What do you know about the Mayans?

Question

I'm watching "Apocolypto" and it seems to me like they're all primitive. Where are the people who made up the Mayan calendar?

Answer 1

They were a bloody-thirsty race of people who lived in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, Guatamala, and Belize.  But they also built massive pyramids in the jungle and were very advanced in math and science.  They had a calendar system based on cycles, the largest of which restarts (NOT ENDS) in 2012.  But other than that, they never managed to invent the wheel - they certainly didn't predict the end of the world.

Answer 2

The Mayans were freakin brutal. I saw the movie you speak of, it was pretty good. Wasn't there a part with human sacrificing with a line of people waiting? OMG, who would wait patiently in line to have their insides removed with a dull blade? I would have totally dove off the cliff and taken as many of those evil b******s along with me.

Answer 3

Apocolypto was my favorite movie that year.There's a lot of great stuff to learn about Mayans,Aztecs(the villains in the movie).In fact all of the people that were here before 1492.

If you like to read try The Ruin its also a movie.

Edit.Humans in general are a bloodthirsty lot.Look around the world right now.

I wonder why the Aliens showed them how to build but never told them about the wheel.

Answer 4

Adolf Hitler was born 200 km away from where Albert Einstein was born 10 years earlier.

One was a blood thirsty racist warmonger, the other a brilliant scientist and humanist.

Do you see the parallel? It is not because a civilization produces a monster than it cannot also produce genius. The Mayan people could have been mostly a bunch of savages and still have a few brilliant people capable of making good observations and develop some science.

To Lorraine A above: surely you jest? "Their knowledge of astronomy far exceeds anything we have to date", says WHO? If their knowledge exceeds ours, how can we know and recognize it? Where are the Mayan's pictures of the far side of the Moon?  Where is their depiction of the rings of Saturn? Where is their version of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram? And for the record, the Mayan civilization had already collapsed, 500 years before the conquistator set foot in the americas.

Answer 5

Apocalypto is a movie about the end of the Mayan civilization.  The movie is set during the final years of an empire that lasted hundreds of years.  In the last century of the Mayan empire, there was an extreme drought that resulted in starvation, barbarism, and superstitions.  The political leaders of the Mayans were considered to be responsible when the rain stopped falling, and the religious leaders, seeking greater power, began performing random executions to help appease the population in the name of their god - Quetzequatal.  

These tactics didn't sit well with the people, and so, the leaders of the civilization lost their ability to rule.  People began leaving the cities to look for food and water sources and to escape the executioners.  Eventually, the cities were deserted and the civilization disappeared.  By the time the Europeans got there, the Mayan empire was already in great decline.

In their heyday, the Mayans had an advanced city structure, architecture, political organization, religious beliefs, mathematics, and knowledge of astronomy.  The Mayan calendar was created as a culmination of their knowledge of astronomy and it was integrated into their religious beliefs.  The calendar is based on Tun(year), Katun (20 years), and Baktun(400 years).

The Mayan believed that the world was created and destroyed over and over again.  Each world was said to exist for 13 Baktun or about 5200 years.  The current cycle is set to be completed in the year 2012, but this is not considered armegeddon to the Maya.  It was the day that the calendar turned over and a new era began.  The date that the calendar is set to turn over is 12/23/2012 according to most calculations.  Thanks for the question!

Answer 6

Their knowledge of astronomy far exceeds anything we have to date with all of our technology.  Who says they were really bloodthirsty?  The conquistadors?...the ones who slaughtered the Mayan race and beat "Christianity" into them?  Strange way to make their point.  Who were the real savages then?  

Answer 7

Primitive my a**! Did you know that they built buildings miles apart across jungles and mountains that were EXACTLY PERPENDICULAR? They had command over building architecture  that can only be done today with satellites and some of their wonders cannot be duplicated even with our modern techniques. Their civilization is probably the one that builds the strongest case for man coming from the stars.

I never watched the movie I knew it was sensationalized c**p when it came out.  

Answer 8

I have downloaded 100s of documentaries off the Internet over the past 5 years - of all kinds.

Ones that deal with the Mayans - are

"Cracking the Mayan Code", "What the Ancients Did For Us" which covers the Mayan calendar and other technologies, and various other ones that deal with the Mayans, Aztecs and Olmecs.

I don't mind making these available to anyone wanting to view them.  Just include your email address in a Personal Message to me...

I have many that deal with other ancient civilisations and technologies, etc etc.

Answer 9

resided at the yucatan peninsula, mexico