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How does a civilization create
massive pyramids, intricate hieroglyphics,

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00:00:04,037 --> 00:00:06,639
rudimentary plumbing,
advanced mathematics,

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00:00:06,639 --> 00:00:10,143
and a celestial calendar
that rivals our modern, scientifically

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00:00:10,176 --> 00:00:13,279
engineered calendars by a few minutes,
maybe even seconds?

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00:00:13,313 --> 00:00:16,549
How does a civilization dwarf
the amount of pyramids left by the ancient

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Egyptians have advanced architecture
and create irrigation systems

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for their crops, and do all of this
while being only regarded as a Stone age

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civilization?

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Why does such a group like this

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make such a striking impact
on the world around them?

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And then just vanish? Where are they?

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Where did they come from
and where did they go?

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Where did you come from? Ghana. Joe.

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00:00:34,567 --> 00:00:36,736
This week
we learn the mysteries of the Maya,

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the people who prophesize
the end of the world.

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In 2012, after having vanished
from the face of the earth

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almost a millennium before all that.

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More on
another episode of The Remedial Scholar.

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Welcome, everyone.

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I am Levi,
and this is the remedial scholar. I hope

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you are excited to hear me mispronounce
every other word in this episode.

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It's going to be fun.

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Before we get to making a linguistic
fool of myself, a few quick things.

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Firstly,
if you learn anything from the show,

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if you end up finding it fascinating,
or if you think my voice is irresistible,

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please leave a review wherever possible.

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You can also leave a comment
in the Facebook group there

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dedicated post to each episode.

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In addition to that,
you can also comment on the YouTube video

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about anything really,
but it would be cool

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if you leave a comment or,
you know, like like leave a like

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and do all the YouTube
things related to that, subscribe

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and all that jazz, 
anything to help show in the algorithm.

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And speaking of boosting the algorithm,
not immediately.

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maybe immediately,
I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

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I will be back to the full swing
of things, releasing

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episodes in rapid fire
every hour on the hour. No.

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but it's going to be a much faster pace
than one every two months.

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you know, starting a

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year or two off, like,
I probably should have started year one.

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kind of crazy that it's been a whole year.

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I mean, with an asterix, this is like.

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This is like when they transition
from a shorter, more manageable scale

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early in baseball
and then into, like, this,

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the massive scale of games
that they play now,

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like all the records from back
then or Asterix because it's like, hey,

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you hit that many home runs
and you did it in this amount of games,

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but now we have these many games
and we can hit more home runs or whatever.

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So bad sports analogies aside,
I'm excited to see what year

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two brings and actually be,
you know, focused on creating the show.

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I'm back to feeling
very passionate about it.

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I am, you know, free from school,
and I kind of got

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a good work life balance going.

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So I'm very excited.

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and I just want to be able to deliver
the best possible show that I can.

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And, you know,
I have some fun ideas on how to do that

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and some cool episode ideas
also coming up.

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So all that preamble,
let's get into the actual episode itself.

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This week is an exciting one.

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This topic you, this topic itself is
also a Herculean effort for me to finish.

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If you are a long time
listener of the show, then you're like,

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yeah, we know we've been waiting,
waiting, waiting.

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You're also probably thinking
that because of the fact that you know,

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the mind up and vanished
is probably pretty tough to research.

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And you were slightly correct.

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Also, with slight correction,
the Maya did not vanish.

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They're actually never even here.

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You might be surprised to learn that
what we know is the Maya is actually

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nothing more than a few misunderstandings
and bad translation.

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And at the Maya,
we're actually just left handed Aztecs.

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So we're going to be looking further
into what split

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from the actual Aztecs
into what we believe is Maya. No.

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Now, this this week is definitely
just about the Maya.

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but to get a better understanding
of the Maya, like all things,

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we got to look backwards.

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Indigenous cultures
suffer from the lack of written history.

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Weirdly enough, they also.

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I mean, they

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they did write in calf things a lot,
but it seems a little bit different

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than what,
like the European and Asian cultures did.

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And I kind of looked into why this is.

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And it has to do with a few main things.

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First, let's compare

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some of the oldest written down
languages and cultures in Egypt.

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Writing on papyrus can be dated back
to the mid 26th century BCE,

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and the close proximity to the areas
around and blowing up of the trade

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in the Mediterranean
made a be camp pretty commonplace

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in the cultures we generally think of
when it comes to a written history.

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The next earliest in the invention
of writing on paper

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instead of stone comes from China,
almost 2300

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years later, when fragments from a paper
map were dated.

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These cultures are very far apart,
and even in the heyday of the Roman

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Empire, Far East

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Asian cultures really did not interact
with those in the Mediterranean.

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So these two cultures

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who have both contributed
greatly to the advancement of society,

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whose distances are pretty,
pretty separate, you know, developed

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their writing on paper, not stone or clay,
thousands of years apart.

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The second issue with writing on paper,
like documentation, is that you need,

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you know, plants suitable
to create such long lasting documents.

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The developed paper
that the mass of American cultures

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did end up using instead of the native
papyrus that the Egyptians use,

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deteriorated far quicker than any other
Mediterranean or Asian versions.

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Mesoamerican cultures use what is known
as a mate, which is a bark based paper

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created by grinding up bark into a pulp,
type material and then drying it out.

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And then they would write on that and,
you know, the Maya, they,

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they did write
they developed a system of hieroglyphics,

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one of only
a few original written languages

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invented without external influences
all over the world.

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Like this is one of a handful of them,
so that's pretty impressive.

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They also

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had their own mathematical system,
which has been proven to be very accurate.

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So accurate that when, 
the world was going to,

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people thought the world was going to end
when their calendar ended

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in 2012, or like, the Mayans,
they they really knew what was up.

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but I am getting ahead of myself, like,
like I often do.

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So what does all this paper nonsense
have to do with anything, Levi?

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Well, just kind of wanted to demonstrate
how lucky we are to have what information

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we do about the Maya and how a lot of it
is still an unraveling mystery.

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Would have been a lot
easier had the Spanish not burnt

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most of their written books
in in order to say,

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but there's not much
we can do about that now.

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there's only a few, codex
ins that, exist.

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Probably, I think four maybe
when the entire world of Maya codices,

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where their language is written down
on like books, there's only four.

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So, so that's pretty sweet.

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So did the Maya and other indigenous

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cultures really not write that much down,
or did the colonizers just burn it all?

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There's probably the latter,
but we won't know

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until
I look into every single one of them.

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I choose to tell you this

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because I believe that it's important
to understand that history is always,

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and probably history is, and probably
always will be, incomplete in many cases.

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This is to say that I will let you know
for sure when I have like

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this is this we know that this happened,
when facts are involved.

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And try my best
to tell you when scientific

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archeological hunches
are being made going forward. So

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in that spirit, let's do some estimation
on how people even got to the Americas.

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If human life truly did originate
and spread from the continent of Africa to

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where everybody rests now, there are a few
leading theories on how this happened.

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The most prominent one
is that 15 to 20,000 years ago,

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the first Americans
descended through North America via

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the Bering Land bridge,
which is now where the Bering Strait is.

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During the last ice age,
the hypothesis is focused

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around the connection of the eastern edge
of Russia on the Asian continent

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and the northwest edge
of what is modern day Alaska.

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00:08:01,848 --> 00:08:04,083
DNA testing between Native American tribes

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00:08:04,083 --> 00:08:07,220
and Siberian people shows
that there's a close link between them,

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and that there is a likelihood
that this is where the origin stems from.

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This is not the only case, however.

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There are two other DNA links

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which the origins
that archeological archeologists surmise

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could have contributed to or coincide
with the Bering land bridge crossing.

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Archeologists and historians
alike hypothesize that

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with the migration of people
to Australia 65,000 years ago,

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that many nautical expeditions
had taken place that very well

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could have led to the settlement
along the west coast of South America.

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Now, if you remember from the Magellan
episode, The Pacific Ocean

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ain't no easy feat.

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So it makes more sense that people walked
across the Bering Land Bridge.

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But we have to remember that the Americas
were vastly different 20,000 years ago.

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The earliest archeological data
we have found of indigenous cultures

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in America was thought to have been
the Clovis site, which dates around

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13,000 years ago.

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This discovery was made in the 1930s
near Clovis, New Mexico, hence the name.

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The site seemed to have lined up
with the Bering land bridge,

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but it is thought that North America
would have been frozen and not been able

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to offer much in terms of life
for traveling people to

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sustain themselves on, especially when
they had to walk the entire way.

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There's another site which predates
the Clovis site, all the way down

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in the southern, section of Chile.

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at Monteverdi. Monteverdi.

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I think if you're unfamiliar with
this area, that makes two of us well made.

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Two of us.

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Now we both know what Glasgow, Monteverdi
is in the southern section of Chile,

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and not far, like, not so far south,
that it touches the Strait of Magellan.

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But the cluster of islands

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in which Magellan tried to
navigate is just south of this area.

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Monteverdi is an archeological site

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in which the earliest dated indigenous
sites in the Americas is located.

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It predates the Clovis

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site by over a thousand years,
which means that people were all the way

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near the southern tip of South America,
much further back than we realize.

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Now, I do realize

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that Indonesia is much closer to Australia
than the southern tip of South.

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00:10:03,703 --> 00:10:06,973
A South America is to, well,
literally anything

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00:10:06,973 --> 00:10:10,142
except for maybe Antarctica
and the rest of South America.

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But it doesn't make sense

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that people would have taken boats
of some kind to the Americas,

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00:10:15,581 --> 00:10:20,386
while people made it to the very remote
Easter Island as far back as 400 C.E..

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00:10:20,386 --> 00:10:23,489
Granted, this is a long time
removed from 14,000 years ago,

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00:10:23,489 --> 00:10:25,992
but when you factor in that people
were traveling

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00:10:25,992 --> 00:10:29,962
via maritime routes that far back,
it is not completely unreasonable.

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00:10:29,962 --> 00:10:31,130
I can't imagine that the voyage

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00:10:31,130 --> 00:10:34,233
across the Pacific Ocean,
in what had to have been smaller vessels

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00:10:34,233 --> 00:10:36,769
that Magellan had,
could have possibly been like,

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00:10:36,769 --> 00:10:38,704
I can't imagine
it was very much fun, really.

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00:10:38,704 --> 00:10:41,874
No matter which way you slice it,
we have absolute proof that people

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00:10:41,874 --> 00:10:46,078
were living migrating in the Americas
almost 15,000 years ago.

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00:10:46,078 --> 00:10:46,879
For certain.

201
00:10:46,879 --> 00:10:49,415
There's some other ones,
like there's footsteps

202
00:10:49,415 --> 00:10:51,384
I can't even remember
specifically where they are,

203
00:10:51,384 --> 00:10:53,853
but they were dated
about 22,000 years ago.

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00:10:53,853 --> 00:10:58,057
And it's like these, this lady walking
with, a man,

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00:10:58,791 --> 00:11:02,161
and then his steps disappear,
and then it's just her.

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00:11:02,461 --> 00:11:05,197
And then there's, like,
mammoth footprints all over the place.

207
00:11:05,197 --> 00:11:09,902
Anyway, but if you think about what
these two sites show us,

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00:11:09,902 --> 00:11:11,937
that these people had to have moved

209
00:11:11,937 --> 00:11:15,241
with some prior knowledge
because there's tools homes found.

210
00:11:15,241 --> 00:11:16,542
So it's kind of reasonable

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00:11:16,542 --> 00:11:20,613
to assume that they were either near
those areas for a while, or they arrived

212
00:11:20,613 --> 00:11:24,083
with some very thorough knowledge
of how to survive, if only for a while.

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00:11:24,116 --> 00:11:27,520
It's not like a bunch of babies
washed up on tour of South America

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00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,224
and just drew up like some sort of,
I don't know, Lord of the flies situation.

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00:11:32,425 --> 00:11:36,429
Another archeological find I want to bring
up is the find in Queenstown, a room.

216
00:11:36,429 --> 00:11:37,196
Mexico.

217
00:11:37,196 --> 00:11:38,864
This is the eastern section

218
00:11:38,864 --> 00:11:42,702
of the Yucatan Peninsula,
and this particular find was found

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00:11:42,702 --> 00:11:47,106
on the north shore of Quinton Aru,
some 127 miles from the infamous

220
00:11:47,373 --> 00:11:51,043
Chichen Itza, which will we will discuss
further in a little bit.

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00:11:51,043 --> 00:11:53,446
In this region,
a man was diving in a cenote,

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00:11:53,446 --> 00:11:55,815
which is a water filled cave,
and while diving

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00:11:55,815 --> 00:11:58,951
he came across a human skull
and attached skeleton,

224
00:11:58,951 --> 00:12:02,955
which had been encrusted with crystallized
liquid that had fell on it from above,

225
00:12:02,955 --> 00:12:06,392
from the stalactites above it, long before
the cave was eventually filled

226
00:12:06,392 --> 00:12:06,826
with water.

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00:12:06,826 --> 00:12:08,294
Skeleton was dated to be about

228
00:12:08,294 --> 00:12:12,598
10,000 years old, and,
it was found to be a teenage girl.

229
00:12:12,598 --> 00:12:16,435
The suspected theory is that she fell into
the snow while looking for water.

