The Maya were an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have always inhabited the peninsula, including the modern Yucatan states of Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas The state runs in Mexico and south through the lands of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. The designation Maya comes from the ancient Yucatan city Mayapan, the last capital of the Maya kingdom in the Postclassic period. The Maya called themselves by ethnic and linguistic affiliations, such as Quiche in the south or Yucatec in the north (although there were many others). The "mysterious Maya" have intrigued the world since their "discovery" by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in the 1840s, but in reality, much of the culture was by the time it was understood Not so mysterious. Contrary to popular imagination, the Mayans did not disappear and the descendants of the great people who built the cities of Chichén Itza, Bonampac, Uxmal and Artha still exist in the same lands and constant practices that their ancestors did , sometimes in modified form, the same rituals that the natives of this land would have recognized a thousand years ago.
Maya Origins
The history of Mesoamerica is usually divided into specific periods, which simultaneously reveal the development of culture in the region. For this definition, the Mayan civilization emergence and development.
During the Archaic Period: 7000-2000 BCE - During this period, hunter-gatherer cultures began to cultivate crops such as corn, beans and other vegetables and the domestication of animals (mainly dogs and turkeys) and plant growth Widely practiced. The first villages in the area were founded during this period, which included shrines and temples dedicated to various gods. The villages excavated so far date to 2000-1500 BC.
The Olmec Period: 1500-200 BCE - This era is also known as the Preclassic or Formative Period when the Olmecs, the oldest culture in Mesoamerica, flourished. The Olmecs settled along the Gulf of Mexico and began building great cities of stone and brick. The famous Olmec heads strongly suggest highly complex sculptural techniques, and the first signs of shamanic religious practices date from this period. The sheer size and scope of the Olmec ruins gave rise to the idea that the land was once inhabited by giants. Although no one knows where the Olmecs came from or what happened to them, they laid the foundation for all future civilizations in Mesoamerica.
The Zapotic Period: 600 BCE-800 CE - Founded around 600 BCE-800 CE in the cultural center of modern Oaxaca, now known as Mount Alban which became the Zapotic The capital area of ??the Kingdom of Croatia. The Zapotecs were clearly influenced by (or possibly related to) the Olmecs, through whom they transmitted some of the most important cultural elements of the region, such as the development of writing, mathematics, astronomy, and the calendar; All these Mayans will improve.
The Teotihuacan Period: 200-900 CE - During this era the great city of Teotihuacan grew from a small village to a metropolis of immense size and influence. Early on, Teotihuacan was a rival to another city called Cuicuilco, but when that community was destroyed by volcano c. By AD 100, Teotihuacan dominated the region. Archaeological evidence shows that Teotihuacan was an important religious center dedicated to the worship of the Great Mother Goddess and her consort, the Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl Kukulkan (also known as Cucamaz) is the most popular god among the Mayans. Like many cities throughout what is now South America, Teotihuacan was abandoned around 900 AD.
The Tachin Period: 250-900 CE - This period is also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history.
El Tajin Period: 250-900 AD - This period is also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history. The name "El Tajin" refers to the great urban complex on the Gulf of Mexico, which is recognized as one of the most important locations in Central America. During this period, great urban centers sprang up across the land, and the Mayans numbered in the millions. The very important ball game that came to be known as Poc-a-Toc developed, with more courts found in and around the city of El Tajin than anywhere else in the region.
Exactly who lived in El Tajin remains unknown, as the city has over 50 different ethnic groups, and dominance has been attributed to the Mayans and Totonacs.
Classic Maya Period: 250-950 AD - This era saw the consolidation of power in the great cities of the Yucatec Maya, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal. In some places the direct cultural influence of the cultural values ??of the Olmec and Zapotec and of Teotihuacan and Tarquin can be seen, but in other places an entirely new culture seems to have emerged (e.g. At Chichen Itza, the artistic and architectural styles are clearly different), although there is ample evidence of cultural borrowing there). This period was the heyday of the Mayan civilization. They perfected mathematics, astronomy, architecture, and visual arts, as well as perfected and perfected the calendar. The oldest date recorded from this era is on Stele 29 at the city of Tikal (292 AD), and the latest comes from an inscription on the stela at the site of Tonina (909 AD). The city-states of the Mayan civilization stretched from Piste in the north to modern Honduras.
Postclassic Period: 950-1524 AD - By this time the great Mayan cities were abandoned. So far, no explanation for the mass exodus from cities to remote rural areas has been identified, but other possibilities of climate change and overpopulation have been strongly suggested. A new tribe in the area, the Toltecs, took over vacant urban centers and repopulated them. At this time, Tula and Chichen Itza became the main cities in the region. The widely held belief that the Spanish conquest drove the Mayans out of their cities is false, as the cities were already vacant at the time of the Spanish invasion (in fact, the Spanish conquistadors had no idea that the natives they found in the area were interested in the massive The urban agglomeration is responsible). The Quiche Maya were defeated at the Battle of Utatlan in 1524 AD, a date that traditionally marks the end of the Mayan civilization.
