One of the most tragic things that happen during wartime is the systematic destruction of various documents, journals, and art pieces, either by the winner of the war as an official declaration of supremacy or in many cases, by the loser, in an attempt to hide sensitive information. It’s quite self-evident why history and society take great interest in the knowledge and discoveries of the Mayan people, as there were many great benefits to be gained there. Luckily, they employed one of the earliest written languages in mankind’s history. The Mayans were heavy writers and tended to write often on everything including stone, stucco, wood, pottery, and even clothes.
Although their complicated language took many decades to figure out, it was no match for the combined intellect of many of the world’s finest historians and language experts, who managed to decipher it in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, the Spanish destroyed the majority of that writing when they conquered the Mayan territory, leaving only a small minority of the original writings left in the form of stone monuments from the priest’s altars. It’s been noted that they wrote about almost every subject, and had a very philosophical point of view about the nature of personal property, culture, and religion. Although the Mayans were deeply religious, they were also very adept at the time in health practices which have been improved but not stopped, even in modern times. Here’s what they knew about it…
Mayans Worshipped Their Rain God Inside a Cave and Left Their Relics There
Back in the ancient days, there were some really insane religious beliefs and ceremonies, at least by today's standards. One such example was a cave discovered just this year in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where Mayans would worship their rain God, Chaac, in the hopes of having a fruitful and productive winter. It's been claimed that the cave had over 150 ancient Mayan relics perfectly intact inside the cave, as it had not been touched by humans for more than one thousand years.
These caves aren't just regular places for the Mayans. Holley Moyes, a Maya historian from the University of California, explains that In Mayan mythology, caves represented the entrances to the underworld and were considered as some of the most sacred spaces on earth. Researchers found various items in these caves, including incense, food offerings in bowls, and what appears to be clay art representing the rain God, Chaac. It seems their attempts were successful, as the Mayans thrived for many more years to come. This abundance of resources is speculated as one of the chief reasons why the Mayans eventually disappeared. Here's how their quick growth ended up negatively affecting them...
Depleted Natural Resources Due to Unexpected Overpopulation
The more prosperous a society later becomes, the faster its population grows. Our population on planet earth was five billion people merely a few decades ago and is quickly approaching ten billion in the next few years. The same thing happened with the Mayans, where it's highly speculated that the population experienced an unprecedented growth spurt due to an overabundance of resources. Their infrastructures were allegedly not built to handle such a large population at the time, causing forest destruction and depletion of natural resources.
This is in spite of the Mayans having some brilliant strategies for clever saving, such as rotating crops to preserve the soil. These millions of people could have also been wiped out due to a severe drought that lasted for more than a few years, because unlike our society — Mayans did not have access to canned goods that can keep feeding the population for many years regardless of harvesting and farming shortages. Then there was also the problem of water, as it would be nearly impossible to give water to millions of Mayans in the case of a severe drought, despite their intricate irrigation systems. Luckily for us, the Mayans invented one of the earliest written languages in human history and liked to write, a lot. However, these documents did not all last due to the Spanish forces. More on that next…
The Mayans Had Advanced Medical Procedures, Including Surgeries
The Mayans were ahead of their time when it came to treating sick patients, as they had acquired knowledge as to the importance of hygiene, avoiding bacteria and viruses (at least implicitly), keeping wounds clean and away from germs, and more. Some examples of their medical practices include using human hair to suture wounds, effectively keeping them closed and clean, and even dental surgery, when teeth would get replaced by prosthetic ones from jade, turquoise, and pyrite (these prosthetics were even considered beautiful in the Mayan culture).
The Mayans, being heavily steeped in myth and religion, often viewed disease and injuries as punishments from the gods. Mayan health experts would often ask their patients to confess whatever sins they had committed, believing these had a large part to do with their illness. These doctors would prescribe patients medicinal herbs, or to go to sweat baths, similar to saunas.
Mayans Preferred to Use Obsidian Weapons Over Metal
When humans found out that they can actually mold metal and turn it into weaponry, it didn't take us long to create the first knives, swords, spears, and eventually guns. Metal weapons have been in use for thousands of years at this point, but the Mayans stayed away from this material almost completely. Instead, their primary ingredient for carving out weapons of war was obsidian, a dark and smooth volcanic glass that can cause some serious damage when used as a blade. Mayans would sharpen their obsidian blades to the point of being sharp enough to literally pierce Spanish steel armor.
The Mayans were also adept at ranged warfare and would carve darts and arrows from the same volcanic material. Another weapon often used by the Mayans was an atlatl, a tool that uses great amounts of leverage to hurl spears and darts at ranged opponents. The atlatl was so powerful that they had to move instead to bows and arrows, since it would throw the darts and spears so fast that they obsidian would often shatter on impact, drastically reducing the damage that the target would receive and also destroying the chances of using them again later. We've already touched the false notion about the Mayans allegedly predicting the end of the world in 2012, but there were a lot of deep and incredibly interesting things about their calendar. Here's the short explanation…