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National Geographic Lost Kingdoms of the Maya
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They were here thousands of years |
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While Paris was still a village, |
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they were carving cities |
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They played a ball game for |
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They planned their lives according |
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Their writing is a puzzle |
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Wow! Look at this. |
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Really something. |
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Now the pace of discovery |
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We are finally finding out |
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Bone? There's a lot of bone. |
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Look. It's a black kind of a... |
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Oh, man! |
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This is really a powerful work of art. |
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They are the people who say |
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They are the Maya. |
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The year is 1839. |
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The place-western Honduras. |
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An American explorer named |
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is leading an expedition in search of |
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Almost nothing is knows about the Maya |
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Stephens is about to learn more. |
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Draped with a thousand years |
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the brooding temples and |
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Stephens is overwhelmed |
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Who built this place? |
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What happened here? |
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In the following days Stephens and |
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record their impressions |
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It lay before us like a shattered bark |
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her masts gone, her crew perished. |
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And none to tell when she came, |
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or what caused her destruction. |
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All was mystery, dark, |
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During the next three years Stephens |
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visit the better known Maya sites |
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In Yucatan they explore Uxmal |
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In Chiapas they visit Palenque. |
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And still questions plague them. |
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Who built these cities? |
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Why had they been abandoned? |
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The land of the Maya spread from parts |
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El Salvador, and Guatemala |
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to Belize and Mexico in the north |
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It was dotted with hundreds |
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each with its own unique history. |
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The heartland of what scholars call |
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the "Classic" Maya civilization lay |
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It is there that our story |
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starting at the site where scientific |
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Today, this partially restored site |
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Bill Fash is the director |
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Copan was one of the premiere |
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Now we can't say that in terms |
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Certainly there were other cities |
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But while it was booming |
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it was quite a place. |
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It had incredible artists, sculptors, |
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architects, engineers, astronomers, |
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So I suppose if you had to put it |
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...if Tikal were like say New York, |
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Every year of the past few decades, |
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a handful of Maya specialists and |
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to piece Copan's history back together |
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The story of what happened here |
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stone by stone. |
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There are over 30,000 fragments |
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that once adorned these buildings. |
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The problem is, |
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there is no box top. |
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There is no picture that enables us |
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We have to try and figure that out. |
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And the problem is made worse |
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This is what we call a GOK piles |
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and pull out the examples that |
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and try and put the whole thing |
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But in spite of the difficulties, |
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Fash's team of experts has reassembled |
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and conserved dozens of buildings. |
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Every year the pictures of what Copan |
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was like more that a thousand years ago |
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Many clues still lie hidden |
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in the temples |
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The Classic Maya had virtually |
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so there is no gold buried here. |
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But sometimes something |
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Watch the wire. |
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All right. It's repainted. |
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In 1992 Robert Sharer discovered |
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Buried with him were some pots. |
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One glyph is there. |
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What makes these vessels |
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are the painted designs |
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and the hieroglyphic writing. |
