15 Top Mayan Achievements and Inventions

(Last Updated On: April 16, 2021)

Mayan inventions were remarkable. The traditional Maya civilization existed in present-day Mexico and Central America from 2600 BC until the Spanish arrived within the 16th century. In this article, I am going to share the top Mayan achievements and inventions. You may also love to read about the Invention of ancient Greece.

A part of the Mesoamerican tradition, which included varied indigenous tribes within the area, the Mayan had splendid achievements and inventions in the areas of science and cosmology which enabled them to create a fancy calendar system.

They have been gifted designers and designers who constructed grand buildings together with royal residences, galactic observatories, sanctuary pyramids, straight roads, and canals. You may also love to read about the inventions of ancient Chinese civilization.

The Maya additionally invented elastic a very long time earlier than the method of vulcanization, or rubber-making was found. Different improvements included the creation of immense underground repositories to retail water through the dry season. You may also love to read about Mesopotamian Inventions.

Top Mayan Achievements and Inventions

Listed here are the 10 most noteworthy Mayan achievements and inventions in numerous fields similar to area science, arithmetic, design, constructing, and writing:

1. Astronomy

The Maya studied the heavenly bodies and recorded data on the event of the solar, the moon, Venus, and the celebs.

Regardless of the very fact that there have been simply 365 days within the Haab yr, they knew {that a} yr was barely longer than 365 days, calculating it to be 365.2420 days (the true approximation is 365.2422). This is one of the signs of great Mayan achievements and inventions.

That is more exact than the estimation of 365.2425 which is utilized by the Gregorian calendar, which means that the Maya calendar was extra correct than our personal. Maya astronomers labored out that 81 lunar months constituted 2,392 days.

This places the size of the lunar month at 29.5308 days, astoundingly near the fashionable estimation of 29.53059 days. In addition, they labored out the 584-day cycle of Venus with a slight distinction of solely two hours.

The Maya studied Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury and recorded celestial data like obscuration, or the trail of 1 planet in entrance of the opposite.

Maya astronomers have been very correct and approach forward of their European counterparts. You may also love to read about ancient Roman inventions.

2. Rubber

The Maya had a weird but efficient strategy for agriculture. This included the “slice-and-consume system,” raised fields, terracing, concentrated crops, forestry, and fallow land.

The elemental staples of the Mayan food regimen have been maize, beans, and squashes. Crops additionally included amaranth, bean stew peppers, candy potatoes, manioc, tobacco, chaya, cotton, cacao, vanilla, and natural latex.

Consultants have discovered that the Maya knew to make elastic fairly a while earlier than Charles Goodyear, the tire big, firmly established the fabric within the mid-19th century.

Alongside different Mesoamerican societies, the Maya made elastic from latex and combined it with different plant substances to make elastic objects with varied properties, together with bouncy balls.

The Maya took the latex from timber and blended it with the juice from vines to make elastic. The earliest use of elastic in Mesoamerica has been dated to 1600 BC, many centuries earlier than vulcanization was invented.

The Maya, just like different Mesoamerican societies, used bouncy elastic balls to play their common ball video games.

3. Chocolate

The traditional Maya has been the primary to find the numerous makes use of the cacao bean between 250 and 900 AD.

They combined the cacao bean with pepper and cornmeal to make a fiery chocolate drink. Sugar was uncommon in these days, which was a blessing contemplating there was no dental care to talk of.

As a consequence, the Maya didn’t undergo sugar-related situations similar to diabetes or weight problems. Nevertheless, sugary modern-day chocolate and chocolate drinks will be traced again to the Maya.

Cacao beans have been additionally used as glue by being boiled and combined with completely different bases, and have been even thought of beneficial sufficient for use as forex.

4. Mayan Writing System

Out of all the traditional Individuals, the Maya invented probably the most superior type of writing, often called “glyphs.”

Glyphs are used to explain or symbolize a phrase, sound, or perhaps a syllable by way of photos or symbols.

