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Watch: How did Maya civilisation change?

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What happened to the ancient Maya?

From around 1517 - 1697 Spanish invaders (conquistadores) started to destroy the Maya cities and people.

The Spanish were armed with artillery, steel swords and muskets (guns) the Maya had only spears, bows and arrows.

A Modern Maya city with Spanish warrior watching

The invaders brought diseases which were new to the Maya. They also tried hard to remove all traces of Maya culture over the following centuries.

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Did Maya culture and society survive?

The Spanish conquest resulted in centuries of cruelty towards the Maya people, causing their population to get smaller. In spite of this, many Maya people kept some of their traditions.

The remote villages continued the Mayan beliefs and language. In the late 19th and early 20th century, people began to study the Maya culture. So Mayan people tried to keep their way of life.

Watch: Maya remains

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Buildings

The Maya people built many cities, temples, pyramids, palaces and gateways in stone which have been uncovered and excavated.

Each region and city had different building materials, limestone or volcanic materials. There were complex networks of defensive walls and ditches, brightly coloured with paint.

What do they look like now?

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 8, A Maya warrior next to a road, Take a look at some of the fascinating ancient ruins from around the Maya world.
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Weapons

Stone blade points used as weapons have been found.

Images show kings and warriors in body armour with swords and shields and tell us about what they wore in battle.

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Writing

Maya writing on fire.

Mayan writing was the most sophisticated system in Mesoamerica, dating back to 300 BC.

Mayan script survived on stone inscriptions (鈥荣迟别濒补别鈥), frescoes, ceramic vessels, wooden lintels and cave walls.

The Spanish conquistadors tried hard to destroy all evidence of Maya writing in the 16th century and only three books survive, a tiny fraction of all their writing.

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What about the Maya today?

Today there are over seven million Maya people, most of whom live in Central America and southern Mexico.

There are 250 museums around the world with Maya items in their collections.

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 5, Two Maya girls looking at each other in modern day Tikal, Explore modern Maya life by clicking through the images.

There are currently鈥31鈥痙ifferent Mayan languages being spoken today.

However, these languages are becoming endangered because of鈥痙iscrimination.鈥疭ometimes people won鈥檛 even be offered jobs if they speak a Mayan language!

To keep these languages alive, some people write literature in Mayan languages as well as Spanish, so that their culture will not die out forever.

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Activities

Activity 1: Quiz 鈥 Remains of the Maya

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Activity 2: History Explorer game

Play this game to test your knowledge and learn even more facts about the ancient Maya.

History Explorer: Secrets through time

History Explorer: Secrets through time: KS2 History

History Explorer: Secrets through time
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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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