Early Mayan culture showed the influence of the earlier Olmec civilization.ДЄn archaeological excavation in Guatemala providing information about the Maya. Architectural works and stone inscriptions and reliefs are the chief sources of knowledge about the early Maya. The Maya also developed an elaborate and beautiful tradition of sculpture and relief carving. The Maya made paper from the inner bark of wild fig trees and wrote their hieroglyphs on books made from this paper. They also developed a system of hieroglyphic writing and highly sophisticated calendrical and astronomical systems. They practiced mainly slash-and-burn agriculture, but they used advanced techniques of irrigation and terracing. The ancient Maya quarried immense quantities of building stone (usually limestone), which they cut by using harder stones such as chert. ( See also origins of agriculture: Early development: The Americas.) They began to build ceremonial centres, and by 200 ce these had developed into cities containing temples, pyramids, palaces, courts for playing ball, and plazas. They practiced agriculture, built great stone buildings and pyramid temples, worked gold and copper, and used a form of hieroglyphic writing that has now largely been deciphered.ДЄs early as 1500 bce the Maya had settled in villages and had developed an agriculture based on the cultivation of corn (maize), beans, and squash by 600 ce cassava (sweet manioc) was also grown. Before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America, the Maya possessed one of the greatest civilizations of the Western Hemisphere ( see pre-Columbian civilizations: The earliest Maya civilization of the lowlands). In the early 21st century some 30 Mayan languages were spoken by more than five million people, most of whom were bilingual in Spanish. Maya, Mesoamerican Indians occupying a nearly continuous territory in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize. Today most Maya areВ nominal Roman Catholics-though, beginning in the late 20th century, many converted to EvangelicalВ Protestantism. Important gods included ItzamnГЎ, the supreme Mayan deity and original creator god who had several forms the Feathered Serpent, known to the Maya as KukulcГЎnВ (and to the Toltecs and Aztecs asВ QuetzalcГіatl) and Bolon Tzacab, who is thought to have functioned as a god of royal descent. Pre-Columbian Mayan religion was polytheistic. Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia BritannicaвЂ™s archives.Image Information: Depiction of tribute or sacrifice to Maya ruler (Reents-Budet, ceramic vase). This was was also the case for women who married male slaves. If a man married a slave woman, he became a slave of the woman's owner. Slaves were usually sacrificed when their owners died so that they could continue in their service after death. However, unwanted orphan children became slaves and were sometimes sacrificed during religious rituals. Slavery status was not passed on to the children of slaves. Prisoners of war who were not sacrificed would become slaves, and impoverished individuals sometimes sold themselves or family members into slavery. Individuals were enslaved as a form of punishment for certain crimes and for failing to pay back their debts. There was an active slave trade in the Maya region, and commoners and elites were both permitted to own slaves. Serfs typically worked lands that belonged to the ruler or local town leader. The Maya had a system of serfdom and slavery. Commoners generally lived outside the central areas of towns and cities and worked individual and communal plots of land. Regardless, commoners were forbidden from wearing the clothes and symbols of nobility, and could not purchase or use luxury and exotic items.

It is believed that some commoners became quite wealthy through their work as artisans and merchants, and that upward mobility was allowed between classes through service in the military. Nobles were literate and wealthy, and typically lived in the central areas of Maya cities.Д¬ommoners worked as farmers, laborers, and servants. Nobles served as rulers, government officials, tribute collectors, military leaders, high priests, local administrators, cacao plantation managers, and trade expedition leaders. Noble status and the occupation in which a noble served were passed on through elite family lineages. The noble class was complex and specialized. Maya society was rigidly divided between nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves.

Mayan ways of life