Mexico

After sheltering jeweled royals for centuries, the oldest known tomb in Mesoamerica—ancient Central America and Mexico, roughly speaking—has been uncovered, archaeologists announced Tuesday.

Apparently caught between two cultures, the 2,700-year-old pyramid in Chiapa de Corzo (map), Mexico, may help settle a debate as to when and how the mysterious Zoque civilization arose, according to excavation leader Bruce Bachand.

The glittering “grills” of some hip-hop stars aren’t exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.

Maya and other ancient peoples of southern North America went to “dentists”—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semi-precious stones, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The hot and humid days of summer could prove a death knell for the swine flu outbreak currently sweeping around the globe—at least in the U.S., Mexico, and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, experts say.

“If [the new swine flu strain] is like other types of influenza that have been tested, it would have a lower transmission rate in the summer,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an assistant professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis, who studies how the water cycle affects the spread of disease.

When it comes to pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztec and Maya—known for their spectacular pyramids and temples, hieroglyphic writing systems, and elaborate, violent rituals—often overshadow the Zapotec, their less familiar counterparts centered in southern Mexico.

But the Zapotec also played a vital role in ancient Mesoamerica, and archaeologists are seeking new clues to the rise and fall of their culture and civilization, which flourished and declined in the Valley of Oaxaca at roughly the same time as the ancient Maya.

Captions for photos of events in the news. Shots include a horse fight at the Mid-Autumn festival in China, soldiers in the grito gather in Mexico, photos drying out from Hurricane Ike in Texas, traffic backed up in Dover, England after a fire broke out in the Channel Tunnel, a dust storm in Baghdad, Iraq, a cremation for a killed boy in India’s terrorist bombings, and plunge in the DAX, Germany’s stock market.

Divers exploring a maze of underwater caves on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula have identified what may be the longest underground river in the world.

The waterway twists and turns for 95 miles (153 kilometers) through the region’s limestone caverns, said British diver Stephen Bogaerts, who made the discovery with German colleague Robbie Schmittner.

Archaeologists have discovered a huge, 1,500-year-old pyramid in Mexico City, according to an announcement yesterday.

The same people who built the pyramid also constructed Teotihuacan, a long-abandoned settlement about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Mexico City.