Mayan Civilazation

== The Maya is a meso-American civilization, noted for maya script, which is therm only known fully developed writing system of the pre-columbian americas,n including their arts,architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. The Maya civilization shares many features with other meso American civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advacess such as writing,epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the maya; however their civilization fully developed them. The maya peoples survived the classical period collapse and arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and sixteenth century Spanish colonization of the Americas. Maya influence can be detected in the Honduras, Belize,Guatemala, and Western El Salvador, to as far away as central mexico,(more than 620 miles from the Maya area). A typical classic maya polity wss a small hierarchical state, headed by a hereditary ruler known as an ajaw. The Maya maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs resulting from the merger of pre columbian and post conuestt ideas and cultures. Millions of people speak Mayan language today. In 2005 the rabinal achi, play written in the ach language, was declared as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO. Non ecological theories of maya decline are divided into several subcatergories, such as over population, foreign invasion, peasant revolt, and the collapse of Key trade ==