[Music] the dazzling cities of the Ancient Maya built by one of the most sophisticated civilizations in history the Maya people were as advanced as any of the ancient civilizations of the world for 3,000 years the ancient Maya dominated Central America they founded powerful kingdoms and built towering temples ruled over by formidable kings and queens my rulers lived lives of incredible privilege but there was a price to be paid but their lives remain shrouded in mystery who were they and how did they live and die with exclusive access our experts embark on a groundbreaking 2-year investigation
using space technology to hunt for a long dead King inside this intriguing Temple coming face to face with the ancient Maya themselves this is the science of archaeology that is so exciting and braving and erupting volcano to find out why this great civilization collapsed they may have think it could have been the end of the world to solve these Mysteries we bring this remarkable world back to life in Vivid 3D and explore the lavish tombs of Kings to shed new light on the life and death of the Ancient Maya the spectacular city of Copan is
Rich with mysterious temples and hidden tombs David sedat wants to find out about death in the Maya world can Grizzly evidence hidden in the Heart of the City provide a clue hidden under Copan hieroglyphic stairway archaeologists discovered a limestone slab engraved with the First Kings of Copan beneath it was a small circular Crypt cramed full of offerings there were traces of mercury three human skulls and the bones of a whole pummer but also the remain of a human body buried in a seated position some bones blackened and burned could this be the last resting place
of a lost king of Copan David believes this tomb could hold Clues to the mysterious burial practices of the Maya to investigate he's been given special access to cop Pan's Research Center the burials prime location and a royal carving suggests this could be the body of a king but there's a problem when measured the hips of this skeleton indicate that we have a woman these are not the remains of a king who could this remarkable woman be this is actually a rather graceful young woman in her mid 20s closer inspection of the bones reveals something
astonishing a fracture of the right forearm an injury associated with battle this woman has injuries that suggest that she may have been a warrior experts now believe that some Maya warriors were women [Music] buried with her were the skulls of three men the remains of turtles deer and a pummer and a treasure Trove of jade jewelry the grave Goods make clear this is no ordinary burial really really interesting where the human skulls on top still had the neck vertebrae attached to them and obvious signs of cut marks on those neckbones indicating that those heads had
been severed the clear evidence of Sacrifice by beheading David suspects this remarkable tomb could be a group sacrifice the Maya often sacrificed Warriors captured in battle from enemy kingdoms isotope analysis of the skeleton reveals that the woman is not local she's from a region far north of Copan there's a strong likelihood that this woman herself was a sacrificial victim but what was the significance of sacrifice to the Maya the sacrifice was not just a gratuitous event but it was a deeply important right it was conect connected with the Resurrection The Rebirth the renewal of life
itself this extraordinary Discovery sheds new light on the mysterious burial practices of the Ancient Maya could archaeologists be on the brink of another groundbreaking find at Copan a team of scientists investigates one of the main temples they are using Cutting Edge technology called muon Imaging to scan the temple and search for a royal tomb as cosmic rays hit our atmosphere they shower the Earth in subatomic particles called muons by carefully placing muon detection plates the team can scan the structure for hidden cavities like a giant x-ray it takes months to gather enough data in the
meantime team leader SEI Nakamura looks for clues in a nearby Temple seichi believes there could be another Royal tomb hidden in this Temple a macabra discovery supports his [Music] theory nearby one of the team has discovered something curious a section of wall that looks different from the rest say believes this strange section of wall is an entrance that has been bricked [Music] up it will will take many more months of painstaking digging to clear the entrance to see what is [Music] beyond Stood Still up after death ritual burials appeased the gods and ensured safe passage
to the next world but how did the Meer appeal to their deities during [Music] life a clue could lie in a stunning Limestone carving Panos ctim menos investigates the carving shows a king holding a torch kneeling next to him is his Queen we can see the queen running a rope with thorns on it through her tongue to let blood in the Maya World blood letting was a common practice High status Maya would lacerate their own ears tongue or other sensitive areas using sting Ray spines and obsidian glass but it was done for a purpose my
Elites lived lives of great privilege but there was a price to be paid for that in their own blood Maya rulers claimed legitimacy through their special access to the supernatural world it was their job to speak to the gods and to seek their favor the most effective way of asking for favors from the supernatural world was to offer up your own blood bloodletting was a sacrifice you could repeat but it was not for the fainthearted this would have hurt when is hot and humid you don't heal for ages so as well as being painful it
would have been potentially quite dangerous who were these bloodthirsty deities and what was their role in the lives of the [Music] Maya magnificent Maya cities were rich with mighty temples and beautiful carvings dedicated to mysterious deities in Copan David sedat wants to find out more there are Clues dotted all over the city carvings of an impressive bird the Scarlet mcco the MC is a certainly a very proud loud creature he out shouts anybody around why did the Maya carve MCA all over their City there are many sculptures in Copan that show that the Divine king
and the Nobles wore headdresses of long feathers it would have been a glorious spectacle but to the Maya the mcco was more more than flamboyant headwear it played an important role in their creation story when the gods first created the world there were no humans and no light just a vain bird called seven mcco pretending to be the Sun the gods tried to create humans from mud and wood but they had no soul and could not worship so the Gods destroyed them then one day two young Gods called the hero twins challenged seven mcco and
shot the impostor from his [Music] tree eventually the twins became the real moon and sun now when the gods tried to create humans from mazee they finally succeeded the Maya had over 160 deities they were complex beings with tangled roles and intricate functions the Maya belied in a fractal Universe something that was constantly changing forming new patterns if the gods were angered they could Smite the population with crop failure or drought keeping them happy was essential what can hidden evidence reveal about the ingenious ways the Maya survived against the odds the Magnificent city of takal
thrived for over 1,000 years and was once home to an estimated 60,000 people but how did the city survive when conditions became hostile Livy gracioso has been studying the Maya for over 30 years she believes their survival rested on a very simple substance water we have a rainy season and a dry season and the dry season can last for over 4 months and they have to assure to have enough water for everybody during the dry season Lakes don't form naturally here because the Limestone Bedrock is porous when it rains the water is quickly absorbed into
the ground how did the kings of tial provide water for the tens of thousands of people who lived here today the evidence is consumed by dense jungle but hidden within the trees Livy finds something extraordinary a large depression in the ground we are actually in the palace Reservoir we have a big chain of reservoirs in tal Plaza these reservoirs are part of a Monumental water management system the Maya built canals to collect rainwater running off T car's buildings and roads they carved out a deep Basin lined it with clay and built a 10 m Stone
Dam that doubled up as a Causeway in the rainy season this created a huge Reservoir over 180 M across when it was full it overflowed into an even bigger pool lower down these gigantic artificial Lakes made up a network of more than 20 reservoirs storing millions of liters of water right in the heart of takal treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History hit there are topics for all history lovers from Pompei to D-Day
sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with history hit but with so many people living here keeping the water clean was a Monumental challenge in our studies we found cyanobacteria and contamination with Mercury that's really toxic for people the Mayas needed to create a solution to filter water to make it safe to drink for everybody they came up with an ingenious answer answer in a mine 30 km from tal the Maya dug out volcanic rocks and sand
and carried it back to the city the sand contained the mineral zeolite which works like a molecular C to filter out toxins and pathogens technology used to this day it's thought that the Meer used this sand to build large scale filters onto the end of their water collection channels it was the first water purification system of its kind in the world and the people of tial relied on it for a thousand years for kings and rulers it must have been very important to have the ability to control water because that will give them Prestige and
also that shows power pioneering engineering delivered safe drinking water to the people of Dalal but survival was precarious and in the 10th Century Maya cities were mysteriously abandoned what caused this devastating collapse of civilization in Mexico paleoclimatologists ikuko kitaba and teshi nakagawa search for Clues to what caused the Maya to abandon their City tesi has an idea could climate change have triggered the collapse of Maya civilization to find out the team has built a floating platform they attach a drill which they will use to collect sediment samples from the lake bed it's a delicate process
the team needs to drill to exactly the right depth and then extract each sample without disturbing the sediments each core is 60 cm long and is made up of layers of sediment called valves like the rings of a tree each valve represents one year in the lifetime of the lake if a major climatic event caused the Maya collapse evidence will be locked in these layers ikuko carefully records each sample the team must take the samples to Japan for analysis they hope to find Clues to what caused Mya civilization to fall after centuries of success but
what can Grim evidence found deep underground reveal about the people who helped it to rise mayia rulers built stunning monuments to glorify themselves and their gods at pen K kings created some of the most beautiful architecture in the Maya World Rodrigo leendo investigates how the city's Elite lived the palat palen is the most important building in the city because this was the actual building where the important administrative and political decisions were made the palace is a masterpiece of Maya engineering with an observation tower Courtyards and even indoor toilets near the entrance is an intriguing carving
Rodrigo believes it provides a clue to how Maya Kings like pakal ruled in this court it's presented a series of captives very close to be sacrified the carvings depict a key moment in Pen's history when pakal's Army won a victory over a rival Kingdom and captured its ruler bakal was really trying to send a message and show everybody coming into the palace one of his finest moments in his Reign so visitors or high dignitaries would look at this scene with a little bit of fright together with an elite Council Maya Kings ruled the cities through
