The history of the Mayan civilization is full of mysteries. One of them is the reason for the sudden disappearance of this ancient people, who reached a surprisingly high level of cultural development.

Origin and habitat

Maya, one of the civilizations of Mesoamerica, began to form around 2000 BC. e. It has developed in the Mexican states of Yucatan and Tabasco, the countries of Guatemala and Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. The area where these ancient tribes lived is divided into three climatic zones: rocky and arid mountainous territory, tropical selva and areas with rich fauna.

There are several theories about the origin of the people, as well as about where the Mayans disappeared. There is a version that they came from Asia, and even a fantastic assumption that they are the descendants of the inhabitants of the mythical Atlantis. Another theory claims that they come from Palestine. As evidence, they cite the fact that many elements are similar to Christian ones (the idea of ​​the coming of the Messiah, the symbol of the cross). In addition, the people are very similar to the Egyptian, and this suggests that it is somehow connected with Ancient Egypt.

Maya Indians: the history of a great civilization

The researchers were lucky - many sources have been preserved, according to which one can draw a picture of the life of this ancient people. Its history is divided into several large periods.

In the preclassic era, the Indians were small tribes, hunting and gathering for food. Around 1000 BC. e. there are many small settlements of farmers. El Mirador is one of the first Mayan cities, now known for its huge pyramidal complex 72 meters high. It was the largest metropolis of the preclassic period.

The next era (400 BC - 250 AD) is characterized by great changes in the life of the Indians. There is a rapid growth of cities, monumental architectural complexes are being erected.

250-600 AD n. e. - the time of the classical era of the development of the people of Mesoamerica. During this period, competing city-states developed. Their architecture was represented by magnificent architectural structures. Usually the buildings were located around a rectangular central square and were decorated with masks of gods and mythological characters carved in stone. The history of the Mayan tribe says that a feature of their settlements was the presence of pyramids up to 15 meters high in the center of cities.

By the end of the classical period, the population of the lowlands of Guatemala had reached an impressive number of 3 million people.

The late classical period is the time of the highest flowering of the culture of the ancient people of Mesoamerica. Then the great cities were founded - Uxmal, Chichen Itza and Coba. The population of each of them ranged from 10 to 25 thousand people. The history of the Mayan tribe cannot but surprise - at the same time there were no such large settlements in medieval Europe.

Mayan occupations and crafts

The main occupations of the Indians were agriculture (slash-and-burn and irrigation), beekeeping and crafts. They grew maize (the main crop), beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, various types of peppers, tobacco, cotton, sweet potato and various spices. An important crop was cocoa.

The Mayans were engaged in the cultivation of fruits. Now it is difficult to say which of the fruit trees were cultivated. Residents used papaya, avocado, ramon, chicosapote, nance, maranion for food.

Despite the high level of development, the Maya never stopped gathering. Palm leaves were used as material for roofing and basket weaving, the collected resin was used as incense, and flour was made from koroso.

Hunting and fishing were also among the main occupations of the Indians.

It is clear from archaeological research that skilful artisans lived in Yucatan and Guatemala: gunsmiths, weavers, jewelers, sculptors and architects.

Architecture

The Maya are known for their majestic buildings: pyramidal complexes and palaces of rulers. In addition, they created beautiful sculptures and bas-reliefs, the main motifs of which were anthropomorphic deities.

sacrifices

Among the buildings that have survived to this day, the main part is occupied by buildings of a religious nature. This fact and other sources allow us to conclude that religion occupied a central place in the life of the Maya. They are known for their bloodletting rites and human sacrifices to the gods. The most cruel of the rites was burying the victim alive, as well as ripping open the stomach and tearing the heart out of the body of a still living person. Not only captives were sacrificed, but also fellow tribesmen.

The mystery of the disappearance of the people

The question of where the Maya disappeared continues to interest many researchers. It is known that by the 9th century the southern territories of the Indians began to empty. For some reason, the inhabitants began to leave the city. This process soon spread to the central Yucatan. Where did the Mayans go and why did they leave their homes? There is no answer to this question yet. There are hypotheses that try to explain the sudden disappearance of one of the peoples of Mesoamerica. Researchers name the following reasons: enemy invasions, bloody uprisings, epidemics and ecological catastrophe. Perhaps the Maya upset the balance between nature and man. The rapidly growing population has finally depleted natural resources and began to experience serious problems with a lack of fertile soil and drinking water.

The latest hypothesis about the decline of the Mayan civilization suggests that this was due to a severe drought, which led to the devastation of cities.

None of these theories has received serious confirmation, and the question of where the Maya disappeared is still open.

Modern Maya

The ancient people of Mesoamerica did not disappear without a trace. He survived in his descendants - the modern Maya Indians. They continue to live in the homeland of their famous ancestors - in Guatemala and Mexico, preserving their language, customs and way of life.

