Lost World of the Maya (Full Episode) | National Geographic

Summary

Archaeologists are using cutting-edge technology like lidar to unveil the hidden world of the ancient Maya civilization. This non-invasive method allows them to see through dense forest canopies, revealing sophisticated urban layouts and engineering feats. The discoveries challenge previous theories about the Maya's origins and societal structure, suggesting a more complex and widespread civilization than previously thought. However, evidence also points to a series of droughts and political upheaval that may have led to the civilization's decline and eventual abandonment.

Takeaways

• 🌲 The ancient Maya civilization, once hidden beneath dense canopies, is being revealed through advanced technologies like LiDAR, which allows for non-invasive exploration.
• 🛰️ LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology enables archaeologists to see through the forest canopy, mapping large areas of the Maya biosphere reserve and uncovering previously unknown ruins.
• 🏺 In 2018, thousands of new Maya ruins were discovered across the Guatemala landscape, showcasing the sophistication of the Maya society through complex roads, temples, and palaces.
• 🏛️ The discovery of a royal palace in Kiwi, Mexico, suggests a previously unknown Maya mega-society in the Yucatan, challenging the notion that the cradle of Maya civilization was solely in the south.
• 🗿 The ancient Maya paintings found in a sacred cave indicate a pre-classic period, predating the arrival of Maya refugees from the south, suggesting multiple cradles of Maya civilization.
• 🏘️ The 'Stairway to Heaven' site in the Yucatan reveals a sprawling hilltop estate, indicating the presence of a wealthy middle class and extensive agricultural practices.
• 💧 The Maya's advanced water management systems, such as chiltoons (man-made cisterns), allowed them to thrive in water-scarce environments, supporting large populations and agricultural activities.
• 🌧️ A series of prolonged droughts, possibly exacerbated by political instability and the rise of the feathered serpent cult, led to the abandonment of cities and towns in the northern Maya region.
• 🏙️ The northern Maya society's collapse in the 9th century coincides with the introduction of the feathered serpent ideology, which may have disrupted the political and social order.
• 🔍 Modern archaeological techniques, including satellite imagery and LiDAR, are reshaping our understanding of the Maya, revealing a more complex and widespread civilization than previously thought.
• 🌿 The once-thriving Maya cities and towns have been reclaimed by the jungle, their secrets hidden for centuries until recent technological advancements and archaeological efforts brought them back to light.

Q & A

What technology is being used to uncover the secrets of the ancient Maya civilization?

Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology is being used to reveal hidden structures and cities beneath the forest canopy.

How does lidar scanning work?

Lidar scanning works by firing streams of light pulses from an aircraft to the ground and timing the return of the pulse when it bounces back to the sensor, reconstructing shapes under the canopy.

What significant discoveries were made in the Guatemala landscape in 2018?

In 2018, thousands of new ruins were discovered across the Guatemala landscape, revealing previously hidden structures through satellite and lidar scanning.

What was the purpose of the massive feats of engineering discovered in the Maya biosphere reserve?

The massive feats of engineering, including complex roads, temples, and palaces, indicate a far more sprawling and sophisticated society than previously thought.

What happened to the ancient Maya civilization around 700 AD?

Around 700 AD, there was a massive breakdown in the Maya civilization due to war, political strife, and famine, leading to the abandonment of cities and a mass exodus of refugees.

What was the significance of the vault stone found in the pyramid at Kiwi?

The vault stone, typically used to hold up the ceilings of buildings, was found deep within the pyramid, suggesting a different construction purpose and possibly indicating an earlier occupation of the site.

What does the discovery of the ancient building foundation beneath the pyramid at Kiwi suggest about the history of the Maya civilization?

The foundation dates to 500 AD, which is 300 years earlier than the pyramid, suggesting that there was an earlier, unknown civilization or occupation at Kiwi before the arrival of Maya refugees.

What was the purpose of the cave paintings discovered in the sacred chamber of the cave?

The cave paintings, which are among the oldest Maya paintings ever discovered, depict underworld scenes and were likely part of religious rituals, as the cave was believed to be the dwelling place of gods.

How did the ancient Maya manage water in the waterless Pook region of the Yucatan?

The Maya built chiltoons, man-made cisterns carved out of limestone bedrock, and engineered structures like patios and rooftops to capture and store rainwater, supporting their communities during dry periods.

What evidence suggests that the northern Maya society was prosperous and had a middle class?

The discovery of large stone buildings, indicating wealth and prosperity, and the presence of secondary burials and dedicatory offerings suggest that a significant portion of the population had acquired land and wealth, forming a middle class.

What political trend was rising in the northern Maya society during the 800s?

