Post 2 - Origin of Cities

Origin of Mayan cities.

 

The ancient people would find a desirable place, such as beside a stream, and several families would build their homes close together in a village so they could help each other.  They would choose a leader, perhaps the man who was the best hunter or they thought was the wisest, but often they chose a shaman, someone who claimed that he knew how to communicate with the spirit gods, the unseen deities who controlled the unseen forces they feared, such as sickness and famine.  As the village grew into a city, this shaman became their king and their spiritual leader as well.

This king needed assistants to help him lead and govern the people, so he appointed helpers and gave them authority over his subjects.  They became the aristocrats, his overseers for the work that needed to be done.  They collected taxes for him and they helped him lead the religious services.  The king directed that the people build a palace for him, fine homes for the aristocrats and a pyramid as a place to worship their spirit gods.

Now they had cities, each with a king and a government and an official religion, and the cities did trade with each other, but they did not have an empire.  This apparently peaceful and laid back era of Mayan history is known as the Pre-Classic period.   The empire was formed later, during the creative Classic period, and researchers are still attempting to determine if some event or some person initiated the change, because it was drastic and seemed to occur suddenly.