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Rock Art 2009: San Diego, Nov

Richard — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:21:19 GMT

34th Annual Rock Art Symposium
Saturday, November 7, 2009

The fascinating study of rock art is the subject of the annual Rock Art Symposium held on the first Saturday of November every year. This year, ROCK ART 2009, the 34th annual Symposium, will meet on Saturday, November 7. This day-long event offers participants the opportunity to share in the results of rock art research around the globe, presented in slide-illustrated lectures. Registration is $40 for students and Museum members, $50 for general admission, including a commemorative ceramic mug. The Rock Art 2009 pre-registration form is available now for downloading (PDF format). This year's Symposium will be held at the Otto Center at the San Diego Zoo on Park Blvd. in San Diego's Balboa Park. Seating is limited, so register early.

http://www.museumofman.org/html/rock_art_2009.html

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Maya Code Fresco from PBS...

Frozenstars — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:55:52 GMT

Maya Code Fresco from PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/mast-flash.html

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Rich Moche Tomb Discovery...

Frozenstars — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:13:01 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7492362.stm

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Nov 14: Lecture at Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, CA

Richard — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:44:56 GMT

Dr. Alan Gold will be discussing "Archaeology of the Southern Sierra" at 7pm at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, CA.

I'm interested in going, and would enjoy the company if anyone here wants to carpool from Los Angeles. Drop me a note if you do.

For more info: http://www.maturango.org/#Lectures

posted in American Archaeology - 2 replies

pre-paleo/clovis artifacts

po — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:46:28 GMT

i'm new to this tribe. i'm an amateur artifact hunter. i am digesting as many books as i can regarding the pre-historic ice age peoples of pennsylvania, unfortunately i haven't found that many, and those that i did find are 2002 at the latest. do any of you know any recent books on this subject? it wouldn't necessarily have to be about PA, but that would be a bonus.
thanks...
po

posted in American Archaeology - 22 replies

Interesting find in Puerto Rico

yoshispacebreaker — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:04:56 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071028/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/puerto_rico_archaeological_find_2;_ylt=AhvRJHFamSa5bdj9_OZg6tdFeQoB

Happy Halloween everyone!

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Tomo-Kahni - carpool from LA?

Richard — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:22:12 GMT

I'm interested in taking the tour of the protected Kawaiisu village site, Tomo-Kahni, in the Tehachapi mountains north of Los Angeles. But I'd hate to drive all that way by myself, so I'm looking for others who may be interested in visiting there to see if maybe we can carpool.

If it seems like a good time to you drop me a note and let's see if we can get something going. My car seats four comfortably, so if you have friends into this sort of thing bring 'em along.

More info: http://www.bakersfield.org/tkpark/tours.htm

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Site database?

Richard — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:22:04 GMT

When reading about petroglyphs, I often find archaeological sites designated with things like "CA-Ker-6188" (for the Terese site in Kern County, California).

Is there a publicly-accessible database of such designated sites?

Extra bonus points: Where exactly is the Terese site? It's said to be in the El Paso Mountains, but one paper refers to it in the northwest corner of that range and another claims it's at the eastern edge of that range. That narrows it down to a few hundred square miles. :) If anyone here can narrow that down further I'd be much obliged. Thanks.

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

New Tribe....Religious and Spiritual Art (Apparitions

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:41:26 GMT

Apparitions, Holly relics, Inspired artists, Anomalies, ETC.
http://tribes.tribe.net/eb5f7908-cda1-40f9-9648-e8b00b84292f#
Most of the threads in this tribe will be presented in the photo gallery as supported evedence
So don't forget to turn off you topics only option..and and view all

Religion has been the most inspiring theme for artest's throughout the ages
Featured here will be statues, paintings, scupltures,scetches, ETC.

!!!!!!!!All religions welcome!!!!!!!!
(Even those who seek only a skeptical view....Even you can serve as a control ..and disclaimer)

Let’s bring enlightened art visions here and create a database that we can all share and be proud of
Photo’s photo's photos

Your own Art is also Welcome and encouraged here

FOLKLORE AND MYTHOLOGY
http://tribes.tribe.net/b9b544af-89e5-4aa7-8dec-c917f83c3bd7?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5Bb9b544af-89e5-4aa7-8dec-c917f83c3bd7%5D
Religious and Spiritual Art (Apparitions

http://tribes.tribe.net/eb5f7908-cda1-40f9-9648-e8b00b84292f?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5Beb5f7908-cda1-40f9-9648-e8b00b84292f%5D

Famous Quotes and Short Stories tribe
http://tribes.tribe.net/8644c865-e362-4b4d-917e-a8ca42c4fd9d?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5B8644c865-e362-4b4d-917e-a8ca42c4fd9d%5D

BIRDMAN - tribe.net:

http://tribes.tribe.net/25a1f4a7-b777-4adf-8c62-1f418aaf0d64?current=tribeallposts&set=y#tabs

Subliminal Messages and Propaganda - tribe.net:
http://tribes.tribe.net/e388baea-51eb-417f-9390-06fe37f92e41

PROPHETS and VISSIONARIES... WE ARE... - tribe.net:
http://tribes.tribe.net/bac54dd7-c43a-45c5-a716-6d241843a31f

The Prophecy of Magog - tribe.net:
http://tribes.tribe.net/d64e82b0-72ef-4c72-b5e7-299383c1d4e0

WARTIME
http://tribes.tribe.net/542c9b86-93b1-4b12-bc96-a754f89c5e8e?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5B542c9b86-93b1-4b12-bc96-a754f89c5e8e%5D

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

How about the SCA's?

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:02:10 GMT

The annual meeting for the Society of California Archaeology is being held at the end of the month (March 29 - April 1) in Ventura, California. Students can usually volunteer to have their registration fees waived.

Check out the website. www.scahome.org

posted in American Archaeology - 2 replies

Is this the complete flower of life?

Sun, 06 May 2007 13:46:23 GMT

You wont find this on any Drunvalo site. I wonder why !? http://thecompletefloweroflife.blogspot.com/

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

More mysteries from Teotihuacan

yoshispacebreaker — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:38:50 GMT

It's amazing that we still don't know exactly who built this massive city, but whoever they were, they spared no expense in transporting sacrificial victims to dedicate its various stages:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070411/wl_nm/mexico_pyramid_dc_2;_ylt=AlwB_WNa8oQt3htdkUkhpbZFeQoB

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

2,300 year old solar calendar mound recognized

yoshispacebreaker — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:52:07 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6408231.stm

"I was gobsmacked when I saw them for the first time - the array of towers covers the entire solar arc."

In addition to this being a very cool find, I learned a new word---"gobsmacked". I plan to use it as much as possible in daily speech.

posted in American Archaeology - 10 replies

6,000 year old evidence of "New World" HEAT!!!

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:30:21 GMT

Being a lover of both chile peppers and the cultures that use them, I found this article on the use of chiles in ancient Ecuadorian cuisine rather interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6367299.stm

The author implies that this discovery may mean that the diet of South America was far richer and more varied than previously thought. I'll leave it to the the pro's here for heated discourse. ;-)

posted in American Archaeology - 1 reply

anyone have any information about these “Megalithic Indian Sculpture”

chycho — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:32:38 GMT

Originally found on the ! ►The Info Bunker◄ ! tribe http://tribes.tribe.net/infobunker/thread/13d4eaa8-8ceb-4b47-a870-e5ce343156ce

Female (Google Maps)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50%C2%B0+0%2738.20%22N+110%C2%B0+6%2748.32%22W&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=50.010083,-110.111804&spn=0.014204,0.043259&t=k&iwloc=addr

Male
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50%C2%B0+0%2738.20%22N+110%C2%B0+6%2748.32%22W&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=50.017888,-110.141759&spn=0.007101,0.021629&t=k&iwloc=addr

and Together on the same page
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50%C2%B0+0%2738.20%22N+110%C2%B0+6%2748.32%22W&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=50.013806,-110.128112&spn=0.014202,0.043259&t=k&iwloc=addr

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Hunley Update...

Frozenstars — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:39:45 GMT

From NewsVine.com:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/09/12/359859-scientists-remove-hunleys-rear-hatch

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Tell me about your field school experience.

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 05:30:50 GMT

I'm considering going to a field school in the US this summer.
I would like to hear any stories you'd like to share, advice, etc.

I'm choosing California or Nevada as a field school because I hope to find relevant work near where I live. Although I think going abroad would be great, I think learning about local(ish) archeology would be more benificial.

Cheers!

posted in American Archaeology - 4 replies

Happy news regarding Cahokia.

SiMoNe — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 04:02:47 GMT

It's nice to see such good news..I sure hope they are sucessful..
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http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/metroeast/story/FC18D3766399108286257117005F54A8?OpenDocument

Cahokia Mounds to expand
By Jim Suhr
Associated Press
02/16/2006

Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds Historical Site
(Odell Mitchell Jr./P-D)

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- For years, Cahokia Mounds' administrators longed to snatch up more property near the ruins of the prehistoric city but lacked the money to do it, fearing all the while that artifacts on the coveted private land could be forever lost to development.

Their concerns eased a bit Thursday, when the state finally released funds -- $837,800 -- earmarked years ago for expanding the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, now spanning 2,200 acres of the 4,000 that comprised the once-thriving city of up to 20,000 American Indians.

"We're so proud of Cahokia," Bob Coomer, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency's director, said during a news conference at the historic site just west of this St. Louis suburb. Land-acquistion "funds have been extremely difficult to come by; we feel very fortunate to get these funds at this time."

Officials declined to specify how many of the 1,800 acres the state looks to buy or where those parcels are, insisting that revealing such details could prompt landowners to inflate their selling prices. Coomer said officials have targeted for possible purchase three or four "primary points that have a significant relationship to the site," with negotiations to begin "as soon as possible."

