-Mayan Civilization- (youtube video)

The Mayan people had a very rich and fascinating civilization. Just a few facts about this group of people was that they lived in Mexico and Central Mexico. The Southern part included dense swamps, and the East side is the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico is located on the west side. It was a known fact that men and women were short, and they had short dark hair. They typically painted their bodies with different colors, and they valued crossed eyes for some unknown reason. Many of them had tattoos, and wore big headdresses. The Mayans grew many crops. Some of these included avocados, squash, maize (corn), peppers, and caco seeds. They had to use a stick when planting the seeds, which is now known as the plow. The Mayans used the most advanced system of writing of the ancient Americas. The writing system consisted of pictures/symbols called glyphs.One fact I found interesting was that they are perhaps the firsst people to use the idea of zero. With this, they developed an advanced system of mathematics, and were later able to evolve in the field of astronomy. Mayan priests were very important in the culture because they were the people who did everything with the astronomy. They were able to detect the movements of the sun, moon, planetsm and stars. They became so advanced that they were able to predict when eclipses would occur. Only three Mayan books are remaining to this day because one the Spanish got ahold of them, they determined that the books were filled with evil writing. What happened to the Mayans is still a mystery that everyone desires to know. What we know for sure is that they abandoned their cities sometime around 850 AD. This was also something that happened very suddenly. During the time of 850 AD, the Mayan society collapsed and they then scattered all around the country. Through the ruins, advancements in astronomy and mathematics, it is very evident that this was a culture very elite and powerful at this time. Hopefully in the near future, people can come up to a definite conclusion as to what really happened.