The Mayans
Ben Williams
Why were they important
The Maya calendar was linked to astronomy. The Maya basically used two calendars: the Calendar Round and the Long Count. The Maya Long Count calendar was divided into different units of time that used the Haab, or solar year (365 days) as a base. The Calendar Round consisted of two separate calendars: the first was the 365-day solar year, the second was the 260 day Tzolkin cycle. These cycles align every 52 years.
Who?
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 southern portion of the Lowlands were covered by a rain forest with an average height of about 150 feet.
The Mayans culture
Contrary to popular beleif, the Mayan civilization was not one unified empire, but rather a multitude of separate entities with a common cultural background. Similar to the Greeks, they were religiously and artistically a nation, but politically sovereign states. As many as twenty such states existed on the Yucatan Peninsula, but although a woman has, on rare occasions, ascended to the ruling position, she has never acquired the title of 'mah kina'.