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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Genomes from ancient Maya people reveal collapse of population and civilization 1,200 years ago
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Skeletons buried near the ancient Maya city of Copán have revealed new clues about the collapse, but not total decimation, of the Maya civilization. A study of the genomes of seven people from the Classic Maya period (A.D. 250 to 900) of Copán in what is now western Honduras showed that the population dramatically shrank around 1,200 years ago. "Our findings indicate a decline in population size" among the Maya, study co-author Shigeki Nakagome, an assistant professor of genomic medicine at Trinity College Dublin, told Live Science in an email, which "aligns with a scenario proposed by archaeologists in which the population decreased but did not become entirely extinct." Nakagome and colleagues published their findings Wednesday (May 28) in the journal Current Biology. In their study, the researchers investigated the hypothesis that outsiders assumed power at Copán in the late 420s and explored how interactions between locals and non-locals created social and cultural change at this important Maya center. Copán was a major capital located at the extreme southeast of the Classic Maya civilization, functioning as a kind of crossroads between Central and South America. The royal dynasty that ruled for four centuries was established at Copán in A.D. 426 by a man known as K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo', who was an outsider according to inscriptions. Previous genomic and isotopic analyses of skeletons from other Maya sites have suggested that migration and gene flow were common, but the nature of that gene mixing at Copán had never before been investigated. Based on their sequencing of genomes of seven people buried at Copán, the researchers discovered that the people all had different maternal lineages. Two males, however, belonged to the same Y-chromosome lineage and were buried together: one male in a wealthy burial was a possible dynastic ruler and the other male was a potential sacrifice. But the men were not closely related. "Even though the dynastic ruler and the sacrificed individual share the same Y-chromosome haplogroup," Nakagome said, "we did not find any kinship." The lineage the men share is common among present-day Indigenous American populations, he said. Related: Secret of ancient Maya blue pigment revealed from cracks and clues on a dozen bowls from Chichén Itzá By comparing the seven ancient genomes to previously sequenced genomes across Siberia and the Americas, the researchers found strong evidence of genetic continuity in the Maya region from the Late Archaic period, roughly 3700 B.C. to 1000 B.C., to the present day. These genetic data suggest "the enduring persistence of local ancestry in the Maya region," the researchers wrote in the study. They also found that during the Classic Maya period, there was an influx of people with highland Mexican ancestry, possibly from other Maya sites such as Chichén Itzá. These "outsiders" — perhaps part of the ruling dynasty of Copán — mixed with the locals, creating a population with two main ancestries. RELATED STORIES —'Trash' found deep inside a Mexican cave turns out to be 500-year-old artifacts from a little-known culture —'Stunning' discovery reveals how the Maya rose up 4,000 years ago —Mysterious Maya underground structure unearthed in Mexico Delving further into the genomic data of the seven individuals, the researchers were able to estimate the size of the Maya population at specific points in time. According to their model, "the population in the Maya region appears to have experienced significant growth in effective size, reaching approximately 19,000 [people]" around A.D. 730, they wrote. The increase may be related to the advent of maize agriculture, which could have supported a larger population. Then, the population size began to decline around A.D. 750, "coinciding with the onset of the collapse of Classic Maya civilization," they wrote. Although the population dramatically dwindled with the collapse of the Maya political system, the researchers ultimately found support in their analysis for population persistence through time. "The genetic continuity observed in our study supports the idea that the population was not replaced by another group after the collapse." The genomes of the more than 7 million present-day Maya are closely related to the genomes of ancient Maya.
