Posted on 06/26/2011 7:21:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
btt
Ever since the writing system was cracked in the 1980s, the archaeology has taken off in Central America. There’s more funding from the local gov’ts and from US colleges and universities, ditto for Europeans. There were litanies of site destruction in the previous decades, but there is literally too much to dig now, thanks to the funding and of course remote sensing. The prevalence of large sites wasn’t understood, mainly because they didn’t all have those really tall structures to spot.
Yeah, they probably fired the maid or something. Another good reason for using arthroscopic and robotic techniques for exploring these sites is, the Mayans also used a contact poison (the name escapes me for the moment), such that some of the stuff that’s “painted” red will actually kill you in a short time after you, say, steady yourself by placing your hand against a wall. :’) Take that, Doctor Jones.
It’s cinnabar. Oh, and it’s not quite so deadly as that. A good handwashing will generally save ya. ;’) Unless you’ve got a cut on your hand, then it could be bad.
Looks creepy; bet it’s haunted!
:’)
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