Mayan Culture When the Spaniards

Mayan Culture

When the Spaniards invaded the New World in the fifteenth century they encountered a people they assumed were "primitive." The Mayan Empire was past its days of great glory and accomplishment, but the Mayans were actually advanced in their knowledge at the time. Their system of higher mathematics and geometry had allowed them to build palaces, public buildings, athletic arenas, monuments, pyramids, pottery, jewelry, and various art forms, all without the benefits of modern technology. They left behind whole cities based on stone technology, and artifacts that express the nature of their culture, cleverness, and genius. For example, in Copan the ruin includes a ball court with bleachers and "locker rooms" built underneath the bleachers where the athletes could change their clothes and get ready for the big game. For the spectators, usually nobility, the bleachers themselves are ergonomically correct and far more comfortable than the best modern day bleachers; besides, in the blazing heat of the Honduran sun, the stone from which they are constructed would keep the noble person cool as he enjoyed the game.

The Mayans kept time with a combination of several cycles that converged and marked the movement of the sun, the moon, and Venus. Archeologists believe the Mayans began to keep track of time on August 31, 3114 BC. The year 3114 BC is called the zero year and is comparable to January 1, 0000 AD. The Mayan calendar records time in 400-year cycles, which means that 13 cycles of 400 years will have passed before the next cycle begins on December 27, 2012 (1-0-0-0-0 in Mayan time). The Mayans realized there were cycles in the Cosmos. From this astronomical realization came instruments for reckoning time and a calendar that accurately measures the solar year to within minutes.

A date carved in stone throughout Mayan lands is 9-9-2-4-8 (July 29, 615 AD) when Lord Pakal, the great King of Palenque, ascended to his throne. The numbers are read from the bottom up (as the corn grows from the earth up to the sky). 9-9-2-4-8 would thus be understood as: 9 baktuns -- 3600 years; 9 katuns -- 180 years; 2 tuns -- 730 days; 4 uinals -- 80 days; and 8 kin -- 8 days. These numbers, if we begin at August 13, 3114 B.C. will bring us to the day in the 7th century when Pakal took the throne in Palenque (Mayan History web site).