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Maya Religion & Culture
Maya religion and culture is among the most advanced and sophisticated of the Pre-Colombian Americas as evidenced by the ruins of their great cities and what remains of their writings after most were burned by the Spanish in 1562. The Maya...
Definition
Seshat
Seshat (also given as Sefkhet-Abwy and Seshet) is the Egyptian goddess of the written word. Her name literally means "female scribe" and she is regularly depicted as a woman wearing a leopard skin draped over her robe with a headdress of...
Definition
K'inich Janaab' Pakal
K'inich Janaab' Pakal (23 March 603 CE - 31 March 683 CE) was the Maya king of Palenque in the modern-day State of Chiapas, Mexico. Also known as Pacal (which means 'shield') and Pacal the Great, he is most famous for raising the city of...
Video
The Maya Calendar, Culture and History: an Introduction to a Mesoamerican Civilization
The Maya are a people indigenous to Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the modern regions of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and...
Definition
Copan
Copán (in modern Honduras) is located on the floodplain of the river of the same name. It was the most southerly of the Classic Maya centres and, at an altitude of 600 metres, the highest. Copán reached the height of its power in the 8th...
Definition
Religion in the Ancient World
Religion (from the Latin Religio, meaning 'restraint,' or Relegere, according to Cicero, meaning 'to repeat, to read again,' or, most likely, Religionem, 'to show respect for what is sacred') is an organized system of beliefs and practices...
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Maya kakau glyph
This ancient Maya glyph is pronounced "kah-kah-oo." Various forms of this glyph can be found on Maya vessels, some of which are known to have contained chocolate in some form.
Article
La Malinche - A Complicated Woman in Context
La Malinche, or Malintzin, was the primary interpreter in the retinue of Hernán Cortés during his conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century and has become one of the most divisive women in Mexican history. Though she was called Malintzin...
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Remnants of Maya Ruins at San Gervasio, Mexico
The ruins of San Gervasio — located on the island of Cozumel in Mexico — were once an important site of pilgrimage to Maya people who lived from c. 1000-1650 CE. A sanctuary of the Maya goddess Ix Chel used to be located at this location...
Definition
Script
Script is the written expression of a language. Cuneiform, the first script, was invented in Sumer, Mesopotamia c. 3500 BCE, hieroglyphics sometime prior to the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3150-2613 BCE), and Sanskrit in India during...