The Entire History of the Maya // Ancient America History Documentary

here in the Wilds of Highland Guatemala a dense blanket of vegetation holds all in its clutches thick brambles roots and ancient Woodland seizing away any kind of long-distance visibility in this so-called green desert [Music] the going is tough even by the notoriously treacherous standards of the new world as a large team of Spanish conquistadors and their native servants hack away at the Wilderness [Music] who brambles and razor leaves they go pushing on through to the deep forest Beyond in Nar wattle the language of many of the Expedition Porters the name itself means place of many trees [Music] the year is 1576. and just 50 years or so after the initial arrival of Europeans in this part of the world the Yucatan Peninsula and its Southern Highland areas are still largely unexplored and unmapped this isn't just enemy territory it's unknown to Europeans entirely and like all places at the edge of the map here be monsters [Music] in that year Diego Garcia de Palacio a determined Soldier and magistrate in the governing Council of the colonial state of Guatemala has decided to make yet another foray into the unknown conquest and Glory very much on his mind acting on orders from King Philip II of Spain palacio's mission was to inspect and catalog the conquered provinces [Music] embarking on a grand tour in order to do so no stranger to the miserable deaths of comrades from both violence and bouts of malaria the as yet then still mysterious scourge of Central America centuries to come [Music] Palacio must have had an iron Constitution to not succumb during his lengthy Journey besides his role as conqueror he was an educated man born in around 1530 in astorius Northern Spain his interests included science and above all else sailing and navigation personal Ambitions ranged far and wide but Above All Else he held a Grand Vision for expansion of the already Mighty Spanish Empire [Music] for Palacio Honduras was to be the key uniquely placed between the Colossal Atlantic Armada the ever-growing Pacific Fleet [Music] if he could achieve a means of crossing the Isthmus of land there [Music] sought after governorship of the Philippines would surely be his and with it as many ships as he could muster for the exploration and conquest of yet more lands foreign but for all of palacio's lofty ideals to the indigenous inhabitants of the lands he traveled through living in small villages scattered throughout the forest forced to submit to foreign rule from Beyond the Sea the Spaniard and his men were simply the latest in a long line of brutal Warriors to trespass in the land of trees foreign [Music] just over the modern day border of Guatemala and Honduras everything changed amidst the gnarled Trunks and thickets one of the men spied something else jutting from the forest floor thank you within minutes they were all seeing it stone structures unmistakably carved by human hands elaborate buildings crafted with snarling Beast ly idols [Music] confident mocking in their gaze [Music] and besides great towering structures and mounds coated in dense foliage as tall as the sky [Music] the men could only stare on in awe at what they were seeing perhaps feeling they'd caught a glimpse of something they shouldn't Hieronymus Bosch painting in the flesh what were these Labyrinth instructors the size and sophistication to match anything in the old world adorned with Hideous powerful symbols and more ominously who had built them though Palacio was surely familiar with the reports from earlier on in the century of the towns and cities destroyed by the initial conquests his predecessors often building their own settlements directly on top of those that came before like the yucatec colonial capital of Merida and the Mexican Capital far to the North new Cathedrals etched from the stone of pagan temples and pyramids surely they had paled in comparison to this place [Music] as was the custom of the day Palacio wrote a lengthy description of his entire journey across the provinces [Music] That Was Then dispatched to the king back in Europe and at the end of that account dated 8th of March 1576. he wrote an 850 word description of those Mighty ruins in the forest [Music] here was formerly the seat of a great power and a great population civilized and considerably advanced in the Arts as is shown in various figures and buildings [Music] but what had happened here and how had the place fallen into such ruin much of the stonework Palacio saw including eight large statues of men and women altars Terraces and a large Plaza resembling the Coliseum of ancient Rome he told the King was constructed with such skill that it could not possibly have been created by a people as rude as the natives of that province and yet though they had little knowledge of the site's history at least that they were willing to share he does mention certain legends from the time of the conquistador's initial arrival a generation or two earlier foreign stories of a great yucatec king who in ancient times had come down to the region from the north to build a mighty City only to return from whence he came after a number of years leaving forlorn ruins in his wake [Music] palacio's questions would remain unanswered [Music] never reach his grandiose goals either eventually ending up on the coast of Mexico an undistinguished sea captain hunting and failing to catch English Marauders like Sir Francis Drake it's not known whether the king ever even read his account another document added to a swelling pile of Imperial archives at the court of the Habsburg King [Music] it's like the mighty City itself forgotten for centuries [Music] today with the benefit of hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge that we can speak with any Authority about those ruins foreign though Palacio and his men went to their graves with little knowledge of what truly it was that they saw we now know that they were perhaps the first non-natives to explore a vanished World which reached its peak and collapsed hundreds of years before the European arrival for they were walking within the walls of the great city of Copan foreign houses classic Maya civilization far-reaching culture that had once dominated the region from sea to Sea the Guatemala hadn't always been a land of forest [Music] 800 years before palacio's day almost the entire Peninsula had been stripped of trees Make Way for vast agricultural Estates elaborate networks of Highways crisscrossing the land between towns and cities home to a leviathan population of millions during the Early Middle Ages as Anglo-Saxon Kings engaged in spas of hundreds of warriors very few towns to speak of existed in Britain on the continent Charlemagne ruled over a sprawling state though this was held together by little more than personal charisma crumbling into factions on his death foreign ERS came flooding into Christendom to wash her in one of the darkest centuries in its history [Music] in Central America vast cities of 50 000 and more sprawled into an open landscape of irrigated farms and settlements masters of writing advanced mathematics astronomy elaborate calendrical systems immense Public Works [Music] one of the most extraordinary civilizations the world has ever seen [Music] all achieved by human hands alone no domesticatable pack animals existing in this part of the world and just prior to the collapse of the classic Maya world in the late 8th Century A.D the total population outside the cities hinted at in recent years by lidar ground surveying technology May well have stood in the tens of Millions [Music] indeed Palacio had been correct in a way [Music] the Maya of his day in the 1570s were very different from their Mighty ancestors given the Holocaust they'd suffered in the meantime losing as much as 90 of their numbers to zoonotic European disease alone spread from the pack animals brought over by the first settlers today this comes as no surprise foreign though entirely overgrown in palacio's day it's difficult to overstate just how impressive the ruins of kopan still would have been [Music] unfortunately like many Mayan cities the place has suffered greatly in the years since much of it falling into the adjacent changing River Course in 1936 the Carnegie Institute had to intervene drastically to save the ruins [Music] many other cities have since been completely lost to Growing Urban centers and housing developers their secrets disappearing to the black market and the collections of private bias foreign at large besides a few local people who maintained the secrets of their ancestors away from praying ice it would be another 300 years from palacio's time before their existence would finally be definitively revealed [Music] and at others like the mighty capital of kalakmul one of the superpowers of the Maya world only investigated during the last few decades and still as yet undiscovered centers it will take much longer [Music] today some 40 or so massive classic sites have been located and studied all unique in their own way piece by piece adding their tails to the tapestry of Maya civilization [Music] crumbling walls and palaces coated with the fading stories of their foundations the likes of kalakmal and Tikal must surely be the Pinnacles of it all [Music] Mega sites poured over by historians archaeologists mythologists and art historians alike foreign but many other huge centers existed too the likes of Caracol bar Palenque Piedras negras [Music] yakshilan [Music] and of course Copan but even these near unfathomably massive and impressive places often pale in comparison to an even earlier time a pre-classic first flourishing of Maya Society seeing at places like Knack Bay and El Mirador during the first millennium BC El Mirador may very well have the largest pyramid in the world but these sites would have to wait until well into the 20th century to be rediscovered by The Wider world much of their secrets still waiting to be unlocked despite conspiracy theorist claims to the contrary there never was a real Mayan apocalypse [Music] see Asic cities in the 9th century the Mayans didn't disappear rather changing their ways [Music] a post-classic society developing with the same writing system and culture for the most part intact [Music] even cities would again arise in the north of the Yucatan rising and falling on the ebb and flow of time until the arrival of the Spaniards today Mayans still make up the majority of the population in vast areas of Eastern Mexico Guatemala Belize El Salvador and Western Honduras Clinging On against all the odds to the lands of their ancestors several million of them still speak one of the 28 Mayan languages as their primary tongue foreign and they've maintained many of the Traditions oral and written histories rituals and dances of the ancestors for the most part though after a struggle for survival lasting some 500 years only recently have they been invited to work alongside archaeologists in the research of their people [Music] this is a story that is still very much being told [Music] besides the initial conquistadors of the 16th century a tale that features a colorful cast of explorers and fascinated Scholars obsessed by that lost world of long ago [Music] from 18th century Barons to 19th century travel writers and early archaeologists to the kings and queens themselves who ruled over the great cities of the forest [Music] foreign and of course their descendants who still Safeguard many of the ruins to this day a philosopher Emperors and the birth of Gods colliding continents and voyages to distant lands quite simply it's one of the greatest stories Ever Told foreign [Music] as always I'm your host Pete Kelly I've been obsessed with the pre-columbian Americas since childhood it's no secret that in the early 2000s Michael Woods conquistadors is one of the reasons I pursued the study of history in the first place eventually writing an undergraduate dissertation on the ritualistic Warfare of the mishika Aztecs before embarking on a parallel Voyage into the Early Middle Ages and ancient Eurasia but all the while the Americas called [Music] finally in February 2022 I was lucky enough to visit Mexico and Guatemala for myself foreign fulfilling a lifelong dream of walking in the footsteps of the Ancient Maya delving into the storied metropolises of that mystical land first hand and after spending weeks journeying through the forest scrutinizing ruins and museums I can tell that it will take hundreds more years to fully excavate the region they're likely being many more cities and Paradigm shifting discoveries still waiting to be found [Music] epic Tales of dynastic conflicts and philosopher Kings out there waiting to be unlocked one day this is the entire history of the Maya it's well over three hours long and has taken me years to make [Music] I'll try to tell the whole tale here but there will be many more individual stories too on my other channel Pete Kelly so go and check it out here I'm creating an entire series on all of the major Mayan cities and some little known ones too [Music] series I hope to continue to add to for many decades to come [Music] I'd also like to thank Dr David Miano from the world of antiquity channel for creating the initial script for this video it's more than doubled in length since with my own meanderings so think of it as a fusion between the two of us [Music] here's a word from Dr Miano himself thank you Pete David Miano here from the world of antiquity Channel if you want to hear more about the Maya come on over to watch our entire series The Antiquities Travel Guide Series 2 on the Yucatan we explore some really fascinating sites and if you like ancient history in general there's plenty to watch and a whole host of topics back to you Pete I really do recommend watching his content and of course my travel videos too now before we get stuck into the entire history of the Mayans the most ambitious project I've ever attempted here's a quick word from our sponsor the great Lords of the classic Maya world didn't have to worry about cyber attacks living in a time of spirit battles and Magic theirs was a world before the internet day though with the constant barrage of viruses and threats to cyber security they wouldn't get far without some sort of Defense [Music] nordvpn would be perfect for any Maya Aristocrat seeking to maintain their Fortune or just a regular 21st century human utilizing more than 5 000 servers in 59 countries with just one click Nord is incredibly easy to use across six separate devices and every major platform it doesn't just automatically scan for viruses and malware but gives you anonymity too allowing you to change your IP address to access films TV music and games available in different countries and one of the best features is that Nord encrypts your data bypassing any potential data throttling by your internet service provider pacal knows now I've teamed up with nordvpn to offer you an exclusive deal use my link in the description below and get four months completely free when you sign up for a two-year deal there's a 30-day money-back guarantee head on over to nordvpn.com forward slash history time and use the offer code history time to get your free months now back to the Americas in 1517 three ships set out from Cuba under the command of a rich Andalusian Hidalgo by the name of Francisco de Cordoba expedition was an ambitious attempt at Fortune seeking sailing toward the Setting Sun in search of new lands and riches for the taking Smash and grab raid carried out by professional soldiers and adventurers in search of Gold Silver and slaves for by this time some two decades after the initial Spanish arrival on Cuba and Hispaniola and with both Islands thoroughly pacified through an orgy of bloodshed providing an easy base from which to go elsewhere Restless man began looking further afield [Music] this was the very beginning of the age of the Conquistadors [Music] but unlike the more famous later campaigns of Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro this earliest of expeditions to the mainland of the new world was far from a success [Music] after 21 long days at sea battered by storms and the existential dread of Uncharted open ocean landfall was finally made what happened next later recalled in the Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo then a young Soldier on one of his first Adventures was the stuff of nightmares floating in to a wide open Bay The Landing parties were greeted by pristine Woodland running tracks past Pearl White Sands and Beyond temples Rising many other settlements were spied from the boats as they made their way along the shoreline beyond the tree line the White stuccoed Walls of pyramids and temples towered over the beach an advanced settlement comparable to the old world one of the sites though now lost was named accordingly Grand Cairo perhaps near the island now known as Isla Mujeres named for the female figurines once found inside the temples there tense meetings between Maya and Spaniards followed with small items being traded But ultimately fighting breaking out upon approaching those strange structures figures began to emerge and they were far from impressed by the Spaniards aldias talks of priests coated in blood their hair matted and stiff from recent sacrificial victims they surrounded their unwanted guests fumigating them with incense and gesturing for them to