Art From This Era Reflected a Loss of Trust in the Heavenly or Celestial
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The Mayans are Mesoamerican civilizations adult by their people called the Maya. It is known for its advanced and beautiful writing organisation, culture, arts, math, calendar, and astronomical system. Click here to see more posts in this category.
Scroll downward to meet more than articles nigh the history of the Mayans.
Mayan Symbols
Mayan symbols are a rich source of material culture for the Key American civilization and are amidst the nigh of import archeological finds that have helped piece together their economic science, farming methods, politics, and social practices.
Symbols bear the heart of every culture, and every culture'south symbols represent its inner reality to the people of that civilisation. Symbols tin can be annihilation, a gesture, a song, a phrase or an image. They ofttimes carry many layers of meaning that anybody in the culture understands intuitively.
Hundreds of Mayan symbols can be found carved on stone, which allows archeologists and other researchers to gain an understanding of their culture. In fact, Mayan writing consists of symbols called glyphs. Of the hundreds of Mayan symbols, some appear more than often on the carved stelae and temple walls in Mayan cities, revealing their importance to the culture. Glyphs of animals were powerful symbols to the Mayans, especially the jaguar and the eagle. The following shortlist describes a few of import Mayan symbols.
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Kukulkan
The Mayan feathered serpent deity Kukulkan was known to other Mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs and Olmecs who worshipped the god under different names. The myth surrounding this deity mentions the god as a creator of the cosmos in the Popul Vuh, the Kiche Maya sacred book. The ophidian god is as well chosen the Vision Serpent. Feathers represent the god's power to soar in the heavens while as a snake the god can besides travel the earth. Kukulkan cult temples during the Post-Classical era can be found in Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan. The snake cult emphasized peaceful trade and good communication among the cultures. Since a snake tin can shed its peel, it symbolizes renewal and rebirth.
Jaguar
The jaguar, to the Mayans, was a powerful symbol of ferocity, strength, and valor. Since the large cats can see well at night, information technology symbolizes perception and foresight. As a god of the Mayan underworld, the jaguar ruled the celestial forces of night and solar day. As such, information technology represents control, confidence, and leadership. Mayan warriors wore jaguar skins into boxing every bit a sign of honor and courage. The Mayans held the jaguar second only to Kukulkan in religious importance.
Hunab Ku
In the Yucatec Mayan linguistic communication, Hunab Ku means one god or the only god. The term appears in the 16th-century texts such as the Book of Chilam Balam, written after the Spanish had conquered the Mayans. Hunab Ku is associated with Itzama, the Mayan creator god. Mayan scholars believe the concept of a supreme god over all the others was a belief that Spanish friars used to convert the polytheistic Mayans to Christianity. Hunab Ku was popularized by a modern Maya twenty-four hours-keeper, Hunbatz Men, who considered it a powerful symbol associated with the number zero and the Milky Way. He calls information technology the sole giver of movement and measurement. Scholars of the Maya say there is no pre-colonial representation of Hunab Ku, but New Historic period Mayans have adopted the symbol to stand for universal consciousness. Every bit such information technology is a popular design used for modernistic Mayan tattoos.
6 Reasons Why the Mayans Were an Awesome Civilization
Over the terminal few decades, the Mayan civilization has deeply captured our interests and imaginations. Generations of curious explorers accept dived headfirst into the deep jungles of Central America and discovered buried cities, remarkable pyramids, spiritual mysteries, and astronomical and mathematical wonders that acquired our fascination with this ancient civilisation to grow.
They left behind intricate architecture, unique cuisine, and languages that take had a tremendous impact on our mod earth. Notwithstanding, the deeper we swoop into the Mayan universe, the more than obscure our vision of it becomes. Later years of research and excavations, historians are still unable to tell us who these people really were, where they came from, and how their smashing empire collapsed. Even so, the footling that we have learned reveals that the Mayans were an impressive, sophisticated and awesome culture.
They Invented the First Organized "Ball Game"
When we think of sports, some of the showtime things that come to mind are brawl games such as football game and basketball, cheerleaders, and expensive halftime shows. We rarely retrieve about the origins of these organized games, which date back thousands of years to the subtropical regions of Fundamental America. Today's sports fans take naught on the Mayans. These people were serious about their games, deadly serious. Matches were life or death competitions accompanied by circuitous religious rituals.
Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the largest excavated site in the entire American continent, houses v ancient ball courts that date back more than 3000 years. Researchers believe that the first organized team brawl game in history was held there past the Mayans. Forget about golden medals and million-dollar contracts – the Mayans competed for their right to alive. The winning team kept their lives, and the losing team was sacrificed to the gods and got to spend eternity in the Underworld.
Ballplayers wearing jade necklaces, little protective gear, and scary face paint would step out into hard stone courts seeking victory. They used a heavy eight-pound safe ball with a human skull in the middle of it. The game consisted of passing this ball around without it touching your hands, and and then getting information technology to pass through a small basketball-similar hoop. That is some serious ball!
They Adult Some of Our Favorite Foods
A lot of today'southward favorite foods were developed in the ancient Maya world. For example, the Mayans were the offset to take out the seeds of cacao and toast them to make hot chocolate. They didn't make One thousand&Ms or Snickers bars, nor did they add milk or sugar to make the cacao gustation sweeter. Instead, they drank their chocolate straight up as part of religious ceremonies. The Mayans saw cacao as a sacred fruit sent to them by the gods and even used it as currency. When the Spaniards got to Central America, they adapted the beverage and added sugar and milk to make it sense of taste better.
They were likewise responsible for other popular foods such as guacamole, corn tortillas, micheladas, and tamales.
They Used Glitter to Make Their Temples Shine
In 2008, scientists discovered large traces of mica, a shiny glittery material, while analyzing a Mayan temple in Honduras. Information technology is believed that they painted their sacred temples with mica in lodge to brand them sparkle in the sun. The paint would give their holy buildings a mystical appearance during the day.
