Maya mia!
Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
11–20 of 104 posts
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#12"Explorers needed to crawl for hours just to reach first of seven offering chambers"... followed by a shot of one of them, flat of his stomach, clawing at the surface and just barely squeezing through, head turned sideways. I am not a claustrofobic person, but this is... damn... this feels suicidal. Makes you realize that some people are wired way differently than others. Edit - https://imgur.com/EHrwHs3.jpg
And the Maya didn't have LED headlamps with lithium-ion batteries, either.
They went in there with torches.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#13I don't know anything about this team, but the ideal procedure would be minimal disturbance of this site, with minimal removal of artifacts from the site. Organic material for carbon dating, great.
There are several principles that one mist follow. Archeology is a destructive science: you can't dig the same pit twice, you can't remove artifacts a second time. So the first principle is: document everything, and destroy as little as you can. The second principle is that you must proceed with respect for the living Maya, who may well regard this adventure as a violation of a holy site of their ancestors.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#14I don't know anything about this team, but the ideal procedure would be minimal disturbance of this site, with minimal removal of artifacts from the site. Organic material for carbon dating, great. There are several principles that one mist follow. Archeology is a destructive science: you can't dig the same pit twice, you can't remove artifacts a second time. So the first principle is: document everything, and destro…
Well put, I second this!
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#15I don't know anything about this team, but the ideal procedure would be minimal disturbance of this site, with minimal removal of artifacts from the site. Organic material for carbon dating, great. There are several principles that one mist follow. Archeology is a destructive science: you can't dig the same pit twice, you can't remove artifacts a second time. So the first principle is: document everything, and destro…
Do you own your ancestors?
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#16"Explorers needed to crawl for hours just to reach first of seven offering chambers"... followed by a shot of one of them, flat of his stomach, clawing at the surface and just barely squeezing through, head turned sideways. I am not a claustrofobic person, but this is... damn... this feels suicidal. Makes you realize that some people are wired way differently than others. Edit - https://imgur.com/EHrwHs3.jpg
I once got so claustrophobic just by reading a book about caving that I had to put it away: Blind Descent by James Talbot. It describes the quest of a couple of maniacs to explore the deepest caves on earth under hellish circumstances. No light for weeks, no communication with the surface, camping against vertical walls in the dark, hurricane level winds, tight sumps full of dark water, disease, panic attacks... Man, who in his sane mind does things like that?
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#17Sealed up for 50 years after it was discovered is one of the greatest gifts to modern archeology ever. I can't fathom the loss of truly insightful historical knowledge that would have been lost if it was tampered with 50 years ago. What a hero to the future of humanity in understanding our past.
Wouldn't sealing it up another 50 years even better? We don't know which much better technologies we have in 50 years
I feel this way about technical debt sometimes :)
There has to be some point where you start on something otherwise in 50 years they would be wondering about the tech available 50 years from that.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#18Sealed up for 50 years after it was discovered is one of the greatest gifts to modern archeology ever. I can't fathom the loss of truly insightful historical knowledge that would have been lost if it was tampered with 50 years ago. What a hero to the future of humanity in understanding our past.
Wouldn't sealing it up another 50 years even better? We don't know which much better technologies we have in 50 years
Speaking as an outsider, I grew up near Hispanic cultures in the Southwest. I think there’s a need for better information about the Maya. For one, there’s a basic lack of understanding of time “before America” across the US. Most I've met seem to operate as though human history in the Americas only started with independence. The colonists wiped out a huge amount of history and culture. We might not have the best technology that could ever exist, but we do have a great need to appreciate a shared past. Fifty years from now people will be further from the past and more likely to take it even less seriously.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#19Most of all, I hope they'll find some books in there. Only four books have survived [1], beyond some highly damaged works which need serious improvement in CT technology (or other tools) so that we can read them, if they can be read at all. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices
This is so painful to read.
From the Bishop who oversaw the destruction:
"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."
I can barely imagine the anguish those people must have felt. Imagine witnessing the destruction of your entire recorded history. Virtually all of the knowledge and art produced by the civilization wiped out in a single act.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't sealing it up another 50 years even better? We don't know which much better technologies we have in 50 years
I feel this way about technical debt sometimes :) There has to be some point where you start on something otherwise in 50 years they would be wondering about the tech available 50 years from that.
If you ignore technical debt for 50 years there’s a good chance the problem will resolve itself! Because no one will be using the software.