The Maya people (or Mayans) represent the Maya civilization, an Antiquity Age civilization in Civilization VII.
The Maya's civilization ability is Skies of Itzamna, which grants their Palace 
Science from adjacent Vegetated tiles. Their associated 
Wonder is the Mundo Perdido, and their unique assets are as follows:
Intro[]
Atop stone pyramids, the forest canopy gives way to stars, and from here the Maya plot their fate. In the thrill of the ball-court and in the words of the ancient poems, their heroes enact the drama of creation. Rise to the conch-shell horn, and don the feathered headdress – the Maya set forth.
Tips and hints[]
The Uwaybil K'uh Unique Quarter grants Production every time you research a Technology. Pair this with the Calendar Round Civic, which grants Culture for finishing Technologies and Science for finishing Civics!
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
Mesoamerica has one of the longest-known histories in the New World. The earliest evidence for settlements comes from nearly 10,000 years ago, but most details are lost to time. The Olmec (not their word) is one of the most visible of these ancient cultures (existing from around 1500-400 BCE), and they seem to display the classic Mesoamerican features: the ball game, religion centered around blood and bloodletting, and colossal stone art.
The Maya adopted much of this culture – indeed, the term Maya refers to a cultural formation rather than a single state or polity. As such, pinning down the "start" of the Maya civilization is a challenge as there is no single ruler who emerged from the beginning. The Maya speak of the creation of the world, where Heart of Sky toiled to build a caretaker for the animals out of mud and clay. These old forms proved inadequate, but humans (Maya) grew out of corn.
The formation of Maya culture extends from 2000 BCE to the present, and the term “Maya” encompasses everything Preclassic to the Zapatistas of today. In Civilization, we refer to the Classic Maya, between 250 BCE and 900 CE, when some of the greatest structures in Mesoamerica were built.
By 200 BCE, the Maya were already living in complex cities, with impressive stone artistry and the iconic Maya hallmarks – the script and the calendar. Early studies posited that the Maya were a peaceful, priestly society. The American New Age movement had a notion that Maya cities were merely temples and sites for astronomy that rose out of the jungle. This is profoundly incorrect; LIDAR and earlier studies have revealed dense networks of canals and cultivated zones that extended around cities. Furthermore, cities were not at all peaceful. City-states were frequently at war, and human sacrifice was common. Still, the fascination between pseudoarchaeology, New Age spirituality, and the Maya remains.
Maya cities were relatively large for the time, reaching around 100,000 people, and were enmeshed in complicated political systems of vassalage, suzerainty, wars, and alliances. Internally, Tikal and Calakmul played the political chessboard, maneuvering lesser city-states into their orbit and against their rivals. Externally, the northern (non-Maya) city-state of Teotihuacan exerted both antagonistic and cooperative pressure.
Maya society was split between nobility and the populace. Cities were ruled by an ajaw, a king, or a k’uhul ajaw, an emperor, and a lot of effort was spent on court events. Trade extended to New Mexico and down to Panama, including turquoise, cacao, vanilla, cotton…and enemies unlucky enough to be captured and sold. Cities occasionally took a democratic stance, overseen by a council of elite lineages.
Around 800 CE, things started to fall apart. The environment might have been a part of it. Maya cities rarely depended on rivers as they were built atop the large natural aquifer of the Yucatan peninsula, which was useful for preventing the spread of water-borne disease and provided ubiquitous sources of fresh water across the forest but was also vulnerable to changing climates. During a drought, a river might slow to a trickle, but some form of stream will remain. On the other hand, when underground sources of water dry up, they dry up everywhere.
The downfall of the Maya also had something to do with a series of fragile alliances with places like Teotihuacan that threw the system into chaos and opened the doors to war. There is evidence of a unique style of warfare, something that didn't produce a traditional depopulation, but an extermination of elites – a kind of Jacobite revolution where elites were deposed in a bloody fashion.
Of course, the Maya persisted. Maya society reconfigured around sources of water in the highlands, and temple systems were built to manage irrigation, a departure from the aquifer-related irrigation previously used. Sites like Chichen Itza grew in importance, but many abandoned cities remained abandoned. A political confederacy formed, the League of Mayapan, and various other Maya kingdoms came about: the K’iche’, the Kaqchikel, and others.
The next stage of the Maya is well known. Spanish contact occurred around 1511, and the last city fell in 1697. However, the Maya had dealt with disaster before. They have survived under different flags and endure even today.
Cities[]
Age Transition Quotes[]
When age progress reaches 100% or player gets eliminated/retires, one of these quotes will be read depending on the last legacy path completed:
- Culture: "Hewn from the earth beneath their feet, the wonders of the Maya shone as bright as the stars above."
- Economic: "There were no Maya without their traders, no cities without their markets, no distance too great to ensure their prosperity."
- Military: "As a farmer cultivates his land, so did the Maya dominate their neighbors. Better to pledge loyalty than lie fallow."
- Science: "The Maya enshrined their knowledge not to hoard it, but to show how close they came to the divine."
- Defeat: "The Maya were not immune to the ravages of time, and turned to dust as all things do. But in that dust remained the stuff of stars."
Trivia[]
- The Maya civilization's symbol is the head of the Feathered Serpent (known as Kukulkan in Yucatec Maya), a prominent supernatural entity found in many Mesoamerican myths.
- The Maya civilization ability is named after Itzamna, the Mayan creator deity thought to reside in the sky.
Soundtrack[]
| Original Track | № | Based on | Credits | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Maya (Antiquity Age)" | 13 | Composed by Roland Rizzo Performed by Sandro Friedrich, Roland Rizzo, AJ Block, & Jared Denhard |
5:10 |
Gallery[]
.png "Maya city in-game (Civ7).png (4.98 MB)")
.png "Hul'che in-game (Civ7).png (960 KB)")
.png "Jaguar Slayer in-game (Civ7).png (868 KB)")
.png "Uwaybil K'uh in-game (Civ7).png (930 KB)")
.png "Mundo Perdido in-game (Civ7).png (4.01 MB)")
.png "Maya Background (Civ7).png (1.17 MB)")
Videos[]
See also[]
- Maya in other games
External links[]
| Civilization VII Civilizations [edit] | |
|---|---|
| Antiquity | |
| Exploration | |
| Modern | |
| 1 Requires DLC | |