mayan civilization
geography and landscape
the ancient maya civilization occupied the eastern third of mesoamerica,primarily the yucatan peninsula.the topography of the area greatly varied from volcanic mountains,which compr**ed the highlands in the south,to a porous limestone shelf,known as the lowlands,in the central and northern regions.the southern portion of the lowlands were covered by a rain forest with an **erage height of about 150 feet.scattered s**annas and swamps,or bajos,appeared sporadically,interrupting the dense forests.the northern lowlands were also compr**ed of forests but they were drier than their southern counterparts,mainly growing small thorny trees.february to may was the dry season characterized by air that was intensely hot and uncomfortable.at th** time of year,the fields had recently been cut and had to be burned in accordance with their slash and burn form of agriculture.the skies filled with a smoky grit,making the air even unbearable until the rains came in late may to clear the murky atmosphere.
many dangerous animals occupied th** region of the peninsula including the jaguar,the caiman(a fierce crocodile),the bull shark,and many species of po**onous snakes.these animals had to be **oided as the maya sc**enged the forest for foods including deer turkey,peccaries,tapirs,rabbits,and large rodents such as the peca and the agouti.many varieties of monkeys and quetzal also occupied the upper canopy.the climate of the highlands greatly contrasted with that of the lowlands as it was much cooler and drier.
both the highlands and the lowlands were important to the presence of trade within the mayan civilization.the lowlands primarily produced crops which were used for their own personal consumption,the principle cultigen being maize.they also grew squash,beans,chili peppers,amaranth,manioc,ca**,cotton for light cloth,and s**al for he**y cloth and rope.
the volcanic highlands,however,were the source of obsidian,jade,and other precious metals like cinnabar and hematite that the mayans used to develop a lively trade.although the lowlands were not the source of any of these commodities,they still played an important role as the origin of the transportation routes.the rainfall was as high as 160 inches per year in the lowlands and the water that collected drained towards the caribbean or the gulf of mexico in great river systems.these rivers,of which the usumacinta and the grijalva were of primary importance,were vital to the civilization as the form of transportation for both people and materials.
the maya culture
contrary to popular beleif,the mayan civilization was not one unified empire,but rather a multitude of separate entities with a common cultural background.similar to the greeks,they were religiously and art**tically a nation,but politically sovereign states.as many as twenty such states ex**ted on the yucatan peninsula,but although a woman has,on rare occasions,ascended to the ruling position,she has never acquired the title of 'mah kina'.
mayan writing
an elaborate system of writing was developed to record the transition of power through the generations.maya writing was composed of recorded inscriptions on stone and wood and used within architecture.folding tree books were made from fig tree bark and placed in royal tombs.unfortunately,many of these books did not survive the humidity of the tropics or the invasion of the span**h,who regarded the symbolic writing as the work of the devil.
four books are known today:
the dresden codex
the madud codex
the par** codex
the grolier codex.
the priests followed the ruling class in importance and were instrumental in the recordings of h**tory through the heiroglyphs.the two classes were closely linked and held a monopoly on learning,including writing.the heiroglyphs were formed through a combination of different signs which represented either whole words or single syllables.the **rmation could be conveyed through inscriptions alone,but it was usually combined with pictures showing action to facilitate comprehension.
political organization
in both the priesthood and the ruling class,nepot**m was apparently the prevailing system under which new members were chosen.primogeniture was the form under which new kings were chosen as the king passed down h** position to h** son.after the birth of a heir,the kings performed a blood sacrifice by drawing blood from h** own body as an offering to h** ancestors.a human sacrifice was then offered at the time of a new king's installation in office.to be a king,one must h**e taken a captive in a war and that person ** then used as the victim in h** accession ceremony.th** ritual ** the most important of a king's life as it ** the point at which he inherits the position as head of the lineage and leader of the city.the religious explanation that upheld the institution of kingship asserted that maya rulers were necessary for continuance of the universe.
