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Maya civilization

Maya languages | Maya peoples Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 467 pixel Image in higher resolution (2272 × 1326 pixel, file size: 1. ... 74. ... Page 9 of the Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language written in Mayan hieroglyphs(from the 1880 Förstermann edition) Mayan languages (alternatively: Maya languages[1]) constitute a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. ... this article concerns in particular the contemporary indigenous peoples and cultures who descend from, or remain, speakers of the Mayan languages of southern Mesoamerica. ...

architecture | calendar | mythology religion | society As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years. ... The Maya calendar is actually a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Maya history

Maya collapse Spanish conquest of Yucatán This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region. ...

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. Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European discovery of the New World by Columbus. ... Cultural diffusion refers to the spread of ideas and material culture, especially if this diffusion occurs independently of population movement. ... Scribe Writing Writing, in its most common sense, is the preservation and the preserved text on a medium, with the use of signs or symbols. ... A page from the Hindu calendar 1871-72. ... Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... The Maya calendar is actually a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... km redirects here. ... Maya art is considered by many to be the most sophisticated and beautiful of the ancient New World. ... As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years. ...

Political structures

A typical Classic period Maya polity was a small kingdom (ajawil, ajawlel, ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler – ajaw, later k’uhul ajaw. Both terms appear in early Colonial texts including Papeles de Paxbolón where they are used as synonyms for Aztec and Spanish terms for rulers and their domains. These are tlatoani and tlahtocayotl in Nahuatl, and the Spanish words rey, magestad, and reino and señor for ruler/leader/lord and señorío or dominioof realm. Such kingdoms were usually no more than a capital city with its neighborhood and several dependent towns (similar to a city-state). There were also larger polities that controlled larger territories and subjagated smaller polities; the extensive systems controlled by Tikal and Caracol serve as examples of these. Mesoamerican chronology The chronology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is usually divided into the following eras: Paleo-Indian Period c. ... Polity is a general term that refers to political organization of a group. ... AJAW is the title in the Mayan language of the King of a Precolumbian city state of the Maya people on the (now Mexican) Yucatan peninsula (explicitely attested in Palenque and in Tikal) and in neighbouring Central America, in Guatemala and Belize (the former British Honduras). ... Synonyms can be nouns, adverbs or adjectives, as long as both members of the pair are the same part of speech. ... The Aztecs is a collective term used for all of the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples under the control of the Mexica, founders of Tenochtitlan, and their two principal allies, who built an extensive empire in the late Postclassic period in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Central Mexico. ... A tlatoani was a member of the Aztec nobility. ... Nahuatl is a native language of central Mexico. ... This article is about a city that serves as a center of government and politics. ... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. ... Tikal (or Tik’al, according to the more current orthography) is the largest of the ancient ruined cities of the Maya civilization. ... Caracol or El Caracol is the name given to a large ancient Maya site located in the Cayo District of the nation of Belize. ...

Each kingdom had its name that did not necessarily correspond to any locality within its territory. Its identity was that of a political unit associated with a particular ruling dynasty. For instance, the archaeological site of Naranjo was the capital of the kingdom of Saal. The land (chan ch’e’n) of the kingdom and its capital were called Wakab’nal or Maxam and were part of a larger geographical entity known as Huk Tsuk.^{[citation needed]} Interestingly, despite constant warfare and eventual shifts in regional power, most kingdoms never disappeared from the political landscape until the collapse of the whole system in the 9th century. In this respect, Classic Maya kingdoms were similar to late Postclassic polities encountered by the Spanish in Yucatan and Central Mexico: some polities were subordinate to hegemonic centers or rulers through conquest and/or dynastic unions and yet even then they persisted as distinct entities. // For other uses, see Dynasty (disambiguation). ... Inscription relating to the reign of king Itzamnaaj Kawil, 784-810. ... As a means of recording the passage of time the 9th century was that century that lasted from 801 to 900. ...

Mayanists have been increasingly accepting the "court paradigm" of Classic Maya societies that puts the emphasis on the centrality of the royal household and especially the person of the king. This approach focuses on the totality of Maya monumental spaces as the embodiment of the diverse activities of the royal household. It considers the role of places and spaces (including dwellings of royalty and nobles, throne rooms, temples, halls and plazas for public ceremonies) in establishing and negotiating power and social hierarchy, but also in producing and projecting aesthetic and moral values that define the order of a wider social realm. Mayanist is a term which has been in widespread use from the late 19th century onwards, to refer to scholars who have specialised in research and study of the Central American pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ... A hierarchy (in Greek: , it is derived from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ...

Spanish sources invariably describe even the largest Maya settlements of Yucatan and Guatemala as dispersed agglomerations of dwellings grouped around the temples and palaces of the ruling dynasty and lesser nobles. Though there was economic specialization among Classic period Maya centers (see Chunchucmil, for example), it was not conducted at a scale similar to that of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Some argue that Maya cities were not urban centers^[1] but were, instead, structured according to and conceptualized as enormous royal households, the locales of the administrative and ritual activities of the royal court. Within the theoretical framework of this model, they were the places where privileged nobles could approach the holy ruler, where aesthetical values of the high culture were formulated and disseminated, and where aesthetic items were consumed.^[2] They were the self-proclaimed centers and the sources of social, moral, and cosmic, order. The fall of a royal court as in the well-documented cases of Piedras Negras or Copan would cause the inevitable ‘death’ of the associated settlement. The Yucatán Peninsula separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. ... Map of Northwest Yucatan, showing major ecological zones and archaeological sites related to Chunchucmil Chunchucmil was a large, sprawling pre-Columbian Maya city located in the western part of what is now the state of Yucatán, Mexico. ... The Aztecs is a collective term used for all of the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples under the control of the Mexica, founders of Tenochtitlan, and their two principal allies, who built an extensive empire in the late Postclassic period in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Central Mexico. ... Tenochtitlan, looking east. ... Crowded Shibuya, Tokyo shopping district An urban area is an area with an increased density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. ... Piedras Negras is the modern name for a ruined city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization located on the north bank of the Usumacinta River in the Petén department of Guatemala. ... The Pre-Columbian city of Cop n is a locale in extreme western Honduras, in the Cop Department, near to the Guatemalan border. ...

The arts

Artistic expression

Main article: Maya art

A stucco relief in the museum at Palenque

A carved jade "pectoral"

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. Maya art is considered by many to be the most sophisticated and beautiful of the ancient New World. ... Download high resolution version (1116x2272, 707 KB) A painted stucco relief in the museum at Palenque, a Maya ruin in Chiapas, Mexico, from one of the recently excavated buildings. ... Download high resolution version (1116x2272, 707 KB) A painted stucco relief in the museum at Palenque, a Maya ruin in Chiapas, Mexico, from one of the recently excavated buildings. ... The Palace, Ruins of Palenque Palenque is a Maya archeological site near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, located at about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen (see map). ... Download high resolution version (1014x1191, 99 KB)I, John Hill, own this jade piece and took this picture of it. ... Download high resolution version (1014x1191, 99 KB)I, John Hill, own this jade piece and took this picture of it. ... A selection of antique, hand-crafted Chinese jade (jadeite) buttons Unworked Jade Jade is used as an ornamental stone, the term jade is applied to two different rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals. ... For other uses, see number 200. ... Persian sfuckentist, Rhazes, distinguished smallpox from measles in the course of his writings. ... ART is a three-letter acronym that can mean: Adaptive resonance theory Arlington Transit, a bus service that serves Arlington County, Virginia Advanced Rapid Transit metro technology assisted reproductive technology Anaheim Resort Transit Watertown International Airport (IATA airport code: ART) ISO 639 alpha-3 code for otherwise unassigned artificial languages... Stucco is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water which is applied wet, and hardens when it dries. ... In the art of sculpture, a relief is an artwork where a modelled form projects out of a flat background. ... The Palace, Ruins of Palenque Palenque is a Maya archeological site near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, located at about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen (see map). ... Charlie Chaplin Statue A statue is a sculpture depicting a specific entity, usually a person, event, animal or object. ... For building painting, see painter and decorator. ... Underwater funeral in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea A funeral is a ceremony marking a persons death. ... Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... Maya ceramics are important in the study of the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. ... Bonampak. ... Salle des illustres, ceiling painting, by Jean André Rixens. ... Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost. ...

