Cave paintings of 3,200 years discovered in the Peruvian jungle

The archaeologist Qurino Olivera - (LaRazón).
This is the unique image released of the
"archaeologica lsite" of "LasJuntas", Peruvian Amazon.

PERUVIAN AMAZON. A team of archaeologists discovered the earliest murals in the Amazon forest in a cerimonial temple of 3200 years, located nearby the city of Bagua in a department of the amazonian Peruvian jungle. The news was published in numerous newspapers of spanish language.

The researchers considered that the finding, which occurred at a place called "Las Juntas", is the first of its kind in all the Amazonian jungle, not only in Peru. The archaeologist Qurino Olivera, head of research, said this is one of the most important discoveries of recent decades.

This image: IN INFO341/Argentina but...
THIS IS LOCATED IN MEXICO, according the reader Blakbeard.
He found the source of the image above
in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonampak]
GREAT BLACKBEARD!

According to the reader Blackbeard the wall to which it relates this matter is another. This would be the picture correct, above. It's beautiful but... this painting is also of Bonampak.

The error is of the newspaper (INFO341/Argentina) that put the matter on the page with a lateral image that does not belongs to the "archaeological site" mentioned in the text: Las Juntas

Writes Blackbeard:

The wall in this article (INFO341/Argentina) is from Bonampak, Mexico. And it still provides the source of the picture and location of the mural that confused me.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonampak]

Thank YOU! VERY MUCH! Blackbeard.

You can see the image above enlarged IN

[http://www.wayeb.org/pictures/full/bonampak_002.jpg]

The paintings were discovered on the inside and outside of a temple which has the shape of a rectangle that has a dimension of about 40 square meters. So far, archaeologists have unearthed a wall of 2.20 meters wide and - even - they found several columns.

The predominant colors are red, white, black and yellow. According to experts, the murals are strong evidence that - in the Amazon - existed a civilization that achieved high levels of technological development.

Despite the torrential rains that occur daily in the area, the murals have been preserved because they remained covered by an impermeable layer of rock and clay 15 cm thick that protected the paintings for thousands of years, the researchers said.

The excavations and studies continue in the area with the permission of the Ministry of Culture of Peru and funding of the Regional Government of Amazonas.

SOURCES

DESCUBREN PINTURAS MURALES DE 3.200 AÑOS EN LA SELVA DEL PERU.

Terra/Argentina, published in 12/03/2012

Hallan primeras pinturas murales de la selva amazónica peruana

La Razón, published in 12/03/2012

[http://www.razon.com.mx/spip.php?article114244]

DESCUBREN PINTURAS MURALES EN LA SELVA DEL PERÚ

INFO341/Ar, published in 13/03/2012

[http://www.info341.com.ar/ocio/nota.php?seccion=ocio&id=15795]

Archaeology: Ancient necropolis found in Rome

Skull found in the necropolis, square Ostiense, Rome - Italy.

ITALY. March 5, 2012. Next to the pyramid Cestia (Pyramid of Caius Cestius or Gaius Cestius* - in Ostience Square) in Rome during the excavations for the installation of a line of urban electric trains, were found an archaeological site. Among the discoveries were found objects such as bones, skulls, pieces of amphorae and also tombs. One of the skeletons that appeared was almost intact with his arms crossed resting on a slab that was, probably, his own grave

The works were suspended and the place, isolated. The relics are being cataloged and placed in plastic boxes. According to preliminary estimates, the remains were dated between the first and second centuries AD. Archaeologists believe they have found a small cemetery.

* Gaius Cestius Epulo or Gaius Cestius Gallo lived in the first century AD. The pyramid, monument of ancient Rome, near the port of Sao Paulo, was built between 18 and 12 BC, to serve as a tomb for Gaius Cestius Epulo, Roman magistrate.

