Lesson 2: The Mayas (The Early Americas)
🌿 The Mayas (The Early Americas)
The Maya were one of the most important civilizations in the Americas. They lived in Mesoamerica, mostly in today’s Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.
🏞️ Geography Affects Early Mayas
The Maya lived in rainforests, mountains, and flat lowlands. The land was rich in obsidian—a shiny black rock used for tools and weapons.
Because the soil was not always good for farming, the Maya used smart farming ideas like terraces (steps on hills) and slash-and-burn farming.
📖 Story: A Maya farmer walks through the jungle at sunrise. He carries a tool made of obsidian. His job is to cut down old crops, burn the land, and plant new maize (corn).
🏛️ The Maya Classic Age (250–900 CE)
During the Classic Age, the Maya built big cities with pyramids, palaces, and plazas.
Cities like Tikal, Copán, and Palenque became powerful. Maya cities did not form one empire but were like city-states, each with its own king.
The Maya traded with other groups. They traded jade, salt, obsidian, feathers, and cacao beans (used to make chocolate!).
📖 Story: A Maya trader leads his llama down a jungle path. He carries baskets filled with cacao beans. At the market, people trade jade necklaces and colorful feathers for the tasty beans.
👑 Roles in Maya Society
Maya society had different groups:
Upper Class: Kings, nobles, priests, and warriors. They lived in the cities and wore fine clothes and jewelry.
Lower Class: Farmers, builders, and workers. Most Maya were farmers. They worked hard growing maize, beans, and squash.
Each person had an important job. The king was also a religious leader.
📖 Story: A young boy watches the king walk by in golden clothes. His father whispers, “The king speaks for the gods.” The boy dreams of being a scribe, learning the Maya writing one day.
⛪ Religious Traditions
The Maya believed in many gods—a sun god, rain god, maize god, and more.
They built pyramid temples to worship and made offerings to the gods. Sometimes, they even did human sacrifice to please the gods.
They studied the stars and made calendars to know the best times for farming and religion.
📖 Story: At night, a Maya priest looks at the stars from the top of a tall pyramid. He writes in a book made of tree bark: “The maize must be planted in three days.”
🧠 Cultural Achievements
The Maya were great thinkers and artists! They created:
Hieroglyphic writing (pictures and symbols)
Beautiful stone carvings and murals
A number system that included zero
Accurate calendars based on the sun and stars
They were also good at astronomy and math.
📖 Story: A Maya girl helps her older brother carve a glyph into stone. “This is the date of the king’s birth,” he says. She smiles. “It will last forever.”
🏚️ The Maya Civilization Declines
Around the year 900, many Maya cities were abandoned. Historians are not sure why. It may have been:
Too much war
Lack of food
Rebellion against kings
Drought (not enough rain)
But not all Maya disappeared! Some people moved to smaller villages, and their descendants still live in Mexico and Central America today.
📖 Story: A village elder tells a story. “Long ago, our people built great cities. We still grow maize like our ancestors. We still speak the old language.”