The cult of the feathered serpent, or Quetzalcoatl, was rising as a political ideology, with local kings undergoing rigorous initiation rituals to gain admittance, potentially leading to increased political tensions and rivalries.

Outlines

00:00

🌲 Unveiling the Hidden Maya World

Archaeologists are using lidar technology to uncover the secrets of the ancient Maya civilization hidden beneath the dense forest canopy. This advanced scanning technique, which operates like an X-ray vision, allows them to see through the foliage and map the lost cities and structures without physical disturbance. The discovery of thousands of new ruins in 2018 across the Guatemala landscape has revolutionized the understanding of the Maya, revealing a more extensive and sophisticated society than previously known.

05:01

🔍 Lidar: The Archaeologist's Superpower

Lidar, or light detection and ranging, is a groundbreaking tool in archaeology that enables researchers to see through the forest canopy. By firing light pulses from an aircraft and timing their return, lidar reconstructs the shapes beneath the canopy. This technology has been instrumental in the Amazon, allowing for the mapping of over 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, uncovering massive engineering feats and complex man-made structures that were previously hidden from view.

10:02

🏺 Discovering the Roots of Maya Civilization

The narrative delves into the history of the Maya civilization, from its early days in the Mirador Basin to its peak as the most advanced civilization in the Americas. The story of Kiwi, a forgotten Maya town, is highlighted, where archaeologist George Bay uncovers a pyramid shrine built by a local king in 800 A.D. The discovery of an ancient building foundation beneath the pyramid challenges the timeline of Maya history, suggesting a more complex and earlier society than previously understood.

15:03

🌌 The Underworld of the Maya

The exploration of a sacred cave reveals a hidden world of Maya art and ritual. The cave, believed to be the dwelling place of gods, contains murals and ceramic offerings dating back to 100 B.C., making them among the oldest Maya paintings discovered in Mexico. The paintings depict the underworld, with images of a starving jaguar and a mythical hunt, suggesting a pre-classic period of Maya civilization. This discovery contributes to the understanding of the dawn of Maya civilization and challenges the notion of a single cradle of Maya society.

20:05

🏰 Unearthing the Northern Maya Mega Society

The narrative shifts to the discovery of a previously unknown northern Maya mega society, as old as and as powerful as the southern Maya civilization. The excavation of a royal palace in Kiwi reveals a complex society with a long-standing royal lineage. The palace, built over an ancestral home, symbolizes the legitimization of power. The existence of this northern society challenges the long-held belief that the cradle of Maya society was solely in Guatemala, suggesting multiple origins.

25:06

🌱 The Maya Dream: Wealth and Agriculture

The story of Kiwi and the Stairway to Heaven estate uncovers evidence of a wealthy and prosperous Maya society with extensive agricultural practices. The inhabitants, possibly a middle class, had access to a variety of plant foods and managed their water resources through sophisticated engineering, such as chiltoons, which are man-made cisterns. The discovery of a human burial beneath the floor of an elite residence suggests the sanctification of their buildings and the wealth of the inhabitants.

30:07

🏞️ The Pook Region: A Maya Paradise

The Pook region of the Yucatan, despite its lack of natural water sources, was an ideal place for human habitation due to its fertile soil and abundant natural resources. The Maya people of the Pook region, including the Stairway to Heaven estate, developed advanced water management systems to capture and store rainwater, supporting a large population and a thriving agricultural economy. The region's wealth and prosperity were widespread, suggesting a society where wealth and opportunities were accessible to many.

35:09

🐍 The Rise of the Feathered Serpent Cult

The rise of the cult of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, is explored as a political ideology that swept through the northern Maya region in the 800s. This cult required local kings to undergo rigorous initiation rituals, which included self-mortification. The political tensions resulting from the adoption of this new ideology may have contributed to the decline of the northern Maya society, as it led to rivalries and a lack of a unified governmental system capable of addressing the challenges faced by the society.

40:11

🏚️ The Abandonment of Stairway to Heaven

The abrupt abandonment of the Stairway to Heaven estate and the halt in construction at the palace in Kiwi are attributed to a series of prolonged droughts that overwhelmed the region. The Maya's advanced water management systems were unable to cope with the extreme intensity of these droughts, leading to a difficult decision to leave the area. The orderly departure and the expectation of returning when the rains came suggest a society that was well-prepared for managing both water abundance and scarcity.

🌿 The Vanished Maya Cities

The narrative concludes with the reflection on the fall of the great Maya civilization, as the northern and southern cities were left in ruins. The empty jungles of the Yucatan now serve as a reminder of the fragility of even the most advanced societies. The use of new technology and fieldwork has allowed researchers to uncover the extent of what was lost, shedding light on the secrets of the forest and the history of the Maya civilization.

