Maya Civilization
The Maya civilization is a Civilization précolombienne whose geographical influence extended to south-east from Mexico (peninsula of the Yucatán), in the west of the Honduras and the El Salvador, in the north of the Belize and the Guatemala. Appeared with the third millennium before J. - C., it knew its apogee of the 3rd century at the 10th century before knowing a progressive decline and disappearing at the time from the Spanish conquest at the 16th century. Its principal works are of architectural nature , with the construction of imposing Temple S and Pyramide S, of astronomical nature , as the multiple cycles testify some to the Maya Calendrier, and mathematical nature, with a numeration of position bases of them 20 including/understanding the Zero.
The knowledge and the comprehension of Maya civilization are very incomplete and of great remote regions remain in spite of the efforts made since the 19th century. Indeed, the Spanish Conquistador S , then the missionary S, sought to destroy all the traces of this past (as at the time of the auto-da-fe of Mani, or the Maya codices were flarings).
The Mexico seeks today to rehabilitate its heritage précolombien and a museum of Maya civilization was created with Chetumal.
One compared some times the Mayas to the Greeks of the traditional time. In America précolombienne, they were people of builders, scientists and artists who, in fifteen centuries, worked out in the tropical jungle one of the most refined civilizations continent. They formed at their golden age an immense ethnic block, Honduras in the south of the Mexico.
Maya zone of settlement
This zone included/understood (and always includes/understands):- the south-east of the Mexico (Éts of Chiapas, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán, in particular the area of the Puuc);
- the north of the Guatemala;
- of the sections of the Belize;
- extreme west of the Honduras;
- west of the El Salvador;
The Maya territory is divided into three great areas, according to climatic and geological criteria:
- the peaceful littoral
- the Highlands
- the Lowlands
It seems that the evolution of Maya civilization corresponded to a geographical shift. Indeed the oldest traces of the Maya culture were found on the coast of the Pacific and in the high-grounds of Guatemala. The vestiges of the traditional period are primarily localized in the low-grounds of the south (Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan) whereas the post-traditional development seems to have taken place mainly in the low-grounds of north, i.e. the peninsula of the Yucatan (Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Tulum).
History
Origins
The origins of the Maya tribes oldest are lost in the mists of time. The indigenous manuscripts of the 16th century forgot the site of the cradle of Maya civilization, that it is in the Chibam Balam (written in the peninsula of the Yucatán), or in the Popol Vuh of the Quiché S, the branch of the Maya Indians of Guatemala. And even the first Spanish chronicler of the Maya, the brother Diego de Landa (1566), could not mention the situation clearly of it. In any event, the facts refer to the Mayas of Yucatán, the traditional era, and not with the old Maya located in the south (Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras), whose civilization is extinct a few centuries before the apogee of the cities of the peninsula such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Savil. We know that in very moved back times, the Maya lived on the Atlantic littoral of the Mexico, from where they went down towards the Central America by going up the Usumacinta to arrive at the Petén. An old Maya group, the Huastèque S, remained however in north, the area going of Veracruz to Tamaulipas. It east can be the expansion of the Nahua S which crossed into two the Maya people by rejecting a group to north and the other to the south. The groups rejected towards the south are those which developed great Maya civilization. At the beginning of the historical period, they lived in a triangle delimited by Palenque in Chiapas, Uaxactun, with Guatemala, and Copán in Honduras, a very important surface with very difficult transportation routes in the middle of the jungle, crossed by large rivers, including/understanding the basin of Usumacinta, the Guatemalan peten and the valleys of the Motagua and the Río Copán.One generally distinguishes three periods in Maya civilization:
-
preclassical Era (2600 av. J. - C. with 250 apr. J. - C.)
- traditional Era (250 to 900)
- postclassic Era (900 to 1521)
Preclassical era
the preclassical era extends from 2600 before Jesus-Christ with 250 apr. J. - C. Starting from -2000, it is the rise of the civilization Olmèque, from which are resulting from many aspects of Maya civilization. This preclassical period is badly known. The first villages of farmers were gone back to -2000 in the British Honduras (Cuello)
Archaeological evidence shows that Maya ceremonial architecture starts towards 1000 av. J. - C. It is very difficult to make the difference between the culture pre-Maya and civilization Olmèque, each culture being influenced mutually.
Towards 300 av. J. - C., one attends with the multiplication of the sites and an intense architectural activity, sign of a strong increase in population, particularly in the cities of Komchén, Cerros and Tikal. Each site develops in an autonomous way; nevertheless, sign of an undeniable cultural unit, one uses same red ceramics everywhere.
