The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology

by James A. O'Kon

  In the annals of Maya hieroglyphic decipherment, the contributions of a group of like-minded scholars including archaeologists, epigraphers, linguists, and crossover experts are difficult to separate. The group contributed to the process of interpreting the script and subsequent revelation of the history, sciences, and technology of the ancient Maya.

  Further progress in the decipherment accelerated exponentially during the 1960s and 1970s, with a multitude of methodologies, including pattern analysis, de Landa’s “alphabet,” and Knorosov’s breakthrough. Breakthroughs in reading the Maya script were advanced by a series of conferences that assembled talented epigraphers and Mayanists. These conferences, including the Palenque Round Table and the Texas Maya Meetings, combined with a new breed of “young Turks” and “born-again” veterans, created unique and advanced breakthroughs in unveiling the secrets of the Maya. These creative epigraphers included Michael Coe, Ian Graham, Nikolai Grube, Norman Hammond, Peter Matthews, Stephen Houston, Linda Schele, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. Decipherment had achieved an international status with major contributions from Maya scholars, many of them quite young, originating from such places as Canada, Germany, France, and Guatemala. Maya epigraphers can now read 85 percent of the glyphs in the codices, inscriptions, and painted vases.

  As explorers and archaeologists located the remnants of this intellectual culture and reported the glory of the art and architecture of the cities and their scientific accomplishments, readers across the globe became intrigued by the Maya. During the past century, universities, museums, foundations, and governments have cleared the sites and consolidated the monumental structures to permit a view of the ancient Maya cities. Tourists and aficionados of Maya culture have flocked to the sites to gaze in awe at the skyscraping pyramids and ornate sculptures constructed by ancient artisans. The number of international visitors now counts in the tens of millions each year paying homage to the Maya. This popularity has earned the pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, Mexico, the title of one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

  3

  Creating a Scientific Civilization in Tropical Isolation

  Strolling through the emerald rainforest amid the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Cobá, Emilio Ek, a Maya guide, turned to the American engineer.

  “How much time passes when your plane flies from here to Atlanta?”

  “Two hours.”

  “When I walk from here to my home village, two hours also pass.”

  He paused for a moment and said, “We both live the same distance from Cobá.”

  His comment, though strange, was understandable. Contemporary Maya, like their ancient predecessors, are motivated by the quality and quantity of time. Temporal cycling, based on cosmic order, has governed the Maya civilization since its origin.

  The origin of the Maya civilization, their cosmic philosophy, and their scientific advancements have remained an enigma since their rediscovery in the 19th century. The profound thought process that motivated Maya intellectuals to develop high levels of pure sciences have not been examined by archaeology. The process of speculation upon the roots of the Maya mystery would require multiple hypotheses that may not mesh with accepted archaeological theory, and speculative theories would be met with scathing criticism by scholars.

  The question has been asked, Why were the Maya so different than other ancient civilizations? They appear out of place in time and space, with no preceding or contemporary neighboring cultures possessing similarly sophisticated sciences and technology. By comparison, the science and technology applied by the Roman, Egyptian, and Greek civilizations relied on past and contemporary cultures for scientific and technological input, which they incorporated into their own concepts and applications.

  An isolated tropical rainforest environment is an unlikely setting for the incubation of a great civilization. By comparison, all other great ancient civilizations developed in the northern hemisphere between latitudes 30 degrees north and 60 degrees north. These northern latitude cultures developed in arid landscapes based on the elite management of water systems and irrigated systems of agriculture. The common element linking these ancient civilizations was a riverine subsistence; they emerged along great rivers of the world including the Nile in Egypt, the Indus River in India, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, and the Yangtze in China. In contrast to these ancient cultures, the Maya civilization emerged in the verdant rainforest of the Yucatán Peninsula without the benefit of great rivers. The Maya homeland lies well below the Tropic of Cancer at 20 degrees north latitude, a great distance south of the other Classic civilizations, and is sited in a tropical environment largely devoid of rivers or other surface waters. The environmental and geographic location of the nascence of the Maya civilization defies conventional anthropological wisdom.

  The ancient Maya were avid sky-watchers. After millennia of observations and study of the heavens, they gained an uncanny knowledge of the harmonious composition of the cosmos. Their keen interest in the vast expanse and wonder of the universe and the interlocking movement of astral bodies evolved into their quadripartite philosophy of the cosmos. This philosophy, combined with their fascination of the periodicity of astral bodies, motivated them to develop scientific disciplines that enabled them to track heavenly bodies and mathematically calculate the quantity and quality of time, predict astronomical events, and maintain accurate written records.

