For thousands of years,Southeast Mexicoand Central Americasheltered the Maya cultureone of humanity richestand most original.Here without metal toolsor the wheel,the Maya built majestic cities.In nearby caves, descendants of the ancient Mayas pray to the gods. They have worshiped for more than 1 00 generations.Many of the citieswere abandonedinthe later ninthand early tenth century . Since that time the foresthas been the god guardianof the mystery of the Maya. Today, these ruinsare the inheritanceof the Maya people.“The drawing glyphyou asked me for is finished.”“Well, let's go seewhat the expertsin writing can tell us.”“You know what my ancestors wrotewith this glyph?”“Interesting question.”“That's been a mysteryfor hundreds of years .”“You're very muchinterested in our work.”“Yes!”“Principally,we archaeologistsare dedicatedto digging up the pastto save the mysteryof the Maya ,like a puzzlethat is solved piece by piece. ”“Only here in Chichen?”“No, no. We've been working in different sites,here, there. We've been studyingfor more than a hundred years . ”During the early 19th centuryreports of ancient monumentshidden in the junglecirculated round the world. Explorer who occasionally cameacross these ruinstried to explaintheir mysterious presencewith fantastic theories.Stories of these lost citiesattracted North AmericanJohn Lloyd Stephen ,an explorer who had publishedbooks about his travels . In 1 839, Stephensorganizedan expeditionto Central Americaaccompanied by the talentedEnglish artist, FrederickCasey Wood .He wrote the respecthe came to reel towardthe people who guided him ,and of the surpriseat what he found .He recorded all the detailsof his explorationswith great elegance.For the first timewe came to a buildingconstructedlong before the Europeansknew of the existenceof this continent.“l was filledwith amazement and admirationfor the beauty and solidityof the architecture. Here was a true palacewith royal apartmentssurroundedby magnificent courtyards.The walls and pillarswere richly ornamentedwith reliefs and figuresso beautifully createdthat it was easy to seethe artistic abilityof the Maya people.”With the aid of a camera-Lucinda -Casey Wood made many drawings.“Historians say Americawas peopled by savages ，but savages never rainedthese structures .Savages never carvedthese stones.”“Their accomplishmentswere worthyto stand beside those of Egypt,Greece and Rome.''In 1841, Stephenpublished his bookillustrated by Casey Woodand contributedimportant informationtoward the knowledgeof the Maya cities.Stephen recognizedthe native origins of the ruinsand admired the beautyof the cities.Alfred 矛德斯雷was one of the firstto study the ancient Maya citieswith a scientific approach矛德斯雷drew derailed plansand made sketchesof the monuments. In this mannerhe established a basefor laterarchaeological study.He carefully analyzedthe sculptured motifswhich decorated the wallsof the buildings. His attention was caughtby the frequent representationof the serpentThe molds of reliefand glyph which he madeenabled the studyof the inscriptions.“The best of my toolswas the camera. The dry gelatin negativehad just been inventedand this enabledphotographers to workin previouslyinaccessible places.”The major contributionof him was his photographswhich have since been used inthe restoration and preservationof many objectsbelieved tohave been lostto erosion, vandalism and theft.Some of the monumentsphotographed by him reveal the richness of designcarved in stone．For many years, it was thought that these carvingrepresented gods and priestsand that the glyphwere concerned onlywith the calendar. Much later, we came to knowtheir real significance.Some of these designswere also foundin the Maya bookswe call codices. Only four of thesehave survived.“They contain glyph ”.“We must send yoursaway for deciphering.”Most of the knowledgewe have of ancient Maya lifecomes from the writings ofa Franciscan 戴果狄兰达monk who came to Yucatanin 1 549.He used to observe the Mayaand noted their use of glyph,and latertriedto translate them into Spanish.In his writings, he established the basefor deciphering the glyphswhich were a mixtureof syllables and words.“They wrote in their booksabout their sciences.The sciences they taughtwere the countingof days, months and yearsfestivals and ceremoniescures for illnessand the art of readingand writing. We found a great numberof such books. Since they contained nothingbut the words of the devilwe burned them allwhich caused them much grief.”In his attempt to convertthe Maya to Christianity , he destroyedtheir religious possessionsburning many of the codices.“What happened to the writingif the books were destroyed?”“Fortunately, the Mayawrote not only in bookswe find writingon their stone monumentsand on potteryas on this platefound in the Yucatan area.It’s a passagefrom thea Maya legend.”The glyphwritingwas forgotten after the burningof the codices .50 years after 矛德斯雷photoswere published ,they were also used by scholarsto study the glyphand inspired many expeditionsto the region.As the first glyph were decodedit was believed that all thetexts were religious in natureconcernedwith the passage of timeand the observationof the stars. It was thoughtthe Maya were peaceful peopleliving in harmony with naturescattered in the jungle.In 1946, a discovery was madewhich cast more lighton the mystery of the Maya .The theories were aboutto dramatically change.l spent more than two years in the regionwith the Lacandon lndianfilming their daily life. l noted thatfrom time to timethe men would disappearfor a couple of day. They were making a pilgrimageto a templebut