Mayan Ruins: The Remains Of An Advanced Civilization
The Mayans Created one of the most advanced civilizations the world has ever seen. There are Mayan ruins all along the mountains of Central America, the Peten region of Guatemala and the limestone plains of the Yucatan Peninsula. Evidence of Mayan civilization is present in the Mayan ruins that stretch though out Central America in the territories of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Tabasco and eastern Chiapas in Mexico, most of Guatemala, Belize and the west of Honduras and El Salvador. What runs through the Mayan ruins is a sense of similarity of culture regardless of its location, with local variations.
The Olmec culture, which is the mother of Mesoamerican culture, was the foundation on which the Mayan empire developed and perfected. In Mayan Ruins we see the traces of Olmec culture in the architecture, numbers and calendar systems.
Among Mayan ruins that have been explored were found complete sequences of pottery and hieroglyphs depicting time that archeologists have been able to correlate to our calendar time. There have been clay figurines found that date back to 500BC to 325AD, which is the pre-classic Mayan Period.
Everywhere one travels in this once Mayan region today one can see evidence of some trace of the Mayan Civilization. In short the Mayan ruins are cities that fell into decline way before Columbus. You see with the Mayan ruins that the Mayans were preoccupied with creating monumental ceremonial spaces that were aligned astronomically with the religion and politics that took place. You can see the distinct periods within the Mayan Ruin areas as well. The Mayan Ruins of the classic period from approximately 300 AD to 900 AD show the ornate buildings in locations such as Tikal, Copan, Quiriqua, Coba and Pelenque. Although each site has its own distinct character there are definite elemental themes that tie it to the Mayan classical period. Typical to the Mayan Ruins of the Classical period of the lowlands are stepped platforms with masonry structures on top. These architectural structures are built around a courtyard. There is also at least one very steep stepped pyramid with one building on top. The Mayan pyramids have remains of roof combs that extend their height with carved interior walls and doorways. In the Eastern Yucatan Peninsula known as the Puuc the Mayan Ruins also have a distinct style. These are characteristic flat top buildings that are much lower than the pyramids. They are built of inlaid stone and toward the top have ornate designs. The high degrees of ornamentation of these buildings are what distinguish them as Puuc. The Puuc style represents the architecture of the late classic Mayan period. Another late classic style of Mayan ruins found in the Yucatan Peninsula south of the Puuc Ruins is Rio Bec or Chenes style of Mayan Architecture. What is interesting is that these structures are ornate facades. You cannot enter them or walk up them as the other Mayan architectures. The stairs are impossible to climb and there are not rooms to go into. They are almost set up as phony pyramids which is why the site is so important. By 900 AD all of the classic southern sites reached their decline and were abandoned. Dated Monument building stopped, but the North continued to flourish until 1200. You can see Mayan Ruins of Walled Cities in the North that date to around 1250 AD to around 1450. The decline of all of they Mayan civilization began before the Spanish even arrived at the Mayan Shores. Upon their arrival though, the Spanish did try to systematically destroy any evidence of Mayan cultural existence. They burned classic ancient bark books, which held the Mayan Codices. One did survive however. They could not destroy everything obviously, which is why the Mayan ruins remained in tact. Despite their attempt the Spanish could not erase the evidence that an indigenous culture surpassed the Europeans long before The Europeans set foot on their land.
Mayan Civilization Ancient Maya History
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