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Lubaantun
Lubaantun (pronounced /lubaːnˈtun/; also Lubaantún in Spanish orthography) is a pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in southern Belize, Central America. Lubaantun is in Belize's Toledo District, about 42 kilometres (26 mi) northwest of Punta Gorda, and approximately 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) from the village of San Pedro Columbia, at an elevation of 61 metres (200 ft) feet above mean sea level. One of the most distinguishing features of Lubaantun is the large collection of miniature ceramic objects found on site; these detailed constructs are thought to have been charmstones or ritual-accompanying accoutrements. The city dates from the Maya Classic era, flourishing from the AD 730s to the 890s, and seems to have been completely abandoned soon after. The architecture is somewhat unusual from typical Classical central lowlands Maya sites. Lubaantun's structures are mostly built of large stone blocks laid with no mortar, primarily black slate rather tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crystal Skull
Crystal skulls are human skull hardstone carvings made of clear or milky white quartz (also called "rock crystal"), claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders; however, these claims have been refuted for all of the specimens made available for scientific studies. The results of these studies demonstrated that those examined were manufactured in the mid-19th century or later, almost certainly in Europe, during a time when interest in ancient culture abounded. The skulls appear to have been crafted in Germany, quite likely at workshops in the town of Idar-Oberstein, which was renowned for crafting objects made from imported Brazilian quartz in the late 19th century.Craddock (2009, p. 415). Despite some claims presented in an assortment of popularizing literature, legends of crystal skulls with mystical powers do not figure in genuine Mesoamerican or other Native American mythologies and spiritual accounts. The skulls are often claimed to exhibit pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Pedro Columbia
San Pedro Columbia is a village in Toledo District, Belize, located about two miles from the ancient Maya ruins of Lubaantun. In 2000 San Pedro Columbia had a population of about 700 people. The population is mostly Kekchi Maya with some Mopan Maya. San Pedro Columbia has Belize's largest settlement of Kekchi. Most of the population came to Belize from the Petén region of Guatemala in the late 19th century. The village is known for the hand woven embroidery produced there. Ancient history Lubaantun is one of the area's pre-Columbian Maya sites, inhabited at least as early as the Maya Classic Period. Lubaantun has unusual features of construction including drystone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ... work and rounded corners that set it apart from other Maya sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceramic Art
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramics may also be considered artefacts in archaeology. Ceramic art can be made by one person or by a group of people. In a pottery or ceramic factory, a group of people design, manufacture and decorate the art ware. Products from a pottery are sometimes referred to as "art pottery". In a one-person pottery studio, ceramists or potters produce studio pottery. The word "ceramics" comes from the Greek ''keramikos'' (κεραμεικός), meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from ''keramos'' (κέραμος) meaning "potter's clay". Most traditional ceramic products were made from clay ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toledo District
Toledo District is the southernmost district in Belize, and Punta Gorda is the District capital. It is the second most developed region in the country (according to the Human Development Index (HDI)). The district has a diverse topography which features rainforests, extensive cave networks, coastal lowland plains, and offshore cays. Toledo is home to a wide range of cultures: Mopan and Kekchi Maya, Creole, the Garifuna, East Indians, Mennonites, Mestizos, and descendants of US Confederate settlers. Geography The District has many villages, including Monkey River Town and the Toledo Settlement; the Maya villages of San Pedro Columbia, Blue Creek, Indian Creek, Santa Cruz, San Antonio, San Jose, San Felipe; and the Garifuna village of Barranco. It also has a number of Maya ruins, including Lubaantun, Nim Li Punit, Uxbenka, and Pusilha. According to the 2010 census, Toledo District had a population of 30,538 people. Economy The economy of Toledo relies heavily upon a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Hammond
Norman Hammond (born 10 July 1944) is a British archaeologist, academic and Mesoamericanist scholar, noted for his publications and research on the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Career Hammond was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He held academic posts at Cambridge (1967–75), Bradford (1975–77), and Rutgers universities (1977–88), before he became a professor in the Archaeology Department at Boston University's College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in 1988. Now retired at Boston, he is currently a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Jilin University (China), the Sorbonne and the University of Bonn. Since 1968, he worked in the Maya lowlands at the following sites in Belize, Central America: Lubaantun (1970–1971), Nohmul (1973–1986), Cuello (1975–2002), and La Milpa (1992–2002). As well as specialising in the archaeology of Maya lowla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drystone
