Mayan cultural achievements
Maya culture is a jungle culture. Although he was in the Neolithic Age, he made great achievements in astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, art and writing.
achievement
Mathematics: Maya mathematics, 5-bit symbol, 20-bit calculation.
Maya Mathematics, Symbols in Pentary System and Calculations in Decimal System The Mayans had a pentadecimal system called "the most brilliant product of human mind". The Mayans (or their Olmec ancestors) independently developed the concept of zero, which was invented and used earlier than India, the earliest ancient civilization in Africa, and about 800 years earlier than Europeans. And uses a binary number system; Number with a dot (? ) stands for 1, and the bar (-) stands for 5. Inscriptions show that they sometimes use hundreds of millions. For example, in terms of timing, the Mayans had a unit called "Alaudon", which is equivalent to such a huge unit and is only needed when measuring interstellar distance.
Calendar system
The Mayan calendar is unique in the world. Their calendar system consists of three calendars, namely, the divine calendar, the solar calendar and the secular calendar.
The divine calendar, also known as the "Zall Golden Calendar", consists of 20 statues and figures from 1 to 13, and lasts for 260 days every year. Similar to heavenly stems and earthly branches, China, 260 combination icons are obtained through continuous combination, representing 260 days.
The solar calendar is a Venus calendar based on astronomical calculation. A year is divided into 18 months, with 20 days in each month and 5 days as taboo days, so there are 365 days in the whole year. After long-term observation and careful calculation, the Maya, who are good at astrological observation, revised the length of a year to 365.4438+029 days, which is less than one tenth of the absolute length of 365.438+098 days measured scientifically today.
Long calendars are very suitable for calculating long historical scales. Based on extremely developed mathematical thinking, Maya can accurately record every day in tens of millions of years by using this calendar. Archaeologists calculated that the first year of the Mayan calendar was 3 1 14 BC and 13 August BC according to the time when Spain invaded Maya in the 6th century and the counting units recorded in the inscriptions.
After 73 cycles over the years, God just returned to the same mark as the 52-cycle solar year, thus forming a 52-year cycle, and the Mayans defined 52 years as a century.
Not only that, the Mayans also worked out the lunar calendar, calculated the time for Mars and Venus to make one revolution, and found a method to correct the accumulated errors of the solar calendar and the lunar calendar.