Information about Mayan civilization

Maya civilization is an outstanding representative of ancient Indian civilization in Central America and ancient Indian civilization in America, named after Indian Maya. Mainly distributed in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize and western Honduras and El Salvador. It was formed around 2500 BC, and an early slave country was established around 400 BC. It flourished in the 3rd to 9th centuries, declined in the 65438+5th century, was finally destroyed by Spanish colonists, and then disappeared in the tropical jungle for a long time.

1502, Columbus sailed to America for the last time, only 10 years after he first discovered the "New World". The ship landed in the Gulf of Honduras, and Columbus and his crew set foot on the lush land for a long time. In the local market, a beautifully made pottery basin caught his attention. The seller told him that this exquisite pottery basin came from "Maya". This magical name was first introduced to the ears of Europeans. 15 19, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes led the Spanish army across Mexico and conquered the Aztec empire, which was in the heyday of civilization. "Eradicating a culture is like a passerby breaking a sunflower by the roadside." At this time, the Mayan civilization is coming to an end, but there are still some small Mayan countries on Yucatan Peninsula. 1526, a Spanish expedition went to Yucatan Peninsula, trying to establish a Spanish colony by violence and enforce Christian belief. The unyielding Maya fought guerrilla warfare for more than 100 years until 1697, when the last Mayan city-state was destroyed by Spanish gunfire.

At the end of the 8th century, it began to attract academic attention. At the end of 19, a number of important sites were excavated, and the modern archaeological research of Mayan civilization began. Since the 1950s, research has made rapid progress, forming a special Maya study, which is an important field of world archaeology and historical research. Scholars have different opinions about the development stage of Mayan civilization. According to the division of American archaeologist N Hammond, it can be divided into three stages: pre-classical, classical and post-classical.

The pre-classical period is the formation period of Mayan culture, from about 2500 BC to 250 AD. Settled agricultural life has emerged in the Peten Basin in the middle of Yucatan Peninsula and its surrounding valleys, with corn and beans as the main crops. An early sacrificial center composed of earthen platforms and altars has also been established. Since then, the country has sprouted and hieroglyphics have appeared.

In the classical period (about 250 ~ 900 AD), Maya culture entered its heyday, and hundreds of large-scale cities and residents were self-reliant small city-states, which had not yet formed a unified country. States use the same hieroglyphs and calendars, and their urban planning, architectural style and production level are roughly the same. Most of the main sites are located in the central tropical rain forest area, and the sacrificial centers such as Tikal, Wahatong, Negras, Piedras, palenque, Copan and Kirigua have formed large-scale buildings. Tikal site is composed of hundreds of pyramid-shaped temples with magnificent weather, with an urban area of 50 square kilometers and an estimated population of about 40,000. At this time, there are a large number of stone pillars engraved with age inscriptions. Generally, a stone pillar is built every 5 years, 10 years or 20 years to become a unique timing pillar. Around 800 ~ 900, these sacrificial centers were suddenly abandoned, and Mayan civilization declined sharply. 1 1 century later, the center of Mayan civilization began to gradually shift to the limestone lowland plain in the north.

Post-classical culture (about 1000 ~ 1520) has a strong Mexican style. The Toltecs from Mexico conquered Yucatan Peninsula and made Chen Chi their capital. There are stone colonnades, "sacred wells" and stadiums offering sacrifices to the living, as well as astronomical observatories and the best-preserved pyramid-shaped Taiwan Province Temple, where Quezalkoyatel, the god of Gechar, is enshrined. Since then, Maya Pan in the north has replaced Itza in Chen Chi as the center of post-classical culture. During this period, the art of pottery and sculpture was rough, and the secular culture rose, which brought a militant wind. The rulers of Mayapan allied themselves with other city-states and established their own rule by force. 1450, Mayapan was burned down due to internal rebellion, and the culture tended to decline after a hundred years. From 1523 to 1524, Spanish colonists took advantage of the situation to occupy Yucatan Peninsula from Mexico, and the Mayan civilization was completely destroyed.

Maya civilization basically belongs to Neolithic Age and Bronze Age, and tools and weapons are made of stone and wood. Gold and copper were only used at the end of the classical period, and iron was never used. Agricultural technology is simple, extensive farming, no fertilization, no livestock, and later irrigation. Handmade products include all kinds of pottery, cotton fabrics and so on. There is a trade exchange relationship between different villages and regions. Maya's architectural engineering reached the level of the ancient world, and they could carve hard stones. This building is famous for its rigorous layout and magnificent structure. Its pyramid-shaped platform temple is made of waste and mud, covered with slate or adobe, and has stone steps leading to the top of the tower. Its sculptures, painted pottery and murals are of high artistic value. The famous Bonanpak mural shows noble ceremony, war and triumph, and the characters are varied and lifelike, which is one of the treasures of the world mural art.

