I lost my job as a technical writer in a corporate downsize, they
called it ‘early retirement’. It was too
early for me, I wasn’t ready. I invested
in a business and it became the purpose of my life. It did not do well, however, failed to make a
profit for more than a year. I was in
danger of losing all that I had invested into it.
My business losses made my situation
worse than when I lost my job, and I was constantly living under a cloud
of gloom. Virginia, my wife, worried
about me, she said I needed a new purpose.
Denise, our daughter, had a different idea. She said I needed to get away from the business for a
while, that would take me out from under my gloom. From a distance, I should be in a better
position to recognize my exact situation and make the proper decisions. She was about to go on a vacation, a cruise
to Belize, and she invited me and Virginia to go along.
I felt like I could not afford to go, I needed to stay close to the
business. Virginia said we couldn’t turn
down an offer to go on a vacation with our daughter and her husband, and I had
to agree with that.
We signed up for the cruise. I
knew nothing about Belize, Denise promised I would love it, she said it would
be a great place to spend time during the dreary winter. I could take my snorkeling equipment, go out
to the barrier reef and swim with the tropical fish, or we could visit some
Mayan ruins. Belize was near the center
of the once great Mayan empire that mysteriously disappeared a thousand years
ago. She said this small country was
covered with the ruins of ancient cities.
We had heard a lot
about the abandoned Mayan cities but never found the opportunity to visit
one, so we decided on a tour of the historic ruins for our excursion when we
reached port.
The water was too shallow for our huge ship to sail to the dock, so it
anchored within sight of Belize City and we watched from the
deck as a fleet of water taxies raced out to meet us. We boarded one of them, and it carried us
over the calm, turquois bay to the tourism village. Entering Belize was about like going to the
next county in the United States, no hassle at all.
We stepped off the water taxi onto the dock, walked between shops of
tourist merchandise, and came to a parking lot filled with tour busses. We boarded a small bus with a driver and a
tour guide, and it carried us westward from the port of Belize City on a paved
road like we could have expected back home in eastern North Carolina. Belize is not a primitive country with dirt
roads, we found that parts of Belize are quite modern.
The Excursion
We crossed miles of flat coastal lowlands, much like parts of our home
state that lie along the coast, sparsely populated and with mostly scrub
vegetation. Occasional trees stood tall
on clumps of high ground, separated by tidal creeks. When we left the lowlands, thick jungle lined
each side of the road. This did not look
at all like home, and then we began to climb into the foothills of the mountains. The bus stopped at a narrow river and waited for
a small ferry to come from the other side to take us across.
This hand-cranked ferry was the first I had ever been on or even seen,
one of many new experiences in Belize. It
took our small bus across the river to a paved road that snaked its way up the
side of a mountain.
Our bus guide told us that we would soon arrive at the ancient city of
Xunantunich, and she asked us to repeat the Mayan name. She knew we Americans would not be able to pronounce
it properly, so she told us it rhymed with tuna sandwich. From then on, that’s what we called the
city. If someone tells you they went to
Belize and visited ‘Tuna Sandwich’, this is where they went.
The bus stopped on a gravel parking lot at the top of a mountain and
when we stepped off, we were met by a brown-skinned man, a Mayan. He told us he had taken a course and earned
his license to be a guide, and he was also a farmer from a nearby village so he
knew this area well. He led us to a
trail through the jungle that took us beside the ruins of an ancient palace,
and then we followed him across a wide, grassy plaza.
Beyond that stood an enormous pyramid.
The Pyramid
That’s me wearing the sun glasses and my son-in-law is in front of
me. We listened as our guide explained
that the ancients leveled the top of the mountain and built this huge structure
even though they did not have metal tools.
That was difficult for us to imagine, and when we considered that the
Mayans carried all these stones by hand because they had not invented the wheel,
we realized that the amount of human effort involved in creating this structure
was beyond our comprehension.
Those ancient Mayans were amazing people, this was an impressive
achievement.
Our guide told us that we were looking at the sunrise side of the pyramid,
symbolizing birth and life. The band of
symbols half way up the structure tells the importance of the king, who was
considered a god by those people. They
believed he connected them to the unseen spirits that protected them against
their enemies and provided the annual rains they needed to grow their crops.
View From The Top
Our guide then led us to a trail that took us to the top. From there, we looked out across a vast
rainforest and above the surrounding ridges.
Let me introduce you to Virginia, my wife.
This is where ancient priests stood when they conducted their religious
ceremonies to satisfy the unseen spirits that the people depended upon to defend
and sustain them. A huge crowd of
commoners would have gathered in the plaza below to witness the ceremonies, and
to worship their god and king.
Notice that the city behind Virginia is quite large and well planned, indicating
the size of the population and the complexity of the society that thrived here
for many hundreds of years.