a mix of fear and awe they enjoyed a life of comfort and luxury can human remains discovered in the city reveal what the Maya ruling classes looked like Luis Nunes has been studying the bones of the Ancient Maya for 20 years he examines a skull found in a temple it belongs to a man around 40 years old he is part of a group of around 15 bual all in their individual caskets he is a high status individual the very very elite of the society when Louise takes a closer look at the skull he spots something
strange it's an unusual shape what we have here it's a very beautiful example of the artificial cranial modific ification and most of the population have this type of bone modification cranial modification was a way of distorting the soft skulls of babies by binding them with hard boards as they got older the bones fused into this elongated shape Lise believes this practice had both a practical and a spiritual purpose some people believe that has to do with the status of the individual May maybe like a sign of beauty uh to be honest it's a little bit
of a mystery skull shaping was not the only way the Maya showed off their status Louise examines the man's teeth one very interesting detail is the dental modifications in this case uh we see four of the upper TI with inlays one black and the other one green the Meer drilled small holes in their teeth and decorated them with precious stones like Jade or obsidian the discovery of elite Maya burials reveals the extraordinary riches Maya Elite used to display their status what other Maya Treasures could still lie hidden waiting to be discovered in kapan the Japanese
team continue their search SE for a royal tomb inside Temple 11 to find it it's vital their detectors point in exactly the right direction after months of waiting early analysis reveals they have missed their target to decide where to scan next seichi investigates an area near the top of the temple he finds a tantalizing opening Stone steps lead down into the darkness but it's too unstable for the team to enter they use a camera to look inside it reveals a shaft 5 m deep with a small chamber at the bottom [Music] this intriguing cavity provides
a clue to the exact position of the Tomb now they know more precisely where to look the team can try scanning again they set up their photographic plates at a new angle facing where they think the tomb could be astrophysicist KIRO morishima is confident they've got it right this time the scanners detect Cosmic particles called muons that penetrate the temple like a giant x-ray discovering a tomb could finally help explain what happened to the ancient Maya the beautiful Maya city of Copan Now lies ruined Ravel investigates how this once powerful Kingdom met its end a
clue could lie on an unusual Square altar these altars represents the 17th King and there is a the date which is February 822 this altar was built to celebrate the succession of a 17th ruler of Copan but something is wrong on the other side uh they started to carve but it is not finished so it looks like something sudden happened this is the very last thing that has been CED in kop is the end of kopan why is the altar unfinished Renee believes this is evidence that before the new king of Copan could finish his
project Maya civilization collapsed the collapse of Copan must be seen in the context of the general collapse of the Maya civilization between 800 and 900 uh what are the reasons for that collapse is not yet very clear over the next 100 years Maya Society disintegrated Wars broke out many died and cities like Copan were abandoned the city from a peak of say 25,000 th000 people in a few decades just went down to say 5,000 people other powerful cities like pelen and tial also fell silent what happened to cause this catastrophic breakdown of Maya civilization in
Japan the team begin their analysis of the sediment samples taken from the lake each 60 cm sample contains hundreds of valves or layers they have 6 and2 M of core taking them back thousands of years well before the mea collapse if the layers have been Disturbed the information is lost IO checks for damage it's a success the layers are undisturbed and the team can start their analysis if if a flood drought or human activity contributed to the Maya collapse they hope to find evidence of it in here and it's not long before teesi makes a
discovery the ancient Leaf has been preserved for over a thousand years it acts like a timestamp allowing the team to precisely date the layer could it hold Clues to what really happened to the mea in Guatemala Livy groso investigates what else may have caused the Maya to abandon their cities she she travels to one of the country's many active volcanoes this one is called pakaya it could provide a clue to the mystery of the Maya collapse bakaya is often erupting sometimes it's only uh Columns of smoke but it's very often that they have lava flow
going down with all the ashes that were expelled to the atmosphere they travel thousands of kilometers and all these ashes that fall into the ground they are very helpful to create fertile soils volcanic ash is an excellent fertilizer it contains magnesium and phosphates minerals still used in fertilizers today when experts analyzed the soil at tal they found traces of volcanic ash from these volcanoes blown on the wind but what happened when the winds changed sometimes when the prevailing winds go in another Direction the ashes won't be delivered to the area they were supposed to go
without this fertilizer Maya Farmers may have struggled to produce enough food for Tal's enormous population but Livy believes there could be an even more dramatic reason for the abandonment of the cities in the soil samples we took we find out that at least they were like three uh major volcanic eruptions that were really strong mostly at the time the cities were abandoned a huge volcanic eruption may have devastated the Maya ashes fell into the reservoirs water was scarce and it really had catastrophic consequences for the Maya Society they may have think it could have been
the end of the world by the middle of the 10th Century a these once Mighty cities were empty what happened to the people who left Clues May lie in the spectacular city of chichan nit in modern day Mexico at the heart of the city is a towering pyramid 30 m tall and 55 M wide with nine tiers in chuchen the castle is one of the most famous structures because of it Beauty and also its magnificent architecture Livy believes this Monumental outer pyramid provides a a clue to what happened to the Maya [Music] people when archaeologists
