MHI-01: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL SOCITIES
Course Code: MHI-01
Assignment Code: MHI-01/AST/TMA/2016-17
Total Marks: 100
4. Give a brief account of the Maya civilization.
The ancient
Maya civilization occupied the eastern third of Mesoamerica, primarily the
Yucatan Peninsula. The topography of the area greatly varied from volcanic
mountains, which comprised the highlands in the South, to a porous limestone
shelf, known as the Lowlands, in the central and northern regions.
The
Maya civilization flourished between 500B.C. and 1000A.D. (Classical period:
300-900 A.D.). The region where this civilization nestled includes modern
Guatemala, Belize, southeastern Mexico, and the western parts of Honduras and
El Salvador. The Maya Civilization did not present itself as an empire or
unified political entity, but was a cultural unit of scattered urban and rural
centres, both small and big, though many of the centres were related or rather
connected with causeways. Also, the political influence of some of the large
centres was evident from the use of their emblem glyphs (symbol in sculptured
characters) on the monuments at smaller centres. The administrative structure
also suggests that some centres were subordinate to larger city-states.
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