The Mayan's were a great civilization that is divided into three time periods which was nearly 3,000 years long. The first is the Pre-Classic Period spanning from 2000 B.C.-250 A.D. The second is the Classic Period which spanned from 250 A.D.-900 A.D. The third is the Post-Classic Period which spanned from 900 A.D.-1500 A.D. The Mayans lived in the eastern one third of what was called Mesoamerica, which is mainly the Yucatan Peninsula. They are a group of related Native American tribes who have the same linguistic organization. All groups of the maya have set many standards of living, and organization that are still used today and are yet to be surpassed. .
The maya empire had many different groups that all covered an amazing amount of territory in their times of power. The best known group of Mayans was the Maya Proper. The Maya Proper was mainly found in the Yucatan. There are other groups of Maya such as the Huastec, who occupied northern Veracruz; the Tzental who occupied Tabasco and Chiapas and the Quiche; and the Cakchiquel that occupied the Highlands of Guatemala. Besides the Huastec, all of these groups occupied a continuous landscape and were all part of the huge Mayan culture. This culture was what is known as the greatest civilization among the original cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Even though all the the Mayan groups had common organization, they were not run under one empire. There were many separate groups with like cultural backgrounds. The Mayans had common artistic and religious beliefs, but politics wise many were independent Mayan states.
Agriculture was the main basis of the Mayan economy in the pre-Colombian era. Maize was the primary crop of the Maya. Cotton, beans, squash and cacao were also grown. They had many techniques of spinning, dyeing and weaving cotton. The Mayan culture also domesticated the dog and the turkey to help with work and so on, but had no larger animals or machines with wheels to do a lot of the work.