Later, archaeologists were surprised by the Mayan civilization after reading the symbols on the tombstone. These symbols show that the Mayans were proficient in mathematics and calendars recorded for millions of years, and drew complicated celestial motion maps quite accurately. Perhaps this is the inspiration of the author of 20 12. Therefore, archaeologists believe that the Mayans, or at least their rulers, had a high degree of civilization.
The figures carved on the tombstone provide us with the time of the demise of Mayan civilization. The last date recorded by Copan (according to the Mayan calendar) was 820 AD, and then other Mayan cities died like dominoes: naranjo died in 849, caracol in 859 and Tikal in 879. But what is puzzling is why these civilizations have become extinct. The Mayans are different from the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru, because the latter two were destroyed by Spanish colonists, and the Mayans abandoned their towns before 900 AD-nearly 600 years before Columbus sailed. There is no sign that Mayan towns were destroyed by another Indian civilization, the militant ancestors of the Aztecs. Therefore, at least in the past few decades, the demise of Mayan civilization, like the jungle that swallowed it, is an elusive mystery.
Some researchers try to explain it from the perspective of environment. They believe that the Mayans, in order to get more arable land, kept destroying forests to reclaim farmland until they finally exhausted their land. Others put forward natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons or persistent droughts, as an explanation. Others attribute it to malaria and yellow fever. After all, after the Spanish conquest, this disease undoubtedly played a great destructive role.
But all these theories lack evidence. If the environmental disaster destroyed the Mayan civilization, it should have left some traces in the geological layer like the meteorite that led to the extinction of dinosaurs, but no traces of spider silk have been found so far.
It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that linguists were finally able to explain ancient Mayan characters and numbers that the situation changed. These explanations also completely changed the academic view of Mayan civilization.
Mayan characters are unique hieroglyphics, and there are square or circular patterns around each character, which are like people, birds and animals, or some circles. The Mayans wrote many books in this language. Diego de Landa was a Franciscan missionary. He visited all the ruins of Mayan towns in the 1950s of 16-almost 300 years before Stephens' visit. Randa is an avid missionary, not a scholar; Convinced that his collection of Mayan books only contained "superstitions and lies about evil", he set them on fire.
Only four books escaped from the Spanish missionaries and survived in the humid environment of the tropical rain forest. The three existing Mayan manuscripts are as follows: 1. From181to 1848, Spanish Lord Ken Sboro published Mayan manuscripts in Mexico at his own expense, which are now kept in Dresden Library, Germany, and are called "Dresden Manuscripts"; The second is "Paris Manuscripts" collected by Paris Library; The third "Madrid manuscript" was discovered in Spain. It is said that in 1973, the fourth Mayan manuscript was seen in an exhibition in the United States, but it was kept in private and its contents were unknown.
Mayan writing is equally incredible. The hieroglyphic staircase of Copan site in western Honduras is a treasure house of Mayan characters. In the ruins of Copan, people found many stone tablets and statues engraved with hieroglyphics. The most amazing thing is a hieroglyphic staircase with 63 stone steps. It is about 30 meters high and 10 meters wide, with 2500 hieroglyphs engraved on it, which can be described as a miracle in Mayan cultural archaeology!
Not only four books survived, but also thousands of words carved or painted on stone tablets, Mayan pottery pots and city walls. Once translated, these words shook the Maya image that people had put forward before: on the tombstone, people saw a detailed description of war strategy, bloody battlefield and cruel sacrifices made by captured enemies. It turns out that the rulers of Maya were all militant fighters. Most of the words recorded their victory in the war.
Archaeologists have found more evidence of the Maya's belligerence. For example, some long and narrow trenches and ridges have been found in Tikal, which may be used as moats and parapets. This wall, which was once used for defense, was also found in Baiken; In caracol, burnt marks were found on buildings, and an unburied child was found on the floor of a pyramid. Many lifelike murals were found in Bonan Park. In the past, people thought that they depicted some kind of religious ceremony, but now they are regarded as the reappearance of real war scenes.
Archaeologists can seek a new explanation for the demise of Mayan civilization after establishing a new image of Maya belligerence. They believe that the continuous war between Mayan city-states eventually destroyed Mayan civilization. Archaeologists found piles of chopped heads in an excavation in northern Guatemala and reached a similar conclusion. He estimated that around 820 AD, the number of Maya there had decreased to 5%.
