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122 Mayan Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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The Maya civilization, known for its advanced knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and art, has long fascinated historians and researchers. If you are studying Mayan history or culture and are in need of essay topics, look no further. Here is a list of 122 Mayan essay topic ideas and examples to help inspire your next research paper or academic assignment:

The origins of the Maya civilization

The rise and fall of the Mayan empire

The role of religion in Mayan society

Mayan art and architecture

Mayan writing system: hieroglyphics

The significance of the Mayan calendar

Mayan agriculture and farming techniques

Mayan trade and economy

Mayan warfare and military tactics

Mayan social hierarchy and class structure

The role of women in Mayan society

Mayan political structure and governance

Mayan cities and urban planning

Mayan religious beliefs and rituals

Mayan myths and legends

Mayan rituals and ceremonies

Mayan burial practices and funerary customs

Mayan medicine and healing practices

Mayan education system and schools

Mayan sports and games

Mayan music and dance

Mayan clothing and fashion

Mayan cuisine and food traditions

Mayan technology and innovations

Mayan environmental practices and sustainability

The impact of Spanish colonization on the Maya civilization

Mayan resistance to Spanish conquest

The legacy of the Maya civilization in modern-day Mexico and Central America

Mayan cultural revival and preservation efforts

Mayan influence on contemporary art and design

The decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphics

The role of archaeology in uncovering Mayan history

Mayan astronomy and cosmology

Mayan mathematics and numerical system

Mayan achievements in engineering and construction

Mayan trade networks and economic relationships with other Mesoamerican cultures

Mayan interactions with neighboring civilizations such as the Aztecs and Incas

Mayan migration patterns and settlement expansion

The impact of climate change on the decline of the Mayan civilization

Mayan religious syncretism and the blending of indigenous beliefs with Catholicism

Mayan resistance movements against colonial rule

Mayan involvement in the Mexican Revolution

Mayan cultural practices and traditions that have survived to the present day

Mayan linguistic diversity and the preservation of indigenous languages

Mayan art as a form of resistance and cultural expression

Mayan literature and oral traditions

The portrayal of the Maya civilization in popular culture and media

Mayan depictions in Hollywood films and literature

Mayan contributions to world cuisine and agriculture

Mayan cultural festivals and celebrations

The role of tourism in the preservation and exploitation of Mayan heritage sites

The impact of globalization on Mayan communities and traditional ways of life

Mayan diaspora communities and their cultural contributions to the wider world

Mayan perspectives on environmental conservation and sustainable development

Mayan activism and political movements for indigenous rights

Mayan women's leadership roles in community development and social justice

Mayan perspectives on gender and sexuality

Mayan concepts of time and space

Mayan beliefs in supernatural beings and otherworldly realms

Mayan rituals of divination and prophecy

Mayan concepts of health and well-being

Mayan approaches to conflict resolution and justice

Mayan attitudes towards death and the afterlife

Mayan concepts of beauty and aesthetics

Mayan understandings of the natural world and ecological balance

Mayan perspectives on the human-animal relationship

Mayan views on social responsibility and community solidarity

Mayan teachings on ethics and morality

Mayan practices of meditation and spiritual enlightenment

Mayan rituals of purification and cleansing

Mayan beliefs in the power of dreams and visions

Mayan practices of pilgrimage and sacred journeying

Mayan concepts of leadership and authority

Mayan teachings on humility and humility

Mayan understandings of power and empowerment

Mayan views on wealth and poverty

Mayan practices of gratitude and thanksgiving

Mayan rituals of celebration and feasting

Mayan beliefs in the power of storytelling and mythmaking

Mayan teachings on the importance of memory and remembrance

Mayan practices of ritual sacrifice and offering

Mayan concepts of redemption and forgiveness

Mayan views on the nature of suffering and the search for meaning

Mayan teachings on the power of love and compassion

Mayan understandings of the cycles of life and death

Mayan views on the nature of time and eternity

Mayan practices of ritual fasting and abstention

Mayan beliefs in the transformative power of music and dance

Mayan teachings on the art of living and dying well

Mayan understandings of the interconnectedness of all things

Mayan views on the nature of reality and illusion

Mayan practices of meditation and contemplation

Mayan beliefs in the power of prayer and supplication

Mayan teachings on the importance of humility and service

Mayan understandings of the nature of suffering and the search for liberation

Mayan views on the nature of the self and the universe

Mayan practices of initiation and spiritual rebirth

Mayan concepts of wisdom and enlightenment

Mayan teachings on the art of living in harmony with the natural world

Mayan understandings of the nature of consciousness and awareness

Mayan views on the nature of truth and falsehood

Mayan practices of ritual purification and cleansing

Mayan beliefs in the power of intention and visualization

Mayan teachings on the importance of silence and solitude

Mayan understandings of the nature of the mind and emotions

Mayan views on the nature of desire and attachment

Mayan practices of ritual devotion and worship

Mayan concepts of grace and mercy

Mayan teachings on the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation

In conclusion, the Maya civilization offers a rich tapestry of topics for exploration and research. Whether you are interested in history, culture, religion, or art, there is something for everyone in the world of the Maya. So go ahead and choose a topic from this list to delve into the fascinating world of one of the most advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica.

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• HISTORY & CULTURE

Who were the Maya? Decoding the ancient civilization's secrets

The pyramid-building society reigned over much of Central America until it collapsed. Today, its descendants keep many traditions alive—a sign of resilience.

The evidence of a long-forgotten civilization was everywhere: Beneath a Spanish convent. Underneath a street. Most of it was covered in vines and vegetation, reclaimed by the jungle. But as a pair of British-American explorers combed through the Yucatan Peninsula in the 1830s and 1840s, they soon became convinced the mysterious sites were major archaeological treasures.

Discarded and abandoned, the function of these sites and artifacts—temples, pyramids, remnants of art and even writing—was mostly unknown. Nonetheless, wrote John Lloyd Stephens in 1841, they all seemed to be the work of the same group of people.

“Who these races were, whence they came, or who were their progenitors, I did not undertake to say, nor did I know,” he conceded .

The ruins in question were the remnants of the Maya, a towering Mesoamerican civilization that had once covered much of Central America, from northern Belize through Guatemala and southern Mexico. Much more is now known about the group responsible for some of the greatest feats of its kind: Maya people cultivated the region’s first crops and domesticated its wildlife, built its first cities, and either created or refined almost every aspect of modern civilization. ( Subscriber exclusive: In search of the lost empire of the Maya. )

Though their descendants have preserved some of their culture’s traditions and lore, much about the Maya remains as mysterious today as it did centuries ago when their secrets were still hiding in plain sight.

Origins of the Maya

While the origins of Maya culture remain murky, it’s thought to have first emerged between 7000 B.C. and 2000 B.C., when hunter-gatherers abandoned their nomadic habits and created more permanent settlements. Recent analyses suggest that those first settlers came from South America and likely developed their staple food, maize, by 4000 B.C. Maize cultivation dramatically changed the Maya’s trajectory, literally fueling the explosion of their society and culture.

These newcomers didn’t just plant corn: They also learned to prepare it for human consumption with nixtamalization, a process in which dried maize is soaked, then cooked in an alkaline solution that softens corn and renders it more digestible. The Maya would go on to cultivate other important vegetables like squash, cassava, and beans.

For Hungry Minds

The Maya seem to have developed alongside, and traded ideas with, the neighboring Olmec civilization, which some consider one of the most influential societies of ancient times. Researchers believe this is when the Maya adopted the ritual complexes for which they would become famous. Like the Olmec, the Maya soon focused on building cities around their ritual areas. These advancements in agriculture and urban development are now known as the Maya’s Preclassic period between 1500 and 200 B.C. ( This massive Mayan ceremonial complex was discovered in "plain sight. " )

As the Maya built out their society even further, they laid the foundations for complex trade networks, advanced irrigation, water purification and farming techniques, warfare, sports, writing, and a complex calendar . The intricate calendar included three dating systems—one for the gods, one for civil life, and a third astronomical calendar known as the Long Count. The starting point of this third calendar was set at the legendary date of humans’ creation, corresponding to August 11, 3114 B.C. The Long Count calendar began a new cycle on December 21, 2012, leading to a myth that the world would end on that date. (Despite urban legends and longstanding misinterpretations of Maya lore, however, the shift in calendar cycle didn’t bring doomsday with it.)

Mayan society at its peak

During the Classic period (200-900 A.D.), the Maya civilization reached its peak. So did its architecture: the Maya refined its pyramid-like temples and grand buildings that appear to be palaces, though it’s unclear if they were actually used as elite residences or if they served some other function.

Among the most important Maya cities were Palenque, Chichén Itzá , Tikal, Copán, and Calakmul. But though the Maya shared a society, it was not an empire. Instead, city-states and local rulers vacillated between peaceful coexistence and wrestling for control. Some places, such as the village of Joya de Cerén , seem to have been run by collective rule instead of an elite overlord. ( Read more about Palenque, a Mayan city that was a glorious center of power .)

Maya architecture and art reflected deep-seated religious beliefs. The Maya embraced the belief of K’uh   and k’uhul —that divinity could be found in all things, even inanimate objects. Once again, corn was vital to those beliefs: Among the most important Maya gods was Hun Hunahpu, the maize god , and Maya tradition held that the deities created humans first out of mud, then wood, then corn.