SOURCE: Crani ed anfore, a Roma spunta una necropoli
ANSA/It, published in 10/03/2012
[http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/photostory/primopiano/2012/03/10/visualizza_new.html_130116941.html]

Rupestre Art - Aboriginal culture in Cuba

"La Solapa de Los Pintores" (something like Screen of The Painters)

CUBA, Pinar del Rio province. Cuban scientists are researching and cataloging human remains and exemplaries of objects belonged to indigenous funerary practices, pictographs and petroglyphs in the Province of Pinar del Rio. Anthropologists are examining human bones and fragments that have a reddish color - wich were found in a hill situated in the town of Minas de Matahambre, northwest of the island.

The president of the Provincial Commission of Speleology - Mr. Carmenate Hilary, explains that these skeletons - pieces of skulls and other bones painted of red - are typical of the natives who inhabited the archipelago millennia ago

According to historian Jorge Freddy Ramirez, the painted bones are considered as a kind of cult of the dead. This practice was part of a magic and religious ritual related to the way of to confront the phenomenon of death, considered by locals as a moment of transition between two stages of existence.

Previous investigations revealed the presence, in the area - of colonial period relics, but the researchers are looking for burial sites associated to communities of the arquipelago of an epoch much more ancient. A research is just beginning. The discoveries made ​​so far will undergo tests to confirm the antiquity of bones, sex, age and perhaps the cause of death of those people.

Initially, the procedure consisted of undertaker bury the body along with offerings and personal belongings of the dead, as tools and ornaments. Later, at the appropriate time, the bones were exhumed and colorful. Then, a second burial was done in a sacred place. The scholar believes that native Cubans believed that life does not end with the death of the body. (An universal belief)

These indigenous were hunters, fishermen and gatherers of natural resources. These primitive men were called Guanahatabeyes. The language that is called Arawak. Other groups from the same area were known like Taino and Ciboney. All of them inhabited a vast territory where they lived at caves, plains and coastal regions

The caves are of particular interest in this research. To care of this aspect, speleologists are performing expeditions in search of pictographs and petroglyphs that remained occult or unknown in caves and rocks have not yet explored. These records may have been produced - both by indigenous of remote times as by slaves and maroons of the colonial period.

Cueva La Iguana

Once found the exemplars will be reproduced and will be subject to a preservation work to spare them from some deterioration, erosion of rains and winds, exposure to the sun, or even by the irresponsible actions of the laity.

Still at the province Pinar del Rio, in a remote place located there 140 km from Havana (Cuba's capital), have been discovered 40 rock art sites, work of indigenous pre-Columbians. In another region, called "La Solapa de Los Pintores" (something like Screen of The Painters), in an another place known as Minas Matahambre, there are magnificent pictorial murals.

"La Cueva del Cura" is also much known. Located in Viñales, there, are various styles overlap suggesting the presence of two races, two cultures: indigenous and maroon. Some of the figures evoke representations of pilots and birds. The grotto of St. Thomas, equally famous, has one of the greatest collections of rock art of Latin America.There, exist curious signs engraved on a wall stone covered by an soot layer.

SOURCES
HERNÁNDEZ PÉREZ. Pedro Luiz and JIMÉNEZ NUÑES, Antonio. Los petroglifos de la Cueva de La Iguana.
EL Explorador, published in 20/04/2007.
Accessed in 06/02/2012 [http://www.geda.pinarte.cult.cu/el_explorador/especial_nunez/el_explorador_especial4.htm]
MIRELES PILAR, Adalys. Develan huellas de cultura aborigen en Cuba.
Cuba Arqueológica/Prensa Latina, published in 03/03/3012
[http://cubaarqueologica.org/index.php?q=node/329]

New archaeological site discovered at the coast of Brazil

BRAZIL, Sao Paulo's state. At "Ilhabela", (Beautiful Island) - an archipelago and city situated 4 miles off the coast of São Paulo state in Brazil, the coodinator of the Projeto de Gestão e Diagnóstico do Patrimônio Arqueológico de Ilhabela (Project Management and Diagnosis of the Archaeological Heritage of Ilhabela - GEDAI), maintained by the Instituto Histórico, Geográfico e Arqueológico da the Secretaria Municipal de Cultura (History, Geography and Archaeology Institute of the Municipal Culture), the archaeologist Mrs. Cintia Bendazzoli discovered an impotant mortuary archaeological site. The excavation was done on an emergency basis because of the imminent destruction of the material.