De Marest believes: "A war similar to the Bosnian plague eventually destroyed the Mayan civilization." Archaeologists seem to have reached a consensus. At this time, some new evidence was found, indicating that environmental factors may also be the cause of the demise of Mayan civilization. 1995, when paleoclimatologists studied the sediments at the bottom of Lake Chichekannubo in the central Yucatan Peninsula, they found that the content of sulfuric acid in the sediments was very high from 800 to 1000. Sulfuric acid will only sink to the bottom of the lake when there are few lakes, usually during drought. David hoddle and his colleagues believe that a severe drought may have occurred during this period, which led to crop failure, famine and epidemic diseases, all of which were the bane of Mayan civilization. The role of various related factors-including environmental pressure and the influence of foreign wars and civil wars. There may be many different factors that weakened the Maya and made them vulnerable to the final crisis.
Maya created a strict mathematical system to meet their needs of recording every year, decided the time of sowing and harvesting, and accurately calculated the time of the most rain in seasons and years, so as to make full use of barren land. Their mathematical skills are really amazing among ancient primitive people.
It can be said that the Mayan calendar is also one of the most accurate ancient calendars in the world. The huge buildings found in Mayan cultural sites were all built according to the Mayan calendar. The pyramids and temples built by the Mayans, according to the calendar, must build a fixed number of steps every 52 years. Every stone has a corresponding connection with the calendar, and the whole building should meet the requirements of astronomy.
How accurate is the Mayan calendar? Look at their time units:
20 gold = 1 kuna (i.e. 20 days)
18 Wu Na = 1 winter (i.e. 360 days)
20 winter = 1 jiadong (i.e. 7200 days)
20 Gadong = 1 Bhagatong (i.e.144,000 days).
20 Bagadong = 1 Picadong (that is, 2,880,000 days)
20 picotons = 1 Kabbah Ladon (i.e. 57.6 million days).
20 Karabadong = 1 Kinchiladon (i.e.1152 million days)
20 Kinchiladon = 1 Atondon (i.e. 2304000000000 days).
Except for "Winter" and "Wu Na", which adopt 18 decimal system, all other time units are 200 decimal system.
The Mayans thought that 1 month (Wu Na) was equal to 20 days (gold), 1 year (winter) was equal to1August (Wu Na), and there were five unlisted death days every year, so the actual number of days in a year was 365. This coincides with modern people's understanding of the history of the earth's rotation. The Mayans not only knew the earth's calendar very accurately, but also knew the calendar year of Venus very well. The calendar year of Venus is the time needed for Venus to go around the sun. The Mayans calculated that the calendar year of Venus is 584 days, but today we calculate that the calendar year of Venus is 584.92 days, which is a very remarkable number.
In the historical evolution, most ethnic groups adopted the decimal index counting method of 10. The Mayans created a 20-digit counting method based on 20 fingers of hands and feet, and at the same time, they also used the 18 digit counting method. No one can answer the inspiration and basis of this counting method. Also, the Mayans were the first people in the world to master the concept of "0". We should know that the understanding and application of "0" in mathematics marks the cognitive level of a nation. Before the Arab caravan crossed the desert to spread "0" from India to Europe 1000 years, the Maya's mathematical ability was earlier than that of China and Europeans 1000 ~ 3800 years.
The pyramids built by the Mayans are actually a kind of ancestral temple for offering sacrifices to gods and an observatory for observing astronomical phenomena.
According to the research of archaeologists, Cheqin's observatory is the first and oldest observatory built by Maya. In the towering tower, there is a viewing platform, and the spiral staircase leads directly to the top of the tower, which has a window hole for observing the stars. The stone wall outside is decorated with the pattern of Rain God and engraved with the relief of a man spreading his wings and flying into space.
And the Mayans knew the existence of Uranus and Neptune at that time. Surprisingly, the sky window of Cherchin Observatory is not aimed at the brightest star, but at the dark night outside the Milky Way. Their calendar can last 400 million years. Why did the Maya, who were also in the farming society, master this knowledge when all the nationalities in the world were still in the period of ignorance? This has become a vague mystery, which still puzzles scientists all over the world.
At present, scientists all over the world are using the most advanced scientific means to continue to explore the mysteries of Mayan civilization. If those Mayan manuscripts can really unlock the key to the mystery of Mayan civilization, it is believed that people will soon be able to uncover the mystery that has been shrouded in Mayan civilization for a long time, and clearly see whether Mayan civilization is the reappearance of extraterrestrial civilization on our earth or an inseparable organic part of earth civilization.