Early Maya culture has various intriguing facts. Palenque struck me as a interesting place as well as beautiful. The picture of the court on the NGA website in the forest is so gorgeous, no wonder why it was the home of such great rulers. One ruler, Pakal, ruled from the age of twelve until his death 63 years later. Palenque is one of the best preserved Maya courts.... and i definitely want to visit it!
I also thought it was interesting the role that Maya women played in their courts; the women actually rose in status to obstain prominent roles. Women gained the rights to play roles in rituals such as blood sacrifice and communicating with ancestors. This seemed so interesting because in society historically, women have rarely had the chance to have equal power as men in such important rituals. Lady Xok, a supreme wife of a king, even shed her own blood as sacrifice which was meant to perpetuate the cycle of human life. I always thought that because women are the bearers of life they would have been more respected in ancient societies; in Maya culture it seems that some women were.
It's also interesting that the Maya were the only culture that actually developed a heiroglyph system to correspond with their language. I always think it's amazing that anthropologists can even interpret what these ancient cultures were saying and recontruct their language. The language tab on the NGA site offered a table of the Maya hieroglyph and langauge sound too which I played with a little, even though I had no clue what the sounds and images meant.
The early Maya culture is fascinating!
I agree with you that there is so much natural beauty there! Some of the pictures have been amazing and have made me wish I could see them in person. I find it crazy that someone could rule for so many years like Pakal did. You have to be a pretty amazing person to be able to do that and still be very well liked, I mean we have a president for a couple of years and people get sick of them and their decisions so we elect someone new.
ReplyDeleteI love learning about other cultures' forms of entertainment (like the Maya ball game); I think it would be fun to try and play (without the loser's blood sacrifice part). The game seems pretty tricky to me, but I bet it was amazingly entertaining to watch. To bounce that rubber ball through the tiny hoop must have taken so much skill! I wonder if it was ever played just for fun (no severe consequences or territory at stake) and had teams like the olympics.
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