Historical past means that the Maya used round 700 completely different glyphs, and astonishingly 80 p.c of the language remains to be understood at the moment.

The Maya have been conscious of their historical past and achievements, and they also wrote about them on pillars, partitions, and large stone slabs on a regular basis.

In addition, they wrote books about nearly the whole lot similar to gods, everyday life, their leaders, and more. These books have been made from bark and folded like a fan. This is one of the signs of magnificent Mayan achievements and inventions.

Sadly, most of the books have been destroyed as they have been assumed by the Spanish to depict the satan and demons. Fortunately, a couple of have survived.

The written phrase, often called the Maya script, is accepted to be probably the most complete writing system in Mesoamerica, and far Maya’s historical past was recorded on this approach.

Current analysis has proven that these engravings will be dated again to the third century BC.

This may make the Maya the creators of writing in Mesoamerica, and one in all three identified historical civilizations the place writing grew autonomously, the others being China and Mesopotamia.

5. Maya Art

Whereas not an innovation in itself, Mayan artwork is extensively applauded around the globe. Maya’s artwork was very trendy in taste.

The Maya created paintings from quite a lot of supplies together with wooden, jade, obsidian, and earthenware, and adorned stone landmarks, stucco, and partitions. Woodcuts have been widespread however just a few examples nonetheless survive.

Stone sculptures are far more widespread at the moment, probably the most celebrated amongst them, from Copan and Quirigua, which are outstanding for his or her complexity of element.

The cities of Palenque and Yaxchilan are well-known for his or her fantastically adorned lintels together with the well-known Yaxchilan Lintel 24.

Maya steps have been adorned with quite a lot of scenes such because the one discovered at Tonina. Zoomorphs are massive rocks sculpted within the shapes of animals similar to these discovered Quirigua.

The Maya had an extended custom of wall portray, relationship back to round 300 or 200 BC. Among the many best-preserved Maya wall work is a large-scale instance at Bonampak.

The Maya have been additionally well-known for his or her flint sculptures which have been extremely tough to make.

6. Hallucinogenic Drugs

The Maya took nice satisfaction of their customs and traditions. Each event was feted in a grand approach, and folks with particular powers often called shamans performed rituals for the gods.

The shamans took stimulating medication to induce trance-like states throughout these rituals with the purpose to make contact with the religious world.

These substances affected the physique in such an approach that ache was not felt, and vitality was elevated. A variety of these substances have subsequently been used as ache reduction in trendy drugs.

7. Mathematics

The Maya had a particularly correct numerical system. It had solely three symbols: 0 (shell form), 1 (a dab), and 5 (a bar).

They used these three symbols to precise numbers from Zero to 19; numbers after 19 have been composed vertically in teams of 20, utilizing place markers.

The Maya, subsequently, used a base 20 or vigesimal numbering system. Using place markers and Zero made this technique a lot identical because the one we use at the moment.

With the base-20 system, the second place was value 20 instances greater than the numeral, the third-place had 202 or 400 instances the worth, and many others.

The Maya likewise used shorthand to precise in-depth numbers like 2.4.1.9.9 the place the numbers 2, 4, 1, 9, and 9 are coefficients earlier than forces of 20.

Equally fascinating is that the Maya had constructed the idea of Zero into their numbering system by 36 BC.

Whereas not primarily identified for his or her advances in science, they did have working information of it, and a lot of their dates and estimations are shockingly correct.

8. The Maya Calendar

The well-known Mayan calendar was primarily based on a dating system utilized in Mesoamerican societies.

Nevertheless, it was the Maya who standardized this technique into a contemporary calendar. The Maya calendar makes use of three distinctive relationship frameworks: the Tzolkin (divine timetable), the Haab (widespread calendar), and the Lengthy Depend.

The Tzolkin joins a cycle of 20 named days with one other cycle of 13 numbers to ship 260 distinct days.

There are a couple of hypotheses for the 260-day Tzolkin together with it being based on the human development timeline, the agrarian system of the district, and the positioning of the planet Venus. The Haab was the sun-based calendar with 365 days.

