Colton Cahill
ENG105
02/19/2016
Mayan Astronomy When you think of “Mayan Astronomy” you probably think “End of the world in 2012,” but there is more to it than that. You might even say they were crazy, and didn’t know what they were doing. Their incredibly accurate astronomical calculations and sophisticated mathematics would probably prove you wrong though. Those calculations were all steeped in religion and omen, their priests discerning the very will of the gods behind the occurrences of the natural phenomena. The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization. Though the civilization isn’t wiped out today, diseases brought to them by 16th century settlers devastated there population. Additionally, the Spanish forced the Maya to convert to Christianity, going so far as to burn their books of religion.
The Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with distinct environmental and cultural differences: the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the Petén district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. The Maya of the southern lowland region reached their peak during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D. 250 to 900), and built the great stone cities and …show more content…
These priest-astronomers had huge amounts of power in the Mayan Culture, given the fact that they could essentially 'predict' the future. Their knowledge of the patterns of the sky, and of the mathematics that solves more complex patterns, led them to a higher level position in Mayan society. The Mayan astronomers began the day at sunrise, although for some Mayans the day began at either noontime, when the sun was at its highest point, or at sunset. Starting the day at these times may seem strange to those of us use to a western view of
ENG105
02/19/2016
Mayan Astronomy When you think of “Mayan Astronomy” you probably think “End of the world in 2012,” but there is more to it than that. You might even say they were crazy, and didn’t know what they were doing. Their incredibly accurate astronomical calculations and sophisticated mathematics would probably prove you wrong though. Those calculations were all steeped in religion and omen, their priests discerning the very will of the gods behind the occurrences of the natural phenomena. The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization. Though the civilization isn’t wiped out today, diseases brought to them by 16th century settlers devastated there population. Additionally, the Spanish forced the Maya to convert to Christianity, going so far as to burn their books of religion.
The Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with distinct environmental and cultural differences: the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the Petén district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. The Maya of the southern lowland region reached their peak during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D. 250 to 900), and built the great stone cities and …show more content…
These priest-astronomers had huge amounts of power in the Mayan Culture, given the fact that they could essentially 'predict' the future. Their knowledge of the patterns of the sky, and of the mathematics that solves more complex patterns, led them to a higher level position in Mayan society. The Mayan astronomers began the day at sunrise, although for some Mayans the day began at either noontime, when the sun was at its highest point, or at sunset. Starting the day at these times may seem strange to those of us use to a western view of