Cone-Headed and Cross-Eyed

We pierce and tattoo our bodies to enhance ourselves. Some African tribes elongate their necks. The Mayan nobility had their ideas of beauty too. What did they do? They shaped their heads into cones and made their eyes crossed.

When a baby was born into nobility, parents placed it into a wooden structure with a headpiece that compressed the cranial bones upward. When the baby started to walk, they strapped pieces of wood onto the front and back of the child's head so the cone head would further develop. To make crossed eyes, a string was dangled between their eyes until they were permanently cross eyed. Weird. But I guess no stranger than the stuff we do now.

Below you'll see the sculpture of a nobleman with crossed eyes. The Mayan nobility created death masks from various coloured stones. This must have been hard work because people didn't use metal tools until after the Spanish conquest.

Below is the turquoise death mask and tomb of King Pakal. He was an impressive ruler who conquered many surrounding cities and was responsible for a lot of the buildings we see today. He reined from CE 615 to 683 at the end of the Dark Ages in Europe.

Archeologists also found hundreds of free standing sculptures. Walking around the ruins gave me a sense of the people -- for some reason more than in Rome or Greece. Maybe it's that I'm older now. The nobility slept on wooden or stone beds covered with cotton or skins. Some doors were made of leather and door hinges too. They had a system of hieroglyphic writing, a way to measure time, saunas and ways to ventilation their buildings.

It's a shame that the remaining exterior wall paintings aren't being protected. Our guide thought they'd be gone to the elements within five years.

Next blog -- pictures of toilets, plumbing, living areas and remaining wall paintings.