Maya

the Indian people occupying the area of Veracruz Chiapas Tabasco Campeche and Yucatan together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador The Maya peoples are dark short and brachycephalic and at the time of the discovery had attained a higher grade of culture than any other American people They cultivated a variety of crops were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton fabrics used cacao as a medium of exchange and were workers of gold silver and copper Their architecture comprised elaborately carved temples and palaces and they possessed a superior calendar and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing with records said to go back to about 700 a d