James A. O'Kon, P.E. is a professional engineer with decades of experience designing award-winning projects. He has also spent 40 years investigating Maya engineering feats and lost Maya technology. His investigations have taken him to more than 50 remote Maya sites. He has delivered numerous scientific papers to scientific symposia dealing with Maya technology. He was inducted into the Explorers Club as a National Fellow for his work on Maya technology. A resident of Atlanta, he is currently an expert witness on construction failures and a problem-solving consultant to global corporations when he is not in the rainforest. Read more about him at www.theoldexplorer.com
"The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology reveals what a scientifically advanced people the Maya really were. Relying on his background as a professional engineer, James O'Kon is able to analyze Maya architecture and write about it with the scientific terminology it truly merits. The book places Maya engineers shoulder to shoulder with the Romans or any other ancient culture one could compare them against. As an archaeologist with 20+ years of field experience, this book opened my eyes to Maya scientific achievements that I would previously not thought possible."
--Edwin Barnhart, Ph.D., archaeologist and Director of Maya Exploration Center
"James O'Kon's book addresses a neglected field, and his wide-ranging discussion sheds new light on many aspects of Maya studies. His training as an engineer keeps the book focused on reality. His writing is full of sudden insights…when he gets to the nitty-gritty of real science, this book shines. The final chapter addresses the engineering flaws that led to their fall…they pushed their environment too far."
--Mark Van Stone, Ph.D., author of 2012: Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya
"Great introduction to the unrecognized technological achievements of the Maya. This was my first introduction to Maya tool making. I found those chapters very interesting. Very informative well written and provided me with new material on Maya technology.".
--Thomas L. Sever, Ph.D., NASA Archaeologist
The Maya have been an enigma since their discovery in the mid- 19th century. Maya science developed an elegant mathematic system, an incredibly accurate astronomy, and one of the world's five original written languages. This technology was more advanced than similar European technology by more than a thousand years.
In this book, you'll see how James O'Kon, a professional engineer, synergistically applied field exploration, research, forensic engineering, and 3-D virtual reconstruction of Maya projects to discover lost Maya technological achievements. These lost principles of technology enabled Maya engineers to construct grand cities that towered above the rainforest, water systems with underground reservoirs for water storage, miles of all-weather paved roads tracking through the jungle, and the longest bridge in the ancient world.
Maya engineers developed structural mechanics for multi-story buildings that were not exceeded in height until the first "skyscraper" built in Chicago in 1885, invented the blast furnace 2,000 years before it was patented in England, and developed the vulcanization of rubber more than 2,600 years before Charles Goodyear. Discover a host of unknown wonders in The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology.
