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    Mayan Civilization: A History From Beginning to End
    Mayan Civilization: A History From Beginning to End
    Mayan Civilization: A History From Beginning to End
    Ebook58 pages36 minutes

    Mayan Civilization: A History From Beginning to End

    By Henry Freeman

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    About this ebook

    Making sense of our universe...It's an age-old practice that transcends cultures and generations. From our vantage point, the larger than life Maya civilization grappled with the urge in a grand scale. Join us as we take a voyage to understand the ways of the Maya. 

    Inside you will read about...
    ✓ Who Made Contact? Early Explorers and their Impact
    ✓ How the Maya Wanted to Be Represented - History Written by the Victors
    ✓ Different Periods of Maya History
    ✓ Larger Than Life
    ✓ New Findings

    We'll learn what they held as sacred, how the sacred manifested itself in their lives, and about efforts to accurately portray them, despite romanticized versions. This eBook provides a deeper look at their pre-Columbian battling dynasties and their highly-structured approach to religion, science and society, as we explore their glories and misfortunes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHourly History
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781536560589
    Mayan Civilization: A History From Beginning to End

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      Book preview

      Mayan Civilization - Henry Freeman

      Introduction

      The Mayan civilization perceived a highly-structured cosmos, reflected in most aspects of their practices and societies. In today’s world, humans live in so many different environments that have played a role in developing their cultures, sustenance and philosophies. We can stand in the middle of our street, our yard, a field, on top of a mountain, or inside a museum, close our eyes and try to imagine what that particular spot looked like throughout time. Who roamed these lands before us? Such thoughts can send us on a voyage of discovery. Depending on how close our ties are to where we live, we may shed a tear from nostalgia and from an appreciation of our ever-changing landscapes and lives. We may ask those who are more familiar with the history of that place and seek answers through research.

      Our detective work may include looking at the nature of things. What was here before this very tree? Did the sky look the same through ancient Maya eyes as it might if we stood next to them in their sacred rainforests? Do the millions of Maya of various ethnic groups―the inheritors of the Maya traditions and their past―now stand in awe in the same places where their ancestors stood, despite the newest political borders in their beloved Mesoamerican homelands? If they practiced the same way of life in ancient times, even if the practices today of our own times are quite different, can we find any long lost awareness and understanding about how they grappled with common human fears, problems and questions?

      As humans, we love to determine what has come before. Our natural curiosity drives us to grapple with the shape of the things we see in the environment, the structures, and the land, and to visualize the changes that often span generations. We wonder who else has been here. What animals hunted and what birds permeated the air with their cries as ancient humans went about their lives? How did they live? We want history to come alive just as much as we want to be able to establish our sense of the world.

      The Maya people shared that curiosity. They imagined their world in such a way that helped them develop a way of thinking. It ensured good harvests, protection for the commoners, great victories for their kings, and soothed their gods. The ceiba tree grew deep in the Central American rainforest. It was sacred. The Maya considered it the first tree or the world tree. As the center of the Earth, even to this day, the ceiba tree is often left undisturbed out of respect. The tree held significant power over the Maya. It was referred to in the eighteenth century Chilam Balam, a chronicle that was written in the Yucatan that may have been originally transcribed from hieroglyphic texts into a Mayan language. The sacred tree was thought to bridge the gap between the earthly realm and the spirit realm. The Maya routinely represented the thorny trunks of the ceiba tree in their ceramic pots, used as burial urns or incense holders.

      Continuing on these traditions recently, colorful spiked ceramic funeral urns known as MT Objects were designed by Mexico City-based designers in the spring of 2016, inspired by the Mayan beliefs surrounding the Ceiba tree. Advancing the Maya’s practice of borrowing from nature isn’t the only thing that has been noticed about the significance they placed on the world they inhabited. The ceiba tree is a national symbol of Guatemala and was declared the national tree of the country in 1955, in part because of its importance to the Maya. They are protected by Guatemalan law. One of the most famous ceiba trees is found in Palin, Escuintla, and it is more than 400 years old. Many towns are named after the tree throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

      The Maya added sacred significance to the natural wonders of the environment. In the Popol Vuh, one of

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