The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization centred in what are now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Villages developed in the preclassic period, and the Classic period, roughly 250 to 900 CE, was the age of great city-states such as Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque and Copan. The Maya developed a hieroglyphic writing system, a sophisticated calendar and advanced astronomy and mathematics, including the concept of zero. Many southern lowland cities were abandoned in the ninth century, probably owing to drought, warfare and political breakdown, while Chichen Itza and other northern centres flourished later. The Spanish conquest took many decades, ending with the fall of the Itza kingdom of Nojpeten in 1697, and millions of Maya people live in the region today.
Before and after
- c. 2,050 BCECode of Ur-Nammu
- from c. 2,040 BCE to 1,782 BCEMiddle Kingdom of Egypt
- c. 2,040 BCEEruption of Long Island
- from c. 2,025 BCE to 609 BCEAssyrian Empire
- from 3rd millennium BCE to 2nd millenniumMaya civilization
- 3rd millennium BCEOrigins of Damascus
- 21st century BCEThe last mammoths die out on Wrangel Island
- from c. 2,000 BCE to 1,500 BCEPhilippine Jade Artifacts
- from c. 1,991 BCE to 1,802 BCETwelfth Dynasty of Egypt
More in Evolution & life
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- from c. 2,200 BCE to 1,700 BCEBactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
- 16th century BCEVedas
- from c. 1,500 BCE to 500 BCELapita
- from 13th century BCE to 6th centuryAncient Greece
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.