Haab Calendar

So when last we met our intrepid Mayanist, he was explaining calendars. Recall that we have a calendar that is composed of separate components that work together, namely days of the week which run in a cycle, and dates which run in a separate cycle. The Mayans also had calendars that ran independently. I mentioned we would look at the Haab, Tzolkin and the Long Count calendars. First up, Haab.


The Haab calendar is very close to our Gregorian calendar. It has 18 months instead of 12, and 20 days per month. That leaves us about 5 days short of a full solar year. So the Mayans throw 5 "free days" into the last month. (By the way these 5 extra days were considered bad luck, and no Mayans would normally work nor wed during them). So this calendar now matches a solar year of the earth. The month names, while not critical to us are too much fun to pass up. Pop, Wo, Zip, Zotz, Zek, Xul,Yaxkin,Mol, Chen, Yax, Zak,Keh,Mak, Kankin,Muan, Pax, Kayab, and Kumku. (I am using common spelling, that differs a bit from the labels on the sample below.) And remember those 5 extra days at the end of the last month? We call them, Wayeb.








In the Haab calendar, each day is noted by giving the day and month. So the first day of the first month is 0 Pop, followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop, etc. all the way to 19 Pop, which is then followed by 0 Wo, 1 Wo, 2 Wo and so on.

The Mayans didn't really track of how many Haabs rolled by, they used the Long Calendar for calculations like that.

Next up, Tzolkin!


J.T. Turner, Mayanist

Calendars Galore!

I have spoken of the Mayan calendars in several posts here,but thought a good recap was in order.

First, remember there is more than one Mayan Calendar. There are several, and sometimes they were used side by side. Imagine having 3,4,5 calendars all clicking off time independently of the each other!

For our purposes we often compare the Mayan calendar with the Gregorian calendar that is in use in much of the world. Both the Mayan and Gregorian calendars are tied to the idea of cycles, or simply a sequence that happens over and over.The Mayans used many celestial events in their calendars, as they saw movements in the sky as recurring.The Gregorian calendar uses the cycle of a week, Monday through Sunday, over and over, We also use 12 months, with days within a month. But the days of the week, and the Months/date run interdependently of each other. Say we have a Monday, January1. Tuesday January2, Wednesday January 3 and so on. When we get to Sunday, the next day the week starts over, but the date keeps counting, independently. With me so far? Good!

Mayan calendars also have independent components.running at the same time, just more of them. 3 are considered the most common. Our next few blogs will take on each of them:

Haab- 365 day calendar (18 months long each month 20 days, with 5 days added to the last month to make a solar year).
Tzolkin- 265 day calendar (actually 2 calenders, running side by side).

 These above two calendars can be combined, and are referred to as the Calendar Round, which has a cycle of 52 years.
Long Count-Just a way of writing the number of days that have gone by since a particular event, thousands of years ago.

Next up, a look at each of the three calendars listed above.


J.T. Turner, Mayanist

Primary sources

Hello! And sorry for the gap in posts!

In historical research, Primary Sources are of critical importance. They are the documents or items that originate a piece of history. Think of the Declaration of Independence. How do you know that the copy you find on the internet is right? Well, go have a look at the original, the primary source.

Last time in this blog, I mentioned just a few primary sources that actually mention the Doomsday date of the Mayan calendar. We spoke about the Jaguar Prophet, and how that passage is murky at best. Another primary source for the Doomsday date is located in southern Tabasco Mexico, at the Tortuguero site. The site dates to the 7th century CE, and has a series of inscriptions for a ruler there at that time. For us, we are interested in Monument 6, which does indeed refer to the b'ak'tun 13 (doomsday). Sadly, part of the inscription has been defaced, so we have just a partial rendering. Mark Van Stone has given the most complete translation:

Tzuhtz-(a)j-oom u(y)-uxlajuun pik

The Thirteenth [b'ak'tun] will end

(ta) Chan Ajaw ux(-te') Uniiw.

(on) 4 Ajaw, the 3rd of Uniiw [3 K'ank'in].

Uht-oom Ek'-...

Black ...[illegible]...will occur.

