Maya Water World

By Priit J. Vesilind Photographs by Wes Skiles

Divers and scientists probe Yucatán sinkholes, sacred to the Maya, where human sacrifices ensured cosmic order.


On the third day it was my turn to test God's vigilance, letting the metal chair plop me down into the cool pond like a piece of bait. Treading water, I adjusted my eyes to the moonlight of the cave. The cenote was shaped like an old Chianti bottle—a narrow neck leading to a wide chamber about 90 feet (30 meters) across and 120 feet (40 meters) deep. The bottle was half full, the water surface 35 feet (11 meters) below the domed ceiling. Stalactites dripped, and the roots of trees were spread on the walls in delicate dark webbing. Spanish records tell how live victims were thrown into the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá, a major Maya city, on the premise that, as sacrifices to the gods, they would not die—even though they were never seen again. I scanned the slick limestone walls, and my heart pounded, feeling their terror.

Sinking deeper into the white noise of pressure, I bottomed out at 50 feet (20 meters) and glided across piles of shattered limestone. A side cave, shaped like a sock, spun down and off to the west. Resting in the sand was a mahogany-hued skeleton, already tagged, the eye orbits of its skull bleak with expectations of eternity.
A few days later the National Institute of Anthropology and History scientists brought him up. It was the first skeleton of its kind—with all its bones in their natural positions, undisturbed—ever found underwater in the Yucatán. He was a large man, perhaps 50 years old, well past the Maya life expectancy. "His health was bad," said Terrazas after examining the bones, "with arthritis so severe that he could barely flex his hands. He had terrible teeth problems—gingivitis—and he probably had a very hard time chewing."

He was lying face up on the sand. Was it an accident? "No," said Terrazas. "There are nine skeletons down there [eight are partial]. Maybe one is there from an accident, but not nine."
When the car winch pulled up the bones of the old man, the three women who had made quesadillas for us the previous night were standing by the well. I asked them what they thought of our mission. "We didn't expect skeletons," said one, Olegaria Chiku. "For us, a cenote is just a hole with water. But my mother lived around here, and she said that we needed to give the cenote 15 virgins, and God would open up a road to bring in the gold that we know is down there."

Until the 1960s many people, including many archaeologists, thought virgins were the only individuals whose stories had ended in the cenotes. "We learned then that they were not all young girls," said Carmen Rojas, the underwater archaeologist who oversees data processing for the survey project. "And now we know that they were not all sacrifices."

Subscribe to National Geographic magazine.

Ancient Artifacts and Symbols

The Siva Linga
The Siva Linga is a revered symbol of Shiva, the Hindu god who destroys the universe so that it can be recreated. The Siva Linga (or Lingam) occupies a prominent place of worship in all temples of Shiva, and its phallic nature represents the god's power of creation. During the annual Mahashivratri festival the faithful ritualistically bathe and decorate Siva Linga.
Much of the action in the Hollywood movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom centers around Indy's hunt for the "Sankara stones," five artifacts loosely based on the Siva Linga.



Anubis Mural
Jackal-headed Anubis, a divine protector of the dead, is typically found in burial chambers. This Egyptian god guided souls to the afterlife by overseeing the embalming process. Anubis also performed the judgment of the dead by weighing the deceased's heart to learn whether the sum of his deeds had been for good or ill.
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, an enormous Anubis statue adorns the fictional Well of Souls in Tanis, Egypt, the sacred room where the Ark of the Covenant lies hidden.



Aztec Sun Stone
This massive 24-ton ceremonial stone celebrates the sun god Tonatiuh, whose visage anchors the stone at its center. Tonatiuh demanded human sacrifice, and his knifelike tongue symbolizes the instruments once used to slice open the chests of those sacrificed to him.
Carved in the 15th century, the Sun Stone also portrays the cyclical Aztec view of time. It charts the recurring days and years of the Aztec calendar—including the ends of four ancient epochs during which the world was destroyed by jaguars, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and torrential rainstorms.
Discovered in 1790, the Sun Stone now resides at Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology.



Tlazolteotl Fertility Idol
Tlazolteotl was a complex goddess venerated by several Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztec. She is recognizable as a distinctive, bare-breasted female.
Tlazolteotl was a fertility deity associated with the Earth and with human fertility through sex, childbirth, and motherhood. She also represented carnal sin and performed the cleansing of such vice by "eating" the sins confessed to her by the dying.
In the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones nabs a golden fertility idol based on Tlazolteotl from an ancient Mesoamerican cave.



