The Ancient Maya: Hidden not Lost

The ancient Maya have been considered a lost civilization for many years, but what really happened to them? On this episode of The Remedial Scholar, we look into the origins of this enigmatic culture from how the indigenous people even arrived in the Americas to begin with all the way to the contact with the Spanish. Discover the hidden history of the Maya, their impressive vastness of ruins that decorate the forests of the Yucatan, the complex hieroglyphics they left behind and their calendars that caused commotion to the people of the world over a thousand years after the creation. Discover the Maya—not as a vanished civilization, but as a living testament to endurance and cultural continuity.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
How does a civilization createmassive pyramids, intricate hieroglyphics,

(00:04):
rudimentary plumbing,advanced mathematics,
and a celestial calendarthat rivals our modern, scientifically
engineered calendars by a few minutes,maybe even seconds?
How does a civilization dwarfthe amount of pyramids left by the ancient
Egyptians have advanced architectureand create irrigation systems
for their crops, and do all of thiswhile being only regarded as a Stone age

(00:25):
civilization?
Why does such a group like this
make such a striking impacton the world around them?
And then just vanish? Where are they?
Where did they come fromand where did they go?
Where did you come from? Ghana. Joe.
This weekwe learn the mysteries of the Maya,
the people who prophesizethe end of the world.
In 2012, after having vanishedfrom the face of the earth
almost a millennium before all that.
More onanother episode of The Remedial Scholar.

(01:13):
Welcome, everyone.
I am Levi,and this is the remedial scholar. I hope
you are excited to hear me mispronounceevery other word in this episode.
It's going to be fun.
Before we get to making a linguisticfool of myself, a few quick things.
Firstly,if you learn anything from the show,
if you end up finding it fascinating,or if you think my voice is irresistible,
please leave a review wherever possible.

(01:33):
You can also leave a commentin the Facebook group there
dedicated post to each episode.
In addition to that,you can also comment on the YouTube video
about anything really,but it would be cool
if you leave a comment or,you know, like like leave a like
and do all the YouTubethings related to that, subscribe
and all that jazz, anything to help show in the algorithm.

(01:54):
And speaking of boosting the algorithm,not immediately.
maybe immediately,I don't know. We'll see how it goes.
I will be back to the full swingof things, releasing
episodes in rapid fireevery hour on the hour. No.
but it's going to be a much faster pacethan one every two months.

(02:18):
you know, starting a
year or two off, like,I probably should have started year one.
kind of crazy that it's been a whole year.
I mean, with an asterix, this is like.
This is like when they transitionfrom a shorter, more manageable scale
early in baseballand then into, like, this,
the massive scale of gamesthat they play now,

(02:40):
like all the records from backthen or Asterix because it's like, hey,
you hit that many home runsand you did it in this amount of games,
but now we have these many gamesand we can hit more home runs or whatever.
So bad sports analogies aside,I'm excited to see what year
two brings and actually be,you know, focused on creating the show.

(03:00):
I'm back to feelingvery passionate about it.
I am, you know, free from school,and I kind of got
a good work life balance going.
So I'm very excited.
and I just want to be able to deliverthe best possible show that I can.
And, you know,I have some fun ideas on how to do that
and some cool episode ideasalso coming up.
So all that preamble,let's get into the actual episode itself.

(03:23):
This week is an exciting one.
This topic you, this topic itself isalso a Herculean effort for me to finish.
If you are a long timelistener of the show, then you're like,
yeah, we know we've been waiting,waiting, waiting.
You're also probably thinkingthat because of the fact that you know,
the mind up and vanishedis probably pretty tough to research.
And you were slightly correct.

(03:44):
Also, with slight correction,the Maya did not vanish.
They're actually never even here.
You might be surprised to learn thatwhat we know is the Maya is actually
nothing more than a few misunderstandingsand bad translation.
And at the Maya,we're actually just left handed Aztecs.
So we're going to be looking furtherinto what split
from the actual Aztecsinto what we believe is Maya. No.

(04:05):
Now, this this week is definitelyjust about the Maya.
but to get a better understandingof the Maya, like all things,
we got to look backwards.
Indigenous culturessuffer from the lack of written history.
Weirdly enough, they also.
I mean, they
they did write in calf things a lot,but it seems a little bit different
than what,like the European and Asian cultures did.

(04:27):
And I kind of looked into why this is.
And it has to do with a few main things.
First, let's compare
some of the oldest written downlanguages and cultures in Egypt.
Writing on papyrus can be dated backto the mid 26th century BCE,
and the close proximity to the areasaround and blowing up of the trade
in the Mediterraneanmade a be camp pretty commonplace
in the cultures we generally think ofwhen it comes to a written history.

(04:48):
The next earliest in the inventionof writing on paper
instead of stone comes from China,almost 2300
years later, when fragments from a papermap were dated.
These cultures are very far apart,and even in the heyday of the Roman
Empire, Far East
Asian cultures really did not interactwith those in the Mediterranean.
So these two cultures
who have both contributedgreatly to the advancement of society,

(05:11):
whose distances are pretty,pretty separate, you know, developed
their writing on paper, not stone or clay,thousands of years apart.
The second issue with writing on paper,like documentation, is that you need,
you know, plants suitableto create such long lasting documents.
The developed paperthat the mass of American cultures
did end up using instead of the nativepapyrus that the Egyptians use,

(05:34):
deteriorated far quicker than any otherMediterranean or Asian versions.
Mesoamerican cultures use what is knownas a mate, which is a bark based paper
created by grinding up bark into a pulp,type material and then drying it out.
And then they would write on that and,you know, the Maya, they,
they did writethey developed a system of hieroglyphics,

(05:54):
one of onlya few original written languages
invented without external influencesall over the world.
Like this is one of a handful of them,so that's pretty impressive.
They also
had their own mathematical system,which has been proven to be very accurate.
So accurate that when, the world was going to,
people thought the world was going to endwhen their calendar ended
in 2012, or like, the Mayans,they they really knew what was up.

(06:17):
but I am getting ahead of myself, like,like I often do.
So what does all this paper nonsensehave to do with anything, Levi?
Well, just kind of wanted to demonstratehow lucky we are to have what information
we do about the Maya and how a lot of itis still an unraveling mystery.
Would have been a loteasier had the Spanish not burnt
most of their written booksin in order to say,

(06:39):
but there's not muchwe can do about that now.
there's only a few, codexins that, exist.
Probably, I think four maybewhen the entire world of Maya codices,
where their language is written downon like books, there's only four.
So, so that's pretty sweet.
So did the Maya and other indigenous
cultures really not write that much down,or did the colonizers just burn it all?

(07:02):
There's probably the latter,but we won't know
untilI look into every single one of them.
I choose to tell you this
because I believe that it's importantto understand that history is always,
and probably history is, and probablyalways will be, incomplete in many cases.
This is to say that I will let you knowfor sure when I have like
this is this we know that this happened,when facts are involved.

