- 11 months ago
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00:00The Apocalypse
00:04When an entire people are destroyed
00:10Or destroy themselves
00:13The end of civilization
00:16For us today, as we go about our daily lives
00:21It's barely something we consider
00:23We're so sure it couldn't happen to us
00:27But for some civilizations
00:30It already has
00:34The remnants of great kingdoms
00:45Empires
00:47Civilizations
00:48Span the globe
00:50The old Egyptian kingdom
00:52The Roman Empire
00:54The Sumerians
00:56Drought
00:57Conflict
00:58Collapse
01:00We know the story of their rise
01:02And also their fall
01:04But one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen
01:09Still holds mysteries for archaeologists
01:12The Maya civilization
01:15For nearly 3,000 years
01:18The Maya thrived in the rainforests of Central America
01:23Their civilization evolved
01:26Not as a centralized empire
01:29But a series of rival city-states
01:31All with common languages
01:33Religion
01:34And architecture
01:35At its peak
01:37At its peak
01:37In 500 CE
01:39Great stone cities
01:41Covered the Yucatan Peninsula
01:43Their heartland
01:45Was in the southern lowlands of Guatemala
01:48The Maya civilization
01:51The Maya civilization just explodes
01:53You have more buildings being made
01:55The cities are getting larger
01:57The art is getting more intricate
01:58They have sport
02:00They have stadia
02:01They are able to make observations
02:03And chart perfectly
02:05The movement of the stars
02:06They had developed
02:11An understanding of science
02:12And mathematics
02:13That far exceeded the western worlds
02:16At the time
02:17Their astronomy
02:20And mathematics
02:22Were incredible
02:23They have one monument
02:25And the entire back of it
02:27Is covered with the glyphs
02:29It's a giant mathematical table
02:32Multiplying into the billions
02:35At the heart of each Maya city
02:38Was a divine king
02:40The holy lord
02:41Who they believed
02:43Could communicate
02:43With the ancestors
02:44And the gods
02:45Guaranteeing
02:47Their people's survival
02:48An offering
02:50Of their own blood
02:51And the blood of others
02:53In the form of human sacrifice
02:55Ensured this
02:56The civilization
03:00Reached a spectacular height
03:02But by 900 CE
03:05Their great cities
03:07Are abandoned
03:08And the Maya people
03:09All but disappear
03:12We ask the question
03:15What happened
03:17To the Maya civilization?
03:26Europeans first encountered
03:27The people of Central America
03:29In the early 16th century
03:31By 1519
03:33Spanish conquistadors
03:34Led by HernĂ¡n Cortes
03:36Began their colonization
03:38Of this new world
03:39They were driven by its promise
03:42Of great mineral wealth
03:44But they also found a people
03:45Right for conversion
03:47To Christianity
03:48The Spanish conquistadors
03:52Were driven by two things
03:55One was gold
03:57No question about it
03:59And the other was
04:00That they were extremely religious
04:02Catholic
04:04And they wanted to spread
04:06The word of God
04:07And the Catholic Church
04:09Along the edges
04:11Of the Yucatan Peninsula
04:13They encountered
04:14A disparate
04:15Small population
04:16Of indigenous people
04:18Known as the Maya
04:19The conquistadors
04:22Were fanatical
04:23In the way
04:24They delivered
04:24The Bible's message
04:25Bishop Diego Delada
04:29Was incredibly
04:30Incredibly vicious
04:32In the way
04:33That he perpetrated
04:34His religion
04:35On the people
04:36He tortured them
04:37He burnt their books
04:43They had wonderful books
04:44Made of deerskin
04:45And tree bark
04:46That they used
04:47To write down
04:48Their local myths
04:48He needed to destroy
04:51The culture
04:51That was in the way
04:52Of them seeing
04:53The true way
04:54To Christ
04:55Originally
04:56There would have been
04:57Thousands of these
04:58Bark paper books
04:59And he gathered up
05:01All the bark paper books
05:02That he could
05:03And he burned them
05:04In a massive bonfire
05:05But the Spanish
05:09Found it a lot harder
05:10Destroying the ruins
05:11Of the massive stone cities
05:13They found across the Yucatan
05:15As the centuries passed
05:18And the jungles were explored
05:20More and more
05:21Of these mysterious
05:22Stone cities
05:23Were reported
05:23By the early 19th century
05:27The first widely read account
05:29Of these discoveries
05:30Reached Europe
05:31Spanish author
05:34Antonio Del Rio's report
05:36Creates a sensation
05:37Describes abandoned cities
05:41Overgrown and hidden
05:42By vegetation
05:43Throughout Central America
05:45Among those who read it
05:48Are the amateur archaeologists
05:50And explorers
05:51John Lloyd Stevens
05:52And Frederick Catherwood
05:54They are mesmerized
05:56By stories of a lost world
05:57Consumed by the rainforest
05:59Who built these stone monuments
06:03Reclaimed by the jungle
06:05Why were they abandoned
06:06To the archaeological establishment
06:10It seemed impossible
06:11That the indigenous people
06:13Of the region
06:14Known as the Maya
06:16Could be responsible
06:17The establishment
06:19The establishment at the time
06:20Saw these pyramids
06:22And they saw
06:23These things
06:25Which looked a lot
06:26Like hieroglyphs
06:27And they thought
06:28Could this be
06:30Made by the ancient Egyptians
06:32Or maybe it was the Phoenicians
06:33It couldn't have been
06:35The local people
06:36Stevens and Catherwood
06:38Are dumbstruck
06:39By the establishment's view
06:40They knew that
06:42They couldn't possibly
06:43Be anything else
06:44Other than
06:45A native
06:46Central American
06:48Civilization
06:49For them it's clear
06:52These ruins
06:52Are the remnants
06:53Of an ancient
06:54Mesoamerican
06:55Civilization
06:56They set out
06:58To prove their theory
06:59But why have they
07:02Been left to the jungle
07:03Could they find
07:05Any evidence
07:06For why these cities
07:07Had been abandoned
07:08Stevens and Catherwood
07:13Armed only with
07:14A few descriptions
07:15Decide to go down
07:17And find
07:18These lost cities
07:20In the middle
07:21Of the rainforest
07:22Central America
07:23Was in the midst
07:24Of civil war
07:25It was extremely dangerous
07:27It was bandits
07:29It was wild
07:30Stevens and Catherwood
07:32Were armed to the teeth
07:34Their mission begins
07:36In Honduras
07:37At the base
07:38Of the Yucatan Peninsula
07:40Each of them
07:42Had two pistols
07:43Swords
07:45I mean they were prepared
07:47This was dangerous
07:49And they would soon
07:52Discover just how
07:53Dangerous a civil war
07:54Could be
07:55For foreign travelers
07:56They were a little
07:58They were a little bit
07:59Naive in thinking
08:00Naive in thinking
08:00We'll just make our way
08:01Through it
08:02And keep out of the way
08:04And just go about
08:05Our business
08:06But while sheltering
08:08In an abandoned church
08:10Drunken soldiers
08:11Make it
08:12Their business
08:13They were taken
08:15Hostage
08:16And held overnight
08:18Under arrest
08:20In very dicey
08:21Circumstances
08:22That they didn't know
08:23They were going to
08:23Get out of
08:24The following morning
08:27The soldiers
08:28Sober up
08:29And Stevens and Catherwood
08:31Are set free
08:31To continue
08:32On their journey
08:33But now
08:35Their greatest threat
08:36Isn't the civil war
08:37But the terrain
08:39Of Central America
08:41I don't know
08:43If you've seen
08:44The mountains
08:44In this region
08:45But they are near cliffs
08:47And these guys
08:48Were trekking through
08:50The heat
08:51The rain
08:51The insects
08:52The discomfort
08:53But Stevens and Catherwood
08:57Finally locate
08:58Their first stone ruins
09:00Near the Honduran town
09:02Of Copan
09:03The two waste no time
09:06They employ local tribesmen
09:08To clear the dense vegetation
09:10And as the forest
09:12Is cut back
09:12They realize their adventure
09:14Was worth the hardship
09:16The illustrations
09:18They had seen
09:19Were nothing
09:21Like what they found
09:23It was electrified
09:26It took their breath away
09:28They found monuments
09:33Pyramids
09:34Temples
09:35And houses
09:36Made of stone
09:38It was a revelation
09:39It was astounding
09:41And as Stevens and Catherwood
09:45Continue their journey
09:46It becomes clear
09:47This first site
09:48Isn't unique
09:50Hidden beneath the rainforest
09:52They uncover stone city
09:54After stone city
09:55The scale of construction
09:59Is breathtaking
10:00And across the sites
10:02They uncover
10:03Intricate carvings
10:05What looks to them
10:06Like hieroglyphs
10:08This is an entire civilization
10:11All sharing
10:12Common iconography
10:13And not only that
10:15They realize
10:16That none of this iconography
10:18Is similar to anything
10:19They've seen before
10:20Yes it might be hieroglyphs
10:23But it's not anything
10:24Like the Egyptian hieroglyphs
10:26This is brand new
10:27And this must come
10:29From the Mesoamericans
10:30Themselves
10:31They cut
10:33Climb
10:34And scrape their way
10:35Through nearly 5,000 kilometers
10:37Of rainforest
10:38And uncover
10:39Some of the greatest
10:40Maya cities
10:41Ever built
10:42From Copan
10:45And Palenque
10:46In the south
10:47To Tulum
10:48Uxmal
10:50And Chichen Itza
10:51In the north
10:52Of the Yucatan Peninsula
10:54In total
10:57They identify
10:5844 Maya sites
11:00And the similarities
11:01In architecture
11:02Art
11:04And the carved glyphs
11:06Between the separate cities
11:07Show it's the work
11:09Of a single people
11:10The Maya civilization
11:12When they publish
11:15Their work
11:16Creates a sensation
11:18The books were bestsellers
11:21Stevens is a brilliant author
11:23And the illustrations
11:26Of course
11:27Just
11:29Struck the popular mind
11:31It was a sensation
11:33They were the archaeological
11:34Celebrities of their day
11:37But their findings
11:39Ask more questions
11:40Than they answer
11:41What had happened
11:44To these people
11:44What could cause
11:46The collapse
11:47Of an entire civilization
11:49And when
11:51Did it happen
11:52If the early archaeologists
12:00Could find a way
12:01To date the Maya civilization
12:02They might be able
12:04To work out
12:04When it collapsed
12:06There could be clues