Music

Main article: Pre-Columbian Maya music

Celebratory Mural in the halls of Bonampak The Music that was central to pre-Columbian Maya culture still remains a bit of a mystery today. ...

Architecture

Main article: Maya 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. As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years. ... The Colosseum in Rome, Italy. ... Mesoamerican chronology The chronology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is usually divided into the following eras: Paleo-Indian Period c. ...

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. Stone Age fishing hook. ... A draught animal is a (semi-)domesticated animal used for transport and haulage (the heavy labour of pulling carts, hauling timber and ploughing fields are examples). ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Binomial name Equus asinus The donkey or ass (Equus asinus) is a domesticated animal of the horse family, Equidae. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Obsidian from Lake County, Oregon Counterclockwise from top: obsidian, pumice and rhyolite (light color) Obsidian is a rock which is a type of naturally occurring glass, produced by volcanoes (igneous origin) when a felsic lava cools rapidly and freezes without sufficient time for crystal growth (see glass transition temperature). ...

Writing and literacy

Writing system

Main article: Maya script

The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian writing) was a combination of phonetic symbols and logograms. It is most often classified as a logographic or (more properly) a logosyllabic writing system, in which syllabic signs play a significant role. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian New World which is known to completely represent the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation. Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... Writing systems of the world today. ...   Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... A section of the Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... A logogram, or logograph, is a single grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). ... A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. ... variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface. ...

The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably-Maya script date back to 200 - 300 BC. However, this is preceded by several other writing systems which had developed in Mesoamerica, most notably that of the Zapotecs, and possibly the Olmecs. There is a pre-Mayan writing known as "Epi-Olmec script" (post Olmec) which some researchers believe may represent a transitional script between the Olmec writing and Maya writing, but since there are no clear examples of Olmec writing as yet, the matter is unsettled. On January 5, 2006, National Geographic published the findings of Maya writings that could be as old as 400 BC [1], suggesting that the Maya writing system is nearly as old as the oldest writing found so far (Zapotec). In the succeeding centuries the Maya developed their script into a form which was far more complete and complex than any other that has yet been found in the Americas. The cultural areas of Mesoamerica Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: Mesoamérica) was a geographical culture area extending from central Honduras and northwestern Costa Rica on the south, and, in Mexico, from the Soto la Marina River in Tamaulipas and the Rio Fuerte in Sinaloa on the north. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. ... Epi-Olmec (after Olmec) is a Mesoamerican writing system in use in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from perhaps 500 BCE to 500 CE, although there is disagreement on these dates. ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ...

Since its inception, the Maya script was in use up to the arrival of Europeans, peaking during the Maya Classical Period (c. 200 - 900 AD). Although many Maya centers went into decline (or were completely abandoned) during or after this period, the skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted amongst segments of the population, and the early Spanish conquistadores knew of individuals who could still read and write the script. Unfortunately the Spanish displayed little interest in it, and as a result of the dire impacts the conquest had on Maya societies the knowledge was subsequently lost, most probably within only a few generations.

At a rough estimate, around 10,000 individual texts have so far been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramic pottery. Maya civilization also produced numerous texts using a fine paper called amatl made from the processed inner bark of certain species of fig trees in a folded "book-format", known as a codex. Shortly after the conquest, all of these latter which could be found were ordered to be burnt and destroyed by zealous Spanish priests, notably Bishop Diego de Landa. Out of these Maya codices, only three reasonably-intact examples are known to have survived through to the present day. These are now known as the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier codex, whose authenticity is sometimes disputed, but mostly is held to be genuine. Further archaeology conducted at Mayan sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which formerly were codices; these tantalizing remains are however too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, most of the organic material having decayed. The Taj Mahal, commissioned by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum. ... Pre-fabricated, pre-tensioned concrete lintels spanning garage doors. ... Stele is also a concept in plant biology. ... Part of the Huexotzinco Codex, printed on amatl Amatl (from the Nahuatl paper) or Amate (Spanish) is a type of paper developed in Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ... For other meanings of bark, see Bark (disambiguation). ... Species About 800, including: Ficus altissima Ficus americana Ficus aurea Ficus benghalensis- Indian Banyan Ficus benjamina- Weeping Fig Ficus broadwayi Ficus carica- Common Fig Ficus citrifolia Ficus coronata Ficus drupacea Ficus elastica Ficus godeffroyi Ficus grenadensis Ficus hartii Ficus lyrata Ficus macbrideii Ficus macrophylla- Moreton Bay Fig Ficus microcarpa- Chinese... A chained book in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side, and within protective covers. ... First page of the Codex Argenteus A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book, in general, one produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. ... . ... Diego de Landa Calderón (1524 – 1579) was Bishop of Yucatán. ... Maya codices (singular codex) are books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, using the Maya hieroglyphic script. ...

