I hope they preserve at least some of it instead of escavating it
Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
41–50 of 104 posts
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#42"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
What bothers me about pictures like that isn't so much having to cram through the tight space. It's the cave collapsing and being squished to death with a 0% chance of survival. Do other people who are semi-claustrophobic fear the literal tight place, or dying from something going wrong that's out of your control? The same thing applies to heights. I have no problem with heights at all but ladders bother me a lot bec…
You live in a universe where astronomical events lightyears away can obliterate life on earth with no advance warning whatsoever. Being in control is an illusion.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#43"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
Caving can be incredibly fun as well, tight squeezes can come with the territory but there's plenty of horizontal walking/borehole opportunities. It is pretty geographically dependent. This one always gets me a bit: https://gfycat.com/responsibleboweddalmatian-exploration-cav... I'm wondering if there's not a second entrance or something that sumped and connects, in the US some tracks are a mile or so back but severa…
I’m going to have nightmares after seeing that gif. How can these people be ok with that?
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#44"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,…
Honestly it's this kind of thing that really makes me marvel at the human brain. Most people see 'the grass is greener' as meaning that you will always want what you don't have.
I see it as meaning that you can honestly get used to anything, given enough time. It's inspiring really, when I'm at my worst and darkest times, to think - hey, if someone can deal with being tortured for years and get through it, I can make it through this.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#45> Segovia identified 155 artifacts, some with faces of Toltec rain god Tláloc, and others with markings of the sacred ceiba tree It would be significant, because the Mayan version of this god is Chaac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaac , and there's some speculation over who inherited the god from whom: > Although the name Tlaloc is specifically Aztec, worship of a storm god like Tlaloc, associated with mountaintop…
I wish people would stop using the term Aztec because there are no Aztecs known to us. Aztec was the slave name of the mythical civilization that took part on the exodus. They are mexicas not Aztecs.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#46"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
Some people are even claustrophiles. Isaac Asimov was a famous one. Being in tight spaces makes them feel safe, although being actually stuck may not have the same effect.
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#47"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,…
The parent comment has a typo in book author name. The book is actually "Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Cave on Earth" by James M. Tabor.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812979494
(Curiously, Google search for "James Talbot Blind Descent" points to this very Hacker News thread.)
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
What bothers me about pictures like that isn't so much having to cram through the tight space. It's the cave collapsing and being squished to death with a 0% chance of survival. Do other people who are semi-claustrophobic fear the literal tight place, or dying from something going wrong that's out of your control? The same thing applies to heights. I have no problem with heights at all but ladders bother me a lot bec…
You live in a universe where astronomical events lightyears away can obliterate life on earth with no advance warning whatsoever. Being in control is an illusion.
> Being in control is an illusion.
It is a very useful illusion though. I take it as a sort of veneer that the brain hoists over our eyes to make day to day life bearable. There is some truth to the saying "Ignorance is a bliss".
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#49Earlier 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
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 tech…
@ianai you should give the book 1491 a read, it is likely exactly what you're looking for and a well written book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
Re: Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1k years stuns archaeologists
#50Most 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 destru…
It's like that one time we decided to do a rewrite... without tests.