Maya Culture
The height of the Maya civilization during the Classic Period produced incredible cultural advances for which we all know. The Mayans believed deeply in the cyclical nature of life - nothing is "born" and nothing "dies" - and this belief inspired their view of the gods and the universe. Their cosmology in turn encouraged their imaginative endeavors in architecture, mathematics, and astronomy. Beneath the earth lies the dark realm of Shee-Bal-ba (pronounced "shee-Bal-ba" and translated as "the place of fear"). From there grew the great Tree of Life, which stretched across the earth and towered into the clouds. On the thirteenth floor, reach the paradise of Tamoancha (`the place of the misty sky') where beautiful flowers bloom. However, in Mayan belief, a person does not die and go to "heaven" or "hell", but rather embarks on a journey to Tamoancha. The journey begins in the dark and treacherous underworld of Xibalba, where the Xibalban people are more interested in tricking and destroying a soul than helping one.
However, if you can cross Xibalba, you can find a way to reach heaven through the nine levels of the underworld and the thirteenth level of the upper world. The only way a soul can bypass Xibalba and travel to the Immediate Tamoanchan is by dying in childbirth, as a sacrifice, in war, on the field, or by suicide (the Mayans had a special suicide goddess named Ista cloth, she is depicted as the rotting corpse of a woman suspended in the sky by a noose). Once you reach Tamoanchan, there is eternal bliss, but it must be noted that this paradise is believed to not actually exist in the sky, but on earth. After ascending to the thirteenth level, he no longer lives in the air, but on a mysterious mountain on the earth. It was because of this cyclical view that the Mayans saw no problem with human sacrifice. Those who were consecrated to the gods did not ‘die’ but moved on. This cosmic belief influenced every aspect of Mayan civilization, with regular rituals held in caves evoking the darkness of Xibalba,
The Great Pyramid, which represents many Mayan ruins, is a replica of the Mountain of the Gods known as Witzob . The famous Mayan calendar reflects the cyclical nature of human existence. Many gods and goddesses are depicted with functions that help them through their life cycles or hinder them.
The Great Quiche Mayan religious book Popol-Vu accurately tells the story of this life cycle through the story of the heroic twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque and their victory over the forces of chaos and darkness symbolized by Lord Xibalba. Story. The twins play the famous game Poc-a-Toc with the same purpose.
Poc-a-Toc, the most popular game among the Mayans, is much more than a "game" as it symbolizes human struggle and reflects the way the Mayans viewed existence. Two opposing teams of seven men would face each other on the court and attempt to score a small rubber ball (sometimes up to twenty feet tall, sometimes taller) while defending their goal through a vertical basket fixed to the wall. Even more impressive is the fact that players cannot use their hands or feet, only their hips, shoulders, head, and knees. Spanish Bishop Diego de Landa wrote that watching the Mayans play Poc-a-Toc was like watching a lightning strike, they were moving so fast. It has long been thought that the losing team (or the captain of the losing team) was killed at the end of the game, but recent advances in deciphering Mayan glyphs, as well as archaeological evidence, suggest that it may have been the winning team, or the winning captain, He was given the honor of a quick death and immediate passage to heaven. The game is considered symbolic, not just of the heroic twins' victory over darkness, but of the cyclical nature of life. Maya Schele and Matthews claim: "Many modern myths have grown up about the ball game. The most popular theory is that the Mayans sacrificed the winner in order to deliver a perfect gift to the gods. There is no evidence to support this interpretation. Ancient or Historical Sources” (210). However, this is not entirely correct as the glyphs on many pitches, Chichen Itza to name just one, could be interpreted to show the winning team or captain being sacrificed, Altunha in Belize and Chichen in Yucatan The modern Maya sunkeeper of Itza points to the hope of escaping from the darkness of Xibalba as the reason for the execution of the winner. Regardless of which team was chosen and under what circumstances (since there was evidence of "stars", the team could not be constantly being sacrificed) the ballgame meant a lot to the Mayans and was more than just a spectator sport. As more hieroglyphics are discovered and interpreted, more information about the details of the game and the life of the ancient Maya will gradually emerge.
