What do you think this structure or artifact was used for?

What does the design or construction tell you about Maya culture?

  • While classical civilizations were developing in the Mediterranean & Asia

  • Advanced societies were developing in isolation in the Americas

  • During the Ice Age, prehistoric nomads migrated across the land bridge between Asia & America 

  • During the Neolithic Revolution, these nomads settled into farming villages; Some of which became advanced civilizations

Religion: Mayans were polytheistic & offered their blood, food, & sometimes human sacrifices to please the gods  

Government: Mayans were divided into individual city-states ruled by king-gods

Economy: The Mayan economy was based on trade &  farming maize (corn), beans

Mayans were ___________ (polytheistic, monotheistic)

Advanced societies developed in the ______________ (Europe, Mediterranean, Americas)

Technology: Mayans invented a writing based on pictures called glyphs, an accurate 365-day calendar (Haab), & advanced temples

The Maya writing system is primarily composed of:

a) Alphabetical letters

b) Pictographs called glyphs

c) Cuneiform script

d) Linear B script

Which crop was central to the Maya diet and economy?

a) Wheat

b) Corn (maize)

c) Rice

d) Barley

  • Around 800 A.D., the Mayans mysteriously declined perhaps due to warfare among Mayan city-states & over-farming

  • After the decline of the Mayans, the Aztecs were developing in present-day Mexico 

  • Around 1200, Aztecs arrived in Mexico & built their city Tenochtitlan in 1325

The Maya civilization was located in which geographic region?

a) The Andes Mountains

b) The Amazon Rainforest

c) Mesoamerica

d) The Mississippi River Valley

What caused the decline of the Maya civilization?

a) Spanish conquest

b) Multiple factors including environmental degradation, warfare, and political instability

c) A massive volcanic eruption

d) Famine caused by locust plagues

What type of government did the Maya civilization have?

a) Centralized monarchy

b) A network of independent city-states

c) Democracy

d) Tribal confederation

The Maya developed a complex writing system known as cuneiform.

a) True        b) False 

The Maya civilization was ruled by a single king.

a)  True        b)  False