Via angermann2: XML, stylesheets and Maya culture is a nice psot about the fact that the very concept of XML (separating shape and content) already existes in maya culture:

this thought of splitting-up a piece of information into content and shape isn't new at all. The Mayas already were knowladgeable of this strategy/technology. On March 21st and September 23rd the shadows cast by the sun reveal a winding serpent at the pyramid of Kukulacan at Chichen Itza -- proof of the aforementioned strategy. The information to be carried, the serpent, represents the XML-document. The sun and the pyramid's architecture constitute a kind of stylesheet, which gives structure and shape to the serpent. Now -- are the Mayas the founding-fathers of the paradigm of structurized documents?