Archeologists are studying a fabric of Mayan weapons
By: Ligia María
Translated from Spanish; original version below.
Versión original en Español, abajo
Tabasco, Mexico, March 14th, 2010. Specialists are searching in Tabasco a place where the Mayas made weapons and tools, informed yesterday the Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
It is about San Claudio “a place occupied since the year 200 before Christ and until the year 900 after Christ, for Maya worker, poor Maya, that were serving another community of higher hierarchy,” explained the archeologist José Luis Romero Rivera, director of the project of excavation in this place.
San Claudio is near of the road Tenosique-El Ceibo, region between the sierra of Chiapas and Guatemala. The archeologist zone can tell about the daily life of the ancestral population Maya: they made tools, utensils and weapons to commercialize with others towns, said the investigator.
The experts have found a big amount of mush of flint, a mineral used by the Mayas to make sharp instruments like knifes, axes, penknives and arrowheads.
At that time, the flint was a strategic raw material, because they did not know the metal or obsidian which was under control of the most important ancestral cities.
With the exploitation and commercialization of the flint, the Mayas created an industry that displaced in this region the use of the obsidian and made them independent of the biggest net of commerce.
This zone investigated for the INAH since 1998, “it is not a point of first order, it is not one of the biggest Mayan capitals; it is a small place that probably was subjected for the ancestral major city of Piedras Negras, placed 40 kilometers from San Claudio”, affirmed the investigator.
“In this place we have not found inscriptions, does not have architecture of first order as Palenque. There are no high buildings, the highest construction it is no longer than 12 meters; however, this presents an urban organization limited for rectangular patios where they could work on the tools, weapons and utensils.”
At this moment the investigators have excavated three edifications of 97 registered on this place, most of them are supports for pyramids and platforms distributed in an area of 70 hectares.
Spanish Version. Versión en Español.
ARQUEÓLOGOS ESTUDIAN UNA FÁBRICA DE ARMAS MAYAS
Tabasco, México, Marzo 14 de 2010. Especialistas investigan en Tabasco un lugar que los mayas dedicaron exclusivamente a la fabricación de armas y herramientas, informó ayer el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).
Puede encontrar esta noticia en español en el siguiente link:
Maya News 