The place that was named "Toca da Caveira" (something like Hole of Skull or "Skull Burrow") had human skeletal remains, and funerary accompaniments like clay pot and stone tool, revealing a complex Indigenous funerary ritual. At the same time another two more sites were identified how belonging to the pré-colonizations epoch, but these - still have not been subjected to more detailed research

According Mrs. Bendazolli, the laboratory work performed with the findings revealed that the discover is a collective tomb. There were found remains of at least five different individuals, four adults and a child, this should be about five years of age in the occasion of its death.

None of the skeletons was complete, and according to the research, the absence of many bone units can be resulted of previous interference or violation that can have occurred on the site or - even - something tipical of the funerary ritual practiced by natives.

What caught the attention of the archaeologist was that the collective burial does not appear to be related to the known occupation of the sambaquis indigenous (builders middens or "shell-mountains" builders) - what occurred in Ilhabela occurred around 2000 years ago.

Early research showed that the ritual took place at Skull Burrow was prepared by a potter of the indigenous tribe named Macro-Ge - in more recent times, but before contact with the colonizer.

The presence of ceramic Ge as part of funerary objects placed next to the skeletons, as well the evidences in the bones and teeth indicates that these people was - mainly potters and not fishers and collectors like were the sambaquis. The next step of the investigation will be to conduct carbon-14 dating, which can help elucidate the issues raised by the laboratory studies.

If after the studies if conclude that the founds are, in fact, of a more recent population of potters, this site may be considered a great find, not only for the city, but for the coast of São Paulo as a whole, since it did not exist, until then, evidences that the Macro-Ge indigenous nation, one time, occupied this area of the coast, and were able to practice techniques of navigation and that they arrived to such distances from the coast of São Paulo, says archaeologist.

Anyway, this new archaeological discovery comes to show that the island of Ilhabela was far from a land uninhabited before the conquest of the Portugueses. The large number of archaeological sites recorded by the GEDAI Project and the numerous studies that have following these findings point to an intense settlement of this region and the increasing need to protect this heritage.

SOURCE: Ilhabela: Arqueólogos encontram novo sítio na Ilha dos Búzios com inédita presença indígena
Agora Vale, published in 29/02/2012
[http://www.agoravale.com.br/agoravale/noticias.asp?id=35629&cod=1]

AMAZONAS 🌳🌳🌳 In danger of disappear: The rock engravings of the Madeira River

BRAZIL. At brazilian amazonian, when the level of waters the Madeira River low - in the dry season, is possible to see ancient drawings engraved in stone. The forms reveal geometric shapes or animals. These pictures may have been made for thousands of years by people who lived in the Amazon and of who little is known about their habits and lifestyle.

Photos: Michelle M. Tizuka/Santo Antonio Energia

There are five areas with extensive rock formations where these rock carvings appear. In the rainy season. near the city of Porto Velho (capital of Rondonia' state) the river hide the images. 

 Now, scholars of history, archaelogists and anthropologists are faced a serious problem: with the project of a dam on the river, the hydroelectric power plant of Santo Antonio, this important trace of human presence will be permanently submerged.

Thinking in this problem, the Santo Antonio Energy, responsible for the build of the plant, hired two companies specializing in archeology to preserve the memory these drawings. 

The companies are using 3D technology to scan the prints. The equipment that can record drawings with high precision and quality. In total, more than 2000 images were collected.

After make the digital record, the researchers will reconstruct the rock extensions on virtual models, so that the stones. By this way, the images will be studied in laboratory and associated with occupations of the archaeological sites located on the river region. 

With work, scientists will have conditions understand how these people lived and determine the age of the drawings. Some of them date back over 7000 years, according scholars.

The archaeological rescue is one of the constraints imposed by IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente - Brazilian Institute of Enviroment) for the build of the energy plant and to the begin of the operations. Meanwhile, the works for the preservation the archaeological patrimony is in course.