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Well, those are fantastic vessels, |
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although I don't know if I can say much |
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Forty years ago we could read only |
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Today we can read about half. |
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But it takes an expert. |
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There's another pot just like the one |
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David Stuart is the son |
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and one of the world's |
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By being able to read the glyphs now, |
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it makes the Maya |
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It makes them more human because |
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that they were a people that had |
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and the events in their lives. |
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One kind of Maya writing |
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When Spanish priests arrived |
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they found hundreds of |
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and promptly burned them. |
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Today, only parts of |
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but they have helped to shape the way |
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The books are almanacs, |
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filled with astrological information. |
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The men and women who wrote |
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well versed in astronomy. |
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Using a sophisticated mathematics, |
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they calculated the movements |
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thousands of years into the past |
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They knew that the universe moved |
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some very large, some very small. |
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They even predicted eclipses |
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They seem to have been fascinated |
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and the events in their own lives. |
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The Maya also left a record in a |
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And this writing contains much more |
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On these stone the Maya recorded |
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in the lives of their rulers. |
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This is the Hieroglyphic Stairway |
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the longest inscribed text |
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But early archeologists reassembled |
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so today we can read it only |
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Sculpture specialist Barbara Fash |
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of the 1,200 glyphs on the stairway. |
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Someday, these drawings may tell |
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This means "to plant with a stick |
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Other hieroglyphs are more accessible, |
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thanks to dramatic breakthroughs |
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This is the date. It's a... |
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Epigrapher Linda Schele has done |
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This is a little tree-tey. |
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And on this side, |
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But on the west side you can see... |
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Look at the beard. |
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It is a rare thing when a people |
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and make recorded history |
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What we are participating in now |
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is the recovery of lost history... |
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...because American history does not |
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It begins in 200 B.C. |
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with the first Maya king |
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Long before the first king wrote |
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the Maya were living |
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They were corn farmers. |
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Their lives were ruled by the rhythms |
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planting and harvesting, |
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But around A.D. 400, |
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at about the time Rome |
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a change swept through the valley. |
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On a lazy bend in the Copan River, |
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buildings made from stone were rising |
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Brilliantly colored buildings |
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where thousands of people could gather |
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There was trade in shells |
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tobacco, jade, and feathers. |
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At the center of the city |
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The object of the ball game seems |
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the heavy rubber ball in motion, |
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without using hands or feet. |
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Stone carvings at some sites show |
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ballplayers with severed human heads |
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But no one knows if they depict |
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or illustrate something more symbolic. |
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The ball was supposed to be a metaphor |
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and by extension, also the moon |
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And you wanted to make sure that there |
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They thought that if they played |
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and honored the gods in the right way, |
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that they would ensure the |
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and enable the sun to rise |
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and for there to be |
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In the secret world of |
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the gods were the source of all life, |
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and only the kings had the power |
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The gods sustained the |
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and expected humans to nourish them |
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The supreme source of |
