Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 04:47:57 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Remains of ancient civilisation discovered on the bottom of a lake
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071227/94372640.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Researchers uncover one of the earliest calendar entries in Meso-America

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Researchers uncover one of the earliest calendar entries in Meso-America  (Read 204 times)
0 Members and 86 Guests are viewing this topic.
Avenging Angel
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4894



« on: February 23, 2008, 03:19:14 pm »

Researchers uncover ancient sculpture
Finding may be one of the earliest calendar entries in Meso-America


MEXICO CITY - Researchers said Thursday they have unearthed what may be one of the earliest calendar entries in Meso-America, a monolithic sculpture that suggests women held important status roles in pre-Hispanic culture.

The massive stone sculpture depicts two decapitated women with streams of blood or water flowing from their necks. Markings on top of the figures appear to depict an entry from, or part of, a 13-month lunar calendar, said archaeologist Guillermo Ahuja, who led the excavation of the monument.

"This would be the first depiction of a calendar or calendar elements in such an early time period," Ahuja said.
The monolith, which measures more than 8 meters (yards) and weighs about 20 tons, was found in March 2005 at the Tantoc ruins in San Luis Potosi state, near Mexico's northern Gulf coast, by construction workers.

The stone's glyph-like inscriptions were carved sometime around 700 B.C., likely by the Huasteco culture and may predate other early calendars by hundreds of years, Ahuja said.

That theory has not yet been proven or published in scientific journals; its feasibility depends on whether the markings really are glyphs or calendar entries, and whether they really are that old.

"The earliest calendrical inscriptions that we know of for certain come from Oaxaca ... and they date to no earlier than 500 B.C.," said E. Wyllys Andrews, an archaeology professor at Tulane University. "Finding this in the Huasteca (region) at 700 B.C. would be a real stretch."

The lunar calendar has frequently been associated with female figures. The site where the stone was found was also a sacred area and burial ground occupied by the graves of 14 females, whose pottery offerings depicted women.

"This suggest that women played very important roles, not only as priestesses, but politically as well," Ahuja said.



Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Avenging Angel
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 4894



« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2008, 03:19:53 pm »

Luciano Cedillo, director of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History — which employs Ahuja — called the find "important and surprising."

In many pre-Hispanic cultures, prisoners of war or sacrificial victims were often decapitated or flayed. Most depictions show males, but some cultures depicted decapitated females as a symbol of fertility.

The blood or water flows from the necks of the two women in all directions, and into the belly button of a third, central figure depicted as an almost skeletal figure, neither male nor female.

The announcement came four days after archaeologists in Mexico City discovered a smaller monolith near Mexico City's main square, but the sculpture on that monument cannot yet be read because much of the stone remains buried.

The smaller monolith — it measures about 3.5 meters (yards) on its longest side — was probably erected in the closing years of the Aztec empire, between 1502 and 1521, when the Spaniards conquered Mexico.

Cedillo said the earth covering the stone could be removed by sometime next week, at which point experts could examine and evaluate the carvings, which some researchers believe could be dedicated to Tlaloc, a rain god.

Tlaloc is also depicted on one of two small altars discovered near the monolith in Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruins, the main worship site for the Aztecs, who founded the city in 1325. The other altar depicts a minor deity, possibly related to farming.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15147928/
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy