Native American Ancient Civilizations & Lost Cities
A roughly 1,000-year-old Maya sarcophagus, vestiges of an extinct tribe, the oldest tomb in Mesoamerica, dinosaur fossils and human remains dating from the early 8th century are some of the most noteworthy archaeological finds made in Mexico during 2010.
Read moreThe skeletons of two dozen children killed in an ancient mass sacrifice have been found in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico. The find reveals new details about the ancient Toltec civilization and adds to an ongoing debate over ritualistic killing in historic Mesoamerica.
Read moreArcheologists say a giant, ornate carving of an Aztec god recently unveiled in downtown Mexico City could be a massive headstone in honor of one of the civilization’s last rulers.
Read moreAt the famed Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, you can sit in the cafe, have a slice of basil pesto quiche, and gaze up at stunning evidence of the looting of the ancient world. The dining room is dominated by an 8-foot-tall carved limestone monument, or stela, of a Mayan king.
Read moreArchaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match 500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing about offerings to the Aztec rain god.
Read moreToday’s tax codes are complicated, but the ancient Aztecs likely shared your pain. To measure tracts of taxable land, Aztec mathematicians had to develop their own specialized arithmetic, which has only now been decoded.
Read moreSunflowers were grown as a domesticated crop in Mexico more than 2,000 years ago, according to a new study. The new findings run counter to a theory that sunflower farming began in what is now the U.S. East and then trickled south into Mexico.
Read moreThe remains, seated in an upright position in an unusual tomb and flanked by shells, pottery, vessels, and jade adornments, suggest a surprisingly diverse culture and complex political system in the influential Maya city of Copán around A.D. 650.
Read moreJames O’Kon is using modern technology and forensic engineering techniques to uncover the mysteries of a vanished Mayan civilization. It began with a pile of rocks in the middle of the Usumacinta River deep in the rain forest between Mexico and Guatemala-the site of an ancient Mayan kingdom,
Approaching the Mayan ruins by dugout canoe, O’Kon, CE ’61, immediately realized the significance of the rock formation.
“That’s a bridge pier!” he declared.
Read moreThe mystical skull was supposedly discovered on New Year’s Day of 1924, by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, an orphan from Port Colborne, Ont. Anna had been adopted by British adventurer and story-spinner Frederick Mitchell-Hedges, who was excavating the Lubaantun ruins, looking for clues about the lost city of Atlantis.
Read moreA short drive from the main Maya ruins at Copán, a forested hillside holds a cluster of mounds that Peabody Museum archaeologists believe date from near the end of the great Maya civilization that once dominated the region.
Read moreThe grisly find of the buried bones of 24 pre-Hispanic Mexican children may be the first evidence that the ancient Toltec civilization sacrificed children, an archeologist studying the remains said on Monday.
The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs’ former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group.
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