Thursday, November 03, 2005

My First Mayans

Mayan Sculpture

Today I visited what will probably be the first of many Mayan sites. This site had several pyramids and some stelae (monument-type stones) carved with symbolic hieroglyphics. I learned a little bit about the ancient city of Copan (which died out due to overpopulation and undernourishment in the 8th century) and a bit about the Mayans. The first interesting thing I learned is that Mayan Rulers had very interesting names. The 11 known names of the 16 rulers at Copan are: Blue Quetzal Macaw, Mat Head, Cu-Ix, Waterlily Jaguar, Moon Jaguar, Butz Chan, Smoke Jaguar, 18 Rabbit, Smoke Monkey, Smoke Shell and New Dawn. A quick Google search shows that there is no Mayan Name Generator out there (an obvious missing piece of essential internet tools). So we will have to make up our own. Mine's Cloud Puma. What's yours?