Between 50 and 250 of the Christian era, period traditionally called “protoclassic”, tensions appear; crisis of growth or invasion, no one does not know it. Certain sites disappear, such as Cerros or Komchén, while others are essential like Tikal.
Traditional era
The traditional era extends from 250 a. J.C to 900 apr. J. - C. It is dominated by two large metropolises: Tikal and Calakmul. Tikal plays a prevalent role in the first part of the traditional era which marks the apogee of the Maya culture. In 292 a dated stele asserts the prevalence of this city on the whole of the Maya world. Its role seems to be reinforced by the bonds which link it with the large metropolis of central Mexico, Teotihuacán. These exchanges appear in architecture, ceramics and the sculpture. About the middle of the 6th century, Tikal is overcome by Calakmul. One then notes a deceleration of the activities, which results in the interruption of the erection of dated monuments. This stop marks the end of traditional old.
A revival takes place soon organized around city-States which compete of prestige. The Maya culture reaches its apogee: it will last until the 10th century.
Postclassic era and the mystery of Maya collapse
the postclassic era , of 900 with 1521, mark the collapse of the city-States and the disappearance of the monumental writing.
The quasi total depopulation of the powerful Maya cities at the dawn of the 9th century remains very mysterious. Many assumptions were advanced to explain the sharp decline of traditional Maya civilization into full golden age. The specialists are still not agreement on the causes of such a radical upheaval. Ecological wars, disasters, famines or a combination of these factors are the reasons generally advanced to explain this decline. The Maya centers abandoned at the beginning of the 10th century, then were absorbed by the forest. It is only during second half of the 19th century and with the beginning of the XX {{E}} that they could be found and restored.
Facts
In the Lowlands, with the Guatemala and the current Mexico, one notes at this period the sudden and final adoption of any activity in the cities. A first city, Quirigua, are abandoned as of the end of the 8th century (it is the last date indicated on the found steles). A few tens of years later, one does not find any more trace of urban life in the traditional Maya world. A strong fall of demography was noted but the causes remain obscure about it, and that is not enough to explain why the survivors left the cities and their splendid constructions.
Actually, the fall was not brutal. The Maya ruins are not cities destroyed but of the abandoned cities. One does not find either a trace of hecatombs, mass graves or common graves, results of epidemics like those which, introduced by the Spanish conquerors, will decimate the Indian populations later. Dissensions weaken the Mayas which become unable to resist the aggressions: their neighbors, in the west and north, benefit from the situation.
Assumptions
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the war: because of the traces of brutal abandonment, the daily activities having been apparently forsaken in a few days (constructions still in building site), several specialists supported the thesis of wars and confrontations violent one between cities.
-
natural disasters: of terrible earthquakes or strong climatic disturbances could have decimated the population. A very important reduction in the rains over one long period (corroborated by several geological investigations) could thus have involved bad harvests, famines, epidemics, rebellions, etc
-
fear: this thesis very discussed was advanced in the middle of the years 1970 by Pierre Ivanof. It bases on the Maya religion itself, dominating in the cities whose birth goes hand in hand with the construction of great ceremonial and pertaining to worship centers. The creation of arts and sciences was always closely related to the religion. However, this one was based on astronomical observations which had given rise to two complex calendars (see Maya Calendrier) which organized all the life of the city and had deeply marked their cosmogony. The Mayas thus distinguished five cycles in the history from the Universe ending all in the destruction of the preceding world; that corresponding to Humanity was the fourth, and the calculation based on the crossing of the two calendars indicates that this period was to be completed… at the 10th century. Thus, the priests having predicted the imminent approach of the apocalypse, these enthusiastic people suddenly would have been taken of panic and would have fled.
-
the assumption retained by the majority of the researchers is based on an accumulation of very unfavourable situations, taking again the theses evoked previously. The scenarios often evoke an ecological catastrophe (massive deforestation, dryness, impoverishment and erosion of the ground) which would have involved violent wars between the cities to increase the rate of the sacrifices and to gain the leniency of the gods, especially with the approach of the end of the fourth cycle. The strong growth of the death rate which results from this, combined with the need for moving away from the increasingly arid cities to find the wetter and fertile environment of the tropical forest, brings a rather coherent explanation to the abandonment of the cities.
