About life among the maya . From ancient sumer clay tablets reveal astonishing details about daily life 5,000 years ago, and tell the story of the invention of writing. Symbols can be the gateway to the hearts and minds of ancient people. Their decipherment is one of the greatest challenges facing archaeologists today. We humans are social animals. Our need to communicate is universal. Some of our messages can be easily understood. But we communicate, too, through abstract symbols that have meaning only within a particular culture. These symbols take many forms. The flag is a symbol. A gesture says were number one. The uniform is a symbol that identifies the official and the player. The game itself is symbolic ritualized combat with clearly defined rules. Even sound can be a symbol. [ whistle blows ] the whistle signals the end of play. But why a whistle . Why not a gong . Why a striped shirt and not a plaid one . The choice is arbitrary. But within this culture, the meaning is mutuall
When he immortalized himself in bronze and gold. Now, in the ruins of the roman empire, scholars grapple with an ageold question how does any one leader acquire so much power . From the tribes of highland new guinea and the chiefdoms of the american northwest, to the kingdoms of the ancient maya, archaeologists trace the evolution of human leadership. Theirs is a journey through time seeking clues to the emergence of the state. Join us now at the dawn of a civilization to uncover the roots of power, prestige and wealth. In the pyramids and monuments of the ancient maya, workers search for clues to the emergence of a vanished civilization. These are the ruins of the ancient city of copan, honduras. Dozens of stone monuments, called stelae, proclaim the power of mighty beings. Until experts could read these carved hieroglyphs most scholars thought these largerthanlife figures represented maya gods. But we now know they are portraits of copans rulers, with names like butz chan. Smoke shel
At vacation retreats in ancient mexico, aztec kings bathe while their armies sack and burn a remote town. Thousands of captives are marched to the capital where their hearts are offered to gods who sanctioned conquest. Every city and town in the empire pays tribute in exact amount and kind as specified by the aztecs or risks horrible consequences. In the forests and jungles of other realms, maya kings rule great cities with the force of their own personalities. They build temples and huge stone billboards to prop up royal dynasties that have little actual power. They perform gruesome rituals that require the skins of other people. They go to war and capture players for their ball games games where the losers never play again. Today, inside ancient pyramids archaeologists face real danger to bring the story of these kings and their politics out of the past. Before the arrival of europeans two extraordinary civilizations flourished in mesoamerica. Both the aztecs and the maya had culture
Clay tablets reveal astonishing details about daily life 5,000 years ago, and tell the story of the invention of writing. Symbols can be the gateway to the hearts and minds of ancient people. Their decipherment is one of the greatest challenges facing archaeologists today. We humans are social animals. Our need to communicate is universal. Some of our messages can be easily understood. But we communicate, too, through abstract symbols that have meaning only within a particular culture. These symbols take many forms. The flag is a symbol. A gesture says, were number one. The uniform is a symbol that identifies the official and the player. The game itself is symbolic ritualized combat with clearly defined rules. Even sound can be a symbol. [ whistle blows ] the whistle signals the end of play. But why a whistle . Why not a gong . Why a striped shirt and not a plaid one . The choice is arbitrary. But within this culture, the meaning is mutually accepted. The use of symbols is the single m
With the force of their own personalities. They build temples and huge stone billboards to prop up royal dynasties that have little actual power. They perform gruesome rituals that require the skins of other people. They go to war and capture players for their ball games games where the losers never play again. Today, inside ancient pyramids, archaeologists face real danger to bring the story of these kings and their politics out of the past. Before the arrival of europeans, two extraordinary civilizations flourished in mesoamerica. Both the aztecs and the maya had cultures of startling sophistication, and political systems that were enormously complex. Archaeologists are intrigued by ancient political systems. They want to know how these systems were organized and how they evolved. Archaeologist Arthur Demarest. Throughout the course of human history, societies have bece ever more complex. Political systems have developed some successfully, expanding and growing, while othersecline an