The Maya worshiped their gods with a variety of rituals. Among them were both human sacrifice and bloodletting—customs that capture modern imaginations. The Maya sport of pitz , a forerunner of soccer, had its own ritual implications: Researchers think losers of the game were sometimes sacrificed in recognition of the Maya sun and moon gods, who were said to have played the same game in the Maya creation myth , the Popol Vuh .

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How the maya civilization collapsed.

Although some northern cities continued to flourish, the majority of Maya centers began to collapse during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. Inter-city relations soured, warfare increased, trade declined, and the death rate rose.

Theories as to the civilization’s demise vary. One hypothesis , backed by climate simulations, is that a long drought—combined with slash-and-burn farming techniques that destroyed the forests upon which the Maya relied— are what brought disaster to their doorstep. Suddenly, once wealthy city centers became deserted wastelands as some Maya died and others scattered to a variety of more fertile, mountainous lands to the south. As once massive cities like Chichén Itza fell, cities like Mayapán rose in prominence. Other Maya people abandoned cities altogether, settling into small villages instead.

Though the Maya people persisted, the downfall of Maya civilization left those who remained vulnerable to the pressures of European colonization beginning in the 1500s. By the time Spain fully conquered the Maya around 1524, the majority of the Maya’s most important cities had already been abandoned.

Meanwhile, the newly arrived Spanish explorers paid little attention to the ruins that lay scattered throughout their colonies even as they seized Maya lands and forced its Indigenous people to convert to Christianity.

Rediscovering the Maya

It wasn’t until the 1840s that the Maya were “rediscovered” by explorers and researchers who were intrigued by the hints of the civilization they had left behind. American attorney and diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and English artist and architect Frederick Catherwood led a series of archaeological expeditions to Central America, where they mapped and documented Maya sites.

Though the existence of ruins in the area was known, many Europeans assumed that Indigenous Central Americans were primitive and unintelligent and had not created the historic artifacts beneath their feet. Stephens and Catherwood wanted to prove them wrong and establish both the worth of the sites and the identities of their creators.

Despite being convinced of the former glory of the Maya, the two researchers also tried to profit from what they found, even attempting to purchase entire Maya cities and transport them to a New York museum. Nonetheless, their work forced the world to take notice of Maya civilization and lay a foundation for future archaeological discoveries.

Today, the field of Maya archaeology is flourishing, and modern excavations have revealed everything from ruins to religious relics in the jungle that once reclaimed them. Scholars are still attempting to discover more about the Maya, their ambitious rise, and mysterious fall. ( How researchers used lasers to discover a Mayan pyramid in Tikal .)

While archaeological relics may be all that’s left of their past, the Maya still exist in the present. More than six million Maya descendants live in modern Central America, where more than 30 languages stemming from ancient Mayan are still spoken. These descendants also keep many Mayan agricultural, religious, and land management traditions alive—a sign of their culture’s resilience in the face of centuries of challenge and change.

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Home > Journal Publishing > Active Journals > JMH

The Journal of Maya Heritage is a renowned international publication focused on exploring and safeguarding the profound heritage of the Maya culture. It serves as a scholarly platform encompassing a broad range of subjects related to Maya culture, history, art, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, religion, and language. Esteemed academics, researchers, and experts contribute scholarly articles, research papers, and reviews, facilitating the dissemination of knowledge and discoveries about the ancient and present Maya.

Journal of Maya Heritage es una reconocida publicación internacional enfocada en explorar y salvaguardar el profundo patrimonio de la cultura Maya. Sirve como una plataforma académica que abarca una amplia gama de temas relacionados con la cultura, la historia, el arte, la arqueología, la antropología, la arquitectura, la religión y el idioma Maya. Estimados académicos, investigadores y expertos contribuyen con artículos académicos, trabajos de investigación y reseñas, facilitando la difusión de conocimientos y descubrimientos sobre los Mayas antiguos y actuales.

Current Issue: Volume 1, Issue 1 (2023) Inaugural Insights: Unveiling Maya Heritage

Editor's note - inaugural issue.

Dear Readers and Fellow Scholars,

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we present to you the inaugural issue of the Journal of Maya Heritage . This milestone marks the beginning of our journey to explore and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Maya civilization.

Our mission is to provide a platform for researchers, scholars, and enthusiasts to share their insights, discoveries, and perspectives on the Maya heritage. This journal will be a hub for in-depth exploration of Maya art, history, archaeology, linguistics, and the contemporary cultural expressions of the Maya people.

In this issue, you will find a diverse range of articles and research papers that delve into the fascinating world of the Maya. From ancient archaeological discoveries to contemporary discussions on cultural preservation, each contribution represents a vital piece in the puzzle of understanding and celebrating this remarkable civilization.

We want to extend our gratitude to the authors, reviewers, and editorial team whose dedication and expertise have made this inaugural issue possible. We invite you to immerse yourself in these pages, and we hope that the knowledge shared here inspires further inquiry, discussion, and appreciation of Maya heritage.

Thank you for joining us on this remarkable journey, and we look forward to sharing many more issues with you in the future.

Your Chief Editor PhD. Jose Israel Herrera

Making your spring break sustainable: Can tourism be a driver for positive environmental change? Katherine Ort

Expanding the Orbit of Maya Culture: Creating a Non-Profit in the United States Apollo Liu, Callie Passwater, Skyler Steckler, and Ryan Rowberry

Challenges of accessibility of a community heritage tourist route: The Route of the Caste War Cecilia S. Medina Martín, David E. Tamayo Torres, Margarita De A Navarro Favela, and Fredi R. Un Noh

Megaproyectos y su impacto en derechos Humanos en una comunidad de origen Maya: Yaxhá, Yucatán, México. Gonzalo Manuel Herrera Canché

Assessing the Sustainable Development Dimensions of Environmental Public Policies for Protected Natural Areas in Mexico: A 1970-2018 Perspective Cielo María Ávila López and José Israel Herrera

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Descendants of the ancient Maya abound throughout southern Mesoamerica . The population is estimated at eight million, likely as many as there were at the time of conquest. Some live by very traditional means, others have integrated into urban life, yet all, in some way or another, have adapted to modern lifestyles of the 21st century.

The importance of Maya culture is attracting more and more attention. The Mayan language is now being taught in schools and modern science is recognizing the value of traditional medicinal plants for their healing power and their potential in finding cures for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and AIDS.

The modern Maya and researchers are working to overcome centuries of cultural suppression .  Today, the Maya forest stands as an enduring monument to the resourcefulness of the Maya and the continuation of their invaluable cultural heritage.

Check out Macduff Everton's new photo narrative of the Modern Maya

                               Want to learn more about the Maya? Check out some of these resources !

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Who, What, Why: Francisco Díaz on anthropology and the modern Maya

The doctoral student’s research shows that living maya people actively participated in the excavation of their past..

Born in Mérida, Yucatan, about a half an hour north of the coast, Francisco Díaz moved to San Rafael, California, in the Bay Area at age 5. His parents are both from Peto, a small town in the middle of the Yucatan peninsula that saw a lot of migration to the United States in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, Díaz says. The U.S. had economic opportunity, and his family migrated in search of a better life. “My dad was the only one in his family who went to college,” Díaz says. “Even with that, he saw that he couldn’t make it.”

Díaz first returned to Mexico at age 11 and felt something amiss. “What always got to me is the level of poverty that Maya people still live in. Most people worked two or three jobs and still financial security was out of reach, he says. This was in sharp contrast to vacationers, attracted to the Mayan Riviera and its idyllic beaches with a soupcon of cultural enrichment from nearby archeological sites. There is a disparity between the poverty of Yucatec Maya people and the glamorization of ancient Maya archaeology, he says. 

“I came away from that thinking, how can this be?” Díaz says. “That’s what always impacted my direction and pretty much everything I’ve done.”

Díaz, now a doctoral candidate in anthropology , has studied the discipline since his years earning an associate degree from Santa Rosa Junior College. Anthropology is qualitative analysis, says Diaz. “We study Indigenous people; we study the cultures. And we also study the machinations of the world and all these big forces that influence the way that people live.”

His dissertation looks at early Mayanist research in the 1890s through 1930s from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in order to locate contemporary Maya within archaeological study. These researchers characterized the Maya as a revered civilization, in contrast to the living Yucatec Maya people, who were often demeaned and racialized, he says.

Yet Indigenous people actively participated in excavation, Díaz says. His research shows that Maya people were archaeologists in their own right, working season after season with specialized skills to excavate the past. But their contributions have been buried, he says.

“As a descendant of Yucatec Maya people, it makes me feel good, having this connection with the past,” Díaz says. “Not only is this our past, but we have helped bring knowledge about this past forward. I think this is a service to my people today.” 

In the 1940s, Díaz’s grandmother was pulled from school in second grade. Traditionally, Yucatec Maya women and girls would wear a huipil, a cotton shift dress with complex, colorful embroidery around the yoke. When the state of Yucatan passed a law saying all students had to attend school in a purchased uniform, she stayed home to help with housework instead.

This was the message for Indigenous people, Díaz says. “Your culture doesn’t have value except all the stuff that we are digging up and putting in galleries.” Just two generations later, he is doing research that “makes living Maya people visible,” he says. “That is probably the most significant thing that has come out of my time and my research here at Penn.”

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The aim of this project is to offer an opportunity for an open interaction and exchange of studies in the field of Mesoamerican Indigenous cultures, with emphasis on the Mayan. The primary goal is to integrate a wide range of scholars working in different geographical areas, institutions, and research fields.

