"The Spanish conquistadors burned many Maya codices.  Bishop Landa wrote: 'We found a great number of books ... and as they contained nothing in which there was not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all ...'"
"The Maya valued crossed eyes.  Babies and toddlers often had a ball of resin or a bead tied to their hair that hung down between their eyes to encourage cross-eyedness."
"Bishop Landa noted that the average Maya man was 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) and that the average women was 4 feet 8 inches tall (142 cm)."
"The Maya reshaped their infant's heads by binding them between two boards.  Many Maya also filed their front teeth to sharp points and even sometimes placed carved jade into them."
"Maya men and women wore lots of jewelry including earplugs, lip plugs, nose ornaments, necklaces, bracelets, rings, pendants, and ankle bands."
"A typical Maya home would have been rectangular or square with a thatched roof.  The home would have been raised on a low platform of earth to keep it dry in the rainy season.  The walls would have been made of sticks covered with adobe and may have been painted on the outside.  They had no windows in these homes and often extended family houses were grouped together around a small courtyard."
"Part of the Mayan 'coming of age' ceremony would have been the cutting of a white bead from the boys hair or a small red shell from the waist of a girl.  These were symbols of purity worn by children from the age of 4 or 5."
"The very beginning lines of the Popul Vuh: 'This is the beginning of the ancient word, here in this place called Quiche.  Here we shall inscribe, we shall implant the Ancient Word, the potential and source for everything done in the citadel of Quiche, in the nation of the Quiche people.  And here we shall take up the demonstration, revelation, and account of how things were put in shadow and brought to light . . .'"
"The ending lines of the Popul Vuh: 'This is enough about the being of Quiche, given that there is no longer a place to see it.  There is the original book and ancient writing owned by the lords, now lost, but even so, everything has been completed here concerning the Quiche, which is now named Santa Cruz.'"
"Some of the most important Maya exports were jadeite, serpentine, obsidian, salt, cacao, honey, animal skins, and quetzal feathers.  They also functioned as 'middlemen' between the Mexican states to the north and the resources of Central America such as cotton, feathers, gold, silver, copper, pottery, rubber, and slaves.  Bishop Landa wrote: 'The occupation to which they had the greatest inclination was trade, carrying salt and cloth and slaves to the lands of the Ulua and Tabasco, exchanging all they had for cacao and stone beads which were their money."
"Columbus encountered a Maya trading canoe off the north coast of Honduras.  He described the canoe as being as long as a Spanish galley (and 2.5 meters wide), with a cabin amidships, and a crew of two dozen men, a captain, and women and children.  It was carrying cacao, copper bells and axes, pottery, cotton clothing, and Mexica style wooden swords with obsidian blades."
"Studies show that at least in the central lowlands, population reached 190 people per square kilometer by the end of the Classic Period (around 800 AD).  This density puts the Maya lowlands among the most populated pre-industrial societies in the world (comparable to pre-twentieth century Java or Japan) and this must have stressed the environment.  Some believe that this population pressure was an important factor in the decline seen in this region near the end of the Classic period."
"Bishop Landa wrote about tattooing among the Maya: 'Those who do the work, first painted the part which they wish to color, and afterwards they delicately cut in the paintings, and so with blood and coloring-matter the marks remained on the body.  This work is done a little at a time on account of the extreme pain, and afterwards also they were quite sick with it, since the designs festered and matter formed.  In spite of all this they made fun of those who were not tattooed.'"
"Both Maya men and women anointed themselves with red ointment, the sweet odor lasting for several days."
"For the Maya farmer the most important god was 'Chac', the god of rain.  Chac is represented with a reptilian face.  He also sports a long curving snout and two curved fangs that project downward.  Because of this, some early explorers confused him with the image of an elephant.  Chac had four distinct aspects -- The Red Chac of the East, the White Chac of the North, the Black Chac of the West, and the Yellow Chac of the South.  The Maya held a great festival, known as 'ocna' ('enter the house') in honor of these Chacs.'"