230
00:12:16,435 --> 00:12:20,005
I think that this kind of tells me more
than anything that there were,

231
00:12:20,039 --> 00:12:23,309
you know, scores of people
just literally all around varying degrees

232
00:12:23,309 --> 00:12:26,312
of lifestyle, thousands of miles apart
around the same time

233
00:12:26,345 --> 00:12:30,883
doesn't really help pinpoint exactly
where people were or where they came from.

234
00:12:30,883 --> 00:12:33,152
But, you know,
this is in between both sites,

235
00:12:33,152 --> 00:12:35,721
and I guess it's younger than

236
00:12:35,721 --> 00:12:39,425
both of those sites,
but it kind of just shows how spread out

237
00:12:39,625 --> 00:12:43,129
the indigenous people of the Americas
were in that kind of time period.

238
00:12:43,129 --> 00:12:46,365
So anyway, on to our actual topic.

239
00:12:46,432 --> 00:12:50,236
the Maya kind of an interesting group
to look at, in particular

240
00:12:50,236 --> 00:12:51,337
because of what we think

241
00:12:51,337 --> 00:12:54,673
they were or what happened to them,
is largely misunderstood.

242
00:12:54,707 --> 00:12:58,711
They, like many cultures around the world,
have distinct phases that they went

243
00:12:58,711 --> 00:13:03,649
through in terms of their development,
into what we know as a civilization.

244
00:13:03,649 --> 00:13:07,887
Interesting part about this is that they
did not consider themselves to be Maya.

245
00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:09,121
They had no governing body

246
00:13:09,121 --> 00:13:12,892
that oversaw all the people
who fit the description of this group.

247
00:13:13,259 --> 00:13:17,696
This is different from people
like the Aztec, who had a defining name

248
00:13:17,696 --> 00:13:23,636
defining a government body over
overall ruling like system.

249
00:13:23,736 --> 00:13:28,207
Aztec also like the peak of the Maya
and the peak of the Aztecs, are different.

250
00:13:28,407 --> 00:13:30,176
The Aztecs kind of came up

251
00:13:30,176 --> 00:13:33,879
as the Maya had already began
to, quote unquote, collapse.

252
00:13:34,146 --> 00:13:34,814
I'll talk why?

253
00:13:34,814 --> 00:13:36,949
That's
kind of a quote unquote thing later.

254
00:13:36,949 --> 00:13:39,852
But there's some overlap with the Maya
and as tech,

255
00:13:39,852 --> 00:13:42,855
but also with different cultures
like the Inca and the Olmec.

256
00:13:42,855 --> 00:13:47,393
Although the Olmec are probably the ones
that that Maya interacted with the most,

257
00:13:47,393 --> 00:13:49,628
we know for sure
that they interacted with the old man

258
00:13:49,628 --> 00:13:52,031
because that's
where they got their famous calendar.

259
00:13:52,031 --> 00:13:54,333
they took the Olmecs calendar
and then developed

260
00:13:54,333 --> 00:13:57,303
it even further into what we know
as the Maya calendar.

261
00:13:57,303 --> 00:14:00,906
To that is it also important to note
that the Maya is essentially a term

262
00:14:00,906 --> 00:14:02,241
that was chosen to describe

263
00:14:02,241 --> 00:14:06,145
this larger group of people who did not
fit in the Aztec or Olmec categories.

264
00:14:06,145 --> 00:14:08,948
They're definitely a different group,
but they did not, you know,

265
00:14:08,948 --> 00:14:13,052
consider themselves
to be super different from Aztec or Olmec.

266
00:14:13,052 --> 00:14:15,421
They obviously live
by different governing rules,

267
00:14:15,421 --> 00:14:17,690
but they interacted
with these two cultures.

268
00:14:17,690 --> 00:14:20,259
Maya was also a broad term

269
00:14:20,259 --> 00:14:23,329
because there's over
30 different languages that the Maya spoke

270
00:14:23,329 --> 00:14:27,333
regionally differentiated,
but also closely, associated

271
00:14:27,333 --> 00:14:31,237
with one another, that they could speak
and trade within different city states.

272
00:14:31,237 --> 00:14:34,974
It is like as if you considered
all of Europe to be one type of people.

273
00:14:34,974 --> 00:14:36,842
Sure,
they can communicate with their neighbors

274
00:14:36,842 --> 00:14:39,678
just fine, but it's a little trickier
the further out you go.

275
00:14:39,678 --> 00:14:43,782
So without further ado, let's
look into what we know about the Maya.

276
00:14:43,782 --> 00:14:48,520
According to the Maya creation
myths, in the beginning, world was a vast

277
00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,524
expanse of nothingness filled with
only what the sky and an immense sea.

278
00:14:52,524 --> 00:14:56,362
Amidst this emptiness existed
the heart of the sky known as hurricane.

279
00:14:56,495 --> 00:15:00,099
A hurricane, 
the creator of God's feathered serpent.

280
00:15:00,099 --> 00:15:03,435
These are the most famous of the Maya
deities.

281
00:15:03,435 --> 00:15:03,969
These divine

282
00:15:03,969 --> 00:15:08,540
beings looked upon the void and united
their powers to bring order to the chaos.

283
00:15:08,540 --> 00:15:10,676
Which is kind of ironic,
because it was like

284
00:15:10,676 --> 00:15:12,778
there's nothing other than water and sky.

285
00:15:12,778 --> 00:15:13,979
This is too chaotic.

286
00:15:13,979 --> 00:15:17,683
We got to bring more shit into it
throughout their words.

287
00:15:17,683 --> 00:15:21,553
But through their words, the gods conjured
into the world, into existence.

288
00:15:21,553 --> 00:15:26,892
Mountains, rose, valleys, dipped, trees,
grew tall, animals roamed the new land.

289
00:15:26,959 --> 00:15:30,696
And despite the beauty and abundance,
the gods were dissatisfied, for

290
00:15:30,696 --> 00:15:33,098
the animals
could not speak or offer praise.

291
00:15:33,098 --> 00:15:35,534
It's. Listen, you guys are very cute.

292
00:15:35,534 --> 00:15:39,138
The squirrel is adorable,
but it can't praise me, so I hate it.

293
00:15:40,172 --> 00:15:42,274
It's so crazy.

294
00:15:42,274 --> 00:15:44,977
the gods desired beings
who could acknowledge their creators,

295
00:15:44,977 --> 00:15:47,112
which you know,
I guess it was probably hard work.

296
00:15:47,112 --> 00:15:49,748
You want people to recognize your effort.

297
00:15:49,748 --> 00:15:52,952
Their first attempt to create humans
evolved, molding them from mud.

298
00:15:53,252 --> 00:15:56,055
These beings,
however, were weak, crumbled easily,

299
00:15:56,055 --> 00:15:58,857
and dissolved back into the Earth.
Obviously, they're made of mud.

300
00:15:58,857 --> 00:16:00,125
What did you expect?

301
00:16:00,125 --> 00:16:02,461
I mean, honestly,
you made animals just fine.

302
00:16:02,461 --> 00:16:05,431
But then people, you're like,
I guess we'll make them out of mud.

303
00:16:06,565 --> 00:16:08,000
Determine the gods. Try it again.

304
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,336
This time crafting humans from wood.
All right.

305
00:16:10,336 --> 00:16:13,205
These
these wooden beings were more robust, yet

306
00:16:13,205 --> 00:16:17,109
they lacked souls and understanding
their ignorance angered the gods.

307
00:16:17,109 --> 00:16:18,978
You stupid piece of wood.

308
00:16:18,978 --> 00:16:19,511
You don't.

309
00:16:19,511 --> 00:16:23,449
You can talk and praise me,
but you just don't get it, I imagine.

310
00:16:23,449 --> 00:16:25,217
what is it, Jimmy?

311
00:16:25,217 --> 00:16:26,852
From eternity with Planck.

312
00:16:28,253 --> 00:16:29,521
This is Yelena.

313
00:16:29,521 --> 00:16:31,223
Why don't you get me? Sorry.

314
00:16:31,223 --> 00:16:32,191
But. Yeah.

315
00:16:32,191 --> 00:16:36,028
So, God's unleashed a great flood
and other calamities

316
00:16:36,028 --> 00:16:37,763
to destroy these wooden people.

317
00:16:37,763 --> 00:16:41,300
Some of the wooden beings
managed to escape and were transformed

318
00:16:41,300 --> 00:16:44,970
into monkeys, serving
as a reminder of the gods displeasure.

319
00:16:44,970 --> 00:16:48,907
Which is not really sure why the gods hate
monkeys, or more importantly,

320
00:16:48,907 --> 00:16:51,143
why the Maya myth makers
hate them so much.

321
00:16:51,143 --> 00:16:53,012
But you know, moving on,

322
00:16:53,012 --> 00:16:56,715
the gods made a final attempt
to make their their preferred people.

323
00:16:56,715 --> 00:17:01,653
They used dough, a sacred and vital
substance for the Maya to shape humans.

324
00:17:01,820 --> 00:17:03,088
That's right. We're all corn.

325
00:17:03,088 --> 00:17:05,090
You mean everyone? Corn.

326
00:17:05,090 --> 00:17:06,992
Always have been, always will be.

327
00:17:06,992 --> 00:17:08,227
These beings were perfect,

328
00:17:08,227 --> 00:17:11,163
possessing the ability
to see and comprehend everything.

329
00:17:11,163 --> 00:17:15,334
Yet their perfection posed a threat
to the gods authority to prevent humans

330
00:17:15,334 --> 00:17:18,270
from becoming too powerful.
The gods clouded their vision.

331
00:17:18,270 --> 00:17:21,740
Limiting their understanding
to what was necessary seems a bit rude.

332
00:17:21,740 --> 00:17:23,642
These game gods are a little picky.

333
00:17:23,642 --> 00:17:26,845
You got all this power
and you're so picky on what you make.

334
00:17:27,112 --> 00:17:29,248
the story of creation
did not end there. There.

335
00:17:29,248 --> 00:17:34,686
the adventures of the Hero twins
had hudner poo and shubhankar.

336
00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,557
I'm gonna say that I nailed that,
but I don't sound too confident.

337
00:17:38,657 --> 00:17:41,393
That's kind of like Hercules a little bit.
They went to the underworld.

338
00:17:41,393 --> 00:17:44,897
Also, underworld is called Jabal,
which is fun to say.

339
00:17:44,897 --> 00:17:49,268
Where they defeated the Lords
through some advanced tactics.

340
00:17:49,268 --> 00:17:50,436
They played games.

341
00:17:50,436 --> 00:17:53,505
They outgained the gods in a way very,

342
00:17:54,907 --> 00:17:56,308
Very Bill and Ted.

343
00:17:56,308 --> 00:17:57,743
Bogus journey, if you will.

344
00:17:57,743 --> 00:18:01,346
You know, when they have to play chess
with, the Grim Reaper and whatnot,

345
00:18:01,580 --> 00:18:05,417
their exploits not only, you know,
gave the people some, like, power

346
00:18:05,484 --> 00:18:09,755
through, like, this is who
we want to be, but, you know, it also,

347
00:18:10,189 --> 00:18:13,158
it made it
it set up the values for the Maya

348
00:18:13,158 --> 00:18:16,528
people and also gave them a reason
to love cosmology.

349
00:18:16,528 --> 00:18:19,131
They picked up,
you know, there's the heroes in the sky

350
00:18:19,131 --> 00:18:22,000
kind of thing, you know,
like we do now with constellations.

351
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:23,368
Anyway, pretty fun story.

352
00:18:23,368 --> 00:18:26,071
But I wanted to dive into the things
we know about for sure.

353
00:18:26,071 --> 00:18:31,143
So in a historical archeological manner,
Maya culture is broken into phases.

354
00:18:31,276 --> 00:18:35,581
The archaic period,
which is from 8000 to 2000 BCE, the Pre

355
00:18:35,581 --> 00:18:38,851
Classic, which has further divisions
such as early, middle and late.

356
00:18:38,851 --> 00:18:42,588
The pre Classic is defined as 2000
BCE to 200 C.E.,

357
00:18:42,788 --> 00:18:44,890
so you can imagine with that
long of timeline,

358
00:18:44,890 --> 00:18:46,992
kind of want to break things down
a little bit.

359
00:18:46,992 --> 00:18:49,895
The classic goes from 250 to 950 C.E.

360
00:18:49,895 --> 00:18:54,166
and the Post Classic,
which goes from 950 to 1539

361
00:18:54,166 --> 00:18:57,936
and then overlaps
with which with what is called the contact

362
00:18:57,936 --> 00:19:02,074
or contact period,
which stretches from 1511 to 1697.

363
00:19:02,074 --> 00:19:06,378
There's some overlap, as I mentioned,
but not just in timeline,

364
00:19:06,378 --> 00:19:08,113
but also advancements, building

365
00:19:08,113 --> 00:19:11,416
techniques, writing, and many other things
between the various periods.

366
00:19:11,416 --> 00:19:14,786
But you know, when there are some
but not all the pieces

367
00:19:14,786 --> 00:19:18,190
for the next movement, they kind of go,
all right, you're not quite there.

368
00:19:18,190 --> 00:19:20,859
And then when you see all of the pieces
that are pretty like part

369
00:19:20,859 --> 00:19:23,328
and parcel to that period, you're like,
all right,

370
00:19:23,328 --> 00:19:26,198
that's kind of when they that's kind of
when they got there.

