Mayan Indians :: Pre-Columbian History Culture

Mayan Indians The Maya Indians are Indians that Lived in parts of present time Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The Maya Indians had a complex hieroglyphic alphabet and a complicated calendar system. Only the high priests and kings knew how to read it and write and read the complex alphabet. The Maya Indians did not live in teepees like you may think they lived in houses sort of like ours but no nails or installation to keep it warm. The Maya Indians where great builders they made large buildings made out of stone some stones weighed more than 2 tons that is over 4,000 pound. When a child was born in the Maya civilization it was a sign of good luck. After it was born the priest was called and the baby was given a sacred name and then the priest predicts the future. In marriages the woman was allowed to marry when she was 14-15 years old. The boy in the relationship had to be at least 18 years old like our country in marriages. The Maya men and woman where very short compared to us. The average woman was 4à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬(tm) 8à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ quite short for our women who reached an average of 5à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬(tm) 4à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬. The men where also short but not too short. They reached5à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬(tm) 8à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ only 2 inches shy of our men who reach an average of 5à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬(tm) 10à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬. The Mayan disappeared close to the year 900 A.D. By 1450 most of the major cities where abandoned. Nobody knows for sure but there are theories that the men would go to war and the family would hide in a near by countryside and take cover. The tribe made their culture so advanced and just abandoned it for war. So why would a culture ruin their life style to fight but that is just a theory we may never know. The stylish thing to do in the Mayan civilization was having tattoos and wearing tons of jewelry was considered hip. Also they thought that filling your teeth to a sharp point and having your eyes crossed was attractive. Priests had three main types of calendars. The first was a civil calendar this was based on the solar cycle of the sun. The year lasted 365 days there was no leap year though so they where a day off every 7 years. The long court had a special system that kept track of long spans of time such as decades and centuries.