Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta removes dirt from remains that were among those found at a tomb that is one of the oldest in Mesoamerica.
An elaborate crypt at least 2,500 years old was found in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The remains are believed to be an early ruler of the Zoque people.
The Zoque are generally thought to be descended from early emigrants from the Olmec culture. The tomb was near the top of a three-story pyramid at the site of Chiapa de Corzo, about 60 miles southeast of the Olmec coastal city of La Venta on the Gulf of Mexico.
Aerial view of the Mound 11 excavations. (Oscar Leon Ramírez)
“For so long, the Olmec people have been considered the ‘Mother Culture’ where everything started in Mesoamerica,” said archaeologist Carl Wendt of Cal State Fullerton, who was not involved in the research. “This find is showing that complexity is not necessarily confined to the Olmec area.”
The multi-layered universe of the Mesoamerian culture has been taught and appears in books as if it has been proven. Jesper Nielsen’s article Dante’s heritage: questioning the multi-layered model of the Mesoamerican universe questions this notion.
It appears the pre-conquest model of the universe was of the cardinal directions, the center, the upper world and Underworld thus making for a three tiered universe. The different levels were divided into different regions and on each of the levels these different regions correspond to the four cardinal directions.
The number nine is prominent. It is represented by a god in the center and two gods at each of the four cardinal directions. These added up equal nine.
After the conquest, it appears there was a mixture of the cosmological ideas from Dante’s The Divine Comedy brought by the Franciscan friars with the ideas of the native Indian’s resulting in a skewed view of their universe which is how it is taught now and not seriously questioned.
The full article can be viewed at the following link.
This vertical column of ancient Mayan glyphs was painted on stone found in a Guatemalan pyramid complex dating back to between 200 B.C. and 300 B.C. and show the Maya were writing at a complex level 150 years earlier than previously thought, though simple glyphs are dated to as early as 600 B.C.
They were found on preserved painted walls and plaster fragments in the pyramidal structure known as Las Pinturas, in San Bartolo, Guatemala.
The writing is completely different than the Zapotec writing and indicates they are not simple derivatives of each other.
Though a lot is now known of Mayan writings it is not known what these glyphs say.
MesoAmerias.com has published Daniel Brinton’s argument that Tula was merely one of the towns built and occupied by that tribe of the Nahuas known as Azteca or Mexica and its inhabitants were called Toltecs, but there was never any such distinct tribe or nationality; they were merely the ancestors of this branch of the Azteca and the Toltec “empire” is a baseless fable.
This book, written shortly after the Spanish Conquest by a Quiché Indian who had learned to read and write Spanish, is generally known as the Popol Vuh, Popol Buj, Book of the Council, Book of the Community, the Sacred Book, or National Book of the Quiché, and it contains the cosmogonical concepts and ancient traditions of this aboriginal American people, the history of their origin, and the chronology of their kings down to the year 1550.
The name of its author and the fate of his original manuscript, which remained hidden for more than 150 years, are unknown. Father Ximénez, who found it in his parish at Santo Tomás Chichicastenango, transcribed the original Quiché text and translated it into Spanish under the title Historias del origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala. This transcription, in the handwriting of this priest-historian, is still preserved; but no information has survived concerning the original document written in the Quiché tongue.
A tablet with unknown writing was found in Veracruz has features indicating it comes from the Olmec civilization. The tablet weighs about 26 pounds and the text contains 62 symbols arranged in horizontal rows—unusual for Mesoamerican scripts, which typically use vertical rows. They date the tablet to about the San Lorenzo phase which ended about 900 BCE. This is approximately 400 years before writing was though to have first appeared in the Western hemisphere. Another interesting feature of this find is the surface containing the text appears to be concave and they believe the block has been carved repeatedly.
The section of the main site MesoAmericas.com for the people of the ancient cultures has been started. Here is the first paragraph:
Olmec Mother Culture
The earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica is the Olmec. It appears they are the genesis of most of the aspects of the Mesoamerican cultures. The form of their government, pyramid-temple building, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics and religion became the template for succeeding cultures. The questions of where the Olmec received their inspiration and knowledge, not to mention the required force, to create the Mesoamerican culture is rarely examined deeply.
I had read a number of Carlos books a long time ago and my interest was captivated by Carlos finding a teacher and a path to self knowledge. I felt as if I was on the journey with him, a true journey. Yet, his books became a bit strange around the 4th or 5th one and interest was lost after that.
Carlo’s life, what he learned from don Juan, what was taken from Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way—rephrased to hide its origin, his strengths and weaknesses are all explored in The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda.
Of particular interest was the chapter Ideas & Sources. Carlos appears to have definitely learned something from don Juan but he used many of the ideas from The Fourth Way and expressing them in sorceric terms. Unfortunately sometimes Carlos expressed those ideas in personal terms.
Even though Carlos broke the human mold it appears there were many things or something he still did not understand or was not aware of about himself. In The Summing Up it speaks of his guilt, the guilt of his killing someone or something he judged as equivalent. It appears to me he really didn’t travel the full path of heart as he spoke of, or only up to a certain point, but was diverted by the guilt and judgment he could not absorb.
The book is well worth reading, especially anyone who has heard of Carlos or read some of Carlos’ books. It sheds light on a lot of what I did not understand about Carlos Castaneda when I first read his books and even for years after.
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I had read a number of Carlos books a long time ago and my interest was captivated by Carlos finding a teacher and a path to self knowledge. I felt as if I was on the journey with him, a true journey. Yet, his books became a bit strange around the 4th or 5th one and interest was lost after that.