Maya Culture - Mayan Ruins

Maya Culture

The word Mayan refers to the indigenous people of Mesoamerica, the ancient Maya. Because some disaster or event caused the Maya to desert their cities and cultural centers, there have been many academic references to the entire culture disappearing. This is not true, there are modern Maya people living in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras today. Their story is one of the most known and studied classical Mesoamerican civilization that begins around the year 2600 BC in the Yuacatan.

The history of the Maya people is rich with advanced use of mathematics, astronomy and astrology. Their religion is based on the laws of nature and sacred gods and goddesses from the sky. Their cultural centers leave us some amazing architecture, pottery and arts in the form of stone carving, painting and plaster reliefs to study and understand their complex society and lifestyle. Some believe that the original Maya arrived in the Yucatan by crossing the Bearing Strait some 20,000 years ago. The Mayan civilization became a powerful empire around 250 AD. Mayan legends tell that their ancestors the Olmecs were survivors of the Atlantis and Lemuria destruction who were transported by air to the safety of the Gulf Coast of southern Veracruz and Tabasco.

It was from the Olmecs that the ancient Maya learned written language, mathematics and the mapping of the heavens. The 20 calendars used in the Mayan calendric system was built and perfected from their original Olmec astronomy education. The Maya were the first civilization to use the number zero as well as the decimal. Their written language uses hieroglyphs, not as letters but as words and phrases. They were skilled farmers coaxing plenty from the less than desirable soil in regions stretching from mountains to jungle riverside locations and the arid plains. They built large underground water reservoirs and enclosed, covered piping trenches to supply running water throughout their cities.

During the Classic Period from 250 AD – 900 AD, the Maya made huge strides in artistic and cultural achievements. Their society was complex and divided into a hierarchy of classes and professions. Instead of a centralized government, each city state was ruled by a king who had clearly defined territory boundaries. Each time a ruler lost his state to a successor in battle, borders changed as territories were lost and gained. Many call the Mayan ruins filled with temples and all manner of buildings and monuments a city, yet they were actually more cultural centers. Few Maya lived in these developments, but came to trade, attend festivals and for sacred events and worship.

The Mayan temple pyramids are an architectural form once thought to be singular to Egypt, yet pyramid structures from stone and grass covered are found in many locations around the globe. The major cities of Palenque, Yaxchil n, Copan, Tikal and Quirigua were built and became empires in the Classic period when the majority of the Mayan people lived in Belize and the central plains of Mexico.

At the height of the Mayan civilization they made significant scientific discoveries. The Maya written language made them the only ancient Americans capable of expressing all types of thought with glyphs, arranged to be read in the usual way from left to right. Mayan elders wrote detailed histories and used their calendar to predict the future and coming astrological events. The starting date of the Mayan Long Count calendar is in 3114 BC, long before their culture existed, and accurately measured time far into the future. If overzealous Bishop de Landa had not ignorantly went on his mass destruction rampage of all Mayan record books in 1562, we would have a far more detailed understanding of the Mayan calendar and civilization. Today only three Mayan codices survive.

It is from the Mayan Long Count calendar that the date of December 21, 2012 is originally derived. This discovery is not new; a conclusion was reached among academics in the early half of the 20th century as to exactly when the current age of man recorded by Mayan time keepers would take place. It has been found to be the ending date of other ancient culture’s calendars as well. This date marks the end of the Great Year in the procession of planet Earth and the coming of the 5th world to the Maya people.

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