What technology and science did Meso American give this world???

[ScienceRocks]

What technology and science did Meso American give this world??? What stood out.

I'm interested in a good thread aiming to explore the best of meso America. Trying to give them a chance.

 

[Meathead]

The Mayans and Inca were quite accomplished at the time of the Spanish Conquest, but relative to Europe of the Renaissance, their advancements were moderate. So the answer is not much, but they were able to engineer corn from a very small ear to something close to what we use today.

 

[waltky]

The Mayan calendar?

 

[NoNukes]

The Mayans and Inca were quite accomplished at the time of the Spanish Conquest, but relative to Europe of the Renaissance, their advancements were moderate. So the answer is not much, but they were able to engineer corn from a very small ear to something close to what we use today.

The Aztecs were very advanced in many ways, they are a good read. Years ago I read a historical novel called Aztec, by Gary Jennings that was pretty interesting.

 

[Unkotare]

What technology and science did Meso American give this world???

What technology and science have YOU ever given this world?



I notice you ALWAYS duck simple questions like this, you little *****.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Pretty good with carving stone
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Maya-Maske.jpg

Wow,

Kind of eyption

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Yaxchilan_Lintel_24.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nor's_Palace_rear_view_and_details,_Uxmal.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Xunantunich_El_Castillo_2011.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Codz_Poop_details.jpg

 

[Unkotare]

What technology and science have YOU ever given this world?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Writing tools

Although the archaeological record does not provide examples, Maya art shows that writing was done with brushes made with animal hair and quills. Codex-style writing was usually done in black ink with red highlights, giving rise to the Aztec name for the Maya territory as the "land of red and black".

[edit] Scribes and literacy

Scribes held a prominent position in Maya courts. Maya art often depicts rulers with trappings indicating they were scribes or at least able to write, such as having pen bundles in their headdresses. Additionally, many rulers have been found in conjunction with writing tools such as shell or clay inkpots. Although the number of logograms and syllabic symbols required to fully write the language numbered in the hundreds, literacy was not necessarily widespread beyond the elite classes. Graffiti uncovered in various contexts, including on fired bricks, shows nonsensical attempts to imitate the writing system.


Mathematics

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Maya.svg

Maya numerals
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, the preclassic Maya and their neighbors had independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC. Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.
Maya civilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What's impressive is they had no link to the outside world and still developed this.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The architectural prowess of the Incas is undisputed.

When I was traveling in South America I had the chance to see that fact close up. Many buildings built by the invading Europeans stand on Incan stone foundations. The buildings would fall in an earthquake yet the foundations remain solid and after hundreds of years, stones joined with no mortar or cement still have joints so tight a knife blade won't fit.

The Mayans used the concept of the number zero long before anyone else.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Astronomy



Uniquely, there is some evidence to suggest the Maya appear to be the only pre-telescopic civilization to demonstrate knowledge of the Orion Nebula as being fuzzy, i.e. not a stellar pin-point. The information which supports this theory comes from a folk tale that deals with the Orion constellation's area of the sky. Their traditional hearths include in their middle a smudge of glowing fire that corresponds with the Orion Nebula. This is a significant clue to support the idea that the Maya detected a diffuse area of the sky contrary to the pin points of stars before the telescope was invented.[27] Many preclassic sites are oriented with the Pleiades and Eta Draconis, as seen in La Blanca, Ujuxte, Monte Alto, and Takalik Abaj.

The Maya were very interested in zenial passages, the time when the sun passes directly overhead. The latitude of most of their cities being below the Tropic of Cancer, these zenial passages would occur twice a year equidistant from the solstice. To represent this position of the sun overhead, the Maya had a god named Diving God.[citation needed]

The Dresden Codex contains the highest concentration of astronomical phenomena observations and calculations of any of the surviving texts (it appears that the data in this codex is primarily or exclusively of an astronomical nature). Examination and analysis of this codex reveals that Venus was the most important astronomical object to the Maya, even more important to them than the sun.


---
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in highland Guatemala[1] and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.[2]

Maya calendar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Unkotare]

So, we know that the idiot matthew has never produced anything of value to anyone ever.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The architectural prowess of the Incas is undisputed.

