The US is Not The First Civilization on its Land Mass

[Thomas R.]

Originally Posted by danielj72

Anyone who believes that Mayan civilization is equal to that of Rome, or Greece for that matter is fooling oneself in the interest of promoting a politically correct version of history. Im not knocking the Mayans, or the Inca but anyone living in reality can see that Europeans were living in a greater level of civilization at any given point up to first contact. Where is the Mayan aqueducts??? Mayan arches, Mayan concrete, how about Mayan metal working skills? Mayan shipbuilding and exploration??? Mayan books and literature???
The Mayans did build wonderful cities, and they had an excelent knowlege of the stars but sorry to say they dont come anywhere near the level of development that Rome did. Like I said in my previous post it would be unfair to expect them too, as Rome had the advantage of much more cross cultural contact. They were exposed to many more foriegn ideas and technology than are any of the peoples of the Americas.

The Mayas did have writing. It's kind of hard to do exact comparisons as each had their strengths and weaknesses. They were living in different environments and had different needs.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by danielj72

Anyone who believes that Mayan civilization is equal to that of Rome, or Greece for that matter is fooling oneself in the interest of promoting a politically correct version of history. Im not knocking the Mayans, or the Inca but anyone living in reality can see that Europeans were living in a greater level of civilization at any given point up to first contact. Where is the Mayan aqueducts??? Mayan arches, Mayan concrete, how about Mayan metal working skills? Mayan shipbuilding and exploration??? Mayan books and literature???
The Mayans did build wonderful cities, and they had an excelent knowlege of the stars but sorry to say they dont come anywhere near the level of development that Rome did. Like I said in my previous post it would be unfair to expect them too, as Rome had the advantage of much more cross cultural contact. They were exposed to many more foriegn ideas and technology than are any of the peoples of the Americas.

The Mayans fulfilled all of the criteria for being defined as a civilization including but not limited to: appearance of urban centers, a system of writing, stratification of society (hierarchy), delegation of labor and specialization, and monumental architecture.

Civilization is not defined by the number of technological innovations.

Originally Posted by Thomas R.

They were living in different environments and had different needs.

Very true.

[BelieveInCleve]

I can't contribute much to this argument, but I have heard that the majority of books/literature from the Maya were in libraries burnt to the ground by invaders?

Reportedly they had a great and vast amount of knowledge on many subjects, including a lot that we would call "metaphysical" or "spiritual" also on the stars/cycles and time, the invaders labeled it as Satanic and "black magic", and they destroyed all of it but 4 books. If I remember it correctly it was the Spanish who did this.

I admit a lot of this was brought out by all the 12/21/2012 hype in the last few years, those programs that are on are pretty interesting though and I think it's true (not the end of the world but about the Maya).