Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ancient Bones Found In Honduras Said To Be Olmec
Reuters/Yahoo ^ | 11-11-2003

Posted on 11/12/2003 10:08:07 AM PST by blam

Ancient Bones Found in Honduras Said to Be Olmec

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Human bones believed to date from the ancient Olmec civilization have been found in southeastern Honduras, suggesting the influential culture extended farther than previously thought, Honduran authorities said on Tuesday.

Missed Tech Tuesday? Here's the real reasons you need speed, plus better broadband tips and making do with dial-up.

Carmen Fajardo, at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, said it appeared to be the first time Olmec remains have been found outside the so-called Mesoamerican corridor that stretches from Mexico to central Honduras.

"For the first time various bones have been found in Honduras with a deformity to the skull ... characteristic of the Olmec culture which considered this a sign of beauty," Fajardo told Reuters.

Olmec culture originated in Mexico and extended to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador (news - web sites) and parts of Honduras. Many cultural and religious elements of ancient civilizations including the Aztecs and Mayans have Olmec roots.

Olmec pottery has been discovered in northern Honduras dating back to 1600 B.C. within the Mesoamerican zone but not human remains, Fajardo said.

Four skulls, various bones and 10 plates dating back to 1500 B.C. were found on a mountain called Cerro de las Cuevas de las Campanas, 90 miles east of the capital Tegucigalpa, near the border with Nicaragua.

"These remains ... were found outside the Mesoamerican zone where the Olmec culture, known as the mother culture of Mesoamerica, exerted its influence," Fajardo said.

Southeastern Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama are considered part of an intermediate area influenced by the culture of the Andes.

"Our conclusions so far are preliminary ... but we still have to do carbon and DNA tests," she said.

"It could be that there is a third cultural area we haven't identified where the Mesoamerican area and intermediate meet," said Fajardo.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancient; ancientautopsies; archeology; belize; bones; elsalvador; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; guatemala; helixmakemineadouble; honduras; mexico; olmec; olmecs; shang
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-39 last
To: Dr._Joseph_Warren

21 posted on 11/12/2003 11:07:36 AM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

...They wore the old-style football helmets.
22 posted on 11/12/2003 11:16:19 AM PST by Consort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: blam
Did somebody say oobleck?


23 posted on 11/12/2003 11:25:11 AM PST by js1138
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
That's amazing!!

So you're saying that the Olmec were all related to Beldar from Remulak! ;)


24 posted on 11/12/2003 2:36:57 PM PST by Dr._Joseph_Warren
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: blam
bearded?
25 posted on 11/12/2003 2:39:44 PM PST by wardaddy (we must crush our enemies and make them fear us and sap their will to fight....all 2 billion of them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy
"bearded?"

Yup. It looks like (from the statues recovered) all the racial groups are represented in the Olmec ruins.

26 posted on 11/12/2003 2:59:51 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy
..and, BTW, their culture just appeared out of the blue. No evidence of a slow build-up, suddenly, they were just there.
27 posted on 11/12/2003 3:01:31 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: blam
rode a motorcycle from Belize City to Tikal once in the 70s when it was still primitive....been around lots of Mayan and Inca ruins.

don't know much about Olmec civilization admittedly.
28 posted on 11/12/2003 3:03:54 PM PST by wardaddy (we must crush our enemies and make them fear us and sap their will to fight....all 2 billion of them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy
"rode a motorcycle from Belize City to Tikal once in the 70s when it was still primitive....been around lots of Mayan and Inca ruins."

Been lost in the Yucatan 'jungle' a couple times myself.

29 posted on 11/12/2003 3:07:21 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: blam
16 figures....maybe ball players
30 posted on 11/12/2003 4:01:15 PM PST by ruoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Cuttnhorse; grannie; Windshark; lodwick; westmex; Mo1; Darksheare
CTR
31 posted on 11/12/2003 5:39:51 PM PST by restornu (No bah humbug allowed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Chewbacca
Top photo looks chinese, and the bottom one african.

I have known both filipinos and polynesians with those same thick lips and flat noses. My best friend when I was 8 was half filipino and half caucasian. He, his mother(filipino), and both his sisters had those same features.

