Tell about Maya civilization ?

Mayans performed ritual human sacrifice for a number of reasons ranging from religious to medical ceremonies. It was considered an honor to be sacrificed, and the sacrificing was usually done by cutting just under the ribs and removing the still-beating heart.

For some reason the city was abandoned around 1300. If the Spanish did not make it a policy to kill all of the Mayan priests and burn books when they arrived in Mexico, we would all have a few more answers

Those ancient Maya people were farmers. They grew maize, beans, squash, and cassava. Their organization and power would eventually grow and become the first true Mayan civilization, the Olmec.

Long Count calendar. This calendar was impressive because it used zero as a placeholder—one of the earliest uses of zero as a mathematical concept in history. And that was only one of the calendars the Maya used. They also had a 260-day sacred calendar, or Tzolk’in, which was used to plan religious ceremonies, as well as a 365-day solar calendar known as the Haab'.

It was the Olmec who were responsible for creating the now famous Mayan Calendar, as well as popularizing the Mayan creation myths.

To be beautiful in Mayan culture was the result of incredibly hard work. They had a set of seemingly impossible beauty standards, some of which required serious body modification.

The Maya were not content with simply donning clothes and makeup to make themselves beautiful. In childhood, males and females alike had their heads bound to artificially deform their skulls into an elongated shape, which probably signified their social status. The Maya also drilled holes into their front teeth

So how’d they manage it? The Mayans skirted evolution and the bounds of human anatomy by literally clamping a plank of wood to a young child’s face. As a result, they were able to control the growth of a person’s head. Perfectly flat foreheads for everyone!

inlaid them with jade, pyrite, hematite or turquoise. They basically invented the grill.

Mayans also believed that crossed-eyes were a sign of favor from their sun god Kinich Ahau, who was also cross-eyed. And of course, being well-liked by the God of the Sun is a pretty valuable thing.

Many people are under the impression that the final collapse of Mayan civilization came about as a result of the Spanish Conquistadors. That’s not the case.

For the Maya, consuming hallucinogens and intoxicants were the best way to talk to spirits. They drank substances like balché, which was made with fermented (and possibly psychedelic) honey. But to get inebriated more quickly, and perhaps to avoid vomiting, they may have administered alcohol and psychoactives through the rectal route.

By today’s standards, a big nose might not always be particularly desirable. But if you, like me, are sometimes self-conscious about your over-sized beak, just take comfort in this: the Mayans would have loved you.

There are a lot of scenes on Maya pottery depicting enemas in a ritual context. Researchers investigating the effects of an ancient ritual enema in the 1980s did some self-experimentation and tried it out for themselves, and reported that their results “certainly support the theoretical suggestion that alcohol is absorbed well from an enema.”

Mayans believed a large, prominent nose was the absolute peak of beauty. So much so, Mayan citizens with an under-sized schnoz would often resort to wearing a prosthetic. Fake noses were all the rage! They were crafted from clay, and worn over their own to give the impression of a more impressive sniffer.

Mayans loved jewellery. Though many materials were used to fashion their jewellery out of, the Mayans had a special place in their hearts for Gold and Jade. Who doesn’t?

The vivid pigment known as Maya Blue has long fascinated archaeologists because it’s incredibly resilient, surviving for centuries on stone monuments even in the harsh conditions of Mesoamerican jungles.

Both Mayan men and women would get tattoos, but men would often wait until after they were married. After the formal ceremony, they would tattoo their arms, legs, backs and faces. Women would get smaller tattoos on their upper body, save their faces and breasts.

the cheerful color was also used in human sacrifice. When the Maya wanted to please the rain god, they painted human sacrifices blue and cut their hearts out on stone altars or threw them down wells.

Mayan men, and sometimes women, would visit dentists to beautify their smiles with Jade. Small holes were drilled into their teeth by skilled dentists, who would then place the semi-precious gems in their teeth and secure it with an adhesive. This practice was not exclusive to any particular class.

The Maya built sauna-like structures out of stone or adobe that were used for health purposes and ritual cleansing. Sweat houses have been found at sites like Tikal in Guatemala and

Mayans believed teeth to be an important part of a beautiful appearance. Just… not the same way we do.Aside from encrusting their teeth with gems, many also sharpened them to a point. Sometimes teeth were filed to specific designs to designate higher classes of individuals.

As you can imagine, drilling and filing teeth was a painful procedure to endure. That’s why the Mayans used special herbal remedies to act as anesthetics. These blends would be applied to the patient prior to a procedure, and were apparently quite effective.

Joya de Cerén, a Maya village that was buried in volcanic ash in El Salvador around 600 CE. The earliest known sweatbath was uncovered at Cuello, in northern Belize. At 3000 years old, it predates the famous baths of the Roman civilization.

Today we are beginning to explore the medicinal uses of psychoactive plants for treatment of, among other things, PTSD and depression. But the Mayans had that all figured out. Hallucinogens were common in the native plants of Meso-America and featured prominently in both their medical and religious practices.