Y-em(al)...Bolon Yookte' K'uh ta-chak-ma...

(It will be) the descent(?) of Bolon Yokte' K'uh to the great (or "red"?)...[illegible]...^[22]

We really know little about the god,  Bolon Yokte' K'uh.He is elsewhere mentioned as a god of war, conflict, and the underworld. In some stela, he is portrayed with a rope around his neck, or an incense bag, which some take to mean his being a sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice to end a time period. (OK that would support the 2012/World Ending camp). But I have to point out that the translation is far from complete, and that Bolon Yokte' K"uh was already and ancient god when the Tortuguero site was active, and he appears to have been an unfamilar god even then. Just look at line 3. Black...something....will occur. Black death? Black Night? Black Sabbath? Black is the color of my true loves hair? Could be anything!

So to recap, most of the furor around 2012 is created simply by modern interpretation of the Long Count Calendar, with many authorities  disagreeing on the nature of the end date. And as discussed in the last 2 posts, there is little or no primary source material that points to 12/21/12 as a doomsday. Surely if that is the end of the world, the Mayans, who were great predictors of events, would have left more indicators of that ultimate event!

J.T. TURNER
MAYANIST

Jaguar Prophets

OK, OK, I know this is a rather dramatic picture above, and it is not really the Jaguar Prophet I mention in this post, but I liked it! It is called Jaguar Moon, and I am using it.

Despite all the hurly burly that surrounds the supposed doomsday of 12/21/12, if we look at factual Mayan sources, there are only a couple that even mention it.  The end of the Long Count calendar is mostly a non-event to ancient and contemporary Mayans. Let us look at a few source materials that do mention the date.

There is a group of prophecies that were made after the Spanish conquest of the Mayans that were translated to a sort of abbreviated Spanish.These prophesies were given by Chilam Balam, or the Jaguar Prophet. I have to say there is a lot of argument over the translations and meanings of the passages in the documents. But one passage does indeed mention the 13th b'ak'tun, which is the doomsday date. I won't reproduce the passage here, as few of you read ancient Mayan, (;)) but an archeaoastronomer, Maud Worcester Makenson, has translated the passage to mean the following :

"Presently B'ak'tun 13 shall come sailing, figuratively speaking, bringing the ornaments of which I have spoken from your ancestors.........Then the god will come to visit his little ones. Perhaps 'After Death' will be the subject of his discourse."

As you can see, that translation can easily be manipulated by Doomsday theorists into talking about the end of the world. But more recent translations suggest that the Doomsday date is not even mentioned in the prophecies. Another translator takes the passage to mean:

.                      "...like the coming of 13 sail-ships. When the captains dress themselves, your fathers will be taken".

Again if I want to read Doomsday into this I could. But more likely it could have referred to the Spanish conquest of the Mayans. Or it could be the lyrics to a David Bowie song .

I mention this just to show how source texts can easily be corrupted by sensationalists for their own purposes. Next post we will look at another source for the widespread doomsday theory. 

J.T. Turner

Mayanist

Solar storms and 2012

Hello loyal readers! One of the many predictions about 2012 and the so called Doomsday deals with fire. This ties in with predictions about the type of cataclysm that occurs or I should say recurs in the Mayan calendar. But let us separate fact from fiction. Not to support a World's End theory, it does seem we will have increasing impact in our lives of solar storms, spots and flare-ups. Below is a great introduction to what we may face, next time I will tie it into our discussion of the Day Of Destiny! ( Melodramatic, but I was tired of calling it Doomsday :)).

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/active-sun-solar-storms-100609.html

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

The Land of the Jaguars

I have just returned from another trip to Guatemala, where I volunteer for Partners in Development, a group that works in the Village of Concepcion. It was a good, though tiring, trip, and we did a lot of  positive work while we were there.

I wanted to post a bit about 2 items that came up on this latest trip. One was a side trip we took to a mountain location famous for its hot springs Las Fuentes Georginas. I say mountain location, but the springs are actually heated by the volcano, Zunil. Located in Xela, these springs are visited by tourists from around the world, but also by locals. Considering our look at the great exhibit Firey Pool at the Peabody Essex museum, I thought a mention of the springs was in order.

