Posted by admin / Under Zapotec Peoples
For men of the ancient Zapotec civilization, ancestral thighbones may have been carried as status symbols. Based on centuries-old stone carvings in southern Mexico, archaeologists had long suspected that Zapotec men brandished human femurs. "The thought was that the femurs are those of the ancestors of the rulers, serving like staffs of office or symbols of legitimacy," explained archaeologist Gary Feinman of the Field Museum in Chicago. Now grave excavations have confirmed the practice, according to a new study. What's more, it seems that commoners got a leg up too. Flourishing from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 1000 in the...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 08:59:04 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Zapotec Peoples
WRITING is one of the greatest inventions in human history. Perhaps the greatest, since it made history possible. Without writing, there could be no accumulation of knowledge, no historical record, no science - and of course no books, newspapers or internet.The first true writing we know of is Sumerian cuneiform - consisting mainly of wedge-shaped impressions on clay tablets - which was used more than 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Soon afterwards writing appeared in Egypt, and much later in Europe, China and Central America. Civilisations have invented hundreds of different writing systems. Some, such as the one you are...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 08:59:04 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Zapotec Peoples
WOODBURN, Ore. - Inching along the dusty field under a broiling sun, Simon Santol tossed garlic bulbs into buckets and chatted with the other stooped-over Mexican workers. The conversation wasn't in Spanish. Instead, they spoke Santol's native Triqui, or Mixtec, Zapotec or other languages indigenous to the poorest regions of Mexico. Many of the workers can barely get by in English or Spanish. "It was hard at first," the 28-year-old Santol said in halting Spanish. "We would look for someone who spoke our language and Spanish. Now I have learned a little Spanish. Grace of God." Immigrants who have not...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 08:59:04 AM
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