Pottery Indicates Earlier Start to Mayan Society
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Mayan civilization began about 300 years earlier than previously believed, having been relatively well-advanced by about 1100 BC, according to new research by archeologist James J. Garber of Texas State University-San Marcos.
Garber and his colleagues were given permission to excavate the so-called Blackman Eddy pyramid in the Upper Belize Valley because it was on the verge of collapsing.
They found sophisticated Mayan pottery dating from the second millennium BC, indicating that the Maya had a thriving civilization well before the accepted date of about 800 BC for their society’s genesis.
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