leave Cordoba and his men soon got the message heading back to the boats but not before seizing a number of artifacts but most importantly for them gold [Music] emboldened by the discovery of the gold the Expedition traveled Westward to the mainland similarly tree-lined and pristine eventually near the modern town of champoton they made camp on the land as was the want of their Commander they said Mass making themselves at home perhaps some of the centuries saw it first perhaps they missed it little could have been done either way with little warning the trees began to began a huge Army of Mayan warriors descending with Fury upon the newcomers [Music] in the ensuing Carnage 57 Spaniards lost their lives [Music] almost every other member of the Expedition suffering Arrow wounds spear blows or both as the terrified survivors limped back to their boats leaving wounded and dying comrades on the shore but now Diaz could see the Victorious Mayans dancing in the clothes of the Dead after days of agony riddled with as many as 12 wounds Cordoba himself died during the voyage back to Cuba [Music] and yet far from discouraging further attempts it was the small pieces of gold that were the Talk of the Town and just the next year another larger better equipped Expedition set forth this time led by Juan de Gary Alva the nephew of the governor of Cuba future enemy of Hernan Cortez better organized and taking no chances this time the second Expedition also had two Spanish-speaking Maya on board to act as interpreters captured by Cordoba at some point during the last voyage [Music] but now Diaz again took part making landfall at first on the island of Cozumel ultimately they reached the mainland at One landing Place thick mats of jungle broke up well-cultivated fields of melpa created by slash and burn agriculture a number of generally unfriendly interactions followed Juan resulting in cannon fire clearing out a Mayan city but mostly the Expedition refused to stop [Music] continuing on along the coast ultimately they landed near champotan seeking Vengeance for the previous battle again a large force of Maya soon emerged and Bernal Diaz recalls a horrific battle fought in Marsh ridden bogland swarmed by locusts and flies we can imagine the confusion of the Maya at the reading of the requiremento before battle by the Spanish priests a proclamation to the Maya in Spanish of the Christian right to their lands unless they recounted their Heathen ways thus in the eyes of the Europeans justifying the conquest their own holy man perhaps making their own magic against the foreigners the fighting was brutal but in the end it was the superior technology of the Europeans which won the day specifically a number of small artillery pieces which awed the Maya into submission And yet when degree Alva headed back to Cuba besides information he had little to show for his expedition eventually it would turn out that there was in fact almost no gold at all in the peninsula let alone metals or even Rivers the undulating flatness of prehistoric coral sea floor that can still be seen there in the Rocks today being utterly alien to the Europeans the gold found by the first expedition must have been traded from elsewhere foreign enough rumors of that land began to circulate a mighty Empire to the north the land of the Aztecs third and final expedition to the Yucatan would be an even more serious undertaking it's time led by a young upstart Soldier by the name of Hernan Cortez gen accompanied by banal Diaz in search of gold eventually they'd head north to the valley of Mexico aided by terrible pestilences brought with the Europeans and the support of a huge Alliance of formally subject Native Americans the entire Aztec empire would be brought to its knees in just a single year forever changing the political and social landscape of the new world foreign yet even so by the time Spaniards returned to the Yucatan in 1526 this time under Francisco monteo sailing under permission from King Charles V progress would yet again be slow any semblance of Conquest wouldn't be achieved for decades to come real subjugation would take centuries if completed at all characterized by a complicated series of back and forth conflicts [Music] of the three major civilizations of the new world The Conquistadors in the land of the Maya were by far the least fortunate and thus the least well known today often operating as independent Warlords sometimes vying with each other as much as the natives [Music] Francisco de monteo and his bastard son elmozo are the most famous still being Remembered in their former Colonial capital of Merida but others too like Alvarado the cruel made tracks down the mainland from the highlands of Mexico to Guatemala foreign murdering and rampaging as they went [Music] Fielding narwhatal-speaking allies often press ganned into service in the north it mostly fell to elmozo to get the job done often doing so in horrifically brutal fashion notably unleashing his Lieutenant Gaspar Pacheco to torture mutilate and Destroy his way through the countryside burning a life or feeding to these War Dogs anyone unfortunate enough to fall into his hands we're told that beautiful young women were specifically targeted as a reminder to the Spaniards to not breed with the Maya particularly significant battle in around 1535 a local king led his Warriors to war with the once Mighty city of Chichen Itza [Music] then largely in Ruins having reached its prime some 600 years earlier though still an important place of pilgrimage [Music] there a clear view of the great palaces of their ancestors the Maya achieved The Impossible inflicting on the Spaniards are crushing and humiliating defeat foreign following after a series of hasty Retreats and evacuations we're told that the only Spaniards left on the peninsula at all were four Franciscan friars of course the soldiers would be back by 1540 they began their attack on the city of tihu one of the foremost centers in the North what the Spaniards thought of the place remains unclear little record remains based on what they would later call it the ruins seem to have reminded them of the ancient Roman cities of estromadora thus the place was renamed Merida it's great temples and pyramids dismantled turned to cathedrals foreign Al capital and largest city in the area [Music] finally in 1546 when Tuttle Zoo most powerful Chief in the province of Mani in the north of the Yucatan converted to Christianity the princes of the West soon followed suit all that remained then was the East which took much longer and remained more rebellious forevermore by that time El mosto and his father had already been outmaneuvered by political opponents little richer than before all the fighting and the Carnage began their fortunes far from having been made they might have wandered what it had all been for foreign [Music] on the other hand by this time had suffered immensely not just from the military campaigns and indiscriminate violence but from the ravages of European disease devastating pestilences like smallpox cholera typhus and typhoid for which they had no natural immunity such as the Spaniards had developed over 10 000 Years of Living alongside the animals from which these diseases had initially sprung of which none existed in the New World [Music] [Music] the fact that the Maya could even put up a fight at all remains incredible what would have happened had the Spaniards arrived at the time of their Mighty ancestors [Music] not a post-apocalyptic environment ravaged by disease but such is fate by this time the world had changed [Music] when John Lloyd Stevens hacked his way through the Guatemalan forests in 1839 on a diplomatic Mission from the U.S president he was interested in Far More Than Just politics the region then being embroiled in the latest in a complicated series of Civil Wars following the collapse of the Spanish Empire [Music] he was stepping into an incredibly dangerous situation his predecessors had all died on the job held up by Bandits regularly hindered by wet muddy ground and above all else ridden by bouts of malaria the as yet still undiscovered disease Rife in the Central American forests Stevens had an altogether different agenda to that of His official designation foreign that kept him going through hardship and toil [Music] on this journey Stevens wasn't alone traveling by his side stood his erstwhile companion Frederick catherwood a British Artist [Music] this decade both had traveled to the great sites of the classical Mediterranean Jerusalem Egypt Istanbul spending considerable amount of time delving into the ancient Mysteries of the old world and now they had their sights on the ruins of the new [Music] initially training as an architect catherwood had drawn immensely detailed dioramas of Jerusalem and Constantinople during his time in the east developing great skills had accurately depicting complicated scenes Stevens had written detailed letters to friends that eventually evolved into best-selling travel books allowing him the wealth to independently travel in Central America a diplomatic role from the U.S government giving him the authority and the means [Music] over a series of Journeys the two men proto-national Geographic journalist and photographer thoroughly explore the region inhabited by the Maya recording in writing and illustrations the remains of a once bustling Urban Society in total they would visit more than 44 sites [Music] even uncovering many that had never before been seen by Western ice [Music] their Journeys were recorded in two books incidents of travel in Central America Chiapas and Yucatan and incidents of travel in Yucatan the latter in two volumes though photography hadn't yet been invented catherwood's background as an architect allowed him to create much more accurate representations than most also utilizing a cutting-edge invention the dagaweiro type in their later Journeys the resulting illustrations demonstrated to both the American public and the world just how beautiful and sophisticated Mayan art and architecture really was foreign to say that the two men were amazed when they arrived at the city of Copan in 1839 laying eyes on a Mayan city for the very first time would be a complete understatement even in its overgrown and dilapidated state this was very different from the sights of the old world surpassing their wildest expectations though it would be at the city of ushmal famous for its incredibly ornate carvings known as the pook style that would arguably have the greatest impression on the pair for it was here in the shadow of Gods and Monsters that their unorthodox ideas would be set in stone [Music] in those days an especially popular notion in all circles of life was that the civilization of the Maya had an old world origin speculation of its roots ranging from Egyptian Hebrew Norse Roman Chinese and even Atlantean most Europeans could simply not imagine in their wildest dreams that such advancements could have been made by the people who lived there now [Music] even after the very first visits to the mainland between 1517 and 19. when assessing the idols and artifacts seized from the coast the best mines in Cuba and Hispaniola alike could not fathom a Native American origin assuming them to have been carried to the New World by Jewish colonists in the First Century A.D after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans [Music] yet Stevens and catherwood preferring to view things as objectively as possible with their own eyes had other ideas for them having the rare experience of spending significant amounts of time at the ruins of both the old world and the new the evidence was simply insurmountable [Music] those Mighty forest-born edifices were not the result of people crossing over the immense Gulf from the old world a feat which had only just been achieved by Europeans but by Native Americans with no outside interference at all it was a view that would ultimately be proved to be unquestionably correct but in the 1840s there was a long way to go before this was the norm it may have been a scanty report written by an Irish Adventurer by the name of Juan Galindo that encouraged Stevens and catherwood to head to kopan in the first place foreign but they also had another major destination in mind a similarly Majestic and iconic City one which had been known to westerners for several decades now situated on the other edge of the impenetrable Forest at the heart of the classic Maya world foreign its original name is lost but we know the place as Palenque like many in the Western World Stephen's initial interest in the Maya had likely been stirred up by the 1838 publication of a book by an eccentric Frenchman John Frederick dewoldx book the first modern publication on the ruins was very much of the opinion that Maya civilization had been kick-started by the arrival in the new world of the ten lost tribes of Israel [Music] full of inaccurate illustrations and outlandish theories it was a bestseller [Music] claiming descent from The Dukes of waldeck Piermont if waldeck is to be taken at face value he'd been a royalist and a revolutionary in his youth befriending the likes of Marie Antoinette and robe spear alike [Music] before participating in the Napoleonic Wars ultimately heading to the New World Is A Soldier of Fortune artist and Explorer once claiming to have traveled by river all the way from Peru to Mexico claim that today is quite easy to refute [Music] he claimed friendships with many of the most famous figures of the age the likes of Lord Byron Fox Pitt and even King George III ultimately dying if his year of birth is to be believed aged 109 with little way of validating his claims to one of old Europe's most prestigious baronis it's difficult to back up any of his claims we do know however that In 1832 he spent an entire year living in the ruins of Palenque drawing and speculating to his heart's content but the expense of Lord Kingsborough an Irish Baron who shared waldex ideas of the Lost tribes of Israel [Music] unfortunately waldex drawings whilst somewhat impressive were far from accurate often resembling the old world more than the new perhaps a little like the early drawers and describers of the Aztec capital of tenos tidlan who likened the place to Moorish architecture for lack of an outside frame of reference to go on foreign [Music] looking for evidence of the old world in the new waldek even entirely made up elements of his drawings either consciously or unconsciously adding Phantom elephants into the glyphs after all another common idea at the time was of an Asian origin for the Maya as soon as Palenque had been rediscovered by The Wider World in fact these wild theories had been absolutely the norm in the 1770s having been sent to carry out an official survey Antonio bernasconi Drew remarkably misleading drawings of Maya Nobles in Spanish knee breaches [Music] and at the end of the 18th century Antonio Del Rio working on orders from the king of Spain to investigate the ruins of Central America decided them to be Greco-Roman in origin taking samples and causing much destruction and looting in the process [Music] teen 39 at the same time that Stevens and catherwood began their Journey a parallel expedition to Palenque took place this one from British Honduras led by Colonial officials captains Walker and caddy after a grueling March through the forest where they lost one of their party to malaria in their unimaginative report on the ruins egypto Indian Origins were hypothesized [Music] and yet Walker and caddy would soon be forgotten as would waldek besides those interested in his eccentric lifestyle Stevens and catherwood however but when lasting worldwide Fame their perceptions of a Native American Mayan civilization along with the beginnings of real archaeological inquiry in the region would soon take off [Music] though there is an argument that Stevens was ultimately swayed more by his desire to allow the new world to stand on its own feet and not be completely defined by the old rather than a genuine respect and understanding of the Maya the result was still undeniably powerful allowing other free thinkers to further develop the real history of the region today with pseudo-archaeological ideas still in full force it's difficult to overstate the impact of Stevens and cathodewood nevertheless very much men of their time they would attempt to have an entire Mayan city moved to America along with plenty of artifacts attempting to set up a museum in the states [Music] which ultimately failed when the building containing these and catherwood's dioramas his life's work all burned down leaving catherwood ruined not long after they'd both be dead malaria finally catching up with Stevens and catherwood sinking ship [Music] despite the terrible tragedy that ended the hopes of a museum of the Americas there is a good case for them simply having done this out of a desire to save the artifacts during a time when their opinions on Native Americans were incredibly rare during this age before the Indian Wars had even happened the very beginning of the Wild West Stevens and catherwood thought the natives to be capable of such things and yet by the time of their deaths besides architecture still next to nothing was really known of these places [Music] and legends abounded of still yet undiscovered cities [Music] to Cal an [Music] so many more soon they too would be on be uncovered the story was just