12:08In the Maya glyphs
12:09Found carved into stone
12:11Across the civilization
12:13The problem was
12:14No one could read them
12:16The task of decoding
12:19The glyphs
12:19Is made even harder
12:21By the actions
12:22Of fanatical
12:23Spanish conquistadors
12:24Centuries earlier
12:26Invaluable secrets
12:27To unlocking
12:28The Maya writing system
12:29Went up in flames
12:31When their books
12:32Were burnt
12:33The early archaeologists
12:35Trying to decode
12:37The Maya glyphs
12:38Are forced to start
12:39From scratch
12:40Almost
12:41Some copies
12:44Of their books
12:44Did still survive
12:46Could they help
12:47Unlock the mystery
12:48Of the glyphs
12:49The archaeological world
12:52Is incredibly lucky
12:53That Ernst Forstemann
12:55Worked at the Dresden Library
12:57The Royal Dresden Library
12:59Held one of only
13:01Four Maya books
13:02That had been spared
13:03From the Spanish flames
13:04It's known
13:05As the Dresden Codex
13:07When Fosterman
13:10Began work
13:11On the Dresden Codex
13:13He was already building
13:14On the scholarship
13:16Of others
13:17They already knew
13:18That the Dresden Codex
13:20Dealt with
13:21The Maya view
13:23Of astronomy
13:24And their calendar
13:26But just how
13:28No one was sure
13:30With much of their
13:32Writing system
13:33Indecipherable
13:34Decoding their calendar
13:36Could be the crucial
13:37First step
13:38To understanding
13:39When the Maya lived
13:40And when they collapsed
13:42Forstemann
13:43Takes up the challenge
13:45Forstemann worked out
13:47That some of the glyphs
13:49Were representing
13:50Numbers
13:51And they weren't just
13:53Mathematical counting
13:54They were actually
13:55Dates
13:55As a mathematician
13:58Forstemann realised
13:59That Maya dates
14:00Were counted
14:01As just five numbers
14:02Separated by dots
14:05Now this measures
14:07Really huge periods
14:08Of time
14:09The right handmost number
14:10Is what Maya call
14:11A keyin
14:12And shows days
14:13The next one in
14:15Is a winal
14:16And that represents
14:17A period of 20 days
14:18The next one in
14:20Is a tun
14:21And that counts years
14:22And the next one in
14:23Is a katun
14:24Which are blocks
14:24Of 20 years
14:25The next one in
14:27The fifth
14:27Is a bak tun
14:2820 periods
14:30Of 20 years each
14:32Which is 144,000 days
14:35Or a little less
14:38Than 400 years
14:39When it started again
14:41It was a breakthrough
14:43Archaeologists
14:44Finally understood
14:45Not only how
14:47The Maya counted time
14:48But also
14:50How to date
14:51Their history
14:52In the Dresden Codex
14:56They had
14:57Marked down the date
14:58Of the occurrence
15:00Of a solar eclipse
15:01And the historical occurrence
15:04Of a solar eclipse
15:05Is something astronomers
15:06Can calculate
15:07Using our own calendar
15:09If you can find
15:11That date
15:11And the Maya date
15:12For the eclipse
15:13You can sync the two
15:15And astronomers
15:17Found a match
15:18A solar eclipse
15:20Recorded in the Dresden Codex
15:22On the 16th of July
15:23790 CE
15:25The Maya calendar
15:27And our own
15:28Were synchronized
15:29Archaeologists
15:31Archaeologists
15:31Began seeing dates
15:32Chiseled
15:33Into stone
15:34At sites
15:35Across the Maya world
15:36Dates were carved
15:38On the sides
15:38Of monuments
15:39On the sides
15:40Of temples
15:40They were
15:41Absolutely everywhere
15:42Now that archaeologists
15:45Could read
15:45The Maya dates
15:46They turned their attention
15:48To their writing system
15:49And one particular
15:51Kind of carved monument
15:52Captured their attention
15:54Archaeologists
15:56Had long suspected
15:57That the stelaide
15:59The stone tablets
16:00That had been erected
16:01Outside temples
16:02Represented
16:04Some kind of history
16:06Of gods
16:07Or kings
16:08Some kind of
16:09Important figures
16:10Could the Maya
16:11Have recorded
16:12Any clues
16:13For what caused
16:14Their demise
16:15The problem was
16:17That although
16:18The Maya calendar
16:19Had been decoded
16:20This was only
16:21A small portion
16:22Of their writing system
16:23The vast majority
16:25Of their glyphs
16:26Still remained
16:27Indecipherable
16:28If they could just
16:30Break this code
16:31Then they could
16:32Understand so much
16:34About what the people
16:35Who built these cities
16:37Found so important
16:38That they'd carve it
16:40Into stone
16:40For over a hundred years
16:44Archaeologists were trying
16:46To fully decipher
16:47The Maya glyphs
16:48Over 800 individual glyphs
16:51Were identified
16:52And researchers suspected
16:54The writing system
16:55Was logosyllabic
16:57A mixture of logograms
16:59Where a symbol
17:00Represents a separate word
17:02And syllabograms
17:03Where each symbol
17:05Represents spoken sounds
17:07And are combined
17:08To enunciate whole words
17:10But with so many
17:12Individual glyphs
17:13The system was too complex
17:15The Maya code
17:17Remained indecipherable
17:19Until in the 1980s
17:24Fifteen-year-old
17:26David Stewart
17:27Took up the challenge
17:28After centuries of failure
17:30What chance
17:31Did a schoolboy have?
