Archeologists discovered a 2,500-year-old court used for the ball game that played a central role in the religion and royal ceremonies of the Mayas.Fernando Acevedo and Donato Martín España, researchers with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the court is 25 meters long (82 feet) and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide and lies about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from Mérida.The discovery took place in the course of excavation for a housing development, whose planwill now have to be modified, said the top land-use official in Yucatán state, José Carlos Guzmán Alcocer.
Acevedo and Martín España said they have encountered in the area some 1,500 mounds that have yielded important data about the Maya civilization.
Martín
España said the discovery of the ball court, which he described as 70
percent intact, confirmed that the Mayas of the Mérida region attained
a level of development comparable to the Mayan city-state of Tabasco,
Guatemala and Oaxaca.
The ball game was common to several Mesoamerican cultures, and the earliest known courts date from as early as 1500 B.C.
The game illustratedthe
Maya account of the creation of the sun and moon, said to have taken
place after a match in which the gods Hunahpu and Ixbalanque fought
lords of the underworld.
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Call it "The Passion of the Maya": Mel Gibson is quietly filming a movie in a Mexican jungle about the collapsed civilization. Given Gibson's cinematic history, experts on the ancient Maya are looking forward to his upcoming epic, "Apocalypto," with a mixture of curiosity and dread. They're pleased that Hollywood will feature a period of world history still little understood but worry that once again a movie may sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of a good sto...Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found
Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld. Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula. Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled ...Stunning Mayan carvings of cosmic monsters
Archaeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle. They are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth. The 26ft long panels were created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh. It took investigators three months to uncover the carvings while excavating El Mirador, the biggest ancient Mayan city in the world, the site's head researcher, Richard Hanse...Pre-Incan female Wari mummy unearthed in Peru
New research on the Maya civilization which is believed to have collapsed due to its overuse of natural resources and slash-and-burn farming may have actually held a great appreciation forthe environment."For decades, the Maya –– andtheir descendents –– have gotten a bad rap from archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scholars who cite the ancient civilization"s agricultural practices for its eventual collapse. . " View: Fu...What caused the fall of the Maya ?
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Archaeologists working in Honduras have discovered an entombed human skeleton of an elite member of the ancient Maya Empire that may help unravel some longstanding mysteries of the vanished culture. The remains, seated in an upright position in an unusual tomb and flanked by shells, pottery, vessels, and jade adornments, suggest a surprisingly diverse culture and complex political system in the influential Maya city of Copán around A.D. 650. Located at the western edge of modern-day Honduras nea...Researchers open cave under Mexican pyramid
Archaeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilisation"s largest cities. The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico. But little is known about the civilisation that built the immense city, with its ceremonial ar...Possible Aztec offerings found in Mexico
Submitted by Pendekar Timur: Archaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match 500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing about offerings to the Aztec rain god. The lightning bolts — along with cones of copal incense and obsidian knives — were found during scuba-diving expeditions in one of the twin lakes of the extinct Nevado de Toluca volcano, at more than 13,800 feet above sealevel.Scie...Mayans played pyramids to make music
Sounds like raindrops falling into a bucket of water can be heard while climbing the colossal staircase of Mexico"s El Castillo pyramid suggesting that the Mayans may have used a form of "music" to try and communicate with their gods."Sit on the stepsof Mexico"s El Castillo pyramid in Chichen Itza and you may hear a confusingsound. . As other visitors climb the colossal staircase their footsteps begin to sound like raindrops fa...
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'Apocalypto' now for Mel, Maya and historians
Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found
Stunning Mayan carvings of cosmic monsters
Pre-Incan female Wari mummy unearthed in Peru
Research disputes Maya collapse belief
What caused the fall of the Maya ?
Researchers open cave under Mexican pyramid
Possible Aztec offerings found in Mexico
Mayans played pyramids to make music
