![[Pasted image 20250201163921.png]] The Maya were one Mesoamerican culture that had strong ties to Teotihuacan. Mayan architectural and mathematical contributions were significant. Flourishing from roughly 2000 BCE to 900 CE in what is now Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala, the Maya perfected the calendar and written language the [[Olmec]] may have begun. They devised a written mathematical system to record crop yields and the size of the population, and to assist in trade. Taking advantage of their success in agriculture, the Maya built the city-states of [Copán](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C3%A1n), [Tikal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal), and [Chichen Itza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza) along major trade routes. These cities contained temples, statues of gods, pyramids, and astronomical observatories. However, possibly due to a drought that lasted nearly two centuries, their civilization declined by about 900 CE and the Maya abandoned their large population centers. The Spanish encountered little organized resistance from the decentralized Maya upon their arrival in the 1520s. However, they did find extensive Mayan history in the form of glyphs, or pictures representing words, recorded in folding books called codices (the singular is codex). In 1562, [Bishop Diego de Landa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Landa), who feared recently (and forcefully) converted natives might revert to their traditional religious practices, collected and burned every codex he could find. Today only a few survive. **FOR MORE INFO:** Visit the [University of Arizona Library Special Collections](http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/mexcodex/maya.htm) to view facsimiles and descriptions of two of the four surviving Mayan codices. --- Next: [[1.8 Hernán Cortés]] Back: [[1.6 Teotihuacan]]