beginning [Music] today almost 200 years later other Travelers scientists adventurers and researchers from foreign lands have discovered so much more about Maya civilization to the point where most Outsiders now know and appreciate its importance the Maya were a people of great achievements in the fields of mathematics astronomy calendrics architecture sculpture painting writing and political organization the more we learn about them the more profound our respect becomes foreign discoveries like the city of kalak Mall have only recently been made and even more still await discovery [Music] foreign Europeans to arrive on the North American mainland often did so by accident [Music] in 1511 Atop The towered decks of a swift fairing caravel state-of-the-art technology for the time Captain Juan Hernandez Valdivia was making his way from the recently conquered Coastline of Panama to Hispaniola foreign then all still thought to be part of the Indies somewhere between Europe and China [Music] he and his men had taken part in the conquest there but now headed back to the governor of Hispaniola to level a complaint against arrival [Music] heading past Uncharted shallows off Jamaica however the unthinkable happened the ship began to break up [Music] ultimately sending ten thousand crowns of gold and Untold lives to the depths of Poseidon just 18 survivors made it into the ship's lifeboat with no sales and not enough oars to go around 16 men and two women were helpless slowly drifting from Jamaica toward the Open Sea unbeknownst to them to the Yucatan Beyond no food or water seven more died on the accursed drifting for finally they were unceremoniously deposited on the island of Cozumel foreign [Music] for well over ten thousand years when the priests and priestesses of the Moon God ichshell saw The Castaways that the sea had given to them that day they must have rejoiced Cozumel was a place of pilgrimage for travelers from all over the region and Beyond coming from as far away as Nicaragua and Western Mexico to seek the blessings of the resident patron of Medicine [Music] thus the custodian of the shrine far from assuming the malnourished Europeans to be gods took the miserable looking guests on face value as Bounty of the sea gifts from the spirit world soon enough Captain Valdivia and four others were taken up to the temple where Gathering crowds rejoiced [Music] one by one their chests were sliced open still beating Hearts skillfully removed for all to see the bodies were eaten as brutal and barbaric as this may seem to us sacrifice was a deeply ingrained part of Maya Society a way of continuing prosperity ensuring the survival of the universe itself and all Humanity self-sacrifice by rulers was the most common practice elaborate rituals where Aristocrats would let their own blood for their people living in a different metaphysical reality than us this was a completely normal and necessary part of life as it was at some point in almost all societies on Earth the seven survivors were kept in a cage their fate to be fattened up for a later Festival [Music] one particularly difficult prisoner had his head split open with an ax [Music] he lived if it can be called that enduring for three more years at a dim-witted clown that the court of a local chief [Music] for the others gradually growing in strength in preparation for their impending sacrifice luck was with them eventually managing to escape they ultimately came into the possession of a more merciful ruler on the mainland by the name of a quincus [Music] seemingly content to allow them to live on as his slaves in the coming years the Relentless work of grinding Maize into flower and disease killed off all but two men the fate of each being very different [Music] one a priest named Geronimo de Aguilar would eventually be rescued by Hernan Cortes in 1519 [Music] by which time he'd almost forgotten Spanish and resembled a hermit [Music] he would go on to play a vital role in the conquest of Mexico As an interpreter foreign [Music] A Soldier of Fortune named Gonzalo Guerrero resolutely refused to return having gained the favor of a local King nachenkan he'd risen through the ranks as a useful War leader and by the time Cortez sent for him he had a wife children tattoos and as would happen so many more times over the coming centuries had completely integrated into Maya Society he even seems to have helped orchestrate effective resistance against the Spaniards but first in the late 1520s by giving misleading reports to Alonso Davila and Francisco de monteo about the whereabouts of the other which delayed their movements until 1531. and later with actual military campaign by 1535 his broken body is said to have been found amidst countless native allies struck down whilst leading a massive Fleet of 50 Walker news to Honduras to fight the Spanish there [Music] by the middle of the 16th century a mere single generation had passed from that time and old traditions Die Hard the Maya cut off from the outside world to develop in isolation since the last ice age existed in a different reality foreign [Music] their days had begun at sunset darkness ushering in the time of spirits and demons theirs was a society in awe at the wild world around them in tune with it and sometimes that world beautiful yet far from peaceful and easy going demanded sacrifice [Music] from the 1540s onwards when Mass conversions to Christianity began the merging of the Two Worlds had unusual results idiosyncrasies and syncretisms often tolerated by Christian priests as a means to an end as a result elements of the old Faith remained in the new for example in many areas alongside Christ the father and the Holy Spirit the cross itself was worshiped as a separate entity [Music] as early as the first half of the 16th century a certain priest named chilum anbal was burned alive his crime proclaiming himself to be the son of God thank you and in 1560 single generation or so after the conquest stranger events are spoken of too in that time prophecies had begun to spread through the land [Laughter] Talk of the return of a great storm that had ravaged Yucatan in the 15th century for the illiterate still largely unchristianized masses born into a world where the Divine and the supernatural could very much be bargained with it was obvious what had to be done to appease the rain God [Music] in the Church of satuta two boys were sacrificed by having their hearts torn out another two met the same fate apparently for the benefit of the mortally sick or chief of the community Juan kokom those responsible saying the following words Lord powerful God these Hearts we offer you and we sacrifice to you these boys in order that you may give life to our governor [Music] crucifixions were carried out as sacred sanitase in some cases victims being hurled in whilst still alive and nailed to the cross [Music] others were killed first and then hurled in some had their hearts torn out Juan kokom's brother Lorenzo was one notable leader of this partial return to the old gods personally sacrificing Three Boys by throwing them alive Into The Well of sacrifice at Chichen Itza again we are told of references to Christianity you see the figure of Jesus Christ and we offer to our Gods the hearts of these we have sacrificed let these girls die crucified as did Jesus Christ it's not difficult to see how the teachings of Christianity became entwined with the religion of the Maya the idea of the blood sacrifice at the core of the faith is the very reason why Christianity took off at all in the New World and for many Christians whose teachings emphasized Above All Else the merits of a good death martyrdom or dying for something was revered as the ultimate way to go arguably Christianity would not exist without martyrdom eight having won the faith its power and support during the early centuries emulating Christ was widely thought to have guaranteed a place in Paradise thus if suffering like Jesus and dying for God was an achievement then why not sacrifice especially if it could satiate the older Gods too [Music] not wishing to offend any of the deities there even seems to have been a preference for holding sacrifices during the Christian Holy Week thank you though the citizens of satuta and the surrounding areas no doubt believed what they were doing was for the good of their people Spain's retribution would be Swift the perceived slide back into paganism ultimately ending in one of the greatest tragedies of the entire Conquest enter Diego de Landa one of the earliest Franciscan friars to arrive in the Yucatan in 1549 at the age of just 25. Lander took it upon himself to save the souls of those he came into contact with personally walking the entirety of the peninsula to preach to the most remote villages fearlessly heading deep into only just conquered lands where anti-spanish sentiment was often still fierce early on he came into contact with the old faith his biographer Lopez de cogaludo recording one incident in particular where he came upon a crowd of 300 about to sacrifice a boy [Music] enraged delander embarked on what he saw is the only solution destroying idols and preaching [Music] 1561 by then a veteran Churchman when delander heard of the events at satuta as far as he was concerned there was only one thing for it the governor Diego kawada agreed Inquisition [Music] just like had happened and would continue to happen in the religious wars burning across Europe Diego de Landa was granted special powers to prosecute and question Heretics outside of the law much of what we know of the events to follow come from his own writings [Music] upon hearing of the approach of the Spaniards Lorenzo cacom committed suicide thousands of others wouldn't be so lucky [Music] in the orgy of publicly executed Mass violence that followed four thousand five hundred and forty nine men and women were paraded in the streets before they were tortured on mass in the Town Square a total of 6330 were fined all meticulously recorded for posterity some suffered as many as 200 lashes several dying from their wounds [Music] others were hung upside down naked with heavy Stones tied to their feet still more suffered the excruciating Agony of being tied to the burrow or wooden frame all the while priests and inquisitors hovered around the hellish scene dripping scolding hot wax onto the naked bodies of their captives as they ever presented parchment and ink for anyone willing to confess [Music] perhaps most horrid of all was a technique reserved for individuals deemed to be particularly guilty the mouth of the victim would be held open as gallons of water were poured in the torturers would then jump on the extended belly a hideous mixture of blood and water then pouring out of the mouth nose and ears it's not known exactly how many died as a result of torture on that day but probably around 200. and yet there was even more tragedy to come for when the confessions inevitably began mounting up the purging would begin after enduring the worst of delander's torches one of the high-ranking men of the town Juan kokom eventually admitted to having three Idols in his possession this wasn't nearly enough for the inquisitors and eventually after yet more excruciating Agony he admitted to 20 more only after Juan admitted to having 29 Idols in his possession was he allowed respite from the pain what these Idols were exactly remains unclear but in delanda's own writings he describes the total Hall similarly extracted from the leading figures of the town Hayden since the Spanish Conquest 13. great carved altar stones 22 smaller stones 197 ornate varsis and most important of all 27 dear skin roles of Priceless pre-conquest hieroglyphic writing in 1562 out on the plaza in front of the church where once pyramids and temples had loomed everything was destroyed the idols smashed apart Priceless Maya books kept in secret since the conquest burned delanda wasn't without his own critics the situation became so controversial that he was eventually ordered to Spain to account for his actions [Music] though ultimately they were deemed to be justified [Music] the persecutions and purges would continue [Music] the tragedy at Manny was just one example of similar purges going on over hundreds of years [Music] resulting in many areas in a complete severing of Maya connections to their own past in time even traditional my address would be banned the ornate patterns often having meanings and hidden symbols that could no longer be tolerated [Music] when Cortez first arrived in the Yucatan in 1519 he'd seen plenty of manuscript roles with his own eyes written on long sheets of paper made from the inner bark of a variety of trees Testament to a once flourishing literary tradition but as the years went by their very existence would be forgotten for hundreds of years only in the 20th century with the World At Large remember that the Maya had even possessed writing at all today a mere three or four Mayan codices survive and yet Diego de Landa is a wildly paradoxical figure the book that he eventually wrote is by far our most complete source for the 16th century Maya as much as he worked to destroy their Pagan culture he often talks of them with respect [Music] doing more than anyone else to record their culture just as he consigned it to history at the same at the same time he was horrified yet curious and this curiosity leading to Accurate descriptions of the original layouts of Mayan cities like tahu and itsamal both turned into Spanish Colonial centers the only reason we have any information about them at all tradition of Stevens and catherwood he even conjectured about the Mayans of yore how their cities had been much larger in the past [Music] by the early 20th century though much had changed for the better most Scholars were of the opinion that although the Maya certainly recorded astronomical phenomena in their texts it was unlikely that they recorded history instead their writing being a Priestly esoteric language never meant for General use or mass consumption in regular Society this had not been the opinion of John Lloyd Stevens recording his thoughts in customary flowery prose markers say historians was peopled by Savages but Savages never read these structures Savages never carved these stones standing as they do on the depths of a tropical forest silent and solemn strange in design excellent in sculpture rich in ornament their whole history so entirely unknown with hieroglyphics explaining all but perfectly unintelligible no champollion has yet brought to them the energies of his inquiring mind [Music] who shall read them [Music] his words were prescient because as the 20th century unfolded his hunch would turn out to be correct the Maya did indeed record their histories meticulously writing of kings and queens marriages genealogies alliances and conflicts the road of decipherment has been a long one undertaken by thousands of individuals over hundreds of years and it is still very much in process but great progress has been made foreign ly it was Diego de Landa's writings that laid the groundwork count of events in Yucatan contained many interviews with Maya during the immediate post-conquest period including literate scribes Who provided Vital Information about Maya hieroglyphs but most importantly of all he recorded their calendar drawings of the day and month signs as well as the then undecipherable alphabet [Music] ironically that date from the Maya calendar along with a written book known as the Chilean balam dating from just after the conquest would form the starting point for successful attempts to decipher the Maya script in the decades following Stevens and catherwood's expeditions with the help of delander's work and sources like the Chillum balam many scholars attempted and failed to translate the Maya writing system [Music] a major issue being the assumed link to Egyptian hieroglyphics successfully translated by Frenchman jean-francois champollion just a few decades earlier only when the rule book of the old world was thrown out entirely did scholars begin to realize they'd been reading the scripts backwards finally by the latter half of the century developments began to be made notable pioneers of the decipherment of mathematical and astronomical symbols were Ernst forstermann a philologist and head of the Dresden Library who interpreted the month signs and many numerical symbols including the zero and the Maya Long Count and J Thomas Goodman a Nevada newsman and friend of Mark Twain who found the correlation between the Maya calendar and the modern Western one color glyphs were deciphered by Edward seller it's deity names by Paul shelus by the early 20th century the astronomical and calendrical records of the Maya were so well understood that Scholars even repudiated phonetic approaches to the Maya writing system foreign in fact as late as the 1950s it was still being argued that the Maya texts were entirely logographic containing no historical information [Music] it was on the Asuma Center River deep in the Wilds of Guatemala that one of the great breakthroughs of the Maya Code would be made [Music] like Guatemala itself it's a Nar wattle word thought to have been named as such by The Mercenaries of Alvarado the cruel in the mid 16th century by his time it was a largely unpopulated land having been abandoned by city builders some 600 years earlier [Music] but during the height of the Classical period this had been