Kisah Tamadun Maya Lenyap

Syd

Tamadun Maya lenyapOleh Nasron Sira Rahim (nasron@bharian.com.my)

Kota hebat tengah hutan belantara di Selatan Mexico ditinggalkan sejak lebih 1,000 tahun lalu



SUATU hari pada 909 Masihi, tanpa sebab jelas, 80 peratus bangsa kuno Maya tiba-tiba hilang, tidak hanya meninggalkan kuil yang belum selesai dibangunkan, bahkan sejumlah besar balairung dewa dan bangunan model raksasa semuanya ditinggalkan begitu saja, terbenam dalam runtuhan tembok.

Semua aktiviti di pusat pemujaan juga terhenti. Sejak itu, kebijaksanaan nenek moyang mereka lenyap dengan sangat cepat dan bangsa Maya yang tertinggal mula berubah menjadi buta pengetahuan manakala moralnya merosot.

Demikian antara laporan penyelidik selepas meninjau kawasan kota Maya yang wujud secara misteri di tengah hutan belantara selatan Mexico.

Selama hampir 1,000 tahun, tiada siapa menyangka di tengah belantara tebal benua Amerika itu, tersembunyi sebuah kota misteri yang begitu hebat tamadunnya. Hanya pada 1839, seorang penulis Amerika Syarikat (AS), John Lloyd Stephens yang ditemani jurupandu tempatan, menjumpai semula kota yang hilang itu ketika melakukan ekspedisi meredah belantara berkenaan.

Selepas lama dikelilingi pohon hutan dan belukar, tiba-tiba saja di hadapan mata lelaki terbabit terpampang pelbagai bangunan besar yang hebat reka bentuk dan seni binanya.

Bagaimanapun, beliau kemudian mendapati sesuatu yang aneh; tiada penduduk yang dijumpai di sekeliling kawasan berkenaan - kota hebat di tengah hutan terpencil dan sepi itu ditinggalkan tidak berpenghuni begitu lama.

Sejak itu bermula misteri membabitkan suku kaum Maya. Kajian demi kajian dijalankan di kawasan itu yang kemudian membongkar pelbagai cerita besar berhubung kewujudan kaum Maya.

Penyelidikan mendapati kaum Maya mengasaskan satu tamadun amat hebat serta meneroka pelbagai rahsia bidang ilmu, walaupun zaman kewujudan mereka ketika itu dianggap zaman kuno.

Bagaimanapun, di sebalik kekaguman kumpulan penyelidik itu, terselit teka-teki yang membingungkan pada minda masing-masing - mengapa selepas mengasaskan satu tamadun yang hebat, secara tiba-tiba saja penduduk Maya ghaib?

Kaum Maya, ketika kewujudan mereka dikatakan menemui pelbagai rahsia ilmu pengetahuan yang sangat berharga kepada dunia. Bagaimanapun, penjajahan Sepanyol di Amerika Selatan pada abad ke-16 menyebabkan segala ilmu itu lesap apabila kitab catatan ilmu warisan kaum Maya sebelum mereka menghilangkan diri, dibakar penjajah itu.

Tindakan itu satu kerugian besar untuk dunia memahami pelbagai rahsia alam yang disingkap kaum Maya. Kini ilmuwan yang menyelidiki kebudayaan Maya hanya mampu menggambarkan secebis kehebatan bangsa itu berdasarkan beberapa potongan naskhah kuno yang terselamat dan berjaya dikumpulkan.

Antara penemuan menakjubkan di kota misteri itu ialah pelbagai binaan berasaskan batu raksasa, reka bentuk kota, sistem tulisan, ilmu pengetahuan selain karya seni bangsa Maya yang amat tinggi, jauh melebihi kehebatan teknologi masa kini.

Di kota misteri itu turut dibina piramid yang kini menjadi piramid kedua popular selepas piramid di Mesir. Di sekeliling piramid Maya masing-masing memiliki empat tangga dengan jumlah anak tangganya adalah 365 tapak iaitu menyamai jumlah hari dalam setahun.

Keadaan itu menunjukkan yang kaum Maya sudah mengkaji ilmu astronomi malah terdapat banyak catatan angka di dalam mahupun di luar bangunan yang berhubung hukum peredaran objek di langit.

Sebuah balai cerap yang hebat turut dibina di kota itu sehingga kajian mendapati fungsi yang terdapat dalam balai cerap kaum Maya menyamai balai cerap moden.

Seterusnya timbul pula misteri mengenai kaedah pembinaan bangunan hebat di kota misteri itu kerana batu yang digunakan dalam proses pembinaan adalah amat besar dan beratnya puluhan tan.

Bagaimana batu besar yang begitu banyak serta berat itu diangkut dari satu kawasan jauh untuk masuk ke dalam hutan sehingga ke kawasan kota itu?. Dengan peralatan atau teknologi bagaimana suku Maya mampu menyusun batu-batu berkenaan sehingga mampu membina piramid dan bangunan yang hebat?

Berdasarkan penemuan arkeologi, penyelidik menganggap keagungan tamadun kaum Maya terbentuk secara perlahan-lahan sejak 2000 Sebelum Masihi (SM) hingga tahun 250. Daripada tahun 250 hingga tahun 900, mereka memasuki era kegemilangan dengan abad ketujuh hingga kelapan menyaksikan kaum Maya hidup sangat makmur dan sejahtera.

Seterusnya pada tahun 900 iaitu selepas mencapai puncak peradaban, hampir seluruh kaum maya ghaib secara misteri meninggalkan kota itu tidak berpenghuni lagi. Suku kaum yang masih tinggal dikatakan sudah merosot moral dan menjadi jahil.

Meskipun terdapat sejumlah dokumen yang dijumpai, sangat sukar bagi penyelidik memastikan apakah punca yang menyebabkan suku Maya ghaib. Hanya hipotesis yang mampu dikemukakan tetapi punca sebenar kemusnahan tamadun Maya dan kehilangan penduduknya terus kekal dalam misteri.

FAKTA: Kaum Maya

Antara teori kaum Maya hilang ialah bencana alam seperti banjir, gempa bumi, taufan, wabak penyakit, keracunan, kebuluran, bunuh diri secara beramai-ramai; peperangan iaitu pemberontakan kaum petani serta serangan musuh; pembakaran hutan berulang kali untuk bercucuk tanam mengakibatkan tanah gersang dan kemarau.

Ramai memikirkan bahawa kesenian kaum Maya menerusi ukiran dan lukisan adalah tercanggih dan tercantik antara kesenian silam. Ukiran dan lukisan patung amat halus

Sistem tulisan kaum Maya (hieroglyphics) amat unik dan pelik sehingga penyelidik mengambil masa puluhan tahun untuk memecahkan kod tulisan dan memahami tulisan mereka.

Sudah maju dalam ilmu matematik. Mereka menggunakan konsep sifar, menggunakan sistem nombor asas 20, membuat pengiraan sehingga beratus juta.

Menghasilkan pemantauan astronomi yang amat tepat; peta pergerakan bulan dan planet setaraf atau lebih baik berbanding sebarang kebudayaan yang melakukan pencerapan menggunakan mata kasar. Pengiraan Maya terhadap tahun matahari adalah lebih baik berbanding takwim Gregory.

Piramid kaum Maya berbeza daripada piramid Mesir, piramid Maya lebih rendah, disusun daripada batuan raksasa berwarna kelabu dan putih dan di puncaknya ada balairung untuk memuja dewa.

johnconan

Mayan Prophercy

Known as Time's Special Witness, 7th century Mayan prophet Pacal Votan left a universal message for future generations of an evolving Earth.
Proclaiming,"If Humanity Wishes To Save Itself From Biospheric Destruction It Must Return To Living in Natural Time," he foretold of our accelerated technological society, and the resulting damage of our collective divergence from Natural Law in exchange for materialist values.

Pacal Votan's prophetic call is alerting present-day humanity that our biological process is transforming, approaching the culmination of a 26,000 year evolutionary program. Bringing the return of universal telepathy, heightened sense capacity, and self-reflective consciousness, this is a return to the sacred domain of our inner technology.
This grand cycle of evolution will culminate
winter solstice, December 21, 2012 AD. This time we are now in has been called "The Time of Trial on Earth," "Judgement Day," "The Time of Great Purification," "The End of this Creation," "The Quickening," "The End of Time as We Know It," "The Shift of the Ages." It is foretold that the completion of the Precession brings regeneration of Earth, offering awakening to all open, willing hearts. Many peoples spoke of these last days of the Great Cycle, including the: Maya, Hopi, Egyptians, Kabbalists, Essenes, Qero elders of Peru, Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, Iroquois confederacy, Dogon Tribe, and Aborigines.

