"Fall of Atlantis" by Robert Stacy-Judd, 1936. Fictitious, but I like the style and the depiction of Mayan rowboats! Also a pretty good article on the Hidden World of the Maritime Maya. As much as the evidence doesn't exist in great quanties, it is believed that the Mayans carried out thriving maritime trade throughout the nearby coasts of the "New World." Also 500th post on the Mayan Art thread!
Jaguar Tribe Faction from the Savage Core: Link to another thread on the topic in case you are interested in learning more about this pulp-inspired game.
Three days to go to the new Tomb Raider game! I will post some screenshots, they have a lot of mayan ruins there. Also I heard the native guys will talk Yucatec Mayan and Nahuatl as well.
I hope the game is good, visually I am sure it will be the most impressive one yet... but watching footage from the last two games she does a lot more people hunting than actual tomb raiding.
Found a nice review, certainly does look impressive! I even recognize some of the stela featured randomly throughout the game (saw some from Quiringua) and recognized the Chac masks from Uxmal!
Here are some screenshots of stuff I found. Pretty nice! Those are from one of the first tombs: Structural elements that are art at the same time. These are everywhere. I like these Skulls. I'll probably paint some color onto some of the skulls of my Lizardmen in the future. These look familiar:
And a few more. Most of them are Inca at that point of the game. But the designers didn't make too much of a distinction graphically. They sure did in the descriptions though. This dude seems to just chill. Nice hat. Another nice statue Sotek!
Really great stuff, the first two especially! They are good depictions of King Pacal's tombstone (first post of this thread!)
Found a neat little article on Mayan politics. The article is giving me trouble, but here is the link and the text: Ancient altar reveals Mayan 'Game of Thrones' dynasty by Henry Morales Arana Pic text: Detail of a Mayan altar exhibited at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City on September 12, 2018. The 1,500-year-old altar, discovered at La Corona archaeological site in northern Guatemala, evidences the political strategies of the dynasty of the Kaanul Mayan kings to control cities was similar to the popular TV series "Game of Thrones". Johan ORDONEZ / AFP. Spoiler: Article "GUATEMALA CITY(AFP).- A 1,500 year old Mayan altar discovered in a small archeological site in northern Guatemala is drawing comparisons to popular fantasy drama television series "Game of Thrones" for its descriptions of the Kaanul dynasty's political strategies aimed at bringing entire cities under its control. The altar, carved out of limestone and weighing around one ton was found at the La Corona archeological site in the jungle region close to the borders with Mexico and Belize, Tomas Barrientos, co-director of excavations and investigations at the site told journalists. Barrientos said the altar was found in a temple and showed King Chak Took Ich'aak, La Corona's ruler, "sitting and holding a scepter from which emerge two patron gods of the city." According to studies, the 1.46-meter by 1.2-meter slab contains a hieroglyphic Mayan inscription corresponding to May 12, 544. Other discoveries have allowed researchers to determine that King Chak Took Ich'aak also governed the nearby city of El Peru-Waka some 20 years later. Barrientos says these pieces of evidence show that the Kaanul dynasty, or Serpent Kingdom, developed a political movement in La Corona that allowed them to defeat their Tikal "arch rivals" in 562 and thereafter rule the Mayan lowlands in southeast Mesoamerica for two centuries. 'Mayan Game of Thrones' That political movement was based around alliances with small cities surrounding Tikal ahead of the final victory push. Alongside those revelations, researchers also found details of a wedding between a princess from the Serpent Kingdom and a King of La Corona, Barrientos said. "This altar shows us a part of Guatemala's history and in this case, around 1,500 years ago, I would call this the historical Mayan version of Game of Thrones," he added, comparing the Kaanul kingdom's maneuvering to that in Game of Thrones of noble families competing over control of the seven kingdoms. Barrientos said the altar "fills in the gaps" and "pieces together the puzzle" of the Mayan culture's political relationships. "It's a high quality work of art that shows us they were rulers entering into a period of great power and who were allying themselves with others to compete, in this case, with Tikal." La Corona "was the place where the most important historical Mayan political movement began to take shape." The Serpent Kingdom expanded from its capital Dzibanche to present day north Guatemala, Belize and the Mexican state of Campeche but was finally defeated by Tikal. Dangerous excavations "Having information about what happened next, how they were plotting a political strategy here, teaches us a lot about politics in those times and the fight for territory," said Barrientos. Excavating and investigating in the remote Mayan Biosphere Reserve where La Corona lies can be hazardous, though. The region is constantly at threat from looting, invasions and incursions by criminal gangs, drug-traffickers and illegal ranchers, accused by environmentalists and authorities of starting forest fires that damage pre-Columbian monuments. Culture deputy minister, Gladys Palala, told AFP that authorities are trying to counter encroachment by criminal groups besieging Peten, an area ripe with "archeological remains." "Wherever you go and excavate, you find (something). It's an eminently archeological area," she said. The Mayan culture reached its apogee during the classical period from 250-900 before going into decline over the next 300 years. " Again, here is the link!
