1.
Mesoamerican pyramids
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Mesoamerican pyramids or pyramid-shaped structures form a prominent part of ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Although similar in shape or form, these structures bear only a very weak architectural resemblance to Egyptian pyramids, the Mesoamerican examples are usually step pyramids with temples on top – more akin to the ziggurats of Mesopotamia than to the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. The Mesoamerican regions largest pyramid by volume – indeed, the largest in the world by volume – is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the Aztecs, a people with a rich mythology and cultural heritage, dominated central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore of Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City and they were related to the preceding cultures in the basin of Mexico such as the culture of Teotihuacan whose building style they adopted and adapted. El Tepozteco Malinalco Santa Cecilia Acatitlan Templo Mayor Tenayuca Tenochtitlan The Maya are a people of southern Mexico, archaeological evidence shows the Maya started to build ceremonial architecture approximately 3,000 years ago. The earliest monuments consisted of burial mounds, the precursors to the spectacular stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period. These pyramids relied on intricate carved stone in order to create a stair-stepped design, many of these structures featured a top platform upon which a smaller dedicatory building was constructed, associated with a particular Maya deity. Maya pyramid-like structures were erected to serve as a place of interment for powerful rulers. Maya pyramidal structures occur in a variety of forms and functions. The region is inhabited by the modern descendants of the Purépecha. Purépechan architecture is noted for T-shaped step pyramids known as yácatas, tzintzuntzan The Teotihuacan civilization, which flourished from around 300 BCE to 500 CE, at its greatest extent included most of Mesoamerica. Teotihuacano culture collapsed around 550 and was followed by several large city-states such as Xochicalco, Cholula, the ground plan of the site has two pyramids, Pyramid B and Pyramid C. The best known Classic Veracruz pyramid, the Pyramid of Niches in El Tajín, is smaller than those of their neighbours and successors but more intricate. El Tajín The Zapotecs were one of the earliest Mesoamerican cultures and its occupation and development had a period of approximately 800 years. This zone is considered an important archaeological center because of the astonishing, the ones that stand out the most are, The Moon Plaza, The Votive Pyramid, the Ladder of Gamio and The labyrinth. In The Labyrinth you can appreciate with precision and accuracy, the respective equinoxes, a great quantity of buildings were constructed on artificial terraces upon the slopes of a hill. The materials used here include stone slab and clay, the most important structures are, The Hall of Columns, The Ball Court, The Votive Pyramid, and The Palace and the Barracks. On the most elevated part of the hill is The Fortress and this is composed of a small pyramid and a platform, encircled by a wall that is more than 800m long and up to six feet high
2.
Step pyramid
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A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids are structures which characterized several cultures throughout history, in locations throughout the world. These pyramids typically are large and made of layers of stone. The term refers to pyramids of similar design that emerged separately from one another, ziggurats were huge religious monuments built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, and near, Mesopotamia, twenty-eight of them are in Iraq, and four of them are in Iran. Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites and Assyrians as monuments to local religions, the earliest ziggurats probably date from the latter part of the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance, kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the summit, access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. It was also called Hill of Heaven or Mountain of the gods, the earliest Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids. During the Third Dynasty of Egypt, the architect Imhotep designed Egypts first step pyramid as a tomb for the pharaoh and this structure, the Pyramid of Djoser, was composed of a series of six successively smaller mastabas, one on top of another. Later pharaohs, including Sekhemkhet and Khaba, built structures, known as the Buried Pyramid. In the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, the Egyptians began to build true pyramids with smooth sides, the earliest of these pyramids, located at Meidum, began as a step pyramid built for Sneferu. Sneferu later made other pyramids, the Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid at Dahshur, with this innovation, the age of Egyptian stepped pyramids came to an end. One of the structures of Igboland was the Nsude Pyramids, at the Nigerian town of Nsude. Ten pyramidal structures were built of clay/mud, the first base section was 60 ft. in circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft. in circumference, circular stacks continued, till it reached the top. The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto, who was believed to reside at the top, a stick was placed at the top to represent the gods residence
3.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
4.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
5.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
6.
Chichen Itza
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Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The archaeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán State, Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have one of the mythical great cities, or Tollans. The city may have had the most diverse population in the Maya world, the ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the sites stewardship is maintained by Mexicos Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. The land under the monuments had been privately owned until 29 March 2010, Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico, an estimated 1.4 million tourists visit the ruins every year. The Maya name Chichen Itza means At the mouth of the well of the Itza and this derives from chi, meaning mouth or edge, and chen or cheen, meaning well. Itzá is the name of an group that gained political. One possible translation for Itza is enchanter of the water, from its, sorcerer, the name is spelled Chichén Itzá in Spanish, and the accents are sometimes maintained in other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllable. Other references prefer the Maya orthography, Chichen Itza and this form preserves the phonemic distinction between ch and ch, since the base word cheen begins with a postalveolar ejective affricate consonant. The word Itza has a high tone on the a followed by a glottal stop, evidence in the Chilam Balam books indicates another, earlier name for this city prior to the arrival of the Itza hegemony in northern Yucatán. While most sources agree the first word means seven, there is debate as to the correct translation of the rest. This earlier name is difficult to define because of the absence of a standard of orthography. This name, dating to the Late Classic Period, is recorded both in the book of Chilam Balam de Chumayel and in texts in the ruins. Chichen Itza is located in the portion of Yucatán state in Mexico. The northern Yucatán Peninsula is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground, there are two large, natural sink holes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement. Of the two cenotes, the Cenote Sagrado or Sacred Cenote, is the most famous, according to post-Conquest sources, pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac. Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910, a study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
8.
Pre-Columbian era
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
9.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems
10.
Kukulkan
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Kukulkan is the name of a Maya snake deity that also serves to designate historical persons. The depiction of the Feathered Serpent is present in cultures of Mesoamerica. Kukulkan is closely related to the deity Ququmatz of the Kiche people, little is known of the mythology of this Pre-Columbian era deity. The cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was the first Mesoamerican religion to transcend the old Classic Period linguistic and ethnic divisions and this cult facilitated communication and peaceful trade among peoples of many different social and ethnic backgrounds. Although the cult was centred on the ancient city of Chichen Itza in the modern Mexican state of Yucatán. In Yucatán, references to the deity Kukulkan are confused by references to an individual who bore the name of the god. Because of this, the distinction between the two has become blurred and this individual appears to have been a ruler or priest at Chichen Itza who first appeared around the 10th century. At Chichen Itza, Kukulkan is also depicted presiding over sacrifice scenes, sizeable temples to Kukulkan are found at archaeological sites throughout the north of the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan. In the Yucatec Maya language, the name is spelt Kukulkan, the Yucatec form of the name is formed from the word kuk feather with the adjectival suffix -ul, giving kukul feathered, combined with can snake, giving a literal meaning of feathered snake. Kukulkan was a deity associated with the Itza state in the northern Yucatán Peninsula. Although the cult of Kukulkan had its origins in earlier Maya traditions and this influence probably arrived via Putún Maya merchants from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. These Chontal merchants probably actively promoted the feathered serpent cult throughout Mesoamerica, Kukulkan headed a pantheon of deities of mixed Maya and non-Maya provenance, used to promote the Itza political and commercial agenda. It also eased the passage of Itza merchants into central Mexico and other non-Maya areas, at Chichen Itza, Kukulkan ceased to be the Vision Serpent that served as a messenger between the king and the gods and came instead to symbolise the divinity of the state. El Castillo, Chichen Itza served as a temple to Kukulkan, after the fall of Chichen Itza, the nearby Postclassic city of Mayapan became the centre of the revived Kukulkan cult, with temples decorated with feathered serpent columns. At the time of the Spanish colonization, the high priest of Kukulkan was the patriarch of the Xiu faction and was one of the two most powerful men in the city. The cult of Kukulkan spread as far as the Guatemalan Highlands, stories are still told about Kukulkan among the modern Yucatec Maya. In one tale, Kukulkan is a boy who was born as a snake, as he grew older it became obvious that he was the plumed serpent and his sister cared for him in a cave. He grew to such a size that his sister was unable to continue feeding him, so he flew out of his cave and into the sea, to let his sister know that he is still alive, Kukulkan causes earth tremors every year in July
11.