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When the Maya wanted to acknowledge |
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the sacredness of the moment or |
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they would let blood. |
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Blood was the vehicle that carried |
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which means their soul. |
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It was something that not |
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it permeated buildings, |
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It permeated all things sacred |
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And when they gave blood, |
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what they were doing was |
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It's like George Lucas's the "Force." |
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If you can think of Obi-wan-Kenobi, |
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you know, |
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calling the "Force" out, |
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you know, in the final Death Star battle. |
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That's what the Maya were doing |
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They were touching what they |
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the living force |
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On special occasions |
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the king himself would give blood. |
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This was one of the most |
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After days of fasting |
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the king would pierce his foreskin |
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and let the blood drip |
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With this act of sacrifice |
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a doorway to the gods was opened. |
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When the paper strips were burned, |
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the Maya believed they could see |
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Today, |
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still live much like |
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The myths they remember |
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and the ceremonies they perform are |
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that the Maya say God gave them |
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Casimiro Sagajau is a Maya priest |
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We are Cakchiquels, direct descendants |
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Our religion is from a long time ago. |
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I learned as a child |
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In dreams we learned |
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when to plant and when to harvest, |
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when to set the fires, |
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The Maya passion for ritual |
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was one of the first things |
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when they arrived in Yucatan |
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When the Catholic Church banned |
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the old ways went underground. |
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Today the religion the Maya follow |
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The Maya have clung tenaciously to |
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In the highlands of Chiapas |
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their unique dress not only defines |
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but identifies the particular village |
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It is said that when a Maya woman |
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puts on her traditional blouse, |
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her head emerges at the very center |
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just as the great tree of life |
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In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, |
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Chip Morris had been working |
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The weavers have always said that |
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their designs come from the beginning |
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meaning the beginning of their culture |
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When I started looking at |
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and the statues, the things that show |
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there are a number that are all |
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What's in the designs is a map |
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but not the surface of the earth, |
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not where we are standing now, |
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It's that world where the gods are, |
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where the beings that control rain, |
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There are no trucks, |
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It's all images of that |
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that creates life, |
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In a world where the line between |
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is almost imperceptible, |
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everything is more than is seems. |
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Pyramids symbolize sacred mountains |
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Doors represent the mouths of caves |
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passageways into the mountain's |
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The Maya believed they went to |
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They called it Xibalba. |
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It was the "place of fright" |
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a watery realm of disease and decay |
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had little hope of escaping. |
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How the Maya treated their dead |
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at a site 130 miles north of Copan. |
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These are the ruins |
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Once it was a prosperous |
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Today it is remarkable for the scores |
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I think we'll leave the rest |
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Okay. |
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Arlen Chase is a potter expert. |
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Diane Chase is an authority |
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They're trying to understand |
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We tend to think of things |
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The Maya were not a Western society; |
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they didn't do anything |
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It's so hard for our own society |
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I mean we don't have dead living |
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We don't put them in a room |
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Well, the Maya essentially did that |
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Okay. Oh, this is nice. Arlen. |
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This is real nice. |
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We've definitely got a royal tomb here |
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Ordinary people were usually buried |
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The vessels are nice |
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The elite were placed in tombs. |
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This polychrome over here |
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is in better shape on the back |
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What about the bone? |
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Bone? There's a lot of bone. |
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There are at least two individuals |
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They're in pretty good shape. |
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Someone else's legs are up |
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It doesn't go with either one |
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It's not the man |
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It's somebody different. |
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It wasn't uncommon for the Maya |
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in the same space. |
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I like to think of it more like |
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where grandpa may have died |
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Grandma dies. You put her inside too. |
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A number of years pass and maybe |
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You might move grandpa to the side |
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and stick the son in. |
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And a little bit further along |
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and eventually the mausoleum has quite |
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This one's got a ring... |
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For archeologists, |
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The objects buried with the dead |
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sometimes yield precise dates and names. |
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These help to fill out |
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how the ancient Maya lived. |
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And sometimes what they find |
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Like the tombs at Caracol, |
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the buildings of Copan contain |
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But finding it has often been an |
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Honduran archeologist Ricardo Agurcia |
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My primary interest was finding out |
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It's something that's part |
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It's something that's part |
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And I grew up I mean |
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when I came to these ruins |
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But it impacted me and it was |
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you were always thinking about. |
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What happened to these people? |
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How did they do the things they did? |
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For the past four years |
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Agurcia has been excavating |
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that may tell us more about how |
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Temple 16 is a typical royal structure |
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And there in lies |
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For the Maya, |
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so they built their temples one |
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Workers would collapse the upper levels |
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encase what was left with heavy fill, |
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As Agurcia's crew remove the fill, |
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they create a labyrinth of tunnels. |
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Working in tunnels tends |
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You're working like |
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You're going up, down, sideways, |
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And oftentimes you get lost |
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and you can't really understand |
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The flat wall on the left |
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used to be the outer wall |
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Only by following its walls |
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can Agurcia determine |
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I only traveled a short distance |
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and bingo, we hit another wall. |
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It still goes farther |
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So we then tried going up to see |
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whether we had the bottom part |
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or the higher part of it |
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And you can see here the terraces |
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what was a very large pyramid. |
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It goes up, as far as we've traced it, |
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eight stories high and each one |
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What Agurcia found next was |
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There was yet a third structure |
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this one was different. |
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The building Agurcia calls Rosalila |
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The loose dirt was removed, |
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exposing a set of giant masks |
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still tinged with traces |
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Most of the masks we found before |
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and would extend as much as five, |
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But these masks just kept going |
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and to this moment |
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Hey, partner. |
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How's it going, boss? |
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Wo-o-o. |
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You haven't been here in a while, |
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Wow! Whoa! |
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Can you believe it? |
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Red paint all over the place. |
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Yeah, we've got lots of good paint. |
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We're coming down below the molding |
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and we've got two birds out. |
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We've got one over here on the left |
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and he's facing north. |
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And I think we have another one. |
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You see, he's got his beak bent |
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All the feathers behind him. |
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All the feathers radiating out |
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and also it's higher up |
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So this thing shone out |
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It's outrageous, it's just outrageous. |
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Adorned with brightly painted sculpture |
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Rosalila once crowned |
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Framing the central doorway, |
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Above them undulating serpents extend |
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For the archeologists, |
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the careful treatment given Rosalila |
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We're all just itching to know |
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Why was it left there for 150 years |
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and nobody touched it other than |
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Why was it buried intact? |
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They didn't touch any of it |
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All the rest of them they smashed |
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to build something bigger |
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Why was it so revered that is had |
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And most of all, what's inside of it? |
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What is that thing housing? |
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And that's what we're hoping Ricardo |
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But before any new discoveries are made |
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the rainy season descends on Copan. |
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The archeologists return home |
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and all excavations are suspended |
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Nearly six months later |
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The weather clears. |
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At last the excavation of temple 16 |
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For another half year workers continue |
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And just before the rains resume, |
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the enigmatic temple yields |
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> From a small cache found in a doorway, |
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Agurcia removes something |
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Look at this. It's a black kind of a... |
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Oh, man! |
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It doesn't fit. |
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It's close enough. |
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You would not believe how sharp |
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What they have found |
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chipped from an especially |
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flint, the firestone. |
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They were probably used on |
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and the faces may |
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or sacrificial victims. |
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No one knows how long it took to |
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since no one today has the skill |
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In all, nine flints were found |
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perhaps corresponding |
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It's been here for 1,300 years |
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and it's unbelievable. |
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It's a beautiful piece of art. |
| 00:35:23 |
the finesse, |
| 00:35:27 |
And I just feel like |
| 00:35:30 |
incredibly privileged, you know. |
| 00:35:35 |
You get caught up in the heat of |
| 00:35:37 |
and you try not to forget to |
| 00:35:40 |
take your pictures, |
| 00:35:41 |
And at times you forget |
| 00:35:43 |
and to think of the face |
| 00:35:45 |
that did this a long time ago and that |
| 00:35:47 |
when they did it, |
| 00:35:50 |
I'm touched by it, I really am. |
| 00:35:54 |
And it's a special feeling. |
| 00:35:56 |
It doesn't happen every day. |
| 00:36:03 |
It is likely the flints Agurcia found |
| 00:36:07 |
were placed there sometime |
| 00:36:11 |
when the classic Maya civilization |
| 00:36:25 |
In many Maya kingdoms |
| 00:36:27 |
there was a boom in the construction |
| 00:36:31 |
Some cities were even connected |
| 00:36:34 |
and trade among them flourished. |
| 00:36:42 |
Copan lay on the southern frontier. |
| 00:36:46 |
But to the north |
| 00:36:47 |
events had taken place |
| 00:36:50 |
that would eventually shake it |
| 00:37:02 |
Tikal was one of |
| 00:37:06 |
a prosperous urban center |
| 00:37:13 |
It was probably inconceivable |
| 00:37:16 |
that any other kingdom posed a threat, |
| 00:37:20 |
but in the spring of 562, |
| 00:37:23 |
Caracol attacked Tikal and defeated it |
| 00:37:29 |
During the upheaval that followed |
| 00:37:31 |
members of the royal family |
| 00:37:35 |
and established their own city. |
| 00:37:37 |
Today, a research base camp |
| 00:37:44 |
What was once the great city |
| 00:37:47 |
has again been reclaimed by jungle. |
| 00:37:53 |
The effort to piece together a picture |
| 00:37:57 |
is being led by Arthur Demarest. |
| 00:38:02 |
What he has learned is changing |
| 00:38:07 |
Forty or fifty years ago |
| 00:38:08 |
we thought of the Maya |
| 00:38:10 |
theocratic society, these scholarly |
| 00:38:15 |
of the planets and lived kind |
| 00:38:17 |
Now we know, from the |
| 00:38:21 |
and from excavations like these |
| 00:38:24 |
that the Maya were a |
| 00:38:27 |
one of the most warlike peoples |
| 00:38:30 |
and that they were constantly engaged |
| 00:38:34 |
battles of dynastic succession, |
| 00:38:37 |
and earthly pursuits. |
| 00:38:47 |
In 1990 |
| 00:38:49 |
Demarest's team discovered concrete |
| 00:39:00 |
It is a large, |
| 00:39:05 |
and on it it talks about |
| 00:39:09 |
and conquests involving |
| 00:39:13 |
Dos Pilas battling each other. |
| 00:39:16 |
And it records the outcomes. |
| 00:39:18 |
It's tremendous piece of information, |
| 00:39:20 |
and its decipherment, |
| 00:39:22 |
I think, is going to change the way we look |
| 00:39:24 |
at this very critical period |
| 00:39:29 |
This is really amazing. |
| 00:39:31 |
They're saying that he is |
| 00:39:33 |
presumably of Calakmul. |
| 00:39:34 |
It's an incredible title. |
| 00:39:36 |
It's saying we were competitive |
| 00:39:39 |
Well, we have to think about it. |
| 00:39:44 |
Epigraphers David Stuart |
| 00:39:48 |
are called in to see |
| 00:39:52 |
...with references to |
| 00:39:55 |
And then after that-X. |
| 00:39:58 |
