Mexico Pyrimid Origins

[Beagle]

OK, I'll read 'em.

[Minimalist]

More on the latest find:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... -headlines

Archeologists working high in the Peruvian Andes have discovered the oldest known celestial observatory in the Americas — a 4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge.

The observatory was built on the top of a 33-foot-tall pyramid with precise alignments and sightlines that provide an astronomical calendar for agriculture, archeologist Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri said.

The site contains ruins dating from 10,000 years ago to well into the ceramic era in the first millennium BC

[stan]

I find it interesting that the sculptures of the frowing face and the
musician are made of clay...unfired. I guess you could say they are made in the same way as mud brick...including straw and sand or other
gritty materials.
THey did have stone. THere are stone carvings at the older site of Caral. I wonder why they didn't use it. Also makes me wonder what other unfired clay objects on the surface might have washed away over time.

As to the statement that there are "ruins" going back 10k years, I wonder if they mean architectural ruins, that would be an even bigger discovery than what they have found, wouldn't it?
I usually think of ruins as the remains stone or maybe mudbrick habitations or large buildings...

[Frank Harrist]

That 10k date may be a typo or something, because they didn't seem to make a big deal out of it. There are sites older than that, but not architecture...as far as I know. I'm with you, Stan, that seems to be a bigger deal than the sculptures. (big shrug)