Central America: The Burden of Time

Isolated from the rest of the world, the Mayans and Aztecs created sophisticated civilizations that in many ways paralleled ancient Mediterranean empires. God-like kings and a priestly ruling class dominated splendid cities of temples and pyramids.

[@garygone5234]

Very good documentary, Mr Wood is a great host and narrator.

[@horacebeachboy]

Great Documentary. very respectful. Muy buen documental. Excelente y muy respetuoso.

[@13minutestomidnight]

32:20 "And yet it is a mirror to our humanity which we ignore at our cost." This is a brilliant documentary and thankyou for uploading it. Michael Wood manages to get in an overview of both the Mayans and the Aztecs while still making highly intelligent points about complex psychosocial and philosophical issues. The Mayans in particular had some very interesting and insightful ideas about the nature of the Universe, and the collapse of their civilisation is a great loss to the world...y'know, besides being really fucking odd. It's not just impressive but very heartening that even to modern day the local people have kept the faith with the old culture.

[@xaixanac]

Thank you, Michael Wood, you are speaking from my heart.

[@yaddahaysmarmalite4059]

@32:15 "Yet it is a mirror to our humanity to which we ignore at our cost." Quite a profound thought.

[@Magushinka]

Such eloquence and abundance of information! Thank you.

[@richardkonv2180]

Michael always makes good productions

[@maxyakov273]

gary schultz: At least he's not making "dumb ass" comments here. Get a life.

[@maxyakov273]

He's a great writer, presenter and, most of all, a great story teller.

[@pyewackett5]

Oh. It's Michael Wood. I liked instantly

[@the0point]

Wow that one synth note really gives it that prolonged sense of dread.

[@thespamdance311]

The longer the note, the more dread.

[@atomictraveller]

real analog too. nowadays they'd use a sample pack of a synthesizer, instead of a synthesizer, which, is a special kind of deep, deep dread only for people who understand that, synthesizers are platforms for making different sounds, and are aware that, nobody is interested in synthesizers when they can purchase sample packs where somebody else did something before. score one for extremely prolonged dread.

[@porfirorodriguez719]

just got back from copan....awesomeee. love u wood.

[@jayvanslayer2787]

Great doc. Michael Wood is an excellent narrator. He had it right abt Aztec bloodletting.

[@carljordan2064]

just saw this: M Wood does good dramatic documentaries--really watchable

[@steelcityterps]

I was so excited to see ruins while in Cancun when i was in my 30s. I didnt realize id see more in Belieze and Cozomel and Costa Rica and so on and so on.... 40s are pretty sweet.

[@twstf8905]

The Spanish "Conquistadors" like Francisco Pizarro and Hérman Cortez clutched their precious pearls about the Human sacrifice they witnessed when stumbling upon the various pre-Columbian civilizations in Central and South America, without a thought to their epic barbarity they committed upon the hundreds of thousands of non-believers back home in mainland Europe during the Crusades or especially the Inquisition. And, they didn't seem to exhibit a scintilla of self-awareness when exterminating the vast majority of the Native populations in the New World for their Gold, or spreading diseases like Small Pox, etc., effectively rendering entire civilizations all but extinct. Whatever the Maya, the Inca, or the Aztec Empires were doing to Human beings in the name of their Religions, it PALES in comparison to the atrocities imposed by the European religions at the time, the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and Portugal in particular. The adventurers and their scribes had not a leg to stand on, judging anyone else for the amount of death and destruction they saw, and subsequently wrote about. Whole histories and languages are completely lost, supplanted by Catholicism and Spanish, burning every book and parchment they could find, smashing shrines and Temples, defacing monuments, all in the name of THEIR version of a, "God." That's NEVER been demonstrated to be any more real than anyone else's. The hubris on display is just embarrassing. And infuriating. (I'm just sayin' ✌)

[@si4632]

🤣🤣 Such nonsense and lies from this Jew

[@levyan4718]

The real beauty is the earth and our mission to respect it and others

[@kevinsalazar8727]

This documentary captures such a rich view of the tradition and history of Central America. It saddens me that most of the culture is lost and destroyed. What was once a great and awesome civilization is now a mere shadow of its self. The West had such a disgusting habit of destroying beautiful and sacred things.

[@goatamongsheep4296]

I think the Jesuits had a bit to do with it. Portugese were infamous in America. Pizarro was ruthless. These people are still around today, and are even more organized

[@levyan4718]

Time is a burden to all civilizations

[@TheHound1399]

14:46 the song in the background is the bukis or in spanish los bukis with lead singer marco antonio solis.

[@olchat2012]

Necesito una compañera.

