The Mayan’s were an ancient Indian race located in Central America. They were the credited with being the first culture in the new world (the Americas) to use the written word with so many letters to their alphabet that only the high priest knew what symbol meant. They were artist, architects, scientists, mathematicians, engineers, historians, writers, academics, farmers, traders, and astronomers among other things. They were smarter than most in that they took things that already existed and improved upon them.
The presence of the Mayan culture dates from present day to as far back as 1800 BCE. While they had written many things the parchment used to write upon was destroyed over time and the standard practice that once conquered the Spanish were ordered to destroy the Mayan history and writings. Had this not happened perhaps the questions that we ask would find some answers with the help of our scholars. But such is not the case.
The reason behind the Mayan civilization decline is still unknown. Most scholars believe that it had to do with war, trading issues, bad crops, and possibly disease.
Because they spent more time in the learnings, teachings, and improvements upon already existing cultures they were credited with using the 0 in mathematics first, their writing was arranged from left to right and bottom to top like most of us read today, they wrote detailed history and used their calendar developed in 3114 BC to help them predict the future. They were peaceful in comparison to the Aztec’s (another Indian race in the same geographical area). But peaceful still included war, blood sacrifices, ritual killings and so forth.
Their religion was possibly one of the most unnerving. They believed human blood was important to the gods. Royal blood was even more pleasing to the gods than regular blood. While they didn’t “always” follow the human sacrifice ideal as the Aztecs did they would openly mutilate themselves to please their gods.
When human sacrifice did happen it was a ritual that was inhuman by any standard. A double sacrifice, first they would rip out the beating heart and offer this to the sun god and second they would decapitate the human and drain the blood from the neck onto the ground to appease the earth god.
They built pyramids in areas of jungle that would seem difficult by today’s standards with machines. They did so without the machines we have today. Their pyramids had two purposes; to be close to their gods and house astronomical observatories that helped them develop their calendars. Up until recently there was no proof in burials in these pyramids as the Egyptians had but the discovery of Pakal and son Kaan Balam II’s tombs in Palanque Mexico changed this thought.
They had city centers and government. They were ruled by four kings. These four kings answered to another king. Five royal houses in total. They had great strides in the sciences and yet the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1520 AD and assimilated an already dying culture and society into their own with each conquest.
One of the greatest things the Mayans are noted for is their advances in Astronomy. They used this science to make their calendars. It’s the calendars that make everyone worried about December 21, 2012. The priest made 3 calendars based off of astrology. As mentioned earlier they built conservatories in the top of their pyramids for this very purpose. They used their calendars to help predict the future. The three calendars were; the civil calendar based on the cycles of the sun (this is close to our Julian calendar without the leap year and having 13 months instead of 12), the sacred calendar was used for religious and ceremonial events, and the Long Count calendar was for long periods of time, centuries and decades. It is the Long Count Calendar that ends December 21st, 2012.
There are still Mayans alive today and exist in a subculture to the Spanish rule. They speak both languages. Their civilization thrived for 1500 years before they were assimilated into the Spanish culture. If you believe in aliens, it is believed that aliens helped with the direction of the way this civilization flourished and developed just as in the belief that Egyptians had the help of extraterrestrials.