  Maya Cosmic Philosophy

  The ancient Maya peered with fascination and awe into the transparent night sky. For 1,500 years before the Classic Period, they observed the panoply of brilliant lights arrayed across the firmament and studied the roaming motion of the planets, the orb of fixed stars, the most remote of celestial spheres, and the slow motion of our own galaxy. Zealous sky-watching and understanding the complex periodic roaming of astral bodies, combined with a millennium of profound thinking, generated a knowledge of astronomy and the principals and dimensions of time. These ancient stargazers became the ancient world’s greatest astronomers. Their knowledge of time and the universe grew into the veneration of the cosmos and the development of their cosmic philosophy.

  The Maya quadripartite cosmic philosophy combined space and time into a single concept similar to the space-time idea of modern physics. This is a mathematical model that unifies space with time as a four-dimensional continuum (thus the term quadripartite). To visualize the concept, its spatial geometry can be characterized as a four-dimensional body composed of the three spatial directions plus time (x, y, z, t). An event is specified by its time and place.

  The Maya were obsessed with time, which they viewed both as linear and cyclic. They were interested not only in the quantities but the qualities of time, believing that it was a living being that had a personality. The Maya viewed time as the undifferentiated past, present, and future. These principles enabled scientists to calculate simultaneous projections of astral movements with their quality and quantity of time: forward (positive time) into the future and backward (negative time) into the historical past. Their mathematical capabilities expanded to include calculations that created large array numbers enabling the projection of positive time millions of years into the future and negative time millions of years into the past. This belief system became a precept that recognized linear time, which is similar to viewing historical time periods, as well as the cyclical characteristics of time. Today, we would view the concept of cyclical time as “history repeating itself.”

  The cosmic philosophy, with its elements of temporal cycling, was the basis for Maya political, theological, and economic organization. The planning of seminal events and activities in politics, theology, economics, and everyday life were based on the principles of temporal cycling. The Maya used their astronomical capabilities to forecast future and past celestial events. These predictive capabilities became a mandate for elite decision-making and were applied for the scheduling of salient future events. These same skills were used to look backward in history, math
ematically projecting back into the past with negative time. This enabled the Maya to look back and identify and date cosmic and historical events, which were then cycled forward to future dates, and establish place marks in time for scheduling important events. This sophisticated scientific discipline enabled the Maya to “remember the future and to anticipate the past.”

  The Maya cosmic philosophy motivated their requirement for calculating time and events millions of years into the past and astral movements millions of years into the future. These practices required knowledge of higher mathematics and became the stimulus for development of their elegant mathematics and astronomy. The need for accurate records of narrative astronomical findings and mathematical accounts of past and future events resulted in a sophisticated written language. The skills of Maya scientists in astronomy, calendrics, mathematics, and the application of a concise comprehensive written script enabled the preservation of records including calculations of astronomical tables, astral observations, historical narratives, and scientific practices. The written language enabled the Maya to enhance their scientific skills and preserve their knowledge for future generations.

  Maya Scientific Achievements

  The Maya were the last of the ancient civilizations to flower on our planet and were the last of the “overlooked” civilizations. Scientifically, the Maya were never succeeded and barely influenced by another indigenous culture; the remains of the Classic Maya culture are intact and fixed in time. The primary scientific disciplines developed by the Maya were interrelated and interfaced with the tenets of their cosmic philosophy. Maya sciences included astronomy, mathematical computation, calendrics, and a concise written script that unveiled the capabilities and accomplishments of a sophisticated and highly developed civilization. The Maya scientific achievements developed in the near isolation of the rainforest were remarkable.

  Maya Astronomy

  The Maya were ardent watchers of the night sky and became devout horologists. Their advanced knowledge of astronomy and calculations of astronomical periods were not surpassed until later centuries. Maya astronomers achieved accurate reckoning of time periods through the calculation and prediction of the movement of astral bodies, eclipses, and precession of the earth’s axis without the aid of optical instruments. They developed accurate constants using naked eye observations aided by simple instruments, specialized astronomical structures, and careful visual observations over lengthy time periods. The instruments employed by Maya astronomers included handheld sighting tubes, vertical alignment tubes in the roofs of buildings, and vertical poles to ascertain the zenith passage of the sun and planets. Building alignments and articulated openings in buildings were employed to align and measure line of sight astronomical events.

  Maya astronomers computed the time period of the earth’s rotation around the sun with an accuracy that is comparable to that of modern astronomers with sophisticated optical and digital instruments. For example, the Maya calculated the length of the solar year to be 365.242 days; modern astronomers calculate the solar year to be 365.242198 days. This is only a difference of 0.000198 days per year. The Dresden Codex tracks the moon over a period of 405 lunar months or 11,960 days. These calculations produce an accurate period of 29.5302 days for a lunar month. Modern calculations yield a period for a lunar month equal to 29.53059 days. This a minute difference of 0.00039 days. Their calculations of the synodical period of Venus were calculated as 583.92027 days, compared to 583.93 days by modern calculations. Their uncanny capabilities also included the synodical period of Mars, which was calculated by the Maya to be 780, days compared to modern calculations of 779.94 days.

