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The great Maya city of Tikal transported zeolites for water filtration thousands of years before other cultures learned or adopted the idea, archaeologists have found. The filtration was probably much better than anything known to the Europeans who conquered the area 1,500 years later. The Corriental reservoir was one of Tikal’s sources of drinking water. Dr Kenneth Tankersley of the University of Cincinnati found crystalline quartz and zeolite when digging at the reservoir. Neither are local to the area and would have had to be brought a long way by the standards of a people who had no beasts of...

A resourceful archaeologist has made the stunning discovery of 27 new ancient Mayan sites—all without ever leaving his desk. Takeshi Inomata, an researcher at the University of Arizona, made his discoveries using freely accessible light detection and ranging maps (LiDAR for short) published in 2011 by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico, according to the New York Times. The organization created the map, which surveys 4,400 square miles of land in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, with an eye toward serving businesses and researchers. An even though the imagery is low resolution, it still suited...

In Mexico, LiDAR (light detection and ranging) equipment uncovered what researchers say is the largest and oldest known Maya monument, while in neighbouring Belize, isotopic analysis of human remains provided the earliest timeline for the adoption of maize as a staple crop. The discovery at Tabasco near the border with Guatemala suggests the Maya civilisation developed more rapidly than previously thought and hints at less social inequality than in later periods, according to the international research team led by Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan from the University of Arizona US. Known as Aguada Fénix, the monument lurked beneath the surface...

SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO—On 16 January 378 C.E., a stranger arrived in Tikal, a large Maya city in what is now northern Guatemala. His name was Sihyaj K’ahk’ (SEE-yah Kak), or Fire is Born, and he was likely a mighty warrior from a distant land. Many archaeologists think he hailed from Teotihuacan, a metropolis of 100,000 people about 1000 kilometers northwest of Tikal, near today’s Mexico City. And he may have come with an army. The stone Maya monuments that record Sihyaj K’ahk’s arrival don’t say why he came or how he was received by Chak Tok Ich’aak, or Jaguar...

Former Rep. Kweisi Mfume said Wednesday he would be a "champion" for the district he once represented if elected to represent it again. Mfume, the former 7th District congressman, is running to succeed the man who succeeded him, Elijah Cummings. He spoke Wednesday to C4. Mfume, who left office to lead the NAACP out of a path to financial ruin, touted his credentials as "somebody at the very least who is proven, tested, trusted and most of all ready to go to work on day one." Mfume talked about his beliefs on health care, violent crime, affordable college and spurring...

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), on Thursday said in a statement that her late husband “worked until his last breath.” “Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility. He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem,” she said. “It’s been an honor to walk by his side on this incredible journey. I loved him deeply and will miss him...

Former NFL Linebacker and businessman Jack Brewer and Trump. President Trump’s criticism of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) over the living conditions in Baltimore were reportedly brought up at the request of former NFL linebacker Jack Brewer. "I had a chance to meet with President Trump, and I told him please call out Elijah Cummings and Baltimore. I asked him to do that three weeks ago and he did it," the former NFL linebacker said on Fox Nation’s “Deep Dive.” Brewer explained he was motivated to reach out to Trump after a visit to Baltimore. “I'm seeing these kids that...

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today filed a Complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS), a 501(c)(3) organization headed by Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, wife to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Mrs. Cummings is currently Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and is a former candidate for Governor. Rep. Cummings is Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The Complaint describes a score of apparent Internal Revenue Code violations, including prohibited private benefit and inurement of the Cummings. CGPS has received millions in grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and,...

A watchdog group filed a complaint Tuesday with Maryland Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh to investigate whether the wife of House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings used her charity for her personal benefit. The complaint, filed by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), is the second action filed against Maya Rockeymoore Cummings’s Maryland-based charity, the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPC), by watchdog groups since May. Rockeymoore Cummings is the principal officer and sole staffer of her charity, which between 2013 and 2015 paid $250,000 in “management fees” to Global Policy Solutions LLC, a for-profit venture in which she...

A watchdog group is asking the Maryland attorney general to investigate whether Rep. Elijah Cummings and his wife used a charity for improper self-enrichment, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Washington Examiner. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, which leans conservative, filed the complaint on Monday against the Center for Global Policy Solutions, a nonprofit organization founded by Cummings’ wife, Maya Rockeymoore. The complaint asked Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh to investigate the financial relationship between the Center for Global Policy Solutions and Rockeymoore’s for-profit consulting firm, Global Policy Solutions LLC. The similarly named entities...

Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is facing accusations that he is using his position in Congress to financially benefit his wife, whose charity may have gained "illegal private benefit" from his committee activities. Cummings' wife, Maya Rockeymoore, is the chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party and she "runs two entities, a nonprofit group called the Center for Global Policy Solutions and a for-profit consulting firm called Global Policy Solutions, LLC, whose operations appear to have overlapped, according to the IRS complaint filed by watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center," The Washington Examiner...

