tonight i'm gonna party like it's two thousand eleven
Posted on 07/22/2012 8:12:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Some 1,600 years ago, the Temple of the Night Sun was a blood-red beacon visible for miles and adorned with giant masks of the Maya sun god as a shark, blood drinker, and jaguar.
Long since lost to the Guatemalan jungle, the temple is finally showing its faces to archaeologists, and revealing new clues about the rivalrous kingdoms of the Maya.
Unlike the relatively centralized Aztec and Inca empires, the Maya civilization -- which spanned much of what are now Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico's Yucatán region (Maya map) -- was a loose aggregation of city-states.
"This has been a growing awareness to us since the 1990s, when it became clear that a few kingdoms were more important than others," said Brown University archaeologist Stephen Houston, who announced the discovery of the new temple Thursday.
El Zotz, in what's now Guatemala, was one of the smaller kingdoms, but one apparently bent on making an big impression.
By 2010 archaeologists working on a hilltop near the ancient city center had discovered 45-foot-tall (13-meter-tall) Diablo Pyramid, Atop it they found a royal palace and a tomb, believed to hold the city's first ruler, who lived around A.D. 350 to 400.
Around the same time, Houston and a colleague spotted the first hints of the Temple of the Night Sun, behind the royal tomb on Diablo Pyramid. Only recently, though, have excavations uncovered the unprecedented artworks under centuries of overgrowth.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I thought you were kidding about “El Zotz.”
I knew you were gonna say that.
[sometimes I post stuff just to see if you’ll reply with what I expect you will]
;D
Lol indeed! Tis ‘zackly why I sent it :) It might even make a nice addition to your homepage ; )
As for folks who should petition to have their pics removed, if it didn’t make me laugh so hard George Clooney would certainly make the list, but I gotta say that Clinton’s expression gets the total Eddie Haskell vote. Shudders.
Would that God made all of our enemies so obvious ; )
Tatt
And sometimes, knowing that, I supply the expected response just so you won’t be disappointed.
Lord, I read that title and thought it said covered with giant feces.
Thought the dinosaurs were back.
LOL.
Thanks, I’ll check it out (when I’m not on dial-up). :’)
not a bad idea. Of course, it can’t happen until December...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2909280/posts?page=20#20
;’)
This is the first time in months I didn’t see that graphic in a thread that just screams out for it. ;’)
If *that* were an idol, that would really screw with those with a phobia about clowns. For that matter, Obama probably does too.
“Party like its 2011”. badaboom! lol.
” El Zitz “
ROFLOL! Is this the beginning of another epic FR thread...the potential is here.
El Fitz
We know him as "Koolaid Man"
Below is more about Kukulcan (also spelled Kukulkan) from a Yahoo article for those interested:
In the ancient world there are many mysteries, but none as perplexing as those found in the Mayan culture. From their beginnings to their mysterious disappearance the Mayan's have baffled us all. One fact that has stumped many is actually one of the figures that is found throughout Mayan religion, the Serpent God, Kukulcan.
Kukulcan is one of the three gods that was thought to have created the Earth. He is a serpent in his natural form and was responsible for teaching the Mayan's about such things as how to run a civilization, agriculture, and medicine. After a brief period of being on Earth Kukulcan returned to the ocean telling the Mayans that he would return at some later date. Mayans perceived European settlers as the second coming of their god Kukulcan and this was eventually lead to the trust between the two cultures, and the eventual defeat of the Mayans culture. The baffling question is, why would the Mayans think that European settlers were gods? Did they look anything like what the Mayans perceived as Kukulcan? The answer is yes!
Kukulcan had a human form as well as his feathered serpent form. Kukulcan would transform into a man standing about 6 feet tall with long white hair, but most interestingly he was a male Caucasian man with white skin! We find writing from the Mayans and sculptures of what is thought to be Kukulcan and they depict a very European looking figure, totally different from how the Mayan's looked.
Mayan's were dark skinned Latin looking people. They were normally not very tall and had brown eyes. Kukulcan in his human form was a complete contrast, having white or silver hair, white skin, blue eyes, and he was tall. Scientist and scholars alike have all wondered why this could have been the case? Why would a civilization have a divine figure, a god that looked nothing like themselves? Why would he look like people found in Western civilization? One theory actually involves the lost city of Atlantis!
Some would think that once Atlantis as described by Plato sank into the ocean some of its citizens would have survived. One man, Kukulcan, could have made his way into Mesoamerica and taught the Mayan's the secrets of his lost city. This fits the profile of what Kukulcan would have been like, coming from the sea, looking like a European, and teachings of government, medicine, and agriculture, all fit into the idea that Kukulcan could have been from the ancient Atlantis. Also when he left, this mystery man could have traveled across Mexico and found those form the Aztec civilization.
Aztecs worshiped a similar god, Quetzalcoatl, who also matches the description of Kukulcan. Quetzalcoatl taught many of the same things as Kukulcan and once Spanish conquistadors began to arrive in Mesoamerica they were also accepted as gods by the Aztecs. This would lead some to believe that both Quetzalcoatl, and Kukulcan were indeed the same deity, or man as it may be the case.
Both the Mayan and Aztec civilizations remain mostly undiscovered and many mysteries surround both, but still the legend of Kukulcan and his many temples and statues astound and baffle scientist, and will for centuries to come.
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