What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you mention the Mayan civilization? For many, these will be human sacrifices and unique architecture, as well as famous calendars. Many other intriguing things are connected with this culture, which are only now beginning to reveal to us the secrets of this long-disappeared people.
The ruins of ancient temples, pyramids and simple residential areas help scientists understand how this society was organized, and how its kings ruled centuries ago. Objects of art tell us about the life of the Maya, but some of the finds are so unusual that scientists still cannot classify them. This amazing civilization has left future generations of Americans and the whole world with many more mysteries that never cease to captivate the brightest minds of the scientific community. We collect these puzzles step by step, and in this collection you will find 10 of the most recent breakthroughs in the study of the Maya people.
10. Monuments during the great drought
In 2018, a team of archaeologists embarked on an expedition to central Belize to visit the ancient Mayan city. It is in Belize that the famous Cara Blanca cenotes are located, not far from which are the ruins of 2 ancient buildings - a platform next to the deepest cenote and a bath complex. Both of these structures were built around 800-900 AD, when a terrible drought reigned in the region. During this period, pilgrims regularly visited the cenotes of Belize to honor the rain god Chahk.
The team of experts planned to conduct additional searches for artifacts in the area of the cenote basement and assess the damage caused to the bath by the robbers. Instead, archaeologists have learned something completely new about this sacred site and its ancient ruins. During excavations in the area of one of the cenotes, scientists stumbled upon another platform, which not only no one expected to find here, but which was 200-300 years older than the first. This means that religious rituals near the Cenotes of Cara Blanca were carried out much earlier than researchers had assumed before this discovery, and, apparently, in 600 years, this area did not yet suffer from drought. The bath complex also gave the scientists a surprise. It turned out that it was not damaged at all by the robbers, but by the Mayan Indians themselves, who dismantled this structure before their migration.
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9. Face of Pakal the Great
The most famous Mayan king, who ruled the longest in the history of this people, was K'inich Janaab 'Pakal, also known as Pakal the Great. This beloved king ascended the throne at the tender age of 12 years in 615 AD and ruled his people until his death - until the age of 80.
In 2018, archaeologists excavated an area of his palace in southern Mexico and suddenly discovered a very rare artifact. Pakal's palace is already a real engineering marvel for those years with many surprises, but when the researchers got to the man-made gutters, they found a previously unknown pool with seats there.
In the same building, scientists discovered a cache with a real-sized alabaster mask. However, this was not the mask that was worn on the face, but rather an interior decoration. After comparing the find with the images of King Pakal, experts came to the conclusion that the artifact was clearly molded in the image and likeness of the great Mayan ruler. The mask was molded from an already elderly man, whose face was covered with wrinkles, which also testified in favor of Pakal, who ruled the ancient civilization until his very old years. Presumably, this find is the first work of art discovered by scientists, depicting Pakal in the last years of his life.
8. Influence of the Maya people on the environment
For some reason, most people believe that the Maya people lived in perfect harmony with nature. They, of course, did not have plastic and exhaust gases, simply because then there was no such technology yet, but this culture still did not particularly protect the environment.
In 2018, researchers made an important discovery, and fossil coal helped them in this, or rather its absence. It turns out that at one time the Mayans cut down a lot of local forests. They needed firewood for heating, fields for agriculture and sites for building huge pyramids and cities, and the local forests were the main obstacle in their path.
The decline of this civilization fell on about the 10th century AD, and over the next about 1100 years, the tropical forests in this area were restored, so today the ruins of ancient cities are literally buried in thickets, but this was not always the case. However, recent analyzes of the local soil showed that the soil here has not yet recovered.
The trees, of course, were revived again, but even a millennium after the deforestation of these places, the process of natural carbonization has not improved here. Local soils have become virtually incapable of storing fossil coal, and this is not good news for global climate change professionals who have high hopes that new forests will be able to cope with absorbing modern emissions in the future.
