Lost World of the Maya

covered up underneath the endless canopy

may be a misplaced world of the antiquated maya

about two million square miles of rich

green

cover up centuries-old cities perplexed with

riddles

but nowadays lasers within the sky are making a difference

to uncover

these insider facts it's kind of like having

x-ray vision

and seeing underneath the canopy without

having to touch a single leaf

archeologists are utilizing this unused

superpower

to uncover treasures on the ground we

are beginning to induce data

from all sorts of places where we knew

completely

nothing it's changing our understanding

of the maya

and making a difference to make a treasure outline of

maya's misplaced world

nowadays what get away eyes on the ground is

regularly clear to hundreds of more effective

eyes within the sky

[Music]

unused advances are being connected to

prehistoric studies

and it's gathering more data than

ever thought conceivable

2018 was an energizing year for the maya

over the guatemala scene thousands

of modern ruins were popping up

once covered up structures are being

uncovered through satellites

and a laser scanning technology called

lidar

one of the foremost energizing apparatuses that we

have in our hands that we're fair

beginning to utilize within the amazon

is lidar lidar checking lets us see

through the timberland canopy to what lies

underneath

lidar implies light location and extending

it works by terminating streams of light

beats from an airplane

to the ground and timing the return of

the beat when it bounces back to the

sensor

this reproduces shapes beneath the

canopy

nearly like seeing the x-ray vision

each time that we have found a unused set

of apparatuses

we get an knowledge into something that

we've never envisioned conceivable within the

amazon and i think

lidar is one of these things that's

aiming to totally alter how we

get it

the landscape the trees have continuously been

what's kept us from understanding what's

happening

within the amazon and presently able to see through

them

more than 800 square miles of the maya

biosphere save

have been mapped to uncover massive feats

of designing

for the exceptionally first time taken together

the pictures point to a distant more sprawling

and advanced society

man-made structures show up complex roads

sanctuaries and royal residences building like

this

would make today's city organizers glad

so what happened how seem such a extraordinary

society

fall flat might it have been war devout

factions and mass give up dry spell

laser mapping is the most recent device utilized to

offer assistance unlock mysteries of the antiquated

maya world for decades

archeologists have pieced together

clues from ruins found the

old-fashioned way

on foot

ten a long time back within the heart of mexico's

yucatan locale

the ruins of a overlooked maya town

called kiwi

developed from the jungle without the offer assistance

of ariel lidar

in 800 a.d a neighborhood lord ruled here

and built an noteworthy pyramid hallowed place

[Music]

20 000 rocks cut and stacked

30 feet high

the antiquated maya frequently set illustrious

tombs beneath pyramids

so on a hunch prehistorian george inlet

chooses to sink a shaft straight through

[Music]

this building speaks to a artifact

that gives us with data

almost the advancement of maya society

by analyzing it we hope to get it

how kiwi advanced

within the yucatan for three decades coaxing

from the soil a depiction of what life

must have been like for the little-known

maya who lived here

called the northern or crap maya

[Music]

shocks we have surprises

21 feet into the gap narrows and his group

make an vital discover in spite of the fact that to the

untrained eye

it fair looks like another piece of

rubble

goodness yeah look at that usually incredible

usually a vault stone and so for us this

could be a exceptionally unmistakable sort of stone

here's the confront of it this can be the level

confront and this back

portion of it is cut like this calculated

which would have stuck into the divider

 these extraordinary vault stones were not utilized

to construct pyramids

but to hold up the ceilings of buildings

however mysteriously here is one profound

within the pyramid and when they burrow

beneath the base of the pyramid they discover

something indeed more out of put

the establishment of an old

this building is totally modern it

comprises of a few

steps in a tallow shape

you have got an thought of when this might date

to 400 500

wow the pyramid dates to 800

a.d but investigation of earthenware parts

affirms the establishment beneath the

pyramid is 300 years more seasoned

dating to 500 a.d

but that's an incomprehensible date

to get it why requires a trip south

back to guatemala 600 bc

the most punctual days of maya civilization

researchers continuously accepted it was here in

a locale called the mirador bowl

that maya civilization was born

early lords raised the wildernesses and built

momentous cities

[Music]