Photo: Mark Large - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The disappearance of the mysterious Mayan civilization is still considered a mystery to scientists. When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century to conquer the Maya, the once-advanced civilization was already in serious decline. Many limestone cities were already overgrown with jungle by the arrival of the conquistadors, and the economic and political strength of the people had disappeared. What happened to the mysterious culture that built the famous pyramids and made many scientific discoveries?

The Maya began to leave their cities around 850 CE. e. Only limited settlements remained from the former civilization. Researchers are considering different options for the death of civilization. An international group of scientists from the USA and Great Britain put forward a new version of the collapse of the mysterious people.

The researchers studied all the data obtained in the former territory of the Maya during the entire history of excavations. This helped them describe the political situation of the ancient civilization and compare it with the climatic changes that took place during that period.

Maya killed by drought?

Previously, one of the versions of the decline of the Maya was considered a drought that came in the 9th century. However, the inscriptions on stones and pottery showed that even during the period of drought, people in the northern territories of the country remained creatively and socially active. Northern cities such as Chichen Itza and other centers flourished well into the 10th century. This suggests that the southern territories, located on the site of modern Guatemala and Belize, suffered more from the drought. This aggravated an already unstable political situation.

Scientists believe that the southern regions affected by the drought began to fight with the northern ones for food resources, and this led to a serious fragmentation of the ancient state. Climatic data show that in the 11th century there was an even more severe drought, after which the northern Maya began to decline. Thus, two severe droughts against the backdrop of political instability did their job, putting an end to the Mayan empire.

Conflict, drought and technology

New research by scientists confirms previous hypotheses about the death of the Maya. In particular, one of the versions of the collapse of civilization was deforestation to clear land, which exacerbated the effect of drought. Fertile lands became less and less, and people began to leave the places of their ancestors in search of water sources. Thus, the Maya moved to the Caribbean coast, losing their culture.

In the 16th century, the Spaniards tried to conquer the remnant of the Mayan civilization. Along the way, they bring diseases that were not previously known to the Maya. This exacerbates the already deplorable state of the people. In 1697, the last independent Mayan city of Tayasal was completely subordinated to Spain. Today, about 6.1 million Maya live on the Yucatan Peninsula. They continue to live in the homeland of their famous ancestors - in Guatemala and Mexico, preserving their language, customs and way of life.

: Rise and disappearance of the Mayan state

One of the many secrets is connected with the Maya. A whole people, consisting mainly of city dwellers, suddenly left their solid and strong homes, said goodbye to the streets, squares, temples and palaces and moved to the far wild north. None of these settlers ever returned to their old place. The cities were deserted, the jungle rushed into the streets, weeds ran rampant on stairs and stairs; in the grooves and grooves, where the wind brought the smallest pieces of earth, forest seeds were brought in, and they sprouted sprouts here, destroying the walls. Never again has a human foot set foot on stone-paved courtyards, climbed the steps of the pyramids.

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

Perhaps some terrible epidemic broke out in the country? But we do not have any data that would testify that only the miserable, feeble remnants of the once numerous and strong people went on a long campaign. On the contrary, the people who built such cities as Chichen Itza were undoubtedly strong and in the prime of their lives.

Maybe, finally, the climate suddenly changed in the country, and therefore further life became impossible here? But from the center of the Old Kingdom to the center of the New Kingdom in a straight line no more than four hundred kilometers. Climate change, about which, by the way, there is also no data that could so dramatically affect the structure of an entire state, would hardly have affected the area where the Maya moved.

There are still many secrets of the ancient Mayan civilization, maybe in 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 formed the Mayan region, with mountains and valleys, dense forests and waterless plains. The Maya region includes modern Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador. Over the next 6,000 years, the local population moved from a semi-nomadic existence of hunter-gatherers to a more sedentary agricultural lifestyle. They learned to grow corn and beans, grind grain with a variety of stone tools, and cook food. Gradually, settlements arose.

Around 1500 B.C. 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 the centuries of the glorious Mayan civilization begins.

"PRE-CLASSICAL" PERIOD (1500 BC-250 AD)

People acquired some agricultural skills, learned how to increase the yield of fields. Throughout the Mayan region, densely populated rural-type settlements arose. Around 1000 B.C. e. the villagers of Cuello (on the territory of Belize) made pottery and buried the dead. Observing the prescribed ceremonial: pieces of green stone and other valuable items were placed in the grave. The Mayan art of this period shows the influence of the Olmec civilization, which arose in Mexico on the Gulf coast and established trade relations with all of Mesoamerica. Some scholars believe that the ancient Maya owe the creation of a hierarchical society and royal power to the Olmec presence in the southern regions of the Maya region from 900 to 400 BC. e.

