The Ancient Americas

Featured Cultures

Maya Military and More
Maya kingdoms sometimes went to war with one another. Political allies provided defense during enemy attacks. Often sealed by marriage, military alliances between different ruling families helped them maintain their thrones. Maya lords frequently gave carved plaques to allies and foreign rulers as diplomatic gifts symbolizing friendship, allegiance, and goodwill.

Recording Victories and Alliances
Like the Zapotec, the Maya also had writing based on glyphs, which are pictures and symbols that represent either words or sounds. In Maya society, only elite scribes and a few other elite people could write.

Writing with glyphs, elite scribes recorded the histories of Maya ruling families on stone carvings, murals, and ceramics. By writing about their coronations, military victories, and genealogies, rulers glorified themselves and justified their power.

The Ballgame
Besides warfare, the Maya had another interesting way of resolving disputes—the ballgame. Both archaeological evidence and Spanish historical accounts tell of a ballgame played in cities throughout Mesoamerica, including those of the Maya.

A team sport, it was played in a court with a heavy rubber ball. Reasons for playing varied. Often rulers provided the game as entertainment for their people—evidence of the rulers' power. But sometimes the game may have resolved disputes, and losers might be sacrificed to the gods.

Maya rulers kept their kingdoms under control not only through use of the ballgame, military action, and political alliances, but also through the use of centralized religion.

Maya or Mayan?

When discussing Maya society or artifacts, we don't add an "n" to the end of the word. Why not? According to archaeological convention, the word "Mayan" refers only to the language itself—the glyphs and the spoken word.

Continue to Maya Religion. >>