Boston Globe
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Walking (and T-ing) Boston's public art Triennial
Advertisement Only time can be the judge of that, and here, in the final days leading up to its official opening, I have only best guesses (a backhoe in constant use this week at the Charlestown Navy Yard, one of the Triennial's key sites, underscored the frantic last minute preparations). While we're waiting, I'm giving my imagination a workout to fashion a walking (and occasionally T-assisted) tour of some of what I think will be the most powerful pieces soon to pop up in neighborhoods near and far. A peek at New Red Order's work in progress, being installed at Faneuil Hall for the Boston Public Art Triennial. Luna Posadas Nava The Triennial, an international affair, makes a point of embracing artists actually from here, and you'll find a triumvirate of Boston-based artists — Andy Li, Evelyn Rydz, and Alison Croney Moses — at the Charlestown Navy Yard (another, Stephen Andrews, is in Roxbury; and Lowell-based Gabriel Sosa is in East Boston). Advertisement But to start in the middle of things, New Red Order, a 'public secret society' of Indigenous American collaborators will set up at Faneuil Hall with 'Material Monument to Thomas Morton (Playing Indian),' a satirical monument to the recalcitrant Puritan-era colonist's NRO's core trio of Adam Khalil (Ojibwe), Zack Khalil (Ojibwe), and Jackson Polys (Tlingit) have made waves in the contemporary art world in recent years with their sharp parodies of colonial history and Indigenous appropriation. Faneuil Hall, a site rich with a slate of ugly colonial history – Peter Faneuil himself owed no small portion of his vast riches to enslavement – makes it a natural target for their acidic social critique. It's a short stroll from there to City Hall Plaza, where Adela Goldbard's project is New Red Order's spiritual companion. Called 'Invadieron por mar, respondemos con fuego. Un presagio. [They Invaded by Sea, We Respond with Fire. An Omen.]‚' it's a large-scale replica of a colonial tallship fashioned by Native American weavers from local invasive reeds (get it?). Part of the point of the Triennial is to affirm in the minds of Bostonians that public art need not be permanent, going against the grain of our bronze, great-man-on-horseback affinities. Goldbard's piece is not subtle in its embrace of it: At the end of its run, it will be set aflame and left to smolder and be swept away – in part an act of revenge, surely, but also a stark emblem that nothing is forever. Mexican artist Adela Goldbard harvesting reeds in New England earlier this year for her "An Allegory of (De)Coloniality, in Two Movements,' her project for the Boston Public Art Triennial at City Hall Plaza. Robert Gallegos The theme of the Triennial is 'Exchange' – evocative enough to suggest, broad enough to not dictate, both good things. A stroll south to Downtown Crossing helps make clear just how how broad it can be. Here, you'll find Patrick Martinez's neon signs positioned amid the district's baleful cluster of empty storefronts, the most outward symbol of downtown Boston's post-pandemic struggle to revive itself. Advertisement I doubt Martinez's works will help with that, but they do make a relevant point: Community Service, Patrick Martinez, Boston Public Art Triennial, 2025. Yubo Dong of Of Studio It would make logistic sense to turn southwest here and swing past the Public Garden en route to the main branch of the Boston Public Library, where Swoon, a much-beloved street artist turned museum installation darling, has transformed an outsize planter in the building's lobby into a terrarium for 'In the Well: The Stories We Tell About Addiction,' a ramshackle cabin inhabited by a pair of puppets (it's already there, if you're keen to get started). But I'd be pulled across the water to East Boston, where the ICA's Watershed is presenting Chiharu Shiota's exhibition 'Homeless Home.' Shiota's work is a monument to absence – trunks and suitcases and random pieces of furniture, entangled in red rope and dangling, symbols of lives up in the air. A lament for the untold millions forced into migration, cut adrift by various disasters and left with nowhere to call home, its rootlessness speaks to the chaos of our current moment. Advertisement Swoon's installation 'In the Well: The Stories We Tell About Addiction,' at the Boston Public Library Copley Square. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Just down the street, Sosa's project works hard to find solid ground: Ñ Press, a storefront community print studio in partnership with Maverick Landing Community Services. Ñ Press roots itself in the city's Spanish-speaking community with a subtle growth mindset. Sosa, whose text-based work The Triennial concentrates a good handful of its pieces in the city core. But its mission to serve neighborhoods far-flung from downtown is in its DNA, an imprint on its soul from its formative years as the public art organization Alan Michelson's "The Knowledge Keepers" was installed at the main entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston A cluster of pieces in the Fenway signal museum participation in the Triennial, a key to its visibility. Alan Michelson's 'The Knowledge Keepers,' a pair of chromium sculptures flanking the front steps of the Museum of Fine Arts, Nicholas Galanin's 'I think it goes like this (pick yourself up),' an eight-foot-tall part-Lingit Native American, part-Transformers bronze figure in the process of assembling itself is at the MassArt Museum, and Yu-Wen Wu's 'Reigning Beauty,' a photo-collage of falling flowers is fitted to the facade of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. But hop the T at Ruggles and head out toward Mattapan (this will also, alas, require a bus from Forest Hills; or backtrack on the Green Line to Park Street, where the Red Line offers a more direct route), where Lan Tuazon and Laura Lima honor the Triennial's formative history with a pair of projects rooted in that community. Advertisement Laura Lima's 2021 work 'Communal Nest #1." The artist will be creating a number of such structures/shelters for the Boston Public Art Triennial at the Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Mattapan. Laura Lima Studio/Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles Lima's 'An Indistinct Form (A Forma Indistinta),' at the Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, is a collaboration with the center's scientists to create 'sculptures for animals,' a poetic gesture with the practical purpose of building habitat lost to the urban wild — a metaphor, if you like, extended from the displacement narratives of Sosa and Shiota. Tuazon, meanwhile, has made 'Matters of Consequence,' an ever-evolving sculpture that doubles as a public space for the community to shape and grow over time; in many ways, its evolution, yet to be seen, is in fact the art. Evolution, it seems, is the watchword of the Triennial — or anything left in public to unfold over time. It's nothing without you. The Boston Public Art Triennial marks its official opening May 22 . For a list of sites, projects, and opening times, visit . Through Oct. 31 . Murray Whyte can be reached at
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Mexico creates turquoise alert for missing Indigenous Americans
New Mexico became the fourth state in the nation to create an alert system for missing Indigenous Americans after its governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed legislation creating a 'turquoise alert' on Monday. The act, which passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously during the state's recent legislative session, symbolizes the growing attention that a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people – most often women and girls – has received in recent years. 'Communities like mine are all too familiar with the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. For years now, we have stepped up on our own to help locate our missing brothers and sisters through coordinated local efforts and on social media,' said the state representative Michelle Paulene Abeyta, who is Diné and one of the bill's sponsors. 'Establishing the turquoise alert will allow the state to amplify these community-led efforts to better ensure the protection and safe return of our loved ones.' Related: California university to expand student minds with new psychedelic studies course Indigenous American and Alaska Native communities experience rates of murder, rape and violent crime all above the national average. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including more than half who have experienced sexual violence. But less than half of violent crimes against women are ever reported to police. In 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American women and girls to the US Department of Justice, but only 116 of those cases were logged in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. According to the New Mexico department of justice, there are approximately 200 missing Indigenous people in the state, on average of more than 1,600 days missing. 'Too many Native American families have faced crisis and the heartbreak of a loved one disappearing without the swift response they deserve,' said Josett D Monette, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Indian affairs department. 'The turquoise alert system is a critical step forward in ensuring that missing Native American people are prioritized in the same way as other emergency alerts. This legislation reflects New Mexico's unwavering commitment to justice and the safety of our Indigenous communities.' The turquoise alert system – named for the sacred stone popular in Diné jewelry – will function much like an 'Amber' or 'silver' alert. Cellphones will receive an alert when law enforcement are notified of the disappearance of a Native American. California, Washington and Colorado have already implemented similar alert systems – and after the brutal death of San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike, Arizona lawmakers are considering following suit. Since Washington's alert system went into effect in 2022, the state patrol had issued 114 such alerts and located 101 of the missing individuals. New Mexico is home to 23 federally recognized tribes – giving it one of the largest Indigenous American populations per capita of any state. In 2020, after then president Joe Biden appointed her the first Indigenous cabinet secretary in the United States, former New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland created a Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In February, Haaland announced her run to replace Lujan Grisham as New Mexico's governor when the Democrat's term expires in 2026.
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- The Guardian
New Mexico creates turquoise alert for missing Indigenous Americans
New Mexico became the fourth state in the nation to create an alert system for missing Indigenous Americans after governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation creating a 'turquoise alert' on Monday. The act, which passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously during the state's recent legislative session, symbolizes the growing attention that a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people – most often women and girls – has received in recent years. 'Communities like mine are all too familiar with the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. For years now, we have stepped up on our own to help locate our missing brothers and sisters through coordinated local efforts and on social media,' said the state representative Michelle Paulene Abeyta, who is Diné and one of the bill's sponsors. 'Establishing the turquoise alert will allow the state to amplify these community-led efforts to better ensure the protection and safe return of our loved ones.' Indigenous American and Alaska Native communities experience rates of murder, rape and violent crime all above the national average. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including more than half who have experienced sexual violence. But less than half of violent crimes against women are ever reported to police. In 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American women and girls to the US Department of Justice, but only 116 of those cases were logged in the National Missing and Unidentified persons System. According to the New Mexico department of justice, there are approximately 200 missing Indigenous people in the state, on average of over 1,600 days missing. 'Too many Native American families have faced crisis and the heartbreak of a loved one disappearing without the swift response they deserve,' said Josett D Monette, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Indian affairs department. 'The turquoise alert system is a critical step forward in ensuring that missing Native American people are prioritized in the same way as other emergency alerts. This legislation reflects New Mexico's unwavering commitment to justice and the safety of our Indigenous communities.' The turquoise alert system – named for the sacred stone popular in Diné jewelry – will function much like an 'Amber' or 'silver' alert. Cell phones will receive an alert when law enforcement are notified of the disappearance of a Native American. California, Washington and Colorado have already implemented similar alert systems – and after the brutal death of San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike, Arizona lawmakers are considering following suit. Since Washington's alert system went into effect in 2022, the state patrol had issued 114 such alerts and located 101 of the missing individuals. New Mexico is home to 23 federally recognized tribes – giving it one of the largest Indigenous American populations per capita of any state. In 2020, after then president Joe Biden appointed her the first Indigenous cabinet secretary in the United States, former New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland created a Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In February, Haaland announced her run to replace Lujan Grisham as New Mexico's governor when the Democrat's term expires in 2026.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Cave discovery of 6,000-year-old hunter's toolkit offers rare glimpse into earliest lives in West Texas
MARFA, Texas – Archaeologists have unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts frozen in time deep within a West Texas cave, including potentially the oldest intact weapon system ever found in North America. The remarkable discovery within the San Esteban Rockshelter, south of Marfa, is now rewriting the story of the Big Bend region's earliest inhabitants. For the past six years, archaeologists from the Center for Big Bend Studies and the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund at the University of Kansas have been working together to study area sites that may have harbored the earliest evidence of humans in the region. Deer Hunter Stumbles Upon Rare Mammoth Tusk In Rugged Terrain Of West Texas One of the most notable finds was a preserved ancient hunting kit that was found in pristine condition. While no complete components were found, among the weaponry were broken dart nock ends, a straight-flying boomerang, stone-tipped and hardwood foreshafts, and a partial atlatl. Researchers believe the discovery suggests an ancient hunter paused within the cave, built a small fire, repaired their essential tools and left behind the mundane items of everyday life that waited thousands of years to be discovered. Ancient Tiny Shark Species Discovered At Mammoth Cave National Park "If it really is a contemporaneous kit, it's a pretty monumental finding," CBBS Director Bryon Schroeder told Texas Parks and Wildlife. "We can use the wood to reconstruct the environment and learn more about the amount of time they spent working on tools." Schroeder added that this new knowledge can be applied to other archaeological sites in the Big Bend. "We get these incredible snapshots of life, vignettes of how they lived, what the environment was and how they responded to it," he said. Life-sized Murals Discovered On Walls Of Pompeii Home Buried By Volcanic Eruption Nearly 2,000 Years Ago Caves were likely a potential cultural significance of Indigenous American traditions, where hunted prey could be reincarnated, according to CBBS assistant professor Devin Pettigrew. "We aren't sure to what extent the deposit of these broken components in the rock shelter had a symbolic or spiritual purpose," CBBS Assistant Professor Devin Pettigrew noted to Texas Parks and Wildlife. "Interpretations like this, based on more recent cultures, are more difficult the further back in time you go." Beyond the hunting implements, archaeologists also unearthed human feces – which can provide valuable dietary and health information – and a remarkably preserved folded pronghorn hide, Texas Parks and Wildlife reports. "We just sat there and stared at it in wonder," Schroeder said of tanned hide discovery. "That's a moment in time. It's akin to holding dish gloves that somebody put over the sink after doing the dishes. Somebody folded that hide up and sat that right on top of this rock. And nobody touched it for 6,000 years."Original article source: Cave discovery of 6,000-year-old hunter's toolkit offers rare glimpse into earliest lives in West Texas