Two more pics showing the same Altar from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City. Still trying to figure out WHICH altar this one is, as the king's name appears in Tikal a few times. It sounds like it is a completely different king from the site La Corona, one of the satellite kingdoms bearing allegiance to the snake dynasty from Calakmul. Three more article links: History Blog and PhysORG. Tullane University also had a good one that I really liked (link). Spoiler: Tullane Article Tulane Archaeologist Leads Team to Major Maya Find "A team of archaeologists co-led by Tulane University professor Marcello A. Canuto has discovered a nearly 1,500-year old carved altar at the Classic Maya site of La Corona, located in jungle forest of the Petén in northern Guatemala. The discovery, announced today at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City, presents new evidence for how a powerful kingdom – known as Kaanul dynasty – began its two-century domination of much of the lowland Maya region. “The discovery of this altar allows us to identify an entirely new king of La Corona who apparently had close political ties with the capital of the Kaanul kingdom, Dzibanche, and with the nearby city of El Peru-Waka,” said Canuto, director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane and co-director of the La Corona Regional Archaeological Project (PRALC). The altar is made of limestone and displays the image of previously unknown king, Chak Took Ich’aak, carrying a double-headed serpent effigy from which the site’s patron gods emerge. It is accompanied by a column of hieroglyphs that record the end of a half-katun period in the Long Count Maya calendar corresponding to May 12, 544 AD. “For several centuries during the Classic period, the Kaanul kings dominated much of the Maya Lowlands,” said Tomas Barrientos, co-director of the project and director of the Center for Archaeological and Anthropological Research at the University of the Valley of Guatemala. “This altar contains information about their early strategies of expansion, demonstrating that La Corona played an important role in the process from the beginning. The team also included David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin along with Guatemalan archaeologists Maria Antonieta Cajas and Alejandro González. Since 2008, Canuto and Barrientos have directed a multidisciplinary research program focused on the Maya city and involving archaeological excavation, hieroglyphic decipherment, regional settlement analysis using LiDAR imagery as well as a variety of chemical and material analyses. The PRALC will continue investigating the altar to better understand its importance and to define how the Kaanul kingdom came to exercise power over much of the Maya Lowlands." Again, the link to the source.
More pictures from the ancient Mayan site of La Corona, also known as the previously undiscovered "Site Q." Artist's depiction of the site: La Corona in relation to Tikal along with several other Mayan sites. In the articles posted in the previous posts, La Corona was aligned with Calakmul as an ally against Tikal. It must have been useful for Calakmul to have an ally so close to Tikal. LINK to the above to pictures and an article on La Corona from April of this year. Spoiler: La Corona and the Snake Kingdom This ancient Maya city may have helped the Snake King dynasty spread Lidar maps and hieroglyphics suggest La Corona wasn’t so isolated after all by Bruce Bower, April 2018 WASHINGTON — New insights into an ancient Maya kingdom are coming from a remote outpost in the Guatemalan jungle. Aerial laser maps, excavations and stone-slab hieroglyphics indicate that La Corona, a largely rural settlement, became a key part of a far-ranging Classic-era Maya kingdom that incorporated sites from southern Mexico to Central America, researchers reported on April 15 at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Classic Maya civilization lasted from around 250 to 900. A dynasty of Kaanul rulers, also called Snake Kings, expanded their domain from their home city of Calakmul in Mexico by using La Corona as a relay center for precious stones and other goods from Kaanul-controlled sites farther south, said archaeologist Marcello Canuto. “Our work supports the idea that the ancient Maya formed interconnected political systems, not largely separate city-states as traditionally thought,” said Canuto, of Tulane University in New Orleans, who codirects the La Corona excavation. Laser mapping in 2016 covered more than 2,100 square kilometers of the Guatemalan lowlands containing many ancient Maya sites. A small plane equipped with light detection and ranging equipment, or lidar, used laser pulses to gather data on the shape of the ground covered by trees and vegetation (SN: 7/23/16, p. 9). Lidar findings often guide investigators to previously unrecognized remains of past settlements. Lidar evidence showed that a small, heavily populated core area at La Corona had existed within a large, sparsely populated rural expanse. Canuto estimates that between 5,000 and 8,000 people crowded into La