Why did the Mayans become extinct? The mysterious and majestic Mayan civilization The Mayans were probably seafarers

In H. G. Wells's story "The Star," an elderly professor tells his students, "It appears that mankind has lived in vain." Studying the Mayan calendar and their predictions in the form of myths and legends must have evoked precisely such emotions in scientists. There have been so many dates for the end of the world - 666, 1666 and beyond, until 2000 - they appeared with enviable regularity. But humanity continues to live. But unlike these obscure dates, the Mayan calendar is too categorical and plausible...

Wheelless civilization

The first reliable sources claim that this people appeared in Central America approximately 2000-1500 BC. However, in those distant times these were scattered, semi-wandering tribes of gatherers and hunters, united except by one language group. The rapid flowering of Mayan culture began in 1000 BC, that is, 3000 years ago. Cities began to emerge, agriculture developed, isolated tribes became a society, and technology and science developed rapidly.

Although several interesting points can already be noted here. For example, despite seriously developed agriculture, construction, and warfare, the Mayans did not know the wheel. There is also one of the greatest mysteries of this civilization - the Mayans claimed that the gods forbade them to use wheels! Another strange thing is that despite all the social development, the Mayans never united into one state and calling them an “empire” would be incorrect. Their state structure was more reminiscent of ancient Greek: each city and its surrounding territories were a separate state.

These city-states constantly fought with each other, changed hands, the population was enslaved, valuables were mercilessly plundered, the conquerors placed puppets on the empty throne, but the captured territory was never annexed to their own! Sometimes it also happened that a captured city gained strength after some time and, in turn, captured its enslaver...

No less interesting, or rather frightening, is that in such a highly developed civilization, slavery and the cult of human sacrifice were acceptable. Magnificent celebrations, literally drenched in the blood of the unfortunate victims, can shake the imagination of modern man. Most often, prisoners captured in battles acted as gifts to the gods. But there were also frequent cases of sacrificing quite high-ranking personalities from their state. The methods of pleasing the gods also varied - from burying alive to tearing out a still living heart from a ripped open body.

However, all these oddities and atrocities pale in comparison to how the Mayans treated their time. They were truly obsessed with him - it's hard to find another word. Every date, every event, even the smallest, was recorded - accurately, timely and for centuries. Archaeologists continue to find structures in Mayan cities and settlements where the exact chronology of events is recorded, right up to the day the structure was created. It seems that time was something sacred for these people.

A modern person accustomed to the “flat” modern calendar, in which there is only forward movement and where only “past”, “future” and “present” can be postponed, would certainly have found it difficult to live in the Mayan era. And first of all because of their calendar, or rather, calendars. It's no joke - the Mayans used three calendars! “Tzolkin” consisted of 260 days, “Tun” – of 360 and “Haab” – of 365. Their use is also interesting. For example, “Tzolkin” was used for religious rituals, “Tun” was used in chronology, and “Haab” was used in ordinary, everyday life. The years were divided into months of 20 days each. The number system was also interesting - 20-digit. For what reason the Mayans used it is no longer possible to understand. Most likely, the basis of such a reference system was the fact that a person has 20 fingers on his hands and feet.

All these calendars were very accurate, errors that accumulated over time were calculated, and the necessary corrections were made. The calendars depended on each other. In addition to ordinary days, months and years, the Mayans had 4-year and 52-year cycles of the combination of the Haab and Tzolkin years. In addition to these calendars, the Mayans also used the calendar of the planet Venus. And here another mystery arises. The above-mentioned planet was of very great importance for the ancient peoples of Central America. Mayan astronomers were amazingly accurate in their research. For example, they calculated its synodic period (the time it takes for the planet to return to a given point for an observer on Earth) as 584 days.

Modern research (using telescopes, satellites and supercomputers!) gave a result of 583.92 days. So, in order to coordinate it with the Tzolkin year, it is necessary to make an amendment to the calendar by 4 days after 61 Venusian years. Another adjustment of 8 days is required during every fifth cycle at the end of the 57th revolution. And these amendments ensure harmony not only between the Tzolkin and the Venusian cycle, but also the solar year.

Mayan astronomers observed the sky in their observatories. The only thing they had was their own eyes, with which they looked at the stars through narrow and long slits in the walls of the temples. And at the same time, with amazing accuracy, they calculated the duration of the synodic month of the Moon - 29.53053 days (modern value - 29.530588), the duration of the solar year - 365.2420 days (modern value - 365.2421). By the way, according to this indicator, the Mayan calendar is superior in accuracy to the Gregorian calendar! And all this was calculated literally on the knee. Without any computers, telescopes, chronometers.

But, as they say, “the further into the forest, the scarier it is.” In addition to “short” counting, the Mayans also used “long” counting, in which they operated with quantities that seem surprising even in our age with its speed and centuries-old history. Consider, for example, “Kinchilbtun”, which, translated into our chronology, is 3156164.140 years. Or “Alautun” – in our opinion, 63123287.245 years old! We should not forget that even if we take 2000 BC as the date of birth of the Mayans as a people, they have existed for a little more than 4 thousand years. And this people, who were given only 1.5 millennia (before the conquest by the Spaniards) to live freely and, therefore, to develop, for some reason operated in their calculations and observations with figures that are difficult to find application even in our days - the days of space exploration era.

Olmec Legacy

It is difficult for us, children of “Mondays”, “Tuesdays” and “Saturdays”, with our perception of the world and time, to understand the philosophy of the Mayans and their calendar for the simple reason that our calendar does not have a clear connection to any event (well, perhaps with the exception of the Nativity of Christ or the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him!) from Mecca to Medina). In this regard, the ancient Mayan calendar is structured completely differently and much more complex. Its main difference is that it does not contain “past”, “present” and “future” in the modern sense.

A civilization that did not know the wheel, nevertheless, invented the wheel of time - cyclicity. In a simplified way, this can be expressed as follows: everything has happened before and will definitely happen again. The Sun will definitely return to the place where it was a certain time ago, during this time the Moon will return to its point a strictly certain number of times, if you add a few days - again, Venus will have time to “turn around” a certain number of times. It’s the same with the seasons on earth - the Mayans also calculated them with great accuracy. The only problem is that to calculate all this (given the then level of development of observational technology) required millennia. The Mayans didn't have them.

However, they did not hide the fact that they were not the ones who compiled these calendars, but received them from the Olmecs, the people who lived before them. This does them credit, but does not explain the main thing - where did such extensive and deep knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, and the laws of space come from? After all, they managed to calculate their distance from the Earth by the speed of movement of celestial bodies! How much observation, reflection, and calculation was needed to bring so many calendars into line? Moreover, with such accuracy that they differ little from the most modern values? “Alautun”, in our opinion, more than 63 million years is hardly needed just to know when the dry season begins and when to start sowing maize.

Mayan astronomers probably themselves understood that such a huge figure was simply unrealistic. After all, human life is just a moment in comparison. But they still used it. It is unlikely that they believed that in two “alutuns” someone would continue their research or complete the observation they had begun. Then why did they need all this? Or maybe they knew something that we don’t know? Or did they receive all this knowledge from someone else whose history goes back hundreds of millions of years? From whom? There is one more point - their own calendar clearly showed that humanity would not live even a tenth of this period of time...

The biggest secret of the Mayan calendar is that it is divided into periods, each of which has an exact start date and an equally precise end date. It is also interesting that the end of each period was marked by global cataclysms, as a result of which a significant part of the Earth's population died, and an insignificant group of survivors passed on their knowledge to the next generation. The Mayans called these periods the "Times of the Sun."

The First Sun lasted 4008 years and ended with violent earthquakes. The second Sun was a little older - 4010 years old and was destroyed by wind and cyclones. The Third Sun lasted 4081 years and was destroyed by huge volcanic eruptions. The Fourth Sun lasted for 5026 years and ended with a flood. Here you need to pay attention to the date. The quarter sun period ended on August 11, 3114 BC. And the Mayans, judging by the discovered sources, appeared at least a thousand years later. How did they know this date, and with such accuracy? And where did she even come from? There is no answer to these questions.

There is one more oddity. In 1928-1929, Dr. Simon Woolley carried out excavations in the vicinity of the Chaldean city of Ur. Suddenly the workers came across a layer of pure clay. They had to dig one and a half meters until it ran out. What’s interesting is that above the layer there were traces of the Sumerian civilization. Beneath it are traces of a completely different, mixed one. Research has shown that such a thick layer of pure clay could only be applied by water. And again, judging by the thickness of the formation, it was not just water, but a real flood! Around the same time, Stephen Langdon discovered similar sediment deposits at Kish, in the region of Ancient Babylon.

And this is what the famous French orientalist Dorm wrote: “It is now absolutely clear that the cataclysm, as Langdon suggests, occurred in 3300 BC, as evidenced by the traces discovered in Ur and Kish.” Remember the date of the end of the Fourth Sun, how it ended and compare with the conclusions of scientists...

We live in the period of the Fifth Sun, which began on August 12, 3114 BC. The Mayans called it the “Sun of Movement” because, according to their ideas, during this era the Earth would move (remember this definition given by ancient astronomers!), which would cause the death of almost all living things. And the end of this period is already near. Having lasted 5126 years, according to the Mayan calendar, it should end on December 23, 2012...

Believe it or not?

There are as many answers to this question as there are people in the world. The Maya Indians might not know for sure how the periods before them ended - with global cataclysms, local upheavals, or changes in people's consciousness. It is quite possible that the imagery and originality of their thinking led to the fact that “rains of fire”, “floods” and “earthquakes” are just metaphors. Or, may scientists and archaeologists forgive us, just errors in deciphering ancient hieroglyphs.

One thing is indisputable - the care with which the ancient people treated their calendar, its accuracy in observations and calculations leaves no doubt about the accuracy of the date of the end of the Fifth Sun. If it weren’t for the obscurantists, who at one time came to the Mayan land after the conquistadors and destroyed almost all the written evidence of the ancient people, we would probably know more today about what awaits us. Unfortunately, a person does not change. For the sake of faith, the monks burned Mayan manuscripts, and already in our time bonfires of books were burning in Hitler’s Germany, but here you could get a prison term for a book by Yesenin or Solzhenitsyn...

Unfortunately, mere crumbs from the treasury of Mayan knowledge fell into the hands of such renowned scientists as Yuri Knorozov, Jean Genoud, and Eric Thompson. Suffice it to say that two-thirds of the hieroglyphs have not yet been deciphered, and, most likely, they will never reveal their secret.

December 23, 2012. This is not only the day of the winter solstice, but also the Mayan new year - this is what Jean Genoud believed. According to him, on December 23, a new month began - “Yash,kin”, which translated means “New Sun”. But this is not the main feature. On December 21, 2012, the “New Sun” will be born, and the so-called Parade of the Planets will take place. From the point of view of astronomy, such “parades” are an ordinary and safe phenomenon. But the difference between this particular parade is that not only Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will line up in a line, but also planets of other star systems that form a line to the center of the Galaxy.

Thus, the Earth will be on an axis that will connect us, our Sun, the Earth with the very heart of our Galaxy. Many astronomers do not see anything terrible or catastrophic in this. Only the Mayans are too definite in their prophecy - the Earth will move...

Jesus Christ did not reveal to his disciples the date of the end of the world, limiting himself to admitting that it would happen unexpectedly and quickly. But his teaching was philanthropy. The ancient Mayans had a different attitude towards both human life and death, therefore they were not scrupulous in their predictions. Well, there is not much left until the specified date, maybe the Mayans made a mistake and everything will still end well?

: The Rise and Disappearance of the Maya State

One of the many mysteries is associated with the Maya. An entire people, consisting mainly of city residents, suddenly left their good and strong homes, said goodbye to the streets, squares, temples and palaces and moved to the distant wild north. None of these settlers ever returned to their old place. The cities were deserted, the jungle burst into the streets, weeds ran rampant on the stairs and steps; Forest seeds were carried into the grooves and grooves, where the wind brought the smallest pieces of earth, and they sprout here, destroying the walls. Never again did a person set foot on stone-paved courtyards or climb the steps of the pyramids.