Feathered Serpent
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The Feathered Serpent was a prominent supernatural entity or deity, found in many Mesoamerican religions. It was called Quetzalcoatl among the Aztecs, Kukulkan among the Yucatec Maya, the earliest representations of feathered serpents appear in the Olmec culture. The pantheon of the people of Teotihuacan also featured a feathered serpent, several feathered serpent representations appear on the building, including full-body profiles and feathered serpent heads. Buildings in Tula, the capital of the later Toltecs, also featured profiles of feathered serpents, the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl is known from several Aztec codices such as the Florentine codex, as well as from the records of the Spanish conquistadors. Quetzalcoatl was a bringer of knowledge, the inventor of books, the corresponding Mayan god Kukulkan was rare in the Classic era Maya civilization. However, in the Popol Vuh, the Kiche feathered serpent god Tepeu Ququmatz is the creator of the cosmos, along with the feathered serpent deity, several other serpent gods existed in the pantheon of Mesoamerican gods with similar traits. Awanyu Xiuhcoatl Serpent Bernal, I, Coe, M, et al, the Iconography of Middle American sculpture. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list
12.
Quetzalcoatl
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Quetzalcoatl forms part of Mesoamerican literature and is a deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means feathered serpent. The worship of a serpent is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BC or first century AD. That period lies within the Late Preclassic to Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, in the Postclassic period, the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of Cholula. It is in period that the deity is known to have been named Quetzalcoatl by his Nahua followers. In the Maya area, he was approximately equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind and learning, wears around his neck the wind breastplate ehecailacocozcatl, the spirally voluted wind jewel made of a conch shell. In codex drawings, Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were both pictured as wearing an ehecailacocozcatl around each of their necks. There has additionally been at least one major cache of offerings with knives and idols adorned with the symbols of more than one god, some of which were adorned with wind jewels. It is a matter of debate among historians to which degree, or whether at all. He was also the god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning. Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Quetzalcoatls ally Tlaloc who is the god of rain, and Quetzalcoatls twin and psychopomp, who is named Xolotl. Animals thought to represent Quetzalcoatl include resplendent quetzals, rattlesnakes, crows, in his form as Ehecatl he is the wind, and is represented by spider monkeys, ducks, and the wind itself. In his form as the star, Venus, he is also depicted as a harpy eagle. In Mazatec legends, the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who is represented by Venus. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history, the existence of such worship can be seen through studies of iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. This depiction is believed to have made around 900 BC. The first culture to use the symbol of a serpent as an important religious. At temples such as the aptly named Quetzalcoatl temple in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently, the earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya the deity began acquiring human features. Feathered serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites, Cholula is known to have remained the most important center of worship to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered serpent deity, in the post-classic period
13.
Aztec
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The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico
14.
Mesoamerican chronology
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Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods, the Paleo-Indian, the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative, the Classic, and the Postclassic. However, this applies to other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations as well. 3500-2000 BCE During the Archaic Era agriculture was developed in the region, Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving became common, and class divisions began to appear. Many of the technologies of Mesoamerica in terms of stone-grinding, drilling. 1800 BCE–200 CE During the Preclassic Era, or Formative Period, large-scale ceremonial architecture, writing, cities, the Olmec civilization developed and flourished at such sites as La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. 200–1000 CE The Classic Era was dominated by numerous independent city-states in the Maya region and also featured the beginnings of political unity in central Mexico, regional differences between cultures grew more manifest. The city-state of Monte Albán dominated the Valley of Oaxaca until the late Classic, highly sophisticated arts such as stuccowork, architecture, sculptural reliefs, mural painting, pottery, and lapidary developed and spread during the Classic era. In the Maya region, numerous city states such as Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Palenque, Uxmal, Cobá, each of these polities was generally independent, although they often formed alliances and sometimes became vassal states of each other. The main conflict during this period was between Tikal and Calakmul, who fought a series of wars over the course of more than half a millennium, each of these states declined during the Terminal Classic and were eventually abandoned. This is sometimes seen as a period of increased chaos and warfare, the Postclassic is often viewed as a period of cultural decline. However, it was a time of technological advancement in architecture, engineering, metallurgy came into use for jewelry and some tools, with new alloys and techniques being developed in a few centuries. The Postclassic was a period of rapid movement and population growth — especially in Central Mexico post-1200 —, for instance, in Yucatán, dual rulership apparently replaced the more theocratic governments of Classic times, whilst oligarchic councils operated in much of Central Mexico. Likewise, it appears that the wealthy pochteca and military orders became more powerful than was apparently the case in Classic times and this afforded some Mesoamericans a degree of social mobility. The Toltec for a time dominated central Mexico in the 11th–13th century, the northern Maya were for a time united under Mayapan, and Oaxaca was briefly united by Mixtec rulers in the 11th–12th centuries. The Aztec Empire arose in the early 15th century and appeared to be on a path to asserting dominance over the Valley of Mexico region not seen since Teotihuacan. Spain was the first European power to contact Mesoamerica, however, and its conquistadores, by the 15th century, the Mayan revival in Yucatán and southern Guatemala and the flourishing of Aztec imperialism evidently enabled a renaissance of fine arts and science. Examples include the Pueblan-Mexica style in pottery, codex illumination, and goldwork, the flourishing of Nahua poetry, arguably, the Post-Classic continued until the conquest of the last independent native state of Mesoamerica, Tayasal, in 1697. Mesoamerican civilization was a network of different cultures
15.
Equinox
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An equinox is the moment in which the plane of Earths equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September. On an equinox, day and night are of equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the size of the sun. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light, see Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion. The word is derived from the Latin aequinoctium, aequus and nox, the equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator is perpendicular to the equator. As a result, the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated, the word comes from Latin equi or equal and nox meaning night. In other words, the equinoxes are the times when the subsolar point is on the equator. The subsolar point crosses the equator moving northward at the March equinox, the equinoxes, along with solstices, are directly related to the seasons of the year. In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs in September. When Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 45 BC, he set 25 March as the date of the spring equinox. Because the Julian year is longer than the tropical year. By 1500 AD, it had drifted backwards to 11 March and this drift induced Pope Gregory XIII to create a modern Gregorian calendar. However, the leap year intervals in his calendar were not smooth and this causes the equinox to oscillate by about 53 hours around its mean position. This in turn raised the possibility that it could fall on 22 March, the astronomers chose the appropriate number of days to omit so that the equinox would swing from 19 to 21 March but never fall on the 22nd. Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox, these names are direct derivatives of Latin. The equivalent common language English terms spring equinox and autumn equinox are even more ambiguous, March equinox and September equinox, names referring to the months of the year they occur, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all use a solar-based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month. Northward equinox and southward equinox, names referring to the apparent direction of motion of the Sun
16.
