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Anonymous
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I was wondering if they will ever find out why the Mayans and so many other cultures disappeared from North and South America. Are people worried that something like that will happen to us? These civilizations seem to have been very advanced for their time (like us) and good at warfare (like us). If we don’t know what happened to them, what would keep that same thing from wiping us out?
Posted by Kristen I find it fascinating how much they Mayans were interested in astronomy. I found that their Calendar used a count of 260 days, which shows that their calendars were not based on the seasons. There were names for 20 days. The link contains the names of the days and what they probably mean.
When I was reading, I came across the world Mica. I have heard this word before, but couldn't remember what is was. So i found on wikipedia that Mica is a stone that comes from the Latin word meaning "to glitter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica
At the end of the reading it talks about Marajo Island. It said after the 1st millennium "clusters of villages" became larger. Why did the Island's population grow so suddenly?
When the textbook talks about Maya writing, it says it usually came from 2 sources: astronomical observation, and dynastic records. Does this mean that they were interested in astronomy? Also, could the dynastic records be biased if some one is talking about their family? Is this truly reliable?
Also with the Mayans, were the people literate? With the records, did certain people write it or were people able to write their own records?
In the reading it says that Mayan Art usually consisted of scenes of sacrifice. I was curious if they did any other types of art instead of scenes of sacrifice. I found out that many pieces of Mayan art are spiritual in nature, and designed to appease the favor of the gods, and that most Mayan art depicts gods, great rulers, legendary heroes, religious scenes and, daily life. Also that the focus of Maya art pieces is on human figures.
I was wondering about the Mayans warfare. For a long time Archaeologist that were researching the Mayans thought that they were gentle and peaceful people. The Maya warfare was intense and became more intense towards the collapse.They had different types of war such as wars against other kingdoms,other cities, and civil wars.
As I was reading, I was wondering what the Copan in northern Honduras was by. So, to answer my question, I found a map of what Copan is near to.
Also, I thought it was interesting how in the lowland region, the Mayan people dated in three different ways, those being (as said on page 308): "according to the cycle of the plant Venus, as well as of the sun, and according to the number of days since an arbitrary starting point more than 3,000 years in the past." I thought this was pretty interesting compared to how we date today; obviously by using a regular calendar.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was the rituals that were discussed on page 308 in the second paragraph. It said that a king would use a bone needle or a spike and draw blood from his penis or from his hand (which we discussed in class today). A queen on the other hand, would drag a knotted thong that would be studded with sharp bones or spines through perforation in her tongue. Reading down further, it said that the message usually justified war. I just thought this was pretty interesting and extremely unique.
The reading talked a little about how the Mayans recorded time and i had also heard about the Mayan calender. So i decided to get more information on it. wikipedia defined the Mayan caldender as "The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica" It was also adapted by other civilizations nearby.
Was there a official religion in the Maya civilization other than just believing in gods?
Why was the "vast metropolis" never reoccupied?
Did the Tula have many plants/ trees? It said it was similar to the almost rainless limestone hills.
Kind of related to the previous question, was there any irrigation other than the rivers?
What kind new crops and new technologies were there that "extended farmer's frontiers, sometimes with transforming effects"?
Below is a site that I found interesting because of the relation between their rituals and the gods. It also has a good section on the art. It kind of helped me answer my first question:
I was interested in two things after reading: Timekeeping, which was important to Mayans, and Teotihuacan. In Spanish class we learned about Teotihuacan, so I was pleased to see it in other context. Here is a link about Teotihuacan: http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/teotihuacan-2.php It has a great picture of one of the pyramids and also explains how it was the largest Pre-Columbian city in the Americas.
I have heard before that we get our magic "60" number from the mayans... 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour. I thought maybe the Mayans used a base 60? That's what I've heard. Anyways, I looked at a couple of sites and most seemed to point towards base 20. Hmmm.
The reading mentioned the people that inhabited North America. It also mentioned a serpent tomb that is in Ohio. I was curious as to what the tomb looked like. So, I found a webpagefrom Sacred Destinations. It has a map of where in Ohio it is, pictures, and facts. The mound is 5 feet tall and 1,200 feet long.