one of the most densely populated and Powerful regions in the entire Maya world great cities like yakshilan dos pilus and naranjo dominating and vying for water traffic along with many other smaller sites that they fought over during their long histories [Music] it was at one of these powerhouses Piedras negras that a young scholar of Russian descent worked in the 1930s amidst crocodile infested waters and overgrown Banks Tatiana proscoriakov would first have the idea that the stellers and monuments found at sites like this were indeed recording historical events foreign ments of rulers with corresponding dates [Music] when later in life she along with other Scholars like Heinrich Berlin were able to prove this to be true Berlin noticing in 1958 that certain glyphs seemed to refer to cities or ruling dynasties one of the first great surprises in a long line the Paradigm would shift completely thus far Mayan writing had been interpreted semantically each sign being seen as a logogram holding a certain meaning but the work of Scholars like Yuri kosarov and David Kelly finally established that many Maya glyphs were to be read phonetically for like Old World writing systems this is a syllabic script foreign work has only continued since then and today about 80 percent of the most common glyphs have been deciphered the pace of progress has increased as more and more Scholars dedicate themselves to the Endeavor a breakthrough sometimes generating a chain of decipherments a major boost in the understanding of Maya history came when a team of Scholars reconstructed the Royal dynasty of Palenque identifying the names of the rulers beginning with pacal the Great sometimes referred to as the Alexander of the new world others worked out other references in the texts like rituals dates deities and ancestors the result being that an amazingly detailed Chronicle of palenque's History could be revealed but more on that later [Music] another team led by Linda shell and David Stewart uncovered some of the history of Copan [Music] and in 2000 Simon Martin and Nikolai group published a landmark book titled Chronicle of the Maya kings and queens providing the dynastic history of no less than 11 major classic Maya kingdoms a work Stevens and catherwood could only have dreamed of today vast amounts of information is known about the ancient Maya astonishing amounts perhaps more even than most 16th century Maya themselves [Music] not only his decipherment of Maya writing revealed the history of the ruling dynasties but much about their cosmology religious beliefs astronomical science calendars and rituals but where did it all begin where did the Maya come from in order to answer these questions we must go back to the very beginnings of archeology in the New World and of Mesoamerican culture in the first place [Music] one day in the late 1850s the exact year is lost a farm worker clearing out a field in southern Veracruz Came Upon something unusual in the ground amidst the rocks and Roots scattered in the scrub of the Hacienda huayapan his Spade hit something tough and unexpected [Music] urged to continue his work and dig out what he and his boss suspected to be a large iron cauldron from the colonial period to the man's great surprise it wasn't long before a great colossal eye stared back [Music] further digging revealed an entire gigantic head crafted a volcanic Stone and hidden in the ground for thousands of years the discovery was the first in a series of immaculately carved Goliath heads that would be found in the coming decades thought to represent the Kings or shamanic Chiefs of a long deceased civilization some 2 500 years after their fall the olmecs had re-emerged [Music] all but forgotten until that day cernable Trace that they'd ever existed at all not even their stories survived name itself meaning rubber people is one given to the Region's inhabitants by the Aztecs speaking of their own trade links with the descendants of that once Great Society separated by eons for it was here along Mexico's Gulf Coast that some of the very first sedentary farming cultures in mesoamerica flourished and though the situation is now thought to have been much more complicated the olmecs are still regarded by many archaeologists as the best candidate for a Mesoamerican mother culture from which all others like the Maya sprung centuries of study has shown between around 1150 and 900 BC the olmecs came to prominence [Applause] destruction of a low Hilltop ceremonial Center known today as San Lorenzo surrounded by well-organized farmlands and sedentary settlements for by this time the staple Mesoamerican agricultural package of maize beans and squash was already in full swing the Monumental construction of San Lorenzo required hundreds of laborers to level the peak of a Hilltop thus it was likely achieved by a society with social stratification the carved Stone monuments at San Lorenzo are of the same type as at many other sites in the region including the famous array of colossal carved Stone heads some incredibly lifelike seeming to portray specific character traits in rulers [Music] undoubtedly they represent a unified culture over a relatively wide area existing for hundreds of years another major site of the olmecs was found at leventa sitting on a salt Dome surrounded by swamp in the middle pre-classic era between 1 000 and 500 BC laventa Island became a large and complex settlement complete with Monumental architecture and structures depicting Elite individuals and religious symbols like the Maya rather than a singular State the olmecs seemed to have been organized into a series of chiefdoms depictions of their rulers seated in caves or niches symbolizing the threshold between the physical and the supernatural worlds is an indication of their Authority as stewards of religion perhaps as well as secular matters [Music] placating the forces of the supernatural for their people sometimes seeming to take on animal features in shamanistic rituals as they mediated and traveled in the spirit world the idea that the Olmec culture was the source of all subsequent civilization in mesoamerica was accepted for well over a century but in recent years as knowledge of the pre-classic era has developed come increasingly apparent that while the olmecs certainly represented an especially important and influential Society leaving behind distinctive and impressive artifacts no longer can we say that they were the Mesoamerican mother culture from which all others sprung today the evidence shows that many complex Mesoamerican societies arose side by side but independently in the middle pre-classic era beginning towards the end of the second millennium BC each adapting to their own unique environmental setting as time went on these early societies began to interact with one another through trade and other relationships thus no one culture influenced all the others instead they each had their own Innovations which would then be adopted by their neighbors the olmecs most certainly were innovators of important practices as early as the second millennium BC including the erection of freestanding monuments dedicated to rulers and perhaps also writing though this is still a matter of debate thank you though it's important to remember that other cultures contributed to it is in these early days at the end of the second millennium BC that the very beginnings of a distinctly mire style can be found Styles which will persist for an astonishing length of time [Music] first developing into massive centers like nakbe El Mirador and kamino Ju and later after their fall into the classic sites [Music] finally post-classic [Music] the waxing and waning over thousands of years foreign [Music] in recent years the incorporation of new technologies like lidar ground surveys has completely revolutionized archeology entire cities and vast Temple complexes alike being uncovered without having to do any digging at all foreign an aerial server using lidar revealed the ruins of an immense ceremonial Center at Aguada Phoenix [Music] built atop an artificial Plateau 1400 meters long and about 15 meters in height with nine causeways jutting out from it in all directions having been built between around 1 000 and 800 BC it is the oldest Monumental Maya construction ever discovered and paradoxically one of the largest [Music] its existence calls into question the theory that Maya civilization developed slowly over several centuries [Music] generally when archaeologists and historians speak of Maya civilization they mean complex society referring essentially to Urban Development markers of complex society include significant expansion of population and trade networks intensive agriculture craft specialization record keeping systems large-scale public works carved monuments and unmistakable evidence of organized Warfare [Music] early first millennium BC all of these emerge within just a few centuries far surpassing the Society of the olmecs in terms of size complexity and sheer grandeur foreign civilization emerged in two zones of mesoamerica [Music] the southern Maya area along the Pacific coast and Highlands shortly thereafter the Maya lowlands in the North although these regions are separated by geographical distance and obstacles clearly shown by the multitudes of different Maya languages and dialects interaction between the regions spurred on their growth and development bringing in goods and ideas from far off lands this process of the transference of goods and ideas far from unique in the world began in the middle pre-classic period between 1 000 and 400 BC when certain individuals through a variety of opportunities were able to acquire resources others did not have access to thus leading just like in the ancient near East China and Africa alike to social stratification and political control by a ruling class [Music] gradually growing in power until they were considered divine competition between these communities over resources ultimately led to increased Warfare [Music] the most attractive regions those with prime soil the best resources or sacred status are where most people wanted to live and so that is where the cities grew [Music] these polity capitals public plazas were built followed by monuments Elite residences and ceremonial precincts this is where the rulers had their power bases and were the centers of religious economic and funerary activities [Music] until recently the largest known architecture of the middle pre-classic was seen at places like leblanca and chalchuapa in the southern area Los mangales is a site where examples of early tombs can be found discovered by the important 20th century mayanist Michael D Coe however in the outskirts of Guatemala City between 400 and 100 BC Amina yulu grew to become the largest and most powerful polity in the southern area controlling the Jade and obsidian trade huge site that once covered over five square kilometers including a number of irrigation canals its remaining Earthen mounts Are All That Remains of the Adobe plastered platforms that once supported buildings of wood thatch and mud plaster though generally considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made in the New World today a mere tiny portion survives at an archaeological Park the rest having been swallowed by Guatemalan real estate developers in the 20th century [Music] meanwhile great developments were happening out in the sea of trees of the baten lowlands where later kalak mall would arise first at the city of nakbay considered one of the earliest of all Mayan cities [Music] and then at El Mirador [Music] where archaeologist Richard Hansen has worked for decades here immense architecture dominated [Music] at El Mirador the largest temples that the ancient Maya would ever build were constructed along with great causeways across the Hinterlands connecting the place both spiritually and economically with its subordinate satellites [Music] stunned group of structures at El Mirador is dominated by the massive El Tigre triadic Temple still only partially excavated and little understood but even larger by its sheer mass is the ladanta temple in the Eastern group rising to a height of 70 meters it is the tallest ancient structure that has been found to date in mesoamerica just slightly higher than even the Temple of the Sun at teotiwakan still covered in trees and scrub today it is considered by many archaeologists to be the largest pyramid in the entire world it's built at such an early stage in my own history baffles the mind like Old Kingdom Egypt the power of those earliest rulers being absolute [Music] it's still not clear whether El Mirador and kamino liuju represent the first Maya State systems other centers still existing in both regions [Music] notably no historical inscriptions or names of any rulers have ever been recovered from any of these pre-classic sites for long their world would come to an end [Music] something happened in the terminal pre-classic that sent Maya civilization into decline economic and political disturbances of a nature we have not been able to ascertain saw the downfall of kamenally yuju El Mirador and other powerful centers and the complete abandonment of others [Music] perhaps caused by overpopulation environmental degradation pestilence war or a combination of all but this did not end Maya civilization there was still much land for the taking where people would relocate pre-classic downfall Paving the way for the resurrection of a host of new state-level polities in the period to follow [Music] the people some went back to the forest others moved out to neighboring centers to begin anew foreign [Music] forty eight a small band of adventurers made their way through the dense forests of northern Guatemala [Music] heading north from the remote island settlement of Flores based on their names at least they numbered Mayans amongst their ranks their leader Ambrosio Tutt a Maya name was the governor of the town though unfortunately due to an inability to read or write it is to His companion Colonel Modesto Mendes Chief magistrate of Flores that we must turn for the story [Music] near the center of the patan the land was then still extremely inhospitable Flores being an island of calm within the vast Wilderness of green and yet out there in the expanse protected from visitors for a thousand years stood a great City of the Ancients unlike at Copan there were no local myths that spoke of the place it having been forgotten entirely foreign and yet it was here that perhaps the greatest of all Mayan cities once stood [Music] nowhere else is there such evidence of the immense Pride felt by the city's Elites [Music] confident in the Perpetual continuity and celebration of their achievements foreign T and Mendes had rediscovered the city of Tikal of all the Mayan cities this one alone is consistently cited as the foremost in both size and splendor today takal still sprawls for miles and miles around skyscrapers looming everywhere you look foreign City in a Land of metropolises the only rival superpower to come close to its Supremacy being the snake Kingdom of kalak Mall but that wouldn't be uncovered for more than a century to come this city was not of the world of El Mirador and nakbe that came before but a new one very different in some ways yet strikingly similar in others the gods of those first powerhouses had failed and now individuals would arise of similarly large centers God Kings now possessing writing the histories of this new classic age speak of Star Wars [Music] where the usual ritualistic skirmishes to seek sacrificial victims were set aside in favor of total battle they speak of contacts with the outside world too war-like newcomers coming down from the valley of Mexico to the north from where in later centuries would stem the Aztecs as well as other neighboring peoples as far south as the jungles of Costa Rica the first signs of an increasingly Cosmopolitan Land open to Travelers and Invaders from afar foreign it's possible that references to a great City in the forest made by a certain priest named alvanado lost in the forest for several weeks during the subjugation of Flores in 1696. could have referenced Tikal [Music] but even after its rediscovery in the 1850s it took decades for word to slowly trickle out even longer for the archaeologists to move in the early 1880s British Explorer Alfred maldsley came to investigate the place but it was Austrian archaeologist tierbert mailer who thoroughly surveyed it for the first time in the 1890s and 1900s foreign s along the eerily unpopulated Usama Sinta River [Music] one of the largest rivers in Central America where he also rediscovered the cities of naranjo and altered to sacrificio by this time the immense diversity of classic Maya sites had become apparent like the River Port of yakshilan terrorist dos pilas and of course sprawling to Cal these were the centers of the classic era the very Pinnacle and apogee of Mayan civilization but how did it all begin between around 200 and 600 A.D after a brief Hiatus a great phase of growth took place throughout the Maya world in the lowlands following the collapse of El Mirador series of powerful independent states emerged perhaps because they were freed from Domination by that great city of old foreign of individual dynasties were now able to increase their own authority taking complete control of their resources and people ever fueled by competition with neighbors