Eye of Horus
This familiar symbol appears in many examples of Egyptian art. The eye likely originated with one of the most ancient Egyptian goddesses, Wadjet, who subsequently lent her name to the symbol. Wadjet was a solar goddess, and the sun remained associated with the symbol when it became known as the Eye of Horus, falcon god of the sky.
The symbol is also known as the Eye of Ra, Egypt's sun god of a later period. The eye was used as a protective or healing talisman and was often found on elaborate jewelry.



Ankh
The ankh is a symbol of life often shown in the hands of Egyptian gods or pharaohs. The gods are sometimes depicted giving the ankh, and thus giving life, to a human.
The origins of this widespread symbol are much disputed. Whatever its original symbolic meaning (theories range from a sandal loop to a sunrise) the ankh was widely adopted first by Egyptian religions and later by early Christians for whom it linked the cross with eternal life.



Easter Island Heads
Easter Island's stone statues, or moai, tell no tales and offer few clues about why—and how—they came to stand sentinel on this remote speck of island. The area's first inhabitants completed an incredible journey to settle an island some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Tahiti and 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from the coast of Chile.
On Easter Island these ancient peoples created nearly 900 hardened-ash statues, averaging 13 feet (4 meters) high and 13 tons, and moved many of them around the island. Because little oral history and no written records have survived from this period, their purpose remains one of the world's most compelling mysteries.



Terra-Cotta Warriors
For more than 2,200 years the terra-cotta army has silently guarded the grave of the great First Emperor Qin, during whose ruthless reign China was first united.
The incredible array of unique warriors and horses, equipped with chariots and weapons, was hidden until 1974. In that year peasants digging a well near the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an made one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time.
Today work continues at the site, where as many as 8,000 life-size warriors could finally emerge from the Chinese soil.

(http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/artifacts-symbols.html#terra-cotta)

Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico?

Alexis Okeowo in México City
for National Geographic News
August 22, 2008

A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves—some underwater—have been uncovered on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists announced last week.
The discovery has experts wondering whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the underground complex—or vice versa.
According to Maya myth, the souls of the dead had to follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife.
In one of the recently found caves, researchers discovered a nearly 300-foot (90-meter) concrete road that ends at a column standing in front of a body of water.
"We have this pattern now of finding temples close to the water—or under the water, in this most recent case," said Guillermo de Anda, lead investigator at the research sites.
"These were probably made as part of a very elaborate ritual," de Anda said. "Everything is related to death, life, and human sacrifice."
Stretching south from southern Mexico, through Guatemala, and into northern Belize, the Maya culture had its heyday from about A.D. 250 to 900, when the civilization mysteriously collapsed.
(Read about the watery graves of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)
Myth and Reality
Archaeologists excavating the temples and pyramids in the village of Tahtzibichen, in Mérida, the capital of Yucatán state, said the oldest item they found was a 1,900-year-old vessel. Other uncovered earthenware and sculptures dated to A.D. 750 to 850.
"There are stones, huge columns, and sculptures of priests in the caves," said de Anda, whose team has been working on the Yucatán Peninsula for six months.
"There are also human remains and ceramics," he said.
Researchers said the ancient legend—described in part in the sacred book Popul Vuh—tell of a tortuous journey through oozing blood, bats, and spiders, that souls had to make in order to reach Xibalba, the underworld.
"Caves are natural portals to other realms, which could have inspired the Mayan myth. They are related to darkness, to fright, and to monsters," de Anda said, adding that this does not contradict the theory that the myth inspired the temples.
William Saturno, a Maya expert at Boston University, believes the maze of temples was built after the story.
"I'm sure the myths came first, and the caves reaffirmed the broad time-and-space myths of the Mayans," he said.
Underworld Entrances
Saturno said the discovery of the temples underwater indicates the significant effort the Maya put into creating these portals.
In addition to plunging deep into the forest to reach the cave openings, Maya builders would have had to hold their breath and dive underwater to build some of the shrines and pyramids.
Other Maya underworld entrances have been discovered in jungles and aboveground caves in northern Guatemala Belize.
"They believed in a reality with many layers," Saturno said of the Maya. "The portal between life and where the dead go was important to them."

(National Geographic News)

"Hobbit" Humans Were Diseased, Not New Species, Study Says

John Roach
for National Geographic News

May 18, 2006

The "hobbit" humans that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores some 18,000 years ago were actually a population of modern humans stricken with a genetic disease that causes small brains, a new study says.