(07:22):
And try my bestto tell you when scientific
archeological hunchesare being made going forward. So
in that spirit, let's do some estimationon how people even got to the Americas.
If human life truly did originateand spread from the continent of Africa to
where everybody rests now, there are a fewleading theories on how this happened.
The most prominent oneis that 15 to 20,000 years ago,

(07:46):
the first Americansdescended through North America via
the Bering Land bridge,which is now where the Bering Strait is.
During the last ice age,the hypothesis is focused
around the connection of the eastern edgeof Russia on the Asian continent
and the northwest edgeof what is modern day Alaska.
DNA testing between Native American tribes
and Siberian people showsthat there's a close link between them,

(08:07):
and that there is a likelihoodthat this is where the origin stems from.
This is not the only case, however.
There are two other DNA links
which the originsthat archeological archeologists surmise
could have contributed to or coincidewith the Bering land bridge crossing.
Archeologists and historiansalike hypothesize that
with the migration of peopleto Australia 65,000 years ago,

(08:29):
that many nautical expeditionshad taken place that very well
could have led to the settlementalong the west coast of South America.
Now, if you remember from the Magellanepisode, The Pacific Ocean
ain't no easy feat.
So it makes more sense that people walkedacross the Bering Land Bridge.
But we have to remember that the Americaswere vastly different 20,000 years ago.
The earliest archeological datawe have found of indigenous cultures

(08:52):
in America was thought to have beenthe Clovis site, which dates around
13,000 years ago.
This discovery was made in the 1930snear Clovis, New Mexico, hence the name.
The site seemed to have lined upwith the Bering land bridge,
but it is thought that North Americawould have been frozen and not been able
to offer much in terms of lifefor traveling people to

(09:12):
sustain themselves on, especially whenthey had to walk the entire way.
There's another site which predatesthe Clovis site, all the way down
in the southern, section of Chile.
at Monteverdi. Monteverdi.
I think if you're unfamiliar withthis area, that makes two of us well made.
Two of us.
Now we both know what Glasgow, Monteverdiis in the southern section of Chile,

(09:35):
and not far, like, not so far south,that it touches the Strait of Magellan.
But the cluster of islands
in which Magellan tried tonavigate is just south of this area.
Monteverdi is an archeological site
in which the earliest dated indigenoussites in the Americas is located.
It predates the Clovis
site by over a thousand years,which means that people were all the way
near the southern tip of South America,much further back than we realize.

(09:58):
Now, I do realize
that Indonesia is much closer to Australiathan the southern tip of South.
A South America is to, well,literally anything
except for maybe Antarcticaand the rest of South America.
But it doesn't make sense
that people would have taken boatsof some kind to the Americas,
while people made it to the very remoteEaster Island as far back as 400 C.E..

(10:20):
Granted, this is a long timeremoved from 14,000 years ago,
but when you factor in that peoplewere traveling
via maritime routes that far back,it is not completely unreasonable.
I can't imagine that the voyage
across the Pacific Ocean,in what had to have been smaller vessels
that Magellan had,could have possibly been like,
I can't imagineit was very much fun, really.
No matter which way you slice it,we have absolute proof that people

(10:41):
were living migrating in the Americasalmost 15,000 years ago.
For certain.
There's some other ones,like there's footsteps
I can't even rememberspecifically where they are,
but they were datedabout 22,000 years ago.
And it's like these, this lady walkingwith, a man,
and then his steps disappear,and then it's just her.

(11:02):
And then there's, like,mammoth footprints all over the place.
Anyway, but if you think about whatthese two sites show us,
that these people had to have moved
with some prior knowledgebecause there's tools homes found.
So it's kind of reasonable
to assume that they were either nearthose areas for a while, or they arrived
with some very thorough knowledgeof how to survive, if only for a while.

(11:24):
It's not like a bunch of babieswashed up on tour of South America
and just drew up like some sort of,I don't know, Lord of the flies situation.
Another archeological find I want to bringup is the find in Queenstown, a room.
Mexico.
This is the eastern section
of the Yucatan Peninsula,and this particular find was found
on the north shore of Quinton Aru,some 127 miles from the infamous

(11:47):
Chichen Itza, which will we will discussfurther in a little bit.
In this region,a man was diving in a cenote,
which is a water filled cave,and while diving
he came across a human skulland attached skeleton,
which had been encrusted with crystallizedliquid that had fell on it from above,
from the stalactites above it, long beforethe cave was eventually filled
with water.
Skeleton was dated to be about

(12:08):
10,000 years old, and,it was found to be a teenage girl.
The suspected theory is that she fell intothe snow while looking for water.
I think that this kind of tells me morethan anything that there were,
you know, scores of peoplejust literally all around varying degrees
of lifestyle, thousands of miles apartaround the same time
doesn't really help pinpoint exactlywhere people were or where they came from.

(12:30):
But, you know,this is in between both sites,
and I guess it's younger than
both of those sites,but it kind of just shows how spread out
the indigenous people of the Americaswere in that kind of time period.
So anyway, on to our actual topic.
the Maya kind of an interesting groupto look at, in particular
because of what we think

(12:51):
they were or what happened to them,is largely misunderstood.
They, like many cultures around the world,have distinct phases that they went
through in terms of their development,into what we know as a civilization.
Interesting part about this is that theydid not consider themselves to be Maya.
They had no governing body
that oversaw all the peoplewho fit the description of this group.

(13:13):
This is different from peoplelike the Aztec, who had a defining name
defining a government body overoverall ruling like system.
Aztec also like the peak of the Mayaand the peak of the Aztecs, are different.
The Aztecs kind of came up
as the Maya had already beganto, quote unquote, collapse.

(13:34):
I'll talk why?
That'skind of a quote unquote thing later.
But there's some overlap with the Mayaand as tech,
but also with different cultureslike the Inca and the Olmec.
Although the Olmec are probably the onesthat that Maya interacted with the most,
we know for surethat they interacted with the old man
because that'swhere they got their famous calendar.
they took the Olmecs calendarand then developed

(13:54):
it even further into what we knowas the Maya calendar.
To that is it also important to notethat the Maya is essentially a term
that was chosen to describe
this larger group of people who did notfit in the Aztec or Olmec categories.
They're definitely a different group,but they did not, you know,
consider themselvesto be super different from Aztec or Olmec.
They obviously liveby different governing rules,

(14:15):
but they interactedwith these two cultures.
Maya was also a broad term
because there's over30 different languages that the Maya spoke
regionally differentiated,but also closely, associated
with one another, that they could speakand trade within different city states.
It is like as if you consideredall of Europe to be one type of people.
Sure,they can communicate with their neighbors

(14:36):
just fine, but it's a little trickierthe further out you go.
So without further ado, let'slook into what we know about the Maya.
According to the Maya creationmyths, in the beginning, world was a vast
expanse of nothingness filled withonly what the sky and an immense sea.
Amidst this emptiness existedthe heart of the sky known as hurricane.
A hurricane, the creator of God's feathered serpent.

(15:00):
These are the most famous of the Mayadeities.
These divine
beings looked upon the void and unitedtheir powers to bring order to the chaos.
Which is kind of ironic,because it was like
there's nothing other than water and sky.
This is too chaotic.
We got to bring more shit into itthroughout their words.
But through their words, the gods conjuredinto the world, into existence.

(15:21):
Mountains, rose, valleys, dipped, trees,grew tall, animals roamed the new land.
And despite the beauty and abundance,the gods were dissatisfied, for
the animalscould not speak or offer praise.
It's. Listen, you guys are very cute.
The squirrel is adorable,but it can't praise me, so I hate it.
It's so crazy.