As avid stargazers, the ancient Maya were keen to an astrological cycle we call the Precession of the Equinoxes. This is close to a 26,000 year cycle in which Earth transits through each of the 12 signs of the zodiac for about 2152 years each. Each of these astrological ages represents one month of the grand, Cosmic Year. Sumerians, Tibetans, Egyptians, Cherokees, Hopi, and Mayans refer to this same 26,000 year cycle in their mystical belief systems and each have developed calendars based on this great cycle.

The Maya messengers, reknowned for their architectural, artistic, mathematical and scientific achievements, left a calling card as a series of super-human sized stone monuments and pyramids with precise calendrical computations. Planted with great intention, these dates were left to ensure that future generations would be alerted to the coming end point of this great 26,000 year cycle. A cycle which corresponds also to a 26,000 year relationship of our Sun orbiting Alcyone, the central star of the 7 Sisters Pleiades constellation. According to the Maya, the "future" which lies beyond this end date is literally "a new world age" - "a new creation."

[ Last edited by  johnconan at 6-5-2007 01:48 PM ]

johnconan

The 26,000 year cycle of the Homo Sapien's evolution and development is mirrored by the 260-day cycle of human gestation. Collective humanity is right now maturing into the being we have long been encoded to be. As with any labor, it is not the mother, or the baby, who is in charge - it is the primal process of Birth itself unfolding its own destiny.

Thus the December 21, 2012 AD is not the day where all of the sudden a light switch will flip on and everything will change, rather, we are NOW in the process of this transition from one World Age to the next. The changes are underway and will continue steadily accelerating as we head towards the culminating date!

The ancient Maya understood this 26,000 year cycle to be specifically composed of 5 lesser cycles, each 5,125 years each. Each of these 5 cycles was considered its own World Age or Creation Cycle. As depicted on the familiar, circular MesoAmerican Sun Stone, (often called the Aztec Calendar) each Creation Cycle is said to have been ruled and destroyed by one of 5 elements. Specifically, 4 Jaguar, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, 4 Water.

Our present great cycle (3113 B.C. - 2012 A.D.) is called the Age of the Fifth Sun. This time period is ruled by 4 Earth. This fifth age is the synthesis of the previous four. 4 Earth (called Caban in the Maya language and Ollin in Aztec) has several meanings, including: movement, shift, evolution, earthquake, navigation, synchronicity, clue tracking, turtle. In the Maya language, the word "ol" of ollin means consciousness.

In Mayan calendrics, theinitial date that Earth entered the Fifth World was August 13, 3113 BC, written in Mayan long count notation as 13.0.0.0.0. Every day from that point was reckoned by the number of days passed since the event of this cosmic beginning point.

As Dr. Jose Arguelles writes in "Time and The Technosphere" -
"August 13, 3113 BC is as precise and accurate as one can get for a beginning of history: the first Egyptian dynasty is dated to ca 3100 BC; the first 'city,' Uruk, in Mesopotamia, also ca 3100 BC; the Hindu Kali Yuga, 3102 BC; and most interestingly, the division of time into 24 hours of 60 minutes each and each minute into 60 seconds [and the division of the circle into 360 degrees], also around 3100 BC, in Sumeria. If the beginning of history was so accurately placed, then must not the end of history, December 21, 2012 also be as accurate?"

(Sidenote: Regarding the World Age cycle we are closing in 2012 and the new World Age cycle to dawn, there are varying cosmologies as to whether we are closing the Fifth World and entering the Sixth, or closing the Fourth World and entering the Fifth. For example, In the perspective of the living Maya Timekeepers of Guatemala, calendrically speaking, each element has a 5,125 year cycle. They teach that we have been through fire, earth, air and water already. The next cycle (beginning Dec 21, 2012) will be ether - the Fifth Age - the Age of Center. Likewise, the Hopi teach we are closing the Fourth World of Destruction, and preparing to begin the Fifth World of Peace. Regardless of the title given, what is clear is that we are on poised on the brink of a World Age Rebirth!)

johnconan

Within the 5,125 year cycle lies 13 smaller cycles, known as the "13 Baktun Count," or the "long count." Each baktun cycle is 394 years long, or 144,000 days. Each baktun was its own historical epoch or Age within the Great Creation Cycle, carrying a specific destiny for the evolution of those who incarnated in each baktun. For example, almost all of the Mayan inscriptions were seeded precisely during Baktun 9 (435-830 AD). This era is known as the time of the Classic Maya. After this point, around 830 A.D., the great Mayan centers were abandoned and their thriving culture mysteriously disappeared. To this day, no one can verify or prove why they left or where they went.

The Classic Maya of Baktun 9 were of a specific destiny, distinct from Maya of other times. As Dr. Jose Arguelles writes, "In 830 A.D. the engineering team departed back to space, back to the other dimensions from which the Maya keep their watch on things. Slowly the terrestrial Maya melted back into the jungles. The time of darkness was setting in. Sure enough the conquerors came. By 830 A.D. Warrior tribes who took the ancient name of Toltec, which means Master Builder, entered the Yucatan. War and human sacrifice were introduced."

Earth and her inhabitants are currently travelling through the 13th baktun cycle - the final period of 1618-2012 AD. This cycle is known both as "the triumph of materialism" and "the transformation of matter." The Maya predicted this final baktun would be a time of great forgetting in which we drift very far from our sense of Oneness with Nature and experience a kind of collective amnesia. Like a memory virus in which we begin to believe the limited reality of appearances and grow dense to the spiritual essence which fuels this world, so humanity's sense of ego and domination has grown.

We entered this baktun cycle right after establishing the world wide coordination of Pope Gregory XIII's 12 month calendar system (1582) as well as the perfection of 12 hour 60-minute mechanical clock (1600), which had been evolving for centuries. These are no small matters. According to Valum Votan, these 2 instruments are what manifested humanity's "error in time" which is the following of artificial instruments of time that served to separate man apart from the rest of nature, operating by our own false timing frequency, to the detriment of the natural world.

The Gregorian calendar is not based on logic, science, or nature. It denies and covers up the true annual human biological cycle conserved in the body of woman. It is the current world standard because of the forceful issuance of this system upon conquered (indigenous) peoples who lost their land as well as their religious freedoms. The Gregorian calendar is a product of its predecessors - Julius Caesar's calendar and the earlier Roman Empire calendar.

The clock was the first existing machine - going on to become the heart of all machine technology to come.

johnconan

The presence of the clock gave birth to the notion that time lies outside our bodies - that it can be tracked by a machine, and that we can sit and watch it "fly" by tick-tock as though it is something linear, containable, and separate from the organic, flowing process of life. The adherence to the clock for our sense of time and timing is noted as the greatest obstacle to allowing the full telepathic abilities of the human to flower.

Next came the Cartesian Coordinate Rectilinear Grid System (1637) which went on to establish the foundational platform of all modern math and science. Thanks to Rene Descartes (the man infamous for his quote "I think therefore I am,") the ceiling of perception validated only the reality of the 3 dimensions of physical space. The coordinates of X,Y, and Z rendered the fourth dimension obsolete from our worldview.

At that moment, time became reduced from its qualitative essence to that of a quantity. The mind who adopted the lens of the linear grid also adopted the limited perception of time as a 3rd dimensional linear progression of pure duration.

Our societal paradigms have continued to operate with these limitations in place. Thus if something can not be seen, touched, or proven with measurements, it does not, in effect, exist.

Through the Cartesian lens, Nature has become reduced to pure quantifiable resources - no longer a living qualitative aspect of ourselves, but now something outside of ourselves which we observe, analyze and ultimately come to replicate, manipulate, dominate, toxify, and even destroy or extinguish. As Rene Descartes stated plainly,"I perceived it to be possible to arrive at knowledge highly useful in life...and thus render ourselves the lords and possessors of nature."

It seems the modern world wants nothing more than to improve upon Nature, or at least extract her wisdoms and magical properties in order to make a buck by fulfilling increasing consumer demand.

