History: Development of Maya

Development of Maya


Maya, the earliest society to rise after the disappearance of Olmescs, was originated in the third century B.C.E. in the Guatemalan highlands, then moved to the Mesoamerican lowlands after fourth century C.E. The Maya had great accomplishments on social society structure and civilization, advanced astronomy development, accurate calculation and matured mathematical logic concepts.
Due to the infertile land, the Mayas developed terraces to trap nutrients to retain the productivity of the land, thus increasing the agricultural efficiency of maize and cotton. Cotton was a highly prized product in both society and for trade in the Mesoamerica region. Moreover, cacao was another wealth gathering source. Cacao, the source of chocolate, was consumed by the nobilities was used as money.
Over six hundred years, the Maya built many large pyramids, palaces, temples, and other settlements in the lowlands, which attracted more people and as a result established cities. Tikal, for example, was the most important Maya political center in this time period; it had gathered huge wealth and reached approximately forty thousand in population during 600 to 800 C.E. Another example is “The Temple of the Giant Jaguar, a stepped pyramid rising sharply to a height of 47 meters (154 feet), which dominated the skyline and represented Tikal’s control over the surrounding region, and had a population of about five hundred thousand” (Bentley, 2010, 71). Another way of gathering the wealth of Maya society was by warfare. The purpose of the warfare was not to kill the enemy or destroy their societies as other groups did, but rather to capture the people for slavery or as victims to sacrifice to the Maya gods. Moreover, as Fink mentioned, “there is no simple way to decipher the impact of powerful forces of war, political mobilization…” (Fink, 2003, 47).
Social status played a big role in Maya society. The lowest social level was made up by slaves and peasants to provide the physical labor needed. The professional architects and sculptors built buildings while the artisans produced materials for household uses as well as trading goods. The nobility organized military forces and participated in religious rituals while the merchants served as traders and ambassadors to other societies. The highest level was the king and the priests who maintained elaborate calendars and studied writing, astronomy, and mathematics.
Mathematically, not only the Mayans were able to calculate the calendar dates, but also they were able to adopt the “zero” concept into their calculation which enabled them to calculate large digit numbers. Moreover, they were able to understand the planet cycles and the eclipses of the sun and the moon; as a result calendars were then established. There were 365 days in Maya calendar, which was calculated by the priest, and was only about half a second different than the modern astronomers calculations. Such accuracy served as evidence of their advanced development of astronomy and as mathematicians. Another calendar the Maya had was the religious calendar which contained 260 days per year, divided time into twenty months with 13 days each, and served as the daily affairs reminder. The two calendars overlapped each other to indicate what people should accomplish each day. It takes fifty-two years for the two calendars to overlap to the same combination day, therefore, the restarting day had great significance for the Mayas.
Mayan writings contained ideographic and syllable symbols which indicated the advanced civilization as well as the maturity of the logical thought process. However, when the Spanish conquerors and missionaries arrived in the sixteenth century, they destroyed most of the books and other civilization evidences. Though only four books exist today, the impact of the astonishing development of literacy, mathematic, and astronomy are still playing an important role in today’s society. The reason for decline of the ancient Mayan society was unclear as Culbert mentioned that “… the theories… seems that many are or were simple straw-man theories.” (Culbert, 1973, 33).
 
Exploration and settlement of Oceania
More than 60,000 years ago, humans migrated to Australia and New Guinea by watercraft. These Oceania then migrated to Bismarcks, Slolmons, and other islands nearby. In about 5,000 years ago, people from southeast Asia settled in the western Pacific Ocean and then established communities in all the islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Once before the sea level rose and divided Australia and New Guinea and people on the land used to hunt and gather food from the wild. However, after the land had separated about 10,000 years ago, people in two different regions started to develop in different paths.
The Austronesian-speaking people had advanced seafaring technologies as well as agricultural skills that they were able to establish human settlements in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. “Their outrigger canoes enabled them to sail safely over long distances of open ocean, and their food crops and domesticated animals enabled them to establish agricultural societies in the island” (Bentley, 2010, 79). Before the Common Era, Austronesian sailors arrived in Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Then by the 700 C.E., they had reached Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Moreover, by explored many lands “these Pacific peoples speak 1200 of the world’s languages” (Winchester, 1991, 60).
While some people stayed in the islands of Polynesia, some sailed away. One group of people migrated from the Philippines to Micronesia, Mariana, Caroline, and Marshal Islands in the western Pacific. Other groups went from Indonesia through the Indian Ocean then settled at Madagascar. Those people sailed out from the Pacific Ocean to establish settlements in the Pacific islands, called Lapita. The Lapita people had communication and trades with each other across the sea from New Guinea to Tonga for 1000 years. The agriculture settlements were productive. They valued objects from other lands more than the ones they could produce. Long distance trading played an important role in the society. Examples for the trading items were the shell jewelry and stone tools.
By 500 B.C.E., the Lapita settlements were able to supply their own needs in the society, which lead to the decline of the long distance trading network. Due to population pressures and conflicts, the Austrinesian people started to spread out to other islands for more opportunities and more land. “This capacity was of special importance at the village level where the evidence of syncretic adaptation is particularly obvious” (Legge, 1965, 50).
 