El propósito de este proyecto es ofrecer la oportunidad de una abierta interacción e intercambio en el campo de los estudios de las culturas indígenas de Centroamérica, con énfasis en lo maya. La principal meta es integrar el más amplio espectro de expertos que están trabajando en distintas áreas geográficas, instituciones y campos de estudio.

View the Popol Wuj fascimile (English, Spanish, & K’iche’)

The Maya: History, civilization & gods

The Maya civilization stretched throughout Central America and reached its peak during the first millennium A.D.

Maya calendar

• Height of Maya power
• Fall of the Maya
• Origin myth
• Gods and religion

Human sacrifice

Writing & astronomy.

• Maya economy

Additional resources

The term "Maya" refers to both a modern-day group of people who live across the globe and their ancestors who built an ancient civilization that stretched across much of Central America. The Maya civilization reached its peak during the first millennium A.D., and Maya ruins can still be seen across Central America. 

The Maya civilization was never unified; instead it consisted of numerous small states, each centered on a city ruled by a king. Sometimes, a stronger Maya state would dominate a weaker state and demand tribute and labor from it.

Mayan origins

Nomadic hunter-gatherers had a presence in Central America for thousands of years. However, permanent village really took off when these people began cultivating maize in what archaeologists call the Preclassic period (1800 B.C. to A.D. 250). This lead to the creation of early Maya cities. 

"Effective farming, as expressed by densely inhabited villages, was an innovation of the Preclassic period," wrote Michael Coe, the late emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University, in his book "The Maya" (Thames and Hudson, 2015).

According to Coe, farming became more effective during this period, likely because of the breeding of more productive forms of maize, and perhaps more importantly, the introduction of the "nixtamal" process. In this process, maize was soaked in lime, or something similar, and cooked, which "enormously increased the nutritional value of corn," Coe wrote. Maize complemented squash, bean, chili pepper and manioc (or cassava), which were already being used by the Maya, researchers reported in 2014 in the Journal of Archaeological Science . 

During this time, the Maya were likely influenced by the Olmecs, a civilization to the west of them in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The Olmec people may have initially devised the long-count calendar that the Maya would become famous for, Coe wrote. However, the discovery of a ceremonial site dated to 1000 B.C. at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site, implies that the relationship between the Maya and Olmecs was more complicated than previously thought. The ceremonial compound dates back 200 years before similar structures that were built by the Olmecs, suggesting that they did not inspire the Maya.

Archaeologists have found that early Maya cities were sometimes carefully planned. Nixtun-Ch'ich, in modern-day Petén, Guatemala, had pyramids, temples and other structures arranged using a grid system , which demonstrates urban planning. The city flourished between 600 B.C. and 300 B.C.  

A system of writing that used symbols called glyphs to represent words or sounds was developed and frequently inscribed on buildings, steles, artifacts and books called codices. 

The Maya calendar system was complicated. "1,700 years ago, speakers of proto-Ch'olan, the ancestor for three Maya languages still in use, had developed a calendar of 18 20-day months plus a set of five days," wrote Weldon Lamb, a retired adjunct professor of anthropology at New Mexico State University, in his book " The Maya Calendar: A Book of Months " (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). 

This system also included what scholars call a "long-count" calendar that kept track of time by using different units, ranging in length from a single day to millions of years. 

The b’ak’tun is a cycle of the calendar that is 144,000 days or nearly 400 years long, and the Maya believed 13 b’ak’tuns represented a full cycle of creation. The 13th b’ak’tun ended on December 21 2012, giving rise to the popular belief that the world would end on that day. However, the long-count calendar did not predict the end of the world in 2012. “The Maya had several rarely used units that were even larger than b'ak'tuns, giving them the capacity to count millions of years into the future,” said Walter Witschey, a retired archaeologist and Maya expert at Longwood University. The unit in millions of years provides evidence that the Maya did not believe the world was ending at the end of the 13th b’ak’tun.

The Maya calendar system shares many similarities with modern calendars, according to Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown, an archaeologist and associate professor at Athabasca University, an online university in Canada. "The combination of multiple cyclical calendars (e.g., our lunar months and solar years) and a linear year count (e.g., 2020, 2021, 2022), would have been familiar to the ancient Maya. When you understand the logic and mechanics behind these systems, their similarities aren't surprising, as they are both based on common observable natural phenomena," Peuramaki-Brown told All About History magazine. 

Maya civilization at its peak

The ancient Maya reached a peak between A.D. 250 and 900, Coe wrote. During this time which archaeologists call the Classic period, numerous Maya cities thrived throughout Central America.

The civilization "reached intellectual and artistic heights which no other in the New World, and few in Europe, could match at the time," Coe wrote. "Large populations, a flourishing economy, and widespread trade were typical of the Classic [period]," he wrote, noting that warfare was also quite common.

The Maya civilization was influenced by Teotihuacán , the largest city in the Western Hemisphere before the 15th century, which was located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Evidence of Teotihuacán's influence comes from inscriptions found in the Maya city of Tikal , in modern-day Guatemala. 

According to the inscriptions, an early Maya ruler named Siyaj K'ak, who may have come from Tikal, ascended the throne on Sept. 13, A.D. 379, and is depicted wearing feathers and shells and holding an atlatl (spear-thrower), which are features associated with Teotihuacán, wrote art historian John Montgomery in his book " Tikal: An Illustrated History of the Mayan Capital " (Hippocrene Books, 2001). A stele discovered at El Achiotal, a Maya site near Tikal, also supports the idea that Teotihuacán controlled or heavily influenced Tikal for a time, with the king of Teotihuacán overthrowing the leader of Tikal and replacing them with one of his own vassals.   

The numerous cities found throughout the Maya world each had their own wonders that made them unique. Tikal, for instance, is known for its multiple pyramids. Starting at least as early as A.D. 672, the city's rulers constructed a twin pyramid complex at the end of every K'atun, or 20-year period. Each of these pyramids was flat-topped, built adjacent to its twin and contained a staircase on each of its four sides. Between the twin pyramids was a plaza that had structures laid out to the north and south.

Another example of a unique city is Copán , a Maya city in modern-day Honduras known for its "Temple of the Hieroglyphic Stairway." This pyramid-like structure has more than 2,000 glyphs embellishing a flight of 63 steps — the longest ancient Maya inscription known to exist. The glyphs appear to tell the history of the city's rulers.

Palenque , a Maya city in modern-day Mexico, is known for its soft limestone sculpture and the incredible burial of Pakal, one of its kings, deep inside a pyramid. When Pakal died at about age 80, he was buried along with five or six human sacrifices in a jade-filled tomb (including a jade funerary mask that he wore). His sarcophagus shows scenes of the king's rebirth and depictions of his ancestors in the form of plants. The tomb was rediscovered in 1952 and is "the American equivalent, if there is one, to King Tut's tomb," said archaeologist David Stuart in an online lecture for National Geographic .

Not all Maya settlements were controlled by a king or elite member of society. At the site of Cerén , a Maya village in El Salvador that was buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago, archaeologists found evidence that there was no elite class in control and that the village seems to have been managed communally, perhaps by local elders, Live Science previously reported. 

End of the Maya?

Contrary to popular belief, the Maya civilization did not vanish. It's true that many southern cities, including Tikal, Copán and Palenque, were abandoned around 1,100 years ago. Drought, deforestation, war and climate change have all been suggested as potential causes of this. Drought may have played a particularly important role, and a study on minerals from an underwater cave in Belize shows that a drought ravaged parts of Central America between A.D. 800 and 900, Live Science previously reported .

However, it is important to note that other Maya cities, such as Chichén Itzá , grew during and after the ninth century, at least for a time. Chichén Itzá was founded around the fifth century, but it grew to become one of the most important cities in the Maya world when power shifted from the southern lowlands to the Yucatan peninsula in the north during the tenth century.  

Chichén Itzá features several ball courts, including the largest example in the Americas that is longer than a modern-day football field. The court's rings, through which competing teams tried to score, rose about 20 feet (6 meters) off the ground, about twice the height of a modern-day NBA net. The rules for the Maya ball game are not well understood, but the increase in ballcourts during the Classic period indicates that the Maya continued to thrive. 

Council houses , which were gathering places for people in a community, played an important role in some of the Maya towns and cities that flourished after the ninth century. 

When the Spanish arrived in Central America in the 16th century, the diseases they brought devastated the Maya. Additionally, the Spanish forced many of the Maya to convert to Christianity, going so far as to burn their religious books. This is the reason why so few Maya codices survive today. 

However, Maya people live on today and can be found all over the world. "Millions of Maya people live in Central America and throughout the world. The Maya are not a single entity, a single community, or a single ethnic group. They speak many languages, including Mayan languages (Yucatec, Quiche, Kekchi and Mopan), Spanish and English. However, the Maya are an indigenous group tied both to their distant past as well as to events of the last several hundred years," wrote Richard Leventhal, Carlos Chan Espinosa and Cristina Coc in the April 2012 edition of Expedition magazine , a peer-reviewed magazine from the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.

Mythical origins

The ancient Maya had a lengthy and complicated mythical origin story that was recorded by the Quiché, or K'iche Maya (who lived in what is now Guatemala) in the Popol Vuh, the "Book of Counsel," Coe wrote in his book. The Popol Vuh was written between 1554 and 1558, according to Britannica , during the protracted conquest of the region by Spanish forces. The stories in the Popol Vuh tell how the forefather gods Tepew and Q'ukumatz "brought forth the earth from a watery void, and endowed it with animals and plants."