"'Ix Chel' means 'she of the rainbow'.  She was a goddess of dual aspects.  On the one hand, with the Black War God she is associated with serpents and destruction, but in her other aspect she was the deity of healing, childbirth, and divination."
"Dark red (made from iron oxide) was the most common color of Maya buildings and monuments.  The next most used color was blue."
"The Maya produced elaborate chipped stone objects such as knives and scepters.  Caches of these 'eccentrics' are often found beneath buildings and monuments."
"Interestingly the colors used in modern highland Guatemalan textile designs still reflects those of the ancient Maya:  Black is the color of obsidian, or weapons, yellow the color of corn, and food; red for blood; and blue for sacrifice.  Royalty is represented by green, which is also the color of the quetzal bird's plumage which in ancient times was reserved only for royalty."
"The supporting platforms of Maya buildings are made with rubble and earth and faced with stone-cut masonry.  This continues in the actual buildings themselves in the use of rubble filled walls and corbeled ('false', or inverted V-shaped) arches.  Because the corbeled arch is so much weaker than the true arch, walls must be relatively thick and consequently Maya buildings have little inner space in comparison to their apparent dimensions.  Corbeled vaulting also dictated that most Maya buildings be only one story, although some buildings, using massive walls and narrow arches, achieved two or three stories."
"The Maya referred to their stele as 'stone trees' or 'tree stones', and the 'altars' that are often found paired with the stele were known as 'throne stones'.  Some researchers infer from these terms that the 'altars' are really seats used by the rulers and their families during plaza ceremonies, and that early, early Maya may have carved stele from actual trees (although the evidence has long since rotted away)."
"The Maya carved their stele and altars mainly from limestone (although in Copan, a fine volcanic trachyte was used, and in a few areas, sandstone was available).  The limestone is soft when first cut from the ground, which made it easy to carve, and then latter, after exposure to the elements, it hardens considerably."
"To kill a quetzal bird was punishable by death because of the bird's great value for royal plumage and its rarity."
"In 1511 a Spanish ship on its way from Panama to Haiti sank near Jamaica.  Set adrift, the survivors in a small boat with no food or sails drifted to the Yucatan Peninsula.  A Maya lord seized them there and sacrificed 5 of them and gave their bodies to his subjects for a feast.  6 others were spared as 'yet too thin to eat'.  They escaped their 'coop' but eventually all died but two -- Aguilar and Guerrero -- who 'went native'; Guerrero even marrying the daughter of the Maya ruler of Chetumal.  Cortez eventually found them but only Aguilar chose to return.  He explained Guerrero's refusal: ''because he has his nostrils, lips and ears pierced and his face painted, and his hands tattooed ... and on account of the vice he had committed with the woman and his love for his children.'"
"In 1515 or 1516, smallpox swept through the Maya, perhaps brought by Indian traders or from the shipwrecked sailors of 1511.  To the Maya the pestilence was known as 'mayacimil', which means 'easy death', and 'rotted their bodies with a great stench so the limbs fell to pieces in four or five days.'"
"Although the greater part of Yucatan was conquered in 1546, one group of Maya remained independent -- the powerful Itza nation -- which was centered in the lake region of the Peten.  The capital, Tayasal, was on an island in Lago Peten Itaza.  They were able to hold the Spanish off until 1696."
"At the head of Pakal's sarcophagus was found an opening in the form of a serpent's skull.  It was the end of a duct -- a psychoduct -- set in the limestone mortar of the stairway that connected the burial chamber with the temple.  The idea of this stone pipe duct was that the soul of the ruler could move up and down the duct to communicate with the living in the temple overhead."
"Mirrors were symbols of brilliance and power and highly prized.  A great lord was regarded as the 'mirror of his people'."
"Furniture in the Maya palace was sparse, consisting of mostly built-in benches and platforms."