over the another thousand a long time the maya

civilization got to be the foremost progressed

within the americas

[Music]

they aced science and astronomy

idealized the primary composed dialect of

the western half of the globe

and created dazzling works of craftsmanship

but in 700 a.d there was a gigantic

breakdown

war political conflict and starvation

shaken the maya world

cities deserted crowds of outcasts

elude escaping north

[Music]

as part of this wave one displaced person ruler

sets down roots in kiwi

establishes the town and before long after builds a

pyramid

at slightest that's what researchers had

continuously thought

until presently with the revelation of the

old building establishment

the dates do not include up the establishment

dates from 500

a.d but maya displaced people do not arrive here

until at slightest two centuries afterward

was somebody as of now possessing kiwi when

the displaced people arrived

17 miles absent another disclosure

raises more questions

[Music]

its area is being kept a closely

watched mystery

for fear of raiders few archeologists

have seen the discovery in individual

counting fatima techpool

getting to this discovery is no simple

errand

it's 230 feet underground within the foot

of a cave

the burrow is narrow and as it were one individual

can fit through at a time

[Music]

roberto

nearby inhabitants knew approximately this cave for

a long time

but had no suspicion of the treasure

covered up interior

through a pitch-black labyrinth of burrows

they come to the remnants of a divider

here we have a limited path

there was a divider here

checking an entrance that isolated two

ranges a open space

and a sacrosanct space

as fatima enters the sacrosanct chamber she

takes note something curious

it shows up that endless lights and

custom fires

once burned here the maya accepted that

caves were the staying put of divine beings

maya clerics made journey here on

uncommon devout occasions

devouring hallucinogenic plants to

commune with the gods

the chamber is cluttered with broken

ceramics

here's an deliberateness store of

ceramics where the maya broke vessels

as part of an advertising

researchers suspect that breaking ceramics

discharged the control of the

they offering break the vessel and

scramble it around the cave

there's nearly always one piece lost

so we think that the maya took one piece

with them

and maybe buried it exterior the cave

the group pushes more profound into the cave

maya clerics depended on ropes made of

vines to urge here

but indeed with advanced climbing adapt

fadima's travel

still takes three hours she at last

comes to the cave's most

sacrosanct point and finds an

exceptional black market

old maya works of art embellish the dividers

of the cave's burial tomb

one picture employments the contours of the cave

to form a one of a kind three-dimensional

puma

another depicts a legendary chase with a

ghost-like puma

and deer

what's striking almost this portray is

that their representations

are not of living creatures they are within the

black market

within the world of passing see at the body

of the puma it's thin

it hasn't been well-fed

and it contains a deliberate stamp within the

center

we think these marks represent sickness

noteworthy

farima has considered craftsmanship in numerous maya

caves

but never has seen canvases like these

they are clearly maya but their abnormal

fashion

proposes that whoever painted them was

not portion of the maya civilization of the

south

elaborate examination of the depictions and

the ceramic offerings within the chamber

demonstrate the wall paintings were painted around

100 bc

that creates them among the most seasoned maya

paintings ever

found in mexico

the painting state to the first light of the

maya civilization

scholars call it the pre-classic period

that was 800 a long time some time recently the outcasts

from the south

arrived within the yucatan so who painted

these wall paintings

discoveries at another uncommon modern

location

may reply that address

fair exterior the present day yucatan city of

mirada 

unearthing for a unused street arrange is

uncovering scores of sights fair by

chance

190 modern maya towns to date

and checking

the outline of the old yucatan is

moving quickly

detonating with already obscure cities

and towns

we've found that there's a part more

individuals a parcel more agribusiness and a part

more happening here than we ever

envisioned

and at a much prior date than we ever

envisioned

we thought they were fair small villages

out here presently presently we'll have exceptionally complex

towns

and we might indeed have urban centers

the total thought of a much more complex

society is developing up here

and it's on the standard i think with

guatemala we were strolling right by these

locales

for decades without understanding them

it wasn't like

we had to go burrow for these places they

were right beneath our noses we fair

weren't

seeing them which is astonishing in the event that you

think almost it

[Music]

