Itzamná, Maya God of Creation
Wednesday August 31, 2011
Itzamná was the god of creation for the Maya civilization, who invented writing and telling the future. He was considered the creator of the world and all the other deities, ... Read More
Coatepec - Sacred Mountain of the Aztecs
Tuesday August 30, 2011
Coatepec or Serpent Mountain, is the name of a city in Veracruz state in Mexico: it is also the name of a sacred, mythological place, a mountain in fact, where ... Read More
Islamic Cities
Monday August 29, 2011
I recently ran across an article about the ruins at Essouk, which were identified by archaeological and epigraphic means to be Tadmakka, the most important trade center on the routes ... Read More
Fray Diego de Landa
Thursday August 25, 2011
Fray Diego de Landa Calderón must be one of the most despised of the Spanish conquistadors of Mexico.
Arriving in Mayan Mexico about fifty years after Columbus landed, de Landa ... Read More
Domestication of Pearl Millet
Wednesday August 24, 2011
Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is one of three millets domesticated in Africa, and the earliest, circa 2500 BC.
Archaeological evidence points to climate change as the spurring of the domestication ... Read More
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tuesday August 23, 2011
Tatiana Proskouriakoff was a Russian-born American epigrapher and archaeologist, who is justly famous for her detailed architectural drawings and research into Maya hieroglyphs.
Tatiana Proskouriakoff at the Carnegie Institute. Photo ... Read More
Social Ranking at Cuello
Monday August 22, 2011
One characteristic of complex civilizations is social differentiation or ranking: the way people break their populations into people with different amounts of wealth and power, rights and responsibilities. How social ... Read More
Castillo de Teayo (Veracruz Mexico)
Saturday August 20, 2011
Castillo de Teayo is a Huastec city in the state of Veracruz, which was colonized by the Aztecs and their allies around 1470.
Castillo de Teayo. Photo by Antonio Rodriguez
The ancient ... Read More
Rano Raraku Quarry on Easter Island
Friday August 19, 2011
One of the puzzles of Easter Island--Rapa Nui to its residents--is how the enormous statues called moai were made and dragged to their locations without the benefit of draft animals. ... Read More
Ake (Mexico)
Wednesday August 17, 2011
Aké is a Mayan archaeological site, located in the northern Yucatan peninsula, where one of the most decisive battles of the Spanish conquest was held in 1527.
Co Loa: Fighting the Han in Iron Age Vietnam
Tuesday August 16, 2011
Co Loa is an important archaeological site of the Iron Age Dong Son culture of Vietnam. It was the capital of the Bac Bo region, and occupied from the 3rd ... Read More
Vindolanda
Monday August 15, 2011
"Listen, lad. I've built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was, was swamp. All the kings said I was daft to build a castle in ... Read More
Tianluoshan: Wet Rice Domestication in China
Sunday August 14, 2011
A site on Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province China contains archaeological evidence of the process of wet rice domestication in Neolithic China.
Dama de Elche
Saturday August 13, 2011
The Dama de Elche (or Lady of Elx) is the name of the bust of a woman carved sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC and currently on display ... Read More
Chultun
Friday August 12, 2011
A chultun is a feature of many Maya archaeological sites, and a sub-surface storage facility excavated by the ancient Maya into the soft limestone bedrock of Central America and Mexico. ... Read More
Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind
Friday August 5, 2011
Archaeologist and science writer Brian Fagan's new book, Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind, is a comprehensive look at the history of water control. The book spans the world's ... Read More
The Popol Vuh
Monday August 1, 2011
This is the account of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm. Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky.
So begins the creation ... Read More