371
00:19:26,198 --> 00:19:29,701
it's got it's a little archaic,
but you know, it works out overall

372
00:19:29,701 --> 00:19:31,370
difficult to pin down exactly.

373
00:19:31,370 --> 00:19:35,741
When things changed up similarly similarly
to how it is for us today.

374
00:19:35,741 --> 00:19:37,876
But, you know, we do it by decades now.

375
00:19:37,876 --> 00:19:40,879
But in 100,000 years, will alien

376
00:19:41,079 --> 00:19:43,882
archeologist to discover our own planet
think the same?

377
00:19:43,882 --> 00:19:44,283
Who knows?

378
00:19:44,283 --> 00:19:47,419
Either way, we've kind of discussed
the migration

379
00:19:47,419 --> 00:19:50,689
of indigenous people,
which happened at least 14,000 years ago.

380
00:19:50,689 --> 00:19:52,891
But exactly when remains to be seen.

381
00:19:52,891 --> 00:19:57,062
How did the people get from new settling
people to the mighty Mesoamerican cultures

382
00:19:57,062 --> 00:19:59,097
we think of today? A lot of hard work.

383
00:19:59,097 --> 00:20:00,632
There's a lot of trial and error.

384
00:20:00,632 --> 00:20:04,236
The pre classic is based
transitional period to discuss as it takes

385
00:20:04,236 --> 00:20:08,073
place between the archaic and the classic,
but also last 2000 years.

386
00:20:08,073 --> 00:20:12,211
So there's definitely some room for growth
early pre pre classic period as

387
00:20:12,477 --> 00:20:14,213
is when the Maya began
to get their footing

388
00:20:14,213 --> 00:20:17,282
as a culture that we know
and would be later known for.

389
00:20:17,282 --> 00:20:20,619
For that they were semi-nomadic turned
farmers settling in what are known

390
00:20:20,619 --> 00:20:24,189
as the lowlands
or the peninsula part of the Yucatan.

391
00:20:24,189 --> 00:20:28,560
The main plants that are made that made
these early Maya settle down as one.

392
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:30,696
I'm sure we're all familiar with maize.

393
00:20:30,696 --> 00:20:32,297
I kind of mentioned it earlier. Corn.

394
00:20:32,297 --> 00:20:35,534
The cob wobble, also known as
I don't think anybody calls it

395
00:20:35,534 --> 00:20:36,301
the cob wobble.

396
00:20:36,301 --> 00:20:40,339
But I think they said
this plant was one, one

397
00:20:40,339 --> 00:20:44,142
that many indigenous people across North
America utilize in many different ways.

398
00:20:44,142 --> 00:20:45,510
Most common was using it

399
00:20:45,510 --> 00:20:49,147
as a base to make a bread type meal
and using the husk to make tamales.

400
00:20:49,281 --> 00:20:50,582
That's my favorite way.

401
00:20:50,582 --> 00:20:53,518
Other things they feasted
upon were squash, beans, peppers,

402
00:20:53,518 --> 00:20:56,521
and the occasional sweet potato.
Yeah. Yuck.

403
00:20:56,588 --> 00:20:58,724
I just hate sweet potatoes.

404
00:20:58,724 --> 00:21:00,592
It's it's just a personal thing.

405
00:21:00,592 --> 00:21:03,962
You know, it's fun as this process
is not exactly an overnight one.

406
00:21:03,962 --> 00:21:06,331
That is, one of the earliest early
pre classic

407
00:21:06,331 --> 00:21:10,902
period is from roughly 2000
BCE to 1000 BCE.

408
00:21:10,936 --> 00:21:13,705
It's also in this timeframe
that the Maya began to trade

409
00:21:13,705 --> 00:21:16,742
with the Olmec, who had a larger influence
on Maya culture,

410
00:21:16,742 --> 00:21:20,245
as I briefly mentioned a little bit ago
with their influence on Brain

411
00:21:20,245 --> 00:21:24,316
Child in the famous Maya calendar,
and so conosco.

412
00:21:24,650 --> 00:21:29,221
The early Pre classic period began around
1800 BCE, with notable changes

413
00:21:29,221 --> 00:21:33,058
in settlement patterns,
sustenance, technology and society.

414
00:21:33,058 --> 00:21:37,296
Permanent inland villages
near flood prone bias provided

415
00:21:37,296 --> 00:21:40,465
advantageous
fishing and agricultural conditions

416
00:21:40,632 --> 00:21:44,369
despite maize being present,
you know, around 1700 BCE

417
00:21:44,369 --> 00:21:48,473
is not the primary diet staple yet,
leading to speculation

418
00:21:48,473 --> 00:21:52,778
about reliance on other crops
like manioc or casa cassava.

419
00:21:52,811 --> 00:21:56,248
Technological advancements
include the introduction of pottery

420
00:21:56,248 --> 00:22:00,819
in the burrow phase, which is around 1800
BCE with sophisticated ceramics

421
00:22:00,819 --> 00:22:04,423
like likely used for ritual purposes,
earliest of as evidence

422
00:22:04,423 --> 00:22:07,793
of chocolate use, and clay figurines
also emerged during this time.

423
00:22:07,959 --> 00:22:11,163
Then after this,
we have a little more of the complex

424
00:22:11,396 --> 00:22:15,701
pottery, just kind of stemming from this,
like origin.

425
00:22:15,701 --> 00:22:21,840
They, also began to have rank societies
with large capital villages

426
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:26,511
and signs of social differentiation,
such as elaborate burials

427
00:22:26,511 --> 00:22:30,749
and depictions of shaman chiefs,
which, you know, also putting

428
00:22:30,749 --> 00:22:36,188
a little more emphasis on the, it's like
almost like a aristocratic group.

429
00:22:36,188 --> 00:22:42,127
Next phase, we have, unique pottery
decorations, more sophisticated figurines.

430
00:22:42,127 --> 00:22:46,732
Early pre classic sites similar to snow
scale have been found along the Pacific

431
00:22:46,765 --> 00:22:51,370
littoral, littoral, Guatemala
and El Salvador, but not in the Central

432
00:22:51,370 --> 00:22:55,974
and North America Maya areas,
or the earliest Olmec civilization.

433
00:22:55,974 --> 00:22:59,811
Before 1000 BCE, conditions
were not favorable for effective village

434
00:22:59,811 --> 00:23:01,947
farming outside of the Pacific littoral.

435
00:23:01,947 --> 00:23:05,917
However, during the middle pre
classic period, you know, until about 400

436
00:23:05,917 --> 00:23:09,688
BCE, heavy populations with pottery,
likely Mayan speaking,

437
00:23:09,688 --> 00:23:13,492
began establishing themselves
in both the highlands and the lowlands.

438
00:23:13,492 --> 00:23:14,493
These populations

439
00:23:14,493 --> 00:23:18,563
were mostly peasants with limited social
organization, architecture and art.

440
00:23:18,563 --> 00:23:22,567
In contrast, the Olmec civilization
in southern Veracruz and adjacent

441
00:23:22,567 --> 00:23:26,104
to Basco thrived during the early
and middle Pre Classic periods.

442
00:23:26,104 --> 00:23:29,174
Olmec Center
at San Lorenzo, dating back to 1400

443
00:23:29,174 --> 00:23:32,711
BCE, was the first urban capital
in Mesoamerica.

444
00:23:32,711 --> 00:23:35,447
Known for its giant basalt sculptures.

445
00:23:35,447 --> 00:23:38,950
San Lorenzo was destroyed around 1150 BCE,

446
00:23:39,151 --> 00:23:42,788
but its influence
spread across Mesoamerica,

447
00:23:42,888 --> 00:23:46,958
even into the Yucatan Peninsula,
but only like a little bit.

448
00:23:46,958 --> 00:23:49,895
Olmec colonists also settled
eastern San Usko.

449
00:23:49,895 --> 00:23:52,531
So Conosco.
I think I'm been pronouncing that wrong,

450
00:23:54,499 --> 00:23:55,300
because,

451
00:23:55,300 --> 00:23:58,370
they they settled there
because of rich cacao orchards.

452
00:23:58,370 --> 00:24:00,238
Which big thing, big theme.

453
00:24:00,238 --> 00:24:03,942
After San Lorenzo was fall,
La Venta became the new Olmec center,

454
00:24:03,942 --> 00:24:08,547
featuring these elaborate tombs,
jade and serpentine offerings,

455
00:24:08,547 --> 00:24:13,118
and significant public architecture
indicating a very powerful Olmec state.

456
00:24:13,118 --> 00:24:18,123
Olmec slightly likely created
the Long Count calendar, influencing

457
00:24:18,390 --> 00:24:21,927
obviously the Maya at this
like this is when they created it

458
00:24:21,927 --> 00:24:24,329
and then later
the Maya would pick up in the middle.

459
00:24:24,329 --> 00:24:25,230
Pre classic period,

460
00:24:25,230 --> 00:24:29,434
the Maya began to showcase things
that would define their classic period.

461
00:24:29,434 --> 00:24:31,837
Architecture
began to flourish in similar patterns

462
00:24:31,837 --> 00:24:34,639
across various settlements
Maya, across the lowlands.

463
00:24:34,639 --> 00:24:37,275
architecture
was not the only major improvement

464
00:24:37,275 --> 00:24:39,978
as they began to add some infrastructure
to their habitats,

465
00:24:39,978 --> 00:24:42,581
which is really something
that I never really considered before.

466
00:24:42,581 --> 00:24:45,684
They developed a very rudimentary
irrigation system

467
00:24:45,684 --> 00:24:49,054
further advance their already
improving agricultural methods.

468
00:24:49,054 --> 00:24:52,324
Villages of each state began
to show some version of a town

469
00:24:52,324 --> 00:24:55,327
square or central plazas,
with greater gifts

470
00:24:55,494 --> 00:24:58,797
within the greater
geographical area of the town.

471
00:24:58,830 --> 00:25:00,966
There's also
the inclusion of sporting fields.

472
00:25:00,966 --> 00:25:03,635
This is where the iconic ball game
would be played.

473
00:25:03,635 --> 00:25:04,503
If you're unfamiliar,

474
00:25:04,503 --> 00:25:08,406
the Mesoamerican people had a very
developed interest in physical feats.

475
00:25:08,406 --> 00:25:12,177
This extended to their athletic prowess,
which could be displayed in war.

476
00:25:12,277 --> 00:25:14,012
Also in the ball game.

477
00:25:14,012 --> 00:25:17,382
The name is some kind
sometimes called these pits,

478
00:25:17,382 --> 00:25:20,619
but most often just called the ball game
or the Maya Ball

479
00:25:20,619 --> 00:25:23,722
game is not a specifically Maya thing,
as many cultures

480
00:25:23,722 --> 00:25:27,125
in the Mesoamerica umbrella played it,
especially the Aztecs later on.

481
00:25:27,125 --> 00:25:29,194
This game was also pretty interesting.

482
00:25:29,194 --> 00:25:34,599
They, didn't use their hands or feet,
which sounds confusing

483
00:25:34,599 --> 00:25:36,067
because all of the sports

484
00:25:36,067 --> 00:25:40,071
we watched, they use their hands
and feet to move an object around.

485
00:25:40,071 --> 00:25:45,277
But essentially what they did is like, 
dribble it off of their chest or knees,

486
00:25:45,343 --> 00:25:50,081
and then would like, you know, use their
hips to kind of kick it around, I guess.

487
00:25:50,081 --> 00:25:53,952
not I don't know,
it seems very confusing,

488
00:25:53,952 --> 00:25:55,287
but if you watch videos,

489
00:25:55,287 --> 00:25:59,624
there's like people who could will
reenact it and play the game now

490
00:25:59,658 --> 00:26:03,762
and you can watch them and it,
it seems relatively, interesting.

491
00:26:03,828 --> 00:26:07,933
I don't know, it's different because it's
just so alien to what we're used to,

492
00:26:07,933 --> 00:26:09,534
but it's also pretty interesting.

493
00:26:09,534 --> 00:26:12,437
sometimes they would use this to settle
disputes.

494
00:26:12,437 --> 00:26:13,572
So that's that's

495
00:26:14,673 --> 00:26:15,874
they would also

496
00:26:15,874 --> 00:26:20,712
in those cases, if they're like warring
with another town or whatever,

497
00:26:20,712 --> 00:26:23,181
when they played the ball game
and the other town lost,

498
00:26:23,181 --> 00:26:25,984
they might sacrifice
one of the people on the other team.

499
00:26:25,984 --> 00:26:27,519
It's fun moving right along.

500
00:26:27,519 --> 00:26:30,755
the, the decorated and,

501
00:26:30,755 --> 00:26:36,561
expansive town center also came
hand in hand with, more decorated stelae,

502
00:26:36,561 --> 00:26:41,132
which transcribe their hieroglyphics
and adorned many town

503
00:26:41,132 --> 00:26:44,903
centers, similarly to how the Greek city
states borrowed from one another.

504
00:26:44,903 --> 00:26:48,807
Early Mesoamerican cultures
did the same kind of thing, and the people

505
00:26:48,807 --> 00:26:51,042
who would be labeled
as the Maya were no different.

506
00:26:51,042 --> 00:26:56,214
They borrowed many, masonry techniques
from the nearby Olmec people, mostly,

507
00:26:56,214 --> 00:26:58,450
most likely learned through traded means

508
00:26:58,450 --> 00:27:01,586
because also extended to different methods
of tools and weaponry.