(15:42):
the gods desired beingswho could acknowledge their creators,
which you know,I guess it was probably hard work.
You want people to recognize your effort.
Their first attempt to create humansevolved, molding them from mud.
These beings,however, were weak, crumbled easily,
and dissolved back into the Earth.Obviously, they're made of mud.
What did you expect?
I mean, honestly,you made animals just fine.

(16:02):
But then people, you're like,I guess we'll make them out of mud.
Determine the gods. Try it again.
This time crafting humans from wood.All right.
Thesethese wooden beings were more robust, yet
they lacked souls and understandingtheir ignorance angered the gods.
You stupid piece of wood.
You don't.
You can talk and praise me,but you just don't get it, I imagine.

(16:23):
what is it, Jimmy?
From eternity with Planck.
This is Yelena.
Why don't you get me? Sorry.
But. Yeah.
So, God's unleashed a great floodand other calamities
to destroy these wooden people.
Some of the wooden beingsmanaged to escape and were transformed
into monkeys, servingas a reminder of the gods displeasure.

(16:44):
Which is not really sure why the gods hatemonkeys, or more importantly,
why the Maya myth makershate them so much.
But you know, moving on,
the gods made a final attemptto make their their preferred people.
They used dough, a sacred and vitalsubstance for the Maya to shape humans.
That's right. We're all corn.
You mean everyone? Corn.

(17:05):
Always have been, always will be.
These beings were perfect,
possessing the abilityto see and comprehend everything.
Yet their perfection posed a threatto the gods authority to prevent humans
from becoming too powerful.The gods clouded their vision.
Limiting their understandingto what was necessary seems a bit rude.
These game gods are a little picky.
You got all this powerand you're so picky on what you make.

(17:27):
the story of creationdid not end there. There.
the adventures of the Hero twinshad hudner poo and shubhankar.
I'm gonna say that I nailed that,but I don't sound too confident.
That's kind of like Hercules a little bit.They went to the underworld.
Also, underworld is called Jabal,which is fun to say.
Where they defeated the Lordsthrough some advanced tactics.

(17:49):
They played games.
They outgained the gods in a way very,
Very Bill and Ted.
Bogus journey, if you will.
You know, when they have to play chesswith, the Grim Reaper and whatnot,
their exploits not only, you know,gave the people some, like, power
through, like, this is whowe want to be, but, you know, it also,

(18:10):
it made itit set up the values for the Maya
people and also gave them a reasonto love cosmology.
They picked up,you know, there's the heroes in the sky
kind of thing, you know,like we do now with constellations.
Anyway, pretty fun story.
But I wanted to dive into the thingswe know about for sure.
So in a historical archeological manner,Maya culture is broken into phases.

(18:31):
The archaic period,which is from 8000 to 2000 BCE, the Pre
Classic, which has further divisionssuch as early, middle and late.
The pre Classic is defined as 2000BCE to 200 C.E.,
so you can imagine with thatlong of timeline,
kind of want to break things downa little bit.
The classic goes from 250 to 950 C.E.
and the Post Classic,which goes from 950 to 1539

(18:54):
and then overlapswith which with what is called the contact
or contact period,which stretches from 1511 to 1697.
There's some overlap, as I mentioned,but not just in timeline,
but also advancements, building
techniques, writing, and many other thingsbetween the various periods.
But you know, when there are somebut not all the pieces

(19:14):
for the next movement, they kind of go,all right, you're not quite there.
And then when you see all of the piecesthat are pretty like part
and parcel to that period, you're like,all right,
that's kind of when they that's kind ofwhen they got there.
it's got it's a little archaic,but you know, it works out overall
difficult to pin down exactly.
When things changed up similarly similarlyto how it is for us today.

(19:35):
But, you know, we do it by decades now.
But in 100,000 years, will alien
archeologist to discover our own planetthink the same?
Who knows?
Either way, we've kind of discussedthe migration
of indigenous people,which happened at least 14,000 years ago.
But exactly when remains to be seen.
How did the people get from new settlingpeople to the mighty Mesoamerican cultures

(19:57):
we think of today? A lot of hard work.
There's a lot of trial and error.
The pre classic is basedtransitional period to discuss as it takes
place between the archaic and the classic,but also last 2000 years.
So there's definitely some room for growthearly pre pre classic period as
is when the Maya beganto get their footing
as a culture that we knowand would be later known for.

(20:17):
For that they were semi-nomadic turnedfarmers settling in what are known
as the lowlandsor the peninsula part of the Yucatan.
The main plants that are made that madethese early Maya settle down as one.
I'm sure we're all familiar with maize.
I kind of mentioned it earlier. Corn.
The cob wobble, also known asI don't think anybody calls it
the cob wobble.
But I think they saidthis plant was one, one

(20:40):
that many indigenous people across NorthAmerica utilize in many different ways.
Most common was using it
as a base to make a bread type mealand using the husk to make tamales.
That's my favorite way.
Other things they feastedupon were squash, beans, peppers,
and the occasional sweet potato.Yeah. Yuck.
I just hate sweet potatoes.
It's it's just a personal thing.

(21:00):
You know, it's fun as this processis not exactly an overnight one.
That is, one of the earliest earlypre classic
period is from roughly 2000BCE to 1000 BCE.
It's also in this timeframethat the Maya began to trade
with the Olmec, who had a larger influenceon Maya culture,
as I briefly mentioned a little bit agowith their influence on Brain
Child in the famous Maya calendar,and so conosco.

(21:24):
The early Pre classic period began around1800 BCE, with notable changes
in settlement patterns,sustenance, technology and society.
Permanent inland villagesnear flood prone bias provided
advantageousfishing and agricultural conditions
despite maize being present,you know, around 1700 BCE
is not the primary diet staple yet,leading to speculation

(21:48):
about reliance on other cropslike manioc or casa cassava.
Technological advancementsinclude the introduction of pottery
in the burrow phase, which is around 1800BCE with sophisticated ceramics
like likely used for ritual purposes,earliest of as evidence
of chocolate use, and clay figurinesalso emerged during this time.
Then after this,we have a little more of the complex

(22:11):
pottery, just kind of stemming from this,like origin.
They, also began to have rank societieswith large capital villages
and signs of social differentiation,such as elaborate burials
and depictions of shaman chiefs,which, you know, also putting
a little more emphasis on the, it's likealmost like a aristocratic group.

