# @itsaihistory on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DQXp-q-DwJ9
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61744809-itsaihistory-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/dcc8371f03.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-28T22:27:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Parker Gordon (@itsaihistory) — https://gondola.cc/itsaihistory

## Caption

🏺 The Maya — Daily Life at Chichén Itzá, Part I - c. AD 1000

Daily life:
Plazas ran lively markets (cacao, salt, textiles, obsidian, jade, shells, pottery). Meals: maize tortillas/tamales/atole, with beans, squash, chiles. Work: farming, portering, weaving, pottery, stonework; copal incense at shrines. Families lived in thatch-roof homes on limestone platforms with garden plots and drew water from nearby cenotes. Rituals and the ballgame were regular.

Where did the Maya come from?
Early farming communities by ~1500 BC in today’s southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize; over centuries they developed calendars, cities, and a writing system.

What language did they speak?
A Mayan language family (not one tongue). Inscriptions used Classic Maya (Ch’olan); spoken languages included Yucatec, K’iche’, Tzeltal. Many are still spoken.

Where did they live?
Across the Yucatán Peninsula (SE Mexico, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea), Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras/El Salvador — Mesoamerica.

Did they have a capital?
No single capital — a network of city-states (Tikal, Palenque, Copán, Chichén Itzá).

What was Chichén Itzá?
A major political, economic, and religious center c. AD 900–1100. El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcán) shows alignments widely interpreted as calendrical (equinox serpent effect).

Around AD 1000:
Power shifted north after many southern Classic cities declined; markets and ritual life remained vibrant.

What happened to them?
No single “collapse.” Droughts, resource strain, warfare, and trade shifts weakened some cities; communities adapted and reorganized.

Do the Maya still exist today?
Yes — 6M+ Maya live across Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras.

Did Spain cause their collapse?
Conquest in the 1500s ended remaining Maya states’ independence via war/forced labor/disease — not Maya culture, which endures.

#itsaihistory #history #maya #chichenitza #yucatan #mesoamerica #mexico #guatemala #honduras

## Stats

- **Views:** 26,527
- **Likes:** 915
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- **Comments:** 40

## Tags

yucatan, history, mexico, guatemala, itsaihistory, maya, honduras, mesoamerica, chichenitza

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