[@michalvagner]

They shared the fundamental belief, that civilisation and human kind are not set apart from nature but part of a natural order whose workings it is the human duty and human interest to understand. 🧡

[@Murcans-worship-felons]

Well played.

[@StigEtDump]

When people say it's a logical fallacy that things were better in the past, Michael Woods documentaries prove otherwise.

[@levyan4718]

Humanity must continue to learn and evolve

[@bingeltube]

Very recomendable

[@Happy_HIbiscus]

dude this is cool

[@olchat2012]

Silly Goose bella !

[@maxyakov273]

I believe this is one of the 6-part TV Mini Series "Legacy: The Origins of Civilization" (1991). IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0395062/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt

[@freight-carhobo8490]

Does anybody know the song that plays at around 35:30 onwards? I heard this years ago but never found out where it was from. I couldn't believe I was hearing it now -- and then they don't list it in the credits!

[@levyan4718]

Songs like Bach pretty similar to matthaus precession

[@giuseppelogiurato5718]

Isn't that the theme from "The Mission"? (maybe it's just similar, it's been a long time since I saw that movie)

[@giuseppelogiurato5718]

It IS "The Mission" soundtrack! It's "Falls" by Ennio Morricone... First he got gypped out of the Oscar, and now he is not even listed in the credits... poor guy. ("music - Hal Lindes"? Great job picking out the CD, Hal.)

[@maxyakov273]

Giuseppe: And at 10:55? He received an Academy Award in 2016 for "Hateful Eight". Give us a break - he's not a "poor guy". Ennio (Wiki): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennio_Morricone

[@rodolfomjrambario4678]

its a wonderfully world's

[@rontaylor5537]

Mexico City. So many Volkswagens !!!!,

[@SSgtTherrien]

Why on earth did they mute a documentary?

[@StarvEgoFeedSoul]

*Do you realize how many ASSUMPTIONS this guy makes??*

[@southcentraltekay8017]

Plugaru C. Sebastian make a better video and give us what you think if not then shut the fuck up

[@fuferito]

Can you specify where, exactly, he makes assumptions, and where he is wrong in those assumptions seeing how his narration relies on experts on Pre Colombian history? These experts even appear here.

[@russellcrosby8175]

​@@fuferito this guy? He's Michael Wood. He's British, by the by, but he's a brilliant historian, can't believe he's not credited anywhere. He did a whole series, I've got his wonderful book. Just got to find more of his programmes on here now.

[@fuferito]

@@russellcrosby8175, You may be addressing the original comment. I love Michael Wood.

[@russellcrosby8175]

@@fuferito ok. ! Saying I'll give the bloke the benefit of the doubt, and an hour of my time. - and adding, I've found a five hour compelation of his entire series, History of civilization here on you tube, he's walking around Iraq now.

[@gideonshapiro1920]

It says 'Hal Lindes' for the music, but the music at the end sounds incredibly familiar - anyone else think this? Know where it's from? google is no help...

[@Celtic2Realms]

Ennio Morricone music at the end of video and it is called "Falls" and is from the movie "The Mission" which was about the Spanish conquest and one man's effort to save the Maya, their people and culture and dignity - something like that

[@gideonshapiro1920]

Celtic2Realms thanks :)

[@damianmartinez8001]

Celtic2Realms thanks

[@josegaldamez1169]

Mixico is not in centro america, is part of North American.

[@alphawizard9719]

They no want us, but we go anyway ?

[@legolasdbk]

Actually, purely geographically it is part of both the North and Central America.

[@discosecret6363]

Central or Meso-America is also, technically, part of the North American continent.

[@discosecret6363]

Central America is a region, within North America, not its own continent.

[@alphawizard9719]

Mexico ? Come on the 666 Train of death with us Bro ?

[@maxyakov273]

This was made five years after "The Mission" (1986) with the music credit given to a Hal Lindes. Ennio Morricone wasn't directly credited although main theme of the movie - "Gabriel's Oboe" - is used throughout (fittingly, I might say).

[@gregrishel6704]

Pyramids....until u make that connection, your questions will be left unanswered

[@jordangrice3565]

I don't have questions.

[@8185054131]

“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! “For Esau is the end of the world, and Jacob is the beginning of it that followeth.”

[@heyitsablackguy9553]

He destroyed everything and now he's being destroyed.

[@tomasneel1980]

Awesome, I love it. Thank you Michael , I would exort, encourage, invite anyone to read more about these lost cultures in the Book of Mormon

[@epincion]

Hilarious. The Book of Mormon? A fairy tale made up by a pedophile - all those underage girls he 'married'.