September equinox
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An equinox is the moment in which the plane of Earths equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September. On an equinox, day and night are of equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the size of the sun. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light, see Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion. The word is derived from the Latin aequinoctium, aequus and nox, the equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator is perpendicular to the equator. As a result, the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated, the word comes from Latin equi or equal and nox meaning night. In other words, the equinoxes are the times when the subsolar point is on the equator. The subsolar point crosses the equator moving northward at the March equinox, the equinoxes, along with solstices, are directly related to the seasons of the year. In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs in September. When Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 45 BC, he set 25 March as the date of the spring equinox. Because the Julian year is longer than the tropical year. By 1500 AD, it had drifted backwards to 11 March and this drift induced Pope Gregory XIII to create a modern Gregorian calendar. However, the leap year intervals in his calendar were not smooth and this causes the equinox to oscillate by about 53 hours around its mean position. This in turn raised the possibility that it could fall on 22 March, the astronomers chose the appropriate number of days to omit so that the equinox would swing from 19 to 21 March but never fall on the 22nd. Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox, these names are direct derivatives of Latin. The equivalent common language English terms spring equinox and autumn equinox are even more ambiguous, March equinox and September equinox, names referring to the months of the year they occur, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all use a solar-based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month. Northward equinox and southward equinox, names referring to the apparent direction of motion of the Sun
17.
Axis mundi
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The axis mundi, in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world center, or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones, the spot functions as the omphalos, the worlds point of beginning. The image is viewed as feminine, as it relates to the center of the earth. It may have the form of an object or a product of human manufacture. Its proximity to heaven may carry implications that are religious or secular. The image appears in religious and secular contexts, the axis mundi symbol may be found in cultures utilizing shamanic practices or animist belief systems, in major world religions, and in technologically advanced urban centers. In Mircea Eliades opinion, Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre, that is to say, the axis mundi is often associated with mandalas. The symbol originates in a natural and universal psychological perception, that the spot one occupies stands at the center of the world and this space serves as a microcosm of order because it is known and settled. Outside the boundaries of the microcosm lie foreign realms that, because they are unfamiliar or not ordered, represent chaos, from the center one may still venture in any of the four cardinal directions, make discoveries, and establish new centers as new realms become known and settled. Within the central known universe a specific locale-often a mountain or other elevated place, a spot where earth and sky come closest gains status as center of the center, high mountains are typically regarded as sacred by peoples living near them. Shrines are often erected at the summit or base, Mount Kunlun fills a similar role in China. For the ancient Hebrews Mount Zion expressed the symbol, sioux beliefs take the Black Hills as the axis mundi. Mount Kailash is holy to Hinduism and several religions in Tibet, the Pitjantjatjara people in central Australia consider Uluru to be central to both their world and culture. In ancient Mesopotamia the cultures of ancient Sumer and Babylon erected artificial mountains, or ziggurats and these supported staircases leading to temples at the top. The Hindu temples in India are often situated on high mountains, the pre-Columbian residents of Teotihuacán in Mexico erected huge pyramids featuring staircases leading to heaven. Jacobs Ladder is an axis mundi image, as is the Temple Mount, for Christians the Cross on Mount Calvary expresses the symbol
18.
11th century
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Common Era, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the part of the High Middle Ages. There was a decline of Byzantine power and rise of Norman domination over much of Europe. In Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism, in Ukraine, there was the golden age for the principality of Kievan Rus. Rival political factions at the Song dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen, chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. The Western Chalukya Empire also rose to power by the end of the century, in this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in Western Asia over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. In Japan, the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state, in Korea, the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from the Liao dynasty. In Vietnam, the Lý Dynasty began, while in Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political, in the Americas, the Toltec and Mixtec civilizations flourished in Central America, along with the Huari Culture of South America and the Mississippian culture of North America. In European history, the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the High Middle Ages, the century began while the translatio imperii of 962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the Investiture Controversy. In 1054, the Great Schism rent the church in two, however, in Germany, the century was marked by the ascendancy of the Holy Roman Emperors, who hit their high-water mark under the Salians. In Italy, it opened with the integration of the kingdom into the empire, in Britain, it saw the transformation of Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the orbit of European feudal politics. There were also the first figures of the movement known as Scholasticism. In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last caliphs of Córdoba, in between was a period of Christian unification under Navarrese hegemony and success in the Reconquista against the taifa kingdoms that replaced the fallen caliphate. Meanwhile, opposing political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of Kaifeng, in India, the Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India, Sri Lanka, and regions of South East Asia. They also sent raids into what is now Thailand, in Japan, the Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the Emperor of Japan, who acted merely as a puppet monarch during the Heian period. In the Middle East, the Fatimid Empire of Egypt reached its only to face steep decline. The Seljuks came to prominence while the Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, in Nigeria, formation of city states, kingdoms and empires, including Hausa kingdoms and Borno dynasty in north, Oyo and Benin kingdoms in south
19.
Diego de Landa
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Diego de Landa Calderón was a Spanish bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. He is a figure in the Black Legend. Born in Cifuentes, Guadalajara, Spain, he became a Franciscan monk in 1541, Landa was in charge of bringing the Roman Catholic faith to the Maya peoples after the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. He presided over a monopoly granted to the Catholic Franciscan order by the Spanish crown. His initial appointment was to the mission of San Antonio in Izamal and he is the author of the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán in which he catalogues the Maya religion, Maya language, culture and writing system. The manuscript was written around 1566 on his return to Spain, however, the account is known only as an abridgement, which in turn had undergone several iterations by various copyists. After hearing of Roman Catholic Maya who continued to practice idol worship, he ordered an Inquisition in Mani, during the ceremony on July 12,1562, a disputed number of Maya codices and approximately 5000 Maya cult images were burned. The actions of Landa passed into the Black Legend of the Spanish in the Americas, only three pre-Columbian books of Maya hieroglyphics and, perhaps, fragments of a fourth are known to have survived. Collectively, the works are known as the Maya codices, Landas Inquisition showered a level of physical abuse upon the indigenous Maya that many viewed as excessive and was, at the very least, unusual. Scores of Maya nobles were jailed pending interrogation, and large numbers of Maya nobles, during hoisting, a victims hands were bound and looped over an extended line that was then raised until the victims entire body was suspended in the air. Often, stone weights were added to the ankles or lashes applied to the back during interrogation, some contemporary observers were troubled by this widespread use of torture. Additionally, Landa dispensed with much of the formal procedure and documentation that accompanied Spanish torture. Landa, however, perhaps inspired by intolerant fellow Franciscan Cardenal, Cisneros, Landa believed a huge underground network of apostasies, led by displaced indigenous priests, were jealous of the power the Church enjoyed and sought to reclaim it for themselves. The apostates, Landa surmised, had launched a counteroffensive against the Church, Landa claimed that he had discovered evidence of human sacrifice and other idolatrous practices while rooting out native idolatry. Lopez de Cogolludo, Landas chief Franciscan biographer, wrote of Landas firsthand experiences with human sacrifices, when Landa first came to the Yucatán, he made it his mission to walk the breadth of the peninsula and preach to the most remote villages. While passing through Cupules, he came upon a group of 300 about to sacrifice a young boy. Enraged, Landa stormed through the crowd, released the boy, smashed the idols and began preaching with such zeal and sincerity that they begged him to remain in the land, Landa was remarkable in that he was willing to go where no others would. He entered lands that had only recently conquered, where native resentment of Spaniards was still very intense
20.