509
00:27:01,653 --> 00:27:03,021
As the Maya never made it

510
00:27:03,021 --> 00:27:06,024
out of the Stone age technically,
as far as tools were concerned,

511
00:27:06,091 --> 00:27:09,260
their general weaponry and utilities
remained constant with,

512
00:27:09,361 --> 00:27:12,330
some, some improvements
over the few thousand years

513
00:27:12,330 --> 00:27:16,267
they utilized stone tools,
wooden tools crafted with stone tools,

514
00:27:16,267 --> 00:27:21,272
but were also big users and,
obsidian tipped weapons into ores.

515
00:27:21,272 --> 00:27:26,077
Obsidian is volcanic glass, which is ever
sharp and incredibly resilient and heavy.

516
00:27:26,077 --> 00:27:26,611
Uses.

517
00:27:26,611 --> 00:27:30,982
Obsidian also doubled as a highly sought
after traded item, and it,

518
00:27:30,982 --> 00:27:35,253
kind of along with things like jade and, 
cocoa beans.

519
00:27:35,253 --> 00:27:38,723
So throughout the pre classic period,
more cities began to pop up,

520
00:27:39,090 --> 00:27:42,060
especially in the regions
that are known as the lowlands.

521
00:27:42,060 --> 00:27:44,162
If you look at the Yucatan Peninsula,
the region

522
00:27:44,162 --> 00:27:47,432
just south of the actual peninsula
is called Southern Lowlands.

523
00:27:47,432 --> 00:27:51,036
They are the, they are beginning,
you know, to spread throughout this region

524
00:27:51,036 --> 00:27:54,839
and keeping connected from each city state
as they grow.

525
00:27:54,839 --> 00:27:56,074
Numbers are hard to estimate,

526
00:27:56,074 --> 00:27:58,543
but they were sizable enough
to have plenty temples

527
00:27:58,543 --> 00:28:00,979
and plenty of infrastructure
that could support hundreds

528
00:28:00,979 --> 00:28:03,214
of thousands of people
in some of the largest ones.

529
00:28:03,214 --> 00:28:06,217
It seems super impressive to me
considering I have to.

530
00:28:06,584 --> 00:28:10,021
I have tried to build cities and games
and can never get that high.

531
00:28:10,021 --> 00:28:14,926
One of the most notable examples from
this time is oh boy, Cumbernauld Junior,

532
00:28:14,959 --> 00:28:16,261
Cumbernauld u u.

533
00:28:16,261 --> 00:28:20,265
Yeah, obviously, which is located
in modern day Guatemala City.

534
00:28:20,331 --> 00:28:24,469
Remember earlier when I mentioned that,
there were some Maya cities

535
00:28:24,469 --> 00:28:28,406
that had irrigation and really dynamic
features in stone carved buildings?

536
00:28:28,406 --> 00:28:33,678
This city was founded towards the middle
pre classic in 1500 BCE,

537
00:28:33,678 --> 00:28:37,949
but it lasted all the way until
it was eventually abandoned in 1200 C.E..

538
00:28:37,949 --> 00:28:40,752
As is the case with most of Maya things,
we know most about it

539
00:28:40,752 --> 00:28:44,622
thanks to their hieroglyphics, when
they marked many things in their cities,

540
00:28:44,622 --> 00:28:48,593
as well as their dating system,
which could often include the carvings

541
00:28:48,593 --> 00:28:52,197
that they made or which they often
included in the carvings that they made,

542
00:28:52,831 --> 00:28:53,765
confused myself.

543
00:28:53,765 --> 00:28:55,233
Ancient Maya were accomplished

544
00:28:55,233 --> 00:28:59,104
astronomers and mathematicians
who developed one of the most important

545
00:28:59,370 --> 00:29:02,073
one of the most accurate calendar systems
in human history.

546
00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:06,211
They use several cyclical calendars,
including the harb,

547
00:29:06,211 --> 00:29:10,582
the sultan, the sultan, and,
and the calendar round.

548
00:29:10,615 --> 00:29:14,686
The is a 365 day calendar with 19 months,

549
00:29:14,686 --> 00:29:17,789
18 of 20 days each, and one of five days.

550
00:29:17,789 --> 00:29:18,690
Called the wired.

551
00:29:18,690 --> 00:29:23,695
The token is a 260 day
calendar made from a combination of 20 day

552
00:29:23,695 --> 00:29:26,698
glyphs and the numbers 1 to 13.

553
00:29:26,731 --> 00:29:30,101
Calendar round interweaves
the hub and the token silicon.

554
00:29:30,301 --> 00:29:34,038
I don't know, calendars
repeating every 52 periods.

555
00:29:34,038 --> 00:29:35,573
365 day.

556
00:29:35,573 --> 00:29:38,843
The Long Count
calendar was used to chronologically date

557
00:29:38,843 --> 00:29:42,881
events spanning more than 5100 years,
counting in cycles of 20,

558
00:29:42,881 --> 00:29:47,352
with an exception for the third cycle,
which approximates the solar year.

559
00:29:47,352 --> 00:29:51,189
The long count calendar starts
from the mythical creation date

560
00:29:51,189 --> 00:29:55,059
of August 1131, 14 BCE,

561
00:29:55,059 --> 00:29:58,096
and that cycle ended December 21st, 2012.

562
00:29:58,129 --> 00:30:02,300
This is the sign of a new cycle
and not the end of the world,

563
00:30:02,300 --> 00:30:06,104
like many people like to assume
because they, you know, see the word end

564
00:30:06,104 --> 00:30:07,605
and get all weird.

565
00:30:07,605 --> 00:30:08,473
But really,

566
00:30:08,473 --> 00:30:13,011
if the Maya would have been around for
this entire amount of time, realistically

567
00:30:13,011 --> 00:30:16,014
what it would have just meant
is a new beginning kind of thing.

568
00:30:16,514 --> 00:30:20,518
like, not even a rebirth, but just like,
all right, this is our new cycle.

569
00:30:20,518 --> 00:30:21,486
We're on this cycle.

570
00:30:21,486 --> 00:30:24,422
We're doing stuff differently. Slightly.

571
00:30:24,422 --> 00:30:28,426
Maya farmers conducted offerings
and ceremonial hour ceremonies.

572
00:30:28,426 --> 00:30:32,230
According to the Hobgoblin,
the silken, calendar

573
00:30:32,230 --> 00:30:35,733
also played a significant role
in Maya rituals, including the.

574
00:30:35,733 --> 00:30:38,536
Oh my gosh, what luck.

575
00:30:38,536 --> 00:30:40,271
Shakib, what's.

576
00:30:40,271 --> 00:30:42,407
Yeah. Nailed it! Ceremony.

577
00:30:42,407 --> 00:30:45,376
The Walk Saki Bots ceremony
in the highlands

578
00:30:45,376 --> 00:30:48,713
of Guatemala, marking
the start of a new 260 day cycle.

579
00:30:48,713 --> 00:30:53,151
Now with the calendar round combining
both the hub and a token token,

580
00:30:53,785 --> 00:30:57,355
I'm still not convinced
that, its completion signifies

581
00:30:57,488 --> 00:31:00,592
special wisdom
for those reaching 52 years of age.

582
00:31:00,592 --> 00:31:04,429
Every 52 years,
the calendars would synchronize a period.

583
00:31:05,063 --> 00:31:07,565
this period is considered to be sacred.

584
00:31:07,565 --> 00:31:11,202
Mentioned earlier
that they had accurately counted 365 days

585
00:31:11,536 --> 00:31:13,171
in the year for their mathematics.

586
00:31:13,171 --> 00:31:15,073
Goes way more in-depth than just that.

587
00:31:15,073 --> 00:31:19,911
The mathematical achievement of the Maya
is, pretty noteworthy and very complex.

588
00:31:19,911 --> 00:31:23,514
The Maya number system was,
it was a base 20 system,

589
00:31:23,648 --> 00:31:26,384
likely influenced by counting on fingers
and toes.

590
00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:29,754
It included advances
the features such as zero.

591
00:31:29,754 --> 00:31:32,290
Who would have thought that zero
such an events feature.

592
00:31:32,290 --> 00:31:37,061
But, an positional system, though
not a true positional based system.

593
00:31:37,061 --> 00:31:41,065
The interesting thing about this is that
the Maya had the concept of zero down

594
00:31:41,099 --> 00:31:44,402
way before the Europeans did,
and this might be silly,

595
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:48,306
but think of how often the concept of
nothing might play a part in your life.

596
00:31:48,306 --> 00:31:49,641
Think about how the Europeans

597
00:31:49,641 --> 00:31:53,311
did not have something like that
until like 1200 C.E.,

598
00:31:53,611 --> 00:31:55,013
when the famous Fibonacci

599
00:31:55,013 --> 00:31:58,383
returned from traveling in North Africa
and delivered the concept,

600
00:31:58,383 --> 00:32:02,220
along with Arabic numerals,
to Europe, Egypt, Greece, Rome.

601
00:32:02,220 --> 00:32:04,923
None of these ever had zero figured out.

602
00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:05,990
Isn't that kind of wild?

603
00:32:05,990 --> 00:32:09,761
Astronomically, the Maya achieved
remarkable precision with minimal tools.

604
00:32:09,761 --> 00:32:14,299
They calculated the solar year
to be 365.242

605
00:32:14,299 --> 00:32:19,237
days, and the lunar month to be 29.30
.5302 days.

606
00:32:19,237 --> 00:32:23,341
Very, very close to modern values,
their interest in celestial cycles

607
00:32:23,341 --> 00:32:28,379
led to constructions of observatories
like the Caracol building et cheating

608
00:32:28,413 --> 00:32:29,280
Chichen Itza.

609
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:33,084
Aside from astronomy, the Maya's
mathematical legacy includes intricate

610
00:32:33,084 --> 00:32:36,821
architectural decorations
with geometric patterns found in the

611
00:32:37,388 --> 00:32:42,493
regions, ruins, showcasing
their inventiveness and intuition.

612
00:32:42,493 --> 00:32:44,162
And, you know,
you kind of got to think about it

613
00:32:44,162 --> 00:32:46,564
because they spent a lot of time
hanging out outside

614
00:32:46,564 --> 00:32:50,401
and a lot of time looking at the stars
and a lot of time planning.

615
00:32:50,401 --> 00:32:56,341
And, you know, we we were like, man,
they're not making very many observations

616
00:32:56,341 --> 00:32:58,977
in science now,
but like, let's just during our lifetime

617
00:32:58,977 --> 00:33:04,415
think about generations of wealth,
that of knowledge that's been passed out.

618
00:33:04,415 --> 00:33:05,817
So anyway, that moves us right.

619
00:33:05,817 --> 00:33:10,421
In the classic period, this titular
this is the Maya period as we know it,

620
00:33:10,455 --> 00:33:13,958
considered by many
to be the height of the Maya civilization,

621
00:33:13,958 --> 00:33:17,695
where things that I mentioned before
with the mathematic calendar,

622
00:33:17,762 --> 00:33:21,265
mathematics calendars, celestial
observing and architecture

623
00:33:21,265 --> 00:33:24,669
really grew into their iconic selves
is in the classical period

624
00:33:24,669 --> 00:33:28,673
that the heavy influence of the calendar
in the way that they began

625
00:33:28,673 --> 00:33:32,377
to heavily date things and most
architectural achievements from this time.

626
00:33:32,377 --> 00:33:35,213
There are calendar dates
included in the hieroglyphics

627
00:33:35,213 --> 00:33:38,349
that decorated the facades
of these buildings and monuments.

628
00:33:38,349 --> 00:33:40,952
This is especially useful
now that we have an understanding

629
00:33:40,952 --> 00:33:44,055
of how the calendars work,
and can use them to tell exactly

630
00:33:44,055 --> 00:33:46,758
when the building was built,
which is pretty neat.

631
00:33:46,758 --> 00:33:50,028
During the classical period,
which, as I mentioned earlier, stretches

632
00:33:50,028 --> 00:33:53,898
from the second century BCE to 900 C.E.

633
00:33:53,898 --> 00:33:57,502
we also have one of the most influential
Mayan rulers.

634
00:33:57,568 --> 00:33:59,037
There's a good time to share the fact that

635
00:33:59,037 --> 00:34:03,441
just because Maya did not have a unified
governing body or major kingdom presence

636
00:34:03,441 --> 00:34:06,744
in the same way that the Aztec
or Inca had their city states,

637
00:34:07,011 --> 00:34:09,614
who often fought one
another struggled in these fights.

638
00:34:09,614 --> 00:34:13,951
one such location in
is in the city of Plunkett,

639
00:34:14,052 --> 00:34:17,789
which had been dealing with some major
rival disputes with the Catholic.

640
00:34:17,789 --> 00:34:21,692
More turnover for rulers of Lincoln
was pretty bad, and Catholic more

641
00:34:21,692 --> 00:34:26,030
attacked them consistently over and over
during the fourth and fifth centuries.

642
00:34:26,030 --> 00:34:27,632
With the tumultuous time

643
00:34:27,632 --> 00:34:31,469
that the attacks and leaders
who were unable to make any meaningful

644
00:34:31,469 --> 00:34:35,606
progress in their city, the people of
Lincoln felt, you know, very disparaged.

