How the Dinosaur Extinction Turned into a Civilization on the Yucatán
Every day, 8,000 people flock to Chichén Itzá – the archaeological site of the largest known ancient Mayan civilization. Tourists marvel at the architecture, the correlation between the sun, stars, and the structures, and their guides will often take them for a swim in one of the nearby cenotes. These ancient Mayans had an understanding and a connection with the earth and sky that modern humans struggle to comprehend – we’re a bit too caught up with artificial lights, mostly streaming from the screen where you’re currently reading this. When you’re done, turn it off, go outside, and experience the world.
Before that, however, let’s take a look at how an asteroid impacted the earth millions of years ago, setting the stage for development in the area and the most visited archaeological site in Mexico.
Back to the Age of the Dinosaurs
66 million years ago, the dinosaurs ruled the earth. But their reign was about to be cut drastically short as an asteroid was hurtling toward the planet, destined to make impact. Commonly believed to be the destruction of the great lizards, the asteroid wrecked up the earth so that the climate could no longer sustain huge reptiles. That is, however, just a side note in our story.
The Yucatán Peninsula didn’t exist as we know it back then. It was essentially an underwater coral reef that extended out into the sea in kinda-sorta the same way the peninsula extends out today.
As the 6-mile-wide asteroid pierced the atmosphere, it collided with the earth, creating an impact zone over 120 miles wide known as the Chicxulub crater. While the impact wiped out the dinosaurs, it started a chain of events that brought us to modern-day life.
Pushing up the Limestone
The coral we see isn’t exactly the living part of the coral. When you dive and see coral structures, you’re looking at their exoskeleton – the soft creature lives inside. When the animal dies, the coral sticks around, and the structure provides a habitat for other creatures.
Over time, that structure breaks down and settles to the sea floor. There, it can compact, fossilize, and add mass to the rock we know as limestone. For millions of years, this limestone was compiled where the Yucatán coral reef was growing.
The asteroid kind of messed that up.
The impact plunged the asteroid over half a mile into the earth, but if you know your physics, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The surrounding area was pushed up and out of the way. In this case, that shallow reef and underlying limestone were pushed up into roughly what we know as the Yucatán peninsula.
There Are No Rivers in the Yucatán
Because of the geology of the area, the jungle throughout the Yucatán is relatively flat. Meaning there aren’t mountains, or really that many larger hills. Despite plenty of rain, rivers were never able to form. To this day, no rivers or lakes of any size are found in the area.
If you’ve studied any sort of anthropology or archaeology, you know that throughout history, humans have settled in ecotones – these are the transitional areas between different biological areas (the edge of the forest and grassland, the edge of the coast and the land, the edge of a river and the prairie, and more). Because of the lack of ecotones in the Yucatán, the area really shouldn’t be a place where people want to live.
When the asteroid crashed into the earth, it pushed up the surrounding geology. The bedrock rose, and the limestone cracked and jutted up into the air. It was no longer submerged by the sea; now, it was exposed to the forces of weather.
Ice ages came and went, seas expanded and retracted, and the land masses were formed into roughly the shape they are today. But the truly impressive work was going on beneath the surface.
Formation of the Cenotes
In the Mayan language, the word d’zonot or ts’ono’ot means “hole with water.” Over time, that term evolved into the Spanish word “cenote,” meaning “sinkhole.” Today, these are popular tourist destinations, where visitors can swim, see the cave fish, and relax. But they are also an important part of the Mayan prehistory.
After the asteroid pushed the earth up, two major situations occurred in the area.
First, there was a lot of space underneath the ground that wasn’t there before. Essentially, air was trapped below the earth’s surface.
Second, the limestone, now exposed to the environment, would start to erode away.
Nearly every cave in the entire world has been carved into limestone. This is due to the composition of limestone and the chemical composition of rainwater. Limestone is primarily made of calcium carbonate (much of which is from crushed and fossilized coral and other seashells). Calcium carbonate dissolves in carbonic acid. Because the earth’s atmosphere is about .04% carbon dioxide, rain falling through the air turns slightly acidic – because it converts the carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbonic acid (H2CO3).
Enough of that rainwater pitter-pattering onto the limestone means it’s slowly eroded and etched away. Given enough time, massive caverns can form. Or, in the case of the relatively flat Yucatán peninsula, rainwater searched for empty spaces below the surface until the groundwater levels rose enough.
All of these forces combined turned the area from one where once there was inaccessible groundwater to an area riddled with cenotes that were filled with accessible freshwater.
Because we know that humans only settle in areas where water is accessible, the cenotes turned a once uninhabitable jungle into a place where humans could thrive without traveling long distances to recover the resources they need to build cities.
Enter the Mayans of Chichén Itzá
The Mayan people didn’t solely live in the Yucatán. Actually, their civilization extended from where modern-day Mexico City is all the way down into Guatemala. Populations were estimated to be over 2 million Mayan people at the peak of their civilization – representing about 1% of the population of the entire world at that time. They were, in short, a thriving people.