John Lloyd Stephens
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John Lloyd Stephens was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. Stephens was a figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America. John Lloyd Stephens was born November 28,1805, in the township of Shrewsbury and he was the second son of Benjamin Stephens, a successful New Jersey merchant, and Clemence Lloyd, daughter of an eminent local judge. The following year the family moved to New York City, there Stephens received an education in the Classics at two privately tutored schools. At the early age of 13 he enrolled at Columbia College, after studying law with an attorney for a year, he attended the Litchfield Law School. He passed the bar exam after completing his course of study, Stephens embarked on a journey through Europe in 1834, and went on to Egypt and the Levant, returning home in 1836. He later wrote several books about his travels and explorations. He was recommended for the post of Minister to the Netherlands in 1837, but Martin Van Buren nominated Harmanus Bleecker, in 1846 Stephens was a delegate from to the state constitutional convention, where he was responsible for the introduction and adoption of a conciliation court. Stephens read with interest early accounts of ruined cities of Mesoamerica by such writers and explorers as Alexander von Humboldt, in 1839, President Martin Van Buren commissioned Stephens as Special Ambassador to Central America. While there, the government of the Federal Republic of Central America fell apart and he later published an account of the events he witnessed in Central America, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán. Stephens and his companion, architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood first came across Maya ruins at Copán. They were astonished at their findings and spent two weeks mapping the site and they surmised that it must have been built by some long-forgotten people, as they could not imagine it was the native Mayans. Stephens was actually able to buy the city of Copan for a sum of $50 and had dreams of floating it down the river and they went on to Palenque, Quiriguá and Uxmal. They reached Palenque on May 11,1840 and left in early June, while there, they documented the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Foliated Cross. They continued investigating Maya ruins with a trip to Yucatán in October 1841. According to Stephenss book about the trip, they visited a total of 44 Mayan sites such as Mayapan, Uxmal, Kabah, the gateway at Labná, Sayil, Xtampak, Chichen Itza, Tulum, and Izamal. In Uxmal, they documented the Governors House, the Nunnery Quadrangle, Catherwood also drew a famous view of the well at Bolonchén. Besides large constructions, they produced works of artistic refinement such as stone and plaster sculptures, frescoes, painted pottery, Stephenss books served to inspire Edgar Allan Poe, who reviewed three of Stephenss books for the New York Review and Grahams Magazine
21.
Frederick Catherwood
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Frederick Catherwood was an English artist, architect and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th century with writer John Lloyd Stephens, in 1837, Catherwood was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member. Thus, they must have made by the native people of the area. Catherwood made visits to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine and with Joseph Bonomi the Younger made drawings, during a six-week period in 1833, Catherwood was probably the first Westerner to make a detailed survey of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Catherwood developed a reputation as a topographical artist. He perfected a technique which used the camera lucida and supplied the drawings for the panoramas of Jerusalem. In 1836 he met travel writer John Lloyd Stephens in London and they read the account of the ruins of Copán published by Juan Galindo, and decided to try to visit Central America themselves and produce a more detailed and better illustrated account. The expedition came together in 1839 and continued through the year, visiting and documenting dozens of ruins. Stephens and Catherwood are credited for the rediscovery of the Maya civilization, the expedition resulted in the book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, published in 1841, with text by Stephens and engravings based on the drawings of Catherwood. Stephens and Catherwood returned to Yucatan to make further explorations, resulting in Incidents of Travel in Yucatan in 1843, the following year Catherwood published Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, with 25 colour lithographs from watercolours he made at various ruins. This folio was published in May 1844 simultaneously in London and New York in an edition of 300, some 282 copies are known to survive, mostly held in private collections or libraries. In 1854, Frederick Catherwood was a passenger aboard the steamship Arctic, on 27 September in conditions of poor visibility, the Arctic collided with the French steamer Vesta, and sank with much loss of life, including Catherwood. The Lost Cities of the Mayas, the Life, Art, fox, Stephen R. Transatlantic, Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships. Cities of Stone, Stephens & Catherwood in Yucatan, 1839-1842, the Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas, Aztec, Maya, Inca. Von Hagen, Victor W. F. Catherwood, Architect-Explorer of Two Worlds
22.
National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)
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The National Museum of Anthropology is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico, the museum is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, or INAH. Assessments of the museum vary, with one considering it a national treasure, the museum is the synthesis of an ideological, scientific, and political feat. Octavio Paz criticized the museums making the Mexica hall central, saying the exaltation and glorification of Mexico-Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology into a temple, the halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. The museum has 23 rooms for exhibits and covers an area of 79,700 square meters or 857,890 square feet, on August 25,1790, the Museum of Natural History was established by botanist José Longinos Martínez. During the 19th century, the museum was visited by internationally renowned scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt, in 1825, the first Mexican president, Guadalupe Victoria, advised by the historian Lucas Alamán, established the National Mexican Museum as an autonomous institution. In 1865, the Emperor Maximilian moved the museum to Calle de Moneda 13, in 1906, due to the growth of the museums collections, Justo Sierra divided the stock of the National Museum. The natural history collections were moved to the Chopo building, which was constructed specifically to shelter permanent expositions, the museum was renamed the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, and was re-opened September 9,1910, in the presence of President Porfirio Díaz. By 1924 the stock of the museum had increased to 52,000 objects and had received more than 250,000 visitors, the remaining collection was renamed the National Museum of Anthropology, focusing on pre-Columbian Mexico and modern day Mexican ethnography. The construction of the museum building began in February 1963 in the Chapultepec park. The project was coordinated by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, with assistance by Rafael Mijares Alcérreca, in front of the testimonies of those cultures, the Mexico of today pays tribute to the indigenous people of Mexico, in whose example we recognize characteristics of our national originality. It also has a model of the location and layout of the former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan and they are classified as North, West, Mayan, Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Mexico, Toltec, and Teotihuacan. The permanent expositions at the first floor show the culture of Native American population of Mexico since the Spanish colonization, the museum also hosts visiting exhibits, generally focusing on other of the worlds great cultures. Past exhibits have focused on ancient Iran, Greece, China, Egypt, Russia, doris Heyden Felipe R. Solís Olguín, director 2000–2009 Aveleyra, Luis. Plantación y metas del nuevo Museo Nacional de Antropología, artes de México, época 1, año 12, no. El Museo Nacional de Antropología de México, el Museo Nacional de Arquelogía, Historia, y Etnografía. Mexico, Imprenta del Museo Nacional de Arquelogía, Historia, y Etnografía 1924, Historia de los Museos de México. Mexico, Fomento Cultural del Banco Nacional de México 1987, the Creation of the Museo Nacional de Antropología of Mexico and its scientific, educational, and political purposes
23.