Keywords

💡Lidar

Lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses lasers to measure distances and create detailed maps of the Earth's surface. In the video, lidar is used by archaeologists to see through dense forest canopies and reveal hidden ancient Maya structures, significantly advancing our understanding of their civilization. It is a key tool in the discovery of the lost world of the Maya.

💡Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization was a sophisticated Mesoamerican culture that developed in the region that is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. Known for their impressive architecture, advanced writing system, and intricate knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, the Maya thrived for over two thousand years before experiencing a decline. The video explores the rediscovery of their cities and the mysteries surrounding their society.

💡Kiwi

Kiwi is a forgotten Maya town in the Yucatan region of Mexico. The video discusses the discovery of a pyramid shrine and the subsequent archaeological work that has provided insights into the evolution of Maya society. The site of Kiwi is significant as it challenges previous understandings of the Maya's timeline and geographical spread.

💡Chultun

A chultun is an ancient Maya water storage system, typically an underground cistern carved out of limestone. These structures were crucial for managing water in the Maya civilization, especially in water-scarce environments. In the video, chultuns are highlighted as a testament to the Maya's engineering prowess and their adaptation to the Yucatan's environment.

💡Feathered Serpent Cult

The Feathered Serpent Cult, or the cult of Quetzalcoatl, was a significant religious and political ideology in the Maya civilization. The video suggests that the rise of this cult in the 9th century may have contributed to political tensions and rivalries among local kings, potentially leading to the decline of the northern Maya society.

💡Drought

Drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water. In the context of the video, a series of severe droughts is proposed as a possible cause for the abandonment of Maya cities like Kiwi and the decline of the northern Maya society. The lack of rain would have compromised the Maya's sophisticated water management systems, leading to the collapse of their agricultural and societal structures.

💡Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven is the name given to a hilltop estate in the Yucatan, which was likely the hub of a much larger complex. The video describes it as a symbol of wealth and prosperity, with a sophisticated water management system that supported a community. Its abandonment, possibly due to drought, reflects the broader decline of the northern Maya civilization.

💡Secondary Burial

Secondary burial is a funerary practice where the remains of the deceased are moved from their initial resting place to a new location. In the video, this practice is mentioned in relation to the discovery of human remains beneath the floor of an elite residence, suggesting that the Maya believed in sanctifying their structures with the bones of their ancestors.

💡Royal Elite

The royal elite refers to the ruling class or the nobility within the Maya civilization. The video discusses the wealth and power of the royal family in Kiwi and their construction of grand palaces as a display of their status. The decline of the northern Maya society is linked to political instability and the challenges faced by this elite class.

💡Middle Class

The middle class, as discussed in the video, refers to a social and economic stratum that exists between the working class and the elite. In the context of the Maya civilization, the existence of a middle class in the Yucatan suggests a more complex and prosperous society with a broader distribution of wealth, as evidenced by the widespread stone buildings and the advanced water management systems.

Highlights

Lidar technology is revealing hidden ancient Maya cities and structures.

Archaeologists are using lidar to see beneath the forest canopy without physical disturbance.

In 2018, thousands of new Maya ruins were discovered across the Guatemala landscape.

Lidar stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a method that fires light pulses from an aircraft to the ground and times their return.

The technology has led to a more comprehensive understanding of the Maya civilization's extent and sophistication.

The Maya civilization had a complex network of roads, temples, and palaces.

The discovery of an ancient building foundation beneath a pyramid in Kiwi, Mexico, challenges previous understanding of Maya history.

The foundation predates the pyramid by 300 years, suggesting an earlier occupation of the site.

A hidden cave with ancient Maya paintings and offerings has been discovered, providing insights into early Maya religious practices.

The paintings in the cave are among the oldest Maya artworks found in Mexico, dating back to 100 BC.

The discovery of a royal palace at Kiwi suggests a long-standing royal dynasty in the region, not just a transient population.

The Maya civilization in the Yucatan was as old and powerful as the one in the south, challenging the notion of a single cradle of Maya civilization.

The northern Maya society had a complex water management system, including chiltoons (man-made cisterns) to capture and store rainwater.

The wealth and prosperity of the northern Maya society were widespread, with a significant middle class and extensive agriculture.

The political ideology of the feathered serpent cult may have contributed to the decline of the northern Maya society by fostering internal conflict.

The abandonment of sites like Stairway to Heaven and the halt in construction at the palace were likely due to a series of prolonged droughts.

The collapse of the northern Maya society began in the 9th century, coinciding with the rise of the feathered serpent cult and political instability.

The advanced waterworks of the northern Maya society could have supported a large population, but the extreme droughts eventually led to their displacement.

The Maya civilization's response to droughts was sophisticated, but the intensity of the droughts may have been too much for even their well-managed systems.

The northern Maya society's decline was due to a combination of environmental challenges and political disarray.

The once-thriving cities and towns of the northern Maya are now lost beneath the jungle, a reminder of the fragility of even great civilizations.

Transcripts

hidden beneath the vast canopy

is a lost world of the ancient maya

nearly two million square miles of lush

green

hide centuries-old cities riddled with

mysteries

but today lasers in the sky are helping

to expose

these secrets it's kind of like having

x-ray vision

and seeing beneath the canopy without

having to touch a single leaf

archaeologists are using this new

superpower

to unearth treasures on the ground we

are starting to get information

from all kinds of places where we knew

absolutely

nothing it's changing our understanding

of the maya

and helping to create a treasure map of

maya's lost world

today what escapes eyes on the ground is

often clear to hundreds of more powerful

eyes in the sky

[Music]

new technologies are being applied to

archaeology

and it's gathering more information than

ever thought possible

2018 was an exciting year for the maya

across the guatemala landscape thousands

of new ruins were popping up

once hidden structures are being

revealed through satellites

and a laser scanning technology called

lidar

one of the most exciting tools that we

have in our hands that we're just

beginning to use in the amazon

is lidar lidar scanning lets us see

through the forest canopy to what lies

below

lidar means light detection and ranging

it works by firing streams of light

pulses from an aircraft

to the ground and timing the return of

the pulse when it bounces back to the

sensor

this reconstructs shapes under the

canopy

almost like seeing the x-ray vision

every time that we have found a new set

of tools

we get an insight into something that

we've never imagined possible in the

amazon and i think

lidar is one of these things that's

going to completely change how we

understand

the landscape the trees have always been

what's kept us from understanding what's

happening

in the amazon and now we can see through

them

more than 800 square miles of the maya

biosphere reserve

have been mapped to reveal massive feats

of engineering

for the very first time taken together

the images point to a far more sprawling

and sophisticated society

man-made structures appear complex roads

temples and palaces engineering like

this

would make today's city planners proud

so what happened how could such a great

society

fail could it have been war religious

cults and mass sacrifice drought

laser mapping is the latest tool used to

help unlock mysteries of the ancient

maya world for decades

archaeologists have pieced together

clues from ruins discovered the

old-fashioned way

on foot

ten years ago in the heart of mexico's

yucatan region

the ruins of a forgotten maya town

called kiwi

emerged from the jungle without the help

of ariel lidar

in 800 a.d a local king ruled here

and built an impressive pyramid shrine

[Music]

20 000 rocks cut and stacked

30 feet high

the ancient maya often placed royal

tombs under pyramids

so on a hunch archaeologist george bay

decides to sink a shaft straight through

[Music]

this building represents a artifact

that provides us with information

about the evolution of maya society

by examining it we hope to understand

how kiwi evolved

in the yucatan for three decades coaxing

from the earth a snapshot of what life

must have been like for the little-known

maya who lived here

called the northern or poop maya

[Music]

surprises we have surprises

21 feet into the hole bay and his team

make an important find though to the

untrained eye

it just looks like another piece of

rubble

oh yeah look at that this is fantastic

this is a vault stone and so for us this

is a very distinctive type of stone

here's the face of it this is the flat

face and this back

part of it is cut like this angled

and that would have stuck into the wall

these special vault stones were not used

to build pyramids

but to hold up the ceilings of buildings

yet inexplicably here is one deep

in the pyramid and when they dig

under the base of the pyramid they find

something even more out of place

the foundation of an ancient

this building is completely new it

consists of several

steps in a tallow shape

you have an idea of when this might date

to 400 500

wow the pyramid dates to 800

a.d but analysis of pottery fragments

confirms the foundation under the

pyramid is 300 years older

dating to 500 a.d

but that is an impossible date

to understand why requires a trip south

back to guatemala 600 bc

the earliest days of maya civilization

scholars always believed it was here in

a region called the mirador basin

that maya civilization was born

early kings raised the jungles and built

monumental cities

[Music]

over the next thousand years the maya

civilization became the most advanced

in the americas

[Music]

they mastered mathematics and astronomy

perfected the first written language of

the western hemisphere

and produced stunning works of art

but in 700 a.d there was a massive

breakdown

war political strife and famine

rocked the maya world

cities abandoned hordes of refugees

escape fleeing north

[Music]

