Some time ago, a reader posted a comment about my post:
Toluquilla Footprint. Is it erectus?, this anonymous comment was the following:
Anonymous said...
"It just comfirm the story from the Mayan creation history, Popul Wuh, where it is told that before now adays human came to america there was another kind of humans who where more clomsy build and that the gods did not like what they had created in the first place. So they wyped out the first primitive humans and created some new ones that where better. (something like that, out of free memory :-)) The Mayas where clever!
April 24, 2011 1:34 PM
Of course I thanked her/him and started looking for the Mayan text, which I found. So I posted a reply:
Austin Whittall said...
"I have actually found the text in Google Books at the following link: Chapter II pp. 32 and following. The text is in Spanish, but I will post it translated later. Very interesting.
Today I will post the translation (sorry for the delay!):
"And at that instant they made the dolls carved in wood. They resembled humans, they
spoke like humans and they peopled the surface of the earth.
They existed and they multiplied; the dolls had daughters, had sons, of wood; but they had no soul, no understanding, they did not remember their Creator their Shaper; they walked around aimlessly and crawling.
They no longer remembered the Heart in the Sky and so, fell in disgrace. It was only a trial, an attempt to make humans. At first they spoke, but their face was emaciated, their feet and hands lacked consistency, they had no blood, no substance, no humidity, no fat; their cheeks were dry, dry their feet and their hands and yellow their flesh.
[...]
They were soon annihilated, destroyed and the stick dolls were undone and received death.
A flood was produced by the Heart in Heaven; a great deluge was formed and it fell upon the heads of the stick dolls."
But, gods are stubborn, and don't give in easily, So a second attempt was carried out trying to improve on the primitive men:
"Out of tzité (a kind of plant) he made the flesh of man, but when the woman was made by the Creator and Shaper, the flesh of woman was made of rushes. [...] But they did not think, they did not speak to their maker [...]
So they too were exterminated, however they were not as primitive as the first guys, these tzité men had dogs, pots and hearths they had homes too. Fortunately not all were destroyed:
"People made to be destroyed and annihilated: all of them had their mouths destroyed and their faces.So here we have some primitive mannikins which gave origin to monkeys!.
And they say that the descent of those people are the monkeys that now live in the woods; these are a sample of them, because out of sticks was their flesh made by the Creator and Shaper."
The story above, from Popol Vuh is also recorded in the Annals of Cauhtitlán, which also mentions a "Fourth Earth" during which "many persons drowned and others were cast upon the mountains and became monkeys".
The Mayan text clearly points towards pre-humans who, were not as primitive as may seem, they had pets, homes and lit fires: they could have been erectus.
By the way, these Annals of Cauhtitlán or "Chimalpopoca Codex" were written 50 years after the Spaniards razed the Mesoamerican Civilizations. They speak about four "eras" before our current "fifth" period:
During cycle 1, the gods made men from ash. The next generation of men became fish. They were followed by "giants" then fire rained down on earth and the fourth period began:
"all [men] became monkeys and into the woods they went, they went to live as ape-men".
This is indeed interesting, they did not turn into monkeys, but into "ape-men", which is exactly what the Spanish words: "hombres-mono" means. Or should we say "Homo erectus"? Wouldn't a Mayan or Aztec human believe an erectus was some kind of ape man?. Surely.
Once again my apologies for taking 4 months to post the translation. I will catch up with my posting in the next few weeks.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
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