Creating sentient beings proved more difficult, but eventually humans were created, including the hero twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who embarked on a series of adventures, which included defeating the lords of the underworld. Their journey climaxed with the resurrection of their father, the maize god. "It seems clear that this whole mythic cycle was closely related to maize fertility," Coe wrote.

The Maya gods

The late Robert Sharer, who was a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, noted in his book " Daily Life in Maya Civilization " (Greenwood Press, 2009) that the ancient Maya believed everything "was imbued in different degrees with an unseen power or sacred quality," called k'uh, which meant "divine or sacredness."

"The universe of the ancient Maya was composed of kab, or Earth (the visible domain of the Maya people), kan, or the sky above (the invisible realm of celestial deities), and xibalba, or the watery underworld below (the invisible realm of the underworld deities)," Sharer wrote.

Caves played a special role in Maya religion, as they were seen as entranceways to the underworld. "These were especially sacred and dangerous places where the dead were buried and special rituals for the ancestors conducted," Sharer wrote. 

Sharer noted that the ancient Maya followed a number of deities, the most important of which was Itzamnaaj. "In his various aspects, Itzamnaaj was the lord over the most fundamental opposing forces in the universe — life and death, day and night, sky and earth," Sharer wrote, noting that "as lord of the celestial realm" Itzamnaaj was the Milky Way and was often depicted as a serpent or two-headed reptile.

Other ancient Maya deities included the sun god K'inich Ajaw, the rain and storm god Chaak and the lightning deity K'awiil, among many others. The Maya believed that each person had a "life force," and that draining a person's blood in a temple could give some of this life force to a god. In 2015, archaeologists identified an arrowhead containing the blood of a person who may have participated in a blood-letting ceremony . 

In times when water was scarce, Maya kings and priests would hold incense-scattering ceremonies that they believed could provide wind and rain. In 2017, archaeologists in Belize discovered a Maya pendant inscribed with 30 hieroglyphs that researchers believe was used in these ceremonies, Live Science previously reported . Hallucinogenic substances were also used in religious ceremonies to help the Maya try to contact spirits and seek advice on how to deal with problems or situations. 

Ancient Maya religion also included stories of dangerous creatures such as the sea monster Sipak. Fossilized teeth from the extinct sharks Carcharodon megalodon were used as sacred offerings at several Maya sites, and research suggests that stories involving Sipak were inspired by the fossilized remains of these massive, extinct sharks.

According to Sharer, human sacrifices were made on special occasions. "Among the Maya, human sacrifice was not an everyday event but was essential to sanctify certain rituals, such as the inauguration of a new ruler, the designation of a new heir to the throne, or the dedication of an important new temple or ball court," Sharer wrote. The victims were often prisoners of war, he noted.

At Chichén Itzá, victims would be painted blue , a color that is believed to have honored the god Chaak, and cast into a well. Additionally, near the site's ball court, there is a panel that shows a person being sacrificed. This may depict a ball-player from either the winning or losing team being killed after a game. 

Sharer noted that record keeping was an important part of the Maya world and was essential for agriculture, astronomy and prophecy. "By keeping records of the rainy and dry seasons, the Maya could determine the best times to plant and harvest their crops," Sharer wrote.

Additionally, by "recording the movements of the sky deities (sun, moon, planets, and stars), they developed accurate calendars that could be used for prophecy," Sharer wrote.

"With long-term records, the Maya were able to predict planetary cycles — the phases of the moon and Venus, even eclipses," he wrote. "This knowledge was used to determine when these deities would be in favorable positions for a variety of activities such as holding ceremonies, inaugurating kings, starting trading expeditions, or conducting wars."

The movements of the planet Venus appear to have played a particularly important role in ancient Maya religion. Two Maya books, called the Dresden and Grolier codices, contain detailed records of the movements of the planet. The ancient Maya "were probably doing large-scale ritual activity connected to the different phases of Venus," said Gerardo Aldana, a science historian in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Research reveals that at least some of the writers of Maya codices were part of "a specific cohort of ritual specialists called taaj," a team of researchers wrote in a 2015 article for the journal American Anthropologist . The team studied a room containing murals with inscriptions on them at the Maya site of Xultan, Guatemala, and found that the writing of codices took place in the room and that the "taaj" wrote them. 

Scribes were trained by Maya priests, and they were most likely members of the elite, as commoners could not read or write. The Maya writing system is logosyllabic, combining the use of logograms (signs representing words) and syllabograms (signs representing syllables). There are over 1,000 different Maya signs, although scribes only used up to 500 at any one time. Today, there are still many signs that remain undeciphered or not well understood.

Economy & power

The Maya civilization was made up of several well-connected city-states. "At an elite and royal level, this connection appeared in the form of official visits, occasional over-lordship, marriages, warfare, and general ideological affiliations," Peuramaki-Brown said.

In terms of the economy, Sharer wrote that while agriculture and food-gathering were a central part of daily life, the Maya had a sophisticated economy capable of supporting specialists, and a system of merchants and trade routes. While the Maya did not develop minted currency, at different times they used various objects as a form of money. These included greenstone beads, cacao beans and copper bells.

"Ultimately, the power of kings depended on their ability to control resources," Sharer wrote. "Maya rulers managed the production and distribution of status goods used to enhance their prestige and power. They also controlled some critical (non-local) commodities that included critical everyday resources each family needed, like salt," he said, noting that over time Maya rulers managed ever-larger portions of the economy. The Maya rulers did not rule alone but were served by attendants and advisers, who occasionally appear in Maya art . 

Sharer also notes that ancient Maya laborers were subject to a labor tax to build palaces, temples and public works. A ruler who was successful in war could control more laborers and exact tribute on defeated enemies, further increasing their economic might.

• MesoAmerican Research Center: Ancient Maya Civilization
• National Geographic: In Search of the Lost Empire of the Maya
• Scientific American: Volcanic Eruption May Have Plunged the Maya into a 'Dark Age'

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Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and humans' past. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. 

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Unearthing a Maya Civilization That ‘Punched Above Its Weight’

Before the pandemic, the long-sought ruins of Sak Tz’i’, a small but influential Mesoamerican kingdom, were discovered on a cattle ranch in Mexico. This summer archaeologists returned to excavate it.

A stone panel, dating to the eighth century A.D., of K’ab Kante’, a ruler of the ancient Maya kingdom of Sak Tz’i’. The ruins of Lacanjá Tzeltal, a settlement at least 2,500 years old, were discovered in Chiapas, Mexico. Credit... Meghan Dhaliwal for The New York Times

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By Franz Lidz

Photographs by Meghan Dhaliwal

• Published Sept. 13, 2022 Updated Sept. 14, 2022

CHIAPAS, Mexico — On a bright, buggy morning in early summer, Charles Golden, an anthropologist at Brandeis University, slashed through the knee-high grass of a cattle ranch deep in the Valle de Santo Domingo, a sparsely populated region of thick brush and almost impenetrable jungle. Only the raucous half-roar, half-bark of howler monkeys pierced the ceaseless mating call of cicadas. “We’re coming to what’s left of the Sak Tz’i’ dynasty,” Dr. Golden said.

Dr. Golden approached a barbed wire fence enclosing a pasture, then limboed under it and surveyed the vista beyond: the crumbling ruins of Sak Tz’i’, a Maya settlement at least 2,500 years old. Spread across 100 acres of tangled vines and lumpy earth were reminders of lost grandeur: giant heaps of rock and rubble that had once been temples, plazas, reception halls and a towering, terraced palace.

Directly ahead were the remains of a complex of platforms that had formed the acropolis. In its prime, it was dominated by a 45-foot-high pyramid in which members of the royal family might have been entombed. Where the pyramid and several elite residences once stood were toppled walls of cut stone. Dr. Golden noted that the entrance to the pyramid had probably featured a line of free-standing relief sculptures, called stelae, most of which were now buried in the debris or had been hacked off and carried away by thieves.

To the southeast he noted an alley filled with scree — it was a timeworn ball court, 350 feet long and 16 feet wide with sloping sides. The game, a religious event symbolizing regeneration, required players to keep a solid rubber ball aloft using only their hips and shoulders. Nearby, amid what had been a cluster of ceremonial centers, was a jumble of stones where commoners would have gathered for public observances and kings would have held court. Dr. Golden pointed to the former courtyard, now a jigsaw mound. “From this place,” he said, “the Sak Tz’i’ rulers sought to command their subjects — successfully or not — and engaged with the politics of a landscape over which multiple kingdoms struggled for control.”

Small and scrappy, Sak Tz’i’ — White Dog, in the language of ancient Mayan inscriptions — was the sometime ally, sometime vassal, sometime foe of several of the largest and most powerful regional players, including Piedras Negras in what is now Guatemala and Bonampak, Palenque, Tonina and Yaxchilan in present-day Chiapas. The dynasty flourished during the Classic period of Maya culture, from 250 to 900 A.D., when the civilization counted its greatest achievements in architecture, engineering, astronomy and mathematics.

For reasons that are still unclear, Sak Tz’i’ and hundreds of other settlements were abandoned and entire regions were left deserted during the ninth century. Although descendants still live in the region, the vagaries of nature buckled temple walls, the tomb robbers disassembled pyramids and a thickening jungle canopy concealed plazas and causeways. Sak Tz’i’ was effectively erased from memory.