And so, here we are - currently living the last 7 years of both a 5,125 year Creation Cycle, and the last 8 years of a 26,000 Grand Cycle, the Precession of the Equinoxes.

The coming end date of December 21, 2012 is also written as 13.0.0.0.0. in Mayan long count notation; just like the beginning date.

Scholar and author John Major Jenkins reports,"On 13.0.0.0.0, the December solstice sun will be found in the band of the Milky Way. We can call this an alignment between the galactic plane and the solstice meridian. This is an event that has slowly converged over a period of thousands of years, and is caused by the precession of the equinoxes.The place where the December solstice sun crosses the Milky Way is precisely the location of the "dark-rift in the Milky Way...'xibalba be' - the road to the underworld."

On the winter solstice of 2012, the noonday Sun exactly conjuncts the crossing point of the sun's ecliptic with the galactic plane, while also closely conjuncting the exact the center of the galaxy.

Jenkins further proposes that this grand cross in time is symbolized by the Mayan Tree of Life, found at the core of Mayan cosmology.

johnconan

We are being invited to realize that we are Time. We are the Living Prophecy. The Synchronic Order of Natural Time governs the unfolding of our lives. Time's cycles are found within our bodies and within Nature's daily rhythms and cyclic seasons. We have forgotten this, thinking that time is money or that time is the clock, or the relentless progression of work weeks and weekends. Time is the ever-changing, unfolding Now as it synchronistically coordinates the Whole living Universe.

From his studies into ancient Mayan Time-Science, Dr. Jose Arguelles decoded the mathematical nature of the Synchronic Order,
The Law of Time:
There is only one timing frequency which unifies the whole galactic order from its largest constituent to its smallest. This timing frequency is the 13:20 ratio, found within the harmonic structure of the 13 moon calendar as well as our human bodies - our 13 main joints and 20 fingers and toes.

Knowing that we are the prophecy, what does itmean to be nearing this return, and what can we expect - personally as well as planetarily?

These times are so accelerated that no answer could encompass the vast implications of the phase we are in. A range of responses are available to us. Depending on who you talk to and what area you research, one can find all kinds of claims as to what can be expected. From cataclysm to enlightenment, world war to world peace, massive earth changes and physical destruction, to massive spiritual awakening to our inherent oneness, there are many views of the implications of the approaching year 2012, 2013, and beyond. One thing is clear - we are right in the thick of this critical, transformative period! As this date approaches, we are collectively in a transition phase of the old world dying and a new world being born.

This moment on Earth, with all of its heightened energies, has never existed before. The opportunities and challenges of today's world are the climax of all that has preceded us. Never before has the population of this planet increased by 216,000 people a day! Never before has the Earth's biosphere been in such a precarious state. That which seems like normal lifestyle decisions and behaviors are but precedents set by our modern standards - not necessarily reflecting the most balanced, healthy, or sane way to operate. It is for us to decipher how to live our lives with integrity; to determine what truths empower us to model our lives according to our greatest harmonious potential.

All that is manifesting on the inner and outer planes reflects the sacred intensity of these prophetic times. More than ever, the polarities and imbalances within us and around us are becoming clearer. Love, beauty, exuberance, and compassion permeate this world - multi-faceted victories of art, co-creation, community support, healing and evolution shine all around us, illumating the spirited grace of our true nature. Meanwhile, this world is steeped in fear, brutality, pain, and disease - endless anguish of anxiety, separation, disconnection, confusion, isolation - alongside the toxic realities of egoic, callous greed and corruption, materialism, addiction, and dangerous ignorance. This is now the time to embrace all that has been dishonored or denied, for it is emerging to be purified and sanctified. Accountability is required on all levels of our existence. The cosmic climate is changing at rapid rates, allowing us to now transduce and shed egoic programs of fear and limitation easier than in the past.

Science reveals that Earth's base resonant frequency is increasing (Earth's heart-beat), and that the magnetic fields of the planet are dropping - reflected in the shifting migration patterns of animals. These shiftings of the Earth's body allow us to release unwanted baggage - mental, physical and emotional patterns, conditioning, beliefs, attitudes, and programming. Simultaneously, that which we think or desire is becoming actualized more and more swiftly.

A peak point in this time on Earth is what's called the "transition of the biosphere into the no-osphere." According to Russian scientist V.I.Vernadsky,"This is the result of a climax of human self-reflective thought and industry upon the environment, resulting in an exponential change in consciousness in which all becomes revealed and known."

johnconan

As many of us are well aware, much of the genetic potential we are born with is lying dormant within us, waiting to be turned on. This is definitely an important aspect of this time of Quickening. We can only imagine what the full activation of our DNA will allow us to accomplish and manifest for Planetary healing and restoration. It has been foretold that we will be able to transmute the problems of our 3rd dimensional physical reality by utilizing our own stored, internal technology. More and more this is happening.

Now in action is the worldwide grassroots movement which utilizes sound vibrations to clear pollution and (geopathic) earth stresses, producing amazing results. www.earthtransitions.com. Using the ancient sciences of focused prayer and intention, channeled through post-Tesla energy technology, toxic matter is being transformed.

The time has never been so ripe to realize eachother as "one planetary organism in contact with itself anywhere on the planet." The Emergence of our Empowered Potential, Our Divinity is presenting itself to be claimed. How to experience this reality consciously? Where-ever one looks, the universal answer points to one's own body, one's own mental attitude, the energy of one's own heart, one's own living breath as the beginning place of orientation to feel one's unique connection to and expression of the functioning of Totality.

As the frequencies continue to raise, our connection to the fourth dimension continues to rapidly increase. This allows for maximum transformation and mutation of who we are and how we live life, or how life lives us! Doors of opportunity ever-presenting themselves, any limit we might place upon what's possible in these next 7 years is not recommended. Let us instead Dream the Exaltation of Humanity and all of Life on Earth.

Returning to Natural Time

Valum Votan, "Closer of The Cycle" - final messenger of Pacal Votan's prophecy, prescribes the fulfillment of human destiny as a collective return to natural time via the synchronization of the 13-moon 28-day calendar. Using this harmonic, ancient, and accurate standard of measure, we make a whole-systems transition into conscious resonance with our living universe.

In these intense times of uncertainty, we need all the navigational assistance possible for our everyday consciousness to be in harmony with Earth. The 13 Moon calendar helps us re-harmonize our bodies and minds to the natural patterns and cycles of the Earth and Stars.

Learning a new calendar may seem hard or even intimidating, but this is the time to try something new. As Valum Votan states, "It's the untried solution; the harmonic solution." What we're being asked to do is let go of what has been common for so long - the irregularity of the 12-month calendar - and embrace the accuracy of the 13-moon calendar.

Overlayed upon the perfect framework of the 13 moon year, is another layer of natural time - the "sacred count of days," a cycle of 260-days which flows through the year, giving each day a unique "Galactic Gateway." This sacred cycle composed of 260 distinct energies is called the Galactic Spin cycle. As a modern version of the ancient Mayan Tzolkin, it puts us directly in touch with the creational energies which compose our inner and outer world.

johnconan

The benefit of utilizing this harmonic module (Tzolkin) is that it serves as a clear map of the 260 energetic portals of self inquiry which assist our quickening. As we use these lenses to see deeper into ourselves, we come to know the purpose which every moment holds. We come to hear the guidance which calls to us in every interaction of our lives. We perceive the clues which are waiting to bestow information. The more we surrender into the natural flow of life's timing, the more directly we are informed by time as the universal frequency of synchronization.

The source of these calendar codes is the "Dreamspell" - the modern application of ancient Mayan time-science, brought to us by Dr. Jos

johnconan

sama seperti kepercayaan Hindu, dunia akan musnah pada 2012. Musnah maksud saya bukanlah bumi ni akan hancur, tapi akan balik semula ke zaman permulaan tamadun manusia. Cth nya manusia telah melangkah ke zaman baru pd zaman Batu.

Akan di restore.

razhar

tak lama dah..btw hang dah g ke zetatalk.com?

Navarrus

Tamadun Maya

Walaupun ianya bukan tamadun Mesoamerika yang terawal, kaum Maya dianggap sebagai kaum yang paling pintar sewaktu itu. Budaya mereka boleh dikesan dari 1500 SM lagi, dan ianya berkembang pesat antara 600 dan 900 TM.