  The Maya were among the only ancient astronomers to quantify and recognize the relevance of the wobble or period of precession of the earth’s axis. They introduced this phenomenon of time and motion into their calendrics and cosmic philosophy. They accurately calculated the period of precession at approximately 25,800 years. The Maya divided the time of the earth’s precession into five periods and introduced the periods into their calendrics as world ages. The present period of world age initiated on August 28, 3114 BC and will terminate on December 21, 2012. Then the new world age will initiate on December 22, 2012 (Figure 3-1).

  The Maya knew that the earth was round and that the sun was the center of our solar system. To our modern technological culture, the extraordinary accuracy of Maya astronomers appears to surpass belief, considering their sophisticated knowledge of the astronomical sciences was achieved without the aid of optical instruments, chronometers, and digital tools. Their success at accurate astronomical calculating, although appearing implausible, was the result of millennia of time in a long-term thought process, native ingenium, and mathematics inspired by their cosmic philosophy.

  Figure 3-1: The Earth’s precession was calculated by Maya astronomers. Image by Alex Tuan Nguyen.

  Maya Mathematics

  The mathematical system of the Maya was initially developed to track astronomical events and was then extrapolated to track quantities of time, designating place marks in future and past time periods. Their system was then adapted for practical use by technicians, engineers, bureaucrats, and merchants.

  The Maya mathematical system was unique, flexible, and incredibly simple. The system used a vigesimal base of 20, rather than the decimal base of 10 used in Western mathematics. Maya mathematics was sophisticated enough to calculate and track massive numbers with the use of just three basic symbols: a dot, a bar, and an ellipse. The Maya mathematical system made possible the basic mathematical functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as enabled functions using positional systems to develop calculations of large numbers. Advanced functions of Maya mathematics included the concept of the number zero and a positional system enabling large numbers. Carved symbols on Maya monuments have indicated large array numbers well beyond the range of 41,943,040,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. It is not known how these massive numbers were applied to Maya life and philosophy; they must be related to time and cosmic matters, because these numerical values were larger than those that could be related to measurable earthly commodities.

  The Maya mathematical system was vastly superior to those of the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians, which were limited to calculating limited magnitudes and numbers in the positive range. The manipulation of numbers by the Classic civilizations was limited to addition and subtraction. Maya mathematicians developed the concept of the number zero 1,200 years before Europeans learned of the concept from Arab scholars (Figure 3-2). The Maya mathematical system is highly flexible and is exquisitely proportioned for astronomical calculations, large array calendric numbers, and practical applications for technical matters, engineering analysis, bookkeeping, and census tabulations. Europeans did not use large array numbers until Isaac Newton invented calculus to calculate astronomical synchronization.

  Additionally, the Maya number system was used in speech and written communication. Though traces of their mathematical calculations in books or on paper did not survive the conquest, it can be logically assumed that the mathematical system was used to generate the numbers indicated in the script carved on monuments and contained in codices.

  Maya Written Script

  The Maya developed a complete writing system, which enabled them to write anything they wanted in their own language. The Maya script is considered to be one of the world’s five original writing systems, as well as one of the most complex written languages. The written language is a combination of syllabograms (phonetic characters) and logograms (characters expressing meaning).

  The writing system was probably first generated as a recordkeeping process for astronomical purposes, then became intertwined with the other sciences by embedding mathematical symbols into the script. The writing system then evolved to include diverse applications associated with the scientific, technical, socio-political, artistic, religious, and historical aspects of the Maya culture. The combination of the script and the Long
Count calendar enabled the Maya to provide dates on documents and monuments, allowing them to dispatch dated, long-range communications in writing.

  Examples of the hieroglyphic writing are rare in Maya literature, considering only four Maya books survived the Spanish conquest. However, hieroglyphics are carved into the artwork that adorns the facades of the architectural wonders flanking the plazas of the great cities, and glyphs are painted on ceramic vases and wall murals. All of these contributed to the decipherment and offered up the secrets of the Maya (Figure 3-3).

  Maya Achievements in Technology

  As the Maya scientific culture developed and the affluent elite classes became more sophisticated and wealthy, Maya towns expanded into cities and then evolved into sprawling metropolitan power centers. The needs and wants of the stratified urban society became more defined as the cities burgeoned and became more complex. Urban areas needed to construct monumental and multipurpose buildings, served by a sophisticated infrastructure that included water-management systems and efficient transportation.

  Inventive Maya technologies were used to overcome the difficulties of the natural environment, develop high-strength materials for construction, invent innovative structural mechanics for long-span structures, devise durable substitutes for metal tools, construct efficient transport systems, and create agriculture systems that enhanced food production. The Maya, the Americas’ first civil engineers, combined these innovations to implement the structures and infrastructure systems that created the sophisticated urban fabric of the world’s largest cities of their time.