Weblog
Jan 17, 10:55 PM: European Pyramid
Archaeologists working in Bosnia are coming to accept local descriptions of a two thousand foot high hill in the vicinity of Visoko, northwest of Sarajevo, as a Bronze Age pyramid.
Archaeologists working in Visoko, Bosnia-Herzegovina, about 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo, discovered what might prove to be a European pyramid four times taller that the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
Bosnian archaeologist Semir Osmanagic, in an interview with the Associated Press, cautioned against jumping to conclusions, but preliminary investigations suggest some ancient culture, perhaps the Bronze Age Illyrian people, carved a natural hill into a pyramidal shape. The hill is 2,120 feet high and, according to Osmanagic, has “all the elements” of an artificial structure: “four perfectly shaped slopes pointing toward the cardinal points, a flat top and an entrance complex.”
Once the hill was shaped, it appears to have been faced with concretelike blocks made from an “unnatural mixture of gravel.”
Local residents long have referred to the hill as a pyramid, but no archaeologist seriously seems to have considered the possibility that the hill was in any way artificial until recently.
via Never Yet Melted
Technorati tags: Archaeology, Europa, Pyramid, Bosnia
Jan 15, 11:27 AM: Archaeology news from south Florida
MIAMI (AP) – Archaeologists excavating two American Indian burial sites in downtown Miami say they have found hundreds of remains piled in limestone fissures, some of them stacked in stone burial boxes.
The remains are at least five centuries old and likely are the ancestors of the Tequesta tribe that met explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he claimed the land for Spain, archaeologists said.
via Nomadic Thoughts
Technorati tags: Archaeology, Miami, Florida
Jan 12, 10:27 PM: Archaeological Regions: Djoser Complex, Egypt
The Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser
The Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser (also spelled Zozer) was built during the Third Dynasty (ca. 2800 B.C.) in what is now Saqqara, Egypt. Djoser’s Step Pyramid is generally considered the first tomb in Egypt to be built entirely of stone.
Technorati tags: Archaeology, Djoser, Egypt
Jan 11, 07:21 PM: Archaeological Regions: Alexandria, Egypt
The second largest city and the main port of Egypt, Alexandria was built by the Greek architect Dinocrates (332-331 BC) on the site of an old village, Rhakotis, at the orders of Alexander the Great. The city, immortalizing Alexander’s name, quickly flourished into a prominent cutural, intellectual, political, and economic metropolis, the remains of which are still evident to this day.
It was the renowned capital of the Ptolemies, with numerous monuments. It was the site of the Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the Great Library. It was along these shores that history took a tragic turn at the time of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian.
Alexandria lies north-west of the Nile delta and stretches along a narrow land strip between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariut (Mareotis). It is linked to Cairo by two major highways and a railroad line. It is one of the most notable summer resorts in the Middle East, for, in addition to its temperate winters, its beaches, with white sands and magnificent scenery, stretch for 140 km along the Mediterranean Sea, from Abu Qir, in the east to Al-Alamein and Sidi Abdul Rahman, in the west.
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/alexandria/
Technorati tags: Archaeology, Egypt, Alexandria
Jan 10, 03:00 PM: Discovery verifies mayan civilization 2,000 years ago
Archaeologists have uncovered an elegantly painted 30-foot-long mural in a ceremonial chamber beneath a Guatemalan jungle pyramid, providing new evidence that Mayan civilization was in full flower more than 2,000 years ago.
Technorati tags: Archaeology, Maya, Mural
Jan 9, 09:35 PM: Digging in Egypt
A lovely site – a daily set of pages covering a Johns Hopkins University archeological dig in Egypt at the Mut Temples Precinct in Luxor. Go read it each day to see how it’s done. Kudos for some good public science.
Technorati tags: Archaelogy, Egypt, Digging
Jan 8, 08:20 PM: Mayan Architecture
Source of this article – MAYAN ARCHITECTURE
THE TRADITIONAL HOUSE
Pre-Hispanic Maya houses were made of perishable organic materials, this being the main reason why no intact examples still exist. Most researchers believe that they were much like the rural houses made today. Since 16th-century Spanish conquerors were mainly interested in the meaning and social power of the more symbolic religious and civic buildings, they paid little attention to the habitats of the common people.
Originally, Maya houses were built on low platforms that delineated the space of nuclear family plots, including family cemeteries. Usually these solaris (lots) were delineated by albarradas (low walls made of narrowly stacked stone). Each family’s lot included their hut, a well, a latrine, a chicken coup, a garden and a rustic-roofed batea (laundry room).
The house was one rectangular room with rounded corners, no windows, and one central door built to face east. Sometimes there was another door that led to a second hut, used as both a kitchen and a chicken coup. In the traditional kitchens, women would cook on a grill set over three rocks. When the hammocks were hung, the main, single-room house was converted into a dormitory.
The floor in a Maya home was made of sascab, a foundation of gravel covered with white packed soil. The walls had a wood matrix that was covered with adobe, and then whitened with lime. Occasionally a house would have wooden baseboards.
Today, the family homes are commonly called palapas, the Maya word for roof. The roof itself is made of shorn wood, which is tied together to form beams. The beams are then thatched with native palm fronds. The Maya had no nails, so all of the joints in the home were tied together with a supple, tropical vine called a liana.
Aside from these technical characteristics are many ancient customs that are linked to Maya homes. One such example is marriage: when two young sweethearts decide to wed, the entire community usually joins together to build their new home.
REPRESENTATIONS OF HOUSES
Here are various examples in which the ancient Maya depicted their homes.
As they were painted in the codices.
As they were painted in murals.
With decorative elements in stone architecture.
ANATOMY OF THE MODERN MAYAN HOUSE
In this illustration of a Maya house, the components are identified by their Maya names. An interesting fact is that the beelcho (central pole), literally means, ‘the mouse path’. The suffix che, means tree.
Technorati tags: Maya, Architecture, Traditional house
Jan 7, 11:18 PM: Mayan Cities
Here you can find information about Mayan cities.
For example: Chichén Itzá
The Market
This area was called the market due to its appearance. Large columns, some as tall as 12 feet, are believed to have supported a thatched roof that covered the entire walled complex. It is believed this area was used to display and trade goods though we can not know for certain if this is factual.
The Observatory
El Caracol is the Spanish name for “The Snail” and the name was given to this structure because of its spiral inner staircase similar to the detail of the inside of a snail’s shell.
Though its current eroded state gives the main building the appearance of a modern day observatory, (with the large domes roof) the actual shape of the non-eroded building was a square-cylindrical top and it has been eroded to this shape over many years.
The Maya were accomplished astronomers and it is believed El Caracol was used to observe the moon, stars and the planet Venus. The main structure of the observatory sits atop a raised platform.
Cities list:
- Chichén Itzá
- Kabah
- Sayil
- Xlapak
- Uxmal
- Labna
- Coba
- Tulum
Technorati tags: Maya, Cities, Market, Observatory