Englischverständnis für fortgeschrittene Anfänger – Buch 1

symbol used to represent a sound, a word, or a syllable .
    Just like modern people, the Maya wrote books about their gods, their leaders, their daily life and special occasions.  These books were not like the books we have today because Maya books were made of soft bark and were folded like a fan. A book was called a codex (the plural is ‘codices’) and the reader had to unfold them to read them.  Like modern books, codices had drawings as well as glyphs. 
    Around 600 years after the Maya civilization had vanished, explorers from Spain arrived and they found many Maya codices. The Spanish priests incorrectly believed that they had found pictures of demons and devils so they destroyed all the codices that they found. Many were destroyed, but luckily not all of them. Approximately 10,000 individual codices have been found so far .
    It has been an extremely long and difficult process to decode the Maya writing.  In the late 19th and early 20th century, experts mostly decoded parts with numbers, the Maya calendar, and astronomy. However, major breakthroughs happened during the 1950s up to the 1970s. Towards the end of the 20th century, experts could read most of the Maya texts, and new research continues to discover new meaning.
    The Mayas worshipped the gods of the natural world daily. Worship of the gods was an important part of their lives. Some Maya gods were the God of Rain, Lady Rainbow, the God of Maize (corn), and of course, the God of Sun. The Mayas believed that if they didn’t pray to these important gods, then nothing would grow and everyone would starve .
    The Mayas believed in an afterlife (or heaven). Ordinary people buried the dead in their homes, beneath the floor. In this way, they could be with their ancestors and their ancestors could be part of their daily life. However, nobles and rich people were buried in tombs.
    All of the men, but none of the women, used mirrors. The Maya people believed that looking into a mirror required lots of courage . They said that monsters from the Place of Awe could put their hands through the mirror and kidnap you (taking you into the Otherworld).
    Maya daily life and culture was strongly connected to their religion. The priests made decisions about almost every aspect of Maya society. They said when to plant, marry, and who to sacrifice ... Although it was not as common in the Maya culture as in the Aztec culture, the Maya used to practise human sacrifice. In some religious rituals, priests killed people by cutting the person's chest open and taking out their still beating heart as an offering to the gods.
    Although this seems barbaric to modern people, the Maya civilisation was extremely advanced in other ways. For example, the ancient Maya had sophisticated methods of food production. They used raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, and wild harvesting to support the large populations in some areas.
    Archaeologists are still only just beginning to discover many aspects of Maya civilisation. However, the little we already know continues to fascinate and amaze us.
    Click here to watch a documentary on the Maya civilisation.
     
    Glossary
    prediction - something a person believes will happen. Prophezeiung
    advanced - modern or ahead in development or progress. fortgeschritten
    syllable - a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants. Silbe
    bark - in this context, the tough, protective outer skin of the trunk, branches, and twigs of a tree. Rinde
    folded - ‘to fold’ to bend over on itself so that one part of it covers another. falten
    so far - until now. bis jetzt
    to decode - to convert (a coded message) into intelligible language. dekodieren, entschlüsseln
    breakthroughs – a sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development, e.g. in science. Durchbruch
    starve - ‘to starve’ to die from lack of food. verhungern
    nobles – important people who are members of the aristocracy. Adlige , Edelleute
    to sacrifice – to offer or kill as a religious sacrifice. opfern
    barbaric – savagely cruel, exceedingly brutal. barbarisch
    sophisticated - developed to a high degree of complexity. kultiviert, hoch entwickelt
     
    Questions about the text
    1. Why did the Mayas think it was important to worship their gods?
    2. Why is Maya writing called hieroglyphics?
    3. Who carried out human sacrifices in Maya culture?
    4. Why did the Spanish priests burn the Maya books?
    5. How many Maya texts have been found up to