10 facts about the ancient Maya civilization, which you did not know Bashny.Net

Who they were, what they wanted and where ushli



Apparently, the Maya were very interesting people: they built a giant pyramid, know mathematics, astronomy and writing. But many people today do not know about them. For example:

1. Maya human sacrifice was considered a great honor

Archaeological excavations indicate that the Maya actually practiced human sacrifice, but for the victim it was considered mercy.

The Maya believed that to reach heaven we must also, first have to go through 13 rounds of hell, and only then one will have eternal bliss. And it is a difficult journey that does not get all the souls. But there was a straight "ticket to heaven": it got dead during childbirth women victims of war, suicide, died at the ball game and ritual sacrifices.

So becoming a victim of the Maya considered a high honor - this man was a messenger of the gods. Astronomers and mathematicians use the calendar to know exactly when to bring the victim and who is suitable for this role best. For this reason, almost always become the victims of the Maya, not the residents of the neighboring tribes.

2. Maya preferred to invent his tehnologii

The Mayas did not have two things that were almost all developed civilization - the wheels and metal tools.

But in their architecture was the arch and hydraulic irrigation systems for which it was necessary to know the geometry. More Maya knew how to make cement. However, since they did not have cattle, which might carry a wagon wheel, it may not need them. And instead of metal instruments they used stone. Carefully sharpened stone tools were used for stone carving, wood cutting and others.

The Mayas were surgeons at the time in the world to perform complex operations using tools from volcanic glass. In fact, some stone tools Maya were even more perfect modern metal tools.

3. Perhaps the Maya were moreplavatelyami

The Maya codices there is indirect evidence that they were sailors - the underwater city. Perhaps even the Mayans sailed to America from Asia.

When Maya just appeared as a civilization on the continent about the same place there was an advanced civilization of the Olmecs and the Maya appear to have taken them to many things - chocolate drinks, play ball, sculpture in stone and the veneration of gods animals. < br />
From the continent took the Olmecs, too, is unclear. But much more confusing is where they go: civilization left a Mesoamerican pyramids, colossal stone heads that led to the thought that they themselves could be the Olmecs giants.

They are portrayed as people with heavy eyelids, wide noses and full lips. Supporters of the theory believe the biblical migration is a sign that the Olmecs came from Africa. In America, they lived about 13 centuries and then disappeared. Some of the earliest remains date back to the Maya family for thousands of years.

4. The Mayas did not have spaceships, but were acting observatorii

There is no evidence that the Maya were aircraft or cars, but the complex system of paved roads have been accurate. More Maya possessed advanced astronomical knowledge about the movement of celestial bodies. Perhaps the most striking proof of this is the building with a roof-dome called El Caracol on the Yucatan Peninsula.

El Caracol is better known as the Observatory. It is a tower about 15 meters high with numerous windows, allowing to observe the equinoxes and the summer solstice. The building is oriented to the orbit of Venus - bright planet had great significance for the Maya, and it is believed that their sacred calendar Tzolkin was also built on the basis of the motion of Venus in the sky. According to the Mayan calendar determined the festivities, planting, sacrifices and wars.

5. Were the Maya familiar with aliens? 42,473,660

Nowadays quite popular conspiracy theory that says that the ancient aliens visited Earth, and shared their knowledge with people. Erich von Däniken in the 1960s made millions of dollars on a book about how people run out of space by mankind, and as in ancient times, they exalted man from lowland animal instincts to the lofty spheres of consciousness.



Scientists can not really explain how the figures might appear Nazca in Peru, so great that they can only be seen from a bird's flight. Daniken wrote that the ancient Maya were craft and good aliens even opened their technology comic fly. Their findings, he argues drawings on Mayan pyramid, which shows floating above the ground the men in "round helmets" with drooping "oxygen tube».

However, all these "evidence" can not be called as such - too far-fetched.

6. "Apocalypse" by Mel Gibson - an invention from start to finish and no relation to the real Maya imeet

In "Apocalypse" we see savages, dressed in colorful feathers that hunt ferocious game and each other. Gibson has assured us that it was such were the Maya. Well, he did a nice interesting movie, but the history of the school he apparently skipped.

Gibson's Mayan-barbarians selling women into slavery and male prisoners sacrificed. But there is no evidence that the Mayans practiced slavery at all, or at least take prisoners (wartime does not count, of course). Poor innocent Indians from the heart of the jungle Gibson did not even know about the great Maya city, which eventually fell. But in the heyday of the Mayan civilization all the inhabitants of the surrounding forests were under the control of the city-state, while at the same time retain their independence.

However, Gibson was right about one thing: when the Spanish conquistadors arrived to Mexico, the Maya lived there, but did not want to wage war or to build a city - civilization fell into decay.

7. The Maya may have come from Atlantidy

To understand the history and origin of the Maya is difficult. Thank you superstitious Spanish conquistadors - they burned almost all of recorded history, taking a library of strange magical characters.

They survived only three documents: Madrid, Dresden and Paris, which are named after the cities where the result came. On the pages of these codes described in the ancient city, fallen by earthquakes, floods and fires. These cities are not located in the mainland of North America - have vague hints that they were somewhere in the ocean. One interpretation of the Code states that the Maya came out of the place, which is now (and during their heyday) disappeared under the water, they have even taken of the children of Atlantis.

Atlantis - it's certainly a strong word. But scientists have recently discovered what may be the remains of ancient Mayan cities on the ocean floor. Age cities and the cause of the cataclysm can not be determined.

8. Maya before anyone knew that the time has neither beginning nor kontsa

We have our own calendar, which we use to measure time. It gives us a sense of linear time.

Maya used the three calendar. Civilian calendar or Haab, includes 18 months of 20 days each - in total there were 360 ​​days. For ceremonial purposes Tzolkin was used, which was 20 months of 13 days each, and the whole cycle, thus amounted to 260 days. Together they formed a single complex and long calendar, which contained information about the movement of planets and constellations.

The calendar had no beginning and no end - time for the Maya went in a circle, everything is repeated again and again. Such concepts as "the end of the year," they do not exist - only the rhythm of the planetary cycles.

9. Maya invented sport

One thing is certain - the Maya worshiped a ball game. Long before the Europeans figured dress in skins, the Maya have done at home court for ball games and come up with the rules. Their game is, apparently, was a hard combination of football, basketball and rugby.

"Sports uniform" consisted of a helmet, knee and elbow pads. We had to throw the ball in the hoop rubber, sometimes hanging in more than six meters above the ground. To do this, you can use the arms, legs or hips. The penalty for losing - losing sacrificed. Although, as we have said, the sacrifice was a ticket to heaven, so that the losers and as such was not.

10. Maya still suschestvuyut

Usually people are firmly convinced that all the Maya as a people have disappeared - as if all members of the multi-million dollar civilization like that just took and died overnight. In fact, the number of modern Maya - about six million people, making it the largest indigenous tribe in North America.

Most of the Maya did not die, but for some reason they had to abandon their great cities. Since most of the early Maya history is lost, it is not known why they have suddenly ceased to build large buildings, to conduct ceremonies and to do science. There are several versions: for a long severe drought could burn the crops, or the Mayans became too much, or there was a war and famine.

All that is really known is that in 1524, the year of the Maya began to form small farming communities and abandoned cities. Their descendants still live with us, but hardly something to remember about the past of their people. And if they remember hardly tell.

via factroom.ru