Lost Secrets Of Maya Technology: [Paperback]

The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology by James A. O'Kon P.E. traces the evolution of Mayan culture and engineering over the centuries. Numerous schematics are depicted throughout the book to demonstrate how the Mayan mathematicians and scientists overcame extensive environmental challenges like frequent flooding and droughts.

During the mid first millenium AD, the Mayan urban centers were the largest on the planet according to the author. The Mayan civilization had fifty city states with royalty, scribes, scientists and merchants. Mayan engineers developed efficient water management systems and overcame the shortfalls of the environment.

Clearly, the Mayan engineers understood technical engineering
challenges like shear and overturning moment computations.
The Mayan pyramids were designed as a mathematical step function
with rock ascending like a concrete stairwell. This design
distributed the huge shear forces fractionally during great
wind storms or flooding. A step function design is easier to
access for repair purposes. Much of the Mayan engineering
design technology is needed right now in places like Africa
and Asia.

Mayans ate maize, beans, tomatoes, chili, squash, avocado and many other tropical fruits and vegetables loaded with antioxidants and good fats. The Mayan diet could be a model for Americans to emulate. The Mayan climate was alternating deluge and drought. Natural wells or cenotes provided the Mayans in the lowlands with direct access to water throughout the year.

The Mayan culture suffered apocalyptic environmental disasters after 910 AD. These disasters stultified growth. Modern researchers are still uncertain as to the exact reasons why the Mayan culture waned in influence from its zenith. Great earthquakes may be less probable because the two largest quakes were in Antioch, Syria and in Corinth, Greece during the first millenium AD.

A number of Mayan cities were reborn in the eleventh century. Many thousands of books were destroyed by overzealous conquistadors. Slowly but surely, elements of Mayan culture are being retrieved successfully by modern archeologists, scholars, local people and authors like James A. O'kon PE.

Mayan astrologers calculated the present five thousand two hundred year period to end on December 21, 2012. In each period of the Sun, there is an adjustment for the earth. Changes in the weather conditions, social and political life occur. The world is transformed. We enter a period of understanding and harmonious coexistence where there is social justice and equality for all. This portends a new way of life.

The book explains how Mayan engineers perfected the vaulted arch, high-rise structures, bridges, tunnels and a system of paved highways to move people and equipment. Elements of a developing urban civilization include large urban centers, monumental architecture, sophisticated art, crafts, writing, science, theater, commerce, the professions and religious structures. Mayan writings even have traces of the Morse code embedded into the alphabet structure. i.e. dots and dashes

Mayans created superior tools with elements like obsidian which is harder than iron. Mayan architectural wonders include the Edzna Palace, the observatory at Chichen Itza, the Mayapan circular building, the facade at Kabah and the palace at Xtampak. These are all depicted by James A. O'kon PE in the book.

The chemical composition of cement differs from Portland cement. Mayan cement has more carbon, magnesium and calcium. The Mayan pyramid structure consists of a facade of concrete and decorative stones with fill material of clay, rubble and broken pottery. Mayan engineers were expert recyclers. Retaining walls confine the mass fill material. Sides are designed to take into account counterbalancing forces to withstand earth movements like small quakes.

The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology by James A. O'Kon P.E. is a wonderful engineering and historical resource for recapturing a time lost in history due to cataclysmic earth events and overzealous conquistadors of the past. Does the author succeed in recapturing the Mayan culture and civilization? Read the book and decide.

Credits: First Published on Blogcritics

This was an enjoyable, informative read. My expectation when I began was just to understand a bit about the Mayans. I had not expected that I would find the information in the book relevant to today. My expectations were greatly exceeded.

Now, you may be wondering what possible benefit this book can have to the reader. If you're a history buff, of course the big value is you get some great information on an ancient civilization. But what if you're looking for something relevant? Should you pass on this particular book? No.

If you can understand that another culture was way ahead of the Western world for centuries, you then can question the orthodox view that the Western world is where human progress has always taken place. It isn't. And understanding that fact has profound implications for your worldview and how you interpret the events of today.

What may be most important to understand is that Mayan technology was very advanced, yet it was not enough to save the Mayan civilization when their environment dramatically changed. Think of the major problems facing humanity today. Our technology can't save us from these; only a change in how we use our resources can. Today:

*The planet is mired in human-spawned pollution.
*Almost every country on the planet is now controlled by an unaccountable gangsta government (thus all the uprisings in some such as Egypt, and the huge economic chaos in others such as the USA).
*We are past peak oil and heading into severe resource shortages.
*The human population is artificially supported by oil with an excess of about 6 billion people. There's no viable alternative to oil, anywhere. How do we feed a population that's swollen to 7 times its non-oil size?
*Solar perturbations have caused huge changes in our weather. There's also speculation that human activity is cooling the planet (or warming it, depending on which speculators you listen to). We could go into another ice age or into a high temperature phase, either of which would be disastrous.
*Nobody has yet figured out what to do with the waste from nuclear power plants, nuclear submarines, and government bureaucracies. This stuff can last for thousands of years. Well, the nuclear waste can.

How did the Mayans handle their big challenges? They didn't. How will we handle ours? So far, we're not. That's worth noting.

This "why the book is relevant" is from my own musings. The author didn't express any such sentiments. I think for the astute reader, he does not have to.

I've read many "ancient civilization" books, and have found they tend to contain "amateurish" errors. This one doesn't fit the pattern. And while most such books do provide good information, there's always that nagging issue of why the author is qualified to expound on what the book says. I had no such nagging issue concerning me when I read this book. The author has high credibility, for several reasons.

First of all, he's an experienced technologist. Specifically, he's a licensed Professional Engineer with several notable projects under his belt. My undergraduate is also in engineering; though I did not get a PE, I spent many years in technology and earned some significant awards. I'm still involved in the IEEE and other engineering-related fields. Any seasoned engineer can tell a brother engineer (or sister one) from a pretender. O'Kon is no pretender.

Second, O'Kon writes from the perspective of someone who knows technology. The things he emphasizes are the very things an engineer would look at. That is not to say you must be an engineer to figure out what he's talking about. It is to say he looks at things from a fact-based perspective instead of just positing a viewpoint. He doesn't proselytize, he teaches.

I won't go into the details of what the Mayan technology was, as O'Kon does that perhaps better than anyone else could. But just as a highlight, consider his painstaking analysis of a Mayan bridge. We get treated to a quick education on suspension bridges, along with photos and illustrations that clarify what he's talking about.

O'Kon goes into many other areas, of course. For example, how do you make tools when you don't have any metal ores? How do you store and distribute water, when your topography is so porous you don't have lakes or rivers? How do you transport goods when you don't have horses or other beasts of burden? He answers these questions in fascinating detail.

The text of this book runs 291 pages, and consists of 12 chapters and an epilogue. The bibliography is 6 and a half pages long, and includes extremely reputable sources. If that bibliography seems a tad short, please note that it does not include references to the author's own research. The author himself is a primary source, as evidenced by the many photos he took at the various archeological sites. As an engineer, he's also qualified to provide drawings; he provided many in this text.

In my opinion, the information from the bibliography is a bonus, not a requirement. Had O'Kan wanted to, he could have excluded that material and simply presented his own findings. I like the fact that he looked at other sources to provide a more complete work that truly benefits the reader.

THE LOST SECRETS OF MAYAN TECHNOLOGY by James A. O'Kon is tagged Ancient Mysteries, but that label may be misleading. This book is not a hodge-podge of phantasmal beliefs or conjecture. It is based on meticulous research, investigation & working on site. It may not have been the author's original intention, but his book puts to rest much of the false information circulated by "alternative" writers who insist that Mayan technology must have originated by "advanced" entities from outer space--just as it clearly quashes the lie raised by entrenched academcians who classify Maya as being little more than a Stoneage people. Among other fascinating details, O'Kon shows how the Maya had developed a advanced water filtration. It wasn't until that 18th century that Europeans had managed the same.

[NOTE: Until that time most Europeans drank wine or other "spirits" in place of polluted water, particularly in the cities. Indeed, it could be said that non-hygenic water conditions created rampant alcoholism.]

James O'Kon is a professional engineer with many credits & honors to his name; who better to investigate Mayan technology? According to his profile he has also spent 40 years studying the many technological achievements of the Maya. His passion for understanding them & giving them their just due shows cleary in the book. It may not have all the thrills of pop literarture, but MAYA TECHNOLOGY provides a very enjoyable & enlightening reading. In addition, the various subjects presented are illustrated with many detailed drawings & photos (many are in gorgeous color.) The photos of the pyramids & other Maya structures are the best I've seen & really convey the extraordinary art & technique that went into their construction. They give the ancient Egyptian pyramids a run for their money (or waterever).

THE LOST SECRETS OF MAYA TECHNOLOGY is a masterpiece & soon to be a classic in the field.