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10,400 | In Canada, Mexico, and the United States, it is most often a four-year undergraduate degree, typically in engineering, computer science, mathematics, economics, finance, business, or the natural sciences. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,401 | There are, however, some colleges and universities, notably in the province of Quebec, that offer three-year degree programs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,402 | Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly three years, sometimes four), Cameroon, Canada (specifically Quebec), Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia (mostly three years, sometimes four), Czech Republic (mostly three years, sometimes four), Denmark, England (three or four years with a one-year plac... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,403 | Afghanistan, Albania (four or five years), Armenia (four or five years), Australia (honours degree), Azerbaijan (four or five years), Bahrain, Bangladesh (four or five years), Belarus, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil (four to five years), Brunei (three or four years), Bulgaria, Canada (except Quebec), China, Cyp... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,404 | Cuba (five years), Greece (four or five years), Peru, Argentina, Colombia (starting to change to 4 years), Brazil (five years), Mexico (4.5 years), Chile, Venezuela (five years), Egypt (four or five years), Haiti (four or five years). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,405 | Nigeria (four to five years), 6 months dedicated to SIWES (Students Industrial Work Exchange Scheme) but for most sciences and all engineering courses only. A semester for project work/thesis not excluding course work during the bachelor thesis. Excluding 1 year for the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), p... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,406 | North Macedonia, Sierra Leone (four years dedicated to coursework), Slovenia (four or five years), Sudan (five years for BSc honours degree and four years for BSc ordinary degree), and Syria. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,407 | Some universities in Canada (such as University of British Columbia and Vancouver Island University) have most of their science and applied science students extend their degree by a year compared to other institutions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,408 | In Chile, some undergraduate majors such as engineering and geology are designed as 6-year programs. However, in practice it is not uncommon for students to complete such programs over the course of 10 years, while studying full-time without leaves of absence. This is in part due to a strict grading system where the hi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,409 | There are studies that suggest a direct correlation between reduced social mobility and differences unique to the Chilean higher education system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21068988 |
10,410 | The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,411 | The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, souther... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,412 | The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period () saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The fi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,413 | Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power normally passed to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well as a ruler. Closed pat... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,414 | Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways. Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballc... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,415 | "Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense of common identity or political unity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,416 | The Maya civilization developed within the Maya Region, a Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide. The Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,417 | By 6000 BC, the early inhabitants of Mesoamerica were experimenting with the domestication of plants, a process that eventually led to the establishment of sedentary agricultural societies. The diverse climate allowed for wide variation in available crops, but all regions of Mesoamerica cultivated the base crops of mai... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,418 | The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica, and the Maya were engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, and others. During the Early Classic period, the Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,419 | The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and all of the territory now incorporated into the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Most o... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,420 | The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain; a chain of fourteen lakes runs across the central drainage basin of Petén. To the south the plain gradually rises towards the Guatemalan Highlands. Dense forest covers northern Petén and Belize, most of Quintana Roo, southern Campeche, and a porti... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,421 | The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre. The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The major pre-Columbian population cen... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,422 | The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. These were preceded by the Archaic Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in agriculture emerged. Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary divisions of May... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,423 | The Maya developed their first civilization in the Preclassic period. Scholars continue to discuss when this era of Maya civilization began. Maya occupation at Cuello (modern-day Belize) has been carbon dated to around 2600 BC. Settlements were established around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region of the Pacific coast, an... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,424 | During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic. ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,425 | In the highlands, Kaminaljuyu emerged as a principal centre in the Late Preclassic. Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were two of the most important cities on the Pacific coastal plain, and Komchen grew to become an important site in northern Yucatán. The Late Preclassic cultural florescence collapsed in the 1st century AD and ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,426 | The Classic period is largely defined as the period during which the lowland Maya raised dated monuments using the Long Count calendar. This period marked the peak of large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and demonstrated significant intellectual and artistic development, part... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,427 | During the Early Classic, cities throughout the Maya region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. In AD 378, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their rulers, and installed a new Teotihuacan-backed dynasty. This intervention was l... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,428 | Tikal's great rival was Calakmul, another powerful city in the Petén Basin. Tikal and Calakmul both developed extensive systems of allies and vassals; lesser cities that entered one of these networks gained prestige from their association with the top-tier city, and maintained peaceful relations with other members of t... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,429 | In 629, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil, a son of the Tikal king Kʼinich Muwaan Jol II, was sent to found a new city at Dos Pilas, in the Petexbatún region, apparently as an outpost to extend Tikal's power beyond the reach of Calakmul. For the next two decades he fought loyally for his brother and overlord at Tikal. In 648, king Y... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,430 | In the southeast, Copán was the most important city. Its Classic-period dynasty was founded in 426 by Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ. The new king had strong ties with central Petén and Teotihuacan. Copán reached the height of its cultural and artistic development during the rule of Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil, who ruled from 69... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,431 | During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. No universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare, ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,432 | Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare.... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,433 | Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated near permanent water sources. Unlike during previous cycles of contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly r... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,434 | The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the preceding Classic Period. The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous occupation of almost 2,000 years. Across the highlands and neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed locations were relocated, ap... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,435 | Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political, social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula, which e... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,436 | In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán. They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed, although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and engaged in a number... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,437 | The Spanish conquest stripped away most of the defining features of Maya civilization. However, many Maya villages remained remote from Spanish colonial authority, and for the most part continued to manage their own affairs. Maya communities and the nuclear family maintained their traditional day-to-day life. The basic... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,438 | The agents of the Catholic Church wrote detailed accounts of the Maya, in support of their efforts at Christianization, and absorption of the Maya into the Spanish Empire. This was followed by various Spanish priests and colonial officials who left descriptions of ruins they visited in Yucatán and Central America. In 1... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,439 | The final two decades of the 19th century saw the birth of modern scientific archaeology in the Maya region, with the meticulous work of Alfred Maudslay and Teoberto Maler. By the early 20th century, the Peabody Museum was sponsoring excavations at Copán and in the Yucatán Peninsula. In the first two decades of the 20t... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,440 | In the 1960s, the distinguished Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson promoted the ideas that Maya cities were essentially vacant ceremonial centres serving a dispersed population in the forest, and that the Maya civilization was governed by peaceful astronomer-priests. These ideas began to collapse with major advances in the d... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,441 | Unlike the Aztecs and the Inca, the Maya political system never integrated the entire Maya cultural area into a single state or empire. Rather, throughout its history, the Maya area contained a varying mix of political complexity that included both states and chiefdoms. These polities fluctuated greatly in their relati... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,442 | During the Late Preclassic, the Maya political system coalesced into a theopolitical form, where elite ideology justified the ruler's authority, and was reinforced by public display, ritual, and religion. The divine king was the centre of political power, exercising ultimate control over the administrative, economic, j... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,443 | The Maya political landscape was highly complex and Maya elites engaged in political intrigue to gain economic and social advantage over neighbours. In the Late Classic, some cities established a long period of dominance over other large cities, such as the dominance of Caracol over Naranjo for half a century. In other... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,444 | From the Early Preclassic, Maya society was sharply divided between the elite and commoners. As population increased over time, various sectors of society became increasingly specialised, and political organization became increasingly complex. By the Late Classic, when populations had grown enormously and hundreds of c... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,445 | Classic Maya rule was centred in a royal culture that was displayed in all areas of Classic Maya art. The king was the supreme ruler and held a semi-divine status that made him the mediator between the mortal realm and that of the gods. From very early times, kings were specifically identified with the young maize god,... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,446 | Maya political administration, based around the royal court, was not bureaucratic in nature. Government was hierarchical, and official posts were sponsored by higher-ranking members of the aristocracy; officials tended to be promoted to higher levels of office during the course of their lives. Officials are referred to... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,447 | A "sajal" was ranked below the "ajaw", and indicated a subservient lord. A "sajal" would be lord of a second- or third-tier site, answering to an "ajaw", who may himself have been subservient to a "kalomte". A "sajal" would often be a war captain or regional governor, and inscriptions often link the "sajal" title to wa... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,448 | Different factions may have existed in the royal court. The "kʼuhul ahaw" and his household would have formed the central power-base, but other important groups were the priesthood, the warrior aristocracy, and other aristocratic courtiers. Where ruling councils existed, as at Chichen Itza and Copán, these may have for... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,449 | Commoners are estimated to have comprised over 90% of the population, but relatively little is known about them. Their houses were generally constructed from perishable materials, and their remains have left little trace in the archaeological record. Some commoner dwellings were raised on low platforms, and these can b... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,450 | Warfare was prevalent in the Maya world. Military campaigns were launched for a variety of reasons, including the control of trade routes and tribute, raids to take captives, scaling up to the complete destruction of an enemy state. Little is known about Maya military organization, logistics, or training. Warfare is de... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,451 | From as early as the Preclassic period, the ruler of a Maya polity was expected to be a distinguished war leader, and was depicted with trophy heads hanging from his belt. In the Classic period, such trophy heads no longer appeared on the king's belt, but Classic period kings are frequently depicted standing over humil... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,452 | The outcome of a successful military campaign could vary in its impact on the defeated polity. In some cases, entire cities were sacked, and never resettled, as at Aguateca. In other instances, the victors would seize the defeated rulers, their families, and patron gods. The captured nobles and their families could be ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,453 | During the Contact period, it is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession. It is likely that the specialised knowledge inherent in the particular military role was taught to the successor, including strategy, ritual, and war dances. Maya... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,454 | There is some evidence from the Classic period that women provided supporting roles in war, but they did not act as military officers with the exception of those rare ruling queens. By the Postclassic, the native chronicles suggest that women occasionally fought in battle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,455 | The "atlatl" (spear-thrower) was introduced to the Maya region by Teotihuacan in the Early Classic. This was a stick with a notched end to hold a dart or javelin. The stick was used to launch the missile with more force and accuracy than could be accomplished by simply hurling it with the arm alone. Evidence in the for... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,456 | Trade was a key component of Maya society, and in the development of the Maya civilization. The cities that grew to become the most important usually controlled access to vital trade goods, or portage routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Qʼumarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,457 | The Maya engaged in long-distance trade across the Maya region, and across greater Mesoamerica and beyond. As an illustration, an Early Classic Maya merchant quarter has been identified at the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan, in central Mexico. Within Mesoamerica beyond the Maya area, trade routes particularly focuse... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,458 | Trade routes not only supplied physical goods, they facilitated the movement of people and ideas throughout Mesoamerica. Shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in the Maya region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Pre... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,459 | Little is known of Maya merchants, although they are depicted on Maya ceramics in elaborate noble dress. From this, it is known that at least some traders were members of the elite. During the Contact period, it is known that Maya nobility took part in long-distance trading expeditions. The majority of traders were mid... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,460 | The Maya had no pack animals, so all trade goods were carried on the backs of porters when going overland; if the trade route followed a river or the coast, then goods were transported in canoes. A substantial Maya trading canoe was encountered off Honduras on Christopher Columbus's fourth voyage. It was made from a la... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,461 | Marketplaces are difficult to identify archaeologically. However, the Spanish reported a thriving market economy when they arrived in the region. At some Classic period cities, archaeologists have tentatively identified formal arcade-style masonry architecture and parallel alignments of scattered stones as the permanen... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,462 | Maya art is essentially the art of the royal court. It is almost exclusively concerned with the Maya elite and their world. Maya art was crafted from both perishable and non-perishable materials, and served to link the Maya to their ancestors. Although surviving Maya art represents only a small proportion of the art th... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,463 | The Maya exhibited a preference for the colour green or blue-green, and used the same word for the colours blue and green. Correspondingly, they placed high value on apple-green jade, and other greenstones, associating them with the sun-god Kʼinich Ajau. They sculpted artefacts that included fine tesserae and beads, to... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,464 | Maya stone sculpture emerged into the archaeological record as a fully developed tradition, suggesting that it may have evolved from a tradition of sculpting wood. Because of the biodegradability of wood, the corpus of Maya woodwork has almost entirely disappeared. The few wooden artefacts that have survived include th... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,465 | The largest Maya sculptures consisted of architectural façades crafted from stucco. The rough form was laid out on a plain plaster base coating on the wall, and the three-dimensional form was built up using small stones. Finally, this was coated with stucco and moulded into the finished form; human body forms were firs... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,466 | The Maya had a long tradition of mural painting; rich polychrome murals have been excavated at San Bartolo, dating to between 300 and 200 BC. Walls were coated with plaster, and polychrome designs were painted onto the smooth finish. The majority of such murals have not survived, but Early Classic tombs painted in crea... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,467 | Flint, chert, and obsidian all served utilitarian purposes in Maya culture, but many pieces were finely crafted into forms that were never intended to be used as tools. Eccentric flints are among the finest lithic artefacts produced by the ancient Maya. They were technically very challenging to produce, requiring consi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,468 | Maya textiles are very poorly represented in the archaeological record, although by comparison with other pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Aztecs and the Andean region, it is likely that they were high-value items. A few scraps of textile have been recovered by archaeologists, but the best evidence for textile art i... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,469 | Ceramics are the most commonly surviving type of Maya art. The Maya had no knowledge of the potter's wheel, and Maya vessels were built up by coiling rolled strips of clay into the desired form. Maya pottery was not glazed, although it often had a fine finish produced by burnishing. Maya ceramics were painted with clay... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,470 | Bone, both human and animal, was also sculpted; human bones may have been trophies, or relics of ancestors. The Maya valued Spondylus shells, and worked them to remove the white exterior and spines, to reveal the fine orange interior. Around the 10th century AD, metallurgy arrived in Mesoamerica from South America, and... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,471 | One poorly studied area of Maya folk art is graffiti. Additional graffiti, not part of the planned decoration, was incised into the stucco of interior walls, floors, and benches, in a wide variety of buildings, including temples, residences, and storerooms. Graffiti has been recorded at 51 Maya sites, particularly clus... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,472 | The Maya produced a vast array of structures, and have left an extensive architectural legacy. Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya evidences craft specialization in Maya society, centralised organization and the political means to mobilize... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,473 | Maya cities were not formally planned, and were subject to irregular expansion, with the haphazard addition of palaces, temples and other buildings. Most Maya cities tended to grow outwards from the core, and upwards as new structures were superimposed upon preceding architecture. Maya cities usually had a ceremonial a... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,474 | The ceremonial centre of the Maya city was where the ruling elite lived, and where the administrative functions of the city were performed, together with religious ceremonies. It was also where the inhabitants of the city gathered for public activities. Elite residential complexes occupied the best land around the city... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,475 | The Maya built their cities with Neolithic technology; they built their structures from both perishable materials and from stone. The exact type of stone used in masonry construction varied according to locally available resources, and this also affected the building style. Across a broad swathe of the Maya area, limes... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,476 | Wood was used for beams, and for lintels, even in masonry structures. Throughout Maya history, common huts and some temples continued to be built from wooden poles and thatch. Adobe was also applied; this consisted of mud strengthened with straw and was applied as a coating over the woven-stick walls of huts. Like wood... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,477 | The great cities of the Maya civilization were composed of pyramid temples, palaces, ballcourts, "sacbeob" (causeways), patios and plazas. Some cities also possessed extensive hydraulic systems or defensive walls. The exteriors of most buildings were painted, either in one or multiple colours, or with imagery. Many bui... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,478 | These complexes were usually located in the site core, beside a principal plaza. Maya palaces consisted of a platform supporting a multiroom range structure. The term "acropolis", in a Maya context, refers to a complex of structures built upon platforms of varying height. Palaces and acropoleis were essentially elite r... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,479 | Palaces are usually arranged around one or more courtyards, with their façades facing inwards; some examples are adorned with sculpture. Some palaces possess associated hieroglyphic descriptions that identify them as the royal residences of named rulers. There is abundant evidence that palaces were far more than simple... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,480 | Temples were sometimes referred to in hieroglyphic texts as "kʼuh nah", meaning "god's house". Temples were raised on platforms, most often upon a pyramid. The earliest temples were probably thatched huts built upon low platforms. By the Late Preclassic period, their walls were of stone, and the development of the corb... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,481 | The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equin... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,482 | As well as E-Groups, the Maya built other structures dedicated to observing the movements of celestial bodies. Many Maya buildings were aligned with astronomical bodies, including the planet Venus, and various constellations. The Caracol structure at Chichen Itza was a circular multi-level edifice, with a conical super... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,483 | Triadic pyramids first appeared in the Preclassic. They consisted of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Temple... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,484 | The ballcourt is a distinctive pan-Mesoamerican form of architecture. Although the majority of Maya ballcourts date to the Classic period, the earliest examples appeared around 1000 BC in northwestern Yucatán, during the Middle Preclassic. By the time of Spanish contact, ballcourts were only in use in the Guatemalan Hi... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,485 | Although Maya cities shared many common features, there was considerable variation in architectural style. Such styles were influenced by locally available construction materials, climate, topography, and local preferences. In the Late Classic, these local differences developed into distinctive regional architectural s... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,486 | The central Petén style of architecture is modelled after the great city of Tikal. The style is characterised by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lint... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,487 | The exemplar of Puuc-style architecture is Uxmal. The style developed in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán; during the Terminal Classic it spread beyond this core region across the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Puuc sites replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened thei... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,488 | The Chenes style is very similar to the Puuc style, but predates the use of the mosaic façades of the Puuc region. It featured fully adorned façades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways were surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, identifying the doorway... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,489 | The Río Bec style forms a sub-region of the Chenes style, and also features elements of the Central Petén style, such as prominent roof combs. Its palaces are distinctive for their false-tower decorations, lacking interior rooms, with steep, almost vertical, stairways and false doors. These towers were adorned with dei... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,490 | The Usumacinta style developed in the hilly terrain of the Usumacinta drainage. Cities took advantage of the hillsides to support their major architecture, as at Palenque and Yaxchilan. Sites modified corbel vaulting to allow thinner walls and multiple access doors to temples. As in Petén, roof combs adorned principal ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,491 | Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. Proto-Mayan diverged during the Pre... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,492 | The Maya writing system is one of the outstanding achievements of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. It was the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system of more than a dozen systems that developed in Mesoamerica. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 300–200 BC,... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,493 | The Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa, destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing, but by chance four uncontested pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. These are known as the "Madrid Codex", the "Dresd... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,494 | Most surviving pre-Columbian Maya writing dates to the Classic period and is contained in stone inscriptions from Maya sites, such as stelae, or on ceramics vessels. Other media include the aforementioned codices, stucco façades, frescoes, wooden lintels, cave walls, and portable artefacts crafted from a variety of mat... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,495 | The Maya writing system (often called "hieroglyphs" from a superficial resemblance to Ancient Egyptian writing) is a logosyllabic writing system, combining a syllabary of phonetic signs representing syllables with logogram representing entire words. Among the writing systems of the Pre-Columbian New World, Maya script ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,496 | The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10,000 individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics. The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,497 | The decipherment and recovery of the knowledge of Maya writing has been a long and laborious process. Some elements were first deciphered in the late 19th and early 20th century, mostly the parts having to do with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. Major breakthroughs were made from the 1950s to 1970s, and acce... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,498 | The basic unit of Maya logosyllabic text is the glyph block, which transcribes a word or phrase. The block is composed of one or more individual glyphs attached to each other to form the glyph block, with individual glyph blocks generally being separated by a space. Glyph blocks are usually arranged in a grid pattern. ... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
10,499 | Although Mayan text may be laid out in varying manners, generally it is arranged into double columns of glyph blocks. The reading order of text starts at the top left (block A1), continues to the second block in the double-column (B1), then drops down a row and starts again from the left half of the double column (A2),... | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18449273 |
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