The Maya's Greatest Accomplishments

THE GREATEST MAYAN ACHIEVEMENT

The Maya were one of the greatest ancient civilizations, and they had many achievements that were just as great as them. The achievements range from writing systems to great masonry architecture, but three particular Mayan achievements stand out as their greatest accomplishments. These three achievements are the Maya’s number system, which is one of the first number systems to have a zero, their giant trade network spanning the entire Yucatan peninsula, and their extremely accurate calendar. The Maya were one of the first civilizations to grasp the concept of zero, and they put it in their simple but effective number system. It was based on the number twenty, and despite working like ours, it only had 3 characters: the dot (the equivalent of 1), the bar (5), and the shell (0). English numbers move to the left when ten is reached: The Maya, whos number system was based on 20, moved upward. The shell made multiples of ten easier to write, and because of this simple number system, the Maya had easier time communicating, keeping records of things like currency and trades, and overall easier life and counting- all because of three symbols making up a number system.

This trade network was created with efficiency in mind, and it does not disappoint. This network’s routes were made so that they avoid obstacles, make to many places to deliver goods, and do this all as fast as possible. These trade routes made it possible to provide goods to people who lived far away from where the goods were produced, so everybody could be well fed and content. The Maya also traversed these routes without any beasts of burden. They did this with rotating teams of porters who would quickly and efficiently move around the routes. With all of these benefits, the trade routes are definitely one of the Maya’s greatest