Maya culture is one of the important ancient cultures in the world, and it is also a great classical culture in the United States. Maya appeared in the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala in Central America 5000 years ago, and began their production activities in the Paleolithic Age of America. Therefore, like other human beings in the world, their ancient history usually goes through a transitional development stage from gathering, fishing and hunting to farming. Mayan civilization was conceived, developed and developed in Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas and Tapasco in Mexico and some places in Central America, including Belize, most parts of Guatemala, western Honduras and some places in Salva. The total area of this area is 324,000 square kilometers.
First, the emergence and development of Mayan culture
Around 2000 BC, the Mayans entered the fixed-point social period, from gathering, fishing and hunting to farming. Agriculture and fixed-point social life gave birth to Mayan civilization. Mayan civilization began.
Many scholars in the world have studied Mayan culture, and the recognized historical stages of Mayan civilization are as follows: BC 1500 to AD 3 17, the pre-classical period of Mayan civilization development, AD 3 17 to AD 889, and AD 889 to AD 1697. Some people call it prophase, metaphase and anaphase.
Pre-classical civilization appeared in Guatemala's Pacific coast and plateau. At this time, the main feature of Mayan culture is the establishment of many large stone tablets in the city square, engraved with images of rulers of past dynasties. Because hieroglyphics appeared in the1-2nd century, there are words on the stone tablets describing the history of the rulers. In addition, large stone buildings (such as pyramids and acropolis) have appeared in the city. The huge Shipu Square and causeway reflect that the building has reached a certain scale and level at this time. The centers of pre-classical civilization are Nakbe and ElMirador in Central America.
The centers of civilization development in the classical period were Tikal, palenque, Bonampak and Copan. The cultural characteristics at this time are mainly reflected in architecture, sculpture and painting. The frescoes in Bonan Park are world-famous artistic treasures.
The center of Maya classical civilization in Central America declined in the 9th century for some reason. Since then, Mayan culture has moved northward to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and entered the post-classical civilization period. Maya post-classical civilization has three centers: chichen itza, Smal and Maya Pan.
After 10 century, the powerful Tortec descendants invaded Yucatan Peninsula from Mexico and affected chichen itza. Maya culture and Tortek culture developed to a new height on the basis of integration, which made the declining Mayan culture flourish again and the Mayan history entered the second development period. The cultural characteristics of post-classical civilization are that, in addition to inheriting the cultural heritage of southern Mayan civilization, many larger and more magnificent temples and large pyramids have been established than before. Astronomy and calendars have also made great progress.
Second, the main content of Mayan culture
Maya culture is a great classical culture and has made great contributions to world civilization.
First, new varieties of grain have been cultivated in agricultural production, such as corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, sweet potatoes, peppers, cocoa, herbs, tobacco, etc., among which the cultivation of corn has made the greatest contribution to mankind. Corn was originally a wild plant in America, which was cultivated by Maya and became a high-yield food variety. There are many varieties of corn with high nutritional value and high yield, which is not only the material basis of American Indian culture. After Europeans arrived in America, corn spread all over the world and became the main food in many parts of the world, helping people in many parts of the world to survive countless famines and making indelible contributions to the continuation and development of mankind. The Mayans also raised turkeys. Turkey is now a must-have delicacy for European and American families, and Maya's achievements in European and American food culture are recorded in history books.
Second, the urban economy is ahead of history. There are many Mayan cities. According to statistics, in the eight centuries after A.D., different Maya tribes established more than 100 cities, among which palenque and Copan were the most famous. This is the result of Mayan economic development. The reason for the economic development is that the Mayans had a high degree of handicraft industry. They will make all kinds of utensils with clay, tools and weapons with flint or obsidian, cloth with cotton, alloys with gold, silver, copper and tin, and process them into all kinds of utensils and decorations. The market is very developed. Generally, there are fairs in towns, and people from all walks of life can trade at the fairs. Commodities include cotton cloth, honey, beeswax, flint weapons, salt, fish and various daily necessities and foods. Commodity trading already has currency, and their currency is cocoa beans. There is a hotel next to the market for customers to stay. Generally speaking, there is a fixed date for the mutual market, just like the market day in rural areas of China, which is either one-to-one, two-to-one, or three-to-six-nine, and the holidays are different. Due to the development of commodity economy, Maya not only developed internal economy, but also carried out extensive foreign trade. Its economic activities are as far away as Colombia in South America, and also affect Peru, Chile and other places.
