Why are the Mayans considered an advanced civilization?

 One of the areas in which the Mayan civilization was more advanced than other societies at
the time was astronomy. Using their limestones and mortar, the Mayan constructed their
magnificent empires; corbelled arch, roads and bridges, causeway, massive temples with
staircase for worship, entire cities with huge pyramids were constructed of stones, for
example, CHICHEN ITZA and TIKAL. Large public buildings made of limestone and mortar,
stone stelae with their history depicted on them, they were skilled in mathematics, they
practiced a form of writing known as hieroglyphics, and also made books from tree barks
The Maya kept careful records of celestial phenomena, such as eclipses, and used that to
create their calendar that was very similar to ours with 365 days in a year and leap as well,
and was based on the day into night. The Maya, as far as it's known, didn't know that the
Earth revolved around the Sun, but rather than the other way around, this information aided
in predicting eclipses, in which had some religious significance and help creating the
calendar that kept accurate time which aided thousands of years into the future, when the
Mayan civilization itself was no longer here. The Mayan also practiced astrology and
observed the stars and planets and use these to determine the right time to plant, reap and
even marry. How they were so advanced, they had three farming techniques to include the
slash-and-burn (Mila or Swidden agriculture) method. Mayans form of currency was Cocoa
beans. They used irrigation methods, dams, and wells to ensure water supply, they also
practice surplus farming and used simple effective tools. The Maya, as far as it's known,
didn't know that the Earth revolved around the Sun, but rather than the other way around,
this information aided in predicting eclipses, in which had some religious significance and
help creating the calendar that kept accurate time which aided thousands of years into the
future, when the Mayan civilization itself was no longer here.

What role did religion played in the life of the Mayans?

Religion played a great role in the life of the because, that was the centre of a Mayan culture

and life and, like much of what we know about the Maya, it is complex, often confusing, and filled

with mystery. Spirits were very important to the maya, because they believed in too many

gods which was both major and minor, the Mayans social system, agriculture, calendar,
recreational activities and ceremonial rituals were all linked to their religion. The Mayans rulers were

supposedly related to them and acted as intermediaries between the gods and humans. Priests within

the Mayan society performed prophecy which is the predicting of their future. The Mayan
had five (7) important gods which were, (1) Itzamná; was one of the most important gods for the
Maya: he was the creator, and ruler of day and night. Believed to be largely kind and protective

towards humans, he was the one who taught men to grow maize and how to use calendars, as well as

being a god of medicine. His general benevolence and wisdom meant he was often portrayed as an

old man with a toothless smile. Other popular representations often involve Itzamná as a bird deity.

Some Maya kings were perceived to be able to represent the gods, including Itzamná: records of these
kings have been found at Palenque, Yaxchilan and Dos Pilas, amongst other sites. (2) Chaac; was the

rain god: he was particularly popular in the Yucatan region of Mexico, and his image can be found all

over major Mayan sites such as Chichen Itza. Chaac is normally portrayed with a lightning axe, which

he used to strike the sky and bring rain: kings were known to impersonate the rain deity in war to

channel his wrath and fury. He was normally also portrayed with reptilian scales, fangs, and a long

bulbous nose. (3) The Kukulkan were Known as the feathered serpent, Kukulkan was one of the most

widespread Maya gods, worshipped from the highlands of Guatemala to the Yucatan peninsula in

Mexico. The Aztecs also had an equivalent god: Quetzalcoatl.

