Lost World of the Maya (Full Episode) | National Geographic
Summary
TLDRArchaeologists 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
🌲 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.
🔍 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.
🏺 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.
🌌 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.
🏰 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.
🌱 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.
🏞️ 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.
🐍 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.
🏚️ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Lidar
💡Maya Civilization
💡Kiwi
💡Chultun
💡Feathered Serpent Cult
💡Drought
💡Stairway to Heaven
💡Secondary Burial
💡Royal Elite
💡Middle Class
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
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