Maya Murals

Over winter break I went to mexico and learned lots about mayan civilization. It is a truly interesting subject that I encourage everyone to look into because it will blow your mind. But something I learned about really impressed me and that was the murals that the mayans left. There are only 2 known murals, the earliest (100 B.C.) was found in 2001 in san bertolo guatemala.

This is an image from the last part of a 30 foot long mural, the earliest mayan mural. It tells the story of creation and the first kings. It is the earliest evidence of humans using writing to tell stories. But despite the historic value and all the things learned from this mural what really stuck with me was the art style. When I think of prehistoric Murals I definitely did not think this, I thought more about 'cave paintings in lascaux'. This type of mural looked almost like modern illustrations to me.

Anyway, I think it is amazing the things that people were doing over 2000 years ago and the fact that we are still discovering this, if anyone wants to know the story told by the mural and the lucky accident that led to its discovery theres a short article on national geographic that sums it up pretty well: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1213_051213_maya_mural.html

but nothing is better that hearing it from a true maya (YES! THEY ARE STILL AROUND!!!!) so if you're ever in mexico look for them!

-sofia

[ and in case you were wondering the world is not ending on december 21, 2012, the planets align parallel to the milky way and the mayan calendar starts over (it runs for over 5000 years) ]