as part of this wave one refugee king

sets down roots in kiwi

founds the town and soon after builds a

pyramid

at least that's what scientists had

always thought

until now with the discovery of the

ancient building foundation

the dates don't add up the foundation

dates from 500

a.d but maya refugees don't arrive here

until at least two centuries later

was someone already occupying kiwi when

the refugees arrived

17 miles away another discovery

raises more questions

[Music]

its location is being kept a closely

guarded secret

for fear of looters few archaeologists

have seen the discovery in person

including fatima techpool

getting to this discovery is no easy

task

it's 230 feet underground in the bottom

of a cave

the tunnel is narrow and only one person

can fit through at a time

[Music]

roberto

local residents knew about this cave for

years

but had no inkling of the treasure

hidden inside

through a pitch-black maze of tunnels

they come to the remnants of a wall

here we have a restricted passageway

there was a wall here

marking an entrance that separated two

areas a public space

and a sacred space

as fatima enters the sacred chamber she

notices something curious

it appears that countless torches and

ritual fires

once burned here the maya believed that

caves were the dwelling place of gods

maya priests made pilgrimage here on

special religious holidays

consuming hallucinogenic plants to

commune with the deities

the chamber is cluttered with broken

pottery

here's an intentional deposit of

ceramics where the maya broke vessels

as part of an offering

scholars suspect that breaking ceramics

released the power of the

they offering break the vessel and

scatter it around the cave

there's almost always one piece missing

so we think that the maya took one piece

with them

and perhaps buried it outside the cave

the team pushes deeper into the cave

maya priests relied on ropes made of

vines to get here

but even with modern climbing gear

fadima's journey

still takes three hours she finally

reaches the cave's most

sacred point and discovers an

extraordinary underworld

ancient maya paintings adorn the walls

of the cave's burial tomb

one image uses the contours of the cave

to create a unique three-dimensional

jaguar

another portrays a mythical hunt with a

ghost-like jaguar

and deer

what's striking about this painting is

that their representations

are not of living beings they are in the

underworld

in the world of death look at the body

of the jaguar it's skinny

it hasn't been well-fed

and it has a deliberate mark in the

middle

we think these marks represent illness

significant

farima has studied art in many maya

caves

but never has seen paintings like these

they are clearly maya but their unusual

style

suggests that whoever painted them was

not part of the maya civilization of the

south

stylistic analysis of the paintings and

the ceramic offerings in the chamber

indicate the murals were painted around

100 bc

that makes them among the oldest maya

paintings ever

discovered in mexico

the painting state to the dawn of the

maya civilization

scholars call it the pre-classic period

that was 800 years before the refugees

from the south

arrived in the yucatan so who painted

these murals

discoveries at another extraordinary new

site

may answer that question

just outside the modern yucatan city of

mirada

excavation for a new road network is

unearthing scores of sights just by

chance

190 new maya towns to date

and counting

the map of the ancient yucatan is

shifting rapidly

exploding with previously unknown cities

and towns

we've found that there's a lot more

people a lot more agriculture and a lot

more happening here than we ever

imagined

and at a much earlier date than we ever

imagined

we thought they were just little hamlets

out here now now we'll have very complex

towns

and we might even have urban centers

the whole idea of a much more complex

society is emerging up here

and it's on the par i think with

guatemala we were walking right by these

sites

for decades without understanding them

it wasn't like

we had to go dig for these places they

were right under our noses we just

weren't

seeing them which is amazing if you

think about it

[Music]

george bay and his team resumed their

work in key week

clearing stones from the side of the

pyramid

they're doing detective work trying to

figure out why a vault stone

typically used to hold up the ceiling of

a building

was found buried inside the pyramid

another clue emerges suggesting

something is very different

about this pyramid this is something the

workers found

and they happened to at the last second

before they threw it away they turned it

over

and notice that in fact it's a piece of

sculpture

a sculptured face

here's the face with the nose and the

upper part of the

the mouth so then you have to ask

yourself what's this that's over this

face

and what it is is part of a large

headdress and mask

that this lord would have been wearing

[Music]

the ancient maya often attached

sculptures like this one to the facades

of royal buildings

it's a watershed clue

[Applause]

