Gallery: Beyond "Apocalypto" -- What Maya Empire Looked Like
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Mel Gibson's movie puts a fictional face on the collapse of the Maya Empire. Now see what the civilization really looked like, according to National Geographic artists and ancient murals.
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Christianity makes only a brief appearance in his film Apocalypto. And it's not exactly welcomed
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Two shows of Incan and American Indian art in Chicago reveal the prehistoric past in their objects regardless of who speaks for them.
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Archaeologists said Wednesday they had found evidence that humans lived in North America at least 50,000 years ago, far earlier than has been thought.
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Mexico&#39;s most famous Mayan ruins, at Chichen Itza, could become a victim of their own success if they are named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a global competition.
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By Munz, Tania  LORRAINE DASTON and GREGG MITMAN (eds.), Thinking with Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Pp. vii+230. ISBN 0-2311.3038-4. Pounds 32.00, $49.50 (hardback).
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The Mayan tribes of South America would chew chicle, a natural form of rubber. Ancient Greeks used the resin of a mastic shrub, and early American settlers gnawed on a mixture of spruce sap and beeswax.
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The victims of human sacrifice by  Mexico's ancient Mayans, who threw children into water-filled  caverns, were likely boys and young men not virgin girls as  previously believed, archeologists said on Tuesday.
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As U.S. President George W. Bush works his way through Latin America on a seven-day, five-nation tour, he is being met by all sorts of protests -- but perhaps none as striking as one set for Monday. A group of Mayan leaders has vowed to "spiritually cleanse" an ancient Mayan site after the president stops by.
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See photos of "Lucy's baby" and other Australopithecus afarensis fossils that represent some of the earliest human ancestors known.
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A stone tablet from Mexico has revealed a 3,000-year-old writing system never before seen, according to a new study. But some archaeologists are crying fraud.
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Science & environment: Â· Scientists shed new light on disputed skeleton findÂ· Bone analysis supports distinct species theory
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"Apocalypto," Mel Gibson's first  film since his anti-Semitic tirade last summer, opened on  Friday as Hollywood wondered whether his career, like the Mayan  civilization the movie depicts, is doomed to collapse or poised  for resurrection.
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Far from the heartland of the "mother culture," the ruins may rewrite the history of Central America's first advanced civilization.
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Researchers said Thursday they have unearthed what may be one of the earliest calendar entries in Meso-America, a monolithic sculpture that suggests women held important status roles in pre-Hispanic culture.
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Blog: A team has just unveiled a sprawling 3D digital simulation of the ancient city as it appeared at the height of its development as the capital of the Roman Empire.
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The earliest-known human ancestors  to migrate out of Africa possessed a surprising mix of  human-like and primitive features, according to scientists who  studied remains dug up at a fossil-rich site in the former  Soviet republic of Georgia.