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Largest Known Maya Structure Found

insidescience.org

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Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#101

Post by woolcap »

bildung wrote: post #58
hymnsfm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest reading the Book of Mormon. It's a fascinating record of the peoples of ancient America, specifically the Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites. Where these civilizations lived and fought (there are lots of battles in the book) is uncertain, but it's believed to be mainly Central and South America. Keep in mind that The Book of Mormon is a primarily a spiritual book: another testament of Jesus Christ. The Lord…

"The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early immigrants to our hemisphere." http://mit.irr.org/book-of-mormon-archaeology-full

I'd point out that the article referenced above comes from a group that could hardly be said to be 'dispassionate observers' themselves.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#102

Post by WalterBright »

monadic2 wrote: post #99
WalterBright wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> were made of wood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana_Marshes_Wheel Wheel & axle made of wood, for a two wheel push cart. Spend some time using an ordinary dolly to move heavy boxes around, then try carrying them. There's just no comparison. Besides, it's one thing to say that wheel technology is gated by metals technology, quite another to say it is gated by the existence of pack animals.

I’m not quite sure of your point—the cart was obviously found in a swamp and would have been poorly suited to hauling things up “steep hills”. I would at least have used a spoked wheel if I were arguing the obvious need of a handcart, the weight and stability difference over rough terrain is quite large. That, or provided video evidence you want to haul a solid wood cart up a steep hill with groceries. I’m pointing o…

When you're building a stone building, you'll want to be hauling heavy stones. Even a heavy-ish wooden cart would be most helpful with that.

I've been to Chichen-Inza. It's flat.

The Egyptian chariots had wooden wheels and axles, and were light.

https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/course...

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#104

Post by ncmncm »

autocorr wrote: post #46
monadic2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore the land in southeast mexico is very hilly, and when it's not, it's often swampy or waterlogged (or was at the time of the maya). It's certainly more straightforward to use barges. Related, I very much recommend the book "Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs".

I second this book too, it's a great introduction to Mesoamerican civilization. The author, Michael D. Coe, also has another excellent book "Breaking the Maya Code" on the decipherment of the Maya glyphs The fundamentals were done in 1950-60's by Knorozov and Proskouriakoff, but the decipherment was only widely accepted until as recently as the 1970's[1]! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_script#Decipherment

Apparently Richard Feynman made fundamental contributions, being more numerate than your average archaeologist.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#105

Post by ncmncm »

orm wrote: post #21
unixbeard1337 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard thing isn't the wheel, it's the axle. For that, you need a precision that it's difficult to get without at least bronze tools.

Yeah, to add to your comment, this link has some more detailed explanations regarding the wheel+axle combo: https://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html It is also worth pondering why wheel+axle was invented so late even in Eurasia (after bronze alloys were invented and adopted, only around 5.5 kya, many thousands of years after agriculture). This fact has changed my perspective on how much infrastructure a…

It has been demonstrated linguistically that the Proto-Indo-Europeans had oxcarts with solid wheels. (Spokes came later.) They are estimated to have spread out over all of Europe and southern Asia sometime around 6-9 thousand years ago. Most languages in those areas trace directly to theirs. English has brought back together numerous words from various other descendants of it.

Notable exceptions from the PIE family are semitic languages, and Hungarian, Basque, and Finnish.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#106

Post by ncmncm »

jcranmer wrote: post #22
monocasa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but the Mayans vaguely knew about them.

The Mayan collapse occurred 700 years before the Inca Empire was founded (and the Aztec Empire, for what it's worth).

There was civilization in the Andes for thousands of years before the Inka. We just know little about them. Likewise in the Maya homelands.

People who live in Peru and study the ruins distinguish three megalithic stonework traditions, with the Inka the least sophisticated. The Inka's predecessors routinely handled rocks of tens, and up to hundreds of tons, slicing them into non-convex polygonal shapes and fitting them like puzzle pieces. The Inka worked only much smaller rocks.

Originally, the king was the Inka. No name for the civilization he ruled has surfaced.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#107

Post by dntbnmpls »

hliyan wrote: post #81
dntbnmpls wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> There is no justification for this inquisition I believe you may be confusing cause with justification.

No. I'm not confusing anything.

"...this is probably not politically correct to say, but I did develop some sympathy for that bishop."

Sympathy implies justification. Also, I clearly explained what caused the bishop's inquisition.

Lets switch it up. Imagine after reading mein kampf or a biography on hitler, nkoren wrote the following.

"...this is probably not politically correct to say, but I did develop some sympathy for that fuhrer."

I bet I wouldn't have gotten flagged and mass downvoted. nkoren's pathetic post is just carefully repackaged white supremacy/white man's burden. I'm surprised nkoren didn't come back with "it was cultural genocide not real genocide". There are a handful oft-repeated racist genocide denial.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#108

Post by Retric »

knolax wrote: post #96
Retric wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are talking about a continuation of a huge line of the same thing that happened in Europe of thousands of years. It’s not really a question foreign cultures, just the clash between different cultures. > Nazism has been removed without the destruction of German culture and language Nope, you can still read Mein Kampf today and many still believe in it.

> We are talking about a continuation of a huge line of the same thing that happened in Europe of thousands of years. It’s not really a question foreign cultures, just the clash between different cultures. I'm not really sure what you're referring to by "the same thing", but if you're referring to the cultural genocide committed against pagans in Europe by Christians, then ironically that helped fuel the type of Germ…

I am referring to the likely thousands of local religions that unlike say classical Greek myths we have zero direct evidence of. Looking back to say 2000 BCE cultures survived or died out more often than not through direct military action. The deaths of most oral traditions was through conquest, enslavement of the population, and spreading the remnants across an empire.

> unless you want to argue that the existence of neo-Nazis warrants the destruction of all Germanic languages.

It’s at least a trade worth considering. Was say southern culture in the US worth preserving after the civil war? I am not suggesting an answer just framing the question. Edit: To do otherwise is to presume the answer without consideration.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#109

Post by anewdirection »

082349872349872 wrote: post #77
ganzuul wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other things you could accept on faith is that these are airfields; not monstrously huge ritual grounds. It's nice to be passionate about something and letting one's imagination run wild, but trying to pull others into it with reference to blind faith comes off as cultish.

Note that even "Ancient Aliens" doesn't ask their viewers to accept anything on blind faith.

With that show it is more or less assumed. You realize many of the viewers of such shows take them seriously and think they are documentary evidence.

Re: Largest Known Maya Structure Found

#110

Post by bildung »

woolcap wrote: post #101
bildung wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early immigrants to our hemisphere." http://mit.irr.org/book-of-mormon-archaeology-full

I'd point out that the article referenced above comes from a group that could hardly be said to be 'dispassionate observers' themselves.

Luckily, bias of the researcher is irrelevant, as this is science and the facts are published. Despite 7 decades of endavours, no evidence whatsoever confirming Smiths claims has been found.
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