It was made up of a yr and a half with 20 days in every month, and 5 extra days which have been often called Wayeb and have been thought of to symbolize a harmful time.

The Lengthy Depend was a non-repeating calendar ranging from the start of the Mayan interval. It counted single days in a system of base 20 and base 18 to make the calendar match the estimated 360 days of the yr.

9. Ball Courts

The Maya cherished their video games, and had ball courts in each metropolis, very similar to present-day stadia.

The games have been of extraordinary significance to the Maya and have been often performed throughout non secular celebrations, lasting for as much as 20 days.

The courts have been located on the foot of sanctuaries to pay tribute to the gods and goddesses. You may also love to read about ancient Egyptian inventions.

Ball courts have been expansive, every with a stone hoop mounted on a divider at one aspect.

The Maya cherished one specific sport referred to as pok-a-tok, or hotchpotch, the intention of which was to throw a powerful elastic ball by way of the ring utilizing simply your hips, shoulders, or arms.

The victors commonly gained the belongings of the dropping aspect. The dropping aspect, commonly made up of prisoners, was relinquished for the sake of the Maya gods.

10. Law and Order

Within the Maya Empire, legal guidelines have been standardized throughout each state and have been relevant to all ranges of society.

If somebody broke the legislation, they’d go to the courtroom the place punishments have been meted out based on the crime. Victims of theft have been personally concerned with the technique of justice.

Homicide was unusual as a result of the punishment was so excessive. In case you have been discovered responsible for the homicide, you’ll face execution and reparations from the sufferer’s household by way of items or land.

The households may very well be granted a home, items, cattle, or land, which could depart the perpetrator’s complete household with nowhere to dwell as a consequence of a responsible verdict.

11. Calendar

Amongst their most well-known innovations is the fabled Mayan Calendar (the one which was speculated to predict the tip of the world in 2012).

It was fairly refined and, like every first-rate calendar, information repetitive cycles of time primarily based on the actions of the Sun, Moon, and Planets.

12. Number system

The first stunning Mayan invention is its distinctive quantity system. Although the Maya created their very own technique to depend, they weren’t alone on this invention.

In truth, most human cultures, even courting back to the prehistoric interval, have had no less than some primary grasp of numbers.

However, inside the Maya’s ingenious system of numerical notation, there may be one mathematical concept that precedes every other civilization: the idea of zero.

This thought was additionally independently conceived in India, whose retailers handed it on to Arabs, who then launched it to Europe within the Middle Ages.

13. Literature and writing

Their glyphs have been used very like these of Ancient Egypt, to signify phrases, sounds, and syllables by using footage and different symbols.

Historians consider that the Mayans used round 700 glyphs to do that and, extremely, 80% of their language can nonetheless be understood by their descendants at present.

14. Agriculture

Recent discoveries additionally point out Mayan farmers grew manioc (cassava), an extremely nutritious and energy-rich root vegetable, and a very good supply of carbohydrate.

It seems that their cultivation of cassava may clear up a long-standing thriller as to how they have been in a position to maintain such a big civilization and inhabitants given their lack of metallic instruments and locale.

15. Art

Mayan artists tended to make good use of supplies together with wooden, jade, obsidian, earthenware manufacturing, etched stone landmarks, bone, shells stucco, and finely painted wall work and textiles.

Although hardly ever preserved, it might additionally seem they have been very keen on woodcutting.

Take away

The Maya nonetheless dwell in a broadly comparable area to their ancestors, specifically from the north within the Yucatan all the way down to Honduras.

The concept that the Maya turned extinct as a result of their lands have been invaded and brought over is inaccurate, as evidenced by the greater than six million Maya who nonetheless cherishes the customs and tradition of their forebears.

Even supposing the realm was Christianized within the 16th century AD, the previous methods can nonetheless be seen in a mix of European Catholicism and Maya custom which thrives at the moment.

I hope this article on Mayan achievements and inventions was worth reading.