Cool article, and even cooler site IMO. Brings back memories of 20 years ago, when many sites looked similar. It probably looks radically ugly to the modern eye, but I kind of miss the goofiness of pages like this, down to the poem at the bottom (in Comic Sans, no less).
Chrome probably would have kicked up some sort of fuss about it, but I was almost hoping to see .swf as the file extension for the wheel GIF at the top. Good times.
pimlottc 1 hours ago [-]
The downside is that it’s not very mobile friendly. Reader mode works okay on Mobile Safari, although it does lose the images.
For anyone interested in pigments/colors, the National Gallery recently started a podcast on the subject in YouTube, I enjoyed the Prussian Blue history episode:
They look chemically quite different: clay, palygorskite/sepiolite, and indigo for Mayan blue; silica, lime, copper, and an alkali for Egyptian blue.
noduerme 2 hours ago [-]
By chance I came across this after yesterday flying for the first time over the eastern edge of the Yucatan. The turqoise color of the water is otherworldly. I love that they draw the comparison, as this pigment really does resemble it!
DanielKehoe 2 days ago [-]
[flagged]
7 hours ago [-]
fside 5 hours ago [-]
The fact that the Maya engineered this by heating indigo with palygorskite clay shows a level of chemical understanding that rivals modern hybrid materials research. Still wild to think we only cracked the full recipe in the 21st century.
cap11235 5 hours ago [-]
No? Calling them advanced is one thing (because it was advanced up to their elimination/dispersion), saying it rivals modern materials science is ridiculous, and is a statement that appeals to the people that buy crystals for their "healing energy". The peoples born of the America's do not benefit from Burning Man-type bullshit.
IAmBroom 4 hours ago [-]
Or to put it more nicely, knowing how to make something is not knowing the fundamental science behind the thing.
Romans made self-healing cement without any knowledge of chemistry and materials science. Surgeons performed tumor removals without knowing why they formed. Etc.
webdoodle 3 hours ago [-]
To be fair, all of you are biased. We don't know a lot about the Maya's level of knowledge and technology because most of the people who had the knowledge were exterminated by the Jesuits and Conquistadors.
ReptileMan 32 minutes ago [-]
The Mayan cavillation collapsed way before that.
colechristensen 3 hours ago [-]
It is silly to assert that ancient peoples might have known quantum physics but "we just don't know!"
cwmoore 2 hours ago [-]
Sibling comment's strawman aside, we don't know what we don't know about what we don't know about. It's easy to forget.
cwmoore 29 minutes ago [-]
No, really, forgetting is built-in to every conquest, including generational drift and downvotes.
Where do you think all the New World libraries and gold instruments went?
Don’t forget the levels of human sacrifice in modern days when you cast your superior symbolic knowledge.
quesera 3 hours ago [-]
GP demonstrates an overextrapolated idea of ancient science, suggesting ignorance but at least honest admiration.
You demonstrate an overextrapolated idea of current cultural events, suggesting ignorance and also shallow dismissiveness.
You could have made your point without raising your own flag.
Chrome probably would have kicked up some sort of fuss about it, but I was almost hoping to see .swf as the file extension for the wheel GIF at the top. Good times.
https://yucatantoday.com/en/blog/how-is-the-maya-blue-pigmen...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK1GSvP6VYs&t=1992s
https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2025/06/02/researchers-re...
They look chemically quite different: clay, palygorskite/sepiolite, and indigo for Mayan blue; silica, lime, copper, and an alkali for Egyptian blue.
Romans made self-healing cement without any knowledge of chemistry and materials science. Surgeons performed tumor removals without knowing why they formed. Etc.
Where do you think all the New World libraries and gold instruments went?
Don’t forget the levels of human sacrifice in modern days when you cast your superior symbolic knowledge.
You demonstrate an overextrapolated idea of current cultural events, suggesting ignorance and also shallow dismissiveness.
You could have made your point without raising your own flag.