The Mayans were one of the most prominent civilizations in modern history, with their dominance primarily lasting from 200 B.C. to 1000 A.D.  This super civ didn’t truly fade away until the Spanish conquest in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Mayans developed magnificent art, architecture and other cultural beauties and necessities, with several of them making their way to modern society. Here’s a closer look at some of the Mayans’ major contributions.

Writing

The Mayans were one of the first civilizations to develop an advanced writing system. Instead of letters they used hieroglyphics, and they had hundreds of symbols (or glyphs) they used to communicate. These glyphs were in the form of animals, humans, objects and abstract designs. Some of the glyphs straight up stood for a word, while others were used to form sounds used to write words and sentences. It’s doubtful there was any grunting as communication going on in this civilization. The Mayans had glyphs for virtually anything they wanted to say.

Math

The Mayans were incredibly gifted mathematicians. Their numerical system is similar to that of the Romans, but instead of X’s and I’s they use dots, bars and shells. Each dot has the value of one, each bar the value of five, and each shell the value of zero. This brings us to the main mathematical contribution of the Mayans, the concept of zero. The Mayans were the first to develop the number that isn’t really a number of anything, and despite how confusing that sounds they did it all by themselves.

Astronomy

The Mayans were also incredible astronomers. Using their astronomical smarts, they deduced that a solar year was slightly more than 365 days. This calendar, which the Mayans called jaab’, is divided into 18 months consisting of 20 days. For some reason they added five unlucky days at the end of their calendar called wayeb’. The Mayans also had a more complicated system known as the long count calendar, which ultimately measures a time period of over 5,000 years. Imagine keeping track of family dentist appointments for hundreds of generations…

Want to know more about these Mayan contributions? Visit http://www.ancientscripts.com/maya.html. You can also explore ancient Mayan ruins with us this September when we visit Mexico and Guatemala!