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The '''Maya''' (MAH-yuh or MEYE-uh) are a people in Southern [[Mexico]] and northern [[Central America]]. They number about 9 million people, consisting of about 30 different groups. The Maya formed one of the great [[Precolumbian_CivilizationsPrecolumbian Civilizations|Mesoamerican civilizations]], the apogee of their civilization was from A.D. 300 to 900.

The Maya have been called the "[[Greeks]] of the New World" by many historians. The Maya had some knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, ritual [[ball]] games for entertainment, and the use of their complex written language. The Maya may have been the first civilization that used the [[concept ]] of zero, the oldest Mayan inscriptions using a zero glyph date from the first century before Christ, but it is likely that the Mayas copied it from an earlier civilization, most likely [[Olmecs]] or [[Zapotecs]].

The Maya [[religion]] was [[polytheistic]] and the Maya "appeased the gods" by engaging in [[human sacrifice]] and autosacrifice. Autosacrifice and the use of hallucinogenic drugs were important to the Maya religion because they allowed the use of visions, which the Maya used to speak to their ancestors. The Maya believed in creation as explained in their religious text named the "Popol Vuh." Wealthy women enjoyed some rights in the society, and in some cases were Queen when there was no male heir. The Maya wrote accordion-fold, bark paper books called codices. There are only 4 known in existence today, which are in museums in Europe. There are approximately 10,000 other pieces of Mayan writing, but not book form. Mayan writing and the ability to read their writing had been in decline for hundreds of years since the end of the classical period, but there were still some who could read and write when the Spanish arrived. The Spanish under [[Fray Diego de Landa]] burned Mayan codices on July 12th12, 1562 because he believed the books to be anti-[[Christian]]. De Landa claims to have burned 27 books, while others claim 99 times that number. Diego was later recalled to stand trial in Spain for excessive practices. Whatever the cause, the ability to understand the ancient script was lost shortly thereafter and it was only in the second half of the 20th century that enough progress was made in decoding the script to more fully understand the writings that have survived.

The Maya used a yearly solar calendar that was fairly precise, using 18 months and 20 days per month, with five additional unlucky days at the end, which totals to 365 days. The Maya did not take into account the additional 1/4 day, which we take into account through leap year, because it was not important for them. They additionally had a 260 -day ritual calendar which worked in conjunction with the 365 day calendar to create a 52-year cycle. They also used a Long Count calendar which counts the number of days since the creation of the world on August 13, 3113 BC. This calendar returns to zero in 2012, which has caused an Apocalypse scare. However, this stems from a misunderstanding of the calendar, because the calendar is generally abbreviated to 5 places, when in reality there are over 40, so the calendar will continue after this date. The calendar is written with five numbers with a period between each, such as 5.4.3.2.1. Each of the numbers between the period represents a place, since the Maya number system was base-20. In this date, for example, the 1 represents 1 days, the 2 represents 2*20 days, the 3 represents 3*360 days, the 4 represents 4*7,200 and the 5 represents 5*144,000. Each digit except the second (2) and the last (5) goes to 19 before returning to zero. The second only goes to 18 and the last only goes to 13. The original date for the world was 13.0.0.0.0, which will be the same date on December 21, 2012, and the reason for the Apocalypse scare.

File:Thompson Labna, Palace GroupSANTA ROSA XTAMPAK Campeche.jpg|LabnáSanta Rosa Xtampak, Palace Group, south frieze of east structure, 1888-1891Campeche.File:Thompson Uxmal Nunnery QuadrangleBecan Campeche.jpg|Uxmal, Nunnery QuadrangleBecán.File:Tikal.JPG|[[Tikal]], 1888-1891[[Guatemala]].

[[Category:Mayan worldWorld]]