Corona during its Classic-era heyday. That population bulge at La Corona corresponded to a period from 520 to 740 when Kaanul kings transformed a series of Guatemalan sites into satellites of a state with Calakmul as the capital, said archaeologist Tomás Barrientos of the University of the Valley of Guatemala in Guatemala City. Barrientos codirects La Corona excavations with Canuto. Although subordinate to Calakmul, La Corona’s remote location may have enabled it to maintain some political independence, Canuto proposed. But little is known about how Kaanul kings ran their state. Key clues to Calakmul’s rule over La Corona come from stone monuments covered with hieroglyphics at the latter site (SN: 10/8/05, p. 227). Stone inscriptions at La Corona dating to 314, about two centuries before Kaanul rule, describe the arrival of specific Maya gods. La Corona’s local rulers associated themselves closely with those deities. Mention of these same gods appears on a carved monument from 546 describing La Corona as being under the control of a large capital city. Local leaders installed by rulers from the capital city, likely Calakmul, must have wanted to associate themselves publicly with revered La Corona gods, Barrientos said. “To create a new state, Kaanul rulers manipulated traditional mythology at La Corona and celebrated their connections to deities that had preceded their arrival,” Barrientos proposed. These celebrations included ritual feasts, he said. Remains of feasts from the Kaanul era, including bones from butchered animals, have been excavated in stone pits situated in a La Corona ceremonial plaza. Specific references to the northern capital appear more than a century later at La Corona in written records of Calakmul royal ceremonies and a local nobleman’s transformation into a ruler under the supervision of Calakmul’s king. Considering its small area, La Corona’s population center contains a surprising amount of writing on carved stones, said epigrapher Simon Martin of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. Martin, who studies Maya hieroglyphics, is not a member of the La Corona excavation team. That extensive writing and record keeping indicates that La Corona played an important role in the Kaanul state, Martin said. “So much text at such a small site suggests La Corona served as a conduit for sending goods north to Calakmul.” Again, the link. La Corona stela depicting ball court: Spoiler: More La Corona pics Glyph Panal, showing how La Corona was the previously undiscovered Site Q. La Corona stela at the Dallas Art Museum. I think I have seen this one in person but will have to go through old photos to see if I took a picture. More information on the site here, at the La Corona Archaeological Project.
Here are a few more pictures from La Corona while it was still being excavated back in 2012, all taken from this video! Looks a lot like the Snake Kingdom glyph in this picture!
A little more on the Snake Kingdom! The glyph above represents them of course. The dynasty of the snake kingdom (Kaan in some spellings) ruled from Calakmul and had a longtime rivalry with the dynasty from Tikal. The snake kingdom's roots were located in the nearby city of Dzibanche, and possibly even earlier from the ancient city of El Mirador, one of the earliest cities in the Mayan area. The rivalry between the Snake Dynasty and Tikal has been compared to the intrigues of the book/tv series Game of Thrones, but in my mind is much more similiar to the epic conflict between Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (for those of you who had to read Thucydides in school you know what I am talking about). For some extra content, here are two pictures from The Maya (Coe), and Maya Kings and Queens (Martin and Grube) depicting the political structure between Calakmul, Tikal, and the various independent and struggling Mayan city states of the era. List of Relationships of Calakmul: between the snake dynasts and some of the major city states to include primary rivals at Tikal: More detailed and complicated map of Mayan Politics also during this era, showing all the big players. Many more states are left out of this map, to include La Corona which was rediscovered after this map was made, and undoubtedly many more sites that have yet to be rediscovered!
Some more screenshots from Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Just tell me when it is enough. That game is full of inspiring meso- and south american native culture stuff.
More! BTW, the texts in the game are equally inspiring. They explain the mythologies, what all the godsw did and so on. I don't know much about the authenticity yet, but I will look up some of those things.
Awesome! Loving the murals and the stonework. I hope they put a lot of good stuff in there, granted a lot will be made up to suite the direction the game designers want to go, but I hope they tried to keep true to a lot of the material out there. Great stuff!
They mix up Maya, Inca, and Aztec influences a bit, but they actually have a decent explanation for it in the story so that's OK I guess. Here are some pics I took today: