread later. The former was an important religious ritual and was often how new buildings or ruler regimes were dedicated, with the most famous form being the beheading of an enemy ruler. 

What were the main achievements of the Mayan civilization?

The Mayans were a very sophisticated civilization and ultimately had many great achievements. Some of these are their sophisticated writing and calendar systems, but there are others. For instance, though their astronomy was more akin to astrology, it was still a science with which they made great strides. Using their astronomical knowledge, they were able to create many incredible architectural works. At Chichen Itza, for instance, the pyramid was built to align with the Sun's location during the equinoxes, the shadow of the equinox sunset essentially coloring a carving of a serpent god on the pyramid. 

What makes these architectural achievements even more impressive is that they were done despite the Maya never having had one of the most basic human inventions: the wheel. 

It is true that the Mayas had something like wheels for toys and did use stone rollers, but the wheel as we know it used for the transportation of people and goods was never used by the Mayas or their contemporaries, the Inca and Aztecs. 

Many researchers also believe the Maya invented Rubber, which may have had a wide variety of uses throughout the Maya civilization.

What is the Mayan calendar?

The Maya calendar is far less simple than many realize. 

Like many Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya used a 260-day calendar known for the Maya as the Tzolkin. 

This calendar played extremely important roles in Mesoamerican society, being associated with important rituals and religious cosmology and giving names, among other things.

Historically, it was unclear why the calendar was specifically given 260 days, though theories existed, like how the numbers 13 and 20 were important to the Mayans. Either way, the calendar is also unique because it differs from calendars in antiquity in other parts of the world.

But the Mayans also had another calendar called the Haab, which was a 365-day calendar based on the Sun. It had 18 months and 20 days, with a five-day "nameless day" period at the end. The Haab and Tzolkin were combined to form a system of time called a Calendar Round, which lasts 52 Haab. 

However, the Maya also used another type of calendar called the Long Count. This was important because a Calendar Round takes 52 years, which means more than one Calendar Round could occur in a lifetime. As such, more specification was needed for longer periods. 

The Long Count was meant to signify how much time passed since the beginning of the world. Its importance required using the number zero, one of the earliest times the number zero as a concept was utilized. 

Because of how the Long Count calendar worked and because of something written in the Popol Vuh, there was a misconception that the Maya believed the world would end in the Gregorian calendar year of 2012. However, many scholars criticized this apocalyptic prediction, claiming that the Maya never believed anything of the sort and that this completion of a cycle would be a time of celebration. 

What caused the decline of the Mayan civilization?

As stated previously, the Mayan civilization experienced a period of decline at the end of the Classic Era. However, what caused it is unknown.

However, the ultimate death knell for the Mayan civilization was the arrival of the Spanish Empire. After Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztec capital, the Spaniards quickly spread through the region, conquering the Yucatan Peninsula through military campaigns. 

However, the Maya held out against the Spanish for well over a century. It wasn't until 1697 that Spain conquered the last independent Maya city, Nojpeten. 

Are there any descendants of the Mayans today?

The Maya people are still alive and well today, with a population of over eight million. They mostly live in their historic region, and many of their languages and even some of their religious practices have survived and adapted. 

Most indigenous people of Mayan descent live in Guatemala, making up nearly half of the population. However, they suffered heavily in an alleged genocide that took place during the Guatemalan Civil War from 1960 to 1996. 

In Mexico, the Maya still lived in the Yucatan area and, at one point, even achieved an independent state in Chan Santa Cruz. However, they later lost sovereignty to Mexican forces. 

What are some significant Mayan archaeological sites to visit?

Many former Maya cities are available for the public to visit, having become major tourist attractions. 

Chichen Itza is the most famous and popular, boasting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of visitors yearly. 

Tourists can visit other major sites, including El Pilar, Coba, Tikal, and Uxmal.

How do modern archaeologists study the Mayans?

Archaeologists studying the ancient Mayans often had to resort to much of the same work as other archaeologists—digging and excavation, deciphering writing systems, etc. 

However, in recent years, a new tool has emerged that is revolutionizing the entire field of Maya archaeology. 

This tool is called lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), and it uses lasers to study range by measuring how long it takes for the reflected light to return to the sender. 

The technology involved in lidar has huge potential for various fields and sectors, but it has been most famously used for studying Mayan archaeology. 

For instance, in 2018, researchers using lidar found that the Mayan civilization was not just a few city-states located far from one another amid barely populated areas. Rather, it was an absolutely thriving, interconnected, and complex civilization with millions of people. 

In another use, back in 2009, archaeologists used lidar to survey Caracol, an ancient Maya site in modern-day Belize. What they found was that Caracol was far larger than previously believed -if Caracol were still counted as a city, it would probably be the largest city in Belize, having likely hosted well over 100,000 people in a town around 200 square kilometers in area. 

Even Tikal, one of the most extensively studied Mayan sites, was four times larger than previously believed, with huge never-before-scene defense fortifications and a large pyramid. 

It shows how much more there is to discover about the ancient Maya.