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Two newly discovered khipus from a central Peruvian village suggest that the knotted-string records may encode full-blown narratives rather than merely numerical information. It is still unclear if this is an early colonial innovation, or a basic property of the pre-hispanic system.
There is brief overview from National Geographic
and a complete report from Current Anthropology.
Personal
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
Did you ever wonder about your nutrional value to early hominids? Please rest assured - it wouldn't have been a worthwhile endeavour for them to hunt you down and eat you:
by
IxChel
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Laboratory
Frankly - no! I do not remember the times when the Classic Maya were described as peaceful star-gazers-living-in-vacant-ceremonial-centres. This idea was essentially dead before I was even born. I just remember laughing at ridicously out-dated textbooks during my sophomore year.
Moreover, we should not forget that the myth of the Noble Savage has a number of equally ugly sisters - "Manife
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
A growing body of evidence suggests that hereditary kingship and autocracy were not the only forms of government:
Admittedly, it is not a well-written piece - I would have expected at least that some of the unnamed 16th century Spanish sources were clearly identified.
For another report on the late Olmec site of Tres Zapotes (alluded to in the link above) see:
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
Here is another (popular, exaggerted) report on the Mirador road-system. The pics give a pretty good impression on how LIDAR data looks like, and why archaeologists tend to get so much excited about it.
A close reading of the same report will probably lead you to conclude: There is just a huge wave of more precise data rolling up on us about a thing which has been known for decades.
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
As far as I can tell, the roads' end point in Coba is not a single building, but a central plaza surrounded by several large structures. The plaza also connects the Yaxuna causeway to Coba's extensive intrasite road system.
In the case of the 18 km long sacbe between Uxmal, Nohpat and Kabah, the end points are more clearly marked by monumental arches without any apparent economic fun
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
There are: (plates appear at the end of the paper).
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
I don't think that Google Earth's ground resolution is high enough, but there is a Wikpedia entry on "sacbe" and you could use "sacbe" and "coba" as search items in Google images. Here ia a map and a cross-section (very low resolution, sorry): . The Coba-Yaxuna causeway is pretty much a straight line, so obviously a well-planned affair. A road roller to lev
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
First of all, these roads are cslled sacbe ("white roads", plural sacbeob in Yucatec Maya), and their existence has been known to Maya archaeologists for more than a century. There are intra- and intersite variants. They are usually four to five metres wide and raised between 0.5 to 2.5 metres above the ground. The best known example (between Coba and Yaxuna in Northern Yucatan) runs in
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
Having worked as a professional both in journalism and anthropology, I think it is utterly irresponsible to publish such a story at all. State officials, missionaries, garimpeiros, well- or ill-minded linguists, medicians, anthropologists and TV-crews are probably already on their way. Even the contact with medical anthropologists MAY have proven disastrous for some Yanonami groups (just search f
by
IxChel
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Humanities
www.eurekalert.org
Two leaded bronze artifacts found in northwestern Alaska are the first evidence that metal from Asia reached prehistoric North America prior to contact with Europeans, according to new Purdue University research.
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
Maybe we could all settle down on the question that Dr. Christopher T. Fisher's scholarly reputation is not upon stake here - I could get really agnry on this issue.
>> Honduras has any right (not only the
>> need) to "sell" her past just the same way as
>> Egypt or Italy do. And it is the president's job
>> to roll the drums for his country.
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
NG has a new story on this:
Please watch concerned archaeologists standing by, in the vague hope that the president won't do any damage ...
But Jason Covalito's blogpost (linked above) is utterly biased and unfair. He links the president's action to (admittedly) "dubious legends", while completely ignoring the serious research which has been done in Mosquitia in rec
by
IxChel
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Ancient History
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