Mayan Religion and Decline

1. Mayan Religion and Decline Standard 2.6 E.Q. What caused the decline of the Mayan?

2. Religion Shapes Mayan Life • Mayan believed in many gods. • Included gods of corn, death, rain and of war. • Goods could be good or evil, or both. • Gods were associated with colors and directions, for example.

3. Religious Practices • Prayed and made offerings of food, flowers, and incense. • Pierced and cut their bodies and offered their blood, believing that this would nourish the gods. • Carried out human sacrifice of captured enemies.

4. Math and Religion • Religious beliefs also led to the development of the calendar, mathematics, and astronomy. • Developed a 260 day religious calendar, thirteen 20 day months. • 365 day solar calendar consisted of eighteen 20 day months. • Calendars were used to help identify the best times to plant crops, attack enemies, and crown new rulers.

5. Math and Religion • Mayan based their calendar on careful observation of the planets, sun, and moon. • Skilled astronomers and mathematicians calculated the solar year at 365,2420 days, only .0002 of a day short to today. • Used a shell symbol for zero, dots for the number one to four, and a bar for five. • Mayan number system was a base 20 system.

6. Written Language Preserves History • Most advanced writing system in the ancient Americas. • Consisted of 800 hieroglyphics symbols, or glyphs. • Used their writing system to record important historical events, carving their glyphs in stone or recording them in a bark – paper book known as a codex.

7. Mysterious Mayan Decline • Late 800s, the Mayan suddenly abandoned many of their cities. • Invaders from the north, the Toltec, moved into the lands occupied by the Mayan. • No one knows exactly why this happen, though experts offer several overlapping theories. • Warfare had broken out among the various Mayan city – states. • Over population growth and over farming damaged the environment. (Food shortages, famine, and disease)