After the fall
The Maya cities of the plains of the north of Yucatan continue nevertheless to thrive a few centuries moreover, like Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Edzná and Coba. After the decline of the dynasties of Chichen Itza and Uxmal, the city of Mayapan control surface all Yucatan until a revolt towards 1450. When the Spaniards arrive, the area is with the hands of city-States of less importance.
In the highlands of the south, continuous Maya culture of living through small kingdoms like that of Quiche, which is at the origin of one of the most known texts of Maya mythology: the Popol Vuh .
The Maya hieroglyphic writing continues to be used in the Codex, made long vegetable fiber bands covered with limes and folded in accordion. Four of them survived: those of Dresden and Paris, the Codex Troano of Madrid and Grolier.
The Spaniards begin the conquest of the Maya grounds towards 1520. Some kingdoms will continue nevertheless to resist savagely, until the last Maya State, the kingdom of Itza, to Guatemala, falls in 1697.
Economy and company
The Maya company is divided into classes: noble, religious, military, craftsmen, tradesmen, peasants (majority) and the equivalent of the serfs. It is directed by hereditary chiefs, of patrilineal filiation, who delegate their authority on the village communities to local leaders. The ground, property of each village, is distributed in pieces to the various families.
The social structure is complex, it is founded on a patrilineal family organization, a sexual division of work and a distribution by branches of industry. The farmers, i.e. the major part of the population, were divided into peasants, servants and slaves. The elite, on its side, was divided into warriors, priests, administrators and leaders. The elite and the people did not form antagonistic categories, bus of the family ties or of alliance linked leader and servants, chiefs and peasants.
It seems that the Mayas lived according to a system of city-States. This relative independence of the communities was a factor facilitating besides the conquest by Spanish who did not have to face people presenting an united front.
The Maya economy rested mainly on agriculture (Maïs, Coton, Haricot S, Courge, Manioc, Piment, fruit trees, Cacao). The Maya term of itself indicates “those which cultivate corn”. The techniques of spinning mill, dyeing and weaving of cotton are extremely sophisticated. The Mayas domesticated the Chien, raised turkeys and practiced the Apiculture. They did not have draft animals or vehicles with wheels. The metal tools did not exist.
The various Maya people maintained many commercial relations with remote cities. The cocoa broad beans and the copper small bells were used as currency of exchange: copper was also used at decorative ends, like the Or, the Argent, the Jade, the shells and the feathers of Quetzal.
Culture
Structure
The emblématique form of Maya architecture is the Pyramide with degrees.
The apogee of the Maya culture coincided with the emergence of large cities, centers of religious, commercial and political capacity, like Chichen Itza, Tikal and Uxmal. The observation of the style of Maya architecture is one of the keys to include/understand this civilization.
Cities
The site of the Maya cities does not seem to be planned; they indeed a little randomly spread on all types of grounds plains of the north of the Yucatan (the peninsula of Yucatan where radiated Maya civilization is a low calcareous plate which hardly rises with the top of the sea level and cover of a thick jungle. Under this tropical climate, the vegetation invades the stones and masks works of these ancients which adopted vertical architecture to approach his gods), hills of the Usumacinta.
In the middle of the Maya city broad places are where the official buildings concentrate, temples, royal acropolis, stage, etc An special attention is paid to the orientation of the temples and the observatories in order to respect Maya cosmogony. In a second circle around this ritual center the residences of noble concentrate, the minor temples. Lastly, apart from this urban center spread the modest houses of the people.
The Maya classical architecture can be summarized in a division of space into two: a monumental, urbanized public space and a private space relegated to the second plan. It is only at the end of the traditional era post that the cities are strengthened, destroying the broad places of the traditional era.
Materials
One of the astonishing aspects of the Maya culture is its capacity to build immense works using rudimentary techniques. Indeed, the Maya used neither metal tools, neither pulleys, nor even the wheel. N the other hand, Maya architecture required an important labor.
All the stones of the Maya buildings seem to come from careers located in the vicinity. The material more used was the limestone, which can be easily cut with stone tools. The mortar is him also containing limestone crushed, burned and mixed which reproduces the properties of cement. Progress in the face of the stones will reduce the use of this mortar, the stones being encased perfectly.
One also notes the appearance of ceramics with fine paste on sites like Seibal and Altar de Sacrificios at the end of the 8th century, to which the introduction testifies to an influence on the Maya culture, and was used to support the thesis of foreign invasions which could be at the origin of the state of war which destroyed traditional civilization.