7. Guesses about the mysterious Mayan snake kings
In the Guatemalan jungle, under the shadow of centuries-old thickets, the ruins of the May city of La Corona are hidden. This settlement was previously considered small and very isolated during the Classic Maya period (250-900 AD). It was during these years that the rule of the dynasty of the so-called serpent kings, who ruled over the Mayan peoples from the city-state of Calakmul, located in the territory of modern Mexico, happened. However, scientists had very little information about these rulers. Until recently …
In 2018, researchers found very interesting clues in the area of the La Corona ruins. As shown by optical scanning from the air, as many as thousands of people once lived in this place. It turns out that the city of La Corona was not some remote and remote settlement. In addition, the hieroglyphs found here told the scientists about the coming of local gods to this city, and how the ancient kings ruled it.
Archaeologists suggest that the city of La Corona once became one of the settlements that was swallowed up by the dynasty of the serpent kings during the period of aggressive campaigns. The gods were probably the chosen leaders of the serpentine dynasty, who skillfully used mythology to subdue the local population to their will.
Considering the small size of this ancient city, the number of tombs discovered here is quite impressive. Apparently, this settlement was one of the key staging points on the trade route of the serpent kingdom, through which traders of precious goods often passed, following to the capital of the empire - to Calakmul. If all this was so, it greatly changes the traditional idea of scientists about the political structure and autonomous life of the city-states of the Mayan culture.
6. Chocolate money
The Maya people never used metal coins. Like many other ancient civilizations, they more often exchanged essential goods on the principle of barter relations. In 2018, an ancient piece of art was found that shed light on financial relationships in Mayan society.
It turns out they came up with an edible currency. The fact that the Maya loved hot chocolate is a long-known fact, which scientists learned about from ancient images. In a recent study of ancient artifacts, archaeologists concluded that chocolate could be not only one of the barter goods, but even a conditional price form of payment.
Scientists came to similar conclusions after studying frescoes, bas-reliefs and images on ceramic products of the Mayan culture of the classical period, when this civilization was at its peak (250-900 AD) Based on the 7th century AD market scenes, chocolate was a popular currency, sometimes even in its liquid form. By the 8th century, this prestigious treat was increasingly used as money and tax payments, and it was most conveniently used for these purposes in the form of cocoa beans. Approximately 180 images told scientists about gifts to rulers, including tributes in the form of tobacco and corn, and the most common traded goods were cocoa beans and woven goods.
5. Maya and blue paint
The Mayans were very fond of drawing and were good artists. They even invented a rare paint, which they used for their frescoes and sprayed on the unfortunate tribesmen, chosen as sacrifices to the terrible gods. Today this color is called Maya blue, and it took researchers several centuries to associate this pigment with its creators - the Mayan civilization.
In 17th century Europe, only true masters and famous artists could work with blue and blue paint due to its great scarcity. In those days, the production of this paint was an extremely laborious process, and this pigment was obtained from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, which was mined mainly in the territory of modern Afghanistan.
That is why historians were extremely surprised when they discovered that artists in the Spanish colonies of the New World did not experience any shortage of blue paint, which was very valuable and rare in Europe. This seemed very strange to scientists. In theory, this pigment should have been even more expensive and scarce in America than in Europe, but everything was quite the opposite.
Only in the 20th century did researchers find out that the colonizers used paint invented by the ancient Maya peoples. Mayan blue has proven to be more stable and durable than its European counterpart, lapis lazuli, as even today this blue hue still looks quite vibrant on the ruins that are now nearly 1,600 years old. By the way, the secret of the composition of May paint was unraveled not so long ago - in the 1960s. It turned out that the saturated pigment was made from a mixture of the indigofer plant and a rare type of clay called attapulgite (or palygorskite).
4. Mayan Underworld
In 2018, a scuba diver explored a small cavity in an underwater tunnel near the Yucatan Peninsula. As it turned out, the discovered cave united two known systems - the cenote Dos Oyos and the huge network of Sak-Aktun caves (Dos Ojos, Sac Actun). Thanks to this discovery, we have a new record - the longest underwater cave on the planet.
When a team of experts arrived in the same area, to their surprise they found as many as 200 underwater locations with ancient artifacts. In the 347-kilometer labyrinth, scientists have found many interesting things, including the May altars and incense burners, which depicted Ek Chuah, the god of trade.
