Mayan
civilization reaches its peak during this period. There was
not a centralized empire, but there were shifting alliances
between city states and frequent warfare, similar to the city
states of ancient Greece. Major city states included Palenque,
Piedras Negras, Uaxactun, Tikal and Copan, among others. While
agriculture or farming was the foundation of the Mayan economy,
they were also great merchants. Mayan trade goods included cotton,
cacao beans (which are made into chocolate), pottery, salt,
honey, sea shells and more. Trade routes reached up into urbanized
settlements of what is now the southwestern United States, across
the Caribbean and up the Mississippi River.
The Mayas made books, only a few of which have survived, using
paper made from bark or other plant fibres, and then coated
with a fine layer of lime, which acts as both a preservative
and whitener. They used 800 "glyphs" or picture-words
for writing, something like the hieroglyphs used by the ancient
Egyptians. Mayan inscriptions are more commonly found on stone
tablets, walls and pottery. Although two million people in Mexico
and Central America still speak Mayan, only a quarter of the
ancient glyphs have been deciphered. Most of what has been read
tells the stories of powerful kings and their wars of conquest.
For the Mayas, the year 2000 happened 3110 years ago! The Mayas
had developed the most advanced system of mathematics for the
time, and in some ways is still superior to the way we count
today. They were very interested in time and space, and their
expert knowledge of math allowed the Maya to make highly complex
astronomical calculations. We know that the Mayas began their
calendar, their year 1, on August 11, 3114 BC, but we do not
know what made this date significant (for example, the way the
European calendar starts year 1 with the birth of Jesus Christ).
That means the Mayan year 2000 on the European calendar happened
in 1114 BC.
The city of Teotihuacan, near present-day Mexico City, reached
its peak in 500 AD, with a population of up to 150,000 people
and occupying an area of 20 sq km. It is still not known who
built the city or what language they spoke. It was the most
important religious centre in Mexico. Even a thousand years
later, when the city was just ruins, the Aztecs called Teotihuacan,
"the city of those who have the road to the gods".
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25
years ago / 50 years ago
/ 80 years ago / 125
years ago / 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago
/ 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago
/ 2,000 years ago / 4,000
years ago / 10,000 years
ago