32 posted on 11/12/2003 5:55:27 PM PST by Yeti
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Yeti
Also looks a little Samoan.
33 posted on 11/12/2003 8:36:08 PM PST by Chewbacca (Nothing burps better than bacon!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Chewbacca
Samoan, polynesian ... same difference. ; )
34 posted on 11/13/2003 3:38:27 AM PST by Yeti
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy
rode a motorcycle from Belize City to Tikal once in the 70s when it was still primitive

That must have been very interesting. Was your trip before or after Belizean independence? A few years ago when we visited Caracol, very near Belize's border with Guatemala, we were told the Irish Brigade was having live fire practice in the area and not to be alarmed at the sound of gunshots. Tensions with Guatemala were high after a couple of recent violent border incursions in which Guatemalan "trespassers" had been killed near Caracol. The Brits were letting Guatemala know Belize was no pushover.

Meanwhile, the Belizean ambassador to Guatemala had been taken hostage in reprisal and when we crossed the border from Belize to visit Tikal things were decidedly jittery. Something serious was afoot and our ashen-faced guide was clearly a worried man when we turistas were herded into a small room at the border crossing station. The first thing that struck us was the Guatemalan map on the wall: no Belize. It was Guatemala all the way to the Caribbean. To Guatemalans, Belize does not and has never existed.

After a lot of palaver we were allowed to continue but apart from delightful individual people and gorgeous locales, we found the mood of Guatemala very dark. We never got used to guards with AK-47s lurking in the bushes around our hotel, presumably to protect us from being kidnapped for ransom. A couple of weeks after our return home we read of an incident in a remote Guatemalan village in which a tour guide and a couple of tourists were killed by villagers. Somehow they became convinced the visitors were there to steal their children and they attacked the tourbus. I don't think I'd care for anything much more primitive than what we experienced.

35 posted on 11/13/2003 8:56:24 AM PST by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1065675/posts?page=11#11


36 posted on 10/21/2005 12:15:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

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)

37 posted on 10/21/2005 12:16:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
Gordon Cooper, Astronaut on the Olmec -- the astronaut Gordon Cooper in chapter 11 of his book A Leap of Faith. "During my final years with NASA," he writes, "I became involved in a different kind of adventure: undersea treasure hunting in Mexico." One day, accompanied by a National Geographic photographer, they landed in a small plane on an island in the Gulf of Mexico; local residents pointed out to them pyramid-shaped mounds, where they found ruins, artifacts and bones. On examination back in Texas, the artifacts were determined to be 5,000 years old!

"When we learned of the age of the artifacts," Cooper writes, “we realized that what we'd found had nothing to do with seventeenth-century Spain... I contacted the Mexican government and was put in touch with the head of the national archaeology department, Pablo Bush Romero."

Together with Mexican archeologists the two went back to the site. After some excavating, Cooper writes,

"The age of the ruins was confirmed: 3000 B.C. Compared with other advanced civilizations, relatively little was known about this one --called the Olmec."

Proceeding to describe some of the amazing discoveries about the Olmecs and their achievements, Gordon Cooper continues thus:

"Engineers, farmers, artisans, and traders, the Olmecs had a remarkable civilization. But it is still not known where they originated... Among the findings that intrigued me most: celestial navigation symbols and formulas that, when translated, turned out to be mathematical formulas used to this day for navigation, and accurate drawings of constellations, some of which would not be officially 'discovered' until the age of modern telescopes."

It was this, rather than his experiences as an astronaut, that triggered Gordon Cooper's "Leap of faith": "This left me wondering: Why have celestial navigation signs if they weren't navigating celestially?” And he asks: If ‘someone’ had helped the Olmecs with this knowledge, from whom did they get it?


38 posted on 10/21/2005 12:23:42 PM PDT by swarthyguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach ·
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
 Antiquity Journal
 & archive
 Archaeologica
 Archaeology
 Archaeology Channel
 BAR
 Bronze Age Forum
 Discover
 Dogpile
 Eurekalert
 Google
 LiveScience
 Mirabilis.ca
 Nat Geographic
 PhysOrg
 Science Daily
 Science News
 Texas AM
 Yahoo
 Excerpt, or Link only?
 


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.
 

· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword ·
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·


39 posted on 12/31/2010 6:15:56 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-39 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson