2012, end of the world

A stucco relief in the museum at Palenque

Maya society shared many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations, for there was a high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion throughout the region. Although aspects such as writing and the calendar did not originate with the Maya, the Maya script and their calendar were among the most developed in Mesoamerica. Maya cultural influences can be detected as far afield as central Mexico, more than 1000 km from their homelands. Equally, many external influences are to be found in Maya art and their architecture, particularly in the Postclassic period; these are thought to be mainly a result of trade and cultural exchange, rather than direct external conquest.

The arts

Artistic expression

Many consider Classic period (200 to 900 AD) Maya art to be the most sophisticated of the ancient New World. The carvings and stucco reliefs at Palenque and the statuary of Copán depict accurate representations of the human form. We have only hints of the advanced painting of the classic Maya; mostly what have survived are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics. Also a building at Bonampak holds ancient murals that survived by serendipity. With the decipherment of the Maya script it was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their name to their work.

Architecture

As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic layered, stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond.

Technology

Maya civilization is regarded as the most technologically advanced of all pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. It can be classified as a stone age civilization which had just begun experimenting with metals by the time of Spanish conquest. A lack of draft animals (like old world domesticated horses, oxen, donkeys, etc.) in the ancient Americas may explain lack of use of wheels and therefore the need of paved roads. Obsidian (volcanic glass) was a major material for various cutting tools and weapons due to its cleaved sharpness.

Mathematics

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system. Also, they independently developed the concept of zero by 357 AD (Asian Indians did not embrace zero until the 9th century, and Europeans not until the 12th century). Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.

Also in common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya utilized a highly accurate measure of the length of the solar year, far more accurate than that used in Europe as the basis of the Gregorian Calendar. They did not use this figure for the length of year in their calendar, however. Instead, the Maya calendar(s) were based on a year length of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one day every four years. By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of one day every 128 years. The modern Gregorian calendar accumulates a day’s error in approximately 3257 years.

Agriculture

The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BC.

Contemporary Maya peoples still practice many of these traditional forms of agriculture, although they are dynamic systems and change with changing population pressures, cultures, economic systems, climate change, and the availability of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

References

• Aoyama, Kazoa. (2005) Classic Maya Warfare and Weapons: Spear, dart, and arrow points of Aguateca and Copan. Ancient Mesoamerica 16(2): 291-304.
• Barrett, Jason and Andrew Scherer. (2005) Stones, Bones, and Crowded Plazas: Evidence for Terminal Classic Maya Warfare at Colha, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 16(1): 101-118.
• Bunson, Margaret R., and Stephen M. Bunson. (1996) Warfare, Maya. Encyclopedia of Ancient Mesoamerica. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1996.
• Foster, Lynn V. (2001) Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World. New York: Facts on File, Inc.
• Martin, Simon, and Mary Miller. Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
• Sanders, William and David Webster (1988) The Mesoamerican Urban Tradition. American Anthropologist 90(3): 521-546.

Links

• “Maya Ruins”. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved 2006-04-28.
• Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies
• Mayaweb (Dutch and English)
• Maya articles by Genry Joil.
• Mesoweb by Joel Skidmore.
• The Daily Glyph by Dave Pentecost.
• Junglecasts – podcasts by Ed Barnhart, Nicco Mele, Dave Pentecost
• Ancient Civilizations – Mayan Research
• Maya Warfare Research
• Modern Maya Photos

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.