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing façade of carefully selected interlocking stones. Dry stone construction is best known in the context of stone walls, traditionally used for the boundaries of fields and churchyards, or as retaining walls for terracing, but dry stone sculptures, buildings, bridges, and other structures also exist. The term tends not to be used for the many historic styles which used precisely-shaped stone, but did not use mortar, for example the Greek temple and Inca architecture. The art of dry stone walling was inscribed in 2018 on the UNESCO representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, for dry stone walls in countries such as France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Cro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Gann
Thomas William Francis Gann (13 May 1867 – 24 February 1938) was a medical doctor by profession, but is best remembered for his work as an amateur archaeologist exploring ruins of the Maya civilization. Personal history Thomas Gann was born in Murrisk Abbey, County Mayo, Ireland, the son of William Gann of Whitstable, England, and Rose Garvey of Murrisk Abbey. He was raised in Whitstable, where his parents were prominent in the social life of the town. Gann trained in medicine in Middlesex, England. Somerset Maugham named the heroine of ''Cakes and Ale'' Rosie Gann. Career In 1894 he was appointed district medical officer for British Honduras, where he would spend most of the next quarter century. He soon developed a keen interest in the colony's Mayan ruins, which up to then had been little documented. He also traveled in the Yucatán Peninsula, exploring ruins there. Gann discovered a number of sites, including Lubaantun, Ichpaatun and Tzibanche. He published the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell is senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes regularly for their journal, ''Skeptical Inquirer''. He is also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is the author or editor of over 30 books. Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' ''The Bondwoman's Narrative'' (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim. Early life, education and family Joe Nickell is the son of J. Wendell and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illustrated London News
''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in 2003. The company continues today as Illustrated London News Ltd, a publishing, content, and digital agency in London, which holds the publication and business archives of the magazine. History 1842–1860: Herbert Ingram ''The Illustrated London News'' founder Herbert Ingram was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1811, and opened a printing, newsagent, and bookselling business in Nottingham around 1834 in partnership with his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Cooke.Isabel Bailey"Ingram, Herbert (1811–1860)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 17 September 2014] As a newsagent, Ingram was struck by the reliable increase in newspaper sales when they featured pictures and shocking stories. Ingram beg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Ballgame
The Mesoamerican ballgame ( nah, ōllamalīztli, , myn, pitz) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Mesoamerica, Ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a newer, more modern version of the game, ''Ulama (game), ulama'', is still played by the Native Mexicans, indigenous populations in some places.Fox, John (2012)''The ball: discovering the object of the game"'' 1st ed., New York: Harper. . Cf. Chapter 4: "Sudden Death in the New World" about the Ulama game. The rules of the Mesoamerican ballgame are not known, but judging from its descendant, Ulama (game), ulama, they were probably similar to racquetball, where the aim is to keep the ball in play. The stone ballcourt goals are a late addition to the game. In the most common theory of the game, the players struck the ball with their hips, although some versions allowed the use of forearms, rackets, bats, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mopan People
The Mopan people are an indigenous, sub-ethnic group of the Maya peoples. They are native to regions of Belize and Guatemala. History In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British forced the Mopan out of Belize and into Guatemala. There, they endured forced labour and high taxation. They migrated from Petén, Guatemala to avoid this forced labor and taxation. The Mopan originally settled near modern Pueblo Viaja, but Guatemalan officials claimed that they were still within bounds of Guatemala, so they moved further east around 1889 and founded San Antonio in Belize. In the 2010 Census, 10,557 Belizeans reported their ethnicity as Mopan Maya. This constituted approximately 3% of the population. Culture The Mopan Maya people practice a spirituality that relates to the Maya Catholic Faith. The prominent factor that has caused the decline of these traditional practices is the influence of Protestant evangelical missionaries. There is an absence of written traditions of the Mopan M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