Scholars began searching for physical evidence of the realm only in 1994, when epigraphers reading a stela — found a century earlier at a dig in Guatemala — realized that a glyph described the capture of a Sak Tz’i’ king in 628 A.D.

Three summers ago, a team of researchers and local work crews led by Dr. Golden and Andrew Scherer, a bioarcheologist at Brown University, explored the pasture and discovered the remains of dozens of stone stelae, cooking tools and the corpse of a middle-aged woman who had died at least 2,500 years earlier. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the site, which the researchers named Lacanjá Tzeltal after the nearby modern community, was likely colonized by 750 B.C. and occupied until the end of the Classic period. Perhaps most remarkably, Dr. Golden and Dr. Scherer established that the cattle ranch had been a — if not the — capital of the Sak Tz’i’ dynasty.

Simon Martin, a curator at the Penn Museum of the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the project, said that the evidence provided by the two researchers and their colleagues made a strong case that Lacanjá Tzeltal was the real Sak Tz’i’ or at least a seat of the dynasty for part of its history.

“The discarded carcasses of looted monuments at this site match some of those previously attached to Sak Tz’i’,” he said, “while the discovery of a new monument commissioned by a Sak Tz’i’ ruler is equally telling.”

From Carnitas to Hieroglyphics

Dr. Golden, 50, and Dr. Scherer, 46, have been collaborating in the backwaters of historical Mesoamerica since the late 1990s. They were the first archaeologists to document newly discovered systems of fortifications at the Late Classic Maya sites of Tecolote, in 2003, and Oso Negro, in 2005, both in Guatemala.

“The division of labor really comes down to our areas of expertise,” said Dr. Golden, who is in charge of organizing geographic data, mapping and remote sensing with drones. Dr. Scherer analyzes human bones and anything to do with diet, isotopes and burials.

Tall, trim and droll, Dr. Golden was born in Chicago, and as a youth he was captivated by the artifacts in the Oriental Institute Museum. “I was terrified of the mummies, I couldn’t even be in the same room with them,” he said. “But I was also dazzled by pieces of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and the other relics from Mesopotamia. It was stunning to see actual fragments from places I had heard about in the Bible.”

Dr. Golden studied archaeology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but the most important lesson he learned, he said, was as a summer intern at an excavation in Belize in 1993. He had been digging a test pit when he pulled from the ground a small, ridged tube. “I was sure that it was a decorative pre-Columbian bead,” he said. Grinning proudly, he showed the object to his supervisor, who turned it over in his hands and responded: “Someone must have dropped this at lunch. It’s Kraft macaroni and cheese.” The would-be Louis Leakey slunk back to his test pit, much the wiser.

Dr. Scherer is shorter and stockier, with hair pulled into a ponytail and a beard that dusts his chin with gray. He grew up in central Minnesota and caught the archaeology bug in college — Hamline University in St. Paul — while doing a field study at a 2,000-year-old Native American encampment. The course was jointly led by Ojibwe elders, who taught him how to knap flint, tan hides and build wigwams.

Both researchers were drawn to Maya culture because it is the only one in the ancient Americas with a written history extending back into the first millennium. “We know the names of the kings and queens who governed the places we study, who were their enemies and their allies, when they went to war, when they were born and died,” Dr. Scherer said.

He and Dr. Golden were tipped off to the existence of the Lacanjá Tzeltal ruins by one of their former research assistants. In 2014, a University of Pennsylvania grad student named Whittaker Schroder was scouting out archaeological digs near the Guatemalan border for a dissertation topic. While driving through the tiny rainforest town of Nuevo Taniperla, Dr. Schroder, now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida, passed a roadside carnitas stand. The vendor tried to flag him down, but Dr. Schroder, a vegetarian, kept going.

Not long after, Dr. Schroder again drove by the stand. Again the vendor tried to catch his attention. This time Schroder stopped to chat. “The vendor said he had a friend with a stone that he wanted an archaeologist to look at,” Dr. Schroder recalled. “I asked him to elaborate, and he explained that the stone had a carving with the Maya calendar and other glyphs.”

Later that evening a friend of the vendor showed Dr. Schroder a photo on a cellphone that, although grainy, clearly displayed a small wall panel illustrated with hieroglyphics. In a lower corner was a dancing figure in ceremonial headdress, wielding an ax in his right hand and a bludgeon in his left. Jacinto Gomez Sanchez, a cattle rancher who lived 25 miles away, had unearthed the limestone slab in some rubble on his property many years before.

Dr. Schroder reached out to Dr. Golden and Dr. Scherer. “We frequently get requests to look at stone figurines and sculptures in private collections,” Dr. Scherer said. “While the vases and other ceramic objects are almost invariably ancient, the stone sculptures are usually modern objects crafted for tourists. So when someone says, ‘Come see my pre-Columbian sculpture,’ we tend to assume we’re going to look at a souvenir knockoff.”

To the great surprise of both Mayanists, the photo that was texted to them showed a full-size monument bearing glyphs of the Sak Tz’i’ dynasty. It took them another four years to negotiate permission to excavate on the property. In 2019, the research team flew drones and planes over the site that were equipped with a sensing tool called LIDAR, which could see through the forest canopy to visualize the land and archaeology beneath. The researchers estimated that at its peak, around 750 A.D., the settlement had as many as 1,000 inhabitants.

This June, after a two-year delay because of the coronavirus, Dr. Golden, Dr. Scherer and their team returned to the site to continue the dig. Much of the work was preventive maintenance. With the stone walls of the acropolis in danger of collapse, Mexican anthropologist Fernando Godos and a local crew were enlisted to reinforce and stabilize the crumbling masonry.

Remnants of low walls encircle parts of the excavation site, especially near the palace, which is unusual for the region’s bygone kingdoms; typically such bulwarks were built on the outskirts. One aim of the next season of research is to determine whether the walls were hastily built in the dynasty’s final days, as Dr. Scherer believes, or if they were part of the original construction, or at least modification, of the Classic period site center. Defense seems to have been the overarching concern at Lacanjá Tzeltal, a densely packed stronghold hemmed in by arroyos and steep riverbanks. The stone barricades presumably reinforced wooden palisades.

A Vanished Dynasty

The Maya, with their staggeringly precise calendars, sophisticated hieroglyphs, highly productive agricultural system and ability to predict celestial phenomena such as eclipses, were arguably the most enlightened culture of the New World. They built sumptuous settlements without the aid of the wheel, metal tools or beasts of burden.

“The Maya were truly the Greeks of the ancient Americas,” Dr. Martin said. “They built an advanced civilization despite, or perhaps even because of, profound political divisions — with well over a hundred competing kingdoms.”

Maya society extended beyond modern borders, north from Guatemala into the Yucatán Peninsula, east into Belize and south through the western extremities of El Salvador and Honduras. Never politically unified, the Maya of the Classic period were a hodgepodge of city-states.

“You’ve got massive kingdoms in the central lowlands, like Tikal and Calakmul — the United States and Soviet Union of their time,” said Dr. Scherer. “Our team deals with much smaller realms involved in their own sort of political alliances that break down and turn into conflicts at a really tiny, localized scale.” Inscriptions on the monuments of those settlements often trace the history of civilization to a universal flood. The Long Count calendar kept track of the days that had passed since the mythical starting date of the Maya creation, Aug. 11, 3,114 B.C.

The landscape of the ancient Maya is stippled with ruins whose names are unknown to scholars and whose hieroglyphic inscriptions mention scores of places, the locations of which are now lost. “Sak Tz’i’ fell into the latter category, and the dogged pursuit of its identity has engaged scholars for some three decades,” Dr. Martin said. “Why? Because Sak Tz’i’ was the most important of the remaining ‘homeless’ political actors.”

The most famous mention of the society, aside from stone inscriptions found in museums and private collections, appeared in lintels over doorways at Bonampak, in which Sak Tz’i’ captives are depicted defeated and humiliated.

The references to Sak Tz’i’ helped narrow down its location in eastern Chiapas but still left hundreds of square miles, most under tree cover, within which it could lie hidden. A 2003 paper in the journal Latin American Antiquity triangulated the settlement’s geographical coordinates, but the computer model was just that — a model that required confirmation.

There were false starts. Plan de Ayutla in Chiapas, a magnificent site rediscovered during the mid-1990s, was more or less in the right spot and contained an impressive collection of temples and the largest ball court in the region. Although the scraps of Mayan text at Plan de Ayutla provided no name for the place, the site seemed a likely contender for Sak Tz’i’. “Unfortunately, there has never been any glyphic evidence to link Plan de Ayutla to the Sak Tz’i’ kingdom,” Dr. Golden said.

Pieces of a Puzzle

At 46, Mr. Gomez is sturdy and cheerful, with silver in his smile and, when necessary, a resolute stare. He lives on his cattle ranch with his wife, four children and pet spider monkey, Pancho. His grandfather helped found the village of Lacanjá Tzeltal in 1962.

Mr. Gomez recalls frolicking through the Sak Tz’i’ rubble as a child. His father and grandfather instilled in him the need to protect the monuments and sculptures on the property. “They remind me of my heritage,” Mr. Gomez said. A decade ago, when looters threatened to sneak in at night to steal relics, he decided to consult archaeologists about the wall panel, and enlisted the carnitas dealer as a go-between.

