Japanese researchers discover remains of what appears to be 4,800-year-old temple in Peru

CHANCAY, Peru--Japanese researchers said they have discovered--with
the unintended help of looters--what appears to be a temple ruins at
least 4,800 years old that could be one of the oldest in the Americas.

The temple is believed to have been built before or around 2600 BC
when Peru's oldest known city, Caral, was created, the researchers said.

The ruins were found in the ruins of Shicras located in the Chancay
Valley about 100 kilometers north of Lima. The team started full-
scale excavation work on Monday.

There are two 10-meter-high pyramid-shaped structures made of stone,
running north to south for about 50 meters and east to west for about
30 meters, according to Tetsuya Inamura, professor of cultural
anthropology at Aichi Prefectural University who is part of the
excavation team.

Experts said they hope the discovery will shed light on the origins
of ancient civilizations of Latin America.

"It can be regarded as a structure built using organized labor,"
Taiken Kato, professor of cultural anthropology at Saitama
University, said.

"If the excavation could confirm urban developments in a wide range
of coastal areas in Peru, it would contribute to unraveling the
formation of the Andes civilization."

In August last year, Hiroshi Sakane, chief curator of the Lima-based
Museo Amano, and Masami Fujisawa, professor of seismic engineering at
the Tsukuba University of Technology, found the ruins in a 4-meter-
wide, 8-meter-deep pit apparently made by looters.

The Amano museum was established by Yoshitaro Amano who spent his
life collecting artifacts of the Chancay culture.

When the two researchers looked into a section of the pit, they found
reed bags filled with stones and pebbles that were used as
reinforcing material, scrapings of charcoal and fibers, and other items.

The researchers said the ruins were likely part of a religious
facility, possibly a temple, because of the complicated construction
method used and the traces of fire apparently used in rituals.

Radiocarbon dating showed the reinforcing materials and scrapings of
charcoal and fibers were at least 4,800 years old.

There are also indications that the structure underwent
reconstruction work seven or eight times at the same place.

A team of experts comprising Japanese experts on archeology, cultural
anthropology, seismic engineering and other fields, as well as a
Peruvian archeologist from the Amano museum, was granted permission
to excavate the site from the Peruvian government.

The past 10 years have yielded some remarkable findings at the
archeological site in Caral, about 150 km north of the ruins,
including a temple at least 30 meters tall built with gigantic
stones, as well as a group of at least 30 large buildings. (IHT/
Asahi: June 20,2006)

For 'ancient grains,' a future in the American diet

Amaranth, quinoa, others finding a following

ALBANY, New York (AP) -- Amid the aisles of spaghetti and canned peas, cereals and breads made with mysterious-sounding grains such as amaranth and quinoa are sprouting up at major supermarkets.

Wheat is still king of this country's whole grains, but the appearance of such alternatives indicates consumers are beginning to expand a niche market once relegated to the obscure corners of health food stores.

"People are realizing there's a benefit to eating a diversity of grains -- and these grains have some incredible nutritional properties," said Carole Fenster, an author of numerous cookbooks that incorporate wheat-free grains.

New federal guidelines recommending three servings of whole grains a day have put a spotlight on wheat, but exposure to barley, brown rice and other options has also grown, said Alice Lichtenstein, chair of the nutrition committee at the American Heart Association.

According to the marketing information company ACNielsen, sales of products with whole grain claims on their packages for the year ending April 22 increased 9.5 percent from the previous year.

NuWorld Amaranth, one of the country's main buyers of amaranth, reported a 300 percent increase in sales in the past three years. Bob's Red Mill, which sells alternative wheat-free grains, saw a 25 percent increase in sales in the past year, with quinoa driving the bulk of the growth.

Amaranth, grown for millennia by the Aztecs, has twice as much iron as wheat and is higher in protein and fiber. Quinoa, an ancient Andean crop, has less fiber but more protein and iron than wheat.

READ THE WHOLE STORY AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/06/21/alternative.grains.ap/index.html

Jade Axes Proof of Vast Ancient Caribbean Network, Experts Say

Charles Petit
for National Geographic News
June 12, 2006
A discovery of ancient jade could shake up old notions of the New
World before Columbus. Scientists say they have traced 1,500-year-old
axe blades found in the eastern Caribbean to ancient jade mines in
Central America 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) away, New York's
American Museum of Natural History announced late last month.

The blades were excavated in the late 1990s by a Canadian
archaeologist on the island of Antigua in the West Indies

But the jade used to make the blades almost certainly came from Maya
mines in distant Guatemala (see map of Guatemala), says mineralogist
George Harlow of the American Museum of Natural History.