Third, architecture and art have made great contributions to mankind. Maya built many magnificent halls, temples, tombs and huge stone tablets with stones. Mayan architecture is not only magnificent, but also magnificent. Until now, we can still see the bright colors and beautiful patterns in the Mayan ruins left in the Yucatan Peninsula or the tropical jungle of Guatemala. There are still some ancient war murals created around the 8th century A.D. in Bonanpak site. The figures in the painting are vivid and lifelike, which is one of the treasures of the world famous mural art today.
Mayans often set up posts in cities to record things at regular intervals. Usually, they set up some columns every 20 years to record some important things. Historians can know the ins and outs of the city according to the records on the stone pillars. According to the available data, the age of this column is as long as 1200 years, the earliest stone pillar was erected in 328 years, and the last one was erected in 15 16 years. For example, the pillar of the Mayan Tikal Temple in Guatemala, which has been deciphered, stands on June 20, 468, which happens to be 13 of the Mayan calendar. The words on the stone pillars mainly describe some deeds of Kanak, the ruler of Tikal City 12 generation and his family. The words on the stone pillars also tell us that Xi 'an Cha 'an Cavell became the ruler of Tikal in AD 41165438+1October 27th, and he died in February19,456, and on August 9th, 458. The city of Tikal was built by a Maya named Jack Mokshok, who was the ancestor of the Kanak people. After 100 years of rule, the Kanak family turned Tikal into the most brilliant city at that time. The stone pillars erected by Mayans are precious historical materials for studying Mayan culture.
The Mayans were also high-level architects. The Kukulkun Pyramid in chichen itza surpassed the pyramids in Tikal and other cities. The base of Ku Ku Ku Kun Pyramid is square, 30 meters high, and the tower is divided into 9 floors, each with 9 1 wide stone steps. The total number of steps around is 364. If the temple at the top of the tower is counted as level 1, it is ***365, representing the number of days in a year. The temple is 6 meters high and square. The bottom of the front of the pyramid is carved with a feathered snake head, which is 1.43m high, 1.87m long and 1.07m wide. At three o'clock in the afternoon at the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox, the sun in the west projected the angular light and shadow of the side wall on the side wall of the north stone steps. The whole tower, from top to bottom to the head of the snake, looks ups and downs, like a giant snake crawling from the top of the tower to the earth. This pyramid was designed and calculated accurately to meet the needs of religion and agriculture.
Chichen itza also built an observatory. It is a circular building with a height of 22.5 meters. The whole tower is like a snail shell. There are spiral stairs in the tower leading to the observation deck at the top of the tower. There are eight carefully designed windows on the tower wall to observe the astronomical phenomena. Chichen itza also has huge ancient buildings. This complex includes the Governor's Mansion, Nun Palace, Warrior Temple, Tiger Temple and huge pyramids. The outer walls, doorframes and lintels of these buildings are covered with finely carved feather snake reliefs, and their fine materials, gorgeous images and symmetry exceed the original buildings of southern Maya culture, which even today's architects are amazed.
Many Mayan buildings were built with solid walls. In tulum, there is still an ancient wall 2350 feet long, 20 feet wide and 10 to 15 feet high.
The Mayans were also great road builders. Mayan cities are connected by roads, extending in all directions.
Fourth, the Maya's astronomical calendars and mathematical operations were second to none in the world at that time. They set a year as 365 days, divided into 18 months. 20 days a month, and the remaining 5 days are taboo days. The accuracy of the calendar is much earlier than the Gregorian calendar used by Europeans later. They will also calculate the periods of the moon, Venus and other planets and the time of solar eclipse. The Maya calculated the year of Venus by lunar calendar as 1 0,000 years, and 1 day was not bad, which was more accurate than any calendar in the world at that time. Maya's achievement in mathematics is the discovery of zero, which is a great achievement in mathematics. This achievement predates Europe by 800 years. Maya's calculation method is based on the combination of human fingers and toes, so it is a 20-bit system. Maya can calculate a very accurate astronomical calendar and all the mathematical problems in daily life with only the combination of three digital symbols. These three numbers are points representing 1, horizontal lines representing 5 and shells representing 0.
