When in 1517 the Spanish conquistadors Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba landed on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mesoamerica (Central America), they were surprised to find a fairly advanced civilization here, which in many ways is rapidly declining. But, despite the fact that the Spaniards, of course, greatly contributed to the final destruction of this largely unique Mayan world, the main reason for its collapse, according to most scholars, historians and archaeologists, was not they.
Maya civilization arose 3500-4000 years ago (that is, it turns out that it is "only" 1000 years younger than the civilization of Ancient Egypt). Maya could not invent a wheel, they did not know the metal tools, but, nevertheless, they built huge cities in the jungle with high stepped pyramids-temples, to which smooth paved roads led. They possessed medical, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, had written language, created a unique (and incredibly accurate for that time) calendar, etc. And they were sadly famous for their cruelty, because they sacrificed to the gods their own fellow tribesmen.
We present you the 10 most interesting facts about the Maya Indians.
10. Mayan pyramids and cities are still found.
At the moment, archaeologists have already discovered in the southern states of Mexico, in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, about 1,000 cities and 3,000 Mayan settlements. But they continue to suddenly "stay" to this day. It would seem - how can one “not notice” a huge city the size of several hectares ?! Moreover, in it, most often, there are also pyramids up to 60 meters high! But given that these cities are located mainly in mountainous areas, and besides, they have long ago been overgrown with tropical jungle, then there is nothing surprising here. So, just a few years ago in Tonina (Chiapas state in Mexico) it was discovered that a natural-looking hill is actually a completely man-made Mayan pyramid as high as 75 (!) Meters, it just “drowned” in dense vegetation to such an extent that it never occurred to anyone to begin excavations here.
9. Maya loved chocolate
Archaeologists believe that the Olmec Indians were the first to “taste” chocolate in Mesoamerica (as early as 1500 years BC). But it was Maya (at least 2600 years ago) who began to use this product that we all know now in large quantities. True, the taste of that chocolate (as, in fact, the method of its preparation) was very different from ours. Maya chocolate was a bitter drink: in addition to ground cocoa beans and water, it included cornmeal, chili pepper and other completely unnecessary (in our opinion) seasonings. In addition, the whole mixture was supposed to not only be boiled, but also shaken thoroughly until a thick foam appears. More or less reminded the taste of the sweet chocolate that we eat now, only a drink without pepper, but with the addition of honey and vanilla. The Spaniards were the first to add sugar to chocolate.
Maya's chocolate was not considered a drink for the mob - it could only be consumed by priests, aristocracy and higher warriors. By the way, they already knew about its tonic properties, as well as that chocolate is, in fact, a strong aphrodisiac.
And cocoa beans were used by the Maya Indians as an exchange currency - for 100 of these beans, you could buy a slave.
8. Mayans understood hallucinogens and used anesthesia
One of the best ways to talk with the gods and spirits among the Mayan priests was the use of stupefying hallucinogens, which were made from mushrooms, tobacco, peyote cactus, a type of bindweed, fermented (fermented) honey, etc. Well, so that these "infernal mixtures" act better and faster, they are sometimes administered rectally (that is, they did an enema).
In addition, it was proved that Mayans used similar substances as anesthetic anesthesia. The fact is that they did not just understand medicine well (they knew how to carefully suture wounds using human hair as a surgical thread, healed fractures, filled teeth, made dentures, and even treated diseases such as tuberculosis, ulcers, asthma, etc. .d.), but they were also able to carry out complex surgical operations using instruments made of obsidian volcanic glass (up to craniotomy). Naturally, there is no way to do without anesthesia.
7. Maya had her own ideas about beauty
Type in "Google" or in "Yandex" the query "Mayan Art. Photo". Now look carefully at the images of people - many of them have huge humpbacked noses and unnaturally long heads with a flat forehead. Yes, it’s absolutely true - in Maya it was considered signs of beauty and aristocracy. Mothers from the upper classes made every effort to ensure that their children grew up “fashionable” by local standards: they tied the newborn baby flat boards on both sides of the head so that it gradually stretched out, and in front of his face (as close as possible) a rubber ball was hung on which the baby was forced to watch all the time. What for? And then, that squint, according to Maya, is also one of the characteristics of a man of noble birth.
The big "eagle" nose was especially popular among men. Who was not lucky by nature to get just such a snobel, he tried to blind him with a special putty. And women (of course, for the sake of beauty) encrusted their teeth with turquoise, jade, hematite, etc., blacked them with resin, or grinded them so that they looked like triangular shark teeth.
6. Mayan characters were decrypted by chance
On most of the buildings and monuments erected by the Maya Indians, as well as on ceramics, many examples of their unique writing have been preserved (alas, there are very few manuscripts from this civilization - at one time the Spanish monks violently uprooted all these pagan "demonic" in Mesoamerica signs). Mayan texts consisted of various combinations of more than 800 hieroglyphic icons, each of which was a separate syllable. This writing system is very complex, and for a very long time no one could decrypt it.