Mark Esarey, the site's manager, said the state funds -- earmarked in 2000 but held until now as the state wrestled with budgetary issues -- represent the largest amount of money for Cahokia Mounds land acquisition in about 15 years. "It's a big deal," he said.

Believed to have been inhabited from 700 to 1400 A.D., Cahokia was among the most complex, sophisticated societies of prehistoric North America. Its enduring collection of mounds served as ceremonial sites, residences and tombs for Cahokia's leaders and servants. Evidence retrieved from burial mounds and other sites suggest a hierarchical political structure, a specialized economy and significant scientific knowledge.

The prehistoric city originally had 120 mounds, and the locations of 109 have been recorded. The state historic site includes about 70 of the mounds, ranging in height from about five to 100 feet. Many others have been altered or destroyed by modern farming and urban sprawl; in 2000, one such mound was plowed under to make way for a new subdivision near Edwardsville.

At its peak around 1100 to 1200, researchers say, the city covered nearly six square miles and had as many as 20,000 inhabitants. The site was abandoned by 1400 and remained uninhabited until Illini Indians moved into the area around 1650.

Its tallest existing landmark, the 100-foot-tall Monks Mound, is made up of 22 million cubic feet of dirt. It is the largest pre-Columbian structure north of Mexico and the largest all-earthen pyramid in the New World. The site also includes an unearthed wooden sun calendar similar to Stonehenge.

Cahokia was designated a World Heritage Site by a United Nations agency in 1982, joining the likes of the Great Wall of China, Egypt's pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

Over the years, the mounds' caretakers have implored police to stop interlopers who have torn down fences and run over the remote mounds.

posted in American Archaeology - 6 replies

Lost Mayan Ruins Found From Space

SiMoNe — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 23:04:56 GMT

This seems like pretty amazing technology and seems to have a lot of potential in uncovering sites in areas with poor access or visibility. Make sure you check out the website to get the full article and check out the amazing images. One of the images is now the main image for this Tribe.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/multimedia/photos/2006/photos06-018.html
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NASA, University Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins -- From Space 02.15.06

NASA archaeologist Dr. Tom Sever explores the Guatemalan jungle, which hides the ruins of one of the world's oldest and most mysterious civilizations -- the Maya. Sever and his partners, archaeologist Dr. William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, and researcher Daniel Irwin of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are using advanced imaging technology developed for the space program to uncover the ruins. High-resolution satellite imaging, which detects variations in the color of plant life around the ruins, has enabled the researchers to pinpoint the sites of several Maya settlements from space -- before taking a single step into the jungle. The research, primarily conducted at the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville and the University of New Hampshire, is made possible by a partnership between NASA and the Guatemalan Institute of Anthropology and History. (NASA/T. Sever)

posted in American Archaeology - 2 replies

How many of you subscribe to archaeology mags?

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 17:36:21 GMT

Just curious.

posted in American Archaeology - 3 replies

Welcome!! introduce yourself!

SiMoNe — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:33:41 GMT

Welcome and thanks for joining!!

thought I'd start this tribe off by having an indroduction thread. Who are you, schools, work, interests, etc., etc....

I will post a little intro about myself later on tonight, as I have to run to class soon!

posted in American Archaeology - 25 replies

SAA's Anyone?

SiMoNe — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 20:48:09 GMT

Anyone planning on going to the SAA's (that stands for Society of American Archaeology, btw.)?

anyone presenting, or loooking forward to any events/sessions/etc??

posted in American Archaeology - 6 replies

Archaeology Jobs

SiMoNe — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:18:44 GMT

Serra raised a good topic to bring up in this Tribe: Is there work, and what kind of work is there in the actual profession that most of us studied in college, Archaeology?

There are jobs out there for archaeologists; The two I'm most familiar with are in CRM (Cultural Resources Management) or in goverment jobs with the National Park Service, Forest Service, or the Beaureau of Land Management.

Two places to look for work, by the way, are at http://www.Shovelbums.org and http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ . Shovelbums is the classic place to look for work in archaeology, and the levels range from pre-BA internships to Ph.D level jobs. You can also subscribe to their email list, so you get daily messages on job announcements.

It should noted sometimes jobs in CRM are on a project by project basis, especially folks with BA's, which means they will hire you for one project and potentially let you go at the end of the project. Some folks use that to their advantage:I had one friend last year who traveled around doing CRM jobs in different locations around the country. But sometimes these "temporary" jobs will hire you on as a permanent employee if they like you, and they need people for other projects.

There are other places to find work, but I am not too experienced with other options..anybody have comments/suggestions/questions?

posted in American Archaeology - 1 reply

Kenniwick Man Dietary habits

SiMoNe — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:44:45 GMT

I found this article at http://www.topix.net/science/archaeology
Although there are many differences of opinion surrounding Kenniwick man, I think this kind of work on subsistance and dietary habits is really facinating, and not only says alot about the people who lived at the time, but also reveals quite a bit about the surrounding evironment.

