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Show HN: I 3D scanned the tunnels inside the Maya Pyramid Temples at Copan

(mused.com)
462 points lukehollis | 14 comments | 15 Oct 24 12:57 UTC | HN request time: 1.048s | source | bottom

With these 3d captures, you can explore the 4km tunnel system that archaeologists created inside the temples at Copan that are closed to the public. The tunnels are often flooded by hurricanes and damaged by other natural forces--and collapsed on me and my Matterport scanner more than once--so this is a permanent record of how they appeared in 2022-23.

Unlike Egyptian pyramids, the Maya built their temples layer by layer outward, so to understand them, researchers tunneled into the structures to understand the earlier phases of construction. I arranged the guided versions of the virtual tours in a rough chronology, moving from the highest to the lowest and oldest areas: the hieroglyphic stairway composing the largest Maya inscription anywhere, the Rosalila temple that was buried fully intact, and finally the tomb of the Founder of the city, Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ.

I've been working to build on top of the Matterport SDK with Three.js--and then reusing the data in Unreal for a desktop experience or rendering for film (coming soon to PBS).

Blog about process: https://blog.mused.com/what-lies-beneath-digitally-recording...

Major thanks to the Matterport team for providing support with data alignment and merging tunnels while I was living in the village near site.

1. gerdesj ◴[15 Oct 24 23:08 UTC] No.41854036[source]▶
Superb!

I expect whoever coated the remains with that red cinnabar stuff died rather early, probably with tooth and hair loss and severe mental issues. Perhaps this fate was expected but given that "mad hatters" were a thing until fairly recently, people can be a bit strange when it comes to dealing with poisons.

The guide notes point out that only the most sacred rituals involved this red mercurial stuff. I'm not surprised. It might be rare but rarer still will be people willing to deploy it unless that fate is considered a good way to go.

That tour is a remarkable use of the technology.

replies(1): >>41854091 #
2. lukehollis ◴[15 Oct 24 23:14 UTC] No.41854091[source]▶
It's something we have to be careful of while working on site! We're really careful around the rooms that have mercury in them--there are few that I didn't put in the guide also.

I was wondering about this too: they've found high levels of mercury in the water supply at Maya cities and believe now it contributed to the eventual collapse: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/mercury-and-algal-bl...

replies(3): >>41854353 #>>41861441 #>>41865552 #
3. yard2010 ◴[16 Oct 24 00:07 UTC] No.41854353[source]▶
> “The drinking and cooking water for the Tikal rulers and their elite entourage almost certainly came from the Palace and Temple Reservoirs,” wrote Lentz and his colleagues. “As a result, the leading families of Tikal likely were fed foods laced with mercury at every meal.”

This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?

replies(9): >>41854394 #>>41854521 #>>41855476 #>>41856215 #>>41856460 #>>41857817 #>>41858269 #>>41859064 #>>41860150 #
4. lukehollis ◴[16 Oct 24 00:14 UTC] No.41854394{3}[source]▶
Ha! that's the best theory yet
5. deepfriedchokes ◴[16 Oct 24 00:34 UTC] No.41854521{3}[source]▶
It could be that there is something making our leaders mentally ill, or it could be that only the mentally ill think that they should be leaders.
6. throwup238 ◴[16 Oct 24 04:01 UTC] No.41855476{3}[source]▶
> This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?

Leaded gasoline! With how old politicians are in the US, they are almost certainly affected.

replies(1): >>41861494 #
7. thih9 ◴[16 Oct 24 07:23 UTC] No.41856460{3}[source]▶
Claiming that today’s rulers are acting like idiots seems off topic. And subjective too; even if only because yesterday’s rulers weren’t different.
8. mandmandam ◴[16 Oct 24 11:20 UTC] No.41857817{3}[source]▶
Greed is a poison. Has been recognized as such for at least 2,500 years.

https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/three-poisons/

9. jpm_sd ◴[16 Oct 24 12:25 UTC] No.41858269{3}[source]▶
It's called "social media"
10. rmbyrro ◴[16 Oct 24 13:55 UTC] No.41859064{3}[source]▶
Or maybe the populace is being poisoned and their leaders need to behave like idiots to control a herd of dumb'ed down and stupid beings.
11. fatbird ◴[16 Oct 24 15:21 UTC] No.41860150{3}[source]▶
Imagine people 100 years from now asking themselves "how did they not understand the effect that microplastics were having?"
12. pradn ◴[16 Oct 24 17:15 UTC] No.41861441[source]▶
Advanced civilizations get good at using unusual materials like lead and mercury. Some of these come with unforeseen consequences. Plastic and oil are the two substances most like these for us in present day.
13. bboygravity ◴[16 Oct 24 17:21 UTC] No.41861494{4}[source]▶
They're also old enough to have drank tap-water from lead pipes daily for decades (I learned on HN that it was mandatory for building companies in Chicago to install lead pipes until the 70s).
14. gerdesj ◴[17 Oct 24 01:23 UTC] No.41865552[source]▶
I suspect that that stuff is far more contextually important than it might seem at first, despite it being noted as designated only for the most important rituals.

It's ever so hard to try and get inside the minds of people from long ago. I think it is fair to assume that we think in a compatible way with these people and if we can glean enough clues we can reasonably draw conclusions.

It might be informative to look for clues as to what the people who had to deploy this stuff actually thought about it. The amazing carvings, catacombs and so on tell a lot about the Maya people and it seems that they are well interpreted but I don't think that this red poison is particularly well interpreted. I think there is a lot more to be learned.

The archaeology there is absolutely mind blowing. Thank you to everyone involved. Your work is phenomenal.