Ancient Maya Civilization's Roots Deepen With New Discoveries

USA TODAY
By Dan Vergano

A carved stone head excavated from the lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala (around 400 BCE).

GUATEMALA---Soaring pyramids, ceremonial platforms and ritual plazas, signatures of the ancient Maya, owe their origin to a broad cultural shift in Central America around 1,000 B.C., the ruins of Ceibal suggest. The ancient Maya started building their storied cities amid a construction boom in Central America as early as 1000 B.C., archaeologists reported Thursday. Anthropologists study the origins of civilizations for clues to the ties that bind us together. The Maya offer an interesting example of a society that started building cities uninfluenced by the Old World's Egyptian and Fertile Crescent civilizations. More than 6 million Maya people still live in Central America. [link]