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In this documentary, we will dive into Maya worldview
the meaning of numbers and myths. We will go into pyramids
we will see the relationships among these glyphs with December 21st of 2012
we will understand, why mayan civilization collapsed.
We will listen to Mayan descendents
and a group of young people who were selected
by Ruta Maya to travel throught Maya world and underworld,
in the Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico,
where Mayan culture built a great civilization.
The Maya considered the sun as a divinity
they noticed the sun god came out by a different place each day,
in every location can be assigned numerical symbols, useful to count days.
Each point is equivalent to number one
and every strip is equivalent to number five.
In maya writing, points and strips are added
in order to obtain the gross number of days.
A calendary system is born taking into account the astronomical positions.
They used to use the calendar to localized themselves in time
and recorded the dates of important events such as
marriage, births, deaths and rulers changes.
Apart from points and strips system;
they also drew and sculpted numerical glyphs with own faces.
It was a way to give divine character to the number.
As the number represents the sky objects position,
they also represent the god movements,
they represent the energy of each day.
If we used those symbols to represent a date, we would not just talk about that day,
but, those symbols represent the forming forces of that moment, the divinities.
The information, the energy, which make possible the existence of that moment.
In Maya writing has been registered more than 1000 glyphs,
whereas our alphabetical system doesn´t have more than 30 letters.
The glyphs are in stelae, in paintings , in personal objects and, of course, in pyramids.
The Maya culture built hundreds of pyramids, many of them,
so high that exceed the height of the trees at forest.
It is inevitable to ask why they made the pyramids so high, and what are into them?
Archeologist have managed several excavations into different structures to answer those questions
Let´s see what was found into the excavations at Copan, Honduras.
Before jaguar’s patio, which was built by last mayan who lived here,
there was other building, and this is just what we can see here with all these glyphs.
This shows us the old construction over which jaguar´s patio was made.
The maya model to build was such as this;
each ruler replaced the last sovereign making a new construction.
Under of this pyramid, there was also another building, a temple,
where it is possible to see part of a big face that represent sun god.
It is hard to imagine how this temple looked like before being built the pyramid.
Here in Copán museum is possible see clearly how that temple looked like.
This is the Rosalía temple, it was made in 571 BC,
by a ruler whose name was “Luna-Jaguar”, this is a replica, but,
the original was the one in the underpass.
That custom of building over the temples or pyramids of the last rulers,
is also known in other pyramids like the Castillo in Chichen Itzá, Mexico.
I want you to notice that majority of pyramids are solid structures,
what means, they do not have inner tunnels, corridors,
chambers, some kind of structure like those ones.
Nevertheless, the Pakal pyramid stand out.
This pyramid was made by a ruler who ascended to power at the age of 12 years.
Could you imagine a boy ruling one of the most remarkable cities of Maya world?.
He was a successful ruler, during his government, he restored Palenque’s prestige.
He ruled until the age of 68, and in his life he commanded
to build a pyramid that would be used as residence, after his death.
To go Pakal´s grave is necessary go up the pyramid
and after that, go down a into it, until a sarcophagus.
which is surrounded of characters-
The characteres were identified as Pakal´s ancestors.
To Maya was so relevant to know the descendents of the rulers,
because rulers had a strong connection with divinities.
Those who were born in loyal families, generally got important positions in society,
like warrior heads, priests or scribes.
In the representation of pakal´s parents, there are tree brashes.
Mayan believed that ancient rulers came back to earth like fruitage trees.
That in this place, but if we go to another place ,
like Lacandona forest at México south east,
we will find out differences respect to the way to understand life after death.