The Mayans: The Only True Writing System

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

“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 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.

They had an extensive written language, which was both phonetic as well as ideographic. One of only five independently created writing systems in human history. Maya words were in hieroglyphs, each picture with its own meaning. Unlike other ancient

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.

The Mayan writing system was perplexing. No one had seen anything like it. It took a long time to crack the code because people were not very familiar with the Mayan language and culture. When the glyphs were

“For evidence that the notion of Europeans introducing ‘civilization’ to the Americas is a lie, one need only look at the Aztec and Mayan peoples.” The Mayan civilization began prospering at around 900 BC - AD 300. The Mayas were extremely inventive with a interesting and vivacious culture. They erected are religious enters and communities and created advanced watering systems for irrigation and water storage. By 300 AD the Mayan city of Tikal had at least 20,000 people, including farmers and laborers used to create large temples for religious devotion decorated by skilled artisans. The ruling class was an elite group who claimed to be descendants from gods, not to completely unlike the monarchy or bourgeoisie in Europe. One of the most well know inventions of the Mayans was the calendar which they used to record noteworthy accounts such as historical events and predictions of solar and lunar eclipses, done so with remarkable accuracy. The Mayans were so advanced that they developed their own form of written language called hieroglyphics allowed the further progression and movement of ideas, creating a complex society.

The Aztecs spoke a language called Nahuatl, and they had a writing system with symbols called glyphs. They made books out of cloth, bark, and animal skins.

What Mayan writing seems to represent is a sacred language used only by the elite, initiated, and known only by them. The language of the Mayan was identical with that of the Yucatan Indians, given the fact that writing was identical. The Maya kept records on large stone monuments called stelae. They used the Steele to record important dates and to take note of great events in the lives of their rulers.(Price 91)They also used the stelae to recount the positions of the “heavenly bodies”_ particularly the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter.(Miller)

Hieroglyphic a complex system of writing based on drawing and pictures [Carolyn & Charles, 25]. One of the main purpose of mayans writing were to keep documents and records of amount of food and sources available. If weren’t the writing we would possibly have a way shorter knowledge about the Mayan civilization because, many information that we know about their civilization came from their own records[Sharep, Chapter 11].The mayans had emblems (glyph writing) of maya cities so the travelers could know where they were.[Carolyn & Charles, 114]. With the writing system the Mayas developed a calendar system which helped them to know the special religious date and also know when they should plant the fields. [History.com, online]

The Mayan achieved many accomplishments. The Mayan people made their paints from mica. Their writing language was

The Classical Maya was lost to the archaeological records until the last 200 years due to it’s abandonment. When the Mayans left there great cities, thick vines and jungles overtook the great monuments they once built. But in the last 200 years, in depth research has lead to breakthroughs into what the Classic Maya was like. The earliest Mayans were agriculturalist, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava. The Mayans also invented a very accurate calendar, a math code using 0’s, constructed buildings still intact today, and a writing system that took decades to decode. The Mayans were situated in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. Due to their location on the

The Mayan civilization was located near Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. It has very low sea level. From less than 20 meters in the tropical lowland area to more than 250 meters above sea level near the Three Rivers Region. It also had numerous sinkholes. Most of the sinkholes granted the Mayan access to water.

Is the development of the writing system the most important factor that led to the rise of a civilization? How does our ancestor learned to write when school is not even available? Understand that writing system that I am referring is not the average of using tools such as ink and paper, but more of creative tool that has developed over time. In this essay, I will cover seven points on the importantance of a writing system in the ancient civilization.