**SNIP** Documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that Rockeymoore Cummings’ for-profit consulting firm, Global Policy Solutions LLC, was paid more than $250,000 by her charity, the Center for Global Policy Solutions. The Daily Caller notes that between 2013 and 2015, the charity paid Rockeymoore Cummings’ for-profit firm “management fees” totaling more than $250,000. Additionally, the nonprofit and for-profit entities had a cost-sharing contract highlighting their joint property, as the two entities are housed at the same address **SNIP** Although the NLPC’s complaint was focused on Rockeymoore Cummings’ 2017 business transactions and the congressman’s potential influence, Anderson believes...

Potters at Maya cities on the Caribbean side of Central America fused volcanic ash with local limestone to form household and ceremonial pottery, because the ash made their ceramics easier to fire. The distinctive recipe was a hallmark of the Late Classic Period from A.D. 600 to 900, Ford said. With thousands of people living in cities such as El Pilar and Tikal, the Mayan potters burned through several tons of volcanic ash every year, Ford has estimated. But no one can figure out where the ash came from. The mystery begins with the fact that there just aren't any...

Shimmying through a maze of dark tunnels below the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists have rediscovered a long-sealed cave brimming with lost treasure. According to an statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the cave is stockpiled with more than 150 artifacts, including incense burners, vases, and decorative plates adorned with the faces of ancient gods and other religious icons. The trove is believed to be just one of seven sacred chambers in a network of tunnels known as Balamku — "Jaguar God" — that sits below Chichén Itzá, a city that...

To access just the first of seven ritual offering chambers identified so far within Balamku, archaeologists must crawl flat on their stomachs through hundreds of feet of tortuously narrow passages. In the original report on the cave (recently located by archaeologist and GAM investigator James Brady of California State University, Los Angeles), Segovia identified 155 artifacts, some with faces of Toltec rain god Tláloc, and others with markings of the sacred ceiba tree, a potent representation of the Maya universe. In comparison, the nearby cave of Balankanché, a ritual site excavated in 1959, contains just 70 of these objects. “Balamku...

(GUATEMALA CITY) — Researchers using a high-tech aerial mapping technique have found tens of thousands of previously undetected Mayan houses, buildings, defense works and pyramids in the dense jungle of Guatemala’s Peten region, suggesting that millions more people lived there than previously thought. The discoveries, which included industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals, were announced Thursday by an alliance of U.S., European and Guatemalan archaeologists working with Guatemala’s Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation. The study estimates that roughly 10 million people may have....

Tulane University researchers Marcello Canuto and Francisco Estrada-Belli are part of a team of researchers who uncovered ancient cities in northern Guatemala through the use of jungle-penetrating LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology. Credit: American Association for the Advancement of Science ======================================================================== Tulane University researchers, documenting the discovery of dozens of ancient cities in northern Guatemala through the use of jungle-penetrating Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology, have published their results in the prestigious journal Science. The article includes the work of Marcello Canuto, director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane, and Francisco Estrada-Belli, a research assistant professor...

The 20-centimeter (7.8 inch) stucco mask was found by a team with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) during an investigation of the temple’s ancient drainage system. Palenque sits in the southern state of Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala. According to Institute Director Diego Prieto, the mask appears to show the face of K'inich Janaab' Pakal – also known as Pacal the Great. If it is, in fact, Pacal, the experts say it would be the first of its kind. The mask includes wrinkle lines around the mouth and cheeks, which would make it ‘the first representation...

Colgate anthropologist discovers ancient tomb in Honduras Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Colgate anthropology professor Allan Maca peers into a section of a tomb in Copan, Honduras, that dates back to the 7th century A.D. (Photo by Raul Mejia) Colgate anthropology professor Allan Maca and a team of researchers have found a previously unknown tomb in Copán, Honduras, dating back to the 7th century A.D. that contained the skeleton of an elite member of ancient Maya society in the city. The unusual characteristics of the tomb’s construction, the human remains, and the artifacts found near the body, according to Maca, paint...

Forget small nomadic tribes and pristine jungle: the southern Amazon was likely covered in a network of large villages and ceremonial centers before Columbus. Geoglyphs in the southern Amazon are evidence of a once-thriving population. Photograph courtesy of University of Exeter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before Spanish invaders conquered South America, sparse groups of nomadic people clustered around the Amazon River, leaving the surrounding rain forest pristine and untouched. Or did they? New research suggests a very different story—an Amazonian region peppered with rain forest villages, ceremonial earthworks, and a much larger population than previously thought. The research, funded in part by the...