Maya

The Rise of the Mayan Civilization

In every corner of the globe, there are great civilizations. And in every corner of the globe, there was one civilization who came first. In the Americas, it was the Mayan. The Mayan were the first major, complex civilization to develop in the Americas. They lived in the Yucatán Peninsula and surrounding areas, including Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Mayans developed a highly sophisticated culture in the coastal lowlands and rain forests of these regions that lasted for centuries.

The Origins of Maya Civilization

When we say that the Mayans were the first major civilization in the Americas, we don't mean that they were the first people to live there, or the first ones with complex culture. They were simply the first to develop a highly sophisticated society with art, science, architecture, and writing. Humans lived in Central America for thousands and thousands of years before the Mayans. They were mostly nomadic, meaning they moved continuously rather than lived in one place, or had small herds of animals and moved around occasionally. Although the Mayan calendar starts in 3114 BC, the earliest archaeological evidence of Mayan culture is from 1800 BC, around the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.

These early Mayans switched from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle, meaning they lived in one place, built cities, and developed agriculture. They invented pottery and lived in small cities.

By 800 BC, the Mayans appeared in the lowland jungles and rain forests. They grew in size and complexity, mined and traded the mineral jade to other cultures, and farmed cacao.

Some of the first major cities included Nakbe, Cival, and Kaminaljuyu. Mayan cities started trading more and more with other Central American cultures and slowly grew in size and power. Around 250 BC, the Mayans developed the first (and only) system of writing in the Americas. Like the Egyptians, they used symbols that represented a word, syllable or sound, called hieroglyphs. With this, Mayan civilization really began.

Rise of Maya City-States

Mayan civilization grew and grew, until finally around 250 AD, they developed into a whole new level of society. The Mayan cities had become so rich from trade, so powerful, and so large that they formed into city-states. A city-state is an urban center that is not part of any other kingdom or empire, but is its own government. Some of the most famous Mayan cities developed in this era, including Caracol, Tikal, Palenque, and Copán. They had lots of agriculture, complex trade networks, innovative architecture, and sophisticated religion. In this time, the population of Maya people entered the millions.

The height of the Maya civilization was unique from the other two major civilizations of Central and South America, the Inca and the Aztecs. While these two cultures had vast empires and a shared identity, the Maya did not. Mayan city-states were carved into patches of dense jungle, which kept them isolated from each other. They all spoke versions of the Maya language, but they did not share an identity or all submit to a single, central power, like a king or empire. Every city-state had its own ruler and its own identity.

Yes, some city-states were more powerful and influenced smaller cities, but they never came together as a single culture. In fact, it was not until after the Spanish conquest that the term 'Maya' was applied to all of these people together. During the height of Mayan civilization, if you had asked a person from Tikal to describe themselves, they would have said, 'I'm a Tikal-ian' (or whatever term they used) and not, 'I'm a Mayan'.

Here are just a few examples of what the Mayans contributed to the world 

CONCEPT OF ZERO

In the 'old world', and around the world in general, people have understood the idea or concept of nothing or having nothing. But, amazingly, the fundamental concept of zero is a relatively new 'invention'. It was fully developed in India around the 5th Century AD (458 AD) and did not arrive in Europe until around the 12th Century.

Amazingly the Mayans were able to develop their own concept of 'zero' at least 100 years earlier than in India, in about 350 AD. Frankly, this is incredible given that the continents of America were held back from the 'old world' not just because of their geographical isolation but also by their relatively recent occupation of the lands relative to 'old world' civilizations. Before this, scholars had trouble performing simple arithmetic calculations. It truly was a 'roadblock' that prevented the development of advanced mathematics such as Calculus, complex equations, and the eventual development of computers.

USE OF RUBBER & SPORTS

Although it is widely acknowledged that rubber did not become useful until Charles Goodyear developed the vulcanization process in around 1840, this might not be entirely true. The Mayans and other Mesoamerican societies managed to devise their own process around 1600 BC. They appear to have been able to make a form of elastic from normal latex by blending it with other vegetative substances. The process appears to have used juice from vines to make their form of elastic. Using this they made things like 'bouncy balls' to play a particularly violent ballgame in specially built and designed ballcourts. These ballcourts tended to be built at the base of their religious sanctuaries to pay tribute to their gods. The courts had expansive playing regions; each with a stone loop mounted on the divider toward one side.