george cove and his group continued their

work in key week

clearing stones from the side of the

pyramid

they're doing analyst work attempting to

figure out why a vault stone

ordinarily utilized to hold up the ceiling of

a building

was found buried interior the pyramid

another clue rises recommending

something is exceptionally diverse

about this pyramid usually something the

laborers found

and they happened to at the final moment

some time recently they tossed it absent they turned it

over

and take note that in truth it's a bit of

sculpture

a molded confront

here's the face with the nose and the

upper portion of the

the mouth so at that point you've got to inquire

yourself what's this that's over this

confront

and what it is is portion of a expansive

crown and cover

that this master would have been wearing

[Music]

the antiquated maya regularly joined

figures like this one to the exteriors

of illustrious buildings

it's a watershed clue

[Praise]

[Music]

and those stairs assist uncovering

uncovers the corner of a building

this is often the upper part of the

preserved building and typically what we

call a broken

molding over the doorway this heap of

rubble here

is still filling the entryway you'll be able see

leftovers of the stucco here likely

blotched and painted

as the group peels back the pyramid a

regal royal residence rises

it comprises of three buildings a temple

on one side

the regal family's private quarters

on the other

and a throne room in the center but why

would the king of key week

construct a pyramid on best of a royal residence

maya like to see spaces as having control

it's not unprecedented to see in numerous

distinctive shapes the building of one

building on beat of another

since sacrosanct spaces vital places

are capable our contention is that

this is often endeavors to legitimize control

george accepts an early lord of key

week

maybe indeed the author of the town's

illustrious tradition

built the royal residence centuries afterward

another ruler built the pyramid over his

precursors home

making a coordinate association to his

precursors control

enhancing his claim the palace may be most

exceptional

for another reason the ruler who built

the pyramid

was not a late transplant from the south

but a relative of

a illustrious family that had been in key week

for a exceptionally long time

it presently appears clear that here within the

yucatan

there was a already obscure maya mega

society

that was fair as old and fair as

effective

as the south we do not truly know

where the support or genesis of maya

society is any longer

what we're learning is that there may

have been numerous supports

guatemala can not lay sole claim

to the title

origin of the maya

[Music]

[Applause]

presently that the presence of this northern

mega society is affirmed

the questions quickly duplicate who were

these misplaced

maya and why were they overlooked

the normal individual that considers around

maya sees these incredible

monumental cities what they do not

realize is that for each one of those

cities there are

handfuls of medium-sized towns like kiwi

that house possibly three

four thousand individuals from a post

tower near kiwi

it's simpler to form sense out of the

whole location

in bay's see key week was the

quintessential northern town

you're really looking at what would

have been downtown kewee the city of

kiwi

where that little slope is that's the

center of the city

when narrows started his inquire about he accepted

the degree of kiwi was constrained to the

center 

region around the pyramid but lidar

mapping afterward uncovered

a sprawling peak bequest with a

gigantic

staircase over the valley recommending

kiwi might have been the center

of a much greater complex

each morning the exhuming group climbs

the 200-foot slope

the antiquated maya would have come up that

way which would have driven

right to this spot

what you see is fundamentally a heap of

rocks but

in the event that you were standing here 850 a.d

what you'd be standing at the base of is

an gigantic

stairway which would have taken you

up to the beat of what we think is the

the royal residence or the ranch house or

the huge house

indeed the present day sense an awfully palatial

kind of development

they've named the location stairway to

paradise

a put like stairway to heaven is

astonishing within the sense that

they built a 9 10 room chateau

up there and that's an awfully decent building

you know

a 9th century mcmansion affirm living up

on beat of that slope

but who would have been wealthy sufficient and

venturesome sufficient

to construct such over-the-top genuine bequest

paleologist stephanie sims is burrowing

for answers

tearing up the floor of one of the 22

expansive stone buildings that make up the

bequest

beneath the floor a tantalizing clue

here i am sitting underneath the floor

level being right here of a three-room

first class home up on the peak and

here fair underneath the floor are a couple of

capstones covering

a dedicatory advertising

the advertising comprises of a ceramic bowl

and plate

that show up to have been put beneath

the floor when the house was built

it's a small suspicious that it would

be odd to put a plate upside down

like that without covering something so

[Music]

