Posted on 08/13/2016 6:43:09 PM PDT by MtnClimber
The ambitious Snake kings used force and diplomacy to create the most powerful alliance in their culture’s history.
The ancient city of Holmul isn’t much to look at. To the casual observer it’s just a series of steep, forested hills in the middle of the jungle in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The jungle here in the Petén Basin is thick and warm but drier than you might expect. And silent, except for the drum of cicadas and the occasional calls of howler monkeys.
Take a closer look, and you may notice that most of these hills are arranged in massive rings, like travelers huddled around a fire on a cold night. An even closer look reveals that parts of the hills are made of cut stone, and some have tunnels carved into their sides. In fact they’re not hills at all but ancient pyramids, left to decay after the collapse of the Maya civilization a millennium ago.
The site was a thriving settlement during the Classic Maya period (A.D. 250-900), a time when writing and culture flourished throughout what is today Central America and southern Mexico. But it also was a time of political upheaval: Two warring city-states were locked in perennial conflict, grappling for supremacy. For a brief period one of those city-states prevailed and became the closest thing to an empire in Maya history. It was ruled by the Snake kings of the Kaanul dynasty, which until just a few decades ago no one even knew existed. Thanks to sites around this city-state, including Holmul, archaeologists are now piecing together the story of the Snake kings.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...
The guide said the heart of the guy who lost his head was placed on that platter the Choc Mool is holding...The priests would start chanting and a Jaguar would come out of the jungle and eat the heart...
He is gone.
OK...Thanks...The story says it was the solstice...I told y’all my memory is fading fast...:o))
When I was there, a guy was trekking alone through the jungle there, stringing up a hammock at night. He’d slept in the park and heard jaguars.
I thought, “No, you heard jaguars say, ‘Dinner!’”
It is an awesome place, isn’t it???
Ain’t no way I’d sleep near the ground without a .44 mag...
I think I was reading that it happened on the equinoxes in another article. Looking.
Yeah. It’s cool. Also like Tulum.
I never made it down to Tulum...I’ve heard it is a great visit also...It’s on the coast, isn’t it???
Yes.
I also remember snorkeling somewhere around there. Beautiful fish.
Someone who was paragliding around Cancun lost control, ran into a hotel, and slid down its side. Broke his arm.
A bunch of sea turtles escaped from Cozumel, too.
Hey man...Thanks for the link...I’ll save it and give it a try tomorrow...
Cozumel has some of the clearest water I’ve ever seen...
This is the exact kind of general interest story I like here on FR. This way, I don’t have to think or dwell on our massively corrupt government and that harridan running to be the head of it.
This is the exact kind of general interest story I like here on FR. This way, I don’t have to think or dwell on our massively corrupt government and that harridan running to be the head of it.
Note to self: Don’t repeat yourself or be redundant.
Thank you...Now I feel better about my memory...:o))
I am interested in articles like this and post them to break up the political grind.
Around 800 AD the medieval warm period began. The result was overpopulation in Scandinavia. they didn’t have the technology to get more food from the land so they sent their excess population overseas for conquering and colonizing.
The same warm period brought drought to central america. The drought didn’t last for two years. It lasted for centuries.
The nobility first sacrificed themselves to bring back the rain.This weakened them so much they could not ward off the Toltecs who in 880 AD came down from central mexico and took a number of cities in Yucatan. from there they raided the rest of the cities of Maya. They brought with them a new practice. They would go to war to capture soldiers and city people, nobles and priests for sacrifice. This became customary throughout maya because the drought did not stop so their gods needed ever more blood. Soon enough—they completely offed themselves.
How could they be so stupid?
But civilization collapse because of climate disasters are actually fairly common. Even more common was that people would overproduce population beyond the limits of their technology. One of the solutions to this was to send the excess population abroad for conquest and colonization. another solution was to kill babies. the ancient caananites and cartheginians were the greatest example of this. they sacrificed children both to appease their gods and to limit their population to the resouceses their technology made available to them.
Consider in 1971 Roe V Wade was ruled on making abortion legal. At the same time US oil production peaked. Two books rocked the academic world. One by the club of rome called the limits of growth. the other by eric erickson called the population bomb. for the first time in Euro American new world history Americans did not believe that there were unlimited natural resources available to them.
The legacy of that is that the USA is that 50 million americans have been aborted —to be replaced by 50 million foreign legal and illegal immigrants. Meanwhile the United States is rapidly moving to a premodern pagan religion—not unlike those of the ancient near east or pre columbian meso america.
The most recent technological revolution will in the next decade or so shock America into to the realization that technology has enabled us to once again move into a condition of unlimited natural resources.
It will be interesting to see what the consequences of that are.
consider that a drought started in California and the southwest USA about 15 years ago. Because of the fabulous foresight of America of 80—50 years ago both the american southwest and california have been able to live off the inheritance of the people that came before.
The same drought hit syria and Israel beginning 15 years ago. The israelis responded by building the world’s cheapest desalination plants. They first send the desalinized water to their cities. Then clean up the water to brown water standards and send the water from their cities to their farms so that today they are freed up the ancient cycle of drought. (This is a miracle of literally biblical proportions—because we hear of drought for the first time when Jacob and his sons have to go down to Egypt because israel is parched by drought.)
The same drought that hit Israel also hit syria. Their farmers lost their livelihoods and moved to their cities and destabilized the country. After that they became refugees to Europe.
So it goes.
Tell your friends that if Hillary is elected millions of Moslems will come to America. We will be in hell forever— which is the legacy of all countries with significant moslem populations.
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