Maya Codices

By about 900 AD the Maya civilization was beginning to deterioriate as their people abandoned many southern cities. Scientists are still trying to discover why the Maya civilization collapsed. The Toltec invaded at about this time and ruled for several hundred years, after which the Aztec gained control of their cities. Business replaced religion as the dominant force in daily life. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers invaded Maya territory and overcame almost all the remaining Maya and Aztecs.

Hieroglyphic Writing

The Maya people were highly skilled and culturally advanced. Although we don’t know much about their government, their rulers held both political and religious power over each city. They developed a trade network that linked their cities whereby people of the Maya lowlands exported handicrafts and animal pelts in exchange for jade, glass, and feathers. The Maya sent salt and decorated cottons to Honduras for cacao beans.

The Maya developed herbs and magic to treat illness. They produced exceptional artwork, including painting, architecture, sculpture, and pottery. For example, they decorated walls with murals painted in bright colors depicting lifelike figures in battles and festivals.

They developed a unique and beautiful form of writing that consisted of symbols -- a kind of hieroglyphic writing. They kept records by carving onto large stone momuments called stelae, as well as on wall carvings, door lintels, and ceramic vessels. Their Scribes also painted in the wet media of the codices, or manuscripts.

Dots and dashes in their writing represented numbers. A special symbol represented zero, zero being one of the world’s greatest inventions. The Maya learned of astronomy by keenly observing the positions of the sun, moon, and stars. Consequently they made tables predicting eclipses and the orbit of the planet Venus. They also developed complex calendars and sacred almanacs of days. Each day had a name from one of twenty names, and a number from 1 to 13. Each day was also associated with a god or goddess. The priests therefore predicted daily good or bad luck depending on the combinations of god or goddess and number, and based on the orbit of the earth around the sun.

The Codices

Among the objects Cortes sent back to Spain were the Maya codices, screenfold books rather like rolled paintings. The highly perishable books are made of flattened bark covered with a lime paste to make a fresh white surface, folded accordion style and wrapped again with wood or deer hide

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