However, the project has received many critics. Santo Antonio, as well as the Jirau energy plant - also located on the Madeira River, are facing the charge that these kind of iniciative is one more factor that increase the deforestation of the Amazon. 

The government is also criticized for the lack of policies of population control,a problem that will results of the instalation of the new plants that, certainly, will generate serious social questions in the city of Porto Velho. Because, as we know, governments are always late. Let's meditate.

SOURCES

CALIXTO, Bruno. 

Pesquisadores registram gravuras rupestres do Rio Madeira.

Época, published in 29/02/2011
http://colunas.revistaepoca.globo.com/planeta/2012/02/29/pesquisadores-registram-gravuras-rupestres-do-rio-madeira/

The oldest engraving on rock of the Americas is discovered in Brazil

Photo: Neves WA, Araujo AGM, Bernardo DV, Kipnis R, Feathers JK

BRAZIL. Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo found a drawing of an anthropomorphic figure dating from 9000 to 12,000 years, and would therefore, according to scientists, this prehistoric figure is the oldest ever discovered in the Americas.

The study authors, led by researcher Walter Neves, said the discovery suggests that - at that time, the presence and development of man in South America was very different - not only restricted to people who made stone tools for subsistence, not only the neolithic tribes but also persons able to formulate symbolic thoughts.

The figure, which measures about fifteen inches wide by twenty long, was found in Lapa do Santo in the region of Lagoa Santa, state of Minas Gerais, southeast region of Brazil.

* Researchers identified the drawing like an anthropomorphic creature but - this does not mean that is a man. The traces resemble a somewhat animalistic creature, something like a reptile, for example.

SOURCE: Desenho rupestre mais antigo das Américas é descoberto no Brasil.
Ultimo segundo/IG, published in 22/02/2012
[http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/ciencia/desenho-rupestre-mais-antigo-das-americas-e-descoberto-no-brasil/n1597648406315.html]

Amazonian Stonehenge

BRAZIL. Amapa state. In Calcolene, a small city located to 390 km of Macapa, capital of the Amapa state - north region of Brazil, on the banks of the igarapé* Rego Grande, a set of strange stones, with no doubt work of human hands is considered the amazonian Stonehenge. The archaeological site has been studied since 2005. The structure that resemble the british cycle is composed by large pieces of worked granite and has around 30 meters of diameter.

* IGARAPÉ: 'arm' ou course of water originated from a river which extends into the earth, like a creek.

According researchers, the place was used by indigenous populations that inhabited the region by 1,100 years ago for the realization of rituals . Some of this cerimonies - were performed in the epoch of the summer solstice, when the position of the stones blocks allowed the observation the course of the sun..

The researcher of the Instituto de Pesquisas Cientificas e Tecnológicas do Amapá (Iepa - Institute of Scientific and Technological Searches), João Saldanha that date was special for natives. He explains: It is a period marked by the rains, changing completely the landscape providing the harvest and collect food in abundance. Saldanha still tells that the place was used like a cemitery too, the last rest for important personalities of the tribes. Other minor monuments that were found there - are tombs of other persons, being these - less importants.

The place stood forgotten for many years. Only in 2005 it returned to attract the interest of the government. Since then, numerous pottery objects - were discovered. Similar objects were found in other nearby places like at the Amapa state (Brazil) and Guiana Francesa (French Guyana). The theory of researchers is that the violence of the European invaders, in century 16, provoked the exit of these tribes in search of refuge in other areas, less accessible to the invaders.

SOURCE: Sítio arqueológico “Stonehenge amazônica” é estudado no Amapá
Portal Amazônia, published in 31/12/2011
[http://www.portalamazonia.com.br/editoria/ciencia-e-tecnologia/sitio-arqueologico-%E2%80%9Cstonehenge-amazonica%E2%80%9D-e-estudado-no-amapa/]

The secrets of ancient Amazonia

18th century engraving shows the different tribes that inhabited South America. Getty Images

AMAZONIA. New archaeological studies about the Amazon has been changing the traditional idea of a virgin forest practically uninhabited in the pre-colombian times. Recent discoveries reveal a region that could been occupied for more than 20 millions of persons; indigenous, it is assumed. They lived in highly populated villages near of rivers Tapajos, Madeira and Solimoes, for example.

However, the scenery was much diferent of the mythological Eldorado of the legends. According the researcher of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas (Amazon Federal University), Helena Lima: What we know, today, is that these populations were numerous and they had technical practices much more advanced than the primitivism that we imagined until recently.

The coordinator of the Central Amazônia project, who works in the Museu de Arqueologia e Antropologia da USP (Archaeologic and Anthropologic Museum, São Paulo University), Eduardo Neves, belives that around 5,5 million of persons lived in certain areas of the pre colombian Amazon where there were a great variation of languages and political organizations in their many villages.

The researcher of the Anthropology Department of at the University of Florida, Michael Heckenberger, studying areas of the Alto Xingu (Upper Xingu) made an estimated that 50,000 indigenous lived in an area of ​​20 square kilometers. He says: This consists of a larger population that we find in many countries of Europe today.

According the studies, the villages of the Alto Xingu was 10 or 15 times majors than that exist actually in the region. They were organized a central and circular square surrounded by tabas (huts). These huts were builded in a perfect ring along the periphery of the square, were surrounded by ditches to 2 km in length. Heckenberger still says that in the Alto Xingu, where today there is a village, there were 12.

Professor at University of Florida, Colombian researcher Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, adds that in other regions of the Amazon, the settings were different, with linears villages, in front of the rivers. Regarding the organization, the communities were not exactly as tribes. They were more like societies in its infancy. Archaeological evidence indicates a state of expansion.

Handling of soil

One of the proofs of the existence of these bigger villages and their development on the first steps of a civilization process is the black soil. Oyuela explains: For many years it was thought that the black soil was the result of natural phenomena such as volcanic ash. The resistance to the idea that the black earth was resulted by human work came from a theory that the Amazon was largely an inhospitable place to the development of complex societies with large villages.

But the new discoveries have shown that there was the use of organic matter and coal burned at high temperatures to improve the quality of the Amazonian soil. The plantations were made in small amounts of land - spaces that were opened in the middle by large tracts of forests. Oyuela found black soil in the Alto Amazon (Upper Amazon), in 2005, near the city of Iquitos. The region, called Quistococha was a large village which occupied up to 20 hectares dated around the years 900 AD.

In regions such as the high river Madeira is found black soil dated from four thousand years. In the middle Amazon River were found pottery and evidence of agricultural occupations with over two thousand years and traces of nomadic culture of eight thousand years ago.

SOURCE: Nova teoria afirma que Amazônia pré-colombiana foi populosa.

IN Ultimo Segundo/IG, published in 20/09/2011
[http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/ciencia/nova+teoria+afirma+que+amazonia+precolombiana+foi+populosa/n1237780376244.html]

St John Marcos park – Rescue of the ruins of a time and place

The coordinator of the Park, Luiz Felipe Younes, says that there are legends associated with the destruction of the ancient city: The man who imploded the main church stood hump.The people say that after the city submerged, appeared certain trees in the city that are known as mulungus and give red flowers. Local people believe that is the blood of residents unhappy with the end of the place. Photo: Ruins of the church.

RIO DE JANEIRO state/BRAZIL – At the Parnaiba river valley region, Rio de Janeiro state, the colonial ghost city of São João Marcos that, for 70 years, has been half submerged, since the build of a dam, and half in ruins covered by atlantic forest is being brought back to life through the action of SPHAN (Serviço de Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional - National Service of Artistic and Historical Patrimony), that created in the local the first Urban-park-Archaeological and Enviromental of Brazil.

Today, the new Park area belongs to the city of Rio Claro (RJ). In the past, it was the city of São João Marcos. Founded by colonial explorers, the called "bandeirantes" (flaggers) in 1733, the place developed quickly. It was a center of coffee agriculture. Reached to produce two million kilos per year. It was the richest town in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In the eighteenth century it had theater, school, police, roads. Slaves and Barons and had their own churches. Artists and actors and singers of artistics companies visited St João Marcos.

In the nineteenth century was the most populous county in the state. It was the first architectural ensemble of the country listed by the Instituto Estadual do Patrimônio Cultural (State Institute of Cultural Patrimony, Inepac) in 1990. Still, in 1940, under the government of President Getúlio Vargas, the city was doomed to be swallowed by the waters in the name of progress: the expansion work of the dam of Lajes. Because the state needed more energy to grow

More than 70 farms were submerged. What escaped of the flood was quickly demolished by the authorities. The initiative to create the park was of the same company that was, a once, responsible for building the dam that destroyed the place. The Light, which invested 5 million and 800 thousand of reais in the recovery of the ruins

During four years, the work of archaeologists, historians, museum curators, architects, landscapers recovered, in 930 thousand square meters, buildings and structures, as the ossuary's Church, the base theater Tibiriça, stretches of the old Imperial Road, stone bridges in addition to about two thousand pieces discovered in excavations such as potteries, coins, personal objects, porcelains and more.

The Park's facilities also include forest area, water mirror, a Memory Center, an exhibition of historical and archaeological pieces, a model, miniature of the original city, a permanent display of historical and cultural elements, portraits of epoch, an amphitheater and a cafeteria.

LINK – Parque Arqueológico e Ambiental de São João Marcos WEBSITE

SOURCES:
Estado do Rio ganha o primeiro sítio arqueológico do país.
IN Jornal do Brasil, published in 08/06/2011
[http://www.jb.com.br/ciencia-e-tecnologia/noticias/2011/06/08/estado-do-rio-ganha-o-primeiro-sitio-arqueologico-do-pais/]
SALME, Flavia. Submersa há 70 anos, cidade histórica do Rio volta à tona.
IN Último Segundo, published in 08/06/2011
[http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/brasil/rj/submersa+ha+70+anos+cidade+historica+do+rio+volta+a+tona/n1597016160036.html]

The buccaneers of Ilhabela

SÃO PAULO state – At Ilhabela, the unique archipelago-town of the brazilian shore, located at the littoral of São Paulo state, dwellers of a traditional community of fishers called "Caiçara dos Castelhanos, on the beach 'Canto da Lagoa", in the last Easter holiday (2011), found the remains of an ancient wrecked vessel.

The relic was uncovered after the heavy rains fell in the region by increasing the volume and velocity of waters from a stream that disembogue along that stretch of beach.

The vessel, ancient, appears and disappears beneath the sands. Sometimes years pass without giving any signal. Then, It is Forgotten. Most of the piece is buried. Apparently, the structure is in good condition although it is not possible to determine whether the ship is full or not. Is possible to see the large beams of pine riga, a very tough wood used in building ships, galleons and caravels.

Ilhabela is well known for tales of pirates. The Bay of Castilians became famous for having been refuge of pirates and strategic point of slave ships that still were practicing trafficking even after the abolition of slavery.

SOURCE: ALMEIDA, Saulo. Ilhabela - Forte chuva revela embarcação antiga na areia da Praia dos Castelhanos.
IN O Noticiado, published in 24/05/2011
[http://www.onoticiado.com.br/noticias-de-sao-sebastiao-e-ilhabela/noticias-de-ilhabela/8568-ilhabela-forte-chuva-revela-embarcacao-antiga-na-areia-da-praia-dos-castelhanos.html]

Mayas - Stairs that tell Histories

MEXICO – In the archaeological site of El Palmar, southeast of Campeche, a staircase of hieroglyphs was discovered by researchers at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) associated with the University of Arizona and to Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM). Preliminary analyses have indicated that this pre-Hispanic city was in contact with the cities of Calakmul (Mexico) and Copan, Honduras. The finding has a thousand and three hundred years.

This is not the only staircase carved, decorated with hieroglyphics found in the lowland Maya. Twenty of this kind were cataloged. Evidence of the monument were first found in 2009 among others, which are called Grupo de Guzman. At the time, the evaluation of the stones "in situ" suggested the existence of a stairway.

