Maya Civilization Culture   & Maya Art 

There were many ancient civilizations in this world and they also became extinct with time, but these civilizations left their mark behind for the coming generation. It is one of these civilizations was The Maya civilization, it was a civilization that settled in the American continent. This civilization was very much developed in the field of agricultural knowledge and art from its time. During this civilization, grand cities were built, grand temples were built. This civilization also developed its own 365 day calendar.



This civilization was located in Mexico. The expansion of this civilization was extended to Honduras, Yucata, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador.The people living in this extension of America continent were called Mesoamericans.

Maya Civilization Art & Culture

The time of this civilization is divided into three parts.

The earliest period of the Maya civilization is known as the Archaic Period. The first village was settled in this period from 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE. Temples dedicated to different Gods were built in the village. Comes after the arctic period. The Pre Classic period which comes after the arctic period was the period between 1500 BCE and 200 BCE.



During this time,this civilization developed rapidly. These people started living around the Gulf of Mexico and these people used stone and bricks to build cities. Along with this, wonderful temples and idols of God were also built. The olmec is considered to have laid the strong foundation of the Maya civilization.

Huge artifacts , pyramids ,fort and cities were created during this time period. It is surprising to see them that how did these ordinary humans build this without any modern equipment at that time.These include pyramid-like buildings, large sculptures, big cities and also the art of cutting stones in these cities.

After seeing these huge artifacts and other things, scholars and historians also believe that olmec would be giants. However, there is no specific information available about Olmanc. He also developed the number system and calendar.



Zapotec period 

The zepotec period was from 600 BCE to 800 BCE. During this time Monte Albán city was established as the cultural center of the Maya civilization.It was in the zepotec period that the people of the Maya civilization learned the knowledge of developing hieroglyphs, mathematics, astronomy and calendars.

Between 200 CE and 900 CE, Teotihuacan had grown from a small village to a large city. The city was the largest religious site of the Maya people. Many magnificent temples were built here and religious ceremonies were also organized in the same way. The city remained the most influential city of the Maya civilization.The period between 250 CE and 900 CE is considered the Golden Period of the Maya civilization. By this time the Maya civilization had spread to 40 major cities and The population of each city ranged from 5 to 50 thousand. During this time their population had reached 20 lakhs. The life of the people of Maya civilization was dependent on agriculture. At the same time, many changes took place in these civilizations and forts, temples, pyramids etc were built here. New and modern methods of farming were adopted.

Maya Civilization Religion

The people of Maya civilization had a lot of religious faith and These people started worshiping the gods of rain and harvest, including the sun and moon gods. It is believed that the people here have developed hieroglyphics, astrology and mathematics at this time.




Like the rest of the world's civilizations, in the Maya civilization the king used to get the highest respect, but there was a special reason for this. The people of Maya civilization considered the king to be associated with the gods and These kings were called k'uhul ajaw ( Holy Lords). Being associated with the gods, the Maya considered the king to be the link between the gods and the human beings. k'uhul ajaw used to complete all the religious ceremonies of this civilization. Their religious belief is seen on Art and Culture.

From the construction of palaces, temples and pyramids, the customs of the Maya people were also based on religion. 2 calendars were developed in the Maya civilization. The first calendar was 365 days in a year, which is also called civil calendar. This calendar had 18 months of 20 days each.








     The Calendar of Maya Civilization

The second calendar was long count calendar. This calendar was for 5000 years in the future. 21st December 2012 was the last date in this calendar. 

Fall of Maya Civilization

Despite being one of the most developed civilizations in the world, some such incidents have happened that started the decline of the Maya civilization. People started migrating here in the 8th century and by the end of the 9th century the entire Maya civilization was destroyed, which was at the peak of progress in world history for thousands of years that it mysteriously disappeared in just 100 years. The exact reason for the mysterious extinction of this civilization has not been found till date.Although exports, arcologists and historians have given many reasons. One of them reason that the increasing population of the Maya people, due to the increasing population it affected the environment of that region Then due to climate change, that area was not fit for Mayans for living.The second reason is that a very long period of Maya civilization was in the grip of famine. It was not possible for an agrarian civilization to withstand famine for a long time.

Some people believe that the people who settled in the city of Maya civilization fought with each other and killed each other in that war.


In the 9th century the entire Maya civilization came to an end.The People of Maya civilization living on Yucata Island survived until the 15th century. Until the Spanish came there. The entire region came under Spain in the 15th century and the remaining Mayan people were killed by Spanish invaders. They could not carry forward the legacy of the Maya civilization. That is why 900CE is considered to be the fall of the Maya civilization. But even today the descendants of the Maya people live in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico. Even today, religious, social rituals of Maya civilization are seen in them.