[Music]

and those stairs further excavation

reveals the corner of a building

this is the upper part of the

preserved building and this is what we

call a broken

molding over the doorway this pile of

rubble here

is still filling the doorway you can see

remnants of the stucco here probably

mottled and painted

as the team peels back the pyramid a

royal palace emerges

it consists of three buildings a temple

on one side

the royal family's residential quarters

on the other

and a throne room in the middle but why

would the king of key week

build a pyramid on top of a palace

maya like to see spaces as having power

it's not uncommon to see in many

different forms the building of one

building on top of another

because sacred spaces important places

are powerful our argument is that

this is attempts to legitimize power

george believes an early king of key

week

perhaps even the founder of the town's

royal dynasty

built the palace centuries later

another king built the pyramid over his

ancestors home

making a direct connection to his

ancestors power

enhancing his own the palace may be most

remarkable

for another reason the king who built

the pyramid

was not a late transplant from the south

but a descendant of

a royal family that had been in key week

for a very long time

it now seems clear that here in the

yucatan

there was a previously unknown maya mega

society

that was just as old and just as

powerful

as the south we don't really know

where the cradle or genesis of maya

society is anymore

what we're learning is that there may

have been multiple cradles

guatemala can no longer lay sole claim

to the title

birthplace of the maya

[Music]

[Applause]

now that the existence of this northern

mega society is confirmed

the questions rapidly multiply who were

these lost

maya and why were they forgotten

the average person that thinks about

maya sees these great

monumental cities what they don't

realize is that for every one of those

cities there are

dozens of medium-sized towns like kiwi

that house maybe three

four thousand people from a lookout

tower near kiwi

it's easier to make sense out of the

entire site

in bay's view key week was the

quintessential northern town

you're actually looking at what would

have been downtown kewee the city of

kiwi

where that small hill is that's the

center of the city

when bay began his research he believed

the extent of kiwi was limited to the

core

area around the pyramid but lidar

mapping later revealed

a sprawling hilltop estate with a

massive

staircase across the valley suggesting

kiwi might have been the hub

of a much bigger complex

every morning the excavation team climbs

the 200-foot hill

the ancient maya would have come up that

path which would have led

right to this spot

what you see is basically a pile of

rocks but

if you were standing here 850 a.d

what you'd be standing at the base of is

an enormous

stairway which would have taken you

up to the top of what we think is the

the palace or the plantation house or

the big house

even the modern sense a very palatial

kind of construction

they've dubbed the site stairway to

heaven

a place like stairway to heaven is

amazing in the sense that

they built a 9 10 room mansion

up there and that's a very nice building

you know

a 9th century mcmansion okay living up

on top of that hill

but who would have been rich enough and

audacious enough

to build such over-the-top real estate

archaeologist stephanie sims is digging

for answers

tearing up the floor of one of the 22

large stone buildings that make up the

estate

under the floor a tantalizing clue

here i am sitting beneath the floor

level being right here of a three-room

elite residence up on the hilltop and

here just beneath the floor are a few

capstones covering

a dedicatory offering

the offering consists of a ceramic bowl

and plate

that appear to have been placed under

the floor when the house was built

it's a little suspicious that it would

be odd to place a plate upside down

like that without covering something so

[Music]

as the team carefully removes the plate

specks of evidence surface

little teeny fragments very badly

decomposed kind of eroded degraded bone

still can't tell yet whether it's human

bone or animal bone

but my guess is human

the large capstones flanking the

offering may be hiding

something else

it was common practice of the maya to

rebury the defleshed bones of their

deceased ancestors

it's called secondary burial

our thinking with these secondary

burials is that they're bringing bones

or parts of family members to new

locations

to sanctify the structures that they're

building

the capstones under the floor of the

house come off

a human tooth

confirming our suspicions that this is a

human burial this is a

lower incisor right here

there are several and we're still

waiting to uncover to see how many

there are though badly decomposed from

the acidic soil

stephanie can make out the remains of a

human skull

and arm and leg bones so this

demonstrates to us this offering is part

of the

the burial underneath dedicating this

house

back in the lab stephanie happily

discovers that this skull's owner

was not a daily brusher or flosser

embedded in the teeth 1200 year old

plaque

chemical analysis of food particles in

the plaque

gives stephanie a hint about what kind

of wealth

stairways owners have

i'm finding a much greater diversity of

plant food items that were consumed

ingredients

in stews and soups squash beans free

fruits chili peppers

the bounty suggests that the people who

lived at stairway

were major plantation owners operating

extensive farms in the valley below

their hilltop

estate

[Music]

as george's team surveys nearby hills

it's clear that stairway is not an

isolated example

but one of dozens of estates

indicators of widespread wealth start to

emerge

many secondary buildings at sites like

stairway

houses belonging to skilled workers like

this one

are built of stone a rarity in ancient

central america

that's amazing what it suggests is that

we're not looking at

a large peasant population that's

under the hands of a very small royal

elite

but that wealth and prosperity have

spread

over almost half of the population

key week may be evidence of america's

very first

middle class nearly a millennium before

north america's colonial middle class

these people might have had

opportunities they might have been able

to acquire land

i mean it's kind of fun to think about

it that they might have been living the

maya dream

[Music]

