Mayan civilization is too powerful

Although human civilization has only been around for a short period of 10,000 to 20,000 years, ancient civilizations have formed in many regions of the earth during this time, such as the four major civilizations - ancient China, ancient India, ancient Babylon, and ancient Egypt. Some civilizations have disappeared into history, such as ancient Babylon, while others still have a long history, such as the Chinese civilization. In addition to these four civilizations, there is another civilization also lasted for thousands of years, it is the Mayan civilization born in the tropical rainforest.

According to archaeological research, the Mayan civilization emerged in complete isolation from Asian civilizations, European civilizations, and African civilizations, so civilizations outside the Americas did not know that there was an ancient civilization hidden in the rainforest until the 16th century. Many people first heard of the Mayan civilization because the Mayans put forward five prophecies thousands of years ago, of which the first four prophecies have been fulfilled, only the last prophecy "the end of the world in 2012" did not come true.

Even so, still can not stop the modern human exploration of the Mayan civilization enthusiasm. After decades of exploration, archaeologists from various countries gradually unveiled the mystery of the Mayan civilization, but the mystery attached to it can never be completely removed. So how far did the Maya civilization ever develop? Why did this civilization disappear later?

What was the rise and fall of the Maya civilization?

Modern archaeological research has revealed that the Mayan civilization refers to the ancient civilization of the tropical rainforest that was distributed in the areas of present-day Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Mayan civilization was not like the four major civilizations, where one civilization formed a nation. In Mesoamerica, a Mayan civilization consisted of hundreds of city-states, large and small, which were not a unified body of nations. The archaeological data of Mayan civilization shows that the history of Mayan civilization can be divided into three phases, which are pre-classical, classical, and post-classical periods.

The per-classical period spans about 1500 B.C. to 300 A.D. Archaeologists define this phase as the formative period of Maya civilization, and the achievements of Maya agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, and architecture that we find now were all formed during this phase. The Maya civilization probably developed into the classical period around 400 AD, which was also the peak of the Maya civilization and lasted until 900 AD. The Mayan civilization in the development of the digital calendar, writing language and other aspects of this period reached its peak.

When civilizations flourish, there will be times of decline. After the classical period, the Maya civilization entered the post-classical period around 900 AD, after which this period was defined as a period of decline. It was not until the invasion of the Spanish colonists in the 16th century that the last of the Mayan civilizations, the Aztec Empire, was destroyed and the Mayan civilization was officially declared extinct. The history of Mayan civilization lasted about 3000 years, and it was the outstanding representative of American Indian civilization, so what were the brilliant achievements of Mayan civilization?

In what ways did the Maya civilization shine?

To date, many archaeologists are still incredulous about the development of the Maya civilization. First of all, archaeologists have not found traces of smelting metals in the Mayan civilization sites, which means that the level of the Mayan civilization for more than 3000 years was probably at the level of the Stone Age. Compared with the four major civilizations of the same period, the development level of the Maya civilization appears to be much behind. However, through the in-depth study of the Mayan civilization, archaeologists found that some of their civilization achievements are not reached by the four major civilizations.

First of all, the Mayans showed great talent in language and writing. If the Chinese characters and English, which only up, down, left, and right directions of the written symbols are defined as "two-dimensional writing", then the Mayans created three-dimensional writing. This is because archaeologists have found through research that Mayan writing not only has the direction of up, down, left, and right, but also involves the distance of proximity. Not only that, archaeologists found when reading Mayan documents, their documents also need to be read in three dimensions, that is, near and then far.

In addition, the Mayan civilization's other great brilliant achievement is their architecture. While other continental civilizations of the Stone Age were still building thatched huts, the Maya civilization was already able to carve and process hard stone blocks. The most iconic structure of the Mayan civilization is the Mayan pyramids, although it is not as large as the Egyptian pyramids, but it was almost impossible for the Mayans in the Stone Age. As for how the Maya built these structures, many questions remain a mystery.

Why did the Maya create the numerical calendar that surprised archaeologists?

Equally surprising to archaeologists is the numerical calendar of the Maya civilization. The numerical symbols used internationally today are Arabic numerals, first transmitted by the Arabs from India to other regions. Archaeologists have discovered their exclusive numerical symbols in the Mayan civilization, where the Mayans used only a point, a cross, and a zero to represent all numbers. Chinese scholars found through research that Mayan numbers are surprisingly similar to the ancient Chinese abacus.

It is believed that the binary method commonly used in computers first originated from Mayan numbers. Because of the simplicity of Mayan numbers, the Mayans were able to record complex astronomical calendars. Archaeologists have discovered Mayan stone pillars in the Guatemala region of Girigua, on which the Mayan astronomical calendars were inscribed: the Earth year, the Venus year, and the solar calendar. The length of the Earth's year is 365.2420 days, which is only about 0.002 days different from the modern measurement, which is an incredible place.

How did this ancient civilization eventually die out?

This question is problematic because technically speaking, the Mayan civilization has not died out yet, it has only declined because there are still Mayans in Central America today who speak the Mayan language and maintain the Mayan way of life. So when did the Mayan civilization decline? What caused the decline of the Maya civilization? As mentioned above, the invasion of Spanish colonists in the 16th century led to the gradual demise of a few Mayan civilizations in Central America.

It was not until the Aztec Empire was destroyed that the Mayan civilization countries completely withdrew from the stage of history. The decline within the Maya civilization was evident even before the invasion of Spanish colonists, and many archaeologists attribute the decline to the deterioration of the climatic environment and conflicts between tribes or kingdoms. Although a few Mayan descendants still exist today, archaeologists believe that their way of life and the language and script they used are so different from the original Mayan civilization that it can be said with certainty that the most primitive Mayan civilization died out.