Cenote
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A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings, the term derives from a word used by the low-land Yucatec Maya — tsonot — to refer to any location with accessible groundwater. Cenotes are common forms in low latitude regions, particularly on islands, coastlines. Cenotes are surface connections to water bodies. There are over 6000 different cenotes in the Yucatan Pensinsula in Mexico alone, the term cenote has also been used to describe similar karst features in other countries such as Cuba and Australia, in addition to the more generic term of sinkholes. Cenote water is very clear, as the water comes from rain water filtering slowly through the ground. The groundwater flow rate within a cenote may be very slow, in many cases, cenotes are areas where sections of cave roof have collapsed revealing an underlying cave system, and the water flow rates may be much faster, up to 10 kilometers per day. Cenotes around the world attract cave divers who have documented extensive flooded cave systems through them, Cenotes are formed by dissolution of rock and the resulting subsurface void, which may or may not be linked to an active cave system, and the subsequent structural collapse. Rock that falls into the water below is removed by further dissolution. The rate of collapse increases during periods when the table is below the ceiling of the void. Cenotes may be fully collapsed creating a water pool, or partially collapsed with some portion of a rock overhanging above the water. The stereotypical cenotes often resemble small circular ponds, measuring some tens of meters in diameter with sheer drops at the edges, most cenotes, however, require some degree of stooping or crawling to access the water. In the north and northwest of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, the Yucatán Peninsula contains a vast coastal aquifer system, which is typically density-stratified. The infiltrating meteoric water floats on top of higher-density saline water intruding from the coastal margins, the whole aquifer is therefore an anchialine system. Where a cenote, or the cave to which it is an opening, provides deep enough access into the aquifer. The density interface between the fresh and saline waters is a halocline, which means a change in salt concentration over a small change in depth. Mixing of the fresh and saline water results in a swirling effect caused by refraction between the different densities of fresh and saline waters. In 1936, a simple morphometry-based classification system for cenotes was presented, although cenotes are found widely throughout much of the Yucatán Peninsula, a higher-density circular alignment of cenotes overlies the measured rim of the Chicxulub Crater
24.
Chacmool
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In an Aztec example the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli. Chacmools were often associated with stones or thrones. Aztec chacmools bore water imagery and were associated with Tlaloc, the rain god and their symbolism placed them on the frontier between the physical and supernatural realms, as intermediaries with the gods. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico, there is great variation among individual chacmools, with some possessing heads that are right-facing and others left-facing, and some with the heads facing upwards, some examples have movable heads. The figure may be lying on its back or on its side, some chacmools were raised upon rectangular bases. Some of the figures are richly attired whilst others are almost naked, the chacmools of Chichen Itza and Tula depict young men with warrior attributes, while the chacmools of Michoacán depict elderly men with wrinkled faces and erect penises. A chacmool from Guácimo, Costa Rica, combines human and jaguar features, the face of the figure looks upwards and the bowl was apparently used to grind foodstuffs. A wide variety of materials were used to sculpt chacmools, including limestone and hard metamorphic, other materials employed include ceramic and cement. The ancient name for type of sculptures is unknown. The name chacmool is attributed to Augustus Le Plongeon, who excavated one of the statues at Chichen Itza in 1875, Le Plongeon believed the statue, which he had found buried beneath the Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars, depicted a former ruler of Chichen Itza. Le Plongeon named the statue chaacmol, which he translated from the Maya as thundering paw, Le Plongeons sponsor, Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, Massachusetts, published Le Plongeons find, but revised the spelling to Chac-Mool. Le Plongeon sought permission from Mexicos president to display the statue at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, in 1877 the Yucatecan government seized the statue and brought it to Mérida. Weeks later Yucatán turned over the statue to the federal government, examples of chacmool sculptures have been found widely across Mesoamerica from Michoacan in Mexico down to El Salvador. The earliest examples date from the Terminal Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, examples are known from the Postclassic Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, from the central Mexican city of Tula and from the Maya city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatán Peninsula. Fourteen chacmools are known from Chichen Itza and twelve from Tula, the chacmool from the palace at Tula is dated to the Early Postclassic. Further examples are known from Acolman, Cempoala, Michoacan, Querétaro, the rest were found interred in or near important structures. The five that were found in secure architectural contexts were all placed within entrance areas near a ritual seat or throne. The chacmools in Tula also had an association with thrones or raised seating platforms, two chacmools have been recovered that were associated with the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital
25.
Nacre
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Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer, it also makes up the outer coating of pearls. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent, nacre is found in some of the most ancient lineages of bivalves, gastropods, and cephalopods. The outer layer of pearls and the layer of pearl oyster and freshwater pearl mussel shells are made of nacre. Other mollusc families that have an inner shell layer include marine gastropods such as the Haliotidae, the Trochidae. Nacre is composed of hexagonal platelets of aragonite 10–20 µm wide and 0.5 µm thick arranged in a continuous parallel lamina and these layers are separated by sheets of organic matrix composed of elastic biopolymers. This mixture of brittle platelets and the layers of elastic biopolymers makes the material strong and resilient. Strength and resilience are also likely to be due to adhesion by the arrangement of the platelets. This structure, at multiple length sizes, greatly increases its toughness, nacre appears iridescent because the thickness of the aragonite platelets is close to the wavelength of visible light. These structures interfere constructively and destructively with different wavelengths of light at different viewing angles, the crystallographic c-axis points approximately perpendicular to the shell wall, but the direction of the other axes varies between groups. Adjacent tablets have shown to have dramatically different c-axis orientation. In bivalves and cephalopods, the points in the direction of shell growth. The interlocking of bricks of nacre has large impact on both the mechanism as well as its toughness. In addition, the mineral–organic interface results in enhanced resilience and strength of the organic interlayers, nacre formation is not fully understood. The initial onset assembly, as observed in Pinna nobilis, is driven by the aggregation of nanoparticles within a matrix that arrange in fibre-like polycrystalline configurations. The particle number increases successively and, when critical packing is reached, nacre growth is mediated by organics, controlling the onset, duration and form of crystal growth. Individual aragonite bricks are believed to grow to the full height of the nacreous layer. This produces the hexagonal close-packing characteristic of nacre, bricks may nucleate on randomly dispersed elements within the organic layer, well-defined arrangements of proteins, or may grow epitaxially from mineral bridges extending from the underlying tablet. Nacre differs from fibrous aragonite – a brittle mineral of the same form – in that the growth in the c-axis is slow in nacre, nacre is secreted by the epithelial cells of the mantle tissue of various molluscs
26.
Jaguar
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The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species native to the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, the jaguars present range extends from Southwestern United States and Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico and this spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested. Its preferred habitats are swamps and wooded regions, but jaguars also live in scrublands. The jaguar is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming, the jaguar is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. It is a species, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems. The jaguar has a powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method, the jaguar is a near threatened species and its numbers are declining. Threats include loss and fragmentation of habitat, while international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited, the cat is still frequently killed by humans, particularly in conflicts with ranchers and farmers in South America. Although reduced, its range remains large, given its historical distribution, the jaguar has featured prominently in the mythology of numerous indigenous American cultures, including those of the Maya and Aztec. The word jaguar comes to English from one of the Tupi–Guarani languages, presumably the Amazonian trade language Tupinambá, the Tupian word, yaguara beast, is sometimes translated as dog. The specific word for jaguar is yaguareté, with the suffix -eté meaning real or true, the first component of its taxonomic designation, Panthera, is Latin, from the Greek word for leopard, πάνθηρ, the type species for the genus. Onca is the Portuguese onça, with the cedilla dropped for reasons, found in English as ounce for the snow leopard. It derives from the Latin lyncea lynx, with the letter L confused with the definite article, the jaguar, Panthera onca, is the only extant New World member of the genus Panthera.8 million years ago. Phylogenetic studies generally have shown the clouded leopard is basal to this group, the position of the remaining species varies between studies and is effectively unresolved. Based on morphological evidence, British zoologist Reginald Pocock concluded the jaguar is most closely related to the leopard, however, DNA evidence is inconclusive and the position of the jaguar relative to the other species varies between studies. Fossils of extinct Panthera species, such as the European jaguar, analysis of jaguar mitochondrial DNA has dated the species lineage to between 280,000 and 510,000 years ago, later than suggested by fossil records
27.
Cinnabar
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Cinnabar generally occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. The mineral resembles quartz in symmetry and in its exhibiting birefringence, cinnabar has a refractive index of ~3.2. The color and properties derive from a structure that is a crystalline lattice belonging to the hexagonal crystal system. Associated modern precautions for use and handling of cinnabar arise from the toxicity of the mercury component, the name comes from Ancient Greek, κιννάβαρι, a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances. Other sources say the word comes from the Persian, شنگرف shangarf, in Latin it was sometimes known as minium, meaning also red cinnamon, though both of these terms now refer specifically to lead tetroxide. Cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form and is bright scarlet to brick-red in color and it resembles quartz in its symmetry. It exhibits birefringence, and it has the highest refractive index of any mineral and its mean refractive index is 3.08, versus the indices for diamond and the non-mineral gallium arsenide, which are 2.42 and 3.93, respectively. The hardness of cinnabar is 2. 0–2.5 on the Mohs scale, structurally, cinnabar belongs to the trigonal crystal system. It occurs as thick tabular or slender prismatic crystals or as granular to massive incrustations, crystal twinning occurs as simple contact twins. Note, mercury sulfide, HgS, adopts the structure described. Cinnabar is the stable form, and is a structure akin to that of HgO. In addition, HgS is found in a black, non-cinnabar polymorph that has the zincblende structure, Cinnabar generally occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. Cinnabar is deposited by epithermal ascending aqueous solutions far removed from their igneous source and it is associated with native mercury, stibnite, realgar, pyrite, marcasite, opal, quartz, chalcedony, dolomite, calcite and barite. Cinnabar is essentially found in all mineral extraction localities that yield mercury, notably Puerto Princesa, Almadén, New Almaden, Hastings Mine and it was also mined near Red Devil, Alaska on the middle Kuskokwim River. Red Devil was named after the Red Devil cinnabar mine, a source of mercury. It has been found in Dominica near its sulfur springs at the end of the island along the west coast. Cinnabar is still being deposited, e. g. at the present day from the hot waters of Sulphur Bank Mine in California and Steamboat Springs, Nevada. As the most common source of mercury in nature, cinnabar has been mined for thousands of years, during the Roman Empire it was mined both as a pigment, and for its mercury content
28.
Lobatus costatus
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Lobatus costatus, commonly known as the milk conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs. This species occurs in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the maximum recorded shell length is 231 mm. Minimum recorded depth is 2 m. Maximum recorded depth is 55 m, rosenberg, G. F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. Gastropoda of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D. L. and D. K. Camp, Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas Gastropods. com, Lobatus costatus costatus, accessed,21 March 2011
29.
Malacology
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Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca, the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, octopus and squid, one division of malacology, conchology, is devoted to the study of mollusk shells. Malacology derives from Greek μαλακός, malakos, soft, and -λογία, fields within malacological research include taxonomy, ecology and evolution. Applied malacology studies medical, veterinary, and agricultural applications, for example mollusks as vectors of disease, archaeology employs malacology to understand the evolution of the climate, the biota of the area, and the usage of the site. In 1681, Filippo Bonanni wrote the first book published that was solely about seashells. The book was entitled, Ricreatione dell occhio e dela mente nell oservation delle Chiociolle, proposta a curiosi delle opere della natura, in 1868, the German Malacological Society was founded. Zoological methods are used in malacological research, Malacological field methods and laboratory methods were summarized by Sturm et al. Those who study malacology are known as malacologists and those who study primarily or exclusively the shells of mollusks are known as conchologists. The Conchologist -> The Journal of Malacology The Festivus - a peer-reviewed journal which started as a newsletter in 1970. The Nautilus - since 1886 published by Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, First two volumes were published under name The Conchologists’ Exchange. Impact factor,0.500 The Veliger - impact factor,0, proceedings of the First European Malacological Congress. Text in English with black-and-white photographic reproductions, also maps and diagrams, published by the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the Malacological Society of London in 1965 with no ISBN. The long dawn of Malacology, a history of malacology from prehistory to the year 1800. Archives of Natural History 22, 301-319, media related to Malacology at Wikimedia Commons Periodicals about molluscs at WorldCat
30.
Mesoamerican ballcourt
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A Mesoamerican ballcourt is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for over 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. More than 1,300 ballcourts have been identified, 60% in the last 20 years alone. Although there is a variation in size, in general all ballcourts are the same shape. Although the alleys in early ballcourts were open-ended, later ballcourts had enclosed end-zones, ballcourts were also used for functions other than, or in addition to, ballgames. Ceramics from western Mexico show ballcourts being used for other sporting endeavours, although ballcourts are found within most Mesoamerican sites, they are not equally distributed across time or geography. In contrast, Northern Chiapas and the northern Maya Lowlands have relatively few, and ballcourts are conspicuously absent at some sites, including Teotihuacan, Bonampak. At Cantona, for example, the number of ballcourts is likely due to the many. One of the smallest, at Tikal site, is only one-sixth the size of the Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza, the following is a comparison of the size of the playing alleys for several well-known ballcourts. The earliest ballcourts were doubtless temporary marked off areas of compacted soil much like those used to play the modern ulama game, paso de la Amada, Soconusco, along the Pacific coast boasts the oldest ballcourt yet identified, dated to approximately 1400 BC. This narrow ballcourt has an 80 m ×8 m flat playing alley defined by two flanking earthen mounds with benches running along their length. By the Early Classic, ballcourt designs began to feature a pair of mounds set some distance beyond the ends of the alley as if to keep errant balls from rolling too far away. By the Terminal Classic, the end zones of many ballcourts were enclosed, the evolution of the ballcourt is, of course, more complex than the foregoing suggests, and with over 1300 known ballcourts, there are exceptions to any generalization. Open ballcourts continued to be constructed into the Terminal Classic and at smaller sites, some ballcourts featured only one enclosed endzone while some ballcourts endzones are of different depths. During the Formative period, some enclosed ballcourts were entirely rectangular, one such court, at La Lagunita in the Guatemala Highlands, features rounded side walls. Unlike the compacted earth of the alley, the side walls of the formal ballcourts were lined with stone blocks. These walls featured 3 or more horizontal and sloping surfaces, there the vertical surfaces were covered with elaborate reliefs showing scenes, particularly sacrificial scenes, related to the ballgame. Most prominent ballcourts were part of their town or citys central monumental precinct and as such they share the orientation of pyramids, other than this general trend, no consistent orientation of ballcourts throughout Mesoamerica has been found, although some patterns do emerge at the regional level. In the Cotzumalhuapa region, for example, open-ended ballcourts with a north-south orientation were earlier than east-west enclosed courts, stone rings, tenoned into the wall at mid-court, appeared in the Terminal Classic era
31.