                                       Two of the smaller pools at Las Fuentes Georginas
It is perhaps a 20 minute drive to get up to the pools. It is usually a bit cool, and on several trips there overcast or rainy due to the altitude. There are 4 pools, 2 small ones and a rather large one that is directly fed by the water coming down the mountainside. The water temperature is in the high 80"s more as you get close to the water source. A local told me that the water was fine to drink, tasting of lime. He proceeded to drink directly from the water coming down the mountain. As an expert traveler, I passed on drinking the water. :) The Mayans believe the waters are sacred, as they are "blessed" by the volcano. The volcano itself has great power, so the water must have power as well.

But there is a fourth pool, set away from the others. That pool is still used in Mayan ceremonies, and it is considered a fertility pool. By bathing in it, it is believed women can increase the chances of becoming fertile. Again we see the symbolism of water, the source of life, being used by the Mayans. The fertility pool has sacred candles set along the ages, again filled with symbolism, fire, light, and various colors to invoke the sacred.

The main pool, the source of the water is in the back of the photo, coming down the wall.

Next up in our blog, I want to share a conversation about the color red.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

Tackling Time

Let us start our discussion of the Mayans and time.

In the mythic tradition of the Maya, a creator god named Itzamna gave the concept of the calendar to the Maya. They actually had several different calendars, the most important of which had a period of 260 days. Many Mesoamerican societies followed a 260 day year. We call this particular calendar the Tzolkin or Tzolk'in. There is also a 365 day calendar called a Haab. They were used together to make a cycle that lasted 52 Haabs. (OK stay with me, this gets complex, but I will try and pull out key points).

A different form of a calender, used for recording when an event occured in relation to other events was also used. We call this the Long Count form, and it is based on how many days have gone by since a starting point. That starting point is generally agreed to have been August 11, 3114 BC for a Gregorian calendar, and depending on the calendar used and the scholar, varies by days or as much as a year depending on the source used. Many of the Long Count events are supported by a lunar calendar, giving the position of the moon at a certain time.

The observatory at Chichen Itza

In the Long Count, a 365 day year (called a "Tun"), is made up of 18 20 day months, (called a Unial). 20 Tuns makes a Katun, 20 Katuns is a Baktun, and 13 Baktuns is a Great Cycle, or about 5,125 years.

The Mayan Long Count Calendar can also be expressed as a set of numbers. For example 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 baktuns, 3 katuns,  2 tuns, 10 unials and 15 days after the creation of the calendar (Similar to the calendar we use today; 10.29.2009). In the Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012 (in Gregorian calendar) is represented by 13.0.0.0.0. Hence the feeling that it is "doomsday".

Just to give a visual of the Long Count, below is the year 2012 in Maya numbers.





Next up, a quick look at the Mayan number system, as seen above.


J.T. TURNER, MAYANIST

Turtle Island

I wanted to share a bit more about the excellent exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum. In particular, I wanted to relate the title and concept of the exhibit to our blogs here at The Mayanist.

Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, is organized into four  sections: “Water and Cosmos”; “Creatures of the Fiery Pool”; “Navigating the Cosmos”; and “Birth to Rebirth.” The Fiery Pool itself refers to a Mayan view of the world. Our earth, as the Mayans knew is, was imagined as a great turtle floating in the ocean. The shell or back of the turtle is what the Mayans thought was their land, their world. And the sun, rising in the east, setting in the west, was the Fiery Pool. We now know that for the Maya, water was a critical primordial element in all aspects of their lives. (The figurine pictured above is of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, riding upon a crocodile.)



For the Maya the turtle was associated with water, thunder and with the earth. The surface of the world was depicted as the back of a turtle. The Maya deity (Pauahtun) who supported the world on his shoulders is sometimes depicted wearing a turtle shell on his head and the Maize God is sometimes shown emerging from a turtle shell.


And so the Maya believed they rode upon "Turtle Island". This exhibit  really touches on new territory, for while some Mayan cities were on the coastline, a vast majority were built inland, and giant cenotes were created to hold water for the cities. For a generally inland people, the discovery that they were obsessed with the sea is a surprising new fact.

