Ancients knew chocolate was good
esidents of Central America were enjoying chocolate drinks more than 3,000 years ago, a half millennium earlier than previously thought, new research shows.
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Author: Gary C. Daniels
Pollution said destroying pre-Aztec ruins
Oil refineries and power stations pumping acid air pollutants along Mexico’s Gulf coast threaten to erase carved stone murals at the pre-Aztec ruined city of El Tajin, a scientist said on Sunday.
Read MoreAncient Mexicans Took Sacrifice Victims From Afar
Ancient Mexicans brought human sacrifice
victims from hundreds of miles (km) away over centuries to sanctify a
pyramid in the oldest city in North America, an archaeologist said on
Wednesday.
DNA tests on the skeletons of more than 50 victims discovered in 2004
in the Pyramid of the Moon at the Teotihuacan ruins revealed they
were from far away Mayan, Pacific or Atlantic coastal cultures.
New theory: Rats spread fatal illness
Mexicans have long been taught to blame diseases brought by the Spaniards for wiping out most of their Indian ancestors. But recent research suggests things may not be that simple.
Read MoreNew Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces?
Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist.
Read MoreAncient Rock Art Depicts Exploding Star
A rock carving discovered in Arizona might depict an ancient star explosion
seen by Native Americans a thousand years ago, scientists announced today.
If confirmed, the rock carving, or “petroglyph” would be the only known
record in the Americas of the well-known supernova of the year 1006.
Tattooed mummy with jewelry found in Peru
A female mummy with complex tattoos on her arms has been
found in a ceremonial burial site in Peru, the National Geographic
Society reported Tuesday.
The mummy was accompanied by ceremonial items including jewelry and weapons, and the remains of a teenage girl who had been sacrificed,
archaeologists reported.
Celestial Find at Ancient Andes Site
The discovery in Peru of a 4,200-year-old temple and observatory
pushes back estimates of the rise of an advanced culture in the
Americas.
Map of Mexico, 1550
The University of Uppsala in Sweden has put its 1550 map of Mexico City
by Alonso de Santa Cruz on-line. The map is zoomable and allows people to add annotations to the map. The clarity is very good.
TAMTOC, ORIGIN OF THE MESOAMERICAN CULTURE
The discovery of the Monument 32in Tamtoc, eight meters long, four meters and a half high, a thickness of 32 centimeters and a weight between 10 and 12 tons, can generate radical changes in the concepts of the Mesoamerican culture, which might have had its origin here, in the potosinian Huasteca.
Read MoreHeavens offer unique clues to the seasons
Before the advent of calendars, the only way to mark the changing of the seasons was through direct observation. Ancient peoples observed the passage of the sun north from the Winter Solstice, and then south from the Summer Solstice. In Mesoamerica the people observed the sun passing directly overhead twice a year by using special tubes in the temples that pointed at the zenith.
Read MoreKennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionalize Continent’s History
Dr. Hugh Berryman, research professor, was one of only 11 experts
from across the United States to scrutinize the bones of Kennewick
Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton found 10 years ago along the Columbia
River at Kennewick, Wash.
