Maya music

The music of the ancient Mayan courts is known through descriptions in native and Spanish 16th-century texts and the depiction of performances in the art of the Classic Period (200-900 AD). Many instruments have come to light, so that tonal reach and scales can be studied, but no musical notation has survived, and the music itself disappeared after the dissolution of the Maya courts following the Spanish Conquest. Music played a vital role in the public rituals and ceremonies, with instruments being grouped into orchestral sections.

Instruments:

Flutes were made of wood, bone, reed, or clay, with one or several tubes. 
Long trumpets were, amongst other things, used to announce visitors and accompany the king on his state visits. 
Rattles (maracas) were usually made from gourds, but archaeological evidence from Pacbitun, Belize, shows that sophisticated forms of maracas, along with the small balls inside, were also crafted in fired ceramic materials.
Large vertical drums (which the Aztecs called huehuetl) were made of wood and have not survived. The much lower standing kettle drums that have been found - often shaped like a bulbous jar on a pedestal, single or double - are earthenware.

Maya calendar

The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.

The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 5th century BCE.

The Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood. The Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count is known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolk'in. The Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haab' to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haab', called the Calendar Round. The Calendar Round is still in use by many groups in the Guatemalan highlands.the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.

day-k'in 

20 days-winal 

360 days-tun

 20 years-k'atun 

144000 days-b'ak'tun

Periods of Mayan history

Postclassic period - During the succeeding Postclassic period (from the 10th to the early 16th century), development in the northern centers persisted, characterized by an increasing diversity of external influences. The Maya cities of the northern lowlands in Yucatán continued to flourish for centuries more; some of the important sites in this era were Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Edzná, and Coba.

Colonial period - The Spanish Church and government officials destroyed Maya texts and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance three of the pre-Columbian books dated to the post classic period have been preserved.[24] These are known as the Madrid Codex, The Dresden Codex and the Paris Codex.[25] The last Maya states, the Itza polity of Tayasal and the Ko'woj city of Zacpeten, were continuously occupied and remained independent of the Spanish until late in the 17th century. They were finally subdued by the Spanish in 1697. 

Periods of Mayan history

Preclassic period - Scientist still discuss about beginning of Maya civilization, it's about 2600 BC, but Maya calendar begins on a date equivalent to 11 August 3114 BC. This period characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery and fired clay figurines.  http://www.history.com/topics/maya 

Classic period - (c. AD 250–900) was one of the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions.The people developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered civilization consisting of numerous independent city-states – some subservient to others. This includes the well-known cities of Caracol, Tikal, Palenque, Copán, Xunantunich and Calakmul, but also the lesser known Lamanai, Dos Pilas, Cahal Pech, Uaxactun, Altun Ha, and Bonampak, among others. The most notable monuments are the stepped pyramids they built in their religious centers and the accompanying palaces of their rulers.Other important archaeological remains include the carved stone slabs usually called stelae (the Maya called them tetun, or "tree-stones").

http://www.ancient.eu/Maya_Civilization/

      

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization which lived in nowadays Guatemala. They are known for his art, architecture,mathematical and astronomical systems, and the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas.Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to AD 250), according to the mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period (c. AD 250 to 900), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.

History of Mayas is divided on four periods: 

1. preclassic period 
2. classic period
3. postclassic period
4. colonial period 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization#Geographical_extent