The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D.250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.

　　玛雅文明是最富盛名的早期文明之一。玛雅人发展了天文，历法，文字，同时在建筑上包括寺庙、宫殿和瞭望台有很高的造诣，这些建筑均不适用金属。同时他们是经验丰富的种植者，在缺水的地方开辟大型水库储存雨水，同时他们善于编制、制陶，开辟通道与远距离的人们进行贸易往来。

　　关键词：astronomy, calendrical, hieroglyphic writing, architecture, reservoir, weaver, potter, swamp

　　Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900. Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centres. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centres continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.

　　玛雅人采用君主制。各地自治管理。公元900年，玛雅社会开始走向衰退，而衰退的原因一直是一个谜。公元1200年，玛雅北部团结成为托尔铁克。

　　关键词：hierarchical, peripheral, thrive

　　Maya history can be characterized as cycles of rise and fall: city-states rose in prominence and fell into decline, only to be replaced by others. It could also be described as one of continuity and change, guided by a religion that remains the foundation of their culture. For those who follow the ancient Maya traditions, the belief in the influence of the cosmos on human lives and the necessity of paying homage to the gods through rituals continues to find expression in a modern hybrid Christian-Maya faith.

　　玛雅文明对后世有着深刻的影响：宇宙观，对上帝的敬仰。