17:33As a child
17:34He'd grown up
17:35Exploring Mesoamerican ruins
17:37Because his father
17:38Worked for the
17:38National Geographic Society
17:40And when new
17:41Temple complexes
17:42Were discovered
17:43This kid
17:44David
17:44Would sit down
17:45With his crayons
17:46And his sketchbook
17:47And draw the glyphs too
17:48And it meant that he had
17:50As in-depth
17:51An understanding
17:52Of the Maya writing systems
17:54As all the experts
17:56In the world did
17:57But like the experts
17:59Before him
17:59Stewart couldn't get past
18:01The complexity
18:02Of the language
18:03With over 800
18:05Individual symbols
18:06There were too many
18:07For each one
18:08To represent
18:09A spoken syllable
18:10But the sheer number
18:12Of glyphs
18:13Gives the teenager
18:14A clue
18:15David Stewart
18:16Realised that
18:17The symbols
18:18Didn't each represent
18:20A different syllable
18:21There were multiple symbols
18:23That would represent
18:24The same syllable
18:25There weren't 800
18:27Individual syllables
18:29In the Maya language
18:30Just variations
18:31For writing each one
18:33Words could be depicted
18:35Using many different forms
18:37And individual syllables
18:39Written multiple ways
18:41The Maya code
18:43Was cracked
18:44And as archaeologists
18:46Began to translate
18:47The stelae
18:48They were blown away
18:50They showed birth dates
18:52They showed accession dates
18:53They showed important victories
18:55And terrible defeats
18:57And when the throne
18:58Was passed on
18:59To the next king
19:00In those tablets of stone
19:03We have the history
19:04Of ancient Maya
19:05Archaeologists
19:08Could finally read
19:10The Maya story
19:11And what they discovered
19:12Was astonishing
19:20In the rainforests
19:21Of Mexico
19:22Guatemala
19:23Belize
19:24Honduras
19:25And El Salvador
19:26The Maya people
19:28Thrived
19:29For nearly 3,000 years
19:31As early as
19:332000 BCE
19:34Civilizations began to emerge
19:37In Central America
19:38First the Olmecs
19:41And then the Tiocahuacen
19:43Of Mexico
19:44Their traditions
19:45Shaped Maya culture
19:47In roughly 250 CE
19:51The Maya developed
19:53Into the civilization
19:54We know today
19:55Almost a thousand years
19:59Before the Aztecs
20:00Further north in Mexico
20:01And the great Inca Empire
20:03In South America
20:05But it's from 500 CE
20:10In the southern lowland region
20:12Of Guatemala
20:13That the Maya
20:14Truly reached their stride
20:16It's a civilization
20:23To rival any
20:24But by 900 CE
20:26At their very height
20:28The Maya
20:29Abandoned their heartland
20:31Remnants of the people
20:33Survived
20:33Along the edges
20:34Of the Yucatan
20:35These are the people
20:37The Conquistadors
20:38First encountered
20:39In the 16th century
20:40But their civilization
20:43Is a shadow
20:44Of its former self
20:45And over the centuries
20:47The cause of their exodus
20:49From the southern lowlands
20:50Is forgotten
20:51Studying them
20:53Is really kind of like
20:55The early autopsies
20:56To understand the body
20:57It's in ruins
20:59In the jungle
20:59What happened
21:00It's one of the greatest
21:02Cold cases
21:03In history
21:04What caused the collapse
21:07Of the Maya civilization
21:08But among the ruins
21:11Surely the Maya
21:13Must have left
21:13Some clues
21:14Deep in the Guatemala
21:26Rainforest
21:27Along the Passion River
21:28Archaeologists uncover
21:30Something disturbing
21:31At Maya cities
21:36All along this river
21:38They find human bones
21:40A vast majority
21:43Of the samples
21:45Showed evidence
21:46Of a particular
21:47Bone deformity
21:48Particularly in the skull
21:49Called porotic hyperostosis
21:52What you end up with
21:54Is skulls
21:54That kind of
21:55Look like sponges
21:57But they're thick
21:58They're deformed
21:59Deformities in the bones
22:04Like this
22:05It's clear
22:05These people
22:06Were not healthy
22:07As more deformed bones
22:11Were discovered
22:11In adjacent towns
22:13It became clear
22:15They were distributed
22:16Along the Passion River
22:18Archaeologists need to know
22:27What was causing
22:28The deformations
22:29They induced the help
22:31Of paleopathologist
22:33Frank Saul
22:35The conclusions
22:36That Saul and his team
22:38Came to in the 70s
22:39Was that
22:40The deformities
22:41In these bones
22:42Along the Passion River
22:43Were evidence
22:44Of malnutrition
22:45These people
22:46Had starved
22:47Malnutrition
22:49Suggested
22:50That the Maya
22:51Food chain
22:52Collapsed
22:53Given that rainforests
22:55Are notoriously
22:55Difficult to farm
22:57In many ways
22:58Overfarming
22:59Made sense
23:01Typically
23:04Tropical rainforest soils
23:05Aren't nutrient rich
23:07They can be exhausted
23:09Very quickly
23:10It's really hard
23:12To sustain
23:13A large population
23:14In a rainforest
23:15Where you've got
23:16Thin soils
23:17Where you have to
23:18Constantly
23:19Maintain this
23:21Delicate balance
23:22Between the nutrients
23:23Going into the soil
23:24And the nutrients
23:25Coming out of the soil
23:26Through your harvesting
23:27The idea
23:28The idea that the Maya population
23:29Outstripped their capacity
23:31To grow food
23:32Was tantalizing
23:34Particularly
23:35With the form of agriculture
23:37That archaeologists
23:38Consider the Maya used
23:40Slash
23:41And burn
23:42Clearing the forest
23:43And setting it alight
23:45In slash
23:46In slash
23:46And burn farming
23:47For every three years
23:49Or so of growing
23:49You then need
23:50Fifteen years
23:52Of the field
23:53To lay fallow
23:54For it to recharge
23:56Its nutrients again
23:57If you just keep
23:58Growing and growing
23:59And growing
23:59Without waiting
24:00Ten or fifteen years
24:01For the soil
24:02To replenish itself
24:03The food
24:04Will just stop growing
24:05Did the Maya population
24:07Outgrow the land
24:09Archaeologists
24:11Needed a way
24:12To understand
24:13The true scale
24:14Of their civilization
24:15For centuries
24:21Archaeologists
24:22Surveyed from the ground