Mayan civilization has made great achievements in astronomy and mathematics. Through long-term observation of astronomical phenomena, we have mastered the solar eclipse cycle and the running laws of the sun, moon and Venus. At the end of the pre-classical period, we created two calendars, the solar calendar and the holy calendar. The former is one year 13 months, 20 days a month and 260 days a year. The latter is one year 18 months, 20 days a month, plus 5 days of death, 365 days a year, every 4 years 1 day. Remember the names of the sun and the moon in two calendars every day, and repeat them every 52 years, which is more accurate than the calendars used in Greece and Rome at the same time. Mathematically, Maya used the concept of "0" more than 800 years earlier than Europeans, and counted in decimal system. Another unique creation of Mayan civilization is the hieroglyphic system, whose characters are composed of complex graphics, which are generally engraved on stone buildings such as altars, stairs and stone pillars. Engraving and writing require long-term training. At present, there are about 800 characters, but most of them have not been successfully interpreted except for time symbols and a few names and utensils. At that time, he also used bark paper and deerskin to write books, mainly about history, science and ceremonies, which are still unreadable.

In the early Mayan civilization, settlements were formed around the sacrificial center, and in the classical period, city-states were formed. Each city-state had its own dynasty. The ruling class of society is priests and nobles, and the king is hereditary, in charge of religious etiquette and stipulating the date of farming. The lower members of the commune are ordinary agricultural laborers and craftsmen from all walks of life. At the bottom of society are slaves, generally from prisoners of war, criminals and debtors, who can buy and sell freely. Mayan countries are similar to the primary slave countries in the ancient world in social development, but there is no detailed information on the specific situation.

Maya believed in religion, and their cultural life was full of religious color. They worship the gods of sun, rain, valley, death, god of war, wind and valley. The sun god is above the gods and is regarded as the embodiment of God. In addition, worship ancestors and believe that the soul is immortal. Mayan countries also manage religious affairs. The capital is a religious center.

Mayan characters first appeared around A.D., but the first dated stone tablet unearthed in 292 A.D. was found in Tikal. Since then, Mayan characters have only spread in a small area centered on Beden and Tikal. In the middle of the fifth century, Mayan characters spread to the whole Maya region, and at that time, a commercial transaction route was established, and Mayan characters spread to all parts of the country along this route.

About a quarter of the 800 hieroglyphs used by Mayans have been explained by linguists. These characters mainly represent the names, numbers, directions, colors and names of the gods in each day and month of the week. Most of them are recorded on stone tablets, wooden boards, pottery and books. The paper of the book is made of plant fiber, which is first soaked in lime water and then dried, thus leaving a layer of lime on the paper. Although there are still 2 million people who speak Mayan dialects in modern times, some hieroglyphs and homophones in their characters are very similar to those in ancient Egypt and Japan. Perhaps we can compare and discuss their similarities and differences, but we still can't interpret the whole Mayan characters.

However, in 1963, Russian linguist Rui Ke Rohloff successfully classified the inscriptions, processed and analyzed them statistically, and summarized the same hieroglyphics from these different categories. Mayan characters are not composed of twenty-six Roman characters like English, but each character has four syllables. G Rohloff finally succeeded in understanding a few words. On this basis, Charles Sobov and Baki YouSieloff of the Russian Institute of Mathematics used computers to successfully interpret an article with huge data (about100000 words). Delesky's ancient documents include eclipses, the movement of stars, marriage, etc. There are records of farming, hunting and carving in ancient books in Madrid; The ancient documents in Paris recorded the truth of history. In short, the basic contents include religious ceremonies, meteorological phenomena and crops.

In the history of ancient world civilization, Mayan civilization seemed to fall from the sky, and came to an abrupt end at the most brilliant and prosperous time. Before Columbus discovered America, this great and mysterious nation had long since disappeared collectively. Their splendid culture was suddenly interrupted, leaving great confusion for the world.

Since john stephens, an American, first discovered the ruins of ancient Mayan civilization in the tropical jungle of Honduras in 1839, archaeologists from all over the world have discovered more than 170 abandoned ruins of ancient Mayan cities in the jungles and wasteland of China and the United States from BC 1000 to the 8th century. The footprint of Mayan civilization starts from Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico in the north and reaches Guatemala, Honduras and Honduras in the south. This mysterious nation has built a surprisingly huge building in the tropical jungle of South America. Many designers of modern cities bemoan the magnificent Tikal city when computer-generated maps appear in front of people. Palenque Palace, built in the 7th century, is 0/00 meter long and 80 meters wide. The Governor's Mansion in Uxmar consists of 22,500 stone carvings, which are carefully designed. Although the roof of Chyi Chin Itza's samurai temple has disappeared, the towering 1000 stone pillars still remind people of the spirit of that year. All this makes people feel that this is an extraordinary nation.

