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To: SunkenCiv; blam
El Salvador's buried roots: Out of the ash of an ancient volcanic eruption, archaeologists are unravelling the complexities of village life in 7th-century Central America

Ceren's sauna is also intriguing in its own right. It is an architectural masterpiece with a striking earthen dome roof covering the building. Largely impermeable, to keep in steam and heat, this earthen structure was protected from wind and rain by a thatched outer layer. Before its discovery, anthropologists believed that the skills needed to construct domes were introduced to the New World by the Spanish - but the Spanish did not arrive until more than 900 years after Ceren was buried. Inside the sauna, a central fireplace is surrounded by lounging platforms that provide enough space for more than a dozen people at a time to take a sauna.

18 posted on 08/22/2007 7:52:04 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks

Excellent...a sauna, ha.


19 posted on 08/22/2007 8:26:50 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: Fred Nerks

Hmmm... that’s interesting... I wonder if it’s a corbelled dome, similar to those developed by the (much earlier) Mycenaeans at their zenith?


22 posted on 08/22/2007 8:45:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Monday, August 20, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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