The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology

by James A. O'Kon

The Maya have been an enigma since their discovery in the mid- 19th century. Maya science developed an elegant mathematic system, an incredibly accurate astronomy, and one of the world’s five original written languages. This technology was more advanced than similar

European technology by more than a thousand years. All of this was unknown until James O’Kon, a professional engineer, synergistically applied field exploration, research, forensic engineering, and 3-D virtual reconstruction of Maya projects to discover lost Maya technological achievements. These lost principles of technology enabled Maya engineers to construct grand cities that towered above the rainforest, water systems with underground reservoirs for water storage, miles of all-weather paved roads tracking through the jungle, and the longest bridge in the ancient world.

Maya engineers developed structural mechanics for multi-story buildings that were not exceeded in height until the first “skyscraper” built in Chicago in 1885, invented the blast furnace 2,000 years before it was patented in England, and developed the vulcanization of rubber more than 2,600 years before Charles Goodyear. Discover a host of unknown wonders in The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Yordan Zhelyazkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read!
Extremely informative, really well written, with a lot of photo material, quotes, huge bibliography and very trustworthy.

As a "history-nerd" for me this was a pure gem and as an eastern European there were truly a lot of things that I've never heard of, nor suspected. I was literally embarrassed by myself after reading it for not knowing so much of its content.

The book speaks of the history of the area, the geological challenges the Maya faced, all the stages of their staggering civilization, all their technology wonders, the days of their fall and the reasons behind it, the days of Spanish reign as well as the days of present.

At every third page I would just yell "This is impossible, it can't be!" and rush to my computer for research only to find the book proven in everything I've checked. Truly a must-read for everyone who claims to be "interested in history".

[Bud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative, but could be 100 fewer pages. There is repetition that does not add to the usefulness or flow.
I find many facts amazing, the system of elevated roadways, construction of tall buildings. Mentioned just once was: Domestic Dogs were one of the Maya main source of protein. It was nice to see the changes in North America's mega-fauna described in a concise section. The mathematics and science must be amazing, but not much detail on that.
It was a great loss to have all those Maya books destroyed, loss of immense knowledge. Terrible to see large amount of information destroyed. I don't want to sound political, but banning books from libraries is just the start of information control and destruction. We should beware.
The chapter on the decline of the Maya was short, unlike the rest of the book. Perhaps less is known about that time period. Or perhaps that is a sad story to tell. It is one of the events of the largest magnitude, millions die and life goes on for the survivors. That sounds like a movie script.
It seems odd that the environmental factors that killed most of the Maya affected all the climate zones, as the mountainous river states should have survived better than the peninsula states.
I would like to read more about this culture.

[John R. Goyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had hopes for this to be an interesting and possibly enlightening book - spoiler alert - it isn't. My first impressiion was that the writing was poor. This quickly shifted to horrid. If there was an editor involved, they should be fired. There appears to be no focus to the book with the author rambling all over the place and repeating things several times without any continuity or flow to the text. There are also no references given for the multitude of controversial statements the author makes - and then repeats. So much of the text says nothing at all - just lots of words that might sound fine, but have no meaning or knowledge behind them. Pompous and random, I wish I had avoided this book - I feel ripped off.

[Darnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I found this very interesting, I think as a nonfiction book it has some flaws. I found myself repeatedly thinking, "How do you know this?" during sections. Not always because of skepticism (though I dislike the complete lack of citations), but because an explanation of the evidence would have been much more interesting to me than a flatly stated conclusion. It goes into more detail than I'd want about the day-to-day of travel and excavation, but often lacks details of what they actually found and what it tells us.

I found the breathless, adjective-laden tone to be a bit much, but overall it's probably a useful corrective to the historical dismissal of Maya technology.

[Bill Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with an overview of Mayan history: Pre-Classic Period 1200 BC - 250 AD, Classic Period 250 AD - 900 AD and the Post-Classic Period to 1200 AD. Even after the cities were abandoned, Mayan scribes maintained numerous books into the 16th century. The Spanish felt the books were the work of the devil, and the fanatical Catholic bishop, Diego de Landa, had them destroyed: a terrible loss. A good review of early travelers and their representations of Mayan is provided.

O'Kon makes the point that although archeology normally views cultures as progressing through stone, bronze and iron ages, the Mayans had no ready access to metals and yet their advanced knowledge is beyond that normally associated with Stone Age cultures.

The majority of the book reviews Mayan scientific Achievements:

Astronomy - The Mayans calculated the day length, lunar month, and the synodical periods of Venus and Mars, to five significant figures. They recognized and accurately calculated the earth's wobble or precession. While the author states the Mayans thought the world is round, their religion was based on a flat earth. It is hard to believe, however, that they understood astronomy so well without realizing the earth was round - perhaps there was a separation of religion and science.

Mathematics - The Mayans used a base twenty number system. It used only three symbols (dot, bar and a shell glyph for zero) but used a positional system allowing the portrayal of large numbers.

Tool Fabrication - Lacking metals, the Mayans used jadeite - which is harder than iron, and resistant to breakage - to carve stone and wood. They also used obsidian, a volcanic glass, for sharp cutting blades. Knowledge of the source of the jadeite was lost over time, leading archaeologists to believe it must have come from Asia. In 1974, the source was discovered to be the Montagua River basin in Guatemala. The finest "Olmec Blue" comes from higher elevations. The jadeite was cut using high strength cords of Maguey (an Agave, Century Plant) with quartzite as an abrasive.

