ANOTHER MEXICO PYRAMID MARVEL— EL TAJIN IN VERACRUZ

El Tajin's Pyramid of Niches (By HistoryHit.com)

As in so many things corresponding to pyramid sites, their origins, and builders, much relies on conjecture rather than fact, especially if no written language was left behind. 

TOTONAC ROOTS

Known as El Tajin to the local Totonacs whose ancestors may have built the city, construction has also been attributed to a tribe related to the Maya. The pyramid site, located in eastern Mexico, is significant in Mesoamerica archeology because of its numerous thoroughly excavated examples of prehistoric sites dating from 600 t0 1200 AD. Timing is everything and the rise of El Tajin came between the fall of Teotihuacan and the rise of the Aztec Empire. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992 because its architecture and engineering is of historical significance.

Partial Photo of Grounds

Despite the fact that it's thought to have been greatly damaged if not mostly burned to the ground following an attack in the 13th century by the Chichimecs, a nomadic Nahua tribe, much of El Tajin is extremely well-preserved.

OF THUNDER OR LIGHTING BOLT

The Totonacs, who resided in the eastern coastal and mountain regions of Mexico at the time of the 1519 Spanish invasion, now reside in the states of Veracruz (where El Tajin is located), Puebla, and Hidalgo. The Totanac meaning for the site is 'of thunder or lightning bolt' and relates to a Totonac belief that twelve ancient thunderstorm deities, know as Tajin, still inhabit the ruins. 

However, a series of indigenous maps dating from the time of the Spanish conquest found nearby suggest the city might have been called Mictlan, or place of the dead, a common denomination for ancient sites whose original names have been lost. This name also appeared in part in the Codex Mendoza, a portion of a surviving Aztec tribute record, which claimed El Tajin meant place of the invisible spirits. 

Classic Sites in Relation to El Tajin

CORTES ALLY

Apart from the impressive pyramid site, the Totonac occupy a significant spot in Mexican history for the part they played in assisting Cortes defeat their common rival, Moctezuma and the Aztecs. From 800 AD to 1100 the Totonac controlled the region nestled between the Atlantic and the Sierra Madre Mountains. Consequently, it's thought that they were the first native tribe the Spanish explorers encountered. 

Cortes Arrives in Mexico 1519

But less than 50 years before the Spaniards arrived, the Aztecs conquered them and they lost control of their empires. Forced into the Aztec confederation, they suffered so greatly they made human sacrifices of their own people to their gods for liberation. When Cortes arrived, the Totonac seized the opportunity as an answer to their prayers and yielded to their new Spanish rulers in hopes of shaking off their Aztec overlords. Along with the combined forces of the conquistadors and one other city-state, Cempoala, they defeated their common enemy due to dual fighting power and their knowledge of the Aztecs and their way of life.

A LAND FORGOTTEN

From the time of its fall—around 1235 AD—to 1785, no foreigners knew of its existence until a government inspector stumbled onto the Pyramid of the Niches, considered a masterpiece of ancient Mexican architecture. Impressive due to its size and 365 niches embedded into the entire structure, it revealed the astronomic and symbolic significance of the building's alignment with the calendar system and the night skies. Unique to Mesoamerica, this the site's main building has elaborate carved reliefs on the columns and frieze. Other important monuments at El Tajin include the Arroyo Group, the North and South ballcourts, and the palaces of Tajin Chico. There have been numerous ballcourts discovered at this site, the last three found in 2013. 

Close-Up of Niches (by Mexico Dave)

Major archeological excavations took place in the early 20th century which uncovered more of the city that lay beneath the jungle. And of course the six-stepped pyramid, Pyramid of the Niches, takes center stage of the 20 or so edifices that have been excavated out of what archeologists suggest could be an additional 150 more awaiting excavation. The top of it would have been crowned with a temple. The tiers are full niches—365 to be precise— one for every day in the solar calendar. Archeologists found that the stone reliefs and friezes offered insight into the lives of those who lived in El Tajin.

BALL GAMES OR WAR GAMES?

A particular pastime for which the city was renowned was ball games, depicted in numerous reliefs. Twenty ball courts have been discovered there—the most at any one site to date. In an ominous twist, the reliefs also seem to show that these ball games were related to human sacrifice which took place at El Tajin, leading some to believe the ball was in fact a decapitated head. 

Ball Court at El Tajin

At its height, it was the most important center of the Mesoamerican northeast, and its cultural influence was felt in Mexico's central valleys and plateaus and throughout the Gulf Coast into the Maya region. From 600 to 1200 AD, it was a prosperous city that eventually controlled what is now much of modern Veracruz state. The city-state was highly centralized with the city itself having more than 50 ethnicities. Most of the population lived in the surrounding hills and their food requirements came from adjacent areas that produced staples such as corn and beans and also luxury items such as cacao. One panel at Pyramid of the Niches displayed a ceremony being held at a cacao tree.