one of these states was Tikal anciently known as Mutual [Music] today it is one of the largest and best documented Maya cities instrumental in our understanding of the early classic period and now thanks to the written inscriptions found on monuments all over the site we can even tell some of its history [Music] around the year 100 to Cal's ruling dynasty was founded by a shadowy figure named Yash ebsuke interestingly there are indications that he had come to takal from kaminal juyu just like at kalak mall home of the snake Dynasty where there are some indications of links with El Mirador on the north-south axis of the north Acropolis at takal in 1962 a richly furnished tomb was found burial 85 as it is called contained The Headless skeleton of a very tall man some believe these to be the remains of the great progenitor of tikal's Royal House yaksh ebsuke [Music] laid to rest all those centuries ago in the central Acropolis of takal sits the Royal Palace of Shack talk ichac the first sometimes known as Jaguar poor who ruled in the later 4th century a good example of the architectural style of this period the remains of Estella were found depicting the bottom half of shaktak ikshak his legs are just about visible he carries an ax shaped like a Jaguar poor and is standing on a bound captive interestingly this might be one of the very last orders carried out by the king for from the north in the valley of Mexico a leviathan approached the great city of the Mesoamerican World flexing its muscle the inscription Bears a date corresponding to 376 A.D two years later Shack talk it Shack the first was killed in a violent takeover led by a certain or fire is born [Music] a warlord referring to himself as lord of the West likely indicating the direction from which he had come [Music] as was the want of a Victorious War leader fire is born took the throne for himself before initiating a further campaign of expansion at this time a central Mexican Powerhouse largest pre-columbian city the new world had ever seen was beginning to extend its influence into the Maya area in an effort to more directly control the trade routes in cacao cotton Jade and other commodities of course this was the age of teoti wakhan known by the Aztecs who couldn't fathom the mighty ruins of their own day to have been the work of mortal men as the place of the Gods foreign established a colony at Montana that dominated trade in the central part of the Pacific Coastal Plain for more than two centuries its influence on certain Maya cities can be seen in architecture built during this period clearly displaying teotihuacano Artistic Styles and Tikal is one of these sites it may be that fire is born was from teotiwakan or at least an Allied Power working on its behalf [Music] there is a great deal of archaeological evidence to link the Maya world with that great city of the North for example a number of specific Mayan Merchant quarters in the city have been found [Music] in the coming decades with the help of teotihuacan we know that Tikal was able to increase its power to eventually impose its authority over other powerful centers including washaktun Rio Azul and kopan where new rulers would be enthroned subordinate status achieved from this point onwards the kings of takal are often depicted wearing military regalia derived from Central Mexico like these goggle eyes worn by the rain God tallock the city solidified its control over other polities through military conquest and Royal marriages designed to ferment Alliance during the reign of siash Chan kawil II who ruled from 4 11 to 456. the first phase of tikal's History reached the very height of its power but times were changing that great king had chose to return to the traditional Maya ways of old associating himself with the original Dynasty founded by Yash ebsuke some 300 years earlier [Music] a fascinating document has been discovered from his reign Stella 31 as archaeologists call it This Magnificent Monument depicts sias Chan kawil in all his glory on the front but on the back is an extensive hieroglyphic text recounting the entirety of the early history of the city historic texts of this sort are extremely rare [Music] further south in what is Honduras today they are another important city from this time Copan evidence suggests that a new polity was established here by takal in the early 5th Century seeking to extend its reach into the southern Borderlands in order to secure access to valuable resources like Jade and obsidian this lens interesting Credence to the story from palacio's visit in the 16th century of a great king coming from the north to found the place although there had been earlier rulers the dynasty founded here by Tikal began with the accession of chinch yak cookmo the beneficiary of an orchestrated Takeover in 426 he may have been related in some way to fire his born from Tikal because he too took on the title lord of the West or perhaps he had secured his authority by marrying a royal woman from fire is born's family he appears to have been an elite Lord into Cal prior to his assuming Authority in kopan a unique Source from the site is Alter Q which depicts the kings in yakshukmo's Dynasty 16 of them around four sides one image depict the great founder King himself handing the Royal scepter to the current King the 16th [Music] although it hasn't a hundred percent been established to be his a tomb found in the honal structure at Copan probably contains the remains of that re-founder of kopan's greatness [Music] for here was found the skeleton of a male estimated to have been between 55 and 75 years old [Music] his teeth had been notched and inlaid with Jade discs he wore a teoti wakano style shell platelet helmet his body had suffered many injuries none of which were the cause of death [Music] due to these injuries it's been hypothesized that he could have been a ball player as well as a warrior [Music] the tomb was sealed series of superimposed funerary temples over the years were built on top of it the most famous of the structures at kopan is the hieroglyphic stairway completed in the reign of the 15th King [Music] the largest of its kind found anywhere in the New World the text on the stairs records the history of the dynasty [Music] to the north meanwhile the can or snake dynasty was on the rise soon to be the most powerful ruling house in all of mesoamerica thank you [Music] as we have seen the snakes may have had their origin in El Mirador before moving elsewhere avars listing the early rulers of the dynasty refer to a man named skyraiser [Music] may have been the founder or re-founder of former greatness now centered at zebanch to the north seen in records at cities as far away as Belize where longtime Ally Caracol ruled the snakes steadily grew in power as Rivals to decal a monument at zebanch is the Temple of the captives constructed in 464. it features a hieroglyphic stairway enumerating the captives taken in a battle by yuksom Chen king of zebanch at the time when teoti wakan pulled its support for Tikal and other Mayan cities in the 6th century ultimately collapsing entirely before long in a Maelstrom of violence the snakes had the perfect opportunity to capitalize onto Cal's weakness [Music] establishing a substantial series of alliances with other lowland kingdoms that eventually nearly surrounded takal [Music] on April 29th 562 zabanch's King Sky witness accompanied by forces from Caracol naranjo and halmall crushed to Cal in a decisive battle city was sacked its portal to the other world captured it's King probably sacrificed on one of his own altars for this was the age of the so-called Star Wars fought entirely for Conquest rather than ritual battle for sacrificial victims Sky Witnesses too can be found in the temple of the cormorants at sibanch his skull riddled with scars shows him to have been the veteran of many battles shortly thereafter the Khan Dynasty decided to move to a new location great Royal Center for a great Dynasty the city of kalak Mall in the southern Yucatan its existence rediscovered only in the later 20th century for the next Century this place would be the dominant power in the region growing to an immense size its allies too growing Mighty in the wake of tikal's collapse Intercity competition was a key feature of Maya politics Maya States being defined by War the goal of which being to acquire and expand resources labor and prestige raids were often used to gain spoils and tribute when Victorious armies took large numbers of captives they would be added to the workforce and the more they could take the more it would add to the state's prestige [Music] that's why there are so many monuments featuring accounts of the taking of captives these practices reinforced the centralization of authority and the stratification of society success in battle was achieved primarily by targeting an enemy State's subordinate towns instead of going after the state capitals [Music] But as time went on and various Powers attempted to outdo each other the size and intensity of the wars could not help but increase [Music] and yet at other times we're told that Wars could be fought entirely on the ball court representatives of rival Powers playing for the continued prosperity of their cities major encounters were usually led by the king himself he being carried around on an elaborate palanquin flanked by Effigies of Patron gods foreign if an army could capture one of the Effigies of the enemy's Patron deities it was considered a noteworthy accomplishment in most cases the capture of an enemy King himself would not even be attempted but in the more momentous battles the so-called Star Wars or Star shell Wars when both Kings were present and the objective was to conquer the other state completely taking of the other side's ruler and capital city was necessary [Music] and yet though these conflicts were particularly bloody even though a vanquished king would be disgraced and even sacrificed on occasion Concord States would not be incorporated into the Victor's side from what we can tell Maya ideology tended to protect above all the continuity of a royal Dynasty [Music] perhaps the elites simply didn't want to risk their own authority by showing that a dynasty could be overthrown or perhaps this was simply inconceivable due to the semi-divine status of Royal houses [Music] so instead they would find someone else from the same Dynasty to take the defeated King's place forced to become vassal or subordinate to the Victorious King thus after defeat by kalak mall Tikal was never annihilated though it did greatly reduce in population and significance Monumental projects halting for a Time of course it would arise again [Music] 's power reached its apogee during the reign of yuknum the Great ruling between 636 and about 686 accomplished by a string of Victories against Tikal and its allies extending the influence of the city farther than it had ever been but takal was not out yet [Music] beginning in the reign of Joshua Chan kawil who took the throne in 682 Tikal began to renew its power and its prestige through a program of cultural revitalization with an emphasis on the glories of the past finally in 695 jasor Chan kawil marched his forces against the snake ruler yuknum yuchak [Music] there after a century unchallenged snakes were finally defeated [Music] the forces of takal capturing a huge Effigy of a kalak mall God armies apparently carried images like these as a form of divine protection on the battlefield and if an enemy could capture one it was considered a major Trophy and a religious victory [Music] foreign wooden lintel found into cow's Temple One portrays Joshua Chan kawil celebrating his great Triumph he sits on his throne and at his feet is the captured kalak Mall deity the remains of a stucco panel on one of tikal's buildings structure 5D 57 shows the great king jasso Chang kawil with a bound captive before him [Music] before they were sacrificed into Cal the unfortunate kalak Mall prisoners of war from this battle were put on display for all to see clear indication of the changing fortunes of the city [Music] although it was jasor Chan kawil who started the process of restoring to Cal's fortunes it was his son who finished the job 7 36 two years after taking the throne he again defeated kalak Mall in a major battle with the snake Kingdom reeling he followed up the victory with a series of defeats over kalak Mall's allies breaking up the confederation [Music] the cow once again was back on top the position it would hold until the collapse of both cities around a century later this Final Phase of the classic era was when many of the greatest and most elaborate temples were built final Grandeur before the fall for out in the countryside where immense tracts of forest had already been hacked down to make the necessary lime to coat the increasingly large pyramids and temples supporting the increasingly top heavy ruling classes the cracks were already beginning to show [Music] in the jungles of Chiapas howler monkeys scream trees dance ancient Mysteries beckon 46. father Antonio de Solis arrived here with his brothers their wives and a whole tribe of sons daughters and nephews seeking land to cultivate and a new beginning [Music] as they began to roam around their New Forest Home far Southern edge of Mexico out in the tree line they began to find ruined houses built of stone long since covered over in dense vegetation some ripped asunder by Massive Vines it had been a long time since anyone had lived here as they continued exploring it wasn't long before vast pyramids rose up from the trees they were the first known people from the old world to step foot in this city of the new dead for nearly 1 000 years [Music] as word slowly trickled out about Palenque [Music] three official government Expeditions were dispatched between 1784 and 1807. yet even so a surprisingly long time would pass before news of the place reached receptive ears in Europe Communications with the outside world then still moving along at a glacial pace the forest and the deeply conservative Spanish Colonial Administration holding all in its embrace some 200 years would pass before intense modern archaeological investigations would begin this time carried out not by a European or an American but a Mexican [Music] Alberto ruse La Julia arrived at Palenque in 1949. he wouldn't finish digging there until nearly 10 years later by which time perhaps the single greatest find in the entire history of Mayan archeology had well and truly taken place [Music] it all began with the clearing of the undergrowth around the large Monumental structure known as the Temple of the inscriptions noticing that the lower wall did not in fact end at ground level lahula and his team began to dig under the valley floor [Music] getting down several meters to a stone opening and vaulted staircase [Music] the piles of rubble filling the Gap excavations would have to wait until the beginning of the fourth season in 1952 [Music] year by year step by step lahulier and his team were working towards the greatest discovery yet seen in the Americas eventually the staircase reached a corridor lay down with boxes of shells Pottery Cinnabar and Jade an early indication of what could be held Within for Jade most sought after of all Mayan Goods represented death and the afterlife up to this point no Mayan tombs had ever been excavated unlooted surviving burials being especially rare finally the corridor ended in a large vaulted room its walls coated in decorated stucco reliefs traces of pigments showing them to have once been colorfully painted and in the center of the room stood a vast carved block of decorated Stone [Music] an ornate slab now famous around the world any resemblance to aliens of course is just a coincidence [Music] upon removing the slab to the team's great joy a skeleton was found within face covered in an ornate death mask of jade eyes of shell and obsidian his body adorned with all matter of pendants diadems Rings bracelets ear and neck ornaments all crafted of Jade the most precious material in the Maya world symbolic of Life Death and immortality second casket contained six other bodies thought to have been sacrificial victims perhaps aiding the King on his way to divinity as visualized by the surrounding stucco and sculptures buried under the forest floor for well over a thousand years for cow's tomb had re-emerged from its slumber [Music] [Applause] it's difficult to overstate the importance of the discovery of that long-deceased King ultimately changing everything in Maya studies pyramids rather than being entirely external monuments could play a funerary role even containing the tombs of long-deceased rulers and in pacal's case when eventually his story could be told he'd become the most famous Mayo ruler of them all coming to power at the age of just 12. pakal resided over an extraordinary era for Palenque waging Wars and politicking with other powerhouses of the region like Piedras negras and tanina and engaging in a massive series of construction projects during his lengthy reign some of the most impressive the Maya ever built and yet no matter how extraordinary pacal was just one of a long tradition of dinasts to rule over this influential Kingdom because just like in much of the rest of the world the most important social and political entity in Maya Society was the ruling house those in the upper echelons possessing an estate of