(22:36):
Next phase, we have, unique potterydecorations, more sophisticated figurines.
Early pre classic sites similar to snowscale have been found along the Pacific
littoral, littoral, Guatemalaand El Salvador, but not in the Central
and North America Maya areas,or the earliest Olmec civilization.
Before 1000 BCE, conditionswere not favorable for effective village

(22:59):
farming outside of the Pacific littoral.
However, during the middle preclassic period, you know, until about 400
BCE, heavy populations with pottery,likely Mayan speaking,
began establishing themselvesin both the highlands and the lowlands.
These populations
were mostly peasants with limited socialorganization, architecture and art.
In contrast, the Olmec civilizationin southern Veracruz and adjacent

(23:22):
to Basco thrived during the earlyand middle Pre Classic periods.
Olmec Centerat San Lorenzo, dating back to 1400
BCE, was the first urban capitalin Mesoamerica.
Known for its giant basalt sculptures.
San Lorenzo was destroyed around 1150 BCE,
but its influencespread across Mesoamerica,

(23:42):
even into the Yucatan Peninsula,but only like a little bit.
Olmec colonists also settledeastern San Usko.
So Conosco.I think I'm been pronouncing that wrong,
because,
they they settled therebecause of rich cacao orchards.
Which big thing, big theme.
After San Lorenzo was fall,La Venta became the new Olmec center,

(24:03):
featuring these elaborate tombs,jade and serpentine offerings,
and significant public architectureindicating a very powerful Olmec state.
Olmec slightly likely createdthe Long Count calendar, influencing
obviously the Maya at thislike this is when they created it
and then laterthe Maya would pick up in the middle.

(24:24):
Pre classic period,
the Maya began to showcase thingsthat would define their classic period.
Architecturebegan to flourish in similar patterns
across various settlementsMaya, across the lowlands.
architecturewas not the only major improvement
as they began to add some infrastructureto their habitats,
which is really somethingthat I never really considered before.
They developed a very rudimentaryirrigation system

(24:45):
further advance their alreadyimproving agricultural methods.
Villages of each state beganto show some version of a town
square or central plazas,with greater gifts
within the greatergeographical area of the town.
There's alsothe inclusion of sporting fields.
This is where the iconic ball gamewould be played.
If you're unfamiliar,
the Mesoamerican people had a verydeveloped interest in physical feats.

(25:08):
This extended to their athletic prowess,which could be displayed in war.
Also in the ball game.
The name is some kindsometimes called these pits,
but most often just called the ball gameor the Maya Ball
game is not a specifically Maya thing,as many cultures
in the Mesoamerica umbrella played it,especially the Aztecs later on.
This game was also pretty interesting.

(25:29):
They, didn't use their hands or feet,which sounds confusing
because all of the sports
we watched, they use their handsand feet to move an object around.
But essentially what they did is like, dribble it off of their chest or knees,
and then would like, you know, use theirhips to kind of kick it around, I guess.

(25:50):
not I don't know,it seems very confusing,
but if you watch videos,
there's like people who could willreenact it and play the game now
and you can watch them and it,it seems relatively, interesting.
I don't know, it's different because it'sjust so alien to what we're used to,
but it's also pretty interesting.
sometimes they would use this to settledisputes.

(26:12):
So that's that's
they would also
in those cases, if they're like warringwith another town or whatever,
when they played the ball gameand the other town lost,
they might sacrificeone of the people on the other team.
It's fun moving right along.
the, the decorated and,
expansive town center also camehand in hand with, more decorated stelae,

(26:36):
which transcribe their hieroglyphicsand adorned many town
centers, similarly to how the Greek citystates borrowed from one another.
Early Mesoamerican culturesdid the same kind of thing, and the people
who would be labeledas the Maya were no different.
They borrowed many, masonry techniquesfrom the nearby Olmec people, mostly,
most likely learned through traded means

(26:58):
because also extended to different methodsof tools and weaponry.
As the Maya never made it
out of the Stone age technically,as far as tools were concerned,
their general weaponry and utilitiesremained constant with,
some, some improvementsover the few thousand years
they utilized stone tools,wooden tools crafted with stone tools,
but were also big users and,obsidian tipped weapons into ores.

(27:21):
Obsidian is volcanic glass, which is eversharp and incredibly resilient and heavy.
Uses.
Obsidian also doubled as a highly soughtafter traded item, and it,
kind of along with things like jade and, cocoa beans.
So throughout the pre classic period,more cities began to pop up,
especially in the regionsthat are known as the lowlands.

(27:42):
If you look at the Yucatan Peninsula,the region
just south of the actual peninsulais called Southern Lowlands.
They are the, they are beginning,you know, to spread throughout this region
and keeping connected from each city stateas they grow.
Numbers are hard to estimate,
but they were sizable enoughto have plenty temples
and plenty of infrastructurethat could support hundreds
of thousands of peoplein some of the largest ones.

(28:03):
It seems super impressive to meconsidering I have to.
I have tried to build cities and gamesand can never get that high.
One of the most notable examples fromthis time is oh boy, Cumbernauld Junior,
Cumbernauld u u.
Yeah, obviously, which is locatedin modern day Guatemala City.
Remember earlier when I mentioned that,there were some Maya cities

(28:24):
that had irrigation and really dynamicfeatures in stone carved buildings?
This city was founded towards the middlepre classic in 1500 BCE,
but it lasted all the way untilit was eventually abandoned in 1200 C.E..
As is the case with most of Maya things,we know most about it
thanks to their hieroglyphics, whenthey marked many things in their cities,

(28:44):
as well as their dating system,which could often include the carvings
that they made or which they oftenincluded in the carvings that they made,
confused myself.
Ancient Maya were accomplished
astronomers and mathematicianswho developed one of the most important
one of the most accurate calendar systemsin human history.
They use several cyclical calendars,including the harb,

(29:06):
the sultan, the sultan, and,and the calendar round.
The is a 365 day calendar with 19 months,
18 of 20 days each, and one of five days.
Called the wired.
The token is a 260 daycalendar made from a combination of 20 day
glyphs and the numbers 1 to 13.

(29:26):
Calendar round interweavesthe hub and the token silicon.
I don't know, calendarsrepeating every 52 periods.
365 day.
The Long Countcalendar was used to chronologically date
events spanning more than 5100 years,counting in cycles of 20,
with an exception for the third cycle,which approximates the solar year.

(29:47):
The long count calendar startsfrom the mythical creation date
of August 1131, 14 BCE,
and that cycle ended December 21st, 2012.
This is the sign of a new cycleand not the end of the world,
like many people like to assumebecause they, you know, see the word end
and get all weird.

(30:07):
But really,
if the Maya would have been around forthis entire amount of time, realistically
what it would have just meantis a new beginning kind of thing.
like, not even a rebirth, but just like,all right, this is our new cycle.
We're on this cycle.
We're doing stuff differently. Slightly.
Maya farmers conducted offeringsand ceremonial hour ceremonies.

(30:28):
According to the Hobgoblin,the silken, calendar
also played a significant rolein Maya rituals, including the.
Oh my gosh, what luck.
Shakib, what's.
Yeah. Nailed it! Ceremony.
The Walk Saki Bots ceremonyin the highlands
of Guatemala, markingthe start of a new 260 day cycle.

(30:48):
Now with the calendar round combiningboth the hub and a token token,
I'm still not convincedthat, its completion signifies
special wisdomfor those reaching 52 years of age.
Every 52 years,the calendars would synchronize a period.
this period is considered to be sacred.
Mentioned earlierthat they had accurately counted 365 days

(31:11):
in the year for their mathematics.
Goes way more in-depth than just that.
The mathematical achievement of the Mayais, pretty noteworthy and very complex.
The Maya number system was,it was a base 20 system,
likely influenced by counting on fingersand toes.
It included advancesthe features such as zero.
Who would have thought that zerosuch an events feature.

