Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Pages 302-207
Please post at least three sentences here to demonstrate that you engaged with and thought about the reading. At least part of your post should talk about the Maya, but other parts of your post can ask questions more generally about the Americas as a whole (North, South and Central America).
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21 comments:
The reading mentioned the Dresden Codex but I wanted to explore it a little bit more because the reading didn't explain it well. I learned from Wikipedia that the codices were named after cities in which they were eventually settled in, the Dresden Codex being one of the most important one that has survived. I also found it interesting that the Mayans developed an improved version of paper around the same time as the Romans did. Also, as the reading states, I found the fact that Dresden Codex has remarkable and accurate data on Venus and the other planets interesting.
What rivers in the Moche/Nazca area, "streak the flats" and provide water to the lands?
This is a map showing the lowlands, highlands, and Yucatan of the Mayan civilization.
I also found that the name "Maya" connects to the Mayan people of Central America (Greco-Roman, Hindu, and Mesoamerican Mayans are connected to a source in her entry on the Hindu Maya.
(http://www.menlo.com/folks/davis/Maya_Web/Maya_Name.html)
First off, I was curious to see what a ceiba tree was and here is a picture that I found of it. It is the national tree of Guatemala and they grow very tall and produce fruit. One other question I had was in the reading when it mentioned the Yucatan peninsula and the cultures all along there, I was wondering exactly how the culture would vary between all of these environments? Besides agriculture and climate, what other things in their societies would be different (maybe clothing, food, trade, communication, art)? Something else I found interesting was that one of the rulers jobs is to communicate with the dead. I found out that there are many ritual dances and dramas "in which kings and nobles were transformed into gods by entering a visionary trance, were another means of communication with the spirit world. Marked by singing, the playing of musical instruments, and the shouts and jeers of thousands who came to witness the event, these rituals reaffirmed the king's power to act as a vessel in bringing supernatural powers into his domain for the benefit of his people." (link) It was a priority to keep the dead happy so that they could potentially help the people and the king in times of need. The thing I found most interesting though was that the Moche women were buried so nicely with so many nice things. In most societies, this is uncommon and women are not buried with jewels, and especially not with weapons. I wanted to know if this was normal and were social classes having anything to do with this? According to National Geographic
, "some women were extremely high status and major figures in the Moche state religion." Some of the most precious jewels and weapons were buried with these women because they were important to that society. It is suspected that some weaponry could be gifts from men at the funeral but they represented combat and power for these dead women.
The Wikipedia article on the Mayans mentions that they spoke a variety of different languages. I decided to look into that. There is an entire article about the languages of the Maya. There are 21 Mayan languages with a total of 6 million speakers in the world today. The Mayan languages are divided into four branches: Huastecan, Yucatan, Western (which is subdivided into Ch'olan and Q'anjobalan) and Eastern. This diagram illustrates how the 21 languages are classified. The most commonly spoken Mayan language is Yucatec, which is spoken around the Yucatan Peninsula. Many (if not all) of the Maya languages have a written form that is composed of pictures and symbols called glyphs. This site by the Yamada Language Center has downloadable Mayan fonts and more information on glyphs.
I wanted to learn more about King Pacal and his tomb since the reading spoke about how "the Maya demonstrated common threads of Native American civilizations seen from the Olmecs onward" and how Mayan rulers had responsibility in war, communication with gods and the dead, and building ceremonial centers. These are the reasons that they were so worshipped when they passed away. Just like Pacal was.
. I found this great site. I learned that King Pacal reigned for 67 years until his death at the age of 80. After his death, he was worshiped as a god, and people believe that he communicated with his descendants. The lid on Pacal's tomb, referred to by some as The lid of Palenque, is the most photographed, reproduced and written about stone work of its kind. This site
gave me an idea of what the tomb looked like. The lid has an illustration of the scene of Pacal when he died. It shows him falling down into the jaws of the Underworld with a skeletal monster with him who is carrying a bowl with a sun on it. To many, this is a sign which means "Pacal would be reborn as a god by defeating the Lords of Death who live in the Underworld." His tomb also has "Portraits of his ancestors can be seen around the four sides of his coffin."