Such ritual objects give reason to believe that once upon a time this cave belonged to the so-called Mayan afterlife. Ancient culture believed that caves and cenotes were the gates to the other world, from where all of humanity originated. The artifacts found underwater have been perfectly preserved and the number of finds has been astounding.
In the system of underwater caves in Yucatan, researchers have a unique opportunity to study what has happened here over the past 15,000 years, because everything here has been preserved almost intact due to the inaccessibility of this place. In addition to artifacts of the Mayan culture in flooded caves, experts found the remains of bears, proto-elephants, giant sloths, and even a skull that may belong to a previously unknown species of people, extinct during the Ice Age.
3. Unusual urban development
As a city grows, development becomes more frequent and dense, the population increases, and people have to live and work in increasingly cramped conditions. Researchers have always believed that these circumstances encouraged more active sharing of information and skills, allowing society to develop at an accelerated pace. A similar trend has already been observed more than once in many cultures of the world that have existed in various parts of the world and in various historical periods.
For some reason, the Maya civilization developed in a different way. If one of its cities began to experience the problem of overpopulation, new buildings were built outside the old city, expanding its territory. Instead of living closer to each other, the townspeople opted for a "lowered building density" policy. These Native Americans clearly avoided getting too close and preferred to push their city boundaries further into the forest.
It seems that Maya Indians valued their personal space extremely highly, but what then about the advantages of dense buildings, which usually promise scientific and technological progress? As you know, the Mayan civilization had a highly developed knowledge in many industries, so the spacious cities clearly did not prevent them. This literally breaks all stereotypes. In addition, archaeologists are not even sure of their conclusions about the structure and mentality of the Mayan society, because it is possible that they simply approached the study of the ruins from the wrong side.
2. What was the life of a simple Mayan Indian
Most of Maya society was represented by the lower classes. Despite their numerical superiority, all the frescoes and works of art were almost entirely dedicated to the elite and illustrations of their way of life. For the same reason, archaeologists know almost nothing about how the days of ordinary townspeople passed, whose life did not fall into the center of attention of ancient artists and sculptors.
In 2009, researchers cleaned one of the pyramids of the city-state of Calakmul. On one of its walls, a fresco was discovered that, to everyone's surprise, described the work of the poorest citizens. For inexperienced readers, such a find may sound rather boring, but for historians it became a real sensation.
Scientists had a rare chance to learn such details of the life of ordinary Indians, such as cooking traditional dishes, processing tobacco leaves and drinking from pots. Each illustration was accompanied by inscriptions explaining what a particular character in the fresco was doing. Not only these drawings, but also hieroglyphs turned out to be rare, because scientists first learned how words such as "salt" and "maize" (corn) look in Maya writing.
At some point in history, the ancient Mayan builders renovated this pyramid, and for this they destroyed some of its walls. However, for some reason, the Indians did not destroy the rare frescoes and treated them with great care, protecting them with a layer of clay.
1. Oldest Mayan Codex
In 1964, an ancient Mayan document was discovered. It was a piece of bark with images of Venus, and many then considered this artifact a fake. Critics found it too flimsy and more like a simplified copy of any other Mayan artifact. The find changed owners several times until 1974, when an antiques collector donated it to the Mexican authorities so that they themselves would be engaged in finding out its authenticity.
Many years have passed since then, and most experts all this time did not believe in the authenticity of the document, which was called the Mayan Code. The bark was clearly very old, but since it was originally obtained by illegal means, it was not possible to trace its location. Without such important information, this artifact was considered just outlandish drawings on the old crust, which did not even resemble the style of other documents associated with the Mayan civilization. That is why scientists for several decades had almost no reason to take this strange find seriously.
It happened in 2018! Tests showed that the document was not only authentic, but also the oldest manuscript in pre-Columbian America. Presumably, it was created between 1021 and 1154 AD, and it differed from the rest of the Mayan manuscripts because it belonged to difficult times for this culture. The Indians simply painted with what was most accessible in those years. The Mayan Codex is the first discovered document from the Maya in the 11-12th century. It is simply a miracle that he survived the 16th century, because the Spanish colonialists tried a lot, destroying works of art and scientific works of the Maya.