if there was such a thing as the maya

dream

this is where it happened kiwi

and stairway are nestled in a lush

region of the yucatan

called the pook soil here

is fertile natural resources abundant

it looks like an ideal place for human

habitation

except for one thing the pook region has

no water sources

no rivers lakes streams

creeks these people depended on

controlling collecting

and managing rain water

so how did they do it

just a few hundred feet from the

stairway estate house

archaeologist bill ringel has found an

answer

water falls heavily here but only six

months of the year

for the rest of the time it dries out

and virtually no rain falls

and this was one of the primary

adaptations of the pukamaya to this

rather waterless environment this

underground cavern is actually a

man-made cistern called

a chiltoon

it was a work of sophisticated

engineering carved out of the limestone

bedrock

over here we can see how these chiltoons

were constructed

first of all they would bore through the

harder cap rock and then once they got

in

under to this underlying softer model

they would excavate out

and make this large chamber the last

stage would be to to

cover it with stucco and you can see the

thickness of the stucco here

this this pinkish material

the stucco functioned as a waterproof

lining

[Music]

the maya expertly engineered the patios

rooftops and plazas

of stairway to heaven to capture every

last drop of rain water

then drained it into eight chol tunes

scattered throughout the estate

the entire hilltop functioned as a giant

rain barrel

so how many people could this ingenious

waterworks

support bill ringle and

engineer andrew willis use an early

version of lidar technology

to map the chol tune the resulting 3d

model

allows them to calculate water capacity

up to 10 000 gallons in each of the

stairways chol tunes

provided a reliable source of water for

the entire community

the typical family of six consumed 27

gallons a day

so stairways chiltoons could have

supported seven

families through three rainless months

[Music]

these advanced water works formed a

liquid foundation for life on stairway

and for dozens of other wealthy kingdoms

like key week nearby

[Music]

and sitting at the very top of that

foundation was a royal

elite george bay has found hints of

their surprising wealth

hidden in the jungle

the ruins of a majestic palace

[Music]

it represents a time in the history of

the of the royal family of key week

when great amount of wealth was being

accrued by the royal

family and they were expressing it

through the construction of a massive

new palace

the king of kiwi had built the pyramid

over his old palace

so on the adjacent lot he upgraded to

deluxe new accommodations

the new palace boasted 15 major

buildings

and two ceremonial plazas

from previous finds george knows the

buildings were adorned in ornate

sculpture

and painted stucco

[Music]

this is one of the best preserved

buildings in the new palace

you can see the remains of the stucco

but they would have been painted

sometimes with elaborate murals

and then there would have been beams

hung from certain parts of the roof for

curtains or

tapestries and a variety of furniture

would have

found its way in here kings like things

like

jaguar skin sofas fancy pillows

this simple room would have perhaps been

quite luxurious

by 800 a.d the northern maya society

is over 1500 years old

its people have mastered this harsh

landscape

their facility with water allows for

large-scale

farming and generates vast wealth for

their kings

and even for a new middle class

imagine this place 800 a.d

you would have seen the vast landscape

of towns villages cities

the smoke rising from thousands of

cooking fires as women prepared the

evening meals

men coming back from their fields

[Music]

but along with this portrait of a

prosperous society

bay's colleagues bill ringel and tomas

gaierda

are finding evidence of a disturbing

political trend

on the rise

20 miles from key week is the majestic

city

of uzma in the 800s

it rose to become the powerful political

capital of the region

local kings like the king of kiwi likely

traveled here to conduct diplomacy

and pay tribute to uzma's royalty

ringgel wants to show bay how these

buildings underwent a peculiar

modification in the 800s

an unmistakable new image was added to

their facades

what's really interesting is that little

image right there

a feathered serpent and actually there

are two feathered serpents here when

they intertwine

across the facade you need visual image

ringle believes the serpents

are a symbol of a powerful religious

cult

[Music]

