Mayan or. Egyptian Society - Jessica Blelloch Though Mayans and Egyptians are remembered today for very different reasons, their cultures had many similarities. These civilizations developed and flourished on complete opposite sides of the world, almost 8000 miles aparts, and in a very different time period. The golden age of Mayan society was from around 250 - 900 AD, while though Egyptian society was under the rule of Pharaohs from about 3,100 BC to 30 BC, it reached it’s peak between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. It is incredible how even though these societies were separated by thousands of miles, they managed to develop in such similar ways. Both Egyptian and Mayan societies were relatively isolated, which gave them …show more content…
The ancient Egyptian calendar, invented over 5000 years ago, had 365 days and was originally based on a cycle of 12 months. They grouped the 12 months into three four month seasons to correspond with the tides of the Nile. The ancient mayan calender was incredibly accurate; they calculated the solar year to have 365.2420 days, which is only 0.0002 of a day off of what is now known to be the true length of a year. Although both Maya and Egyptians had 365 day years, there were a few differences between what the civilizations associated with the days. There were two Mayan calendars, a sacred calendar, which had 260 days, and a secular calendar based on the stars, which had 365 days. Each day of the sacred calendar was believed to have a god responsible for it. Because of that, different days were associated with different superstition and could be lucky or unlucky. Aside from their 365 day lunar calendar, the Egyptians also had a religious calendar that was based on the 291/2-day lunar cycle. It was more closely linked with agricultural cycles and the movements of the stars. These calendars are yet another example of how these completely different groups of people were so advanced in similar