Maya civilization is an outstanding representative of ancient Indian civilization in Central America and America, named after Indian Maya. Mainly distributed in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and western Honduras and El Salvador. It was formed around 2500 BC, and an early slave country was established around 400 BC. It flourished in the 3rd to 9th century and declined in15th century.
/kloc-began to attract academic attention at the end of 0/8. At the end of 19, a number of important sites were excavated, and the modern archaeological research of Mayan civilization began. Since the 1950s, research has made rapid progress, forming a special Maya study, which is an important field of world archaeology and historical research. Scholars have different opinions about the development stage of Mayan civilization. According to the division of American archaeologist N Hammond, it can be divided into three stages: pre-classical, classical and post-classical.
The pre-classical period is the formation period of Mayan culture, from about 2500 BC to 250 AD. Settled agricultural life has emerged in the Peten Basin in the middle of Yucatan Peninsula and its surrounding valleys, with corn and beans as the main crops. An early sacrificial center composed of earthen platforms and altars has also been established. Since then, the country has sprouted and hieroglyphics have appeared.
In the classical period (about 250 ~ 900 AD), Maya culture entered its heyday, and hundreds of large-scale cities and residents were self-reliant small city-states, which had not yet formed a unified country. All States use common hieroglyphs and calendars, and their urban planning, architectural style and production level are roughly the same. Most of the main sites are located in the central tropical rain forest area, and the sacrificial centers such as Tikal, Wahatong, Negras, Piedras, palenque, Copan and Kirigua have formed large-scale buildings. Tikal site is composed of hundreds of pyramid-shaped temples with magnificent weather, with an urban area of 50 square kilometers and an estimated population of about 40,000. At this time, there are a large number of stone pillars engraved with age inscriptions. Generally, a stone pillar is built every 5 years, 10 years or 20 years to become a unique timing pillar. Around 800 ~ 900, these sacrificial centers were suddenly abandoned, and Mayan civilization declined sharply. 1 1 century later, the center of Mayan civilization began to gradually shift to the limestone lowland plain in the north.
Post-classical culture (about 1000 ~ 1520) has a strong Mexican style. The Toltecs from Mexico conquered Yucatan Peninsula and made Chen Chi their capital. There are stone colonnades, "sacred wells" and stadiums offering sacrifices to the living, as well as astronomical observatories and the best-preserved pyramid-shaped Taiwan Province Temple, where Quezalkoyatel, the god of Gechar, is enshrined. Since then, Maya Pan in the north has replaced Itza in Chen Chi as the center of post-classical culture. During this period, the art of pottery and sculpture was rough, and the secular culture rose, which brought a militant wind. The rulers of Mayapan allied themselves with other city-states and established their own rule by force. 1450, Mayapan was burned down due to internal rebellion, and the culture tended to decline after a hundred years. From 1523 to 1524, Spanish colonists took advantage of the situation to occupy Yucatan Peninsula from Mexico, and the Mayan civilization was completely destroyed.
Maya civilization basically belongs to Neolithic Age and Bronze Age, and tools and weapons are made of stone and wood. Gold and copper were only used at the end of the classical period, and iron was never used. Agricultural technology is simple, extensive farming, no fertilization, no livestock, and later irrigation. Handmade products include all kinds of pottery, cotton fabrics and so on. There is a trade exchange relationship between different villages and regions. Maya's architectural engineering reached the level of the ancient world, and they could carve hard stones. This building is famous for its rigorous layout and magnificent structure. Its pyramid-shaped platform temple is made of waste and mud, covered with slate or adobe, and has stone steps leading to the top of the tower. Its sculptures, painted pottery and murals are of high artistic value. The famous Bonanpak mural shows noble ceremony, war and triumph, and the characters are varied and lifelike, which is one of the treasures of the world mural art.
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 kinds of calendars, namely the sacred calendar and the solar 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 China and 1000 years earlier than Europeans, and used decimal counting. 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. Seal cutting 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 Sun God, Rain God, Valley God, Death God, God of War, Wind God, Valley God and other gods, among which Sun God is above all gods. In addition, worship ancestors and believe that the soul is immortal. Mayan countries also manage religious affairs. The capital is a religious center. And there are usually living people who sacrifice at festivals.
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 set foot on the lush land 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.
Mayan characters first appeared in BC, but the first dated stone tablet unearthed was the product of 292 BC and 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 language in modern times, some pictographs 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 our understanding of the whole Mayan characters is still lacking.
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.
The Mayans thought that 52 years was a cycle.