And look, there it is. |
| 00:39:59 |
Yeah. This, Arthur, |
| 00:40:01 |
And here it refers to a dedication. |
| 00:40:03 |
It's referring to the stair. |
| 00:40:06 |
It's a pyramid. |
| 00:40:08 |
Okay, |
| 00:40:11 |
this war event... |
| 00:40:11 |
And then over here you've got a new |
| 00:40:14 |
The skull glyph here is the name |
| 00:40:21 |
Initially, it seems that Maya warfare |
| 00:40:27 |
It was more devoted to religious ends. |
| 00:40:30 |
Literally, these guys dressed up |
| 00:40:33 |
archaic costumes with |
| 00:40:36 |
and went out there and met |
| 00:40:39 |
and knocked each other around. |
| 00:40:40 |
One of them was captured |
| 00:40:51 |
What the hieroglyphs on the stairway |
| 00:40:54 |
is that sometime |
| 00:40:57 |
ritualized warfare gave way |
| 00:41:03 |
The kings of Dos Pilas attacked town |
| 00:41:07 |
and thereby seized control |
| 00:41:11 |
It looks like there was a change |
| 00:41:15 |
that led to an intensification and |
| 00:41:21 |
actually absorbing the territory |
| 00:41:24 |
This seems to have somehow gotten out |
| 00:41:28 |
An arms race, in a way, started. |
| 00:41:31 |
Attacking centers becomes acceptable. |
| 00:41:34 |
Attacking population bases, |
| 00:41:47 |
The new warfare would eventually |
| 00:41:51 |
The eighth century and ninth century |
| 00:41:54 |
at Caracol and throughout |
| 00:41:57 |
was a time of tremendous change |
| 00:42:02 |
Caracol, up to that point in time, |
| 00:42:04 |
had been very successful in warfare. |
| 00:42:06 |
What happens, we think at least, |
| 00:42:10 |
it's not just a question of defeating |
| 00:42:14 |
and taking them into your realm, |
| 00:42:16 |
but talking large numbers |
| 00:42:19 |
I think people were really scared. |
| 00:42:25 |
Picture yourself in a Maya city. |
| 00:42:27 |
And here you're been having warfare |
| 00:42:29 |
I'm going to be captured and |
| 00:42:31 |
probably have to give three months out |
| 00:42:34 |
to that foreign country over there. |
| 00:42:36 |
But rather than that happening to you, |
| 00:42:38 |
you've got this marauding army |
| 00:42:40 |
pulls all the men together, |
| 00:42:42 |
and rather than marching them off |
| 00:42:45 |
they instead cut off their heads |
| 00:42:48 |
and make huge skull platforms. |
| 00:42:50 |
Now that would strike terror into you. |
| 00:42:52 |
That would be enough to say, |
| 00:43:06 |
Even Dos Pilas would finally face |
| 00:43:10 |
On the Hieroglyphic Stairway |
| 00:43:14 |
of a hastily erected stockade. |
| 00:43:17 |
Archeologically, |
| 00:43:18 |
this defensive wall is one |
| 00:43:20 |
and exciting features |
| 00:43:22 |
One of the reasons why |
| 00:43:26 |
and is placed so well is that |
| 00:43:31 |
which were ripped off. |
| 00:43:33 |
They're the facings from |
| 00:43:35 |
So they literally tore down |
| 00:43:39 |
running it up against |
| 00:43:42 |
to create this desperate |
| 00:43:47 |
A picture of the city |
| 00:43:53 |
In a frantic attempt to keep |
| 00:43:56 |
the citizens of Dos Pilas erect |
| 00:44:00 |
around the center of the city |
| 00:44:12 |
These are low house platforms |
| 00:44:16 |
that filled the central |
| 00:44:19 |
at the time of the siege |
| 00:44:22 |
And it indicates that again |
| 00:44:25 |
of those final moments |
| 00:44:28 |
was so great and its fall had been |
| 00:44:32 |
at this point, you had the population |
| 00:44:36 |
below the towering temples, |
| 00:44:38 |
below the monuments |
| 00:44:41 |
It's almost as if you had a |
| 00:44:43 |
squeezed in living |
| 00:44:46 |
holding out at the very end of |
| 00:44:50 |
That's what you have here |
| 00:45:03 |
Copan, meanwhile, is struggling |
| 00:45:11 |
When one of its most powerful rulers |
| 00:45:15 |
faith in the divine authority |
| 00:45:27 |
At the same time, the population in |
| 00:45:34 |
Basically, the Copanecs |
| 00:45:35 |
became the victims |
| 00:45:38 |
And as this city grew |
| 00:45:40 |
and became more vibrant |
| 00:45:43 |
eventually all this nice, fertile, |
| 00:45:46 |
alluvial bottomland was covered |
| 00:45:49 |
and they were basically |
| 00:45:52 |
from their own food source. |
| 00:45:54 |
As time went by, all of the forest |
| 00:45:57 |
This caused wide scale erosion |
| 00:46:00 |
This eventually resulted |
| 00:46:02 |
and people just weren't table |
| 00:46:16 |
It is now the middle |
| 00:46:19 |
Throughout the southern Maya world |
| 00:46:27 |
Disease and hunger are |
| 00:46:32 |
People begin to drift away |
| 00:46:36 |
In Europe the Dark Ages |
| 00:46:41 |
Here in the jungle, |
| 00:46:43 |
they are just beginning. |
| 00:46:50 |
Slowly, one by one, |
| 00:46:52 |
the great southern cities |
| 00:46:59 |
In 761 |
| 00:47:01 |
the king of Dos Pilas |
| 00:47:05 |
> From that point on there are no more |
| 00:47:13 |
The last written date |
| 00:47:26 |
Twenty years later, Copan falls silent |
| 00:47:37 |
Caracol stops recording in 859. |
| 00:47:44 |
The last inscription date |
| 00:47:53 |
Only a handful of Maya cities |
| 00:47:55 |
in the south survive beyond |
| 00:48:01 |
The northern cities |
| 00:48:04 |
places like Uxmal and Chichen Itza |
| 00:48:08 |
will prosper for |
| 00:48:13 |
But they are no longer ruled |
| 00:48:16 |
and gradually the old ways of building |
| 00:48:20 |
and writing, and worshiping slip away. |
| 00:48:41 |
The Classic Maya civilization |
| 00:49:01 |
One of the thins, I think, |
| 00:49:02 |
that strikes the public consciousness |
| 00:49:06 |
to see this sophisticated culture with |
| 00:49:10 |
and science and writing system |
| 00:49:13 |
covered, destroyed |
| 00:49:15 |
an area that's now abandoned today. |
| 00:49:17 |
I think that there's an immediate |
| 00:49:19 |
impact when you see that. |
| 00:49:21 |
It reminds us that we can fail, |
| 00:49:24 |
that civilization is a complex |
| 00:49:29 |
And the consequences can be |
| 00:49:39 |
Yet, while the Classic Maya |
| 00:49:43 |
the Maya people have not. |
| 00:49:46 |
For 3,000 years they have survived |
| 00:49:51 |
and those of foreign conquerors. |
| 00:49:53 |
And once again they are under assault. |
| 00:50:02 |
In Guatemala, |
| 00:50:06 |
the Maya have been caught in |
| 00:50:11 |
In that time, 100,000 Maya |
| 00:50:16 |
and another 40,000 have "disappeared." |
| 00:50:20 |
No one can count the number of widows |
| 00:50:26 |
And through it all, they endure. |
| 00:50:30 |
They weave their huipils. |
| 00:50:33 |
They farm their corn. |
| 00:50:51 |
I feel that the Maya of today |
| 00:50:53 |
in the same traditions |
| 00:50:56 |
What they've lost is that big covering |
| 00:50:58 |
that overlay of nobility, |
| 00:51:01 |
They basically told the kings, |
| 00:51:04 |
You're not working anymore. |
| 00:51:05 |
And they went and they continued |
| 00:51:11 |
I don't like it when people talk about |
| 00:51:15 |
because they never collapsed. |
| 00:51:16 |
They evolved. |
| 00:51:19 |
good times, bad times, |
| 00:51:22 |
They still maintain their customs; |
| 00:51:23 |
they still maintain their ways |
| 00:51:27 |
And it's very exciting to see |
| 00:51:30 |
Maya way of life is still alive |
| 00:51:59 |
What we're digging up |
| 00:52:01 |
it's part of our history. |
| 00:52:02 |
And the men that lived here |
| 00:52:04 |
are some of the greatest men |
| 00:52:07 |
And it's a fact that we're getting |
| 00:52:10 |
about the life of these people |
| 00:52:11 |
more than I ever thought was possible. |
| 00:52:13 |
I think if somebody had asked me |
| 00:52:15 |
we would know what we know today |
| 00:52:17 |
about the Maya at Copan, |
| 00:52:18 |
there's no way |
| 00:52:23 |
What is happening now |
| 00:52:25 |
is the people who made these places |
| 00:52:27 |
people like Yax Pak or Bird Jaguar |
| 00:52:31 |
are getting back their voices |
| 00:52:33 |
They are becoming real to us |
| 00:52:34 |
and speaking to the people |
| 00:52:37 |
about who built this place and why, |
| 00:52:40 |
and what they felt, |
| 00:52:42 |
and what they thought about the world. |
| 00:52:44 |
These are not anonymous people |
