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The Mayans: Discoveries & Theories

A dog's life, hot for some.

Some dogs were royalty, others were dinner in ancient Mayan culture
By Michael PriceMar. 19, 2018 , 3:00 PM

If you were top dog in Mayan Latin America, you might be an honored guest at the king’s feast. But if not, you’d likely end up as the main course of someone else’s. That’s the conclusion of a new chemical analysis of animal bones found in a 3000-year-old Guatemalan city, which provides the earliest picture yet of how the ancient Mayans domesticated animals and treated those in their care.

“It’s a well-done study,” says Henry Schwarcz, an anthropologist and professor emeritus who researches paleodiets at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, though he notes more work will be needed to confirm the findings. And the study may solve another mystery, he says: how the Mayans produced enough protein to feed the thousands who thronged their cities.

Between 1000 B.C.E. and 950 C.E., as many as 10,000 people lived in the important Mayan city of Seibal, located in today’s Guatemalan lowlands. Such big urban centers require lots of food, and the Mayans hunted deer, peccaries, and tapirs. But archaeologists have uncovered precious little evidence that the civilization practiced widespread animal domestication, which might have been needed to sustain such a big population, says Ashley Sharpe, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City. ...

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...alty-others-were-dinner-ancient-mayan-culture
 
Could become liquid assets in the heat though.

The Maya civilization used chocolate as money
By Joshua Rapp Learn Jun. 27, 2018 , 11:45 AM

Your Hershey bar may have been worth its weight in gold in Mayan times. A new study reveals that chocolate became its own form of money at the height of Mayan opulence—and that the loss of this delicacy may have played a role in the downfall of the famed civilization.

The study is on the right track, says David Freidel, an anthropologist and Maya expert at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who was not involved with the work. Chocolate “is a very prestigious food,” he says, “and it [was] almost certainly a currency.”

The ancient Maya never used coins as money. Instead, like many early civilizations, they were thought to mostly barter, trading items such as tobacco, maize, and clothing. Spanish colonial accounts from the 16th century indicate that the Europeans even used cacao beans—the basis for chocolate—to pay workers, but it was unclear whether the substance was a prominent currency before their arrival.

To find out, Joanne Baron, an archaeologist with the Bard Early College Network—a network of schools that focus on college-level teaching for high school–aged students—in Newark, New Jersey, analyzed Mayan artwork. She focused on published research and other available Maya images during the Classic Maya period from about 250 C.E. to about 900 C.E. in the southern Maya lowlands in modern-day Mexico and Central America. The objects—including murals, ceramic paintings, and carvings—depict typical market exchanges and tribute payments to Maya kings.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...ly_2018-06-27&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=2141496
 
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This new find at Chichen Itza turns out to not be all that new. Someone found it circa 50 years ago, but sealed it up again. His documentation was lost, and nobody seems to know what that was all about ... Anyway ...
Lost Cave of 'Jaguar God' Rediscovered Below Mayan Ruins — and It's Full of Treasure
Shimmying through a maze of dark tunnels below the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists have rediscovered a long-sealed cave brimming with lost treasure.

According to an statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the cave is stockpiled with more than 150 artifacts, including incense burners, vases, and decorative plates adorned with the faces of ancient gods and other religious icons. The trove is believed to be just one of seven sacred chambers in a network of tunnels known as Balamku — "Jaguar God" — that sits below Chichén Itzá, a city that accommodated millions of people at its peak during the 13th century. The artifacts have likely been untouched by human hands for more than 1,000 years, according to the INAH.

Though the treasures were probably deliberately sealed off, the ritual cave, rediscovered in 2018 by archaeologists hunting for a sacred well below the city, has had at least one human visitor in the past millennium, National Geographic reported. The cave was initially discovered in 1966 by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto, who wrote a report about the find, but never excavated before directing local farmers to seal the cavern's entrance for reasons that are still unknown. Segovia's records of the discovery went missing, leaving behind a mystery that would take five decades to solve. ...

FULL STORY:
https://www.livescience.com/64917-lost-mayan-treasure-cave-rediscovered.html

SEE ALSO (National Geographic article cited):
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/03/maya-ritual-balamku-cave-stuns-archaeologists/
 
The Political-Economy of Mayan Society is wrapped up in these figurines.

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO—Archaeologists working in Guatemala have discovered the largest known figurine workshop in the Mayan world, they announced at the Society for American Archaeology meeting here last week. The workshop, buried for more than 1000 years, made intricate, mass-produced figurines that likely figured heavily in Mayan political customs.

Finding the workshop was a stroke of luck: Brent Woodfill, an archaeologist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, learned about it from friends in Cobán, Guatemala, who were doing construction on their property. A few months later, Woodfill and colleagues excavated the site, called Aragón, and surveyed it with a drone. Although the workshop was destroyed by the construction, archaeologists were able to recover more than 400 fragments of figurines and the molds for making them (above), as well as thousands of ceramic pieces—more than at any other known Mayan workshop. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...ly_2019-04-18&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=2775290
 
There is something fascinating about the species making something. I enjoy saxon water mills, bullet making rooms, evidence of weaving, potters, charcoal burners..... teh lot!
 
The Political-Economy of Mayan Society is wrapped up in these figurines.

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO—Archaeologists working in Guatemala have discovered the largest known figurine workshop in the Mayan world, they announced at the Society for American Archaeology meeting here last week. The workshop, buried for more than 1000 years, made intricate, mass-produced figurines that likely figured heavily in Mayan political customs.

Finding the workshop was a stroke of luck: Brent Woodfill, an archaeologist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, learned about it from friends in Cobán, Guatemala, who were doing construction on their property. A few months later, Woodfill and colleagues excavated the site, called Aragón, and surveyed it with a drone. Although the workshop was destroyed by the construction, archaeologists were able to recover more than 400 fragments of figurines and the molds for making them (above), as well as thousands of ceramic pieces—more than at any other known Mayan workshop. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...ly_2019-04-18&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=2775290
A shame the Mayan site was totaled, progress yah right.
 
War came early.

In 697, flames engulfed the Maya city of Witzna. Attackers from a nearby kingdom in what’s now Guatemala set fires that scorched stone buildings and destroyed wooden structures. Many residents fled the scene and never returned.

This surprisingly early instance of highly destructive Maya warfare has come to light thanks to a combination of sediment core data, site excavations and hieroglyphic writing translations, say research geologist David Wahl of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and his colleagues. Organized attacks aimed at destroying cities began during ancient Maya civilization’s heyday, when Witzna and other cities thrived in lowland regions of Central America, the scientists report August 5 in Nature Human Behavior.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-maya-warfare-flared-surprisingly-early
 
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How a public map helped an archaeologist to discover ancient Mayan ruins

Until recently, archaeology was limited by what a researcher could see while standing on the ground. But light detection and ranging, or lidar, technology has transformed the field, providing a way to scan entire regions for archaeological sites.

With an array of airborne lasers, researchers can peer down through dense forest canopies or pick out the shapes of ancient buildings to discover and map ancient sites across thousands of square miles. A process that once required decades-long mapping expeditions, and slogging through jungles with surveying equipment, can now be done in a matter of days from the relative comfort of an aeroplane.
(C) The Independent. '19
 
Interesting new finds which may lead to reforestation to protect the ruins. May also help with them getting relost and refound.

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the ruins of a large palace they believe dates back to the height of the Mayan civilisation, 1,000 years ago.

Remains of a building six metres (20ft) high, 55m long and 15m wide were found at a dig on the site of the ancient city of Kulubá in Yucatán state. It is thought the structure was used over two periods of Mayan history as far back as 600 AD. The Mayan civilisation flourished before Spain conquered the region.

The palace was possibly in use during two periods of Mayan history, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said: the Late Classic (600-900 AD) and the Terminal Classic (850-1050 AD).

As well as the former palace, archaeologists are exploring four structures in Kulubá's central square: an altar, remnants of two residential buildings and a round structure thought to be an oven.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50920236
 
Mayan breakthrough: Experts 'must rethink everything' after revolutionary archaeology find

Source: Daily Express
Date: 31 January, 2020

A MAYAN archaeologist claimed experts will have to "rethink the whole demography of the Maya" after "revolutionary" technology is changing everything experts thought they knew.

The Mayans were a civilisation known for their architecture, mathematics and astronomical beliefs, who date back to as far as 2000BC, with many of their impressive constructions still standing in the jungles of southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and western parts of Honduras. For many years, little was known about this mysterious society, as archaeologists had to travel for days through the jungle to try and uncover ancient sites below the undergrowth. But Dr Ruben G Mendoza, from California State University, revealed how that is all changing.