When you take in the exhibit, which will travel on to Fort Worth and St. Louis, you will get to see a 10 foot tall cast from Belize, with three masks that represent Water Lily Serpent. Also a block of glyphs that seem to recount the travels of a Mayan King, who made a pilgrimage to the sea.

Above, Lidded bowl with the Iguana- Jaguar, from about 500AD

          Lidded Vessel of a World Turtle          


The wonderful exhibit runs till July 18th, and it is a rare chance to see pieces never displayed in the U.S. before.

THE FIERY POOL, THE MAYA AND THE MYTHIC SEA

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

27 MARCH-18 JULY 2010

WWW.PEM.ORG

J.T. Turner, Mayanist
                                                                
                                                                  

Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea

As a passionate Mayanist, I was delighted to discover that a nearby museum was having a exhibition on the Maya.

Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea is a new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, (PEM) located on Essex St. in Salem Ma. As the Mayan civilization was surrounded by water, this exhibit makes a great connect between the Maya and the sea. And since the glyph of the "sea' was only translated in the late 1980's, our realization of the role of the sea is relatively fresh.

                                                               




 Incense Burner, Deity with Aquatic Elements

I attended the exhibit at the Museum this past Monday. I had high hopes for it, and they were not only met but surpassed. The Museum has done a fantastic job with the layout of the 90 artifacts, spreading them out over 6 rooms, with nothing feeling cramped nor rushed. I asked Whitney Riepe, Senior Public Relations Associate at PEM why this exhibit was important.

"Fiery Pool presents exquisitely rendered and extremely rare examples of Maya art, many of which have never before been seen in the United States.  Beyond the aesthetic delight, this exhibition offers an entirely new interpretation of Maya cosmology based on cutting-edge research.  It's immersive, it's dramatic, and it's not to be missed!"

                                                                                                          Jade Sculpture of a Jester God 

As you enter the Exhibit, you are greeted by a 5 foot tall statue of the deity Cha'ak, (Chaac in some spellings), god of rain and storms.Around the corner is the first room, and like most  of the others is a mix of stone friezes, pottery, jewelry and figurines. The pieces are spread out, and supplemented by some simple audio visual effects. For example, in the first room several screens hang overhead with rolling storm clouds projected on them. There is also the sound of rain in the background.

This fantastic exhibit pulls you in and lets you  reflect on Mayan cosmology. It is kid friendly, with a nice guide for families to use as they tour the artifacts One fun feature is a oval stand, with a top that is a touch screen computer. Shadow like forms of fish swim around in it, and by touching them, the information about the fish, and what it symbolized to the Maya, pops up. A group of kids just before us spent a lot of time sharing the information about different types of fish with each other.

Below is an example of one of the surprising pieces in the collection. It is a lobster effigy from about 1550 AD, discovered in what is now Belize. The face peering out is just so unexpected.

I can whole heartedly recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the Maya, or any ancient civilization. The artifacts are excellent: I am use to seeing stelae, figurines and glyphs in the jungle, here they are whole, clean and easily observed. Below is an example of one of the vessels on display. Since most of the Mayan pieces I have observed tend to be dull red clay pieces, the craftsmanship and preservation of the collection is astounding to me.This piece shows the world turtle, and we will revisit this image next blog.

This is a great exhibit, I encourage you all to go see it!

In my next blog I will share more about the exhibit, and where the title, "Fiery Pool" come from.

THE FIERY POOL, THE MAYA AND THE MYTHIC SEA
PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM
27 MARCH-18 JULY 2010
WWW.PEM.ORG

Sculpture of a Pelican







J.T. Turner, Mayanist

The Sacred Tree

In my travels to Guatemala, a wonderful and favorite sight of mine is the ceiba tree. To the Mayans, the ceiba is a sacred tree. It incorporates the whole cosmos for the Maya. The underworld represented by the roots, the trunk being this world, and the branches are the heavens. Its low hanging branchs are a path through which a persons soul can ascend to the heavens. So to the Maya these marvelous trees are sacred, and to this day when land is cleared, a ceiba tree is often left standing. You can often see these magnificent trees standing alone in open fields.