The argument is being made by a group of scientists who have analyzed all the scientific evidence presented so far about the evolution of the proposed species Homo floresiensis.

The discovery of the hobbit-like human—so-called for their small stature—was first announced in 2004 after a fossil skull and bones of several individuals turned up on Flores.

Preliminary analysis of the remains pegged them as belonging to a totally new species (see hobbit fossil photos).

But gaps in the understanding of how these people existed alongside modern humans and came to wield sophisticated stone tools are coming under greater scrutiny.

In a comment appearing in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science, researchers challenge the evidence used to rule out the notion that hobbits were modern humans with a disease known as microcephaly.

This genetic disorder causes smaller brain size in modern humans and can also lead to short stature.

Not Dwarves?

"My primary concern is with that tiny brain size," said Robert Martin, provost of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, and lead author of the new study.

Martin says that the hobbits' brain size is too small to fit any argument yet made in the scientific literature that H. floresiensis is a separate species.

For example, one theory says that the hobbits could be dwarves derived from Homo erectus, a human ancestor that lived 1.8 million years ago.

This argument is based on the so-called island rule, which says that evolution drives larger species to become smaller on islands due to a lack of food and other resources.

The problem, according to Martin, is that while the body size of a large species shrinks considerably in cases of island dwarfism, brain size shrinks moderately.

Based on models of dwarfing, the Flores skull is too small for its 3.3-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) skeleton, he says.

For hobbits to be dwarves of H. erectus, they would have to have stood just a foot (a third of a meter) tall and weighed only four pounds (two kilograms).

Instead, Martin and colleagues suggest that the small brain resulted from microcephaly.

Since the disease is genetic, it runs in families. "So it wouldn't be too surprising in a small, isolated island population to find a number of cases cropping up," Martin said.

In addition, Martin says, the hobbit remains were found near advanced stone tools thought to have been made by modern humans only.

"So there is a mismatch between tiny brains and sophisticated stone tools," he said.

Point, Counterpoint

Martin and colleagues direct their argument to a paper published in the March 4, 2005, issue of Science by Dean Falk, an anthropologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and colleagues.

Martin's team says that Falk's team made a mistake in the way they ruled out microcephaly.

The disease has dozens of different forms, Martin says. But Falk and colleagues only compare the Flores fossil to one poorly matched microcephalic skull of a modern human.

Martin's team, by contrast, identified other microcephalic skulls that more closely resemble the Flores fossil skulls, he says.

Falk acknowledges that her team only examined one skull. But she adds that the evidence that Martin's team's skulls are better matched is poorly illustrated in Martin's paper.

Regardless, Falk adds, her team is finishing up an in-depth analysis on microcephaly.

"We're confident that [the hobbit skull] is not a microcephalic," she said.

Also, Falk and her colleagues noted in their original paper that normal dwarfing of H. erectus could not explain the Flores fossils.

Rather, they suggested the hobbits resulted from dwarfing of apes or australopithecines, earlier human ancestors.

"I don't understand why they argue about it," she said. "We were the first to point out" that the hobbit cannot be an H. erectus dwarf.

As for the stone tools, Falk says she is unqualified to comment, though she agrees with the suggestions of other scientists that the hobbits could have developed sophisticated tools.

Unprecedented Find

Richard Potts is the director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He was not involved with either of the teams.

Potts says Martin and colleagues are primarily reacting to the original interpretation of the hobbit find, published in 2004 in the journal Nature.

That study said that the Flores fossils represent island dwarfing in H. erectus and not dwarfing of an ape or australopithecine.

"So what would island dwarfing in an ape look like?" Potts asked. "We don't know—that's one of the big gaps of this whole thing."

In addition, Potts says, Martin and colleagues' suggestion that the Flores skull represents a microcephalic modern human is unsupported by recent studies on leg and shoulder fossils from Flores that suggest similarities to earlier human ancestors.

"We're dealing with something unprecedented in modern humans," Potts said.

"[The hobbit is] either a representative of a unique and unreported range of variation in a modern human, or it's a new species that seems to be derived from an earlier ancestor.

"That second idea is more in line with the original interpretation and probably the safest at this stage," he continued.

"But it's a wonderful mystery."