In June, in the fading sunlight of a Chiapas afternoon, Mr. Gomez showed Dr. Scherer around the off-site facility in which the most treasured relics were stored. He pointed out tools, clay pots, sling stones, grinding stones, a stucco jaguar head. When he brought forth a handsomely carved flint spear point, Dr. Scherer beamed with familiarity.

In 2019, while excavating the ball court, Dr. Scherer had unearthed a stone altar. Beneath the altar he found the spear point as well as obsidian blades, spiny oyster shells and fragments of greenstone. In Maya cosmology, Dr. Scherer explained, flint connoted warfare and the sun or sky; obsidian, darkness and sacrifice. Oyster shells and greenstone were equated with life, vitality and solar rebirth in the sea.

Although the altar was badly eroded, Dr. Golden created a 3-D model and demonstrated that its glyph depicted two bound, prostrated captives and the pincers of a monstrous centipede — a motif the Maya used to mark a subterranean or underworld scene.

The gem of the recovered antiquities was the 2-by-4-foot wall panel, recently dated to 775 A.D., that had set the excavation in motion. A translation of the inscription by Stephen Houston, an anthropologist at Brown University, revealed tales of battles, rituals, a legendary flood and a fantastical water serpent described in poetic couplets as “shiny sky, shiny earth.”

Dr. Scherer acknowledged that although other Maya settlements also had mythic accounts of creation, the story recorded on the Lacanja Tzeltal tablet was unique to the site and could be an allegory for its construction. “The stories touch on the community’s relationship to the surrounding natural environment,” he said. “The area is thick with streams and waterfalls and frequently floods.”

The glyphs also highlight the lives of dynastic rulers such as the delightfully named K’ab Kante’, including when each one died, how they were memorialized and under what circumstances their successors came to the throne. In one glyph, the Sak Tz’i’ ruler appears as the dancing Yopaat, a divinity associated with violent tropical storms. The ax in his right hand is a lightning bolt, the snake-footed deity K’awiil; in his left he carries a “manopla,” a stone club used in ritual combat. The missing panel is presumed to have featured a prisoner of war, kneeling in supplication to Yopaat.

Dr. Martin called the findings of Dr. Golden and Dr. Scherer a major advance in our understanding of Classic period Maya politics and culture. “Such discoveries restore history to now lifeless ruins and, metaphorically at least, repopulate them with long-dead rulers, nobles, warriors, artisans, merchants, farmers and the whole social matrix of ancient Maya society,” he said.

Scott Hutson, an archaeologist at the University of Kentucky who was not involved in the research, noted that before the location of Sak Tz’i’ was pinned down, “archaeologists knew that its rulers engaged in high-stakes diplomacy, sometimes resulting in warfare with powerful neighbors.” The maps by Dr. Golden and Dr. Scherer, he added, “bring a concreteness and poignancy to this narrative, showing that the site was smaller than most of its competitors and in a sense punched above its weight.”

At Lacanjá Tzeltal, Dr. Golden stood astride a stone heap under an excavation tent and conjured up the heyday of the Sak Tz’i’ kingdom. Dust in the air caught the afternoon sunlight, and the silence of the site seemed to echo. Searching for the lost settlement, Dr. Golden said, had been like assembling a map of medieval Europe from historical documents and not knowing where Burgundy should go. “Essentially, we’ve located Burgundy,” he said. “It’s that critical a piece of the puzzle.”

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Mayan Civilization Origin and Development Research Paper

Introduction, the mayan people, the mayan culture, the mayan civilization, the mayan government.

It is a grueling task to construct and connect all the remnants of the distant past of a civilization. But connecting the distant past of the ancient Mayan civilization is a special fascination. The secrets of the civilization are deeply buried in the tropical forests of the Central America. To the historians, the only seeable Mayan architectural designs and sculptures seems to be alien and bizarre “(Robin: 2001:19)”. Indeed, unfolding the calendar backwards to unravel the mysterious civilization is what makes it bizarre.

The Mayan people and culture existed over two centuries ago. In fact, the Mayans were believed to have originated from a splinter group of Israelis or a splinter tribe of the Atlantis. After migrating from Asia through the Bering straight, they travelled south establishing themselves in Central America.

The Maya established their civilization in Latin America in what is currently known as the southern part of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras “(Welker: 1998:1)”. The Mayan society was highly stratified with distinct classes that every Mayan could fit in. Basically, each and every class had different resources and power. Wealth was indeed shared on the basis of stratification with the wealthy occupying the upper class. They were also the powerful and ideally formed the ruling class.

Mayans achieved their highly regarded intellectual and artistic heights within a pan of six centuries. The intellectual and artistic capability was evidenced through glamorous cities and splendid mega temples. Their ingenious advancement in astronomy and mathematics was beyond the imagination of the modern days’ scientists.

The Mayan economical, political and cultural peak marked the prosperous and most interesting times in the history of Latin America. During this period the Mayan people achieved the intellectual and artistic heights that no modern day people and cultures had ever thought to be possible.

According to Hitchcock and Alton (2010: 275) assertions, the rapid decline of Mayan culture still remains a mystery to many archeologists and anthropologists. This is because it happened at a time when it was believed that peace and tranquility prevailed. Many archeologists and anthropologists had over the years attempted to unravel the mystery surrounding the Mayan cultural decline by delving deeper into the Mayan superior culture “(Foster: 2007: 227)”.

Mayan civilization originated from the pre-classic periods. Though shrouded by many mysteries, many theories suggest that the Mayan people originated from some parts of Europe or Asia across the Bering straight. Mayans established their existence in North America through farming systems rather than hunting “(Clow and Johan: 2007: 78)”. They planted variety of food crops and cash crops especially cotton which later became their major export to Europe.

After establishing their normal and peaceful existence the Mayan people experienced an exponential growth period “(Welker: 1998:1)”. There were plenty of food and luxury which became the norm of the day. During this classic period, the Mayans built the most awesome temples, ornate cities and grew in their intellectual capability.

It was during this period when cultural development was taking place “(Foster: 2007: 24)”. Classes and societal hierarchy emerged. With intellectual development in astronomy and mathematics, Mayan strong beliefs in supreme beings and heavenly bodies took shape and the emergence of religion later on emanate.

Mayans spoke thirty similar languages which were believed to have the same origin. The proto-Mayan language is believed to be over seventy years old. According to the historical linguists, the evolution of Mayan language into thirty different languages spoken today was as a result of geographical isolation that characterized the tribal Mayan settlements “(Clark: 1997: 220)”.

Though traces of original of the Mayan language are still found today, it is evidenced that the remaining Mayans had a common ancient with respect to their genetic origin.

Most scholars claim that the nobles and the priests occupied the top most class. In fact, many historians agree that the priests and the nobles comprised the Mayan aristocracy “(Welker: 1998:1)”. The aristocracy monopolized the Mayan classes and all authorities were bestowed to those who occupied the aristocracy.

It was also believed that the aristocracy was the center of Mayan government. The noble consisted of the king and his family whereas the Mayan kingdom was hereditary. The aristocrats were characterized by their wealth and power “(Welker: 1998:1)”. Furthermore, the aristocrats’ main role within the Mayan society was to give leadership, legislate and offer security for the Mayan people.

Below the rulers was the wealthy middle class. The middle class consisted of wealthy businessmen as well as farmers who owned large tracks of land. Though the class consisted of wealthy people their wealth could not surpass that of the nobles. Below this class were the commoners.

According to most historians and anthropologists retorts, commoners did not have much wealth or power. In fact, they supported their rulers as their slaves and offering gifts “(Foster: 2007: 227)”. The commoners mostly lived in small towns and villages where their major preoccupation was farming.

They are the largest class in the Mayan society and were regarded as the most productive. They grew corn, squash, beans, chili papers and many other crops that were grown by the Mayans. Besides they were doing any other work that was required by the ruling class “(Lisa: 2002: 819)”.

Below the commoners were the slaves, prisoners of war, criminals and the lepers. They neither had wealth, power nor freedom. According to the Mayan culture where humans were sacrificed, these people were the ones chosen to be sacrificed or killed in a ceremony for the gods.

Mayans believed that human gifts would appease their gods and will entice them to send prosperity to the Mayan people “(Ness: 2003:42)”. In most cases, human sacrifices were made during looming calamities and when the Mayans want to go for war. Such human sacrifices celebrities were also practiced after the successful season or after successful war.

The Mayan civilization was thought to have originated from the earlier civilizations such as those of the Olmec “(Rathje: 1971: 279)”. Based on those early ideas and inventions Mayans advanced the astronomical thought and developed the calendrical systems. Besides, Mayans advanced the idea of writing and in the process came up with highly hieroglyphic writing. Mayans were also known for their highly festooned architectural designs evidenced in the buildings that were highly regarded.

The Mayan great temples, pyramids and palaces that were built without metal tools still bewilder many historians. The Mayan skills were not in architecture alone “(Stray: 2007: 48)”.

Their skills were also seen in agriculture where they could clear large tracks of forest land as well as building the ground water reservoirs using the crude tools. The civilization was conspicuous in their economic activities. They were skilled weavers, potters and ornamental. They could cleverly clear roads in the dense forest, build bridges across swamps to open routs for trade and commerce.

Principally, the Mayan government was hierarchical with the kings and nobles as the rulers. The system of government is thought to have developed during the classic period. During this period the Mayan civilization was thought to be more urbanized and the system of government developed into a highly structured kingdom “(Foster: 2007: 93)”. The Mayan society consisted of highly stratified and many independent states.

