Survey 1: The Mayan Geniuses

During my senior year of high school, I took a Comparative Cultures class and I vividly remember a culture that really interested me, Mayan civilization, one of the longest existing and most advanced Pre-Columbian civilizations. Due to the Spanish conquest of the Maya, most historical evidence was destroyed, except for the cities and buildings. The walls of the Mayan buildings were covered in writings about over 4000 years of history. Therefore, their architecture is one of the most significant documents that remain. Mayan city-states built and intricately designed pyramids, temples, palaces, walls etc.

The Mayan Calendar | Chichen itza, Pyramids, Chichen itza mayan ruins

Their pyramids are perhaps the most well-known structures in history. They were utilized not just for religious practices where offerings were made to the divine beings but also as burial chambers for deceased rulers, their partners etc. They are decorated with limestone carving and geometrical patterns. I remember reading a page about how the shapes of pyramids are triangular because by getting closer to the sky, it symbolizes that they are also reaching closer to their god and goddesses. I also found it interesting that many times, new pyramids were built on top of old pyramids. Archeologists have found several more pyramids inside and under existing ones. The Mayan ruins still exist now and can be found in Mexico, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. If possible, I would like to visit them one day and see these remarkable buildings in real life.

Scientist believes Mayan calendar was incorrectly read, doomsday scheduled for this week

The Mayans spent much of their time stargazing and making advanced astronomical calculations. Their calendar system consists of several complex cycles of different lengths that are surprisingly similar to our calendars today. Something I found quite amusing is that on December 21^st, 2012, it was said that the world would end. However, one of the calendars used to measure long periods of time, the “Long Count Calendar” made by Mayans proved that it is just a silly theory, and everyone was basically freaking out for nothing! Not only did the calendars help the Mayans keep track of time, they were also used astrological cycles to aid in annual planting and harvesting.

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Their achievements are even more impressive considering they only had stone-age tools and didn’t have an available source of iron ore. They mainly used stone tools to complete daily tasks such as building projects, farming and hunting. The main materials used to create these tools were limestone, sandstone and fine-grained volcanic stone. Mayan settlements, temples and palaces were made largely from shaped stone blocks. I can’t imagine how much time and effort were put into building their advanced architecture just by using these simple yet useful instruments.

Despite Maya’s innovative scientific achievements, their culture began to decline toward the beginning of the late 8th century. Some say the downfall of Maya civilization could have been overpopulation, environmental degradation, warfare, or even extended drought. There is no definitive explanation.