How the ancient Maya brought sharks to the jungle

[Judi Lynn]

Inland Maya communities knew an awful lot about sharks without ever visiting the sea.

Annalee Newitz (US) - 9/12/2016, 11:05


The peoples of Classic Maya civilization were obsessed with sharks. Images of shark-like monsters appear in Maya cities throughout the regions known today as Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala—even deep in the continent's interior, where people never saw the ocean. Now one archaeologist has suggested these mythic symbols may have been based on real experiences Mayans had with sharks, as well as a brisk trade in shark jaws and giant shark tooth fossils.

Shark teeth have been found in some of the earliest Maya sites in the interior, going back to 100 CE. Some are perforated, as if they were worn as jewelry. Others seem to have been attached to weapons or used in bloodletting rituals. Sea monsters with shark-like features appear on pottery and the walls of ceremonial buildings. An ancient Maya creation story features the Maize God defeating a shark in battle and sometimes being born from the creature's toothy jaws.

The question is, how did sharks become such an important part of the culture in landlocked cities? Writing in the journal Antiquity, James Madison University anthropologist Sarah E. Newman explains that coastal Maya peoples probably hunted sharks. Because sharks sink when they die, their teeth sink with them—so shark teeth among the Maya almost certainly came from the spoils of the hunt. There are accounts from Europeans who witnessed sixteenth-century Maya in the Yucatán hunting sharks using remoras, or suckerfish, to snag the great fish from their canoes. Others used massive hooks baited with chunks of meat.

It's likely that traders from coastal Maya cities journeyed to the interior with shark teeth and jaws, bringing stories of the fearsome animals along with them. That said, long distance travel would have been very uncommon among people of Classic Maya civilization. Shark teeth might have been passed from trader to trader on their way inland, rather than coming directly from a person who hunted them. For inland city residents, firsthand knowledge of sharks would have been rare. Perhaps that's why they took on a special significance.

More:
http://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2016/12/how-the-ancient-maya-brought-sharks-to-the-jungle/

Anthropology:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12292924

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Sounds entirely reasonable...

Phoenicians, and, later, Vikings, were ancient traders and travelers who made a good living bringing odd treasures to strange lands. No reason why the Maya wouldn't have had the same instincts.