Cement - The Mayans invented a high quality hydraulic cement, similar in composition to modern Portland cement. This was used to build concrete structures, as a mortar to bind building blocks, and as a surface covering (stucco). The use of concrete allowed construction of tall buildings. The compressive strength of Mayan cement has been tested at 1300 psi, compared to 1500 psi for Roman cement, while modern cement exceeds 2000 psi. Massive kilns were built to convert limestone to clinkers. They required large quantities of wood, and may have lead to deforestation.

Other Materials - High strength ropes were made from henequen, a fiber obtained from on Agave (A. fourcroydes). Sisal is obtained from a different Agave (A. sisalana). Latex was collected from the Sapodilla tree to make natural rubber. The juice of the Morning Glory vine, rich in sulphides, was used to vulcanize rubber well before Goodyear's discovery of the same process.

The Mayan Arch - A form of an arch was developed by the Mayans, that used horizontal wooden beams to resist thrusts. The beams were typically made from chico zapote / Sapodilla (M. zapota) which is very strong and resistant to termites.

Water Management - Due to the karstic limestone making up much of the Yucatan peninsula, there is little surface flow in the form of rivers. The Mayans built their cities to divert rainfall into lakes and underground reservoirs (chultunes) to retain it for use during the dry season. In high rainfall areas, they built diversion channels to prevent flooding. There are remains of water filtration devices to clarify the water for consumption. They also built irrigation systems for farming in terraced fields.

Highways - The Mayans built hundreds of miles of highways to link their cities, called sacbe's. These were typically 10 m. wide, a meter above the surrounding terrain and very straight. Long sacbeob (plural) include the 100 km Coba to Yuxuna, and a fabled 285 km road from T'ho (today Merida) to the east coast at the location of Puerto Morelos.

Bridges - At Yaxchilan, the Mayans built a three span suspension bridge to cross the Usumacinta River to the city of Yaxchilan. This bridge was the longest in the world from 700 AD to 1377 AD. It was 163 m. long, and provided 15 m. of clearance for flood waters.

The author does an analysis of transport, showing that the carrying of loads by tumpline was as efficient as men pulling a wagon. As no animals suitable for domestication existed in Mesoamerica, there would be no large need for the wheel. As Mayans moved stone cylinders by rolling them, it would seem that they would have used the wheel if the need existed.

A good book, as the examination of Mayan technology shows that the Mayans were a surprisingly advanced civilization .

[Barry Huddleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading “The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology”, I came away with a much better understanding of the Maya and their buildings, technology, and culture. The book has a nice Bibliography and Index. It’s 319 pages are packed with great interior art and diagrams.

The color photos are simply incredible and I hope that New Page sticks with the style. The diagrams are large enough for my 53 year-old eyes and I appreciate the easy-to-view size. I was a little less impressed with the charts and topics like comparisons of Maya cement with modern Portland cement.

From time to time my eyes glazed over with some of the math. Did we need to be so detailed that we had to talk psi, mo scale, and 147,631,068 liters (couldn’t over 147 thousand work?) ? I noticed some odd punctuation spacing on the bottom of page 76 and a lack of spacing on the last line of page 77. It’s no big deal, it isn’t the first punctuation goober I’ve found and it wont be the last, Having said that, O’Kon’s personal anecdotes are golden and really make the book. I wish that he had used more of them.

I highly recommend “The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology” the book is a must read. If you decide to pick up one book on the subject, this is the book to get. Price, presentation, content, this book is a good bang for the buck.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from New Page Books.

[Elentarri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book! The author is a professional engineer who investigates and describes Maya technology - everything from Maya writing, astronomy, mathematics, tool fabrication, hydraulic cement, concrete, bridges, towers, pyramids, other buildings, water-management systems, and highway systems. The author also provides a synthesis of local climate and geology to explain why the Maya built what they did using the tools they did e.g. obsidian tools instead of metal tools because the geology of the area has obsidian and jade but no metals for mining. The book also includes a brief history of the Maya.

The book wasn't overly technical and included some nice illustrations to explain the more technical engineering concepts, as well as several beautiful colour photographs of Maya architecture and tools. The stage by stage construction of a typical Maya arch was particularly well done. This book was stuffed full of interesting information relayed by a very "relaxed" writing style - for an engineer/scientist, this author writes beautifully.

You should read this book if you are even vaguely interested in the Maya, ancient civilizations in general, or the work of Christopher Dunn.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology is an extensive compendium of the stand alone scientific knowledge base that impacts the world’s economic and health environment to this day handed down to us by the ancient Olmec/Mayan civilizations.

This was an excellent book except for the following that were important to development of the world’s economic health and overlooked in the book: 1. Nixtamalization of maize (Indian corn) and numerous medicines such as hypnotic drugs like morning glory blossom seeds. If you eat four seeds you will feel good, but if you ingested forty you will begin building pyramids.

2. The Chontal Maya and their extensive sea going trade network to North America, South America and the Caribbean Sea. Copper from upper Michigan, Inca produce and craftsmanship plus the sharing of sustaining agricultural technology...just a few of the multitude of acquired and innovated achievements that being the hemisphere’s largest exporter of sea salt. This sea salt trade was commandeered from the Maya by the conquistador Spanish and continues production in northern Yucatan to this day.

[Chronics · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is quite technical and not the easiest or most interesting read but it is very informative of the technology of the time.