Each state was characterized by a rural farming community with urban centers constructed around sites where ceremonies were being conducted. The reasons for the Mayan kingdom still remain a mystery to many historians. The dynastic came to end when the remaining northern Mayan was finally assimilated by the Toltec rising society “(Hitchcock and Alton: 2010: 275)”. Some peripheral centers were still alive until the Spanish invasion in the sixteenth century.

The Mayan civilization is characterized by complex architectural designs, highly developed art, writing, advanced astronomy and mathematics. Its history is also marked by rise and fall. The Mayan cities rose and fell. The ruined cities were immediately being replaced by others. The Mayan civilization could best be described as one that is ever changing and continuously guided by religion “(Welker: 1998:1)”.

Indeed religion remained to be the foundation of the Mayan culture. The Mayan traditions were influenced by the supernatural beings and belief in the cosmos. The tradition was embedded on the homage paid to super beings through highly regarded sacrifices and rituals that even involved giving human blood as gifts. The deeply rooted Mayan civilization and tradition can still be seen the modern day hybridization of the Christian- Maya faith “(Ness: 2003:42)”.

Clark, John. 1997. The Arts of Government in Early Mesoamerica. Annual Review of Anthropology 26 (October):211-234.

Clow, Barbara and Carl Johan. 2007. The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind . Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions / Bear & Company.

Cook, Garrett. 2010. Mayan Spirituality and the Resurgence of Mayan Activism. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 5(1):93-95.

Foster, Lynn. 2007. A brief history of Central America . New York, NY: Infobase Publishing.

Gilbert, Adrian and Maurice Cotterell . 1996. The Mayan Prophecies: Unlocking the Secrets of a Lost Civilization. New York: NY: Element.

Hitchcock, Mark and Alton Gansky. 2010. The Mayan Apocalypse . Pittsburgh, PA: Harvest House Publishers.

Lisa, Lecero. 2002. The collapse of the Classic Maya: A case for the role of water control. American Anthropologist 104(September): 814-826.

Ness, John. 2003. Fall of the Mayans. Newsweek, March 24, 2003.

Rathje, William. 1971. The Origin and Development of Lowland Classic Maya Civilization. American Antiquity 36(July): 275-285.

Robin, Cynthia. 2001. Peopling the Past: New Perspectives on the Ancient Maya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98(January): 18-21.

Stray, Geoff. 2007. The Mayan and Other Ancient Calendars . New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Welker, Glenn. 1998. “Mayan Civilization” http://indians.org/indigenous-peoples-literature/maya-civilization.html .

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IvyPanda. (2018, October 19). Mayan Civilization Origin and Development. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-mayans/

"Mayan Civilization Origin and Development." IvyPanda , 19 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-mayans/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Mayan Civilization Origin and Development'. 19 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Mayan Civilization Origin and Development." October 19, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-mayans/.

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Maya City-States

Layout of maya cities, the city center, maya temples, maya palaces, ball courts, surviving maya architecture.

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The Maya were an advanced society that flourished in Mesoamerica long before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were skilled architects, building great cities of stone that remain even a thousand years after their civilization fell into decline. The Maya built pyramids, temples, palaces, walls, residences and more. They often decorated their buildings with intricate stone carvings, stucco statues, and paint. Today, Maya architecture is important, as it is one of the few aspects of Maya life that is still available for study.

Unlike the Aztecs in Mexico or the Inca in Peru, the Maya were never a unified empire ruled by a single ruler from a single place. Rather, they were a series of smaller city-states who ruled the immediate vicinity but had little to do with other cities if they were far enough away. These city-states traded with and warred upon one another frequently, so cultural exchange, including architecture, was common. Some of the more important Maya city-states were Tikal , Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Caracol, Copán , Quiriguá, Palenque, Chichén Itzá and Uxmal (there were many others). Although every Maya city is different, they tended to share certain characteristics, such as general layout.​

Maya tended to lay their cities out in plaza groups: clusters of buildings around a central plaza. This was true of the impressive buildings in the city center (temples, palaces, etc) as well as smaller residential areas. These plazas are rarely neat and orderly and to some, it may seem as if the Maya built anywhere they pleased. This is because they Maya built on the irregularly-shaped higher ground to avoid floods and dampness associated with their tropical forest home. In the center of the cities were the important public buildings such as temples, palaces, and the ball court. Residential areas radiated out from the city center, growing sparser the further they got from the center. Raised stone walkways linked the residential areas with each other and the center. Later Maya cities were built on higher hills for defense and had high walls surrounding most of the city or at least the centers.

The Maya kings lived in stone palaces in the city center near the temples, but the common Maya lived in small houses outside the city center. Like the city center, the homes tended to be bunched together in clusters: some researchers believe that extended families lived together in one area. Their modest homes are thought to be much like the homes of their descendants in the region today: simple structures constructed mostly of wooden poles and thatch. The Maya tended to build up a mound or base and then build upon it: as the wood and thatch wore away or rotted they would tear it down and build again on the same foundation. Because the common Maya were often forced to build on lower ground than the palaces and temples in the city center, many of these mounds have been lost to flooding or encroaching wilderness.

The Maya built great temples, palaces, and pyramids in their city centers. These were often mighty stone structures, over which wooden buildings and thatched roofs were often built. The city center was the physical and spiritual heart of the city. Important rituals were done there, in the temples, palaces, and ball courts.

Like many Maya buildings, Maya temples were built of stone, with platforms on the top where wooden and thatch structures could be built. Temples tended to be pyramids, with steep stone steps leading to the top, where important ceremonies and sacrifices took place. Many temples are graced by elaborate stone carvings and glyphs. The most magnificent example is the famous Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copán. Temples were often built with astronomy in mind : certain temples are aligned to the movements of Venus, the sun or the moon. In the Lost World Complex at Tikal, for example, there is a pyramid which faces three other temples. If you're standing on the pyramid, the other temples are aligned with the rising sun on equinoxes and solstices. Important rituals took place at these times.

The Palaces were large, multi-storied buildings which were home to the king and royal family . They tended to be made of stone with wooden structures on top. Roofs were made of thatch. Some Maya palaces are spacious, including courtyards, different structures that were possibly homes, patios, towers, etc. The palace at Palenque is a good example. Some of the palaces are quite large, leading researchers to suspect that they also acted as a sort of administrative center, where Maya bureaucrats regulated tribute, trade, agriculture, etc. This was also the place where the king and noblemen would interact not only with the common people but also with diplomatic visitors. Feasts, dances, and other community social events could also have taken place there.

The ceremonial ball game was an important part of Maya life. Common and noble people alike played for fun and recreation, but some games had important religious and spiritual significance. Sometimes, after important battles in which important prisoners were taken (such as enemy noblemen or even their Ahau, or King) these prisoners would be forced to play a game against the victors. The game represented a re-enactment of the battle, and afterward, the losers (which were naturally the enemy nobles and soldiers) were ceremonially executed. Ball courts, which were rectangular with sloped walls on either side, were prominently placed in Maya cities. Some of the more important cities had several courts. Ball courts were sometimes used for other ceremonies and events.

Although they were not on a par with the legendary Inca stonemasons of the Andes, Maya architects built structures which have withstood centuries of abuse. Mighty temples and palaces at places like Palenque , Tikal, and Chichen Itza survived centuries of abandonment , followed by excavation and now thousands of tourists walking and climbing all over them. Before they were protected, many ruin sites were scavenged by locals looking for stones for their homes, churches or businesses. That the Maya structures have survived so well is a testament to the skill of their builders.

The Maya temples and palaces that have withstood the test of time often contain stone carvings depicting battles, wars, kings, dynastic successions and more. The Maya were literate and had a written language and books , of which only a few survive. The carved glyphs on temples and palaces are therefore important because there is so little remaining of the original Maya culture.

• McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. New York: Norton, 2004.
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Ancient Americas

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Where Did the Maya Live? The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant Indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th century Spanish conquest). Unlike other scattered Indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; […]

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Empirical Tests of the Green Paradox for Climate Legislation

The Green Paradox posits that fossil fuel markets respond to changing expectations about climate legislation, which limits future consumption, by shifting consumption to the present through lower present-day prices. We demonstrate that oil futures responded negatively to daily changes in the prediction market's expectations that the Waxman-Markey bill — the US climate bill discussed in 2009-2010 — would pass. This effect is consistent across various maturities as the proposed legislation would reset the entire price and consumption path, unlike temporary supply or demand shocks that phase out over time. The bill’s passage would have increased current global oil consumption by 2-4%. Furthermore, a strengthening of climate policy, as measured by monthly variations in media salience regarding climate policy over the last four decades, and two court rulings signaling limited future fossil fuel use, were associated with negative abnormal oil future returns. Taken together, our findings confirm that restricting future fossil fuel use will accelerate current-day consumption.

We would like to thank Kyle Meng and Derek Lemoine for sharing the prediction market data and for helpful feedback, as well as participants of the Virtual Seminar on Climate Economics by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Harvard Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Each year the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative (JHVI) hosts Vaccine Day to highlight the advancements in vaccine research by inviting a distinguished scientist to deliver a keynote address on the current status of topics ranging from dengue, rotavirus, COVID-19, measles, and more.