645
00:34:35,940 --> 00:34:41,612
Religious ceremonies were ignored, linked
even more, people just being alienated.

646
00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:46,417
There's even glyphs which stated the fact,
you know, like people aren't praying.

647
00:34:46,451 --> 00:34:49,053
That's not what they said specifically.
But, you know, you know, it's bad.

648
00:34:50,254 --> 00:34:50,922
You know how bad

649
00:34:50,922 --> 00:34:54,125
your city is missing
a religious ceremony or ceremonies.

650
00:34:54,125 --> 00:34:58,196
There has to be a it has to have
an artisan carve it into a building.

651
00:34:58,196 --> 00:35:00,098
That's pretty bad. Things felt bleak.

652
00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:03,801
That was until the son of a woman
who assumed the role as a leader of

653
00:35:03,801 --> 00:35:05,603
the city was brought into the fold.

654
00:35:05,603 --> 00:35:06,037
Sack.

655
00:35:06,037 --> 00:35:09,640
Cook was the daughter of a man
named Jenab Khalil,

656
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,743
who is the namesake for her son.

657
00:35:12,910 --> 00:35:16,681
I explain that very confusing,
but he her son, took

658
00:35:16,681 --> 00:35:20,852
power at age 12, assisted by his mother
for a quarter of a century.

659
00:35:20,852 --> 00:35:25,323
The young Pascal, also known as Pascal
the Great began to run the city

660
00:35:25,323 --> 00:35:26,357
in the right direction.

661
00:35:26,357 --> 00:35:29,927
City experienced a great renaissance
under Picard's guidance.

662
00:35:29,927 --> 00:35:33,197
Majority of the buildings
in Pelinka were constructed during his

663
00:35:33,197 --> 00:35:37,502
nearly 70 year tenure, remodeling
current buildings, adding new

664
00:35:37,502 --> 00:35:39,904
and majorly improved structures
that feature

665
00:35:39,904 --> 00:35:43,808
some of the greatest and latest
breakthroughs of Mayan engineering.

666
00:35:43,808 --> 00:35:47,979
Plank was advanced as it features
some of the rudimentary pseudo plumbing

667
00:35:47,979 --> 00:35:52,984
which fed sweat baths, latrines, and, of
course, water for crops, which is amazing.

668
00:35:53,317 --> 00:35:55,753
They had sweat, sweat baths, figured out.

669
00:35:55,753 --> 00:35:58,322
Buildings were constructed
with iconic vault style

670
00:35:58,322 --> 00:36:02,193
that would be found in many other
classic and Post Classic Maya buildings.

671
00:36:02,193 --> 00:36:05,229
Although there were no great success
stories in the buildings,

672
00:36:05,229 --> 00:36:07,732
he did not rule unchallenged
during his reign.

673
00:36:07,732 --> 00:36:11,035
The warriors of pulling battle
against external foes quite often,

674
00:36:11,035 --> 00:36:13,804
but just as often found themselves
victorious.

675
00:36:13,804 --> 00:36:17,508
The success of percale is important
in highlighting a few different things.

676
00:36:17,508 --> 00:36:21,512
Firstly, the lack of religious effort
before he took over versus the importance

677
00:36:21,512 --> 00:36:22,413
he placed on building

678
00:36:22,413 --> 00:36:26,184
temples, doing rituals
at the beginning of his reign in an effort

679
00:36:26,184 --> 00:36:30,421
to please their gods, who in turn provided
some favor towards him and his reign.

680
00:36:30,421 --> 00:36:33,558
This is a pattern
that is seen in a few mind states,

681
00:36:33,558 --> 00:36:38,196
where at a certain point, emphasis
on religious practice does get placed.

682
00:36:38,196 --> 00:36:40,398
And maybe it worked
and it did keep doing it.

683
00:36:40,398 --> 00:36:43,201
So or it stops working and they move on.

684
00:36:43,201 --> 00:36:46,170
More on that,
more on the latter in a little bit.

685
00:36:46,370 --> 00:36:48,239
It's kind of a great system. No,
because like,

686
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,309
you don't swear religious fealty,
support my reign as king.

687
00:36:51,676 --> 00:36:55,813
And if I do a good job, you know,
or the gods support my rule, then

688
00:36:55,813 --> 00:36:58,182
if things work out
and I'm actually good at my job,

689
00:36:58,182 --> 00:36:59,750
it will look like the gods favor me.

690
00:36:59,750 --> 00:37:03,254
So this is my thought on ancient systems
of like God kings.

691
00:37:03,254 --> 00:37:05,623
They really are really effective ones.

692
00:37:05,623 --> 00:37:09,961
Really, really helped the spread
of the power of their dominant religion.

693
00:37:09,961 --> 00:37:14,465
If you think about it as you move through,
towards the modern age, through history,

694
00:37:14,465 --> 00:37:16,801
the power of who is running,
whatever place

695
00:37:16,801 --> 00:37:19,470
it may be largely focused on the gods
supporting them.

696
00:37:19,470 --> 00:37:23,341
Then, as time moves forward,
the common people become more educated.

697
00:37:23,341 --> 00:37:27,278
Facts become a little more obvious, and
then the leader is a little more to blame

698
00:37:27,278 --> 00:37:28,346
because of their actions,

699
00:37:28,346 --> 00:37:31,582
rather than they displease
the gods in some vague fashion.

700
00:37:31,582 --> 00:37:33,584
Let's you actually did it.

701
00:37:33,584 --> 00:37:34,352
I digress.

702
00:37:34,352 --> 00:37:38,256
The reason we know Picard's
great leadership is due to a few factors.

703
00:37:38,256 --> 00:37:39,724
The first, obviously,

704
00:37:39,724 --> 00:37:43,361
the inscriptions of the monuments and
buildings constructed during his reign.

705
00:37:43,694 --> 00:37:47,031
As I stated before, they often tagged them
with the dates of the buildings.

706
00:37:47,031 --> 00:37:50,534
And then when the general events, 
like what general events

707
00:37:50,534 --> 00:37:53,170
were happening at the time,
which I think we should go back to.

708
00:37:53,170 --> 00:37:54,405
Welcome.

709
00:37:54,405 --> 00:37:55,473
Welcome to McDonald's.

710
00:37:55,473 --> 00:37:58,843
This building was constructed
on the third day of June 2007.

711
00:37:58,843 --> 00:38:00,811
When it was constructed,
it was the only building

712
00:38:00,811 --> 00:38:03,814
within a five block radius,
and during construction, a man

713
00:38:03,814 --> 00:38:06,884
drove into the building
and defecated on the fresh concrete.

714
00:38:06,884 --> 00:38:07,685
Something like that.

715
00:38:07,685 --> 00:38:08,319
It would be fun.

716
00:38:08,319 --> 00:38:09,820
I thought it would actually be cool

717
00:38:09,820 --> 00:38:13,190
if they did that with buildings
that they take spot of other buildings.

718
00:38:13,190 --> 00:38:13,991
They knocked some,

719
00:38:13,991 --> 00:38:17,762
you know, classic Art Deco building
and put up a soulless square building,

720
00:38:17,762 --> 00:38:21,365
leaving a picture of what was replaced
so that people know the new architects.

721
00:38:21,565 --> 00:38:21,866
All right.

722
00:38:21,866 --> 00:38:25,803
So back stepping off here, the other way
to tell how important a leader was

723
00:38:25,803 --> 00:38:29,373
is to base off
their funerary elements, right.

724
00:38:29,373 --> 00:38:32,043
Because definitely upper
echelon of importance.

725
00:38:32,043 --> 00:38:36,480
His tomb was being prepared well before
he died, which not super duper uncommon.

726
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:37,348
But when he died,

727
00:38:37,348 --> 00:38:41,252
they had devised a way for him
to be placed in sealed nice and neatly.

728
00:38:41,252 --> 00:38:45,723
His funeral mask was made
from the prized jade which the Maya loved.

729
00:38:45,723 --> 00:38:47,525
This thing was pretty wicked too.

730
00:38:47,525 --> 00:38:50,995
He was, you know,
he was in his 70s, having ruled from 615

731
00:38:50,995 --> 00:38:54,332
until his death in 683,
so he clearly was doing something right.

732
00:38:54,332 --> 00:38:59,036
The death mask is completely made of jade
with like 12 chains of jade as well.

733
00:38:59,036 --> 00:39:00,471
Massive spine earring

734
00:39:00,471 --> 00:39:04,442
type things, Jade bracelets, rings
and pins to go on clothing.

735
00:39:04,442 --> 00:39:06,744
The cover of his tomb is also fantastic.

736
00:39:06,744 --> 00:39:11,349
Features him curled up in a seated
position like sideways like profile view.

737
00:39:11,649 --> 00:39:12,416
You could call it

738
00:39:12,416 --> 00:39:16,187
an like elaborate decoration
of what looks like a throne under him.

739
00:39:16,187 --> 00:39:19,790
And then there's like this massive tree
and like, masks floating around.

740
00:39:19,824 --> 00:39:23,761
Obviously, I'm gonna put an image
of these things on the social media posts

741
00:39:23,761 --> 00:39:26,764
and then in the video companion, so,
you know, don't forget to look for those.

742
00:39:26,764 --> 00:39:30,101
But percale is one of the most famous
kings of the mind city.

743
00:39:30,101 --> 00:39:32,703
And he brought his city to a great power.
And you'd think.

744
00:39:32,703 --> 00:39:35,573
But the footing he left in it,
it would succeed for a long time.

745
00:39:35,573 --> 00:39:37,608
But this is not not really the case.

746
00:39:37,608 --> 00:39:39,744
If you have a standard passing
knowledge of the Maya,

747
00:39:39,744 --> 00:39:43,514
you might be thinking that is around
this time that they began to disappear.

748
00:39:43,514 --> 00:39:45,349
The famous vanishing of the Maya.

749
00:39:45,349 --> 00:39:49,420
The only problem with this theory is that
there's still Maya around to this day.

750
00:39:50,221 --> 00:39:53,791
Many people believe that they were wiped
out with the arrival of Spanish as well,

751
00:39:53,791 --> 00:39:55,459
but this is also not the case.

752
00:39:55,459 --> 00:39:57,661
I mentioned
the phases of the Maya time periods,

753
00:39:57,661 --> 00:39:59,930
and that the classic period
is what truly defines

754
00:39:59,930 --> 00:40:03,234
what we think of as the Maya to this day,
and that there are sections to the

755
00:40:03,234 --> 00:40:07,438
classic period, while the early and late
classic are what I've described until now.

756
00:40:07,438 --> 00:40:10,408
So now we're entering
what is known as the Terminal Classic.

757
00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:14,378
The name like, that's pretty easy
to guesstimate what is about to happen.

758
00:40:14,378 --> 00:40:15,212
Even so, there's

759
00:40:15,212 --> 00:40:19,183
some misrepresentations of what happened
because we really don't have a full story.

760
00:40:19,183 --> 00:40:23,120
There are a few leading ideas
and theories, but before I get to those,

761
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,690
I want to describe what is found
in archeological realm from this time.

762
00:40:26,724 --> 00:40:28,092
At this time we have cities.

763
00:40:28,092 --> 00:40:29,693
No longer expanding.

764
00:40:29,693 --> 00:40:32,329
In the years after cause death
in the eighth century,

765
00:40:32,329 --> 00:40:34,498
there are no new buildings
being built at all.

766
00:40:34,498 --> 00:40:37,334
There's also the same issue
and numerous other Maya sites.

767
00:40:37,334 --> 00:40:40,671
Not all the same time, but
around each other around the same time.

768
00:40:40,671 --> 00:40:41,272
For sure.

769
00:40:41,272 --> 00:40:45,209
This is often described as a collapse,
which if you look at the city

770
00:40:45,209 --> 00:40:46,710
itself, no longer expanding.

771
00:40:46,710 --> 00:40:49,513
And soon people began to leave. The city
collapsed.

772
00:40:49,513 --> 00:40:53,250
Sure, the Maya civilization did continue
on, though they did

773
00:40:53,250 --> 00:40:55,252
what they did
before they had these cities.

774
00:40:55,252 --> 00:40:57,955
They moved. They moved to others.
They started new ones.

775
00:40:57,955 --> 00:41:00,925
Some of the most notable Maya cities
that we know of today

776
00:41:00,925 --> 00:41:03,928
actually started around
the time of this so-called collapse.

777
00:41:03,928 --> 00:41:06,163
So let's talk about what is happening
during this time.

778
00:41:06,163 --> 00:41:10,734
Well, the leading theory is that one of
the droughts and subsequent lack of food,

779
00:41:10,801 --> 00:41:15,039
there carvings from around this time
that indicate that the people were people

780
00:41:15,039 --> 00:41:16,140
themselves, were attempting

781
00:41:16,140 --> 00:41:19,143
to please the gods in whatever ways
they could that there, you know,

782
00:41:19,143 --> 00:41:24,081
and there are scientific data points
that have been taken from caves, senators

783
00:41:24,081 --> 00:41:24,715
and the like,

784
00:41:24,715 --> 00:41:29,320
which revealed different isotopes
within crystallized selected stalagmites

785
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:33,090
that point towards low amounts of water
for many years in this time period.

786
00:41:33,090 --> 00:41:34,358
Actual science behind

787
00:41:34,358 --> 00:41:38,462
it is pretty intricate, but essentially
they found certain pairings of isotopes

788
00:41:38,462 --> 00:41:42,066
in these crystals that indicate
that there were a few major droughts.

