The Relics

This month, I had the opportunity to visit the ancient Mayan city of Tulum, located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and situated on a bluff facing the Caribbean Sea to the east.  (Some scholars believe that the city was originally named “Zama”, meaning “City of Dawn”: a reference to its facing the sunrise.)  This was apparently one of the last major cities built by the Mayans, and it thrived sometime around the 14^th century AD.  While it never succumbed to direct invasion by the Spanish explorers who came into contact with the Mayan civilization, it appears that the city’s decline was brought about indirectly from this contact, as its inhabitants became exposed to diseases introduced by these explorers for which the natives had no natural immunity.  It was a fate common to many indigenous peoples of Central and South America after the arrival of the Spaniards and other Europeans.  Tulum was actually built after the Mayan civilization had entered into decline (which had already been in progress for centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards), and was a sort of satellite city-state, preserving a remnant of the greatness that had preceded it.

Tulum was a walled city, and while these walls certainly must have been used to protect it from invasion, they were also used – according to our tour guide – to segregate the upper echelons of Mayan society (mainly priests and political leaders) from the more general population.  In that respect, it was probably similar to a contemporary American “gated community”, where the more privileged classes can enjoy a pleasant life in suburbia without any threat of disturbance by the less fortunate.  The elite classes had always been a drain on the resources of the Mayans, and their proliferation, along with their growing appetite for wealth, were probably a factor in their civilization's decline.  In the words of archaeologist Arthur Demarest: "Society had evolved too many elites, all demanding exotic baubles . . . all needed quetzal feathers, jade, obsidian, fine chert, and animal furs.  Nobility is expensive, non-productive and parasitic, siphoning away too much of society's energy to satisfy its frivolous cravings."  Tulum, in its heyday, housed between 600 and 1600 inhabitants.

Of course, there are only ruins on the site now – relics of a vanished civilization.  But even these relics vividly display the grandeur and magnificence of that civilization.   Three structures in particular attract the modern visitor’s attention.  First there is the Pyramid el Castillo (the Castle), which among its various uses might have served as a lighthouse for incoming canoes.  Tulum was a center of trade, and El Castillo’s location directly across from a break in the barrier reef that lines the nearby shore would have been ideal for signaling a safe landing site for incoming seafaring traders.  As pyramids go, El Castillo is relatively diminutive in size, but is still an impressive presence for the visitor standing at its base.

            To the left of El Castillo, facing east, is the Temple of the Descending (or Diving) God.  Scholars disagree on who this Diving or Descending God was: some identify it with the Mayan bee god Ah Muzencab, and contend that it is an acknowledgment of the importance of honey to the local economy, while others identify it with Xux Ek, the “Wasp Star” corresponding to the planet Venus.  (In Mayan culture, a “god” was not the supreme, omnipotent being that we tend to associate with the word in our own civilization, but rather was something more like a sacred entity or vital force.  The Mayans had many such “gods”, ranging from about twenty to thirty principal ones to a total of nearly two hundred.)  Images of snakes cover the exterior of the temple, including a feathered rattlesnake head adorned with seashells that might represent Chalchihuitlicue, the goddess of the sea.

The Temple of the Frescoes, which is located directly in front of El Castillo, has, as its name indicates, a number of interesting frescoes painted on its walls.  Images of snakes abound here as well, along with representations of Chaac, the rain god, and Ixchel, goddess of women, the moon, weaving, and medicine.  The temple’s main function, however, was as an observatory, tracking the movements of the sun.  As our tour guide explained to us, time – and its periodicity – was central to the Mayans, and time for them was a cyclical rather than a linear phenomenon.  As their observations of recurring astronomical phenomena grew in sophistication, their architecture evolved in lockstep with their knowledge, and provided enduring, physical structures by which they could mark and predict the regular changes seen in the day and night skies.

And so with this blog entry I come, as it were, full circle.  When I began this blog, on December 21, 2012, it was at a time when there was a bit of a media frenzy over claims by many that the ancient Mayan calendar, which was coming to the end of its 5,100 year “Long Count” cycle, was predicting the end of the world on that date.  I started the blog then as a sort of tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of this claim, stating that if there was ever a good time to leave something for posterity, then this might be it.  But my larger intent was to use this as a touchstone for addressing a question that we – at least as a society – rarely think about:  What would we like to leave for posterity for others to ponder, after our civilization has passed away?  What enduring lessons would we like to leave behind for the benefit of others?  This blog was named for the “Emerald Tablet”, a legendary engraving which many claim to be just such an enduring relic: preserving, in its enigmatic verses, wisdom from a bygone civilization.

The occasion of my trip to the Yucatan Peninsula this month actually corresponded to a bit of personal marking of cyclical time: my birthday.  And as I walked among the ruins and relics of the Mayans, my thoughts turned again to this idea of what will – and should – be left behind after we are gone.  While there is much to admire in the visible record of the Mayan achievement, it also displays their shortcomings as well: their belief in a rather naïve cosmology populated with numerous gods and goddesses, their equally naïve belief in a flat, four-cornered earth, and their barbaric practice of periodic human sacrifice, to physically recompense their cosmic benefactors for what nature had bestowed upon them.  Will our own ruins and relics display, to some future civilization (or even species), the follies of our own misguided beliefs and practices, along with our impressive technical achievements?

This blog really has been my own, personal, “emerald tablet”.  Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have had the opportunity to share many if not most of what I have felt to be the most important or enduring insights that have come to me during my lifetime, as well as some of my personal missteps in searching for the meaning of life.  I am sure that, as with the beliefs of the Mayans, some of even my most cherished beliefs will not stand the test of time, perhaps not even in my own lifetime.  But, regardless of their ultimate worth, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to share them, and hope that to the reader they have been a source of at least passing interest or entertainment.

Of the twenty-eight entries that I have written, four have gone “viral” – to use the lingo of the internet – in that they seemed to have attracted a very wide readership far beyond my circle of friends, family, and colleagues.  These are, in order of popularity:

·        “Thoughts on the Future of the Electricity Industry” (May 2014) – the transcript of a speech I made about the challenges that the electric industry is currently facing: that this was the most popular entry of all is ironic, since this one probably had the least to do with the overarching theme of the blog series

·        “Has Physics Become the New Alchemy?” (March 2013) – my diatribe against modern physics, and the sorry state that it presently seems to be in: I contend that it is a science in need of a theoretical overhaul

·        “The New World Order?” (May 2013) – an expression of my concerns about how technological development and the increasing concentration of wealth seem to be contributing to a growing gulf between the rich and the poor, and my speculations about the possible long-term social consequences of this

·        “The Prime Directive” (September 2014) – one of my own personal favorites: thoughts on the kind of programming and instructions that might make an “artificially intelligent” computer or robot behave like an actual conscious, living organism

My personal program to date with this blog has been to put out a new entry every month, but I am sensing that the well is finally running dry, at least for the moment, and my account of this month’s trip to the Mayan ruins seems like a logical place to close the circle for now.  Of course, should any future flashes of inspiration goad me into expanding the collection, I will happily do so.  But in any case, it has been a joy and a privilege for having had the opportunity to share these musings of mine over the past two-and-a-half years (and at least in this small way memorialize them), and I am especially thankful for your interest and indulgence.