He said last month: “When I was in graduate school back in 1978, we had a very different view on the Maya.

“One of my key professors was convinced that the Maya didn’t have a written historical tradition and the failure of the society was based on managerial mismanagement of the ecology and resources.

“Well, my dissertation actually posited a counterpoint to all of that and so we didn’t get along as a result.

“Everybody was fascinated, how could the Maya have sustained themselves with Swidden agriculture alone?”

https://www-express-co-uk.cdn.amppr...3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s
 
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Ancient Maya kingdom with pyramid discovered in southern Mexico

This newly discovered Maya kingdom wasn't powerful, but its allies may have kept it safe.

After searching for more than a quarter century, archaeologists may have finally located the capital city of Sak Tz'i', a Maya kingdom that's referenced in sculptures and inscriptions from across the ancient Maya world. But it wasn't archaeologists who made the find. A local man discovered a 2- by 4-foot (0.6 by 1.2 meters) tablet near Lacanja Tzeltal, a community in Chiapas, Mexico.

The tablet's inscriptions are a treasure trove of mythology, poetry and history that reflect the typical Maya practice of weaving together myth and reality. Various sections of the tablet contain inscriptions that recount a mythical water serpent, various unnamed gods, a mythic flood and accounts of the births, lives, and battles of ancient rulers ...

Sak Tz'i' sat on what's now the border between Mexico and Guatemala, and it probably wasn't an especially powerful kingdom ...

Even though this kingdom never achieved great power, "Sak Tz'i' was a formidable enemy and an important ally to those greater kingdoms, as evidenced by the frequency by which it appears in texts at those sites," the researchers wrote in the study, published online in December 2019 in the Journal of Field Archaeology.

Since excavation began in the summer of 2018, the researchers have identified several structures that offer insight into political, religious and commercial life in the kingdom. These include the remains of pyramids, a royal palace and a ball court. ...

The discovery marks a major step forward in the study of the ancient Maya world. The researchers hope further analysis of the site's architecture and detailed inscriptions will offer new insight into the politics, economy, rituals and warfare of the Maya civilization's western regions. ...

The team is especially interested in how kingdoms such as Sak Tz'i' managed to survive for so long, despite apparently never becoming as powerful as rival kingdoms in the region.
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/maya-kingdom-discovered-in-mexico.html

PUBLISHED FIELD REPORT (Journal of Field Archaeology):
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00934690.2019.1684748
 
A newly discovered Mayan site in southern Mexico is remarkable for being older than prior estimates of the culture's beginnings. It also features what seems to be the largest Mayan monumental complex ever found. The odd part is that here the monumental architecture extends outward (horizontally) rather than vertically. To add to the strangeness, it wasn't even hidden.
Largest And Oldest Maya Monument Ever Found Discovered Under Mexico

A giant, sprawling structure almost a mile long has been discovered at the southern tip of Mexico, with researchers saying it may represent the oldest and largest monument of the ancient Maya civilisation ever found.

The site, called Aguada Fénix, is located in the state of Tabasco, at the base of the Gulf of Mexico. It's so vast for its age, the find is making archaeologists recalibrate their timelines on the architectural capabilities of the mysterious Maya.

Before now, the Maya site of Ceibal (aka Seibal) was thought to be the oldest ceremonial centre, dating back to around 950 BCE.

Aguada Fénix, which measures over 1,400 metres (almost 4,600 ft) in length at its greatest extent, dates to a similar timeframe, with researchers estimating it was built between 1000 and 800 BCE – but its immense size and scope make it unlike anything found before from the period.

"To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region," the researchers, led by archaeologist Takeshi Inomata from the University of Arizona, explain in a new paper about the discovery.

What's even more staggering is that this huge, unknown structure has actually been hiding in plain sight for centuries, seemingly unrecognised by the modern Mexicans living their lives on top of the vast complex.

"This area is developed," Inomata says. "It's not the jungle; people live there. But this site was not known because it is so flat and huge. It just looks like a natural landscape."

