The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species compositio ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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The Spanish American Colonies were largely cut off from the outside world, and the ruins of the great ancient cities were little known except to locals. In 1839 United States traveler and writer John Lloyd Stephens, hearing reports of lost ruins in the jungle, visited Copán, Palenque, and other sites with English architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood. Their illustrated accounts of the ruins sparked strong interest in the region and the people, and they have o ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with hundreds (possibly thousands) of celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars (all of infinite duration). The Maya shaman had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. If the interpretations of the shamen spelled bad times to come, sacrifices would ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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Maya civilization - Writing system. Main article: Maya hieroglyphics The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphics from a vague superficial resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian writing, to which it is not related) was a combination of phonetic symbols and logograms. It is most often classified as a logographic or (more properly) a logosyllabic writing system, in which syllabic signs play a significant role. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian New ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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Archaeological evidence shows the Maya had started to build ceremonial architecture by approximately 1000 BCE. There is some disagreement about the boundaries which differentiate the physical and cultural extent of the early Maya and their neighboring Pre-Classic Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec culture of the Tabasco lowlands and the Mixe-Zoque– and Zapotec–speaking peoples of Chiapas and southern Oaxaca. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone, and evidence suggests that these cultures ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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In the 8th and 9th centuries CE, Classic Maya culture went into decline, with most of the cities of the central lowlands abandoned. Warfare, ecological depletion of croplands, and drought or some combination of those factors are usually suggested as reasons for the decline. There is archaeological evidence of warfare, famine, and revolt against the elite at various central lowlands sites. There is also conclusive geological evidence, found in shells recovered from Lake Chichancanab (in modern Quintana Roo state in Mexico) by a team from the ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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As unique and spectacular as any Greek or Roman architecture, Maya architecture spans many thousands of years; yet, often the most dramatic and easily recognizable as Maya are the fantastic stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond. These pyramids relied on intricate carved stone in order to create a stair-step design. Each pyramid was dedicated to a deity whose shrine sat at its peak. During this "height" of Maya culture, the centers of their religious, commercial and bureaucratic power grew into incredible cities, in ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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A typical Classic Maya polity was a small kingdom (ajawil, ajawlel, ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler – ajaw, later k’uhul ajaw. Both terms appear in early Colonial texts including Papeles de Paxbolón where they are used as synonymous to Aztec and Spanish terms for supreme rulers and their domains – tlahtoani (Tlatoani) and tlahtocayotl, rey or magestad and reino, señor and señorío or dominio. Such kingdom was usually no more than a capital city ...

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Maya civilization, Maya civilization - Origins, Maya civilization - Political structures, Maya civilization - Art, Maya civilization - Architecture, Maya civilization - Urban design, Maya civilization - Building materials, Maya civilization - Building process, Maya civilization - Notable constructions, Maya civilization - Writing and literacy, Maya civilization - Writing system, Maya civilization - Writing tools, Maya civilization - Scribes, Maya civilization - Literacy, Maya civilization - Mathematics, Maya civilization - Religion, Maya civilization - Agriculture, Maya civilization - Decline of the Maya, Maya civilization - Rediscovery of the Pre-Columbian Maya, Maya civilization - List of Maya sites, Maya civilization - Most important sites, Maya civilization - Other important Maya sites, Maya civilization - Reference

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The pre-Columbian Maya civilization developed and used an intricate and versatile writing system which, out of the various historical Mesoamerican scripts known, displays the highest degree of correspondence to a spoken language. Earlier-established civilizations to the west and north of the Maya homelands also had scripts which are recorded in surviving inscriptions, such as those of the Zapotec, Olmec, as well as the Zoque-speaking peoples of the southern Veracruz - western Chiapas area. There is however insufficent available evidence to d ...

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Mayan languages, Mayan languages - Note on terminology, Mayan languages - Overview, Mayan languages - Language families, Mayan languages - Relation to Mesoamerican writing

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Neither the Tzolkin nor the Haab system numbered the years. The combination of a Tzolkin date and a Haab date was enough to identify a date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination didn't occur again for another 52 years, well above life expectancy. Because the two calendars were based on 260 days and 365 days respectively, the whole cycle would repeat itself every 52 Haab years exactly. This period was known as a Calendar Round. The end of the Calendar Round was a period of unrest and bad luck among the Maya, as they waited in expectation to see if the ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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Another important calendar for the Maya was the Venus cycle. The Maya were excellent astronomers, and could calculate the Venus cycle extremely accurately. There are six pages in the Dresden Codex (one of the Maya codices) devoted to the accurate calculation of the location of Venus. The Maya were able to achieve such accuracy by careful observation over many years. The Venus cycle was especially important because the Maya believed it was associated with war and used it to divine good times for coronations and war. Maya rulers planned for wars to begin when Venus rose. The Maya also possibly tracked other planets’ movements, i ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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The most important of these calendars is one with a period of 260 days. This 260-day calendar was prevalent across all Mesoamerican societies, and is of great antiquity (almost certainly the oldest of the calendars). It is still used in some regions of Oaxaca, and amongst the Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands. The Maya version is commonly known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolk'in in the revised orthography of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. The Tzolkin combined with another 365-day calendar (known as ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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With the development of the place-notational Long Count calendar (believed to have been inherited from other Mesoamerican cultures), the Maya had an elegant system within which events could be recorded in a linear relationship to one another, and also with respect to the calendar ("linear time") itself. In theory, this system could readily be extended to delineate any length of time desired, by simply adding to the number of higher-order place markers used (and thereby generating an ever-increasing sequence of day-multiples, each day in the ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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The Haab was the Maya solar calendar made up of eighteen months of twenty days each and a five day month at the end of the year known as Wayeb or Uayeb that was called "the nameless days." Victoria Bricker estimates that the Haab was first used around 550 BC with the starting point of the winter solstice. The Haab was the foundation of the agrarian calendar and the month names are based on the seasons and agricultural events. For example the thirteenth month, Mac, may refer to the end of the rainy season and the fourteenth month, Kankin ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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Since Calendar Round dates can only distinguish within 18980 days, equivalent to around 52 solar years, the cycle repeats roughly once each lifetime, and thus, a much more refined method of dating was needed if their history was to be recorded accurately. The Long Count employs the use of number series, roughly base 20 and is constructed by counting whole number of days alone. The Mayan name for a day was kin; twenty of these kins are known as a uinal; eighteen uinals make one tun; twenty tuns are known as ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

Read more here: » Maya calendar: Encyclopedia II - Maya calendar - Long Count

Mayanists have bestowed the name tzolkin (or tzolk'in, in the revised orthography which is now preferred) on the Maya version of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar. The word was coined based on the Yucatec language, with an intended meaning of "count of days". The actual names of this calendar as used by the pre-Columbian Maya are not known. The Aztec calendar equivalent was called by them t ...

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Maya calendar, Maya calendar - General overview, Maya calendar - Maya concepts of time, Maya calendar - Tzolk'in, Maya calendar - Divination, Maya calendar - Origin of the Tzolkin, Maya calendar - Haab, Maya calendar - Wayeb, Maya calendar - Calendar Round, Maya calendar - Long Count, Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates, Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion, Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion, Maya calendar - End of the world?, Maya calendar - Venus cycle

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Tobacco smoking, using both pipes and cigars, was common to many Native American cultures of the Americas. It is depicted in the art of the Classic-era Maya civilization about 1,500 years ago. The Mayans smoked tobacco and also mixed it with lime and chewed it in a snuff-like substance. Among the Mayans tobacco was used as an all-purpose medicine, and was widely believed to have magical powers, being used in divinations and talismans. It was also burned as a sacrifice to the gods; a tob ...

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Tobacco smoking, Tobacco smoking - History, Tobacco smoking - Health effects, Tobacco smoking - Smoking cessation, Tobacco smoking - Moral aspects, Tobacco smoking - Legal issues & Regulation, Tobacco smoking - Notes

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Tobacco smoking, using both pipes and cigars, was common to many Native American cultures of the Americas. It is depicted in the art of the Classic-era Maya civilization about 1,500 years ago. The Mayans smoked tobacco and also mixed it with lime and chewed it in a snuff-like substance. Among the Mayans tobacco was used as an all-purpose medicine, and was widely believed to have magical powers, being used in divinations and talismans. It was also burned as a sacrifice to the gods; a tob ...

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Tobacco smoking, Tobacco smoking - History, Tobacco smoking - Health effects, Tobacco smoking - Smoking cessation, Tobacco smoking - Moral and religious considerations, Tobacco smoking - Legal issues & Regulation, Tobacco smoking - Notes

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The idea of Mu first appeared in the works of the antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), a 19th century traveler and writer who conducted his own investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán. He announced that he had translated the ancient Mayan writings, which supposedly showed that the Maya of Yucatán were older than the later civilizations of Atlantis and Egypt, and additionally told the story of an even older continent of Mu, which had foundered in a similar fashion to Atlantis, with the survivors founding the Maya civil ...

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Mu lost continent, Mu lost continent - Le Plongeon and Churchward, Mu lost continent - Other authors, Mu lost continent - Mu in politics, Mu lost continent - Mu in the arts

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CRYSTAL THERAPY

Dates back to Incan, Egyptian, Mayan, Atlantean, and Lemurian Civilizations. In this healing practice, quartz crystals, and other stones and crystals are placed on and around the body to stimulate and sensitize subtle vibrational patterns, release energy blockages, and harmonize vibrational frequencies.

Crystals are used to draw and amplify light and color to the body's aura, thus raising its vibrational frequency, and facilitate healing. The emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual effects of such work are moving and profound. Quartz Crystals can also be used to record dreams and other information when programmed to do so.

(See also: CRYSTAL THERAPY , Alternative Health, Holistic Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Venus - Mythology. The pentagram has long been associated with the planet Venus and the worship of the goddess Venus, or her equivalent. It is most likely to have originated from the observations of prehistoric astronomers. When viewed from Earth, the successive conjunctions of Venus plot the points of a pentagram around the Sun every eight years, returning to its starting point after a forty year cycle. Venus was known to ancient Babylonians around 1600 BC, and to the Mayan civilization (the Mayans develo ...

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Venus, Venus - Name, Venus - Orbital characteristics, Venus - Orbit, Venus - Rotation, Venus - Physical characteristics, Venus - Atmosphere, Venus - Surface features, Venus - Venus' moon, Venus - Observations and explorations of Venus, Venus - Life at Venus, Venus - Venus in human culture, Venus - Mythology, Venus - Fiction, Venus - Special characters

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