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New research published today in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise used by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the vast region that extends from Central Mexico to Central America. For more than 150 years, scholars have argued that the Aztec and Mixtec civilizations, which revered the precious, blue-green mineral, acquired it through import from the American Southwest. However, extensive geochemical analyses reveal that the true geologic source of Aztec and Mixtec turquoise lies within Mesoamerica. Geochemist Alyson Thibodeau, assistant professor of earth sciences at Dickinson College, and a team of researchers...

Archaeological finds in the southern part of the western state of Sinaloa suggest that the culture that developed in that region gave rise to the ceramics at the Aztatlan Complex, Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said. More than 200 archaeological sites have been catalogued in the region that enable scientists to understand the dynamic of the human occupation of that region during the pre-Columbian epoch, said INAH in a communique. In contrast to the belief that only nomadic groups lived there, evidence has been found of various settlements dating back to about the year 250 A.D. On...

Villagers installing a water pipe in southwestern Mexico stumbled onto an ancient granite statue depicting a player from a pre-Hispanic ball game, the national anthropology institute said Monday. The stone had been sliced at the neck, like a decapitation, and buried in a ritual that was common at the time, the National Anthropology and History Institute said in a statement. There are indications that the 1.65-meter (5-foot-4) tall statue, which depicts a bow-legged ballplayer with his arms crossed, was built onto an I-shaped ball game field before it was buried and could be more than 1,000 years old. Mesoamericans would...

Earliest Mixtec Cremations Found; Show Elite Ate Dog Willie Drye for National Geographic NewsMarch 9, 2008 An ancient burial site in Mexico contains evidence that Mixtec Indians conducted funerary rituals involving cremation as far back as 3,000 years ago. The find represents the earliest known hints that Mixtecs used this burial practice, which was later reserved for Mixtec kings and Aztec emperors, according to researchers who excavated the site. Evidence from the site also suggests that a class of elite leaders emerged among the Mixtecs as early as 1100 B.C. In addition, the burials hold clues that dogs were an...

WOODBURN, Ore. - Inching along the dusty field under a broiling sun, Simon Santol tossed garlic bulbs into buckets and chatted with the other stooped-over Mexican workers. The conversation wasn't in Spanish. Instead, they spoke Santol's native Triqui, or Mixtec, Zapotec or other languages indigenous to the poorest regions of Mexico. Many of the workers can barely get by in English or Spanish. "It was hard at first," the 28-year-old Santol said in halting Spanish. "We would look for someone who spoke our language and Spanish. Now I have learned a little Spanish. Grace of God." Immigrants who have not...

LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) -- A juvenile court judge in this town near Nashville startled many when he issued an order to a Mexican immigrant mother: Learn English or risk losing your child. The case involving Felipa Barrera has evolved into more than a custody dispute _ it's also putting a spotlight on how Hispanic immigrants are treated by the legal system. Barrera, who came to the United States in the mid-1990s, is in the middle of a trial to try to regain custody of her 11-year-old daughter. A judge now has to decide if it's a case of neglect and...