We have been chatting about the Milky Way, and the many things the Mayans saw in it. But in addition to a ball court or a crocodile, the Milky Way is also the World Tree.

In the Popul Vuh, the World Tree is mentioned as the origin of all life, with the 4 cardinal directions spreading out from it's center.(Many other ancient cultures have a World Tree as a part of their creation tradition). We can think of the great tree as soaring above us, the Milky Way being it's branches. In some legends, there is a great monster in the tree, it's mouth being the Dark Rift. In other versions, the trunk of the ceiba is actually a crocodile, (like a croc, the cieba has rough skin, with thorns found along it's trunk), and its mouth is the Drak rift high in the sky. With a bit of imagination, it is easy to see how the Mayans view the great Milky Way as the collective branches of the tree.

A major element of the World Tree includes the Kawak Monster, a giant head with a kin (symbol) in its forehead.  A bowl on its head contains a flint blade representing sacrifice, and  death.On top of the World Tree we find a bird that has been called, the Principal Bird deity, or Itzam Ye. During the months of winter, when the so-called "Winter" Milky Way dominates the sky, it was called the "White Boned Serpent."  

Soon I will start to pull this symbology together with the Mayan calendar, time and the doomsday. But first I will be spending the next few blogs talking about a new exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, which is about the Mayans, and their connection to the sea.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

The Crocodile in a Tree

Glyph of the sky


Last blog I mentioned that to the ancient Maya, the Milky Way represented a great ball court in the sky. It links back to the creation tales of the Hero Twins. But to the Maya, the Milky Way represented several other things.For example, it was also seen as a great Crocodile, ( or in some translation, a Jaguar/Toad animal).. And the Dark Rift in the Milky Way was called the "mouth of the crocodile". It is often referred to as Hunab Ku, the center of the galaxy.And it is also referred to as xibalba be, the road to the underworld. Passage through the mouth of the crocodile then, was passage to the underworld of the Maya.


(In other cultures, it is viewed as a great serpent eating it's own tail. the Ourobus. And the ancient Greeks looked upon the time cycle displayed by the Milky Way and the Dark Rift as indicating the end of an age, as the Maya did).


The K'iche called this portion of the Milky Way "The Crossroads". They believed that when a planet, or the sun or the moon lined up in the center of the Rift, (in Sagittarius), that it was possible to cross from our world to the Underworld. This spot in the sky happens to be th Galactic Equator, or the center of the Milky Way. And this is key in our Doomsday discussion, as when a planet, sun or moon lines up, a journeyer can pass from our would to another. According to popular theory, on 12/21/12, there is a Galactic Alignment. The Galactic Alignment is the alignment of the December solstice sun with the Galactic equator. This is a rare event occurring on 25,800 years.


Let us appreciate that the Mayan's could find the dead center of the Universe. Truly they were an ancient civilization with amazing comprehension of time and space.


But the key consideration of the Milky Way is the concept that it is the World Tree of the Maya. Indeed the Crocodile symbolism is often called the Crocodile Tree. This is very similar to the World Tree concept that also contains a "monster' in it's branches. So next post, we will look at what the cieba tree means to the Mayans, and then we will look at the World Tree as seen in the Milky Way.

J.T. Turner, Mayanist

The Great Road in the Sky

Hello loyal readers! When last we met, I mentioned that I would show you a ball court, or at least where to find one...

Come outside with me. Yes, yes I know it is the dead of night, trust me it will be worth it. We need the right spot, preferably away from light pollution, outside of cities, as far into the countryside as we can get. Out here away from the glare we can see the stars better.  I want you to look up, and see not just the single stars, but a dense dusting of stars, like a path of spilled milk across the sky. That is the Milky Way. And this amazing sight is the key to a lot of what all the doomsday fuss is all about.