Zakat berujung petaka

Hari ini aku berduka sangat dalam, tetes air mata tak jua bisa menghalau kekecewaan yang kurasa. 21 nyawa melayang demi uang Rp 30.000,- di Pasuruan, demi rejeki yang tidak setiap hari bisa mereka terima. Rp 30.000,- adalah jumlah yang besar bagi mereka, jumlah yang bisa menyambung harapan buat perut, paling tidak untuk hari itu. Para orang tua bergelimpangan tak berdaya, terinjak-injak dan kehabisan napas. Satu per satu meregang nyawa sebelum memperoleh Rp 30.000,- Semuanya sudah terjadi dan menyisakan duka mendalam bagi para keluarga yang ditinggalkan. Bagi yang berzakat, berharap dapat pahala malah berujung sebagai pesakitan (tersangka).

Bulan Ramadhan, bulan yang seharusnya penuh hikmah dan pahala adalah saat yang tepat bagi kita semua untuk merenung tentang hidup, tentang sikap yang selama ini kita pilih dan jalani. Adakah semua mendatangkan keuntungan dan kebahagiaan bagi orang lain ataukan melulu hanya buat diri sendiri. Apabila sebagai umat kita mau mencoba berbuat baik, paling tidak bagi tetangga atau orang-orang disekitar kita yang tidak mampu, yang terlihat oleh kita sehari-hari, tentu tidak lagi kita dengar dan kita lihat korban mati sia-sia demi mendapatkan uang receh. Zakat fitrah hanyalah momen dimana kita diingatkan oleh Allah SWT bahwa disekitar kita banyak orang yang patut kita bantu dan lindungi. Setelah itu adalah waktu panjang dimana kita tanpa dingatkan olehNya diberikan kesempatan untuk memutuskan sendiri tentang kebersamaan, tentang saling kasih antar sesama, tentang berbagi rejeki dan kebahagiaan.

Bagi pemerintah sudah saatnya untuk merombak system yang ada menjadi program pembangunan yang berfokus pada grass root. Pemberdayaan potensi masyarakat kita yang banyak adalah kekuatan besar. Apapun dalih pemerintah tentang masyarakat miskin namun kenyataan gamblang di depan mata. Masyarakat sekarang lebih cerdas tidak bisa lagi dikelabui dengan data-data dan angka-angka. Sudah saatnya kita terbuka dan transparan demi sebuah cita-cita luhur “keadilan sosial bagi seluruh rakyat Indonesia”.

Selamat jalan para ibu-ibu, kalian meninggal demi sebuah perjuangan, demi sebuah harapan, demi hidup yang lebih baik. Kalian tidak mati sia-sia. Doaku menyertai kalian …

RUU Pornografi, sebuah langkah mundur

Pembicaraan tentang RUU pornografi dimulai lagi di DPR. Walaupun menimbulkan perdebatan panas namun RUU tersebut terus saja bergulir. DPR sepertinya tidak memahami tentang pluralitas bangsa ini atau memang tidak mau tahu? Entah apa yang membuat para pejabat legislative begitu getol memperjuangkan RUU ini agar segera bisa menjadi UU. Seperti kita tahu bahwa RUU pornografi versi DPR ini sama sekali tidak mencerminkan keberagaman bangsa Indonesia bahkan lebih kental nuansa budaya Arab. Secara implisit ada pemaksaan penerapan Syariat Islam dalam kontens RUU ini.

Berkali-kali saya kemukakan dalam berbagai tulisan bahwa Republik ini diambang kehancuran. Benih-benih perpecahan yang semakin kasat mata menggelinding terus menjadi bola salju tanpa ada antisipasi, tanpa ada tindakan tegas dari pemerintah. Ini tidak bisa dibiarkan begitu saja, harus ada penjelasan dari pihak-pihak terkait tentang materi ini. Para pihak yang nota bene bangsa Indonesia juga harus mencatat mereka-mereka yang selalu memperjuangkan benih perpecahan ini kelak harus mempertanggungjawabkan apabila bangsa ini menjadi kocar-kacir dan hancur.

Keberagaman di Indonesia adalah realita yang tidak bisa direkayasa atau dipaksakan untuk menjadi sesuatu yang baru dan lain sama sekali, yang bukan cerminan kepribadian dirinya. Keberagaman bangsa ini tidak akan mungkin mau takhluk terhadap budaya bebal namun merasa paling benar dan unggul. Suatu aksi pasti akan menimbulkan reaksi. Tentu semua mengerti dan memahami kondisi logis ini.

Ayolah para siapa saja yang merasa diri paling benar, bangunlah dari mimpi panjang. Kalian hidup dalam dunia yang majemuk, yang beragam. Kalian tidak hidup di gurun pasir yang tanpa kehidupan. Kalian harus belajar dan memahami kearifan local, lebih bisa bertoleransi, ber-tepo seliro. Kalau keyakinan kalian adalah kebenaran maka itu adalah kebenaran bagi diri kalian sendiri. So terapkan bagi diri kalian sendiri, tidak usah memaksakan kebenaran relative kalian pada orang lain yang tidak sepaham.