24:24In the rainforest
24:25It's painstakingly slow
24:28But then a revolutionary
24:32Piece of aerial technology
24:33LiDAR
24:35Transformed archaeology
24:37Overnight
24:38LiDAR sends down
24:47Hundreds of thousands
24:48Of laser beams
24:49To the surface of the earth
24:51And it measures
24:52The speed of the laser beam
24:54Bouncing back
24:55And returning
24:56And so by measuring
24:57The distance
24:58You can calibrate
25:00Those data points
25:01And build a 3D model
25:03Of what the shape
25:04Of the land surface is
25:05The amazing thing
25:07About LiDAR
25:08Is that the light ray
25:10Will penetrate
25:11Right to the surface
25:13Even through
25:14Dense tree cover
25:15So you can start
25:17To build
25:17An incredibly detailed
25:19Picture of the land surface
25:21Hidden deep
25:22Under that vegetation
25:23If you suddenly see
25:24A straight line
25:25You know that probably
25:27That isn't mother nature
25:28That's the hand of humans
25:29You're looking for the things
25:31That stand out
25:31The anomalies
25:32And those are the points
25:33And those are the points to investigate
25:34And when LiDAR recorded the areas
25:37Around known Maya sites
25:39The results were astonishing
25:42Out of nowhere
25:43Over 60,000 unknown Maya structures
25:47Suddenly appeared
25:49What the LiDAR revealed to us
25:51What the LiDAR revealed to us
25:51Wasn't that the Mayans
25:52Lived in little cities
25:53Surrounded by jungle
25:55But actually
25:56All of these cities
25:57Were networked
25:58This is massive infrastructure
26:01This is one of the most significant civilizations
26:05That humanity has ever seen
26:07Crucially LiDAR revealed
26:11The true extent of the Maya world
26:13Tical is one of the greatest ancient Maya cities
26:17It's been studied for more than 100 years
26:21By archaeologists
26:22And to be honest
26:23We thought we knew quite a lot
26:25But then they sent up the LiDAR surveyors
26:28And it was an absolute game changer
26:32Scans of Tikal
26:34Showed the city was four times larger
26:37Than previously thought
26:39LiDAR analysis
26:43Has forced archaeologists
26:45To radically rethink
26:47The size of the Maya population
26:49There was an estimate of about 5 million people
26:52But the estimate has now been raised
26:55To about 15 million people
26:57The Maya civilization at this time
27:00Was one of the largest
27:03And most awe-inspiring on Earth
27:05This forces us to go back
27:11And recalculate
27:13What's called landscape-carrying capacity
27:15How many people
27:16Could have given landscape support?
27:19Surely
27:20It would be impossible
27:21For the nutrient-poor rainforest soil
27:24To sustain that level of population
27:26Did their agriculture simply give out on them?
27:30Just as archaeologists thought
27:33They had solved the mystery
27:34Of the sudden Maya collapse
27:36LiDAR analysis
27:38Threw everything on its head
27:40The Maya
27:46Were spectacularly advanced farmers
27:50They understood the limitations of agriculture
27:53In a rainforest
27:54And engineered the natural environment
27:57To maximise their farming yield
27:59LiDAR techniques have forced us
28:03To re-evaluate the scale of Maya ambition
28:08In terms of engineering their environment
28:11So much of the landscape
28:13Was managed for agricultural output
28:16They irrigated large, raised and a terraced field
28:20So that they could retain as much of the soil as possible
28:24Preventing runoff from water
28:26Preventing erosion
28:28Helping that vegetative matter stay in the soil
28:32So that it maintains its ability to grow crops well
28:36There are these areas that are swampy
28:38In Spanish the word is bajo
28:40And in these swampy areas
28:43You get a lot of vegetation
28:45That rots down very slowly
28:47And it stays that gloopy, thick, dark, rich organic matter
28:51Now, yeah, it stinks
28:53You don't necessarily want to fall in one
28:55But if you dump that stuff onto your field
28:57It's incredible fertiliser
29:00These are farmers who understand their place in the system
29:04In order to maximise the agricultural output of these landscapes
29:09The Maya were masters of farming
29:12In the typically difficult rainforest environment
29:15Cultivating the land
29:18Gave them a more dependable harvest
29:20And a food surplus
29:21And this allowed the Maya culture to flourish
29:26Provided the climate remain stable
29:30They had learned how to walk this tightrope
29:34They had learned how to reach this delicate balance
29:37Between not overexploiting
29:38But exploiting enough to feed everybody
29:41They were amazing experts at cultivating this rainforest
29:45And there was something else missing
29:47Written evidence of famine
29:50But did the Maya leave any clues for the cause of their collapse?
29:55Dr. Arthur Demarest's team excavate at Dos Pilas
30:06A Maya ruin near the Pasion River
30:09At the site of Dos Pilas is a staircase
30:13And it's absolutely covered in glyphs
30:16And the story the glyphs tell is one of war
30:20All out, bloody, vengeful war
30:24Could this have been the war to end all wars?
30:28The glyphs offer a tantalising breakthrough behind the Maya collapse
30:33Could one Maya group have wiped all others out?
30:38But the translators have a problem
30:40The glyphs seem incomplete
30:43Part of the story is missing
30:45The dig goes from bad to worse
30:50Excavations at the site were halted
30:56Because of the hurricane season
30:57And the excavators got a call saying
31:01That there'd been great destruction
31:03And lots of damage at the site
31:05But one of the things that happened
31:07Was that it revealed more hieroglyphs
31:09On the Dos Pilas staircase
31:11And this transformed everything
31:14The hurricanes exposed ten previously undiscovered stairs
31:19Covered in glyphs
31:21The missing part of the story
31:23The archaeologists could finally read the complete sequence
31:29It was the history of Dos Pilas
31:31And it was steeped in warfare
31:34Did the Maya destroy each other?
