How medically advanced were the mayans and what medical inventions did they use?
Medicine among the Mayas was a mix of religion and science. It was practiced by priests who received extensive education and inherited their position. The Mayans healed stitched and sewed wounds with human hair, used casts, reduced fractures and broken bones. They were skillful surgeons especially dental. They also made prostheses from jade and turquoise and filled teeth with iron pyrite, and used obsidian metals to preform surgery. Obsidian metals are still used to this day in American hospitals to perform heart by pass surgeries. They are known to make clean cuts, accelerate healing with less scarring . The Mayas also used 1500 different plants to cure their diseases. They were very spiritual and believed in balance and imbalance. The balance was health, while the imbalance was sickness. They believed this was always controlled by the diet, gender and age of a person.
Medicine among the Mayas was a mix of religion and science. It was practiced by priests who received extensive education and inherited their position. The Mayans healed stitched and sewed wounds with human hair, used casts, reduced fractures and broken bones. They were skillful surgeons especially dental. They also made prostheses from jade and turquoise and filled teeth with iron pyrite, and used obsidian metals to preform surgery. Obsidian metals are still used to this day in American hospitals to perform heart by pass surgeries. They are known to make clean cuts, accelerate healing with less scarring . The Mayas also used 1500 different plants to cure their diseases. They were very spiritual and believed in balance and imbalance. The balance was health, while the imbalance was sickness. They believed this was always controlled by the diet, gender and age of a person.
Numbers
The Mayans were the ones that invented and came up with the concept of 0. This concept and outstanding knowledge of mathematics was very advanced for that time. The number system was based up to twenty.
How accurate was the Mayan calendar?
The Maya calendar is a system that records the repetitive cycles of time based on the movement of the sun, moon and planets. Dates in this calendar go through cycles, like for example the first day of the Gregorian calendar, January 1, repeats itself when the earth completes its spin around the sun. The Mayan calendar consists of three different consistent calendars. These include the long count, the Tzolkin or (divine calendar) and the Haab or (civil calendar). Time in these calendars are recurring and an exact number of days have to occur before a new cycle begins.
The Maya calendar is a system that records the repetitive cycles of time based on the movement of the sun, moon and planets. Dates in this calendar go through cycles, like for example the first day of the Gregorian calendar, January 1, repeats itself when the earth completes its spin around the sun. The Mayan calendar consists of three different consistent calendars. These include the long count, the Tzolkin or (divine calendar) and the Haab or (civil calendar). Time in these calendars are recurring and an exact number of days have to occur before a new cycle begins.
- Kin = 1 Day.
- Uinal = 20 kin = 20 days.
- Tun = 18 uinal = 360 days.
- Katun = 20 tun = 360 uinal = 7,200 days.
- Baktun = 20 katun = 400 tun = 7,200 uinal = 144,000 days.