Mayan History 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 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

All remnants of the distant past are romantic, but ancient Maya civilization has a special fascination. It is a "lost" civilization, whose secrets lie deep in the mysterious tropical forest. The style of Maya architecture and sculpture seems alien and bizarre.

The first sign of Mayan Civilization comes from as early as 600 BCE in the Mesoamerican region, known today as Guatemala. The Mayan civilization did not begin to flourish until 250 CE, known as the classical period of the Mayan civilization. The Mayans were a complex and advanced society. Spiritual beliefs and religion had a major role in every aspect of life. The Mayans believed in an enormous array of gods and goddess. These deities often took on the roles of more than one symbolization at different times throughout their myths.

Most of their gods represented a form in nature, for example the Sun God (Kinih Ahous). They worshiped these gods everyday and religion was at the center of everything they did. They believed their ancestors lived in a small piece of heaven, and kept a watchful eye on their relatives on earth. The Maya also believed in an underworld, which to them was a horrible place filled with demons. If the Mayans did not worship the right way, these demons would be released onto earth and attack them, or so they believed. No Mayan woman would ever look in a mirror, for it was believed that the demons from the underworld could reach through the mirror and yank you into the underworld. Men, however, would look into mirrors as an act of

The Mayan empire was a very complex civilization. The Mayan empire who was a civilization that was located in Mexico and parts of South America. Their civilization lasted nearly 3,000 years before their empire collapsed. Astronomy to the mayans was very important because in their society they believed that the stars where messages from the gods. Since the mayans were polytheistic they believed that each star was a deity or god. They believed in many gods and where religious, they had a god for everything. The mayans like the aztecs thought the sun was a god. There obsession with the stars lead to many discoveries.

The Mayans were an advanced civilization that lived for over 600 years with an estimated population of over 19 million. Scientists, historians and archeologists have been able to prove their level of advancement in different ways. Mayans aligned their limestone structures such as palaces and temples to celestial bodies with mathematical precision. They became effective farmers and their understanding of Agriculture led them to improve the productivity of their main source of nutrition which was corn (Maize). (Olver, 2015) Their knowledge of Astronomy led them to create the most accurate calendar in the ancient world. They also created a writing system and had a government system with laws and punishment assigned to those who broke their laws. (Criscenzo del Rio, 2000)

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization that settled what we now know as South America. The Maya had no central ruler to run their huge empire. They set up what they called city-state and it consisted of separate areas each had its own ruler and class system. The Mayans were also known for building pyramids and temples and they built them all without metal tools. The Mayan also developed a written language and created a calendar. The Mayans were a very religious people they had many different gods and rituals. One of these rituals was human sacrifice. The Mayan people believed that human sacrifices pleased the gods and was needed to keep the world in balance. It is still a mystery as to the why the Mayans civilization declined some believe it was

While democracy has a simple definition, “power for the people”, the interpretations and means of executing that right by centers of power can vastly differ. In the ancient Roman republic, optimates and populares had vastly different political attitudes on who should play an active role in the government. In the name of democracy, leaders from both sides executed their power in different ways. However, optimates best represented the ideals of modern democracy through their attempts to prioritize efficiency and reduced conflict with qualified officials and have the people’s best interests at heart, with famous optimates such as Cato often standing up for the citizens against some populares’ attempts to abuse their power.

The Maya were known for their agriculture, trade, science and religion. They had a complex writing system and developed a calendar from observing the earths movements around the sun. One can’t say that just one

The ancient Mayan people are one of the most brilliant and successful civilizations. They lived in Mesoamerica, which is modern day Central America. They are well-known for their trade routes, calender, architecture, and number system. They were very advanced especially because they were so isolated from the rest of the world. The Mayan inventions were all very important and all contributed to the great society they had created.

The Mayan way of life revolved their religion. They had a polytheistic religion praising many gods. Each god had a certain thing that they would rule over or take care of. Chac was the god of rain, Kinich Ahau was the sun god, and Yum Cimil was the god of the underworld. There were many gods and goddess for almost every reason one could think of, there is even a goddess of suicide. They would perform human sacrifices, bleeding rituals, and dances to praise and to

The culture of the Mayans was very complex. Their religion included more than 160 Gods who all had to do with the forces of nature. They

The function of “self-expression” is also achieved successfully by Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear of Vincent van Gogh. Art fulfills an expressive function when an artist conveys information about them personality or feelings or worldview. Such art becomes a meeting between artist and viewer, the viewer can feel empathy and understand the personality of artists. In October 1888, Van Gogh cut off his own earlobe after having a violent argument with painter Paul Gauguin, whom he idolised and came to stay with him. The Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, completed two weeks after the event, is often regarded as a farewell to that dream, which Van Gogh wanted to set up “a studio in the South”.

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.