In Ancient China the Social hierarchy was built like a pyramid, with an Emperor and his Nobles being at the top. The food they ate was of wide variety, and they took pride in there pastoral animals considering them as prized possessions. In Ancient Maya the majority of their structures were built like pyramids, with human sacrificial ceremonies happening at the top of them. While the food that impacted there survival was corn and a couple of fruits that they farmed. These cultures are extremely different, but surprisingly they can also be compared with some similarities. Ancient China is arguably one of the most successful country ever to exists in terms of its longevity of it’s existence, this is true to be because of its core values that …show more content…
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. In order to compensate for the rough climate they perfected the practice of slash-burn farming to farm their crops. Slash-burn farming requires little technology, and consists of cutting and burning the plants and trees in the forest, this creates land called a Swidden. The Swidden only had the ability of crop protection for a mere 2 years. It was extremely difficult for them to farm, because after they burned there crops, they needed to wait 5 to 7 years for the land to rejuvenate. To avoid moving to different land every few years Mayan farmers brilliantly planted their crops together to maximize the production of their crops. For example, the beans and squash were planted in fields of maize so that the beans could climb up the maize stalks and the squash could help reduce soil erosion. The Mayas agriculture was key, in receiving precious items from different regions. They traded with larger cities that weren’t fortunate enough to have access to large amounts of land to farm on. Although these cities couldn’t farm they had the opportunity trade with even larger cities with more valuable resources such as slaves, salt, honey and precious goods such as metals, feathers, and shells. As trade between city-states increased, so did cultural exchange, leading to the expansion of the culture. The determining factor for the
The society had two main calendars. One calendar was called tzolkin, the sacred or ritual calendar. It predicted the "...ceremonial life of the people."(Doc D) The other was called haab, the civil/solar calendar. The civil/ solar predicted the weather, and unlucky days for the year. Both of these calendar cycles were used together. "They were like two cogged wheels, revolving alongside each other, with the cogs (days) meshing as the wheels turned." (Doc D) The Mayan calendars were far more accurate and more advanced than any other New World people. Document D also informs us that "Observatories were built, at Chicen Itza and other cities, to use in studying the movements of the sun and the moon, planets such as Venus and Mars, and the
Imagine that you are a Mayan in 3114 BCE and you were trying to help make the long count calendar, but you don’t know the math. The Mayans were a Native American tribe that lived in Mesoamerica(now Central America).They did rituals to please the gods and practiced slash and burn agriculture. They created the calendar and a trade network. They also created a number system and many cities.
This is important because this means that they actually tried to learn the best way to grow crops. Which would in turn definitely help the Mayan empire thrive. This is how agriculture would help the Mayan empire
All are remarkable but the most important one was the Number System. The Trade Network really impacted the Mayans. The Mayans traded items like cotton, salt and honey from Mayapan. They also traded Jade and Animal skin (Doc A). By the trade network, the Mayans
Similarities can be seen between Classic Mayas and Aztecs. The Aztecs city-states interacted with each other in order to form alliances and to trade. These relationships also could be tense and involve aggression and warfare. This is similar to the Mayans. As their society grew, so did the craft specialization in areas which created the opportunity for more trade.
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
Ancient Greece and the Han China civilizations were both very similar in comparison. Each culture had its way of doing things. For instance, something you could look at is their beliefs and appearances were similar. While their availability to certain crops and economic opportunity were different.
Architecture, the basis of life for the Mayans. Architecture, specifically regarding pyramids. Now, when we think of the word “pyramid” most people will automatically think of the Great Pyramids of Egypt (we’ll get to those). But the Mayans had just as pyramids just as great. See, the technical building of the Maya pyramid was the same as the Egyptians. Both civilizations had pyramids of their own architectural design; Egypt with the well-known triangle and the Mayans with staircases. The use of slaves would help rise the pyramids from the ground, stacking, piling, pulling, and layering stone and clay. The main difference
The Aztec and Mayan civilizations were two important, early civilizations that settled in Mesoamerica. The Mayan and Aztecs were two civilizations that lived in two different time periods, but they shared many physical and mental characteristics of one another. The Aztec and Mayan civilizations were different but they were more similar. The Aztecs and Mayans were more similar in their location, religion, writing system, government, social structure, gender roles, technology, and sporting activities.
The Maya and Aztec civilizations are two vastly different civilizations, as is to expected, however, despite these differences, they do share a number of similarities.
The Maya were a people from Middle America, which includes modern Guatemala, Southern Mexico, and Northern Belize (Editors). The Maya civilization was considered to be “one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica,” (Maya). “The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork,” (Maya). They also gave mankind the modern calendar (Jarus, Maya). The Mayans were a very advanced people, but one of the most important things in the Mayan culture was their religion/god worshipping rituals.
So, as stated before in this essay, the Incas and Mayans had quite a few things in common but they were much more different than similar. Although both civilizations failed, at one point they flourished greatly. They were intelligent and paved the way for things liken mathematics, architecture,
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.
Furthermore, the fact that the Mayan did not have domesticated animal came back to haunt them here. Animals are the perfect choice for storable food. People can kill them whenever they need meat. But considering crop, they have to eat it in a short period of time after they have harvested it. Eventually, the Mayan did not have the experience, and were physically and mentally incapable of traveling long distance to trade food or
The Maya were also a farming society like the Aztecs. They too, worshiped many gods, whom they felt were responsible for their survival. Gods of rain, wind, and sun were among the ones most worshiped. Mayan leaders went to war to try and capture the ruler of another city. If they did they would sacrifice the prisoner, again much like the Aztecs (Mexico).