hereditary wealth both material and immaterial maintaining power over a specific location for many centuries often the entire lifetime of a city these houses were defined by Common Origins kinship marriage alliances religious beliefs and the desire to keep power and Status restricted to their group [Music] thank you one particularly interesting facet of these Elite groups is that the ruling dynasties were not only governed by lineal descent through both patrilineal and matrilineal descendants but also through lines of succession Descent of power and property in other words a ruler might not be tied to the ancestral founder of a dynasty genealogically but simply through inheritance he and in some cases she would still be considered a descendant of the ancestor regardless of the bloodline [Music] perhaps allowing certain capable individuals to be promoted through Merit rather than simply heritage can let talk the most famous ruler at the city of ekbalam was one such figure you can watch my video here on that City to find out more [Music] nevertheless the position of Monarch still tended to be exclusively reserved for members of the ruling house which identified by a specific emblem glyph royal power in Maya Society was based on an elaborate ideology including an entire world view the dictated both the behavior of the people and the behavior of the ruler first of all the Maya King's legitimacy was owed to Superior military prowess the ability to protect the people collect tribute from defeated enemies [Music] the accumulation of tribute led to economic success [Music] we don't know exactly how much Kings managed the production and distribution of food and other necessities of life but we know that they did manage the production and trade of prestige Goods they also commanded a sizable dedicated Workforce through Labor owed to them by the people [Music] of course these rulers tended to monopolize the wealth most easily shown in the Sumptuous palaces that they built and resided in isolated from the rest of the people the actual physical differences between Elites and Communists are often profound too being seen in the archaeological record by height differences showing clear disparities between the protein-rich foods that only the elites had access to [Music] and the ever so slightly malnourished everybody else a conscious effort was also even made to make the groups look different from each other Elites using cranial deformation to make themselves stand out as a people apart touched by the divine but there were times when commoner and Highborn alike got together during festivals when rulers would often engage in self-sacrifice [Music] piercing their bodies in painfully elaborate ways to bloodlet for the common good [Music] and at the ball court constant in Mayan cities and neighboring cultures as far north as Arizona and as far south as Costa Rica where similarly ritualistic games and displays were played out likely for all to see foreign courts are a constant at Mayan cities usually being moderate in size but sometimes like a Chichen Itza they are absolutely massive seeming to be far too large to play an actual game but just the right size for rituals and festivities park to park the oldest ball game in the world a version of which was played in the second millennium BC is still played today in many areas of Mexico and Guatemala has a national team while the rules have varied over time and space on a basic level it hasn't changed much Team game with the aim being to get the rubber ball into the hoop using only the hip to do so and yet far more than just a game to those watching this was a ritual of life and death perhaps representing certain elements of religion and the birth and the continuation of the universe players often died during gameplay such as one account just after the conquest from Diego Duran and sometimes either the losing or the winning team would be would be sacrificed afterwards like the Olympic Games of ancient Greece it may have had a festival element to it too [Music] a coming together for societal good [Music] the people who'd be at those games looking on seeking patronage perhaps where the Communists as well as the elite something along these lines might even be at the very heart of civilization itself [Music] the goings-on the places like poverty point in the U.S and ancient henges in neolithic Europe might not have been too dissimilar [Music] the ball game has been played for as long as societies have existed in this part of the world [Music] as we have seen the Maya were never unified politically into a single state their world was organized into a system of independent kingdoms some large and some small over a span of 2 000 years from about 600 BC to 1500 A.D many Maya polities Rose and fell some survived several centuries others for much longer the city of lamini was able to survive for 2 000 years but such success was a rarity each Maya polity had a capital city and usually some dependencies forming a multi-tiered hierarchy of administrative centers the closer to the capital that a center was the higher it ranked because power was defined by territorial extent the more settlements under the capital's control the more formidable it would be [Music] there is still disagreement amongst Scholars as to how centralized power actually was [Music] but it would seem that like the early Greek polis and the Italian city-states of the Renaissance there was diversity in organization political and societal structure [Music] by the late classic period most of the Maya lowlands were full of human settlements including major cities towns and thousands of rural communities the highest concentration of populations tended to be near water and at the best agricultural land often coming in the form of cenotase natural sinkholes in the ground and less commonly by the side of rivers which are non-existent in the northern region as we've seen there were two basic classes in Maya Society Elites and everybody else though the dividing line between them is not so clear-cut some social Mobility being possible [Music] the groups were differentiated by how much access they had to resources often seen in where their residences were located or how they were buried upon death [Music] as you might expect the elites were distinguished by wealth which they were entitled to primarily by inheritance rank or marriage the elites tended to live near the city centers which contained the temples palaces ball courts and other public buildings as well as the most desired and best protected residences [Music] craftspeople stayed close to the center so that they could participate in Market activity agricultural laborers lived in the countryside consensus on how large these populations were has varied considerably over the centuries one recent estimate indicates that Tikal one of the largest polities had a total population of approximately 92 000 [Music] with 11 300 living in the city center just over 50 000 living on a periphery and thirty thousand in the surrounding rural areas [Music] but further lidar studies could put this number considerably higher Maya trade existed on the local Regional and long distance levels diversity in the environment and in the culture leading people to develop their own unique craft and product specializations thus encouraging the growth of trade networks to distribute Goods resources and services Maya products that were traded over long distances that is to various neighboring portions of Central America included agricultural products basketry dyes and pigments condiments pottery and textiles these are items that all of the Maya traded but each had their own local characteristics the lowlands specialized in Cotton chert lime salt tobacco cacao opal and jaguar pelts the highlands specialized in grinding Stones obsidian volcanic ash Cinnabar jadeite pyrite and Serpentine the coastal areas meanwhile specialized in things like Balsam sugar fish shells shark teeth and tortoise shells although it is difficult to determine from the archaeological record alone it appears that a merchant class had developed by the classic period professional Peddlers and itinerant Traders and no doubt other members of society too engaged in trading activities on a part-time basis as in the rest of the World Trade networks were not only a conduit for goods but also for people and ideas towns cities and Countryside areas were interlinked by elaborate causeways known as Sac Bay or white roads [Music] ceremonial Pathways perhaps usually only traversed at night lit up by the moon [Music] usually they would run for a few kilometers or less but the largest yet found running from the city of Cobar in the Yucatan to neighboring yaksuna ran for some 60 miles the explanation for such roads was often given to myth rather than history supposedly built by a magician King as who worked only at night much like the Pyramid of The Magicians at ushmal said to have been thrown up by a dwarf wizard in a single night for the world inhabited by the Mayans teetered ever on the precipice between terrestrial Earth and the divine [Applause] [Music] [Music] in 1525 Victorious from his conquest of the Aztec empire Hernan Cortes moved South with an Elite Force of warriors just a few hundred men who'd brought down a civilization of Millions foreign by a substantial force of native allies the key to their success and a great baggage train of horses and pack animals heading south to Honduras to subdue rebellious underlings and seize new lands Cortez and the officers dined lavishly on pork and beef but most had to live off the land on Route they stopped to resupply at one of the largest bodies of water in Guatemala Lake Flores [Music] today it's a Party Town Regional capital and Backpacker hotspot but 500 years ago here stood a great city of the Maya running along the Lakeside but mostly on an island just offshore its name was Tire Sal the inhabitants had little choice but to entertain these bizarre foreign guests [Music] once inside the city it became clear that some members of the Expedition would have to be left behind [Music] Cortez's horse morsillo veteran of countless battles ever by his side since Landing in Mexico six years earlier could go on no longer [Music] prize Cordoba stallion had reached the end of his journey [Music] reluctant to kill his old friend in a bout of uncharacteristic sentimentality dower Conquistador asked his hosts if he could leave him in their care such a creature before the citizens enthusiastically accepted and when the Spaniards moved on mozillo was treated with the utmost respect on a diet reserved only for the highest echelons of society unfortunately for the horse stranded in an alien world that diet consisted entirely of turkeys and flowers by the time Europeans again came this way close to 100 years later in 1618. in the form of two Franciscan missionaries abruiter and funicellida [Music] they found amidst the carved deities of the Central Plaza an unusual sight [Music] having all the features of a horse yet depicted sitting on the ground in a human-like pose quite alien to equines mozillo had become a god they named him jimin Chan meaning tapir rain God and it seems he'd become one of the primary deities of the city [Music] father obita was so horrified that he destroyed the statue in his rage very nearly being lynched on the spot had furnace a leader not intervened in 1622 another priest father Delgado and his men were enthusiastically and joyfully accepted into the city ushered ever onwards to the Central Plaza where their hearts were torn out for all to see only in 1692 would the city finally be subdued the last Maya Kingdom to submit to conversion [Music] by which time we're told that the Itza overlords of the lake ruled with an iron grip apparently killing any man who surpassed 50 in age for fear of them becoming Wizards Desperate Measures had to have been put in place for the place to have survived for as long as it did think of a Maya police state controlled by a hereditary priesthood following the fall of the city the Spaniards spent nine hours smashing idols and in the canex palace they found many copies of sacred books of prophecies and history what became of them is unknown with some arguing that this could have been the origins of the codices now found in Europe at Dresden and in Paris though in all likelihood most if not all were probably destroyed [Music] though many like the lakhand on Maya escaped to the forest to live remote lives away from the invading Europeans [Music] the last independent city had come to an end and with it perhaps the greatest of the post-classic kingdoms that of the Itza who'd once ruled far off Chichen Itza foreign [Music] but there was another great Kingdom too this one in the southern Guatemalan Highlands one which retained its pre-conquest Traditions too with roots stretching far back into the past [Music] we know them as the kiche but unlike almost all other Mayan regions some of their holy books survive to the present today the kiche number close to a million they occupy most of the territory of their former Kingdom still and it is thanks to them that the Maya creation story remains alive [Music] providing an unprecedented window into the pre-columbian Mayan world foreign [Music] s first arrived in Keech territory in 1524 led by The Vicious warlord Alvarado the cruel they found themselves up against the most powerful state in the highlands [Music] following the fall of Chichen Itza some 500 years earlier two successor states of sorts had arisen [Music] foreign tributary Powers ruling over their neighbors with an iron grip all worshipers of the plumed serpent a warrior God revered by many during those difficult days in the North mayapan had been a great power in its own right though ultimately defeated by a coalition of its subjects in the middle of the 15th century one of its ruling houses would go on to found Tire cell other Kingdom in the South survived all the way up until the Spanish Conquest this is what Alvarado came up against in 1524. aiming for a hammer blow right at the heart of Keech power at the capital of uttaglan Alvarado sword clad the decked in steel armor singled out one of the Maya Commanders tekum umam wearing little more than cloth feathers and carrying an obsidian blade engaging him in single combat tekum umam was brutally slain in front of all of his Warriors after more vicious fighting outgunned overwhelmed and awed by the Spanish weapons the city fell and Christianity arrived [Music] and yet relatively out of the way without much notice by the authorities the Keech kept their secrets [Music] here the old ways would survive foreign when a local Parish priest named zimines was inducted into the inner circle of the Keech leadership he was shown a remarkable book forward-thinking man with a profound respect for Maya culture Jimenez translated the work into Spanish from where it would gradually reach a wider audience foreign s of years in times of uncertainty the ruling families of the Highlands had consulted this book in order to make sense of the world [Music] cysting of the wisdom of the ancestors they knew it as the council book or the Popple View [Music] according to Legend the work had been given to them on a pilgrimage down to the far-off Atlantic Shore some called it the light that came from beside the sea others the dawn of life and some our place in the shadows the work is intense a heavy-going masterpiece of Mythology epic poem of over 9 000 lines the Rival The Iliad and the rig Vader it is generally considered the greatest surviving work of Mayan literature [Music] those who wrote down the version of the purple Vu we know today don't give us their personal names referring to themselves simply as they teach people but we do know that the work dates from the post-conquest period created in secret using the alphabet of the conquerors [Music] like the other great Mayan book series of poetic prophecies known as the Chilean balam meaning Jaguar priest as well as the rabinal Achi one of the few Maya plays in existence could not have been recorded without Latin foreign likely written and composed by the great Lords of the Keech people like the work of saint germanus of aux air in subraman Britain the purple Vu at times seems to describe pictures perhaps murals and tapestries that once existed in the capital [Music] one of the most interesting parts of the purple Vu is the version of the Maya creation myth it records although a late text that definitely shows Colonial Spanish influence it also undoubtedly contains oral Traditions that go back centuries deep into The Mists of the ancient world in the beginning the Creator Gods fashioned several worlds before the present but each experiment proved unsuccessful the created beings having to be destroyed the chief protagonists of our story are the mythical hero Twins hunapu and shiblanca [Music] said to be the first humans and the sons of the maze God hunampu [Music] they are said to have visited the underworld jebalba to challenge the gods of death in a series of deadly ball games perhaps symbolically reenacted during the games in the ball courts of Maya cities but despite the best machinations of shebalba again and again the hero twins emerge Victorious [Music] finally to escape the gods of death having exhausted every other option the twins sacrifice themselves by leaping into a pit of fire foreign to make sure they would never come back the