The Mayans Resources, articles, and posts about the culture of the Mayans

Resources, articles, and posts about the culture of the Mayans

Mayans: Overview of the Civilization and History The Mayans are Mesoamerican civilizations developed by its people called the Maya. It is known for its advanced and beautiful writing system, culture, arts, math, calendar, and astronomical system. Scroll down to see more articles about the history of the Mayans. Mayan Symbols Mayan symbols are a rich source of material…

6 Reasons Why the Mayans Were an Awesome Civilization Over the last few decades, the Mayan civilization has deeply captured our interests and imaginations. Generations of curious explorers have dived headfirst into the deep jungles of Central America and discovered buried cities, remarkable pyramids, spiritual mysteries, and astronomical and mathematical wonders that caused our fascination with this ancient culture…

Mayan Art of the Tattoo Mayans practiced many forms of body modification, including deforming a baby’s skull to create a pleasingly elongated shape, fostering crossed eyes, filing teeth, inlaying jade into a tooth, piercing and tattooing. The Mayans did this to be pleasing to the gods, for social status and for personal beauty. The noble…

Mayan Symbols Mayan symbols are a rich source of material culture for the Central American civilization and are among the most important archeological finds that have helped piece together their economics, farming methods, politics, and social practices. Symbols carry the heart of every culture, and every culture’s symbols represent its inner reality…

Mayans at War Environmental challenges, disputes with neighbors, and scarcity of resources led to the Mayans at war. For many years, archeologists thought the Mayans a peaceful people, capable of war, but rarely indulging in it. However, as archeologists explored more Mayan cities and more evidence was uncovered, they realized that Mayans often…

The Mayan Calendar What we call the Mayan calendar is actually a set of three interlocking calendars, the sacred calendar of 260 days called the Tzolkin, the solar calendar of 365 days known as the Haab, and a Long Count calendar of much longer time periods. When the Mayans inscribed a date on…

Mayan Cultural Achievements When we think of the Mayans and their culture, what comes to mind? The first thing that would occur to a reader would be the astonishing Mayan cities in the jungles of Central America. Other readers would mention the fascinating Mayan calendar and the predicted end of the world in…

Overview of Mayan Art The 700 years of the Mayan Classical saw a great flowering of Mayan art. Stone carvings became ubiquitous throughout the Mayan region. The Mayan covered buildings and pyramid stairways with depictions of rulers and hieroglyphic writings. They also created thousands of stone stelae, great slabs of limestone carved into images…

The Mayan Pantheon: Gods and Goddesses With between 166 and 250 named gods, the Mayans had a complex and changeable pantheon. They had gods to oversee every human action and aspect of life: gods for birth and death, for the ball game and gambling, for travel and traders, for pregnant women and infants, for youth, age,…

Mayan Religion and Cosmology Much of the Mayan religion is not clearly understood today because of its complexity and rich pantheon of deities. Scholars have been able to decipher some of the major elements of Mayan religion, but other elements may never be known. Cosmology To the Mayans, the world was flat with four…