. >> anthony is professor of astonomy and anthropology at colgate university and author of the book " the 20s it was the egyptians that was the excavation of king tut's tomorrow. the maya today are center stage. >> the maya filled with fantastic legends some were hoaxes like tales of powerful crystal skulls. >> they believe they lived in an animated universe consisting of frogs and people and plants and rocks and stars with whom they engaged in a dialogue. >> they even practiced strange bloodletting sacrifices to thank their god's. >> they would peers themselves, the kings through their penises then they would collect those bloody pieces of paper and rope, place them in a ceramic dish and burn them. >> they were expert mathematicians today the solstice would have been a a sacred day there would have been all sorts of rituals, even human sacrifices. odd rituals, buried complex calendars strange hieroglyphic numbers. were they a message they left to decode a future apocalypse? >> speaking of that mystery, obviously when you have any kind of mystery, uncertainty, it can bring people out