An Aerial Overview of El Tajin (By Pryamidomania)

From what archeologists can glean, their religion was based on the movements of the planets, stars, sun and moon with the Mesoamerican ball game and pulque playing extremely important parts.

ANCIENT BEGINNINGS

Archeologists believe El Tajin was first occupied as early as 5600 BC by nomadic hunters and gatherers who evolved into sedentary farmers. Again, the first city builders remain unknown to archeologists though some theories suggest the rise of the city of El Tajin was to keep pace with the rise of the neighboring Olmec civilization, around 1150 BC. Monumental construction started soon after and by 600 AD, El Tajin was a city of some consequence. The site had grown into a large urban complex with significant construction due in part to El Tajin's strategic position along the old Mesoamerican trade routes controlling what is now the modern-day Veracruz state. The flow of commodities, both exports, including vanilla, and imports, came and went from other locations in what is now Mexico and Central America. From the early centuries, excavators found an abundance of objects from Teotihuacan suggesting it was one of their major trade partners.

El Tajin (By Civitatis)

HIDDEN BY THE JUNGLE

El Tajin prospered until the early years of the 13th century and after the fall, the Totonacs established the nearby settlement of Papantla. The sprawling site was left to the jungle and remained covered and silent for over 500 years. Though the city had been completely covered by jungle after its demise until the 19th century, it is unlikely that knowledge of the city was completely lost to the local native peoples. Archeological evidence shows that a village existed there at the time the Spanish arrived and the area had always been inhabited. Though it incorporated into the Spanish regime with comparatively little violence, the region was ravaged by epidemic diseases during the 16th century. Today, 90,000 Totonac speakers reside in the region. 

El Tajin remains an outstanding example of the grandeur and importance of the pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico. It was a thriving city of major ceremonial importance, a fact illustrated by the numerous Mesoamerican pyramids and other ceremonial structures still seen there today.

If you enjoyed this post, check out Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy is on Amazon.

MAYA WOMEN OF POWER — HOLY SNAKE LORD LADY K'ABEL, SUPREME WARLORD, PART 2

 

Rendition of Stela 44 Honoring Lady K'abel at Her Burial Site

Until fifteen years ago, Maya warrior queens were not the stuff of conversation much less legend in archeological circles. The idea was too far-fetched. The Maya hieroglyphic code had only been broken a few decades earlier in the 1970s at the famous Palenque Round Table talks in southern Mexico. Dozens of the world's finest archeologists and scholars gathered at the great site to put their heads together and try to break the problematic code. Besides that, hundreds of Maya sites had yet to be excavated. And no one had a clue as to how many sites were still undiscovered.

But in 2004, everything changed. Archelogist Kathryn Reese-Taylor, University of Calgary, headed a dig at a relatively unknown site, Naachtun. Sitting between powerful Tikal and Calakmul in the Yucatán lowlands of southern Mexico and northern Guatemala, Reese-Taylor and her team spent three months excavating the area. Their search proved fruitful and uncovered Lady Yohl Ik'nal, the Maya's first recorded female ruler, in 623 AD. (See Maya Warrior Queens Part 1, October 1 blog).

Maya queens rose to power after a seismic geo-political shift occurred in the mid seventh century. Power was moving into the area of the central lowlands and its vast forests in the middle of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Stela 34, Lady K'abel found in El Perú-Waka' 

ENTER LADY K'ABEL

In 2012 archeologists discovered the royal tomb of Lady K'abel, queen of the abandoned city El Perú-Waka', located in northern Guatemala between powerhouses Calakmul and Tikal. Known as the Centipede Kingdom, it played second fiddle to Calakmul, Snake Kingdom, that sat to the northeast. In a political power play, Lady K'abel, daughter of the ruler of Calakmul, was married to Tikal's ruler Kinich Balam II to serve as governor of El Perú-Waka' on her father's behalf. Archeologist Olivia Farr-Navarro (College of Wooster), a leader on the team, said they excavated the royal burial site located beneath a stairway platform located at the foot of the main Maya pyramid temple on site.

Archeologist Olivia Farr-Navarro at El Perú-Waka'site during excavation

STELA SHEDS LIGHT ON LADY K'ABEL

Until this discovery, scholars had known Lady K'abel as the Kaloomte', a Maya high king or queen who is military leader, the highest power in the kingdom. But Lady K'abel was hardly anonymous to those who studied the Maya. She had previously been identified by a stela (large limestone slab placed in front of a pyramid with hieroglyphic writing) that is on display at the Cleveland Art Museum, known as Stela 34 of El Perú. In it she is shown as a queen in warrior dress.

Investigation of this platform started before 2006 when Farr-Navrro studied under archeologist and author David Freidel, Washington University in St. Louis, and co-director of the site with Guatemala's Juan Carlos Pérez. El Perú-Waka' was being excavated by Freidel's team and planned to not simply uncover tombs but to focus on studying "ritually-charged" features such as shrines, altars, and dedicatory offerings.

CENTER OF RITUALS AND SACRIFICES

The city had long been a center of ritualistic activity and sacrifice, and signs implied it retained that significant presence long into the post-collapse era of the Maya after 900 AD when kings no longer ruled.

"The platform is the central focus point of the plaza in front of the largest temple at the site," said Farr-Navarro about El Perú-Waka'.  It was in a position of power.

Carved conch with woman's face emerging

As they dug at the foot of the staircase, long overshadowed by the platform, they found the entombed bones of a woman, surrounded by jade, fine pottery, and other signs of royalty. Most remarkable was a small alabaster jar carved to resemble a conch with a woman's face emerging from the shell as a stopper. The hieroglyphs for Lady K'abel's name were on the bottom.

WHITE SOUL FLOWER JAR DISCOVERED

The vessel, says Farr-Navarro, was most likely the "white soul flower" jar of Lady K'abel. Painted with red cinnabar, in ancient Maya mythology the flower jar essentially contained the soul of Lady K'abel. Though items can be moved around as a sign of veneration in burials, the white soul flower jar is an inalienable item that "could not be removed from her person," Farr-Navarro claims.

Clocking in to agree with Farr-Navarro's premise is archeologist Traci Ardren, from University of Miami, FL, and author of Ancient Maya Women. Though not part of the excavation, Ardren stated, "I'm completely convinced this was her tomb. The alabaster jar is really strong evidence."

The tomb site had been under study for almost a decade. Freidel and colleagues found artifacts suggesting a high-ranking female personage had been buried there, and Lady K'abel was the number one candidate. But it took the alabaster jar, small enough to fit in a queen's hand, to clinch the case. Carved to look like a shell, with head and arm of an aged woman emerging from the opening, four Maya hieroglyphs carved into the jar referred to the owner: Lady Snake Lord and Lady Waterlily Hand, two titles associated with Lady K'abel. Other artifacts found in the tomb suggest the person buried there was held in great reverence—red cinnabar pigment was used by the Maya in royal burial chambers and again, the white soul flower vessel, thought to hold one's soul, is specified in several Maya religious texts.

THE MAYA REVERED POWERFUL WOMEN

This find underscored the powerful role women played in the Maya world. At least eight women attained the Kaloomte' title held by Lady K'abel, Ardren said. Queens ruled at various times across the Maya world with standardized symbols for their titles. Though they may have been uncommon, they were not rare. And veneration of a powerful woman's tomb centuries after her death would not be so unusual. 

Alabaster jar on site with inscriptions of Lady K'abel

"She was married off for the greater good of the alliance between two cities. She left everyone and everything she'd known to travel to another city at a time of warfare."

A plate found on the left side of Lady K'abel's skeleton resembles a shield that would befit a warrior queen, Farr-Navarro explained. "Although it wasn't likely she'd fought in the rain forest battles that marked her reign, she was certainly not a shrinking violet."

Professor Freidel summed up the prime positioning of Lady Ka'bel's tomb: "In retrospect, it makes sense that the people of Waka' buried her in this particularly prominent place in their city. Archeologists now understand the likely reason why the temple wa so revered: K'abel was buried there."

LADY K'ABEL CONSIDERED GREATEST RULER OF LATE CLASSIC PERIOD

"Lady K'abel was considered the greatest ruler of the Late Classic period, and ruled with her husband, King K'inich Bahlam II for at least 20 years, from 672-692 AD," said Freidel. "She was the military governor of the Waka' kingdom for her family, the imperial house of the Snake King, and she carried the title Kaloomte' which translated to Supreme Warrior, higher even in authority than her husband, the king.

Figurine at El Perú site thought to be Lady K'abel

"She was not only a queen, but a supreme warlord, the most powerful person in the kingdom during her lifetime. That would put her in the same class as other ruling women of the ancient world, ranging from the biblical Queen of Sheba to Cleopatra."

After Lady K'abel's reign, Tikal's ruler continued their war against Waka' and Calakmul. By the middle of the eighth century, Tikal bested their rivals in the Maya superpower struggle. But by the middle of the ninth century, the Classic Maya civilization was on the way to its mysterious collapse.

In spite of that, even long afterwards, the lady's tomb remained a place of ritual, reverence, and pilgrimage for the Maya, apparently serving as a monument to a take-charge woman warrior who had gained her people's love and respect.

Part 3 in Maya Warrior Queens will include two more women rulers. If you enjoyed this blog, check out my memoir Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya. It's available on Amazon with tales about ex-pat life and living within 100 miles of four major pyramid sites. Subscribe to my bi-monthly blog posts above, or check out my website at www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival,  and Tulum Takedown are available also on Amazon.