Exactly what Kukulkan was associated with remains vague despite his importance: some believe his

wings (feathers) gave him the power of flight, meaning he was associated with the sky. Other stories

give Kukulkan the power to cause earthquakes, whilst some claim he was the god who gave humans

laws and the ability to write. Temples to the Kukulkan have been found at Maya sites across the

Yucatan peninsula, and he can often be found decorating buildings and temples across what would

have been Maya civilization. As with many Maya deities, he was often portrayed as four gods rather

than one, each associated with a different point of the compass. According to folklore, one of the

kings of Chichen Itza was known as Chac Xib Chaac (Chaac of the east). In late Maya tradition,

Chaac was associated with human sacrifice, and priests who enacted this were known as chacs. (4)

Often misattributed as the god of maize, Yum Kaax was the god of wild vegetation and animals – as a

result, he was popular with hunters and could make a hunt successful by guiding arrows. Farmers

would also often present him with the first of their harvest’s yams because Kaax was most important

in Pre-Columbian times, before Spanish contact, but Maya hunters today still routinely ask for

permission from Yum Kaax before they venture into the jungle. (5) Ixchel; was a jaguar goddess,

predominantly associated with medicine and midwifery. She was said to have two forms – young

woman and old crone and lived in cenotes (water holes). By the 16th century, the sanctuary of Ix Chel

(on the modern-day island of Cozumel) had become an important place of pilgrimage for women

hoping for a fruitful marriage. The conquistador Cortes wrote of another sanctuary close by where

unmarried young women were given as sacrifices to Ix Chel. (6) Cizin; (meaning ‘stinking one’ in

Mayan) was a god of earthquakes, and the ruler of the underworld: his most recognisable feature was

his ‘death collar’, which featured disembodied eyes dangling by their nerve cords, although he was

also portrayed as a skeleton with a smoking cigarette from time to time. Unsurprisingly, Cizin was
often pictured alongside the god of war. When the Spanish arrived and embarked on their extensive

evangelization attempts, they conflated Cizin and Satan to make the Christian idea of the devil more

comprehensible. (7) Hunab Ku is a complex god: it’s believed to be a colonial amalgamation of

various gods into something that resembled the Christian God, and it seems that the Spanish

attempted to closely associate Hunab Ku with Itzamná to make the idea more coherent. It is unclear

from Maya texts as to whether there was anything like Hunab Ku in the Pre-Columbian pantheon as

the Maya were a polytheistic people and Hunab Ku’s presence doesn’t seem to fit as well. Hunab Ku

was far from the only god the Spanish ‘created’ or adapted to better suit Christianity: Maximon was

another Spanish-Maya hybrid god, better known for being a trickster and often portrayed as a chain-

smoking skeleton. The Mayan priests practiced divination that predicted the future. The chief priest

who is known as the ahaucan, was also an advisor to the ahaw and they predicted which days would

be sacred, for worship and festivals. The chilane, who was blessed with visionary power, and the

nacom, who performed human sacrifice, were lesser priest. They were also religious activities which

included dances and games, Example; Pok-a-tok ball game, whereby the winner were heroes and the

losers were sacrificed.

What was the reason for the decline of the Mayans society?

The reason for the decline of the Mayan society, is that they started to experience drought,
deforestation, and environmental disaster. That led people to abandon their cities which become
overgrown. It is likely that a complex combination of factors was behind the collapse.
What is certain is that the Mayans didn’t disappear in the aftermath of the collapse.
Instead, cities in the northern lowland’s region, such as Chichen Itza and later Mayapan
were both located in present-day Yucatan, Mexico, rose to prominence. The Maya also
established cities in the highland’s region, such as Q’umarkaj in present-day Guatemala.
After the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the early 1500s and the last independent
Mayan city, Nojpeten (in present-day Guatemala), fell to Spanish troops in 1697. The
ancient cities were largely forgotten until the 19th century, when their ruins started to be
uncovered by explorers and archaeologists. Today, the Maya continue to reside in their
ancestral homelands in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.

What were their way of life.