it was impossibleto follow them,so l gave them shotgunswith a smell amount powderand left for a month two. When l return they said:'' We like your guns,but we're out of powder'' . So l said''l'll give you more powder''if you'll show me more temples.”I will never forgetbeing guided to Bon Parker .They looked to the templeswith much reverence , conducting a ceremonyas we arrived at each one.As my eyes was becoming accustomedto the dim lamplight. l saw that each roomwas painted with fresh clothes that showed a fileof Maya chiefs in full regalia.These paintingschanged many of ideaswhich were held about the Maya. Never before had we seen scenesof battle, slavery and torturepainted of the Maya themselves.Ah, here's the response.So rapidly?Yes. Let's see what it says.''This is a glyph of fire,and this is a rodent''Haleb''in Mayaor 'tepescuintle' ,''but we can't knowthe full meaningwithout the missing portion.''That translation looked easy, but is was the work of peopleof many countriesover many years.The first clue to the Mayawriting was the numbers. The Maya established their unitsbased on man's 20 digits. They were oneof only four civilizationsto develop the concept of zero.Numbers were putin different positions.Dots were worth one,One, two, three, fourand five was a bar .1 5 is three bars.1 9 is three bars and four dots.20 is one dotin a higher positionwith a shell for zero below.A dotabove with a dot belowis 21. A dot above with a bar belowis 25. Two dots abovemeans two 20s, or 40. A bar in the upped positionmeans five 20s-1 00. A dot with two zeros belowis 400. A dot with three zeros belowis 8,000. 8,421.The Mayawere great mathematiciansand astronomers. They calculated the lengthof the solar yearwith an errorof only 23 seconds,the cycle of Venuswith a margin of errorof only one day in 6,000 years. Some of the buildingsof Chichenltzawere so constructedas to markthe equinox and solstices.They also knew the cycleof Mars, Jupiterand Saturnand were able to calculateeclipses of the sun33 years ahead.All this was recordedin their booksand fortunately on stone, tooIn 1921the decoding of the tabletof 96 glyphs at Palenque began.By 1 935, Enrique Palacioshad accomplished the decipheringof the first few. Eric Thomson solved othersin 1944, while the linguistYuri Knorosofdiscovered phoneticsin the Maya writing. By 1 958, half the glyphscould be read .In the '60s, Heinrich Berlinand Tatiana Proskovriokoff. In the '70s Linda Scheleand Floyd Lounsburywith Peter Mathewsdiscovered title glyphsof the royal family. Finally, in 1 990the whole panel could be readThe panel told the historyof royal family of Palenquetheir wars, andthe transmissionof power to young kings.Among these was Pacaell ruler of Pelenkui king from age of 12 and governing until 80. It was ceremony such as sticks which recorded on the stone in other Maya cities.Pelenkui was studied intensively by the Mexican national institute of anthropology and history. In 1949, the Mexican archeologist Albet Tuodus decided to investigated the temple of the descriptions, to see if it had been built on top of another building.Tudous noticed the wall of the temple did not finished at the floor, appear to continue blow. Intried he discovered that one of the huge stone slabs had flogs which able to be moved.As the slabs moved the narrow opening was revealed. A secret passage way.As we cleared the passage, several steps appeared. I immediately to follow these steps to its end, in spite the exhaustingDuring the next three years, the workfor slowly. Four hundred tons of rubble was removed by hand.By the end of the first season, we had not found a single clue.I image that these steps had been deliberately sealed to conceal their original purpose. But I have no idea what its purpose was.In 1952, when working deeply site the pyramid, we found a room seemsto have no exit.The floor was complete covered by a slabs cards stone. This slab was supported by enhanced blog with gard reliefs.Extraordinary.As the stone was liftedcentimeter by centimetermy excitement grew. A smaller lidwas hidden beneathWe had discoveredthe tomb of a kingthe first to be discoveredin a Maya pyramid. The buried king was Pacal.The scene carved on the lidof the sarcophagusdescribedthe descent of the kingon his journeyto the world of the dead. The Maya still worship the godsof the underworld Xibalba:the place of fright.When the sun slidesbelow the horizonthe sun god ltzamnabecomes jaguargod of the underworld,which has nine levelseach with its respective god. The sky has 1 3 levels.The earth is flat and ruledby Chacs, gods of rainThe physical and supernaturalworlds are interwoven.The workof archaeologists, epigraphsand scientists continues.The archaeologists use the latesttechnological advancesto assemble the jigsaw puzzleof the ancient civilization.The remains of buildingsfrom thousands of years agocan be tracedand maps of them producedwith the help of computers.“There are many siteswhich have been studied. And contrary to what wasthought for a long timethese were not onlyceremonialcenters,but real citiessome enormousand densely populated. Look, let me show you.”The Maya built many huge citiessome with populationsof about 40,000 inhabitantsruled by supreme governorthe divine Ahau. The buildingswere brilliantly coloredand covered with symbols.These marvelous citieswere abandoned . In the ninthand tenth centuries. Why, remains a mystery?The culture of the ancient Mayabuilders of the majestic citiesdisappeared.But the Maya culture, knowledgeand artistry is still presentin the life of today's Maya ,who links the past ,the present and the future.。
