Maya Civilization (Mesoamerican History #3) - A History from Beginning to End

Hourly History

Hourly History

2020

40 páginas

1h 20m

ISBN-10: B083JGRFH5

For more than one thousand years, the Maya people dominated areas of Central America and modern-day Mexico and made important advances in architecture, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Then, after the Spanish occupation in the sixteenth century, Maya culture and thinking were deliberately suppressed. Only in the twentieth century did scientists appreciate just how advanced these people had been and how important they were in the history of Mesoamerica.

The excavation and investigation of several large Maya cities in the second half of the twentieth century completely changed how we view these people. We now know that the Maya were capable of building vary large stone structures that were precisely aligned with astronomical features, though we do not know how this was done. We are still learning about Maya cities—as recently as 2018, the use of new technology uncovered more than 60,000 previously undiscovered Maya ruins in the jungles of Guatemala. Many scholars now believe that the Maya were one of the most important of all the ancient Mesoamerican cultures.

There are still many mysteries about the Maya. At one point in their history, several major Maya cities were abandoned and left to the encroaching jungle while their people relocated to more inhospitable areas in the Yucatán. There are many theories, but no one is entirely certain why this happened. We also don’t know why the Maya made important advances in the fields of mathematics and medicine and yet failed to develop, for example, the wheel or metalworking.

What we do know is that these people created a sophisticated culture which they recorded via one of the first complex writing systems. Unlike other contemporary Mesoamerican peoples, the Maya survived the Spanish occupation, and Maya language, religion, and culture continue to survive today in parts of Central America and Mexico.

This is the story of the mysterious and frequently misunderstood Maya civilization.

Resenhas (2)

3 (Bom)

Interessante mas não é tão completo como a capa diz

No geral, gostei. Eu que não conhecia nada dessa civilização achei interessante como uma visão geral.
Porém o título cita como um guia COMPLETO da história, mas acredito que os Maias foram importantes demais para ter sua história resumida em menos de 100 páginas.
Quando li este livro tinha acabado de concluir um guia rápido sobre a Idade Média que, não comparando em termos de história, aborda muito mais temas e situações sendo resumido em poucas páginas. Imaginei que este pudesse ser assim também. Entendo que o próprio livro diz que ainda se sabe muito pouco sobre a civilização Maia, mas acho que alguns pontos interessantes ficaram faltando.
Vale a leitura para iniciar sobre o tema.