DAY TRIPPING TO THE MUST-SEE MAGNIFICENT MAYA PYRAMIDS AT EK BALAM

Ek Balam Gateway to the Underworld (En-Yucatan Travel)

Day Tripping

Excerpt Chapter 17, Where the Sky is Born—Living in the Land of the Maya

On the paid highway just outside of Valladolid we stopped at the toll booth to pay the fee. All around us the monotonous landscape of the eastern Yucatan prevailed. Flat and dry with the occasional crecopia tree, ranch or small hacienda, there was little else. In five minutes we were at the city's outskirts, driving on a narrow one-way street past tidy cement block homes. A mustard-colored stone wall hugged the road all the way into el Centro.

Crecopia (Useful tropical plants)

Our rental car bolted towards the square where wrought iron benches with wooden slats were crowded with locals and tourists alike. I gazed at an ancient stone church with two tall spires that stood on the south corner of the square as we rounded the wide traffic circle, looking for a sign that would direct us to Ek Balam.

Although its past history was ominous, present day Valladolid was that pleasant contradiction one so commonly finds in Mexico—a busy city with one foot in the past and one in the future. Commerce prevailed and the streets were lined with shoppers and vendors taking care of daily chores and business.

Valladolid

One more time around the traffic circle and el Centro and we spotted the sign directing us to the pyramid site, only 15 kilometers away. Another one-way street led out of town and we followed it past small pharmacies, neat houses and the occasional tienda. 

Once on the city's outskirts the road narrowed considerably but was smooth and newly paved. Several kimometers later another sign pointed to the right and we took a turn that dipped and led down to an empty creek bed, then back up the other side into a forgotten pueblo. Packed dirt streets no more than 12 feet wide were bordered by rock walls dividing the street from tiny yards with ancient stone houses coated with rough plaster. Some lots had twig huts with palapa roofs. At one crossroads, two squealing pink piglets ran dangerously close to our tires, chased by a squawking red rooster, tail feathers bobbing. A hunched old woman eyed our late model rent-a-car cautiously as we inched our way through this time warp in history.

Countryside near Ek Balam (PxHere)

Finally out of town, we welcomed the freedom of the open countryside. In the distance I saw a pyramid temple peeking above the low shrub landscape. A simple green sign with an arrow and picture of a pyramid pointed down a side road to the north. We turned onto the sacbe, an ancient Maya pathway, and drove slowly towards what we hoped was the site entrance. 

At a primitive palapa a caretaker appeared. He explained there was a ten peso donation and asked if we wanted a guide. We said yes and he pointed to a raven-haired boy of ten.

"Mi hijo, Jorge." His son would assist us. We dropped the pesos in a handmade wooden box and followed the boy down the road.

Entrance to Ek Balam (photo Loco Gringo)

Except for his size, Jorge had all the attributes of a serious 40-year old. He was reflective and deliberate in his speech, and as we walked, he began telling us the history of Ek Balam. Construction started around 100 B.C. The site was named for Maya ruler Ek Balam, bright star jaguar. Ek to the Maya is the brightest star in the heavens; balam is the word for jaguar. The first excavations of the site were carried out by Frenchman Désiré Charnay in 1886, and more recent work had begun in 1987 when INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) funding was granted. Although the city was compact, there was still much to be done. He explained that the number of buildings on the site suggested Ek Balam had been rich and powerful at the same time, possibly holding the position of agriculture center of the northwestern Yucatan.

Statues at Ek Balam (Yucatan photos)

We walked through an amazing four-sided gateway arch that, Jorge explained, connected to a sacbe (road) which connected to all the Maya kingdoms. Ek Balam had numerous sacbes, he explained, to all major sites in northern Yucatan and beyond. The views from the arch landing were breathtaking.

Arch of Ek Balam (photo FinalTransit)

Front Ek Balam arch (photo Mauricio Marcelin)

"Paul," I said. "This is fantastic."

A three-sided wall, either ceremonial or defensive, surrounded the city, similar to the wall at Tulum. Ek Balam was known to contain an astrological observatory, palace, tower, a ball court, two cenotes and a building archeologists named the Acropolis, most likely due to the sculptures found inside—full figure statues that looked more Greek than Maya.

From the 10-foot high stairway at the gateway arch, Jorge directed us through the ball court and onward to the remarkable Acropolis. He told us the Acropolis was twice the size of El Castillo at Chichen Itza, with tunnels inside leading to tombs. A unique stucco fresco had life-size statues intricately carved into it. These were definitely rare in the Maya world. They appeared Asian, closer in appearance to Angor Wat than Chichen Itza. I'd not seen anything like it before in Mexico. 