as the team carefully evacuates the plate

bits of prove surface

small little parts exceptionally gravely

decomposed kind of dissolved corrupted bone

still can't tell however whether it's human

bone or creature bone

but my figure is human

the huge capstones flanking the

advertising may be covering up

something else

it was common hone of the maya to

rebury the defleshed bones of their

perished predecessors

it's called auxiliary burial

our considering with these auxiliary

burials is that they're bringing bones

or parts of family individuals to unused

areas

to bless the structures that they're

building

the capstones beneath the floor of the

house come off

a human tooth

confirming our doubts that this is often a

human burial usually a

lower incisor right here

there are a few and we're still

holding up to reveal to see how many

there are in spite of the fact that gravely deteriorated from

the acidic soil

stephanie can make out the remains of a

human cranium

and arm and leg bones so this

illustrates to us this advertising is part

of the

the burial underneath committing this

house

back within the lab stephanie cheerfully

finds that this skull's proprietor

was not a every day brusher or flosser

inserted within the teeth 1200 year ancient

plaque

chemical investigation of nourishment particles in

the plaque

gives stephanie a imply around what kind

of riches

stairways proprietors have

i'm finding a much more noteworthy differences of

plant nourishment things that were expended

fixings

in stews and soups squash beans free

natural products chili peppers

the bounty recommends that the individuals who

lived at stairway

were major ranch proprietors operating

broad ranches within the valley below

their ridge

bequest

[Music]

as george's group surveys nearby slopes

it's clear that stairway isn't an

separated illustration

but one of handfuls of domains

pointers of widespread wealth begin to

rise

numerous auxiliary buildings at locales like

stairway

houses having a place to gifted specialists like

this one

are built of stone a irregularity in antiquated

central america

that's astounding what it proposes is that

we're not looking at

a huge laborer populace that's

beneath the hands of a really little illustrious

first class

but that riches and prosperity have

spread

over nearly half of the populace

key week may be prove of america's

exceptionally to begin with

center course about a thousand years some time recently

north america's colonial center course

these individuals might have had

openings they might have been able

to secure arrive

i cruel it's kind of fun to think approximately

it that they might have been living the

maya dream

[Music]

in case there was such a thing as the maya

dream

typically where it happened kiwi

and stairway are nestled in a lavish

locale of the yucatan

called the pook soil here

is prolific characteristic assets inexhaustible

it looks like an perfect put for human

residence

but for one thing the pook locale has

no water sources

no streams lakes streams

rivers these individuals depended on

controlling collecting

and overseeing rain water

so how did they do it

fair a few hundred feet from the

stairway bequest house

paleologist charge ringel has found an

reply

water falls heavily here but as it were six

months of the year

for the rest of the time it dries out

and essentially no rain falls

and this was one of the essential

adjustments of the pukamaya to this

or maybe waterless environment this

underground cavern is really a

man-made cistern called

a chiltoon

it was a work of modern

building carved out of the limestone

bedrock

over here able to see how these chiltoons

were built

to begin with of all they would bore through the

harder cap shake and at that point once they got

in

beneath to this basic gentler show

they would uncover out

and make this huge chamber the last

organize would be to to

cover it with stucco and you'll see the

thickness of the stucco here

this this pinkish fabric

the stucco worked as a waterproof

lining

[Music]

the maya expertly engineered the patios

housetops and squares

of stairway to paradise to capture each

final drop of rain water

at that point depleted it into eight chol tunes

scattered all through the bequest

the whole ridge worked as a mammoth

rain barrel

so how numerous individuals seem this brilliant

waterworks

back charge ringle and

design andrew willis utilize an early

form of lidar innovation

to outline the chol tune the coming about 3d

demonstrate

permits them to calculate water capacity

up to 10 000 gallons in each of the

stairways chol tunes

given a reliable source of water for

the complete community

the typical family of six expended 27

gallons a day

so stairways chiltoons may have

upheld seven

families through three rainless months

[Music]