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4495351,00.html

For Kennewick Man, it's something to diet for
Meat or veggies - expert seeks answer to culinary questions

That's one of the questions Lafayette geochemist Thomas Stafford hopes to answer in coming months, using tiny bits of rib and shin bone taken from the celebrated ancient skeleton, possibly up to 9,200 years old, found near the Columbia River in 1996.

Stafford and more than 20 other scientists gathered at a Seattle museum this week to examine the skeleton and collect samples. Kennewick Man is one of the oldest and best preserved human skeletons ever found in North America.

The bones likely hold clues about some of the continent's early human inhabitants.

This week's meeting had a celebratory mood, said Stafford, a radiocarbon-dating expert who began studying the bones two weeks after they were found.

"This is the culmination of 10 years of legal wrangling," Stafford said Friday from Seattle. "I have to pinch myself because I'm given total access to this skeleton, and it's an opportunity that is just so incredible.

"This is the Library of Congress in a skeleton," he said. "Even though we've worked 10 years on this, we've still barely touched what this skeleton will tell us."

After the bones were uncovered, several Pacific Northwest tribes argued they should be reburied without scientific study. Scientists sued for a chance to analyze the remains, and a federal court sided with the researchers, ruling there was no link between the skeleton and the tribes.

"He looks totally unlike any American Indian today, which implies that there must have been another group or groups that colonized the New World 9,000, 10,000, 11,000 or 12,000 years ago," Stafford said. "What happened to those people?"

This week's meeting at the University of Washington's Burke Museum marked the "the last major study we'll be doing for a few years," Stafford said.

In the coming months and years, team members will analyze the samples they've collected, then report their findings in research articles.

Stafford will measure the ratios of various forms, or isotopes, of carbon and nitrogen in bone fragments to determine Kennewick Man's diet. The isotope ratios can reveal if he ate mostly plants, fish such as salmon, or land animals such as deer.

Stafford will use radiocarbon dating to get a better fix on the skeleton's age. Five different ages, ranging from 5,800 years before present to 9,200 years before present, have been reported.

Radiocarbon techniques date the collagen protein in bone. The wide range in reported Kennewick Man ages is likely due to varying levels of contaminants in the bone, Stafford said.

During the past year, Stafford worked with Smithsonian anthropologist Douglas Owsley and Seattle-based archaeologist Jim Chatters to determine whether Kennewick Man's corpse was buried by other people or swept up in a flood and encased in sediment.

At a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Seattle on Thursday, Owsley reported that the body was deliberately buried, between two and three feet deep. Kennewick Man was placed on his back with his arms at his sides, palms down.

"We know very little about this time period. Who the people were that were the earliest people that came to America," Owsley told The Associated Press this week. "We are finding out they were coming thousands of years earlier than we had thought," possibly arriving by boat as well as walking from Siberia.

posted in American Archaeology - 3 replies

Peru Poised To Sue Yale For Relics.

SiMoNe — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 07:03:37 GMT

http://www.kdbc.com/news/international/2042717.html

Any thoughts on this subject?

posted in American Archaeology - 3 replies

Egyptian Dwarfism…

Frozenstars — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 05:12:44 GMT

I found this rather interesting. In particular in contrast to some Mayan artworks portraying those with Dwarfism as akin to court jesters…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4554824.stm

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Mexico digs up Aztec sacrificial stone

SiMoNe — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 20:28:08 GMT

from: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050820/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_life_mexico_aztecs

Mexican archeologists have dug past phone lines, electricity cables and a traffic light under chaotic city streets to excavate a large sculptured stone that was part of an Aztec sacrificial temple.

The Templo Mayor museum said on Friday the stone, dating from the 15th or 16th centuries and shaped like a round "biznaga" cactus, was discovered last October in the centre of Mexico City.

It took 10 months to receive permission from a telephone company, a electricity utility, city hall and archaeological authorities to dig under the road to reach the stone, which is 31 inches (77 cm) high and 22 inches (56 cm) in diameter.

The Aztecs, conquered by the Spanish in the early 16th century, would sacrifice victims, often prisoners of war, by cutting their hearts out to placate angry gods.

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Paleoindian footptints in Mexico

Zinj97 — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 16:03:02 GMT

I found this link on another tribe and thought it relevant to this tribe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4650307.stm

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

70 Original Americans

Lazarus_Long — Fri, 27 May 2005 01:18:51 GMT

OK here's the article and the assertion derived from genetics but I have a serious problem with the small number claimed.

*****

North America Settled by Just 70 People, Study Concludes

LiveScience.com
Wed May 25, 2:35 PM ET

A new study of DNA suggests North America was originally settled by just a few dozen people who crossed a land bridge from Asia during the last Ice Age.