The power of the Olmecs was over. The growth and prosperity of the southern trading cities of the Maya begins. From 300 B.C. e. to 250 AD e. there are such large centers as Nakbe, El Mirador and Tikal. The Maya achieved significant advances in scientific knowledge. Ritual, solar and lunar calendars are used. They are a complex system of interconnected calendars. This system allowed the Mayans to fix the most important historical dates, make astronomical forecasts and boldly look into such distant times, which even modern specialists in the field of cosmology cannot judge. Their calculations and records were based on a flexible system of counting, which included a symbol for zero, unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and in the accuracy of astronomical calculations they surpassed other civilizations of their time.

Of all the ancient cultures that flourished in the Americas, only the Maya had a developed writing system. And it was at this time that Mayan hieroglyphic writing began to develop. Mayan hieroglyphs are like miniature drawings crammed 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 the vertical planes of stone stairs, on the walls of tombs, and also written on the pages of codes, on pottery. About 800 hieroglyphs have already been read, and scientists are deciphering new ones with unflagging interest, as well as giving new interpretations to already known symbols.

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

EARLY "CLASSICAL" PERIOD (AD 250-600)

By 250 AD Tikal and the neighboring city of Washaktun 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 working class of farmers, artisans, and merchants subordinate to it. Thanks to the excavations, we have learned that the social stratification in Tikal concerned, first of all, the dwelling. While ordinary community members lived in villages scattered here and there among the forests, the ruling elite received 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. on 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 had its own exit. "Palaces" served as a home for important people, in addition, the city administration was probably located here.

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

LATE "CLASSIC" PERIOD (AD 600-900)

The classical Mayan culture, which is characterized by the 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 equally influential centers are emerging. Palenque thrives in the west of the Maya region. 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, the royal tomb and other buildings. But most importantly, the sculptural images and hieroglyphic inscriptions that abound in these structures give us an idea of ​​what the rulers and the people obedient to them considered the main thing. After studying all the monuments, one gets the impression that during this period there were some changes in the role that was assigned to the ruler, and these changes indirectly indicate the cause of the collapse of such a seemingly prosperous civilization as the Maya civilization was in the "classic period".

In addition, at four different sites in Palenque, Pacal and his heir erected the so-called royal registers, steles with records of the members of the ruling dynasty, tracing its roots back to 431 CE. e. Apparently, these two were very concerned about proving their rightful 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 the maternal line. This is what happened to Pacal. Since the Mayan right to the throne was usually passed down 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 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, the 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 Kopan considered it necessary to count their royal line from him. Of his 15 royal descendants, the energetic Smoke-Jaguar, who ascended the throne in 628 and ruled for 67 years, lived the longest. Known as the Great Instigator, Jaguar Smoke led Copan to unprecedented prosperity, greatly expanding its dominions, possibly through territorial wars. The noble people who served under him probably became the rulers of the conquered cities. During the reign of Jaguar Smoke, 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 inter-dynastic marriages, and in culture - art and religion - these cities had much in common.

Art continues to develop, artisans supply the nobility with various exquisite handicrafts. The construction of ceremonial buildings and numerous stelae 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 declined. In 822, a political crisis shook Copan; the last dated inscription in Tikal is from 869.

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

The depletion of natural resources, the decline of agriculture, overcrowding of cities, epidemics, invasions from outside, social upheavals and ongoing wars - all of this, both together and separately, could cause the decline of the Mayan civilization in the southern lowlands. By 900 A.D. e. Construction on this territory stops, the once crowded cities, abandoned by the inhabitants, turn into ruins. But the Maya culture still lives in the northern Yucatan. Such beautiful cities as Uxmal, Kabakh, Sayil, Labna in the hilly region of Puuk exist until the year 1000.

Historical chronicles on the eve of the conquest and archeological 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 the new living conditions. And after a short time, a kind of syncretic culture appeared, combining Mayan and Toltec features. In the history of Yucatan, a new period began, which received the name "Mexican" in the 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 time of prosperity began for the city, lasting 200 years. Already by 1200, a huge building area (28 square kilometers), majestic architecture and magnificent sculpture suggests 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, predominantly 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 Yucatán Maya seem to have waged more violent wars among themselves than those waged by their brethren to the south. Although detailed descriptions of specific battles are not available, it is known that warriors from Chichen Itza fought against warriors from Uxmal and Coba, and later Mayapan people attacked and sacked Chichen Itza.

According to scientists, the influence of other peoples who invaded the territory of the Maya affected the behavior of the northerners. 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 Maya called "Itza". These people, as the remaining descendants of the Maya 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 repeats other Mayan cities, then Mayapan in this case was quite different from the general scheme. Mayapan, walled, was a chaotic city. In addition, there were no huge temples here. The main Mayapan pyramid 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 Maya society gradually switched to business relations, paying less and less attention to the ancient gods.

