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On Ancient Walls, a New Maya Epoch
New York Times ^ | May 16, 2006 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Posted on 05/16/2006 1:23:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway

On the sacred walls and inside the dark passageways of ancient ruins in Guatemala, archaeologists are making discoveries that open expanded vistas of the vibrant Maya civilization in its formative period, a time reaching back more than 1,000 years before its celebrated Classic epoch.

The intriguing finds, including art masterpieces and the earliest known Maya writing, are overturning old ideas of the Preclassic period. It was not a kind of dark age, as once thought, of a culture that emerged and bloomed in Classic times, at places like the spectacular royal ruin at Palenque beginning about A.D. 250 and extending to its mysterious collapse around 900.

At the derelict ceremonial center of pyramids and wide plazas, a site in remote northeastern Guatemala known as San Bartolo, archaeologists have uncovered the unexpected remains of murals in vivid colors depicting the Maya mythology of creation and kingship.

The murals date to 100 B.C., and nearby, a column of hieroglyphs, a century or two older, attests to an already well-developed writing system.

News of the discoveries, announced in the last six months by an American-Guatemalan team led by William A. Saturno of the University of New Hampshire, is reverberating through the small community of Mayanists.

They see these and other recent finds as strong evidence for the early origin and remarkable continuity of the culture's concepts of cosmology and possibly governance over more than a Preclassic millennium.

The Classic splendor was no sudden, unanticipated efflorescence.

Coming away from a visit to San Bartolo, Michael D. Coe, a retired Yale Mayanist who was not involved in the work, called the murals "one of the greatest Maya discoveries of all time."

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: archaeology; godsgravesglyphs; maya

1 posted on 05/16/2006 1:23:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


2 posted on 05/16/2006 1:23:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

The pictures show the way to "El Norte"............


3 posted on 05/16/2006 1:42:05 PM PDT by Red Badger (In warfare there are no constant conditions. --- The Art of War by SunTzu)
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To: nickcarraway

Great Stuff ( ( ( (Ping) ) ) )


4 posted on 05/16/2006 1:43:48 PM PDT by chit*chat
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To: FarmerW

Ping for later


5 posted on 05/16/2006 1:52:30 PM PDT by FarmerW ("We have the freedoms we fight for, and we lose those we don't defend." -Rushdie)
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To: nickcarraway; blam

Thanks for the post.

Ping


6 posted on 05/16/2006 2:41:00 PM PDT by wizr (wiz - Sound on prairie, made by buffalo.)
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To: sionnsar

ping


7 posted on 05/16/2006 2:59:39 PM PDT by wizr (wiz - Sound on prairie, made by buffalo.)
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To: wizr


8 posted on 05/16/2006 4:22:31 PM PDT by blam
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To: wizr

Thanks!


9 posted on 05/16/2006 5:15:36 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† | Iran Azadi 2006 | SONY: 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0urs)
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To: nickcarraway; blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; ...
Thanks Nick!

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

10 posted on 05/16/2006 10:48:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: nickcarraway

Have to check this out later.


11 posted on 05/17/2006 5:08:08 AM PDT by Dustbunny (The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist)
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To: nickcarraway

It's good to see a rise of civilization in the archaeological evidence. Civilizations that suddenly appear in full bloom give rise to questions such as where they came from.


12 posted on 05/17/2006 7:46:09 AM PDT by RightWhale (Off touch and out of base)
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To: SunkenCiv

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


13 posted on 05/22/2012 5:27:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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