Acropolis at Ek Balam (photo 123RF)

We climbed two-thirds of the way up the edifice, to get a closer look at the statues. Burnished in time to a golden brown, it was almost impossible to believe we were here in Ek Balam. Paul stood before the stucco fresco. "They seem Grecian, or Indian. Look at the lotus position on that statue," he said as he pointed at a character with a Shiva-like headdress.

Hindu comes to the Maya at Structure 4 (photo Yucatanmagazine)

Statues (Mediawarehouse.com)

Through a hallway leading to the tomb of the ruler, Ukit Kan Le'k Tok, who coined Ek Balam, was a 12-foot high stucco mouth with teeth, representing the gateway to the underworld, the Maya version of the River Styx. Archeologists theorize most of the Acropolis was built around 800 A.D. by Ukit Kan Le'k Tok.

The Maya so well preserved the stucco in the Acropolis tomb that no modern restoration was required. After the ruler was buried, the tomb was filled with powdered limestone and rocks, and the entire facade was covered with the same material for preservation.

Ek Balam (photo CancunAdventure.com)

Jorge was a perfect guide, very absorbed in the details of the site and its history. He confided that his dream was to one day become an archeologist. We paid him for his guide work and he followed us out to the car, not wanting to end the conversation.

Within minutes he became a ten-year old again, excitedly asking where we were from and where we were going. He gallantly opened my car door and in so doing, spotted my Maya Ruins Guide in the back seat.

Maya Ruins Guide

Noting his look of longing I asked, "Quieres mi libro?" Would you like my book.

"Si, si!" he said, looking terribly excited at the prospect.

I told him it was in English, but I was sure that since he was going to be a famous archeologist some day, he would soon learn that language.

He agreed wholeheartedly and the last image I have of Jorge was his hugging the Maya Ruins Guide tightly to his chest as we pulled onto the ancient sacbe leading us away from Ek Balam.

                                                             ***

Side note: Where the Sky is Born was written in 2003 and many of our Maya travels happened much earlier, late 1980s, so much is now changed—pretty much everywhere in the Yucatán. Ek Balam, however, is still a site to be reckoned with. The foliage surrounding it is lush and gorgeous, and the real plus is it's not as touristy as nearby Chichen Itza. The statues are so very different from other art found at Maya pyramid sites. They're quite exquisite.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from my memoir Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, it's available on Amazon with many more tales about ex-pat life, living within 100 miles of four major pyramid sites for many years, owning a bookstore in Mexico, and Maya culture and Mexico travel. Subscribe to my bi-monthly blog posts above, or check out my website at www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon.  My journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is also on Amazon. 

THE MAYA EXPLORER WHO BOUGHT THE CHICHEN ITZA PYRAMIDS

 

Few explorers can live up to the image of Edward Herbert Thompson. Made notorious after dredging Chichen Itza's sacred cenote in 1904, Thompson's dashing and dramatic exploits lasted more than three decades.

Born in Massachusetts in 1856, he followed in the footsteps of the Yucatán's first known explorers, John Lloyd Stephens and artist Frederick Catherwood who co-authored Incidents of Travel in Yucatán. Shortly after publication of this instant 1843 bestseller, the Caste War of Yucatán broke out limiting access to the peninsula's finest pyramid sites, closing borders to all but indigenous Maya for 60 years.

Thompson, appointed archeological consul to the Yucatán in 1895, was one of the first explorers to tread the land after the war began. His work as an anthropologist began in 1879 when he published a highly unscientific article for Popular Mechanic, titled "Atlantis: Not a Myth," which attempted to link Socrates' lost continent with the rediscovered Maya. Though he later disclaimed his outlandish theory, the article gained him notoriety and attracted the attention of the American Antiquarian Society, whose vice-president lobbied the senate to appoint Thompson as American consul to Mexico.

YUCATÁN CONSUL

As the youngest consul ever, Thompson's post included the Mexican states of Yucatán and Campache which he used as jumping off spots for further pyramid exploration. With his wife Henrietta and their two-month old daughter, they headed south in 1895.

He passed several months in Merida where he began the process of befriending local Maya, so to better study their legends, psychology and language. He traveled widely in those early months, trekking to all known ancient cities—well over one hundred—to familiarize himself with the ruins and the lay of the land. He learned to travel light, unlike other explorers, and adapted his ways to the Maya way of life.

Although his adventures would leave a physical mark on the man—an encounter with a poison trap in the jungle left him lame in one leg—his archeological fame soared. He was known for two coups: his first, the purchase of 100 square miles of Chichen Itza which included the ruins and a Spanish plantation house, through the auspices of Chicago meat packing magnate, Allison Armour. When the Mexican government finally caught wind of the sale, they negated the transaction, but allowed him to camp out on the premises. During his excavations, he used Chichen Itza's famous "Nunnery" as bedroom and office.