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

Mayapan fell in 1441 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 Maya civilization, which had risen from the jungles of Central America to an unprecedented height and sunk into the abyss of oblivion. Mayapan was the last city in the Yucatan that managed to subjugate other cities. After its fall, the confederation broke up into 16 competing mini-states, each of which fought for territorial advantages with the help of its own army. In the constantly flaring wars, the cities were raided: mostly young men were captured to replenish the army or sacrifice them, the fields were set on fire to force the 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 Maya 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, bearded people who come from the east ... This is the beginning of destruction." But the same books also warn that not only external circumstances, but the Maya themselves, will be to blame for what happens. "And there were no more happy days," says the prophecy, "sense has left us." One might think that long before this last conquest, the Maya knew that their glory would fade and the ancient wisdom would be forgotten. And yet, as if anticipating future attempts by 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 in science and medicine.

Medicine. The Maya's medical knowledge was at a very high level: they knew anatomy very well, and they trepanned skulls very well. However, their ideas were also quite contradictory - they could consider a bad year according to the calendar, or sins, or wrong 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 Maya knew about contagious diseases, in the Mayan vocabulary there were many words with which they characterized various painful human conditions. Moreover, many nervous diseases and the mental state of a person have been described separately. To stimulate and anesthetize childbirth, various medicinal and narcotic herbs were used, which were grown in separate pharmacy gardens.
Mathematics. The Maya used a vigesimal number system, as well as a positional system for writing numbers, when the numbers are one after the other from the first order to the next. This system of notation is also used by us, and is called the Arabic Numerical System. But unlike the Europeans, the Mayans themselves thought of this thousands of years earlier. Only the record of Mayan numbers is not built horizontally, but vertically (in a column).
Another striking fact about Mayan mathematical knowledge is the use of zero. This means the greatest progress in the field of abstract thinking.
The amazing knowledge of the Mayan civilization is reflected in the Mayan calendar. He is known throughout the world for his amazing accuracy and competes in perfection with modern computer calculations.

Mayan mysteries

Maya artists created their countless treasures. The ritual objects were meant to please the gods. Stone, carved, clay, polished or painted in bright colors - they all had a symbolic meaning. So, a hole in a painted dish shows that the dish is “killed” and that its liberated soul can accompany the deceased in the afterlife.

The Maya knew neither metal tools nor the potter's wheel, but their earthenware is graceful and beautiful. Grinding powders and stone tools were used to work with jade, flint, and shells. Artisans - the Maya knew the difference between materials. Favored by the ancient Maya for its beauty, rarity, and supposed magical powers, jade was especially prized by ancient craftsmen, although it required patience and ingenuity to work it. Grooves, curls, holes, etc. were made with wooden saws or bone drills. Polishing was carried out using hard plant fibers extracted from bamboo or gourd shoots, the cells of which contain microscopic particles of solid mineral substances. A huge number of figurines made of jade, depicting people and animals, have the shape of a wedge: the ancient stone cutters used such a shape of the product so that they could, on occasion, be used as a tool. After a little refinement, these beautiful stone crafts could turn into amulets or figurines of people and gods. The found elegant green necklace, dating back to the preclassical era, tells us that it is not a simple person, but endowed with power and standing on the top rung of the social ladder.

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

Of the many cities that rose among the hills of Puuk in the “late classical period” (700-1000 AD), three cities are especially distinguished by the splendor of planning and architecture - Uxmal, Sayil and Labna: massive quadrangles of buildings are lined with limestone on the facade, round columns with square capitals stand at the door jambs, the upper part of the facade is decorated with an elegant stone mosaic made of flint.

The strict organization of space, the splendor and complexity of the architecture, the very panorama of 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 was 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 form of a snake. The doomed, completely naked, were taken in turn up the stairs. ”There, laying a 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, cut open the chest of the victim, pulled 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, threw his heart in his face, after which he pushed the body down the stairs, and it rolled down, ”Stephens wrote about this sacred action with horror.

The main archaeological research was carried out in Chichen Itza, the last capital of the Maya. The ruins have been liberated from the jungle, the remains of buildings are visible from all sides, and the one: 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 structure, the windows of which are cut in such a way that a certain star is visible from each; they inspected the large squares for the ancient ball game, of which the largest one is one hundred and sixty meters long and forty wide, - on these grounds the "golden youth" of the Maya 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 its upper peak there is a temple of the god Kukulkan - the “Feathered Serpent”.