Despite Aguada Fénix's inconspicuousness, it can't hide from non-human eyes. Aerial surveys using LIDAR detected the anomaly, revealing an elevated platform measuring 1,413 metres north to south, and 399 metres east to west, and extending up to 15 metres above the surrounding area. ...

FULL STORY (With Overview Imagery): https://www.sciencealert.com/larges...r-found-lay-hidden-under-mexico-for-centuries
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract from the published research on the newly recognized Aguada Fénix site.

Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Vázquez López, V.A. et al.
Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization.
Nature (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2343-4

Abstract
Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350 BC; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism1. Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800 BC using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization.

SOURCE: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2343-4
 
Newly published research indicates the abandonment of Tikal was motivated by drought and persistent contamination of the city's water system. This contamination included pollution by mercury.
Mysterious Abandonment of Once-Great Maya City May Finally Be Explained

For over 1,000 years, the ancient Maya city of Tikal stood tall, embodying one of the largest and most important urban centres ever built by this enigmatic and enduring pre-Columbian civilisation.

By the late 9th century CE however, this Maya metropolis was unravelling. Around this time, Tikal and a number of other Maya cities were abandoned, and a new analysis of Tikal's reservoirs lends important new insights into why the city's ancient exodus may have occurred.

A team led by scientists at the University of Cincinnati analysed sediment from reservoirs within the ancient city - located in modern day Guatemala - and found evidence of toxic contaminants that would have made Tikal's drinking water undrinkable.

For a sprawling city prone to severe droughts – and cut off from lakes and rivers – polluted rainwater collectors could have spelt the end for Tikal's thousands of inhabitants, estimated to number up to 100,000 people at the city's peak. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/myster...-great-maya-city-may-now-finally-be-explained

See Also:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/uoc-amr062620.php
 
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Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for the Tikal research study.

Lentz, D.L., Hamilton, T.L., Dunning, N.P. et al.
Molecular genetic and geochemical assays reveal severe contamination of drinking water reservoirs at the ancient Maya city of Tikal.
Sci Rep 10, 10316 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67044-z
Abstract
Understanding civilizations of the past and how they emerge and eventually falter is a primary research focus of archaeological investigations because these provocative data sets offer critical insights into long-term human behavior patterns, especially in regard to land use practices and sustainable environmental interactions. The ancient Maya serve as an intriguing example of this research focus, yet the details of their spectacular emergence in a tropical forest environment followed by their eventual demise have remained enigmatic. Tikal, one of the foremost of the ancient Maya cities, plays a central role in this discussion because of its sharp population decline followed by abandonment during the late 9th century CE. Our results, based on geochemical and molecular genetic assays on sediments from four of the main reservoirs, reveal that two of the largest reservoirs at Tikal, essential for the survival of the city during the dry seasons, were contaminated with high levels of mercury, phosphate and cyanobacteria known to produce deadly toxins. Our observations demonstrate severe pollution problems at a time when episodes of climatic aridity were prevalent. This combination of catastrophic events clearly threatened the sustainability of the city and likely contributed to its abandonment.

SOURCE: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67044-z
 
New evaluation of a Classic Mayan sweat bath indicates the physical site was deeply connected with a reptilian goddess associated with gestation and childbirth.
New evidence found of the ritual significance of a classic Maya sweat bath in Guatemala

Sweat baths have a long history of use in Mesoamerica. Commonly used by midwives in postpartum and perinatal care in contemporary Maya communities, these structures are viewed as grandmother figures, a pattern that can also be traced to earlier periods of history. At the site of Xultun, Guatemala, a Classic Maya sweat bath with an unusual collection of artifacts led archaeologists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Archaeology Program at Boston University and other collaborating institutions to gather new evidence of these beliefs and an early example of the related ritual practices.

Indigenous people of Mesoamerica see the natural world as a place populated by ancestors and supernatural beings, many of whom live within natural features and ancient buildings. This was certainly the case for the Classic Maya. Dating to the Early Classic period (250-550 A.D.), the sweat bath at Xultun, named Los Sapos, appears to have been embodied by an amphibian goddess. Outside the sweat bath, the scientists encountered a representation of this little-known Classic Maya deity, possibly "ix.tzutz.sak." The goddess is depicted squatting in a toad-like position with legs ornamented with iguanas and cane toads (Rhinella marina).