Also notice the lush rainforest that surrounds us, and that it has been
cleared from the center of city, which extends to the palace in the
distance. These ruins are now part of a national park set aside for
archeological study, and as an attraction for the million tourists that visit
Belize every year to view the remains of the amazing achievements left behind
by the ancient people who mysteriously abandoned this city a thousand years ago,
giving it up to the jungle.
Our guide then led us down the trail on the sunset side of the pyramid,
the side of darkness and death, and to undisturbed mounds that covered what had
been homes and shops of a thriving city a thousand years ago. As we stood in what probably was a street, he
explained the activities of the ancient people who lived here, and he also told
us a folklore tale that had been passed down from generation to generation in
his nearby village.
Someone asked if he had ever come here as a young boy, since he grew up
so close to these ruins. I remember his
exact words.
“No, never. The old folks told
us that evil spirits live here.”
Evil Spirits Live Here
This folklore tale explains why many of the current Mayan villagers do
not go near the ancient city. Could it
also explain why their ancestors abandoned it?
Seemed reasonable to me.
I am familiar with folklore, love to collect tales told by the old
oystermen of the Chesapeake Bay in the maritime town where I grew up. I learned that most folklore tales have a
scrap of truth in them.
I suspected this ‘evil spirits’ tale began a long time ago, and like
most other folklore, it contains a scrap of truth. It told me that something very traumatic happened
to drive the ancient Mayans away from the city, and this resulting tale was
passed down as a warning to the next generation. It had been retold for the many generations
that followed, and is still being retold.
If I could find the scrap of truth in this ‘evil spirits’ tale, perhaps
it would tell me why the city was abandoned a thousand years ago. Perhaps it would reveal the secret to the
famous unsolved mystery. I would love to
spend a few hours, maybe days, talking to the Mayans of the village where our
guide lived, perhaps they could tell me more about those ‘evil spirits’.
But the excursion had ended, the bus driver needed to hurry us back to
the cruise ship. It would raise anchor
and sail for Miami before dark.
This Mayan Mystery fascinated me, especially the ‘evil spirits’ tale
the guide told us. I wanted to learn
more, so when we returned home, I began to study Mayan history as intently as
possible even though a great distance now separated me from where it all
happened. I looked for it on the
internet, I watched for it on TV History channels, I read books and searched old
National Geographic articles about
it. That became my purpose, something
Virginia said I needed. Maybe it would
keep me away from the cloud of gloom I perpetually lived under when my focus
was limited to my failing business.
I would try to figure out why those ancient people had abandoned their
city. Several theories have been offered
by researchers, but all of them have flaws, so nobody knows the answer. My amateurish studies revealed that the most
popular theories are disease, crop failure, natural disaster and war. Add to the mystery that archeologists found
cook pots and tools the ancients left behind.
Jewelry and even valuable jade carvings were also left behind, and in
one city, the royal family was found buried in festive garments. They had been murdered.
The obvious flaws are that any disease serious enough to wipe out an
entire empire would have been very contagious.
The Mayans carried on brisk trade, but the cities were abandoned
hundreds of years apart. This eliminates
the disease possibility, a contagious disease would not have waited hundreds of
years before spreading to another city.
As for crop failure, the Mayans had been growing their crops for
hundreds of years, they did not suddenly forget how. They had sophisticated farming techniques,
they practiced composting to continually replenish nutrients in their soils and
they had irrigation systems so their crops would survive droughts. A crop disease could not have been the
problem, because it would have spread like a disease among humans, but the
cities were abandoned hundreds of years apart.
Some researchers propose that the population of a city may have grown so
great the farmers could not provide enough food, so the people left. That would not cause all the people to
abandon their fine homes and the advantages of a city, because after enough
people left, then the population of the city would have stabilized at the level
where the amount of food was sufficient.
As for a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or a severe drought,
all of the cities would have been abandoned at the same time. That did not happen.
As for war, what happened to the winner? The city that won the war would not have been
abandoned, and the Mayan population was growing, so a reason one city would
attack and defeat another would have been to gain more land for its expanding
population. The defeated city would not
have been abandoned, it would have been repopulated. Also, archeologists discovered the royal
family of one city buried in their festive garments. Rulers do not go to war wearing festive
garments.
Add to the mystery that tools and cook pots were left behind, as were
jewelry and other valuables. These are
normally carried along when people move.
We can be sure only that what happened there was sudden and unexpected,
and it was complete. When the ancients
abandoned the city, everybody left and they did not return.
If none of the existing theories by researchers could possibly provide
the answer to the mystery, what could?
Maybe the ‘evil spirits’ tale of the Mayan villagers would explain what
the archeologists could not. I wanted to
return to Belize and learn what I could from those villagers. If I could find the scrap of truth in that
folklore tale, that could be the answer.