The inaugural Vaccine Day held in 2008 officially launched the JHVI, and 14 Vaccine Day events have been hosted since. Led by Professor Ruth Karron , Vaccine Day works to promote and foster current vaccine research at the Bloomberg School. 

This year, Vaccine Day featured two keynote speakers. First Gabriela Paz-Bailey, MD, PhD, MSc, DTM&H, the Chief of the Dengue Branch in the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases from the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at the CDC, discussed the basics of dengue transmission and pathogenesis, factors contributing to the increasing global burden of disease from dengue, current outbreak trends, and the current testing and treatments for dengue infections. 

Anna Durbin, MD, a professor and the Director of the Center for Immunization Research in the Department of International Health shared the history of dengue vaccine research, an overview of currently available dengue vaccines, her ongoing research developing new vaccines, and the challenges around vaccine implementation and surveillance.

A panel discussion followed with the keynote speakers and two additional vaccine experts, Rupali Limaye, PhD ’12, MPH, MA, an associate professor in the GDEC Program in the Department of International Health and 2nd year MSPH student Morghan Park . During the panel, attendees had the opportunities to ask questions about dengue vaccine research and implementation, issues around vaccine hesitancy, and the importance of improving communication and trust around vaccines within communities.

The event also hosts a poster session that showcases vaccine-related research by students and faculty at the Bloomberg School. Each year this session brings about a rich forum of discussions and knowledge sharing around ongoing research and awards the top 3 student poster presentations. This year over 40 posters were displayed by faculty, staff, and students. The 2024 poster winners are:

1st Place: Binh Nguyen, Zhengrong Li and Samandika Saparamadu – “To Subsidize or Not to Subsidize: The Cost-Effectiveness of RSV Vaccination Among Infants in the U.S.”

2nd Place: Molly Sauer and Prachi Singh – “Characterizing Potential Acceptability of Maternal RSV Vaccination in Kenya: A Latent Class Analysis Approach”

3rd Place: Laura St Clair – “mTOR Activation is associated with greater protective antibody responses following Influenza Vaccination in Young Adult Female compared to Male Mice”

Finally, the new cohort of PAVE Scholars was announced during the event. PAVE, Program in Applied Vaccine Experiences , supports vaccine-focused internships for Johns Hopkins students at international organizations that hold critical roles in global vaccine policy and delivery. Students spend 12 to 16 weeks working full time at one of the partner organizations, gaining valuable experience in vaccine research, policy, and programs of global importance. The outstanding PAVE Scholars 2024 cohort is:

Kedest Mathewos (PhD, Health Systems): Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Rithika Rajesh (MSPH, GDEC): Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Stella Dlamini (MSPH, GDEC): WHO, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals

Georgia Artzberger (MSPH, GDEC): WHO, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals

Wally Wennerberg (MSPH, GDEC): UNICEF

Haley Challgren (MSPH, GDEC): PAHO

Watch the recorded keynote addresses and panel session.

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Americans overwhelmingly say access to IVF is a good thing

The political debate around access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) intensified this year,  following an Alabama Supreme Court decision in February that frozen embryos could be considered children .

An April Pew Research Center survey finds that Americans overwhelmingly say people having access to IVF is a good thing.

Seven-in-ten adults say IVF access is a good thing. Just 8% say it is a bad thing, while 22% are unsure.

There are only modest differences in views of IVF access across most demographic and partisan groups.

Related: Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists 2 Years After Dobbs

Pew Research Center asked about Americans’ views of in vitro fertilization (IVF) as part of a larger study exploring their social and political attitudes. Questions covered Americans’ views on the legality of abortion and their perceptions of abortion access.

We surveyed 8,709 U.S. adults from April 8 to 14, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

Views by gender

Women (70%) and men (69%) are about equally likely to say IVF access is a good thing.

Views by religious affiliation

Across religious groups, far more people say IVF access is a good thing than a bad thing.

White nonevangelical Protestants and religiously unaffiliated Americans are particularly likely to say IVF access is a good thing (78% each). Clear majorities of White evangelicals (63%), Black Protestants (69%) and Catholics (65%) also say this.

Views by partisanship

About six-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (63%) say IVF access is a good thing while one-in-ten say it’s a bad thing. Another 27% are not sure.

By comparison, Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely to say IVF access is a good thing (79%) and somewhat less likely to say it is a bad thing (5%) or that they are unsure (16%).

Views by opinion on abortion

Regardless of their support for or opposition to legal abortion, clear majorities say having access to IVF is good.

Those who say abortion should be legal in all (82%) or most (76%) cases are particularly likely to say IVF access is a good thing.

But even those who say abortion should be illegal in most cases generally view IVF access positively (60% say it’s good). And while views of IVF are least positive among those who say abortion should always be illegal, this group is still twice as likely to say having access to IVF is good (40%) as to say it’s bad (20%). An additional 40% say they are not sure.

Views by beliefs about when life begins

When considering Americans’ views about when life begins, there is a similar pattern.

Overall, about a third of Americans say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well. Among those who express this view, 59% say IVF access is a good thing, while just 13% say it is a bad thing.

Among those who say the statement describes their views somewhat well, 61% say IVF access is a good thing.

A larger share (82%) of those who do not hold the view that life begins at conception have a positive view of IVF access.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

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Gabriel Borelli is a research associate focusing on U.S. politics and policy at Pew Research Center .

Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists 2 Years After Dobbs

Few east asian adults believe women have an obligation to society to have children, public has mixed views on the modern american family, the modern american family, with a potential ‘baby bust’ on the horizon, key facts about fertility in the u.s. before the pandemic, most popular.

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Research: Negotiating Is Unlikely to Jeopardize Your Job Offer

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• Zhiying (Bella) Ren

A series of seven studies found that candidates have more power than they assume.

Job seekers worry about negotiating an offer for many reasons, including the worst-case scenario that the offer will be rescinded. Across a series of seven studies, researchers found that these fears are consistently exaggerated: Candidates think they are much more likely to jeopardize a deal than managers report they are. This fear can lead candidates to avoid negotiating altogether. The authors explore two reasons driving this fear and offer research-backed advice on how anxious candidates can approach job negotiations.

Imagine that you just received a job offer for a position you are excited about. Now what? You might consider negotiating for a higher salary, job flexibility, or other benefits , but you’re apprehensive. You can’t help thinking: What if I don’t get what I ask for? Or, in the worst-case scenario, what if the hiring manager decides to withdraw the offer?

• Einav Hart is an assistant professor of management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, and a visiting scholar at the Wharton School. Her research interests include conflict management, negotiations, and organizational behavior.
• Julia Bear is a professor of organizational behavior at the College of Business at Stony Brook University (SUNY). Her research interests include the influence of gender on negotiation, as well as understanding gender gaps in organizations more broadly.
• Zhiying (Bella) Ren is a doctoral student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on conversational dynamics in organizations and negotiations.

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Robots' and prosthetic hands' sense of touch could be as fast as humans

Research at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. Their study has been published in the journal Science . The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a stroke.

"Our system can determine what type of object it encounters as fast as a blindfolded person, just by feeling it and deciding whether it is a tennis ball or an apple, for example," says Zhibin Zhang, docent at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Uppsala University.

He and his colleague Libo Chen performed the study in close cooperation with researchers from the Signals and Systems Division at Uppsala University, who provided data processing and machine learning expertise, and a group of researchers from the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Neurogeriatrics at Karolinska Institutet.

Drawing inspiration from neuroscience, they have developed an artificial tactile system that imitates the way the human nervous system reacts to touch. The system uses electrical pulses that process dynamic tactile information in the same way as the human nervous system. "With this technology, a prosthetic hand would feel like part of the wearer's body," Zhang explains.

The artificial system has three main components: an electronic skin (e-skin) with sensors that can detect pressure by touch; a set of artificial neurons that convert analogue touch signals into electrical pulses; and a processor that processes the signals and identifies the object. In principle, it can learn to identify an unlimited number of objects, but in their tests the researchers have used 22 different objects for grasping and 16 different surfaces for touching.

"We're also looking into developing the system so it can feel pain and heat as well. It should also be able to feel what material the hand is touching, for example, whether it is wood or metal," says Assistant Professor Libo Chen, who led the study.

According to the researchers, interactions between humans and robots or prosthetic hands can be made safer and more natural thanks to tactile feedback. The prostheses can also be given the ability to handle objects with the same dexterity as a human hand.

"The skin contains millions of receptors. Current e-skin technology cannot deliver enough receptors, but this technology makes it possible, so we would like to produce artificial skin for a whole robot," says Chen.

The technology could also be used medically, for example, to monitor movement dysfunctions caused by Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, or to help patients recover lost functionality after a stroke.

"The technology can be further developed to tell if a patient is about to fall. This information can be then used to either stimulate a muscle externally to prevent the fall or prompt an assistive device to take over and prevent it," says Zhang.

• Diseases and Conditions
• Human Biology
• Engineering
• Robotics Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Neural Interfaces
• Carpal tunnel
• Rett syndrome
• Robot calibration
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
• Computer vision
• Humanoid robot

Story Source:

Materials provided by Uppsala University . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Libo Chen, Sanja Karilanova, Soumi Chaki, Chenyu Wen, Lisha Wang, Bengt Winblad, Shi-Li Zhang, Ayça Özçelikkale, Zhi-Bin Zhang. Spike timing–based coding in neuromimetic tactile system enables dynamic object classification . Science , 2024; 384 (6696): 660 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf3708

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