DOMINIC

The Mayan languages (alternatively: Maya languages)[1] form a language family spoken
in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6
million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. In 1996,
Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name,[2] and Mexico recognizes
eight more.[3]

The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most studied in the
Americas.[4] Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to
have been spoken at least 5,000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the
comparative method.

Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, an area of linguistic
convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of
Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic
area. For example, all use relational nouns instead of prepositions to indicate spatial
relationships. They also possess grammatical and typological features that set them apart
from other languages of Mesoamerica, such as the use of ergativity in the grammatical
treatment of verbs and their subjects and objects, specific inflectional categories on verbs,
and a special word class of "positionals" which is typical of all Mayan languages.

During the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages were
written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. Its use was particularly widespread during the
Classic period of Maya civilization (c. 250–900 CE). The surviving corpus of over 10,000
known individual Maya inscriptions on buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper
codices,[5] combined with the rich postcolonial literature in Mayan languages written in the
Latin alphabet, provides a basis for the modern understanding of pre-Columbian history
unparalleled in the Americas.

The Maya writing system (often called hieroglyphs from a superficial resemblance to the
Ancient Egyptian writing) was a combination of phonetic symbols and logograms. It is
most often classified as a logographic or (more properly) a logosyllabic writing system, in
which syllabic signs play a significant role. It is the only writing system of the Pre-
Columbian New World which is known to represent the spoken language of its community.
In total, the script has more than a thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations
of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular
localities. At any one time, no more than around 500 glyphs were in use, some 200 of
which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation.
MARIN
The Maya Calendar was the center of Maya life and one of their greatest cultural
achievements. The Maya Calendar's ancestral knowledge guided the Maya's existence
from the moment of their birth and there was little that escaped its influence. The
Maya Calendar made by the Maya World Studies Center in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
follows a centuries old tradition.

Maya art of their Classic Era (c. 250 to 900 CE) is of a high level of aesthetic and artisanal
sophistication. The carvings and the reliefs made of stucco at Palenque and the statuary of
Copá, show a grace and accurate observation of the human form that reminded early
archaeologists of Classical civilizations of the Old World[citation needed], hence the name
bestowed on this era. We have only hints of the advanced painting of the classic Maya;
mostly what has survived are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics, and a building at
Bonampak holds ancient murals that survived by chance. A beautiful turquoise blue color
that has survived through the centuries due to its unique chemical characteristics is known
as Maya Blue or Azul maya, and it is present in Bonampak, Tajín Cacaxtla, Jaina, and even
in some Colonial Convents. The use of Maya Blue survived until the 16th century when the
technique was lost. Late Preclassic murals of great artistic and iconographic perfection
have been recently discovered at San Bartolo. With the decipherment of the Maya script it
was discovered that the Maya were one of the few civilizations where artists attached their
name to their work.

The Maya civilization extended throughout the present-day southern Mexican states of
Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and
Yucatán. The Maya area also extended throughout the northern Central American region,
including the present-day nations of Guatemala, Belize, Northern El Salvador and western
Honduras.

The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely defined zones: the southern Maya
highlands, the central lowlands, and the northern lowlands. The southern Maya highlands
include all of elevated terrain in Guatemala and the Chiapas highlands. The southern
lowlands lie just north of the highlands, and incorporate the Mexican states of Campeche
and Quintana Roo and northern Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. The northern lowlands
cover the remainder of the Yucatán Peninsula, including the Puuc hills.[1]
Guti
The Maya Calendar was the center of Maya life and one of their greatest cultural
achievements. The Maya Calendar's ancestral knowledge guided the Maya's existence
from the moment of their birth and there was little that escaped its influence. The
Maya Calendar made by the Maya World Studies Center in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
follows a centuries old tradition.

The Maya area is generally divided into three loosely defined zones: the southern Maya
highlands, the central lowlands, and the northern lowlands. The southern Maya highlands
include all of elevated terrain in Guatemala and the Chiapas highlands. The southern
lowlands lie just north of the highlands, and incorporate the Mexican states of Campeche
and Quintana Roo and northern Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. The northern lowlands
cover the remainder of the Yucatán Peninsula, including the Puuc hills. [1]

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal)
and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, the preclassic Maya and their
neighbors had independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC. Inscriptions show
them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it
would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate
astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal
or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.[citation
needed]

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya had measured the length
of the solar year to a high degree of accuracy, far more accurately than that used in Europe
as the basis of the Gregorian calendar. They did not use this figure for the length of year in
their calendars, however; the calendars they used were crude, being based on a year length
of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one
day every four years. By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman
times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of only one day every 128 years.
The modern Gregorian calendar is even more accurate, accumulating only a day's error in
approximately 3257 years.

Animal sacrifice and bloodletting were a common feature in many Maya festivals and
regular rituals. Human sacrifice was far less common, being tied to events such as ill
fortune, warfare and the consecration of new leaders or temples. The practice was also far
less common than in the neighboring Aztec societies. The Maya people would sacrifice
their prisoners. The prisoners were most often from neighboring tribes.
Guz – Man (yo)
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya had measured the length
of the solar year to a high degree of accuracy, far more accurately than that used in Europe
as the basis of the Gregorian calendar. They did not use this figure for the length of year in
their calendars, however; the calendars they used were crude, being based on a year length
of exactly 365 days, which means that the calendar falls out of step with the seasons by one
day every four years. By comparison, the Julian calendar, used in Europe from Roman
times until about the 16th Century, accumulated an error of only one day every 128 years.
The modern Gregorian calendar is even more accurate, accumulating only a day's error in
approximately 3257 years.

Sacrifice was a religious activity in Maya culture, involving either the killing of animals or
the bloodletting by members of the community, in rituals superintended by priests.
Sacrifice has been a feature of almost all pre-modern societies at some stage of their
development and for broadly the same reason: to propitiate or fulfill a perceived obligation
towards the gods.

Animal sacrifice and bloodletting were a common feature in many Maya festivals and
regular rituals. Human sacrifice was far less common, being tied to events such as ill
fortune, warfare and the consecration of new leaders or temples. The practice was also far
less common than in the neighboring Aztec societies. The Maya people would sacrifice
their prisoners. The prisoners were most often from neighboring tribes.