From Wikipedia

Maya Mysteries

The Maya were the creators of the most developed and best-known Mesoamerican cultures. Some authors, such as Michael D. Coe, think that the Mayan culture is completely different from the cultures surrounding it. However, many of the elements present in Maya culture are shared by the rest of Mesoamerica, including the use of two calendars, the base 20 number system, the cultivation of corn, human sacrifice, and certain myths, such as that of the Fifth sun, and cultic worship, including that of the Feathered Serpent and the Rain God, who in the Mayan Language was called Chaac.

The beginnings of Mayan culture date from the development of Kaminaljuyu, in the Highlands of Guatemala, middle Preclassic period. Takalik Abaj, in the Pacific Lowlands, and above all The Mirador Basin in Peten, where the Major cities of El Mirador, Nakbe, Cival and San Bartolo, among others, formed the first true political state in Mesoamerica, according to Dr. Richard Hansen, the UCLA graduated that has more than 20 years researching this area in Guatemala, as well as others researchers, like Dr. Saturno from Vanderbilt University. However, the archaeologist, believed that this development happen centuries later, ca the first century BCE, but the recent researches goin on in Peten and Belice, have proven them wrong. The archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya never formed a united empire; instead they were organized into small chiefdoms that were constantly at war. In fact, López Austin and López Luján have said that if there was one thing that characterized the Preclassic Maya it was their bellicose nature. They were probably a people with a greater mastery of the art of war than Teotihuacan, yet the idea that they were a peaceful society given to religious contemplation, which persists to this day, was particularly promoted by early- and mid-20th century Mayanists such as Sylvanus G. Morley and J. Eric S. Thompson. It was not until much later that it was confirmed (e.g. by the murals of Bonampak) that the Maya practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism.

The great Maya cities ca 1000 BCE, writing and the calendar were quite early developments, and some of the oldest commemorative monuments are from sites in the Maya region. Archaeologists used to think that the Maya sites functioned only as ceremonial centers, and that the common people lived in the surrounding villages. However, more recent excavations indicate the Maya sites enjoyed urban services as extensive as those of Tikal, believed to be 400,000 inhabitants at its peak, ca 750 CE Copan and others, drainage, aqueducts, and pavement or Sakbe, meaning "white road", that united major centers since the Preclassic. The construction of these sites was carried out on the basis of a highly stratified society, dominated by the noble class, who at the same time were the political, military and religious elite.

This elite controlled agriculture, practiced by means of mix systems of ground-clearing, and intensive plattforms around the cities; and, as in the rest of Mesoamerica, imposed on the lowest classes of the population taxes — in kind or in labor — that permitted them to concentrate sufficient resources for the construction of public monuments, which legitimized the power of the elites and the social hierarchy. During the Early Classic Period, ca 370, the Mayan political elite sustained strong ties to Teotihuacan, and it is possible that Tikal, one of the greatest Maya cities in this period, may have been an important ally of Teotihuacan that controlled commerce with the Gulf coast and highlands. Finally, it seems the great drought that ravaged Central America in the 9th century, internal wars, ecological disasters and famine, destroyed the Mayan political system, which led to popular uprisings and the defeat of the dominant political groups. Many cities were abandoned, remaining unknown until the 19th century, when the descendants of the Maya led a group of European and US archaeologists to these cities, which had been swallowed over the centuries by the jungle.