There was a civilization in Central America, just like Egypt, when and how it emerged is unknown. This civilization was the Maya civilization, which was located in the southernmost part of modern-day Mexico and on the other side between Honduras and El Salvador.
The history of this civilization is somewhat complicated. Because the settlements here BC. It is thought to date back to 2,000. Also BC. It is estimated that the first cities appeared in 750 BC.
B.C. There is evidence that even in the year 1,000 a highly developed 20th numeral system was used, including place value. To better understand the importance of this, we can think of it as follows. We are talking about 1,000 years before the Hindu – Arabic number system that we use and which is used in most countries of the world.
Also, the Mayans had a very sophisticated calendar. This calendar was considered the most advanced in the Western world. The Mayan calendar was the most accurate of all the calendars used by different nations around the world until the 1600s.
In the Maya civilization, there was a structure consisting of city-states. This is reminiscent of the city-states of ancient Greece. It is thought that between 50,000 and 100,000 people live in these cities.
Based on the evidence we have, we think that there was no Mayan empire ruled by a single emperor. Each of these city-states is thought to have rulers that we call “divine kings,” who are not only political but also spiritual leaders and are connected with the supernatural.
Unfortunately, there is evidence that the Mayans made human sacrifices as part of their beliefs and religious rites. The interesting thing is that we discover information about this civilization too late. First expeditions in the 1830s John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood made their first expeditions near Lake Copan in Honduras with difficulty.
Two years later, they made a new discovery and published a book. This book had great repercussions around the world. Because an unknown civilization had been discovered in America. And perhaps the most important aspect of this discovery was that the Mayans had reached a mind-blowing level in the times before the Spanish invasion. There was also something strange about the Mayan civilization. They didn’t even know the wheel yet. But they left behind an incredibly high civilization that has survived to this day.
The Mayans had made astonishing advances in astronomy, medicine, pharmacy, physics and chemistry. The observatories they built in their own time were even more perfect than the Paris observatory in the 18th century. Today’s medicine can only reach the results of brain surgeries performed by Inca and Maya surgeons.
There was a surprising connection between Mayan society and space. In a symbol that he frequently repeats in his works, it is a motif of a god that comes flying from the sky, bringing knowledge and peace to people, and disappearing with his flying ship, promising to return when his term of office ends.
The End of the Mayan Myth<-/h3>
How the Mayan civilization came to an end remained a complete mystery for many years. Many ideas have been put forward on this subject. Abandoned cities, epidemics, and famine were mentioned. Some researchers today believe that it is useless to seek any other explanation than the utter lack of solidarity within society, and the pressure of intense building programs that dominate people. The intrusion of aggressive tribes, perhaps primitive but armed with new and deadly weapons, created an opportunity to break free from this unpleasant yoke. Invasions from the high plateaus had become a regular part of Mexican life.
While barbarian tribes swept across the eastern European plains of Germany and the Roman pioneers of the Danube, nomadic tribes launched multiple attacks on settled civilizations in central Mexico. Among the victims of these invasions were perhaps the inhabitants of Teotiukan, the city of the gods. Today, some theorists believe that the people of this city left Teotiukan in early 450 BC and created huge artifacts at Kaminaljuyu at the southern tip of the Maya Lands.
The Olmecs and Mayans were fortunate enough not to witness their civilizations destroyed by greedy plunderers (the Spaniards) from across the ocean. These people created a history today claimed to date back to 2500 BC, and then quietly disappeared long before the Spanish arrived. Nor were they exactly “lost”; their race had modestly maintained their existence in simple and flat villages near the jungle, but the “MASTERS AND SCIENTISTS” who built those magnificent pyramids and temples seemed to have become “secrets”.
For historians and archaeologists, the Maya civilization is unquestionably the most magical civilization of the pre-Columbian era. Today, there are civilizations in Mexico still waiting to be discovered. Although not completely known, it is thought that these civilizations, like the Mayans, kept fascinating secrets.
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