[Aztlan] FW: Maya Standard Unit of Measure

[Blaze Tzitzimime]

Correction: The video is from the History Channel program "Lost Worlds." The title of the program is "Palenque, Metropolis of the Maya." The archeologist was Dr. Edwin Barnhart.

From: ocelotonatiuh at msn.comTo: aztlan at lists.famsi.orgSubject: Maya Standard Unit of MeasureDate: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 22:12:50 +0000


In a National Geographic video about Maya architecture, one of the archeologist mentioned the hypothesis that the Maya designed and measured their structures based on geometric proportions found in nature. They did not use a standard unit of measurement per say, but by using ropes cut or marked so that their structures had the same geometric proportions that can be found in something as small as a flower, or even the human body, or possibly even the distances between heavenly bodies as viewed from earth, they measured out distance accordingly. This made sense to me because the cultures of Mesoamerica were always trying to emulate creation or the environment in which they lived.