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Post by Kiahanie on Oct 21, 2013 13:23:28 GMT -6
My archeological specialties are Mesoamerica (with heavy emphasis on the Maya) and Southwestern United States, so once in a while I'll be providing some info on New World archeology. New Evidence Unearthed for the Origins of the Maya"Civilizations rise and fall, often in dramatic fashion. Their origins, though, are subtler and tend to be overlooked or poorly understood. In the case of the Maya, a new paper in Science magazine sheds surprising light on that murky early period. The classic period of the lowland Maya in Mesoamerica (A.D. 300 to 950) is a popular topic in archaeology, but little is known about the early preclassic era (before 1000 B.C.). Scientists are typically split between two theories on the subject: Either the Maya developed directly from an older "mother culture" known as the Olmec, or they sprang into existence independently. Takeshi Inomata, professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and a National Geographic research grantee, disagrees with both theories. In his work at the archaeological site of Ceibal in Guatemala, he has unearthed evidence for a more complex origin story. "
--National Geographic Daily News
Very good article. Those who have a Science Magazine subscription will probably enjoy the original paper.
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Post by Woodrow LI on Oct 21, 2013 14:36:18 GMT -6
Quite interesting.
Out of curiosity, do you find any evidence of Pre-Columbian influence in meso-America especially from Africa, The Mideast, India or China?
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Post by Kiahanie on Oct 21, 2013 15:18:56 GMT -6
Africa, Mideast, India, no. There is evidence of pre-Columbian Chinese and Japanese shipwrecks along the Pacific coasts of South America and North America, but Mesoamerican influence, no.
The major extra-continental influence established so far has been linguistic (and genetic), and that primarily East Asian and Siberian.
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Post by Maggie on Oct 21, 2013 15:28:27 GMT -6
There is a huge amount of information on Meso-America at the Carnegie Institute's research site. This is primarily older stuff that came out of extensive research in the middle of the last century. It is accessed, so far as I know, only through certain universities. You can see if there is anything that might be of interest here: geomaps.aum.edu/
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Post by Kiahanie on Oct 21, 2013 17:14:27 GMT -6
Carnegie was a very early sponsor of archeological research in Mesoamerica. They've got some really good stuff on their site -early photos, drawings, etc, of things that have since deteriorated. They also have summaries of recent field reports. A lot is publicly available. Another good site is mesoweb.org/. They've got current work, as well as re-published classics.
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Post by Woodrow LI on Oct 21, 2013 18:11:14 GMT -6
Makes one wonder as to what may have been lost of their history.
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