1. The Americas Couple Things To Know:
The Americas were settled around 13,000 years ago
Agriculture began around 4,000 years ago
Powerful chiefdoms began around 3,500 years ago
Agrarian Civilizations began around 2,000 years ago

2. Early Civilizations of the Americas
500 AD: Mayans
1500 AD: Aztecs & Incas

3. Teotihuacan
Chichen
Itza
MAYAS
AZTEC EMPIRE
Tikal

4. Mayan History
Mayans took over the Yucatan Peninsula and present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador.
Ancestors of the Mayans may have been migrants who moved into the region from the Northwest.
Farmers established many successful agrarian villages, some became important centers, like Chichen Itza and Tikal
Ceremonial Procession

5. Regions of Mayan Civilization
Chichen Itza
Tikal

6. Tikal By 500 AD, Tikal had become the leading Mayan center
from 600 to 800 AD its population was 40,000 people
City dominated the surrounding area and all together may have included half a million people
Architecture of the city was huge, and included the 154 ft. high, Temple of the Giant Jaguar

7. Temple of the Giant Jaguar, Tikal, Guatemala

8. Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza was also an important center for the Mayan people and continued to grow after the Mayan decline.

9. Mayan Government
Each Mayan center was governed by a priest-king, who was believed to be a descendant of the gods
Mayan King recognize his people who are probably lesser lords in this scene of a royal Mayan court.

10. Mayan War
Battles were more focused on capturing their rivals in hand-to-hand combat, rather than killing them in large numbers
Those who were captured were often forced to be part of ritualized torture and public sacrifice
warriors fought ferociously
enough with obsidian-bladed
weapons

11. Obsidian - dark natural glass formed by the cooling of molten lava.

12. Many Mayan centers collapsed, but in the north Mayan cultures and Mexican cultures combined.
The Mayans lefts many achievements in writing, mathematics and calendars.
Mayan Decline
Overgrown Mayan ruins,
Cozumel

13. Mayan Calendar Mayas invented a calendar of great accuracy
Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá used as a calendar:
four stairways
each with 91 steps and a platform at the top
making a total of 365
Same as the number of days in a calendar year
The Maya calendar was adopted by Aztecs and Toltecs.
Mayan Calendar
Pyramid of Kukulkan c. 1050