Warriors in jaguar skins stand over their defeated opponents dressed as quetzal birds, priests invoke the sacred avian and feline powers, and a merchant sets off on a journey with a pack full of...
Mayapan is a Maya site located in the modern Mexican state of Yucatan , about 55 km (34 miles) to the southeast of Merida, the state’s capital. This reconstruction of the site’s history poses a...
The Toltec culture was a pre-Columbian culture that dominated the area of what is today central Mexico from the 10 th to the 12 th centuries AD. They ruled the region from their capital of Tollan (...
Kukulcan was the all-powerful snake god worshipped by the Maya. While little information remains about the legends and mythology of Kukulcan – due to the tragic destruction of the Maya codices by the...
For several years now, reports have circulated about the worrisome decline of the population of bees. Periodically, newspaper headlines lament the bees’ disappearance as an irreversible tipping point...
An academic study has made a remarkable claim about the role of chocolate in ancient Mayan society. An archaeologist is arguing that chocolate was used as money by the ancient Maya. That is right,...
Maya is a word which is very familiar to the western world, but very few know what it actually means. It is a word which was used by the rishis (sages) of ancient India to describe the nature of this...
Taking political control is often a violent affair, but tactics, knowledge of local customs and beliefs, and trickery can also be used to get an ambitious leader’s foot in the door. New research on...
A new study shows that animal domestication was not only a question of food for the ancient Maya. Remains of a variety of species, including small dogs, large cats, and some turkeys, suggest the Maya...
Far from the crowds of Palenque and other Maya sites, the ruins of Yaxchilan are found today still very much in the same conditions as they were first described by Maudslay and Maler in the early...
With the help of airborne laser mapping technology, a team of archaeologists, led by University of Arizona professor Takeshi Inomata, is exploring on a larger scale than ever before the history and...
Elaborate designs adorn unique monoliths in an ancient Mayan site in Guatemala. There are immense stelae hailing past rulers and huge stones carved with majestic beasts and curious creatures. The...
The Plumed (or Feathered) Serpent is a Mesoamerican myth that has fascinated modern people for quite some time. Among the Aztecs and Toltecs this divinity went by the name of Quetzalcoatl and to the...
After two months of investigations using state of the art non-invasive imaging equipment, as well as the good old-fashioned technique of crawling through tight spaces on hands and knees,...
A menacing serpent-like monster glares down at you as you cross the plaza of Chicanná in Mexico. While it is certainly an unnerving thought, you decide to step inside the gaping serpent’s mouth...
The Prince of Wales has launched a new initiative in the hope of finding “long-lost and unfashionable” foods that could grow in extreme climates and feed millions of people around the world. The...
In the mountain rain forest of Chiapas, México, sits the ruins of Palenque, considered the most beautiful ancient Maya city. Silhouetted against a backdrop of natural hills and valleys, the elegant...
Archaeologists have deciphered two 1,300-year-old stone panels that depict ancient Mayans playing with large balls while carrying impressive fans. The panels were found at the archaeological site of...
Archaeologists have been exploring the ancient Mayan Temple of Kukulkan and the ruins of Chichén Itzá for the first time in more than five decades. As they have stated, the first two weeks of the...
The Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala has declared the excavation of a royal tomb pertaining to a mature man at the Classic Maya city of Waka' as the oldest royal tomb to be discovered at...
The bodies of nine sacrificed children have been found at the Maya site of Ceibal in Guatemala. Some of the children were buried with obsidian tools, a fact which research suggests shows the enhanced...
It is claimed by some authors that white missionaries or "gods" visited America before Christopher Columbus. Authors usually quote from mythology and legends which discuss ancient gods such as the...
In the late 1890s, as America was developing into an industrial heavyweight, its scientists and explorers were rediscovering Earth’s ancient past and charting forgotten civilizations around our...
The Maya were the longest-lived civilization in history. Their history lasted for 3,500 years and traced parallel time lines with other ancient civilizations. They began their civilization in 2500 BC...