789
00:41:42,233 --> 00:41:43,801
What causes these droughts?

790
00:41:43,801 --> 00:41:46,403
The main idea
is that the Maya actually deforested.

791
00:41:46,403 --> 00:41:50,441
So much of their region that it affected
the environment and produced,

792
00:41:50,508 --> 00:41:54,712
that produced rainfall, the sharp
and vast forest region becoming nothing.

793
00:41:54,712 --> 00:41:58,215
It makes the region much hotter,
affects the amount of rainfall.

794
00:41:58,215 --> 00:42:01,519
And then that affects affects the crop
rotation.

795
00:42:01,552 --> 00:42:05,823
There's scientific data
to back that up from 802,000 C.E.

796
00:42:05,823 --> 00:42:08,259
was one of the most arid times
in the Yucatan.

797
00:42:08,259 --> 00:42:12,696
And a quote from this PhD candidate, well,
this is from 2018.

798
00:42:12,696 --> 00:42:13,931
He's probably a doctor by now.

799
00:42:13,931 --> 00:42:18,102
But, Nick Evans of Cambridge
said, quote, rainfall decreased on average

800
00:42:18,102 --> 00:42:21,972
by about half and up to 70%
during peak drought conditions.

801
00:42:21,972 --> 00:42:23,040
This is all very interesting.

802
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:26,310
But then
how does that go to affect the Maya?

803
00:42:26,377 --> 00:42:27,912
Well, you could say that

804
00:42:27,912 --> 00:42:32,149
they're very crafty with their irrigation
water reservoirs and whatnot, right.

805
00:42:32,149 --> 00:42:36,153
The bigger issue is that they're focused
on one main crop at a certain point,

806
00:42:36,153 --> 00:42:37,388
maize, the corn crop.

807
00:42:37,388 --> 00:42:41,125
They'd put so much into using this crop,
which cannot do well in droughts.

808
00:42:41,125 --> 00:42:41,792
And because of that,

809
00:42:41,792 --> 00:42:45,963
the food stores begin to dry out,
both figuratively and literally.

810
00:42:45,963 --> 00:42:49,166
The Maya were effective in their methods
of constructing, expanding,

811
00:42:49,166 --> 00:42:53,571
as well as farming and irrigation
based on all success that they had.

812
00:42:53,671 --> 00:42:56,540
They just did not have the data
that would show them

813
00:42:56,540 --> 00:42:59,410
that they overextended themselves
in many different ways.

814
00:42:59,410 --> 00:43:02,212
Their population
grew vastly during the classic period,

815
00:43:02,212 --> 00:43:05,916
and this requires a lot of food and space
for people to live in.

816
00:43:05,916 --> 00:43:09,820
Space means clearing out rich jungle
and planting more food and feeding more

817
00:43:09,820 --> 00:43:11,755
people. Now,
I've been playing a lot of manor

818
00:43:11,755 --> 00:43:14,491
lords lately
and I promise this will connect.

819
00:43:14,491 --> 00:43:15,392
And in this game

820
00:43:15,392 --> 00:43:19,163
you are starting a medieval settlement
and you're trying to expand your village

821
00:43:19,163 --> 00:43:24,501
and use the finite resources along
with agriculture and military expansion.

822
00:43:24,501 --> 00:43:26,103
I've struggled in each game.

823
00:43:26,103 --> 00:43:29,373
I start with feeding my people
after a certain point, try to set up

824
00:43:29,373 --> 00:43:33,177
a few different fields, rotate crops,
make sure the soil stays fertile,

825
00:43:33,177 --> 00:43:37,081
and yet every couple of years
I dip into dangerously low food reserves.

826
00:43:37,081 --> 00:43:38,215
What I'm trying to say

827
00:43:38,215 --> 00:43:42,653
is that it's very hard to manage things
like this, even on a virtual small scale.

828
00:43:42,653 --> 00:43:44,221
So imagine their crops not growing

829
00:43:44,221 --> 00:43:47,191
because of no water or little water
depleting the reserves.

830
00:43:47,257 --> 00:43:50,094
This causing people to just leave,
find a better place

831
00:43:50,094 --> 00:43:51,795
to live makes total sense to me.

832
00:43:51,795 --> 00:43:55,032
There were some tactics
that they tried to apply before completely

833
00:43:55,032 --> 00:43:56,500
abandoning their cities, though.

834
00:43:56,500 --> 00:44:01,905
A major archeological find known as the
as the Calm Conveys was found in the pit

835
00:44:01,905 --> 00:44:06,377
of just like a bunch of random things,
and it was broken into a bunch of big

836
00:44:06,744 --> 00:44:10,814
broken face in a broken pit,
all of broken dreams in a broken city.

837
00:44:10,814 --> 00:44:12,116
What's so special about it?

838
00:44:12,116 --> 00:44:16,286
Well, this place is actually decorated
completely with hieroglyphics

839
00:44:16,286 --> 00:44:17,221
spelling out things

840
00:44:17,221 --> 00:44:21,025
that would normally be told in building
form with no new buildings.

841
00:44:21,025 --> 00:44:21,859
This space

842
00:44:21,859 --> 00:44:25,696
from the middle of the Terminal Classic
period kind of sheds some light on.

843
00:44:25,696 --> 00:44:30,367
You know, the city in modern day believes
this space tells about the, various,

844
00:44:30,434 --> 00:44:34,872
events at the time, which is standard,
but also tells about the efforts

845
00:44:34,872 --> 00:44:38,509
the city and the king were taking
to pull themselves out of the struggle.

846
00:44:38,642 --> 00:44:42,279
At the time, the King was doing things
like leading attacks on neighboring cities

847
00:44:42,279 --> 00:44:46,250
to take their resources, also
doing a lot of rituals and sacrificing.

848
00:44:46,250 --> 00:44:50,320
This is a point of pause, because I think
the I often get wrapped up with the Aztec

849
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,191
and how often or how they perform
sacrifices both cultures did.

850
00:44:54,525 --> 00:44:55,793
And by no means were the Maya.

851
00:44:55,793 --> 00:44:57,928
These holistic and peace loving people.

852
00:44:57,928 --> 00:45:00,097
But compared to
the Aztec, they kind of were

853
00:45:01,365 --> 00:45:03,333
compared to compared to the Aztec.

854
00:45:03,333 --> 00:45:04,268
Most people were.

855
00:45:04,268 --> 00:45:07,438
But predominantly
the Maya defaulted to blood sacrifices,

856
00:45:07,438 --> 00:45:11,442
but again, not as extreme as you are
thinking they would do bloodletting,

857
00:45:11,442 --> 00:45:14,611
which is a form of ritual
in which they bleed into an effigy

858
00:45:14,611 --> 00:45:15,846
or cauldron of swords.

859
00:45:15,846 --> 00:45:18,082
And this blood is an offering to the gods.

860
00:45:18,082 --> 00:45:22,052
They did sacrifice humans ever
so often as one does, but it was

861
00:45:22,519 --> 00:45:26,490
it was rarely their own citizens,
typically capturing an enemy combatant

862
00:45:26,890 --> 00:45:30,127
and sacrificing them,
which I suppose is not much better

863
00:45:30,127 --> 00:45:33,430
than killing your own people,
but a do what you got to do regardless

864
00:45:33,430 --> 00:45:33,997
the come, come.

865
00:45:33,997 --> 00:45:38,736
This gives us a peek into the day, day
to day of the Maya people in this region

866
00:45:38,736 --> 00:45:39,870
as their city begin to

867
00:45:39,870 --> 00:45:43,941
fold under the weight of this situation,
some Maya people in cities began

868
00:45:43,941 --> 00:45:47,845
to flee in droves, in some cases
leaving behind many important things.

869
00:45:47,845 --> 00:45:52,149
In one such case that in Kenya,
people left the city so quickly

870
00:45:52,149 --> 00:45:55,986
that a child was left unburied,
which is completely abnormal for the Maya.

871
00:45:55,986 --> 00:45:59,723
So this kind of speaks to the rapid nature
of some of these evacuations.

872
00:45:59,723 --> 00:46:02,793
The remainder of the Terminal Classic
is much the same.

873
00:46:02,793 --> 00:46:04,328
People leaving the cities,

874
00:46:04,328 --> 00:46:08,198
traveling to new ones, new cities
taking hold in the post classic period.

875
00:46:08,198 --> 00:46:11,802
There is also as movement of the Maya
from the highlands

876
00:46:11,802 --> 00:46:15,572
into lowlands,
the actual Yucatan Peninsula proper.

877
00:46:15,572 --> 00:46:19,743
This coincides with cities
like Chichen Itza, although Chichen

878
00:46:19,743 --> 00:46:24,114
Itza itself has beginnings that date
a little bit further back to Late Classic

879
00:46:24,114 --> 00:46:28,018
most likely actually have a piece
of some of the ruins.

880
00:46:28,051 --> 00:46:29,820
some.

881
00:46:29,820 --> 00:46:30,420
This is it.

882
00:46:30,420 --> 00:46:33,824
Some of my friends visited, 
visited the site and grabbed this.

883
00:46:33,824 --> 00:46:36,827
They grabbed it right off of the ruins
when nobody was looking.

884
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:39,062
I mean, is it super fascinating?

885
00:46:39,062 --> 00:46:42,466
Not not particularly,
but this episode had kind of given me

886
00:46:42,466 --> 00:46:46,003
a little more interest in it
and, respect for it as well.

887
00:46:46,003 --> 00:46:47,437
I did ask them to grab it.

888
00:46:47,437 --> 00:46:51,575
But here here's the thing is,
I feel like I didn't ask them

889
00:46:51,575 --> 00:46:52,709
to bring me a whole temple.

890
00:46:52,709 --> 00:46:55,612
I just kind of wanted
I just wanted a little piece of history.

891
00:46:55,612 --> 00:46:56,713
I like collecting things.

892
00:46:56,713 --> 00:46:58,615
One of the more intriguing parts of,

893
00:46:58,615 --> 00:47:02,553
the city is actually called El Caracol,
which I talked about earlier.

894
00:47:02,553 --> 00:47:04,154
Is that observatory.

895
00:47:04,154 --> 00:47:07,457
You know, these people were so in love
with stars that they had observatory,

896
00:47:07,691 --> 00:47:10,194
which is super fascinating
and not surprising.

897
00:47:10,194 --> 00:47:14,231
But, you know, they had rudimentary
plumbing in some cities,

898
00:47:14,231 --> 00:47:15,833
but it's still pretty cool nonetheless.

899
00:47:15,833 --> 00:47:19,603
Sites also featured, the sports ball
arenas that I told you about.

900
00:47:19,603 --> 00:47:22,806
And then also they had the step pyramids.

901
00:47:22,806 --> 00:47:26,777
Most notable of these is the, Cuzco Corn
pyramid,

902
00:47:26,810 --> 00:47:30,981
named after the feathered serpent god,
which features an iconic step design.

903
00:47:30,981 --> 00:47:34,918
Part of this design actually
casts a shadow that looks like a serpent

904
00:47:34,918 --> 00:47:38,622
on the side of the pyramid,
around a spring and fall equinoxes, which,

905
00:47:38,655 --> 00:47:42,359
you know, kind of demonstrates
the Maya's skill at both architecture

906
00:47:42,359 --> 00:47:46,129
and their understanding
of the celestial universe around them.

907
00:47:46,129 --> 00:47:49,700
The shadow of the serpent, ascending
or descending the steps of the pyramid

908
00:47:49,700 --> 00:47:53,503
is visible for a week or so before
and after the equinoxes, so it's not

909
00:47:53,503 --> 00:47:57,140
as if they have like an exact day down
for this specific type of thing,

910
00:47:57,140 --> 00:48:00,811
but other buildings lining up
with further away stars and planets

911
00:48:00,811 --> 00:48:05,249
on specific dates of the year, indicate
that they were able to get fairly close.

912
00:48:05,249 --> 00:48:06,617
As stated, the city itself

913
00:48:06,617 --> 00:48:07,417
did grow during

914
00:48:07,417 --> 00:48:10,487
the Terminal Classic period,
which is different from many other cities.

915
00:48:10,487 --> 00:48:11,955
Other cities like Maya Pan,

916
00:48:11,955 --> 00:48:16,727
which is the namesake for the culture
as a whole, had battled with people within

917
00:48:16,727 --> 00:48:21,131
Chichen Itza, but there no hard evidence
pointing to any decisive victory.

918
00:48:21,131 --> 00:48:23,600
Chichen Itza is actually kind of unique,
as it held

919
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,303
many culturally different people
within its limits.

920
00:48:26,303 --> 00:48:29,907
this is demonstrated by more diverse
architecture and art style.

921
00:48:30,007 --> 00:48:34,177
Pizza were an ethnic group
within the umbrella of the Maya.

922
00:48:34,177 --> 00:48:39,416
The name Chichen Itza translates roughly
to at the mouth of the well of the Pizza.

923
00:48:40,150 --> 00:48:42,819
Chichen Itza is a little easier to.

924
00:48:42,819 --> 00:48:45,489
The other one's a little wordy
as the site.

925
00:48:45,489 --> 00:48:49,326
The site is near
a major snow day, so notice,

926
00:48:49,326 --> 00:48:52,996
we're very much ingrained in the religion
and rituals of the Maya.

