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Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human sacrificial offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized offering, and such a sacrifice involved the decapitation of the captive ruler in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the Maya death gods. [1]
Scholars believe that battles were meant to be quick, and not with the purpose of conquering the city. Attacks success was often based on the prospect of being a surprise attack. [5] A major part of Maya Warfare included what followed a battle. The capture and sacrifice of high valued targets was the main reason and prospect for war.
Spanish colonizers reported that the Maya would kill and consume massive quantities of turkey in an annual ritual sacrifice and feast. [20] The Dresden Codex, an 11th-12th century illustrated Maya book, [21] depicts birds being used in ritual sacrifice, deer tied up near sacrificial sites, and pieces of deer meat placed into ritualistic ...
This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics.
The Maya dead were laid to rest with maize placed in their mouth. Maize, highly important in Maya culture, is a symbol of rebirth and also was food for the dead for the journey to the otherworld. Similarly, a jade or stone bead placed in the mouth served as currency for this journey.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-21. O'Mansky, Matt & Arthur A Demarest. (2007) “Status Rivalry and Warfare in the Development and Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization” in Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence, edited by Richard J Chacon & Ruben G Mendoza, pp. 11–34. Chapter 1. The University of Arizona Press ...
The walls date to the Classic Mayan period, between 300 and 600 A.D., making them roughly 1,400 years older than Google’s online direction service.
Satellite view of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Maya civilization occupied the Maya Region, a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America; this area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula, and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. [4]