Ancient Maya DVD
I just learned from “The Lost Cities of the Maya,” a series of segments on informational DVDs called Secrets of Archaeology that the ancient Maya made their books from the bark of fig trees. The bark was flattened and folded like an accordion.
These are the books that the Bishop of Landa burned in the Yucatan town of Mani during a kind of Spanish Inquisition of the Americas. His aims was to wipe out the centuries of Maya culture and belief which he considered heretical.
By burning the books, he also destroyed the history of these people. Afterward, he regretted his actions and spent years rewriting the books based on his memories of what they contained.