Penempatan kaum Maya terletak berhampiran tempat yang dipanggil cenotes, sejenis wadi yang membekalkan air yang sesuai untuk kawasan yang kering akibat iklim tropikal. Pekerjaan utama disini ialah pertanian seperti jagung, kekacang, lada hitam dan juga tanaman kontan seperti kapas dan koko.

Mereka dianggap sebagai kaum intelek Mexico kuno, kerana mencipta tulisan hieroglyphic yang rumit dan sehingga ke hari ini tidak boleh difahami dengan sepenuhnya. Selain itu, kaum Maya telah menguasai ilmu sains terutamanya ilmu falak dan matematik. Antara lain, pakar-pakar mereka telah mengira kitaran bulan, menentukan waktu-waktu gerhana bulan dan matahari dan mencipta suatu sistem kalendar yang lebih tepat dari yang digunakan pada zaman ini.

Bagi kaum Maya, sains dan agama saling kait-mengait, dan menjadi teras kehidupan harian. Suatu upacara baptis diamalkan bagi anak-anak mereka. Untuk mendapat habuan dari tuhan mereka, mereka membuat pemujaan dan pengorbanan manusia. Antara dewa-dewa yang dipuja termasuklah Itzamna dan Ix Chel, ayah dan ibu semua dewa-dewa yang lain, dan dewa hujan Chac. Kukulcan ialah nama Maya untuk ular berbulu, dewa kasta kelas pemerintah. Kuil kaum Maya yang kompleks dan pengkajian alam semesta dalam berbagai cabang terus mereka pada masa yang sama mengagum dan membingungkan ahli kaji purba dan pengkaji lain.

In building their ceremonial centers the Maya followed the design typical of all Mesoamerica, constructing tall pyramidal temples, warren-like single story palaces and the ubiquitous ball court around a broad central plaza. Distinctive architectural features of Mayan pyramids include corbel vaults, towering roofs and elaborate embellishment with stucco reliefs.

There is a baroque quality to the artistic style of the Maya, as evidenced in their exotic murals, polychrome ceramics, finely detailed stelae, altars and other stone work. As opposed to the geometric designs typical of other cultures, the human form is common depicted in Mayan art.

Kekurangan bekalan makanan, beberapa gempa bumi, serangan serangga perosak pestilence, pencerobohan kuasa luar, revolusi dalaman atau kombinasi beberapa faktor tersebut mungkin merupakan beberapa sebab yang membawa kepada kejatuhan tamadun ini. Apa yang jelas ialah pada 900 TM, sebilangan besar pusat istiadat Maya telah ditinggalkan serta ditenggelami oleh hutan yang padat. Kebanyakan kawasan ini telah terselamat daripada dihancurkan oleh penakluk Sepanyol dan telah kekal sehingga ke abad ke-19.

Antara kawasan yang terkenal ialah dirantau rendah di utara (semenanjung Yucatan) termasuklah Chichen Itza, Dzibilchaltun, Tulum dan Uxmal. Manakala di sebelah selatannya pula iaitu di pusat kerajaan Maya, terdapat kewasan Bonampak, Copan, Palenque dan Tikal.

Tamadun Aztec

Setibanya abad ke 13, kesemua rantau ini yang pada ketika itu dipanggil Lembah Anahuac Valley of Anahuac, telah diduduki oleh beberapa kota-negara city-states yang bermusuhan. Antara yang terkahir untuk tiba di kawasan ini ialah kaum nomad dari Mexica (disebut mei-SHII-ka), atau lebih biasa dikenali sebagai kaum Aztek, yang telah mengakhiri penghijrahan mereka yang jauh dari tempat asal mereka jauh di utara, iaitu Aztlan, sebelum menduduki lembah ini.

Kaum Aztek menganggap diri mereka sebagai kaum yang terpilih bagi dewa suria dan perang iaitu Huitzilopochtli. Sebaik sahaja sampai disebuah tempat dimana seekor burung helang diatas pohon kakti sedang menelan ular, iaitu suatu petanda turun-temurun yang baik, kaum ini telah membuka kota mereka Tenochtitlan, disebuah pulau di Tasik Texcoco. Sejak kehari ini, lambang burung helang menelan ular telah menjadi sebahagian bendera Mexico. Selama separuh abad yang berikutnya, mereka telah menjadi tentera upahan bagi kaum yang hebat iaitu Tepanecs dari Azcapotzalco. Tetapi lama kelamaan kaum Aztek telah bangkit menentang pemerintah mereka dan akhirnya berjaya merampas kuasa bagi lembah tersebut.

Dalam masa yang singkat, Tenochtitlan membangun menjadi kota utama bagi empayar Aztek yang luas itu. Ianya menjadi sebuah metropolis yang dihiasi dengan beberapa terusan yang besar, pasaraya yang berwarna-warni dan kuil-kuil yang hebat. Kota itu dihuni oleh sebuah masyarakat yang highly organized, diperintah oleh seorang maharaja dan didominasikan oleh golongan bangsawan yang terdiri dari pendita dan pemungut cukai, golongan kesatria yang elit serta aktif, dan para pedagang. Wilayah ini berperang dengan wilayah lain untuk dua faktor utama: untuk menerima ufti bagi menyelenggarakan masyarakat dan menangkap orang tawanan untuk menjadi korban dewa-dewa mereka.

Menurut kepercayaan Aztec, dunia mereka wujud di bawah matahari kelima, dimana empat matahari sebelum ini telah dimusnahkan akibat beberapa malapelataka yang besar. Lalu, misi utama tamadun ini ialah untuk mengekalkan terbitnya matahari, tugas yang hanya boleh dicapai dengan menggembirakan dewa Huitzilopoctli dengan menawarkannya jantung manusia yang banyak. Dengan mengikut sistem takwim yang diterima pakai dari kebudayaan lebih awal dan memerhati dengan cermat pergerakan cakrewala, puak Aztek mengadakan pelbagai keramaian ugama bagi merai dewa-dewi mereka, Quetzalcoatl Ular Berjambul dan dewa hujan Tlaloc, antara yang paling penting.

Pada abad ke 15, kaum ini membentuk sebuah pakatan tiga penjuru Triple Alliance dengan negeri-negeri Texcoco dan Tlacopan. Gabungan tentera ini kemudiannya dikerah untuk berperang menentang kaum di Tlaxcala dan Huejotzingo. Apabila para pahlawannya kembali ke Tenochtitlan dengan jayanya pada 1487, mereka mebawa pulang 20,000 tawanan untuk dikorban di Kuil Agung Great Temple yang dibina sebagai tempat pemujaan dewa-dewa Huizilopochtli dan Tlaloc.

Empayar Aztek telah mencapai zaman kegemilangannya sewaktu pemerintahan Moctezuma II, dengan tanah jajahan yang merangkumi sebahagian besar zon tengah dan selatan Mexico. Namun dengan jatuhnya tahi bintang pada 1517 telah menjadi petanda kejatuhan empayar ini. Sewaktu musim bunga pada tahun Ce Acatl (1519) seorang utusan telah melaporkan kepada Moctezuma tentang kehadiran beberapa orang kulit putih berjambang yang mengangkut salib-salib telah mendarat di pesisiran pantai di Teluk Mexico. Bagi Moctezuma yang sensitif dan percaya kepada perkara karut, kedatangan ini hanya mempunyai satu makna iaitu kepulangan dewa Quetzalcoatl seperti yang telah dijanjikan.

Teringat pulak cerita Apocalypto :kant:

cz

Originally posted by Navarrus at 6-5-2007 10:29 PM
Tamadun Maya

Walaupun ianya bukan tamadun Mesoamerika yang terawal, kaum Maya dianggap sebagai kaum yang paling pintar sewaktu itu. Budaya mereka boleh dikesan dari 1500 SM lagi, dan ianya ber ...

yup...mmg sama dgn apocalypto...mula2 aku ingat geng2 yg duduk atas piramid utk korbankan puak2 lain tu ialah kaum mayan...rupanya aztec....(correct me if i'm wrong)..

razhar

http://www.btinternet.com/~gstray/today.htm

twisted_girl

dari tamadun yg makin banyak kita jumpa makin misteri dunia ni sebenarnya. teknologi org dulu2 lg tinggi tapi kita tak tahu kenapa musnah. saper2 yg tau pasal kaum maya ni post lg ye. dari thread atlantis, ada post yg tulis kaum maya dan aztec ni dari kaum atlantis yg terselamat.

johnconan

hubung kait proses restoration Bumi ngan kepercayaan Hindu...

bleh baca kat section Hindu...

The Awaiting Saviour

rasanya sebab tamadun manusia bermula pd sekitar 3000BC sebab Bumi baru je alami proses restoration. Akan datang berlaku pd tahun 2012. Bersiap sedialah...

Navarrus

The Mayan Prophecies
by BJ Moyer

In this last millennium, a great civilization of scientists, artists and warriors, more than 12 million strong, abruptly abandoned their world. They were the Mayan , a people of great vision, whose cities and temples along the present day Yucatan Peninsula, were swallowed up by the jungle. They left behind great civic centers, temples of worship, houses and apartment buildings. They buried great works of art, pottery and plows. The crowning achievement of their entire civilization is the Mayan calendar. To this day it is a puzzle to modern scholars. It may also serve as a warning to us about the destruction of our own civilization

According to anthropologist, Dr. Arlen Chase, " The Mayan calendar is one of the wonders of the world. It is so accurate in terms of its counting ability, that it puts our calendar to shame. To the Mayan, time was cyclical. So, you return and cycle back. They have one major cycle that started in 3113 B.C. that is going to come to an end on December 12, 2012." At this time they believed that there would be a sudden reversal in the earth's magnetic field. The Mayan feared that the sun, which they had nourished with their human sacrifices, would one day no longer send its life force. They believed this would end the last age of man.

Mayans counted the days according to two calendars, one a "vague" year of 365 days and the other a shorter cycle of 260 days. Every day had two names, one according to each calendar, so that the same combination of names would not recur for 52 years. When one of these 52 year time periods came to an end, they would leave their cities and go to the surrounding hills and anxiously watch the stars. The sign they were looking for was the Pleiades star-group." The appearance of these stars meant that the heavens had not stopped turning and the sun would rise again. They " celebrated the birth of this new 'century' with rejoicing and the lighting of fires, symbolizing the rebirth of the world."

Many ancient Mayan documents were destroyed in the early years of the Spanish occupation. The Spanish were both fascinated and horrified by what they found in this "New World." They looked on the Mayan religion, which included human sacrifice, as barbarous and satanic. " They set about to destroy it without a trace. Whole libraries of colorful bark-books were burnt and the Mayans who did not die from disease, hunger and over-work were forcibly converted to Catholicism."

Fortunately, not all the Spanish were unsympathetic towards the Mayans. A few, such as "friar Bernadino Sahagun, made friends with the natives and attempted to record for posterity their traditional beliefs and ideas. Also, a few priceless books and relics did survive the destruction, either having been hidden by the Mayans or exported back to Europe as presents for the Spanish king. The most important of these was a book called the Dresden Codex, named after the town in whose library it was found. This strange book, inscribed with hieroglyphs, was written by Mayan Indians.

In 1880, a brilliant German scholar read the Dresden Codex and cracked the code of the Mayan calendar, making it possible to translate the many dated inscriptions that were found etched on buildings and ancient Mayan artifacts. This ancient Mayan book was concerned with astronomy, providing detailed tables of lunar eclipses and other phenomenon.

In 1986, Maurice Cotterell put forth a revolutionary theory concerning astrology and sun cycles." He had for some years suspected that the sun's magnetic field had consequence for life on earth." As he studied the Dresden Codex, he discovered that the Mayan calendar was not arbitrary but based on a knowledge of sunspots. This explained the Mayan obsession for long cycles of time and their belief in the rise and fall of the four previous ages of man.

"Because Mayan time was cyclical, effects were thought to eventually, and potentially, repeat themselves. So you have all these various cycles that fit together. Certain days were considered unlucky, others days were considered very good. It's like looking at your horoscope. To the Mayans, certain years were good and certain years were bad. Also certain blocks of 20 years, called katuns, were considered good or bad. Each block of time, and its so-called 'personality' for good or bad, feast or famine, were the teeth on the cogs of the calendar."

By looking at the calendar, the Mayan could not only see what day it was, or year, but also what 20 year period it was in relation to. They could also see what was to come. So that the demise of the Mayan may have been foretold or a self-fulfilling prophecy. To some extent, you could argue that the Mayan collapse was a process of their view of time." They were foretold that there was going to be a major problem that they couldn't survive, and they didn't.

The Mayan collapse is tied into a katun of change and is related to earth changes by earth events , fire or water. According to the book, The Mayan Prophecies, there is evidence that links the Mayan civilization with the mythical lost continent of Atlantis, which was believed destroyed in a series of earth catastrophes. The Mayans believed that the world had been destroyed four times before. First by water, the second by wind and the third by fire and earth changes. They believed that at the end of each age there is a time of chaos, and then a period of rebuilding as a new age begins. However, if we are to believe the Mayans they believed that in 2012 , it would be the fifth and final age of man. In other words, our days are numbered.

However, most scholars don't believe that we are in a final days, however, they do believe that in the days up to the new millennium, the earth will be in for a bumpy ride. We are experiencing many of the same problems of the Mayans. Our population is rising and our demands on our environment is depleting our resources. Many believe that we can't carry on the way we are. Dr. Chase urges us to learn from the Mayan so that history does not repeat itself. " The Mayans were living on their ecological edge in terms of exploiting their environment and having a huge population base. All it would have taken is a sudden, little imbalance in the system for the entire system to fall apart. You throw in warfare and you have a dangerous mix that could have led to their rapid decline and to the collapse of their civilization." Although the date 2012 is literally etched in ancient stone, most modern scholars suggest the Mayans were offering a warning not a prophecy. It's not too late to change the course of history, but, time is running out.

HangPC2

apa beza Mayan dan Aztec adakah mereka salah satu kaum Indian Amerika Utara,Tengah dan Selatan

dutchy

Maya, Mayan - a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding architecture and pottery and astronomy; "Mayans had a system of writing and an accurate calendar"


Bibliography on Aztec History
Ricardo J. Salvador



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George Vaillant published "Aztecs of Mexico " (Doubleday & Co.) in 1944, and in it he attempted to present a comprehensive history that included cultural, economic, religious and social aspects. As can be expected, this work and many of its interpretations have been superceded by much subsequent scholarship, but it is still useful for its very "broad view" of the subject.

A useful and relatively recent trilogy that culminates with an analysis of the Aztecs as successors to a Toltec cultural heritage is Nigel Davies' series:

The Toltecs Until the Fall of Tula (1977)
The Toltec Heritage: From the Fall of Tula to the rise of Tenochtitlan (1980)
The Aztec Empire: The Toltec Resurgence (1987)
The series is published by the University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK).

A similar analysis in scope, though more terse in presentation, is Brian Fagan's "The Aztecs " (1984, Freeman, NY). In the same category as a useful general overview of the subject is Frances Berdan's "The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society " (1982, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, NY), a college textbook.

These modern syntheses draw heavily on Spanish and Aztec sources dating to the period of the conquest. The number of such sources is truly huge and its examination is giving a large body of scholars a full life's work. Even though such sources are voluminous and ponderous, and their study requires specialized knowledge in such fields as archaic Spanish, classical Nahuatl, colonial law, etc., there are at least a few that are de rigeur for persons attempting to understand Aztec history. Foremost among these would be Fray Bernardino de Sahag鷑's "Co'dice Florentino, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espa馻 ." Sahag鷑 was a Franciscan friar who set about collecting as much of the culture of the vanquished Aztecs as possible. He worked with fellow friars versed in Nahuatl and with "informants" who were from the learned echelons of Aztec society, most of whom lived in and understood the period immediately preceding the conquest. The breadth of the work is numbing (ethnology, theology, history, plant and animal systematics, cosmology, philosophy, natural healing, mythology, etc.) and the original is liberally sprinkled with much commentary expressing a strict catholic judgement of the culture described. Abridged and sanitized versions abound in Spanish, but for English readers the recommended way to approach this work is via Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson's translation "Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain " (1950-75, Univ. of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 12 vols.)

Other sources that are indispensible to understand Aztec history, but which must be read with a discerning eye are Chimalpain's "Diferentes Historias Originales de los Reinos de Culhuacan y M閤ico y de Otras Provincias ," Hernando Cortez' "Cartas de Relaci髇 " (a series of five letters written by the conqueror to king Charles V, published in Spanish by Porr鷄 Hermanos and in English by Norton & Co. as translated by J. Bayard Morris), Diego Duran's "Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar " (translated by Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas in a 1971 edition by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press), and Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc's "Cr髇ica Mexicayotl " (1975, UNAM, Mexico City).