With the further investigation of Mayan culture, people are surprised to find that the Mayans thousands of years ago had unparalleled mathematical attainments and unique enigmatic characters. Moreover, the giant buildings in chichen itza, Tikal, palenque and other places did not come from the needs of Maya's real life, but were built in strict accordance with the magical Mayan calendar cycle.

How accurate is the Mayan calendar and astronomical knowledge? They divide a year into 18 months, and their calculated earth year is 365.2420 days. Compared with the 365.2422 days calculated by modern people, the error is only 0.0002 days, that is to say, the error of a month in 2000 is only one day. They calculated that the year of Venus is 584 days, which is only 7 seconds away from the 50 years of modern people. What an incredible number this is! How did the Mayans thousands of years ago have such an accurate calculation? They still maintain a special religious chronology, with a year divided into 13 months and 20 days each month, which is called "Zorkin Year". Where this calendar came from is really puzzling.

Because this chronology is not based on the movement of any celestial body observed on the earth. Some people think that the calendar of "Zorkin Year" was made by the ancestors of Maya on the basis of another planet that we don't know yet.

The Mayans mastered the number concept of "0" at least in the 4th century BC, 800 years before China and Europeans, to 1000. They also created a 20-digit counting method, and their numerical calculus can be used in 4 million years. Such a huge astronomical figure can only be used for modern interstellar travel and measuring the distance between stars. Thousands of years ago, the Mayans slash and burn, covered their bodies with leaves and exchanged things with cocoa beans as the medium. Do they need such numerical calculations?

The Mayan calendar can last 400 million years, and the difference between the solar year and the Venus year he calculated can be accurate to four decimal places. They have their own characters, which are hieroglyphics composed of 800 symbols and figures, and their vocabulary is as high as 30 thousand. They have exquisite carving, painting and bronze art. However, before the peak of this high civilization was born, the Mayans lived in tree holes for parties. How did such a primitive tribe suddenly produce such a high civilization? Even in the16th century, the Indians seen by the Spanish on the Yucatan Peninsula full of historical sites still lived in mud houses with leaves and made a living by gathering and hunting. Obviously, the precise astronomical calendar and mathematics, the civilization and art admired all over the world, far exceeded the actual needs of the almost primitive life of the local Indian indigenous people.

This makes anyone have to have a profound: how did the ancient Maya get that profound knowledge? How did the splendid Mayan culture come into being and then disappeared?

1On June 5th, 952, a stone tablet engraved with numbers and patterns was excavated from the ruins of a temple in palenque, an ancient Mayan city on the Mexican plateau. At that time, people only regarded this as a sculpture of ancient Mayan mythology. But in the 1960s, after people went into space by spaceship, American scientists who participated in space research suddenly realized that what was carved on the slate of palenque was a picture of an astronaut driving a spaceship! Although it has undergone patterned deformation, the air inlet, exhaust pipe, joystick, pedal, rudder, antenna, hose and various instruments of the spacecraft are still clearly visible. When this photo was sent to the American Space Center, the space experts were amazed and agreed that it was an ancient spaceship. It seems unbelievable, but it is a certain fact.

Therefore, some scholars have put forward a bold view: they think that in distant ancient times, a group of intelligent aliens with high civilization may have appeared in the tropical jungle of America. They walked out of the spaceship, taught all kinds of advanced knowledge to the Maya in primitive times, and then drifted away. They were turned into gods by the Mayans. The profound knowledge that is difficult to understand in Mayan culture was taught by aliens. The carving on the slate in palenque is also a copy of the alien astronauts by the Mayans. When the aliens left, they promised the Mayans to return to the earth, but they didn't come back in the days when the Mayans chased them and the priests predicted the return of the gods. Therefore, this led to the loss of the Maya's confidence in their religion and priestly rule, which led to the collapse of the entire national psychology, and finally made people leave their hometowns one after another and separate. Maya culture just disappeared.

Perhaps people will accuse this view of being too hypothetical. But even if we change this statement, we still can't fully explain the mysterious connotation of Mayan culture, many incredible miracles and the reasons for its sudden disappearance.

Books: Exploring Mayan Civilization-Lost Civilization Series