(31:32):
But, an positional system, thoughnot a true positional based system.
The interesting thing about this is thatthe Maya had the concept of zero down
way before the Europeans did,and this might be silly,
but think of how often the concept ofnothing might play a part in your life.
Think about how the Europeans
did not have something like thatuntil like 1200 C.E.,

(31:53):
when the famous Fibonacci
returned from traveling in North Africaand delivered the concept,
along with Arabic numerals,to Europe, Egypt, Greece, Rome.
None of these ever had zero figured out.
Isn't that kind of wild?
Astronomically, the Maya achievedremarkable precision with minimal tools.
They calculated the solar yearto be 365.242

(32:14):
days, and the lunar month to be 29.30.5302 days.
Very, very close to modern values,their interest in celestial cycles
led to constructions of observatorieslike the Caracol building et cheating
Chichen Itza.
Aside from astronomy, the Maya'smathematical legacy includes intricate
architectural decorationswith geometric patterns found in the

(32:37):
regions, ruins, showcasingtheir inventiveness and intuition.
And, you know,you kind of got to think about it
because they spent a lot of timehanging out outside
and a lot of time looking at the starsand a lot of time planning.
And, you know, we we were like, man,they're not making very many observations
in science now,but like, let's just during our lifetime

(32:58):
think about generations of wealth,that of knowledge that's been passed out.
So anyway, that moves us right.
In the classic period, this titularthis is the Maya period as we know it,
considered by manyto be the height of the Maya civilization,
where things that I mentioned beforewith the mathematic calendar,
mathematics calendars, celestialobserving and architecture

(33:21):
really grew into their iconic selvesis in the classical period
that the heavy influence of the calendarin the way that they began
to heavily date things and mostarchitectural achievements from this time.
There are calendar datesincluded in the hieroglyphics
that decorated the facadesof these buildings and monuments.
This is especially usefulnow that we have an understanding
of how the calendars work,and can use them to tell exactly

(33:44):
when the building was built,which is pretty neat.
During the classical period,which, as I mentioned earlier, stretches
from the second century BCE to 900 C.E.
we also have one of the most influentialMayan rulers.
There's a good time to share the fact that
just because Maya did not have a unifiedgoverning body or major kingdom presence
in the same way that the Aztecor Inca had their city states,

(34:07):
who often fought oneanother struggled in these fights.
one such location inis in the city of Plunkett,
which had been dealing with some majorrival disputes with the Catholic.
More turnover for rulers of Lincolnwas pretty bad, and Catholic more
attacked them consistently over and overduring the fourth and fifth centuries.
With the tumultuous time

(34:27):
that the attacks and leaderswho were unable to make any meaningful
progress in their city, the people ofLincoln felt, you know, very disparaged.
Religious ceremonies were ignored, linkedeven more, people just being alienated.
There's even glyphs which stated the fact,you know, like people aren't praying.
That's not what they said specifically.But, you know, you know, it's bad.

(34:50):
You know how bad
your city is missinga religious ceremony or ceremonies.
There has to be a it has to havean artisan carve it into a building.
That's pretty bad. Things felt bleak.
That was until the son of a womanwho assumed the role as a leader of
the city was brought into the fold.
Sack.
Cook was the daughter of a mannamed Jenab Khalil,
who is the namesake for her son.

(35:12):
I explain that very confusing,but he her son, took
power at age 12, assisted by his motherfor a quarter of a century.
The young Pascal, also known as Pascalthe Great began to run the city
in the right direction.
City experienced a great renaissanceunder Picard's guidance.
Majority of the buildingsin Pelinka were constructed during his

(35:33):
nearly 70 year tenure, remodelingcurrent buildings, adding new
and majorly improved structuresthat feature
some of the greatest and latestbreakthroughs of Mayan engineering.
Plank was advanced as it featuressome of the rudimentary pseudo plumbing
which fed sweat baths, latrines, and, ofcourse, water for crops, which is amazing.

(35:53):
They had sweat, sweat baths, figured out.
Buildings were constructedwith iconic vault style
that would be found in many otherclassic and Post Classic Maya buildings.
Although there were no great successstories in the buildings,
he did not rule unchallengedduring his reign.
The warriors of pulling battleagainst external foes quite often,
but just as often found themselvesvictorious.

(36:13):
The success of percale is importantin highlighting a few different things.
Firstly, the lack of religious effortbefore he took over versus the importance
he placed on building
temples, doing ritualsat the beginning of his reign in an effort
to please their gods, who in turn providedsome favor towards him and his reign.
This is a patternthat is seen in a few mind states,
where at a certain point, emphasison religious practice does get placed.

(36:38):
And maybe it workedand it did keep doing it.
So or it stops working and they move on.
More on that,more on the latter in a little bit.
It's kind of a great system. No,because like,
you don't swear religious fealty,support my reign as king.
And if I do a good job, you know,or the gods support my rule, then
if things work outand I'm actually good at my job,
it will look like the gods favor me.

(36:59):
So this is my thought on ancient systemsof like God kings.
They really are really effective ones.
Really, really helped the spreadof the power of their dominant religion.
If you think about it as you move through,towards the modern age, through history,
the power of who is running,whatever place
it may be largely focused on the godssupporting them.
Then, as time moves forward,the common people become more educated.

(37:23):
Facts become a little more obvious, andthen the leader is a little more to blame
because of their actions,
rather than they displeasethe gods in some vague fashion.
Let's you actually did it.
I digress.
The reason we know Picard'sgreat leadership is due to a few factors.
The first, obviously,
the inscriptions of the monuments andbuildings constructed during his reign.

(37:43):
As I stated before, they often tagged themwith the dates of the buildings.
And then when the general events, like what general events
were happening at the time,which I think we should go back to.
Welcome.
Welcome to McDonald's.
This building was constructedon the third day of June 2007.
When it was constructed,it was the only building
within a five block radius,and during construction, a man

(38:03):
drove into the buildingand defecated on the fresh concrete.
Something like that.
It would be fun.
I thought it would actually be cool
if they did that with buildingsthat they take spot of other buildings.
They knocked some,
you know, classic Art Deco buildingand put up a soulless square building,
leaving a picture of what was replacedso that people know the new architects.
All right.
So back stepping off here, the other wayto tell how important a leader was

(38:25):
is to base offtheir funerary elements, right.
Because definitely upperechelon of importance.
His tomb was being prepared well beforehe died, which not super duper uncommon.
But when he died,
they had devised a way for himto be placed in sealed nice and neatly.
His funeral mask was madefrom the prized jade which the Maya loved.
This thing was pretty wicked too.

(38:47):
He was, you know,he was in his 70s, having ruled from 615
until his death in 683,so he clearly was doing something right.
The death mask is completely made of jadewith like 12 chains of jade as well.
Massive spine earring
type things, Jade bracelets, ringsand pins to go on clothing.
The cover of his tomb is also fantastic.
Features him curled up in a seatedposition like sideways like profile view.

(39:11):
You could call it
an like elaborate decorationof what looks like a throne under him.
And then there's like this massive treeand like, masks floating around.
Obviously, I'm gonna put an imageof these things on the social media posts
and then in the video companion, so,you know, don't forget to look for those.
But percale is one of the most famouskings of the mind city.
And he brought his city to a great power.And you'd think.