About 14,000 years ago, humans crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia to North America, most experts agree. But just how many intrepid explorers were involved has not been known.
{excerpt}
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/northamericasettledbyjust70peoplestudyconcludes;_ylt=Ali783DFZt4cPUgzXMGhqcX737YB;_ylu=X3oDMTBhaHVjZDBmBHNlYwNsbjE3MDA-

Now my criticism is that we are well aware of the post contact die off that occurred after the Europeans introduced a wide variety of diseases in the the hemisphere.

So why couldn't this number be only reflective of the original germ lines that carried resistance to the diseases and the millions that died off were largely from other germ lines of the original settlers?

By this argument many more than seventy could have migrated in the early wave but the survivors in the aftermath of the near extinction of la Conquista only reflects the genes of the few of the originals possessing natural resistances and have actually been selected for, while the others were selected against by a lack of the immunity factors, which preserved these few.

It also doesn't account for some fossil indications that are much older than 14K years and this could be related to the extinction of earlier groups in the face of more aggressive invaders later too.

posted in American Archaeology - 2 replies

Loving sites to death?

SiMoNe — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 06:31:49 GMT

Seems that this is going on in alot of places around the world. Does anyone have any personal experiences with any sites like this? Has anyone seen any problems averted through stewardship of endangered sites? How about the impact of local economies to the influx of tourists?

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1548&u=/afp/20050415/lf_afp/perutravelunesco_050415141704&printer=1

Tourists endanger legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu

Fri Apr 15,10:17 AM ET

MACHU PICCHU, Peru (AFP) - Overrun by tourists in past years, the legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu has been so damaged that the United Nations has threatened to list it as one of the world's most endangered monuments if the Peruvian government does move to protect it.

AFP/HO/File Photo

AFP
Slideshow: Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu

Forty years ago a visitor could climb up to the 15th century sanctuary 2,430 meters (7,972 feet) high in the Peruvian Andes by taxi, where a sleepy guard would lift a bamboo-and-string barrier allowing tourists a private visit.

Today there are official ticket takers, a parking lot, a deluxe hotel, shops and a battalion of guides to direct the army of tourists that arrive each day through the stone buildings and temples of the ancient city.

According to Peru's National Institute of Culture, each year some 800,000 people visit Machu Picchu, dropping off some 200 million dollars.

Every day trains of blue railroad cars snakes through the Urubamba Valley from Cuzco carrying up to 2,500 tourists, who then climb aboard tour buses for the final trip up a steep and winding road to the city.

Upon arrival the tourists are assailed by vendors lining the paths.

Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham, and was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1983. The site however has been heavily damaged by centuries of rain and poor drainage, as well as by the construction of the village of Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs) at the mountain base.

Aguas Calientes, which had only a dozen or so houses in the 1970s, is now a hive of tourist businesses with some 180 restaurants, hotels and souvenir boutiques.

With tourism a major foreign exchange earner, the Peruvian government has fueled the boom of visitors by heavily advertising the site.

Machu Picchu also attracts a steady stream of "New Age" mystical worshippers who visit the site for shamanist rites and therapies which they say gives them "vital energy".

But the excessive commercialization of the Incan citadel has provoking a backlash. Anger peaked in 2000, when a crane damaged the Intiwatana -- the site's sacred stone pillar known as "the hitching post of the sun" -- during the filming of a beer commercial.

The accident unleashed an outcry in Peruvian media and among archeological conservation groups.

Faced with this onslaught, Unesco's World Heritage Committee stepped up its warnings in recent years, saying there were problems with site management and conservation.

The committee could place Machu Picchu on its list of endangered sites when it meets in two months in South Africa. Making such a designation alerts the international community and helps governments take appropriate steps for protection.

In March, Machu Picchu site director Fernando Astete said that one of the the biggest threats to the ruins is water accumulation and seepage.

"The monument can take 2,500 visitors a day," he said, adding however that research has shown "a risk" in taking so many tourists. "We will without a doubt make some adjustments" to the tourist flow, he said.

Currently, 25 of the 788 World Heritage sites are considered under threat, victims of pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization, tourism, war and natural disasters.

posted in American Archaeology - 3 replies

Cool Online Exhibits

SiMoNe — Tue, 10 May 2005 21:39:05 GMT

Here's one from the Smithsonian.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/online_exhibits.html

The Lakota Winter Counts Exhibit is one of the newest. Pretty neat stuff.

Anybody have any other suggestions of neat online stuff?

posted in American Archaeology - 0 replies

Greetings from Palenque!

Hoopes — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:59:34 GMT

I spent the day walking around the famous Palace at Palenque, Chiapas, leading a tour of 14 friends through the 7th century buildings erected by K'inich Janaab Pakal II and his son and grandson. We'll be taking a closer look at the Cross Group and the Templo Olvidado tomorrow. Given that it was Palm Sunday, the crowds where bigger than I have ever seen them. (They almost make Palenque seem like Chichén Itzá!) The Temple of Inscriptions is closed to tour groups, but that has helped us to look more closely at other parts of the site. The best treat was seeing the recently discovered sculpture that was exibited in San Francisco in January but is now back in Palenque in a beautiful museum. I didn't make it to the show in San Franciso, so it was fun to see these pieces back in their home.

After another day at Palenque, we're off to Toniná, Pomoná, Bonampak, Yaxchilán, and Comalcalco. I'll be sure to post some photos of Maya ruins when I'm back from the trip! (Though I'll be hastily preparing for the SAAs!)

posted in American Archaeology - 4 replies

SAA's ?

SiMoNe — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 17:06:07 GMT

Since we touched on the topic on another thread...and I asked on the Archeology Tribe..

Is anyone going to the SAA's? Anyone presenting?? anything specific or special at the conference you're looking forward to?

I am going, and it will be my first SAA's. I'm looking forward to the forum with Michael Schiffer and the the session on gender and archeology, and of course I am looking forward to hearing the California archaeology session, as it's my main geographical area of interest.

and for those who don't know what SAA is, here's a link to their site.

posted in American Archaeology - 4 replies

Mayan Salt Trade

Lazarus_Long — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 00:43:17 GMT

Interesting new find on independent enterprise in Post-Classical Mayan culture.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=1&u=/nm/20050404/sc_nm/science_maya_dc

Ancient Maya Entrepreneurs Made Salt, Study Finds
Mon Apr 4, 5:17 PM ET Science - Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ancient Mayan entrepreneurs working along the coast of what is now Belize distilled salt from seawater and paddled it to inland cities in canoes, all without government control, researchers reported on Monday.

They found evidence of 41 saltworks on a single coastal lagoon and the remains of a 1,300-year-old wooden canoe paddle. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the extent of trade just before the Mayan civilization in that region mysteriously fell apart.

"The discovery of the saltworks indicates that there was extensive production and distribution of goods and resources outside the cities in the interior of the Yucatan," they wrote.

"To me the exciting thing is that, in addition to the paddle ... these saltworks that we have found in the lagoon indicate the importance of non-state-controlled production in pre-industrial societies," said Heather McKillop of the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, who led the study.

"I think at some point there was a complex system of production and trade that is only beginning to be figured out, including, probably, overland transport using human porters and also travel up and down river and lagoon systems using canoes," she added in a telephone interview.

Although Mayan art depicts canoe traders, the discovery of the paddle fragment is the first wooden artifact from the period, McKillop said.

McKillop and colleagues discovered the salt factories by snorkeling in the clear waters of the Punta Ycacos Lagoon on the coast of Belize. They date to between 600 and 900 AD.

"They were abandoned about AD 900, at the same time as the inland cities were abandoned," she said.

Ceramic pots at the sites suggest Maya workers boiled seawater to collect the salt. The trade clearly went both ways. In the salt-producing areas, McKillop's team also found artifacts that would have been made inland.

"There are little figurine whistles and also some pottery with stamped decorations around the shoulders of jars and outsides of vessels," she said.

Before her team's search, four other salt workshops had been found in the lagoon but the extent and details of the regional salt-making operations were unclear.

posted in American Archaeology - 2 replies

Mom or Sis?

Lazarus_Long — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:09:39 GMT

OK let's play. I just read this wonderful article this morning from the NY Times that highlights a smoldering controversy that has occupied the more scholarly (as opposed to esoteric school) minds of Mesoamerican study for many decades.

Here is the article and in reference to certain press sources I should say that I will always post the entire article if the source feels that they have a right of denial later. I will post links for graphics and other links available on the source pages but as certain groups have a policy of trying to limit public domain I think it is necessary to maintain continuity of discussion by keeping the information available even after they try to lock it away in their archives.

Enough editorial comment. I do recommend visiting the source for some great graphics while they are still available.

I am very glad you have begun this tribe and I am looking forward to being a part of it. So let the parley begin.

After this article I will await some commentary from others before contributing my own.
*********
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/science/15olme.html?8dpc

Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: March 15, 2005

On a coastal flood plain etched by rivers flowing through swamps and alongside fields of maize and beans, the people archaeologists call the Olmecs lived in a society of emergent complexity. It was more than 3,000 years ago along the Gulf of Mexico around Veracruz.

The Olmecs, mobilized by ambitious rulers and fortified by a pantheon of gods, moved a veritable mountain of earth to create a plateau above the plain, and there planted a city, the ruins of which are known today as San Lorenzo. They left behind palace remnants, distinctive pottery and art with anthropomorphic jaguar motifs. Most impressive were Olmec sculptures: colossal stone heads with thick lips and staring eyes that are assumed to be monuments to revered rulers.

The Olmecs are widely regarded as creators of the first civilization in Mesoamerica, the area encompassing much of Mexico and Central America, and a cultural wellspring of later societies, notably the Maya. Some scholars think the Olmec civilization was the first anywhere in America, though doubt has been cast by recent discoveries in Peru.

