Having visited some Mayan ruins in person, I was super fascinated with that culture and history for quite some time.
Unexplainable history in general, especially when there are ruins or catacombs, or when there’s “ancient architecture” involved, that has always fascinated me. Puma Punku and Derinkuyu are a couple that are mind boggling.
One of my favorites. All of it.
History is very entertaining. National Geographic is one of my favorite magazines. It’s a shame we can’t learn from history. What I’m talking about is just knowing who we are. There’s been so much of a destroyed. I believe they have power flight. But they’re days in years was probably nothing like ours are. You can look at your phone for 10 minutes before you know it it is all day. Maybe that’s how it was for them moving around from civilization civilization. Because you know that’s what they did. They had to have. Look at all the pyramids. They’re all over the world. Even the Native Americans have them. Which they do not call them that but in my opinion, that is exactly what they are because I have seen them. They definitely had a very hard respect for the dead. They all had similar things in common. I think they use balloons. I believe helium was everywhere back then. There’s so much we don’t know. Talking about Mexico and Central America. The stonework. Where did they get the stuff from? There’s a lot we don’t know. But when they built the three gorges dam in China. It definitely showed the power of human ability. Those people were moving the old temples with their bare hands, and some wire and sticks. So in my opinion, anything is possible. In Africa they were on a train. They looked across the desert they seen diamonds. Maybe diamonds were more available than we know. Maybe that stuff was cut with diamonds. I got to get back to it.
LIDAR is revealing vast complexes and cities under the jungle. I’m not talking some huts and shit. I mean huge cities. They were all over the americas but they probably taught you in school that they lived in teepees and just ate acorns.
National Geographic is a shell of its former self but it is still good sometimes. Disney you know…
This is a very informative course that was free on amazon prime. It goes into great detail about some of the early population centers. Surprisingly good amount of new and useful information.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/ancient-civilizations-of-north-america
It only takes one generation to cut the knowledge thread that spans many many generations.
For example…
Interesting about the underground city you mentioned
I suspect this may be one of those subjects (indigenous cultures) where the way it’s taught and the extent to which it’s taught are highly regional? Also, probably matters when you went to school (I imagine in some areas they teach a lot more about local indigenous cultures, and some areas less, but that in general there’s more education about indigenous cultures than in past years).
Just as an example… when I was a kid the popular culture was definitely teepees, etc… but it wasn’t long before we learned that the Wampanoags had wigwams, not teepees. I imagine kids in NY might have learned about the Iroquois longhouses?
It wasn’t until I lived in the central time zone that I learned about the Mississippian Mound Builders, etc.
Anyway, reminds me of a book I thought was interesting… The Ordeal of the Longhouse (it’s about the Iroquois Confederacy).
Assimilation, erasure and labeling as savage was directed and basically policy in US and Canada. It isnt just about lack of evidence or regional knowledge. Much of these “new” discoveries aren’t new at all is what i’m saying. When De Soto was going through the east coast US (500 years ago) he was amazed at the structures and complexity he saw but many places were already abandoned or wiped out from small pox from an earlier expedition. He had already spent much time conquering and pillaging what is now Latin America and Caribbean.
Indigenous oral histories agree with you on that point.
It’s funny how they call it discovery.
Speaking or history in this region. Here are some books on El Salvador and or Latin America Specifically. More recent history of why things are the way they are and some poetry and testimony.
Earlier stuff on Mexico.
Did you know that the Spanish had human meat markets to feed their dogs?
They will not tell you this in school. It is from > Internet Archive (rent)
I enjoy watching Historia Civilis on youtube once in a while.
I also enjoyed watching the 1976 BBC drama I, Claudius. Also enjoyed HBO’s Rome.
I am watching Medici on Netflix currently, and The Great on Prime.
When I take a tv break, it’s generally a book on Mesoamerica or the 20th century that I grab…here’s two that were good.
The lost secrets of Maya technology of the Maya by James O’Kon, PE. It is one of the best books I’ve read on the Maya and their civilization; writing, hydrology, roadway infrastructure, water filtration, concrete, and more.
The End of the world is just the beginning by Peter Zeihan. It’s not a warm fuzzy feelgood book, but an interesting dive into US imperialism & globalization, population, and trade. He paints an interesting picture.
Edwin Barnhart, Ph.D. Professor, Maya Exploration Center
I found an free offer to see this series, maybe a year ago.
So fascinating!
That is the one I mentioned above. It is highly recommended.
Thank you. So many of the books on this subject are in Spanish. I have a significant amount of them but do not speak fluently enough to read them yet.
I have these yet to read but in my library…
Sorry I did not see it above.
I’m glad more people are enjoying such knowledge. I would also recommend their lecture series on the plaque.
No worries @CocoaCoir. Library holds away- Cleansing rites of Curanderismo and Jungle of Stone heading my way. Thanks for the recommendations, I’m always on the hunt for good reads. Especially ethnobotanically focused.
A classic lol
But why I enjoy TiK and Dr Felton
Is because a lot of info has changed.
Historians have been able to pour
Over documents that were sealed.
The older I get the more like Rodney
King I get
Can’t we all just get along.
I thought this would never ever happen again.
The very thought makes me want to cry and throw up for what I see today.
No one learns it seems.
amen to that, brother! those who do not learn from history and all that…
New hardcore history just dropped and it is 6 and a half hours long.