But maybe some catastrophe was to blame? And again we are forced to ask the same question: where are the traces of this catastrophe and what exactly is this catastrophe that could force an entire people to leave their country and their cities and start life in a new place?

Perhaps some terrible epidemic has broken out in the country? But we do not have any data that would indicate that only the pitiful, weak remnants of a once numerous and strong people set off on a long campaign. On the contrary, the people who built cities like Chichen Itza were undoubtedly strong and in the prime of their strength.

Perhaps, finally, the climate in the country suddenly changed, and therefore further life here became impossible? But from the center of the Old Kingdom to the center of the New Kingdom in a straight line is no more than four hundred kilometers. Climate change, about which, by the way, there is also no data, which could so dramatically affect the structure of the entire state, would hardly have not affected the area to which the Mayans moved.

There are still many secrets of the ancient Mayan civilization, maybe over time many of them will be revealed, or maybe they will remain secrets.

About 10,000 years ago, when the last ice age ended, people from the north moved to explore the southern lands, now known as Latin America. They settled in the territory that later constituted the Mayan region, with mountains and valleys, dense forests and arid plains. The Maya region includes modern Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. Over the next 6,000 years, the local population transitioned from a semi-nomadic existence as hunter-gatherers to a more sedentary agricultural lifestyle. They learned to grow corn and beans, used a variety of stone tools to grind grain and prepare food. Gradually settlements arose.

Around 1500 BC. e. The widespread construction of rural-type settlements began, which served as a signal for the beginning of the so-called “preclassic period”, from which the countdown of centuries of the glorious Mayan civilization begins.

“PRE-CLASSICAL” PERIOD (1500 BC–250 AD)

People acquired some agricultural skills and learned to increase the productivity of their fields. Throughout the Maya region, densely populated villages of rural type arose. Around 1000 BC. e. The villagers of Cuello (in Belize) made pottery and buried their dead. Following the required ceremony: pieces of green stone and other valuable items were placed in the grave. In Mayan art of this period, the influence of the Olmec civilization, which arose in Mexico on the Gulf Coast and established trade relations with all of Mesoamerica, is noticeable. Some scholars believe that the ancient Maya owe their creation of a hierarchical society and kingship to the Olmec presence in the southern Maya region from 900 to 400 BC. e.

Olmec power ended. The growth and prosperity of the southern Mayan trading cities begins. From 300 BC e. to 250 AD e. such large centers as Nakbe, El Mirador and Tikal emerge. The Mayans achieved significant advances in the field of scientific knowledge. Ritual, solar and lunar calendars are used. They represent a complex system of interconnected calendars. This system allowed the Mayan Indians to record the most important historical dates, make astronomical forecasts and boldly look into such distant times that even modern experts in the field of cosmology do not dare to judge. Their calculations and records were based on a flexible counting system that included a symbol for zero unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and they surpassed other contemporary civilizations in the accuracy of astronomical calculations.

Of all the ancient cultures that flourished in the Americas, only the Mayans had a developed writing system. And it was at this time that the Mayan hieroglyphic writing began to develop. Mayan hieroglyphs look like miniature drawings squeezed into tiny squares. In reality, these are units of written speech - one of the five original writing systems created independently of one another. Some hieroglyphs are syllabic, but most of them are ideograms, denoting phrases, words or parts of words. Hieroglyphs were carved on steles, on lintels, on vertical planes of stone stairs, on the walls of tombs, and also written on the pages of codices and on pottery. About 800 hieroglyphs have already been read, and scientists with unabated interest are deciphering new ones, as well as giving new interpretations to already known symbols.

During the same period, temples were erected, which were decorated with sculptural images of gods, and then Mayan rulers. Rich offerings are found in the tombs of Mayan rulers from this period.

EARLY “CLASSICAL” PERIOD (250-600 AD)

By 250 AD. Tikal and its neighboring city of Washactun become the main cities in the central lowland zone of Maya territory. Tikal had everything: giant pyramid temples, a palace complex, ball courts, a market, and a steam bath.
Society was divided into the ruling elite and the subordinate working class of farmers, artisans, and traders. Thanks to excavations, we learned that social stratification in Tikal primarily concerned housing. While ordinary members of the community lived in villages scattered here and there among the forests, the ruling elite had at their disposal a more or less clearly defined living space of the Central Acropolis, which by the end of the classical period turned into a real labyrinth of buildings built around six spacious courtyards over an area of ​​about 2.5 square kilometers. The buildings consisted of one or two rows of long rooms, divided by transverse walls into a number of rooms, each room having its own exit. The “palaces” served as homes for important people; in addition, the city administration was probably located here.

Beginning in the 3rd century, rulers with supreme power erected pyramid temples and steles with images and inscriptions designed to perpetuate their rule; The initiation rite consists of a ritual of bloodletting and human sacrifice. The earliest known stele (dated to 292) was found in Tikal, it was erected in honor of one of the heirs of the ruler Yash-Mok-Shok, who founded at the beginning of the century a dynasty that was destined to rule the city for 600 years. In 378, under the ninth ruler of this dynasty, Great Jaguar Paw, Tikal conquered Vashaktun. By that time, Tikal was under the influence of a tribe of warriors and traders from the Mexican center of Teotihuacan, having adopted some methods of warfare from foreigners.

LATE “CLASSICAL” PERIOD (600-900 AD)

The classical Mayan culture, which was characterized by rapid construction of palaces and temples, reached a new level of development in the 7th-8th centuries. Tikal is regaining its former glory, but other, no less influential centers are emerging. In the west of the Mayan region, Palenque flourishes. Which is ruled by Pacal, who came to power in 615 and was buried with the highest honors in 683. The rulers of Palenque were distinguished by great construction zeal and created a large number of temples, palace complexes, a royal tomb and other buildings. But most importantly, the sculptural images and hieroglyphic inscriptions that abound in these buildings give us an idea of ​​what the rulers and the people obedient to them considered important. After studying all the monuments, it seems that during this period there were some changes in the role assigned to the ruler, and these changes indirectly indicate the reason for the collapse of such a seemingly prosperous civilization, which was the Mayan civilization in the “classical period”.

In addition, in four different places in Palenque, Pacal and his successor erected the so-called royal registers - steles with records of the members of the ruling dynasty, tracing its roots back to 431 AD. e. Apparently these two were very concerned about proving their legitimate right to rule, and the reason for this was two cases in the history of the city when the ruler received the right of succession to the throne through his mother's line. This is what happened with Pakal. Since among the Mayans the right to the throne was usually passed on through the paternal line, Pacal and his son were forced to make some adjustments to this rule.

In the 7th century, the southeastern city of Copan also gained fame. Many inscriptions and steles of Copan show that the city was a city for 4 centuries, from the 5th century AD. e., ruled by one dynasty. Thanks to this stability, the city gained weight and influence. The founder of the dynasty, ruler Yash-Kuk-Mo (Blue-Ketual-Parrot), came to power in 426 AD. e. And it can be assumed that his authority was very great, and all subsequent rulers of Copan considered it necessary to count their royal line from him. Of his 15 royal descendants, the longest lived was the energetic Smoke Jaguar, who ascended the throne in 628 and reigned for 67 years. Famed as the Great Instigator, Smoke Jaguar led Copan to unprecedented prosperity, greatly expanding its holdings, possibly through territorial wars. The nobles who served under him probably became rulers of the conquered cities. During the reign of Smoke-Jaguar, the urban population reached approximately 10,000 people.

At that time, wars between cities were common. Despite the fact that the rulers of the cities were related to each other due to interdynastic marriages, and in the culture - art and religion - these cities had much in common.

Art continues to develop, artisans supply the nobility with various exquisite crafts. The construction of ceremonial buildings and numerous steles extolling the personal merits of the rulers continues. However, starting from the 8th century, and especially in the 9th century, the cities of the central lowlands fell into decay. In 822, a political crisis rocked Copan; the last dated inscription at Tikal is from 869.

"POST-CLASSICAL" PERIOD (900-1500 AD)

The depletion of natural resources, the decline of agriculture, urban overcrowding, epidemics, foreign invasions, social upheaval and incessant wars - all of these, both together and separately, could have caused the decline of the Mayan civilization in the southern plains. By 900 AD e. Construction in this area stops, once populous cities, abandoned by residents, turn into ruins. But the Mayan culture still lives in the northern part of Yucatan. Such beautiful cities as Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labna in the hilly Puuc region exist until the year 1000.

Historical chronicles of the eve of the Conquest and archaeological data clearly indicate that in the 10th century AD. The Yucatan was invaded by warlike Central Mexican tribes - the Toltecs. But, despite all this, in the central region of the peninsula the population survived and quickly adapted to new living conditions. And after a short time, a kind of syncretic culture appeared, combining Mayan and Toltec features. A new period began in the history of Yucatan, which received the name “Mexican” in scientific literature. Chronologically, its framework falls on the X – XIII centuries AD.

The city of Chichen Itza becomes the center of this new culture. It was at this time that the city began to prosper, lasting 200 years. Already by 1200, the built-up area was huge (28 square kilometers), majestic architecture and magnificent sculpture indicate that this city was the main cultural center of the Maya of the last period. New sculptural motifs and architectural details reflect the increased influence of Mexican cultures, mainly the Toltec, which developed in Central Mexico before the Aztec. After the sudden and mysterious fall of Chichen Itza, Mayapan becomes the main city in the Yucatan. The Yucatan Maya seem to have waged more brutal wars among themselves than those waged by their brethren to the south. Although detailed descriptions of specific battles are lacking, it is known that warriors from Chichen Itza fought against warriors from Uxmal and Cobá, and that Mayapan's men later attacked and sacked Chichen Itza.

According to scientists, the behavior of the northerners was influenced by the influence of other peoples who invaded the Mayan territory. It is possible that the invasion took place peacefully, although this is unlikely. For example, Bishop de Lande had information about some people who came from the west, whom the Mayans called “Itza”. These people, as the remaining Mayan descendants told Bishop de Lande, attacked Chichen Itza and captured it. After the sudden and mysterious fall of Chichen Itza, Mayapan becomes the main city in the Yucatan.

If the development of Chichen Itza and Uxmal follows other Mayan cities, then Mayapan in this case was quite different from the general scheme. Mayapan, surrounded by a wall, was a chaotic city. Moreover, there were no huge temples here. The main pyramid of Mayapan was not a very good copy of the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza. The population in the city reached 12 thousand people. Scientists suggest that Mayapan had a fairly high level of economy, and that Mayan society gradually switched to business relations, paying less and less attention to the ancient gods.

The Cocom dynasty ruled Mayapan for 250 years. They maintained power by holding their potential enemies hostage behind the city's high walls. The Cocomas further strengthened their position when they accepted into their service an entire army of mercenaries from Ah-Kanul (Mexican state of Tabasco), whose loyalty was bought with promises of war booty. The daily life of the dynasty was mostly occupied with amusements, dances, feasts and hunts.

In 1441, Mayapan fell as a result of a bloody uprising raised by the leaders of neighboring cities, the city was sacked and burned.

The fall of Mayapan sounded the death knell over the entire Mayan civilization, which rose from the jungles of Central America to unprecedented heights and sank into the abyss of oblivion. Mayapan was the last city in the Yucatan that managed to subjugate other cities. After his fall, the confederation broke up into 16 competing mini-states, each of which fought for territorial advantages with its own army. In the constantly flaring up wars, cities were raided: mostly young men were captured to replenish the army or to sacrifice them, fields were set on fire to force farmers to submit. In continuous wars, architecture and art were abandoned as unnecessary.

