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Kukulkan
K’uk’ulkan, also spelled Kukulkan (; "Plumed Serpent", "Amazing Serpent"), is the Snake worship#Mesoamerica, serpent deity of Maya mythology. It is closely related to the deity Qʼuqʼumatz of the Kʼicheʼ people and to Quetzalcoatl of Aztec mythology. Prominent temples to Kukulkan are found at archaeological sites in the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan. The depiction of the Feathered Serpent is present in other cultures of Mesoamerica. Although heavily Mexicanised, Kukulkan has its origins among the Maya of the Mesoamerican chronology, Classic Period. Little is known of the mythology of this Pre-Columbian era deity. Etymology In the Yucatec Maya language, the name is spelt ''Kʼukʼulkan'' () and in Tzotzil language, Tzotzil it is ''Kʼukʼul-chon'' (). The Yucatec form of the name is formed from the word ''kuk'' "feather" with the adjectival suffix ''-ul'', giving ''kukul'' "feathered", combined with ''kan'' "snake" (Tzotzil ''chon''), giv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayapan
Mayapan (Màyapáan in Yucatec Maya language, Modern Maya; in Spanish language, Spanish Mayapán) is a Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in Municipality of Tecoh, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida, Yucatán, Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza; in the state of Yucatán (state), Yucatán, Mexico. Mayapan was the political and cultural capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula during the Late Post-Classic period from the 1220s until the 1440s. Estimates of the total city population are 15,000–17,000 people, and the site has more than 4,000 structures within the city walls, and additional dwellings outside. The site has been professionally surveyed and excavated by archeological teams, beginning in 1939; five years of work was done by a team in the 1950s, and additional studies were done in the 1990s. Since 2000, a collaborative Mexican-United States team has been conducting excavations a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chichen Itza
Chichén Itzá , , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people, Itza people" (often spelled ''Chichen Itza'' in English and traditional Yucatec Maya) was a large Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mayan city, city built by the Maya people of the Mesoamerican chronology, Terminal Classic period. The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán (state), Yucatán State, Mexico. Chichén Itzá was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Mesoamerican chronology, Late Classic ( AD 600–900) through the Terminal Classic ( AD 800–900) and into the early portion of the Postclassic period ( AD 900–1200). The site exhibits a multitude of Maya architecture, architectural styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the Northern Maya lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake Worship
Snake worship is devotion to serpent deities. The tradition is nearly universal in the religions and mythologies of ancient cultures, where snakes were seen as the holders of knowledge, strength, and renewal. Near East Ancient Mesopotamia Ancient Mesopotamians and Semites believed that snakes were immortal because they could infinitely shed their skin and appear forever youthful, appearing in a fresh guise every time. The Sumerians worshipped a serpent god named Ningishzida. Before the arrival of the Israelites, snake cults were well established in Canaan in the Bronze Age, for archaeologists have uncovered serpent cult objects in Bronze Age strata at several pre-Israelite cities in Canaan: two at Megiddo, one at Gezer, one in the ''sanctum sanctorum'' of the Area H temple at Hazor, and two at Shechem. In the surrounding region, serpent cult objects figured in other cultures. A late Bronze Age Hittite shrine in northern Syria contained a bronze statue of a god holding a ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qʼuqʼumatz
Qʼuqʼumatz (; alternatively Gukumatz) was a god of wind and rain of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya. It was the Feathered Serpent that according to the ''Popol Vuh'' created the world and humanity, together with the god Tepeu.. It carried the sun across the sky and down into the underworld and acted as a mediator between the various powers in the Maya cosmos. It is considered to be the equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. and of Kukulkan, of the Yucatec Maya. Qʼuqʼumatz was also associated with water, clouds, and the sky. Together with Tepeu, god of lightning and fire,. it was considered to be the mythical ancestor of the Kʼicheʼ nobility by direct male line. Kotujaʼ, the Kʼicheʼ king who founded the city of Qʼumarkaj, bore the name of the deity as a title and was likely to have been a former priest of the god. The priests of Qʼuqʼumatz at Qʼumarkaj, the Kʼicheʼ capital, were drawn from the dominant Kaweq dynasty and acted as stewards in the city. Etymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feathered Serpent
The Feathered Serpent is a prominent supernatural entity or deity found in many Mesoamerican religions. It is called Quetzalcoatl among the Aztecs; Kukulkan among the Yucatec Maya; and Q'uq'umatz and Tohil among the K'iche' Maya. The double symbolism used by the Feathered Serpent is considered allegoric to the dual nature of the deity: being feathered represents its divine nature or ability to fly to reach the skies, while being a serpent represents its human nature or ability to creep on the ground among other animals of the Earth, a dualism very common in Mesoamerican deities. Description representations of feathered serpents appear in the Olmec culture ( 1400–400 BC). The Olmec culture predates the Maya and the Aztec. This cultural enclave extended from the Gulf of Mexico to Nicaragua. Most surviving representations in Olmec art, such as Monument 19 at La Venta, and a painting in the Juxtlahuaca cave (see below), show the Feathered Serpent as a crested rattlesn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Itza People
