Falling Deities

We went on a great Mexican gubernero tour yesterday at the famous Tulum ruins. By the time the Spanish cast their eye on Mexico the Maya were gone. 

Only Tulum lived on as a Mayan city. In 1511 a Spanish ship accidentally crashed off the reef of Tulum leaving only two Spanish survivors: A Catholic Priest and a Soldier. They came to live in Tulum. 

At that time the Royalty situated in the main city, open only to the upper crust, treasured obsidian glass so they could watch the solar eclipses. The astronomers measured, like the Irish and ancient Britains, the precise time of the solstices and equinoxes to the very day and time so the edifices show first light through small windows or temple gates, of the regressing or returning beam of sun. 

9 years later, after the ship wreck, the Spanish came again. This time intentionally. The soldier wanted to return to Spain. The priest however had married Mayan royalty and had a large family. He had no interest in regresso and thus in Mexico the first Meztizos were born. 

The buildings of Tulum sport fabulous carvings of deities, each corner a massive head and face: the Maya practiced head and eye binding to replicate the deformities brought forth from interrelational marriage: like the royalty of England, Russia and Egypt: if the family tree doesn't fork, with it can come some physical problems. 

The Maya had 13 sky deities and 9 down below. On the carvings the sky deities are all upside down.

They are shown falling from the skies.  In fact they look they have just rocketed down from heaven. Precisely what the Maya intended and it reminds me of  "The Man Who Fell to Earth" a disturbing movie with David Bowie about an alien who came to earth to find water for his dying world but just got interested in drinking and watching TV and gave up. 

If you watch "War of the Worlds" by Stephen Spielberg, the aliens rocket down from the sky on lightning bolts. The carvings kind of look like that. 

No wonder that weird Swiss guy in the 1970s era posited a theory that all of the Maya culture was a result of Alien intervention. From "Chariots of the Gods" to " Ancient Aliens" there is his  assumption that all of us, from Egyptians to Irish to Maya, were too stupid or too primitive to figure out how to build stuff on our own. 

Humans 10,000 years ago were just as smart as we are all today. And we, over this time, have created agriculture, enormous temples, strange paintings, head binding, mascara, computer chips, math, linen,  glass and space flight.

 And that is just to name a few.