But once, an American born in Siberia, Tatyana Proskuryakova, was invited to excavate in Piedras Negras in Guatemala. The girl studied as an architect and worked as an archaeological illustrator for a museum in Philadelphia. It was Tatyana who first suggested that, most likely, as in Egypt, the Mayan inscriptions tell about the deeds of their rulers. Thus, several verbs were deciphered. By the way, the main breakthrough in understanding Maya writing (each hieroglyphic character is not a letter or a whole word, but a syllable) was made by the Soviet linguist and historian Yuri Knorozov. To this day, scientists pore over reading Mayan hieroglyphs, at the moment they have already "identified" about 90% of them.
5. Maya played extreme games
In almost every Mayan city, there was a special area for playing ball (more precisely - a kind of "hybrid" of basketball, football and rugby). The rules of this game were quite simple - you need to throw a heavy rubber ball into a high hanging hoop, similar to a basketball hoop. At the same time, the ball could not be touched with hands (but only with the head, knees, hips and elbows). The players even had a "sports uniform": helmets, knee pads and elbow pads.
But historians disagree about who specifically was part of the playing teams (as well as “what they were for”). Some believe that only prisoners captured by the Mayans during raids on neighboring tribes (and they played with almost human heads) played this ritual game, and that at the end the priests sacrificed the entire losing team to the gods. Others argue that only the Mayans themselves could be worthy to play such an important (in religious sense) game, and that it was the winning team that sacrificed (by beheading) - it was an honor and a sign of special “chosenness” by the gods.
4. Maya painted victims blue
As just stated in the previous paragraph, to become a chosen victim to the gods was considered a real honor for the Mayans. Judging by many signs, they believed in paradise. But you still need to get to paradise, having passed through 13 “underworlds” (and this is far beyond the power of all souls). According to the Maya, the “direct ticket” to paradise was received by war victims, suicides, losers (or still winners?) In the ball, women who died during childbirth and those who were sacrificed in various religious rituals. Therefore, the priests have always carefully chosen the victims, and most often it was the Mayans, and not prisoners from other tribes.
When the victim was finally “approved” (and the date of the sacrifice was accurately calculated on the calendar), she was “decorated”, painted in bright blue. After that, “chosen by the gods” was brought to the top of the pyramid and laid on his back on a stone altar. With a quick movement, the priest opened his chest with a sharp obsidian knife and took out a still beating heart. Nightmare? There is nothing to be done - what times, such and mores. But immediately to heaven!
3. Maya did not predict the end of the world
Remember, some of us really expected the end of the world on December 21, 2012, because "the Mayan calendar predicted this." So, - nothing like the Mayans did not predict! Just in their longest calendar (for 5125 years!) The next full cycle ended and, therefore, just started a new one. That is, according to the Mayan calendar, we now live in year 7 of the new cycle. No apocalypse!
In fact, Mayans used three calendars. One of them (“civilian”, so to speak) included 18 months of 20 days each, that is 360 days plus another 5 so-called “fatal” days — a total of 365. It was used to determine when to start sowing and “ garden work "when harvesting, doing other chores, etc. Another (“ceremonial”) calendar, 20 months of 13 days, total 260, was used to determine the dates of various religious ceremonies (including sacrifices). And both of them together made up the very long ("round") calendar, which took into account the movements of the planets and many constellations for a long, long period. By the way, according to Maya, time has no beginning or end, just one period flows into another.
2. Maya did not disappear forever
Many of our contemporaries are firmly convinced that Maya finally "died out" in the 16th century. Seriously?! About 3 million people took and disappeared from the face of the Earth overnight like this? Yes, by this time (or rather, much earlier), the Mayans had stopped building huge cities and high pyramids, and for some unknown reason, those villages that had existed since ancient times also massively left. But this people (and in fact, several kindred tribes) lives in Central America everywhere until now.
Moreover, now there are twice as many Mayan descendants as when the Spaniards first discovered them - in Yucatan and its environs, there are from 6 to 7 million (for example, in Belize, 10% of the population are those Mayans). And they have preserved their unique culture and language to this day, which is respected.
1. The mystery of the decline of Mayan civilization
The most important secret associated with the Maya Indians is why in the 9th century AD, many highly developed cities of this large nation (some of them, according to archaeologists, lived up to 70 thousand people) were so suddenly abandoned and abandoned. Many versions are voiced (but not one of them has yet received worthy confirmation):
- Mayans finally depleted their fields and agricultural land (in the jungle it is very difficult to clear them of wild vegetation), as a result of which hunger began, and people had to leave the cities;
- climate change occurred, and the jungle simply “gobbled up” the Mayan cities;
- there was an overpopulation, and as a result, city communications (including water supply, etc.) ceased to cope with their functions, perhaps epidemics of diseases and other "social disasters" began;
- there was an invasion of hostile tribes (and where did they go then?);
- There was some kind of natural disaster. Etc. Etc.
It is possible that the answer to this mystery will not be found. In any case, the Spaniards found on the site of an ancient and great civilization only its ruins and individual scattered tribes. Therefore, they managed to conquer them so quickly.