Shortly after the fall of Mayapan, just a few decades later, the Spaniards landed on the peninsula, and the fate of the Mayans was sealed. Once upon a time, a prophet, whose words are quoted in the Books of Chilam-Balam, predicted the appearance of strangers and its consequences. This is how the prophecy sounded: “Receive your guests, the bearded people who are coming from the east... This is the beginning of destruction.” But the same books also warn that not only external circumstances, but also the Mayans themselves will be to blame for what will happen. “And there were no more happy days,” says the prophecy, “sanity left us.” One might think that long before this last conquest the Mayans knew that their glory would fade and their ancient wisdom would be forgotten. And yet, as if anticipating the future attempts of scientists to call their world out of oblivion, they expressed the hope that someday voices from the past would be heard: “At the end of our blindness and our shame, everything will open again.”

Knowledge of science and medicine.

Medicine. The Mayans' medical knowledge was at a very high level: they knew anatomy very well and trepanned skulls very well. However, their ideas were quite contradictory - they could consider a bad year according to the calendar, or sins, or incorrect sacrifices to be the causes of diseases, but at the same time they recognized a certain way of life of a person as the primary source of diseases. The Mayans knew about contagious diseases; the Mayan vocabulary included many words with which they characterized various painful human conditions. Moreover, many nervous diseases and the mental state of a person were described separately. To stimulate and relieve pain in labor, various medicinal and narcotic herbs were used, which were grown in separate apothecary gardens.
Mathematics. The Mayans used a base-20 number system, as well as a positional system for writing numbers, when numbers stand one after another from the first order to the next. This recording system is also used by us and is called the Arabic digital system. But unlike the Europeans, the Mayans themselves thought of this thousands of years earlier. Only the recording of Mayan numbers is not built horizontally, but vertically (in a column).
Another striking fact of Mayan mathematical knowledge is the use of zero. This marks the greatest progress in the field of abstract thinking.
The amazing knowledge of the Mayan civilization is reflected in the Mayan calendar. It is known throughout the world for its amazing accuracy and rivals the perfection of modern computer calculations.

Mysteries of the Mayans

Mayan artists created their own countless treasures. Ritual objects were supposed to please the gods. Stone, carved, clay, polished or painted in bright colors - they all had symbolic meaning. Thus, a hole in a painted dish shows that the dish has been “killed” and that its freed soul can accompany the deceased in the afterlife.

The Mayans did not know either metal tools or a potter's wheel, but their clay things are elegant and beautiful. Grinding powders and stone tools were used to work with jade, flint, and shells. Craftsmen - the Mayans knew the difference between materials. Beloved by the ancient Mayans for their beauty, rarity, and supposed magical powers, jade was especially prized by ancient craftsmen, although it required patience and ingenuity to work it. Wooden saws or bone drills were used to make grooves, curls, holes, etc. Polishing was carried out using hard plant fibers extracted from bamboo or pumpkin tree shoots, the cells of which contain microscopic particles of solid minerals. A huge number of jade figurines depicting people and animals are wedge-shaped: ancient stone cutters used such a shape of the product so that they could be used as a tool on occasion. With a little modification, these beautiful stone crafts could turn into amulets or figurines of people and gods. The found elegant green necklace, dating back to the pre-classical era, tells us that he was wearing not an ordinary person, but one endowed with power and standing on the top rung of the social ladder.

In Mayan art, an image often conveys action or emotion. The masters developed an informational style, putting a charge of humor and tenderness or, on the contrary, cruelty into their works. Objects made by the hands of nameless masters still amaze people with their beauty, helping our contemporaries understand the long-vanished world of ancient civilization.

Of the many cities that rose among the Puuc hills in the “late classical period” (700-1000 AD), three cities are especially notable for the splendor of their layout and architecture - Uxmal, Sayil and Labna: massive quadrangles of buildings along the facade are faced with limestone, the door jambs have round columns with square capitals, the upper part of the façade is decorated with elegant stone mosaics made of flint.

The strict organization of space, the splendor and complexity of the architecture, the very panorama of the cities - all this delights connoisseurs. High pyramids, palaces with reliefs and mosaic facades made of pieces of crushed stone tightly fitted to each other, underground reservoirs where drinking water supplies were once stored, wall hieroglyphs - all this splendor was combined with terrible cruelty. “The chief priest held in his hand a large, wide and sharp knife made of flint. Another priest held a wooden collar in the shape of a snake. The doomed, completely naked, were taken in turn up the stairs.” There, having laid the man on a stone, they put a collar on him, and four priests took the victim by the arms and legs. Then the chief priest, with amazing agility, ripped open the victim's chest, tore out the heart and held it out to the sun, offering him both the heart and the steam emanating from it. Then he turned to the idol and threw the heart in his face, after which he pushed the body down the steps, and it rolled down,” Stephens wrote about this sacred rite with horror.

The main archaeological research was carried out in Chichen Itza, the last capital of the Maya. The ruins have been cleared of the jungle, the remains of buildings are visible from all sides, and where at one time it was necessary to cut a road with a machete, a bus with tourists runs; they see the “Temple of the Warriors” with its columns and stairs leading to the pyramids; they see the so-called “Observatory” - a round building, the windows of which are cut in such a way that a specific star is visible from each; They examined large areas for the ancient game of ball, of which the largest is one hundred and sixty meters long and forty meters wide - on these sites the “golden youth” of the Mayans played a game similar to basketball. They finally stop in front of El Castila, the largest of the Chichen Itza pyramids. It has nine ledges, and on the top of it there is a temple of the god Kukulkan - the “Feathered Serpent”.

The sight of all these images of snake heads, gods, and processions of jaguars is terrifying. If you want to penetrate the secrets of ornaments and hieroglyphs, you can find out that there is literally not a single sign, not a single drawing, not a single sculpture that is not associated with astronomical calculations. Two crosses on the brow ridges; the heads of a snake, the claw of a jaguar in the ear of the god Kukulkan, the shape of the gate, the number of dew beads, the shape of repeating staircase motifs - all this expresses time and numbers. Nowhere have numbers and time been expressed in such a bizarre way. But if you want to find at least some traces of life here, you will see that in the magnificent kingdom of Mayan drawings, in the ornamentation of this people who lived among lush and varied vegetation, images of plants are very rarely found - only a few of the huge number flowers and none of the eight hundred species of cacti. Recently, in one ornament we saw a flower of Bombax aquaticum - a tree that grows half in water. Even if this is not really a mistake, the general situation still does not change: there are no plant motifs in Mayan art. Even obelisks, columns, steles, which in almost all countries are a symbolic image of a tree stretching upward, among the Mayans depict the bodies of snakes and writhing reptiles.

Two such serpentine columns stand in front of the “Temple of Warriors”. The heads with horn-like processes are pressed to the ground, the mouths are wide open, the bodies are raised up along with the tails; these tails once supported the roof of the temple.

The Dutchman Guillermo Dupais, who served for many years in the Spanish army in Mexico, was an educated man with a passion for antiquity, and received an order from the Spanish King Charles G. to explore the cultural monuments of Mexico from the pre-Hispanic period.

Having reached Palenque with difficulty, Dupe was indescribably delighted with the architecture and the exterior decoration of the buildings: colorful patterns depicting birds, flowers, bas-reliefs full of drama. “The poses are very dynamic and at the same time majestic. Although the clothes are luxurious, they never cover the body. The head is usually decorated with helmets, crests and flowing feathers.”

Dupe noticed that all the people depicted in the bas-reliefs had a strange, flattened head, from which he concluded that the local Indians, with normal heads, could not possibly be the descendants of the builders of Palenque.

Most likely, according to Dupe, people of an unknown race that disappeared from the face of the earth once lived here, leaving behind majestic and beautiful creations of their own hands.

The Vatican Library contains an interesting testimony about the Coda Rios flood. Ironically, the Catholic clergy, who destroyed the original Mayan manuscripts, preserved their rare copies.

The Codex Rios tells about the creation of the world and the death of the first people. There were children left who were nourished by a wonderful tree. A new race of people was formed. But 40 years later the gods brought a flood to the earth. One couple survived, hiding in a tree.

After the flood, another race was reborn. But 2010 years later, an unusual hurricane destroyed people; the survivors turned into monkeys, which began to be chewed by the jaguar.

And again only one couple escaped: they disappeared among the stones. After 4801 years, people were destroyed by a great fire. Only one couple escaped by sailing out to sea on a boat.

This legend speaks of periodic (repeated every 2-4-8 thousand years) catastrophes, one of which is the flood.

If we look carefully at the map, we will be convinced that the Ancient Kingdom occupied a kind of triangle, the corners of which were formed by Vashak-tun, Palenque and Copan. The fact that on the sides of the corners or directly inside the triangle were the cities of Tikal, Naranjo and Piedras Negras will not escape our attention. Now we can come to the conclusion that, with one exception (Benque Viejo), all the last cities of the Old Kingdom, in particular Ceibal, Ishkun, Flores, were located inside this triangle.

When the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan, the Mayans had thousands of handwritten books made from natural materials, but some of them were burned and some ended up in private collections. Inscriptions on the walls of temples and stelae were also discovered. In the 19th century scientists knew about 3 books - codices, named after the city in which each text was discovered (Dresden, Paris and Madrid codes; later the 4th code was found - the Grolier Code). For 14 years, the chief Royal Librarian in Dresden, Ernst Forstemann, studied the Codex and understood the principle of operation of the Mayan calendar. And the research of Yuri Knorozov, Heinrich Berlin and Tatyana Proskuryakova opened a new stage in modern Mayan studies. More than 80 percent of all hieroglyphs have been solved, and archaeologists have made many amazing discoveries.

Thus, Yuri Knorozov came to the conclusion that the writing system of the Mayan Indians is mixed. Some signs must convey morphemes, and some must convey sounds and syllables. This writing system is usually called hieroglyphic.

It was not difficult for scientists to decipher Mayan digital signs. The reason for this is the amazing simplicity and perfected logic of their counting system.

The ancient Mayans used a base-20 number system, or counting. They wrote down their digital signs in the form of dots and dashes, and the dot always meant units of a given order, and the dash always meant fives.

Meeting of the New and Old Worlds

The first contact between the two cultures took place with the participation of Christopher Columbus himself: during his fourth voyage to the supposed India (and he believed that the land he discovered was India), his ship passed the shores of the northern part of modern Honduras and near the island of Guanaia he met a canoe that made from a whole tree trunk, 1.5 m wide. It was a trading boat, and the Europeans were offered copper plates, stone axes, ceramics, cocoa beans, and cotton clothes.

In 1517, three Spanish ships, going to capture slaves, landed on an unknown island. Having repelled the attack of the Mayan warriors, the Spanish soldiers, while dividing the spoils, found jewelry made of gold, and the gold should have belonged to the Spanish crown. Hernan Cortes, having conquered the great Aztec empire in central Mexico, sent one of his captains to the south to conquer new territories (the modern states of Guatemala and El Salvador). By 1547, the conquest of the Mayans was complete, although some tribes took refuge in the dense forests of the central Yucatan Peninsula, where they and their descendants managed to remain unconquered for another 150 years.

Epidemics of smallpox, measles and influenza, to which the indigenous population had no immunity, killed millions of Mayans. The Spaniards brutally eradicated their religion: they destroyed temples, smashed shrines, robbed, and those who were seen in idolatry were stretched on the rack by missionary monks, scalded with a boiling heel, and punished with whips.

At the head of the monks, Franciscan monk Diego de Landa, an extraordinary and complex personality, arrived in Yucatan. He studied the life and customs of the local population, tried to find the key to the secret of Mayan writing, and found a cache in which about 30 hieroglyphic books were stored. These were real works of art: black and red characters were written in calligraphy on light paper made from the bottom layer of fig tree or mulberry; the paper was smooth due to the gypsum composition applied to its surface; The books themselves were folded like an accordion, and the cover was made of jaguar skin.

This monk decided that the Mayan books contained esoteric knowledge, devilish temptations that confused the soul, and ordered these books to be burned all at once, which “plunged the Mayans into deep sorrow and severe suffering.”

