Mysteries of the Maya

Discover the secrets of a lost civilisation

Mesoamerica was home to some of the most iconic civilisations of the world, each with its own unique achievements. The Aztecs had their elite warriors, the Incas their engineering marvels, and the Maya made apocalyptic predictions. However, the Maya were responsible for much more than the 2012 Doomsday headlines. Accomplished mathematicians, artists, astronomers and architects, they even developed the first writing system in the pre-columbian Americas.

The Maya ruled much of Mexico and northern Central America, pre-dating the Aztec and Inca empires. Unlike their successors, the Maya did not have a single ruler or centralised authority, their realm instead comprising a collection of city states ruled independently by kings but united in their beliefs and culture. Religion was fiercely important, and they built towering temples to worship their pantheon of gods – there were as many as 250! It was these temples that led 20th-century archaeologists to believe these settlements were “vacant ceremonial centres”, inhabited only by priests. They were a peaceful community of forest dwellers – or so those who studied their ways thought.

In reality, war was not uncommon between these Maya cities, often sparked by rivalry over trade and territory, and the victors would leave with more than just status. Prisoners of war were ritually sacrificed, their skulls displayed on wooden trophy racks called tzompantli. The Maya believed human sacrifice would appease and nourish the gods, who had spilled their own blood to create humankind. Even the elite mutilated themselves, usually with stingray spines or blades made from obsidian.

One gruesome carving depicts King Shield Jaguar II holding a flaming torch over his wife, Lady Xook, who is pulling a barbed rope across

“Prisoners of war were ritually sacrificed, their skulls displayed on wooden trophy racks”