"No other structure in Mesoamerica--sweat bath or otherwise--looks like this building," said STRI archaeologist Ashley Sharpe, co-author of the study. "It would seem that when someone enters the front of the structure, they are entering the amphibian goddess who personified the sweat bath."

"Although this goddess' name remains undeciphered, proposed readings suggest she was responsible for gestation cycles, both of time and human life," said Boston University archaeologist Mary Clarke, main author of the study. "Linking notions of birth to reptilian figures, however, is not uncommon among the Classic Maya as they express the verb 'to birth' as an upended reptilian mouth glyph. What we see at Xultun is an example where this reptilian goddess, as well as the ideas and myths she embodied, are expressed as a physical place." ...

The Los Sapos deposit suggests that the sweat bath's historical role in Xultun continued centuries after the building had been buried. As the goddesses related to sweat baths throughout Mesoamerican history are described as holding sway over the conditions for life on Earth, the offering was likely an attempt at requesting assistance from the goddess embodying the Los Sapos structure. This could have been a last effort to please the supernatural entity and prevent losing hold of their lands, which were abandoned soon after, around the Maya Collapse of 900 A.D.

"This supernatural figure is a ferocious embodiment of the Earth," Clarke said. "When displeased, she may take revenge or withhold the things people need to survive. The offering at Los Sapos was both an attempt to appease this goddess and an act of resilience. Rather than seeing a population succumbing to collapse, we see them trying to negotiate with this goddess for their survival." ...

FULL STORY:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/stri-nef101920.php
 
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... "Archaeologists uncover largest ancient dam built by Maya in Central America." July 16th, 2012.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-archaeolog ... built.html

This earlier-quoted article mentions quartz sand water filtration implemented at the dam. More recent research has delved deeper into Mayan water filtration capabilities. It would appear the Mayans had developed filtering strategies that would be quite workable even today.
Ancient Maya built sophisticated water filters

Ancient Maya in the once-bustling city of Tikal built sophisticated water filters using natural materials they imported from miles away, according to the University of Cincinnati.

UC researchers discovered evidence of a filter system at the Corriental reservoir, an important source of drinking water for the ancient Maya in what is now northern Guatemala.

A multidisciplinary team of UC anthropologists, geographers and biologists identified crystalline quartz and zeolite imported miles from the city. The quartz found in the coarse sand along with zeolite, a crystalline compound consisting of silicon and aluminum, create a natural molecular sieve. Both minerals are used in modern water filtration.

The filters would have removed harmful microbes, nitrogen-rich compounds, heavy metals such as mercury and other toxins from the water, said Kenneth Barnett Tankersley, associate professor of anthropology and lead author of the study.

"What's interesting is this system would still be effective today and the Maya discovered it more than 2,000 years ago," Tankersley said.

The Maya created this water filtration system nearly 2,000 years before similar systems were used in Europe, making it one of the oldest water treatment systems of its kind in the world ...

"It was probably through very clever empirical observation that the ancient Maya saw this particular material was associated with clean water and made some effort to carry it back" ...

Complex water filtration systems have been observed in other ancient civilizations from Greece to Egypt to South Asia, but this is the first observed in the ancient New World, Tankersley said.

"The ancient Maya lived in a tropical environment and had to be innovators. This is a remarkable innovation," Tankersley said. "A lot of people look at Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere as not having the same engineering or technological muscle of places like Greece, Rome, India or China. But when it comes to water management, the Maya were millennia ahead." ...


FULL STORY:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/uoc-amb102220.php

PUBLISHED ARTICLE:
Zeolite water purification at Tikal, an ancient Maya city in Guatemala
Kenneth Barnett Tankersley, Nicholas P. Dunning, Christopher Carr, David L. Lentz & Vernon L. Scarborough
Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 18021 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75023-7

Full Article Accessible At:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75023-7
 
Ancient Diplomatic Service.

The 16th of January 378 C.E. marked a turning point in ancient Maya history.

On that day, foreigners arrived in the Maya city of Tikal—in what is now northern Guatemala—and Tikal’s king died. Shortly thereafter, the son of the conquering king became Tikal’s new ruler.

Many archaeologists think these invaders came from Teotihuacan, a metropolis 1000 kilometers away, near what is now Mexico City, famed for its imposing pyramids and sweeping central avenue. But a new discovery in Tikal reveals Teotihuacan may have had an outpost in the Maya city long before possibly conquering it. That bolsters the idea that Teotihuacan’s empire was born from a shattered alliance, and it could shed light on the pivotal moment when allies became enemies.

The find is “supertantalizing,” says Claudia García-Des Lauriers, an archaeologist at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who was not involved with the work. It suggests the early connections between the cities “were relatively diplomatic and friendly,” she says. “And all of a sudden, something went wrong.” ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/possible-embassy-ancient-maya-city-illuminates-birth-empire
 
Handlprints painted on the walls of a cave are believed to represent a Mayan coming of age ritual.
In Mexico, ancient Maya cave reveals mysterious painted hand prints

Dozens of black and red hand prints cover the walls of a cave in Mexico, believed to be associated with a coming-of-age ritual of the ancient Maya ...

The 137 prints, mostly made by the hands of children, are more than 1,200 years old, which would date them near the end of the ancient Maya's classical zenith, when major cities across present-day southern Mexico and Central America thrived amid major human achievements in math and art.

The cave is located near the northern tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula ... , and lies some 33 feet (10 meters) below a large ceiba tree, which the Maya consider sacred.

Archeologist Sergio Grosjean argues that the hand prints were likely made by children as they entered puberty, due to an analysis of their size, with the colors providing a clue to their meaning. ...

"They imprinted their hands on the walls in black... which symbolized death, but that didn't mean they were going to be killed, but rather death from a ritual perspective," he said.

"Afterwards, these children imprinted their hands in red, which was a reference to war or life," he added. ...
FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/m...ls-mysterious-painted-hand-prints-2021-05-01/
 
Handlprints painted on the walls of a cave are believed to represent a Mayan coming of age ritual.

FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/m...ls-mysterious-painted-hand-prints-2021-05-01/
Haha, beat me to it!

A couple of things struck me about the short video:

Firstly, there are at least 2 and possibly 3 completely different types of handprint.

Some are "stencilled" as if the painter has put their hand against the wall and then blown a spray of pigment to outline it. I believe this technique was popular amongst the Australian aboriginal people.

Some are "potato printed" as if the person has stuck their hand into some pigment and then placed it on the wall. This is the technique used in modern primary schools!

At least one print looks like it has either been painted on with a brush or stick. Either that or it is a "potato print" style that has been done clumsily, or deliberately filled in. ("There's always one," as my own teachers used to say.)

Secondly, the expert's confident statement that "black symbolised death" and "red symbolised war, or life" (make up your mind, mate) and that it was a "coming of age ritual".

We can perhaps make links and find analogies, but we can't possibly know these things about a society 1,200 years ago. The colours may have meant nothing at all — just what pigment was available at the time — or could have represented status within the group, or it could have been a change of fashion. If it was a "coming of age ritual" then why are some of the prints of children and some of adults?
 
Haha, beat me to it!

A couple of things struck me about the short video:

Firstly, there are at least 2 and possibly 3 completely different types of handprint.

Some are "stencilled" as if the painter has put their hand against the wall and then blown a spray of pigment to outline it. I believe this technique was popular amongst the Australian aboriginal people.

Some are "potato printed" as if the person has stuck their hand into some pigment and then placed it on the wall. This is the technique used in modern primary schools!

At least one print looks like it has either been painted on with a brush or stick. Either that or it is a "potato print" style that has been done clumsily, or deliberately filled in. ("There's always one," as my own teachers used to say.)

Secondly, the expert's confident statement that "black symbolised death" and "red symbolised war, or life" (make up your mind, mate) and that it was a "coming of age ritual".

We can perhaps make links and find analogies, but we can't possibly know these things about a society 1,200 years ago. The colours may have meant nothing at all — just what pigment was available at the time — or could have represented status within the group, or it could have been a change of fashion. If it was a "coming of age ritual" then why are some of the prints of children and some of adults?
Actually we know quite a lot about the symbolic meanings of colours in Mesoamerica, thanks to the written accounts of the invading Spanish, native accounts after the Spanish conquest, transcribed documents that probably were copied from pre-Columbian originals, a large variety of codices.
 
Actually we know quite a lot about the symbolic meanings of colours in Mesoamerica, thanks to the written accounts of the invading Spanish, native accounts after the Spanish conquest, transcribed documents that probably were copied frin pre-Columbian originals, a large variety of codices.
Not my area of special interest, so I'll bow to your greater knowledge. However, I am instinctively sceptical of the accuracy of that type of source.

