It's tragic how little we know about the Maya compared to what we could have known. Thousands of books were destroyed, primarily by one Spanish bishop, and only four survive today[1]. If that hadn't of happened, it's possible we could have known as much about the Maya as we do about the Ancient Greeks.
The destruction of those codixes is, without a doubt, one of the greatest acts of cultural vandalism in history. Absolutely tragic.
At the same time, I've read a bit more about that incident, and... this is probably not politically correct to say, but I did develop some sympathy for that bishop. Yes, he was a religious zealot who couldn't distinguish other cultures from "satanism". But also, well, the Maya were in a pretty rough state when he encountered them. They'd been experiencing severe drought and civil war and plagues brought by the Europeans and more. Their way of dealing with this was mass human sacrifice. The Maya didn't have a sacrificial-industrial complex the way that the Aztecs did, but when nothing else would appease the gods, that's what they'd do.
So anyhow, the Bishop had apparently witnessed a mass human sacrifice. Of children. And it really got to him, convincing him that their religion was strictly satanic. Given his own cultural frame, and what he witnessed, it's hard for me to say that I would have done any differently under the circumstances. That would've gotten under my skin too. Hard to say I would've kept perspective after that.
The Mayans did leave lots of stelae around, and recorded a wealth of chronological information on them using a rather precise calendrical system. Consequently, we actually know more about the Classical Maya than contemporary Europe in this regard, the latter being in the midst of the Dark Ages.
I suggest reading the Book of Mormon. It's a fascinating record of the peoples of ancient America, specifically the Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites. Where these civilizations lived and fought (there are lots of battles in the book) is uncertain, but it's believed to be mainly Central and South America.
Keep in mind that The Book of Mormon is a primarily a spiritual book: another testament of Jesus Christ. The Lord expects readers to accept the book on faith. When the time is right, the Spirit will testify of its truthfulness and the Lord will bring forth further evidence. For some, this recent discovery is further evidence.
Again shows what you can do with lidar images. I'm not sure how widely they are publicly available but if you can get lidar footage of an area you (think) you know definitely check it out. There's a lot of man-made things to discover.
E.g. here's a little story from my area: we were on a walk once and someone pointed to a certain plant which is known to only thrive on very limey soil. And acoording to her used in the past by people as indicator for figuring out where they could get lime for making mortar. Nothing special to see though. A couple of months later, unrelated, a geologist showed lidar images of that area and in a spot close to where said plant was found, there was obvisouly a quite huge round sink in the terrain. Turns out this was once, many centuries ago, essentially a lime mine (which the geologist knew because of history). Nice how history, biology, geology can all come together like that. Yet if you don't know it it's pretty much invisible. Sattelite also doesn't give even the slightest hint. But with a height model and applying some shade it suddenly becomes quite obvious.
I unironically thought this was about Maya the 3d modelling software when I first read the headline, like that the maximum size limit for a Maya model had been found out or something like that. ️
Some wheeled toys have been found in Mexico, it’s not like the wheel was never invented. But The Americas didn’t have domesticable large animals that could be used to pull wheeled carriages (bisons were not domesticated at the time), that’s why the wheel was never used for that purpose.
Indeed it’s very impressive how much they accomplished by themselves without the wheel, without big domesticated animals and without contact with other civilizations.
It's a yes and no kinda thing, last time I checked in on it. There are examples of children's toys with wheels made by Mayans, but examples of wheeled vehicles don't exist. There's an argument that they lacked suitable beasts of burden to pull vehicles (at best is a llama, which isn't really great at pulling), so that might be why, but that's ultimately conjecture.
I once visited a Maya site in the Jungle, off the beaten path, away from the usual tourist site. It was probably the most amazing experience I've ever had. It was almost magical.
Speaking of Lost Cities, I've been watching the 80s cartoon Mysterious Cities of Gold with my kids. Highly recommended. It's a lost gem about the time of conquistadors in southern and central America - well written for a kids show, entertaining for adults, continuous story arc like modern shows, and a nice mix of history and science fiction.
> Abstract: Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350 BC; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism1. Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800 BC using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization.