Archaeologists have split sharply over how much influence the Olmecs had on contemporary and subsequent Mesoamerican cultures. Were Olmecs the "mother" culture? Or were they one among "sister" cultures whose interactions through the region produced shared attributes of religion, art, political structure and hierarchical society?

Last month, the simmering pot of mother-sister controversy was stirred anew by Dr. Jeffrey P. Blomster, an Olmec archaeologist at George Washington University. In a report in the journal Science, he and other researchers described evidence of the widespread export of Olmec ceramics that they said supported "Olmec priority in the creation and spread of the first unified style and iconographic system in Mesoamerica."

Dr. Blomster's team analyzed the chemistry of 725 pieces of pottery decorated with symbols and designs in the Olmec style and collected throughout the region. The researchers compared the composition of the ceramics with local clays. They determined that most of these were not imitations of the Olmec style made by local potters. In a significant number of pots, the clay matched the chemistry of material found around San Lorenzo.

"The evidence is overwhelming that San Lorenzo, the first Olmec capital, was doing the exporting," Dr. Blomster said. "The Olmecs were disseminating their culture and it was something of great interest to others."

The research, he added, showed that San Lorenzo did not appear to be importing artifacts emblematic of other cultures or that regional contemporaries were exchanging such material with one another. The city on the artificial plateau seemed to be the hub of regional culture and central, he said, to understanding the origin and development of complex society in Mesoamerica.

Dr. Richard A. Diehl of the University of Alabama wrote in Science that the findings "provide powerful support for the mother-culture school," adding, "San Lorenzo thus dominated in the commercial relationships and attendant spread of Olmec iconography and belief systems."

But Dr. Diehl, a proponent of the mother school and the author of "The Olmec," published last year, said in an interview that the "connections we are seeing may not have lasted more than a generation, perhaps the time of a particular ruler, and at most, not more than a century or century and a half."

The Blomster research dealt with pottery from the latter half of the early formative period of Mesoamerican culture, which extended from 1500 to 900 B.C. The last centuries of this period were the time of San Lorenzo's ascendance, but afterward the city was largely abandoned and the Olmec hub gravitated to La Venta, nearby in what is now the state of Tabasco.

Dr. Blomster collaborated with Dr. Hector Neff, an archaeologist at California State University, Long Beach, and Dr. Michael D. Glascock of the Research Reactor Center at the University of Missouri. The Missouri center analyzed the pottery and clay samples from San Lorenzo and six other Mexican sites from the era of Olmec prominence.

Proponents of the sister school are not letting the interpretation of the new research go unchallenged. They may be a minority in Mesoamerican studies, but a vocal and formidable one, including such stalwarts as Dr. Kent V. Flannery and Dr. Joyce Marcus of the University of Michigan and Dr. David C. Grove, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Grove disputed Dr. Blomster's conclusions, saying that the research demonstrated only that Olmec pottery was traded, not that the trade disseminated Olmec political and religious concepts around the region. Others questioned the assertion that no pottery of other cultures had found its way to San Lorenzo.

The mother-culture advocates, said Dr. Susan D. Gillespie, a Mesoamerican archaeologist at the University of Florida, who is married to Dr. Grove, were "flogging a dead horse, the idea that the Olmec invented civilization, carried it to all of Mesoamerica and it's the basis of the Maya."

Dr. Gillespie acknowledged that the Olmecs established a vibrant culture and that their accomplishments were extraordinary. She also agreed that they were innovative and that their leaders presided over a political system capable of mobilizing labor for public works. It was no easy task raising an artificial plateau or hauling heavy blocks of basalt 40 miles to San Lorenzo from volcanic fields and fashioning them into the stone heads that stand as high as 10 feet.

Olmecs also contributed games with rubber balls, which became popular and fiercely played by later regional cultures. The Aztecs, much later, used the name in their own language for "rubber people" - Olmec - to describe the culture that was by then long vanished but not forgotten. No one knows what the ancient Olmecs called themselves.

"But others in the area were doing things equally complex, though different," Dr. Gillespie said. "Other areas were also taking steps on their own toward the development of Mesoamerican civilization."

That, and an active interchange of ideas and beliefs among various neighboring societies, is the essence of the argument advanced by sister-culture proponents. They further contend that the concept of the Olmecs as a mother culture grew out of 19th-century ethnocentrism, in which the construction of stone sculptures is a sign of civilization because that is a hallmark of early Western civilizations.

Many of these archaeologists have concentrated their research and excavations on non-Olmec areas with evidence of ancient complex societies, like the Valley of Oaxaca, the central basin of Mexico and the Pacific coastal sites of Chiapas in southwestern Mexico. Dr. Gillespie, though, has studied Olmec workshops that were operating in the culture's heyday, mainly producing stone artifacts thought to be altar thrones.