927
00:48:53,130 --> 00:48:56,366
One video I watched,
they described the fact that the mouth

928
00:48:56,366 --> 00:48:59,636
of these caves, these cenotes,
look like actual mouths.

929
00:48:59,636 --> 00:49:02,139
Sometimes they have stalactites
and stalagmites

930
00:49:02,139 --> 00:49:06,276
that look like teeth in their dark,
and the sounds that come from them

931
00:49:06,276 --> 00:49:10,013
when you know the air
rushing past as you approach can feel

932
00:49:10,013 --> 00:49:13,750
very much like breathing, especially
if that's your only interaction with them.

933
00:49:13,884 --> 00:49:17,554
I think people make fun of historical
people and or like how silly I was.

934
00:49:17,554 --> 00:49:20,390
Silly. Why would they believe that
there's so crazy?

935
00:49:20,390 --> 00:49:22,292
It's obviously just a cave, bro.

936
00:49:22,292 --> 00:49:24,361
You know? Or like whatever
the thing might be.

937
00:49:24,361 --> 00:49:28,265
But like considering how they had
basically no information on a topic

938
00:49:28,265 --> 00:49:32,169
unless they or someone else
had showed them or taught them about it.

939
00:49:32,202 --> 00:49:33,036
There's no wonder why

940
00:49:33,036 --> 00:49:36,807
there's so many like, deities
to think about on a daily basis.

941
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:41,211
Mentioned Maya Pan, which, event
which became one of the larger cities

942
00:49:41,211 --> 00:49:43,947
following the slight decline of Chichen
Itza Maya

943
00:49:43,947 --> 00:49:47,084
and possibly grew from some traditional
Maya people, feeling

944
00:49:47,084 --> 00:49:50,821
that the cultural assimilation
within Chichen Itza was too, too much,

945
00:49:50,821 --> 00:49:54,057
and they wanted to return
to some more Maya centric city.

946
00:49:54,157 --> 00:49:56,059
A little back to the basics, man.

947
00:49:56,059 --> 00:49:57,160
Sounds a little racist.

948
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:01,198
No, I have no idea, but it's it's
fun to be ridiculous like that, right?

949
00:50:01,198 --> 00:50:03,900
This transition is actually part
of a bigger cultural,

950
00:50:03,900 --> 00:50:05,535
cultural transition as well.

951
00:50:05,535 --> 00:50:07,170
The Maya had already begun to rely

952
00:50:07,170 --> 00:50:11,742
less on rituals, possibly
because they weren't working or because,

953
00:50:12,709 --> 00:50:13,210
or whatever.

954
00:50:13,210 --> 00:50:15,879
But either way,
the Maya focus less on religious fealty

955
00:50:15,879 --> 00:50:18,015
and more on practical
methods of surviving.

956
00:50:18,015 --> 00:50:20,484
There is an asterix to this,
since they still did pray

957
00:50:20,484 --> 00:50:24,354
to rain gods, probably
having some sort of drought based PTSD.

958
00:50:24,354 --> 00:50:27,324
Maybe like like America
after the dust bowls.

959
00:50:27,324 --> 00:50:29,760
You know, overall,
there was more militarization

960
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,796
within the Maya cities, warring
more frequently than before.

961
00:50:32,796 --> 00:50:36,833
There were inclusions of other groups,
such as the Toltec as well,

962
00:50:36,833 --> 00:50:40,670
which I don't think played a part
in the rise of violence, but I didn't

963
00:50:40,670 --> 00:50:44,941
know where else to add it in is the post
Classic period, which began around

964
00:50:44,941 --> 00:50:49,246
950 C.E., saw the last length of the Maya
before the Spanish arrival.

965
00:50:49,546 --> 00:50:53,183
this period is not as easily studied

966
00:50:53,183 --> 00:50:55,952
and there's not as much information on it
either.

967
00:50:55,952 --> 00:50:56,720
I can't help

968
00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:58,455
feel like it relates to the arrival of

969
00:50:58,455 --> 00:51:02,192
Spanish in their pressure to suppress
indigenous cultures, like a lot of,

970
00:51:02,192 --> 00:51:06,763
a lot of the things that they were doing
at that time demolished, but like ruins

971
00:51:06,763 --> 00:51:10,667
that weren't really inhabited
at that time, that were inhabited

972
00:51:10,667 --> 00:51:13,103
a couple hundred years
ago. Still around. Right?

973
00:51:13,103 --> 00:51:14,538
Either way, the Post Classic period

974
00:51:14,538 --> 00:51:17,941
showed more abandonment
of some of the longer lasting cities.

975
00:51:18,408 --> 00:51:19,743
I mentioned the one earlier.

976
00:51:19,743 --> 00:51:21,711
Come now, all the way back.

977
00:51:23,013 --> 00:51:24,681
Common knowledge area.

978
00:51:24,681 --> 00:51:28,385
I think I think that's pretty close, 
which had been occupied

979
00:51:28,385 --> 00:51:30,120
for over 2000 years at that point.

980
00:51:30,120 --> 00:51:32,189
Larger
theme could be that many of these cities

981
00:51:32,189 --> 00:51:36,726
found themselves susceptible to attacks
and an increase in occupation of cities

982
00:51:36,726 --> 00:51:38,295
that were located on hilltops

983
00:51:38,295 --> 00:51:42,199
or coastline, which needed only, you know,
one lane of events were more preferred.

984
00:51:42,232 --> 00:51:46,603
Wasn't too long before other cities
like Maya Pan were abandoned by,

985
00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:51,675
you know, around 1450, shortly after this
first contact with Spanish occurred,

986
00:51:51,675 --> 00:51:54,711
known as contact period,
beginning in the 1511,

987
00:51:54,711 --> 00:51:57,614
when the first explorers
wrecked off the Yucatan coast,

988
00:51:57,614 --> 00:52:01,818
where most of the survivors
probably ended up captured and sacrificed.

989
00:52:01,818 --> 00:52:06,056
I mentioned, you know, they would
sacrifice their military opponents.

990
00:52:06,056 --> 00:52:06,990
So make sense?

991
00:52:06,990 --> 00:52:09,226
The reclusive nature of the Maya
at this point actually

992
00:52:09,226 --> 00:52:13,096
probably saved them from a faster fate
that the Aztecs received,

993
00:52:13,096 --> 00:52:16,266
which, you know, kind of summarize
because they deserve their own episode.

994
00:52:16,266 --> 00:52:20,137
But while that the Maya
had initial contact with their cities

995
00:52:20,137 --> 00:52:21,605
on the Yucatan Peninsula,

996
00:52:21,605 --> 00:52:25,342
you know, which was an excellent
landing point for the Spanish coming from

997
00:52:25,342 --> 00:52:29,379
the previously discovered Carib Caribbean
islands, they were super spread out,

998
00:52:29,379 --> 00:52:33,450
not connected by their, you know,
overarching government and harder

999
00:52:33,450 --> 00:52:38,188
to maintain power over
because you might take over one city,

1000
00:52:38,188 --> 00:52:41,892
but another city has no real connection
to that other than trade.

1001
00:52:42,292 --> 00:52:45,695
The Aztec, on the other hand,
were a solid government centralized power.

1002
00:52:45,695 --> 00:52:49,466
Because of this, when their capital fell
to the Spanish, more accurately,

1003
00:52:49,466 --> 00:52:54,104
when their leader invited the Spanish in
and gave them instant access to help their

1004
00:52:54,671 --> 00:52:58,241
instant access to their interior,
which further helped the Spanish

1005
00:52:58,241 --> 00:53:00,877
infiltrate
and recognize the weakness within,

1006
00:53:00,877 --> 00:53:01,878
but more importantly,

1007
00:53:01,878 --> 00:53:05,682
brought the European diseases
directly into the heart of the largest

1008
00:53:06,016 --> 00:53:09,753
and wealthiest cities in Mesoamerica,
a city which traded with other

1009
00:53:09,753 --> 00:53:11,288
indigenous people around the area.

1010
00:53:11,288 --> 00:53:14,291
You know, a lot of the issues
surrounding the the,

1011
00:53:14,291 --> 00:53:17,427
narrative of the Spanish conquest relies
on first hand testimony

1012
00:53:17,427 --> 00:53:20,997
of the conquistadors themselves,
who often embellish their stories

1013
00:53:20,997 --> 00:53:22,899
to make themselves
look better than they did.

1014
00:53:22,899 --> 00:53:26,102
The main thing I want people to know
about the Spanish is that

1015
00:53:26,102 --> 00:53:29,839
these were not even trained military men,
like there was probably some,

1016
00:53:29,839 --> 00:53:33,009
but they were the equivalent
of like contracted explorers

1017
00:53:33,009 --> 00:53:35,445
as Spain kept their real soldiers
near the homeland.

1018
00:53:35,445 --> 00:53:38,248
You know, you might need those closer
to England case.

1019
00:53:38,248 --> 00:53:41,484
Things get crazy,
or the Portuguese probably didn't.

1020
00:53:41,484 --> 00:53:43,019
Portuguese.

1021
00:53:43,019 --> 00:53:47,791
so these men, some of whom had military
experience but not all, were outnumbered.

1022
00:53:47,791 --> 00:53:51,962
And while they did have superior armor,
we know that from the Magellan episode

1023
00:53:52,028 --> 00:53:56,266
that does not automatically qualify
us being superior fighting ability.

1024
00:53:56,299 --> 00:53:59,169
We also know that, diseases,
including smallpox,

1025
00:53:59,169 --> 00:54:02,439
had reached the highlands faster
than the Spanish conquistadors.

1026
00:54:02,439 --> 00:54:03,206
Despite this,

1027
00:54:03,206 --> 00:54:07,077
by the time the Spanish top of the Aztec
and set their sights on the Maya,

1028
00:54:07,077 --> 00:54:11,114
the diseases were already wiping out
the indigenous population all over.

1029
00:54:11,181 --> 00:54:15,352
Still, the Maya fought on and actually
put up like a really, really good fight.

1030
00:54:15,986 --> 00:54:18,588
I mean, first contact 1511.

1031
00:54:18,588 --> 00:54:20,991
and it wouldn't be till almost

1032
00:54:20,991 --> 00:54:24,261
so the 1700s
when they actually, like, relented

1033
00:54:24,327 --> 00:54:29,966
and even still like there was anyway, 
other indigenous people use the Spanish

1034
00:54:29,966 --> 00:54:33,303
as lust for gold as a tool
to help eliminate their opponents,

1035
00:54:33,303 --> 00:54:35,272
which definitely didn't make any things
better.

1036
00:54:35,272 --> 00:54:36,539
But, you know, things like that

1037
00:54:36,539 --> 00:54:40,343
make me curious if the indigenous people
had, like, banded together

1038
00:54:40,343 --> 00:54:44,714
instead of being so divisive, like,
what would have the outcome have been?

1039
00:54:44,714 --> 00:54:47,851
Eventually the Spanish
would have probably used more force

1040
00:54:47,851 --> 00:54:49,052
sending more and more people.

1041
00:54:49,052 --> 00:54:50,787
But like those trips take time

1042
00:54:50,787 --> 00:54:54,391
and they could have only sent
like 50 to 75 guys at a time.

1043
00:54:54,391 --> 00:54:58,261
I don't know, an alternate
history is super fun topic to think about,

1044
00:54:58,261 --> 00:55:01,631
but either way, the Spanish began
to settle in the region and further push

1045
00:55:01,631 --> 00:55:05,769
towards the upper Yucatan
and in the late 16th century,

1046
00:55:05,835 --> 00:55:11,341
like 1697 is
when the last Maya city state of Egypt,

1047
00:55:12,375 --> 00:55:15,812
Najib P10 located in the P10 basin,

1048
00:55:15,845 --> 00:55:16,613
essentially

1049
00:55:16,613 --> 00:55:20,583
the innermost section of the Yucatan
like real main body of the Yucatan,

1050
00:55:20,583 --> 00:55:23,953
I assume partly because they were so rural
and isolated in the forest,

1051
00:55:23,953 --> 00:55:26,323
is why it took Spanish
so long to locate it.

1052
00:55:26,323 --> 00:55:30,627
But also like,
you know, ferocity had to been a factor

1053
00:55:30,627 --> 00:55:35,365
that the Maya city did fall of,
even however hard they fought.

1054
00:55:35,365 --> 00:55:37,033
And then the Maya disappeared forever.

1055
00:55:37,033 --> 00:55:39,736
Right? Remaining mysterious,
we all wonder what happened.

1056
00:55:39,736 --> 00:55:43,239
This once great civilization. Not.
Not now.

1057
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:45,608
I don't understand
why people like to say they.

1058
00:55:45,608 --> 00:55:47,644
That they are such a forgotten people.

1059
00:55:47,644 --> 00:55:51,881
There are an estimated 15 million genetic
Maya people living today.

1060
00:55:51,981 --> 00:55:55,418
Not a super massive number,
but still nothing like no slouch.

1061
00:55:55,518 --> 00:55:58,621
They definitely endure many issues
and lack of recognition

1062
00:55:58,621 --> 00:56:01,191
by governments of Central America,
but they do exist.

1063
00:56:01,191 --> 00:56:03,026
And they don't just live in
small villages.