Electrical resistivity tomography
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If the electrodes are suspended in the boreholes, deeper sections can be investigated. It is closely related to the imaging technique electrical impedance tomography. In contrast to medical EIT however ERT is essentially a direct current method, a related geophysical method, induced polarization, measures the transient response. The technique evolved from techniques of electrical prospecting that predate digital computers, early work on the mathematical problem in the 1930s assumed a layered medium. Tikhonov who is best known for his work on regularization of inverse problems also worked on this problem and he explains in detail how to solve the ERT problem in a simple case of 2-layered medium. During the 1940s he collaborated with geophysicists and without the aid of computers they discovered large deposits of copper, as a result, they were awarded a State Prize of Soviet Union. With the advancement in the field of Electrical Resistivity Tomography from 1D to 2D and now-a- days 3D, the applications of ERT include fault investigation, ground water table investigation, soil moisture content determination and many others. In industrial process imaging ERT can be used in a fashion to medical EIT, to image the distribution of conductivity in mixing vessels. In this context it is usually called Electrical Resistance Tomography, emphasising the quantity that is measured rather than imaged, magnetotellurics Telluric current Seismo-electromagnetics Vertical electrical sounding R. E. Langer, On an inverse problem in differential equations, Bull Am Math Soc,39, slichter, The interpretation of the resistivity prospecting method for horizontal structures, J Appl Phys, v4, pp 307–322,1933. Langer, On determination of earth conductivity from observed surface potentials, Bull Am Math Soc,42, tikhonov, A. N. О единственности решения задачи электроразведки. A. P. Calderón, On an inverse boundary value problem, in Seminar on Numerical Analysis and its Applications to Continuum Physics, scanned copy of paper Loke, M. H. Tutorial, 2-D and 3-D electrical imaging surveys, Loke, and R. D. Barker, Rapid least-squares inversion of apparent resistivity pseudo-sections using quasi-Newton method, Geophysical Prospecting,48, 181–152,1996. Loke, and R. D. Barker, Practical techniques for 3D resistivity surveys and data inversion, Geophysical prospecting,44, 499–523,1996
32.
Pyramid of the Magician
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The Pyramid of the Magician is a Mesoamerican step pyramid located in the ancient, Pre-Columbian city of Uxmal, Mexico. The structure is referred to as the Pyramid of the Dwarf, Casa el Adivino. The pyramid is the tallest and most recognizable structure in Uxmal, the Pyramid of the Magician is the central structure in the Maya ruin complex of Uxmal. The Pyramid of the Magician is also referred to as the Pyramid of the Soothsayer, Uxmal is located in the Puuc region of Mexico and was one of the largest cities on the Yucatán Peninsula. At its height, Uxmal was home to about 25,000 Maya, like other Puuc sites, the city flourished from 600-1000 AD, with the great building period taking place between 700 and 1000 AD. The name Uxmal means thrice-built in the Mayan language, referring to the layers of construction of its most imposing structure. The Pyramid of the Magician dominates the center of the complex and is located at the tourist entrance to the central court. It is positioned on the side of the city, with its western face overlooking the Nunnery Quadrangle and is situated so that its western stairway faces the setting sun at the summer solstice. Construction of the first pyramid temple began in the 6th century AD, the pyramid fell into disrepair after 1000 A. D. and was thereafter looted during the Spanish Conquest of Yucatán. The first detailed account of the rediscovery of the ruins was published by Jean-Frederic Waldeck in 1838, from his notes, Stephens published his now famous Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan. Restoration efforts began in Uxmal in the mid-19th century, the Pyramid of the Magician was regularly repaired and maintained during this period. In the early 1970s, a conservation project was undertaken by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology. The aim of this effort was to consolidate the sides and flat terraces of the pyramid, in 1988, Hurricane Gilbert swept across the Yucatán Peninsula, bringing high winds and abundant rainfall to the area which caused extensive damage to the exterior of the pyramid. A post-hurricane examination of the structure revealed cracks that had developed in the walls of the south side, damage to the vertical walls at the base of the pyramid, on the west side, was also noted. Archaeologists and conservators with the INAH immediately began the process of developing a strategy for conservation and stabilization, the plan called for the strengthening the West façade, monitoring of any structural changes, and implementing emergency measures where needed. The cavity under the base of the stairway was filled with stonework, mortared with concrete, movement monitors were placed at critical locations to detect failing integrity. The immediate measures taken to stabilize the pyramid had prevented a catastrophic collapse, conservation efforts are still underway and, as with El Castillo in Chichen Itza, visitors to the site are now prohibited from climbing the pyramid. The exact height of the Pyramid of the Magician is in dispute and has reported as tall as 40 metres
33.
Uxmal
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Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, along with Palenque, Chichén, and Calakmul in Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. It is located in the Puuc region and is considered one of the Maya cities most representative of the dominant architectural style. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance and it is located 62 km south of Mérida, capital of Yucatán state in Mexico. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration and its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Maya huts. These are represented by columns and trapezoidal shapes, entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes are used for masks of the rain god, Chaac, its big noses represent the rays of the storms. Feathered serpents with open fangs are shown leaving from the human beings. Also seen in cities are the influences of the Nahua. These were integrated with the elements of the Puuc tradition. The present name seems to derive from Oxmal, meaning three times built and this seems to refer to the sites antiquity and the times it had to rebuild. The etymology is disputed, another possibility is Uchmal which means what is to come, by tradition, this was supposed to be an invisible city, built in one night by the magic of the dwarf king. While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation, the citys dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population is a rough guess. Most of the major construction took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Maya state around 850-925 AD. After about 1000 AD, Toltec invaders took over, and most building ceased by 1100 AD, Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 A. D. by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family and it was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while, in alliance with Chichen Itza, dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200, no new major construction seems to have made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmals ally Chichen Itza. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined, Uxmal was dominant from 875 to 900 CE. The site appears to have been the capital of a state in the Puuc region from 850-950 CE
34.
Tikal Temple I
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Tikal Temple I is the designation given to one of the major structures at Tikal, one of the largest cities and archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Mesoamerica. It is located in the Petén Basin region of northern Guatemala and it also is known as the Temple of the Great Jaguar because of a lintel that represents a king sitting upon a jaguar throne. An alternative name is the Temple of Ah Cacao, after the ruler buried in the temple, Temple I is a typically Petén-styled limestone stepped pyramid structure that is dated to approximately 732 AD. Situated at the heart of a World Heritage Site, the temple is surmounted by a roof comb. Building Temple I on the side of the Great Plaza was a significant deviation from the established tradition of building funerary temples just north of the plaza in Tikals North Acropolis. The structure is a temple associated with Jasaw Chan Kawiil I, a Classic Period ruler of the polity based at Tikal. The tomb of this ruler has been located by archaeologists deep within the structure, construction of both were overseen by Jasaw Chan Kawiils son and heir Yikin Chan Kawiil. Jasaw Chan Kawiil probably planned the building of the temple long before his death, the temple rises in nine stepped levels, which may be symbolic of the nine levels of the underworld. The temple has grooved moldings and inset corners, a steep staircase climbs the temple to the summit shrine. The temple rises 47 meters over the Great Plaza, the pyramid is topped by a funerary shrine, containing finely carved wooden lintels, the execution of which probably was overseen by Jasaw Chan Kawiil as part of his plans for his funerary monument. The lintels were carved from wood and one of them, Lintel 3. Sapodilla is a very hard red-brown wood available locally, two of these planks were removed in the nineteenth century and their location now is unknown. The other two were removed by Alfred Maudslay and shipped to the British Museum, where now are warehoused. The scene carved onto one lintel shows a figure with an enormous serpent rising above him. The shrine bears a high roof comb decorated with a sculpture of the king, Jasaw Chan Kawiil. The roof comb consists of two structures with an enclosed, vaulted hollow between them, which reduces the weight of the construction. The weight of this heavy superstructure is borne through the spine of the temple, the front of the roof comb was finished with stone blocks carved to represent the enormous figure of the king, flanked by scrolls and serpents. It originally supported molded plaster decoration as well, the shrine contains three narrow, dark chambers that were accessible only through a single doorway
35.