The sight of all these images of snake heads, gods, processions of jaguars is intimidating. Wishing 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 would not be associated with astronomical calculations. Two crosses on the brow ridges; snake heads, a jaguar claw in the ear of the god Ku-kulkan, the shape of the gate, the number of “dew beads” and the shape of repeated staircase motifs - all this expresses time and numbers. Nowhere were numbers and times expressed in such a bizarre way. But if you want to discover 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 diverse 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, a flower of Bombax aquaticum was seen - a tree growing halfway in the 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 upwards, among the Maya depict the bodies of snakes, wriggling reptiles.

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

The Dutchman Guillermo Dupe, who served for many years in the Spanish army in Mexico, was an educated man who was fond of antiquity and was commissioned by the Spanish king Charles G. to explore the cultural monuments of Mexico in the pre-Hispanic period.

Having hardly reached Palenque, Dupe was indescribably delighted with architecture, exterior decoration of buildings: colorful patterns depicting birds, flowers, bas-reliefs full of drama. “The poses are very dynamic and at the same time majestic. Clothes, though luxurious, never cover the body. The head is usually decorated with helmets, crests and fluttering 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 a normal head, could in no way be 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 has an interesting evidence of the flood "Code Rios". Ironically, the Catholic clergy, who destroyed the original Mayan manuscripts, kept rare copies of them.

The Rios Code tells about the creation of the world and the death of the first people. There were children who were fed by a wonderful tree. A new race of people has formed. But after 40 years, the gods brought down a flood on the earth. One pair survived, hiding in a tree.

After the flood, another race was reborn. But after 2010 years, an unusual hurricane destroyed people; the survivors turned into monkeys, which were gnawed by the jaguar.

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

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

If we carefully look at the map, we will see that the Old Kingdom occupied a kind of triangle, the corners of which were formed by Washaktun, Palenque and Copan. It will not escape our attention that the cities of Tikal, Naranjo and Piedras Negras were located on the sides of the corners or directly inside the triangle. We can now conclude that, with one exception (Benque Viejo), all the last cities of the Old Kingdom, in particular Ceibal, Ishkun, Flores, were within this triangle.

When the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan, the Maya had thousands of handwritten books made from natural material, but some of them were burned, some settled in private collections. Inscriptions were also found on the walls of temples and steles. In the 19th century scientists knew about 3 books - codes named after the city in which each text was discovered (Dresden, Paris and Madrid codes; later the 4th code was found - the Grolier Code). Ernst Forstemann, Chief Royal Librarian in Dresden, studied the codex for 14 years and understood the principle of the Mayan calendar. And the studies 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 deciphered, and archaeologists have made many amazing discoveries.

So, Yuri Knorozov came to the conclusion that the writing system of the Maya Indians is mixed. Some signs should convey morphemes, and some - sounds and syllables. This writing system is called hieroglyphic.

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

The ancient Maya used a vigesimal number system, or account. 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 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 alleged India (and he believed that the land he discovered was India), his ship passed by the shores of the northern part of modern Honduras and met a canoe near the island of Guanaia, -lannoe from a whole tree trunk, 1.5 m wide. It was a trading boat, and Europeans were offered copper plates, stone axes, ceramics, cocoa beans, cotton clothes.

In 1517, three Spanish ships on their way to capture slaves landed on an unknown island. Having repelled the attack of the Maya warriors, the Spanish soldiers, when dividing the booty, found jewelry made of gold, and the gold should have belonged to the Spanish crown. Hernan Cortes, having conquered the great Aztec empire in the central part of Mexico, sent one of his captains to the south to conquer new territories (the modern states of Guatemala and El Salvador). By 1547, the Mayan conquest was complete, although some tribes took refuge in the dense forests of the central part of the 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, claimed the lives of millions of Maya. The Spaniards brutally eradicated their religion: they destroyed temples, smashed shrines, robbed, and those who were seen in idolatry, the missionary monks stretched on the rack, scalded with boiling water, and punished with whips.

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

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

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

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

Interesting facts about the Maya.

1. Numerous representatives of the Maya culture still live in their former regions. In fact, there are 7 million Maya, many of whom have been able to preserve important evidence of their ancient cultural heritage.
2. The Maya had strange ideas about beauty. At an early age, a board was applied to the forehead of babies so that it was flat. They also liked cross-eyedness: they put a large bead on the bridge of the nose of children so that they would constantly look askance at it. Another interesting fact is that Mayan children were often named after the day they were born.
3. They loved saunas. An important cleansing element for the ancient Maya was a diaphoretic bath: hot stones were poured with water to create steam. Everyone, from women who have recently given birth to kings, used such baths.
4. They also liked to drive the 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 with the local indigenous population.
5. The last Mayan country existed until 1697 (the island city of Thaya). Now the lands under the buildings are mostly owned by one family, and the monuments themselves belong to the government.
6. The Maya did not know how to process metal - their weapons were equipped with stone tips, or tips made from sharp shells. But! Maya warriors used hornet nests (“hornet bombs”) as throwing weapons to create panic in the ranks of the enemy - resourceful.
7. And yet, they say, the Mayans were very fond of guinea pigs. Well, how they loved ... They got very tasty meat and magnificent fluff from the poor.