The Itza are a Maya ethnic group descendants of the Chanes Maya, Chanes from the Chontal Maya, Chontal region of Tabasco from where they made a historic migration arriving at Bacalar and northern Yucatán during the 10th century, then they arrived at Champotón, Campeche, Champotón and finally in the 15th century they settled around Lake Petén Itzá where they remained independent until 1697. During the Spanish colonial era and later by the Guatemalan government, the Itza were victims of repressive policies that accelerated the extinction of the Itza culture and language, leading to the loss of much of their ethnic identity. They are one of the smallest Maya groups and have the lowest population; the few Itza descendants are settled in the town of San José, Petén, San José, north of Lake Petén Itzá in the department of Petén Department, Petén, Guatemala, and are considered highly acculturated to mestizo society, with only 36 elderly people remaining as native speakers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yucatec Maya Language
Yucatec Maya ( ; referred to by its speakers as or ) is a Mayan languages, Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, including part of northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Francisco, though most Maya Americans are speakers of other Mayan languages from Guatemala and Chiapas. Etymology According to the Hocabá dictionary, compiled by American anthropologist Victoria Bricker, there is a variant name , literally 'flat speech'). A popular, yet false, alternative etymology of Mayab is ''ma ya'ab'' or 'not many, the few', which derives from New Age spiritualist interpretations of the Maya. The use of "Mayab" as the name of the language seems to be unique to the town of Hocabá Municipality, Hocabá, as indicated by the Hocabá dictionary and is not employed elsewhere in the region or in Mexico, by either Spanish or Maya speakers. As used in Hocabá, "Mayab" is not the recognized name of the language, but instead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lencan Mythology
Lenca mythology is the set of religious and mythological beliefs of the Lenca people from Honduras and El Salvador, before and after the European colonization of the Americas, conquest of America. Little of these beliefs have been documented, due to colonization and the adoption of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith after the 16th century. Myths Creation of man According to the original Lenca Polytheism, polytheistic religion, the Creation of Man, creation of man is thanks to a deity known as "Maraguana", she brought the dust of the stars to earth, and when she arrived there she collected the dry grains of Maize, corn and cocoa beans, and in a grinding stone and a clay pot, he molded a creature different from the others on earth created by the gods, this endowed it with consciousness and intelligence and thus made the first human being. The place called "''Ti Ketau Antawinikil''" Some time later this deity created another human known as "Ti wanatuku", he was born from an egg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpent Symbolism
The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin ''serpens'', a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankindRobbins, Lawrence H., Alec C. Campbell, George A. Brook, Michael L. Murphy (June 2007). "World's Oldest Ritual Site? The 'Python Cave' at Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site, Botswana". Nyame Akuma. ''Bulletin of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists'' (67). Retrieved 1 (2010). and represent dual expression of good and evil. The historian of religions Mircea Eliade observed in ''The Myth of the Eternal Return,'' "the serpent symbolizes chaos, the formless and nonmanifested." In ''The Symbolism of the Cross'', Traditionalist René Guénon contended that "the serpent will depict the series of the cycles of universal manifestation," "the indefinitude of universal Existence," and "the being's attachment to the indefinite series of cycles of manifestati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belize
Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. Part of the Caribbean region, Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Commonwealth Caribbean, the historical British West Indies. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BCE and 300 CE and flourished until about 1200. European contact began in 1502–04 when Christopher Columbus sailed along the Gulf of Honduras. European exploration was begun by English settlers in 1638. Spanish Empire, Spain and Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain both laid claim to the land until Britain defeated the Spanish in the Battle of St. George's Caye (1798). It became British Honduras, a British colony in 1840, and a Crown colony in 1862. Belize achieved its independence from the United Kingdom on 21 September ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemalan Highlands
The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala which lies between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north. Geographic description The Highlands lie between 6360 ft and 13780 ft and are made up of a series of high valleys enclosed by mountains. There are volcanoes which are both active and extinct. The local name for the region is ''Altos,'' meaning "highlands." The relief of the mountainous country which is north of the Highlands and drains into the Atlantic is varied by terraces, ridges, and underfalls. Its general configuration is compared by E. Reclus to the appearance of "a stormy sea breaking into parallel billows".''Universal Geography'', ed. E. G. Ravenstein, div. xxxiii., p. 212 A range called the Sierra de Chamá travels eastward towards Belize and is connected by low hills with the Cockscomb Mountains. The Sierra de Santa Cruz, a similar range, continues east to Cape Cocoli between the Polochic and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yucatán
Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. Located on the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula, it is bordered by the states of Campeche to the southwest and Quintana Roo to the southeast, with the Gulf of Mexico off its northern coast. Before the arrival of Spaniards, the peninsula was a very important region for the Maya civilization that reached the peak of its development here, where the Maya founded the cities of Chichen Itza, Izamal, Motul, Mayapan, Ek' Balam, and Ichkanzihóo (also called T'ho), now Mérida. After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (early 16th to late 17th centuries), the Yucatán Peninsula became a single administrative and political entity, the Captaincy General of Yucatán. Following Mexican independence in 1821 the local Governor proclaimed indepe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
