MAYAN ACHIEVEMENTS

“History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet: the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?”

Washington Irving

I had no idea how advanced the Mayan civilization was until I started researching it for my book The Palantir. It’s embarrassing, but to be honest, I used to think the Mayans had a primitive culture. I had no idea they were more advanced than European and Asian cultures in many ways.

One of their best-known achievements are their calendars which were based on their amazing astronomy skills. The best known is the Mayan Long Count Calendar. You might know it as the calendar that sparked a minor frenzy among some people who believed it predicted the end of the world on December 20, 2012. However, the ancient Mayans would have thought of it as a time for grand celebrations – as it marked the end of the fourth great cycle, which started in 3114 BCE. Even though it’s the most famous of the three Mayan Calendar systems, the Long Count Calendar was the least practical. The other two were the Haab, a calendar representing one year, and the Tzolk’in spiritual calendar. Their calendars were also highly accurate. For instance, the Haab calculated the length of a year accurately down to the fourth decimal point! It was also the most practical, as farmers used it to guide their crop management decisions.

The Mayans had many other significant achievements. Some of the most impressive, in my opinion, are:

- They developed the concept of ‘0’ about the same time as the Hindus – almost a millennium before the Europeans did!

- The Mayans developed a process to make rubber about 3500 years before Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization process!

- The Mayans also had the longest suspension bridge in the world until the 14th century.

And then there are pyramids. The Mayans used their pyramids for multiple purposes, unlike the Egyptians, who primarily used them as giant mausoleums. Interestingly, the Mayans didn’t build their first pyramids until almost 1000 years after the Egyptians built their last ones. The Mayans built their pyramids in many shapes and sizes, but most were step pyramids they could build onto if desired. They used the earliest ones for tombs to bury some of their elites. During the classic period (~ 250-900 CE). Then they started building bigger ones which they used as landmarks in the jungles, stargazing platforms, intellectual gathering places, and for religious purposes (including sacrifices),

Of course, numerous other cultures in Central and South America built pyramids. In fact, there are more pyramids in the Americas than the rest of the world combined, including the largest by volume in Cholula, Mexico!

Below is a picture from Xunantunich, Belize. The temple shown is one of the most interesting ones I’ve seen because of the line of intricate carvings across the top. The site was also interesting because we had to take a hand-cranked ferry across the river to get to it.

Xunantunich, Belize