Posted on 10/27/2020 10:53:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
They’re not comparing the Maya to our culture, they’re comparing them to the other ancient cultures of the world. Many of the Mayan finds are new because of the use of Lidar and geophysics. It wasn’t known until recently just how extensive and ancient the Mayan civilization was.
As somebody pointed out, brutality was pretty common in the ancient world on every continent. Human sacrifice was practiced in Europe and Asia. Other forms of killing were common. Nobody says the ancient Romans weren’t a great civilization because they commonly murdered babies.
Those Native Americans were no more brutal than a lot of the rulers of Europe at the time-various methods of torturing political prisoners and criminals alike to death, burning supposed witches, having rebels hanged, drawn and quartered-doesn’t sound civilized to me-the world was a more savage place then-my ancestors left Spain for what is now Mexico starting in the 16th century, so they obviously thought it was safer to take their chances living in a wilderness around people who dispatched enemies by ripping out their hearts and practiced other forms of blood sacrifice than living in Spain where they could be imprisoned and slowly tortured to death because some noble wanted to shut them up just for the hell of it. My DNA says some of my ancestors bred with those savages, too-so...
Now I will go sharpen my obsidian knife and pick out a Karen from the nearest town-dia de los muertos is only a few days away...
nowhere in the Americas was a wheel to be found.
That is because nowhere in the Americas was a large beast of burden-like a donkey or horse-to be found to pull a wheeled cart until the Spaniards brought them on the ships in the 1500’s...
Hey, they had find a way to filter all that human blood out of the water, didn’t they?
The alcoholic drink they made from yucca and other plants required clean water, too-pre-Columbian white lightnin’...
Tequila!....................
“Then there is keelhauling... for those in the Navy.”
There are no records of anyone being keel hauled in either the Continental or the United States Navy. Now, 50 lashes with the cat was another story.
Did the Mayans have the wheel?
I remember that from Ed Sullivan. Wait, what? ;^).
How in the world did they know how to do this?
Accidental discovery, or possibly, they didn't know that it was working, they just thought the rocks were pretty.
It was Ancient Alien welfare
The Mayans weren’t conquered by anyone but themselves. Poor land management was their down fall. They were gone as a civilization befor the Spanish arrived.
Thank you! So many of the discoveries in history that are commonplace good sense appear to have been accidental-everything from sanitation to fermentation-I like your theory-put the pretty rocks in the water-then discover they make the water safe to drink = “magic” stones you add to water to make it okay to drink...
I lived with the Mayans every winter for ten years up until last year. I lived in a small village where bilingual meant Spanish and Mayan. I was the only gringo in the small village of about 500 families. It was an hours drive inland from Tulum. Once a month I had to travel to Tulum so I could speak English with others. They are the most happy people and they have nothing, they are subsistence farmers. They are completely exploited by the oligarchy as slave labor to the resorts on the Riviera Maya. I lived in the Zona Maya. I will never rfeturn, and I miss them so much.
Yes, we know archeology is never lacking for praise of the Maya as a wonderful and “high” culture, which of course was run on rewards and punishments of a religio-political system built on blood and murder of sacrificial victims.
Sounds like something that would be interesting to try as a modern application. :^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.