gods of death ground up their bones throwing the powder into a river but in those Waters the hero Twins were Resurrected when the gods of death confronted them once more the hero twins demonstrated their powers by decapitating each other and raising themselves back to life when the gods of death demanded that the same trick be done on them the hero twins chopped off their heads too but this time declining to bring them back to life [Music] the hero twins are identified with the sun and Venus heavenly bodies that reenact their Resurrection regularly by setting below the Horizon and Rising again the basic concept of Resurrection was immensely important to the Maya intimately linked with the harvesting of Maize and the practice of sacrifice [Music] story also highlights the dualism that was a huge part of the Maya belief system good versus evil life versus death and day versus night the forces of good bring the rain and make the crops grow the forces of evil bring famine and misery [Music] and of course the purple Vu contains just one version of The Creation story variations of it being found all over the Maya world and at all different times the Temple of the cross at Palenque contains one version of the tale recording the birth of the first gods first mother and first father in the previous world and the beginning of the current backed on cycle or era precisely dated on August 14th 3114 BC the Palenque Triad the three children of the first gods are said to have been born in 2360 BC today they're simply named God one two and three due to their uncertain identities it's been proposed that God too is koil the Lightning God and God three is kinich ajor the god of the sun God one is still unidentified [Music] kawil is usually depicted with an upturned snout a serpent leg and an ax or smoking tube on his forehead he adorned the scepters of Maya Kings and that is why like Odin or Zeus he is often interpreted to be a patron deity of Kings the Sun God kinich ajor is often depicted with crossed eyes t-shaped upper teeth and snake-like curls on the corners of his mouth he too was often associated with rulers maybe because they promoted the belief that they were manifestations of the sun deity also commonly using the name kinich as a title [Music] a version of The Creation myth from the purple Vu is even seen on architecture during the pre-classic at El Mirador where a carved panel has been found depicting the hero twins swimming into the underworld to retrieve the decapitated head of their father foreign [Music] others have also been found in mural form at San Bartolo and Estella at Knack Bay all dating to around 200 BC some 1700 years before the story was written down suggesting Maya mythology and religion to have already been well established at this early point in history foreign [Music] the architecture of the city itself is immensely important too with huge causeways for pilgrimage lining the center and peripheries of the city and certain areas only being used for ceremonial purposes Pilgrims from far away only adding to the Splendor of the city with offerings as well as trade goods and information [Music] indeed almost all Maya cities appear to have been constructed according to a specific conception of the universe in other words the buildings were set up as symbolic representations of cosmic order though as time went on and more structures were added the original representations were often obscured foreign the purpose of these associations was probably to offer a feeling of security that the people were living in a sacred and properly ordered Society the Maya conception of the world was very different than in today's modern scientifically oriented societies [Music] they saw the Earth as composed of several layers the three main ones being the domain of people the celestial Realm of the sky where the high Gods lived and the underworld were the lower Gods held sway [Music] to the Maya the terrestrial Earth was an ordered realm very much controlled by otherworldly deities [Music] having no clear distinction between the natural and the supernatural they believed an invisible sacred quality called Kerr inhabited all physical objects including humans and animals many of the Gods would manifest themselves visibly in things like the sun moon stars lightning and rain the gods could also take on human or animal form both humans and animals possessing something called a why usually interpreted as an invisible Spirit companion often associated with a wild animal of the forest or the night one of the most powerful being the Jaguar the why controlled their fate so that the illness or death of one was reflected in the other but they also appear to have believed in a life force or a soul the essence of which existed in human breath at Art this is depicted as a scroll leaving their mouths and sometimes as a flower or carved Jade in front of their faces foreign to later accounts written soon after the Spanish Conquest the Maya believed that departed Souls went to a place where there was no pain or suffering and an abundance of food and drink those who went to this paradise automatically were rulers priests those who'd been sacrificed Warriors killed in battle women who died in childbirth and those who committed suicide by hanging foreign to Christianity are intense perhaps explaining the confusion between sacrifice and martyrdom in the 16th century both constituting a so-called good death in this paradise of the afterlife the sacred saber tree grew [Music] under the branches people could rest from their labors in the shade a giant saber the tree of life is also said to have grown at the center of the world supporting the sky widely believed to be a representation of the Maize God hunapu a benevolent deity who had brought life into the world in the first place fashioning the first people from corn as well as continuing abundance and prosperity foreign although the heavenly bodies of the night sky were believed to be deities the Maya nevertheless knew these Sky Wanderers as they called them had predictable patterns of movement that's because the job of these Gods was to maintain the world order and the cycles of time [Music] they would only do so however as long as humans behaved properly performing the appropriate rituals without modern instruments the Maya were able to achieve great accuracy in their measurement of the cyclical movements of the heavenly bodies he did this by obtaining Clear Sight lines to points on the horizon from hilltops or tall buildings like observatories such as the caracal at Chichen Itza foreign ly these Mayan proto-scientists calculated the solar year to be 365 days even realizing this number to not be exact but as far as we can tell they did not correct this with leap years or another system from what we can tell the Maya were the only pre-columbian American society who used a fixed point in time from which to count their chronological records [Music] possessing a highly accurate mathematical system the Romans had never learned of the concept of zero their entire numerical system counting upwards from one the Mayans on the other hand mastered the zero very early on possessing immensely advanced mathematics perhaps the most famous example of this being the Long Count or great cycle a numerical record counted from the presumed date of the creation of the present world [Music] precisely counted as 3114 BC to its end on December the 21st 2012. [Music] far from their being an expectation that the world would end at the termination of every Long Count rather it was widely thought that there had been many cycles before the world of the classic Maya and there would be many after [Music] each one lasting precisely one million eight hundred and seventy two thousand days foreign it's a very old system [Music] the very earliest Long Count has been found as far back as the middle pre-classic and the latest at the city of tonina coinciding with the collapse [Music] there were shorter Cycles too which dictated more regular daily affairs just as the Long Count dictated the Affairs of Gods tune was 144 000 days long the cartoon 7 200 days the tune 360 days and the winner 20 days at all levels of Maya Society a variety of Rights and ceremonies were performed archaeological evidence suggests that families performed bloodletting rituals and gave offerings to the gods which were believed to be filled with coup [Music] they had ceremonial feasts burned incense and venerated their ancestors but in their communities it was the shaman who was believed to be capable of reading the will of the Gods [Music] and communicating with them through divination shamans had a knowledge of the calendar and the ability to predict the coming of the rainy season so that farmers knew when to plant and when to harvest more often shamans had knowledge of illness and could appeal to the spirits to heal the sick some of them seem to have been credited with the ability to leave their bodies and go on Journeys into the spirit world using narcotics hallucinogens and other psychotropic substances to induce Altered States of consciousness as part of these divination rituals his religious practitioners existed long before Maya States and long after too when the states formed religion became more formalized and structured an estate sanctioned priesthood developed priests performing rituals now on behalf of the state while shamans continued their roles as non-elite religious specialists [Music] priesthoods were self-contained their members drawn from the nobility priests appear to have been literate and they composed a body of esoteric literature [Music] codifying and systematizing their knowledge the rituals that the priests performed for the state included the burning of incense and offerings sometimes including blood of the priests and occasionally human sacrifice and other ceremonies to inspire all in the people with music feasting and dance [Music] the ruler of the polity was considered the chief of the priests and would have engaged in many of these ceremonies including offering his own blood Royal women did this as well blood was important because it was thought to be a powerful source of coup and since the greatest coup offering was life itself Ultra important rituals May well involve human sacrifice [Music] the usual sacrificial victims were prisoners of War specifically those of higher class were favored with these types of sacrifices were relatively rare only taking place on special occasions such as the inauguration of a new ruler the dedication of a new Temple or the designation of an heir to the throne on very special occasions a captured King might be sacrificed his killing usually being carried out by ritual decapitation Human Sacrifice seems to have become more popular in the post-classic period a time of great change and cataclysm as the Maya came under more influence from the people of central Mexico to reaffirm their Supernatural connections during their Reigns and to show that they were personifications of the cycles of time Kings would perform special rituals at the endings of major periods of the calendar public occasions that included feasting dancing and entertainment during these events the ruler would recall the original creation of the World by the Gods back in 3114 BC but of course all things must come to an end [Music] in the year 1502 of our calendar 25 men and women packed into an open-air canoe made their way Eastwood along the Yucatan Coast carved from a single massive tree trunk of mahogany or Cedar The Vessel was eight feet wide in the middle and very long at the center under a palm-thached building sat the owner and his family a rich EK AB Merchant carrying a cargo of pottery dyed clothes copper axes and bells a Foundry wooden swords hewn with obsidian and of course the currency of the Maya World cacao beans also in the hold were vital Provisions for their lengthy Journey Maize bread and Maize gruel [Music] for the vessel was bound for distant Honduras the island of guanaco the rowers paddling in unison for their lives were slaves then one day as sunbeams sparkled lazily on the Azure ocean impossible sights began blurring into view [Music] way out off on the horizon mountains towered on the water growing ever larger we don't know exactly what happened but given the utterly alien sight before them the rowers May well have stopped in their tracks scarcely believing what they were seeing for it soon became clear the mountains were ships [Music] before long a strange meeting took place between the two vessels some of the crew even being invited aboard by the newcomers seeming in a trance knowing not whether they were dreaming or awake soon enough though their world would irrevocably change there was no going back now for this was the flagship of the European explorer Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage to the new world [Music] his four vessels packed with gold hungry sailors now mentally and physically exhausted from persistent storms Columbus still sought a passage to distant Cathay or Japan where his fortune would be made [Music] for him too the Curious meeting had been completely unexpected shocked at the ease with which the Indians were brought aboard his flagship he was pleasantly surprised when suddenly they objected to inspections of their clothing to protect their modesty he assumed despite their Savage appearance they might make good Christians indicating that they'd come from the west where lands of great wealth could be found many of Columbus's crew would be back but not yet his destination then was Honduras looking to find a Passage through the continent to China and the Spice Islands Beyond ultimately he would fail marooned and ruined on Jamaica by 1506 he was dead as for those Mayans some were taken by the Spaniards as Curiosities others no doubt went on their way forever changed word slowly spreading of that strange meeting by the sea by 1518 several more European ships had traveled in Columbus's wake to the Americas [Music] yet the mainland was still largely a mystery its very existence not yet even fully confirmed May of that year during Juan to gryalva's Voyage a crew member named Juan Diaz recorded what he saw on the mainland we followed the shore day and night and the next day towards Sunset we perceived a city or town so large that Seville would not have seemed more considerable nor better we saw there a very large tower on the shore was a great throng of Indians Who Bore two standards which they raised and lowered to single us to approach them [Music] the commander did not wish it [Music] whether word had already arrived at the settlement we don't know but we do know the likely candidate for the town one of the most significant of its day today due to its close proximity to Cancun and the major tourist Resorts it's one of the most visited in the 21st century we know the place as Tulum [Music] and by that time when Tulum stretched along the shore at the height of its Majesty the Hinterlands of the Maya world were no longer as important as they had once been [Music] burgeoning trade routes on the sea now connecting the Yucatan all the way from Tabasco and the north to Honduras and Beyond in the south forging unique art styles in this Gulf of Mexico sphere seen at places like jaina Island with its interesting statues foreign and yet despite Diaz's description based on the archeology Tulum was small [Music] and we did have a tradition of building temples creating murals and even using hieroglyphs the town itself likely only had a population of around one thousand arrayed around a single Street protected by a boundary wall [Music] when compared to the Colossal Majesty of the classic cities the situation becomes very clear [Music] not far from Tulum [Music] tyria forests of the western Yucatan [Music] stands the PowerHouse which once ruled this land foreign its many lagoons at its height the once Mighty city of Cobra had been home to 50 000. [Music] and though it was still inhabited by that time only being entirely abandoned by around 1550 a mere fraction of its population still sheltered in the massive ruins containing temples and worshiping in the ritual spaces of their ancestors [Music] Cobra was mostly a ghost town religious Shrine of those with long memories [Music] and compared to its old enemy Chichen Itza Cobra was comparatively lucky the Rival City having been entirely abandoned hundreds of years earlier even before the arrival of the Spaniards the Maya world had suffered an immense fall the archeology is irrefutable from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic beginning in the southwestern lowlands and gradually expanding into other areas from the 9th Century A.D every Maya State experienced a drastic decline many different theories have been proposed for this collapse in the so-called terminal classic period but it appears that no single reason can fully explain the cataclysm more likely is that there were various trends at play all contributing to some extent perhaps in a so-called systems collapse although some have suggested a single catastrophic event or series of them such as a pandemic or earthquakes hard evidence is lacking [Music] others have pointed to problems within Maya Society citing overpopulation or increased competition between the states which led to more power struggles and War thus undermining the concept of divine kingship [Music] we do know that larger polities had a tendency