The Mayan cuisine was very extensive, means they had many varieties in food. Hunting provided the Mayans with most of their food they hunted things such.

The Mayan cuisine was very extensive, means they had many varieties in food. Hunting provided the Mayans with most of their food they hunted things such as dog, turkey, deer, monkey, iguana etc. Their diet focused on four main domesticated crops: Chili peppers, Maize, Squash and beans. They would take the Maize and cut it off the cob, than dry it out. When dried out they soaked it in a lime and water mixture after that they crushed it and flattened it and dried it again to make a pastry like a tortilla. They Mayans believed they were the first to find the Cacao beans. They ground the Cacao beans than mix with chili peppers, cornmeal and honey to create a drink called the Xocoltal. Only the rich and noble drank the Xocoltal. The maize tortillas were filled with smashed beans and meats to make something like a burrito. They also used the Cacao beans for sacrifice to the Gods. Several kinds of beans were grown like pinto, red and black beans.

When the Mayans would exchange food they didn’t have cars to transport the food they would carry it for however many miles they had to walk.

Chillies were one of the main spices, they used it to spice fruit and vegetables like guava, papaya and breadnut.

The Mayans were educated from Priests, Leaders and people with high standings. When Priests taught they mainly taught Religion, history, writing, methods of divining and calendar system. The priests were well liked in the classrooms for known for their extensive knowledge, religious views and literate skills. If they weren't being taught by high leaders and priests they learned in their homes, from stories that got passed down from generation to generation. The higher education people were only really taught in schools. Higher people were taught by Priests, War Leaders, Leaders and chiefs. Lower class people by family, generations, and close relatives. After that the lower people got angry that they couldn’t learn in school, so they created their own education system for people like them.

The Mayans were known for their clothing, it was usually woven by the woman. The woman would always wear the huipil, it’s a decorative blouse that was made of a lightweight cotton. Men in the group would wear the breech cloth that was worn across the waist and was also made of cotton. The traditional wear was not complete without jewelry. They would wear decorative jewels and jewelry on body parts like eyes, ears, nose, neck and legs. The Mayans believed that their clothing was spiritual and a type of sacred meaning. Motifs were used to design traditional Mayan clothing and are still used to this day. Each symbol on their clothing has a spiritual meaning to the community. For example the diamond was represented as the sun. Stripes and waves re common things on the Mayan clothing. Some other examples of the symbols are toads, scorpion and the vulture.

They didn’t use horse and carriages in their military. Their main kinds of weapons were spears. But they also used weapons like atlatl and spear. Most of their war fare or weapon was made out of obsidian and chert. Obsidian was sharper than chert but more brittle than chert. They would take the Obsidian or the chert and attack and stab them. Even though spears were the most common, bow and arrow was used often too. A lot of their actual fighting was used by close range to the other person, they would stab, thrust ad crush as the Mayans put it.

The disappearance of the Mayans civilization is said that warfare had an impact on their leaving.

Warfare played a major roll in the Mayan life.

The Mayans had big feasts were they talked about their religion, they did this often. The Religion that the Mayans studied was the Roman Catholics. They built huge temples for worship and sacrifice. Not everyone followed the Mayan religion, the main people who did were the Priest and Peasants who worked a lot. The Mayans believed in sacrifice so for sacrifice the one person would hold him down and the other would cut out his heart and offer it to the Gods. They also believed in animal sacrifice they would cut animals and people for their blood, they believed their blood strengthened the Gods. They would put the bloodin a bowl to nourish the Gods. Just like the Aztecs and Inca the Mayans believed in nature in time. The Mayans believed that their were three cosmos: The Earth, The heavens above and the underworld.

When someone in the family died they would bury them underneath their houses. The wealthy people were put in tombs and accompanied by some of their belongings such as jewelry, pottery and food. Human sacrifices to the Gods- one way of doing this was by ripping out the person heart and leave them there as an offering to the God, or they would throw them off the pyramids. They had human sacrifices because they believed the Gods need human blood to grow stronger. Self torture was common among the people. Traditional dances were used at sacrifices. Music, dancing and religion was one of the main Things they would do at a sacrifice or a party.

For a long time they had traditions of always using natural things like blankets, cacao beans, food, medicine and clothing.

The Mayans are said to be the first people to have created a professional sport. The first organized game they played was the Pok-a-tok they used a rubber ball that was light weight than would be thrown high into the air to go into a net they wore protective wear to make sure they would get no injuries. They would use a big field for their sports and were used for these sports only. They used balls very commonly for their games. All kinds of games they played, not only just sports but different kind of board games as well. They played games on boards and with dice. Their famous game pok-a-tok was football, soccer and basketball all rolled into one to create a game.

If you lost you would be killed and they would take you skull and put it up as reminders of the losers.

The balls were about the size of watermelons and went up to 9 pounds!

A lot of their entertainment was done threw dance. Studies have showed that the Mayans had over 1,000 dances! Music was a big part of their culture, they had a large variety of musical instruments. Board games was another, the main board game they played is called Patolli and was a race around some board it involved a lot of gambling! Another game they played was Totoloque where they had gold chips that they would toss up in five tries or less trying to land onto a gold plate. Music, dance, religion was all a big part of festivals, events, sacrifices and rituals which they also used as some kind of entertainment. Somewhat like now a days they would make costumes for particular dances for particular events. For ten centuries the Ancient Mayans celebrated a spring Equinox festival, when the Sun set at night the shadow off of the great Ceremonial Pyramid made a snake like shape they called this the return of the sun.

Music and dances at festivals were supposed to have some sacred and spiritual meaning to them.

They relied on rain water because water in the ground was 500 feet underneath them, they didn’t have the technology to dig it up so they were forced to use rain water.

It is also said they agriculture was their number one way of providing food.

Tests done on lakes say some of the things that they would farm was corn, manioc, sunflower seeds and cotton.

Maya people still practice some of their agriculture ways.

They had many problems with agriculture like if it dried

out cause it hadn't rained lately or changes in

economic system, climate change and changing populations. The Mayans agriculture was the foundation of their civilization. The Mayas took a different approach to farming the water treatment, reports say that starving was their biggest concern.

A lot of Maya music has been found threw archaeological discoveries.

Music was a key role in the Mayans daily life and it played a huge role in the society.

It’s believed that music was performed at important functions, thing like funeral they would have a flute and drum players follow the casket this was only used for funerals of important woman.

They were several different classes of the instruments, the main ones were percussion.

Percussion really only had the two main thing drums and maracas. Always made of wood and sometimes tortoise shell.

Lots of the people loved music, archaeologist found things like drums, flutes and maracas in a lot of the households of lower class people.

Most flutes of that time were made of bone, wood or reed material.

All the instruments were crafted by hand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxNn4T2OwPs

The Mayans had a very simple number system, instead of ten numbers they used three out of the three their was a oval, dot, and a horizontal line.

The dot represented a 1, the horizontal line represented 5, and the oval represented 0.

The Mayans pyramids were the most impressive in the world.

Before the invention of metal and electrical the things the Mayans did by hand was amazing.

The Mayan pyramids were all diverse they were not like any other Pyramids other that the Pyramid of Prophets the Mayan pyramids did not have round edges.

The Mayan pyramids had much more function to them than the Rom and Aztecs pyramids.

The Mayas also had lots of influence from the Aztecs and Olmecs.

The Aztecs and Olmecs were to civilizations that they had a lot of comparisons with.

The Mayan language was very big it consisted of thousands of different languages. Some of the main ones are Xinca and Lanca.

They Mayan languages were easier to learn and say than any other ancient civilization language.

They used symbols for a lot of their writing and grammar.

AT most archaeological sites there are carvings into stones, tombs and mountains with their symbols. They are still trying to figure out what they say.

Most Mayan languages were descended threw the Proto-Mayan languages it was spoken over 5000 years ago.

Threw every generation the language was being reconstructed and it had many forms of writing and speaking.

The Mayan language is spoken to around six million Mayans in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras.

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reference.com

google.ca

authenticmaya.com

Clearleadinc.com

religionfacts.com

ancientstandards.com

artictesbase.com

Ancient Mayans God Chac.

Where did the Mayans live?

The Ancient Mayans lived in Central America where now is Guatemala, Yucatan, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Southern Mexico the entire area is South of the Tropic of Cancer. And North of the equator. Where the Mayans lived their were many volcanoes, mountains, rain forests, highlands and lowlands. The Mayan population was said to be around 8 to 10 million! Half the population of Guatemala was Mayans!

When did the Mayans live?

The Mayas were living in the classic period from 300 to 900 AD but the classic period to the modern period has changed little. The only difference from the classic period and the modern period is that in the classic period was more Religious and into making sure all customs, traditions were followed. In the modern period that wasn’t as important.

What did the Mayans affect society today?

The Mayans made many contributions to society today, such as the writing system they created. They made parchment paper from cactus to write on. They made artistic sculptures they would of lasted except for the Spanish destroyed them. They made a huge contribution to mathematics with their system of 5 numbering system. The food they found such as the cacao bean, medicine and the calendar!

What did the Mayans contribute?

They contributed a lot to science about their theories on the cosmos stars and galaxies. They also contributed everything about their calendar, medicine and math. Their math gave us a little more understanding on the way thing worked back then. The medicine that the Mayans used has helped us develop medicines of our own.