Post by Glyphman on Dec 10, 2005 15:43:37 GMT -5
Maya Flourished during the first millennium after Christ, embraced by about 5 million people living in City-States in the area that is currently Southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.
Northern Yucata’n Peninsula is geographicly flat, lowland area. Chiapas and Guatemala are jungle partly located in the Mts.
Most important foods are: Maize, beans, jalapenos, rubber, vanilla, coffee and cocoa.
Only four written codices of the Maya from pre Columbian times are known to have survived.
But some books written down after the arrival of the Spanish, such as: Books of Chilam Balam (Books of the Jaguar Prophet ) and the Popol Vuh. Books of Chilam Balam are prophetic. The Popul Vuh has been described as the Bible of the Maya.
From these sources the Maya believed in an afterlife and rebirth of the soul. Life was seen as Cyclic. Sacrifices were an important part of the Creation of New Life.
The Maya had a dualistic religion that centered on a struggle between good and evil, including good Gods and evil gods.
Mayan pyramids were sometimes laid out in alignment with astronomical events such as the rising of the Pleiades or the spring equinox, as in the case of the pyramid of Kakulcan in Chiche’n Itza’.
Of great symbolic importance, many central pyramids. Such as Kakulcan, the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, the Great Pyramid in Uxmal and Pyramid of the Jaguar in Tikal, the highest in the Americas. All are built in 9 levels. These terrace like buildings reflect how the nine underworlds construct the cosmos.
At about 800 - 830 C.E. The Maya abandoned almost all city - States in Guatemala and Chiapas. A new Mayan culture at Chiche’n Itza’ emerged at the Northern Yucatan.
The Lacandon Group n the rain forest of Chiapas still live traditionally and sacrifices to some of the ancient Gods at the old temple sites.
Almost everyone agrees that understanding Mesoamerica cosmology is to understand their calendar.
Northern Yucata’n Peninsula is geographicly flat, lowland area. Chiapas and Guatemala are jungle partly located in the Mts.
Most important foods are: Maize, beans, jalapenos, rubber, vanilla, coffee and cocoa.
Only four written codices of the Maya from pre Columbian times are known to have survived.
But some books written down after the arrival of the Spanish, such as: Books of Chilam Balam (Books of the Jaguar Prophet ) and the Popol Vuh. Books of Chilam Balam are prophetic. The Popul Vuh has been described as the Bible of the Maya.
From these sources the Maya believed in an afterlife and rebirth of the soul. Life was seen as Cyclic. Sacrifices were an important part of the Creation of New Life.
The Maya had a dualistic religion that centered on a struggle between good and evil, including good Gods and evil gods.
Mayan pyramids were sometimes laid out in alignment with astronomical events such as the rising of the Pleiades or the spring equinox, as in the case of the pyramid of Kakulcan in Chiche’n Itza’.
Of great symbolic importance, many central pyramids. Such as Kakulcan, the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, the Great Pyramid in Uxmal and Pyramid of the Jaguar in Tikal, the highest in the Americas. All are built in 9 levels. These terrace like buildings reflect how the nine underworlds construct the cosmos.
At about 800 - 830 C.E. The Maya abandoned almost all city - States in Guatemala and Chiapas. A new Mayan culture at Chiche’n Itza’ emerged at the Northern Yucatan.
The Lacandon Group n the rain forest of Chiapas still live traditionally and sacrifices to some of the ancient Gods at the old temple sites.
Almost everyone agrees that understanding Mesoamerica cosmology is to understand their calendar.