31:39As Demarest's team translated the glyphs
31:41They discovered a detailed story
31:44In the 600th CE
31:47Two superpowers wage war
31:49Tikal and Kalakmul
31:51Tikal rises to ascendancy
31:55And has overlordship of a huge area
31:58And lots of other very rich
32:01And well-endowed city-states
32:03In the 620s
32:06One of the sons of the Divine Dynasty
32:09Is sent to an outpost on the Passion River
32:12To establish a new city
32:14We know it as Dos Pilas
32:16And it was important
32:18As a sort of defensive military outpost
32:21Basically to ward off potential would-be attackers
32:25Because they could see that
32:26There was control across the whole area
32:28But Kalakmul wasn't deterred
32:32And Dos Pilas was captured and subjugated
32:34Analysis of the glyphs
32:37Show Dos Pilas pledged allegiance to Kalakmul
32:40And fought with them
32:41This war didn't end in total destruction
32:45It ended in assimilation
32:48In most cases
32:51They would put somebody else on the throne
32:53Or often the same king
32:55But now they're paying tribute
32:58To the other great city
33:00Rival cities and their people were subjugated
33:04It's evidence that the result of Maya conflict
33:07Was an expansion of influence
33:09Not a collapse
33:11Maya civilization was warlike
33:15But they managed to coexist
33:17The cause of their apocalypse
33:20Is a bigger mystery than ever
33:22Archaeologists return to the pattern of collapse
33:26To see if they had somehow overlooked a clue
33:30The collapse of the Maya cities along the Passion River
33:35Start with Dos Pilas
33:37Then, all along the Yucatan Peninsula
33:40Maya cities fall like dominoes
33:43The answer had to lie
33:45The answer had to lie
33:47In this very specific region
33:50Dr. Demarest and his team
33:56Are excavating at Conquen
33:59A Maya township located
34:01Where the Passion River
34:02Beats Guatemala's volcanic mountains
34:05The city of Conquen
34:08Was a small kingdom
34:11Under Dos Pilas
34:13We have there the largest jade workshop
34:16In the Americas
34:17So, the city was very important
34:19Here the archaeologists
34:22Make a gruesome discovery
34:24There's a little pool
34:30You know, natural little water hole
34:32They started digging a little hole
34:34And then it was bigger and bigger
34:35And then they started finding bones
34:37More bones
34:38More bones
34:40There were 30, I think it's 31 bodies
34:44Archaeologists know from Maya glyphs
34:47That in times of great crisis
34:49Human sacrifices were made
34:52Is this what happened here?
34:55Luckily, the Maya left behind
34:57A great deal of information
34:58About the macabre ritual
35:01When Maya were sacrificed
35:03They would be brought
35:04To the top of a pyramid
35:05They would be painted in blue
35:08Decapitated
35:09Their heart would be ripped down
35:11So it leaves a fairly
35:13Recognizable fingerprint
35:15In the archaeological record
35:16Were the bodies in the Conquen pit
35:19Human sacrifices?
35:23Dr. Demarest's team
35:24Enlists the help
35:25Of the Forensic Foundation
35:26Of Guatemala
35:27Forensic pathologists
35:30Who usually investigate
35:31War crimes
35:32They established
35:34That their killing
35:35Wasn't in keeping
35:36With sacrificial practice
35:38They had jade implants
35:42In their teeth
35:44And then you had
35:47Also you had
35:48Well, jaguar claw
35:50Necklaces
35:51And some canines
35:53Clearly these were not just
35:55You know
35:55Warriors or something
35:57They were high elite
35:59They could see that
36:02Some were spears
36:04A couple were bashed
36:06In the head
36:06Several had a
36:09Spear thrust
36:11Through the throat
36:11Severing his spinal cord
36:13The autopsies
36:15Make sacrifice unlikely
36:17So why
36:19Were these people killed?
36:21They find another clue
36:22In Conquen
36:23The palaces
36:25Parts are toppled
36:26Many
36:27Hundreds of tons
36:29Of dirt and garbage
36:30Are buried over
36:30The throne rooms
36:31And the services
36:32We're digging
36:34You know
36:34We're seeing this
36:35And wow
36:36This is really
36:36The motherlode
36:37You know
36:38For collapse
36:39They date the destruction
36:40To 800 CE
36:42Whatever happened
36:44At Conquen
36:45Happened near the start
36:47Of the Maya collapse
36:48Everything pointed
36:50To the deaths
36:51Being linked
36:52With a distinct
36:53Maya form of worship
36:55Could it offer clues
36:57For the cause
36:58Of their collapse?
