The Maya Civilisation and Star Wars

B and I went to our local Art Society this afternoon to hear the lecture by Dr. Diane Davies was about the Maya Civilisation.  It was fascinating and as well as finding out that the Mayans were the first peoples to harvest the cacao bean to make chocolate, we also found out about the Star Wars film franchise connection.
When conflicts occurred between the Mayan cities around the first millennium AD, their conflicts often coincided with Venus being present in the night sky. This was depicted in a glyph used in the Maya language and was called 'Star Wars' by the epigrapher Linda Schele who carried out a lot of work deciphering their language .  George Lucas the film director studied anthropology and is particularly interested in the Maya civilisation and went on to use the terms for his films.  Two of the Maya pyramid temples can be seen in the Star Wars film 'Rogue One'

They were, and still are, very artistic people, who now mostly live in Guatemala, and the women still make traditional blouses which are unique to each village.  Dr Davies brought along some replica items to show us, among them was this turquoise top, with this wonderful embroidered panel.  Not a great photo as I had to take it in a great hurry with people crowding round me, but you can see the skill and craftsmanship embodied in it.