Sweden’s Svante Paabo wins 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine (Reuters 10/03/2022)
Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries “concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”, the award-giving body said on Monday
ARCHAEOLOGISTS IDENTIFY OBSIDIAN MINES EXPLOITED BY THE PEOPLE OF TEŌTĪHUACĀN (Heritagedaily 09/30/2022)
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Due to the hard and brittle nature of the stone, it fractures to form extremely sharp edges, often used as cutting and piercing tools, instruments for worship, or for weapons manufacturing by the pre-hispanic groups living…
CACAO WAS NOT A FOOD EXCLUSIVE TO THE MAYA ELITE (Heritagedaily 09/29/2022)
The prevailing belief: Cacao was more available to, even controlled by, the society’s very upper echelons, royalty. Past efforts to identify cacao in ceramics focused on highly decorative vessels associated with elite ceremonial contexts — think ornate drinking vases — leading to assumptions about how cacao was distributed and who could access it. What about…