00:00.10
kinkella
Welcome back to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 136 I'm your host Dr Andrew King Kella and we have been discussing Augustus Lelan Jean and really how much of a basically completely awesome. Dude he was now when we left off. He was in Peru being awesome taking photos of tiwinaku archeological sites. But I had hinted that some of his influences were maybe not so great now I think what's interesting is he kind of has 2 influences and I think when you look at these it really tells a lot about what Augustus Leplan Jean um, kind of where he goes as the years wear on now one of his big influences. First. First and foremost are Stevens and Catherwood this is John Lloyd Stevens and Frederick Catherwood these guys are famous explorers of the Maya world right? Stevens and Catherwood Stevens was a New York lawyer who was also just a very good writer. And cather wood was an amazing artist who would do these photo realistic images. Those 2 were really the first I would say kind of scientific minded people to explore the Yucatan to explore the world of the maya and they're going to do this in the 1930 sorry the 1830 s and 1840 s.

01:27.55
kinkella
Right? So this at this time it's going to be about 20 years in the past from where we are hanging with um augustus le plan Jean right? At this point we're now in the 1860 s or so so this is 20 years past and. What Stevens Kather would did is they um, published travel books the most famous one is called incidents of travel in the Yucatan um, and it just it blew open the whole mya world for the rest of the world right um. And this if you guys are interested in the story of Stevenson Catherwood which is fascinating in its own right? I love stevenson catherwood I might even just do a podcast on that them at some point even though they're not pseudo archeologists I just love them I'll just do it out a love dude because that's why I'm here to to bring love um. If. You're interested in their story. You can also read the book jungle of stone I forget the author but it just came out. No it came out maybe seven or eight years ago really great biography of these two just sort of telling their life story together. Interesting interesting I highly I dug it man i. Highly recommend it. So. But anyway breser are ah Augustus Le Plan Jean was influenced by this. It makes sense. He's like oh I want I'll do that but with photos right? and he's going to write as we'll see. He's gonna write books but his other influence as I just accidentally kind of sort of hinted that.

03:00.80
kinkella
Brasseur de bo bo remember that guy from a couple podcasts ago he was he was the guy who was into the maya as well and and very much into the maya hieroglyphics but he brought in atlantis man. You know, just saying the word at this point I'm like oh because we were doing so well. Everything is so cool. We're talking about all these amazing places that justice late plunger on has traveled and his experiences and he's getting good with photography man good for him but then talk about the. Ultimate side track. It's like oh and he's you know he's looking at stevenson catherwood and kind of going to be the next generation of that. It's going to use photography instead of um, drawing it's going to be so great. But then it's like now we got to stick on Atlantis oh. So as he's staying with that and as he's getting better as his photography he goes um when we last left him he was in Peru right? goes back to San Francisco he's kind of and he's kind of selling on himself now I think as kind of a. Kind of an archeologist more or less for the time we would you know more correctly now call him an antiquarian or this kind of thing. Um and he would give lectures I think kind of do the lecture circuit and he can show his photos which would be a very very.

04:32.28
kinkella
Cool thing at that time right now we're up to like 1870 the dude's like 45 um, after San Francisco he goes back to England and then starts working with the british museum now we're up to 1871 this is important because let's see if we do the math like I get this right? Twenty five seventy he's 46 I believe eighteen seventy one makes him 46 um, he is then going to meet and marry Alice Dixon who is 26 years younger than him so he's 46 and she's 20.

05:10.13
kinkella
And so she marries her I believe she's a um, she's the daughter of like a photographer or so something in that world and now they're like a team right? It's Augustus late plan Jean and Alice Dixon Laylog Jean and they're together now going to the Yucatan. Okay, now this is the part I knew about him from before so when I look up these various people to talk about I kind of go off of stuff I've heard or just stuff that sounds interesting to me. I forget you know I think that the name of justice latelandion came up when I was researching breser to Bor Borg and you know I was like oh right? Augustus Late blaron I got to do one with him at some point and because of his his maya stuff now. They're going to the Yucatan and they're kind of now. He's really retracing Stevenson Catherwood's stuff you know by this point they're about 30 years um after Stevens and Catherwood ah 1873 when they go down now say he's now 48 his young wife is 22 they start in the in the Northern Yucatan the main town in the Northern Yucatan is mara colonial town I highly recommend going there I've been there. It's it's very pretty It's cool town man. Um, that's a it's a good base of operations if you're into looking at the kind of the.