SACRED CENOTE AT CHICHEN ITZA

But the height of his fame came from his second coup: dredging the cenote at Chichen Itza. From his earliest excursion to the site, he admitted he had an uncanny draw to the sacred cenote and his initial interest was further spurred on as he read texts and documents about it. As all but three Maya codices or paperback books had been destroyed by fire by a Spanish bishop, Diego de Landa, in the early 1500s, little information on the early Maya existed.

After his destruction of the written Mayan language, along with countless statues and religious artifacts, the king of Spain ordered de Landa to write a history of the Maya and their culture. Thompson read de Landa's account of the Chichen Itza cenote which explained that during times of drought or strife, priests and commoners made pilgrimages to the cenote to appease the gods they believed lived in the water's depths. De Landa's account stated maidens and captive warriors were thrown into the well as sacrifices. He also added it was customary for ornaments, household items, and gold to also be thrown in to appease the gods by commoners and hierarchy alike.

Thompson took the priest's account as fact and implemented a plan to dive the cenote. For this he needed to invent a diving apparatus. He headed back to the US to solicit funds, then traveled to Boston where he took deep sea diving lessons for two months. While in Boston he developed a dredging bucket with steel cables, a derrick and a 30-foot swinging boom for the project. He had it crated up and shipped it all south.

Within weeks he was training local Maya to assist him in what everyone considered to be a maniac's misadventure. After setting up his materials, he dredged through thick silt for a month, coming up empty. At last he pulled an unrecognizable mucky substance to the surface. He dried it and attempted to burn it, discovering it was Maya incense, or copal, used in religious ceremonies. With this discovery, he knew he was on the brink of a major finding.

TREASURE HUNT

Two days later his efforts were rewarded. Piece after piece of long-awaited treasure was dredged up. Thompson succeeded in bringing forth vases, ornaments, and obsidian knives. But the large bucket on his equipment kept dropping items, and he knew to better search the cenote he'd have to dive it himself. In the States he'd been introduced to a Greek diver. He enlisted the man's talents and two weeks later they had rigged up waterproof canvas outfits with 30-pound copper helmets and plate glass goggles and air valves. The two dove into the cenote and pulled up amazing treasures—figures representing Maya gods, gold discs, jade, and the clincher—human skeletons.

Thompson's discovery put the Maya back on the world explorers' map. He had proof that humans had been sacrificed at Chichen Itza. Young women had been hurled by priests into a dismal pool as offerings to their gods, and now the explorer had the skeletal remains to prove it.

Ironically, Thompson's score threatened to jeopardize his standing in the archeological community as it was later discovered he had sent many of the dredged artifacts secretly in diplomatic pouches to the Peabody in Boston where most remain to this day, far from the Yucatán. But such was Thompson's stature that even this revelation did not diminish his professional standing, when all was said and done.

HOW THE PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT

Thompson also discovered how the Maya built the pyramids. Near Chichen Itza he found shallow quarries with worked veins of sascab, the lime gravel mixture the Maya used as mortar. Scattered around the area he found hammer stones of calcite, pecking stones of flint, and smoothing stones that were most likely used to produce flat surfaces on walls. Even though ancient Maya craftsmen had no metal tools, his discovery of the quarry and tool remnants assisted scientists in determining how the Maya created the pyramids without the use of metal. Thompson also found chisels of nephrite, a less valuable source of jade, and as a test, he used one to carve his own name onto an ancient stone to prove it could be done.

Thompson went on to discover an ancient Maya 'date' stone, later named the Tablet of the Initial Series, which served in deciphering dates of Chichen Itza's classic period for cryptographers. His exploits were those of an intrepid explorer. His continued determination throughout his near 40-year tenure in the Yucatán helped unravel the secrets of a great civilization.

After his explorations were wrapped up, Thompson wrote People of the Serpent in 1932 detailing his time exploring in the Yucatán.  He died in 1935 in New Jersey. 

After writing this article I was approached by great grandchildren of Edward Herbert Thompson and communicated with them about their great grandfather. It was thrilling, to know that his relatives still live in Piste, the small community adjacent to Chichen Itza. 

For more information on my writing, check out my website at www.jeaninekitchel.com. My first book, a travel memoir titled Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya is available on Amazon, as is Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, which is a journalistic overview of the 2012 calendar phenomenon. Books two and three of my Wheels Up cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival and Tulum Takedown are also available on Amazon. Subscribe above to keep up to date with further blogs on Mexico and the Maya and the Yucatán.

SYLVANUS MORELY—THE MAN WHO MADE CHICHÉN ITZÁ FAMOUS

            “Only liars and damn fools say they like the jungle.”  Anonymous Yucatan Explorer

            While I sat in our little bookstore Alma Libre Libros in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, in those early years when there was barely a tourist to be found, I had plenty of time to read about the Maya civilization and the explorers who stumbled onto their majestic pyramids. We sat within 100 miles of four major Maya sites, and I had become addicted to the Maya. I began compiling notes on the early explorers and their adventures, and at the time thought I’d write a book called Explorers of the Yucatan, but that idea was shelved. Now, finding those notes I realize how much I enjoyed the adventure of reading about their adventures. So this is Part One of that series. I’m beginning with my favorite explorer, Sylvanus Morley.