Techniques of construction
The majority of the stone buildings rest on a cover of which the height varies from less than one meter for the small structures, with more 45 meters for the large temples and the pyramids. On at least a side is a flight of steps, often very stiff.
This cover consisted of a series of cells delimited by walls. The space created by these cells was then filled with gravel.
Surfaces were covered with plaster by preoccupation with a uniformity. The plaster was produced by burning the calcareous powder stone which was then mixed with lime sand ( sascab ) and resin of tree ( holol ) for plasticity.
Finally surfaces were painted with mineral and organic pigments of which the Hématite and the Indigo which were used to produce the two principal colors: red and blue. Famous Maya blue thus consisted of indigo, Azurite (mineral) and of Argile paligorskite.
Maya architecture is characterized by the generalized use of the mortar in the construction industries. Indeed, not knowing the technique of the vault (assembly of blocks in balance distributing the gravitational push on the adjacent walls or of the pillars), their possibilities of creating covered spaces were very reduced. The use of columns and architraves was noted besides only on rare apparently involuntary occasions. Deprived of these elementary means, the Mayas thus systematically used the mortar, with all the consequences that implies: very thick walls in order to support an excessively heavy ceiling, and an exiguous interior space. The long galleries of the palates of Palenque or Uxmal show the use of a kind of vault in corbelling, known as “blind arch” because precisely it is not one. Each layer of blocks added gains little by little on the vacuum, with the manner of the medieval European houses where each additional stage advanced a little more on the street downwards. In the case of the Maya buildings, it was enough that the corbellings rise starting from two opposite walls separated by a short distance so that they end up meeting, forming a “blind arch then”. In order to make hold the unit, the mortar was essential, the corbelling being dedicated to crumble if it exceeds a fatal limit imposed by gravity.
Seen outside, the thickness of the ceiling was higher or equal to the height of the interior gallery, giving to the building an enormous heaviness. The Mayas benefitted from it to give free course to their artistic talents: the high frontages and almost blind men largely left them the means of them. Various stratagems were thus employed to limit the aspect weighing of the buildings. Geometrical planks, vertical posts or more or less elaborate sculptures developed to reach their apogee at the post-traditional era. The style puuc with the Yucatan is best example (Uxmal, Labna, Kobah, Sayil, etc)
Remarkable buildings
Ceremonial platforms
These limestone platforms of less than four meters in height were used for the religious official ceremonies and rites.
Palate
Immense and very decorated, the palates are in the center of the city, they shelter the elite of the population.
Those which are particulèrement large, or which comprise various levels, were can be used as acropolis. Nevertheless the majority comprise only one level, with small parts and are richly decorated, which reinforces the assumption of their use as dwellings.
It also seems that these palates were used as tombs.
Group in E
The utility of this current structure in the Maya cities remains a mystery. On the west coast of the central place a pyramid is, which deals with three small temples from where the name of Groups in E.
Some think that these structures are observatories because since the pyramid, the sun appears in the exact alignment of the small temples at the time of the Solstice S and of the equinox S. Of others advance that they represent the history of the creation of the world illustrated by the sculptures and the drawings which decorate these structures.
Some famous examples: structure E-VII with Uaxactun and groups it complex of the World lost with Tikal.
Pyramids and temples
The pyramids are probably the visual element most known of Maya civilization. The cérémoniales installations in the Maya cities, i.e. the places, the pyramids and the palates, were designed in order to reproduce, on a level symbolic system, the landscape crowned such as it existed at the time of its creation by the gods. The pyramids represented the mountains. It is from these places that the kings, used of fright and rites to reach the supernatural world which enabled them to converse with the gods. The pyramids also sheltered the royal tombs.
The temple-pyramids fell under a cultural long tradition in Mesoamerica. Olmèques set up already artificial mountains. The Mayas innovated while adding to the pyramid and the temple of the cut and painted frontages which expressed political and religious messages. In fact, they recovered all the plaster pyramid (stucco), then they painted the whole in red or of another bright color.
The birth of the pyramids of Mesoamerica does not have thus anything to see with the pyramids of Egypt. With the geographical argument (more 13 000 kilometers) is added the temporal argument (more 3 500 years). Indeed the Maya pyramids or their Aztec counterparts appeared for the majority after the 8th century of our era, while the Egyptian tombs were built at the beginning of the 3rd millenium before our era. To also note that their function is completely different. The Maya pyramids are before all the assembly of two superimposed structures: a monumental base, the “body” of the building, and the temple, whose importance is prevalent. The base has as a function only to raise the temple, to show that the god is higher than the population, that it rises above the common run of people. It does not have, in itself, almost any symbolic system. The name of pyramid is thus erroneous.
