The Search for Hidden Mayan Temple Chambers by 2009

Hey all,

I was reading this Discovery Channel article about the aforementioned topic.

It appears that the physicists and archaeologists are going to try something that was conceived 30 years ago in a failed attempt at a similar search in Egypt -- cosmic, x-ray muon detectors!

They believe there could be rooms and chambers below a temple located in Belize and want to start the project by 2009.




[edit on 10-11-2007 by anhinga]

reply to post by anhinga


Hey there anhinga.

I think there's a really good chanse of them finding more than they hope for. Have a quick look through a couple of posts I added to my thread;
'Pyramid Building ... ever notice the deliberate mistake'. If you can't be bothered to read the whole thing (and I don't advise it ... it got a bit messy for a while there with one poster)

But you might be interested in P5 - POST 4 & P6 - POST 13. Let me know what you think ... if it's the sort of thing you're interested in. If so we can discuss more.

Bright Blessings - the woodwytch

Hope this thread takes off it has a lot of potential

reply to post by woodwytch


Thanks for the heads up WW, I'll totally check out that thread, I love the topic and recently learned I got a little Mayan blood in me! So, thanks again!

They should use the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque as a model for identifying the potential ruins with hidden chambers. There were four stone plugs on the floor in that temple and a hidden starway lie underneath. The starway was filled in with rubble and the tomb of Pacal was 80 feet below the temple floor. I think it's interesting that the door to his tomb was triangular. The Phoenician Daleth was a triangle and it meant the word "door." The carved sarcophagus of Pacal was the grand prize of the excavation. I hope they find more amazing sarcophagus lids with this new technique.



www.jaguar-sun.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.jaguar-sun.com...

reply to post by lostinspace


Hey, thanks for the links, Lostinspace, I'll check 'em out... there's never enough Mayan stuff to read! I have (seemingly always) been reading the (constantly updated) Ancient Maya book by Sharer (in it's 6th edition) which probably has some great info on the temples in Belize, I know some of thee ones are there. That book is 101 in colleges in Mayan/Aztec studies, it's an awesome book to have in the library -- numerous editions and well-researched.

Really looking forward to these searches, should anyone else have some links/info, that'd be awesome! Thanks in advance!

Anhinga,
Nice post..I just watched the show on History channel on Mayan Prophecy.
They said that all but 4 codecs(I think they called them) were destroyed by priests who feered they were of the devil. Finding more would certainly be interesting.

BP

reply to post by BlackProjects


BP, that show might of told partial truths, there is one of the codices that is believed to be a forgery.

Books in Mayan hieroglyphic writing that survived the Spanish conquest. They are made of fig-bark paper folded like an accordion, with covers of jaguar skin. Though most Mayan books were destroyed as pagan by Spanish priests, four are known to have survived: the Dresden Codex, probably dating from the 11th or 12th century, a copy of earlier texts of the 5th–9th century; the Madrid Codex, dating from the 15th century; the Paris Codex, slightly older than the Madrid Codex; and the Grolier Codex, discovered in 1971 and dated to the 13th century. They deal with astronomical calculations, divination, and ritual.

www.encyclopedia.com...

Also, the Mayan 'textbook' -- "The Ancient Maya" by Robert Sharer has a lot about the codices and reprints portions of them in that book linked... Sharer mentions this about the one I highlighted:

Although tests indicate that the paper is pre-Columbian, the authenticity of the Grolier Codex is doubted by some scholars, who feel that the style of the pictures are incorrect, who point out that caches of blank pre-Columbian paper have been found in dry Mexican caves and are presumably available to forgers. Whether authentic or not, the Grolier Codex deals entirely w/ Venus almanacs in a simplistic fashion, adding almost no new information to the sophisticated treatment of Venus in the Dresden Codex.

(pg. 603, 5th ed)

So, my question to you, BP/anyone who saw that show -- did they mention that one of these codices could be forged? Let me know when you can...

Here's part of the Paris Codex:



[edit on 17-11-2007 by anhinga]

Anhinga,
No to my knowledge there was no mention of one of codices being a forgery. I did fall asleep toward the end though.
BP

That's something worth looking forward to. I wonder exactly what the purpose of these chambers served? I guess I'll have to read more on it, but that's great that they still plan on excavating, there still seems much left to discover.

reply to post by BlackProjects


BlackProjects, the Wiki page shows the same conclusion from the Sharer book, I don't know if it was mentioned in the documentary, maybe they didn't even mention it, and just spoke of the three others, here's the excerpt:

en.wikipedia.org...

While the other three codices were known to scholars since the 19th century, the Grolier Codex only surfaced in the 1970s. This fourth Maya codex was said to have been found in a cave, but the question of its authenticity has still not been resolved to everybody's satisfaction. The codex is really a fragment of 11 pages. It is currently in a museum in Mexico, but is not on display to the public. Scanned photos of it are available on the web. The pages are much less detailed than any of the other codices. Each page shows a hero or god, facing to the left. At the top of each page is a number. Down the left of each page are what appears to be a list of dates.

I wonder why the public isn't 'allowed' to see this codex?

