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Friday, December 21, 2012

Understanding What the Mayan Symbols Stand For

By Linda Patterson


Have you ever undertaken some Tikal tours which never seem to go out of trend and remained very popular? If so, you very well may have had the privilege to encounter numerous artifacts and inscriptions regarding the ancient Mayan civilization as well as the Mayan temples, well-planned cities and stepped pyramids. The variety of symbols and their arrangement are some of the things that captured the attention and fascinated onlookers on such trips. The variety of symbols holds beauty and art even if they appear random at a glance.

The Mayan civilization was one of the most intriguing and in fact the earliest of mankind. It has left historians, archaeologists and tourists fascinated for decades and until today. There's no better way to affirm this fact than to acknowledge that we in the modern-day age discover more about Mayan history than we could ever learn about Aztecs, a different tribe of Mesoamerica that came later in time? One reason specified as underlying the attractiveness of Tikal tours is the complex system of symbols and concepts which described the Mayan civilization.

These hiking trips to the Mayan lands provide education and inform the tourists about the Mayan system of concepts and anyone found guilty leaking them will be sentenced to death. Perhaps this is the reason that why it took historians a long time to decipher the drawings and still trying to interpret the many sketches and their veiled implications. Unyielding and constant research has resulted to cracking of some of the symbols, dates as well as calendars while there are still others which remained a mystery. Such is the accuracy and reliability of the mentioned dates that when corresponded with the exact event, there was no room for conflict or uncertainty.

Amongst the most ancient Mayan symbols was that of a serpent and such symbol represents wise men. In many areas serpents have in addition been considered as symbols of immortality or being a link to this idea. The World Tree is another Mayan symbol which would be noticed at a few points while undertaking the Tikal tours and such symbol has been interpreted in so many ways.

Before, the historians thought that the circle encompassing the tree implied the earth-sky axis and held within the galaxy, the solar system as well as the planet earth. But because numerous other understandings also have surfaced that appear to be equally logical. There are ten different fruits that cover the trunk of the World Tree and its branches have been depicted as being covered with celestial birds of both genders all set to pick on the fruits on the said tree. Something that's instantly evident is the alphabet 'T' which the branches and the tree trunk look to make and a much deeper interpretation is the concept of 'bird of immortality' because of number 12 completed by adding ten fruits as well as two birds.

During the Tikal tours, one can see a frequently appearing symbol which is a star with four points which is actually a glyph of the planet Venus. The Mayans were truly obsessed with this planet that even the word 'fascination' would fall short if you ever describe their feelings towards it. To raise Venus to a higher position as compared with other stars, there was oftentimes a prefix added onto the glyph or a point surrounded by numerous circles, thereby indicating the 'circle of heaven'.

Not being able to catch a glimpse of the legendary calendars which are deemed to be much more than what meets the eye, hiking trips through Mayan territories would not be complete. Even though, they were thought to be instruments of maintaining records of time, archeologists believe that these incorporate calibrations that have a much deeper importance in life than merely calculating time.




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