mayan art
the art of the maya,as with every civilization,** a reflection of their lifestyle and culture.the art was composed of delineation and painting upon ** and plaster,carvings in wood and stone,clay and stucco models,and terra cotta figurines from molds.the technical process of metal wo**ng was also highly developed but as the resources were scarce,they only created ornaments in th** media.many of the great programs of maya art,inscriptions,and architecture were comm**sioned by mayan kings to memorialize themselves and ensure their place in h**tory.the prevailing subject of their art ** not anonymous priests and unnamed gods but rather men and women of power that serve to recreate the h**tory of the people.the works are a reflection of the society and its interaction with surrounding people.
one of the greatest shows of mayan art**tic ability and culture ** the hieroglyphic stairway located at copan.the stairway ** an iconographical complex composed of statues,figures,and ramps in addition to the central stairway which together port ray many elements of mayan society.an alter ** present as well as many pictorial references of sacrifice and their gods.more importantly than all the imagery captured with in th** monument,however,** the h**tory of the royal descent depicted in the heiroglyphs and various statues.the figurine of a seated captive ** also representative of mayan society as it depicts someone in the process of a bloodletting ceremony,which included the accession to kingship.th** figure ** of high rank as depicted by h** expensive earrings and intricately woven hip cloth.the rope collar which would usually mark th** man as a captive,reveals that he ** involved in a bloodletting rite.h** genitals are exposed as he ** just about to draw blood for the ceremony.
in the indian communities,as it was with their mayan ancestors,the basic staple diet ** corn.the clothing worn ** as it was in the past.it ** relatively easy to determine the village in which the clothing was made by the the type of embroidery,color,design and shape.mayan dialects of qhuche,cakchiquel,kekchi,and mam are still spoken today,although the majority of indians also speak span**h.
mysteries of the mayans
by michael d.lemonick
unr**eling the mystery of who the maya were,how they lived-and why their civilization suddenly collapsed
the crowd at the base of the enormous bloodred pyramid has been standing for hours in the dripping heat of the guatemalan jungle.no one moves;every eye stays fixed on the building's summit,where the king,h** head adorned with feathers,h** scepter a two-headed crocodile,** about to emerge from a sacred chamber with instructions from h** long-dead ancestors.the crowd sees nothing of h** movements,but it knows the ritual:lifted into the next world by hallucinogenic drugs,the king will take an obsidian blade or the spine of a stingray,pierce h** own pen**,and then draw a rope through the wound,letting the blood drip onto bits of bark **.then he will take the bark and set it afire,and out of the r**ing smoke a v**ion of a serpent will appear to him.
when the king finally emerges,on the verge of collapse,he reaches under h** loincloth,d**plays a bloodstained hand and announces the ancestors' **-the same ** he has received so many times in the past:"prepare to go to war."the crowd erupts in wild cheers.the bloodletting has barely begun.
who were the maya,the people who built and later abandoned these majestic pyramids scattered around central america and who enacted these bizarre rites?thequestion has piqued scient**ts across a broad swath of d**ciplines ever since an american lawyer and explorer named john lloyd stephens stumbled across something strange in the honduran jungle.in incidents of tr**el in central america,chiapas and yucatan(1841),stephens impression**tically described what was later identified as the ruined maya city of copan:"it lay before us like a shattered bark in the midst of the ocean,her masts gone,her name effaced,her crew per**hed,and none to tell whence she came,to whom she belonged,how long on her voyage,or what caused her destruction.
than 150 years later,the maya seem less inscrutable than they did to stephens,the man who d**covered,or red**covered,what they had left behind.archaeolog**ts h**e long known that the maya,who flour**hed between about a.d.250 and 900,perfected the most complex writing system in the hem**phere,mastered mathematics and astrological calendars of aston**hing accuracy,and built massive pyramids all over central america,from yucatan to modern honduras.but what researchers h**e now found among these haunting irruptions of architecture may be,among other things,reasons for admon**hing today's world:at a time when tribal fratricide ** destroying bosnia and farmers are carving through the rain forest,the lessons yielded by the maya h**e a d**turbing resonance.
the latest d**covery,announced just th** week,underscores how quickly maya archaeology ** changing.four new maya ...