Ancient Maya Knowledge
Deep in the tropical rainforest of Central America, archeologists and tourists continue to explore the ruins of the ancient Maya civilization. These ruins contain clues that have allowed modern scholars to appreciate the complexities of Maya society, particularly, their calendars, writing system, and number system.
Since A Grade Ahead students explore a mathematical rainforest while completing their online homework, it seems appropriate to feature these aspects of ancient Maya culture in this installment of the history of math and science posts.
So, put on your pith helmet and follow me as I explore the knowledge of the ancient Maya. Afterwards, be sure to call or visit an A Grade Ahead academy near you to get a free curriculum sample, take a free assessment, or sign up for a free trial class today!
The Maya People in Central America
Approximately 3,500 years ago, the ancient Maya first settled in the tropical region of what is now Central America, the isthmus that connects North and South America. There, they began to build towns and cities in the midst of the fertile rainforest.
From 250 CE through 900 CE, the Maya flourished. During this time, which archeologists call the Classical Period, they built at least forty city-states throughout the rainforest. Each of these city-states housed between 5,000 and 50,000 people and functioned as independent communities, though they shared common beliefs and characteristics.
By 900 CE, for a variety of reasons, the Maya seem to have abandoned their cities and allowed the rainforest to claim them. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, the Maya people lived in much smaller communities. Today, their descendants still live in Central America and carry on many of the traditions that have been handed down through the centuries.
The Maya and Time
A Grade Ahead enrichment students in first, second, and third grades learn to read calendars to keep track of when things happen. The Maya people developed far more complicated calendars to keep track of important religious ceremonies, the agricultural seasons, and future events. They are known for these calendars as much as they are for their ancient ruins.
The Maya believed that time was cyclical and that keeping track of time was very important, so they developed a complex “calendar round” made up of a series of interlocking calendar cycles. They particularly had a 260-day sacred calendar made up of 20 day-cycles of 13 numbers, a 365-day solar year calendar, and a calendar that tracked a 5,128-year cycle of time.
The Sacred Calendar is a 20-day cycle made up with the numbers 1 through 13, for a total of 260 days. Modern scholars have noted that 260 days is the time it takes for maize, a staple of the Maya diet, to ripen as well as the gestation time for a human baby. So, the Sacred Calendar’s 260-day cycle was significant to the Maya, who used this calendar to prophesy future events as well as keep track of important days.
The Solar Calendar is made up of 18 months of 20 days and an extra month at the end with only 5 days. This adds up to the 365-day solar year similar to the one we are familiar with today.
The Calendar Round date combines these two particular cycles, telling us the position of each specific day in both calendars.
The most famous of the Maya calendars is the Long Count, which started on August 13, 3114 BCE and represented a 5,128-year cycle. For the Maya, the end of his cycle, which happened in 2012, meant the beginning of a new 5,128-year cycle.
The Maya used all of these cycles to date historic milestones and predict future events, not unlike modern families who use calendars or date books to keep track of birthdays and upcoming school events.
Mayan Writing System
The Maya not only created complex calendars but also developed the only known writing system in ancient America. This writing system was specific and unambiguous with distinct hieroglyphs or symbols that only represent one word or syllable. Even so, their writing system has only been fully understood within the last 50-60 years.
This writing system, which emerged between 300 and 200 BCE, includes about 750 signs. While most of the symbols represent whole words, others represent mere syllables or parts of words. Logograms, signs that represent entire words, are capitalized and frequently indicate the origin of the sign.
The more than 300 syllable signs include both consonants and vowels, which can be used in combinations that express the individual writing styles of the Maya scribes. The syllable signs appear to clarify the pronunciation and meaning of the logograms.
The hieroglyphs cover their buildings, monuments, pottery, jewelry, and other objects. Although we know that they also wrote books on bark, only four of these books remain in the archives. The books we have are religious in nature, but Spanish accounts indicate that there were once books on economics and history as well as books of poetry.
Does your student like to write? From nonfiction to poetry, the A Grade Ahead’s English curriculum encourages students to write and write well.
Mayan Math
As we have seen, the Maya Calendars were dependent on their number system, which, like ours, had distinct place values. While our number system is a decimal system with units of ten, however, the Maya number system was based on units of 20 with 19 distinct numerals. Each numeral was made up of dots and bars. Dots represented 1 and bars represented 5. As the number being represented increased in value, the number of dots and bars increased as well. So, the number six, for example, would be represented by a bar (5) and a dot (1) because 6 is 1 more than 5.
Their place values were multiples of 20, which means that after the 19th numeral, they shifted the symbol over into the next place value and added zero, just like we do after the 9th numeral.
Adding and subtracting these numbers might seem challenging or unwieldy, but it really just requires adding to or removing dots or bars from the symbols. For example, we write 4 + 5 = 9. The Maya mathematicians would simply add four dots to a bar to represent the solution. Similarly, if they subtracted 5 from 9, they would simply remove the bar from under the four dots.
Interestingly, numbers were considered controlled by the gods, so the numbers could also represent the heads of different deities.
Does your child revere numbers and math or any of the other topics explored in this post? A Grade Ahead offers programs beyond math and English, such as science, or our enrichment camps, which combine math, English, and science with a special ingredient: fun!
This blog post has just barely scratched the surface of the ancient Maya people. They were clearly innovators who created complex calendars and hieroglyphs, but they also developed sophisticated irrigation networks for the many cities and fields that characterized their civilization at its height. They had complex religious beliefs and rich cultural traditions. And their buildings remain some of the most amazing wonders of the ancient world. I hope this exploration has inspired you as much as it has me.
Is your child interested in ancient Maya culture? What did you find most interesting about this post? What other topics should we explore in the evolution of math series? Tell us in the comments!
Author: Susanna Robbins, Teacher and Franchise Assistant at A Grade Ahead