They Built Pyramids to Reverberate Astronomical Events
The Mayans were probably the nigh advanced astronomers during their time. Many of their amazing structures, such as the temple of Kukulcan, were congenital solely to depict astronomical events. During equinoxes, a shadow called the ophidian slithers in a serpent-like motion forth with 1 of the temple's staircases. This effect is acquired by the sunday's angle, and how its light hits the edifice terraces.
At the Chichen Itza temple, the front staircase of the building marks Venus's well-nigh northern position. The corners of the building as well marshal with the sun's position during summer solstice and winter solstice.
They Adult the Concept of Zilch
While many historians believe that the thought of zero first originated in Babylonia, the Mayans independently developed information technology during the 4th century. Zero was represented as a shell-shaped glyph.
They Built a Bang-up Civilization in the Middle of the Rainforest
One of the near intriguing things about the Mayans is how they were able to build, develop, and sustain a great civilisation in the middle of the rainforest. Other big civilizations typically built their swell empires in dryer climates, where centralized management systems formed the foundation of their cities.
The Mayans took advantage of the area's natural resources such as limestone, salt, and volcanic stone, and were able to thrive in information technology despite unstable climates.
Mayans at War
Ecology challenges, disputes with neighbors, and scarcity of resources led to the Mayans being at war. For many years, archeologists thought the Mayans a peaceful people, capable of war, but rarely indulging in it. However, equally archeologists explored more Mayan cities and more evidence was uncovered, they realized that Mayans ofttimes fought wars, specially during the Late Classical era of 600 to 900 A.D. In fact, during that time a series of misfortunes hit the Mayans:
- population exceeding the carrying capacity of the land
- deforestation leading to soil erosion
- decrease in soil fertility
- sustained drought
- malnutrition and disease
- decreased trust in Mayan rulers
- growing hostility among city-states as resources became deficient
- owned warfare
Before wars were fought for captives for human sacrifice, and for land, natural resource, and control of trade networks. Urban center-states might even accept arranged battles for captives as the Aztecs did with their Flower Wars.
However, the population growth and environmental destruction of the Late Classical era meant less food to feed the hungry cities. War for resources became owned with battles fought between big city centers that dragged in many smaller polities. As warfare became more all-encompassing and constant, Mayan societies began to fall autonomously. Finally, surviving Mayans abased their lowland cities and disappeared from that area.
The Mayans were tearing warriors, while not quite at the level of the Mongols, yet a deadly threat to their neighbors.
Mayans at War: Long Altitude Weapons
The Mayans had both long-distance weapons and melee weapons. The long-distance ones included bow and arrow, blowgun, slings, and throwing spears. When the atlatl or spear-thrower was brought to the Mayans from Teotihuacan around 400 A.D., it was quickly adopted and became the Mayans' dominant long-distance weapon. The atlatl greatly increased the accuracy, forcefulness, and range of the spear; when thrown from an atlatl a spear reportedly could pierce the Spaniards' metal armor. The blowgun was predominantly used for hunting, merely it had some wartime uses equally well. Mayan warriors used bows and arrows more than during the Post-Classical era.
Mayans at War: Melee Weapons
When armies clashed in battles, they used melee weapons, including clubs, axes, stabbing spears, and knives. The Mayan war club resembled the Macuahuitl of the Aztecs in that information technology was lined with obsidian blades on three sides. These 42-in long clubs could stun, intermission bones, or cut. They were capable of cutting off a horse's head. Mayans besides used axes with heads of stone, obsidian, flintstone, or bronze. The sharp edge of the ax could kill, but the dull border could stun. The object of the battle was oft to capture, not kill, enemy warriors, making the ax a skillful weapon. In manus-to-hand combat, the Mayans used the same 10-inch bract knives they used in sacrifices.
Mayans at War: Defensive Weapons
The Mayans built fortifications around some of their cities. Examples of this include Seibal and Tikal. For defence force, warriors carried shields, and elites and veterans wore thick, cotton wool armor treated with rock common salt that could withstand obsidian. Helmets were unknown and warriors wore elaborate headdresses instead. Warriors also used body paint and animal skins to testify their condition.
Mayans at State of war: Unusual Weapons
The Popul Voh, the book of the Kiche Maya, tells of hornets and wasps used as defensive weapons. When attackers came, defending warriors had gourds filled with hornets that they threw into the midst of the attackers. Hornets erupted out of the gourds and angrily attacked, killing many warriors. The defenders won the battle.
Mayan Fine art of the Tattoo
Mayans practiced many forms of torso modification, including deforming a baby'southward skull to create a pleasingly elongated shape, fostering crossed optics, filing teeth, inlaying jade into a tooth, piercing, and tattooing. The Mayans did this to be pleasing to the gods, for social status, and for personal beauty. The noble form performed equally many body modifications as they could, equally Mayans believed the more extreme a modification, the higher the condition of the individual. However, fifty-fifty Mayan commoners filed their teeth and tattooed their skin.
Both Mayan men and women got tattoos, although men put off tattoos until they were married. Mayan women preferred frail tattoos on their upper bodies although non on their breasts. Men got tattoos on their artillery, legs, backs, hands, and faces.
Getting a tattoo was painful. The tattooist would first paint the design on the body, then cut the design into the skin. The resulting scar and paint created the tattoo. The process often led to affliction and infection. Mayans who got tattoos were honored for their bravery during the process, equally information technology meant they had the fortitude to bargain with the hurting and suffering.
Mayan tattoos depicted symbols of the gods, power animals, and spiritual symbols to express harmony and residue or the power of night or twenty-four hours. Powerful animals such as serpents, eagles, or jaguars were favorites of nobles and warriors. Feathered serpents, a symbol of the powerful god Kukulkan, represented spirituality and wisdom. Eagles symbolized foresight and flight. Jaguars embodied bravery, stealth and ability. These are still popular Mayan tattoos today.
Mayans honored their gods by depicting their myths in tattoos. When the Spaniards first saw tattooed Mayans, they were horrified to run across people with "devils" pictured on their skin. Cortez found a Spaniard who had been shipwrecked living among the Mayans. Cortez asked the homo, Gonzalo Guerrero, if he wanted to return to Spain. Guerrero replied that he couldn't since he had tattooed his face and pierced his ears.
