The Mayans

Archeological records indicate that the first people to live on the Yucatan peninsula of Central America were hunter and gatherer type nomads who lived in small family units. These first inhabitants appeared around 9,000 BC.   The Maya arrived in the Yucatan area a lot later, most think sometime around the year 2,600 BC.

The ancient Mayan culture expanded quickly, they designed many new tools and developed new scientific methods; this perhaps “uncommon” fast pace of new developments / knowledge has caused some archeologists to believe or suspect that “other worldly beings” were of some assistance in fact. City-states with populations ranging between 5,000 and 50,000 people were quite common; large pyramid style temples were built within these cities to honor the gods. The summit of the Mayan civilization peaked around 250 AD.

For some unknown reason, their civilization went into decline around 900 AD. The Maya in the Southern part of their lands departed from the majority of their cities around that time. The Northern Mayan peoples became a part of the Toltec society by about 1200 AD.  A few Mayan cities survived until the Spanish arrived several hundred years later, but following the decline of the great cities, the Maya people returned to a simpler way of life. The great cities and temples were quickly overgrown by jungle vegetation.  As for today, there are about 7 million people who call themselves Mayan or would say they have Mayan ancestors.  The majority of these people reside in Mexico.

The Mayan culture was one of the most complex societies anywhere in the world of the day. The Mayans were accomplished architects, painters, potters, and weavers. Their various palaces, pyramids, and temples, were beautifully decorated and have survived the passage of hundreds of years.

There expertise in the sciences, particularly in astronomy, mathematics, and medicine show evidence of the most advanced society anywhere in the world. For instance, they developed the concept of the number zero and various other mathematical theories.

The Mayan language itself is a highly developed form of hieroglyphics, and is still spoken today, though only on a limited basis, as Spanish is now the dominant language in the countries where descendents of the Maya reside.  The Mayan world consisted of numerous city-states that shared customs, language, and religion. All in all, in spite of ritualistic human sacrifices, their culture had the appearance at least, of a less violent and more artistic society when compared to other large civilizations of the period.

The Mayan priests were in control of education as well as the rituals (including human sacrifices). Since these priests could marry, it was not uncommon for their sons to succeed them in the “family trade”. These same priests were responsible for bloodletting / human sacrifice. You see, bloodletting was a big part of the many rituals. It was generally believed that when blood was offered to the gods it would not only please them it would also nourish them. Although human sacrifice was quite common, as a rule, only prisoners, slaves and children were killed to please the gods; with regard to the children that were offered up, orphans and illegitimate children were especially useful.

I’ve referenced a few of the enlightened aspects of the Mayan culture, such as astronomy and mathematics, but what about the ones that we in today’s society can only wonder about?  Well, there were plenty: For example the every day run of the mill Mayan believed that when you died you entered the “underworld” through a cave.  Kings, on the other hand, were thought to be reborn as gods and lived in the sky. As a rule the ordinary people who died were buried under the floors of their houses, their mouths were filled with food so they wouldn’t get hungry during the long voyage to the underworld cave.

In addition most Mayans believed that the earth was flat (like most other civilizations at that time) and that it had four corners. Some Maya even believed that the earth was literally the back of a mammoth crocodile, resting in a pool of water lilies.

It’s been argued by some that since the Egyptians built pyramids and the Mayans built, have been described as pyramids; there must be some sort of connection, right?   That’s probably wrong, if you compare Egyptian and Mayan pyramid styles and purposes. Unfortunately, we really know little about the Maya pyramid, when  compared to what we know about the Egyptian version; the sort of specifics we do have about how certain pyramids were built in Egypt simply do not exist for such Mayan structures. We do however, know a few things.  For example, we know that Mayans did not really build “true” pyramids. All of their structures were of the step variety, and were used as temples for the living, instead of tombs for the dead.

The terms, "Temples for the Living" may be a bit inappropriate, as rituals of these temples often included rather gruesome sacrifices of humans to satisfy the gods. Mayan temples are thought to have started out as simple low raised platforms, becoming more elevated over time, with varying slopes and bases as well as heights; in fact, there seems to be no set "pattern" for Mayan pyramids, the only similarity being that they all had flat tops where the temples were located, and they all had stairs.

Another similarity between the two cultures is often said to be the chosen form of writing.  The best-known hieroglyphs outside of Egypt that have retained their pictorial elements are none other than those belonging to the Mayans.  It is believed by most scholars that Mayan writing forms are totally unrelated to Egyptian hieroglyphs however. 

While Maya and Egyptian hieroglyphs bare certain similarities, such as the use of a combination of sound and object glyphs; one characteristic that distinguishes Maya glyphs is their compact, block like form. Egyptian hieroglyphs were written in long, unpunctuated lines of individual glyphs without spaces or punctuation, while Maya ones always appear in blocks or rectangles. We know about this block style only because Mayan hieroglyphs that have survived are carvings displayed upon stone structures such as ancient temples.

So, while there may be similarities between the Mayan and Egyptian cultures, the only parallels between Egyptian and Mayan pyramids are that they start out wide and end narrow and were built by people. There purposes suggest no link between the two. In addition the primary differences between the chosen writing methods do not seem to possess similarities which link the two writing forms. Of course, if there's some linking evidence which has been (or yet to be discovered) that I haven't been made aware of, then by all means, I will be happy to examine it and acknowledge error.

Sources …

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth/myths/english/eng_maya_culture.htm http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=45873   http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy2/E64ContentFiles/LinguisticsAndLanguages/Hieroglyphs.html