to fragment into smaller Petty States and by the year 900 in most areas the practice of erecting monuments had ceased perhaps the rulers had simply lost their Divine status their underlings no longer willing to worship their power it's unclear but temples palaces causeways and ball courts were simply no longer being built the production and distribution of luxury goods all but disappeared archeology tells us that environmental problems such as deforestation soil erosion and drought were occurring almost certainly contributing to the decline [Music] with little food to eat or water to drink the population drastically reduced survivors forced to migrate to areas with better soil and more resources yet the decline wasn't uniform or the same everywhere the collapse of the classic Maya centers during this time of Social and economic change coincided with the rise of Maya groups on the margins for example Cobra's Misfortune had been chichenitza and then tulum's gain [Music] just as the jungle reclaimed Tikal and kalak Mall other cities to the north entered their golden age foreign [Music] regions in the lowlands was in the Northwest portions of the Yucatan Peninsula yet people had adapted to their surroundings here by accessing the Waters of cenatase and building cisterns some of the best known terminal classic cities are from this area Rising between the years eight hundred and one thousand sites like ushmal khabar Sail flourished at the same time that cities further south descended into turmoil apocalyptic death at these locations rulers reinstated traditions of authority in Imitation of earlier Maya States but they also seem to have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors in holding back from fully centralizing there was diminished emphasis on a single King and a greater degree of power sharing [Music] but as the terminal classic period closed perhaps as the age-old issues with the environment resurfaced even these cities would come to an end and yet a new political order arose in that area at the time a violent order forged in the collapse ushering in the period we call the post-classic the dominant power in the region at that time was the polity of Chichen Itza which reigned Supreme from the terminal classic up until around 1100. at its peak it was the largest and most powerful of all Maya cities and a great Cosmopolitan capital adopting many elements from the distant Valley of Mexico with actual Invasion by the toltecs once being a popular Theory though now questioned by many archaeologists Toltec or not Chichen itza's architecture and art certainly combined that of traditional Maya Heritage with other styles from throughout mesoamerica especially the Gulf Coast and Central Mexico the its estate was run not by a single Divine ruler but by a decentralized Authority that included a Supreme Council composed of elite Lords who held specific offices They promoted a religious cult based on the worship of The Feathered Serpent God kakul Khan known and worshiped in central Mexico as Quetzalcoatl the religion's ideology was a clear departure from the Divine ruler Cult of times past transcending all the linguistic and ethnic divisions that had characterized the old order and promoting an interchange of ideas across mesoamerica [Music] and yet before long even Chichen Itza would fall [Music] again though From the Ashes another state would arise forged by leagues of ruling Elites foreign this was the age of mayapan perhaps the last of the truly great cities of the Maya [Music] by 1461 the cacombe rolling family had been demanding tribute for decades finally the hostage Jew gathered a force together to defeat them foreign this was a blood Feud that would continue for centuries [Music] the city was abandoned joining the already crumbled metropolises of the South [Music] leaving only relatively tiny centers like Tulum still intact [Music] and to say the people in general were necessarily any worse off just that they now opted to live in smaller groups no longer thrall to the whims of increasingly top-heavy Elites [Music] but of course much worse was to come for the Spaniards brought much more than just guns and the Christian God aboard their vessels came all manner of diseases smallpox diphtheria cholera bubonic plague typhus and typhoid [Music] mesoamerica had no pack animals and thus no longer quiet immunity to the diseases of pigs cows and sheep thus when the likes of Cortez headed through the Wilderness in 1525 with a large amount of pack animals he may well have brought death in his wake just as other conquistadors did before and after all it would take was one Community to be affected by these plagues they would be spread one by one to the others it's thought in total as many as 90 percent of people in the new world may have died from such diseases those who survived lived in a post-apocalyptic landscape with their forced conversion and destruction of their old ways it was a world without memory history or meaning no wonder it seemed impossible that they'd built the Great cities of old [Music] after hundreds of years of slavery in 1761 underlying tensions finally exploded in the colonial city of valodalid was ravaged by a Maya Army from the Hinterlands prohibited to own guns instead they fought with Spades shovels and their bare hands [Music] much of the City was destroyed its population massacred foreign ER of the Rebellion calling himself kanak after the old it's a king was finally caught by the Spaniards intense reprisals meted out on the Maya populace at first he was mercilessly tortured afterwards he was hanged and whilst still alive drawn and quartered [Music] by the time the Spanish Empire fell apart entirely in the 19th century tensions again exploded and by the time Stevens and catherwood made their Journey Through the Yucatan full-scale War erupted known as the cast Wars [Music] only ending more than 50 years later in 1901 with the capture of the Maya Capital Chan Santa Cruz by which time some 250 000 people had lost their lives many of them Spanish settlers huge percentage of the overall population [Music] continued until 1933. [Music] foreign IST sylvanus Morley arrived at Tulum in 1922 it wasn't long after a holy woman or witch had taken up residence there for the Maya finally free from Spanish rule were again able to practice the ways of their ancestors The Cult of the speaking cross heretical to hard-line Catholics holding immense importance today many autonomous communities of Maya exist throughout southern Mexico harking back to the days of their Mighty ancestors [Music] having all the odds survived the test of time foreign [Music] Giles Healey moved to Mexico in 1944 the modern world was very much in full swing catastrophic Technologies of mass death implemented all over the globe in the Horus of the second World War in comparison the forests of Central America must have seemed a different planet [Music] like heading back in time to antiquity [Music] graduating from Yale in 1924 with a chemistry degree before embarking on careers as a cartographer photographer finally by the 1940s archaeologist [Music] working for the powerful United Fruit Company who commissioned him to make a film on their behalf Healy headed deep into the Chiapas jungle west of Rio La Kahana in search of an elusive people seemingly Lost in Time [Music] foreign over the next two years Not only would Healy find the Lac on Don Maya but befriend them bringing many gifts of hunting rifles ammunition clothes food and Medicine in return they guided him to the sacred sites of their ancestors [Music] many of which like yakshelan and bonimpak they treated and still treat with immense respect believing them to be The Dwelling Places of their gods [Music] still frequenting them today to make offerings burn incense and keep their ancient Traditions alive by 1946 Healey had explored and charted around 20 sites [Music] it was only then that the lakondant decided to show him one of the most astonishing of all [Music] Bonham Park where access had previously been refused to white men [Music] [Laughter] Ely ascended the main Temple complex approaching a building on the lower Temple platform he could see three separate entrances all opening into individual rooms foreign entering one of the rooms at first all was dark but when illuminated by Torchlight he could scarcely believe his eyes [Music] all around him coating the walls were exceptionally preserved murals [Music] foreign it had been hypothesized that such things must once have existed given the tiny fragments left at other sites hints of paint just giving a tiny idea of what glories might wants have existed [Music] turned to nothingness by the persistent damp of the forest but here at Bonham Park due to the unusual conditions within that building and perhaps the reverence for the place meaning it was left undisturbed elaborate frescoes completely unique and unprecedented in their state of preservation have survived dated to the very height of the Classical period between around 790 and 800 A.D the work is thought to have been achieved during a single session masterminded by a genius artist perhaps a Mayan Michelangelo [Music] they illustrate the realities of Royal life during this time the first room shows the presentation of an heir to his people and the celebration of his acceptance complete with naked sacrificial victims arrayed all around blood spouting from their removed fingernails the time the Maya were widely thought by academics to have been a peaceful Theocratic Society a philosopher astronomers and calendar priests [Music] the reality that human sacrifice and War were not only accepted but integral parts of society came as a great shock to many in the field foreign archaeologist sylvanus Morley one of the Giants in his day who'd named bonampak in the first place simply refused to believe it [Music] but as the years went by the evidence only continued to mount the Maya were taken down from their pedestal like every other culture in the history of the world they were Human After All Warriors and philosophers astronomers and adherence to blood sacrifice the words of the French philosopher Claude Levi Strauss it is the knee requirement which constitutes the species or in other words those of the 16th century priest bartolome De Las Casas all the world is human and yet even today wild theories abound the likes of Ancient Aliens and ancient super civilizations arguing the Maya couldn't have built their civilization on their own in the years after Stevens and catherwood there was a great regression in public opinions of Native Americans a regression which still continues to this day in the later 1800s the first photographer of the ruins and well-respected archaeologist Desiree Charney thought they were Asiatic in origin the very first researcher to visit Palenque Ramon agriar went even further deciding the place to have been built by votan Quetzalcoatl legendary hero of myth after he received Divine command to leave Atlantis and lay the foundations of Central American civilization over A Century of research and discovery despite pseudo-archaeological claims to the contrary no evidence has ever been found of Mesoamerican contact with people across the ocean foreign of the Spaniards in the late 15th century [Music] instead vast amounts of evidence concretely indicates a purely indigenous cultural development [Music] tirely independently of the old world Native Americans developed hunting Technologies agriculture irrigation Pottery Metallurgy writing urbanism political systems step pyramids and Monumental architecture [Music] even if a stray fisherman or Merchant landed on American Shores at one time or another these occurrences simply wouldn't have been enough to affect the overall trajectory of cultural development [Music] any evidence of this all larger incursions is completely lacking [Music] when we study Mayan civilization therefore we are dealing with a culture that was formed from its own internal processes [Music] certainly shaped by contacts with neighbors but these were local interactions not Globe Crossing distant ones foreign [Music] thus when we see the Maya people of today around 6 million of them we can be assured that we are looking at the descendants of the people who built those magnificent temples observatories religious and political structures and Technologies the fact that their lifestyle has changed over the centuries should not trick us into believing that they were incapable of such accomplishment or even that their current way of life is inferior to the one they lived in the past [Music] despite the immense changes of the last 500 years many of the old traditions have survived into the present including beliefs about marriage and kinship cultivation of crops crafts and the production of goods beliefs rituals dances and perhaps most importantly their spoken language [Music] these elements of Mayan Society remarkable in their cohesion can all be traced directly back to the ancient past [Music] unlike most other indigenous groups who ended up being scattered over the years after the Europeans arrived the Maya are still a largely homogeneous group found in one region the Yucatan Peninsula Belize Guatemala the western parts of Honduras and the Chiapas and Tabasco regions of Mexico one unbroken area the lands of their ancestors [Music] in the past it was common for Europeans to belittle the Maya the same as other indigenous Americans decrying their Pagan practices and religious rituals as barbaric often to justify Conquest colonialism and conversion Christian priests and missionaries accompanied every Spanish expedition to the new world because the legal and moral justification of the conquest came from Christianity during the long protracted and violent takeover of the Yucatan by the Spanish which included the extraction of countless indigenous people into slavery Christian missionaries endeavored to convert the local populations [Music] as we have seen although some Maya did enthusiastically accept the new faith many resisted [Music] some members of the clergy resorted to harsh measures [Music] even burning Irreplaceable Maya holy books [Music] foreign over the difficulty in moving the Maya away from their indigenous religious practices Spanish Elites began to argue that the Maya people needed to be forcibly converted an important debate occurred in 1550 and 1551. between Juan guinez to Sepulveda who argued that Maya crimes against nature such as human sacrifice and self-mutilation needed to be suppressed even by War if necessary and bartolome De Las Casas an early humanitarian of sorts who argued that the Maya were fully capable of reason and ought to be convinced through persuasion not force [Music] no clear winner of the debate was determined but the Spanish continued their efforts to christianize the population while the Maya even when they accepted the new Faith often held tight to many of their own traditions and symbols [Music] it's important to note that though today we regard human sacrifice as immoral in the same period when the Maya were practicing it in Europe thousands were being burned alive on Stakes for heresy undergoing all kinds of tortures and protracted executions in the name of religion executions that would only become more common with the Witchcraft Trials of the 17th century [Music] as we have seen Europeans also downplayed Maya achievements as unremarkable or simply denied the achievements were even theirs there are many today who continue to do this claiming that a more advanced culture from elsewhere was responsible for the greatness of Maya civilization and the indigenous people merely imitated the ideas of these more ancient visitors adapting them in a simple or awkward manner after all that has happened to them over the centuries this is a great insult to the Maya people over the centuries researchers have gradually come to understand that Maya civilization is not any more Fantastical or mythical than any other it was and is a complex resourceful and remarkable Society that developed over long periods of time in much the same way as other ancient societies no matter what continent they are found on [Music] and like the rest of the world credit and criticism should be given where each is due [Music] thankfully today many misconceptions about Maya Society are being corrected mysteries about their past are being solved and more and more hard evidence is being collected to shed light on this fascinating culture [Music] only time will tell what more riches are out there just waiting to be found [Music] you've been watching history time as always I'm your host Pete Kelly if you'd like to know more why not check out my entire series of videos on the Maya where I visit firsthand the great sites of this incredible people [Music] it's a playlist I'll be adding to for many years to come I still have many more cities to visit [Music] to like And subscribe if you enjoyed the video and why not leave a comment to help the algorithm thanks for watching and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: History Time

Views: 2,794,877

Keywords: history time, history, documentary, ancient history, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, early medieval, early middle ages, learning, history documentary, ancient history documentary, history medieval, medieval

Id: hNbuF1NWXKo

Length: 265min 35sec (15935 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2022