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Explore Mayan culture
Three thousand years ago. Mayan civilization has made great achievements in astronomy and mathematics. Through long-term observation of astronomical phenomena, we have mastered the solar eclipse cycle and the running laws of the sun, moon and Venus. At the end of the pre-classical period, we created two calendars, the solar calendar and the holy calendar. The former is one year 13 months, 20 days a month and 260 days a year. The latter is one year 18 months, 20 days a month, plus 5 days of death, 365 days a year, every 4 years 1 day. Remembering the names of the sun and the moon twice a day and repeating them every 52 years is more accurate than the calendars used by Greece and Rome at the same time (which were later adopted by the Aztecs as their calendars). Mathematically, Maya used the concept of "0" more than 800 years earlier than Europeans, and counted in decimal system. Another unique creation of Mayan civilization is the hieroglyphic system, whose characters are composed of complex graphics, which are generally engraved on stone buildings such as altars, stairs and stone pillars. Engraving and writing require long-term training. At present, there are about 800 characters, but most of them have not been successfully interpreted except for time symbols and a few names and utensils. At that time, he also used bark paper and deerskin to write books, mainly about history, science and ceremonies, which are still unreadable.

In the early Mayan civilization, settlements were formed around the sacrificial center, and in the classical period, city-states were formed. Each city-state had its own dynasty. The ruling class of society is priests and nobles, and the king is hereditary, in charge of religious etiquette and stipulating the date of farming. The lower members of the commune are ordinary agricultural laborers and craftsmen from all walks of life. At the bottom of society are slaves, generally from prisoners of war, criminals and debtors, who can buy and sell freely. Mayan countries are similar to the primary slave countries in the ancient world in social development, but there is no detailed information on the specific situation.

Maya believed in religion, and their cultural life was full of religious color. They worship the gods of the sun, rain, grain, death, war, wind and grain. The sun god is above the gods and is regarded as the embodiment of God. In addition, worship ancestors and believe that the soul is immortal. Mayan countries also manage religious affairs. The capital is a religious center.

1502, Columbus sailed to America for the last time, only 10 years after he first discovered the "New World". The ship landed in the Gulf of Honduras, and Columbus and his crew excitedly set foot on the lush land they had not seen for a long time. In the local market, a beautifully made pottery basin caught his attention. The seller told him that this exquisite pottery basin came from "Maya". This magical name was first introduced to the ears of Europeans. 15 19, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes led the Spanish army across Mexico and conquered the Aztec empire, which was in the heyday of civilization. "Eradicating a culture is like a passerby breaking a sunflower by the roadside." At this time, the Mayan civilization is coming to an end, but there are still some small Mayan countries on Yucatan Peninsula. 1526, a Spanish expedition went to Yucatan Peninsula, trying to establish a Spanish colony by violence and enforce Christian belief. The unyielding Maya fought guerrilla warfare for more than 100 years until 1697, when the last Mayan city-state was destroyed by Spanish gunfire.

In the early Mayan civilization, settlements were formed around the sacrificial center, and in the classical period, city-states were formed. Each city-state had its own dynasty. The ruling class of society is priests and nobles, and the king is hereditary, in charge of religious etiquette and stipulating the date of farming. The lower members of the commune are ordinary agricultural laborers and craftsmen from all walks of life. At the bottom of society are slaves, generally from prisoners of war, criminals and debtors, who can buy and sell freely. Mayan countries are similar to the primary slave countries in the ancient world in social development, but there is no detailed information on the specific situation.

Mayan countries also manage religious affairs. The capital is a religious center. And there are usually living people who sacrifice at festivals.

Mayan characters first appeared around A.D., but the first dated stone tablet unearthed in 292 A.D. was found in Tikal. Since then, Mayan characters have only spread in a small area centered on Beden and Tikal. In the middle of the fifth century, Mayan characters spread to the whole Maya region, and at that time, a commercial transaction route was established, and Mayan characters spread to all parts of the country along this route.

About a quarter of the 800 hieroglyphs used by Mayans have been explained by linguists. These characters mainly represent the names, numbers, directions, colors and names of the gods in each day and month of the week. Most of them are recorded on stone tablets, wooden boards, pottery and books. The paper of the book is made of plant fiber, which is first soaked in lime water and then dried, thus leaving a layer of lime on the paper. Although there are still 2 million people who speak Mayan dialects in modern times, some hieroglyphs and homophones in their characters are very similar to those in ancient Egypt and Japan. Perhaps we can compare and discuss their similarities and differences, but we still can't interpret the whole Mayan characters.