During the three-month Inquisition under his leadership in 1562, about 5,000 Indians were tortured, of whom 158 died. De Landa was requested back to Spain on charges of abuse of power, but was acquitted and returned to Yucatan as a bishop.

Indian culture was destroyed in every possible way. And just a hundred years after the arrival of Europeans, there were no memories left of the glorious Mayan past.

Interesting facts about the Mayans.

1. Numerous representatives of the Mayan culture still live in their former regions. In fact, there are 7 million Mayans, many of whom were able to preserve important evidence of their ancient cultural heritage.
2. The Mayans had strange ideas about beauty. At an early age, a board was placed on the forehead of infants to keep it flat. They also liked squint: they put a large bead on the bridge of children’s noses so that they would constantly squint at it. Another interesting fact is that Mayan children were often named after the day on which they were born.
3. They loved saunas. An important cleansing element for the ancient Mayans was the diaphoretic bath: water was poured onto hot stones to create steam. Such baths were used by everyone, from women who had recently given birth to kings.
4. They also loved to play ball. The Mesoamerican ball game was equated with a ritual and existed for 3,000 years. The modern version of the game, ulama, is still popular among the local indigenous population.
5. The last Mayan country existed until 1697 (the island city of Taya). Nowadays, the lands under the buildings are mainly owned by one family, and the government owns the monuments themselves.
6. The Mayans did not know how to process metal - their weapons were equipped with stone tips or tips made of sharp shells. But! The Mayan warriors used hornet nests (“hornet bombs”) as throwing weapons to create panic in the enemy ranks—resourcefully.
7. They also say that the Mayans were very fond of guinea pigs. Well, how they loved it... They got very tasty meat and magnificent fluff from the poor creatures.

By the way, the Mayans also had a kind of horoscope. The fact is that according to the Tzolkin calendar (aka “Tzolkin”, which was reported above), each day of the year is assigned its own kin - a kind of frequency of cosmic energy (God, what am I talking about?) and, depending on which kin is yours (which corresponds to your birthday) - you can judge your character, life goals and blablabla. And depending on what kin is assigned to today, you can judge your luck, well-being and other crap that is usually written in horoscopes.
By the way, quite an entertaining thing. And the Mayan astrological characteristics of Kin personalities are quite consistent with reality, although usually I prefer not to believe in astrology.

In the Mayan narrative "Popol Vuh" (the name translates as "Book of the Council" or "Book of the People"), which has a very ancient history, but was written down only in the period of the Conquest in Latin letters, it is said that the forefather gods Tepeu and Gukumatz first They raised the earth from the watery abyss and populated it with animals and plants.

Then, thirsting for veneration and admiration, they sculpted from the earth (clay) creatures similar to people, but they turned out to be short-lived and after some time they turned to dirt again. The gods created the next race, from wood, but it was so bad that they quickly destroyed it themselves. After thinking, they decided to create people from meat, but this race could not meet the expectations of the gods, the people of this race were mired in evil, and they destroyed it, sending a terrible rain to the earth. And only the following people, created from corn dough, became the ancestors of modern civilization, or rather, the ancestors of the Mayans.

It is interesting that many epics of different peoples tell about several civilizations that existed on earth before ours. The ancient Greeks, for example, believed that humanity began with the Golden Age and the human race was created by Cronus happy. People knew neither worries, nor sadness, nor the need to work by the sweat of their brow. People had neither illnesses nor old age. And even death itself did not contain anything terrible, but was just like a deep sleep. Gardens and fields provided them with food in abundance, and huge herds grazed in the meadows. Even the gods came to people for advice. But the Golden Age, like all good things, ended, and all the people of the first generation died, turning into spirits, patrons of people of new generations. This reward was given to them by Zeus: shrouded in fog, they fly throughout the earth, defending the truth and punishing evil.

The second human race, who lived in the Silver Age, was no longer so happy: these people could not compare with the previous generation either in strength or intelligence. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the houses of their mothers and only when they matured did they leave them, managing to live very little into adulthood. Since they were unreasonable most of their lives, they saw a lot of grief and misfortune. They did not listen to the gods and refused to make sacrifices to them, and Zeus destroyed their family, settling them in the underworld, where there is neither joy nor sorrow.

After this, Zeus created the third generation and the third age - Copper. The people of this age were created from the shaft of a spear and were terrible and powerful. In addition to their enormous height, they had indestructible strength and a fearless heart. Most of all they loved war and battles. They did not sow anything, did not eat the fruits that the gardens bore in abundance, but only fought. Both their weapons and their houses were forged from copper, and they also worked with copper tools. (How can one not recall official science and its Copper Age.) Greek storytellers also note that iron was learned only by subsequent generations. Soon the people of the Copper Age destroyed each other, and Zeus created the fourth age and a new human race. These people were noble, fair and practically equal to the gods. But they all died in various wars and battles: some at the seven gates of Thebes, some at Troy, where they came for Helen, etc. After death, Zeus settled these people at the ends of the earth, on islands in the ocean, far from the living, so that they could enjoy a happy and carefree life. The land there bears fruit three times a year, and its fruit is as sweet as honey.

After this, the Thunderer created the last, fifth century and the human race - the Iron, which lives to this day.

Similar legends about several early civilizations on our planet existed in Ancient Babylon. And even the Bible, which seems to deny this theory, accidentally lets it slip. From the apocrypha we know that Adam had a first wife: Lilith. For example, the Torah states that first God created “man and woman,” and only then speaks of the creation of Chava (Eve in Russian). Lilith did not want to obey her husband, considering herself to be the same perfect creation of God as he was. And, uttering the secret name of God, she rose into the air and flew away from Adam. Adam complained to God, and he sent after her three angels, known as Snui, Sansanui and Sanglaf. Angels caught Lilith at the Red Sea, but she refused to return to her husband, and then her body was taken away from her, leaving only her spirit.

His second wife, Eve, gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. But Cain was jealous of Abel and killed him, after which he was expelled. “And Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch.” Where other people came from there is not entirely clear. Perhaps the Bible describes a civilization parallel to ours that lived on earth. And a little later, in the same book of Genesis, giant people are mentioned: “At that time there were giants on the earth, especially from the time when the sons of God began to come in to the daughters of men and they began to give birth to them: these are strong, glorious people from ancient times.” And this can hardly be considered a mistake of the scribe or translator, since much later, both in text and in time, already in the book of Numbers, the scouts, returning from Palestine, report to Moses: “... there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, from of a gigantic kind; and we were like locusts in our sight before them, and so were we in their sight.”

This happens after the Flood, which means that the civilization of the giants managed to survive during it. No wonder they mocked Noah building the ark and said that they would be saved thanks to their height!

The Flood is also mentioned by the ancient Greeks. The people of the Copper Age not only disobeyed the Olympian gods, but also became famous for their wickedness. Once Zeus decided to visit the king of the city of Lycosura in Arcadia in human form. Entering the palace, Zeus gave a sign, and everyone realized who it was and fell on their faces. But King Lycaon did not want to honor Zeus and began to mock those who greeted him. And he even decided to test whether Zeus was a god. He killed the hostage, boiled part of his body, fried part of it and offered it to the Thunderer. He, terribly angry, destroyed Lycaon's palace with a lightning strike, and turned him into a wolf. But even after this, people did not become more pious, and Zeus decided to destroy the entire human race. He decided to arrange a Great Flood and for this he sent a heavy downpour to the earth, and forbade all winds to blow, and only the humid southern wind Noth drove dark rain clouds across the sky. At first, the rivers simply overflowed their banks, but soon they covered the houses, then the fortress walls, and only the double-headed peak of Parnassus remained above the water. Of the entire human race, only two were saved: Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha. Deucalion, on the advice of his father, built a huge box, put food supplies in it, and for nine days and nights the box was carried across the waters until it washed up on Parnassus. The rain stopped, Deucalion and Pyrrha came out of the box and made a thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus. The water began to recede, and the land was exposed, completely devastated. The water washed away not only all the buildings, but also the gardens and fields. Zeus sent Hermes to Deucalion and promised to fulfill his every desire. He also asked that the land be populated again by people. Zeus ordered Deucalion and Pyrrha to pick up stones and throw them over their heads without turning around. Those of the stones that Deucalion threw turned into men, and those that were thrown

Pyrrha - into women. A new race of people emerged from stone.

“Popol Vuh” translated by R.V. Kinzhalov describes the causes of the Flood as follows: “They no longer remembered the Heart of Heaven, and therefore they died. It was no more than a test, more than an attempt (to create) a person. True, they spoke, but their faces had no expression; their legs and arms had no strength; they had neither blood nor ichor, they had neither sweat nor fat. Their cheeks were dry, their feet and hands were dry, and their flesh was rotten. Therefore, they no longer thought about their Creator, nor about their Creator, about those who created them and cared for them. These were the first people who existed in large numbers on the surface of the earth.

Immediately the wooden figures were destroyed, destroyed, broken and killed.

The Flood was created by the Heart of Heaven, a Great Flood was created, which fell on the heads of the wooden creatures."

“...the face of the earth darkened, and black rain began to fall; rain during the day and rain at night.

Then small animals and large animals came together, and trees and rocks began to hit (the wooden people) in the faces. And everything began to speak: their clay jugs, their frying pans, their plates, their pots, their dogs, their stones on which they ground corn grains - everything, as many as there were, rose up and began to hit them in the faces.

“You did a lot of bad things to us, you ate us, and now we will kill you,” said their dogs and poultry.

And the grain grinders said:

– You tormented us every day; every day, at night and at dawn, all the time our faces rubbed (against each other and said) hall-holy, hooky-hooky because of you. This is the tribute we paid you. But now you people will finally feel our power. We will grind you and tear your flesh into pieces,” their grain grinders told them.

And then their dogs spoke and said:

- Why didn’t you want to give us anything to eat? You barely noticed us, but you chased us and threw us out. You always had a stick ready to hit us as you sat and ate. This is how you treated us because we couldn't speak. Wouldn't we die if everything went your way? Why didn't you look ahead, why didn't you think about yourself? Now we will destroy you, now you will feel how many teeth are in our mouth, we will devour you,” the dogs said, and then they tore their faces.

And at the same time their frying pans and pots also said to them:

– You caused us suffering and pain. Our mouths are blackened with soot, our faces are blackened with soot; you constantly put us on fire and burned us, as if we had not experienced any torment. Now you will feel it, we will burn you,” said the pots, and they hit them in the faces.

The stones of the hearth, clustered in one heap, rushed out of the fire straight into their heads, causing them to suffer.

The desperate (wooden people) ran as fast as they could; they wanted to climb onto the roofs of the houses, but the houses fell and threw them to the ground; they wanted to climb to the tops of the trees, but the trees shook them away from them; they wanted to hide in the caves, but the caves covered their faces.

Thus took place the second destruction of created people, created people, beings who were destined to be destroyed and destroyed; and the lips and faces of all of them were mutilated. It is said that their descendants are those monkeys who now live in the forests; this is all that remains of them, because their flesh was created by the Creator and Creator only from wood.

This is why the monkey looks like a human being; (she) is an example of that generation of people who were created and created, but were only wooden figures.”

It’s worth thinking about where, in civilizations initially separated by vast spaces and time, as, in any case, science claims, absolutely identical legends appeared. In total, there are about five hundred legends about the Great Flood among different peoples in the world. For example, in the Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh, the story of the immortal king Utnapishtim, who survived the Great Flood, is given: “With the first rays of dawn, a black cloud came from behind the horizon, thunder came from within. Everything was filled with despair when the god of storms turned the daylight into darkness, when he smashed the earth like a cup. For six days and nights the wind blew, rain and flood ruled the world. On the seventh day the flood stopped. I looked at the face of the world - silence everywhere. Humanity has turned to clay."