(39:32):
But the footing he left in it,it would succeed for a long time.
But this is not not really the case.
If you have a standard passingknowledge of the Maya,
you might be thinking that is aroundthis time that they began to disappear.
The famous vanishing of the Maya.
The only problem with this theory is thatthere's still Maya around to this day.
Many people believe that they were wipedout with the arrival of Spanish as well,

(39:53):
but this is also not the case.
I mentionedthe phases of the Maya time periods,
and that the classic periodis what truly defines
what we think of as the Maya to this day,and that there are sections to the
classic period, while the early and lateclassic are what I've described until now.
So now we're enteringwhat is known as the Terminal Classic.
The name like, that's pretty easyto guesstimate what is about to happen.

(40:14):
Even so, there's
some misrepresentations of what happenedbecause we really don't have a full story.
There are a few leading ideasand theories, but before I get to those,
I want to describe what is foundin archeological realm from this time.
At this time we have cities.
No longer expanding.
In the years after cause deathin the eighth century,
there are no new buildingsbeing built at all.

(40:34):
There's also the same issueand numerous other Maya sites.
Not all the same time, butaround each other around the same time.
For sure.
This is often described as a collapse,which if you look at the city
itself, no longer expanding.
And soon people began to leave. The citycollapsed.
Sure, the Maya civilization did continueon, though they did
what they didbefore they had these cities.

(40:55):
They moved. They moved to others.They started new ones.
Some of the most notable Maya citiesthat we know of today
actually started aroundthe time of this so-called collapse.
So let's talk about what is happeningduring this time.
Well, the leading theory is that one ofthe droughts and subsequent lack of food,
there carvings from around this timethat indicate that the people were people
themselves, were attempting

(41:16):
to please the gods in whatever waysthey could that there, you know,
and there are scientific data pointsthat have been taken from caves, senators
and the like,
which revealed different isotopeswithin crystallized selected stalagmites
that point towards low amounts of waterfor many years in this time period.
Actual science behind
it is pretty intricate, but essentiallythey found certain pairings of isotopes

(41:38):
in these crystals that indicatethat there were a few major droughts.
What causes these droughts?
The main ideais that the Maya actually deforested.
So much of their region that it affectedthe environment and produced,
that produced rainfall, the sharpand vast forest region becoming nothing.
It makes the region much hotter,affects the amount of rainfall.
And then that affects affects the croprotation.

(42:01):
There's scientific datato back that up from 802,000 C.E.
was one of the most arid timesin the Yucatan.
And a quote from this PhD candidate, well,this is from 2018.
He's probably a doctor by now.
But, Nick Evans of Cambridgesaid, quote, rainfall decreased on average
by about half and up to 70%during peak drought conditions.

(42:21):
This is all very interesting.
But thenhow does that go to affect the Maya?
Well, you could say that
they're very crafty with their irrigationwater reservoirs and whatnot, right.
The bigger issue is that they're focusedon one main crop at a certain point,
maize, the corn crop.
They'd put so much into using this crop,which cannot do well in droughts.
And because of that,
the food stores begin to dry out,both figuratively and literally.

(42:45):
The Maya were effective in their methodsof constructing, expanding,
as well as farming and irrigationbased on all success that they had.
They just did not have the datathat would show them
that they overextended themselvesin many different ways.
Their populationgrew vastly during the classic period,
and this requires a lot of food and spacefor people to live in.
Space means clearing out rich jungleand planting more food and feeding more

(43:09):
people. Now,I've been playing a lot of manor
lords latelyand I promise this will connect.
And in this game
you are starting a medieval settlementand you're trying to expand your village
and use the finite resources alongwith agriculture and military expansion.
I've struggled in each game.
I start with feeding my peopleafter a certain point, try to set up
a few different fields, rotate crops,make sure the soil stays fertile,

(43:33):
and yet every couple of yearsI dip into dangerously low food reserves.
What I'm trying to say
is that it's very hard to manage thingslike this, even on a virtual small scale.
So imagine their crops not growing
because of no water or little waterdepleting the reserves.
This causing people to just leave,find a better place
to live makes total sense to me.
There were some tacticsthat they tried to apply before completely

(43:55):
abandoning their cities, though.
A major archeological find known as theas the Calm Conveys was found in the pit
of just like a bunch of random things,and it was broken into a bunch of big
broken face in a broken pit,all of broken dreams in a broken city.
What's so special about it?
Well, this place is actually decoratedcompletely with hieroglyphics

(44:16):
spelling out things
that would normally be told in buildingform with no new buildings.
This space
from the middle of the Terminal Classicperiod kind of sheds some light on.
You know, the city in modern day believesthis space tells about the, various,
events at the time, which is standard,but also tells about the efforts
the city and the king were takingto pull themselves out of the struggle.

(44:38):
At the time, the King was doing thingslike leading attacks on neighboring cities
to take their resources, alsodoing a lot of rituals and sacrificing.
This is a point of pause, because I thinkthe I often get wrapped up with the Aztec
and how often or how they performsacrifices both cultures did.
And by no means were the Maya.
These holistic and peace loving people.
But compared tothe Aztec, they kind of were

(45:01):
compared to compared to the Aztec.
Most people were.
But predominantlythe Maya defaulted to blood sacrifices,
but again, not as extreme as you arethinking they would do bloodletting,
which is a form of ritualin which they bleed into an effigy
or cauldron of swords.
And this blood is an offering to the gods.
They did sacrifice humans everso often as one does, but it was

(45:22):
it was rarely their own citizens,typically capturing an enemy combatant
and sacrificing them,which I suppose is not much better
than killing your own people,but a do what you got to do regardless
the come, come.
This gives us a peek into the day, dayto day of the Maya people in this region
as their city begin to
fold under the weight of this situation,some Maya people in cities began

(45:43):
to flee in droves, in some casesleaving behind many important things.
In one such case that in Kenya,people left the city so quickly
that a child was left unburied,which is completely abnormal for the Maya.
So this kind of speaks to the rapid natureof some of these evacuations.
The remainder of the Terminal Classicis much the same.
People leaving the cities,

(46:04):
traveling to new ones, new citiestaking hold in the post classic period.
There is also as movement of the Mayafrom the highlands
into lowlands,the actual Yucatan Peninsula proper.
This coincides with citieslike Chichen Itza, although Chichen
Itza itself has beginnings that datea little bit further back to Late Classic
most likely actually have a pieceof some of the ruins.