An invading/conquering or otherwise "superior" culture tends to interpret other cultures in its own terms and frame of reference, looking for analogies and 1 to 1 mappings of concepts — whilst somehow always coming to the conclusion that "we are right and the natives are wrong".

Native accounts may be true, or may tell only part of the story. (How much would you tell your conquerors about your own culture's deepest and most cherished ideas?)

Even a complete and honest account would only be accurate in respect to that individual's direct experience and period.

For comparison, ask a Morris dancer "what it all means" or whether it is "pagan", or where the word "Morris" comes from, or why some dancers (used to) blacken their faces. You will get many conflicting answers, nearly all presented with certainty and passion. And that's our own indigenous culture from only approximately the last 400 years.

Also for comparison, look at the complex symbolism of flowers, gem stones and colours in Victorian society, and to what extent they are replicated or understood in our own culture, a mere century and a half ago.
 
Not my area of special interest, so I'll bow to your greater knowledge. However, I am instinctively sceptical of the accuracy of that type of source.

An invading/conquering or otherwise "superior" culture tends to interpret other cultures in its own terms and frame of reference, looking for analogies and 1 to 1 mappings of concepts — whilst somehow always coming to the conclusion that "we are right and the natives are wrong".

Native accounts may be true, or may tell only part of the story. (How much would you tell your conquerors about your own culture's deepest and most cherished ideas?)

Even a complete and honest account would only be accurate in respect to that individual's direct experience and period.

For comparison, ask a Morris dancer "what it all means" or whether it is "pagan", or where the word "Morris" comes from, or why some dancers (used to) blacken their faces. You will get many conflicting answers, nearly all presented with certainty and passion. And that's our own indigenous culture from only approximately the last 400 years.

Also for comparison, look at the complex symbolism of flowers, gem stones and colours in Victorian society, and to what extent they are replicated or understood in our own culture, a mere century and a half ago.
There are plenty of Mesoamerican natives still around practising synchretised religion, the knowledge in this area is actually reasonably good.
 
Pyramid built to appease the volcano?

When a massive volcano erupted in what is now El Salvador about 1500 years ago, the event was so devastating that researchers think it helped trigger a 100-year Maya “dark age.”

New analysis of a pyramid built just 40 kilometers away, however, suggests it rose from the ashes only 5 to 30 years after the eruption, National Geographic reports. Researchers excavated a large pyramid called the Campana structure at the Maya settlement San Andrés and uncovered a 5-meter layer of pure ash and pumice. When they radiocarbon dated this layer, they found it must have been built out of the volcanic materials blanketing the area soon after the eruption. The Mayas’ return to the site so soon after the eruption—the biggest in Central America in the past 10,000 years—indicates they were more resilient than previously believed. Building the pyramid could have served as a religious tribute to the volcano or an act of unity following the disaster, argue authors of a study published this week in Antiquity.

https://www.science.org/content/art...anic-eruption-maya-people-built-pyramid-ashes
 
New discoveries show evidence of Teotihuacan’s influence over Tikal.

At Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, three giant pyramids rise above the ancient city’s main street, the Avenue of the Dead. The smallest of these is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, which sits within La Ciudadela, or the Citadel, a massive sunken plaza with tall walls.

Now, more than a thousand kilometers away at the Maya capital of Tikal in what’s now Guatemala, researchers have found a smaller plaza and pyramid possibly modeled after La Ciudadela and its temple.

Teotihuacan is thought to have conquered Tikal in the year 378 (SN: 9/27/18). The finding adds to evidence of Teotihuacan’s influence over Tikal, the team reports September 28 in Antiquity.

“The architectural layout revealed by this study is stunning,” says anthropological archaeologist Nawa Sugiyama of the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the new research. “The very orthogonal city planning with specific orientation of the pyramids gives Teotihuacan a very characteristic architectural style, making it easy to identify any Teotihuacan influence abroad.”

https://www.sciencenews.org/article...ya-teotihuacan-temple-feathered-serpent-tikal
 
Amaizing discovery.