The legends of many peoples speak of a visible change in the sky during the Flood. The Chinese, for example, say that “the planets have changed their path. The sky has moved to the north. The sun, moon and stars began to move in a new way. The earth fell apart, water gushed from its depths and flooded the earth.” One of the scientific versions of the Flood, by the way, is the passage of another planet of the solar system too close to our Earth, which, having a very large orbit, appears only once every few thousand years. The inhabitants of Oceania, the Pehuenche tribe from Tierra del Fuego and the Cato Indians from California claim that the Sun and Moon “fell from the sky”; the Incas talked about the war of Heaven and Earth. One can also recall the ancient Greeks with the myth of Phaeton: “fiery horses: now backing away, now rushing to the side, they left their usual path. The sun suddenly tumbled and flew headlong down.” The Slavs talked about the long winter that fell to the earth after the Flood. This is quite similar to a “nuclear winter”, which could be the consequence of an asteroid impact that caused changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and forced the seas to leave their limits. The Scandinavian sagas say that one of Fenrir's wolf cubs chased the sun and managed to catch up with it. “The bright rays of the sun went out, and after this a terrible winter came to the world. People killed each other. The world stood on the brink of destruction, but then the wolf Fenrir broke the shackles, and the world trembled. The axis of the world - the ash tree Yggdrasil - turned its roots upside down. Mountains began to collapse, people abandoned by the gods died. The stars began to float from the sky, getting lost in the void. The giant Surt set the earth on fire, flames burst out between the rocks, destroying all living things. All that remained was bare earth, covered with cracks. And then all the rivers overflowed their banks, swelling and boiling, hiding the sinking earth beneath them. Only those who hid in the trunk of the World Tree managed to escape. And the world began anew."

Most likely, as some modern researchers claim, there was once a highly developed civilization on earth, which perished for one reason or another. Its remnants were able to pass on their knowledge and legends to some of the wild tribes that inhabited the earth at that time.

It is known, for example, that in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Babylon electric lamps powered by batteries were used. How could such a convenient and useful invention be forgotten for more than two thousand years? There is only one logical explanation for this: electricity was a kind of external gift, and those who used it did not understand its essence, and when batteries and lamps became unusable, modern people were no longer able to create them anew. By the way, this theory fits very well with the absence of wheeled vehicles among the Indians, but the presence of wheels in their children's toys. The wheel was also brought from outside, and the Indians simply were not able, due to established traditions, to appreciate the convenience of its use.

A number of sites dating back to ancient times have been discovered on the American continent, in the United States, Canada and Alaska. This early culture was called "Clovis", and it existed approximately 10-12 thousand years ago. These people hunted mammoths with darts

kovs, for throwing which there were special devices. An obsidian tip of a similar spear or dart was found near San Rafael. So we can assume that at the end of the Ice Age, primitive hunters of the Clovis culture roamed the high mountain zone of the future Mayan habitats.

Around the end of the 8th millennium BC. e. The glacier began to retreat, and over the next five and a half thousand years, in all areas of our planet, the climate became even warmer than today. In America, a combination of hot and dry weather turned areas previously covered with grass into deserts, and the large herbivores that used to be found here in primeval abundance practically disappeared. This was a big blow to the civilization of hunters, and they were forced to retrain as berry and root pickers, only occasionally supplementing with game, but smaller and rarer than before.

The tribes that inhabited what is now Mexico during the Archaic Period were part of a "desert" culture that at that time spread from southern Oregon through the Great Basin highlands to southeastern Mexico. (Individual of its representatives, by the way, managed to exist in the United States until the 19th century.)

It was at this time that maize (corn), beans, pumpkin, chili peppers and other plants were cultivated, forming the Mayan food culture. Excavations in the caves of the Tehuacan Valley and on the Pueblo plateaus in Mexico showed that the herbaceous plant, the predecessor of modern maize, was eaten by humans even before the beginning of the 5th millennium BC, however, corn cobs were then very small, 10 times smaller than modern ones , no more than 3–4 cm in length. It can be assumed that the Mayans also began to grow cultivated plants in the prehistoric period. This most likely happened in what is now Guatemala, where there are more varieties of maize in a very small area than, for example, in the entire United States.

The ancestors of the Maya appeared in the mountainous areas of Chiapas and Guatemala, most likely no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. This occurred before the earliest pottery-using cultures known today were formed. Traces of these proto-Mayans are believed to have been found in a cave in the Mexican state of Chiapas, although geographically this cave is located to the west of the borders of the Maya region. Due to the high humidity, very little evidence has been preserved from the ancient inhabitants of this shelter, but the stones found for cracking nuts and grinding grain indicate that grain and other plant products were already part of their diet. Also found in the cave were primitive weapons and tools: stone tips for throwing weapons, stone axes and scrapers, very similar to similar objects from the caves of Tehuacan and Tamaulpas.

Another site dating from this period, but located within the Maya territory, at El Chayal, is a real obsidian workshop. Many roughly processed stone objects resembling knives with an uneven surface were found here. Perhaps these are blanks for spear and dart tips, as well as for knives.

But still, information about the life and everyday life of the Mayans in the prehistoric era remains very vague. We can only assume something, although we have no doubt that it was during this period that the foundations of the culture of a new civilization were laid.

During the Archaic era, which lasted from the middle of the second millennium BC until about the middle of the second century AD, many large settlements appeared in Mayan territory. Excavations revealed that they consisted of huts covered with reeds, very similar in their architecture to those in which the ancestors of the Mayan Indians, engaged in peasant labor, live to this day.

It can be assumed that already at that time the Mayans had truly efficient agriculture. Some researchers believe that the impetus for this could have been an increase in the yield of maize as a result of its hybridization with a very viable variety of teosinte, a cereal crop. It is clear that this did not happen everywhere, and first of all, the Mayans settled where there was not only an abundance of plants, but also soils favorable for their cultivation, as well as an abundance of game.

One such place is on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, near the border with the Mexican state of Chiapas. The oldest settlements here belong to the Okos culture, the beginning of which dates back to approximately the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The next culture, “quadros,” arose somewhere at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia BC. e. and existed for about a century and a half. These cultures, although they have a number of differences, are nevertheless very similar. The settlements were tiny villages inhabited by from three to twenty families. They were located right on the shores of lagoons, river mouths and sea branches overgrown with mangrove trees. The mangroves provided abundant food: mangrove oysters and other edible shellfish, crabs and turtles.

By the way, it is interesting that some modern researchers suggest that man did not descend from a monkey, but from a creature that came out of the mangrove forests. This theory explains quite a lot of inconsistencies regarding the origins of people that exist in academic science, which believes that man came out of the savannah.

The proboscis monkey lives in the coastal mangrove swamps of Borneo. She lives in the trees, but when she comes down, it is usually not land that is underneath her, but water, shallow water. And this monkey is simply forced to learn to walk on two legs. And, by the way, she is the only one of the monkeys who can swim.

One of the physiological characteristics of a person is a drooping larynx. We are unable to drink water and breathe at the same time, since our throat does not have a partition between the passages to the lungs and stomach. In the savannah this is not necessary, and none of the land mammals have a drooping larynx. But it is present in abundance in mammals that live in the seas or oceans - whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions... This device gives them a very significant advantage: having the ability to breathe through the mouth, these animals are able to inhale or exhale a significant volume of air in a short time time when surfacing. These animals, by the way, can control their breathing, just like humans. Land animals do not control their breathing, just like, for example, their heartbeat. This type of breathing gave people a unique opportunity to speak.

Another characteristic feature of humans that greatly distinguishes them from monkeys is the way they sweat. When we sweat, not only do we waste essential water and beneficial salts, but this process of thermoregulation is too slow to start, leading to the risk of sunstroke, and very slow to respond when fluid and salt levels in the body are critically low. In just three hours, our body can use up all the water and salts, which will lead to very serious consequences, even death. It is not clear what to do with such an imperfect sweating system in the African savannah, from where man is said to have emerged. Remember the numerous stories and plots of American films about the death of people in the desert? The police advise: do not leave a broken down car under any circumstances, otherwise your life will count down to the clock. Savannah, we assure you, is not much better than the desert.

Another interesting feature of a person is the distribution of his body fat. Over thirty percent of a person's fat is located directly under the skin. Scientists admit that this is a very good thermal insulation. But only if you are in the water. But on land this does not provide any advantage, since on land wool is many times more effective. But all aquatic mammals have a similar fatty layer: whales, seals, dolphins...

The human style of face-to-face copulation is also not found on land, but it is common among aquatic inhabitants.

Do a little test. Close your eyes and try to relax and imagine a place where you would like to be to enjoy peace and quiet. If you honestly close your eyes and try to imagine a place where you can completely relax, forget about everything, feel safe, then most likely you will find yourself on an imaginary beach. Why? Is it because we feel the call of our ancestral home?

Perhaps the Indians also, having seen the lush mangroves, decided to settle in this particular place, without realizing that this was the call of genes. But, however, they obtained their food not only in the mangroves. They fished in lagoons and nearby rivers, and on land they caught iguanas, using both their meat and eggs as food. At higher elevations, Indians cleared areas of rainforest and planted maize.

In the territory of the former settlements of the Okos and Quadros cultures, bones of animals whose hunting requires tracking and joint efforts (for example, deer and peccaries) are practically not found. This means that these people were not inclined to travel far from their homes. This also confirms that crafts characteristic of a sedentary lifestyle, especially ceramics, flourished here. Many massive clay female figurines have been found in the remains of Ocos settlements in La Victoria. It is difficult to say about their purpose, but most likely it is something like an image of the Mother Goddess of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages of Europe.

The existence of a primitive religious cult is also proven by the fact that the remains of a temple were found in one of these settlements. The conclusion about the purpose of the building was made on the basis that the embankment platform protecting it from flooding reached a height of almost eight meters, while the dwellings were located at a much lower height. Ordinary dwellings of that time looked like rectangles standing on a small embankment platform. That era did not know any other architectural forms: the temples of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, including the Mayan pyramids, were simply enlarged copies of a farmer’s dwelling - a rectangular building standing on a flat embankment platform.

At first, people were buried right in their huts, but over time the situation changed: representatives of the “ruling elite” began to be buried inside temple platforms. Most likely, such a practice existed even before the appearance of the “Okos” culture.

Gradually, during the middle period of the Archaic era, which lasted until the beginning of the 3rd century AD, the mountainous and lowland areas were very densely populated by a population using ceramic products. But still, these people are not yet very different from primitive farmers, even despite the presence of skilled artisans. Neither writing, nor architecture, nor art exists yet. This period differs from the previous one only in the rapidly growing population, which indicates very effective methods of management.

It was at this time that in the territories of the modern Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco the rise of the Olmec civilization took place, which we have already talked about and which, by the end of the middle period of the Archaic era, reached its zenith and then disappeared as unexpectedly as the Mayan civilization several centuries later. Scientists still cannot agree whether the Olmec culture should be considered the ancestor of all other cultures of Mesoamerica, but, most likely, the influence of the Olmec culture was very, very significant.

On the western outskirts of Guatemala City, the capital of the country of the same name, is Kaminalguyu, an ancient cultural center where hundreds of temple platforms stood in the days of Alfred Percival Mawdesley, the 19th-century English Mayan explorer. But, alas, the growth of the capital left no stone unturned from the ancient culture. Only a few ancient structures were saved. Their research showed that, most likely, this cultural center “operated” at the end of the middle period of the Archaic era, approximately in the 5th–4th centuries BC.

During the middle period of the Archaic era, small peasants from the shores of the Bay of Campeche adopted the cultural achievements of their more developed neighbors, like the northern barbarians of ancient Europe adopted the achievements of the civilizations of the Middle East.

Farmers who spoke Mayan languages ​​already lived everywhere at that time. But no signs of a culture that would soon become great can be found during this period.

The Mayan culture arose completely suddenly, and there is still debate among scientists about how this could have happened.

