for BBC Timewatch and The History Channel
produced and directed by Alan Ereira
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Classic Maya civilization flourished between the fifth and ninth centuries. It was an age of great cities run by Divine Lords, whose own blood-sacrifices were meant to keep the cosmos in balance. New evidence, which came to light during the making of this film, suggests that this civilization was shaped by the dramatic entry of a messianic figure in the Maya world from the Central Mexican culture of Teotihuacan. As Mayan hieroglyphs are newly translated, and the tomb of the founder of Copan is opened, the re-interpretation of Maya history begins. It appears that Copan was founded as a new model state at the beginning of the Mayan 400-year calendar cycle. It turned out to be a model which did not protect the world but damaged it. The cities of Copan, Tikal and Palenque perished in violence and mayhem brought about by self-inflicted ecological catastrophe. And their ending was, it seems, connected with the ending of that same 400-year cycle. |