(46:28):
some.
This is it.
Some of my friends visited, visited the site and grabbed this.
They grabbed it right off of the ruinswhen nobody was looking.
I mean, is it super fascinating?
Not not particularly,but this episode had kind of given me
a little more interest in itand, respect for it as well.
I did ask them to grab it.
But here here's the thing is,I feel like I didn't ask them

(46:51):
to bring me a whole temple.
I just kind of wantedI just wanted a little piece of history.
I like collecting things.
One of the more intriguing parts of,
the city is actually called El Caracol,which I talked about earlier.
Is that observatory.
You know, these people were so in lovewith stars that they had observatory,
which is super fascinatingand not surprising.
But, you know, they had rudimentaryplumbing in some cities,

(47:14):
but it's still pretty cool nonetheless.
Sites also featured, the sports ballarenas that I told you about.
And then also they had the step pyramids.
Most notable of these is the, Cuzco Cornpyramid,
named after the feathered serpent god,which features an iconic step design.
Part of this design actuallycasts a shadow that looks like a serpent

(47:34):
on the side of the pyramid,around a spring and fall equinoxes, which,
you know, kind of demonstratesthe Maya's skill at both architecture
and their understandingof the celestial universe around them.
The shadow of the serpent, ascendingor descending the steps of the pyramid
is visible for a week or so beforeand after the equinoxes, so it's not
as if they have like an exact day downfor this specific type of thing,

(47:57):
but other buildings lining upwith further away stars and planets
on specific dates of the year, indicatethat they were able to get fairly close.
As stated, the city itself
did grow during
the Terminal Classic period,which is different from many other cities.
Other cities like Maya Pan,
which is the namesake for the cultureas a whole, had battled with people within
Chichen Itza, but there no hard evidencepointing to any decisive victory.

(48:21):
Chichen Itza is actually kind of unique,as it held
many culturally different peoplewithin its limits.
this is demonstrated by more diversearchitecture and art style.
Pizza were an ethnic groupwithin the umbrella of the Maya.
The name Chichen Itza translates roughlyto at the mouth of the well of the Pizza.
Chichen Itza is a little easier to.

(48:42):
The other one's a little wordyas the site.
The site is neara major snow day, so notice,
we're very much ingrained in the religionand rituals of the Maya.
One video I watched,they described the fact that the mouth
of these caves, these cenotes,look like actual mouths.
Sometimes they have stalactitesand stalagmites
that look like teeth in their dark,and the sounds that come from them

(49:06):
when you know the airrushing past as you approach can feel
very much like breathing, especiallyif that's your only interaction with them.
I think people make fun of historicalpeople and or like how silly I was.
Silly. Why would they believe thatthere's so crazy?
It's obviously just a cave, bro.
You know? Or like whateverthe thing might be.
But like considering how they hadbasically no information on a topic

(49:28):
unless they or someone elsehad showed them or taught them about it.
There's no wonder why
there's so many like, deitiesto think about on a daily basis.
Mentioned Maya Pan, which, eventwhich became one of the larger cities
following the slight decline of ChichenItza Maya
and possibly grew from some traditionalMaya people, feeling
that the cultural assimilationwithin Chichen Itza was too, too much,

(49:50):
and they wanted to returnto some more Maya centric city.
A little back to the basics, man.
Sounds a little racist.
No, I have no idea, but it's it'sfun to be ridiculous like that, right?
This transition is actually partof a bigger cultural,
cultural transition as well.
The Maya had already begun to rely
less on rituals, possiblybecause they weren't working or because,

(50:12):
or whatever.
But either way,the Maya focus less on religious fealty
and more on practicalmethods of surviving.
There is an asterix to this,since they still did pray
to rain gods, probablyhaving some sort of drought based PTSD.
Maybe like like Americaafter the dust bowls.
You know, overall,there was more militarization
within the Maya cities, warringmore frequently than before.

(50:32):
There were inclusions of other groups,such as the Toltec as well,
which I don't think played a partin the rise of violence, but I didn't
know where else to add it in is the postClassic period, which began around
950 C.E., saw the last length of the Mayabefore the Spanish arrival.
this period is not as easily studied

(50:53):
and there's not as much information on iteither.
I can't help
feel like it relates to the arrival of
Spanish in their pressure to suppressindigenous cultures, like a lot of,
a lot of the things that they were doingat that time demolished, but like ruins
that weren't really inhabitedat that time, that were inhabited
a couple hundred yearsago. Still around. Right?
Either way, the Post Classic period

(51:14):
showed more abandonmentof some of the longer lasting cities.
I mentioned the one earlier.
Come now, all the way back.
Common knowledge area.
I think I think that's pretty close, which had been occupied
for over 2000 years at that point.
Largertheme could be that many of these cities
found themselves susceptible to attacksand an increase in occupation of cities

(51:36):
that were located on hilltops
or coastline, which needed only, you know,one lane of events were more preferred.
Wasn't too long before other citieslike Maya Pan were abandoned by,
you know, around 1450, shortly after thisfirst contact with Spanish occurred,
known as contact period,beginning in the 1511,
when the first explorerswrecked off the Yucatan coast,

(51:57):
where most of the survivorsprobably ended up captured and sacrificed.
I mentioned, you know, they wouldsacrifice their military opponents.
So make sense?
The reclusive nature of the Mayaat this point actually
probably saved them from a faster fatethat the Aztecs received,
which, you know, kind of summarizebecause they deserve their own episode.
But while that the Mayahad initial contact with their cities

(52:20):
on the Yucatan Peninsula,
you know, which was an excellentlanding point for the Spanish coming from
the previously discovered Carib Caribbeanislands, they were super spread out,
not connected by their, you know,overarching government and harder
to maintain power overbecause you might take over one city,
but another city has no real connectionto that other than trade.

(52:42):
The Aztec, on the other hand,were a solid government centralized power.
Because of this, when their capital fellto the Spanish, more accurately,
when their leader invited the Spanish inand gave them instant access to help their
instant access to their interior,which further helped the Spanish
infiltrateand recognize the weakness within,
but more importantly,
brought the European diseasesdirectly into the heart of the largest

(53:06):
and wealthiest cities in Mesoamerica,a city which traded with other
indigenous people around the area.
You know, a lot of the issuessurrounding the the,
narrative of the Spanish conquest relieson first hand testimony
of the conquistadors themselves,who often embellish their stories
to make themselveslook better than they did.
The main thing I want people to knowabout the Spanish is that

(53:26):
these were not even trained military men,like there was probably some,
but they were the equivalentof like contracted explorers
as Spain kept their real soldiersnear the homeland.
You know, you might need those closerto England case.
Things get crazy,or the Portuguese probably didn't.
Portuguese.
so these men, some of whom had militaryexperience but not all, were outnumbered.

(53:47):
And while they did have superior armor,we know that from the Magellan episode
that does not automatically qualifyus being superior fighting ability.
We also know that, diseases,including smallpox,
had reached the highlands fasterthan the Spanish conquistadors.
Despite this,
by the time the Spanish top of the Aztecand set their sights on the Maya,
the diseases were already wiping outthe indigenous population all over.

(54:11):
Still, the Maya fought on and actuallyput up like a really, really good fight.
I mean, first contact 1511.
and it wouldn't be till almost
so the 1700swhen they actually, like, relented
and even still like there was anyway, other indigenous people use the Spanish
as lust for gold as a toolto help eliminate their opponents,

(54:33):
which definitely didn't make any thingsbetter.
But, you know, things like that
make me curious if the indigenous peoplehad, like, banded together
instead of being so divisive, like,what would have the outcome have been?
Eventually the Spanishwould have probably used more force
sending more and more people.
But like those trips take time
and they could have only sentlike 50 to 75 guys at a time.