Mayans were intensely spiritual people; to them, tattooing held deep meaning. Offset, tattoos designated their social status, specialized skills, and religious power. Tattooing was as well a sacrifice to the gods, to requite the gods their suffering and claret. The symbols they chose as their tattoos represented their totem animal or the gods, who would and so imbue their lives with a measure of power.
As a difficult and unsafe process, tattooing was the accuse of the Mayan god Acat. While all Mayans were encouraged to get tattooed, many did non. The painful procedure of getting a tattoo turned many away. Getting a tattoo required time, as tattooists worked carefully 1 step at a time to create a tattoo. People often got ill during the process and would take to take fourth dimension to recover. Overall, the Mayans loved torso modifications and considered the pain a part of the process in order to laurels the gods.
The Mayan Calendar
What nosotros call the Mayan calendar is actually a set of three interlocking calendars, the sacred calendar of 260 days chosen the Tzolkin, the solar agenda of 365 days known as the Haab, and a Long Count calendar of much longer time periods. When the Mayans inscribed a date on a temple wall or a rock monument, they wrote the date using all three agenda notations. Every 52 years, the Tzolkin and the Haab come dorsum in sync with each other. This was chosen a Calendar Round.
Tzolkin
The Tzolkin or sacred agenda consisted of twenty periods each with 13 days for a 260-day count. Each twenty-four hour period had a number and a proper noun, the numbers from 1 to 13 and xx-solar day names. When the 13 numbers were gone through, they began once again, and the 20-day names connected. When the mean solar day names were gone through, they repeated, and the numbers continued up to 13. The cycles of thirteen and xx repeated until they came back to the first number, the first proper noun over again in 260 days. The priests who kept the calendars used the Tzolkin to determine days for sowing and harvest, military triumphs, religious ceremonies, and divination.
Haab
The solar agenda or Haab has 365 days fabricated up of 18 months of 20 days each, which adds up to 360 days. The remaining five days at the end of the year is an unlucky, dangerous time known equally the Wayeb. Mayans stayed home and neglected all activities during this fourth dimension to avoid disaster. In the Haab agenda, a 24-hour interval is represented by a number in the month, then the name of the month. In that location were 19-calendar month names, plus Wayeb for the dreaded five-day calendar month, making 20-month names.
Long Count Calendar
In social club to keep runway of longer periods of time, the Mayans used the Long Count calendar. The Long Count counts all the days since the beginning, which the Mayans marked every bit August 11, 3114 B.C. The Long Count calendar is cyclical equally each menses of time will begin again, only it is besides linear. Considering it is linear, it can take into business relationship dates far in the future or in the by. The basic unit of this calendar is the tun, a year of 360 days, the basic Haab year without the five-twenty-four hour period Wayeb. Long Count dates are expressed in five digits. The five digits represent a kin (mean solar day), uinal (month), tun (year), katun (xx years) and baktun (20 katuns).
Mayan Dates
Most Mayan dates note both the twenty-four hours of the Tolzkin and the Haab calendar. For instance, a solar day may be marked as 2 Chik'chan 5 Pop, with two Chik'chan being the date in the Tzolkin calendar and 5 Pop the appointment in the Haab, being the 5th day of the month Pop. The next twenty-four hours would be iii Kimi 6 Pop. When the Mayans inscribed a date on a stela, however, they also included the v digits of the Long Count calendar. Thus January 1, 2000 would exist written 12.19.six.15.two 11Ik 10 K'ank.
For more in-depth data, see Living Maya Time or Calendars Through the Ages.
Mayan Cultural Achievements
When we think of the Mayans and their culture, what comes to mind? The first affair that would occur to a reader would be the astonishing Mayan cities in the jungles of Central America. Other readers would mention the fascinating Mayan calendar and the predicted terminate of the world in 2012. Scholars would discuss the complex math and writing systems of the Mayans and their vast noesis of astronomy. A sports fan might know of the Mayans ' invention of safety, which they used in the balls for their famous ball game. The Mayans' many cultural achievements remain with united states of america today, thanks to defended archeologists and anthropologists.
Architecture
Temples and towers soar above the rainforest. Neat city centers include extensive plazas lined with stepped pyramids, svelte palaces, elite homes, and ceremonial platforms. Many buildings in the city center were astronomically aligned to the solstice or equinox. Stone stelae tell of the nifty deeds and lineages of kings. Elaborate carvings of gods, masks, and myths cover the surfaces of buildings and grand stairways. Carved rock courtroom makers dot the royal ball courts where formalism games were played to the death. Stone causeways known as sacbeobs linked Mayan cities, the longest one being 100 kilometers. Virtually amazing is that the Mayans congenital their distinctive cities, roads, and aqueducts without draft animals, wheeled vehicles or metal tools.
Political and Social Complication
At start, Mayan scholars thought the Mayans had a uncomplicated social and political structure consisting of an aristocracy and a peasantry. More contempo archeological finds have revealed a circuitous gild with a large middle class that was more than powerful and successful than previously believed. The Mayan middle class consisted of merchants, warriors, engineers, architects, physicians, artists, craftsmen, government officials and administrators. Nobles often were artists and warriors, and talented, skilled peasants could ascension into the eye class, revealing a certain amount of social mobility. Socially stratified societies let a civilisation to grow and develop, although it can too lead to structural inequalities.
Writing
The Mayan writing organization, its mathematics in service of astronomy, and the circuitous three interlocking calendars in one were major cultural achievements. The Mayans were ane of the few cultures to come up up with the concept of naught. They could calculate sums in the hundreds of millions, all with a base 20 math arrangement and uncomplicated number symbols. The Mayan writing arrangement fully represented their spoken languages, the only Mesoamerican writing arrangement to do so. Hundreds of glyphs and pictograms represent things, ideas, concepts or syllables, and words. While merely the noble class was fully literate, many Mayans could no doubt read or recognize the public writings on walls and monuments. Nosotros'll discuss the Mayan agenda in a separate article.
Other Cultural Achievements
The Mayans produced many technological innovations and inventions. They knew how to make safety from glue trees. They created a full rainbow of paint colors, including the famous Maya Bluish. Most Mayan paints were mineral-based, using mica, copper, or other minerals. Maya Bluish's major belongings is indigo bound to the mineral palygorskite, which makes it a bright blue color. Tough, durable Maya Blueish has resisted the humid Mesoamerican climate for centuries. The Mayans adult intensive and extensive agricultural techniques in order to feed their thriving guild, including terracing, raised-bed farming, and irrigation. 1 Mayan cultural achievement is universally recognized: chocolate. Thanks to Mesoamericans, Mayans amid them, people around the world savor this delicious nutrient.
The Mayan Pantheon: Gods and Goddesses
With between 166 and 250 named gods, the Mayans had a complex and changeable pantheon. They had gods to oversee every man activity and aspect of life: gods for birth and death, for the brawl game and gambling, for travel and traders, for pregnant women and infants, for youth, age, health, and suicide, for wild nature and for agriculture, a god of maize and of thunder, creator gods and gods of destruction, expiry gods and gods of heaven. All of these gods were child-bearing as well. They could be one sex activity or both, immature and old, adept merely sometimes evil, depending on the time and circumstance.
Because of the complexity, it is unlikely that modernistic minds could fully grasp the Mayan faith and pantheon. However, scholars accept deciphered enough of the Mayan codices and hieroglyphics to cite the major Mayan gods. These gods are listed below, simply the listing is not comprehensive by any means.
Itzamna
Itzamna is a creator god, one of the gods involved in creating human being beings, and the male parent of the Bacabs, who upheld the corners of the earth. Itzamna taught humans the crafts of writing and medicine. Itzamna is sometimes identified with the loftier god Hunab Ku and the sun god Kinich Ahau.
Yum Kaax
A nature god, Yum Kaax is the god of wild plants and animals, the god of the woods. He is the god venerated by hunters and past farmers, who hunt wild animals or carve their fields out of his woods.
Maize God
The Mayans had both a female and a male person maize god and both a uncomplicated vegetative god and a more powerful, tonsured male maize god. The tonsured maize god personifies maize, cacao beans, and jade. He is a patron god of the scribal arts, dancing, and feasting. Mayan kings ofttimes dressed as the maize god during rituals of his life, expiry, and regeneration.
Hunab Ku
Hunab Ku is a pre-Columbian god whose name translates as the only God or the i God. Scholars are notwithstanding debating whether Hunab Ku is an indigenous god or a creation of the Spanish. Most retrieve he is indigenous. The Spanish focused on Hunab Ku in persuading the Mayans of the core belief of Christianity.
Kinich Ahau
Kinich Ahau is the sunday god of the Mayans, sometimes associated with or an attribute of Itzamna. During the Classic menses, Kinich Ahau was used every bit a royal title, carrying the idea of the divine king. He is likewise known in the Mayan codices as God G and is shown in many carvings on Mayan pyramids.
Ix Chel
9 Chel is the goddess of medicine and midwifery, likewise known equally the goddess of making children. She is represented as an aged woman.
Chaac
Chaac is the goggled-eyed rain god, of prime importance to the Mayans. Chaac has a iv-fold aspect, with each aspect representing the cardinal directions and colors. Chaac brought clouds, thunder, lightning and most importantly, rain.
Kukulkan
Kukulkan is the feathered snake god of the Mayans. Kukulkan was worshipped by other Mesoamerican cultures such as the Aztecs, where the god was known as Quetzalcoatl. A Mayan cult grew up around Kukulkan, the priests of which helped peaceful merchandise and communications among the Mayans. Human sacrifices were offered to Kukulkan.
Mayan Religion and Cosmology
Much of the Mayan religion is not clearly understood today considering of its complexity and a rich pantheon of deities. Scholars have been able to decipher some of the major elements of Mayan religion, but other elements may never be known.
Cosmology
To the Mayans, the world was flat with 4 potent gods at each of the corners representing the cardinal directions. Above the earth was heaven with its thirteen layers, each represented by a god. Below was Xibalba or the underworld, a cold, unhappy place divided into nine layers, each with its own Death Lord. When a Mayan died of natural causes, his spirit went to the underworld where it had to piece of work its way up through the layers to get to the supreme heaven. Women who died in childbirth, those who died as a sacrifice, and sacrificial victims of the brawl court went to the supreme heaven immediately later death.
Spiritual World
The Mayans were animists in their beliefs, that is, they believed that everything was imbued with a spiritual essence or force, including inanimate objects such as rocks and water. These spiritual essences were to be honored and recognized. The gods were the supreme spiritual forces, but even the spiritual essence of a tree or a frog deserved respect. Every Mayan had a spiritual guide, a Wayob that could appear as an animal or in a dream in order to help that person through life. Thus, to the Mayans, the entire world they lived in was filled with spiritual forces. At times, the spirits required appeasement; at other times, they could be helpful.
Cyclical Nature of Fourth dimension
The Mayan thought of time was cyclical, cycles of creation and destruction, of seasons, of rituals and events, of life and expiry. When Mayans died, it was believed they had moved on, not concluded forever. Maize was of such primal importance to the Mayans that the life-cycle of the maize found is at the heart of their religion as is the Maize God himself. All of Mayan life was intimately bound up in cycles, which tied in to the centrality of the Mayan calendars.
Importance of Calendar/Astronomy
Mayan priests closely tracked all the cycles important to Mayan life. Priests kept the calendars, the solar bike calendar with its 365 days, the sacred calendar of 260 days and the Long Count Calendar. They also interpreted the cycles, looking for clues to the time to come and prophetic inspiration. Priests determined the days propitious for religious rituals and ceremonies. The priests who kept track of cycles and calendars were expert mathematicians and astronomers. Planet cycles were tracked in order to recognize patterns, which they then relayed to the rex of the city. Mayans believed that the gods imparted meaning to celestial patterns from which their priests could foretell the futurity.