The field season began in late 2010 and early 2011. According to archaeologists, Javier Lopez and Camacho Kenichiro Tsukamoto, the first four pieces examined, were in good condition, while two others were fragmented. It was necessary to do emergency procedures for conservation.

All blocks, drawings, and specific location of the find were photographed and examined with instruments like a topografic laser, before being transferred to archaeological camp with safety. The INAH's restorers: Yareli Jaida and Diana Leticia Jiménez Arano determined the level of conservation and are working in restoration of the blocks.

Hieróglifos

A preliminary translation of hieroglyphics, led by epigraphist Octavio Olguin Esparza (UNAM) provides important information for understanding the Maya Classic period (250-900 AD). The hieroglyphic stairway relates, among other historical events, the visits by foreign to El Palmar. The events are marked in a calendar. The date shown is "11 Ajaw Sak 18" or 13 September of 725 AD. The stone document also refers to the 'Lords of place' and the contacts they had with cities such as Copan and Calakmul, in the southern of the region that was occupied by ancient mayas.

During the excavations, was discovered a large room whose floor shows signs of having been burned, which indicates the possibility of perform of rituals. There were also fragments of pottery. A funerary instalation with offerings was also found. There were human bones and two objects of polychrome pottery. The anthropologist Jessica Cerezo-Roman, University of Arizona determined that the mortal remains belong to a mature man, as indicated the examination of the jaws and the inlays of jade on the front teeth.

SOURCE: Descubren escalinata con jeroglíficos mayas.
IN Artículo 7, published in 04/25/2011
[http://a7.com.mx/cultura/arqueologia/7105-descubren-escalinata-con-jeroglificos-mayas.html]

Mystery of Teotihuacan

The underground work of the temple of Quetzalcoatl

TEOTIHUACÁN, México — In the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, 40 miles southwest of Mexico City, a team of archaeologists discovered a tunnel that may have much to reveal about one of the most important pre-Columbian civilizations.

The site was discovered by chance in 2003 when the heavy rains that fell in the region have revealed a small crater. But only in 2009, scientists began to excavate the place - with the support of the Institute of Anthropology and History Mexico (INAH).

The researchers believe that the tune could lead to a burial chamber of rulers of Teotihuacan, because none of them, no cemetery or graves have been found to date.

The archaeologist Sergio Gomes says: Teotihuacan means "place of the gods". It was a religious center built as a replica of the universe. The tunnel that we are looking can to be a sort of gateway to the underworld. We believe that this architecture can also to hide a replica of the underworld.

Historians estimate that the city flourished in the early Christian era. Teotihuacan was possibly the most important urban center in North America in his time of splendor. Your maximum population may have been 200 thousand inhabitants. Occupying an area of 25 sq. km, only 5% of the site was explored by scientists. Teoatihuacan was abandoned by the seventh century.

In August 2010, after digging about 12 feet, archaeologists have found what could be the entrance to a tunnel. The hypothesis was correct. The entrance had been blocked deliberately - with stones, and objects parts that may have belonged to a temple destroyed. Were already removed 300 tonnes of materials: small objects made ​​of jade, marine shells, bones.

A small camera-robot, first used in an archaeological research in Mexico, exploited the small entrance. A radar system allowed to evaluate the possible extension of the tunnel, about 120 meters. The hypothesis suggest that in the end of the corridor may exist at least three mortuary chambers containing the remains of some rulers of Teotihuacan.

The idea is based in the location of the site that seems seems extend itself along the underground area of the temple of the "Plumed Serpent" (Quetzalcóatl). The delicacy required for the operation involves a job that should last for years. But it is a start for unravel the great mystery that is the origin and abandonment of the powerful city of Teotihuacan.

SOURCE: NICHOLSON, Sophie. Unos arquéologos buscan en un túnel los secretos de Teotihuacán.
IN Google/AFP, published in 04/07/2011
[http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iwsL9Xn0J5XPAHRRThKkfkIq8NCg?docId=CNG.d9537645f26505042c24a73e3115be9f.2141]