By the way, the Maya 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 bringing?) and, depending on which kin is yours (which corresponds to your birthday) - you can judge your character, life goals and blablabla. And depending on which kin is assigned to today, you can judge your luck, well-being and other crap, which is usually written in horoscopes.
By the way, it's pretty interesting stuff. And the Mayan astrological characteristics of kin personalities are quite true, although I usually prefer not to believe in astrology.

The sudden disappearance of the Maya has a special term in historical science called collapse. This romantic legend dates back to the middle of the 19th century, the time of the rediscovery of the Mayan civilization by the American John L. Stephens and the Englishman Frederick Catherwood. Since 1838, these explorers have been scouring the jungles of Central America in search of lost Mayan cities. The work resulted in two volumes of adventures written in 1841 and 1843. The authors describe in detail their travels to the Yucatan. The books were beautifully illustrated by Catherwood and introduced into the minds of people the image of a people fanned by myths and legends, which disappeared from the face of the Earth almost in one day. Unfortunately, this myth continues to exist safely today.
To understand the mystery of the life and disappearance of the Maya, it is necessary to abandon the established versions that arose in the 19th century and consider civilization in the context of the entire history of this territory. The Maya belong to a cultural area called Mesoamerica and extending north from the 21st parallel to Costa Rica, including central and eastern Mexico, as well as almost the entire territory of Central America, the isthmus of Tehuantepec up to the San José region in Costa Rica. The territory of the Maya is just the same and is included in its entirety in this conglomerate. Thus, the history of the Maya is inseparable from the history of the development and development of this region. If taken out of the given geographical and historical context, it appears to us mysterious and absolutely inexplicable. It turns out that in order to understand it, you just need to broaden your horizons.
Mesoamerica is a large multicultural territory, where for many years different peoples coexisted, each speaking their own language and each having their own culture. The peculiarity of the Mesoamerican civilization is that it came from the merger of the nomadic group of Nauas peoples and the indigenous sedentary population, to which the Maya and Otomis belonged. The Nauas, who did not have a settled habitat, scattered throughout Mesoamerica, crowding the local population and mixing with it. Ultimately, the nomadic people served as cement for constructing a single ethnic identity in this region.
For 3 centuries the Mayan culture developed under the shadow of Nahuas rule. The conquerors contributed to the flourishing of Mayan cities such as Copan, Tikal, Yaksuna, Yakstun, Uxmal, Bekan, to such an extent that some modern archaeologists, based on the results of excavations, believe that the first Mayan rulers were in fact from the Nahuas people. From 450 AD e. Maya culture is experiencing its highest flowering, little by little it is freed from the general Mesoamerican influence, discovering more and more new horizons in individual development. But only from the 7th century. AD the Maya have access to control and power. For two centuries from 650 to 850. n. e. there is a so-called technical progress: pyramids are being built, places of worship are being reconstructed, city streets are expanding, dwellings are being improved. Myriads of sculptors are racing to capture in stone the faces of the rulers during their lifetime, the nobility builds magnificent mausoleums. Ceramics reaches unprecedented perfection. Writing and art are developing, accessible, however, mainly only to representatives of the authorities. Each city cultivates its own, unlike others, architectural style. It seems that the cities are using all possible means to somehow stand out from the crowd and seize the long-awaited power and the right to be called the first among equals. Unfortunately, such a surge of cultural activity has led to a cultural imbalance. After 850, the Maya never again achieved such a flourishing.

This is the very first photo of the Mayan ruins. We owe it to the Frenchman Desire Charnay, who in 1859, together with the heaviest photographic equipment, entered the heart of Chichen Itza, abandoned centuries ago. The picture shows the facade of the Nonnes extension, almost completely hidden by the jungle.

A natural question would be: why did the Maya, practically assimilated and enslaved by a nomadic people, produce a truly unique cultural explosion in 600? Perhaps this is due precisely to the fact that the former Nahuas dynasties fell into decay, and the indigenous population got the opportunity to take the reins of government? And, indeed, we observe that from the 7th century. the main cultures and peoples of central Mexico - Teotihuacan and Monte Alban disappear in almost one generation. The crisis of power or religious, the degeneration of dynastic families that owned the region for 18 centuries - perhaps all this together served as the basis for the Maya to come to the fore in the hierarchy of all the peoples of this region. Thus, the bipolarity of power (nomads - settled population) is gradually leaving, giving way to the Maya people, who originally lived on these lands. For the only time in their history, they are finally able to expand beyond their range and spread throughout central Mexico.
After only 200 years, the panorama changes dramatically. Starting from 850, all building activity stops. Stellas, with chronological records of events, punctually built every 20 years, now appear irregularly, and then again disappear from use.
The last date known to us for the so-called "long reckoning period" was found on a stele from Tonina in Chiapas. On it is engraved: 10.4.0.0.0., which in our chronology corresponds to 909 AD. Some cities in the Central American Lowlands, in the heart of the Guatemalan Petén, were simply abandoned. What happened? It is from this question that all the incredible legends about the disappearance of the Maya originate.
One of the hypotheses that has been very fashionable lately in connection with the issue of global warming is climate. It was expressed at the end of the last century by Richardson B. Guillem. However, it seems to us very controversial. The essence of the hypothesis is that the Mayan peoples suffered a period of colossal drought that lasted a long time. The drought led to a shortage of the most necessary for food, which, in turn, led to a large mortality among the population. The author of this theory believes that the drought was caused not only by natural causes, but also was the result of human activities. The indigenous population increased, along with it, for the construction of new cities, deforestation intensified. The decrease in forest mass led to a decrease in precipitation in the region, which led to drought.
Further, the author of the hypothesis believes that the Maya from Petén, those who did not die on the spot, most likely went to the north of the Yucatan, or south to the Upper Lands of Guatemala, not so dry, where one could escape from hunger. However, let's take a look. Do not think that pre-Hispanic America did not know droughts at all and was not ready for them. Surely, it happened that the entire crop died due to lack of moisture. But the social system that developed at that time throughout Mesoamerica also suggested such an option. That is why the barns and attics in many of the towns found were literally crammed with corn, which tends to last up to 400 years without any harmful changes. It was she who served as a means of subsistence in less productive years, when the main food supply was eaten.
Let's ask ourselves the question: is it possible that in Petan the drought lasted for 30 years, without giving a chance to harvest a single crop? The hypothesis itself, by the way, is based on the results of work carried out on Lake Yucatan by climatologists Hodell, Curtis and Brenner. The purpose of the work was to study the evolution of climate over a long period of time. Scientists have come to the conclusion that indeed the period from 800 to 1000 years. AD was drier than before and after. Recall, however, that this method is very well applicable for studying climate dynamics within millennia, however, in our case it cannot serve as relevant, since its error, and scientists themselves talk about it, is of the order of the 1st century. It turns out that we cannot say for sure whether the drought began in 700 or in 1100.
Geographic surveys also contradict the hypothesis of a drought that destroyed the Maya civilization. To begin with, we note the fact that the Yucatan Peninsula receives a sufficient share of precipitation annually, approximately 1 m in the Mérida region in the north, 2 m in Flores, in the center and 4 m in the south in Petan. This is 6 times more than the annual rainfall in France. The territory of Mesoamerica is also very different, for example, from the desert and rocky southern coasts of Peru, where El Niño-like climatic phenomena seriously affect the population and crops. Based on historical and contemporary meteorological data, we can, with a pure heart, exclude a period of unprecedented drought that hit the Mayan civilization in the Middle Ages. Also, if we look at a map of the central and southern part of the Yucatan Peninsula, we will find a rather significant system of rivers on it. Rio Motagua in the southwest, Rio Usumacinta in the southeast - two fairly strong rivers with many tributaries. In the east, from the Caribbean side, Rio Hondo and Rio Belize are navigable all year round; in the east, two rivers flow into the Gulf of Mexico - Rio Candelaria and Rio Champoton. And, despite the fact that there is not a single significant river in the north of the peninsula, this large karst plateau is washed by a huge amount of groundwater located in various places at a depth of 2 to 75 m below ground level. All this fresh water is quite available for use thanks to the numerous failures of the earth's crust, which received the Maya name "zonot", which then passed into the Spanish "cenote", which means "underground lake". All settlements known to this day in the north of Yucatan are in close proximity to such underground lakes. In addition, the Maya built a large number of hydraulic structures: distribution and irrigation canals, drainage pits, reservoirs for storing rainwater, the so-called pans, at the bottom of which circular wells or dome-shaped pits lined with stones, called "chultun" were hollowed out. Among other things, the north and center of Yucatan include many lakes and lagoons, such as, for example, Peten Itza. None of the ongoing climate studies so far has shown that all of these water bodies have dried up at any time.
Ultimately, the mystery of the disappearance of the Maya crumbles to dust as soon as we begin to consider the history of this civilization in the context of the historical development of the entire peninsula. It seems to us correct to believe that the Maya fell victim to the same nomadic Nauas people, who did not appear on the scene for almost 2 centuries. This time, the conquerors came from central Mexico, where the peoples from the central Altiplano, known in history as the Toltecs, come to power. The Toltecs took power from the Nahuas and created a kind of federal state that absorbed both the Nahuas and the Maya.
Most likely, the story developed according to two scenarios. Those cities that submitted to the new government without resistance were not destroyed, and then the period of their flourishing began again. This happened in most of the northern Yucatan, the city of Uxmaloua Chichen Itza remained intact, and the Upper Lands in Guatemala were not devastated. However, the Mayan centers were destroyed. Most likely this happened because the population did not want to submit to the nomads again. Initially, the names of the Nahuas warlords appear on steles. The general Seibal, for example, is depicted on the stele with a scroll in his hand, which means that the sculptor equated him with the Mexican "tlatoani" (chief of the city-state). Little by little the Mayan glyphs become less and less wordy. The general style of cities is getting poorer. Then the erection of steles stops: there are no more Mayan rulers, all of whose actions must be recorded for history. A massive outflow of the Mayan population from Peten begins to the north or south of the peninsula. According to estimates, only a tenth of the inhabitants decided not to leave their homes.

