Copan

ASTRONOMY

• "The Main Group"
• contains pyramids, temples, observatories

• The Great Plaza / Plaza of the Stelae
• astronomical alignments

Copán: Key Points

• solstices and equinoxes

• evidence of establishment around 1500 BCE
• location: the valley of the Copán River (west Honduras, borderline Guatemala)
• 16 kings over 400 years

• "Stela D" - northernmost stela in the plaza (pictured)

COPÁN

Nina Russak, Faith Torres, Grace Lauth, Sade Wilcox, Kevin Gonzalez, Jasmin Perez

IGE 120.14

December 3, 2015

WARFARE

AGRICULTURE AND FOODS

8th Century

• The Maya are well known for their Warrior Culture

• They believed that war was a way to tap into the spiritual world

• The Maya would fight wars to capture and sacrifice people to their gods

• They used obsidian and wood to design their tools of war

DAILY LIFE

The Maya: Key Points

Daily Diet included:

• maize (corn)
• beans
• breadnut
• animal meat
• fish
• sea products
• root crops & local fruits
• cacao

• Short Buildings & Pyramids
• Centers
• Residential Areas
• Statues

WRITING SYSTEM

• Social Structure

• Festivals

• established around 2000 BCE

• peak period: 500 BC - 800 AD

• most powerful cities: Tikal and Calakmul

• locations: southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador

• best known for mathematics, astronomy, art, calendar, and architecture

Copán was in alliance with Quirigua. They traded their foods bringing Copán new goods such as pineapple and jade. Copán also recieved other goods from the Guatemalan highlands.

• Mayan scriptures were the earliest form of writing dating from 250 BCE.
• found carved in stone and written on wood, bark, jade, ceramics, and in their books.
• Mayan script consists of 550 logograms,150 syllograms, and 400 glyphs.
• Landa Alphabet developed in 1566 by Diego de Landa
• Major breakthrough during the 1950s by Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov
• Most Mayan scriptures can be read today.

ART

MYTHOLOGY

• "most artistic" of all Mayan cities
• prominence of symbolism
• detailed works such as stelae
• most depicted "18 Rabbit" (13th ruler)

Materials

GOVERNMENT

Altar Q

• 4 sides depicting the 16 rulers
• a ruler hands a torch to the next ruler

WRITING SYSTEM

• Clay
• Stone
• Megaliths

WRITING SYSTEM

• Xibalba: The underworld
• "Hero Twins" Hunahpú and Xbalanqúe: Children of Hun-Hunahpu, tricked and defeated the gods of the underworld
• Hun-Hunahpu: God of maize and vegetation
• Cizin (Kisin): God of death, associated with earthquakes
• Itzamná: chief god, ruler of heaven, of night and day, and of the other deities
• Ah Puch: God of death and destruction

• 72 Political States

• Famous Rulers

Tools

• Stone
• Bone
• Wood

Famous Rulers

• Yax K'uk Mo
• Smoke-Imix-God
• 18-Rabbit
• Smoke- Monkey
• Smoke-Shell
• Yax Pac