James O'Kon(1937-2022)
James O'Kon, P.E. has pursued a lifelong passion for Maya archaeology
and he has combined his unique professional engineering experience with
the search for lost Maya technology. He has applied his engineering
talents to explore and investigate Maya sites located deep in the dense
rainforest. Traveling by dugout canoe, hacking his way through the
tangled jungle while fighting off millions of insects and sleeping in
tents, his search went on for lost secrets of Maya technology. With the
collected field data he was able to utilize digital tools, along with
his creative engineering skills, to verify feats of Maya engineering
and virtually reconstruct the mysteries of Maya engineering
technologies. His interest in archaeology began while playing in the
Civil War trenches covering the hills near his boyhood home in Atlanta
where rusted military armament and wasted shot was easily found on the
battlefield sites. His early reading interest included classic books
dealing with the Spanish Conquest and the rediscovery of the Maya
civilization which stimulated his interest in archaeology. His student
days at Georgia Tech were filled with learning the technology of modern
civil engineering. His college experience at Georgia Tech produced a
problem-solving engineer with writing and illustration skills. His
athletic training at Georgia Tech gave him the strength and stamina to
endure arduous jungle expeditions. After several years of experience as
a structural engineer designing aerospace structures like rocket launch
towers and vertical assembly buildings, he elected to take a yearlong
sabbatical to live in Spain. Visiting ancient European cities was an
exciting experience for a young man who grew up in Atlanta, the only
American city that was ever completely destroyed by war. Just the sight
of a building constructed before 1865 was a thrill. Returning to the
USA he resumed his career as an engineer for several years until the
Maya ruins called to him and he and his family headed south of the
boarder, in a VW camper, through Mexico and into British Honduras where
he explored and lived among ancient Maya cities for a year. This is
when he first felt an affinity with the Maya engineers that had
constructed these wondrous cities. He had questions about their
construction that could not be answered by archaeologists. This began
his quest for the truth surrounding the brilliant Maya engineering
technologies. Returning to the United States, he worked in New York
City designing landmark structures, like the Roosevelt Island Tramway,
aviation projects and aerospace structures. In 1973 he returned to
Atlanta to operate a branch office of the firm he worked for in New
York. He subsequently bought the firm in 1977 and expanded the practice
to include architecture and design in addition to engineering. He led
this firm to develop a national reputation for designing award-winning
aviation facilities, and his ability to think outside the box enabled
him to become a forensic engineer in the investigation of high profile
building failures. His investigation of Maya technologies continued
parallel to his creative design projects. He often traveled to the
Yucatan to explore remote Maya sites. His breakthrough revelation in
Maya engineering projects was the discovery of the ruins of a Maya
suspension bridge over the Usumacinta River at the ancient Maya city of
Yaxchilan. This is the river that divides Mexico from Guatemala and the
discovery and proof of the existence of this Maya bridge is the topic
of this History Channel production. Additional investigation revealed
other examples of Maya technology that are outstanding examples of
engineering achievements that the Maya utilized a thousand years in
advance of European technology. His discoveries in Maya technology have
been recognized in National Geographic Magazine and the monthly
magazine the American Society of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, in
addition to other scholarly publications. He has been invited to
deliver numerous scientific papers dealing with his discoveries in Maya
technology at international scientific and archaeological symposia. His
civil engineering education at Georgia Tech and an advanced degree from
New York University gave him an excellent background for his
professional career which has been devoted to bringing high-tech
science to engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in
over 15 states and has developed new computer techniques for
engineering design and new methodologies for investigating distressed
structures. This experience gave him the ability to "reverse engineer"
complex distressed buildings and identify the cause of the distress.
This same experience has enabled him to discover, dissect, analyze and
reconstruct lost Maya technologies. He brought all these special
talents to the research and writing of his book, The Lost Secrets of
Maya Technology.