Also, the reading mentioned Tula, and that it was the metropolis after Teotihuacan fell. I found a picture of some of the stone pillars that it mentioned. Surprisingly, they aren't just pillars. They look more artistic like statues.
Lastly, the reading talked about people using advanced agricultural techniques in Marajo Island. Also, it mentioned that the tombs were very intricate and displayed turtles, scorpions, alligators,… Where is Marajo Island? I found a map. What did the tombs look like? It was harder to find a good picture of the urns. But I found an okay one.
I was really interested in more about the blood letting and the serpent vision. I found this website and it has a really cool scene of bloodletting how women use a string with spikes on it and use it to cut their tongue. Then I found anotherwebsite that has the serpent and a little bit of info about that.
I was really interested in Shield Jaguar. He seems to have been related to Lady Xoc. They lived in Palenque. I looked up a little bit about Palenque but I was also really interested in Lady Xoc. Here is a video that has the lintels of Lady Xoc bloodletting.
I was also really interested in Tula and the "gardens of the gods". I found a really cool picture of the pillars.
I noticed on page 310 there was a mention of a bird claw. The caption says that hands and birds are symbols of prey. I was wondering if this was related to the lines of Nazca. Many of the pictures I saw today of the lines had hands or birds in them.
Ok so a few of the readings have just briefly touched on "mound agriculture" and i was wondering about it so i looked it up. I found out that the mounds places where dead people were buried. And then plants (most often potatoes) were planted on top of them because the bodies were thought to be good for the plants. In other words, the bodies decomposed into the soil and acted as a kind of fertilizer in order to enhance their crops. tis link leads to some pictures of these mounds:
The reading said that "the Mayans abandoned the southern lowlands." well I was wondering why they did that. I looked for a while and it seems to be the major flaw, we don't know why the Mayans disappeared. I was also wondering more about the Mayan religion since none of the readings we have done on the Maya really touched deep into the subject.I found it interesting (this whole site helped me understand) on Religion Facts "Some aspects of Mayan religion survive today among the Mayan Indians of Mexico and Central America, who practice a combination of traditional religion and Roman Catholicism"
13 comments:
I was wondering if they will ever find out why the Mayans and so many other cultures disappeared from North and South America. Are people worried that something like that will happen to us? These civilizations seem to have been very advanced for their time (like us) and good at warfare (like us). If we don’t know what happened to them, what would keep that same thing from wiping us out?
Posted by Kristen
I find it fascinating how much they Mayans were interested in astronomy. I found that their Calendar used a count of 260 days, which shows that their calendars were not based on the seasons. There were names for 20 days. The link contains the names of the days and what they probably mean.
When I was reading, I came across the world Mica. I have heard this word before, but couldn't remember what is was. So i found on wikipedia that Mica is a stone that comes from the Latin word meaning "to glitter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica
At the end of the reading it talks about Marajo Island. It said after the 1st millennium "clusters of villages" became larger. Why did the Island's population grow so suddenly?
When the textbook talks about Maya writing, it says it usually came from 2 sources: astronomical observation, and dynastic records.
Does this mean that they were interested in astronomy? Also, could the dynastic records be biased if some one is talking about their family? Is this truly reliable?
Also with the Mayans, were the people literate? With the records, did certain people write it or were people able to write their own records?
In the reading it says that Mayan Art usually consisted of scenes of sacrifice. I was curious if they did any other types of art instead of scenes of sacrifice. I found out that many pieces of Mayan art are spiritual in nature, and designed to appease the favor of the gods, and that most Mayan art depicts gods, great rulers, legendary heroes, religious scenes and, daily life. Also that the focus of Maya art pieces is on human figures.
I was wondering about the Mayans warfare. For a long time Archaeologist that were researching the Mayans thought that they were gentle and peaceful people. The Maya warfare was intense and became more intense towards the collapse.They had different types of war such as wars against other kingdoms,other cities, and civil wars.
Here is info about Mayan warfare.
As I was reading, I was wondering what the Copan in northern Honduras was by. So, to answer my question, I found a map
of what Copan is near to.
Also, I thought it was interesting how in the lowland region, the Mayan people dated in three different ways, those being (as said on page 308): "according to the cycle of the plant Venus, as well as of the sun, and according to the number of days since an arbitrary starting point more than 3,000 years in the past." I thought this was pretty interesting compared to how we date today; obviously by using a regular calendar.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was the rituals that were discussed on page 308 in the second paragraph. It said that a king would use a bone needle or a spike and draw blood from his penis or from his hand (which we discussed in class today). A queen on the other hand, would drag a knotted thong that would be studded with sharp bones or spines through perforation in her tongue. Reading down further, it said that the message usually justified war. I just thought this was pretty interesting and extremely unique.
The reading talked a little about how the Mayans recorded time and i had also heard about the Mayan calender. So i decided to get more information on it. wikipedia defined the Mayan caldender as "The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica" It was also adapted by other civilizations nearby.
Was there a official religion in the Maya civilization other than just believing in gods?
Why was the "vast metropolis" never reoccupied?
Did the Tula have many plants/ trees? It said it was similar to the almost rainless limestone hills.
Kind of related to the previous question, was there any irrigation other than the rivers?
What kind new crops and new technologies were there that "extended farmer's frontiers, sometimes with transforming effects"?
Below is a site that I found interesting because of the relation between their rituals and the gods. It also has a good section on the art. It kind of helped me answer my first question:
http://www.mayan-world.com/cosmos-m.htm
I was interested in two things after reading: Timekeeping, which was important to Mayans, and Teotihuacan. In Spanish class we learned about Teotihuacan, so I was pleased to see it in other context.
Here is a link about Teotihuacan:
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/mexico/teotihuacan-2.php
It has a great picture of one of the pyramids and also explains how it was the largest Pre-Columbian city in the Americas.
I have heard before that we get our magic "60" number from the mayans... 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour. I thought maybe the Mayans used a base 60? That's what I've heard. Anyways, I looked at a couple of sites and most seemed to point towards base 20. Hmmm.
The reading mentioned the people that inhabited North America. It also mentioned a serpent tomb that is in Ohio. I was curious as to what the tomb looked like. So, I found a webpagefrom Sacred Destinations. It has a map of where in Ohio it is, pictures, and facts. The mound is 5 feet tall and 1,200 feet long.
Also, the reading mentioned Tula, and that it was the metropolis after Teotihuacan fell. I found a picture of some of the stone pillars that it mentioned. Surprisingly, they aren't just pillars. They look more artistic like statues.
Lastly, the reading talked about people using advanced agricultural techniques in Marajo Island. Also, it mentioned that the tombs were very intricate and displayed turtles, scorpions, alligators,… Where is Marajo Island? I found a map.
What did the tombs look like? It was harder to find a good picture of the urns. But I found an okay one.
I was really interested in more about the blood letting and the serpent vision. I found this
website and it has a really cool scene of bloodletting how women use a string with spikes on it and use it to cut their tongue. Then I found anotherwebsite that has the serpent and a little bit of info about that.
I was really interested in Shield Jaguar. He seems to have been related to Lady Xoc. They lived in Palenque. I looked up a little bit about Palenque but I was also really interested in Lady Xoc. Here is a video that has the lintels of Lady Xoc bloodletting.
I was also really interested in Tula and the "gardens of the gods". I found a really cool picture of the pillars.
I noticed on page 310 there was a mention of a bird claw. The caption says that hands and birds are symbols of prey. I was wondering if this was related to the lines of Nazca. Many of the pictures I saw today of the lines had hands or birds in them.
Ok so a few of the readings have just briefly touched on "mound agriculture" and i was wondering about it so i looked it up. I found out that the mounds places where dead people were buried. And then plants (most often potatoes) were planted on top of them because the bodies were thought to be good for the plants. In other words, the bodies decomposed into the soil and acted as a kind of fertilizer in order to enhance their crops. tis link leads to some pictures of these mounds:
http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&q=mound+agriculture
The reading said that "the Mayans abandoned the southern lowlands." well I was wondering why they did that. I looked for a while and it seems to be the major flaw, we don't know why the Mayans disappeared. I was also wondering more about the Mayan religion since none of the readings we have done on the Maya really touched deep into the subject.I found it interesting (this whole site helped me understand) on Religion Facts "Some aspects of Mayan religion survive today among the Mayan Indians of Mexico and Central America, who practice a combination of traditional religion and Roman Catholicism"
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