The game, called 'Pok-A-Tok' wasn't just for recreation and religious devotion it was also used to settle disputes between warring factions and noblemen. The stakes were high, however, as losing could end with the losing team's leader (or entire team) being sacrificed to the gods. 'Pok-A-Tok' was a sort of cross between football and basketball that was played using a rubber ball. The object of the game was to try to get the ball through a stone hoop placed at each end of the court.  However, the ball could only be passed and shot using players thighs and hips.

CHOCOLATE

Everybody's favorite confectionery, Chocolate, was developed very early on in Mayan culture. They were able to develop a form of drink that was made from smashed cocoa beans that was so prized that it was often used as a form of currency. They noticed, in around 250-900 AD, that cocoa beans tasted very nice indeed when aged, simmered, ground and blended with fixings. They even made a 'fiery' version by mixing in stew peppers and cornmeal.  They tended to pour the liquid from one cup to another until a frothy foam appeared on top. Although it sounds as delicious as modern derivatives, it would not really be recognizable to us today. In fact, the word ‘chocolate’ is said to come from the Mayan word ‘xocolatl’ which means ‘bitter water.’ Unsurprisingly to us today, the Mayan's thought so highly of Chocolate that they believed it was a form of "food of the Gods". It is not uncommon to find images of cocoa pods painted on walls of stone temples and other Mayan artefacts often showing their gods imbibing it.  Cocoa was often consumed during religious ceremonies and marriage celebrations. All Mayans could enjoy cocoa, regardless of their social status.

WRITING SYSTEM

Like many other great lost civilizations the world over, the Mayans formalized their language into a codified writing system. The utility of this is obvious to us today but at the time in ancient Americas this put them lightyears ahead of other peoples of the American continents. Their glyphs were used much like those of Ancient Egypt, to represent words, sounds, and syllables through the use of pictures and other symbols. Historians believe that the Mayans used around 700 glyphs to do this and, incredibly, 80% of their language can still be understood by their descendants today.

The Mayans also developed a form of an early book that recorded the exploits of their gods, daily life, news and many more subjects. The Mayans, like any other sensible civilization, were keen to record their history and achievements and went as far as to record notable events on pillars, walls and large stone slabs much like the Ancient Egyptians and Romans. Their books were written on bark and folded into fan-like structures. Many of these were sadly destroyed by the Conquistadors but thankfully some have survived to this day. 

THE MAYAN CALENDAR

Among their most famous inventions is the Mayan Calendar (the one that was supposed to predict the end of the world in 2012). The famous Maya calendar was based on the system common in Mesoamerican cultures but it was the Maya who developed the calendar to its maximum sophistication. The Maya calendar uses 3 different dating systems: the Tzolkin (divine calendar), the Haab (civil calendar) and the Long Count. Tzolkin combines a cycle of 20 named days with another cycle of 13 numbers, to produce 260 unique days. There are several theories for the 260 day count of Tzolkin including it being based on the human gestation period; agricultural cycle of the region; and positions of the planet Venus. The Haab was the solar calendar with 365 days. It consisted of 18 months of 20 days each, followed by 5 extra days, which were considered unlucky and known as Wayeb. The Long Count was a non-repeating calendar representing the number of days since the start of the Maya era. The right-most position counts single days, the next position is a block of 20; the next is a block of 18 to make the calendar match the approximate 360 days length of a year; the remaining positions follow their vigesimal number system. 

ARCHITECTURE

The Maya created a vast array of structures including palaces, acropolises, pyramids and astronomical observatories. Their advanced mathematical system allowed the Maya to implement designs which combined their astronomical skills with engineering. El Castillo or the Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza is one of the most famous Maya structures. Its 365 steps equal the number of days in their solar calender and 52 panels on each side represent their 52 year Calendar Round. Its most famous feature is that during the two equinoxes, the sun casts a series of triangular shadows against the north-west balustrade, creating a display of a feathered serpent “crawling” down the steps of the pyramid. This phenomena is intended to be the manifestation of their deity Kulkulkan, the feathered serpent. Another famous Maya structure at Chichen Itza is El Caracol. Three irregular openings survive at its high tower which are irregularly placed but can be used as important astronomical sight lines. Of the 29 astronomical events believed to be of interest to the Maya, sight lines for 20 can be found in this astronomical observatory.