The decipherment and recovery of the now-lost knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century: mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs came starting in the 1950s to 1970s, and accelerated rapidly thereafter. By the end of the 20th century, scholars were able to read the majority of Maya texts to a large extent, and work done in the field continues to further illuminate the content. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Mayan numerals. ... The Maya calendar is actually a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, In the Western world, the focus shifted from the social activism of the sixties to social activities for ones own pleasure, save for environmentalism, which continued in a very visible way. ...

In reference to the few extant Maya writings, Michael D. Coe, a prominent linguist and epigrapher at Yale University stated: I dont know anything! ... Epigraphy (Greek, επιγραφή - written upon) is the study of inscriptions engraved into stone or other permanent materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them as to cultural context and date, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them. ... “Yale” redirects here. ...

[O]ur knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and 'Pilgrim's Progress').

– Michael D. Coe, The Maya, London: Thames and Hudson, 4th ed., 1987, p. 161.

Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing is from stelae and other stone inscriptions from Maya sites, many of which were already abandoned before the Spanish arrived. The inscriptions on the stelae mainly record the dynasties and wars of the sites' rulers. Also of note are the incriptions that reveal information about the lives of ancient Maya women. Much of the remainder of Maya hieroglyphics has been found on funeral pottery, most of which describes the afterlife. Stele is also a concept in plant biology. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

Writing tools

Although the archaeological record does not provide examples, Maya art shows that writing was done with brushes made with animal hair and quills. Codex-style writing was usually done in black ink with red highlights, giving rise to the Aztec name for the Maya territory as the "land of red and black". Quills is a 2000 period drama directed by Philip Kaufman and adapted from the play by Doug Wright, who also wrote the original screenplay. ... An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to render an image or text. ... The Aztecs is a collective term used for all of the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples under the control of the Mexica, founders of Tenochtitlan, and their two principal allies, who built an extensive empire in the late Postclassic period in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Central Mexico. ...

Scribes

Scribes held a prominent position in Maya courts and had their own patron deity (see Howler Monkey Gods). They are likely to have come from aristocratic families. One must assume that some scribes were attached to the royal house, while others were serving at temples and were, perhaps, counted among the priests. It seems likely that they were organized hierarchically. Maya art often depicts rulers with trappings indicating they were scribes or at least able to write, such as having pen bundles in their headdresses. Additionally, many rulers have been found in conjunction with writing tools such as shell or clay inkpots. The howler monkey god was a major deity of the arts and the patron of the artisans among the Classic Mayas, especially of the scribes and sculptors. ...

Literacy

Although the number of logograms and syllabic symbols required to fully write the language numbered in the hundreds, literacy was not necessarily widespread beyond the elite classes. Graffiti uncovered in various contexts, including on fired bricks, shows nonsensical attempts to imitate the writing system.

Mathematics

Mayan numerals

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, they independently developed the concept of zero by 357 AD (Europeans did not embrace zero 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. Image File history File links Maya. ... Image File history File links Maya. ... The vigesimal or base-20 numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the ordinary decimal numeral system is based on ten). ... Mayan numerals. ... 0 (zero) is both a number and a numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. ... Events Battle of Strasbourg (357): Julian leads the Roman forces to victory against the Alamanni at Strasbourg Births Deaths Category: 357 ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... Apparent magnitude: up to -12. ... The eight planets and three dwarf planets of the Solar System. ...

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. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world. ... The Maya calendar is actually a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. ... The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and came into force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). ... The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world. ...