Features of Mayan Cities
Mayan architecture spanned over a thousand years. Many cities incorporate similar features such equally stepped pyramids, temples, palaces, and carved stone monuments, but not all of them contain everyone. Each city is dissimilar, equally the Mayans built to accommodate the natural environment. Rather than a rigid filigree pattern, like that at Teotihuacan, the Mayans followed a more spontaneous approach to urban pattern.
The Mayans tended to build around a cardinal plaza where they located the near important buildings, those involved with public ceremonies. Around the key plaza are the pyramids, some with a wooden temple built on meridian, the palaces, brawl courts, temples, and elite dwellings. Stone walkways linked residential areas with the city heart. Farther out, more plazas were built, around which were the homes of mutual people. All, however, could reach the heart for the great religious ceremonies. The centre of every Mayan city was the central plaza.
The main buildings in a Mayan city were huge rock structures, remarkable to united states today as they were congenital without metal tools, wheeled vehicles or typhoon animals. Most are made of limestone from local quarries where stoneworkers carved out the cracking blocks. Limestone is soft plenty to work with stone tools while in the quarry but hardens when removed from their beds.
Pyramids and Temples
Mayan stepped pyramids are iconic of the corking Mayan cities. Pyramids and temples were aligned astronomically to the orbits of the sun and moon. Some pyramids take temples on summit. Mayan priests used the temples in ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. Many have elaborate carvings and glyphs on their sides. Some of the Mayan pyramids are huge, soaring up two hundred feet like that at El Mirador.
Palaces
The regal family unit of each Mayan polity lived in the palace, oftentimes large, elaborate buildings with many stories. Palenque'southward palace, for case, is probably the most cute with its courtyards, patios, and towers. The size of many palaces included more space than that required for even a royal family unit's abode. Palaces, in these cases, were besides authoritative centers where government officials regulated trade and tribute.
Ceremonial Platforms
Most Mayan cities feature ceremonial platforms of limestone, nearly 12 feet high, where religious rituals and public ceremonies were held. Highly decorated with carvings and glyphs, these platforms might concord altars or statues.
Ball Courts
Ball courts are a common feature of Mayan cities, some with just i, some with many. The basic fashion is the same, but they varied greatly in size. As noted in the article on the Mayan ball game, information technology could exist played simply for fun and athletics but it also had a deeply religious and ceremonial aspect as well. Scholars now think that the winners of a ceremonial ball game were the ones sacrificed, not the losers every bit had been assumed.
Stelae
Mayan stelae monuments announced all over Mayan areas, usually in the great cities. Alpine, elaborately carved stone pillars or shafts usually relate the lineage and heroic deeds of kings, often paired with circular altars on peak of ceremonial platforms. The earliest stela dated past the long count calendar appeared in Tikal. Mayan stelae historic a king's divine mandate to dominion.
Mayan Societal Collapses
While most readers are aware of the more famous collapse of the Archetype era, an earlier Mayan plummet preceded it during the Late or Terminal Pre-Classic era. The reasons for the earlier collapse remain as murky every bit those for the latter, but both emptied out great Mayan cities and resulted no doubt in much death and destruction. Neither, yet, ended Mayan culture, every bit millions of Mayans remain in their historical homelands even today. Both collapses remain 1 of archæology's greatest mysteries.
What caused these societal collapses? There are many theories, but archeological proof for ane single cause is lacking. We know, from looking at the downfall of past civilizations such as Rome, that a combination of causes is far more likely than one singled-out cause. Scholars today await at the many factors that could lead to the collapse of a vigorous society, both external and internal. Scholars cite environmental degradation as a probable component: soil erosion, decreasing fertility of the soil, volcanic eruption, deforestation, and drought were all elements of the ecological disaster for the Mayans. A population that exceeds the carrying chapters of the environment ever leads to ecological destruction.
Other scholars look at societal pressures: decreasing natural resource that led to increased contest and endemic warfare over the same shrinking fertile lands. Political strife, the people losing organized religion in their leaders, aristocracy contest, malnutrition, and illness combined with massive environmental issues led to a drastic decline of Mayan populations in the Pre-Archetype from A.D. 100 to 250 and at the end of the magnificent Classic era from 900 to 1100.
Mayan scholars put forth a variety of theories regarding the Mayan collapses including endemic warfare, strange invasion, epidemic diseases, disruption of trade routes, climate change, systemic ecological collapse, and long-lasting sustained drought. All of these and more may have contributed to massive declines in population and the abandonment of major Mayan cities. What is more than remarkable is that the Mayans take survived it all, yet retaining their culture and beliefs on the same land their ancestors held. While well-nigh Mayans today are Catholic, many retain elements of their culture and beliefs, even visiting their peachy cities of old.
The Mayan Post-Classic Era
While millions of Mayans died or at least disappeared during the years of the Classic era collapse, the Mayan civilization didn't totally vanish. The great cities of the southern lowlands were abased and the remaining Mayans took their civilisation to the northern Yucatan where they settled. Gradually, they built new cities. Other already settled Mayan cities expanded. Mayan life and society continued with a change of emphasis from the deep religiosity of the Classic period to a more secular society focused on economic growth and prosperity. This culture continued until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
The major cities of the Mail-Classic era include Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan. Other Mayan cities in northern Belize such every bit Santa Rita, Colba, and Lamanai also flourished every bit did some Mayan groups in the Peten region of Republic of guatemala at Tayasal and Zacpeten.
The Mayans of the Yucatan, still, had some hard challenges to overcome, namely switching from a rainforest surround to the much drier climate of the Yucatan. The Yucatan Mayans managed to switch their reliance on surface reservoirs of h2o to the use of groundwater resources such as the subterranean basins and sinkholes known every bit cenotes. Cenote Sagrada remains a sacred well within the grounds of Chichen-Itza. Arid on the surface, the Yucatan holds its water underground, which immune the Mayans to flourish.
