How did the Mayans build as perfectly as they did?

Question

My husband has a theory on this that it was a time-traveler that never found his way back and taught the Mayans a lot of the stuff they knew. I'm skeptical of this because there is no proof. Does anyone have a better theory?

Answer 1

it was aliens

Answer 2

LOL!

And the time traveler was really good at engineering and his knowledge could be adapted to the technology  and construction techniques of the time, right?

Well, the Mayas were one truly amazing culture.

Remember they were using the concept of zero, hundreds of years before anybody else.

They were excellent astronomers, engineers, architects.

Also accomplished poets, warriors, etc.

Answer 3

A number of people have suggested the whole alien / time traveler idea as a way to explain marvelous feats done by a civilization that we're not used to seeing from preindustrial societies.  All such cases have turned out, on examination, to be pure speculation, and without any solid evidence.

The mainstream idea, OTOH, is supported by the evidence.  Archeology has uncovered antecedents for the major ruins.  They built smaller at first, and added the really impressive stuff over time.  That's not what we would see if it were due to the influence of one individual.

Also, if a time traveler came to their society and wielded that kind of influence, wouldn't he have put a stop to the practice of human sacrifice among the Maya?

Answer 4

uh aliens helped them. duh