The Maya have an ancient history. The Olmecs formed the Maya and many other civilizations known around Mesoamerica. The Maya inherited some of the Olmecs traits (not the big, giant stone heads, of course). The earliest settlements were around 1800 B.C. then they evolved from there.The Maya didn’t call themselves the maya, they called themselves the Quiche (north) and the Yucatec (south).The Mayan civilization did a lot of things that include: religious rituals, astronomy, and divination. The preclassic period was from 1800 BC to 250 AD. The classic period was from 250 AD to 900-950 AD. The golden age of the Maya was around 250 AD.
The Mayan culture had a lot of cities around where it lived. By the way, they lived around the Yucatan peninsula(southern mexico). The names of some of the cities are:Coba,Uxmal,Mayapan,and Tulum. The city of Cuicuilco, which is as big as Teotinuacan, got wiped out by a volcano. The city of Teotinaucan is a highly active religious center. The city of El Tajin had a lot of poc-a-toc courts around it. The city of tikal was known for its pyramid building. The city of copan was known for its “ the temple of the hieroglyphic stairway”.
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Those gods were the gods of the sun, moon, rain, and corn. One of the gods was Itzamna, the supreme god of fire and creativity. Another one of the gods was named Chac, the god of rain and lightning. The feathered serpent was called kukulcan. Time to go to what involves the afterlife. Heaven is called tamoanchan and the underworld is called Xibalba. About Poc-a-Toc, the winning team gets instant passage to paradise (basically the winning team gets killed