While in general the Mayans of the Mail-Classic period moved abroad from the religious domination of the priesthood and divine rule of kings, they became more attentive to the rain gods, due to the dehydration of the Yucatan. Carvings of Chac, the Mayan rain god, embrace the buildings of Post-Classic era cities, especially Uxmal.
The Mayans came under the influence of the Toltecs, a people that moved into the area from Mexico after the autumn of Teotihuacan. Sculptures and architectural style reflect this influence as does the Mayans sacrificing to the Toltec pelting god, Tlaloc forth with Chac. Scholars take notwithstanding to detect the exact political and social relationship of the Mayans and Toltecs, simply both cultures influenced the other.
Chichen-Itza dominated the Yucatan during the earlier years of the Postal service-Classic era from A.D. 900 to 1250. After the decline of Chichen-Itza, its rival city Mayapan go dominant. The Mayans might have taken their name from this not bad Post-Archetype city. Maritime trade around the Yucatan grew during the later years of the Post-Archetype, from 1250 to the coming of the Spanish.
The Castilian began their conquest of the Mayans in 1527, but information technology took them 170 years to finish the procedure. Each Mayan city-state had to be conquered separately as there was no central Mayan regime. Every bit the Yucatan was poor in precious metals, the region was far less attractive to the Spanish than central Mexico. The Castilian finally won against the last Mayan city in the Peten in 1697. In the meantime, European diseases and enslavement demolished the Mayans and ended the Mail-Classic era of Mayan civilization.
Women in Mayan Gild
In early Mayan studies, archeologists assumed that women were subordinate to men in Mayan society. Men were kings and rulers of the city-state, and men were rulers in their homes. Contempo studies oasis't inverse that notion, simply new enquiry shows that women were more central to Mayan society than previously believed. During the Classical era, certain women held power as rulers in their cities, either equally regents for an underage son or every bit widows of a ruler who died without an heir. Women likewise served as oracular priestesses at diverse sacred sites. Women worked in the Mayan economy, in agronomics, and peculiarly in the textile industry. While virtually Mayan women-led traditional lives of caring for their households, others held far more power.
Women as Rulers
While women, in general, were non involved in Mayan politics, occasionally circumstances would identify a woman in the function of ruler. During the Classical era, women gained political power every bit politics shifted and became more complex. 5 noblewomen during this time became the ruling queens of their city-states. These women were Muwaan Mat and Lady Yohl Ik'nal of Palenque, Lady Eveningstar of Yazchilan, the Lady of Tikal, and Lady Vi Heaven of Naranjo.
Another powerful woman ruler was Lady Yard'abel, whose tomb was discovered recently. Lady K'abel was the military ruler of El Peru-Waka between A.D. 672 and 692. I of the hieroglyphics constitute at the tomb describes her as Lady Snake Lord, revealing that Lady K'able was a member of the powerful Snake dynasty of Calakmul.
Women as Priestesses
Although women were non ordinarily considered part of the religious bureaucracy, contempo studies reveal that many women were priestesses at pilgrimage sites in the Post-Classical era in the Yucatan. Caves and cenotes—a natural pit containing groundwater—were sacred places to the Mayans where they would offer sacrifices. They were popular pilgrimage sites drawing elite Mayans as well equally commoners, especially on the islands off the declension of the Yucatan. These sites were often dedicated to the moon goddess or to Ix Chel, the goddess of fertility, midwifery, and medicine. Priestesses there guided pilgrims along the pilgrimage trail. They as well served as diviners or fortune-tellers for visitors.
Women in the Economic system
Women worked in agricultural roles as farmers and herders. They likewise produced all the textiles of the Mayan economy, for both local markets and trade networks. Equally spinners, weavers, and dyers, women produced bones cloth for their families merely as well produced elaborate textiles as works of art. While most food products were consumed locally, some were traded widely such as cacao and vanilla beans. In some Mayan areas, women raised deer herds, ensuring a sufficient deer population to feed the population. Women's piece of work in agriculture and textiles made meaning contributions to the Mayan economy.
Distinctive Features of the Maya Culture
Maya culture shared many characteristics with other Mesoamerican cultures such equally the Olmec, Zapotec, or Aztec, only retained some features purely Mayan. The Maya, for example, had the just writing organisation that represented the spoken language of the Mayans. While other Mesoamericans also had a form of pictographic writing, the Maya had the just fully developed writing organization. In fact, many aspects of Maya culture were more refined or perfected forms of art and architecture or the complex calendar shared amongst all Mesoamerican cultures. Because of extensive trading networks, all Mesoamerican cultures influenced the others.
Geography
Mayans lived in southern United mexican states and northern Primal America including Republic of guatemala, El salvador, Honduras, and Belize. This surface area includes the northern lowlands, central lowlands, and southern highlands. These areas include rainforests, savannas, semi-arid highland plateaus, semi-alpine peaks, and swampy low areas. Such an assortment of landscapes is host to a rich diversity of wild animals and plants; Maya culture adapted creatively to this diverse natural world.
Faith
The Maya religion centers on the cyclical nature of time, in constant birth, death, and rebirth. Maya rituals follow both terrestrial and angelic cycles, which Maya priests were experts at reading. Maya civilization depended on maize or corn and the Maya maize god was of central importance. Similar the Aztecs, Mayans practiced human sacrifice, although non to the extent of the Aztecs. Car-sacrifice, or bloodletting, by rulers, priests and nobles were common. Great pyramids held temples and tombs amid huge central plazas in every Maya metropolis. Religion was central and a vital component of Mayan life.
Architecture
A Maya metropolis can be recognized from the stepped pyramids, huge plazas, and expansive palaces built for kings and nobles. 1 religious ritual common to many Mesoamerican cultures was the sacred brawl game, with a brawl court congenital close to temples. Carved stone monuments called stelae are found all over the Mayan areas. Stelae were carved in bas relief to celebrate the life and deeds of Maya rulers and nobles and can notwithstanding exist seen today. With the invention of the corbelled arch, Maya builders created low-cal and blusterous rooms that lent their temples and palaces a decided gracefulness.
