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Mayan Achievements

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Scientific Achievements of the Mayans

The Mayan civilization last for about 2000 years. It was from the centuries of 300 Ad to 900Ad known as the Classic period. It was one of greatest and most successful periods. The Mayans "Devolved a complex understanding of astronomy." They figured out how to grow corn beans squash and cassava in some of the worst places for farming and found out how to build a modern city without modern tools or machinery. They create the world first written language to be able to communicate with others and create a "calendar" to measure time.

The Mayans written language was comprised up of about 800 symbols. Each of these symbols represented a syllable or a word. You could combine many of the symbols to create a extraordinary …show more content…

Because of this their understanding of the universe and celestial bodies was increased. They knew how to predict when a solar eclipse would come. They also used the cycles of the sun and moon the help them with their growing of crops. They create two calendars that were as precise ad the ones we use today.

The first calendar called the Calendar Round was "based on overlapping annual cycles: a 260-daty sacred year and a 365-day secular year" Which is a year that has no religious base. Each day had a special 4-part identification: day number and a day name in the sacred calendar and a day number and a month name in the secular. Every 52 years was an interval, which they called a calendar round. The calendar would "reset its self like a clock" after every 52 years.

There was another calendar system called the Long count system. This system would "identify each date by counting forward from a fixed date in the past." The date they based this calendar off of was August 11 of August 13. This system grouped dates into cycles or sets there was the

Baktun: 144,000 …show more content…

A temple known as the Chichén Itzá in Mexico, has a pyramid when the spring and fall equinoxes come at sunset the pyramid "casts" a shadow the head of a serpent god slithering down into the earth.

The Mayans were able to build elaborate temples and huge cities without any modern technology or tools like metals. But they did use some of what they called modern technologies, innovations and tools. They created things that help with the making of weaved clothing, and discover how to make paints made of a mineral called mica.
Many histories think that the Mayans were using rubber well before the Americans. One day at a religious ceremony they mixed "the rubber tree and the morning glory plant" and created a durable and strong new material. They used it for things like "water proof clothing, glue, and binding for books, figurines and a large rubber balls used in ritual game known as pokatok."
In the 11th century the decline of the Mayan civilization started. May people feel that it was war that wiped them out but there are many other suspicions like the agricultural practices resulted in deforestation. The Spanish explorers took what was left of this great civilization. These amazing advances in science still influence us

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