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Qʼumarkaj
Qʼumarkaj ( Kʼicheʼ: ) (sometimes rendered as Gumarkaaj, Gumarcaj, Cumarcaj or Kumarcaaj) is an archaeological site in the southwest of the El Quiché department of Guatemala.Kelly 1996, p.200. Qʼumarkaj is also known as Utatlán, the Nahuatl translation of the city's name. The name comes from Kʼicheʼ ''Qʼumarkah'' "Place of old reeds". Qʼumarkaj was one of the most powerful Maya cities when the Spanish arrived in the region in the early 16th century. It was the capital of the Kʼicheʼ Maya in the Late Postclassic Period. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Qʼumarkaj was a relatively new capital, with the capital of the Kʼicheʼ kingdom having originally been situated at Jakawitz (identified with the archaeological site Chitinamit) and then at Pismachiʼ. Qʼumarkaj was founded during the reign of king Qʼuqʼumatz ("Feathered Serpent" in Kʼicheʼ) in the early 15th century, immediately to the north of Pismachiʼ.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.623. In 1470 the cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Conquest Of Guatemala
In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya peoples, Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their Maya civilization, civilization.Jones 2000, p. 356. The first contact between the Maya and European colonization of the Americas, European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spain, Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Hispaniola, Santo Domingo (Hispaniola) was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kʼicheʼ Kingdom Of Qʼumarkaj
The Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj was a state in the highlands of modern-day Guatemala which was founded by the Kʼicheʼ (Quiché) Maya in the thirteenth century, and which expanded through the fifteenth century until it was conquered by Spanish and Nahua forces led by Pedro de Alvarado in 1524. The Kʼicheʼ kingdom reached its height under the king Kʼiqʼab who ruled from the fortified town of Qʼumarkaj (also called by its Nahuatl name Utatlán) near the modern town of Santa Cruz del Quiché. During his rule the Kʼicheʼ ruled large areas of highland Guatemala extending into Mexico, and they subdued other Maya peoples such as the Tzʼutujil, Kaqchikel and Mam, as well as the Nahuan Pipil people. Historical sources The history of the Quiché Kingdom is described in a number of documents written in postcolonial times both in Spanish and in indigenous languages such as Classical Kʼicheʼ and Kaqchikel. Important sources include the Popol Vuh which, apart from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Civilization
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The civilization is also noted for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qʼuqʼumatz
Qʼuqʼumatz (; alternatively Gukumatz) was a god of wind and rain of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya. It was the Feathered Serpent that according to the ''Popol Vuh'' created the world and humanity, together with the god Tepeu.. It carried the sun across the sky and down into the underworld and acted as a mediator between the various powers in the Maya cosmos. It is considered to be the equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. and of Kukulkan, of the Yucatec Maya. Qʼuqʼumatz was also associated with water, clouds, and the sky. Together with Tepeu, god of lightning and fire,. it was considered to be the mythical ancestor of the Kʼicheʼ nobility by direct male line. Kotujaʼ, the Kʼicheʼ king who founded the city of Qʼumarkaj, bore the name of the deity as a title and was likely to have been a former priest of the god. The priests of Qʼuqʼumatz at Qʼumarkaj, the Kʼicheʼ capital, were drawn from the dominant Kaweq dynasty and acted as stewards in the city. Etymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Awilix
Awilix () (also spelled Ahuilix, Auilix and Avilix) was a goddess (or possibly a god) of the Mesoamerican chronology, Postclassic Kʼicheʼ people, Kʼicheʼ Maya civilization, Maya, who had a large Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj, kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands, highlands of Guatemala. She was the patron List of Maya gods and supernatural beings, deity of the Nijaʼibʼ noble lineage at the Kʼicheʼ capital Qʼumarkaj, with a Qʼumarkaj#Temple of Awilix, large temple in the city. Awilix was a Lunar deity, Moon goddess and a goddess of night, although some studies refer to the deity as male. Awilix was probably derived from the Mesoamerican chronology, Classic period lowland Maya moon goddess or from Cʼabawil Ix, the Moon goddess of the Chontal Maya people, Chontal Maya. Etymology and symbolism Awilix was the Lunar deity, goddess of the moon, the queen of the night. She was associated with the Xibalba, Underworld, sickness and death and was a patron of the Mesoamerican ballg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tohil