Some believe that the Mayans, who were simply primitive farmers, came under the influence of travelers who came from the shores of China. But in support of this version, not a single more or less worthwhile evidence was put forward from the “American,” so to speak, side, which would not crumble upon the first careful examination. On the Chinese side, the factual material is in order: most likely, the Chinese admiral Zheng He reached the shores of the New World about 70 years before Columbus appeared there (by the way, the main ship of Zheng’s flotilla was seven times larger than the Santa Maria on which Columbus traveled ). The conclusion about the priority of the Chinese can be drawn from ancient Chinese maps, both geographical and starry. In the first decades of the 15th century, Ancient China already had a complete map of the world, although for inexplicable reasons, from the middle of the 15th century, the Chinese stopped long-distance sea expeditions and ceased to be a leading maritime power.

Some researchers suspect that the world maps of the Chinese were stolen, secretly reproduced, and some of them, as evidence of secret knowledge, were kept in Portuguese monasteries, where they were found by Columbus, Magellan and Cook.

But if the version of the early discovery of the New World by the Chinese, with some reservations, can be considered almost proven, no influence on Mayan culture could be detected.

Other researchers argue, based on the supposedly low agricultural potential of Petén and Yucatan, that elements of an advanced civilization were brought to the Maya plains from regions with more favorable climatic conditions.

The next version is directly opposite to the previous one and is based on the high agricultural potential of the Mayans, arguing that representatives of other cultures who came to them for a “well-fed life” each brought a little of their own.

Another version says that the Mayans owe the sudden jump in their cultural level to people from the sunken Atlantis...

Plato left the most detailed description of Atlantis in two of his dialogues: “Timaeus” (briefly) and “Critius” (where a more detailed description is given). Our compatriot, the great writer Valery Bryusov, said: “If we assume that Plato’s description is a fiction, we will have to recognize Plato as a superhuman genius who was able to predict the development of science for thousands of years to come... Needless to say, with all our respect for the genius of the great Greek philosopher, such insight seems impossible to us, and we believe A simpler and more plausible explanation is that Plato had at his disposal (Egyptian) materials dating back to ancient times.”

Plato's friend Critias in the Timaeus recounts the story of the war between Athens and Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Critias the Elder, who, in turn, retold him the story of Solon, heard from the priests in Egypt. The general meaning of the story is this: once upon a time, 9 thousand years ago, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state. Their main rival was the aforementioned Atlantis, and all its forces were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians stood up to defend their freedom and managed to repel the invasion, crushed the Atlanteans and freed the peoples they had enslaved. A huge natural disaster soon followed, as a result of which the entire army of the Athenians died in one day, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.

The dialogue “Critias”, with the same participants, serves as a direct continuation of “Timaeus” and is entirely devoted to the story of Critias about ancient Athens and Atlantis. According to the descriptions in this work, the center of Atlantis was a hill located 50 stadia (8–9 kilometers) from the sea. For protection, Poseidon surrounded it with three water and two land rings, and the Atlanteans threw bridges over these rings and dug canals, so that ships could sail along them to the city itself, or, more precisely, to the central island, which had 5 stages (somewhat less than a kilometer) in diameter. On the island there were temples, lined with silver and gold and surrounded by golden statues, a luxurious royal palace, and there were also shipyards filled with ships, etc., etc. “The island on which the palace stood (...) as well as earthen rings and a bridge The kings surrounded it with circular stone walls, a pletra (30 m) wide, and placed towers and gates everywhere on the bridges at the passages to the sea. They mined white, black and red stone in the depths of the middle island and in the depths of the outer and inner earthen rings, and in the quarries, where there were recesses on both sides, covered with the same stone, they arranged anchorages for ships. If they made some of their buildings simple, then in others, for fun, they skillfully combined stones of different colors, giving them a natural charm; They also covered the entire circumference of the walls around the outer earthen ring with copper, applying the metal in molten form, the wall of the inner shaft was covered with tin casting, and the wall of the acropolis itself with orichalcum, which gave off a fiery shine.”

Bulls were sacrificed to Poseidon in his temple. The temple was surrounded by a sacred grove in which wild bulls grazed freely, and, according to established tradition, every five or six years the king and his relatives, appanage rulers, gathered here to renew their treaty with Poseidon. And this is how it happened. First they had to catch the bull, and the use of iron weapons was prohibited, and they used wooden sticks and rope loops. Then the bull was led to a metal column that stood inside the temple and on which the most ancient legends and laws of the country were imprinted. Here a bull was sacrificed, its blood flowing down the inscriptions, and the rulers swore that they would remain faithful to their law, and in order to seal their agreement, everyone drank from the cup in which this blood was mixed with wine. At the end of the ceremony, the rulers held a council and made decisions.

As long as the divine nature remained in the Atlanteans, they disdained wealth, putting virtue above it; but when the divine nature degenerated, mixing with the human, they became mired in luxury, greed and pride. Zeus, outraged by this, decided to destroy the Atlanteans and convened a meeting of the gods... At this point the dialogue - at least the text that has reached us - ends.

Other ancient Greeks also talk about Atlantis: Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder. In the 5th century, the Neoplatonist Proclus, in his comments to the Timaeus, talks about Plato's follower Crantor, who around 260 BC. e. specially visited Egypt in order to learn about Atlantis and allegedly saw columns with inscriptions telling her story in the temple of the goddess Neith in Sais. Moreover, he writes: “That an island of this character and size once existed is evident from the accounts of certain writers who have explored the environs of the Outer Sea. For, according to them, in that sea in their time there were seven islands sacred to Persephone, and also three other islands of enormous size, one of which was sacred to Pluto, another to Ammon, and then

Poseidon, whose dimensions were a thousand stadia (180 km); and their inhabitants - he adds - preserved the traditions coming from their ancestors about the immeasurably larger island of Atlantis, which actually existed there and which for many generations ruled all the islands and was likewise dedicated to Poseidon. Now Marcellus has described this in his Aethiopica.” Marcellus is not mentioned in other sources, and, apparently, his “Ethiopica” is simply a novel.

Actually, there are three problems with this whole story. Firstly, it is reported by Plato, who has a lot of different philosophical myths in his dialogues. He, unlike Aristotle and even more so historians, never set as his goal the communication of any real facts to the reader; he was only interested in ideas illustrated by philosophical myths.

Secondly, it turns out that around 9565 BC. e. there was a culture that used metal tools, ships, and processed stones in construction and agriculture. This is characteristic of the Bronze Age, dating back to approximately 3200 BC. e.

Thirdly, if a huge island was destroyed by the Atlantic Ocean within a day and a half, a global catastrophe should have occurred. But there is no mention of it anywhere else.

If we talk about the highest material culture of the Atlanteans, then, in fact, there is nothing unusual in such a level of culture on the island. Only a little later, a complex trading culture existed at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia. Stone city walls and towers were in Jericho possibly as early as 7000 BC. e. And metal processing began perhaps only 2 thousand years later. So there is nothing particularly fantastic about the existence of such a culture in the ninth millennium BC. Many researchers believe that Atlantis, as described by Plato, is a late Bronze Age civilization.

And here is how Edgar Cayce, the famous psychic, a phenomenon of the twentieth century, who predicted many events down to the day, described the end of Atlantis: “And then Atlantis (he also calls this continent Poseidia) was abandoned, and Iltar and his comrades from the house of Atlantis, admirers of the One, only about 10 people went west and ended up in what is now Yucatan, and there, together with the local residents, they gradually created a culture much like the one that had previously existed in the land of the Atlanteans...”

Cayce foresaw that the Atlanteans were familiar with electricity, used aircraft and spacecraft, and also had the ability to telepathy and telekinesis. In his visions of Atlantis, he described a huge crystal cut from transparent quartz, in the edges of which there was an unstoppable force: “Was it worth it for mere mortals to know the application of spiritual laws to material principles, for this contained enormous destructive power. When the Atlanteans made special facets to activate the forces of solar radiation to create energy for ships and generate electricity, these forces, directed towards the elements of the Earth, caused the first catastrophe.” In his visions, Cayce saw sources of energy unknown to us: “The Atlanteans used crystals for worldly and spiritual purposes.

They were powerful energy storage devices from solar radiation and starlight. Their energy helped the Atlanteans build palaces and temples and develop psychic abilities. But this was not the case with the main crystal – Tuaoi – “Fire Stone”. It accumulated the energy of the Earth, and its rays burned through the most powerful walls.” This crystal, according to the prophet, can be recreated: “The record of how to create a crystal is in three places on Earth at the present time: in the sunken Atlantis, or Poseidonia, where part of the temple will still be revealed under the sediment near the place now known as Bimini, off the coast of Florida. Secondly, in the Temple of Chronicles in Egypt, where the subject was engaged with others in sealing the records brought from their country of origin. Thirdly, the records were delivered to present-day Yucatan, where several years ago archaeologists discovered stones of an ancient building..."

The presence of Atlantean survivors in Yucatan would easily explain where information about the Great Flood and the civilizations that inhabited our planet before the human race came from in Mayan legends.

There are also several other mysteries that cannot yet be explained from a materialistic point of view. One of them is the mysterious crystal skulls, found not only during excavations of Mayan cities, but also in Africa. But we will talk about them a little later, for now we will continue to study the origins of the Mayan culture.

But, however, even here we will have to face mysteries at every step, the first of which is the Mayan calendar.

The appearance of calendars is typical for any civilization: sooner or later there is a need to record important events in the life of the state or the destinies of rulers, to track the cycle of agricultural work, ritual holidays and annual ceremonies.

Today it has been established that the Mayans, at different periods, had two calendars. One, the earlier one, consisted of 240 days, the other of 290 days. Researchers believe that both of them are associated with catastrophes, which, although they did not change the radius of rotation of our planet in orbit, but accelerated its daily rotation. The reason for this acceleration, as scientists suggest, could be the redistribution of water from the continents to the poles that occurred during the Ice Age. And it, according to some researchers, was precisely the consequence of a global, possibly nuclear, catastrophe that destroyed one of the ancient civilizations of our planet.

There is an interesting physiological experiment, carried out several times and by scientists from different countries, in order to find out at what speed the human internal biological clock runs. A person is placed in a closed space where nothing can tell him for any period of time. At first, the experimental subjects live on a 24-hour cycle, then their sleep and wakefulness begin to shift and fall into complete chaos, and then many people's sleep and alertness stabilize in a 36-hour day. The most extensive research on this topic was carried out at the Bern Public Institute. The joint 10-year work of a group of anthropologists, psychologists and geneticists revealed that only half of humanity remains in a 24-hour rhythm. 42% start living on a 36-hour schedule, and about 8% start living on a 22-hour schedule. Researchers consider the results of this experiment to be evidence that once upon a time there really were 36 hours in a day, and humans were programmed to do just that. It is interesting that residents of the centers of ancient civilizations are more inclined to long days: Southeast Asia, India, Southern Europe. But representatives of Central and Southern Africa, Polynesia, and South America are programmed to “accelerate”. Unfortunately, scientists cannot yet explain this last fact.

But let's return to calendars. The Mayan calendar used three parallel dating systems: the Long Count, Tzolk'in (divine calendar), and Ha'ab (civil calendar). And only Haab was associated with the length of the year.

A typical Mayan calendar date, according to calendar researcher Klaus Tondering, looks like this: 12.18.16.2.6, 3 Kimi 4 Social.

12.18.16.2.6 is the “long count” date.

3. Kimi is the date of Tzolkin.

4. Sots is the date of Haab.

We have already mentioned earlier what a “long count” is - a mixed 20-, 18-, and 13-digit representation of a number showing the number of days since the beginning of the Mayan era. That is, approximately the same way we count time from our era, or the Nativity of Christ.

The basic unit is the kin (day), and this is the last component of the “long count.” Moving from right to left, the main components of a Long Count date are:

uinal (1 uinal = 20 kin = 20 days)

tun (1 tun = 18 uinals = 360 days = approximately 1 year)

katun (1 katun = 20 tuns = 7200 days = approximately 20 years)

baktun (1 baktun = 20 katuns = 144,000 days = approximately 394 years)

The “long count” in terms looks like this: baktun, katun, tun, uinal, kin.