The "the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo" claim seems to be explained by:
> It is also likely that social inequality at Aguada Fénix was not as pronounced as at San Lorenzo and La Venta. Unlike those Olmec centres, Aguada Fénix does not exhibit clear indicators of marked social inequality, such as sculptures representing high-status individuals. The only stone sculpture found so far at Aguada Fénix depicts an animal (Extended Data Fig. 10).
This seems like a stretch to me considering the excavation is not complete (?), but at least the limestone peccary was named 'Choco' :)
> Cache AF1, found in operation AF1D. It contained a limestone sculpture—possibly representing a white-lipped peccary—that we named ‘Choco’.
The consistent underestimation of the capabilities and development of historic indigenous peoples outside Europe and the Middle East is both absurd and tragic. You’d think that by now archaeologists might have adjusted their assumptions.
[+] [-] spaced-out|5 years ago|reply
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices
[+] [-] nkoren|5 years ago|reply
At the same time, I've read a bit more about that incident, and... this is probably not politically correct to say, but I did develop some sympathy for that bishop. Yes, he was a religious zealot who couldn't distinguish other cultures from "satanism". But also, well, the Maya were in a pretty rough state when he encountered them. They'd been experiencing severe drought and civil war and plagues brought by the Europeans and more. Their way of dealing with this was mass human sacrifice. The Maya didn't have a sacrificial-industrial complex the way that the Aztecs did, but when nothing else would appease the gods, that's what they'd do.
So anyhow, the Bishop had apparently witnessed a mass human sacrifice. Of children. And it really got to him, convincing him that their religion was strictly satanic. Given his own cultural frame, and what he witnessed, it's hard for me to say that I would have done any differently under the circumstances. That would've gotten under my skin too. Hard to say I would've kept perspective after that.
[+] [-] jcranmer|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Azametzin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hymnsfm|5 years ago|reply
Keep in mind that The Book of Mormon is a primarily a spiritual book: another testament of Jesus Christ. The Lord expects readers to accept the book on faith. When the time is right, the Spirit will testify of its truthfulness and the Lord will bring forth further evidence. For some, this recent discovery is further evidence.
[+] [-] stinos|5 years ago|reply
E.g. here's a little story from my area: we were on a walk once and someone pointed to a certain plant which is known to only thrive on very limey soil. And acoording to her used in the past by people as indicator for figuring out where they could get lime for making mortar. Nothing special to see though. A couple of months later, unrelated, a geologist showed lidar images of that area and in a spot close to where said plant was found, there was obvisouly a quite huge round sink in the terrain. Turns out this was once, many centuries ago, essentially a lime mine (which the geologist knew because of history). Nice how history, biology, geology can all come together like that. Yet if you don't know it it's pretty much invisible. Sattelite also doesn't give even the slightest hint. But with a height model and applying some shade it suddenly becomes quite obvious.
[+] [-] 29athrowaway|5 years ago|reply
There's a recent movie about the challenges affecting modern Mayans called Ixcanul, watch it if you can.
[+] [-] anthonypasq|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coolreader18|5 years ago|reply
Very interesting article though!
[+] [-] meddlepal|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elboru|5 years ago|reply
Indeed it’s very impressive how much they accomplished by themselves without the wheel, without big domesticated animals and without contact with other civilizations.
[+] [-] monocasa|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unixbeard1337|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baxtr|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacbe
[+] [-] baxtr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] latortuga|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colordrops|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] choxi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nsajko|5 years ago|reply
The "the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo" claim seems to be explained by:
> It is also likely that social inequality at Aguada Fénix was not as pronounced as at San Lorenzo and La Venta. Unlike those Olmec centres, Aguada Fénix does not exhibit clear indicators of marked social inequality, such as sculptures representing high-status individuals. The only stone sculpture found so far at Aguada Fénix depicts an animal (Extended Data Fig. 10).
This seems like a stretch to me considering the excavation is not complete (?), but at least the limestone peccary was named 'Choco' :)
> Cache AF1, found in operation AF1D. It contained a limestone sculpture—possibly representing a white-lipped peccary—that we named ‘Choco’.
Free to access images (the maps at the beginning and the artifacts at the end are the most interesting to a layman like me): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2343-4#Sec15
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2343-4
Placement within Mexico for context: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Tabasco_...
[+] [-] gshdg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xhkkffbf|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply