The Mayan Haab Calendar. Done by Selma Chavaria The Mayan Haab Calendar The Maya were among the most innovative astronomers of their time. They used monuments, buildings and wooden implements to observe celestial bodies. Evidence confirmed that they have found ways to capture the passage of the sun, moon, and Venus. They observed and predicted lunar eclipses and created the length of a tropical year as 365.2420 days.
Centralized government, trade controlled by gates to the city. For the Shang dynasty the king and his nobles where on top of the social ladder then warriors second then the peasants and surfs last. The king had supreme power over everything; he was a religious and political leader. The king aristocrats, and bureaucrats directed the life of the peasants and surfs. Most peasants had very little and barely made it through the taxes the king reinforced.
People of high social class would were special clothing to set them apart from the other Maya. farmers were in the lowest Mayan social classes. Slaves, who were usually prisoners of war, were the bottom of Mayan society. Many Mayan cities had pyramids with temples on top that were used for religious ceremonies. The priests were powerful because the Mayans believed that only the priests could perform the religious ceremonies that were needed to please the Mayan gods.
They were also very religious and worshipped not just one God but various that were related to nature such as the God of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. The Mayans created many temples and palaces in the shape of pyramids. By doing this they were known as the great artists of Mesoamerica. They were very smart by the advances they made in mathematics and astronomy which we still use today such as the 365 day calendar. It was believed that the Mayan’s were priests and scribes and very peaceful but not all of the Maya culture was due to the Mayan war between city-states and the torture and human sacrifice in their religious rituals.
Their power was limited past the capital. All that was left were tax collectors who got tribute from the people. The government’s succession was hereditary. The noble families were either in the bureaucracy, in the military, or became a priest. The rest of the population was indentured workers, slaves, and commoners.
The Maya Civilization and Astronomy The Maya civilization is characterized of being one of the biggest and wisest civilizations of history, who were known of having the only known fully developed written language of pre-Columbian America, and the most advanced Mathematicians and Astronomers. They were mostly characterized for being extraordinary good astronomers who were experts on making observations and recording the motion of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. Maya’s primary interests were Zenial Passages, when the Sun crossed over Maya latitudes. They were based on an annual basis where the sun travels to its summer solstice at latitude of 23-1/3 degrees north. Since most of the Maya cities were located south, they were able to observe the sun directly overhead while the sun was passing over their latitude.
Also, some of their people were talented mathematicians that made extremely accurate astronomical observations. Due to many of these factors, the Aztecs created a complex, large-scale, centralized nation-state. The capital of Tenochtitlan rivaled any city in contemporary Europe, and was surrounded by beautiful gardens. A more morbid component of the Aztec society was the way they offered sacrifices to their gods. They sought the regard of their gods by offering up human sacrifices.
Anais Ramos May 6th, 2013 Prof. Massey HIS111- “Storied Walls” Murals of the Americas” San Bartolo vs Bonompak The Mayan Civilization was a very interesting. Their resources were and still are crucial for humans’ survival. One of their many legacies was art. In the Harvard University Peabody Museum, where the Mayan civilization exhibition is located, we find the San Bartolo and Bonompak exhibits. One of the main attractions of these exhibits is two murals from the ancient Mayan city-states.
Taylor Elander Ms. Hinojosa ARH 302 2 November 2014 Short Write Up #1 My chosen motif was grandeur and power and how the Egyptian way of showing it has carried on into modern day civilization. Beginning around 2533 BCE, the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, along with the Great Sphyinx, were large shows of grandeur. They pyramids were built for Pharaohs and their most precious belongings. They were used as tombs for whomever they were being built for and they were great displays of the Pharaohs wealth and power as well as influence. Looking into modern times, you can go all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada, where the Luxor Resort and Casino lies.
They had gods like An, the god of heaven, and Utu, the god of the sun. The Egyptians had over 3000 gods, when they prospered it meant gods like Isis, the goddess of the Nile, and Ptah the god of all life on Earth, were happy. Today we use both Mesopotamia and Egypt’s advances in science daily. Both The Sumerians and Egyptians made great advances in science. This is because as they were developing they started to realize stuff happened for a reason and cyclic and they needed a system for everything to run smoothly.