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Mayan Temples

  • Thread starter xvart
  • Start date
  • #21
Wow, I'm a shark for this stuff. I visited Chitzen Itza in Yucatan during the mid-80's. That was an experience, especially going into one of the underground passages.
 
  • #22
That's awesome. It reminds me of that movie The Ruins.
 
  • #23
My uncle intends to buy land in Belize and move there in the next year or so (has a real estate agent and is down there looking at land until March). Perhaps I'll get to see some of the ruins if I ever go for a visit. He's shown me pics of some neat sites from earlier trips but it seemed there was lots of people there. I'd prefer an empty space like in Xvarts shots. The panoramic image came out cool!

This topic is rekindling my desire to sculpt a Mushroom Stone or two and a Xochipilli statue (even though he's Aztec). I love the Mayan / Aztec sculptural art for it's distinctiveness. I always thought of their style as "pixelated" even though the term is completely inappropriate seeing as they had no inkling of computer imaging. It just seems to have this blocky, low resolution feel to it.

Ktulu, did your professors have anything to say about the theories of some of the glyphs showing "advanced technologies", "space-time travel" and fantasies like that? I see so many of these new agey speculations, even on "documentaries" but I've been wondering what is the consensus from the universities on that. Are those type of glyphs related to the vegetable rites (carved "visions") or are they simply wishful misinterpretations of standard war glyphs? Similar to sci-fi speculations like the "Egyptian light bulb".
 
  • #24
Hahaha, I have to laugh at all the "advanced technology" theories, though I get alot of aliens down in Nasca where I work too. One of the most common "advanced technology" pieces of evidence is the sarcophagus cover of Pacal II or the Great Pacal. It has been argued by Van Daniken that is shows him working the controls to a space craft while lying on his bad, however, anyone somewhat familiar with Maya iconography will see clearly Pacal II is being protrayed as the Axis Mundi or the world tree. That is just one example of how for the most part these "advanced tech" arguments are just wishful thinking on the part of people with a good imagination and they are not accepted in the academic field at all. Now dont think I am trying to portray these people as primitive or not "advanced" as mathematically and astronomically they were hundreds of years ahead of the Old World at this time, with the exception maybe of China. The Maya were probably the most "advanced" civilization in the world at the height of the Classic period.
 
  • #25
Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. These speculative theory book writers are always on "serious documentaries" now. It's totally cool with me if they wanna use it as a springboard for a sci-fi plot but when they try to peddle it as facts it bugs me. Sensationalist culture, I guess that's why I gave up on TV.

I don't mind the words primitive, archaic, primordial, aboriginal, etc. As I understand them they merely indicate "holistic (nature based) living". I don't hold the words to be descriptive of conceptual or mental abilities but rather a way of life. Which would make my years with the Renaissance Faire "archaic" at least... :D
 
  • #26
I'd prefer an empty space like in Xvarts shots. The panoramic image came out cool!

I would wager that there were probably a total of 100 people there (around the entire site) during our visit. It wasn't empty, and I had to wait sometimes to get a picture with nobody in it; but I think the difference is the fact that the guides said the only real business they get is from cruises so the visitor population varies from 0 on most days to 100 or so a day when one boat is docked (the pier only had space for one cruise boat).

xvart.
 
  • #27
I get a kick out of the concept of primitive vs advanced civilizations. If you could go back and select 100 random Mayans and ask them to build a space ship or even a simple light bulb, you'd get a blank look. People in primitive civilizations were so ignorant. Contrast that with an advanced civilization. Select 100 random Americans and ask them to build a space ship or even a simple light bulb and you'll get ... a blank look.
 
  • #28
lol! :D

(not that I could build one either!)
 
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