These descriptions of the tomb really show how Mayan Kings were really important and respected in times of "economic decline and political unrest."
On the second page it said something about Moche civilization burying their leaders with earspools. This term was unfamiliar to me, so I looked it up and found this site. Its has a description -
“large round ornaments that attach to ears with pegs” and it basically says that earspools are large ornate earrings. See the same site for pictures as well.
ClickHerefor the Site
I Also wanted to know where the Ayacucho was. Here is a map of where it is in modern day Peru.
ClickHere
Here are some Pictures of Cebia Trees
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
I got interested in Mayan architechture. The reading mentioned a few structures with Mayan gods depicted on their tombs, and I wanted to find out more about them. Here is a picture of ruins at Tikal. Tikal is in Guatemala, and it has a temple that faintly shows King Jasaw Chan Kaui'il. Here is a closer image of the temple. I also found from this websitethat Tikal is the largest ancient Mayan city of ruins. This site also said that Tikal had a Classic Period, around 200-900 AD, during which it dominated Mayan civilization economically, politically and militarily. However, that website says there is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan.
In the reading it mentioned something about El Ninos and i decided to research more about that. It says in the reading that El Ninos drove the fish away and caused irrigation problems. El Nino is spanish for the little boy. It usually causes droughts, floods, and other weather disturbances around the world and these can have impact the economy and various agricultural systems. The effect on these systems can have an impact on what is produced and what is sold. In the Moche and Nazca civilizations these irrigation problems and lack of fish are probably what caused their downfall
There were many things that I wanted to look into just to see what it would look like, seeing as the book has very limited visual aids. At first, it mentions on page 306 about King Pacal in Palenque. I didn't know where Palenque was or what it looked like so I found this picture of the ruins there. While I was researching Palenque, I found, interestingly enough, a map of the whole Palenque ruins. It included a large palace, and 5 smaller temples. Looking up King Pacal, I found this picture of his jade mask. I remembered in 6th grade looking at the Mayans using jade a lot, but I wasn't sure why. On the Wikipedia article, it said that the Mayans had control of jade as well as obsidian resources in that area. Also, on the last page, it mentions small fields called milpas. I found this picture of a milpa. The last thing that I looked at was their language mentioned on the last page. This picture shows their alphabet. The Wikipedia page (linked above) said that they used animal hairs as brushes.
Early on, on the first page of the reading it mentions the Andean region (or the Andes). The Andes (according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes) is the longest exposed mountain range on Earth. It is the highest mountain range outside of China. The Inca Empire actually built aqueducts and roads around and in the Andes, as the Northern Andes was where they settled. Some of these still exist today. Here is a small map showing the full reach of the Andes, which extends from one end of South America to the other. http://www.ecuadortouristboard.com/regions/images/map_ecuador_andes_a496h.gif
i was really interested in the Nazca Lines so i did more research on this topic. I found more pictures like these.
picture 1
picture 2
as you can see these are very intricate designs. I also went to wikipedia and found some more about the origin of these amazing lines.
It says that they are to have been made by the Nazca Culture from about 200 BC - AD 700. I also learned that the purpose of these lines were because the Nazca people had a mystery and it was also religious because only the "gods" could see these pictures.
While reading, I read about how the woman was buried not only with gold and valuables but with weapons. I wanted to find out what kind of weapons the maya had.
There were six main weapons that the mayans used. The first is the classic bow and arrow. The second is the knife. The third was the spear. The fourth was the atlatl which was a spear thrower. The tip of the spear which was attached to the atlatl on the arm, would extend into the prey upon impact. The spear could then be reused. The fifth was a club. The final was the sickle. The sickle was a long curved blade which was used for cutting through thick brush and grass.
