[HN Gopher] Rare, ancient Maya canoe found in Yucatan
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       Rare, ancient Maya canoe found in Yucatan
        
       Author : Archelaos
       Score  : 87 points
       Date   : 2021-10-30 11:29 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | elpakal wrote:
       | I grew up in the state of Chiapas and remember being fascinated
       | by the pyramids from the Maya. I used to look around in awe when
       | flying over and think about the undiscovered wonders beneath.
       | This train project is going to unearth some neat things!
        
         | mobilemidget wrote:
         | Oh cool, what kind of planes/aircraft did you fly over them?
         | Been there twice now, Chitchen Itza, and probably will go there
         | again.
        
       | dn3500 wrote:
       | I live in Yucatan. Most of what they're finding in the cenotes is
       | trash. One of them had hundreds of electric meters in it. So it's
       | nice when they find something like this.
       | 
       | In the jungle they have found thousands of artifacts and
       | structures. It's going to keep the archeologists busy for quite
       | some time.
        
         | jhgb wrote:
         | > One of them had hundreds of electric meters in it
         | 
         | Rare, ancient Maya electric meters? :)
        
           | dn3500 wrote:
           | Maybe. Our electric bills are about as easy to read as Mayan
           | hieroglyphics.
        
       | goolulusaurs wrote:
       | I read recently for the first time about what happened to the
       | Maya at the hands of the Spanish and I was shocked at how bad it
       | was. Even just in the context of the destruction of knowledge it
       | was terrible. There were thousands of books recording centuries
       | of precontact American history that were all destroyed by the
       | Spanish. Only four examples out of the many thousands of piece of
       | Maya literature have survived to the present. A few quotes from
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices:
       | 
       | "Our knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny
       | fraction of the whole picture, for of the thousands of books in
       | which the full extent of their learning and ritual was recorded,
       | only four have survived to modern times (as though all that
       | posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer
       | books and Pilgrim's Progress)." -- Michael D. Coe
       | 
       | "We found a large number of books in these characters and, as
       | they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as
       | superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which
       | they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much
       | affliction." -- Bishop Diego de Landa
        
         | selimthegrim wrote:
         | Some of the Aztecs burned pre-existing codices too.
        
       | Ericson2314 wrote:
       | What this tourist train the captions speak of?
        
         | dn3500 wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tren_Maya
        
       | sysadmindotfail wrote:
       | The plan is to charge tourists 800-1000 MXN for the Cancun->PDC
       | route and locals 50 MXN. At the moment you can ride an ADO mini-
       | bus practically any time of day for 50 pesos, tourist or locals
       | on the same route..
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-30 23:01 UTC)