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NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN GUATEMALA SUGGEST RETHINKING TIMELINE.

Article Excerpt
Recent archeological finds in Guatemala have reset the clock for scientists engaged in the ancient art of trying to decipher the mysteries of the Mayan civilization. Workers in the field have abandoned one certainty after another in the attempt to separate myth and folklore from a reliable reading of the historic record. The latest diggings suggest that Mayan culture had spread hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

Archeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli of Vanderbilt University unearthed a pair of giant masks at a site in the ancient lowland city of Cival. The fanged masks measure about five by three meters. Husks about the eyes have led to speculation that they represent a Mayan god of maize.

The site had been looted and damaged extensively in the past, but much was left behind by those who preceded Estrada-Belli, some artifacts missed by just inches. Looter and damage, archeologist and excavate, are relative terms of considerable operational overlap, as the facts in this instance demonstrate. Estrada-Belli was making his way through a tunnel dug by a looter, when he chanced upon one of the masks while peering into a...

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