When I was traveling in South America I had the chance to see that fact close up. Many buildings built by the invading Europeans stand on Incan stone foundations. The buildings would fall in an earthquake yet the foundations remain solid and after hundreds of years, stones joined with no mortar or cement still have joints so tight a knife blade won't fit.

The Mayans used the concept of the number zero long before anyone else.

You have to wonder why the Spanish were able to beat such a civilization on its home turf. Unlike the negro these people had respectable civilizations. They had organized armies.

"Spanish control over Yucatán itself was effectively in place by 1547 even though as late as 1550, there were only some 1,550 Spanish in all of the colonial provinces"

 

[editec]

I'm informed that messages could travel the length of the Incan's Peruvian empire faster than letters communications can travel that distance today.

That's not technology, but its definitely a sign of a superior organizational logistics.

Also their society had no money for internal use, but they did issue currency use in trading with the Amazonians. (who clearly then must ALSO have had a highly comeplex advanced society for the money to be useful, eh?)

So clearly they had a very advanced economic system.

Which naturally suggests that they had to have had a clearly functional society

I guess I have a point here that I suspect some of you might get


TECHNOLOGY is not a particularly good indication of an ADVANCED CIVILIZATION.

The real signal of an advanced civilization is found in its organizational depth and its ability to coordinate the people into functional sytem that serves their needs.

Sociologically speaking THE INCAs had a more advanced, more complex, and more vibrant culture than the SPANISH who defeated them.

 

[ScienceRocks]

"When they returned to Peru in 1532, a war of the two brothers between Huayna Capac's sons Huáscar and Atahualpa and unrest among newly conquered territories—and perhaps more importantly, smallpox, which had spread from Central America—had considerably weakened the empire. Pizarro did not have a formidable force; with just 168 men, 1 cannon and 27 horses, he often needed to talk his way out of potential confrontations that could have easily wiped out his party.

The Spanish horsemen, fully armored, had great technological superiority over the Inca forces. The traditional mode of battle in the Andes was a kind of siege warfare where large numbers of usually reluctant draftees were sent to overwhelm opponents. The Spaniards had developed one of the finest military machines in the premodern world, tactics learned in their centuries' long fight against Moorish kingdoms in Iberia. Along with this tactical and material superiority, the Spaniards also had acquired tens of thousands of native allies who sought to end the Inca control of their territories."


Inca Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meso Americans fucked each other over and fought each other. The tribes controlled by the Aztecs also raised up and fought with the white man.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

What technology and science have YOU ever given this world?

Instead of questioning what he has given. Tell us what you contributed.

 

[Immortal_Echo]

These are some fascinating civilizations, but since when did contributions too the world become the goal of any race. Credit belongs to the talented individuals and civilizations(not the whole race) who actually worked for these achievements.

 

[editec]

The idea that technology is the be-all-end-all determinate of an advanced civilization is a conceit of the west.

Its like judging the efficacy of a school of fish based on how well they drive a car.

 

[ShootSpeeders]

The Mayans and Inca were quite accomplished at the time of the Spanish Conquest, but relative to Europe of the Renaissance, their advancements were moderate. So the answer is not much, but they were able to engineer corn from a very small ear to something close to what we use today.

The inca didn't even have a written language!!!! Very few, if any, indians did and all this talk about the advanced civilizations of the New World before the white man came is BS.

 

[ShootSpeeders]

The idea that technology is the be-all-end-all determinate of an advanced civilization is a conceit of the west.

You wrong. Technical skills are all that matters. Verbal skills count for nothing. Poets don't build bridges.

 

[Meathead]

The Aztecs, Maya and Inca were civilizations on par with the prehistoric civilization of the bronze age in the old world. They had not yet been able to produce iron, but the Maya especially were in the process of producing a written language. Unlike the ancient civilizations of the old world, they were able to accomplish all this with almost no diffusion.

The Spanish were able to conquer them because they had superior weapons, tactics, horses and were able to divide and conquer in the case of the Aztecs and Maya. Additionally, they were the some of the most ruthless bunch of bastards history has ever seen. There is an old quip that the conquistadors went to the new world for gold, glory and God, in that order.

It is somewhat akin to the science fiction scenario where two different being meet and fight in space. The possibility of them being anywhere near equal technologically are astronomically minute, if you'll pardon the pun.