Mayan Hieroglyphs
Modern difficulties in interpreting Mayan hieroglyphs stem from the actions of the same man who inadvertently preserved much of what we know about the Mayan civilization: Bishop Diego Derain Da. Ordained to the Yucatan Peninsula following the Spanish conquest of the north, Landa arrived in 1549 AD and immediately set about converting Mayan paganism to Christianity. The Mayans were very familiar with the concept of a god rising from the dead from their own god, the Maize God, and they seemed to have accepted the story of Jesus Christ and his resurrection was easy. Even so, Landa believed that a subversive faction was growing among the Maya that was tempting them "back to idolatry," and failed to quell this perceived rebellion by means of prayer and admonition, choosing another, more direct method.
On July 12, 1562 AD, Landa burned more than 40 Mayan codices (books) and more than 20,000 images and stelae at the Mani Church. In his own words, "We found many books with these letters, and as there was nothing in them free from superstition and the wiles of the devil, we burned them, much to the regret of the Indians." Landa, however, walked away. Even further, resorting to torture in order to unlock the secrets of the subversives among the natives and lead them back to what he believed to be the true path of the Church. His methods were condemned by other priests, and he was recalled to Spain to explain his actions. Part of his defense was his 1566 AD work Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, which preserved much of the culture Landa sought to destroy and proved to be a valuable asset in understanding ancient Maya culture, religion, and language.
Only three Mayan books escaped the fire at Mani: the Madrid Codex, the Dresden Manuscript, and the Codex in Paris which had been available to scholars (hence the name of the city where they were found for many years, After they brought back from Yucatan) a wealth of information about Mayan beliefs, especially about their calendar.
These codices were written by scribes who made careful observations in astronomy (the Dresden Codex alone devotes six pages to accurately calculating the ascendant and position of Venus) and their interpretations of the planets and seasons demonstrate a level of understanding that other ancient civilizations could not The accuracy of the comparison. Their stories and books were so important to the Maya that the legend of the Zamna and Hennequen plants describes the great goddess telling the prophet Zamna:
I want you to choose a group from my kingdom family, and three of the brightest Chilamae, to carry works that tell the story of our people and write what will happen in the future. You will come to a place where I will show you and you will find a city. Under its main temple you will protect the writings and future writings.
According to this legend, the city of Izamal was founded by Zamna of the Izas (related to the god Izamna), who placed the sacred writings under the central temple. Izamal is known as the most important pilgrimage site during the Classical period after Chichen Itza. Shamans, known as Daykeepers, would interpret the specific energies of a day or month for people by consulting the gods who presided over the months of the Mayan calendar.
Mayan Calendar
In the Mayan system, there were two calendars in operation simultaneously: the Haab or civil calendar of 365 days, with 20 days in each 18-month period, and the Tzolkin or sacred calendar The calendar is divided into three groups of 20 days each. sky. Haab and Tzolkin worked together, like interlocking cogs in a machine, to create what was called a calendar wheel, but could not account for dates more than 52 days into the future. For longer calculations, the Mayans devised the so-called Long Count Calendar, which has attracted international attention in recent years regarding the end of the world on December 21, 2012. Since the Long Count Calendar began on August 11, 3114 BC, it entered its next cycle (called Buckton) on December 21, AD 2012.
There is nothing in the surviving writings of the Mayans to indicate that this transformation was accompanied by any kind of disaster. On May 10, 2012, it was reported that Boston University archaeologist William Saturno and Boston University student Maxwell Chamberlain were digging at the Xultun Mayan ruins in Guatemala and discovered a 6x6-foot chamber dating to 800 AD. This appears to be a calendar seminar for the Mayan scribes. Paintings and inscriptions on the walls of the room show that the Mayan calendar extended well beyond 2012 AD, and it is understood that the future Bakton people were already engaged in the great cyclical dance of time. According to David Stewart, an expert on Mayan hieroglyphics at the University of Texas at Austin, "Baktun 14 is coming, Baktun 15 and Baktun 16...the Mayan calendar will continue to move forward,
Mayan Calendar The months in are ruled by a specific god, and since these gods are eternal, they ensure the continuation of the energy of a specific month, which is why Christian ideology is so popular in the West since all life is believed to be an eternal cycle. The concept of "apocalypse" was a completely foreign one to Mayan scribes
The Maya Today
In modern times, the Maya still, like their ancestors, came from the north. The same land was farmed and the same rivers were traveled all the way from Catan to Honduras to claim that the Mayans somehow disappeared simply because their cities were found abandoned is not only inaccurate but also misleading. An insult to the 6 million Mayans who inherited their ancestral traditions. Although the area was Christianized during the conquests and the Inquisition in the 16th century AD, a mixture of European Catholicism and Mayan mysticism can still be observed in one village. The night watchmen still interpret the energy of the day, and rituals are still performed in caves and mountains. On the island of Cozumel, the shrines of the Virgin Mary and the goddess Ixelle are interchangeable and often one and the same. /p>