                                                         Alma Libre Libros

            Since 1839 adventurers, explorers and archeologists have attempted to unveil the mystery of the Maya and their pyramids.  Although each of these mavericks deserves a stellae in the Maya hall of fame, rising to the top like Venus on a new moon is Sylvanus Griswold Morley.

            Rumored to be Spielberg and Lucas’ inspiration for unforgettable archeologist Indiana Jones, Morley worked nearly three decades deciphering Maya glyphs and excavating ruins in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.  He was born June, 1883, in Baldwinville, Massachusetts.

                                                                                                    

SANTA FE

            Morley began his studies in civil engineering and then attended Harvard where he developed an interest in archeology. Harvard’s Peabody Museum had recently received Edward H. Thompson’s treasure trove of artifacts after he famously dredged the sacred well at Chichén Itzá in 1904. This ignited Morley’s interest in ancient civilizations.

            His degree along with his involvement in antiquities first took him to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he cut his teeth on researching and exploring Native American cultures. Morley’s influence in Santa Fe was so great that later on, he and a group of his contemporaries, including Georgia O’Keefe, would define what has come to be known as the “Santa Fe” style of architecture.

            Between 1909 and 1914 Morley did field work in Central America and Mexico for the School of American Archeology.  During this period his early archeological expeditions were used as a cover for espionage activities for U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War I.  According to one source, although his wartime activities have been largely forgotten, he laid the groundwork for modern U.S. intelligence efforts.

            After the war, Morley became a research associate for the Carnegie Institution where he applied for the position to head up explorations in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.  In 1915, he presented a proposal for funding a restoration project at Chichén Itzá.

RESTORATION

            Morley’s proposal was a 20-year plan to restore Chichén Itzá, now one of the New Seven Wonders of the Modern World, to its former grandeur and to invite tourists to become a part of that mix. He chose Chichén Itzá because it was close to Merida and easy to reach, thanks to progressive governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto’s efforts at building a new road that connected Merida with the soon to be famous site.

            Before Morley’s excavation, Chichén Itzá was merely clumps of grassy mounds as was common with all Maya sites in the early days of exploration. Morley would labor at excavation there for 18 years, until 1940.  Shortly after his work was complete, he published The Ancient Maya in 1946, the first comprehensive account of the Maya civilization.

NO GLAMOUR

            The rain forest held no glamour for Morley, nor did spending the night in a flea-infested palapa, eating canned goods, fighting insects, fearing snakes, taking water from a filthy water bag, nor running the risk of contracting serious tropical infections. Nicknamed the little hummingbird by Native Americans on one of his first expeditions to the southwest, Morley always dressed the part of the archeologist, looking more like Bill Gates than Harrison Ford, complete with pith helmet.

            He said he hated the jungle because he dearly enjoyed the comforts of civilization. But even the ill health that plagued him over the years in no way diminished his enthusiasm for advancing the knowledge of the Maya. His biography by Robert Brunhouse details how, at every turn, his good health was sabotaged by numerous illnesses. Seasickness seized him on entering a boat; he contracted malaria in the early years of his explorations, threw it off for several decades, only to contract it again. He suffered from colitis in 1924 and was continuously in and out of hospitals for tests.

            The following year amoebic dysentery forced him to leave Chichén Itzá and spend weeks in a New Orleans hospital. On returning to the site, he felt his energy was too great for his emaciated 109-pound body and was quoted as saying he had a Rolls Royce engine in a Ford Motor body.

MAYA TIES THAT BIND

After he had established himself at Chichén Itzá, Maya leaders asked him to help convince Queen Victoria to form an alliance with the Maya to drive the Mexicans out of Yucatán once and for all.  (This was before the final truce had been signed for the Caste War of Yucatán which lasted nearly one hundred years). After explaining that Queen Victoria was long dead, he became the unofficial spokesman for the Yucatec Maya from 1923 until his death in 1948.

            Inauguration of the Chichén Itzá project was his greatest contribution to Mesoamerica archeology. Financed fully by the Carnegie Institution, he continued hard at it until 1940. In the 1930s he discovered he had heart trouble but continued to travel, now by plane rather than mule or boat. His overall emphasis soon expanded into a vast multi-disciplinary study of the entire Maya area.  At Chichén Itzá, his work opened a new chapter in the history of archeology. On completion of the project in 1940, when he departed, he said he would never return and he never did. But his love affair with the Maya culture lasted a lifetime.

            He was scholar, explorer, informal diplomat, secret agent, planner, author and educator.  His explorations and excavations put the Maya and Chichén Itzá on the map.

