Characteristics of the layout of urban architecture; the representative building is the pyramid
Characteristics of the Mayan pyramids
Be able to distinguish between the Mayan pyramids and the Egyptian pyramids
Situational reproduction
2. Understand and respect the cultural traditions of the world's countries, regions and nationalities, and establish a consciousness of consciously passing on the excellent ideological and cultural heritage of the motherland and the The consciousness of the outstanding ideological and cultural heritage of mankind
Mysterious Maya. Ancient Civilizations of Mexico" exhibition was launched at the beginning of June at the China Millennium Forum, and has attracted countless people's interest and reverie in the past two months. As the exhibition enters its third month, we would like to give a brief account of the history of the Mayan civilization and its cultural achievements in a comprehensive and realistic manner in order to further understand the Maya. "Mysterious Maya. Ancient Civilizations of Mexico," the preface of the exhibition description is written very truly, "The Maya is a region, a people and a civilization." "The Maya is a region." This region includes the Yucatan Peninsula in present-day Mexico, most of the continents of Chiapas and Tapasco, present-day Belize, most of present-day Guatemala, present-day El Salvador, and the western part of present-day Honduras. This region covers a total area of 32.4 million square kilometers. According to its physical and geographic characteristics and cultural development, the region is divided into three areas from south to north: the Pacific Coastal Plain and Foothills, the Highlands (divided into the Southern Plateau and the Northern Plateau), and the Lowlands (divided into the Southern Lowlands, the Central Lowlands, and the Northern Lowlands). "The Maya are a people". The Maya numbered the Mongoloid race. Around 2000 BC, their ancestors have settled in the Maya region of the sea, plateau valleys and plains and lowlands, breeding, from the area of present-day Mexico to introduce maize and other crops, engaged in farming activities, according to Morgan, Marx and Engels revealed the process of historical development of the formation of the nation from the tribal to the tribal alliance, around 1000 BC formed into a nation, the emergence of complex social, political and economic systems. , political, and economic systems. "The Maya was a civilization". This civilization involved scientific knowledge, technological level, religious thought, cosmology, customs and rituals, way of life, production activities, artistic creations, etc., which fully embodied the self-consciousness of the Maya nation and the behavior and achievements of the Maya people. During the period of 1000-400 B.C., Mayan civilization began to enter the historical process of development. Its historical development is roughly divided into three stages: the early stage (about 1000 BC to 250 AD), the middle stage (250 to 1200 AD) and the late stage (1200 to 1500 AD).
The early phase of Maya civilization emerged simultaneously on the Pacific coast, in the highland zone and in the central lowlands. Production continued to grow, materials became increasingly abundant, and long-distance trade emerged, increasing contact with the outside world while at the same time tightening internal ties. In the course of their development, each region developed its own cultural characteristics. The cultures of the Pacific coast and the highlands are centered on large stone monuments. Carved on the stelae are images of successive rulers, their reigns, and a number of historical events illustrated in hieroglyphics; the main centers of civilizational development were Isapa and Caminalhue. The cultural features of the Central Lowlands are widely reflected in large stone buildings (such as the pyramids and the acropolis of the city), large stone-paved plazas and causeways, and the main centers of civilization were Nakbe and El Mirador.
In the middle phase, the development of civilization on the Pacific coast and in the highland zone was interrupted, and the civilization of the central lowlands shifted to Tikal, Palenque, Bonampak, and Copan in the southern lowlands. The cultural achievements of these centers were reflected not only in architecture, sculpture, painting and other cultural arts, but also in the political system. The supremacy of the supreme ruler of the city-state state unified the world, and the system of monarchical rule was strengthened.
In the late period, new centers of development emerged in the northern lowlands and the southern highlands. around 1200, the city-state of Mayapan flourished and conquered the city-state of Chichén Itzá, which had been dominating the northern lowlands since the 9th century. in the middle of the 15th century, the city-state of Uzmaar destroyed the city-state of Mayapan, and dominated the northern lowlands. in the 14th century, three city-states emerged on the southern highlands: Quiché, centered on Uttatlan, Cacique, and Cacique, centered on Uttar Prado. In the 14th century, three city-states emerged in the southern highlands: Quiché (centered on Uttatlan), Caciquequel (centered on Iximche), and Chouteuil (centered on the southern shore of Lake Atitlan). These city-states revolutionized the political system and were ruled collectively by councils. After a long period of discord and war, the entire Maya region was occupied by the invading Spaniards in the 16th century, and the development of the ancient Maya civilization was interrupted.
First, the economic life of the Maya
The Maya people's economic life is very active, and all kinds of industries are flourishing, and the production skills are remarkable.
1. Agriculture
The Maya were mainly engaged in agricultural production. Agriculture is the basis for the survival and development of the Maya people.
Crops are mainly corn. Other food crops include cassava and white potatoes. Corn from today's Mexico region; cassava, white potatoes from South America. The Maya also cultivated dozens of vegetables, fruits, beans, chili peppers, cacao, vanilla and so on.
The Maya adopted a relatively intensive mode of production. They built water conservancies, created terraces on hillsides, and built terrace fields in low-lying, swampy areas. They also had vegetable or fruit tree gardens around their homes. They used volcanic ash, bird droppings, and human dung to fertilize their fields: they used stone shovels with long wooden handles to plant corn or other crop seeds.
2. Trade
The city-states of the Maya region developed independently of each other and were not politically integrated, but they were economically linked and there was a division of labor. The main form of economic contact was trade. There were three types of trade, and three levels of trade: local bazaar trade, intra-regional trade, and inter-regional trade. There are two main categories of goods exchanged in trade: everyday life, productive goods and non-utilitarian goods (such as amber, cacao, cinnabar, gum, quetzal feathers, hematite, pyrite, jade, serpentine, jaguar skins, seashells, etc.). (These items were used to make idols, offerings, and costumes and headdresses for the powerful).
Trade accumulated wealth for the Maya, but also opened their minds to the idea of laying a solid material and ideological foundation for the prosperity of the city-states and promoting the development of civilization. This is the reason why several of the major cultures of the early and middle periods were situated on trade routes. In the late coastal trade became increasingly developed, land and river trade gradually declined, thus causing a shift in the center of civilization.
Second, the Maya society and politics
The Maya society is based on the family, the implementation of patriarchal system, a number of blood relatives of the family to form the grass-roots organization of society - clan society.
The center of Maya society was the city. The city was the center of Maya society, where people of different occupations and social classes lived, engaged in manual production and trade, administration, political rule and religious activities.
Maya society was a class society, divided into the noble class, the common class, and the middle class. The noble rulers and their families, priests, military chiefs, high government officials, and big merchants formed the aristocracy. Servants, backpackers, maintenance workers and peasants belonged to the commoner class. The members of the middle class were the lower officials, small merchants, warriors, and artisans.
The Maya city-states practiced a hereditary system in which the supreme ruler was a single person, with administrative, legislative, and religious powers all in one, and the city-states had loose political ties, mainly economic and trade ties. Because of this loose political ties, coupled with the economic interests of the drive, the city-state war and peace, divided and divided, the local political situation has always been difficult to long-term stability, resulting in the transfer of the center of power.
Third, the Maya's religious beliefs
The Maya were polytheists. They believed in countless gods. Everything has a god, not only tangible objects have a body, intangible things also have a god, even the date, number, occupation, age, gender, color, human life, death and suicide also have a god, any kind of state has a god, any kind of demand has a god ...... In short, in the Mayan world, God is everywhere. The images presented by the gods were usually in the form of human and animal or half-human and half-animal. The Maya sacrificed human blood, food, jade and other precious objects, and living people to the gods. In addition to offering sacrifices, the ceremonies also included burning incense, drinking wine, and dancing and ball games.
Fourth, the cultural achievements of the Maya
The cultural achievements of the Maya in the Americas in the ancient civilization of the most outstanding, the most brilliant and glorious, specifically in the construction, sculpture, painting, mathematics, calendar, astronomy and writing and so on.
