Geometric and complex analyses of maya architecture: Some examples

Abstract

Few written documents about the works of art, sculpture, and architecture from Mesoamerica have survived. Even so, there is no doubt that these are all products of talented artists, because the execution often exhibits a great precision, showing a definite mathematical knowledge of this extraordinary civilization. Analysis seems to show that the ancient Mesoamerican architects and artists developed geometrical concepts and used them in their works, for example, to orient their buildings with a relationship with geomancy and alignment with the equinox, as described by Aveni (1997), Hartung (1980) and Broda (1991). Mesoamerican cultural life existed for nearly 2,000 years in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the main civilizations that developed were the Maya and the Aztec cultures, which reached two golden periods, the first one around 650 AD, and the second one about 800 years later.