To fully understand why Chichén Itzá exists, we have to briefly look at what they believed, experienced, and considered as their worldview.
In the Mayan religion, Xibalba is the underworld. It’s a place to be revered and feared and where every human goes after death. The only way to access the underworld was through the water – usually the sea, but because of the unique geology in the Yucatán, the cenotes provided access.
Because Xibalba is a place of fear, and because the cenotes provided direct access to the underworld, Chac Mool would protect and guard the area so the two areas would remain separate and the lines between the underworld and the living world wouldn’t blend. Chac Mool’s actual duties are debated since he (and the image) spans multiple cultures and time periods – but it’s widely believed he was involved in the interplay between the living and the dead, or between the living and the gods). While all the cenotes were considered sacred places, some were considered more sacred.
Chichén Itzá (which comes from the Mayan words Chi chem it zha, which mean well mouth water wizards) is actually the name of the Mayan city and includes a number of buildings and structures. However, most people consider El Castillo, the prominent step pyramid, to be the main attraction. Archaeological surveys have shown that El Castillo, actually known as the Temple of Kukulcan, is built on top of a cenote – perhaps providing better access to the underworld, or more efficiently guarding the living world from whatever was down there.
The Mayans built a sacbe, or white path, north of the temple to El Cenote Sagrado – the sacred cenote. This cenote was mainly used to satisfy the gods, and sacrifices (human and otherwise) were cast into the waters during their rituals.
But many have missed the travel of the god Kukulcan from the temple to the cenote.
Who was Kukulcan?
Kukulcan, which translates as the feathered serpent, was the Mayan creator god (in other cultures, such as the Toltecs and Aztecs, he was called Quetzalcóatl). Depicted as a snake with feathers, Kukulcan helped the Yucatec people cultivate, run their civilization, make medicine, and treat injuries or diseases. He was the god of wind, fertility, and the protector of humans.
As you look at El Castillo, Kukulcan undulates down the temple and seemingly stops at the base of the pyramid. However, taking into account the sacbe that heads north to El Cenote Sagrado, it makes sense that the god dips below the surface, bobbing along the way, to the cenote into which sacrifices were cast.
Depending on the time of year, the sun and the stars line up with the Kukulcan depictions, forming a connection between humans and the sky that few of us even consider today. During these times, human sacrifices were often performed on top of the Temple of Kukulcan. When we take into account the architecture, the correlation with the stars, the performance of the god dipping below the surface toward El Cenote Sagrado, and the sacrifice, we can see that the snake god is bringing the life-giving sun, combining with the blood sacrifice, and atoning humans on the surface with the Xibalba below.
Were the Mayans Evil?
In our modern world, we often view the world from a Judeo-Christian perspective. Even those who don’t consider themselves to be Christian have these views so deeply embedded that we automatically have preconceived ideas of what the “right” way to live is.
When Europeans made their way into the Yucatán, the Mayans were believed to be evil, barbaric, and “less than” due to a number of factors.
Their god (one of them, anyway) was a snake.
And if you’ve heard of the story of Adam and Eve, you know that Satan, the serpent, inhabited the snake. The serpent became the depiction of evil and all bad things. Immediately, the European worldview was thrust upon these people who had previously no contact with Christianity, and thus, no reason to consider snakes to be evil.
Throw in the fact that a lot of human blood was necessary to appease the gods, and it’s easy to see why this new group of people would be considered barbaric, evil, or otherwise sub-human.
But that’s not really why the Mayans did what they did. Many of the sacrifices were actually prisoners of war, and their blood was shed to appease the gods. Western cultures, of course, aren’t so barbaric. We don’t sacrifice prisoners of war; we merely torture them for information and let them rot in cells unfit for any life, let alone human life.
Life, Earth, Sun, Water
The Mayan people had a relationship with the sun, the earth, life, and death that is difficult for most of us to understand. They believed the sun setting was death each night. The sun rising was a new life shed to the earth. The sun, the land, and the water all played together in an essential cyclical environment that was required for every aspect of human existence.
But death wasn’t the end. Death was a change, but not the stopping point.
When someone would die, the soft tissues were removed from the body and buried in the jungle. The earth would reclaim them, convert the flesh to nutrients, and allow for new growth. The bones, which wouldn’t decompose quickly, were allowed to dry and become incorporated into everyday life.
For example, if your father or grandfather died, his bones could become tools. Now, attaching an axe head to the femur allowed you to continue that relationship, while his flesh breathed new life into the jungle growth.
All things worked together so that, in the end, humans could prosper in this area.
If an asteroid, 66 million years ago, hadn’t hit the earth, the limestone wouldn’t have been lifted. If the limestone wasn’t lifted, the weather couldn’t have eroded the sinkholes. Had the sinkholes not formed, people wouldn’t have had the water necessary to live. Without water, Chichén Itzá wouldn’t have been built, and this area, now rife with tourism, might be a wild and uninhabited jungle on the east end of Mexico.