In Maya creation myths, the gods created humans out of corn. Now, a new study from a site in Belize suggests corn really was important in the origin of the ancient Maya: More than half of their ancestry can be traced to migrants who arrived from South America sometime before 5600 years ago, likely bringing with them new cultivars of the crop that sustained one of Mesoamerica’s great cultures.

These previously unknown migrants “were the first pioneers who essentially planted the seeds of Maya civilization,” which emerged about 4000 years ago, says archaeologist and co-author Jaime Awe. A native Belizean now at Northern Arizona University, he, like many people in Belize, has some Maya ancestry. “Without corn, there would have been no Mayans.”

The discovery reveals a significant new source of ancestry for the Maya, whose civilization spanned one-third of Central America and Mexico, dotting the region with cities and monuments at its height more than 1000 years ago. Today, the Maya are an ethnolinguistic group of at least 7 million Indigenous peoples in Central America. The study also suggests that as in Europe, where farming arrived with immigrants from the Middle East, farming in the Americas spread as least in part with people on the move, rather than simply as know-how passed between cultures. ...

https://www.science.org/content/art...urprising-southern-roots-ancient-dna-suggests
 
Plaster fragments contain oldest known record of Mayan calendar.

Buried within the Las Pinturas pyramid in San Bartolo, Guatemala, thousands of painted plaster mural fragments offer a window into ancient Maya civilization.

Two of those fragments form the earliest known record of a Maya calendar, created between 300 and 200 B.C.

The fragments depict the date of “7 Deer” from the 260-day sacred calendar common across ancient Mesoamerica and still used today by indigenous communities in Guatemala and southern Mexico, archaeologist David Stuart and colleagues report April 13 in Science Advances. The calendar system’s longevity attests to the persistence of Maya intellectual culture, says Stuart, of the University of Texas at Austin.

From 400 B.C. to 100 A.D., Mayas razed and rebuilt the pyramid seven times, creating a series of discrete time capsules stacked on top of each other, says study coauthor Heather Hurst, project director of the San Bartolo-Xultun Regional Archaeological Project. By radiocarbon dating both the material in the layer where the calendar fragments were found and the material used to bury that layer, researchers determined a narrow time window in which the 7 Deer day record would have been produced. ...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/maya-calendar-hieroglyph-date-oldest-evidence
 
If this is the tooth then it's a jaw dropping discovery.

The ancient Maya believed their breath was a link to the divine. To purify it, many people filed, notched, and polished their teeth, some even decorating them with gemstones. Now, a fresh analysis suggests the sealant used to hold these jewels in place may have had therapeutic properties, which could have helped prevent infections.

During the Classic period (200 to 900 C.E.), many lowland Maya people in what is now Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico affixed colored stones such as jade, turquoise, and pyrite to the front of their teeth. Maya dentists drilled holes into the enamel and dentine, then fit the stones and applied a sealant, usually as part of a rite of passage to adulthood.

This dental adhesive has proved remarkably durable: More than half of such modified teeth from archaeological digs still have their stone inlays intact. Previous analyses of the adhesive found inorganic materials similar to cement, and hydroxyapatite, a mineral obtained from ground teeth and bones. These materials helped strengthen the mixture, but likely wouldn’t have been sticky enough to hold the stones in place. The nature of the binding agent has long been a mystery.

So Gloria Hernández Bolio, a biochemist at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, and colleagues analyzed the sealants in eight teeth found in burial sites across the Maya empire. They used two techniques: One distinguishes groups of organic compounds based on the amount of light they absorb; the other separates chemical mixtures using heat, before counting individual molecules.

https://www.science.org/content/art...ones-place-and-may-have-prevented-tooth-decay
 
Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan city at Mexico construction site.


Researchers estimate the city, which features the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, to have been occupied from AD600 to 900.

Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city filled with palaces, pyramids and plazas on a construction site of what will become an industrial park near Mérida, on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

The site, called Xiol, has features of the Mayan Puuc style of architecture, archaeologists said, which is common in the southern Yucatán peninsula but rare near Mérida.

“We think more than 4,000 people lived around here,” said Carlos Peraza, one of the archaeologists who led the excavation of the city, estimated to have been occupied from 600 to 900 AD.

“There were people from different social classes … priests, scribes, who lived in these great palaces, and there were also the common people who lived in small buildings,” Peraza said.
(C) The Guardian. '22
 
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