 
Astronomers would tell us that this amazing visual treat is actually a part of the very galaxy our earth is located in. The Milky Way galaxy is called a spiral galaxy, having arms that spiral out from it's center. Earth is on one of the edges of the galaxy, which contains between 200-400 billion stars. It is large beyond belief, 150,000 light years across. Light travels 5,880,000,000,000 miles per year, multiply that by 150,000 and you get the idea, the Milky Way is immense. It is roughly like a flying saucer, with a bulge at its center, and like all Galaxy's is filled with dust, stars and gas. Since we live on an edge, we look across this Galaxy, and that creates the milky road we can see going across the sky. This astronomical feature has had great effect on many of the ancient cultures of the world, especially upon the Mayans.Please note that within it is a dark spot, an opening if you will, called the Dark Rift. To the Mayans the Milky Way and the Dark Rift was several things, including the ball court we spoke of last blog.







Mayans were rather famous for thier ball games. Competing tems played on a ballcourt, trying to get points by driving a ball through a stone ring suspended in the court. So far as we know it was a bit like soccer, no hands were used just the rest of the body. Most famously the losing teams captain was sacrificed to the gods.
Mayan ballcourts were recatngular, had some slanted walls on the sides. Thinking of that shape we can superimpose the structure on the Milky Way, and imagine the Dark Rift as the goal circle.But the Dark Rift, as goal post, is also the entrance to the underworld, called xibalba. We know that the Hero Twins and their Father and Uncle before them, played against the gods in a ball court, and so the Mayans saw this in the night sky. This is a strong connection between astronomy and religion.

I know it is a stretch for us to see a ball court there in the Milky Way, but no more a strecth than seen a hunter, a dipper or a bear. But the Milky Way is more than just a ball court, more on it next blog.

The Ball Game

                                                        Part of the ball court at Iximche



I have mentioned that the Hero Twins, as well as their Father and Uncle, played the notorious Mayan Ball game. We know less about this game than we do about the Aztec version, but we can make some good guesses. This serves as some background to the astronomical impact of 2012. To recap the legendary portion of the story,

"As the tale goes, the Maize Gods were avid ballplayers who were killed and buried on the court by the Lords of Xibalba (the Underworld) for bothering them with the noise of the game. The head of one of the Maize gods was hung from a tree in the Underworld, and as a daughter of the Lord of the Underworld passes, it spit into her palm, miraculously impregnating her. The daughter bore twin sons, the Hero Twins, who avenge their father and uncle’s deaths by resurrecting them on the ballcourt. The Hero Twins go on to survive the ordeals of Hell presented to them by the death gods, while the reborn Maize Gods remain on the ballcourt for humans to honor. The Maya therefore believed that it was necessary to play the game for their own survival. The ballgame provided an opportunity to show devoutness to the gods by sacrificing captured kings and high lords, or the losing opponents of the game."- William Palmer III Collection, University of Maine Orono

The game was called Pitz, (the actual playing called Ti Pitziil in Classic Maya and Chaaj in K'ich'é ), and had a key role in religious, social and political life. The Ball Court was usually in the great plaza of the city, and was considered a focal point. The Court was in the shape of an "I", with high platforms on each long side, allowing many people to view the game. A solid rubber ball was used, ranging in size from a grapefruit to a melon. The goal was to bounce the ball through stone hoops that hung on the sides of the court. The walls were painted with murals of myths, captives, Kings and animals. There were also movable stone markers (hachas) along the Court, usually depicting animals or skulls.



A movable stone marker


Players were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands, but used the rest of their bodies to keep it in the air, as the ball was not allowed to touch the ground during play. Players wore protective clothing as the ball weighed up to 20 pounds. They also used handstones called manopla to strike the ball.


Like modern ball games, Pitz was played by everyone including women and children. But the Mayans also had major games, often to settle disputes between cities, and captives were often forced to play. There is some evidence that the team leader of the losing team was killed, but that is a rather murky fact. The site authenticmaya.com tells us: The game between competing teams of players could symbolize the battles between the gods in the sky and the lords of the underworld. The ball could symbolize the sun. In some of these ritual games, the leader of the losing team would be decapitated, and  His skull would then be used as the core around which a new rubber ball would be made.  A common interpretation would emphasize the Venus cycle and the Maize God death-and-resurrection myth as core religious aspects of the game. The ancient Maya are believed to reenact, through the ball game, the mythic Underworld contest between the gods of life or fertility and the gods of death. 

