00:00.00 archpodnet All right? Welcome back to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 106 and we are discussing the extremely unfortunate idea of ancient Maya astronauts and I think you've gotten. The idea that there is no such thing as ancient Maya astronauts and that it is again the singularly most foolish thing in all of pseudo archeology and that my friends is a battle royale. Let's be honest, if you don't believe me. Listen to some of the earlier podcasts but you know what? let's clean this up a little bit so while pacall the great wasn't an astronaut although I'm sure he would have thought it was cool who was this person. Well. Dear listeners. Let me take you back to the late 1990 s oh yeah, as soon as I say that you know what's coming here. It goes there I was in Belize but not yet there I was. On the way to Belize. Yes, it's one of those where we were driving down in 1996 now I've been to Palen a a couple times I know I was there in 9096 I know I was there in 1998 and I think i. 01:29.35 archpodnet We had some sort of trip. There. 1 of the other times maybe 2005 or something I can't remember but um, it is a maya site that I've ah gone to several times and it's because Poleke is an amazing sight. You guys. It's just one of those ones. It's probably in the top 3 of just ah about any one's book on best maya sites to see now Poleke is in Chiapas which is in Mexico and it's in what I would call the western side of the Maya world. So if you look at the yucatan peninsula it's kind of on the left hand side right on the western side and it's just it's a site that is compared to you'll hear things like oh the. Harris of the Maya world right? It's just really really pretty I have to say as I sit here at my desk right now right? above me about 3 just about three feet above me is a photo I took of peleca and and of actually. Butcall's final resting place that we'll talk about in a minute I think I took it in 9096 and I had it blown up and it's sitting up there in a frame and I just look up and I'm like damn that's awesome like it just looks great. I can't recommend enough going to check out the ancient myeide of poleke. 02:57.86 archpodnet So my first time though we were driving down and that year we stopped at a lot of different archeological sites on the way and polanke was going to be kind of the crown jewel of stopping and it really didn't disappoint. So. We got there and walked around for the day you know and then ultimately we were going to go check out the temple of inscriptions and the temple of inscriptions is where paal was buried. Now to me the temple of inscriptions actually is a bit unique in the Maya world in terms of how the sarcophagus in is is ah put inside and how the entire pyramid works and let me explain. 03:48.70 archpodnet When you go see the temple of inscriptions and sometimes it's also called the temple of put call what you do so the pyramid itself is obvious because it's the biggest pyramid I believe at polanke it's it's front row center though you can't miss it. You walk up the stairs. And then at the top of the pyramid now the pyramid is not horrendously huge by maya standards. It's just it's a full bodied pyramid but it's not massive massive but you get to the top and there's um, a series of rooms at the top and that's very standard for for a maya pyramid. But for this one. You go to the center of the room and there is an open trap door a kid you not this is Indiana Jones kind of stuff right? This is found I believe it was in the late 40 s or early 50 s by the ah Mexican Archeology team those guys found this and excavated. There's a the trap door is now open and what it shows you when you look down is a secret stairway that goes down into the innards of the pyramid. It really is that and then you go down the stairs so you've gone up the stairs of the pyramid on the outside you get to the top and then you go down the stairs into the inside and then the stairs go down they make a turn about halfway down then they go down a bit further and you go all the way back down to ground level right? So you go all the way up and then all the way back down there at least when I was there. There was a string of lights. 05:25.47 archpodnet And by string of lights I mean a handful of light bulbs strung along with a single wire on the way down. So it was really dim walking down those stairs which was great though which added to the intrigue and the interest it was also really really hot. I remember but you walk all the way down and then you kind of make that turn you go down further to basically ground level. You make a final little turn and there it is and you guys it's amazing. So when you make that final turn. You stop and you are standing right at the foot of the sarcophagus of pacall the great and as I said before the sarcophagus itself is massive right? It is this massive carved stone object. And when you see it the sarcophagus lid itself is cranked up a little bit so you can actually kind of see the interior of the stone sarcophagus where the body would have been now. There's an interior piece that kind of covers where the. Body would have been laid but you can tell like where the feet would have been basically the the actual body itself of pacall is at the national museum in Mexico City and I saw that too in what a couple times I think the summer of maybe 2005 or 6 is. 06:58.63 archpodnet Is when I check that out but that has its own interest in pacall was actually buried with a jade death mask and if you've ever taken an art history class on like maya art or this kind of thing I guarantee you've seen pacall's jade death mask. It's made out of. Several pieces of jade it's a mosaic. Um and it's just ah, a fantastic piece of art as well as just this incredible symbolic death mask. But while the body's not there. You can. Enjoy the sarcophagus and the sarcophagus lid now the carving on the sarcophas on the sarcophagus lid is just amazing. It's absolutely intricate. It's huge in terms of a canvas again. It's like 8 by fourteen feet or something like this and on it. You can tell kind of what's going on because you you have an angled view because you're sort of looking down and a cross but the lid of of pacall. The great is so famous that this image is everywhere and what you see is. The carving of pacall the great as a young lord again in that ah relaxed chair with the hands up thing that I talked about before but the true meaning of that is he's seen as a young Lord he's seen as like the young corn god ah you know vibrant. 08:30.71 archpodnet And and young and then out of him comes this huge cross and the cross is the world tree. So it has nothing to do with a catholic cross or any of that kind of stuff this is the maya symbol of the world tree the symbol of centrality. You also see. Little dots of 3 that are kind of coming down There's multiple little dots of 3 that's jade jewelry as it's falling down from the floral paradise so the floral paradise is like the world of the sky where those of us who are lucky enough Maya King's included. Go after they die right? this world ah of the above the world of the sky and then below the carving of pacall. There's like this u shaped thing with that's kind of pointy so think of a pointy you kind of surrounding the body below it. And those are ah centipede pinchers. So like that like the open mouth of the centipede. Sometimes we call it the centipede ma and so that is symbolic of the underworld right of shabbal by. 09:44.90 archpodnet And that's just a fun word to say shabbal. But and ultimately so you have this world of the sky at the top shabbal by the underworld below and pa call in the center with the world tree coming out of him. And really what you get in this imagery and you guys there is so much more there are maya hieroglyphs around the entire edge of the thing. It is so rich, but the overall vibe of the image is here is pacall. As the center of the universe. So when pacall was alive the center of the universe oops let me redo that I'm gonna start with so when Paca was alive so when pacall was alive. If he walked by you the center of the universe just walked by. You. That's power that is a thousand times more cool than a stupid idiotic ancient astronaut situation. You know what? I'm saying when we come back who was this put call guy. Anyway.