Baktun 9 Research Paper

“In the Western Hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Mayans” (Background Essay). The Mayans were an adept civilization and accomplished many exceptional things during their time. Their deeds include things such as a number system, immense cities, and a vast trade network but there is no Mayan achievement more remarkable than their calendars. The Mayans created three calendars: a sacred calendar called tzolkin, a solar calendar called haab, and a long cycle calendar.

| The development of the calendar was based on their observations and studies of the stars, moon, and sky. They also established a number system; a year was cut into 12 months, a month into 30 days, a day into 12 hours, an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. They also divided a circle into 360 degrees of the 60 arc minutes. Settlement patterns were based on the environment of the area and the need for a stable water supply.

That need for structure is probably the reason that the Mayans developed such an amazingly accurate calendar. They also developed a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that we have not fully deciphered. Through their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics they calculated the lunar cycle, predicted eclipses, and formulated a unique calendar system was very accurate. Their calendar was only one day off every 6000 years. That makes it more accurate than our calendar today (Hooker 6). Two fundamental

After looking over the symbols they created and how they were simple and understanding, I realized that the Mayans were way ahead of their time. All they used were dots and lines and as a zero, it was just a rugby ball looking thing. Instead of creating 400 different symbols to create just the number 400, they used four symbols and just changed the combination of them differently. Forty used three symbols, one rugby ball symbol and two single dots. Four hundred used three symbols too, two rugby ball looking symbols and just one single dot. By far more the one of the better in complex number systems. Compared to the Aztecs, who had feathers for 400 and finger symbols for 1, the Mayan’s number system was easy, with just dots and lines.

The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the use of a written language having over 800 symbols and producing the first 365 day calendar. They maintained an in-depth understanding of astrological cycles that would assist in planning harvesting cycles and predicting solar eclipses. The Mayan’s

Using a base of 20, the system used combinations of dots, bars and shells to represent numbers.(Doc C) Ingenious thinking and mental effort were invested into creating this incredible philosophy of counting using different symbols. Exchange industry, goods, travel, what do all of these words have in common, they were all part of the complex Mayan Trade Routes. The trade routes stretched from Ecuador and Colombia to southwestern United States. They were completely isolated from their neighbours, so the journey to trade with them was treacherous. (Doc A) The significance today would be the fact that people were able to safely travel and explore new places, and meet new people/tribes along the way. Through meeting new people the Mayan culture was able to expand the land and area to which they lived. Copán, Tikal, El Mirador are all exquisite examples of Mayan architecture. In large Mayan cities it took around 80-130 full time workers and two-three months to build one home for a family. Over 2,500 Mayan city locations have been found suggesting that some cities had populations in the tens of thousands, with colossal stone pyramids, palaces, temples, ball courts and other ritual buildings. (Doc B) Mental and physical effort were used in the organization of all of the people and the carrying of the materials without any modern machines and creating the extraordinary

The Mayans were also were technologically advanced. They used their own math system. One dot stood for one, a bar symbolized five, and a shell figure was zero. The numbers were expressed vertically with the highest on top. The also created a very precise calendars. Two different calendars were calculated 260-day and a 365-day. They were able to calculate the dates because at noon time there was no shadow. This was important for them to use in predicting eclipses, scheduling religious ceremonies, and when to plant and harvest.

Obtaining the knowledge that was passed down to them from earlier Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs carved the calendar stone in 1479 (Smith 253). At the time, the Aztecs lived in a very civilized world filled with amazing architecture, an impressively complex government system, and they also employed intricate systems of writing and calendric systems (Taube 7). The Calendar Stone was made by basalt stone. For the Aztecs, everything was pictorial in nature around this era. The calendar stone depicted different pictograms or Codex Magliabechianoand, which was primarily written on religious documents (Aztec-History). Art was centered around religion in this era. So the pictograms of the gods on the calendar stone would correlate with that

They were people of numbers and calculations. They ran on a number system based on the number 20, while their math system was based on adding dots and bars. The Mayans had two types of calendars, a lunar calendar, and a religious calendar. The lunar calendar had 365 days, and kept track of the seasons while the religious calendar had 260 days, and it was used to determine ceremonies and sacrifices. The climate in Ancient Maya was warm and rainy making it very hard to farm.

People around the world have heard about the infamous end of the world prediction made according to the Mayan Calendar. However, not many people are aware that there is an Aztec Calendar known as the Stone of Five Suns. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Aztec Calendar measures about 3.6 meters in diameter, about 1.2 meter thick and weighs more than 21 metrics tons. The Stone of Five Suns can be located in the “Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City” (O’Riley, 309). According the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Stone of Five Suns is not a functioning calendar. The Stone of Five Suns represents the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec Mythology. First we will learn more about the significance of each part of

Using their knowledge of astronomy and their calendar, Mayan priests pointed out lucky and unlucky days to the people, and when to plant, harvest, and wage war. There were two different years of the Mayan calendar, one having 365 days and another, strictly a religious year, having 260 days. The Mayans were believed to be very peaceful and nonviolent people, absorbed in astronomy and religion. “Since then, nearly all of the Mayan hieroglyphic writings have been deciphered, and a much different picture has emerged. The texts record that the Mayan rulers waged war on rival Mayan cities, took their rulers captive, then tortured them and ritually sacrificed them to the gods.”

Massive temples hidden in the jungles of the Yucatan, mysterious stone stelas, and cryptic calendars eluding to advanced knowledge of the stars and mathematics are just some of the artifacts originating from the “Classic Maya” period (200 CE-900 CE). However, these popular items should not be the only defining characteristics of a society that dominated the Mesoamerican region for nearly a millennia. Dynastic lines, similar to those found in European houses, were important elements during this period in places like Palenque, Tikal, and Calakmul. Additionally, the Maya experienced violent and consistent warfare between localized powers and the backbone of their society, agriculture, suffered through several multi-year droughts. These factors

Maya culture is one of the oldest and most intelligent tribal races. The flourishing period of Maya was between 300 and 900. The principal food in Maya was maize, which was also called “the maize culture”. They had no livestock such as sheep and horses. Also, they made the calendar and divided a year to 18 months. In addition, they built huge stone temples and held bloodletting ceremonies in order to sacrifice

When most people think of the Mayans, they think end of the world prediction in 2012. Everyone knows the movie 2012 which portrayed the end of the world predicted by the Mayan calendar. What many do not know is that the Mayans developed three separate calendars; the Long Count, the Tzolk’in, and the Haab, which were represented by glyphs or pictures that were used in their daily lives in many different ways. The Mayans kept time in a very different way than we do today. The Mayans may not have invented the calendar, but they certainly developed it further, and still use their version today.

The Mayan calendar has a starting date of 3113BC that is given the year 0. It used their base 20 numbering system to represent periods of time. There