The find may call into question a once dominant archaeological
picture of the pre-Columbian Caribbean.

Previous theories held that a few big or budding civilizations
existed on the mainland of Central America, with only isolated,
village-based societies on islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The new analysis gives weight to a competing view, which suggests
that organized, long-distance trade networks were based primarily on
those islands.

"There has been a closed mind-set that these [ancient] people out
here were primitive, but we are learning there was a whole world out
here we don't yet fully know about," said Reg Murphy, an
archaeologist at the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda in St. John's,
Antigua.

Murphy collaborated with Harlow on the research.

Murphy says it's likely that complex societies not only existed on
the islands but also communicated with other cultures in South
America along the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers.

"Those rivers [in South America] were highways of exchange that
extended around the coast all the way to Guatemala," he said.

Harlow and Murphy's research team reported its findings in the April
issue of the journal Canadian Mineralogist.

Saladoid Culture

The small, triangular jade blades found in Antigua are relics of the
Saladoid culture, a society named for its home region along the
Orinoco River in modern-day Venezuela (See map of Venezuela).

Known for their elaborate pottery, the Saladoid spread to Caribbean
islands as far north as Puerto Rico by 500 B.C.

Archaeologists have excavated jade items in the West Indies before,
but the source of the jade has been a puzzle, Harlow explains.

No jade deposits are known to exist in the eastern Caribbean. Also,
many archaeologists have held that the Saladoid were insulated from
the wider world, their travels limited to short canoe trips between
islands.

Harlow says the jade used to make the Antigua blades is of a
distinct, very hard form called jadeite.

Only a dozen jadeite surface deposits are known in the world,
including a vein on the north side of Guatemala's Motagua River
Valley, he adds.

But until recently Guatemalan jade deposits did not match the Antigua
jade or other, high-quality forms found in some Maya tombs.

Then came the devastating rains of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Violent
runoff brought chunks of extremely high quality jade careering down
the rocky gorges on the south side of the Motagua River.

"As soon as we heard about that, we started looking for its source,"
said Harlow, a veteran of previous work in the region.

His team found jadeite there of a quality beyond anything recently
mined in Guatemala, he says.

The samples they brought back came just in time to answer questions
about the Antigua jade pieces.

Shortly after the new deposits were discovered, Harlow received the
Antigua blades, dated from 250 to 500 A.D., from the late University
of Calgary archaeologist Alfred Levinson.

Harlow says he immediately suspected that the axe blades were from
the newly confirmed deposits, based on the jade's unique composition.

He compared the texture of both the Antiguan and Guatemalan jade and
measured their ratios of minerals such as mica, albite, omphacite,
and quartz.

Harlow found that the newfound deposits and the Antigua pieces bore
the same distinctive quartz grains, which are absent from jade mined
anywhere else, he says.

"If that [Antigua] stuff is not from Guatemala, the fates are playing
some kind of game," Harlow said.

Proof of Trade?

Among those welcoming the finding is archaeologist Richard Callaghan
of the University of Calgary, who was not part of Harlow's team.

He has studied remains of early Caribbean island societies for
decades. He says the discovery provides new evidence of long-range
trade in the pre-Columbian Caribbean.

Based on his research of Saladoid pottery and other artifacts,
Callaghan believes that the civilization was sophisticated enough to
maintain organized, long-distance contact with other cultures.

"I think those guys could go by boat straight from Puerto Rico or
other islands all the way to [Mexico's] Yucatán [Peninsula]," he said.

The trade routes were most likely traveled by big, seaworthy canoes,
Callaghan says. The vessels may have resembled the dugout logs seen
centuries later by Spanish explorers.

Such seafaring ability, Callaghan adds, may have persisted well after
the Saladoid culture faded around A.D. 1000.

The culture was replaced by Caribbean peoples collectively called the
Taino, whom the Spanish later conquered and all but exterminated.

Murphy, the Antigua curator, shares Callaghan's expansive view of the
Saladoid's cultural reach.

Murphy hopes the jade-axe findings may spur further study into the
origins of other exotic, elaborately carved stones found among
Saladoid relics.

For example, he says, some Saladoid artifacts are made of a type of
turquoise not known to occur naturally anywhere in the Caribbean.

"It could have come all the way from Chile," Murphy said.

Picture of jadeite axe here;

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060612-caribbean.html

Archaeological site yields dental surprise

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

Thousands of years before screen idols began beautifying themselves
with cosmetic dentistry ancient Mexicans were getting ceremonial
dentures.

Researchers report Wednesday that they found a 4,500-year-old burial
in Mexico that had the oldest known example of dental work in the
Americas.

The upper front teeth of the remains had been ground down so they
could be mounted with animal teeth, possibly wolf or panther teeth,
for ceremonial purposes, according to researchers led by Tricia
Gabany-Guerrero of the University of Connecticut.

"It's like he was using the mouth of some other animal in his mouth,"
explained James Chatters, an archaeologist and paleontologist with
AMEC Earth and Environmental Inc. in Seattle, Wash., and a member of
the research team.

Such modifications, typically using beasts of prey, became more
common centuries later in the Maya culture, Chatters said in a
telephone interview, but this is the earliest example that has been
found.

The individual, aged 28 to 32, would not have been able to bite with
his front teeth but appears to have been well fed nonetheless,
Chatters said. The body indicated he didn't do hard work, perhaps
having been an important person in society.

Found in the Michoacan area, the body had been placed on a large rock
with another rock on top of it, Chatters said.

"The teeth were filed down so much that their pulp cavities were
exposed, leading to an infection," Gabany-Guerrero said in a statement.

"During the Late Post Classic period, shortly before the Spanish
came, we have seen evidence of insertion of turquoise and filed teeth
in different forms, but this is the earliest evidence of a dental
modification by about one thousand years," she said.

The researchers said they found rock art and symbols related to other
ancient cultures in the region including calendar symbols.

In addition to the teeth they found pieces of skull and bones from
his hands, legs and feet. There was no indication of physical
problems and he did not suffer from ailments such as arthritis.

The cause of death was not clear but the researchers said there had
been active infections in two teeth.

Primary funding for the research came from the National Geographic
Society with added support from foundations, academic and
governmental organizations in Mexico and the United States.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A Site To Be Seen: Ancient Earthworks Electronically Rebuilt, To Become A Traveling Exhibit

Native American cultures that once flourished in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia constructed geometric and animal-shaped earth works that often rivaled Stonehenge in their astronomical accuracy.

A few are still extant – Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, for example – but most of the region’s ancient architecture was all but squandered. Earthworks, from as early as 600 BC that stretched over miles and rose to heights of 15 feet or more, were either gouged out or plowed under in the 19th century or paved over for development in the 20th.

But now, this lost heritage from the Adena, Hopewell and Fort Ancient cultures is returning in the form of a traveling exhibit that will include virtual reconstructions of earthworks from 39 sites. The electronic recreations represent nearly ten years of work by an extensive team of architects, archaeologists, historians, technical experts and Native Americans. Project director is John Hancock, professor of architecture at the University of Cincinnati, working in partnership with the Center for the Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS) at the University of Cincinnati. The title of the project and the coming traveling exhibit is: “EarthWorks: Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley.”

The “EarthWorks” reconstructions will be the centerpiece within a 500-square-foot traveling exhibit which will also include a graphic timeline wall with cross cultural comparisons; a giant map wall of the Ohio River Valley (from the approximate location of Pittsburgh to Louisville) indicating placement of Native American earthworks; panels with diagrams, photos and text; and 3-D topographic models of five earthwork sites. The exhibit opens June 20, 2006, at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It remains at the museum center till Sept. 7, 2006. Later venues include the Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, opening on Sept. 30, 2006. Discussion are now underway for later exhibits in the state and nation.

Set amid the physical elements of the exhibit, the 3-D virtual reconstructions by Hancock and his team recreate the earthworks for school children and scholars alike. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a large screen on which the 3-D explorations of “EarthWorks” by a user at the touch-screen computer can be shared with a larger audience. Virtual exploration of a gallery of period artifacts is also possible at two stand-alone kiosk stations.

The project is built upon archaeological data gleaned from such modern technology as sensing devices and aerial photography as well as frontier maps and other aids provided by archaeologists to re-establish the location, size, shape and appearance of many of the region’s earthworks. Then, using architectural software and high-resolution computer modeling and animation, the UC-led team virtually rebuilt these massive structures and further created animated, interactive, narrated “tours” among them..

Funding for the traveling exhibit has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In all, the NEH has provided close to $500,000 for the project. Additional development support over the years has come from the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Humanities Council, the Ohio Arts Council, the George Fund Foundation, and in-kind donations from the University of Cincinnati. Add up all funding and in-kind donations, and project support totals around $1.5 million.

Archeologists to search for lost mission

ALBANY, Ga. — Amateur archeologists will get a chance to search this summer for the lost mission of Santa Isabel de Utinahica, built in the wilderness in the 1600s for a lone friar who was dispatched to evangelize among the Indians on the edge of Spain's colonial empire.