Tikal Temple II
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Tikal Temple II is a Mesoamerican pyramid at the Maya archaeological site of Tikal in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala. The temple was built in the Late Classic Period in a reminiscent of the Early Classic. Temple II is located on the west side of the Great Plaza, Temple II was built by the king Jasaw Chan Kawiil I in honour of his wife, Lady Kalajuun Une Mo. Temple II had a wooden sculpted lintel that bears the portrait of a royal woman who may have been the wife of Jasaw Chan Kawiil I. Lady Kalajuun Une Mo, whose name means Twelve Macaw Tails, was important for being the mother of Jasaw Chan Kawill Is heir. In fact her son Yikin Chan Kawiil oversaw the completion of Temple II when he became king, Temple II was visited by Modesto Méndez, the governor of Petén, in 1848 on the first expedition to the ruins. Preliminary excavations of Temple II started in 1958, on 21 December 2012, more than 7,000 tourists visited Tikal to celebrate the 2012 phenomenon and the supposed end of the world. Many of these tourists climbed the stairs of the pyramid, causing reported damages, the pyramid is a squat, massive structure dating to the 8th century AD. Today it stands 38 metres high and is the most thoroughly restored of the temples at Tikal. Its original height would have been closer to 42 metres including its roof comb, the main stairway is 10.4 metres wide and projects 7.45 metres from the pyramid base. The base of the pyramid measures 37.6 by 41 metres, excavations inside Temple II failed to discover Lady Kalajuun Une Mos tomb. Ancient graffiti within the shrine depicts a captive upon a platform. Further ancient graffiti includes images of temples, some of this graffiti dates to the Classic Period, although other examples appear to date to the Early Postclassic. The interior walls have also defaced with modern graffiti. Evidence of ritual use in the Postclassic Period was found within the shrine, including burials. The pyramid rises in three stepped levels, upon the uppermost level is a platform supporting the summit shrine. The first level measures 6.25 metres high, the second is 6.1 metres high, the total height of the pyramidal base is 17.9 metres, the summit shrine measures 9.8 metres high and the roof comb 12.3 metres. Two badly eroded giant masks adorn the platform, flanking the stairway to the shrine
36.
Tikal Temple III
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Tikal Temple III, also known as the Temple of the Jaguar Priest, was one of the principal temple pyramids at the ancient Maya city of Tikal, in the Petén Department of modern Guatemala. The temple stands approximately 55 metres tall, the summit shrine of Temple III differs from those of the other major temples at Tikal in that it only possesses two rooms instead of the usual three. The pyramid was built in the Late Classic Period, and has dated to 810 AD using the hieroglyphic text on Stela 24. Stela 24 is paired with the damaged Altar 6, in a typical stela-altar pair, Temple III is associated with the little-known king Dark Sun, and it is likely that Temple III is Dark Suns funerary temple. The construction of Temple III indicated that Tikal was still stable at the beginning of the 9th century AD. However, this was the last temple pyramid raised at Tikal, Temple III is only partially restored and is closed to the public, it has not been the subject of archaeological investigation. Temple III is immediately south of the Tozzer Causeway and faces eastwards towards the Great Plaza, the inner doorway separating the two chambers of the summit shrine supports a finely sculpted lintel representing an obese figure wrapped in a jaguar skin. This is one of only two sculpted lintels at Tikal that are still in their original setting, the temple structure was restored in 1967 and 1969 by the Tikal Project of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating upon the summit shrine and the roof comb. The pyramid body itself was not restored but is known to have nine stepped levels, the roof comb and the outer chamber of the summit shrine have suffered lightning damage, causing a 10-centimetre wide crack in the eastern wall of the corbel vaulting. El Castillo, Chichen Itza Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque Tikal Temple I Tikal Temple II Tikal Temple IV Tikal Temple V
37.
Tikal Temple IV
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Tikal Temple IV is a Mesoamerican pyramid in the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tikal in modern Guatemala. It was one of the tallest and most voluminous buildings in the Maya world, the pyramid was built around 741 AD. Temple IV is located at the edge of the site core. Two causeways meet at the temple, the Tozzer Causeway runs east to the Great Plaza, Temple IV is the tallest pre-Columbian structure still standing in the New World, although Teotihuacans Pyramid of the Sun may once have been taller. The pyramid was built to mark the reign of the 27th king of the Tikal dynasty, Yikin Chan Kawiil, archaeologists believe that Yikin Chan Kawiils tomb lies undiscovered somewhere underneath the temple. The summit shrine faces eastward to the core, with Temple III visible directly in front and Temple I. The pyramid has a base with its long axis running north-south. It stands 64.6 metres from its platform to the highest part of the roof comb. Archaeologists estimate that 190,000 cubic metres of material were utilised in the bulk of the pyramid. The temple faces eastwards towards the core and supports a massive roof comb in pure Petén style. It was hollow and was faced with a mosaic sculpture. The architecture of Temple IV is broadly similar to that of the major temples at Tikal, such as Temple I. The pyramid body itself, excluding the superstructure, consists of seven stepped levels with slanting talud walls, the lowest of these levels measures 88 by 65 metres, whilst the uppermost platform measures 38.5 by 19.6 metres. The supporting platform was of very high-quality and utilised enormous stones in its construction, the summit shrine was accessed via a 16. 3-metre wide stairway that climbed from the supporting platform, a plain stela and the associated Altar 35 are centrally located at the base of the stairway. The shrine has been restored and has walls up to 12 metres thick. The shrine was built upon a platform resting upon a supplementary platform, the supplementary platform measures 33 by 20 metres with the longer axis running north-south. A stairway projects eastwards from this, giving access to the shrine itself, the supplementary platform is not exactly rectangular but consists of a number of architectural elements forming a complex plan. The platform resting on top of this measures 0.9 metres high, the roof comb is 12.86 metres high and consists of three distinct levels
38.
Tikal Temple V
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Tikal Temple V is the name given by archaeologists to one of the major pyramids at Tikal. Tikal is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and is located in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala, Temple V stands south of the Central Acropolis and is the mortuary pyramid of an as yet unidentified ruler of the once great city. The temple stands 57 metres high, making it the second tallest structure at Tikal—only Temple IV is taller. The architectural style of the pyramid includes features that were popular during the Early Classic period, such as wide balustrades flanking the main stairway and these features indicate the continued influence of earlier traditions. Temple V is located in the part of Tikals site core, upon an east-west ridge that also supports the Lost World complex, the Plaza of the Seven Temples. In front of the platform supporting the temple structure is a depression that was used as one of the citys reservoirs. All of the main temples at Tikal were linked to the citys network of causeways. The pyramid sits upon a platform that is 5 metres higher than the level of the Central Plaza and this leveled off the natural terrain and allowed the platform to support the massive weight of the temple. The base of the covers a area of approximately 2,050 square metres. The pyramid base measures 36 metres north-south by 51 metres east-west, the temple rises in seven 4-metre high stepped levels with inset rounded corners, the curve having a radius of 3 metres. Temple V is unique in respect, with no other major temple at Tikal having rounded corners. The main body of the pyramid appears to have originally supported decorated mouldings although surviving examples have only found at the corners of the building. The main stairway measures 20 metres wide and rises from the north, the stairway of the pyramid projects over 12 metres from the pyramid base and has about 90 steps, the balustrades of the stairway are 2.6 metres wide and rise the whole height of the stairs. At Tikal this is a feature that is found in buildings dating to the Early Classic. The shrine at the top of the pyramid contains a room of small size, measuring only 90 centimetres deep. The room is 3.95 metres wide and 4.4 metres high and this room is the smallest room of any shrine at Tikal and is the only example from the larger temples that contains only one room. Above the room are three sealed vaulted chambers, the function of which is to reduce the weight of the structure. The shrine still contains the original wooden lintels, the cornice of the shrine is decorated on the north side with three masks of the rain god Chaac and with frames containing human figures on the sides
39.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