Tohil (, also spelled Tojil) is the Maya god of fire. He is a deity of the Kʼicheʼ Maya in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Tohil was the patron god of the Kʼicheʼ. He was included in the Tolteca pantheon that was influenced in the highlands Maya culture in the Postclassic Period. Tohil's principal function was that of a fire deity and he was also both a war god, sun god and the god of rain. Tohil was also associated with mountains and he was a god of war, sacrifice and sustenance. In the Kʼicheʼ epic Popul Vuh, after the first people were created, they gathered at the mythical Tollan or Tula, the Place of the Seven Caves, to receive their language and their gods. The Kʼicheʼ, and others, there received Tohil. Tohil demanded blood sacrifice from the Kʼicheʼ and so they offered their own blood and also that of sacrificed captives taken in battle. In the Popul Vuh this consumption of blood by Tohil is likened to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kʼicheʼ People
Kʼicheʼ (pronounced ; previous Spanish spelling: ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas and are one of the Maya peoples. The eponymous Kʼicheʼ language is a Mesoamerican languages, Mesoamerican language in the Mayan languages, Mayan language family. The highland Kʼicheʼ states in the pre-Columbian era are associated with the ancient Maya civilization, and reached the peak of their power and influence during the Mayan Postclassic period (–1539 AD). The meaning of the word in the Kʼicheʼ language is "many trees". The Nahuatl translation, "Place of the Many Trees (People)", is the origin of the word ''Guatemala''. Quiché Department is also named after them. Rigoberta Menchú, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, an activist for Indigenous rights who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, is perhaps the best-known Kʼicheʼ person. People According to the 2011 census, Kʼicheʼ people constituted 11% of the Guatemalan population, accounting for 1,610,013 people out of a total of 14, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Architecture
The Mayan architecture of the Maya civilization spans across several thousands of years, several eras of political change, and architectural innovation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Often, the buildings most dramatic and easily recognizable as creations of the Maya peoples are the step pyramids of the Terminal Preclassic Maya period and beyond. Based in general Mesoamerican architecture, Mesoamerican architectural traditions, the Maya utilized geometric proportions and intricate carving to build everything from simple houses to ornate temples. This article focuses on the more well-known Mesoamerican chronology, pre-classic and Mesoamerican chronology, classic examples of Maya architecture. The temples like the ones at Palenque, Tikal, and Uxmal represent a zenith of Maya art and architecture. Through the observation of numerous elements and stylistic distinctions, remnants of Maya architecture have become an important key to understanding their religious beliefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and northwestern part of Costa Rica. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. In the pre-Columbian era, many Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii) the formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with the European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoameri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacawitz
Jacawitz () (also spelt Jakawitz, Jakawits, Qʼaqʼawits and Hacavitz) was a mountain god of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya of highland Guatemala. He was the patron of the Ajaw Kʼicheʼ lineage and was a companion of the sun god Tohil. It is likely that he received human sacrifice. The word ''jacawitz'' means "mountain" in the lowland Maya language, and the word ''qʼaqʼawitz'' of the highland Maya means "fire mountain", which suggests that Jacawitz was mainly a fire deity, much like Tohil. In the Mam language, the similar word ''xqʼaqwitz'' means "yellow wasp" and the wasp was an important symbol of the deity and its associated lineage. In the Cholan languages, ''jacawitz'' means "first mountain", linking the god with the first mountain of creation. In the Kʼicheʼ epic Popul Vuh, the first people gathered at the mythical place Tollan to receive their gods, and Mahucutah, one of the gathered Kʼicheʼ lords, received Jacawitz. The mid-9th century Stela 8 at the Termi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an ''encomienda'' (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as ''alcalde'' (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cué ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
