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"The paper measured several meters long and, as in the case of the three known Maya codices, measured about 20 centimeters wide. The large codices were folded like screens, covered with layer of starch, and then with a thin, white, calcium carbonate paste" (Mayan Codices 2014). Currently, there are four Mayan Codices remaining that survived through ages, and years of deterioration and warfare. The Mayan codices provide us with insight on how the Mayans lived, and what their everyday activities looked like. One of the codices shown to us by a group in class held information about important people, and what they were good at. They would put their date of birth and name at the top, and then at the bottom write what they were most known for, or the tallents they possessed. These codices provide us with valuable information (much of the little things we know about Mayan life). Moreover, these ancient manuscripts survived Spaniard attacks due to many meathods and ways of conservation. The Mayans burried the codices underground, or hid them in caves, so that they could be protected and preserved. The temperate moisture of the southern Mexican jungle has helped preserve some color, and inscriptions on these codices.
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This is a page portraying the Aztec sacrifice and scenes of daily life. We can draw from this picture that there were social classes in the Azteccity of Tenochtitlán. Many of the sacrificial victims were war captives that were preserved for these special occasions in which the Aztecs shed pools of human blood to satisfy their god's needs, and to avoid future cosmic cataclisms. This picture resembles the well-know lake Texcoco. Moreover, we can also fishermen on the lake, going along with their daily lives. We can also see the bird's eye view of the Templo Mayor, where many sacrificial victims are being killed. In the foreground, we can see many typical plants that would grow in this geographical location, such as the maguey (agave), maize (corn), and cacao. We can also see many houses behind the templo mayor, near lake Texcoco. Overall, we can conclude from this drawing that the Aztecs (inhabitants of Tenochtitlán) were a very advanced civilization that possesed many technological innovations, and took on stable, balanced, and sophisticated lives. We can also see from this picture that architecture was very advanced in their time period, because the houses consist of blocks, and some are even two stories high. Moreover, the Templo Mayor has about the same volume as the Pyramid of Giza, in Egypt, showing us that these people had above average knowledge on many subjects such as mathematics (they developed the concept of zero), and science (they knew how to make the bricks of the houses/Templo mayor, and they also had extremely advanced knowledge about astronomy. They made many calendars showing that they knew the astronomical cycle. They divided the calendar into 365 days- the one we use today- and divided it up according to the seasons, and earth's location in space in relativity to their location's season).
Comparison:
We can draw a variety of similarities and differences between these two drawings. First of all, we can conclude that both drawings resemble, and describe the daily lives of the people inhabiting the city portrayed or showed. Moreover, we see that these two pieces are informational, with the sole purpose to provide its audience with insight on how life was back in their days, and what their civilization looked like. We can draw social conclusion about these two pieces, because we know that the codices were normally written by high class people that were literate, and the map/drawing shows the division of social classes by portraying the commoners (fishermen), the priests (the people at the top of the Templo Mayor who are taking on sacrificial rites to please the gods), and war captives (the people who are being sacrificed at the top of Templo Mayor. Though on contrast, we can speculate that the Mayan codices normally depicted an individual, showing off his abilities, or talents, and the map/drawing shows a more hollistic view of things, generalizing daily life and sacrifices in Tenochtitlán (the codices are more specific, focusing on on theme/person, and the map/drawing provides us with a more general view of how things worked out in everyday Aztec life). |