Part of the Ball Court at Tikal

But you need not travel to Guatemala nor Mexico to see a Ball Court. Next post, I will tell you where you can find one......

J.T. Turner, Mayanist

Popul Vuh

An original page from the Popol Vuh Translation, about 1701

As we discuss the Maya, and the Doomsday Date of 12/21/2012, it makes sense to touch on an important book, the Popul Vuh.

Much of what we know about the Mayan creation theory/myth come to us from this book. When the Spanish invaded the Mayan Kingdoms, many of the Mayan books were burned as a part of the process to convert them to Catholicism.The books were considered pagan in nature, and so tragically destroyed. One book that was destroyed was called the Popul Vuh. It gave the mythistory (yes, that is a word) of the Quiche Kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. It is known that most other Kingdoms shared this book's beliefs. But didn't I say it was destroyed? Yes, it was, but a Quiche convert to Catholicism recreated it in Spanish, and it was transcribed and translated by a Dominican, Francis Ximenez.  .

A literal translation of Popul Vuh is "book of the mat", as the original was made of tree bark. But the general translation is accepted as "Book of the Community or Council". It has the stories of the creation of the world, and of man. Also the story of the "Hero-Twins" Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who play a major role in the creation myth. They were ballplayers, as were their Father,  Hun Hunahpu, and Uncle, Vucub Hunahpu, before them.


The Twins shooting a Bird Deity

Summoned to Xibalba, the Underworld, for playing ball too loudly, (oh shades of my own youth!), by the Lords of the Underworld, the father and uncle were defeated by one of the Lords' tests and sacrificed and Hun Hunahpu's skull was suspended in a trophy tree. When the daughter of one of the lords of Xibalba, approached this tree, the skull spat into her hand and thereby made her pregnant with the Hero Twins. The Twins grew up to avenge their father, and after many trials, finally defeated the lords of the Underworld in a ballgame. The Popol Vuh features other episodes involving the Twins as well (see below), including the liquidation of a pretentious bird demon, Vucub-Caquix, and of his two demonical sons. The Twins also removed their half-brothers from the scene, turning them into Howler Monkeys who were the patrons of artists and scribes. The Twins' final transformation into sun and moon establishes a metaphor for rule over earth and sky.


OK, so who cares? Well as we consider Mayan myths, the Hero Twins come into play again and again, and show how important Ball playing was in Mayan society. And when we discuss the Doomsday Date, the Ball Court plays an important role.

I should also mention that the Popol Vuh gives genealogies of the gods and the eventual rulers of Quiche. Of course many other kingdoms may have had variations in the legends, but based on various stone carvings, we know they were all similar to what we read in the Popul Vuh.

Next Up, The Mayan Cosmos.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

Interesting article

An interesting article over in USA Today.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

Cultural structure (say that 3 times fast!).

This entry is about the cultural structure of the ancient Mayans

.The Mayans had no central government. Rather, they shared religion and culture in many city-states, not unlike ancient Greece. Think of wide areas, usually with a central, ruling city.Each of these areas or kingdoms had a absolute ruler, (k’uhul ahaw, divine ruler), from the gods.Typically, even with a absolute ruler, many of the kingdoms had advisors to the King that helped him rule.


Since territory or land was wealth, there were many wars between Kingdoms. Rivalries between Kingdoms was common, as was the taking of political prisoners to insure fealty. There were many trade agreements as well, as various areas had resources that others did not.
As with many cultures, the Mayans had a caste system, with the King and his family at the top, followed by nobles and priests.( The nobility (Almehenob'), the priesthood (Ah'kinob'),Then came the common people, freemen, farmers and artisans, (Ah'chembal uinieol'), and the slaves (Pencat'ob'). We also know they had terms for various occupations, such as  Itz’aat, “artisan”; Uxul, “stonecutter”; b’aah uxul, “head stonecutter”; Ah Bich’ul, “sculptor” or “polisher”; Ah Tz’ib, “scribe”; and for Priest or Shamans as: Ah K’uhun, Ah K’uhul Hu’n, and Ah K’uhuun, terms variously interpreted as “he of the holy books" "keeper of the paper/headbands,” or “he who worships"
.