Republik Indonesia adalah Negara yang memiliki keberagaman budaya, bahasa dan keyakinan. Biarlah kami menjadi diri kami sendiri, jangan dipaksa menjadi sesuatu yang kami tidak pernah pahami.

The Truth is Out There

Ingin tahu lebih banyak tentang fenomena UFO, Alien, Misteri tak terpecahkan dan fenomena hantu serta kehidupan di Planet Mars? ikuti ulasannya disertai bukti-bukti otentik foto dan video dari sumber-sumber resmi yang dapat dipercaya. Kunjungi sekarang juga dan dapatkan realita baru yang tidak pernah anda bayangkan selama ini. Selamat bergabung, selamat membuka cakrawala pandang baru tentang ilmu pengetahuan. Semua hanya ada di http://eskusbiscorner.multiply.com

Anabel La Winson

MAJULAH - MAJULAH MENANG !!!

Saudara-saudaraku, tahukah kalian bahwa Republik Indonesia adalah Negara kepulauan (archipelagic state) terbesar di dunia? Tahukah kalian bahwa Indonesia memiliki 17.504 pulau yang terbentang dari Sabang hingga Merauke dan tercatat bahwa tiga pulau, masing-masing Sumatera (473.606 km2), Kalimantan (539.460 km2 , tercatat sebagai pulau terbesar ke 3 di dunia) dan Papua (421.981 km2) adalah termasuk 3 dari 6 pulau terbesar di dunia. Tahukah kalian bahwa luas perairan Indonesia adalah 93.000 km2 dengan panjang pantai sekitar 81.000 km2 atau hampir 25% panjang pantai dunia. Tahukah kalian jika kita bersatu-padu bersama-sama berjuang demi kemajuan bangsa dan Negara maka kita akan menjadi satu kekuatan yang akan disegani diseluruh dunia. Tahukah kalian saudara-saudaraku kenapa kita selalu dilanda konflik tak berkesudahan (konflik Timor Timur, aceh, Papua dll)? karena banyak yang tidak menginginkan Indonesia menjadi Negara besar. Banyak yang menginginkan kita hancur lebur menjadi Negara-negara kecil yang tidak punya daya dan selalu mengemis pada kekuatan Negara adidaya.

Ayolah saudara-saudaraku kita bangkit dari mimpi panjang ini, berdiri tegak sejajar dengan bangsa-bangsa lain di dunia. Mari kita buang jauh-jauh rasa minder, mari kita busungkan dada dan kita teriakkan kepada dunia bahwa kita tidak bisa dipermainkan dan diperdaya oleh siapapun. Kita teriakkan bahwa kita mampu mengatur diri sendiri tanpa pernah mau lagi didikte oleh Negara manapun. Marilah kita berjalan tegak menyusul ketertinggalan dengan perasaan bangga sebagai bangsa Indonesia. Bergerak – bergerak, serentak – serentak, majulah – majulah menang ….

Kehidupan di Mars, Khayalan atau Kenyataan

Bagaimana seandainya di Planet Mars atau planet Merah ada kehidupan atau paling tidak bisa memungkinkan buat umat manusia untuk hidup dan tinggal? Sesuatu yang tidak pernah kita bayangkan seandainya jawabannya positif. Mungkin akan terjadi interaksi dengan penduduk disana dan selanjutnya akan tercipta iklim perdagangan atau hubungan kemasyarakatan / diplomatik. Bagaimana pula kalau justru terjadi peperangan lantaran berebut dominasi wilayah dan perekonomian? Entahlah, ini kan Cuma lamunan dan andai-andai belaka. Kalau seandainya benar-benar terjadi tentu permasalahannya akan jadi sangat complicated. Bisa-bisa akan terjadi perubahan yang sangat radikal tentang segala hal yang telah kita mahfumi selama ini. Lantas kenapa tiba-tiba saya punya pemikiran bahwa mungkin atau tidakkah ada kehidupan di Planet Mars.

Ini bukan rekayasa atau isapan jempol belaka melainkan berdasar hasil photo satelit yang saya rangkum dari beberapa situs diantaranya diambil dari http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/

Selanjutnya terserah para pembaca bagaimana memaknai dan menyimpulkan fenomena tersebut. Selamat berimajinasi.