However, in 1963, Russian linguist Rui Ke Rohloff successfully classified the inscriptions, processed and analyzed them statistically, and summarized the same hieroglyphics from these different categories. Mayan characters are not composed of twenty-six Roman characters like English, but each character has four syllables. G Rohloff finally succeeded in understanding a few words. On this basis, Charles Sobov and Baki YouSieloff of the Russian Institute of Mathematics used computers to successfully interpret an article with huge data (about100000 words). Delesky's ancient documents include eclipses, the movement of stars, marriage, etc. There are records of farming, hunting and carving in ancient books in Madrid; The ancient documents in Paris recorded the truth of history. In short, the basic contents include religious ceremonies, meteorological phenomena and crops. Copan, an important Mayan site, is located in Copan province, northwest of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, about 225 kilometers northwest of Tegucigalpa. Near the Guatemalan border. Copan Maya site is located in a canyon with a length of 13 km and a width of 2.5 km, with an area of 0. 15 km2 and an altitude of 600m. Copan Maya site is the site of ancient Mayan city in Honduras in 1 century BC. It is one of the religious and political centers of ancient Maya, and it is also the oldest and largest ancient city site in Mayan civilization. There are pyramids, squares, temples, sculptures, stone tablets and hieroglyphic stone steps in the site. This is a very important archaeological field. It is surrounded by mountains and waters, with fertile land and dense forests. Copan is the oldest and largest ancient city site in Mayan civilization. It attracts many foreign scholars to do archaeological research here, and it is also one of the important tourist attractions in Honduras. For more than 200 years BC, Copan was the capital of the Mayan kingdom and the center of scientific, cultural and religious activities at that time. 1576, the Spanish Diego garcia discovered the ruins of this ancient city submerged in the grass. The core of the site is religious architecture, including pyramid altars, squares, 6 temples, stone steps, 36 stone tablets and sculptures. The periphery is the ruins of 16 residential complex. The houses of Mayan priests are the closest to religious buildings, followed by the houses of tribal leaders, nobles and businessmen, and the houses of ordinary civilians are the farthest. This reflects the religious characteristics of the hierarchical system and the lofty position of religious sacrifice in the class society, and has distinct hierarchical characteristics. On the hill of the square, there is an altar pyramid, 30 meters high and 63 steps. It consists of 2500 square stones engraved with patterns and hieroglyphs, and a stone ladder with a width of about 10 m and a length of about 60 m goes straight to the top of the tower. There are two upside-down spotted pythons carved on both sides of the stone steps. Maya hieroglyphics are engraved on each stone step. Stone tablets are carved from a whole rock, which is covered with hieroglyphics. These patterns and words recorded important events of the Mayans. So it is also called "pictographic stone steps". This stone step is the passage for priests and tribal leaders to climb to the top of the tower for sacrifice in Mayan sacrificial activities. Near the square, on the steps of a temple stands a huge stone statue representing the sun god, on which Venus is carved. On the steps of another temple, there are two statues of lion heads. One hand of the statue holds a torch symbolizing the rain god, and the other hand holds several snakes with a snake in its mouth. On the hillside and the steps of the temple, there are some huge stone statues with different expressions. It is said that Itsana, the first priest of Maya and the inventor of hieroglyphs and calendars, was carved into the God of the gods after his death and enshrined here. Another altar 1.22 meters long and 0.68 meters high is carved with four priests sitting cross-legged. They are engraved with hieroglyphics, and everyone has a book in his hand. Among the sculptures in this altar, there are Shi Hu and stone turtles inlaid with black rock fragments. In the center of the square, there are two temples with tunnels, each 30 meters long and 10 meters wide, dedicated to the sun god and the moon god respectively. There are colorful portraits on the walls and doorframes. In the open space between the two temples, there are 14 stone tablets, which were built between 6 13 and 783 All stone tablets are carved from a whole stone, with different heights, full of symbolic carvings and thousands of hieroglyphics. Of all the characters, only one looks like a woman. Panmaya Site (Copan)