37:02There is almost nothing
37:03In the Maya culture
37:04Which isn't
37:05A religious ceremony
37:06They had a holy lord
37:08At the top
37:09Who's effectively a king
37:10And he gets his power
37:11Because he is descended
37:13From the gods
37:14He could talk with the gods
37:15He can convene
37:16With the gods
37:17They had many many
37:19Different gods
37:20For different things
37:21A corn god
37:22A rain god
37:23It was crucial
37:23For the Maya people
37:24The common people
37:25That the gods
37:27Were placated
37:27This meant life and death
37:29Because the agricultural
37:30Base of their society
37:32Was very much
37:33Dependent on rain
37:35To appease the gods
37:38The holy lords
37:39Would honor them
37:40With an elaborate ceremony
37:42They put on pageants
37:46Before the people
37:47They loved red
37:49And they painted
37:50Their pyramids
37:51And their temples
37:52In these vivid colors
37:53The king would go up
37:56These giant stairways
37:59Carrying 200 pounds
38:01Of headdresses
38:02And jade
38:02Jade was one of their
38:05Most significant jewels
38:06The very noble
38:07The very religious
38:08Obviously the holy ruler
38:10Would have had a lot
38:11Of objects
38:12Involving jade
38:13As a way to communicate
38:14With the gods
38:15Once they had the attention
38:17Of the gods
38:18They opened up
38:19A unique line
38:21Of communication
38:21Blood was a way
38:24Of communicating
38:26With the gods
38:27The holy lord
38:29Would cut part of his body
38:31Often his genitalia
38:32And drain his blood
38:34Pieces of paper
38:37Or parchment
38:38Would be used
38:39To soak up the blood
38:40He would then
38:41Burn that blood
38:42And inhale the smoke
38:44Now this was meant
38:45To conjure
38:46A sort of intermediary
38:47To the gods
38:47A serpent
38:49Who would then
38:50Go and talk to the gods
38:51On behalf of the holy ruler
38:52And his people
38:54The visions would advise them
38:56On all aspects
38:58Of Maya life
38:59But crucially
39:00When to plant
39:02And harvest their crops
39:04And for the Maya
39:05The city that pleased
39:07The gods best
39:08Reaped the greatest rewards
39:10You have this competition
39:13Between the holy lords
39:14Of one city
39:16And another
39:16This is called
39:17Status robbery
39:18But also
39:19Construction
39:20Pyramid building
39:22And then you have to do it
39:22More
39:23And rituals
39:25They have to be bigger
39:26Which requires bigger
39:27And bigger stages
39:28And there are many cities
39:29In the Maya
39:30Very intense competition
39:32And there is evidence
39:34That in 796 CE
39:37The holy lord of Conquen
39:40Was riding high
39:41At the epicenter
39:43Of Maya trade
39:45In the holy lord's palace
39:50Dr. Demarest's team
39:52Have uncovered a sculpture
39:53It shows the holy lord
39:55Sitting astride
39:57A Maya water monster
39:58This was symbolizing
40:00That he was the king
40:01Of the river
40:02The rain forest
40:04Is hell
40:05To move through
40:06Rivers were the big highways
40:09The Pasion river
40:11Is the biggest river
40:13And it flows
40:14From the volcanic mountains
40:17All the way through
40:18To Mexico
40:19Jade was coming back
40:21Jade was necessary
40:24For the kings
40:26It's like very, very
40:28Powerful, significant
40:30In terms of your social status
40:32By 796
40:36The holy lord
40:37And his elites
40:38Had grown wealthy
40:39From the jade trade
40:41But just four years later
40:43The city
40:44Was abandoned
40:45It's a pattern
40:48Repeated across
40:49The Maya civilization
40:51A city reaches
40:52The height of power
40:53And then collapses
40:55They returned
40:57To the 31 bodies
40:58Thrown in the pit
40:59Understanding why
41:01They were killed
41:02Could be key
41:03And one very striking feature
41:05Provided a clue
41:07The victims
41:08Were buried
41:09Still wearing
41:10Their luxury items
41:12These were the remains
41:14Of the holy lord
41:15And his nobles
41:17It seemed very strange
41:19To us
41:19But it wasn't
41:20Some angry
41:22You know
41:22Massacre
41:23It's not invaders
41:24It's not people
41:26From a distance
41:27It's not war
41:28If they were killed
41:30By invaders
41:31Their bodies
41:32Would have been looted
41:33The holy lords
41:35Of Kongkwen
41:36Were killed
41:37And their shrines
41:39Desecrated
41:40By their own people
41:42But what triggered
41:43This sudden act
41:44Of violence
41:45Archaeologists
41:52Look downriver
41:53To Dos Pilas
41:54The regional powerhouse
41:56And rulers
41:56Of Kongkwen
41:57It's a very strange city
42:00Because it was founded
42:01For war
42:02But then
42:03When the wars
42:04Were over
42:05It became more
42:07Controlling the trade route
42:09The jade
42:10But it ended up
42:11Conquering much
42:12Of the
42:13Pasion river
42:14The conquest
42:15Didn't mean
42:17That they took over
42:18These cities in detail
42:19It did mean
42:20They paid tribute
42:21And it led to
42:22A period of great wealth
42:23In Dos Pilas
42:25But although financially
42:28Dos Pilas
42:28Was thriving
42:29There were signs
42:30That the city
42:31Had turned its back
42:32On its religious rights
42:34They were at their height
42:37In 760
42:38In 761
42:40They tore down
42:43A lot of their temples
42:45And palaces
42:45To build defensive walls
42:47There was obviously
42:49A coming attack
42:50But from whom
42:52Archaeologists
42:53Look to vassal cities
42:55Under the control
42:56Of Dos Pilas
42:57They strike gold
42:59In the ruins
42:59Of Tamarandito
43:00When archaeologists
43:02Began deciphering
43:03The stile
43:04From Tamarandito
43:05What they found
43:06Was that the king
43:07Of Tamarandito
43:08Had decided to rise up
43:10And overthrow
43:11His oppressor
43:12At Dos Pilas
43:13With Tamarandito
43:16Advancing
43:17Dos Pilas
43:18Prepared for a siege
43:19We dug 13 kilometers
43:23Of walls
43:24And we found
43:26Right by where
43:27The wall was breached
43:29In the center part
43:30Of the city
43:3113 decapitated
43:34Adult male
43:35Skulls
43:37Young adult
43:37Warriors
43:38In a pit there
43:40By 761 CE
43:44The elites