The concepts kin, tun and katun could take values ​​from 0 to 19.

Uinal took values ​​from 0 to 17.

Baktun could only take values ​​from 1 to 13.

The Mayans also had names for much larger periods of time, although they were not directly part of the Long Count. Researchers give the following names to denote significant time periods:

1 pictun= 20 baktuns = 2,880,000 days = approximately 7885 years

1 kalabtun= 20 pictuns = 57,600,000 days = approximately 158,000 years

1 quinchiltun= 20 kalabtuns = 1,152,000,000 days = approximately 3 million years

1 alautun= 20 kinchiltuns = 23,040,000,000 days = approximately 63 million years

Probably, Alautun is the longest named period of time in all existing and existing calendars.

It would be logical to think that the first date of the "long count" should be written as 0.0.0.0.0, but since the baktun (the first component) goes from 1 to 13, and not from 0 to 12, the first date is actually written as 13.0 .0.0.0.

There are different opinions about what date in our calendar 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to. There are three possible versions here:

If one of the first two calculations is correct, then the "long count" will again be equal to 13.0.0.0.0 (that is, "reset to zero") December 21 or 23, 2012. One of these days the Mayan calendar will end.

The Tzolkien date is a combination of two "week" lengths.

While our calendar has a single week of seven days, the Mayan calendar uses two week lengths:

A week of 13 days, in which days are numbered from 1 to 13;

A week of 20 days, in which each day has a name:

There are 20 days in a named week, and the last sign of the “long count” changes from 0 to 20, that is, they change synchronously. For example, if today the last sign of the “long count” is 0, then today is Ahau; if the sign is 6, then today is Kimi and so on.

Since the named and numbered weeks were both “weeks,” both the numbers and names changed every day. Thus, the day after 3 Kimi is not 4 Kimi, but 4 Manik, and the next day is 5 Lamat. When Kimi comes again in 20 days, it will be 10 Kimi, not 3 Kimi. The next day 3 of Kimi will occur in 260 (13 x 20) days.

Each day of this 260-day calendar had ideas of good or bad luck associated with it, and is therefore known as the “divine year.”

But “years” were not counted in the Tzolkien calendar.

Haab was the Mayan civil calendar. It consisted of 18 "months" of 20 days, followed by 5 additional days known as Vayeb. Thus, the length of the year was 365 days.

Here are the names of the Mayan “months”:

The names of the months in Haab changed every 20 days, and not every day, as in Tzolkien; so the day after 4 Sec will be 5 Sec, followed by 6 Sec... until 19 Sec, followed by 0 Sec.

The numbers of days in a month ranged from 0 to 19. The use of the 0th day of the month in the civil calendar is a unique feature of the Mayan system. The Mayans are believed to have discovered the number 0 and its uses centuries before it was discovered in Europe and Asia.

Vayeb (extra) days had a very bad reputation and were considered unlucky. These were known as "days without names" or "days without a soul" and were days of prayer and mourning. On such days, fires had to be extinguished, and people were advised to abstain from hot food. To be born on such a day was worse than on Monday: the Mayans firmly believed that this person was doomed to an unhappy life.

Years were not counted in the Haab calendar.

The length of the Tzolkin year was 260 days, and the Haab year was 365 days. The smallest number that can be divided by 260 and 365 without leaving a remainder is 18,980, or 365 x 52; it was known as calendar circle. If today, for example, is day 4 Ahau 8 Kumhu, then the next such day will occur in 18,980 days, which is approximately equal to 52 years.

Among the Aztecs, who also used this calendar, the end of the calendar circle was a time of general panic, as it was believed that the end of the world could come on this day. When the Pleiades crossed the horizon on 4 Ahau 8 Kumhu, they believed that the world was given another 52 years of existence.

Although the Haab year only had 365 days, the Mayans knew that the year was slightly longer than 365 days, and in fact many of the month names are related to the seasons. For example, Yashkin means “new or strong Sun,” and at the beginning of the “long count” 1 Yashkin was the day after the winter solstice, when the Sun began to shine longer and rise higher in the sky. When the "long count" was introduced, it began with the date 7.13.0.0.0, and 0 Yashkin corresponded to a midwinter day, as with the date 13.0.0.0.0 in 3114 BC. e. Existing evidence shows that the Mayans estimated that a 365-day year passed through all seasons twice in 7.13.0.0.0, or 1,101,600 days.

The Mayan civil, or solar, year was 365.2421 days long, which corresponds more closely to the Earth's orbit around the Sun than the Gregorian (modern) calendar's 365.2424 days.

How the Maya managed to achieve such amazing mathematical accuracy still remains a mystery. It is also unclear how such a complex “three-stage” timekeeping scheme arose. By the way, it still exists: this calendar is used unchanged by some isolated peoples in the south of Mexico and in the Mayan mountain region. The calculations that ensure the correct operation of this entire system are carried out by special priests among these peoples.

Although the Long Count calendar is usually called the Mayan calendar, in the Classic period and even in earlier times this calendar was very widespread throughout the lowland areas of Mesoamerica. But, interestingly, only among the Mayans was it distinguished by the highest accuracy, while among the rest it was often in a hurry or lagged behind. Whether this means that the Mayans were able to bring the calendar to perfection or that it was they, as its inventors, who knew how to handle it better than anyone else - it’s difficult to say for sure.

Speaking of the calendar, it is necessary to clarify that the Mayans had an extremely simple number system, using only three symbols: a dot representing one, a horizontal line representing the number 5, and a stylized image of a shell representing zero. Numerals up to four inclusive are indicated by dots; to indicate the number 6, a dash was drawn, above which one dot was placed, and 10 was indicated using two horizontal stripes. The largest coefficient used in the calendar, the number 19, was depicted using four dots located above three horizontal lines. There was a separate, more complex system for designating numbers over 19.

Almost all researchers agree that the “long count” calendar began to be used much later than the “calendar circle,” but it is impossible to say with certainty how many centuries or millennia later. Currently, the oldest date is considered to be the date carved in the traditions of the “long count” on the stele of the ancient ritual center of Chiapa de Corzo, which corresponds, according to modern chronology, to December 9, 36 AD. e.

Many researchers believe that the Mayans were able to achieve such high accuracy of the calendar by observing the stars.

Archaeologists, liberating Mayan cities from the jungle, noticed that the location of temples and other buildings was strictly oriented to the cardinal points. The “ridges” of roofs and portals, quite important parts of Mayan temples, were created in such a way that their position indicated the rising, culmination and sunset of certain stars. The Mayan civilization was especially interested in the Pleiades constellation, as well as the trajectories of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. In addition, Mayan astronomers very carefully observed the movements of the Sun and Moon and therefore could predict eclipses with high clarity.

The German librarian Ernst Ferstemann, who in 1867 began working in the Dresden Library, where the most significant collection of documents concerning the Mayans was kept - the so-called Dresden Codex, after 13 years of routine work, suddenly became interested in ancient culture and began to carefully study the codex. Moreover, he took the trouble to create very accurate facsimile copies and made about 60 duplicates of the codex. Time has confirmed the wisdom of this decision: the original was severely damaged by water when storing relics in an unsuitable wine cellar (during the Second World War).

In 1882, the American Cyrus Thomas, studying a photograph of one of the pages, came to the conclusion that the Mayan numbers should be read from left to right and from top to bottom. Förstemann, thanks to this discovery, soon discovered that the Dresden Codex contained eclipse tables for 11,958 days, which corresponds almost exactly to the 46 years of the Tzolkien calendar (11,960 days). This fully corresponds to 405 lunar months (also 11,960 days). The code also contained important additions that corrected the basic data, which ensured unprecedented accuracy: with an error of up to one day over 4,500 years!

In addition, Ferstemann found that the Dresden Codex devoted about five pages only to calculations concerning the planet Venus. The Mayans were not so much interested in everyday information about Venus, but mainly in the duration of the average cycle of its rotation! A year on Venus ranges from 581 to 587 days, and the priests, for unknown purposes, calculated this figure through complex calculations. And, moreover, in the Dresden Codex there is a number 1,366,560 (days), which, according to the compilers of the tables, relates to the starting point of the era discussed in the code - the “birth of Venus”. This mysterious number - 1,366,560 - also relates to all the important Mayan time cycles:

1,366,560 = 260 x 5256 (the number of Tzolkins);

or 365 x 3744 (number of “odd years”);

or 584 x 2340 (the number of normal cycles of Venus);

or 780 x 1752 (the number of normal rotation cycles of Mars);

or 18,980 x 72 (the number of “Aztec centuries”).

Firsteman's work on the analysis of the Mayan chronology was read by the navigator Maurice Cottrell. In his youth, he served in the merchant navy and then, during long voyages, paying attention to the patterns in the behavior of his comrades, depending on the influence of the planets, he became seriously interested in astrology.

The fact is that this Mayan number was very close to a completely different number - 1,366,040 days, which Cottrell received by studying the cycles of sunspot activity of the Sun. How could these two numbers, differing only in two periods of 260 days, be related to each other? Cottrell began to study this problem and came to sensational conclusions.

While serving in the navy, he noticed that people born under the influence of the element of “fire,” which is traditionally considered more aggressive than others, show their aggression cyclically. He tried to trace this cycle, starting from the course of the planets, but at first he could not find anything. Returning home from the voyage, he went to the library, trying to understand the problem that interested him.

There he discovered a book by astrologer Jeff Mayo and the famous psychologist Professor H. Eysenck. The book talked about a scientific examination of 1795, and then another 2324 people who demonstrated a connection between the astrological sign under which they were born and the extroverted or introverted nature of their psyche. (An extrovert is a person whose mental makeup is aimed at the world around him and activities in it, an introvert is a person whose mental makeup is characterized by a focus on his inner world, he is turned towards himself.) The result of the study was the surprising discovery that the “positive” signs of the zodiac (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius) predispose predominantly to extroversion, and “negative” ones (the other six) to introversion. The chance of chance in these studies was very small: only 10,000 to 1.

From the research results it follows that people born under the influence of the elements of “air” and “fire” are extroverts, and those born under the auspices of the elements of “water” and “earth” are introverts. Since the twelve signs of the zodiac are in the order of “fire”, “earth”, “air”, “water”, it is quite simple to calculate the “extroverted” and “introverted” months of the year.

But since the birth of astrology, a lot has changed, in particular, due to changes in the angle of rotation of the Earth, the celestial “equator” moves very slowly, the picture of the starry sky changes, and today the signs of the zodiac no longer correspond to the location of the constellations bearing the same names.

But, realizing that the characteristics of people according to their zodiac signs continue to work, Cottrell began to look for explanations not in the background of which constellation the Sun stands, but in the Sun itself. As a radio operator, he knew that radio waves are greatly influenced by the state of the upper atmosphere, which is influenced by solar storms. It is at the moment when sunspots appear on the Sun that radio signals are distorted and weakened. Sunspots are just areas of lower temperature than the rest of the solar surface, which is hotter and therefore brighter. They were discovered in 1610 by Galileo, and he also established that sunspots do not have constant outlines, and their number and location on the surface of the Sun are constantly changing. But, however, there was still a certain cyclicity in their appearance, and it was calculated in 1843 by the astronomer R. Wulf. He found that there is a certain cycle in the appearance and disappearance of spots, approximately equal to 11.1 years. At the beginning of the cycle, spots appear near the solar poles, then gradually descend towards the equator and at the end of the cycle they are again more concentrated at the poles. Although sometimes the appearance of sunspots simply stops. They, for example, were not recorded in the period from 1645 to 1715.

It is known that the Sun rotates around its axis, but, unlike the Earth, which has a solid crust, the rotation of the Sun, consisting of plasma, occurs unevenly. The solar “day” at the poles is 37 Earth days, and at the equator - only 26. It is because of this uneven rotation that the magnetic lines of the Sun form loops, which, in turn, periodically generate “explosions” on the solar surface, which is why they appear spots.