excavated inside the castle they found a smaller pyramid beneath it and another one beneath that like Russian dolls the innermost pyramid was built around 500 AD and the second one 200 years later but the imposing outer pyramid dates to the 10th Century over 100 years after the Maya collapse if the Maya had already abandoned their cities who built it although many large cities were abandoned they were other cities that they were occupied at that time but they flourish and become stronger and larger and a good example is chuchen This Magnificent pyramid was also built by
the Maya it's proof that after great cities like Copan and tial fell into ruin others rose up chendi area was populated way before that but after the big cities were abandoned it start becoming like a great City let's say after 1,000 ad on chichin grew to become a major Maya Capital while other cities fell into ruin but how did shock waves from the collapse affect the way the mayia lived for a long time the Maya rarely sacrificed humans only on special occasions like the death of a king but after the 10th Century those killings became
more frequent if a team lost in a Maya ball game The Players could be beheaded their skulls were placed on racks along with scores of heads from sacrificed prisoners of war and at a nearby sinkhole more than 200 men women and children were thrown in Dead or Alive what fueled the Maya's sudden drive to Plate their gods there's evidence that there was an increase in sacrifices and not only the quantity but also the diversity of sacrifices Livy believes that after the turbulence of the collapse the Maya started turning more to religion because of the crisis
you know people will take Refugee in religion and they start making it more intense like performing more sacrifices or doing rituals to please the Gods in order to keep the balance and stability in their society evidence from chichan nit has revealed that after the Maya collapse they built a new Society but it was very different there was more instability more Warfare and more political turbulence every day scientists Edge closer to understanding what caused this radical change back in Japan the scanning team study the results of their groundbreaking attempt to find a burial chamber inside Copan
Temple [Music] 11 they've created a 3D model they compare it with the scans to look for any anomalies that could indicate a tomb [Music] but the internal tunnels and collapsed areas make the temple difficult to [Music] [Music] analyze [Music] for now at least they cannot see a tomb but armed with this new information they plan to return to Copan and try again [Music] experts have taken another step forward in their search for kaan's lost Kings but for now Temple 11 holds on to its Secrets will the other team have more success and solve the mystery
of the Maya collapse at its peak the Maya civilization covered more than 250,000 square kilm and numbered around 11 million people why did their dominance come to an [Music] end in Japan ikuko kitaba and her team are searching for evidence of the Maya collapse in the sediment cause they sampled from the lake bed first they examine the levels of nitrogen the results are [Music] shocking the levels of nitrogen are extremely high but drop sharply around the late 9th century what caused this abrupt change it's a clear sign of human activity the sharp decline in nitrogen
levels is proof that the population plummeted at the time of the collapse but to the team's surprise evidence of a major climatic event remains elusive what happened to decimate the Maya population ikuko has an alternative Theory ikuko believes that over farming may have played a role in the collapse of Maya civilization their findings are not what they expected there's no sign of a natural disaster it opens the door to a whole new area of [Music] research [Music] scientists are one step closer to solving this ancient mystery but even the powerful Maya cities that came after
the collapse couldn't last forever how did the Glorious Maya civilization finally come to an [Music] end Luis Jose Hernandez has been studying Maya history for over 20 years he hunts for Clues on the island of Flores in Guatemala there were 21 small Maya pyramids here now we can see a church but the church was built on top of a Mayan temple four centuries ago this was a bustling Maya City who built this church here the Spanish first arrived in Mexico in 1519 and quickly conquered the Aztecs but the mayia put up Fierce resistance it took
the Spanish 170 years to defeat all their separate Kingdoms in February 1697 the Invaders attacked the last Maya Bastion the island of Flores many Maya Defenders perished in a hail of Spanish gunfire and the rest were forced to abandon the city how many people die we really don't know according to the historical records the lake color changed to Red the color of blood from the Maya ruins arose the modern city of Flores it's the second oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the Americas after the conquest European diseases devastated the Maya people but there is still 6
million Maya descendants living in the region today the Spanish destroyed everything but they didn't destroy custom tradition and even the language the vast kingdoms of the Ancient Maya a civilization once lost to the Jungle now Archaeology is revolutionizing our understanding of how these remarkable people lived and died with Clues hidden for Millennia inside spectacular temples ancient texts and carvings the Priceless Treasures of Royal burials and even locked in the sediment of Lake beds with stone tools the Maya built stunning monuments and elaborate tombs for their powerful kings and queens they used Advanced engineering to survive
harsh conditions and when some cities collapsed others rose up more spectacular than ever many mysteries about the life and death of this great civilization still remain but with the help of groundbreaking technology experts are gradually unlocking the secrets of the ancient ient [Music] [Music] MEA