"While Landa's accounts may be somewhat over-stated, he noted that most if not all Maya ceremonies ended with the participants being drunk ;-).  Landa wrote of one 3 month period: 'And so great was the excess which there was in the festivals during these three months that it was a great pity to see them, for some went about covered with scratches, others bruised, others with their eyes enflamed from much drunkenness, and all the while with such a passion for wine that they were lost because of it.'"
"In the epilog, an obsidian flake inscribed with the Maya Jester God saves the day.  The jester god is Sak Hunal, the god that is emerging from the east end of the double headed serpent of Pakal's sarcophagus lid.  Sak Hunal means 'White Headband' and the Maya inherited this god from the Olmec.  The Jester God sometimes has fish fins on his face."
"The Itzam-ye bird that figures in the prolog was the nawal (spirit companion) of Itazamna, and old god with a hooked nose, square eyes, and a toothless mouth.  'Itz' is the word for magic and substances that ooze (milk, sap, candle wax, honey, dew, sweat, etc.) and these were magic substances used by the sorcerer to control the Otherworld.  Itzamna was the first and most powerful sorcerer of this creation.  Sorcerers and ahau could supposedly transform themselves into their nawal."
"The Bearded Jaguar God mentioned on the losing screen was one of the patron gods of Palenque, Tikal, and Naranjo, and also played a part at Copan.  The god was often worn as a head on the belt, or adorning the shields, of nobles and kings.  He is also known as 'Sun-Jaguar', 'Black-Headband', 'Bearded-Lord', 'Lord of Fire', 'Sun-faced-torch-Macaw', and 'Sun-centered Jaguar'."
"The Flint-Shield (this is your goal in the game:  to capture the enemy city's Flint-Shield) was known as the 'tok'-pakal' and combined a flint lance blade with a shield made from a flayed human face.  As you must already know by now ;-) the capture or throwing down of a city's flint-shield signaled its defeat."
"From Schele and Mathews:  'Tlaloc was a symbol of war and bloodletting.  Its symbol consisted of a jawless head with blood scrolls emerging from its mouth and large circles around its eyes.  It is associated with spear-throwers and javelins, and with a flexible, rectangular shield.  Often, Tlaloc-warriors wore a full bodysuit made from the jaguar pelt ... It not only signaled war and conquest, but also identified places and lineages with the concept of Tollan.'  Tollan was the capital city of the Toltecs who were regarded by both the Aztecs and Maya as great artists, warriors, and builders."
"From Schele and Mathews:  'Vision Serpents were rearing snakes that embodied the conduit between human beings and the supernatural world.  Some had feathers lining their bodies and others had their bodies partially flayed.'"
"Schele and Mathews note:  'Experiencing Maya architecture can be disconcerting for people who grew up with the European tradition all around them.  European architecture focuses for the most part on interior space.  In Maya public architecture, the operational spaces are the plazas and the courtyards that are surrounded by buildings.  The small, dark interiors, especially of the temples, were places where the gods, ancestors, and a few authorized lords visited.  Even in the palaces, the public stayed in the courtyards, where they were the audience for the dances and processions that were at the heart of Maya rituals and festivals.'"
"Schele and Freidel describe 'War of conquest' first introduced in the Maya world by Tikal against Uazactun:  'In time to come, this kind of war would require a novel alliance with the denizens of the Otherworld -- an unleashing of the forces of Xibalba, particularly Venus, to conquer not only the living royal clan but also all of the apotheosized ancestors of that clan.  Kings now had a policy and a strategy that would inspire dreams of conquest throughout the Maya world.  Venus would prove a powerful, but treacherous ally in the realization of these dreams.'"
"From Schele and Freidel on 'War of conquest':  'Soon after they adopted this kind of war, which we shall call Tlaloc-Venus war, the Maya began timing their battles to particular points in the Venus cycle (especially the first appearance of the Eveningstar) and to the stationary points of Jupiter and Saturn.  We do not know why the Maya saw this association with the planets, especially Venus, as important to their concepts of war.  However, the fact that later groups, such as the Aztec and Mixtec, also had such associations, which they may have inherited from either the Teotihaucanos or the Maya or both, suggests they were a part of the wider MesoAmerican tradition.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'The ancient Maya used various precious commodities for money -- carved and polished greenstone beads, beads of red spiny oyster shell, cacao beans, lengths of cotton cloth, and measures of sea salt.  Such currencies were in wide demand throughout the MesoAmerican world.  Although the currencies were probably fixed in value by the king and court within particular realms, merchants working in the uncontrolled lands between kingdoms could speculate on marginal differences in value and scarcities.  Even the Maya had their arbitrageurs.'"
"Maya men and women 'wore' their money -- jade, and shell, and jewelry -- to display their wealth, hard work, and enterprise.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'Merchants operating beyond the borders of the kingdom were thought of euphemistically as state ambassadors bearing 'gifts' to royal neighbors who acknowledged this with reciprocal 'gifts'.  Such royal business was so economically vital that the merchants involved in it were high nobles and even members of the royal household.  Using the metaphor of pilgrimage, high merchants traveled to the great festivals of neighboring and distant states that controlled especially strategic goods.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'So important (were) swamp and river-edge agriculture to the Maya that the kings adopted waterlilies as a primary metaphor of royal power.  Nobles were literally, 'Ah Nab', 'Waterlily People'."
"Building temples and great buildings took years.  It has been demonstrated via dedication dates and evidence buried with Pakal that his 'Temple of Inscriptions' took 9 years to build."
"Almost all Maya wars took place between late January and early May, after the farming season, and before the torrential rains of June turn the land into mud."
"From Schele and Friedel:  'The rhythms of the tropical world are not the same as those of the temperate zone in which we live.  For us, the central metaphor of death and rebirth derives from the change of winter to spring, but in the Maya tropics spring is the time of drought and the burning of the forest to open the fields for planting.  There, the heat of the spring is unending and inescapable as the skies darken with the gritty pall of burning trees, filling lungs with soot and dimming the light of the sun.  The forest turns completely white as the trees dry out and many of them lose their leaves.  The world becomes the color of bone and the forest smells of death.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'Although water, overall, is abundant in the tropics, there is usually too little of it during the dry times, and too much during the torrential rains of summer and fall.  Because of these conditions, much of Maya social innovation was centered around two great problems:  how to store excess water for the times it would be needed, and how to free wet, fertile swampland for farming.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'The Maya writing system (see the main playing screen for excellent examples) used to record this ancient history was a rich and expressive script, capable of faithfully recording every nuance of sound, meaning, and grammatical structure in the writer's language.  Caligraphically, it has an unsurpassed elegance, deriving its form from the beauty of freely flowing painted line.  Maya scribes, whether carving limestone, engraving jade, inscribing shell, or incising bone, never lost the eloquence of their writing's original painterly grace.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'The number of (Maya) kingdoms ruled by kings grew from perhaps a dozen in the first century BC to as many as sixty at the height of the lowland civilization in the eighth century.  Not all polities survived this span of history, even when they were well established.  There were many hazards to challenge the kings -- wars, intrigues, and natural catastrophes.  A king was literally at risk all his life; and more than one king ended his rule not by dying of peaceful old age but by being taken captive in a war he was too old to fight.'"
"From Schele and Friedel:  'The political geography of the Maya consisted of island cities of royal power in a sea of townspeople and village folk.  Kings worked hard to establish firm control over the countryside and to expand their authority as far as possible in the direction of other polities ... With the proliferation of polities, the civilized territories expanded at the expense of the freeholders.  By the Late Classic period, kings looked out at a landscape peopled by brother lords, both enemies and allies, and at escalating conditions of war and strife.'"