Agriculture

Main article: Maya diet and subsistence

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. The diet and subsistence strategies of the ancient Maya were varied and extensive. ... Assarting in Finland in 1892 Slash and burn (a specific practice that may be part of shifting cultivation or swidden-fallow agriculture) is an agricultural procedure widely used in forested areas. ...

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. this article concerns in particular the contemporary indigenous peoples and cultures who descend from, or remain, speakers of the Mayan languages of southern Mesoamerica. ...

Warfare

The Mayas employed warfare in each period of their development for the purposes of obtaining sacrificial victims, settling competitive rivalries, acquiring critical resources and gaining control of trade routes. Warfare was important to the Maya religion, because raids on surrounding areas provided the victims required for human sacrifice, as well as slaves for the construction of temples. Large-scale battles were also fought to determine and defend territories as well as secure economic power. The Mayas defended their cities with defensive structures such as palisades, gateways, and earthworks. Some cities had a wall within the outer wall, so advancing enemies would be trapped in a killing alley, where they could be slaughtered in great number. During the post-Classic period, the amount of internal warfare increased greatly as the region became more politically fragmented. Armies were enlarged, and in some cases mercenaries were hired. The resulting destruction of many urban centers contributed to the decline of the Maya. Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation). ...

Military Organization

The ruler of a Maya city was the supreme war captain. Some only dictated military activity, while others participated in the battle. There was a core of warriors that served year-round as guards and obtained sacrificial victims, but most large Maya cities and religious centers had militias. These men were paid to fight for the duration of the battle. Then they would return to their fields or crafts. The militia units were headed by nacoms, hereditary war chiefs, that employed ritual as well as strategic methods in warfare. Some nacoms were only chief strategists, and the troops were led into by batabs, or officers. In a large war, even commoners who did not have weapons would fight using hunting tools and by hurling rocks. “In the highlands, women occasionally fought in battles according to native chronicles” (Foster, 144).

Tactics

The jungle terrain of Mesoamerica made it difficult for large armies to reach their destination. The warriors who were familiar to the battle landscape could strategically retreat into familiar wilderness. Other war tactics included the siege of cities and the formation of alliances with lesser enemies to defeat more prominent ones. There is evidence that canoes were used to attack cities, located on lakes and rivers. In the late Classic period, destructive warfare methods, such as burning, became more prevalent. The cultural areas of Mesoamerica Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: Mesoamérica) was a geographical culture area extending from central Honduras and northwestern Costa Rica on the south, and, in Mexico, from the Soto la Marina River in Tamaulipas and the Rio Fuerte in Sinaloa on the north. ...

Rituals

Warfare was a ritual process, believed to be sanctioned by the gods. Military leaders, in many instances, also had religious authority. Before going into battle, the armies would call upon the gods with dances and music of drums, whistles, conch shell horns and singing. The drumming and war cries would signify the start of the battle. The armies also carried religious idols into battle to inspire the warriors. They fought fiercely because they believed that death on the battle field secured them eternal bliss, whereas capture by the enemy was regarded as worse than any death. When an enemy was defeated, the victorious army exploited the religious icons and sometimes humiliated the defeated leader with prolonged captivity. The treatment of prisoners by the victorious was brutal and often ending in decapitation.

Weapons and Uniform

Weapons used by the Maya included spear-throwers known as atlatls, blowguns, obsidian spiked clubs, and spears, axes, and knives tipped with flint or obsidian blades. Bow and arrows were also used, but not as extensively. Though there were few helmets, they used decorated shields made from woven mats or wood and animal skins for protection. The Maya war leaders dressed to inspire their warriors and terrify their enemies. They usually wore padded cotton armor, a mantle with religious insignias, and elaborate wooden and cloth headdresses, that represented the animal spirit or “way” of the warrior. Obsidian from Lake County, Oregon Counterclockwise from top: obsidian, pumice and rhyolite (light color) Obsidian is a rock which is a type of naturally occurring glass, produced by volcanoes (igneous origin) when a felsic lava cools rapidly and freezes without sufficient time for crystal growth (see glass transition temperature). ...

Notes

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.

External links

• Maya Ruins. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved on 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