Some however object that tombs were arranged under these temples, giving them a funerary vocation. However, even if it is indeed about a current practice at the Mayas, one cannot make a parallel with Egypt either here. Like known as previously, the méso-American pyramid has an eminently pertaining to worship function. While being made bury under the building, the sovereigns heard simply that the worship returned in the higher temple their is advantageous: after their death, the temple would constitute a kind of memorial, maintaining their memory.
In the jungle of the Petén, between the trees of the forest the religious center of Tikal emerges. Fabulous clearing, this old city-State Maya drew up its 60 height meters pyramids. Around lived 50000 peasants, craftsmen and slaves, labor necessary to builders being unaware of the animal haulage. One can speak about phantom cities emerging from the forest. Never the man as well controlled the natural elements only the Mayas of the traditional period. Fifteen centuries ago, Tikal reigned on the jungle of the Guatemala of its proud pyramids. The ceremonial center was covered with Stuc. Even the ground of the temples was painted in red, the color of the sun and blood. On one of the platforms, the chief of the city, surrounded by two large priests, chairs a ritual, dominating the procession of the lords, the sacrificateurs and their victims with the assistance of the musicians. This description comes from historical documents.
Observatories
The Mayas were very good astronomers, they had a very pointed knowledge of the evolutions of the celestial objects, more particularly of the the Moon and Venus. Many temples are directed according to celestial events.
The round temples dedicated to the divinity Kukulcan are often described like the observatories of the Mayas, although there is no proof that they were used for this only purpose.
Stages
The play of ball which one finds on various archeological sites was an important component of the Maya culture. It was called the Pok-your-Pok .
The ground is delimited by two terraces safe at the ends, it with the form of a I capital whose large sides are composed of tilted walls. In top of each wall, on each platform the public was. The ground in itself was called Tachtli ; it represents the Universe, and the ball, the Sun.
The parts proceeded according to the Maya astronomical calendar, in order to beseech there and to satisfy the gods by human sacrifices.
In its center, on each of the two sides two immense rings of stone to five meters height trônent in which the rubber ball named Kik was to pass. Each team from two to twelve players was to return the ball by the stone ring while employing according to the areas: hips, elbows, knees where sometimes parts external of the hand and without dropping the ball by ground; what mimait the race of the Sun.
The made latex ball had a size from approximately fifteen to twenty centimetres in diameter; its weight and its hardness were to thus make very badly at the time of the shocks with different the part of the body from the players.
Art
The Maya art of the traditional period (200-900) is regarded by much as one of most beautiful and finest of the period précolombienne. One besides often qualified the Maya of Greeks of the New World, so much large was supériorié to them in the esthetic field. In the art of the fresco, the Maya had become Masters as of the 3rd century. The low-reliefs of Palenque and the statuary of Copán are particularly gracious and indicate a direction of the observation of the very precise human body. Unfortunately, the climate degraded these representations. On the other hand, paintings which decorate the funerary objects are rather well preserved. The most dangerous enemies of the archeologists: plunderers of tombs. Certain traffickers have considerable means to organize systematic raids.
The first archeologists to be worked on these civilizations pre-Colombians were particularly marked by it, also qualified this era of traditional. There remain only some traces of paintings of the Maya traditional era, whose majority consists of funerary potteries and other Maya ceramics. A building of Bonampak carries old murals which by chance survived. The deciphering of the Maya writing taught us that the Mayas were one of rare civilizations where the artists signed their works of their name.
Writing and literature
Written form
principal Article: Maya writing.
The Maya writing appears from 300 before JC. To judge some by the documents of which we lay out, the Maya writing passes rather quickly from a form Logographique, where each word is represented by a drawing, with a mixed form, logographic and phonetics of the syllabic type: the word can also be divided into smaller units, in the Maya case, of the syllables, each one represented by a sign.
The Mayas used 800 individual signs or Glyphe S, laid out two by two in columns being read from left to right and from top to bottom. The Maya glyphes represented words or syllables combining to indicate any concept. The hieroglyphic inscriptions either were engraved in the stone or wood on monuments and architectural works, or painted on paper, walls of plaster or objects out of ceramics. The system was not alphabetical
The Maya writing is currently decoded with approximately 80 %.