06:40.42
kinkella
The Maya world of the Northern Yucatan and I think it was then too of course as soon as they get there. Alice gets sick with malaria ah, but while they're there. They learn yuca tech mayan yucaek mayan is a is one of the major maya dialects. There's a handful's there's a lot of different maya kind of sub. You know little dialects and stuff and eucaex 1 of the biggies I would say it's probably 1 of the top 3 so they learn the language good for them right? That's really going to get them far in terms of dealing with the local maya people in terms of maybe. Attempting to learn a bit more about the maya sites like that's that's a big deal. You got look how much they do right? You know look how far ahead honestly that augustus lay plunge on is and and Alice from ah, many others at the time there. Only held back by their stupid atlantis idea. It's so sad they got so much going for them so now of course they are specifically looking for links between the maya and Atlantis and Egypt. Ah, right? So so this is their kind of focus now while they're there speaking of another force gump moment. This is also the time of the Maya Cast war ah which is which has its own historical implications. This is of course a time of of great tension in that area and.

08:15.36
kinkella
He he and his wife have to deal with that as they go through it they um they head off to chean Ita Che Chi Ita is probably the most famous post-class mya side of them all home to the sacred sinote the the most famous of all sanotess easily. Um. And ah, again for the northern yuttan it's Chi Chini is huge and in terms of the history of the maya. It's extremely important Maya site I would almost rank it as the single most important maya site in terms of having more research done. In the next ten or twenty years from today you know I think that more research at that 1 specific site might give us more mileage and almost anything else. That's how important chija needs. It turns out to be so um, le and John and his wife go there and they just start taking. Fantastic photos good for them. They are very scientific in terms of really just the coverage with their photos. They experiment with three d photos have you guys ever seen any of those as really old 3 d photos. You know you kind of look through the special look through thing. And it gives you a threedi dimensional image. It's really great so they do all this stuff in like eighteen seventy five um great recording of things. They also do some excavations a little bit you know just as they would. This isn't going to be massive excavations but they're going to excavate. They're going to make some really great maps and they're going to do like molds.

09:48.95
kinkella
Of the various like reliefs on the buildings and stuff there so in terms of their recording. Great. They also do some of this at oshmall which is another um Northern Yucatan post-classic maya site. Ah us Oma is also very unique. That's also a great place i. Highly recommend you guys get to usmall at some point both of those sites are great. Chi Chinita today is actually very toury which is kind of a letdown and I guarantee you if you go there, you are going to boil definitely bring water. You're go be there at the probably in the summer like the height. At noon and it's hot and it's full of people usmall a lot fewer people really interesting sight I dig it I haven't been there and I haven't been to usmall in decades I miss it. That's that would probably be the main one I'd go to if I um. Was back in the Northern Yucatan that and Koba those are good. Great. My sites of visit anyway. Um, they're recording this and when they're there. Um, they find what we now call a chock mule.

11:05.85
kinkella
Why do we call it a chock mole because augustus and his wife called it a chock mole I think this is one of his biggest claims to fame he labeled a chock mool a chock mo what is a chock mole. You guys have probably seen these. They're hard for me to explain just with words. You know, but they're ah um, a sculpted figure of a person that's kind of sitting with their knees up laying back on their elbows with with their head turned to the side and and like their stomach is flat so you can see that their stomach is supposed to be like an. Offering place. Um, and that's ultimately ultimately what it is is sort of an offering table I know you this image is very like every tourist postcard has an image of a chock mole you know from the from the Northern Yucatan other sites have these baic eats is kind of the most famous for it. There's a chocmo on top of 1 of the pyramids there top of the temple of the warriors and ah so so those he found one and he named it that because he knew yuca tech. You know now the name is made up. It has nothing to do with what the maya originally called them but the name totally stuck so chock mos are called chock moles because of augustus le clone jean and Alice um, in terms of what we know now again. Yes, they're offering tables the aztec item as well later I think.

12:36.90
kinkella
In the aztec sense. There's going to be more of a human sacrifice element. You know, maybe you do actually cut a heart out and put it on a chock mole you know in the Aztec world in the Maya world. It's usually more. For my feeling of things. It's not as harsh so I could believe it if there's not necessarily a human sacrifice component in the mile world. There could be but there also could not be I'm cool with it either way, but this is very much a post- classic thing and I keep saying post classic. Post-classic maya are from about oh about 9 50 a d until the spanish come in like 1520 so it's it's that period of time and Chi eat is a little bit earlier like this stuff is from like 59 s but to about twelve fifty or so. that's that's the date of kind of Chi Chi each at its height. They also during this time take a couple ah treks to Belize. Ah which is near and dear to my heart and in terms of some of the research I did when we come back some. Cool stuff I found concerning the la plunge jones in Belize.