03122010

Yucatan.

I had some free time for the first time in while and I thought about cleaning my apartment. I didn't. Instead I made myself some coffee and started reading about the Mayan sacrifices. I like read about various things involving different cultures and I find the Mayans to be the next best thing to the Greeks BC and Middle-Eastern cultures of the ancient times. The Mayans intrigue me mainly because of their intelligence, yet claimed brutality. A civilization that existed for quite a long time without the Europeans. The chances of superbly intelligent humans that we could have nowadays as the descendants of the Mayans is also an interesting concept, seeing as how the Mayans were able to perform critical surgeries with the tools of their time and had developed intricate systems of communication, politics, astrology and religion as well. Yet, they sacrificed humans for their gods.

I have once been in Mexico but that was just a trip full of tourism. I would actually like to see the Yucatan Peninsula with a few weeks of time to spend. I picked this place up while reading about the sacrifical rituals of the Maya: Cenote Sagrado, the Sacred Well.

I want to go there, this very instant.

"A long cord was then fastened round the body of each victim, and the moment the smoke ceased to rise from the altar, all were hurled into the gulf. The crowd, which had gathered from every part of the country to see the sacrifice, immediately drew back from the brink of the pit and continued to pray without cessation for some time. The bodies were then drawn up and buried in the neighboring grove." (Bancroft. 1882.)

And judging by texts I've read so far, this was a fairly clean, non-brutal procedure. If you want to disgust yourself, read about the sacrifices of children or the penetration of body parts to let blood out.

A modification to this text: I had completely forgotten the existence of an astonishing movie, Apocalypto by Mel Gibson. I have watched a few years ago but I definitely need to see it again. If I recall correctly, it's a good, descriptive movie of the Mayan ways of sacrifice close to the times when their end was near.


.cut some new lines in your palms with the night.