Material
The Mayas wrote with brushes made in hairs and feathers of animals. They used black and red ink, from where the name given to the Maya territory by the Aztèques: “Country of the red and black”.
Scribes
The scribes had a very important social position, the frescos often show the powerful ones with material of writing.
Religion
principal Article: Maya Religion.
The Maya religion presents similarities with the religion Aztèque; it also included/understood human sacrifices. The Maya calendar located the End of the world at the 16th century, and the appearance of the conquistadors at that time threw greatest confusion because the latter were accommodated like the announced gods. The Mayas thus opposed only very little resistance so that they regarded as superhuman beings and an immutable destiny. The principal religious center of the Maya world was Chichén Itzá.
The Mayas believed in the recurrence of the cycles of creation and the destruction. The ritual ones and the ceremonies were narrowly connected to these multiple terrestrial and celestial cycles. The role of the Maya priest was to interpret these cycles and to prophesy last times and to come. So dark times were envisaged, it was necessary to make sacrifices to alleviate the Gods. To follow these cycles they used several calendars: the crowned calendar, most important 260 days, called Calendar Tzolkin; a 365 day old calendar based on the solar year, the Calendar haab; a lunar calendar; a calendar based on Venus as well as a single system in Mésoamérique, called the long Account of the traditional Time.
If the Maya religion remains mainly obscure, it is known nevertheless that they believed that cosmos was separate in three different entities: the lower world, ground and sky.
The sky was composed of thirteen layers, each one having its own divinity. At the highest level the bird muan was.
The underground world comprised nine layers on which nine lords of the Night reigned. The underground world was a place cold and inhospitable for which were intended the majority of the Mayas after their death. When the kings died, they took the way related to the cosmic movement of the sun and fell into the lower World, but because they had supernatural capacities it reappeared in the celestial World and became gods. This underground universe accommodated also each evening the celestial bodies like the Sun, the Moon and Venus, once crossed the threshold of the horizon. The Maya Pantheon contained an incalculable number divinities. This proliferation is partly explained by the fact why each divinity was presented under multiple aspects. Some had more than one sex, others could be at the same time young people and old. Each god representing a celestial body had in the underground world a different face which appeared each evening with its “death”.
The Mayas saw the Earth like a form punt and square. Each one of its four angles was located at a cardinal point and was represented by a color: red in the east, the white in north, black in the west and yellow in the south. The center was green
Certains Mayas also believed that the sky was laminated and that each one of its four angles was supported by a divinity of an impressive musculature called Bacab . For others, the sky was supported by four trees of colors and different species, and the green ceiba, or black poplar, was drawn up in the center.
For the Mayas, the flattened shape of the Earth represented the back of a giant crocodile resting in a basin filled with water lilies. In the sky, during crocodile was a bicephalous snake, a concept undoubtedly ascribable to the fact that the Maya term indicating the sky resembles the word snake.
The elite was obsessed by blood - his and that of the prisoners - and the rite of the bleeding constituted an important aspect of any great event of the Maya calendar. The bleeding was also used to reconcile the gods and at the beginning of the decline of Maya civilization.
For the Mayas, the bloody sacrifice was necessary to survival as well gods as the human ones, making assemble human energy towards the sky and receiving in return the divine capacity. The king made use of an obsidian knife or a pivot of pastenague to notch the penis, of which it let run blood on paper contained in a bowl. The wives of the kings took also part in this rite by drawing a cord roughcast from spines through their language. One made burn the stained paper of blood, and the smoke which rose some established a direct communication with the celestial World.
The habit wanted that the prisoners, the slaves, especially the children and in particular the orphans and the children illegitimate that one especially bought for the occasion, are offered in sacrifice. Before the era of Toltèques, one sacrificed the animals rather that the human ones.
“Has each divinity corresponds a particular rite during which the victims are promised with the row of " substitutes of the dieu". For the divinity of the Rain, particularly venerated, they are children whom one drowns, their tears being of good omen to obtain abundant rains according to the beliefs of time, the gods are literally " affamés" new preys, which explains the quasi permanent state of war which reigns at the Mayas, like besides at other méso-American tribes. The prisoners will constitute a kind of " fish pond with sacrifices" ”. All sacrificed are however not constrained. Indeed, “the victims are promised with an enviable destiny, that to accompany the sun in its daily race, before returning four years on ground later, under the aspect of a butterfly or a hummingbird. This belief explains why the sacrificed futures are often agreeing, even voluntary. Death is not, indeed, an end but, on the contrary, the beginning of a rebirth
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