The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology

305 Pages·2012·9.09 MB·English

by  James O'Kon

T L S
HE OST ECRETS OF
M T
AYA ECHNOLOGY
By James A. O’Kon, PE
Copyright © 2012 by James A. O’Kon, PE
All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright
Conventions.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by
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invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
THE LOST SECRETS OF MAYA TECHNOLOGY
EDITED AND TYPESET BY DIANA GHAZZAWI Cover design by Noir33
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O’Kon, James A.
The lost secrets of Maya technology / James A. O’Kon.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60163207-4 -- ISBN 978-1-60163-610-2 (ebook) 1.
Mayas--Science. 2. Maya astronomy. 3. Mayas--Mathematics. 4. Mayas-
-Civilization. 5. Technological innovations--History--To 1500. 6.
Discoveries in science--History--To 1500. I. Title.
F1435.3.S32O46 2012
972’.6--dc23
2011045928
Acknowledgments
When the laborious research for this book was finally completed and my
thoughts collected, I prepared an outline for the book with a summary of each
chapter. I sent the summary to an archaeologist who is a longtime friend and
asked him for his opinions. “Congratulations on your book,” he responded. “Just
realize that archeologists will roast, reject, or ignore any book that alters popular
misconception.” When I had completed the manuscript and Career Press had
contracted to publish the book, I contacted a number of distinguished
archaeologists and requested that they consider reviewing my manuscript. I was
expecting the worst after the early warning from my friend.
However, I was pleasantly surprised and flattered by the gracious and positive
responses I received from this venerable group. I cannot adequately express my
gratitude for the fashion in which this book was received by some of the most
highly acclaimed archaeologists in the world. I was honored to receive positive
acceptance for review from George Stuart, Mark Van Stone, Ed Barnhart, and
Tom Sever. I want to thank then all for making this into a much better book.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to George Stuart, a true legend. He carefully
read the manuscript, annotating the pages with insightful and helpful comments.
His frequent e-mails with recommendations for historical accuracy and helpful
comments were an education for me not only for sharing his personal knowledge
and wisdom but his humanity and sensitivity.
I also want to thank Ed Barnhart for his review of this book and his
contributions relating to his work with the water resources at Palenque.
Mark Van Stone is Mayanist and a noted epigrapher. I want to thank him for
using his expertise in the improvement of Maya glyphs in the cover design and
making contributions to dates in the history of European mathematics. I also
want to thank him for inspiring me to write the Epilogue in this book.
Tom Sever, working as an archaeologist for NASA, pioneered the application
of remote sensing in archaeology. His work in detecting sacbeob and ruins that
are hidden in the rainforest was truly an inspiration for this book, and I thank
him for his insightful comments.
I am not a trained archaeologist but a crossover engineer with a lifelong
passion for the Maya civilization. My education in archaeology was on-the-job
training. Nicholas Hellmuth was the first archaeologist that I ever met, in the
1980s, deep in the jungle of Guatemala. Nicholas guided me on expeditions deep
into the rainforest and has traveled with me to sites verifying discoveries in
Maya technology. He has a special knowledge of architecture and engineering
technology learned at the knee of his father, George Hellmuth, the famous
architect. These skills and his photographic artistry set him apart from others. I
thank Nicholas for his belief in Maya technology, and his belief in me and my
quest.
There are many individuals that I want to thank for my education in
technology, history, and archaeology. These include my muses, teachers,
mentors, and the veteran archaeologist Claude Baudez, who told me that I was
“the only man in the world who could have written this book.” This is the
highest of praise for a crossover archaeo-engineer. Grady Randolph was a
teacher dedicated to changing the lives of students from my blue-collar
neighborhood. He counseled me throughout my life until his passing in 2005. He
called me to his side and presented me with his complete set of the works of
William H. Prescott. I treasure all 15 volumes. My thanks also go to writers,
living and deceased, that enriched my knowledge of archaeology. These include
John Lloyd Stephens, Alfred Maudslay, Sylvanus Morley, V. Gordon Child,
Richardson Gill, Jared Diamond, and especially Michael Coe, who has guided
me for a half century.
Dr. Lev Zetlin, my engineering mentor, was a landmark engineering thinker
and a larger-than-life figure in the revolution of new engineering technology. He
became my friend in addition to my mentor in the leadership of state-of-the-art
engineering. He responsible for my ascendency in the engineering sciences.
I owe a huge debt to a lifelong friend, Cliff Graubart, my spirit guide to the
world of publications. We met in New York during our salad days of the 1960s.
He returned to Atlanta before me and became a successful rare-book dealer
while nurturing some of America’s most popular writers, including some on the
current New York Times Bestsellers list. He is truly the Gertrude Stein of our
times.
I fell in love with Yucatán and the Maya nearly a half century ago. Many of
my expeditions were in the company of my lifelong friend, Vernon Harris. We
vowed to travel to the Yucatán and find the answers to questions surrounding the
Maya. It has become my task to complete the unveiling of the secrets of Maya
technology.
I must also thank my muse, Bill Nash. His encyclopedic knowledge of
everything enabled us to discuss abstract concepts of archaeology, technology,
and mathematics. My relationship with Bill is similar to Mark Twain’s with the
great Rudyard Kipling. Twain said, “Between us we cover all knowledge; he
knows all that can be known, and I know the rest.”
Key elements of The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology would never have been
uncovered without the talent and knowledge of Philippe Klinefelter. He is a
kindred spirit that literally flew into my life while landing his aircraft on the
airstrip at the ancient Maya city of Yaxchilan. I was stumbling in the dark
relative to the secrets of the technology of Maya tools until I encountered
Philippe. He is a fine arts sculptor of international note and the world’s foremost
expert on Maya stone tools. Together Philippe and I have explored Maya jadeite
mines and Classic Period jadeite workshops. His work is the foundation for the
chapter on Maya tool technology. I thank Miguel Alvarez for the photographs of
the Maya stone tools.
The creation of illustrations for the book, especially the “how to” drawings of
ancient technologies, required a special visionary artistic talent. I owe Alex Tuan
Nguyen a great personal debt for transforming my complex, technical sketches
into dynamic computer renderings that clearly translate my technical concepts.
I am the illustrator of the drawings of Maya construction workers, which hark
back to my college days as a cartoonist for the Georgia Tech humor magazine.
My thanks go to Kira Francklin for quality and coordination reviews of the
illustrations.
The Internet introduced me to Dr. Horacio Ramirez de Alba, Dr. Ramiro
Pérez Campos, and Dr. Heriberto Díaz Coutiño, all from the Universidad
Autónoma del Estado de México. They authored an article in the Mexican
scientific journal Ciencia Ergo Sum, which was intended to assess the
infeasibility of the technology used in constructing the Maya bridge at
Yaxchilan. At the conclusion of their studies they became believers in the Maya
technology that I had postulated for the bridge. They carried out laboratory
testing of ancient Maya cement that proved its reality and value to Maya
engineering. I owe them profound thanks for their pioneering work and their
support.
Through the Internet I also met Douglas Peck, a noted historian, naval
architect, and expert on ancient Maya marine technology and celestial
navigation. He has contributed his many talents to this book and enabled my
work on Maya marine technology to become a reality.
My grateful thanks go to Ken Carper, expert in forensic architectural
engineering and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Performance of Constructed
Facilities, for reviewing and editing the manuscript. His comments were a great
assistance to the overall quality of the work.
My agent, Gary Height, came on board and guided me through steps for
attaining a publisher, including the preparation of a proposal that answered all
the questions about my book. I am especially grateful for his speed in working
with Career Press to set this book up for success.
Many thanks and intellectual compliments go to Diana Ghazzawi, my editor
at Career Press. She constantly surprised me with insight into the cognitive mind
of the Maya. Her interpretation of the Maya quadripartite cosmic philosophy as
an analogy to the space-time continuum was truly an amazing bit of literary
magic.
I wish to thank the individuals who braved the heat and insects and who
joined me on my adventures in discovery deep in the rainforest. These include
Carl “Killer” Stimmel, Tammy Ridehour, Greta Pasche, Jim Dion, and Max
Wilson.
I would have been lost in this endeavor without the support of my wife,
Carol. She has accompanied me on most of my expeditions into the jungle and
has always managed to make rudimentary accommodations more livable. She
was my assistant in measuring the dimensions of many of the Maya ruins and
can manage both the dumb end and the smart end of the measuring tape. When it
came to the actual writing of the book, she shepherded me through the
dichotomy of pure science and archaeology, helping me keep one foot firmly
planted in sound scientific precepts while the other foot was on the slippery
slope of the mysteries and unknowns of Maya technology, until I finally became
stabilized with both feet firmly planted on the truth.
Contents
Preface
1
The Maya
2
The Mystery of the Codices
3
Creating a Scientific Civilization in Tropical Isolation
4
What Are Stone Age People Doing With the Number Zero?
5
Building a Civilization
6
Maya Cement: Holding the Civilization Together
7
Towers in the Forest
8
Survival in the Seasonal Desert
9
The Maya Interstate Highway System
10
Bridging the Gaps in the Forest
11
Maya on the Move
12
The Collapse of Maya Civilization
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
About the Author