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Lost Secrets of Maya Technology Reviewed By Ruth Ann Hixson of Bookpleasures.com
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Ruth Ann Hixson

Reviewer Ruth Ann Hixson: Ruth has been an avid reader since she first learned to read. When she was forty-two, she went to college to become a journalist. She started out as an assistant editor and reporter and later graduated to Lifestyles Editor. She is now retired and enjoys writing, editing and book reviewing.

 
By Ruth Ann Hixson
Published on June 13, 2012
 

Author:  James A. O'Kon, PE

ISBN:  978-60163-207-4

ISBN: 978-1-60163-6102 (ebook)



Follow Here To Purchase The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology

Author:  James A. O'Kon, PE

ISBN: 978-60163-207-4

ISBN: 978-1-60163-6102 (ebook)

The Lost Secrets of Maya by James A. O'Kon is a detailed description of the evolution of Maya technology and its place in the history of Mesoamerica. He traces Maya technology from the time the Maya first appeared on the scene to their abandonment of their magnificent cities. He describes how this people used their knowledge to engineer solutions to the environmental problems that they faced.

O'Kon begins his dissertation with who the Maya were and their accomplishments over the millennia. He stresses in the first chapter that the Maya didn't simply disappear. They are still in Central America--just in smaller numbers.

The Maya used sophisticated methods to conquer the problems they faced in agriculture, transportation and day-to-day living. They left behind written records carved in stone and magnificent cities with monumental buildings built of stone and cement. They had no beasts of burdens except manpower and they had no metal tools. Their tools were made of jadeite and obsidian.

The Maya engineers learned how to make cement that was close to the modern-day Portland cement. The Yucatan peninsula has limestone as bedrock giving them an easy stone with which to work. Their huge pyramids and palaces were built of concrete poured in place with stone facing blocks.

Maya city-states sites are spread across the face of Mesoamerica. For trade and military purposes they built a huge network of raised roads made of poured-in-place concrete, stones and stucco that could be used year round. This was very important because of flooding in the rainy season. The roads were elevated with a center crown to insure good drainage. Since they had no beasts of burdens, the roads escaped being worn down by wheel. Remnants of the roads can be found today.

O'Kon describes how early archeologists refused to accept that Native Americans still living in the "Stone Age" could design and built their beautiful structures and the superstructure that connects their cities. Early archeologists believed their knowledge had to come from Europe or Egypt. It took nearly two centuries for archeologists to admit that the Maya developed independent of any other culture.

O'Kon was part of the archeologist-engineering movement who proved some of the Maya technology such as the suspension bridge at Yaxchilan which was the longest bridge in the ancient world.

O'Kon's book details the many innovations of the Maya to have a year round water supply, to raise enough crops to feed the elite and the artisans as well as the farmers who grew the crops. They still had enough to trade. They harvested the fruits and nuts of the jungle as a supplement to their diet.

O'Kon's work is presented in an easy writing style that is understandable. Lost Secrets of Maya Technology could be used as a textbook for courses in high school or college in which the Native American cultures are being studied. It is a crossover book of Mesoamerican culture, archeology and engineering.

O'Kon even included the environment in this book. He writes that close to the demise of the Maya Empire (not the Maya people) that deforestation played a role in the in the fall of the empire even before the relentless drought. The Maya cut away the trees to use for lumber in their building projects--including firing the cement kilns--and the fuel for the cooking fires. That is of great significance in view of the deforestation going on in the world today.

Lost Secrets of Maya Technology is a great book no matter what the reason to read it.


Follow Here To Purchase The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology