Jun 16
JohnGenetics, North America, South America
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two distinct groups from Asia settled in the New World and not one single migration as suggested by previous genetic studies, experts said Monday after comparing the skulls of early Americans.
Paleoanthropologists from Brazil, Chile and Germany compared the skulls of several dozen Paleoamericans, dating back to the early days of migration 11,000 years ago, with the more recent remains of more than 300 Amerindians.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100614/sc_afp/scienceusanthropologyasia_20100614225117
PLoS ONE hosts the paper.
May 20
JohnAmerican Southwest, North America, South America
Pueblo Bonito
In 1849, U.S. Army Lieutenant James Simpson was exploring northwester New Mexico when he came upon Chaco Canyon. He noted eight large ruins, seemingly built by an ancient, unknown civilization. The local Navajo’s and meztiso’s called the largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, which means “pretty village.” Pottery shards on the soil surface of Chaco Canyon suggested that it was Native Americans who built the large masonry structures, but for several more decades, a wide range of fanciful stories accompanied interpretations of the ruins which assigned their origin to Romans, Vikings, Egyptians, Celts, Welsh and the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel.
http://www.examiner.com/x-40598-Architecture–Design-Examiner~y2010m5d17-Americas-Architectural-Heritage-Chaco-Canyon-New-Mexico–Part-2
May 20
JohnAmerican Southwest, North America, South America
Was Chaco Canyon culturally related to the Pacific Coast of South America?
In the April 1, 2010 article on the Early Farmers of the Southwest, it was pointed out that until 800 AD the architecture of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest was quite primitive. Most structures were simple; one room homes built from adobe walls and sapling shed roofs. After 700 AD some Southwestern communities built up to fiver residential units together on isolated farmsteads.
http://www.examiner.com/x-40598-Architecture–Design-Examiner~y2010m5d16-Americas-architectural-heritage-Chaco-Canyon-New-Mexico–Part-1
May 11
JohnArt, Maya, Mesoamerica, North America
Guatemala.Discovery of an extraordinary offering of a jadeite mosaic miniature ceremonial head underscores the importance and political power at the beginning of Early Classic of the ancient Maya city Tak’alik Ab’aj
Tak’alik Ab’aj is an ancient pre-Hispanic city situated in El Asintal, Department of Retalhuleu at the pacific piedmont of Guatemala*. This important long distance trade and cosmopolitan cultural center is transcendent because of its long history which endured 1700 years (800 B.C. – 900 A.D). At its beginnings Tak’alik Ab’aj interacted and participated with the Olmec culture, and at its surmise, was one of the protagonists in the development of the early Maya culture. This particularity in addition to the extraordinary production of sculpture programs during these two important cultural periods, make Tak’alik Ab’aj unique in the history of Mesoamerica.
http://guatemala-times.com/archeology/takalik-abaj/1555-mysterious-mayan-ceremonial-head-found-at-takaalik-abaaj-.html
May 11
JohnMaya, Mesoamerica, North America, Tech
Laser beams penetrating thick canopy detect thousands of new structures, show Maya adept at ‘building green’
A flyover of Belize’s thick jungles has revolutionized archaeology worldwide and vividly illustrated the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations — the Maya.
University of Central Florida researchers led a NASA-funded research project in April 2009 that collected the equivalent of 25 years worth of data in four days.
Aboard a Cessna 337, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment bounced laser beams to sensors on the ground, penetrating the thick tree canopy and producing images of the ancient settlement and environmental modifications made by the inhabitants of the Maya city of Caracol within 200 square kilometers (77 square miles).
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/uocf-str051110.php
May 03
JohnBurial, Mound, North America, Texas
ALTO, Texas — Following a winding highway, once known as part of the El Camino Real de los Tejas, southwest out of Alto, there is a variety of wild flowers and multiple historic markers dotting a trail leading to the Caddo Mounds state historic site — a place where a community of Caddo Indians thrived centuries before Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain.
The site, formerly owned and operated by the state park system, now is under the operation of the Texas Historical Commission, and Caddo Mounds Site Manager Jennifer Price said she is excited about the future of the location.
Caddo Mounds was first opened to the public in 1982, but the site had been explored and mapped by archaeologists since 1919, who have, since, uncovered many artifacts and details of this particular group of Caddos known as the Hasinai.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6986169.html
May 03
JohnAmerican Northeast, North America, Sites
Meadowcroft Rockshelter archaeological site has revealed the earliest evidence of people in North America, dating back 16,000 years.
The Rockshelter, named a National Historic Landmark in 2005, has provided archaeologists with a rare glimpse into the lives of the first people to arrive in the New World.
With recent renovations to the Rockshelter’s enclosure, visitors can see evidence of tools and campfires made by these first Americans thousands of years ago.
http://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/meadowcroft.aspx
May 03
JohnArt, Maya, Mesoamerica, North America
MEXICO CITY.- Six giant figureheads at Chakanbakan Archaeological Zone, Quintana Roo, considered the greatest and among the earliest in the area, will be restored by specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Created more than 2,300 years ago, these sculptures remind the Olmeca style, which represented deities with jaguar faces, revealing the adoption by Maya of elements from earliest cultures.
Intervention to figureheads made out of stucco, clay and stone is coordinated by Gerardo Calderon and conducted by specialists from the INAH National Coordination of Cultural Heritage Conservation (CNCPC).
“A team of restorers will begin an integral cleaning in May 2010, followed by plastering and reintegration of small missing parts, as well as consolidation”, informed archaeologist Fernando Cortes, in charge of the archaeological zone.
He added that during conservation work, restorers will take samples of the black pigment used to emphasize the face features, to determine its origin and restore it, since sun, rain, wind and time have damaged it.
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=37796
Apr 21
JohnEvolution, Genetics
A metal pin adorning a military uniform signifies rank; a ring on the left hand’s fourth finger announces matrimony. Most scientists thought that the capability for such symbolic thinking was unique to modern humans, but a new study suggests that it dates back to before the Neandertals.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=neandertal-symbolism
Apr 21
JohnClimate, North America
ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) — Paleoindian groups — the first people to enter and subsequently inhabit the American continent during the final glacial episodes of the Pleistocene period — occupied North America throughout the Younger Dryas interval, which saw a rapid return to glacial conditions approximately 11,000 years ago. Until now, it has been assumed that cooling temperatures and their impact on communities posed significant adaptive challenges to those groups.
David Meltzer from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA, and Vance Holliday from the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, suggest otherwise in their review of climatic and environmental records from this time period in continental North America, published in Springer’s Journal of World Prehistory.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100412084527.htm
Apr 21
JohnCalifornia, North America
BOONE – Research conducted by Dr. Gwen Robbins, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Appalachian State University, finds there is no evidence of cannibalism among the 84 members of the Donner Party who were trapped by a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the mid-1840s.
Remains from the Donner party’s Alder Creek campsite were excavated by a team of archaeologists from the University of Montana and the University of Oregon Museum. A sample of bones from the campsite hearth was analyzed by Robbins and Kelsey Gray, an Appalachian graduate. They will present the results of this project this week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Albuquerque, N.M.
http://www.news.appstate.edu/2010/04/15/cannibalism-donner/
Apr 21
JohnClimate, North America
A new study led by Ohio University scientists suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before the modern industrial era.
Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native people contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices. The early Native Americans burned trees to actively manage the forests to yield the nuts and fruit that were a large part of their diets.
“They had achieved a pretty sophisticated level of living that I don’t think people have fully appreciated,” said Gregory Springer, an associate professor of geological sciences at Ohio University and lead author of the study, which was published a recent issue of the journal The Holocene. “They were very advanced, and they knew how to get the most out of the forests and landscapes they lived in. This was all across North America, not just a few locations.”
http://www.physorg.com/news190561417.html
Apr 21
JohnBurial, Chile, South America
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
April 13, 2010
Poison-laced drinking water killed some of the world’s oldest mummies, which are found in the harsh northern deserts of Chile, a new study says.
Arsenic, which occurs in high levels in drinking water in Chile’s northern Camarones Valley (see map), the deadly element likely poisoned the coastal Chinchorro people for centuries, starting at least 7,000 years ago, mummy-hair analyses show.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/100412-chile-oldest-mummies-poison-arsenic/
Apr 21
JohnArt, Maya, Mesoamerica, North America, Teotihuacan
Through his findings of ancient art and architecture in Veracruz, Mexico, a Mexican archaeologist defined the importance of an earlier period in history at a lecture Monday.
Arturo Pascual, the director of the Institute of Aesthetic Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, presented his work titled “El Tajin: In search of the origins of a civilization,” a compilation of findings from a Cacahuatal phase site in El Tajin, Veracruz that was excavated under his direction.
http://thedailycougar.com/2010/04/14/study-gives-insight-to-mayan-culture/
Apr 15
JohnMaya, Mesoamerica, North America
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — They were illiterate farmers, builders and servants, but Maya commoners found a way to record their own history – by burying it within their homes. A new study of the objects embedded in the floors of homes occupied more than 1,000 years ago in central Belize begins to decode their story.
The study, from University of Illinois anthropology professor Lisa J. Lucero, appears in the Journal of Social Archaeology.
Maya in the Classic period (A.D. 250-900) regularly “terminated” their homes, razing the walls, burning the floors and placing artifacts and (sometimes) human remains on top before burning them again.
Evidence suggests these rituals occurred every 40 or 50 years and likely marked important dates in the Maya calendar. After termination, the family built a new home on the old foundation, using broken and whole vessels, colorful fragments, animal bones and rocks to mark important areas and to provide ballast for a new plaster floor.
Maya royals recorded their history in writing and in imagery carved on monuments, Lucero said. “But the commoners had their own way of recording their own history, not only their history as a family but also their place in the cosmos,” she said.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uoia-cmh041410.php
Older Entries
RSS
IMAGE:
