Maya more warlike than previously thought

Republication from  news.berkeley.edu (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY)

 

David Wahl (right) and Lysanna Anderson taking a sample from Lake Ek’Naab using a hand-operated piston core on an inflatable platform. (Photo courtesy of Francisco Estrada-Belli, Tulane University)

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The Maya of Central America are thought to have been a kinder, gentler civilization, especially compared to the Aztecs of Mexico. At the peak of Mayan culture some 1,500 years ago, warfare seemed ritualistic, designed to extort ransom for captive royalty or to subjugate rival dynasties, with limited impact on the surrounding population.

Only later, archeologists thought, did increasing drought and climate change lead to total warfare — cities and dynasties were wiped off the map in so-called termination events — and the collapse of the lowland Maya civilization around 1,000 A.D. (or C.E., current era).

Urban and Fortification Plan of Cartagena de Indias (1730)

An Urban and Fortification Plan of Cartagena de Indias (1730) in modern Colombia (Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Madrid). And, yes, you must have noticed my predilection for the Spanish and Italian engineers of the Renaissance who distinguished themselves in the New World.

Urban and Fortification plan of Merida, Yucatan 1788

Urban and Fortification plan of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico in 1788 (Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Madrid). Also a location map of Merida in Mexico.

Uniforms of Argentina (War of Independence 1810-1824)-part II

Trooper of the Minones de Cataluna.
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This is the second part of a collection of Argentinean officers and regular troops during the Spanish-American Wars of Independence 1810-1824, that is the standing troops of the independent United Provinces of Rio de la Plata as well as the Argentinean troops of Gen. José Francisco de San Martín who gained independence for Chile and most of Peru.

Uniforms of Argentina (War of Independence 1810-1824) -part I

General Don Jose de San Martin, Liberator of Chile and most of Peru.
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This is a collection of uniforms of Argentinean officers and regular troops during the Spanish-American Wars of Independence 1810-1824, that is the standing troops of the independent United Provinces of Rio de la Plata as well as the Argentinean troops of Gen. José Francisco de San Martín who gained independence for Chile and most of Peru.