[edit on 17-11-2007 by anhinga]

Definately interesting...It sounds like you also like the stuff on Mayans. You know it really should be its own category especially since 2012 is approaching. Other than the end of the calendar thing I find it more interesting that supposedly Quetalzcoatl returns just before that.

The Mayans looking for his return mistook Cortez for him...I mean didn't they consult their own calendar? It seems that was beginning of the end for them.

reply to post by laiguana


...there does seem like plenty more to discover! Considering the MAYA has a "bible" -- the Popol Vuh and a few other (known) writings, then, there's these codices that BlackProjects brought up from seeing a documentary.

Remember, there's only three legit ones in existence! The Spanish invasion destroyed most of the Mayans work, what remains, is rare and difficult to study.

Since these 'experiments' are a successful way to locate some of this nature, underground chambers, I really look forward to this too -- just wish it was next year, not 2009!

Either way, ANY Mayan writing discovery will be a HUGE discovery -- also, in my recent research into the Mayans, I've discovered that this 2012 thing might be a lot of hype.

From this book, again:

Their observations and calculations were undertaken, and in due course refined, so as to better predict the events on Earth that these deities were believed to control. There is no evidence that the ancient Maya understood these movements as Kepler and Copernicus did.

(pg. 581, 5th ed -- and will this matter to the 6th, current edition? Probably not, although there is an 11 year gap between editions? New info? I haven't gotten the update (2005) yet!... just thought this should be pointed out.)

And we all should know how renowned those two are. My last speculation, for now, to date, is that other Codex. Maybe there's something on there that *the public* should not know and that's how the 2012 hype/buzz got started, I don't know -- but this book, like I mentioned, classic college textbook, dense, well-researched since 1946, never alludes to 2012. Mind you, I haven't 'finished' it (over 850 pages, ftnotes, indexes, graphs), but in skimming through the index and referencing these topics -- no mention of event, just calendar phases.



[edit on 17-11-2007 by anhinga]

reply to post by BlackProjects


Quetzelcoatl is being hyped as someone he really wasn't -- to set some of this internet (Pentagon, why?) hype to rest. So far, from my research, he's one of many deities.

He was also known as Kukulcan to the ancient Mayans, not present day. Ancient Mayans were a strange breed. I actually recommend M Gibson's recent film, "Apocalypto" (2006) for anyone w/ the stomach for it to learn a quick lesson. Some tribes were 'peaceful' -- others, viciously brutal.

The premise, and not to give too much away for those who will rent/buy the film, is about a 'kidnapped' tribe taken to a couple of main temples to be sacrificed to select Gods. From that, you can get an idea on how Gibson operates, picture all his flicks in one, w/ a violent tribe 'catch and kill' theme.

Anyway, back to Kukulcan. Here's a clip, of something otherworldly:

Another reptilian deity, the fethered serpent Kukulcan, may be but another aspect of Itzamna. Kuklcn was especially prominent in the Postclassic period, in keeping w/ his strong ideology of Mexican ideology. In Mexico, the feathered serpent, known by his Nahuatl name, Quetzalcoatl, was the supernatural patron of rulers. Study has shown, that part of the birthdate recorded in Palengue's Temple of the Cross, 9 Ik, corresponds to an alternative name for Qutzctl -- 9 Wind.

(pg. 531, 5th ed)

I'll be ordering that update this week!


[edit on 17-11-2007 by anhinga]

Yes, I saw "Apocalypto". I think you are hinting that KuKulcan could be a extraterrestrial being..Otherwise how could he still be alive? Or maybe time dialation from travelling at/near speed of light he has aged reletively slowly compared to earth. Any way you slice it he is part of the 2012 story.

reply to post by BlackProjects


Hey BP, I don't know if the book alludes to the fact that Qutzlctl could still be alive, but like I've been saying in this thread, the book is more 'textbook'-like and doesn't really mention 'et' at all... I think I might stroll over to Borders today and pick up the new edition, I noticed it really isn't much cheaper on Amazon.... I want to find some reading/research material that led *them* to this secret chambers discovery...

[edit on 18-11-2007 by anhinga]

Update, found another article about the OP; it appears that this method can also be used to predict volcanoes:

Archaeologist Fred Valdez, director of the Mesoamerican Archaeological Lab at UT Austin, had the answer: an enormous pyramid in the third-largest Mayan city in Belize. The city is in an area in northwestern Belize known as La Milpa, which was home to one of the densest populations of Maya from as early as 1000 B.C. until around A.D. 850. The area was packed with four large cities, each with 20,000 or more residents, that were only around 8 to 12 kilometers apart with 60 or more towns, villages, and hamlets in between. Valdez believes there is much to be learned from the society that existed there.

"The amazing part is how close how many of these large cities are to each other," he said. "The Maya were clearly expert at adapting to their environment and exploiting their environment, clearly making better use of things than we are today, just to support the populations that were there..."

Another team of scientists may be just months away from using muons to image the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, Mexico, in a quest to learn why the pyramid was built. And if burial chambers such as those found in the nearby Pyramid of the Moon are discovered, they could reveal whether the society was ruled by a single person or a government of several leaders.

www.sciencenews.org...

reply to post by anhinga


Great idea. I hope they find something too. I wonder why they have to wait till 2009? Maybe it takes that long to get the official permission from authorities...Or is a matter of simple funding?

J.