The Secret Behind the Ancient Mayan's Agricultural Prowess
Centuries before the birth of Christ,
the ancient Maya are a rural civilization.
They grow most of their food,
and one crop is all important, corn.
To successfully cultivate corn and their other crops,
the Maya need to mark the changing seasons.
In a tropical climate where daylight doesn't vary much
between summer and winter, this is not so easy.
But already the Maya are developing knowledge
that will enable them to accurately track the seasons.
In the southwest corner of the ancient city of Tikal
stands one of the Maya's oldest sacred sites.
Around 600 BC, the Maya started work
on this complex of buildings.
Almost covered by dense jungle,
today the site is known as Mundo Perdido, the Lost World.
But for the ancient Maya, it served a very visible purpose.
Several times a year,
the Maya climbed Mundo Perdido's central pyramid
to observe the sky to the east.
From this vantage, they could see three small structures,
known today as E1, E2, and E3.
Viewed from the pyramid during the summer solstice,
the sun ascends from behind structure E1.
During the equinoxes,
it rises from behind the central pyramid, E2.
And during the winter solstice, it emerges from behind E3.
In the land of the Maya,
the winter solstice foreshadows a time of dryness,
while the summer solstice heralds heavy rain.
Sites like Mundo Perdido give accurate knowledge
of when a dry or rainy period is at hand.
For the Maya, using astronomy to mark the seasons
is not an agricultural technique.
It is the essence of religion.