The Mayan way of life was typically of two kinds –one was for the Mayan nobility while another was
for the Mayan commoners. Mayan nobility had a rather lavish life and enjoyed many privileges.
Mayan commoners, on the other hand, had a hard life which required diligent work for themselves
and for the society at large. Since agriculture played such a huge role in the Mayan life, considerable
resources were expended by the Mayans in cultivating enough food. Most male commoners were
engaged in agricultural activities. They would level the land, plant the seeds, and harvest the crops.
They would water the fields and ensure that every year, sufficient land was available to cultivate the
Mayan staple crop, maize. Since soil in Mayan regions was not very fertile, Mayans routinely used
techniques such as slash-and-burn to render it suitable for cultivation. This technique involved
burning the vegetation outgrowth on a piece of land and then using the mineral-rich soil of the field
for cultivation. Religion played a central role in the Mayan way of life. It pervaded every part of the
Mayan society. A priestly class was usually the representative of religion in most Mayan cities.
Priests acted as intermediaries between Mayan deities and the humans. They would carry out ritual
human sacrifices and overlook other religious ceremonies. Priests were also tasked with the
development of different Mayan sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, and writing. They
penned down books and educated the children of the Mayan nobility. Mayan nobility was rich,
enjoyed many privileges and usually had many such rights which were forbidden for the Mayan
commoners. The nobility usually occupied positions of civil and military administration. Most
noblemen owned personal slaves and an interesting practice of the Mayan nobility was to have
slaves hold a cloth in front of their face whenever they went into the public arena. Mayan nobility
had lavished, spacious houses made of strong stone constructions, and they expended significant
resources on beautifying their looks and on art objects. They wore colorful clothes and huge
headdresses, while both items were forbidden for the commoners. Mayan warriors enjoyed an
honorable position in Mayan society. The warriors had a tough life since they had to extensively train
for warfare. They spent most of their early lives training to be formidable fighters. The weapons
used by the Mayan warriors included flint-tipped spears and other weapons made of stone. In some
cases, warriors rose to positions of exceptional prominence, shadowing even the nobility. In general,
the task of the Mayan warriors was to wage war on other cities or peoples, bring captives back to
the city and present the captives as human sacrifices to the gods. Mayan artists and craftsmen were
considered one station above the Mayan commoners. Although of common origin, the artists and
craftsmen were accorded prestige because of the specialty of their skills. Since the nobility were
usually the clients and customers of most art products, the artists were better off than the
commoner class at large. The works of the artists also contributed the export items of a Mayan city
which was also a reason why they were valued. A craftsman or an artist usually worked for a
nobleman who, in turn, provided food, shelter and other necessities for him and his family. Mayan
children, especially those of the commoner class, did not go to any former schools. They were taught
by their parents and were involved in household chores early on. Mayan boys began accompanying
their fathers to farms and hunting as early as the age of six or seven. Girls of the same age began
learning household jobs and assisting their mothers. The children were considered adults by the
time they reached the age of fifteen and a ceremony marked the occasion. A priest overlooked this
ceremony and affirmed that the child had become a responsible citizen. Mayan women did not
enjoy a very prominent social or political roles. They were mostly confined to household
jobs, assisting their husbands in housekeeping. In commoner homes, Mayan women would
also look after the personal garden which accompanied the houses of the commoners. Women
did not inherit any property from their parents. The women of the nobility class enjoyed more
rights. They sometimes overlooked religious rituals and ceremonies. In the Terminal Classic
period, many Mayan women from the nobility class rose to the station of queens, essentially
enjoying supreme power in cities such as Copan.
Mayan commoners lived in huts with thatched roofs and walls made of packed mud. A
typical commoner house was located inside a piece of land. It included the hut, a small
garden, kitchen, storage space and other units of the household. Every such piece of land was
shared by an extended family. A son, upon marriage, constructed his new home right next to
his father's house. So, the members of an extended family shared things such as kitchen,
cooking area and garden. Mayan society, at large, had a utilitarian way of life which required
everyone to do his or her job in the well-being of the family and the society. The commoners
did most of the menial jobs, they had to cultivate and harvest the crops, hunt for meat and
work on public monumental structures. The nobility had a more lavish lifestyle. They were
usually limited to occupying military and civil positions under the ruler. Religion played an
important role in the Mayan society. Priests overlooked religious rituals and ceremonies.
They also developed different sciences and educated the sons of the Mayan noblemen. The
women were mostly confined to household chores while men looked after outdoor jobs.
Children also became an active part of the society early in their age, trained to contribute
productively to their family and society.