WHO WERE THE ANCIENT MAYA?

Were they pyramid builders? Astronomers? Lords of the jungle? High priests and shaman? Mathematicians?

After years of studying the Maya, I believe—aside from those glorious pyramids— they’ll most be remembered for their stargazing abilities. The Maya were called naked-eye astronomers.

Say what?

STARGAZERS AND MATHEMATICIANS

The Maya were stargazers for a reason. First and foremost they were mathematicians who painstakingly followed and kept detailed records on the position of the stars and planets day by day, year by year, century by century. Without the use of anything other than the naked eye, they recorded these precise calculations for more than a millennium. They kept track of the night sky in paper-bark books called codices. (Sadly, all but three were burned by Spanish priests in an effort to purge the Maya of their “pagan” beliefs). And through this precise nightly recording of the sky’s movements, they were able to simulate what we today can do in the blink of an eye with a telescope. The Maya viewed the Milky Way as the world tree, their Ceiba. The Ceiba was considered the Maya tree of life—the tree that holds up the world.

THE MILKY WAY

But to the Maya, the Milky Way was more than that familiar smudge across the sky we see each night. The Milky Way was also the Sac-be or road to the underworld for dead souls as well as the path for those souls to the sky. It was their River Styx. Without the Milky Way, dead souls couldn’t find their way and would be caught in a forever limbo.

So Maya astronomers were left with the weighty job of deciphering how each star and planet would align. It was their destiny to forever record the nightly movement of the stars so that those departed could find their way to the underworld.

PAKAL'S TOMB 

Even though all but three of their paper-bark books were destroyed, additional proof in this theory of the Milky Way and the world tree’s importance is carved onto the glorious sarcophagus lid of Pakal, Palenque’s greatest ruler.If you've never been to Palenque, go. To me, it is the most spiritual and mystical pyramid site, off the beaten track and not an easy journey. But once there, it’s like Hawaii with pyramids in a lush jungle setting with a smattering of near Asian style structures. The Asian influence makes one wonder. But back to the sarcophagus lid—it shows the king descending down the world tree into the jaws of the underworld, or Xibalba, to his death. Descending the stairs to Pakal’s musty tomb is a journey in itself. And as an aside, Pakal’s tomb was discovered by accident in 1952 by famous archaeologist Alberto Ruz when a worker noticed holes in a floor slab. When lifted, it showed a stairway filled with rubble that took three years to clear. But Pakal’s tomb, and the discovery of the king’s bejewelled death mask, made those efforts worthwhile.

Palenque was also the site of the famous Palenque Roundtable in the mid-1970s where more than twenty of the world’s foremost archaeologists came together and broke the Maya code.  At that meeting, they deemed that the greatest portal to the underworld was found in the night sky, and it related back to the Maya creation myth. Now having the ability to read the Maya stelae (carved concrete like slabs placed in front of every pyramid), these archaeologists decided the myth portrayed the Milky Way, as a tree, to be the centre of their universe, dating back to their creation myth in the Popul Vuh.

Have I lost you yet?

VENUS FOR ACTS OF WAR

But not only did the Maya gaze at the stars so that they and their rulers could find the starry path to the underworld, They monitored the planet Venus to decide when to make war on fellow Maya city-states, and when to plant their crops, specifically maize.

So determined were the Maya to follow this star-earth continuum that many pyramid sites, such as Chichen Itza’s Temple of Kukulkan, are aligned to certain astronomical specifics. Each spring and autumn equinox, the sun casts its shadow onto this Chichen Itza temple due to its place in the heavens, the building’s position, and the Maya’s precise calculations, configured centuries ago, for for this event. The sun’s shadow creates the illusion of the serpent’s body (the temple sports a huge serpent on each of its four corners) slithering down to the base of the staircase, finishing at the serpent’s mouth at ground level. Again, if you’ve not yet been to Chichen Itza, go. Other sites also are clearly aligned with these spectacularly coordinated spectacles, not unlike sunrise at Stonehenge. One wonders, how on earth did they do it? But they did.

WHO WERE THEY?

So who were the Maya? To me, they will always be stargazers who tamed the night skies long before modern man/woman would have thought it even be possible to do so. Had any more than three of the thousands of paper-bark Maya books burned been saved for posterity, what other wonders would we have discovered? Though they were an early civilization, they were one with extraordinary powers to delineate not only the position of the planets and when full eclipses would occur, but they also created an intricate system of calendars (twenty-eight in all) that, some scholars say, coordinate as accurately as our calendar does today. When the Maya calendars were compared for exactness against a modern day computer, scholars found only a slight difference in accuracy. All done without a slide rule, calculator or telescope.

Naked eye astronomy.

It worked for the Maya. And if this article doesn’t inspire you to go to the nearest pyramid site and stare at in wonder, I have failed to do my job.