Legacy of the Maya=
Unlike the relatively young cultures of the Aztec of Mexico and the Inca of Peru,
the glory days of Maya civilization were long past when Europeans first landed
in Yucatán. The great city of Chichén Itzá, for example, had been abandoned for
two centuries when the Spanish arrived.
During their “Classic Period,” which lasted from A.D. 300–900, the Maya domi-
nated the lowlands of Mexico and Central America as far south as Honduras. They
devised an extremely accurate
calendar and were the first civ-
ilization to use a form of zero in
mathematics. Maya scribes
used a sophisticated system of
hieroglyphs (pictorial signs
indicating sounds) to write on
paper (made from the bark of
a tree) and to carve records
into stone. Human sacrifices
played a part in their religion,
although it was not as common
among the Maya as the Aztec.Legacy of the Maya
temple-pyramid and fortress
architecture survive today at
such sites as Chichén Itzá
and Uxmal. Unfortunately, the
mass destruction of Maya writ-
ings by Catholic authorities in
1562 destroyed all but a hand-
ful of Maya books, leaving few
firsthand views of their history
and literature. The few surviv-
ing Maya books are today
known as “codices” (singular,
“codex”). After Maya civiliza-
tion declined for unknown rea-
sons in about the year 900,
the Maya population concen-
trated in the Yucatán Penin-
sula, which is where they and
the Spanish first encountered
each other.\
The Maya, a highly developed culture whose
roots extend to 300 A.D., settled primarily in the
area of the present-day Yucatán Peninsula in
Central America and are known for their grand
architecture. One of the sites they settled was
Chichén Itzá, the location of this large, stone
Chacmool statue (so named by a 19th-century
archaeologist). The statue, near the Temple of
the Warriors, reclines and holds a basin on its
lap for offerings.(PhotoDisc)A New World B 51