43:45Of Dos Pilas
43:46Were dead
43:46And the city
43:47Abandoned
43:48But the fighting
43:49Didn't stop here
43:51When Dos Pilas
43:53Was destroyed
43:53Then you start
43:54To see
43:55Others fall
43:56There's a rapid
43:58Domino effect
44:00The population drop
44:02Was very dramatic
44:03Very fast
44:05It seems there was
44:07A rebellion
44:07That spread throughout
44:08The southern lowland region
44:10The heartland
44:11Of the Maya civilization
44:13So what caused
44:15The Maya to revolt
44:17Against the ruling elite
44:18Of their cities
44:20We will never completely
44:23Be able to know
44:24The individual ways
44:26In which this city
44:28Collapsed
44:28Or that city
44:29Collapsed
44:29But that's not
44:30That important
44:31What's important
44:32Is to see the connections
44:33And then see
44:34The real causes
44:35Underneath
44:36The system
44:39Of divine kingship
44:40And the status rivalry
44:42You see all these things
44:43More and more monuments
44:45Because you have more nobles
44:46And the kings
44:46Need more jade
44:47Need to have more power
44:49And you see those things
44:51Getting greater and greater
44:52And it really is
44:54Greater in many ways
44:55But not for everybody
44:56The degree of social inequality
44:59Created is hard to sustain
45:01Dr. Arthur Demarest
45:04Believes the system
45:05Of divine leadership
45:06Placing all their faith
45:08In the ruling elite
45:09Is key to the collapse
45:11Over time
45:12From the differences
45:15In social strata
45:17The stratification
45:18Between the poor
45:20And the nobles
45:21And the rulers
45:22Became greater
45:23And greater
45:24And greater
45:24And then this
45:26Wonderful construction
45:28And the beautiful science
45:29Everything we see
45:30The energy for that
45:32Being produced
45:32By the farmers below
45:34You begin to see
45:35The health of the
45:36Of the farming class
45:38Deteriorating
45:4095% of the population
45:42Were farmers
45:44Status rivalry
45:46Between city-states
45:47Pushed the Maya people
45:49To breaking point
45:50And things were only
45:52Going to get worse
45:53In 800 CE
45:56The Yucatan
45:57Was hit
45:58By a severe drought
46:00It lasted
46:01For 150 years
46:03The Maya civilization
46:06Reached the heights
46:07It did
46:07Because they mastered farming
46:09In the typically difficult
46:11Rainforest environment
46:12The drought
46:14Threatened to destroy
46:15Everything
46:16And the Maya solution
46:18To the drought
46:19Would prove
46:20Just as fatal
46:22Whenever there was
46:23A disaster
46:24Whenever there was
46:26A drought
46:26And the Holy Lord
46:27Was unable
46:28To convince the gods
46:29To give them rain
46:31Well what did they do?
46:33They doubled down
46:34They'd be focusing on
46:36Building more temples
46:37To the gods
46:38Building more monuments
46:39A city would declare
46:40War on another city
46:42Going out and
46:43Finding more jade
46:44And at a time
46:45If your people are starving
46:46And you're going out
46:47And spending a lot of time
46:48Trying to get jade
46:49It seems really backwards
46:51The Maya went to war
46:53To control
46:53What little resources
46:54There were left
46:56Built more temples
46:57Held more ceremonies
46:59And prayed harder
47:00Hoping the gods
47:02Would save them
47:03Their efforts
47:05Proved futile
47:07What happens
47:09When the Holy Lord
47:09Is unable to convince
47:10The gods
47:11To make it rain
47:12Maybe you realise
47:13That the system's
47:13Not working
47:14And if the system's
47:15Not working
47:16What do humans
47:16Tend to do?
47:17Well they tend to
47:18Smash it up
47:18And leave
47:19It's believed
47:22That one by one
47:24They gave up
47:25On their Holy Lords
47:26Like the people
47:27Of Conquen had
47:28Ritually killed them
47:30And abandoned
47:31Their cities
47:32What happened
47:41To the Maya
47:41Compared to other
47:43Civilisations
47:43Was severe
47:45From its height
47:47The Roman Empire
47:48Took over 350 years
47:50To collapse
47:51And their response
47:54To their problems
47:55Are very different
47:56To the Maya's
47:58The leaders
47:59Of the Roman Empire
48:00Were fundamentally
48:02Incredibly pragmatic
48:04Different versions
48:06Of political leadership
48:07Were trialled
48:08In order to
48:09Prevent civil war
48:10From breaking out
48:11Various emperors
48:18Delineated the edges
48:20Of the empire
48:21And said
48:21This is as far
48:22As we can go
48:23In order to not
48:25Destroy ourselves
48:26Back home
48:27The thing about
48:31The Romans
48:31Is that they
48:32Tried stuff out
48:33In order to
48:33Try and keep
48:34Things together
48:35From what we know
48:37Of the history
48:38Of the Maya
48:39They didn't do that
48:40The Maya
48:42People themselves
48:43Aren't gone
48:44Their descendants
48:45Live on in the
48:46Yucatan
48:47Even today
48:48But it's thought
48:49That at the height
48:50Of the collapse
48:51The ancient Maya
48:53Abandoned their cities
48:54And dispersed
48:55Into the rainforest
48:56Reorganizing
48:58Into smaller
48:59Self-sufficient villages
49:01By 900 CE
49:04The collapse
49:05In the Maya
49:05Heartland
49:06Had all but stopped
49:08And only Maya
49:09In the Yucatan
49:10And highlands
49:11Remained
49:12The Maya's
49:16Great temples
49:17Their palaces
49:19Their cities
49:22Were left
49:24For the rainforest
49:26For the rainforest
49:56For the rainforest
49:58For the rainforest
49:59For the rainforest
50:00For the rainforest
50:01For the rainforest
50:02For the rainforest
50:03For the rainforest
50:04For the rainforest
50:05For the rainforest
50:06For the rainforest
50:07For the rainforest
50:08For the rainforest
50:09For the rainforest
50:10For the rainforest
50:11For the rainforest
50:12For the rainforest
50:13For the rainforest
50:14For the rainforest
50:15For the rainforest
50:16For the rainforest
50:17For the rainforest
50:18For the rainforest
50:19For the rainforest
50:20For the rainforest
50:21For the rainforest
50:22For the rainforest
50:23For the rainforest
50:24For the rainforest
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