A classic analysis of the Aztec mind is Miguel Leon-Portilla's "Aztec Thought and Culture " (Univ. Oklahoma Press, 1963; several printings), a translation of the author's 1956 Spanish original: "La Filosof韆 Nahuatl " (UNAM, Mexico City).

An equally classic work examining existance in the time of the Aztecs is Jacques Soustelle's "La Vida Cotidiana de los Aztecas en V韘peras de la Conquista " (1956, Fondo de Cultura Econ髆ica, Mexico City, many printings), a translation from the original French work published in 1955.

Given the importance of art forms as expression of the Aztec mind and worldview, a useful, recent, and very powerful presentation of this aspect of Aztec culture is Esther Pasztory's "Aztec Art " (1983, Abrams, NY), published after, and incorporating much of the knowledge derived from, the 1978 discovery and excavation of the foundations of the Aztec Templo Mayor in downtown Mexico City.

There is also an abundance of work on Aztec literature as a source of insight into Aztec thought and history, and much scholarship has equally been devoted to various aspects of Aztec history postconquest (just one example is an analysis of Zapata's agrarian uprising during the 20th century Mexican revolution as linked to Aztec views and customs of land tenancy; q.v. Jes鷖 Sotelo Incl醤's "Ra韟 y Raz髇 de Zapata ," 1979).

dutchy

Origins of Mexico

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Ancient Native American civilizations--including those of the MAYA, OLMEC, ZAPOTEC, MIXTEC, TOLTEC, and AZTEC--flourished there for centuries before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. The Pyramid of the Sun, built in the 2nd century AD, dominates the landscape of the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico. Teotihuacan was the first true city in Mesoamerica, at its peak (AD c.600) it housed more than 100,000 people.

After the Maya, after the Toltec, came the Aztec. The Aztecs emerged in the Valley of Mexico, or Anahuac as it was called by its peoples, around the 14th century. Aztec legends tell of seven Nahua tribes who pillaged and plundered a divided Mexico after the Mayan civilization had all but faded, dispossessing and enslaving the previous inhabitants. These tribes were known as the Chichimecas by the natives, a word originally meaning barbarians.

The Valley soon became crowded, and the Nahua waged many years of petty tribal warfare against each other. One tribe, called the Acolhuas of Texcoco, eventually emerged above all the rest. The tribe's chieftains ruled over the Valley, building palaces and carefully preserving what remained of the Toltec culture and knowledge. Yet early in the 15th century, the Acolhuas were, in turn, conquered by the Tepanec, a rival Nahua tribe. This reign proved to be so tyrannous, however, that the other tribes were forced to combine their strengths to defeat the Tepanec. The Acolhuas took advantage of the power vacuum thus created, and once more gained power in Anahuac. Yet this victory was short lived.

After having wandered as outcasts and mercenaries through the territories in the southwestern corner of the Valley, the Aztecs, the last of the seven tribes to enter Anahuac, finally found a home on two islands in the middle of Lake Texcoco. There, in 1325, they built the city of Tenochtitlan. They had been guided to this spot by their deity, Huitzilopochtli, who had told them to settle where they should find an eagle standing on a nopal and devouring a serpent.

After the war between the Acolhuas and the Tepanec, the Aztec gained their independence. They then swept in and conquered the other tribes of the Valley, asserting their authority through their considerable military ability and strength. The tribe began to expand its domain in every direction, making sacrificial victims of the peoples they conquered. By the end of the 15th century, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan had become very rich and had grown to a population of around one hundred thousand.

Main staples consisted of beans, rice, maize-cakes, pimentos, and tomatoes. Rarely was there meat or poultry. Water was usually the only drink. Nobility ate well and often most of the food prepared was exquisite. All sorts of meats and vegetables were eaten. Maize was revered as the bringer of life. They also used sage and alcohol for ceremonies.

Alcoholism was non-existent until after fall of empire. Severe penalties for the over consumption of alcohol. Alcohol did have religious significance in certain rituals. Those whose active lives were basically over were allowed to drink, however young and middle aged men were impaired by strict social barriers against drinking.

Homes were made of sun-dried bricks. Number of rooms increase with wealth of family. People slept on woven mats. There were not many chairs, tables, or desks. Hearths in center of home symbolized the fire god.

The Aztecs were great admirers of flowers. They had gardens surrounding the house for aesthetic purposes. Men wore loin cloths, sandals and cloaks. Women were fashion conscious. Staining of the teeth red or black was popular. Tattoos were used to improve the look of the lower class. Noble women used cleanliness for attraction. It was also desirable to have yellow skin, so women used the reason of the axin tree to change their color.

Most of the working class went barefoot. Women wore earring, necklaces and bracelets on their arms and ankles. The men also had pierced their septum and placed gold hoops or metal jewels as well as piercing their lips and ornamenting it likewise. Cotton and other textiles obtained from the surrounding fauna was used to acquire clothing materials. Jewels were used as a sort of caste marker Some jewels could be used to raise a person almost to a state of godliness. Coupled with feathers, the jewels were highly important in the Aztec social structure.

dutchy

The Incredible Origins of the Maya Indians!

Modern scholars admit they have no satisfactory explanation for the origin of the Maya civilization. Faced with a complex socio-economic system that suddenly bloomed fully formed and fully functional, the experts begrudgingly say it is "one of the most baffling archaeological mysteries ever uncovered" and "is still deeply shrouded in conjecture." Why should this be so? Why are modern ethnologists and archaeologists so confused? Because, in their hell-bent pursuit of the theory of evolution, they have discarded the wisdom of a people. They have discarded the traditions and legends that have been handed down over the centuries -- and thus loose the tools that would enable them to unravel the mystery of the Maya. The Spanish conquistadors were equally confused. In order to erase all memory of a religious system they considered pagan and Satan-inspired, these invaders of the New World burnt all but a few records of the Mayan people. Fortunately a few texts survived -- enough to trace the footsteps of a migratory people a- cross the continents of the Old World and across the pages of time. This, then, is the story of the Maya civilization.

John D. Keyser
Seen from the air, the tropical rain-forest of the Yucatan peninsula is like a brilliant green blanket stretching to the far horizon. The lush, ever-encroaching forest hides all traces of ancient Maya life -- except for an occasional artificial mountain or an abandoned pyramid that pokes through the tree tops.
When early archaeologists slashed their way through the dense foliage to reach these almost forgotten reminders of a past civilization, they were met by silent figures that stared out from the walls of ancient cities. The languorous, humid air, the constant rainfall, the clinging vegetation and the exotic faces peering out at the explorers had a powerful -- almost hypnotic -- effect on even the most experienced archaeologist. John Lloyd Stephens, who had journeyed up the Nile, ventured to the rock-cut city of Petra and explored the Holy Land had never seen anything like this. Calling the silent figures in one city "grim and mysterious," he fell under the spell of what he found and, as a result of the work he subsequently undertook, Stephens became known as the father of Maya studies. "In the romance of the world's history nothing ever impressed me so forcibly," he later wrote, "than the spectacle of this once great and lovely city, overturned, desolate, and lost...it did not even have a name to distinguish it..."
The Classic Maya
According to the archaeologists, the Classic Maya civilization flourished between 200 B.C. and A.D. 900 -- incorporating more than 100,000 square miles of the Yucatan lowlands. It was a civilization of great lords, a small elite who ruled over as many as fifty independent states and tens of thousands of village farmers. The influence of the Maya extended far from their tropical homeland. They were great TRADERS, maintaining links with states in the Valley of Oaxaca in the highlands and diplomatic relations with the vast city of Teotihuacan in the Basin of Mexico. They perpetuated religious beliefs that took hold over an enormous area of ancient Mesoamerica. Maya leaders were divine kings -- quarrelsome rulers obsessed with power and prestige. They were expert diplomats who were masters of political intrigue. "They built great cities and trading centers around palaces, plazas, and pyramids. Grandiose public buildings were adorned with stone and stucco sculptures of deities and mythical creatures, of lords conducting important ceremonies" (Kingdoms of Gold, Kingdoms of Jade, p. 112).

Maya kings were evidently fanatical about their position in the scheme of things. They erected intricately carved stelae to commemorate their accessions and ancestors. Everything, however commonplace, unfolded within a wider historic context and against the background of a rich fountain of epic and legend. Today, archaeologists and historians marvel at this complex world. Maya civilization was truly one of the most sophisticated, exotic and volatile cultures of ancient Mesoamerica.
Archaeologists have divided the Maya experience into four basic periods: The Preclassic (also called Formative), the Classic, the Terminal Classic and the Postclassic. The Preclassic period is further divided into Early Preclassic, Middle Preclassic and Late Preclassic with dates of 2000-1000 B.C., 1000-300 B.C., and 300 B.C.-250 A.D. Since these dates are based on radiocarbon dating, we should not take them as being cast in concrete. The radiocarbon dating process contains many errors and/or assumptions that can affect the outcome.
Author Charles Gallenkamp, in his book Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization, writes --

Regardless of everthing scientists have learned about the Maya so far, we constantly encounter unanswered questions. NO ONE HAS SATISFACTORILY EXPLAINED WHERE OR WHEN MAYA CIVILIZATION ORIGINATED, or how it evolved in an environment so hostile to human habitation. We have almost no reliable information on the origin of their calendar, hieroglyphic writing, and mathematical system; nor do we understand countless details pertaining to sociopolitical organization, religion, economic structure, and everyday life. Even the shattering catastrophe leading to the sudden aboundonment of their greatest cities during the ninth century A.D. -- one of the most baffling archaeological mysteries ever uncovered -- is still deeply shrouded in conjecture. -- Viking Penguin Inc. P. 57.

It seems that the scholarly world is in the dark when it comes to tracing the origins of the Maya and their leaders. Why is this so? Because they are so enamored with the theory of evolution and have a great distain for the traditions and legends of a people. Those, however, with an open mind, can determin the true origins of the Maya Indians of the New World.
They Came from the Land of Caves
In The Annals of the Cakchiquels -- Lords of Totonicapan we find a direct reference to the RACIAL ORIGINS of the kings and nobles who led and governed the Maya in the New World.
Notice --

These, then, were the THREE NATIONS OF THE QUICHES [MAYANS -- the Cauecs, the Greathouses and the Lord Quiches], and they came from where the sun rises, DESCENDANTS OF ISRAEL, of the same language and the same customs....When they arrived at the edge of the [Red] sea, BALAM-QITZE [a native title for one in a religious office] touched it with his staff and at once A PATH OPENED, which then closed up again, for thus the great God wished it to be done, BECAUSE THEY WERE SONS OF ABRAHAM AND JACOB. So it was that those THREE NATIONS passed through, and with them THIRTEEN OTHERS CALLED VULKAMAG....We have written that which by tradition our ancestors told us, who came from the other part of the sea, WHO CAME FROM CIVAN-TULAN, BORDERING BABYLONIA. -- Translated by Delia Goetz. University of Oklahoma Press, 1953. P. 170.

On page 169 of the same translation we read: "...came from the other part of the ocean, FROM WHERE THE SUN RISES."
In the Mesoamerican dialects the mysterious CIVAN-TULAN in the above passage means "A PLACE OF CAVES OR RAVINES." Could this be the region of PETRA where Moses led the Israelites? Petra is famous for its caves, and deep ravines. Herman Hoeh notes that "CANAANITE HIVITES, mixed with Egyptian stock, dwelt at Petra, or Mt. Seir, at the time of the Exodus (Genesis 36:2, 20, 24). They lived at peace with the Hebrews." (Compendium of World History. Ambassador College, 1963. Vol. II, p. 88).
Under the control of the Canaanite Hittites was a land called KHURRI. Notes the Encyclopedia Britannica, "besides the Hittite, Khattish and Luish, still another language [of the Hittites] has been revealed by the inscriptions at Boghazkeui -- Khurrish (Hittite khurlili), which is thus named after a people, empire and, apparently, also a city Khurri. The country Khurri (WHICH MEANS PROPERLY "HOLLOWS, CAVERNS"), must be looked for in North Mesopotamia and the bordering Armenian mountains" (1943 edition. Vol. 11, p. 603).
The Britannica goes on to say: "Hrozny regards the North Mesopotamian town Urfa, Gr. Orrhoe, Edessa, as the centre of the empire of Khurri....In Assyria Urfa seems to be called Khurra. As the name prabably means "CAVERN[S]," it is possible to suppose that Khurra-Urfa received this name on account of the NUMEROUS CAVERNS in the Nimrud Dagh of the surrounding country" (ibid., p. 604).
Not only that, but the encyclopedia goes on to reveal that --

Occasionally Khurri is synonymous with SYRIA generally. The country Kharu, more exactly Khor of the Egyptian inscriptions, as also the Old Testament people, the Khorites (until now usually considered to be "DWELLERS IN THE CAVERNS") who, according to Gen. xiv. 6, Deut. ii. 12 and 22, inhabited the LAND OF EDOM before the Edomites, is identical with this Khurri. -- Ibid., p. 604.

Interestingly, the Khurri-Khorites also belong, like the Khatti, to the large-nosed, sloping forehead and high cheek-boned race which was neither Semite nor Indo-European -- but bears the features of many of the American Indian tribes in the New World!
Some of the people who later sailed across the Atlantic to Mesoamerica were called CHIVIM, reports Ordonez the early Spanish writer. It is the very Hebrew spelling used for the English word HIVITES, some of whom once LIVED IN MT. SEIR -- the LAND OF CAVES NEAR BABYLONIA!
The area of Petra was, at that time, DOMINATED BY MIDIAN. A high priest who visited the land of Midian and MOAB in Moses' day was called BALAAM -- almost the EXACT-SAME SPELLING as the title BALAM used by the priests of the QUICHE-MAYA in Mesoamerica!
The Kharu of Egypt
The Kharu of the Egyptian inscriptions are clearly Canaanite in origin. History reveals that the Canaanites formed a fixed, settled population in the eastern marshes of Lower Egypt at a very early time. To this very day descendants of these Canaanites live in the very same region where their forefathers settled thousands of years ago -- on the shores of Lake Menzaleh. "Near the old towns and districts of Ramses...a DISTINCTLY PECULIAR RACE OF FISHERMEN AND SAILORS, whose manners and customs, whose historical traditions, faint though they be, and whose ideas on religious matters, characterize them as foreigners in contrast with the Egyptians proper....The[se] same inhabitants of the eastern provinces [of Egypt], who at the present day navigate in their barks the shallow waters of Lake Menzaleh, and carry on the fishing as their chief business, are, as has been said, the descendants of the Phoenician [Canaanite] inhabitants of the Tanitic and Sethroitic nomes....What, however, forms the most characteristic MARK of their ancient and now forgotten origin, is their NON-EGYPTIAN COUNTENANCE...WITH THE BROAD CHEEKBONES AND DEFIANTLY POUTING LIPS, which more than anything else give to the boatmen of Lake Menzaleh the stamp of the foreigner" (A History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Henry Brugsch-Bey. Second edition, Vol. I. John Murray, London 1881. Pp. 258-260).
The presence of KHAR-CANAANITES IN EGYPT is made known to us by the inscriptions. Their importance in the affairs of Egypt culminates in the fact, revealed by the monuments, that a Khar or Canaanite, towards the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty, was able to make himself master of the throne and sovereign over all Egypt. The name Khar denoted not only a people, but also the country they inhabited -- namely parts of western Asia, the Syrian coast, and, above all others, the LAND OF CANAAN. "The abodes of the people of the Khar, or the Phoenicians [Canaanites], were described as 'beginning with the Fortress of Zar (Tanis-Ramses), and extending to Aupa or Aup.' The last-mentioned name denotes a place in the north of Palestine..." (ibid., p. 256).
Not only did the Kharu (Khars) settle the eastern part of the Egyptian delta, but they also spread to oases in the Libyan desert west of the delta. One such oasis is that of KHAR-GA. Lying 435 miles south-west of Cairo, this oasis is presently inhabited by people of BERBER STOCK -- descendants of the original Khars.
Another such oasis is that of SIWA, located some 350 miles W.S.W. of Cairo. Once again, this area is inhabited by people of Berber or Canaanite stock, and have a language all of their own.
During the time the Khars/Canaanites (also known as Berbers) dominated Egypt, expeditions were dispatched to other lands. At the end of their dominance in Egypt they, themselves, undertook a MIGRATION to the distant islands of the Pacific!
Notice what John Mitchell and Christine Rhone say in their book Twelve-Tribe Nations --

According to Max Freedom Long, the early expert on Polynesian magic and shamanism, there are in fact only eleven Polynesian tribes. In his book of 1948, The Secret Science behind Miracles, he tells of the legend of the twelfth tribe, and how it became separated from the others.
Long's informant was a retired journalist, William Reginald Stewart, who had spent some time in NORTH AFRICA being instructed by a native wise woman in the magical traditions of a certain BERBER TRIBE. This tribe, he was told, was once one of twelve whose homeland was the Sahara, at a time when it was watered and fertile. With the onset of drought, the twelve tribes MOVED TO THE NILE VALLEY and became MASTERS OF EGYPT....There came a time when their prophets foresaw an age of darkness, when their ancient traditions would be threatened. To preserve their knowledge, they decided to disperse and to find refuge in the loneliest parts of the earth. Eleven of the tribes moved eastward, passing through the Red Sea and along the coasts of India...towards the various groups of Polynesian islands. The twelfth tribe went in the other direction, to the Atlas mountains.

The authors of Twelve-Tribe Nations continue --

On reading Long's first book on the magic of the Polynesian kahunas, the native shamans, he [Stewart] was struck by the SIMILARITY between their religious terms and those of his BERBERS. The word for shaman, kahuna, was COMMON to them both (though spelt quahuna by the Berbers); a female shaman, kahuna wahini, corresponded to the African's quahuna quahini; and akua, a god in Polynesian, was rendered atua. These and other parallels obviously indicated a SINGLE ORIGIN.

Long found this information to be compatible with the migration legends of the Hawaiians, and was thus inclined to accept the testimony of Mr. Stewart. The secret magical lore of the Polynesians, as well as of the Berbers, came from Egypt when they were the masters of the land.
They Came From the East...
In Stephen's Incidents of Travel in Central America, the author quotes what Fuentes (chronicler of the ancient kingdom of Guatemala and of the Toltecan Indians) said of the origin of the leaders of the Quiche Maya. Fuentes said that, according to the grandson of the last king of the Quiches, the TOLTECS WERE ISRAELITES, released by Moses from the tyranny of Pharaoh. After crossing the Red Sea they became idolators. To escape the reproofs of Moses, they strayed away and, under the leadership of a man named Tanub, drifted from continent to continent until they came to a place they called the SEVEN CAVERNS -- a part of the kingdom of Mexico. Here they founded the city of TULA. The story recounts that from Tanub, their leader, sprang the ruling families of the Toltec and the Quiche Maya.
Of these Toltecs, who were in 1519 only a distant memory, Don Fernando writes --

...And the Tultecs...came to these parts, having first passed over great lands and seas, LIVING IN CAVES and passing through great hardships, until getting to this land. -- Primera Relacion.

The record of this voyage is found in The Popul Vuh -- the Quiche Mayan book of creation. Originally written in MAYAN hieroglyphs, it was transcribed in the Spanish alphabet in the sixteenth century. This book is considered the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, and begins with the deeds of MAYAN gods in the darkness of a primeval sea and ends with the radiant splendor of the MAYAN LORDS who founded the QUICHE KINGDOM in the GUATEMALAN HIGHLANDS.
Who were these MAYAN LORDS who founded the Quiche kingdom? Where did they come from?
In The Popul Vuh are recorded the migrations and wanderings of their ancestors. Notes Herman L. Hoeh: "It traces their origin EASTWARD ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN to the OLD WORLD. Other Indians had similar origins of having to cross A GREAT BODY OF WATER FROM THE NORTHEAST to reach their present land" (Compendium of World History, Vol. II. P. 88).
The author of The Popul Vuh records it this way: "They also multiplied there IN THE EAST....All lived together, they existed in GREAT NUMBERS and walked there in the EAST....There they were then, in great numbers, the black man and the white man, many of many classes, men of many tongues....The speech of all was the same. They did not invoke wood nor stone, and they REMEMBERED THE WORD OF THE CREATOR AND THE MAKER..." (English version by Goetz and Morley. Pp. 171-172).
The MAYA record continues: "...THEY CAME FROM THE EAST...they left there, from that great distance....THEY CROSSED THE SEA" (Pp. 181, 183).
Briefly summarized, the Popul Vuh and other Mesoamerican traditions relate that humans were created in the EAST and lived there in darkness. The ancestors of the Maya left the East "crossing the SEA in A FLEET OF SEVEN VESSELS carrying 'many companies,' and SAILED ALONG THE GULF OF MEXICO COAST to its farthest westward point, at PANUCO, where the people debarked" (Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Contacts, by Stephen C. Jett). They were evidently led to TULA by priests -- "bookmen" who carried their symbols of rank and their gods with them.
In 1615, Juan de Torquemada, who was fluent in the Nahuatl language, published in his Los veinte i un libros rituales i monarguia indiana:

...certain NATIONS OF PEOPLE, who arrived by way of Panuco, came from the north...[after skirting the Gulf of Mexico]
These people moved onward from Panuco with good diligence without either a warlike encounter or a battle...by chance coming as far as Tulla (where they arrived and were received and given lodging by the natives of that province)...
...when these people arrived in Tullan [Tula], they brought with them a very important person as chief, who governed them, and whom they called Quetzalcohuatl (whom afterwards the Cholultecas worshipped as a god). -- Editorial Porrua, Mexico (1969), vol. I, pp. 254-255.

There were FOUR Quetzalcoatls in the Mesoamerican traditions; and the exploits and persona of each of them have become blurred and jumbled over the ages. The Quetzalcoatl that de Torquemada mentions here is the second one -- Tanub, the Israelite leader of the Toltecs that passed through the Red Sea.
Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, in his Historia Guarania, Asuncion de Paraguay (1944), vol. IV, pp. 108-109, relates the same story --

After the foundation of Mexico, and all the land, NEW PEOPLES came, from toward the north, they landed at Panuco, they wore long clothes, open in front, without cowls, (with) low-cut collars, short sleeves, and wide, which until this time the natives used in their dances, imitating that NATION, which without opposition passed as far as Tulo, where they were well received, for it was a people of much industry in whatever art, and in cultivating the land, and thus they were loved by all; and not being able to sustain themselves in Tulo, for being very populated, they passed to Cholulan, where they established themselves, and from there they settled in Guaxaca (Oaxaca), and in Mixteca Baxa, and (Mixteca) Alta, and Capotecas: they taught good administration (mucha policia) in all the land: and for this (reason), in being some men of prudence, and industry, they called them TOLOTECAS, for in Tulo they commenced to teach; and it is thus, that the Tolotecas are charitable...

In most versions, these culture-bearer ancestors came to TULA. The Aztec and the Maya both seem to have inherited the legend from the TOLTECS; and one version places the arrival of these ancestors during the OLMEC period.

Remains of Tula
Shortly after the group arrived in the valley of Mexico the leaders, according to the traditions, either left for home or to continue on their quest. Those voyagers who remained in the region settled near the highest mountains they could find and commenced building the city of Tula in an easily defensible location. Eventually they married into the local population -- to whom they taught the arts of civilization. "When their leaders returned, the settlers would not accompany them homeward" (The Popul Vuh). Generations later, the sons of these priest-kings returned to the east on a mission that we will discuss later in this article.
Montezuma, the Aztec leader when the Spaniard Cortez invaded Mexico, reminded his ministers and high dignitaries:

You know, as I do, that our ancestors did not hail from this country we live in, but came here from a far distant land, led by a GREAT PRINCE. This prince then left the country again with only a few of his followers, but returned a long time afterwards. He saw that our ancestors, his subjects, had built towns, had chosen wives from the daughters of the country, and had had children by them; that they had settled in their new land and would not go back with him, their prince. Since they no longer wanted him as their ruler, he went away alone, announcing that he would one day in the remote future either return himself with an immense army or send someone in his name to take back what was his due. -- A speech given by Montezuma soon after the arrival of the Spaniards. Recorded in "In Search of the Roots of Ancient American Civilization," New Dawn, April/May 1994. Number 24.

Upon meeting Cortez face-to-face, Montezuma told the interloper: "For a long time and by means of our writings, we have possessed a knowledge, transmitted from our ancestors, that neither I nor any of us who inhabit this land are of native origin. We are FOREIGNERS and came here from very remote parts. We possess information that our lineage was led to this land by a PRINCE to whom we all owed allegiance (vasalage). (Ibid.)