Fifth, hieroglyphics are created to express the feelings of all things in the world and people. This hieroglyph is mainly carved on buildings and pottery, or written on bark and silk. The primitive hieroglyphics of Maya can be seen everywhere on stone pillars, altars, pyramids and pottery. Mayan vocabulary is very rich, about 30 thousand. Mayan writing is very wonderful. It has not only hieroglyphics, but also understanding and tangible sounds. It is a kind of writing with both intentional form and semantic sound function. Maya used paper, usually made of bark or tanned deerskin. They used these papers to compile various books, the main contents of which were history, science and ceremonies. Some books also recorded various situations of Mayan society at that time. After the Spaniards entered the Maya area, they wantonly destroyed Mayan culture, burned Mayan books and killed Mayan priests, resulting in the precious wealth of Mayan civilization becoming a pile of waste products. No one knew the Mayan characters and there was no way to verify the history. Some Mayan documents are scattered all over the world. Ancient manuscripts from Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Gloria, Berlin and new york are known. The contents of these ancient manuscripts involve history, religion, legends, calendars and so on. Through the study of these ancient manuscripts, scholars judge that there is a close cultural connection between the Maya in the south and the Maya in Yucatan Peninsula.
Sixth, there are already philosophical and idealistic ideas. Maya, like other early humans, initially believed in Shamanism and worshipped natural gods, especially the sun god, and called it Itaamna. However, Mayan religion is developing continuously, and then primitive philosophy and idealized ideas are injected into religion.
Maya's idealized thought is that there is a happy world in heaven. The god who rules the world is called Sista. He is a very kind, just and loving God. Under his auspices, heaven is full of joy, no disease, no sadness and pain, and plenty of delicious food, spacious houses and gorgeous clothes. Heaven is as beautiful as you think. When people enter heaven, they enter the realm of overall beauty and overall happiness. There is a terrible hell underground. Maya's philosophy of life is: people can do good things when they are alive, and they can go to heaven when they die, otherwise they will go to hell, and all the evil you have done in this world will be liquidated by death. They call hell Mitterrand. Hell is ruled by death Hunhau. He tortured sinners in very cruel ways, such as hunger, cold, endless slavery and mental abuse. Whether a person goes to heaven or hell depends entirely on what he did when he was alive.
Seventh, the Mayans have rich historical and literary documents. The Mayans used hieroglyphics to create thousands of books and countless stone carvings. Most of the books were burned by the Spanish, leaving only the Yearbook of Kachin, Kieran Balaam, Popper Vuch and Soldiers of Rabinar.
The Kazak Yearbook is a chronicle. Kacsir and Quiche are both powerful tribes in Guatemala. Kaczynski Yearbook describes the history of the relationship between the two tribes in wartime and wartime.
Balaam, Lan Qi, which means "the prophecy of the leopard", is a historical document of the Mayans. Kieran Balaam is a priest who records history. Up to now, there are still three books that record the history of priests, the most complete of which is Kieran Balaam of Chumel. This book is estimated to have been completed in the16th century, and it records the history of the Maya before they were conquered. The other two were completed late and the contents were incomplete.
Popol vuh is a classic poem of Maya, which shows their optimism about nature and human destiny. This is also a masterpiece about the myths, legends and history of the Quiche people. These include myths and legends about creation and human origin, heroic stories about the rise of Kiki tribe, genealogy of Kiki rulers in past dynasties, and the age when the author lived.
Samurai Rabina is a historical drama, which describes a war between the Kiche tribe and the Rabina tribe. The story happened around12nd century A.D., and there was a conflict between the Dega tribe in Goumard and the Rabinar tribe in Kiche for the control of Shaman River tribe. It ended with the victory of Rabinar and the sacrifice of Kitcher.