The Ancient Maya Civilization

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The Ancient Maya Civilization
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The Art Of Maya

• The art of the ancient Maya reached its
  development during the classical period (about
  250 - 900 A.D.). Wall frescoes in Palenque,
  Kopane and Bonompack considered to be one of the
  most beautiful. The beauty of the images of
  people on the frescoes allow you to compar the
  monuments of culture with monuments of the
  ancient culture of the world. Therefore, this
  period of development of the Mayan civilization,
  and it is considered a classic. Unfortunately,
  many of the cultural monuments have not survived
  to our days, as they were either destroyed by the
  Inquisition, or time.

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The Architecture Of The Maya

• For the art of Maya, who has found the
  expression in stone sculptures and bas-reliefs,
  and works of fine sculpture, paintings on the
  walls and ceramics, characterized by religious
  and mythological subjects, as embodied in the
  stylized grotesque images. The major motives of
  the arts Maya - anthropomorphic deity, a snake
  and a mask it has stylistic elegance and
  sophistication lines. The main building material
  for Maya served as a stone, in the first place
  limestone. Typical for the architecture of the
  Maya were false arches, fixed up the facades and
  roofs with a comb. These massive facades and
  roofs, ????????? palaces and temples, created the
  impression of height and sublimity.

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The writing and the reckoning of time

• Basic elements of the system of the letter
  served as a mark, which is known about 800.
  Usually marks have the form of a square or oblong
  oval one or more characters may be located
  together, forming the so-called hieroglyphic
  block. Many of these units are located in a
  certain order in the linear lattice, which
  determined the spatial framework for the majority
  of well-known labels. Within this grid icon-based
  blocks form the rows and columns, the reading of
  which was subordinated to special rules. Also a
  lot of weight are telltale signs depicting, often
  in detail, animals, people, body parts and
  objects of everyday life.

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• Exclusive intellectual achievements pre the New
  world had been created by the people of the Maya
  writing system and the computation of time. Maya
  hieroglyphs served as for ????????????????, and
  for the phonetic letters. They were carved in
  stone, painting on the ceramics, they are written
  folding books in the local paper, referred to as
  codes. These codes are the most important source
  for the study of Mayan script..In addition to
  this, the Mayans used ?????? or ??????????? -
  the system of the account, based on the numbers
  20 and 13. System ??????, common in Central
  America, is very old and not necessarily was
  invented by the Maya people.

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• In the Olmec and Zapotec culture of the epoch of
  the formative similar and are quite developed
  system of reckoning time established even earlier
  than that of the Maya. However, the Maya in the
  improvement of the numerical system and
  astronomical observations have advanced much
  further than any of the other indigenous people
  of Central America.

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Maya Religion

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• Among the ruins of the Mayan cities dominated by
  the construction of a religious nature. As
  expected, religion, together with the Ministers
  of churches played in the life of the Maya key
  role. In the period from 250 years BC. E. up to
  900-ies BC. e. (the classical period of the
  development of Mayan) in the Chapter of
  city-States of the region were rulers, who
  embodied the if not the highest, at least a very
  important religious function. Archaeological
  excavations suggest that in religious rituals was
  also attended by representatives of the higher
  strata of the society.

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Geographical position
At the present time (2011) of the territory, on
which the development of the Mayan civilization
is included in the States Mexico (the States of
Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo),
Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras (Western
part).Found about 1000 ancient Mayan culture (at
the beginning of the 80-ies of XX century), but
not all of them have been excavated or researched
by archaeologists, as well as 3000 villages.
Area, which was a civilization of Maya. Red
highlighted border of the Mayan culture, the
black, - the territory of the Mesoamerican
civilization
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Time, space, and the end of the world

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• As with the other peoples living in Central
  America that time, the Maya believed in the
  cyclical nature of time, and astrology. For
  example, their calculations movement of Venus
  differed from modern astronomical data only for a
  few seconds in a year. They imagined the Universe
  subdivided into three levels - the underground
  world, the earth and the sky. Religious rites and
  ceremonies were closely linked with the natural
  and the astronomical cycles. Repetitive phenomena
  have been subjected to systematic observations,
  after which appear in various types of calendars.
  The task of the religious leader of the Maya was
  at that, in the interpretation of these cycles.

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• In particular, on astrology and the calendar of
  the Maya, the time of the fifth Sun will end
  21-25 December 2012 (winter solstice)."the Fifth
  The sun" is known as the Sunof the Movement,
  because, by the opinion of the Indians, in this
  era will happen movement of the Earth, from which
  all shall perish. The end of the world, for which
  there must be another birth of the Universe. This
  date causes a lot of modern the false prophecies
  and esoteric speculation. Especially this theory
  popular in the movement of the New era, where
  it is blended with the Christian the idea of the
  Apocalypse.

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Vlasova Vita 10 A class

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