The sun not only provides light and heat, but also generates many radiations: electromagnetic radiation, radio rays, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, x-rays. The Sun also sends so-called “solar winds” into outer space - streams of charged particles and ions that become most active during the appearance of sunspots. So the earth's magnetic field is under constant pressure from streams of electrically charged particles emanating from the Sun, and charged particles entering it are concentrated around the magnetic poles. Flying at high speed into rarefied layers of the atmosphere, they cause the effect of the polar (northern) lights.

Sometimes the influence of solar radiation on the Earth's magnetic field is almost imperceptible, and sometimes it is very strong. For example, on March 5, 1989, at 13.54 GMT, a powerful flash of X-rays occurred on the surface of the Sun, lasting 137 minutes, proton emission began already on March 8, and when this stream reached the Earth, monitors at the Lerwick Laboratory on the Shetland Islands recorded an extensive magnetic deviation of 8 degrees over several hours (while the normal deviation is considered to be 0.2 degrees per hour). The northern lights were visible these days even in Italy and Jamaica. In many places, satellite, telephone and telegraph communications and the operation of power lines were disrupted.

Cottrell, based on his observations and conclusions, wrote the book “Astrogenetics”, in which he substantiated the influence of solar magnetic storms on the development of the embryo and their impact on its future character. Two years later, in 1988, Cottrell refined his theory and published a new book, “Astrogenetics. New theory". He also changed jobs and moved to the Cranfield Institute of Technology, where he gained access to a powerful computer. Taking electronic intelligence as an ally, he, trying to trace the pattern, formulated the problem by taking three variables: the solar polar field (37 days), the solar equatorial field (26 days) and the speed of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun (365.25 days). Trying to simplify the problem, he used images of solar activity for 87.4545 days (the fact is that every 87.4545 days the solar polar and equatorial fields complete their cycle, returning to “zero”). And soon the scientist received sensational results: the computer showed a clearly visible rhythmic cycle of 11.49 years. But other cycles over longer periods of time have also been observed.

For simplicity, he called each time period of 87.4545 days 1 particle. A period of 8 such particles is a microcycle, and six microcycles, that is, 48 ​​particles, constitute a cycle, or 11.49299 years. And this was already similar to the average cycle of solar activity. Cottrell also noticed that the graph curve reflects a full cycle of 781 particles, after which it repeats again. This is a period of 68,302 days, or 187 years. Cottrell called it the Sunspot Cycle.

Cottrell also calculated five periods that were related to changes in the polarity of the magnetic field:

1) 19 x 187 years = 1,297,738 days;

2) 20 x 187 years = 1,366,040 days;

3) 19 x 187 years = 1,297,738 days;

4) 19 x 187 years = 1,297,738 days;

5) 20 x 187 years = 1,366,040 days.

And when he saw the Mayan “supernumber” of 1,366,560 from the Dresden Codex, he realized that these numbers were too similar for it to be a mere coincidence. And, moreover, its periods seemed to correspond to the basic Mayan ideas about ancient eras. It turned out that each era coincided with the cycle of solar activity, and it was the Sun that “killed” life on Earth.

The number 1,366,040 obtained by Cottrell and the sacred Mayan number 1,366,560 were divided without a remainder by 260 - in the first case it was 5254, in the second - 5256. Meanwhile, Cottrell had long ago come to the conclusion that the periods of the closest interaction of the “poles” are separated from each other friend in time periods of 260 days.

It turned out that the Mayan number system was closely related to the magnetic cycles of the Sun.

But let's put the magic numbers aside for a moment and continue talking about the emergence of the Mayan culture in order to better understand the foundations of this civilization.

Today, in a vast area stretching from Tres Zapotes, which lies on the Atlantic coast of the state of Veracruz, to the lowland regions of Chiapas and Guatemala on the Pacific coast and further, right up to the city of Guatemala, remains of the so-called Izapan civilization are found in abundance. It occupies an intermediate position between the Olmec culture of the Middle Archaic period and the Early Classic Mayan culture. During its heyday, Izapa was a major religious and cultural center, and on the territory where this city once was, more than 80 temple foundations - pyramidal-shaped mounds lined with river stones - are still preserved.

There is scientific debate about this culture, as well as about the Olmec culture: whether they should be considered proto-Maya, or whether it is still a “parallel life”. It is known that representatives of this culture spoke the extinct Tapachulteco language, which is not related to the Maya.

Most of the architectural structures and all the monumental sculpture of the Izapans belong to the periods from the Late Archaic to the Pre-Classical. The subjects of the sculpture are secular in nature. Here, for example, you can see an image of a man in a magnificent suit beheading a defeated enemy, but there are also scenes with religious themes. A very common image is the so-called “long-lipped god”: a creature with an excessively elongated upper lip and fire escaping from its nostrils. Most likely, this is a development of the image of the Olmec werewolf jaguar - the god of rain and lightning. And very similar to the rain god Chac from the Mayan culture.

Above the main scenes of the bas-reliefs, an icon similar to the Latin “U” between two slashes is often placed. Many researchers believe that this is a sign of the sky strip, widespread in classical Mayan art. This culture is also related to the Mayan culture by stello-altar complexes. But, however, neither writing nor a calendar were discovered in this culture.

Izapa's rival in the splendor of monumental sculpture and the number of temple foundations was Kaminalguyu, the cultural and religious center of the Miraflores culture, located in what is today the western outskirts of Guatemala City. The Kaminalguyu rulers most likely wielded enormous economic and political power that extended over much of the Mayan mountainous territory. Excavations of their burials speak of the flashy luxury among which the leaders of this people lived. In one of the graves, for example, more than 300 items were found: jewelry, statues, household items, etc. In Kaminalguyu lived artists who were able to create large sculptural works in the Izapan style from stone; their aristocracy knew how to write and read back in the days when the rest of the Mayan peoples were just beginning to realize what writing was. The writing of this culture could not be deciphered, but the famous American specialist in Mayan history Tatyana Proskuryakova believes that it can be considered the predecessor of the classical Mayan writing.

But one should not think that when a developed culture existed in the Mayan mountain region and on the Pacific coast, the central and northern regions vegetated. But the culture of the Mayans, who lived in the lowland region, initially developed in a different direction than that of the peoples of the southern territories, and it was here that those unique features that glorified the classical period of this culture first appeared.

In the northern and central Maya regions, the Chicanel culture flourished, which, despite many differences in different regions, was still surprisingly homogeneous. Excavations in the largest cultural and religious centers of this civilization - Vashaktun and Tikal - showed that already at the end of the Chicanel stage, the main pyramids, temple platforms and ritual sites had already begun to take the form that characterizes the architecture of the classical Mayan period.

In a very short period by historical standards, approximately six centuries, from the 4th to the 10th century AD. BC, the Mayan peoples, especially those who lived in the central region, reached unprecedented intellectual and artistic heights. Moreover, at this time, such “leaps” of development were not observed in any of the civilizations of both the Old and New Worlds.

In 1864, a worker building a canal near the city of Puerto Barrios, located near the Caribbean coast of Guatemala, found a unique jade plate, which some time later ended up in the Dutch city of Leiden. On one side of the plate was carved the figure of a ruler in a rich suit, trampling under his feet a prisoner lying on the ground, and on the other - a calendar date corresponding to 320 AD. e. (Until recently, this plate was considered the earliest evidence of a calendar, but a date corresponding to 292 BC was discovered on a stele recently found in Tikal.)

Little is known about the development of Mayan culture in the northern region. On the lands of Yucatan and Campeche, as far as we can judge, there was a city of Oshkintok; among other archaeological finds in this area, a carved stone lintel made in the 5th century AD was discovered. e. There are several other finds from approximately the same period, but they are much weaker artistically.

Who they were, what they wanted and where they went. Apparently, the Mayans were very interesting people: they built giant pyramids, knew mathematics, astronomy and writing. But modern people do not know much about them. For example:

1. The Mayans considered human sacrifice a great honor.

2. The Mayans preferred to invent their own technologies

3. The Mayans were probably seafarers

4. The Mayans did not have spaceships, but they did have working observatories.

5. Were the Mayans familiar with aliens?

6. “Apocalypse” by Mel Gibson is a fiction from beginning to end and has nothing to do with the real Mayans

7. The Mayans could have come from Atlantis

8. The Mayans were the first to know that time has neither beginning nor end.

9. The Mayans invented sports

10. The Mayans still exist

The ancient Mayan civilization arose in the first millennium BC and reached its peak around 600 AD. The ruins of thousands of settlements have been found throughout South America. But why did civilization decline? Scientists agree that the reason for this was some kind of large-scale catastrophe, possibly related to climate.

Sweet Mayan Pyramid

The Rise and Decline of the Maya

Numerous archaeological finds indicate that they mastered various crafts, including architectural skills. They were also familiar with mathematics and astronomy, which they used in the construction of temples and pyramids. In addition, they had writing in the form of hieroglyphs.

However, around 850, the Mayans began to abandon their cities. In less than two centuries, only a few isolated settlements remained, which were discovered by the Spanish in 1517. It was not difficult for the colonists to destroy the remnants of the ancient culture at the roots.

"Drought" curse

What happened to the Maya, since the decline occurred in the pre-Columbian era? Many versions have been put forward, among them - civil war, invasion of hostile tribes, loss of trade routes... Only in the early 90s of the last century, after studying the chronicles, it was suggested that the cause was... a banal drought!

It turned out that from about 250 to 800, Mayan cities flourished, their inhabitants reaped rich harvests thanks to abundant rains... But somewhere from 820 onwards, droughts hit the region, lasting for decades. This period just coincided with the beginning of the Mayan collapse.

True, not all cities were abandoned immediately. In the 9th century, people left mainly from settlements located in the southern part of the country, in the territory of modern Guatemala and Belize. But the population of the Yucatan Peninsula, on the contrary, was flourishing. The famous Chichen Itza and some other northern Mayan centers continued to flourish in the 10th century.

Unfortunately, scientists have been forced to struggle with this riddle for quite a long time. Most of the manuscripts were destroyed by Spanish colonialists on the orders of the Catholic Inquisition. Information could only be obtained from calendar records on the sites, analysis of ceramics, and radiocarbon dating of organic materials.

Last December, archaeologists from Britain and the USA were finally able to bring together all the available data and analyze the situation. It turned out that the northern territories also suffered due to droughts, but not immediately. So, at first construction from wood decreased. Rainfall increased briefly in the 10th century and there was a brief flourishing again. However, then droughts returned, and between 1000 and 1075 there was another sharp decline in production - in particular in construction and stone carving.

The 11th century brought even more severe droughts. Researchers believe that this was the driest period in the 2,000 years since the birth of Christ, and even dubbed it a “megadrought.” Precipitation fell steadily from 1020 to 1100. If the north, unlike the south, was somehow able to survive the first wave of droughts, then the Mayans never recovered from the second wave.

True, several settlements still continued to exist - for example, Mayapan in the north flourished in the 13th-15th centuries. But the classic Mayan “megacities” turned into ruins.

Ecological catastrophy

Obviously, the aridity of the climate led to a drop in yields. But the Mayan economy was directly dependent on agriculture. Economic problems led, in turn, to social cataclysms. Food supplies decreased, a struggle for resources began, which fragmented the state.

"We know that Maya territory experienced increasing military and sociopolitical instability as a result of droughts in the 9th century," says Julie Hoggart of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

One way or another, after 1050 the Mayans left the lands of their ancestors and headed to the Caribbean coast and other places where there could be sources of water and fertile lands.

By the way, some experts believe that the Mayans themselves unwittingly became the culprits of disastrous droughts. They actively intervened in the natural environment, in particular, they built a gigantic canal system hundreds of kilometers wide, which allowed them to drain wetlands and turn them into arable land. In addition, they cut down huge tracts of forest to build cities and cultivate arable land. This could lead to local droughts, which, combined with natural climate changes, turned into a real disaster...