"This was on the frontier," said Dennis Blanton, curator of native American archaeology at Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History. "It was perched on the edge of the known world in this hemisphere. A barefoot Franciscan was dropped alone into alien territory and given his marching orders to convert these Indians and probably gather a certain amount of intelligence."

Fernbank and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Historic Preservation Division have teamed up to launch the exploration in June near the rural south Georgia town of Jacksonville, about 160 miles south of Atlanta.

"You'll get a sense of what these friars were dealing with," said Blanton, who will supervise the work. "We want to put people in the crucible and be a part of this educational experience."

The program is intended to give adults and high school and college students an opportunity to take part in an excavation and to heighten appreciation for the state's history and archaeological treasures. The amateurs will be guided by professional archeologists.

"This really is the perfect example of how archaeology contributes," Blanton said. "If we want to understand the situation on the ground in any detail, we've got to go move some earth and that's what we want to do."

The site is in a Telfair County forest in an area known as "the forks," where the Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers converge to form the Altamaha River. Based on historical accounts and American Indian artifacts, there's no doubt there was a mission in the area, one of the most remote of several dozen missions set up by the Spanish in northern Florida and southern Georgia, Blanton said.

The mission was named Utinahica after the Indians that lived in the area, Blanton said. They were ancestors to the well-known Creek Indians.

Archeologists have already surveyed the area using remote sensing devices and plan to check it further with ground penetrating radar, he said.

Spanish artifacts have already been recovered at three sites and those will be targeted first, Blanton said.

"We want to set a good model for what ought to be done on these places," he said. "We want people to come away with an appreciation of how it's done well. It'll be thoughtful and systematic. By the end of the summer, we'll be targeting places that look particularly interesting."

Blanton has hired two assistants to help with the program, which is expected to be offered again during the summer of 2007. Teachers who participate can get continuing education credits.

"My strongest personal interest is to get people in middle and south Georgia deeply involved," he said. "But we've got people coming from as far away as Oklahoma. It's really appealed to a lot of folks."

Most Georgians know about the role of the English and Gen. James Oglethorpe, who arrived with a band of settlers in 1733 to establish Savannah and the Georgia colony, but they know little about the role of the Spanish, who had a mission on St. Catherines Island south of Savannah that was active from about 1575 to 1680, Blanton said.

"There's nearly 200 years of prior European history that had a huge bearing on the later history we attribute to the English," Blanton said. "What we're trying to do is give people a healthy reminder of this longer history, which is also pretty interesting history. It's almost like reading fiction."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Researchers find ancient pottery operation at Angel Mounds

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - An archaeological dig at southern Indiana's Angel

Mounds complex has uncovered a pottery-making operation that reveals the
artistic skills of the Indians who lived there hundreds of years ago.
Indiana University researchers believe they've uncovered remains of a
potter's house once used by the Indians who inhabited the area
overlooking the Ohio River from 1100 to 1450 A.D.
Excavations have revealed pottery tools and masses of prepared but
unfired clay awaiting shaping into bowls, jars or figures which suggest
that the structure that once stood there was used to make the pottery
now found in shards across the site.
"This is the best collection of pottery tools ever found here," Chris
Peebles, director of IU's Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, told
Evansville Courier & Press.
The finds at the site a few miles south of Evansville have also revealed
some of the ancient tricks Angel Mounds' inhabitants used to strengthen
their clay creations.
The excavations reveal that the Indians of the Middle Mississippian
culture used ground mussel shells to temper clay for pottery, making it
stronger and easier to shape.
Scientists began studying the site last year after an underground
imaging device called a magnetometer showed the remains of more than 100
homes and a stockade wall thousands of feet long in the grassy fields
near the site's 10 mounds.
"In terms of the quality of archaeological learning, this is first
rate," Peebles said.
He and research fellow Staffan Peterson are being assisted on this
year's dig by 17 students from eight Midwestern universities.
"It's really interesting to think about the people who lived here and to
try to imagine what their life was like," said Ashley Metzger, a
University of Evansville student.
The students have uncovered dozens of pot shards, as well as bones,
disc-shaped pieces of coal and shells.
Researchers also have found evidence of a flint-working operation at the
site, where the Middle Mississippian Indians hunted and farmed on the
rich bottom lands of the Ohio River.
The Indian community that once thrived at Angel Mounds is renowned among
archaeologists for the quality of the pottery left behind there.
Last year, the researchers discovered two deer jawbones that appeared to
have been carefully buried within the house, perhaps as part of a
consecration ritual.

© 2006 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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