1064
00:56:03,026 --> 00:56:06,863
They're not like the Mesoamerican version
of like the people in the Seminole Island

1065
00:56:06,863 --> 00:56:07,430
or something

1066
00:56:07,430 --> 00:56:12,402
like they have their cultural centers
where they do like, live authentically.

1067
00:56:13,069 --> 00:56:17,140
but the Maya definitely faced,
like the full brunt of Spanish,

1068
00:56:17,140 --> 00:56:22,145
like the witch in the remote villages
that they were found in.

1069
00:56:22,145 --> 00:56:25,815
I guess they were subjugate,
they were subjected to harsh treatment

1070
00:56:25,815 --> 00:56:30,320
in the name of the conversion, you know,
to Catholicism, victims of annatto, to fe.

1071
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:33,823
Like I mentioned, you know, convert
or die, we're going to burn all your,

1072
00:56:33,823 --> 00:56:37,527
you know, your personal ethnic
like things.

1073
00:56:37,527 --> 00:56:38,762
Forget your culture.

1074
00:56:38,762 --> 00:56:43,199
You're assimilating other indigenous
cultures face the same, treatment.

1075
00:56:43,199 --> 00:56:44,567
All of them were either,

1076
00:56:44,567 --> 00:56:46,669
you know, forced to assimilate
under Spanish rule

1077
00:56:46,669 --> 00:56:50,240
or subjugated to slavery
while millions of the population died off

1078
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:53,543
thanks to the disease
or the treatment themselves.

1079
00:56:53,543 --> 00:56:56,479
Biological warfare
wreaked havoc on the population,

1080
00:56:56,479 --> 00:56:59,115
but there's no way to know
exactly how bad it was.

1081
00:56:59,115 --> 00:57:02,786
Estimates range from 70
to 90% of the population affected, which,

1082
00:57:02,819 --> 00:57:06,623
you know, would have killed off
tens of hundreds of millions, maybe more.

1083
00:57:06,623 --> 00:57:09,926
You know, it's it's hard to tell
what the actual original population

1084
00:57:09,926 --> 00:57:10,727
was, but still,

1085
00:57:10,727 --> 00:57:11,928
it was actually partially due

1086
00:57:11,928 --> 00:57:15,231
to this fact that these indigenous slaves
were dying off.

1087
00:57:15,231 --> 00:57:19,736
That fueled the transatlantic slave trade
to give an influx of free labor

1088
00:57:19,736 --> 00:57:23,239
for the lazy settlers and greedy countries
looking to make fast cash

1089
00:57:23,239 --> 00:57:26,876
off the New World, Maya cities
return to the jungle, becoming overgrown

1090
00:57:26,876 --> 00:57:28,144
and ignored largely

1091
00:57:28,144 --> 00:57:31,981
until the 19th century, when explorer
exploration and history became

1092
00:57:31,981 --> 00:57:36,052
a bigger interest of the wealthy American
and European citizens.

1093
00:57:36,085 --> 00:57:39,255
Two men are responsible
for a larger increase of interest

1094
00:57:39,255 --> 00:57:41,991
in the Mesoamerican culture,
specifically the Maya.

1095
00:57:41,991 --> 00:57:46,229
John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick
Cather Catherwood explore Maya

1096
00:57:46,262 --> 00:57:47,430
as sites, Catherwood

1097
00:57:47,430 --> 00:57:51,334
providing illustrations of these places
which are honestly pretty, pretty sick.

1098
00:57:51,334 --> 00:57:55,104
John makes kind of want
to, work on my still life and landscape

1099
00:57:55,104 --> 00:57:55,905
skill a little bit.

1100
00:57:55,905 --> 00:57:58,675
These drawings and the writings of Stevens
inspired many people

1101
00:57:58,675 --> 00:58:01,878
to search out these ruins and learn
more about the forgotten culture.

1102
00:58:01,878 --> 00:58:06,282
So, so that's that's kind of the history
of the Maya people as far as timelines go.

1103
00:58:06,282 --> 00:58:08,318
So that is the history of the Maya people.

1104
00:58:08,318 --> 00:58:11,421
As far as timelines
go, there's plenty more information

1105
00:58:11,421 --> 00:58:13,189
about the Maya to go through,
but I will leave you

1106
00:58:13,189 --> 00:58:16,926
with some more interesting aspects
in this little summary here that,

1107
00:58:16,926 --> 00:58:19,195
you know,
they invented the spherical ball game,

1108
00:58:19,195 --> 00:58:22,599
which was played without using feet
or hands that I mentioned.

1109
00:58:22,899 --> 00:58:26,202
this game, intense,
used to settle disputes.

1110
00:58:26,469 --> 00:58:30,273
some cases a player from the losing team
would get sacrificed.

1111
00:58:30,273 --> 00:58:32,242
So that's pretty hardcore.
I don't know if they like

1112
00:58:33,810 --> 00:58:36,813
if, like, Tom Brady was still playing
and they're like,

1113
00:58:36,813 --> 00:58:40,116
all right, well Tom Brady lost
and they just executed.

1114
00:58:40,817 --> 00:58:41,751
That'd be crazy.

1115
00:58:41,751 --> 00:58:46,055
when the Maya did fight, they,
incorporated some interesting weapons

1116
00:58:46,322 --> 00:58:47,857
like that of the Hornet bomb.

1117
00:58:47,857 --> 00:58:49,392
That's exactly what it sounds like.

1118
00:58:49,392 --> 00:58:50,493
They threw a hornet's nest

1119
00:58:50,493 --> 00:58:54,264
at their enemies, which is hilarious
and evil like, super useful.

1120
00:58:54,330 --> 00:58:55,231
I also want, again,

1121
00:58:55,231 --> 00:58:57,567
to call your attention
to the level of engineering

1122
00:58:57,567 --> 00:58:59,936
for being essentially
a Stone age civilization.

1123
00:58:59,936 --> 00:59:03,840
They were able to craft magnets for neck
magnificence and structures, incredibly

1124
00:59:03,840 --> 00:59:07,644
well designed systems of early plumbing,
and they informed incredibly

1125
00:59:07,644 --> 00:59:09,112
well until they didn't.

1126
00:59:09,112 --> 00:59:11,614
I guess they just mold themselves
in the end.

1127
00:59:11,614 --> 00:59:15,685
But, they're adorning of jade
and obsidian, as well as ceramic

1128
00:59:15,685 --> 00:59:19,322
and natural gems from the region
made their outfits look pretty badass.

1129
00:59:19,322 --> 00:59:21,324
They had the handsome staff look it up.

1130
00:59:21,324 --> 00:59:23,860
Look, look up some ancient Maya clothing.

1131
00:59:23,860 --> 00:59:25,028
They had it figured out.

1132
00:59:25,028 --> 00:59:28,231
I also want to point out some pop culture
representations of the Maya.

1133
00:59:28,531 --> 00:59:30,400
Starting off with a misguided attempt.

1134
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:34,637
Mel's with Mel Gibson's Apocalypto
take takes place during the beginning

1135
00:59:34,637 --> 00:59:37,774
of the fall of their civilization
and early contact.

1136
00:59:37,774 --> 00:59:42,345
The depictions of the people are done
in a relatively accurate manner, kind of,

1137
00:59:42,345 --> 00:59:45,315
but it blends a lot of Aztec
imagery and incorporates

1138
00:59:45,315 --> 00:59:47,617
a lot of their sacrificial methods
as well.

1139
00:59:47,617 --> 00:59:48,451
More recently,

1140
00:59:48,451 --> 00:59:52,589
we have, the character of Namor
in Black Panther two Wakanda Forever

1141
00:59:52,655 --> 00:59:57,460
goes by his native name, Coco Khan,
who is the feather serpent, right?

1142
00:59:57,527 --> 01:00:01,064
I mentioned earlier name War
also speaks Yucatan Mayan.

1143
01:00:01,064 --> 01:00:03,066
So that's pretty cool.

1144
01:00:03,066 --> 01:00:06,869
also not really recognized as Maya,

1145
01:00:06,869 --> 01:00:11,407
but in Star
Wars, the, the Yavin four base,

1146
01:00:12,542 --> 01:00:13,743
there's Mayan ruins.

1147
01:00:13,743 --> 01:00:16,512
Like, that's what
that's the ruins at there in the shot.

1148
01:00:16,512 --> 01:00:19,315
It's Maya temples sticking up over the.

1149
01:00:19,315 --> 01:00:20,416
I'll put the picture.

1150
01:00:20,416 --> 01:00:23,319
It's fine, but those are
the ones that I've seen myself.

1151
01:00:23,319 --> 01:00:25,355
I mean, I'm, I'm assuming there's more.

1152
01:00:25,355 --> 01:00:27,690
So I'm going to be looking out
for some good movies that, you know,

1153
01:00:27,690 --> 01:00:29,792
represent the Mesoamerican people
in a good way.

1154
01:00:29,792 --> 01:00:33,896
I feel like, might be might be fun
to watch with all this newfound knowledge

1155
01:00:33,896 --> 01:00:36,132
or might just be like
when I watch military movie

1156
01:00:36,132 --> 01:00:37,867
and point out all the inconsistencies.

1157
01:00:37,867 --> 01:00:40,770
I try not to do that,
but sometimes I can't help but notice.

1158
01:00:40,770 --> 01:00:42,271
You know, let me know if you have any,

1159
01:00:42,271 --> 01:00:45,541
if you seen any of these
or what genuinely learned,

1160
01:00:45,842 --> 01:00:48,378
like what
you genuinely learned from this episode,

1161
01:00:48,378 --> 01:00:50,546
I want to know
if I made this interesting at all.

1162
01:00:50,546 --> 01:00:52,382
I feel like that was a lot of information.

1163
01:00:53,916 --> 01:00:55,652
but it is super interesting.

1164
01:00:55,652 --> 01:00:59,756
I mean, the, the timeline of the Mayan,
like how how well

1165
01:00:59,956 --> 01:01:04,460
they succeed did when they did,
I think is super impressive.

1166
01:01:04,460 --> 01:01:08,431
I think that the way that they built
I like that they like,

1167
01:01:08,431 --> 01:01:09,899
use their hieroglyphics

1168
01:01:09,899 --> 01:01:13,636
in such a way where it was like,
we're dating buildings as we build them.

1169
01:01:13,636 --> 01:01:15,471
Like, that's that's pretty badass.

1170
01:01:15,471 --> 01:01:18,508
I mean, I mean, just because, like,
we had to date

1171
01:01:18,508 --> 01:01:21,511
castles and ancient ruins

1172
01:01:21,577 --> 01:01:24,814
and other places and they're like,
this is when we made it right here.

1173
01:01:24,847 --> 01:01:26,482
Check it out. Super handy.

1174
01:01:26,482 --> 01:01:30,086
it's probably
because the aliens told them to, you know.

1175
01:01:30,119 --> 01:01:35,925
Hey, like, hey, there's going to be
some confused guy in his

1176
01:01:36,592 --> 01:01:39,896
in his two bedroom apartment
doing research on you guys,

1177
01:01:39,896 --> 01:01:42,298
and he's going to really need to know
when he dated these.

1178
01:01:42,298 --> 01:01:43,833
When when they built them.

1179
01:01:43,833 --> 01:01:46,469
anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode.

1180
01:01:46,469 --> 01:01:51,074
I think this is a good episode
to kind of return to form with.

1181
01:01:51,074 --> 01:01:53,242
I, you know,
I do have some pretty exciting ideas

1182
01:01:53,242 --> 01:01:56,145
coming down the pipe,
but I also, you know, want your input.

1183
01:01:56,145 --> 01:01:58,614
What topics
would you like to know more about?

1184
01:01:58,614 --> 01:02:02,051
What types of ideas
have you enjoyed so far?

1185
01:02:02,051 --> 01:02:06,322
Do you like these timeline
based topic episodes, or do you like when?

1186
01:02:06,322 --> 01:02:09,459
I do like group episodes
where I discuss a few different stories

1187
01:02:09,459 --> 01:02:12,662
with an overarching theme,
like what kind of things do you enjoy?

1188
01:02:12,662 --> 01:02:16,532
You know, I I'm putting out this podcast
because I enjoy history,

1189
01:02:16,532 --> 01:02:19,435
but I also, you know,
I enjoy it from my perspective.

1190
01:02:19,435 --> 01:02:20,570
I want to have

1191
01:02:20,570 --> 01:02:24,540
a little more of a community thing going
on, so let me know in the comments.

1192
01:02:24,540 --> 01:02:27,610
Facebook Instagram,
comment on the YouTube video

1193
01:02:27,643 --> 01:02:29,579
and share us wherever possible.

1194
01:02:29,579 --> 01:02:33,649
Also want to shout out to my friends
The Makeup Emporium, the Real Creature

1195
01:02:33,649 --> 01:02:37,053
feature Dark Windows Podcast,
and of course, West of Nowhere.

1196
01:02:37,053 --> 01:02:39,922
Don't forget to click
all of the links in the description.

1197
01:02:39,922 --> 01:02:43,493
Find out all things related to the show,
including merch store.

1198
01:02:43,493 --> 01:02:46,429
You know I'm wearing
where my NASA shirt right now.

1199
01:02:47,630 --> 01:02:49,532
but that's all I have for you today.

1200
01:02:49,532 --> 01:02:52,668
Thank you
and I will see you guys next time. Bye.