The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.

Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900. Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centres. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centres continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.

 

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Name: Mayan  Blade
Location: Guatemala, Central America
Comments: This is a Mayan blade napped out of Obsidian. The details are gorgeous!  These specimens all come from Guatemala and may have been used in the Mayan Religious Rituals (which included cutting out a prisoners heart!) Very thought provoking pieces to hold.  The specimen will come in a 6" x 8" Riker Mount as shown...

Mayan  Blade 1 -  Price $225.00 

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Mayan  Blade
Location: Guatemala, Central America
Comments: This is a Mayan blade napped out of Obsidian. The details are gorgeous!  These specimens all come from Guatemala and may have been used in the Mayan Religious Rituals (which included cutting out a prisoners heart!) Very thought provoking pieces to hold.  The specimen will come in a 6" x 8" Riker Mount as shown...

Mayan  Blade 2 -  Price $225.00 

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Mayan  Blade
Location: Guatemala, Central America
Comments: This is a Mayan blade napped out of Obsidian. The details are gorgeous!  These specimens all come from Guatemala and may have been used in the Mayan Religious Rituals (which included cutting out a prisoners heart!) Very thought provoking pieces to hold.  The specimen will come in a 6" x 8" Riker Mount as shown...

Mayan  Blade 3 -  Price $255.00 

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Mayan  Blade
Location: Guatemala, Central America
Comments: This is a Mayan blade napped out of Obsidian. The details are gorgeous!  These specimens all come from Guatemala and may have been used in the Mayan Religious Rituals (which included cutting out a prisoners heart!) Very thought provoking pieces to hold.  The specimen will come in a 6" x 8" Riker Mount as shown...

Mayan  Blade 4 -  Price $295.00 

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Name: Obsidian Core
Location: Vera Cruz, Mexico
Comments: These are Obsidian Cores that would have been used to flake off blades for various uses...  they would have been used to make smaller, utilitarian blades/scrapers by the Coaptepec-Totomac Culture of Vera Cruz Mexico.  300 AD

Mayan Obsidian Core 3 -  Price $50.00