[@shilohgardner]

What mathematics taught them to kill millions for sport?

[@13minutestomidnight]

Who are you referring to? The Romans used hundreds of thousands of people for literal bloodsport, but you're probably not referring to that. So are you referring to the Europeans, the Chinese or the Aztecs? And I'm specifically not including warfare, which was common to almost every civilisation and society in human history, and changes the nature of the equation. And if I'm over-estimating your intelligence and you're actually referring to human sacrifice, you should know that the religious act of human sacrifice only happened for important religious occasions within Meso-America, and that amounted to a fairly small number of people by design because of the great significance of human blood (although more practically, it was used as a way to execute high-ranking prisoners of war). The only exception in the Americas was the Aztecs who used blood considerably more liberally, but their cultural perspective was different, with a different religious focus, and even then the centuries of their religion brought the numbers killed in human sacrifice to very high levels. But in any case, no culture in the Americas got close to the many millions who died at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors in such a short amount of time, and they did actually kill off the local population for sport. By using guns and steel swords they had an overwhelming advantage over the locals which they used to impunity. Make no mistake, what they did was genocide, so if you want the mathematics of killing millions you might want to use google to look up actual facts.

[@13minutestomidnight]

On a separate point: the European Christians and the Islamic Empire didn't call it "human sacrifice" but over the last two millennia both killed enormous numbers of people for purely religious reasons, including burning people at the stake and Holy Wars. So, the religions of the West didn't use an altar, but the Aztecs really weren't too different, they just has an edge in that their mass-murder was regularly scheduled. Also, the scale of the killings over time, although the presenter of this documentary already pointed that out.

[@eriknielsen5873]

I just love how right from the beginning the host states that all though the building and architecture of Egypt and the Mayan culture look the same. There was never any contact between the two cultures. But it's well known that the Egyptians had cocain in their systems and Marijuana also. These plants only grew in the Americas. There's so much evidence that the two cultures interacted. And for the archaeological community to keep insisting that there was never any interactions between the two society's is preposterous and without any merit what so ever. The proff is overwhelming to say the least that Europeans, Asians and the African and American countenents were all sea going societies and there was trade of ideas / art / knowledge of mathematics and astrology architecture. Relics from cultures from across the seas have been found in places where they shouldn't be. But if these relics don't fit in the Darwinian narrative then they are either labeled as abnormalities or they are hidden from the public all together. Just so the False Darwinian school of thought can keep being pushed on a dumbed down Society that doesn't question what's being said or taught to them. And look where that has gotten our society today. WMD'S in Iraq, Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with 9/11, Iran will not use its nuclear power plants to make bombs, North Korea will not use nuclear power plants to make bombs (Bill Clinton said that when he signed a deal with their leaders). People need to wake up and realize that if you want to know the truth, then you need to investigate the subject for yourself. Otherwise consider yourself a fool for not doing your own research on what it is that you think you know just because someone on film or television said that it's a fact. hopefully I've inspired at least one person to do their own research and woke them up to the real world.

[@VJBlues]

Oriental motives in their structures and graphic art. Unique and a vivid example that there was, just as we have today, an establish contact between the rest of the world and the " not so new world ". Perhaps we were more united them that now.

[@clintpendle4302]

tobacco , not pot. It's Asian.

[@LuisSierra42]

How the hell could there have been trade between Africa and America before the 15th century? by plane?

[@thelonewolfesoldier]

Marijauna is really and Indo-Asian crop....

[@Marmocet]

So there was trans-atlantic trade between the Egyptians and the Mesoamericans, eh? And both the Egyptians and the Mesoamericans just kind of forgot to mention that anywhere in their writings. And somehow, the contact between these peoples (it would have had to have been the Egyptians sailing to Mesoamericas, not the other way around, since there's no evidence the Mesoamericans had the ability to build ocean-going vessels or the ability to navigate over the open ocean) failed to transmit any of the Old World infectious diseases that nearly wiped out the Mesoamericans after the arrival of the Spanish. Yeah, not plausible. Pyramids are the easiest things to build if you want to build something tall. In essence, they're just piles of stuff.

[@josegaldamez1169]

Canada USA and Mexico, makes the North American continent.

[@maxyakov273]

There are actually 22 countries in the North American continent, if a Central America is not considered: www.countries-ofthe-world.com/countries-of-north-america.html With a Central America (Mexico to the North and SA to the South) there are fewer.

[@george17perris]

@@maxyakov273 Central America starts with Guatemala.

