The Ruined Mayans City of Chichen Itza September 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Central America, Europe, Guatemala, Honduras, Map, Mexico, Rail Pass, Science, Sightseeing, Tour, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , trackbackThe ruined ceremonial city of Chichen Itza lies about 75 miles (120km) southeast of Merida in the north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. ‘Old Chichen’ was built by the Mayans in what archaeologists call the Late Classic Period (AD 600-830) on an earlier site, only traces of which have been found. Buildings in this area include what have become dubbed the Church, the Nunnery, the House of the Three Lintels and the Caracol — a Mayan observatory.
The ancient Maya encompassed a huge area, ranging from western Honduras and Guatemala in the south through to the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula at the north. They emerged from the background of ancient peoples in the second century BC when their first pyramids appeared in what is present-day Guatemala.
By about AD 300 their architecture had developed to remarkable levels of expertise, and the Classic Maya period ran from then to approximately AD 600. Great ceremonial centres were the focus for populations living scattered around them in the jungles. In the Late Classic period these centres were abandoned and northern sites like Chichen Itza came into their own.
The Mayans had advanced their development of architecture, painting and sculpture, and used hieroglyphic writing. They entered records in paintings, in carvings on stelae and in books or ‘codices’ made from strips of deerskin or paper made from bark, which had been plaster- coated.
They were also ‘fascinated by the passage of time’, archaeologist Iris Barry tells us:
They developed an advanced arithmetical system and made accurate observations of the heavens which allowed them to compute astronomical events. Their science, however . . . was far more like astrology, being based on a firm belief in the cyclical nature of time and its control by supernatural forces. . . .
The timing of every ritual and ceremonial act, such as sacrifice, marriage or baptism, was dictated by the Maya calendar, which was one of the most complicated ever devised.’
The sacred Mayan year (Tzolkin) was based on a 260-day cycle in which 20 named days ran serially, with a number from 1 to 13 as a prefix, thus taking the 260-day period for the same combination of number and day-name to recur. No one knows why this system developed, for it does not relate to any apparent astronomical cycle. However, there was also a secular calendar year (Haab), with 365 days like our own, running concurrently with the sacred system. It was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, with five days of bad omen added at the end of the year. The months not only had names, but were also numbered from 0 to 19. These two systems of 260 and 365 days were meshed together, and it took 52 years for a date to be repeated in both systems. This period is known as the Calendar Round, the end of each of which caused nervous anticipation among the Maya. The crowning complexity was the Long Count, in which the two cycles of the Calendar Round were combined with lunar months and the 584-day cycle of Venus. The Long Count commenced in 3113 BC, according to Mayan history or myth, a remote date that mystifies archaeologists. Perhaps there is more to be discovered of an unprecedented early date lying in the jungles of Central America. . . .
Venus was a major player in Mayan cosmology and, indeed, in that of other ancient Mesoamericans. The Mayan codices reveal complex computations regarding Venus — for instance, the Grolier Codex has a 104-year Venus alamanac. John B. Carlson explains that to ancient Mesoamericans the bright planet was the opposite of ancient Rome’s Venus, the goddess of love; it incarnated warfare and blood sacrifice. Therefore one purpose of the Venus almanac was apparently astrological — to determine a propitious time for ritual combat and sacrifice. Although we believe the stylised battles resembled the jousts of medieval Europe, the `knights’ fought for their lives, and the losers were put to death — sacrificed with honor.2
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