Dr. Blomster cited recent excavations by Dr. Ann Cyphers of the National University of Mexico that "emphasize the higher sociopolitical level that the Olmecs achieved relative to contemporaneous groups in Mesoamerica," a view contrary to the sister-culture position. Dr. Cyphers said the rulers of San Lorenzo appear to have lived in a palace with huge basalt columns and sculptures, while leaders in the adjacent Valley of Oaxaca had places not much better than the wattle-and-daub huts of commoners.

Dr. Michael D. Coe, an archaeologist at Yale who is an authority on the Olmec and the Maya cultures, sides more with the mother-culture school, saying that "much of the complex culture in Mesoamerica has an Olmec origin."

In the new edition of his book "The Maya," Dr. Coe writes that during four centuries of San Lorenzo's prime, ending about 900 B.C., "Olmec influence emanating from this area was found throughout Mesoamerica, with the curious exception of the Maya domain - perhaps because there were few Maya populations at that time sufficiently large to have interested the expanding Olmecs."

But early Olmec rulers were aware of the territory where the Maya eventually established imposing cities. Three years ago, scientists reported finding a rich lode of jadite, including huge boulders of it, in the jungles of Guatemala. Traces of ancient mining were uncovered, and some of the outcroppings were of blue jade, the prized gemstone Olmec artists used for carving delicate human forms and scary masks.

Archaeologists said the discovery not only solved a mystery of the origin of Olmec jade, but also showed that the Olmecs exerted wide influence over the region, either directly or by trade through intermediaries.

The Olmec influence on the Maya began to show up in artifacts, starting before 100 B.C. By then, Dr. Coe and other scholars said, Olmec art, religion, rubber-ball games and the ceremonial dress of rulers had clearly found its way to Maya cities.

Dr. Diehl of Alabama said there was "good evidence that Olmec sculpture is portraying beliefs" also related in Popol Vuh, the epic of creation found in Maya writing. This cosmology predated the Maya and was widespread in Mesoamerica, but its origins are murky.

The classic maize god of the Maya, scholars say, appears to be a clear descendant of a similar Olmec god. A Maya wall painting in San Bartolo, Guatemala, shows a resurrected maize god surrounded by figures offering him gifts of tamales and water. "The deity's head is purely Olmec," Dr. Coe said.

The assumption is that aspects of Olmec culture reached the Maya indirectly, probably through what is known as the Izapa civilization in the territory extending from the Gulf Coast across to the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, in Mexico, and of Guatemala. The city known as Izapa is the site of imposing temple mounds in Chiapas, a place where the Olmec sculpture and Maya painting and glyphs seemed to converge.

Dr. John E. Clark, an archaeologist at Brigham Young University, has excavated in the area for years and is involved with current research, he said, showing strong links between San Lorenzo and ancient sites in Chiapas.

From there, Dr. Clark said, the influence of the Olmecs - not only their art and gods but their kingship and all its trappings - eventually penetrated deep into Maya country and its rising cities. It appeared to be a melding of late Olmec culture with preclassic Maya. Some early carvings of Maya kings, he said, were made on the backs of Olmec jade pieces. A comparison of their art reveals that Maya and late Olmec kings dressed in similar style, resplendent in jade and feather capes like their shared gods.

In his journal commentary, Dr. Diehl supported the Blomster team's research as the largest and most comprehensive study ever conducted on the spread of Olmec pottery.

The research appeared to show, for example, that the exchanges of pottery and presumably other goods were arranged between Olmec rulers and specific foreign lords "rather than the more diffuse trade networks posited by sister-culture proponents," Dr. Diehl said. But left unexplained, he added, was how "this was accomplished and what motivated people on both ends."

Were these truly commercial ventures? Dr. Diehl said there was so far no archaeological evidence suggesting that the Olmecs conquered or proselytized its neighboring societies. Neither is there a clear picture of what happened to San Lorenzo.

Nothing in the ruins or later legends points to conquest by an invading army. More likely, some scientists think, the city was abandoned by the ninth century B.C. because of natural catastrophe: the rivers they depended on probably changed course, the result of silt and tectonic shifts in the coastal landscape.

La Venta, the new capital, came to an equally mysterious end around 400 B.C., and it was not long until the Olmecs lapsed into decline. Pockets of the culture persisted in Tres Zapotes, near the former capitals, and scattered communities in southern Mexico.

By the time the first major civilization of Mesoamerica was disappearing, the Olmecs blending into other societies, it apparently had reached out far enough in trade and influence to pass on a legacy of politics, art and religion to the up-and-coming Maya. A few mother-culture archaeologists, citing the new research, liken the relationship of the Olmecs to the Maya to the Greeks and Romans of Western civilization.

posted in American Archaeology - 14 replies

Mormon Stance?

christian-a — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 04:43:36 GMT

Hey folks ... just curious ... anyone know any interesting "proofs" from the Mormons about how the Americas were populated by Hebrews?

Whenever my friend and I used to go hiking and find ruins of sheds or mining equipment or whatever, we always call them ancient Mormon ruins.

posted in American Archaeology - 3 replies