<P> The Maya created one of the most developed and best - known Mesoamerican cultures . Although authors such as Michael D. Coe believe that the Mayan culture is completely different from the surrounding cultures, many elements present in Maya culture are shared by the rest of Mesoamerica, however, 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 Yucatec Maya language is called Chaac . </P> <P> The beginnings of Mayan culture date from the development of Kaminaljuyu, in the Highlands of Guatemala, during the middle Preclassic period . According to Richard D. Hansen and others researchers, the first true political states in Mesoamerica consisted of Takalik Abaj, in the Pacific Lowlands, and the cities of El Mirador, Nakbe, Cival and San Bartolo, among others, in the Mirador Basin and Peten . Archaeologists believe that this development happened centuries later, around the 1st century BCE, but recent research in the Petén basin and Belize have proven them wrong . The archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya never formed a united empire; they were instead organized into small chiefdoms that were constantly at war . López Austin and López Luján have said that the Preclassic Maya were characterized by their bellicose nature . They probably had 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 . Confirmation that the Maya practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism came much later (e.g. by the murals of Bonampak). </P> <P> Writing and the Maya calendar were quite early developments in the great Maya cities, c. 1000 BCE, and some of the oldest commemorative monuments are from sites in the Maya region . Archaeologists once thought 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 as large as 400,000 inhabitants at its peak, circa 750, Copan, and others . Drainage, aqueducts, and pavement, or Sakbe, meaning "white road", 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 . </P> <P> The elite controlled agriculture, practiced by means of mixed systems of ground - clearing, and intensive platforms around the cities . As in the rest of Mesoamerica, they imposed on the lowest classes 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, c. 370, the Mayan political elite sustained strong ties to Teotihuacan, and it is possible that Tikal 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 descendants of the Maya led a group of European and American archaeologists to these cities, which had been swallowed over the centuries by the jungle . </P>

The earliest pre hispanic cities in mesoamerica date to