In Copan (pictured), as well as in other cities, steles were erected at the place of sacrifice. They were engraved with the date and the name of the ruler they represented. The last of the stelae, found at Tonin, confirms the abandonment of the city by its inhabitants in 909 AD.

Numerous destructions in Mayan cities testify that the new government did its best to suppress the resistance of the indigenous population, this is especially noticeable in Peten. The migration of civilians always accompanies the military victories of the enemy. Thus, we see that the Maya did not disappear overnight from the face of the Earth. The symbols of their civilization were destroyed: pyramids, palaces, stone scrolls, on which the Mayan conquests were inscribed. Between 850 and 900 the Maya are diligently assimilated by the entire population of Mesoamerica, now controlled by the Nahuas. From that moment on, the Mayan people are forced to disperse and mix with other peoples.
With the arrival of the Spaniards in America, the Mayan lands remain densely populated. According to our calculations, the entire population that spoke the Mayan language at that time was about 7-8 million people. It was the Maya who resisted the Spanish colonization for the longest time, to such an extent that the city of Taysal, dating back to the pre-Columbian period, existed almost in its original form along with the indigenous population until 1697.

The ancient Maya 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 some kind of large-scale catastrophe, possibly related to the climate, became the reason for this.

Sweet Mayan Pyramid

The rise and fall of the Maya

Numerous archaeological finds indicate that they owned various crafts, including architectural craftsmanship. 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 Maya began to leave their cities. In less than two centuries, only a few isolated settlements remained, which were discovered in 1517 by the Spanish. It was not difficult for the colonists to destroy the remnants of the ancient culture to the root.

"Dry" Curse

What happened to the Maya, because the decline occurred in the pre-Columbian era? Many versions were put forward, among them - a civil war, the invasion of hostile tribes, the 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 prospered, their inhabitants gathered a rich harvest due to abundant rains ... But somewhere from 820, droughts hit the region, lasting for decades. This period just coincided with the beginning of the collapse of the Maya.

True, not all cities were immediately abandoned. In the 9th century, people left mainly from the settlements located in the southern part of the country, on 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 Maya centers continued to flourish well into the 10th century.

Unfortunately, scientists have long been forced to fight over this riddle. Most of the manuscripts were destroyed by the Spanish colonialists on the orders of the Catholic Inquisition. Information could only be obtained from calendar records on monuments, analysis of ceramics, and radiocarbon dating of organic materials.

Last December, archaeologists from Britain and the United States were finally able to bring together all the available data and analyze the situation. It turned out that the northern territories also suffered from droughts, but not immediately. So, at first the construction of wood was reduced. In the 10th century, rainfall increased briefly and there was a brief flowering again. However, droughts then resumed, 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 2000 years that have passed since the birth of Christ, and even dubbed it "mega-drought". Precipitation fell steadily from 1020 to 1100. If the north, unlike the south, somehow managed to survive the first wave of droughts, then the Mayans did not recover from the second wave.

True, several settlements still continued to exist - for example, Mayapan in the north flourished as early as the 13th-15th centuries. But the classic "megacities" of the Maya 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 stocks decreased, the struggle for resources began, which fragmented the state.

"We know that Maya territory was subject to increasing military and sociopolitical instability due to the droughts of the ninth century," says Julie Hoggart of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

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

By the way, some experts believe that the Maya themselves unwittingly became the perpetrators of disastrous droughts. They actively intervened in the natural environment, in particular, they built a giant system of canals 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 in order to build cities and cultivate arable land. This could lead to local droughts, which, together with natural climate changes, turned into a real disaster ...