these progressed water works shaped a

liquid foundation for life on stairway

and for handfuls of other affluent kingdoms

like key week adjacent

[Music]

and sitting at the very beat of that

establishment was a regal

first class george cove has found clues of

their shocking riches

covered up in the wilderness

the ruins of a grand royal residence it speaks to a time within the history of

the of the regal family of key week

when extraordinary sum of riches was being

collected by the regal

family and they were communicating it

through the development of a enormous

modern royal residence

the lord of kiwi had built the pyramid

over his ancient royal residence

so on the adjoining part he updated to

select modern housing

the modern royal residence bragged 15 major

buildings

and two ceremonial squares

from past finds george knows the

buildings were embellished in lavish

form

and painted stucco

[Music]

this is often one of the leading protected

buildings within the modern royal residence

you'll see the remains of the stucco

but they would have been painted

now and then with expound wall paintings

and after that there would have been pillars

hung from certain parts of the roof for

window ornaments or

embroidered works of art and a assortment of furniture

would have

found its way in here rulers like things

like

puma skin couches favor pads

this basic room would have maybe been

very sumptuous

by 800 a.d the northern maya society

is over 1500 a long time ancient

its individuals have aced this cruel

scene

their office with water permits for

large-scale

cultivating and produces tremendous riches for

their lords

and indeed for a unused center lesson

envision this put 800 a.d

you'd have seen the tremendous scene

of towns towns cities

the smoke rising from thousands of

cooking fires as ladies arranged the

evening suppers

men coming back from their areas

[Music]

but at the side this representation of a

prosperous society

bay's colleagues charge ringel and tomas

gaierda

are finding prove of a aggravating

political trend

on the rise

20 miles from key week is the magnificent

city

of uzma within the 800s

it rose to gotten to be the capable political

capital of the locale

nearby lords just like the lord of kiwi likely

traveled here to conduct discretion

and pay tribute to uzma's eminence

ringgel needs to appear cove how these

buildings experienced a impossible to miss

adjustment within the 800s

an unmistakable modern picture was included to

their exteriors

what's truly curiously is that small

picture right there

a feathered serpent and really there

are two feathered serpents here when

they interlace

across the veneer you wish visual picture

ringle accepts the serpents

are a image of a effective devout

faction

[Music]

it was called quetzalcoatl or the

feathered serpent

the so-called faction of quetzalcoatl

perhaps an improved way to think almost it

is a political philosophy and of course it

had devout suggestions

cult's maybe the off-base word since it

recommends something kind of small-scale

and extra-governmental this was

political philosophy front and center

to pick up induction into this faction a

nearby king

like key weeks had to meet up with a

thorough start

the cleric would exceptionally frequently sequester

the start for a few days

he would experience customs of

self-mortification

work of art from the time delineated customs

including phlebotomy ceremonies

in which starts penetrated their penises

and other body parts

that would be a really curiously way to

uh to give up

yourself clearly exceptionally excruciating

another picture on the exterior speaks to

the travel of an start

a little man being spit out of the mouth

of a feathered serpent

we are able see the small man moving through

his body

to rise as a changed being and

he's being changed accurately since

of the customs of initiation

that involved quetzalcoatl the feathered

serpent carvings at us shopping center

suggest the religion cleared through the north

in the 800s

as nearby rulers bought into the modern

philosophy

political pressures begun to rise

it may have cultivated competition between

those who wish to adhere to this modern

belief system and those who wish to stay

true to the conventional philosophy

of the maya region

at the modern royal residence in key week george

finds signs that within the middle of the

boom times

something else appears to go off-base we see

this enormous heap of shake up here in front

of the building

and it makes truly not as well much sense

at the starting you've got this excellent

building here on this side with these

rooms

you have got a set of rooms on the other

side and right within the center you have a

enormous chunk of rubble

we conclude that what we're looking at

could be a

actual staircase that was built by

laborers

to give them get to to the upper stories

of the building

here is a framework framework being utilized by

the maya as portion of the development

methods

okay now it's not gone

the stairway is still here in the event that the

building was wrapped up they would have

evacuated the stairway

the indications of the framework are

is that you're seeing development

happening

you're not seeing a wrapped up building

another portion of key week's royal residence appears

comparable signs of a sudden stop in

development

the moment story dividers of a building are

laid out on the ground by artisans

but never raised

all of these characteristics are

prove that the city was

in full sprout that designers were

utilized

that the ruler was feeling sure and

capable almost

what he was doing that the city was portion

of a world that was

blossoming and expanding and not

this idea of the king being miss

havisham sitting among

a demolished house as things slowly fell

separated for him and his world

collapsed this can be a really different kind

of uh picture for what was going on here

[Music]

so what brought key week's boom times to

a shrieking stop

at to begin with war appears an self-evident

clarification for the stoppage

but an comprehensive look turns up no

sharpened stones

and no spear focuses

but at that point at stairway to paradise the

hilltop estate

the group finds clues that at the same

time development halted on the royal residence

this site was suddenly deserted in any case

usually phenomenal

you have got likely five or six vessels

crushed on the floor

from the time of the abandonment you

know i i think some of them would have

been

cleared out here on the floor others were

likely hanging from the dividers

but these individuals were not running for

their lives

the prove recommends an deliberate

departure

pots carefully hung on wall pegs are set

to the sides of rooms

they were cleared out intaglio and only broke

afterward

as the deserted building started to

crumble it looks like most of them are

right along the edges

of the interior which truly looks like

they're taking some time

to put these vessels some place to watch

them

at the time they're taking off them kind of

like making things flawless right some time recently you

take off the house

kind of cleaning up in some way

so what might have caused this carefully

arranged surrender of stairway

and the unexpected work stoppage at the

royal residence

at stairway to paradise data indicates

cisterns would have equipped the maya for

three months without rain

some months longer with emergency water

apportioning

but evidence from center tests recommends

this would not have been sufficient

we discover eight of these groups that

suggests

in reality that it wasn't a bit like one

massive drought it was probably a series

of droughts

that have lengths almost three to

twenty a long time

and you know each time things would get

going once more they would get pounded

with a fairly long length dry season

at a few point the droughts overwhelmed

stairway

leaving only one alternative

all it would take would be a brief

period of time in which there

is no water in those cisterns and those

individuals would ought to leave that slope

it's simply impossible to live there

the different families first class families they

were reaching a point

where they were having to create a exceptionally

difficult decision which was to take off

stairway to paradise 

they stacked what they may of their

lives onto their backs

and carefully put away the rest

when the downpours returned they completely

anticipated

they would as well

[Music]

the maya knew around dry spells they were

likely a civilization outlined

to reply not as it were to overseeing

water but overseeing a need of

water as well

it's not a astonish they cleared out what

gets to be the address for us

is why they do not come back

so why didn't stairway's inhabitants and

the lord of kiwi

survive these dry spells as they clearly

had within the past

the extraordinary escalated of these dry spells

was lamentable

making a carefully overseen reaction

their as it were trust

but narrows and ringel guess the north's

political foundation

was falling into confuse diverted by

the cult of the feathered serpent

the collapse within the northern mile

clearly started amid the 9th century

and that's moreover the time period

amid which this feathered serpent

belief system was presented

and this without a doubt driven to competitions

with regard to control brokering

ringle considers the political circumstance

may have gotten to be so extraordinary

that there was not any

administrative framework able of

organizing their return

with a steady government the northern

maya

might have survived but it wasn't to be

and inside a century the major cities

and towns of the north

similar to the south were cleared out in ruins

nowadays the purge wildernesses of the yucatan

serve as a update that indeed incredible

civilizations

can fall flat as the a long time passed

gradually the wilderness recovered these

radiant buildings

entirety towns and cities vanished beneath a

green wave

they got to be privileged insights of the woodland

as it were presently much appreciated to modern innovation

and hands on work can the degree of what was

misplaced

come into see