[@rogervallecillo292]

So by your definition then everything to the south of the Mexican border with Guatemala is either the South American continent, and or The Central and South America Continent? Geographically the north ends right at the Equator. So you have to include all of the Central American Isthmus and Colombia and part of Ecuador as the North American continent. It is therefore because of geo-politics that we get the erroneous concept of a North American continent that stops at the border of Mexico and Guatemala. Also, since I have come across this type of comment pretty often, that I suspect a bit of a sense of abjection towards the Central American area. I'm not saying that you are projecting such abjection, but the matter is that it almost never fails that in the comments of this type of documentaries where Mexico it's referred to as part of Central America or no mention of the distinction asserted by the geopolitical mapping that Mexico is part of the North American continent, sure enough someone will point out the omission of that "fact". I am from Nicaragua, in Central America, which is situated to the north of the equator. We Central Americans are the bridge that connects those two masses of land that are known as the Americas. Let's promote unity instead of divisiveness.

[@JoseMorales-ld2lg]

I am only half Mayan (half European) but I look a lot like one of the faces in the Copan stelae. The ancestors of the Maya were Asians. No doubt. My DNA test says half Indigenous from Guatemala and half European but I look Asian. Mayans ancestry came from Siberia and Mongolia.

[@TemeryN]

Has anyone done the math (I'm too lazy) to know when the next 256/7 year cycle is going to be? I hope the current time keepers are doing well =)

[@tbrew8222]

There is good reason all continents and cultures had megaliths. There is good reason they are all aligned to the stars. They are all clocks and observatories. It has everything to do with comet cycles from certian constellations. It has everything to do with ice age cycles from the bombardment. The last few thpusand years is the smoothest sailing earths climate and surface has ever seen. It is why all the "greek gods" stories are in the stars as well. It is always about the stars. One minute to midnight (doomesday clock) is why governments and oligarchs no longer care for humanity. They want their dream playday (global enslavement) for a short time before it happens again and they must live among the survivors. To again control the narrative on history and humanity. It is easier with a small bottlenecked population. They can also reintroduce their sociopath genepool to make us more egotistical and easier to control the same ways they are- the primitive animal mind.

[@johnlaerum2091]

Yes, unfortunately Aristotle considered some people natural born slaves but this does not pertain to all greek philosophers. The Stoics considered all people to be part takers in the Universal Reason, the Logos and as such of equal value no exception.

[@Ahhlux]

amazing video, but aztecs are from north america, in mexico

[@robertbroussard316]

One thing I would of added is the Portuguese treatment of slaves in Brazil and how it influenced slavery in North America. They slaughtered millions! Learn about positive history, must we digress.

[@warangkanajenjai9757]

No, not a mystery, the Maya are still here...there was a huge drought caused by the explosion of Kracatoa, what followed was drought and famine and, with half a million people all crammed together...!

[@yomichee]

Mexico is not Central America.

[@brandon101301]

:D

[@MeatyController]

Los Bukis!

[@rubeng.madrigaljr.9947]

Law Amir riep deviant complement Pepsi

[@rubeng.madrigaljr.9947]

Riverside Arlington and the Old Highway you'll find the Pepsi Plant

[@TnAKounT]

DogeCoin 🐕🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🐕

[@levyan4718]

Lol

[@inotaishu1]

This is typical early 90s stuff. This "integrated into nature" is such garbage. If the Mayans and Chinese had been this well integrated the Mayans would not have collapses and the Chinese would not believe such garbage like rhino horn being good against impotence.

[@levyan4718]

You are completely lost

[@JoeSmith-zg7in]

Bulldoze it quick and smooth it out and make a nice football field.thats not something I would want to see in town,the pyramid thing there.

[@levyan4718]

You are not a human

[@passnoble8741]

Everybody should be forced to speak German.

[@levyan4718]

No.

[@casinogirllmc]

lol out of the blue, thanks for the giggle

[@franciscoperez3212]

get out, get out britanic guy,

[@dwrussell96]

We did get out. Now your country is shit because we left bwahahahaha

[@TheGuroLOLITA]

+ Bjorn Ironside the fuck is your name fucker r u even british:)

[@dwrussell96]

TheGuroLOLITA I'm American with Swedish roots. I think he's referring to Americans when he says "Britanic". The only part of Central America the British ever conquered was Belize, because the Spanish conquered the rest. Why don't you hate the Spaniards? :)

[@jordangrice3565]

@@dwrussell96 Bc his iq is below 90

[@PibrochPonder]

@Dillon Russell it’s sad but what you say is pretty true. Those on the left would say that it’s the fault of the Europeans for leaving too fast. All I would say is look at South Africa. That’s going to sh#t now.