1. Architecture
The Maya people's architectural industry was very developed and highly functional and skillful. They built different kinds of objects according to the needs of religion, life and production: houses (including temples, mansions, dwellings, etc.), public **** places (such as plazas, ball courts, market trade areas, etc.), transportation and protection facilities (such as bridges, avenues, wharves, dykes, revetment walls, etc.) and water works (such as aqueducts, reservoirs, wells, water tanks, terraces, terrace fields, salt pans, etc.).
The most remarkable is the "pyramid". This "pyramid" multi-bit temple pedestal, pedestal base is usually square, layer by layer contraction, cumulative layers of high, as few as two or three layers, as many as nine layers, the highest up to 47 meters. The front and four sides of the pedestal are built with steps, which can be picked up, directly to the temple. Temples are generally not halls for gods, but niches for the supreme ruler's deity. The room is small, windowless, and built with a crowned roof ridge, which is double or even several times higher than the niche. The outer walls and ridges were carved with figures, animals, gods and inscriptions. There are also a few pyramids for the ruler's tomb or for the astronomical observatory.
2, carving
According to the material used, there are stone carving, wood carving, shell carving, jade carving and bone carving, as well as clay sculpture.
Stone carving is divided into two categories: one for the independent stone carving, one for the houses and other buildings on the decoration of the carving. The former, such as stone monuments, stone pillars, stone seats, etc., the latter have lintels, windows and doors side walls, steps, roof ridges, walls inside and outside the carving. Freestanding stone carvings are characterized by leaving little space and are usually always fully arranged. The main body of the carving is an image of a god, a human figure, or a beast, and the blank spaces are filled with ornaments and inscriptions. The carvings were usually painted in color, with dark red being the most used, followed by blue. The "hieroglyphic staircase" statue of the king unearthed at the Copan site and the huge sarcophagus lid unearthed at the Palenque site are of particular historical and artistic value. The "hieroglyphic ladder" is 10 meters wide, has 62 steps, and is inscribed with 2,500 characters, the meaning of which has yet to be deciphered. King Copan eighteen rabbit statue in three-dimensional form, is the only ancient stone sculpture. The huge sarcophagus lid is engraved with "the upper world - the lower world - the nether world as a whole", reflecting the people's The worldview and cosmology of the people at that time.
Wood carvings are mostly used in house construction. There is also a small independent woodcut, mostly for the gods.
Mud sculpture is mostly used in house buildings and tombs, with stucco on the walls made of relief, the content of human figures, birds, beasts and snakes, and inscriptions.
3, painting
Mostly used to decorate the walls of powerful houses, tombs, temples, murals, but also found on pottery and ancient books. The application of a variety of colors, red, yellow, blue, white, black, gray, brown and other colors are available. The pigments come from plants and minerals. The brushes used for painting are made of bird feathers and animal hair, and there are also brushes in the shape of Chinese brushes. The paintings are mainly realistic, with rich and colorful contents, including mythological stories, sacrificial ceremonies, war scenes, interrogation of prisoners of war, welcoming guests, and hieroglyphics. All of these revealed the Maya's customs and rituals, physical appearance, clothing, combat weapons, housing structure, religious beliefs, labor scenes and so on.
4. Mathematics
The Maya invented their own unique calculation method, using the decimal system, and the concept of "zero". The Maya were the first people in the world to recognize "zero". They used three symbols to remember the number: "shell" means "zero"; "point" ("...") means "1"; "horizontal" ("---") means "5". The combination of "dot" and "horizontal" forms the numbers from "2" to "19". Numbers above "19" are represented by shifts. The "10" in the "decimal system", which is commonly used in the world today, is formed by shifting the "1" to the left and adding the "0" to the right. " is added to the right side of "0". The Mayan "20" is formed by shifting the "..." upward and adding a "0" to the right of it. The Mayan "20" is formed by shifting the "..." upwards and adding "shell" below it. The second "20", the third "20 times 20 = 400", the fourth "400 times 20 = 8000", and so on upwards.
The Maya mathematical calculations were widely used in trade, calendars, astronomy, etc.
5.
5. Astronomy
The Maya had a wealth of astronomical knowledge. Through the observation of the operation of the sun, they determined that the year was 365.242 days, which was almost identical to the 365.2423 days calculated by modern astronomy. Through the observation of the moon's orbit, they determined that the monthly 29.53020 days, and modern astronomy calculated that 29.53059 days is not far off. They also observed and recorded other planets, stars and constellations, and calculated the cycle of the planets around the sun, such as Venus running cycle of 584 days, Mars for 780 days. The North Star is constant, and the Maya usually used the North Star as a benchmark for selecting directions and predicting good and bad fortune when building houses and temples.
How did the Maya observe the movement of the planets? They usually used temples for observation. Most temples were built on tall pyramid-shaped pedestals that stood in the air. At the top of the temple, there was a gap, or two crossed sticks on the top, which were used to observe the movement of the celestial bodies and to record the time and direction of the rising and setting of the sun, moon, Venus and other planets. They are at the same time, orientation of the second rise and fall, that is, a cycle.
6. Calendar
The Maya, through the observation and calculation of the operation of the celestial bodies, based on religion, agricultural activities and the need to remember, developed a variety of calendars, there are mainly three kinds of calendars: the divine calendar, the "Abu" (Haab) calendar, and the calendar of the cycle.
The divine calendar is a 260-day calendar that divines the future, with more than 20 deities taking turns to preside over these 260 days. These 20 deities rotate with 13 numbers (Mayan numbers from 1 to 13) to determine the date of a particular god, and there is exactly one round of 260 days. "Abu" calendar 365 days, similar to the modern "solar calendar", but divided into 19 months, the first 18 months for 20 days each, the last month for 5 days. The day has a sun god, the month has a moon god, the last month of five days is considered unlucky days.
The reincarnation calendar is a combination of the 260 days of the divine calendar and the 365 days of the "Abu" calendar, both of which rotate in tandem, with 18,980 days as a cycle. A year of 365 days, 18980 days is exactly 52 years. The Mayans believe that 52 years for a cycle, to show that the world of the beginning again.
There is also a "long calendar" to record the age of history. The Maya believed that the world would be destroyed and reborn. The world they lived in was the 5th resurrection. According to the inscriptions on the tablets, this 5th resurrection occurred on August 11, 3114 B.C. The world was destroyed and resurrected every 5200 years. The world is destroyed and resurrected every 5200 years.
7. Writing
The Mayan hieroglyphics are the pride of the ancient civilizations of the Americas. The structure of the script was complex: hieroglyphs were in the center, surrounded by additional concatenation and end-of-speech variations; ideograms appeared; and a word was often a sentence. Sentences were arranged in verb-substantive-subject order.
Most Maya writing was written on paper (paper made from tree bark) or carved on stone pillars and monuments. Inscriptions were also found on murals, woodcuts, jade, shell and bone carvings, and pottery. The representations are quite rich, with accounts of astronomy, divination, calendars, history, rulers' biographies and lineages, medicine, plants, animals, maps and events such as wars and alliances.
Most of the Maya codices were burned by the Spanish invaders, and only three remain, in Madrid, Spain, Paris, France, and Dresden, Germany. Fortunately, a large number of stone carvings were not destroyed, leaving a valuable heritage of ancient civilization for mankind. So far, 85% of the existing Mayan texts have been interpreted and translated; with the deepening of the research, the whole picture of Mayan civilization will be revealed to the world. (Hao Mingwei)
3. Existence determines consciousness, and a certain social culture is a reflection of and serves a certain socio-political and economic context
Maya culture and art
Koban's "hieroglyphic ladder"; chronological monuments; and the Ponampak murals
Maya hieroglyphic writing was at the Americas
Comparison of the three hieroglyphic scripts; Comparison of Bonampak and Dunhuang murals
Contextualization
Historical comparisons
Mayan science
Spiral tower of Chichen Itza; Mayan calendar system; Use of zero
Maya had the most accurate calendar; Maya were the first to use 0
Astronomy
Maya "hieroglyphic ladder"; chronological tablets; first use of 0 by Maya< /p>
The use of astronomy in architecture