it was called quetzalcoatl or the

feathered serpent

the so-called cult of quetzalcoatl

perhaps a better way to think about it

is a political ideology and of course it

had religious overtones

cult's perhaps the wrong word because it

suggests something kind of small-scale

and extra-governmental this was

political ideology front and center

to gain admittance into this cult a

local king

like key weeks had to submit to a

rigorous initiation

the priest would very often sequester

the initiate for several days

he would undergo rituals of

self-mortification

artwork from the time depicted rituals

involving bloodletting ceremonies

in which initiates pierced their penises

and other body parts

that would be a very interesting way to

uh to sacrifice

yourself obviously very painful

another image on the facade represents

the journey of an initiate

a small man being spit out of the mouth

of a feathered serpent

we can see the little man moving through

his body

to emerge as a transformed being and

he's being transformed precisely because

of the rituals of initiation

that involved quetzalcoatl the feathered

serpent carvings at us mall

suggest the cult swept through the north

in the 800s

as local kings bought into the new

ideology

political tensions started to rise

it may have fostered competition between

those who wish to adhere to this new

ideology and those who wish to remain

true to the traditional ideology

of the maya area

at the new palace in key week george

finds signs that in the midst of the

boom times

something else seems to go wrong we see

this big pile of rock up here in front

of the building

and it makes really not too much sense

at the beginning you have this beautiful

building here on this side with these

rooms

you have a set of rooms on the other

side and right in the middle you have a

big chunk of rubble

we conclude that what we're looking at

is a

actual staircase that was built by

workers

to give them access to the upper stories

of the building

here is a scaffold system being used by

the maya as part of the construction

techniques

okay now it's not gone

the stairway is still here if the

building was finished they would have

removed the stairway

the indications of the scaffolding are

is that you're seeing construction

happening

you're not seeing a finished building

another part of key week's palace shows

similar signs of a sudden halt in

construction

the second story walls of a building are

laid out on the ground by masons

but never erected

all of these characteristics are

evidence that the city was

in full bloom that architects were

employed

that the king was feeling confident and

powerful about

what he was doing that the city was part

of a world that was

blossoming and expanding and not

this idea of the king being miss

havisham sitting among

a ruined house as things slowly fell

apart for him and his world

collapsed this is a very different kind

of uh image for what was going on here

[Music]

so what brought key week's boom times to

a screeching halt

at first war seems an obvious

explanation for the stoppage

but an exhaustive search turns up no

arrowheads

and no spear points

but then at stairway to heaven the

hilltop estate

the team finds clues that at the same

time construction halted on the palace

this site was abruptly abandoned however

this is fantastic

you have probably five or six vessels

smashed on the floor

from the time of the abandonment you

know i i think some of them would have

been

left here on the floor others were

probably hanging from the walls

but these people were not running for

their lives

the evidence suggests an orderly

departure

pots carefully hung on wall pegs are set

to the sides of rooms

they were left intact and only broke

later

as the abandoned building began to

crumble it looks like most of them are

right along the edges

of the interior which really looks like

they're taking some time

to put these vessels somewhere to guard

them

at the time they're leaving them kind of

like making things neat right before you

leave the house

kind of tidying up in some way

so what could have caused this carefully

planned abandonment of stairway

and the abrupt work stoppage at the

palace

at stairway to heaven data indicates

cisterns would have armed the maya for

three months without rain

a few months longer with emergency water

rationing

but evidence from core samples suggests

this would not have been enough

we find eight of these bands that

suggests

in fact that it wasn't just like one

massive drought it was probably a series

of droughts

that have durations about three to

twenty years

and you know every time things would get

going again they would get pounded

with a fairly long duration drought

at some point the droughts overwhelmed

stairway

leaving only one option

all it would take would be a short

period of time in which there

is no water in those cisterns and those

people would have to leave that hill

it's simply impossible to live there

the various families elite families they

were reaching a point

where they were having to make a very

difficult decision which was to leave

stairway to heaven

[Music]

they loaded what they could of their

lives onto their backs

and carefully stored the rest

when the rains returned they fully

expected

they would too

[Music]

the maya knew about droughts they were

probably a civilization designed

to respond not only to managing

rainwater but managing a lack of

rainwater too

it's not a surprise they left what

becomes the question for us

is why they don't come back

so why didn't stairway's residents and

the king of kiwi

survive these droughts as they clearly

had in the past

the extreme intensity of these droughts

was disastrous

making a carefully managed response

their only hope

but bay and ringel speculate the north's

political establishment

was falling into disarray distracted by

the cult of the feathered serpent

the collapse in the northern mile

apparently began during the 9th century

and that's also the time period

during which this feathered serpent

ideology was introduced

and this undoubtedly led to rivalries

with respect to power brokering

ringle thinks the political situation

may have become so extreme

that there was no longer any

governmental system capable of

organizing their return

with a stable government the northern

maya

might have survived but it wasn't to be

and within a century the major cities

and towns of the north

just like the south were left in ruins

today the empty jungles of the yucatan

serve as a reminder that even great

civilizations

can fail as the years passed

slowly the jungle reclaimed these

magnificent buildings

whole towns and cities vanished under a

green wave

they became secrets of the forest

only now thanks to new technology

and fieldwork can the extent of what was

lost

come into view

you