X-Nico

12 unusual facts about Maya civilization


Brigido Lara

He created many items in the style of the Mayans, Aztecs and especially the lesser-known Totonacs – in fact to such an extent that the majority of purported Totonac artifacts may actually be his work.

Heather McKillop

Heather Irene McKillop (born 1953) is a Canadian-American archaeologist, academic and Mayanist scholar, noted in particular for her research into ancient Maya coastal trade routes, seafaring, littoral archaeology, and the long-distance exchange of commodities in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Lorenzo Ochoa Salas

He coordinated and directed six projects of archaeological investigation in the northwestern low territories of the Mayan area, in the Candlemas river basin, in the irrigation system of San Nicolas Atecoxco, Hidalgo, in the caves with wood boxes of Tenosique, Tabasco, and in the river basin and lagoon at Tamiahua, Veracruz.

Mónica Pellecer Alecio

Monica Pellecer Alecio is a Guatemalan archaeologist who in 2005 led a team that found the oldest known Maya royal tomb to date, belonging to an early Maya king (150BC).

Orthogeomys

Species of Orthogeomys are regarded as pests, one of less than 5% of rodent species classified as pests, and the history of man's attempts to control their populations reaches back into Mayan times.

Playa de los Muertos

George Clapp Vaillant was born 1901 in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University, where in 1927 he received his doctorate in Anthropology with a thesis that established the chronology of Mayan ceramics.

Raul Julia-Levy

In 2011, Julia-Levy announced that he was to write, produce and narrate a documentary titled Revelations of the Mayans: 2012 and Beyond, that would provide evidence that the Mayans had contact with extraterrestrials.

Richard D. Hansen

Hansen is a specialist on the ancient Maya and also a director of the Mirador Basin Project, which investigates the mainly unexplored territory in the northern Peten, Guatemala.

Richard MacNeish

His interest in archaeology started at a young age, sparked by a hastily created report on the Maya for an art history class when he was twelve.

Sin Dejar Huella

In the film, Ana, a fake Mayan art smuggler, and Aurelia, a maquiladora worker, flee from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in Northern Mexico and those who pursue them to Cancún in the Yucatán peninsula province of Quintana Roo.

Tarzan and the Castaways

Tarzan is stranded on a Pacific island inhabited by the remnant of a lost Mayan civilization.

Thomas Sever

While most of his work has dealt with South American and ancient Mayan civilization, Dr. Sever has also used his skills in meteorology.


Bjørn Nørgaard

They include the 3,000 year-old snake women from Czechoslovakia, the ape man from India in Uncle Sam's top hat, the Indian elephant woman, the Maya woman, Greek sculptures and a Matisse figure.

Bruce Trigger

In Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study Trigger uses an integrated theoretical approach to look at the meaning of similarities and differences in the formation of complex societies in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang of China, Aztecs and Classic Maya of Mesoamerica, Inka of the Andes, and Yoruba of Africa.

Calakmul Municipality

Maya archaeological sites in the municipality include: Calakmul, Becán, Chicanna, El Hormiguero, Río Bec and Xpuhil.

Chimalma

The Feathered Serpent, regardless of the name used by the culture designating or invoking this spirit, with names such as Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan, and Q'uq'umatz, amongst others, was an aspect of the Absolute Being, which the Mayans called Hunab Ku.

Chontalpa

Chontalpa is home to the two most important archeological sites in the state, La Venta and Comalcalco, which represent the Olmec and Maya civilizations respectively.

Cocijo

He has attributes characteristic of similar Mesoamerican deities associated with rain, thunder and lightning, such as Tlaloc of central Mexico, and Chaac (or Chaak) of the Maya civilization.

Dry stone

In Belize, the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun illustrate use of dry stone construction in architecture of the 8th and 9th century AD.

Ficus insipida

Maya codices (singular codex) are folding books stemming from the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, written in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark cloth, Amatl, made from the inner bark of certain trees, the main being the wild fig tree or Amate (Ficus glabrata; a synonym of the Ficus insipida).

Fish-Fin

"Fish-Fin" is a designation or nickname given by Mayanist epigraphers (inscription scholars) to a personage whose undeciphered name-glyph appears in the epigraphic record in association with the Emblem glyph of Bonampak, a pre-Columbian Maya civilization site in present-day Chiapas, Mexico.

Jade use in Mesoamerica

The archaeological search for the Mesoamerican jade sources, which were largely lost at the time of the Maya collapse, began in 1799 when Alexander von Humboldt started his geological research in the New World.

Jane MacLaren Walsh

Notable cases she has investigated include crystal skulls alleged to have been of ancient Mesoamerican (usually Maya) origins, and a piece held by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection purported to be an authentic pre-Columbian representation of an Aztec and central Mexican goddess, Tlazolteotl.

Kevin Durand

He also recurred on the television show Stargate SG-1 as "Lord Zipacna" (based on the Mayan mythological figure Zipacna) and on Lost during its fourth and sixth seasons, in which he played as the antagonist Martin Keamy for 12 episodes.

Maya death rituals

The Maya were a ritualistic people, who paid great respect to the destructive nature of their gods.

Maya households

The ancient Maya society was similar to other societies in regard to their social classes.

Mexico

In pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before first contact with Europeans.

Miami Circle

Initial theories on the origin of the site were that it was created by the Olmec or Mayan civilizations.

Microblade technology

At leat six independent Native American groups used microblade technology, including the Poverty Point/Jaketown, Hopewell culture, Tikal Maya, and Northwest Coast peoples.

Mirador Basin

Archaeological and environmental studies conducted by the Mirador Basin Project, directed by Richard Hansen, previously known as the Regional Archaeological Investigation of the North Petén, Guatemala (RAINPEG) Project, have identified data relevant to the origins and early development of the Maya civilization in this area.

New Found World

It covers the Aztec, the Mayan and the Inca civilizations, the Conquistadors, the search for El Dorado, the coming of Christianity, and the struggle for independence of the colonial powers.

Norman Hammond

Norman Hammond (born 1944) is a British archaeologist, academic and Mesoamericanist scholar, noted for his publications and research on the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.

Petexbatún

This State was the first to be abandoned in the Late Classic, when the Maya Collapse occurred in a south to north pattern, although Seibal, may have been reoccupied by a foreign group, possibly the Putún Maya, according to the style of the Stelas in this period.

Snakes on a Train

In the movie, writer Eric Forsberg created a woman who has been put under a Mayan curse which causes snake eggs to hatch inside her belly and eat their way out.

The New Tetris

The game is notable for showing scenic fly-bys of famous structures (for examples the Sphinx, the Pantheon, Saint Basil's Cathedral, a Mayan temple, and others) rendered in realtime.

The Settlers

In The Settlers IV there are four playable races: the Mayans, the Vikings, the Romans, and the Trojans (the Trojans were only available after installing the expansion The Settlers IV: The Trojans and the Elixir of Power).

The Soft Machine

As such an agent he makes a time travel machine and takes on a gang of Mayan priests who use the Mayan calendar to control the minds of slave laborers used for planting maize.

The Stones of Nomuru

Third, the name of the planet Kukulkan violates the nomenclature previously established for the planetary system of Epsilon Eridani in the introduction and title story of The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, according to which the planets take their names from Norse gods like Thor, not Mayan gods like Kukulkan.

Toniná

Tonina (or Toniná in Spanish orthography) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site and ruined city of the Maya civilization located in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas, some 13 km (8.1 mi) east of the town of Ocosingo.

William Saturno

William Andrew "Bill" Saturno is an American archaeologist and Mayanist scholar who has made significant contributions toward the study of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.