(54:54):
I don't know, an alternatehistory is super fun topic to think about,
but either way, the Spanish beganto settle in the region and further push
towards the upper Yucatanand in the late 16th century,
like 1697 iswhen the last Maya city state of Egypt,
Najib P10 located in the P10 basin,

(55:15):
essentially
the innermost section of the Yucatanlike real main body of the Yucatan,
I assume partly because they were so ruraland isolated in the forest,
is why it took Spanishso long to locate it.
But also like,you know, ferocity had to been a factor
that the Maya city did fall of,even however hard they fought.
And then the Maya disappeared forever.

(55:37):
Right? Remaining mysterious,we all wonder what happened.
This once great civilization. Not.Not now.
I don't understandwhy people like to say they.
That they are such a forgotten people.
There are an estimated 15 million geneticMaya people living today.
Not a super massive number,but still nothing like no slouch.
They definitely endure many issuesand lack of recognition

(55:58):
by governments of Central America,but they do exist.
And they don't just live insmall villages.
They're not like the Mesoamerican versionof like the people in the Seminole Island
or something
like they have their cultural centerswhere they do like, live authentically.
but the Maya definitely faced,like the full brunt of Spanish,
like the witch in the remote villagesthat they were found in.

(56:22):
I guess they were subjugate,they were subjected to harsh treatment
in the name of the conversion, you know,to Catholicism, victims of annatto, to fe.
Like I mentioned, you know, convertor die, we're going to burn all your,
you know, your personal ethniclike things.
Forget your culture.
You're assimilating other indigenouscultures face the same, treatment.

(56:43):
All of them were either,
you know, forced to assimilateunder Spanish rule
or subjugated to slaverywhile millions of the population died off
thanks to the diseaseor the treatment themselves.
Biological warfarewreaked havoc on the population,
but there's no way to knowexactly how bad it was.
Estimates range from 70to 90% of the population affected, which,
you know, would have killed offtens of hundreds of millions, maybe more.

(57:06):
You know, it's it's hard to tellwhat the actual original population
was, but still,
it was actually partially due
to this fact that these indigenous slaveswere dying off.
That fueled the transatlantic slave tradeto give an influx of free labor
for the lazy settlers and greedy countrieslooking to make fast cash
off the New World, Maya citiesreturn to the jungle, becoming overgrown

(57:26):
and ignored largely
until the 19th century, when explorerexploration and history became
a bigger interest of the wealthy Americanand European citizens.
Two men are responsiblefor a larger increase of interest
in the Mesoamerican culture,specifically the Maya.
John Lloyd Stephens and FrederickCather Catherwood explore Maya
as sites, Catherwood

(57:47):
providing illustrations of these placeswhich are honestly pretty, pretty sick.
John makes kind of wantto, work on my still life and landscape
skill a little bit.
These drawings and the writings of Stevensinspired many people
to search out these ruins and learnmore about the forgotten culture.
So, so that's that's kind of the historyof the Maya people as far as timelines go.
So that is the history of the Maya people.

(58:08):
As far as timelinesgo, there's plenty more information
about the Maya to go through,but I will leave you
with some more interesting aspectsin this little summary here that,
you know,they invented the spherical ball game,
which was played without using feetor hands that I mentioned.
this game, intense,used to settle disputes.
some cases a player from the losing teamwould get sacrificed.

(58:30):
So that's pretty hardcore.I don't know if they like
if, like, Tom Brady was still playingand they're like,
all right, well Tom Brady lostand they just executed.
That'd be crazy.
when the Maya did fight, they,incorporated some interesting weapons
like that of the Hornet bomb.
That's exactly what it sounds like.
They threw a hornet's nest

(58:50):
at their enemies, which is hilariousand evil like, super useful.
I also want, again,
to call your attentionto the level of engineering
for being essentiallya Stone age civilization.
They were able to craft magnets for neckmagnificence and structures, incredibly
well designed systems of early plumbing,and they informed incredibly
well until they didn't.
I guess they just mold themselvesin the end.

(59:11):
But, they're adorning of jadeand obsidian, as well as ceramic
and natural gems from the regionmade their outfits look pretty badass.
They had the handsome staff look it up.
Look, look up some ancient Maya clothing.
They had it figured out.
I also want to point out some pop culturerepresentations of the Maya.
Starting off with a misguided attempt.
Mel's with Mel Gibson's Apocalyptotake takes place during the beginning

(59:34):
of the fall of their civilizationand early contact.
The depictions of the people are donein a relatively accurate manner, kind of,
but it blends a lot of Aztecimagery and incorporates
a lot of their sacrificial methodsas well.
More recently,
we have, the character of Namorin Black Panther two Wakanda Forever
goes by his native name, Coco Khan,who is the feather serpent, right?

(59:57):
I mentioned earlier name Waralso speaks Yucatan Mayan.
So that's pretty cool.
also not really recognized as Maya,
but in StarWars, the, the Yavin four base,
there's Mayan ruins.
Like, that's whatthat's the ruins at there in the shot.
It's Maya temples sticking up over the.

(01:00:19):
I'll put the picture.
It's fine, but those arethe ones that I've seen myself.
I mean, I'm, I'm assuming there's more.
So I'm going to be looking outfor some good movies that, you know,
represent the Mesoamerican peoplein a good way.
I feel like, might be might be funto watch with all this newfound knowledge
or might just be likewhen I watch military movie
and point out all the inconsistencies.
I try not to do that,but sometimes I can't help but notice.

(01:00:40):
You know, let me know if you have any,
if you seen any of theseor what genuinely learned,
like whatyou genuinely learned from this episode,
I want to knowif I made this interesting at all.
I feel like that was a lot of information.
but it is super interesting.
I mean, the, the timeline of the Mayan,like how how well
they succeed did when they did,I think is super impressive.

(01:01:04):
I think that the way that they builtI like that they like,
use their hieroglyphics
in such a way where it was like,we're dating buildings as we build them.
Like, that's that's pretty badass.
I mean, I mean, just because, like,we had to date
castles and ancient ruins
and other places and they're like,this is when we made it right here.

(01:01:24):
Check it out. Super handy.
it's probablybecause the aliens told them to, you know.
Hey, like, hey, there's going to besome confused guy in his
in his two bedroom apartmentdoing research on you guys,
and he's going to really need to knowwhen he dated these.
When when they built them.
anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode.

(01:01:46):
I think this is a good episodeto kind of return to form with.
I, you know,I do have some pretty exciting ideas
coming down the pipe,but I also, you know, want your input.
What topicswould you like to know more about?
What types of ideashave you enjoyed so far?
Do you like these timelinebased topic episodes, or do you like when?
I do like group episodeswhere I discuss a few different stories

(01:02:09):
with an overarching theme,like what kind of things do you enjoy?
You know, I I'm putting out this podcastbecause I enjoy history,
but I also, you know,I enjoy it from my perspective.
I want to have
a little more of a community thing goingon, so let me know in the comments.
Facebook Instagram,comment on the YouTube video
and share us wherever possible.

(01:02:29):
Also want to shout out to my friendsThe Makeup Emporium, the Real Creature
feature Dark Windows Podcast,and of course, West of Nowhere.
Don't forget to clickall of the links in the description.
Find out all things related to the show,including merch store.
You know I'm wearingwhere my NASA shirt right now.
but that's all I have for you today.
Thank youand I will see you guys next time. Bye.