Writing System
The Maya developed a complex writing organisation that represented their spoken linguistic communication, the only fully developed writing system from a Stone Age culture. Maya script relied on over a thousand glyphs or symbols which could represent either a syllable or a give-and-take. The Maya wrote books called codices fabricated of bark paper and folded like an piano accordion.
Mathematics, Astronomy, Calendar
The Maya excelled in their utilize of mathematics especially as it pertained to astronomy and the working out of their calendar. The astronomical observations of the Maya were quite authentic, denoting the movements of the planets, particularly Venus, and the sun and moon. From these excellent astronomical notations, the Maya synthetic and perfected the Mesoamerican calendar, which included both the sacred, ritual 260-twenty-four hours calendar and the 365-mean solar day solar agenda with the Long Count Calendar. The Long Count Calendar began on the date August 11, 3114 B.C., and entered its next cycle on December 21, 2012. The brouhaha over the cease of the world date of December 21, 2012, began when the stop of a long cycle was interpreted as the finish of the world.
Rise and Autumn of Maya Culture Over 3,000 Years
Since Mayan culture formed, dissolved, and reformed over many hundreds of years, scholars divide the years into 3 principal fourth dimension periods: Pre-Classic (2000 B.C. to A.D. 250), Classic (A.D. 250 to 900), and Post-Classic (900 to 1519). These eras are briefly described here only will be more fully covered in afterwards articles. Once the Castilian arrived in 1519 and conquered, the Colonial Era began. The Spanish brought European diseases that killed millions of Mesoamericans, including the Maya. Nonetheless, Mayans survived to the present time and still live on the same lands as their ancestors.
Over the centuries, Mayans built hundreds of stone cities, some of which were prominent in one era just faded into obscurity in later years. At the end of both the Pre-Archetype and Classic eras, Mayan civilisation seemed to "collapse." However, the Mayans never disappeared entirely. Afterward a period of recovery, new Mayan cities were built and the culture continued to flourish.
The Maya were not a single group of people; rather they were dissimilar tribes, clans, and families of people, speaking a variety of Mayan languages who all shared strong cultural ties and traditions. The strength of Maya civilization and civilisation is evidenced by the bully span of time it dominated Mesoamerica, over 3,000 years.
Pre-Classical Era
Scholars debate the outset of Maya civilization, but generally, place the kickoff settlements effectually 1800 B.C. in northern Republic of guatemala. One of the oldest Pre-Classic sites is San Bartolo in the Maya lowlands. Their archeologists have dated murals to 100 B.C. and glyphs of the earliest Maya writing to 300 B.C. Other of import Maya sites of this time include El Mirador, Nakbe, and Cival. Around A.D. 100, the Mayan people left their cities, although the reason for this decline is not known.
Classic Era
Maya scholars date the Archetype era from A.D. 250 to 900. During these centuries, the Maya developed a more stratified social club with farmers, traders, craftsmen, and hunters. They formed a hierarchy with a king at the pinnacle supported by a noble form of warriors, scribes, and priests. Most Maya were commoners, deeply involved in agriculture and construction. Monumental building projects created such important Maya cities as Tikal, Palenque, Copan, Caracol, and Calakmul. Intensive agronomics fed the large populations. The Maya developed long-distance trading networks with Teotihuacan, the Zapotec peoples, and the Caribbean isle-based Tainos. Stepped pyramids commanded urban center centers along with expansive palaces of the rulers. The Maya adult complex hieroglyphic writing during these centuries. During the ninth century, the Maya in one case again experienced a societal collapse, and many major cities in the lowlands were abandoned. The Classic era collapse will be explored in total in some other article.
The classic era is divided into the early (250 to 600), late (600 to 800), and concluding (900 to 1100).
Early Archetype
During the early on classic catamenia, many Mayan cities developed in the southern lowlands, including Tikal in the Peten, Calakmul in Campeche, and Caracol in Belize. Stone monuments called stela portray dynastic rulers with emblems of power. More than metropolis-states developed in the lowlands including Palanque, Yaxchilan, Altar de Sacrificios, Copan, and Quirigua. The northern lowlands saw the growth of Edzna, Ek Balam, and Coba. All these cities traded with one another, although they also fought each other for control of trade. The great Mexican city of Teotihuacan influenced Maya culture during much of the early classics. Merchandise with that city brought a new weapon, the atlatl or spear thrower. Teotihuacan also extended political power into the Peten and may even have installed a dynastic ruler in Tikal.
City-states of the early classic held populations of x,000 to 100,000 in a circuitous, stratified culture. At the top, a hereditary king and a small class of elite nobles ruled. Merchants, artisans, bureaucrats, engineers, architects, warriors, and artists all had their established places in Mayan society. Common laborers and slaves did the backbreaking piece of work of intensive agriculture and massive building. Trading networks stretched throughout Mesoamerica. City-states jockeyed with each other for power and command, especially Tikal and Calakmul.
Late Classic
The late classic menstruation from 600 to 900 was a time of growth and evolution for some great Mayan urban center-states and a time of deep decline for others. Tikal, for instance, which had flourished and become quite powerful declined drastically a few hundred years later. Around 600, Teotihuacan was sacked and burned. Kaminaljuyu declined too. Withal overall, many more Mayan city-states grew and prospered. Populations expanded and art, writing, astronomical knowledge, and calendrics reached their height. Palenque, Copan, Dos Pilas, and Uxmal flourished during this time. More Mayan cities were built.
Yet, destructive wars began to accept their cost during these years. Caracol allied with Calakmul to bring down Tikal. Cities expanded, fabricated alliances, and undertook huge edifice projects. However, endemic warfare could and did bring them down. The 700s and 800s saw steep declines in many city-states for reasons scholars are however debating. By the 900s, a dozen major Mayan city-states and many smaller sites were abandoned.
Terminal Classic
Scholars call the years from 900 to 1100 the last classic for a reason. The tens of millions of Mayans live in the 800s had exceeded the carrying capacity of even intensive agriculture. Drought, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, and deforestation led to malnutrition, starvation, and affliction. To the environmental factor, add together abiding warfare and loss of faith in ruling dynasties. While scholars cite no ane principal reason for the collapse of the Mayan classic period, no doubt complex political, social, and ecology factors led to its decline.
Postal service-Classic Era
The 9th century saw a modify in location for major Maya sites as they moved from the lowlands to the Yucatan peninsula. Gradually the Maya once again began building, establishing cities such equally Chichen Itza, Tula, Uxmal, Edzna, and later, Mayapan. The Yalain, Ko'woj, and Itza Maya peoples remained in Republic of guatemala's Peten district. Their main sites include Tayasal, Zacpeten, and Q'umarkaj, the city of the K'iche (or Quiche) Maya who produced the Popol Vuh, a fascinating drove of historiography and Mayan myths. The Post-Classic era continues through the coming of the Spanish until the conquistadors finally subjugated the Yucatan in 1697.
Overview of Mayan Fine art
The 700 years of the Mayan Classical saw a slap-up flowering of Mayan art. Rock carvings became ubiquitous throughout the Mayan region. The Mayans covered buildings and pyramid stairways with depictions of rulers and hieroglyphic writings. They also created thousands of rock stelae, corking slabs of limestone carved into images of kings and nobility, and covered with writings describing their lineages and deeds of valor.
The Mayan Classical age reveals an abundance of energetic artworks in rock, shells, bone, wood, obsidian, jade, silver, clay, stucco, textiles, and precious metals. Aureate and silvery were never abundant in Mayan regions, so artists mainly forged gilded and silver into jewelry. Elite Mayans, the rulers, and nobility commissioned works of art in order to found their status every bit elites. Painted vessels, stucco portraits, carved obsidian mirrors, and tiny clay figurines all turn up in the tombs of nobles and kings. While kings deputed great works of fine art for public viewings such as statues, stelae, and temple murals, nobles more oft bought smaller, exquisite artworks for personal beautification and habitation decoration.
The artists and artisans creating these works came from every level of society. Many were elites themselves, the sons and daughters of rulers and government officials. Others were commoners whose talents and artistic genius led them to their crafts. For some Mayans, their art or craft was a family business, where every member of the family had a role. Mayan ceramic workers, potters, and figurine makers expressed private talents in their work, even signing their finished products. An individual creative person's works occasionally drew the attention of the dignity, and elites competed to obtain those detail creations.
While most Mayan textiles have not survived the ages, bas relief, statues and murals prove examples of the textile artisans' work. Mayan women were the main textile workers, weaving and dyeing the fabrics—cotton, maguey cloth, or woolens—and then embroidering or otherwise embellishing the cloth. While Mayan clothing was generally simple, clothing decorations were not. Woven tapestries and brocades decorated homes as curtains, drapes, and floor coverings. Mayan communities had their own textile pattern that women would weave into the cloth produced there.
Mesoamerica'due south humid climate ravaged paints equally well every bit textiles, but many examples of Mayan paintings survived in Mayan cities in the homes of the elite. Walls, ceilings, temple arches, and caves are covered in murals depicting the gods, elites, or even scenes from daily life. Red and blackness are the nigh mutual colors of paint, just yellow and especially Maya blue can withal be plant. The bright turquoise Maya blue colour was unique to the Maya, who invented the technique of making the color.
From the corking public stone works to the tiny molded figurines depicting humans, animals or mythic creatures, the Mayan Classical era produced a huge variety of artworks. Regional styles in ceramics or textiles were traded throughout the Mayan region. Some Mayan cities reveal the influence of other Mesoamerican cultures such as the Toltec or Teotihuacan. Nevertheless, all the artworks of this exuberant civilisation are distinctly Mayan.
The Mayan Brawl Game
The Mesoamerican ball game was played, experts think, by all the cultures in the region, offset with the Olmecs who may have invented it. The ball game goes back 3,500 years, making it the first organized game in the history of sports. Mayans loved the game and everyone played at various times, but it also held deep religious, ritual meaning every bit well. For that reason, it was sometimes played just as a game, with lots of gambling on the teams. At other times, the game became spectacle and ritual, with the city rulers playing captive warriors in rigged, ritual games. The captives would lose the game and so be sacrificed.
Virtually, but non all, Mayan cities had brawl courts, many more than than 1. Xiii hundred ball courts are scattered throughout Mesoamerica and all of them accept the same I shape, that is, two sloping walls for the ball to bounce on, a long, narrow playing field, and ii end zones. Guatemala, dwelling of the earliest Mayan cities, holds over 500 brawl courts alone.
While no i knows the exact rules of the brawl game, Spaniards who saw the Aztec games in the 1500s reported that two teams of two to 5 players had to keep the ball in the air without using their hands or feet. They hit the brawl with their upper arms, thighs, or hips. The rubber balls they used were of varying weight and size, from the size of a softball to a soccer brawl. Solid safety balls were heavy—up to viii or nine pounds—and could crusade serious injury or fifty-fifty death. Games were won more often than not past points. Around A.D. 1200, stone circles with a hole in the middle were attached high up on the walls of the ball courtroom, up to six meters loftier. While getting a brawl through the hole was rare, if a player got the ball through the hole, it was an instant win.
Besides games just for fun and athletics, ceremonial games carried a great bargain of religious significance, acting out the creation myth, or keeping the sunday and moon in their accepted orbits. While modern readers may put much weight on such a reason, to the Maya information technology was a matter of life and death and one of the reasons for homo cede. The gods needed human blood and hearts to continue the lord's day and moon in orbit. Some ball games were played to resolve biting disputes between rival cities or as a proxy for state of war. The Maya also saw the game as a boxing between the gods of death and the gods of life or between skillful and evil. They besides saw it as a reminder of the Hero Twins, who overcame death and became demi-gods themselves. Thus, the game symbolizes regeneration and life.
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