Mysterious Indian Skeleton Found Inside 18th Century British Fort
When 18 skeletons were found at Fort William Henry by Lake George in the 1950’s 17 were European, 
which is not strange. One was of unknown origins, possibly hailing from Africa. Modern forensic technology has revealed the skeleton was not African, but American Indian. Like most questions in history, when one is answered, ten more get asked. How did an American Indian believed to be from the western United States wind up in the Adirondacks?
The skeleton is believed to be from the French and Indian War, or the Seven Years War, when heavy, bloody fighting was going on around the Lake George area. It was discovered in a unmarked grave along with two others. Modern technology was able to identify that the skeleton’s water source for most of its life was located somewhere in the modern day Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Dakotas region. The researchers admit that the finding caught them by surprise.
An easy answer would be that this Indian was fighting alongside the hundreds of Indians who were allied with the French to try to repel the aggressive British Empire. Except when the French and Indians attacked the fort in 1757 the researchers believe this Indian was already dead. It probably isn’t a British allied Indian because they were rarely buried inside the fort. One explanation is that the Indian was a scout for the British which is why he was buried inside the fort.
Either way, the truth can never be fully known. While modern technology is able to answer questions we never would have been able to even 10 years ago, it seems to only lead us further down the endless hallway. There has to be a side to the story that has been lost to history, and unfortunately unless we invent a time machine, those answers will always be lost. For now we will just have to theorize.
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Photo byDoug Kerr
Researchers Discover Mayans Used Tobacco
Researchers Discover Mayans Used Tobacco 
A recent discovery by researchers Dmitri Zagorevski, director of the Proteomics Core in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman, a doctoral candidate at the University at Albany, proves the Ancient Mayans used tobacco.
The researchers studied scrapings from a two-and-a-half-inch high and wide container, made around 700 A.D., that was decorated with hieroglyphics depicting the actual contents, calling it “The home of his/her tobacco.”
Read more of the article at Researchers Discover Mayans Used Tobacco – Science News – redOrbit.
Mayan Sign From the Gods?
Is it a sign from gods … or iPhone glitch?
When Hector Siliezar visited the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza with his wife and kids in 2009, he snapped three iPhone photos of El Castillo, a pyramid that once served as a sacred temple to the Mayan god Kukulkan. A thunderstorm was brewing near the temple, and Siliezar was trying to capture lightning crackling dramatically over the ruins.
Read the full story at Is it a sign from gods … or iPhone glitch? – Technology & science – Science – LiveScience – msnbc.com.
Story by Natalie Wolchover; Photo by Hector Siliezar
World won’t end in 2012, says Mayan expert
As we approach 2012, more and more reports, television shows and movies have popped up telling us that according to the Mayan calendar the world is going to end on December 21 2012. One German expert, Sven Gronemeyer has announced that those predictions are untrue and came from a misinterpretation of the hieroglyphs. These findings are reported on CBC News.
The end is not near.
At least that’s according to a German expert who says his decoding of a Mayan tablet with a reference to a 2012 date denotes a transition to a new era and not a possible end of the world as others have read it.
The interpretation of the hieroglyphs by Sven Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia was presented for the first time Wednesday at the archeological site of Palenque in southern Mexico.
His comments came less than a week after Mexico’s archeology institute acknowledged there was a second reference to the 2012 date in Mayan inscriptions, touching off another round of talk about whether it predicts the end of the world.
Read the rest of the story at World won’t end in 2012, says Mayan expert – CBC News.
Ancient Maya Road Let Villagers Flee Volcanic Death
An ancient road leaving the Mayan village of Ceren has recently been excavated and shown to be an escape route for the villagers as a volcano started erupting less than a 1/3 of a mile away. Jennifer Welsh of LiveScience reports how celebrations stopped in the village as the cloud of ash began falling.
At 7 p.m. local time on an evening in August some 1,400 years ago, life stopped short in the Maya village of Ceren as the Loma Caldera volcano erupted less than a third of a mile away. Now, while excavating the town, researchers have discovered a unique road, which was likely how the villagers managed to flee the billowing plume of volcanic ash as it rolled through the town.
The road is the only known sacbe made of ash; others are made with a stone-filled outer covering that holds them together. These sacbe, or “white ways,” are raised paved roads built by the Maya and usually used to connect temples, plazas and groups of structures within ceremonial centers or cities; some longer roads are also known to connect cities.
“Until our discovery, these roads were only known from the Yucatan area in Mexico and all were built with stone linings, which generally preserved well,” study researcher Peyson Sheets, of the University of Colorado, said in a statement. “It took the unusual preservation at Ceren to tell us the Maya also made them without stone.”
Read more of the article at Ancient Maya Road Let Villagers Flee Volcanic Death | Ancient Maya Ruins & Ash-Preserved Cities | Ancient Roads & Transportation | LiveScience.
Photo by Payson Sheets, University of Colorado
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