Have you heard the quote that says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well although archaeology may seem like a boring, dusty, dirty manual labor of digging holes and trenches in the blazing sun – it actually is a very interesting, rewarding and fun experience to discover new things.
Charles Choi calls his work “Badass Archaeology” which is exactly what it says it is. He wrote a blog where he mentioned some very interesting things about being an archaeologist entitled “Even Deadly Snakes and Monkey Shit Couldn’t Stop Me From Excavating Maya Ruins in the Jungle”.
He says, “We're hunting clues to a longstanding mystery – the collapse of the ancient Maya empire.
The ancient Maya civilization encompassed an area twice the size of Germany, occupying what is now southern Mexico and northern Central America, including Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. At the height of the Maya empire, known as the Classic period, which stretched from roughly 250 AD to at least 900 AD, perhaps as many as 25 million people lived there, achieving a population density greater than that of medieval Europe.
For uncertain reasons, the ancient Maya civilization apparently collapsed more than a thousand years ago, with its population declining catastrophically to a fraction of its former size. Researchers want to find out why.”
“But it all seems worth it to us when we spot a pair of jaguars on the trail in the morning. When we discover jade ear spools, or obsidian blades, or ornaments made of shell. When we clear all the dirt and foliage off pyramids and tombs to reveal what they once looked like. When we get to delicately work on human burials, we can exhume remains that directly tell us what the people here were like. We can speculate about the lifestyles they might have lived, with their teeth inlaid with jade, or filed to points like vampire fangs.”
There are a number of Belize Mayan Ruins that you can visit that would strike up an interesting fascination with the culture and people. There are many interesting stories as each temple has it’s own tale. Visit … Discover… Learn and be mystified by Tikal, Xunantunich and Cahal Pech or attempt the Lost Mayan ruin expedition.