The reading talked a great deal about Mayan cities, so I was wondering how the surviving ruins looked. First, I found a map of a Mayan City, Becán. Coupled along with the map was a group of pictures of the city. This website provides excellent pictures of the surviving ruins, and it shows how much work was put into building these stone structures.
I looked into a few things.
The first was Andean region. I was caught off guard by this. A quick google search revealed it is the region around the Andes. Seems obvious now, but I'm glad I clearified it.
The second thing was Mesoamerica. I know what the Americas are, and I know that Mesopotamia is the land between the rivers, so I guessed that Mesoamerica was what we know as Central America. I found this picture that clarified it is between North and South America.
I found it interesting that Mayan wars were fought using terror. I did not realize that terror warfare had such a long history.
In seventh grade art we painted part of a Mayan mural, called the Bonampak Mural, so I wanted to learn more about it. Bonampak is located on the Yucatan peninsula that you can see on this map. The murals in the Bonampak temple were made around 790 AD. It depicts a war and the events afterwards including a bloodletting, which seems to be a prominent part of Mayan culture. The mural was first found by foreigners in 1946. Here are some pictures of the mural:
http://www.ancientmexico.com/images/map_bonam-1.gif
http://yaguare.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bnmpk.jpg
http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/6439/3bonampak0hu.jpg
Since the text says that the Moche people bascially worshiped peanuts, potatoes and guinea pigs (they made gold statues from them), they must not have had very much diversity in their food if that was pretty much the best they got.
Here I found a picture of thir golden corn.
I was wondering what the Nasca creations look like (in color) since the text seemed so impressed by them. I found this and this, two pictures of Nasca lines from above.
The reading mentions the last metropolis of Huari, that exsisted from the 700s-1000s. In English they are known as the Wari people. These people that took the surrounding countries by force, eventually taking over all of Peru and destroying any culture that wasn't written down. They were the basis for the ideas of the Inca, developing an advanced road systemg, they also developed earthquake proof buildings. Their defeat was thought to have been cause by the "tall people with fair hair" at Kuelap, but this is uncertain. Source Wari People
I was interested in the Nazca lines. I found a lot of information as well as pictures from this link from Crystalinks. The lines were allegedly made by removing the iron-oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the desert. When the gravel is removed, they contrast with the light color underneath. In this way the lines were drawn as furrows of a lighter color. Off the Pampa, south of the Nazca Lines, archaeologists have now uncovered the lost city of the line-builders, Cahuachi. It was built nearly 2,000 years ago and mysteriously abandoned 500 years later. The Nazca Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920's. Passengers reported seeing 'primitive landing strips' on the ground below. Today people sometimes fly in hot air balloons to view the splendors of the Nazca lines.
when reading i came along the name "Mesoamerica" and i was wondering where that name came from. i honestly couldn't find much on that. but when researching that topic i found this great site
about the artifacts in mesoamerica.
this got me interested in more artifacts from this area and i also found great websites like this one which has a lot of pictures of artifacts from mesoamerica, these were very interesting because compared to other artifacts i've seen these aren't very similar.
When I was reading I came across the Moche Tribe, and I had not heard of them so I decided to look them up.
As I was looking into the Moche, I discovered this link which had some Moche art and I thought that some of the art was very cool.
I found that the Moche Tribe was one of the tribes in the Americas in the Pre-columbian time period.
The reading mentioned a little bit about Mayan Language. I decided to look up the origin and how many languages the Mayans had.
At least 6 million people speak the Mayan language. Primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. In 1996 in Guatemala recognized 21 different Mayan languages and Mexico recognizes 8 more. The Mayan language is one of the best documented and most studied in Americas. Modern Mayan language descended from Proto-Mayan. Proto-Mayan is a language that was spoken at least 5,000 years ago. Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area. Area of linguistic is a convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area.
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