Byzantium on Eastern Europe and early Russia
By eleventh century, Byzantium expended the government focus on to eastern Europe and Russia. The commonwealth system developed by the Byzantine empire, with the societies in Eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, served as the major reason for the strong influence effect on the people. Although the Byzantine empire end in the fifteenth century C.E., the influence of the Slavic people on political, commercial, and cultural relations were long lasting.
The Byzantine empire was originated from the eastern part of the Roman empire, while the western part of the Roman empire collapsed in the fifth century C.E. The Byzantine empire was located at the Golden Horn, which enables the Byzantion to control the Bosporus. Control of the Bosporus indirectly controlled the countries around the Black Sea, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles, Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean. The capital was named Constantinople, the city of Constantine, by the Roman emperor Constantine, who also had views of his own position in the Church as the Emperor and the Vicar of God” (Beckwith, 1979, 17). Constantinople was the most important political, military, and trading center in the eastern Mediterranean. However, when the Ottoman Turks conquered the region, the Constantinople was then renamed Istanbul. Although the southern region of the Byzantium empire was conquered by the Arab Muslim, the significant power figure, Byzantium, played in the eastern Mediterranean. While the “Islamic faith had seized control of the lands on the Mediterranean’s southern and eastern rims, Byzantines and western Europeans contested the northern rim” (Bentley, 2010, 198). Since eastern Europe and Russia had attentions from Byzantium, the Slavic people was greatly influenced in political, commercial, and cultural aspect.
Relationships between Byzantium and Slavic people started before the sixth century; by the eighth century, major influence in political, commercial, and society of Byzantium began as many Bulgarian ruling families left to Constantinople for formal Greek language and literature education. Another example was Bulgaria adopting Byzantium tradition and government system. Moreover missionaries, such as Saints Cyril and Methodius, were sent from Byzantium to many regions to convert the Slavic people to Orthodox Christianity. They also devised the Cyrillic alphabet, which was adapted from written Greek but represented the sounds of Slavic language. The Cyrillic alphabet increased the conversion of religion in a great way as the missionaries could explain the religious theories in Slavic terms; thus the religion value had deeply influenced the cultural of Slavic people. Moreover, the alphabet is still in use today.
Russia was established by the Slavic people from the northern Bulgaria in the mid-ninth century with a main trade route between Scandinavia and Byzantium. Russian merchants and princes visited and learned knowledge and techniques from Constantinople and eventually adapted the cultural of Byzantium society. In 989 Prince Vladimir of Kiev changed the national religion to Orthodox Christianity, which increased the influence of Byzantium culture to Russia. “In such a time, Russian Christianity, especially Russian Orthodoxy, brings with it the special authority … ”(Billington, 1999, 56). One example is the onion domes of the Russian churches. Moreover, based on the theory, Moscow was the world’s third Rome. Missionaries not only strengthened their faith and were inspirited, but also went on missions to other countries, continuing the legacy and spreading the influences of Byzantium throughout Russia and eastern Europe.
 
Egyptian Achievements
Agriculture in Africa started in the Sudan, then continued to Nile River valley and sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture had great effects in Egypt. Egypt is known as the territory of the modern Egypt today and also includes the lower third of the Nile and the river’s first cataract near Aswan. However, “the big division in Egypt’s control in the north was the river Euphrates” (Mahdy, 1999, 30). Egypt was the most distinguished society of early Africa because it was located in a favorable geographic region and the Egyptians were able to support their powerful society with their productive agricultural economy. Moreover, Egypt was able to trade goods with both eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asian countries. The abundant productivity of Egyptian agriculture was due to the Nile’s annual floods allowing the Egyptians to support their larger population compare to other lands. “Gift of the Nile” was the phrase made by the Greek historian Herodotus to admire the productivity of Egypt.
Pyramids constructed during the Old Kingdom, as royal tombs build in 2600 to 2500 B.C.E., are the most significant evidence of their authority and divinity of the pharaohs. One particular example will be the pyramid of Khufu, “… (also known as Cheops), which involved the precise cutting and fitting of 2.3 million limestone blocks weighing up to 15 tons, with an average weight of 2.5 tons. Scholars estimate that construction of Khufu’s pyramid required the services of some eighty-four thousand laborers working eighty days per year for twenty years”( Bentley et. al, 2010, 31).
Egyptian society established well-defined social classes. The peasants and slaves supplied the hard labor which made complex agriculture society possible; pharaoh was recognized as the supreme ruler of all. Professional military forces, administrators, and tax collectors who served the central government could be attained by people of common birth. Specialized labor and efficient transportation technologies helped the development of trading as well as exchange knowledge and techniques between the Nile valley to other countries. Bronze metallurgy, as an example, was spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt. Moreover, by 1000 B.C.E. Sudanic people were capable of develop iron production technology.
Writing, started at least by 3200 B.C.E., was combination of pictographs with symbols with sounds and ideas, and was called hieroglyphs meant “holy inscriptions” in Greek. The hieroglyphics appears on Egyptian monuments and buildings, as well as papyrus. Moreover, the texts were distinguished as “the world’s oldest religious literature” (Reeves,2000, 60). However, the Egyptians commonly used the hieratic script which was a simplified, cursive form of the hieroglyphs. The Hieratic started in the early 1000 E.C.E., and was used from 2600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E. However, when the Egyptians adapted Greek alphabet and developed the demotic and Coptic scripts, hieratic was then abandoned.
The achievements of Egypt had influenced the later societies. The Egyptian developments in writing, architecture, and religion were learned and adapted throughout the evolution of human society. Egypt had great contributions in regard to the development of more organized and modern societies.


 
Works Cited
Beckwith, John. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, the pelican history of art. New York: Penguin Books, 1979.
Bentley, Jerry H., Heather E. Streets-Salter and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters: a brief global history. 2nd. Vol. I: to 1500. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2010.
Billington, James H. Orthodox Christianity and the Russian Transformation. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999.
Culbert, T. Patrick, ed. The Classic Maya Collapse. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
Fink, Leon. The Maya of Morganton: work and community in the nuevo new south. University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Legge, G. D. Indonesia. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
Mahdy, Christine El. Tutankhamen: the life and death of the boy king. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Reeves, Nicholas. Ancient Egypt: The Great Discoveries. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Winchester, Simon. Pacific Rising: the emergence of a new workd culture. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991.