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Posted on 09/03/2011 11:51:01 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A team of Mexican specialists discovered remnants of a 2,000-year-old Mayan palace at an archaeological site in the southeastern state of Chiapas.
"The discovery constitutes the first architectural evidence of such an early occupation of the ancient Mayan cities of the Upper Usumacinta basin" in the Lacandona Jungle, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement Wednesday.
The project's director, Luis Alberto Martos, said this new discovery was made in a sunken courtyard located in the northern part of the the Plan de Ayutla archaeological site and represents the first evidence of occupation of that area between 50 B.C. and 50 A.D.
Martos added that the earliest concrete evidence of Mayan occupation of that region before now had dated back only to 250 A.D.
He said the palace consists of "rooms with walls almost one meter wide, whose corners are rounded, an early characteristic of Mayan architecture".
The archaeologist added that Mayans of a later era dismantled the palace and filled in the courtyard to raise the level of the other buildings, and that is why "the remains of the early palace remained below and were preserved".
The later constructions were built between 250-800 A.D. and correspond to the Classic period, when this site played an important political role.
This research will provide a deeper look at political interaction and integration in this region, "an area where several kingdoms were in conflict and battles were waged and alliances formed", Martos said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bioscholar.com ...
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They are finding Mayan ruins, faster than I can visit them.
They had inside plumbing in this particular city — hence the phrase, Sink of the Mayans.
Corny! (I wish I had come up with that). I wonder if Bill Clinton has been there.
I wonder what would have happened if the “New World” had three things: immunity to Small Pox, oxen and the horse.
And maybe some type of metallurgy. Weren’t their tool principally made of stone?
“The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true; but the vessle with the pestle has the pellet that is poison.”
You can make all kinds of wonderous stuff with an ample supply of slave labor and tyranny to work them to death and not care.
This is 300 years before Mayan civilization was thought to have started.
It might be better described as pre-Mayan. Just because they find a ruin in the same place mayan civilization existed doesn’t mean it’s part of the same civ and culture.
Au contraire — Mayan civ began circa 500 BC.
They had latex — wonder why they never invented rubber boots, or condoms?
The well gnawed bones of the sacrificial victims were the clinching proof the site was a genuine Mayan site.
“I wonder what would have happened if the “New World” had three things: immunity to Small Pox, oxen and the horse.”
I can’t answer your question, but I can tell you what would happen if pigs could fly.
Answer: The price of bacon would be sky high.
And, a question for ALL - why did the Indigenous in the Upper Michigan area walk over huge outcroppings of mettalic copper (metal, not ore) and never learn to use it for anything other than ornamental use?
I think it translates as "Stay Thirsty My Friends."
I, for one, am in awe of the achievements of prehistoric human beings who lived ten or more millennia ago who, without any guide or model to work from developed amazing technologies. Metalurgy, rope making, fabric weaving, food preservation, harnessing fire, agriculture, tanning leather, creating the wheel, pottery, inventing tools, to say nothing about the rudiments of math, language, science, art. I mean, just take the tanning of leather. Somehow they figured out if they used urine, and the bark of an oak tree, they could create a material out of animal skins. I mean, I'd like to see the average person create something like that today without any reference source. We owe a great deal to these 'stone age' pioneers.
Maybe Obsidian held its edge better.
My tiny brain, armed with no systematic knowledge of physical anthropology, has thought about that question in general, ie. why no metal tools on a continent abundant with metals? My answer is that perhaps they lacked a ceramic pottery hard enough to melt metals in. And even if they could melt it, or just hammer soft metals like lead, copper and gold into tools, they may not have been as good for the job as things like bone and obsidian, as Sawdring suggests.
For another reason, I believe a stable civilization with large, permanent cities is prerequisite for something as advanced as metalurgy. Most NA peoples were semi-nomadic, following the herds. Time to think and experiment are luxuries of advanced societies.
Geronamo and his warriors give one an idea of what can be accomplished by just a small band when they have mastered the horse. Communication and trade would have skyrocketed, and the 'invading' Europeans might have faced mighty empires instead of warring bands of nomads. Yes, a very good question.
Wow I was way off, sorry about that
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