The Maya practiced a
form of divination that centered on their elaborate calendar system and
extensive knowledge of astronomy. It was the job of the priests to discern
lucky days from unlucky ones, and advising the rulers on the best days
to plant, harvest, wage war, etc. They were especially interested in the
movements of the planet Venus — the Maya rulers scheduled wars to coordinate
with its rise in the heavens.
The Mayan calendar was
very advanced, and consisted of a solar year of 365 days. It was divided
into 18 months of 20 days each, followed by a five-day period that was
highly unlucky. There was also a 260-day sacred year (tzolkin), divided
into days named by the combination of 13 numbers and 20 names.
For longer periods, the
Maya identified an elaborate system of periods and cycles of various lengths.
In ascending order, these were: kin (day); uinal (20 days); tun (18 uinals/360
days); katun (20 tuns/7,200 days); baktunbaktun (20 katuns/144,000 days),
and so on, with the highest cycle being the alautun (23,040,000,000 days).
These units were used
in the Maya Long Count, which calculated the time elapsed from a zero date
set at 3114 BC. In the Postclassical Period, the method of notation was
somewhat simplified, and the Long Count katuns end with the name Ahau (Lord),
combined with one of 13 numerals; and their names form a Katun Round of
13 katuns.
This change makes it
difficult to correlate the Mayan count with the Christian calendar, but
scholars are fairly confident that the katun 13 Ahau, which seems to have
had great significance for the Mayan, ended on November 14, 1539. It has
been calculated that the next katun, which the Popul Vuh describes as the
catastrophic end of the world, will end on December 21, 2012. Naturally,
this has inspired quite a bit of speculation as to what might happen on
this date.
Until the mid-20th century,
scholars believed the Maya to be a peaceful, stargazing people, fully absorbed
in their religion and astronomy and not violent like their neighboring
civilizations to the north. This was based on the Maya's impressive culture
and scientific discoveries and a very limited translation of their written
texts.
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But since then, nearly
all of the Mayan hieroglyphic writings have been deciphered, and a much
different picture has emerged. The texts record that the Mayan rulers waged
war on rival Mayan cities, took their rulers captive, then tortured them
and ritually sacrificed them to the gods.
In fact, human sacrifice
seems to have been a central Mayan religious practice. It was believed
to encourage fertility, demonstrate piety, and propitiate the gods. The
Mayan gods were thought to be nourished by human blood, and ritual bloodletting
was seen as the only means of making contact with them. The Maya believed
that if they neglected these rituals, cosmic disorder and chaos would result.
At important ceremonies,
the sacrificial victim was held down at the top of a pyramid or raised
platform while a priest made an incision below the rib cage and ripped
out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish
the gods. |
It was not only the captives
who suffered for the sake of the gods: the Mayan aristocracy themselves,
as mediators between the gods and their people, underwent ritual bloodletting
and self-torture. The higher one's position, the more blood was expected.
Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or penis, or by drawing
a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper
or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods. |