The central city contained palaces, ball courts, homes for nobles and of course pyramid temples, where religious ceremonies were performed.(There is a picture of one side of a ballcourt at the left. This one is in the central Plaza in the city of Tikal). A city could have a population as high as 45,000, with many more people living in the surrounding countryside. On a visit to Iximche, my guide told me that that city was actually divided by a central ditch, the poorer citizens living on one side, the nobles on the other. In most of the current ruins, the pyramid temples are the focal points, some looking like a classic pyramid, others having distinctive combs that rose 70 feet or more into the air. Below is a photo of the Temple of Inscriptions in Tikal.

A few more cultural points:
No beasts of burden, the Maya used slaves for all work.


No metal was used, wood and stone only.


The Mayans believed  that a flattened forehead and crossed eyes were signs of beauty. Noble children and others had boards tied to their foreheads, and had wax beads tied to dangle before their eyes to get that look. Ritual scarring was common among the elite, and the nobility often had their teeth sharpened to points.


The Mayan were very advanced in agriculture especially the growing of maize. This was used in trade, as well as sea shells, and cocoa beans. (Chocolate was a ceremonial drink).


The Maya had a system of writing that has only recently been fully understood, indeed there is still some discussion about the translations. They carved into stone, painted pottery, and did have books which they created by painting on fig tree bark. Many of those books were destroyed by the invading Spaniards. Several did survive, and my next entry will discuss the Popul Vuh, a wonderful key text from the ancient Mayans.


The Mayans also wrote numbers and they had a symbol for zero, which was very unusual among ancient civilisations. The Mayans were excellent astronomers and they could predict eclipses. This combination of astronomy and a strong numbering system gave light to a very elaborate calendar system, which we will visit in a future blog.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist


A photo of me at Temple 3, in the Central Plaza, Tikal.

The Maya

First a bit of history. I will try and be concise, and in return you will stay awake. :) The Maya or Mayans, still exists and have villages all through the Yucatan Peninsula, especially Guatemala. But the roots of the Maya goes back to roughly 2000 BC, (yes I used BC, if you have to be politically correct, substitute CE). The oldest current carbon dating in a Mayan site is 2600BC. Most importantly for any discussions about the Doomsday is the fact that the Mayan calendar dates back to 3114 BC. We will be discussing that calendar at length in future blogs. but the high point of the Mayan civilization, the classic period if you will, runs from 200BC to 900AD. The Maya homeland, called Mesoamerica, spans five countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. There are now indications that the people we call the Maya had migrated from North America to the highlands of Guatemala perhaps as long ago as 2600 B.C., living an agricultural, village-based life. The culture of these Preclassic Maya owes much to the earlier civilization of the Olmec, which flourished ca. 1200 B.C. ( If you ever get a chance, when in Guatemala, visit Takalik Abaj, where the Olmec and Mayan culture overlapped).


After that, for reasons that are still unclear, many of the key cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned. Southern highland cities and Northern cities still thrived, and the Mayan ruled well into the 1400's AD in parts of what is now Mexico.

But, as I mentioned, the Mayan still exists, and have held on to many important historical and cultural ways over the centuries. (Not long ago, I listen to a lecture on the Maya. The presenter started off by saying they were and ancient and dead civilization. Having spent time in Guatemala with many Mayan, I can assure you they are alive and well).

Below is a map that will give you an idea of the sphere of influence the Mayan Civilization had, including principal cities.




Next up will be some information about the structure of the classical Mayan world.


J.T. Turner- Mayanist

2012

I wanted to create a place were I could gather information about the so-called Mayan Doomsday of 12/21/12. As you may have guessed, I do not view this as a Doomsday, nor do the Mayans, living or dead. My personal hope is that people can view that date as a time of change, rebirth, a re-start. it could, if viewed sensibly, be a change for people to consider changing thier personal lives for the better.

So I will be mixing articles about the date, mayan history and lore, and using this blog to share. I hope you will join me for this journey.