The ancient Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America circa 2600 BC The ancient Maya were a very religious people. The culture has become known for its architecture, art, mathematics and astronomical systems. The ancient Mayans have many different gods and many different rituals and beliefs. All their actions were based on those beliefs and rituals. They believed in human sacrifice. The ancient Maya developed the science of calendar systems, hieroglyphic writing, and astronomy. “By recording the movements of the sky deities (sun, moon, planets, and stars), they developed accurate calendars that could be used for prophecy,” Sharer wrote. This is just one of the many things the Mayans did to contribute to the history of astronomy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Another thing the Mayans discovered they were able to predict planetary systems. These planetary systems include the phases of the moon, sun and Venus and even eclipses. They did this by observing shadow projections and tracing horizons to follow the complex patterns of the sun, stars and plants. Later they were able to develop calendars that tracked the movements of celestial objects in space and their passage through time. The Mayans believed in many different gods including Gucumatz and the pantheon. They turned to the heavens for answers from their gods. In some parts of the Maya some ceremonial buildings were located in line with compass directions. For example, during the autumn and spring equinoxes, the sun can be made to shine through the holes of the Mayan observatory. The Mayans believed that the Earth was at the center of all things. The sun, moons, stars, sun and planets were gods and their movements and different actions were seen as they moved between Earth, the Underworld and other celestial destinations in space. These gods had great involvement in human activities and therefore their movements were observed very closely. Many events in Mayan life were planned to coincide with particular celestial moments: for example, a war might be postponed until the Gods (planets) were in place, or a ruler might ascend the throne of a city-state Maya only when a certain planet was visible in the skies at night. The Maya knew the planets of the solar system and noted their movements. By far the most important planet to the Maya was Venus, which they associated with war. Various battles and wars would have been staged to coincide with Venus' movements, and warriors and leaders would most likely have been sacrificed based on Venus' position in the sky at night. The Maya carefully recorded the movements of Venus and determined that its year (that was relative to the earth, not the sun because the Maya believed everything revolved around the earth) was 584 days long, surprisingly close to the 583.92 days that science modernity has determined. The observatory was a very important part to the Mayan culture, the observatory is an underground chamber with a hole in the ceiling. The sun shines through this underground hole for much of the summer, but is directly elevated on May 15th and July 29th: on these few days the sun always shone directly on the floor, these few days were considered very important those of the Mayan priests. The Mayans had many priests, who were second in importance in Mayan culture only because the king was first. The priests communicated with the gods and were peacemakers between the Mayan people and their deities. Please note: this is just an example. Get a document now.