Hello, fellow Steemheads (my boyfriend coined the term). Today I want to talk about two ancient cultures that are both similar and strikingly different in many ways, the ancient Babylonians from Mesopotamia and the ancient Maya from Mesoamerica. Both ancient cultures capture my imagination and I really enjoy learning about both of them! This will be a series of posts, as I have a lot of information on these two civilizations! I think since I post a lot of ancient history information, I shall begin an ancient history blog series as well. This will be one of the first topics of the series.
Ancient civilizations have always captured my interest and imagination. I can vividly imagine what life would be like thousands of years ago, sleeping when the sun sets, tribal drum beats and dances, and endless forests and uninhabited lands. Of course, life way back then was not always idyllic. There was war, famine and disease. However there was also wonder, adventure, and a sense of the divine. As in the modern day, the bad and good combine to find a balance, thus is the way of life. I like to research ancient history so I can take a thousand steps back in time and wonder through the ancient landscapes in my mind. My endless curiosity fuels this mindful adventure, along with modern day archaeology and anthropology.
I began my research into these two civilizations for a high school course, comparative civilizations. I had previously studied the ancient Irish Tuatha de Danaan and bronze age China, and I went crazy in depth about both of them. However I did not compare them to any other civilizations and, well, comparative civilizations is the name of the course, so I had to do a final project comparing civilizations. This particular project is less in depth then the other two, because I spent a good 4 months or more on both of the others, and only a couple of months on this one.
Since I am intensely interested in astrology, and history, I figured I should research the origins of astrology. As many people know, Babylonia is the mother of modern day Tropical astrology and the regular western zodiac. The ancient Maya also had their own astrological systems, which I was, and am, very curious about. This led me to choose these two ancient cultures for in depth study, plus they both have a plethora of information available to sort through. Originally I was interested in the Olmec, a culture that predates the Maya, but the lack of information caused me to choose the Maya instead.
Now, I shall get into the research! I am using my power point as an outline, however I am editing it to be more blog friendly and will be improving on some of my points and research. The three topics I focused on are Kingship, Astrology and Temples. Let us jump right into the introduction into both civilizations:
The Mayans were (and still are) a people centered in Mesoamerica, near the Gulf of Mexico, between the plains of Yucatan and the highlands of Guatemala. They began as nomads and forest gardeners in 2000 BC and earlier. Throughout the next couple thousand years they moved inland from the coast and settled in villages. Their agriculture, which consisted of maize and cultivated jungle food forests, among other things, grew along with the Mayan population. The individual villages independently decided to followed the growing trend of kingship, and from this institution the great Mayan cities of temples and splendor grew, and with them their religion, art, culture and trade.
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The Babylonians were a people with a particular culture developed in the city of Babylon, and around it, even well before 2000 BCE. They were not they were not the first of their kind in ancient Mesopotamia. There is a long history of civilizations in this fertile cradle of civilization, nestled between the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris. In fact, it is one of the first areas to have settlements and civilizations of its kind. Babylonia was one of many great powers to flourish in the area, but generally was more of a center of culture then political power for the majority of its history. The Babylonians practiced astrology and astronomy, built great temples to their gods along with other great artistic monuments. The maps of Babylonia changed constantly, with regular transfers of power, and with conquest being a regular facet of life. The general cities stayed the same throughout its history however, as can be seen below.
Both the Maya and the Babylonians flourished culturally, and built monuments that are remembered far into the future. Both civilizations were masters of mathematics and could predict the movements of the visible planets incredibly accurately using only observation and arithmetic. They also shared a respect for the divine, and saw their King as their connection to the gods, abet in different ways. I find it stunning that such similarities can be found between civilizations on different ends of the globe, on different continents, and in entirely different civilizations.
The connection to the divine and the heavens seems built into the humans DNA, and the flourishing of civilization usually goes hand in hand with agriculture, writing, kingship, and building temples and monuments, no matter where on the globe you go.
Of course, the Maya and the Babylonians were not entirely similar, they differ in very important ways. They have the same general concepts of a divine king, of the stars and planets being gods, and other things. However, the way they go about all of these things differs entirely, as expected of their different locations and situations. For example, the Maya did not know conquest war until the beginning of the AD era, whereas the Babylonians always knew conquest and war, and their culture was created upon it. They Maya also counted by units of 20, all 20 toes and fingers. The Babylonians on the other hand used a system of 60, where we get the units of the minute and hour from. They both used different methods, but came to the same conclusions mathematically, and in many cases, culturally.
I will begin to explore their specific astrological and astronomical systems, ideas and implications of kingship, and of their great and momentous temples in the following Ancient History Blogs. I hope you got a good introduction into the wonderful and mysterious ancient civilizations of the Maya and Babylonians. If you have questions or insights, please comment them below! I think I shall also extend my research into the modern implications of these civilizations, because the ideas of the Babylonians pervade modern society secretly, and the Mayan people still are flourishing today (on a smaller scale).
Let us continue to explore ancient history together, and keep on Steemin on! Thank you for your time, upvotes, and all that jazz <3 My citation list is wayyyyy toooo lonngggggg for this post, but you can find my full project Here with the entire bibliography.