Having grown up in Arizona and New Mexico, and having often visited Mexico, I thought I knew a bit about the Mayan people and Mayan Culture. I’d heard of the Mayan calendar (remember the whole end of the world thing when the Mayan calendar was ending?), the Mayan abacus, and Mayan ruins. Those were all concepts that I had heard of, but had no real familiarity with. I was looking forward to learning more.
We had several different tour guides throughout our time in the Yucatan Peninsula. Many of their facts were the same, but often they had something different to add to the picture. Most of them were of Mayan descent. We also visited the Gran Museo del Mundo Mayan in Merida. All of those sources added up to tons of new information.
The 10 new things I learned about Mayan Culture, in no particular order are:
The Mayan Abacus
Well, to say I learned how to use it is a gross overstatement. But I tried, and was eventually successful in showing the year I was born on the digital abacus as the Gran Museo. It only took me about 15 minutes and the help of our guide. But I think I got it figured out.
The Mayan Calendar
The Mayan Calendar was extremely sophisticated and complicated.
Not only were there days, lunar cycles, and solar cycles, there were periods of 52 years, which symbolized a sort of rebirth (and that is when they built new temples on top of/around their old temples). Their knowledge of solar cycles created much of the architecture, as many of their temples or other structures were lined up to have certain things highlighted at the solstices or equinoxes. For example, the snake slithering down the sides of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza on the spring and fall equinoxes. It was depicted in the Chichen Itza after dark light show, but happens in real life on those two days every year.
Mayan Written Language
The Mayan people had a written language. I honestly had no idea. Most of the records of the language were destroyed by the Conquistadores, but a few example of the codices still exist. There are a couple in the Gran Museo, and they are astonishingly detailed.
Zero
Many ancient mathematical theories did not have a zero. The Greeks did not believe in zero. It seems incomprehensible to me that one cannot believe in zero, but apparently it seemed incomprehensible to them to believe in zero. Zero serves as both a placeholder for nothing, and a transition for the next group of something. Mayan people used a 20 counting system, rather than our 10 system. I have no idea why I found this so fascinating, but I did.
Pok a Tok
I think most people are generally aware of the Mayan ball game known as Pok a Tok. I knew virtually nothing other than that it was played, and it somehow related to human sacrifices. What I now know (or may know, since this is largely conjecture, since the Mayan written works were destroyed, and efforts were made to wipe out the culture as well), is that it was played by two teams and involved a hardened rubber ball. Players used their shoulders, torsos, upper arms and thighs to keep the ball off the ground.
Although the sole purpose was not to get the ball through a small ring many feet above your head on the side of the pok a tok court, if that happened, the game was instantly over and that team was the winner. Otherwise, scoring involved getting the ball to the opposing teams end of the field. A theory is that the name is based on the sound the ball made when it contacted body parts. If you imagine a hard rubber ball hitting someone’s chest or thigh, you can almost hear the sound.
What’s not clear to me (or as far as I can tell anyone else for certain) is whether it was the winners or the losers who were sacrificed. Or even if anyone was.
Sacrifices
It was considered an honor to be sacrificed. The blood of sacrifices, whether human or animal, or even bloodletting of members of the community was said to nourish the spirits of the Mayan world. Blood sacrifices were common on many festivals and holidays. Much of what we assume we know about the sacrifices is based on Spanish accounts and may be inaccurate, but it does seem clear that it was an important ritual in the Mayan Culture
Mayan Arch
The Mayan Arch is actually interesting for two reasons. One is that, unlike some other arch styles, it does not have a keystone (the stone which holds the entire structure up). This often means that it is not totally rounded at the top. The style is called a corbel arch.
The Mayan builders also used the arch (or it coincidentally happened) to make a sort of echo chamber which when someone claps in front of the arch, it reverberates back a sound not unlike that of a bird calling. It seems like that cannot be true, but it really worked.
Mayan Tree of Life
The Mayan world view was comprised of three levels, the underworld, the world at earth level, and the over world. The underworld was the sphere of death, the earth was the sphere of the living, and the sky was the sphere of paradise. The tree of life connected the three. The Ceiba tree is the tree of life, and is found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. In Mayan, it is called the Yaxche.
Eclipse thing
In addition to the solar calendar, the Mayans were great predictors of eclipses and other solar phenomenon. They also used obsidian to view eclipses safely. I had to have one. Even though I don’t even know when the next eclipse is, or if I will see it, but I am now armed with my very own Mayan volcanic glass eclipse viewing tool. I actually did use it to look at the sun the other day. Don’t ask me why, I just did.
Religion
I always thought the Mayan people were polytheistic, without knowing any more than that. The general consensus is that the ancient Mayan cosmos was of a flat world (the earth part of the cosmos), held up by 4 gods, one at each corner. The upper world was comprised of 13 layers, and the underworld was comprised of 9. Each level had its own god (or gods). It was a very complicated system, but what resonated with me is the Mayan belief that everything had k’uh, or sacredness.
I was thrilled for the opportunity our guides gave us to learn more about Mayan Culture.
What things will you learn on your next adventure?