The Maya civilization was one of the grandest in the history of the world and the reason for its collapse is still shrouded in mystery. The ancient Maya occupied a vast geographic area in Central and South America from around 2000 BC until 1500 AD. Very little is known about the beginning of this early civilisation, so to try to understand its development, what is now defined as The Maya eras, were established.
The first phase, The Pre-classic period (2000 BC-AD250 ), civilised life emerge: Buildings erected, leaders established, conquering of new territories. This phase was then followed by The Classic period (AD 250-AD 909) The Mayan people reach their peak of artistic and intelligence ability. Then came the slow decay with The Post-classic period (AD 909- AD1450) during this time no more spectacular achievements were recorded and population declined. However what has widely been thought to have put an end to the Maya way of life would most famously be The Spanish Conquest, which radically decreased the population and left little aspects of Mayan culture after the cruelty of the conquest. However there is no universal theory to explain the collapse of Maya civilisation.
The Mayas were accomplished astronomers, and were known for their precise calendar. As a people they were fully committed to astronomy and this science permeated very part of their day to day life. They were one of the earliest cultures to record their astrological finding s in charters and they also used the Sun and Moon in order to create charts and calendars. They spent years refining their astronomical techniques, charting the positions of the planets, devising tables for long-term predictions of the movements of these planets, and creating tables to predict eclipses. Their predictions were so sophisticated that they included corrections and amendments, showing that they fully understood that the movement of the planets and precession were complex. This was an amazing feat as throughout their existence they mapped and predicted the motions of the night’s sky whilst tracking the Sun, Moon, planets and stars which was more than likely attained using basic instruments and observations recorded with the naked eye.
The Maya astronomy was driven by the unique and rich mythology of the Mayas and their belief in the structure and order of the universe, which to them were overlapping cycles and making sense of these was key to predicting and understanding the whim of the gods and spirits. Time was the most important factor to Mayans, the most pervading aspect of their culture.
Discoveries and Contributions
The planet of greatest interest to the Mayan astronomers was the planet Venus which they watched and studied in great amount and which even took precedence over the Sun in levels of importance. The Mayans calculated that Venus had a 524 cycle of which 260 days it is visible in the morning sky and a further 260 days in the evening sky and has on average 50 days in which is it invisible to the naked eye.
The Mayans also saw the point of “Inferior Conjunction” (The point at which Venus is directly between the Sun and the Earth in its cycle Figure 1.) as a sacred time as this was when the planet was at it’s brightest in the sky.
This has been shown to be a sacred time for the Mayans as many of the wars that they waged took place around the time of Inferior Conjunction.
The opposite time to this is known as the Superior Conjunction when Venus is at its dullest in the sky and at times hidden completely and this provoked fear in the Mayans and saw humans sacrifices made in order to combat this fear.
Another of their findings whilst carrying out astronomy was to map the “Zenial passages of the sun” which is the point at which the Sun is directly overhead. This was linked to the fact that many of the Mayan cities were south of the tropic of Capricorn so as to be in the best position to view this occurrence twice a year.
Many of these findings were stored in the codex’s that still survive to this day including the Dresden codex. Within this there is a fully recorded cycle of Venus and many other mathematical calculations that were recorded by Mayan astronomers.
In addition to this the Mayans mapped the summer and winter solstice and also the equinoxes. Many of the buildings and temples that have been uncovered have had windows and doors that aligned with these events every year. The Maya astronomers also deduced that the earth’s solar year was slightly more than 365 days.
Not only in the field of astronomy did the Maya contribute, they developed an advanced writing system and were gifted mathematicians who independently developed the concept of zero,
Their history, entrusted to cactus fibre parchment, fared poorly against the ravages of time and Spanish conquerors saw to the destruction of much of the remainder. However, many of their carvings on stone have survived and provide much of what is known today about their civilization.
Today, however what the Maya is most famous for stems from their astronomy achievements, in particular the Mayan calendar and The End of The World Controversy. The calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. The fourth epoch ended in August 1987. The Mayan calendar comes to an end on Sunday, December 21st, 2012. Only a few people will survive the catastrophe that ensues. In the fifth age, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny. In the sixth age, we will realize God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.
As the calendar was so well exacted and refined, for instance, they calculated the exact duration of a year to a thousandth of a decimal and of course every solar and lunar eclipse to date ,there is much hype and dispute about how to interpret the end of the calendar . Will the world actually end? Will it be the end of everything? Or will it be the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? No one really knows. One thing's for sure, though. December 21st of the year 2012 is the day time as we know it will end.
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