Mayas

They had an empire that lasted more than 1,400 years--and then mysteriously disappeared. They developed the concept of zero, had complicated astronomical calendars and advanced architecture, all developed long before Columbus discovered the Americas. The Maya were one of the great civilizations that inhabited Central and South America. They were followed by the Incan and Aztec empires. To learn more about their cultures, use the direct links on The Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.

In the remote northeastern corner of Guatemala, archaeologists have found what appears to be the 9th century workplace of a city scribe, an unusual dwelling adorned with magnificent pictures of the king and other royals and the oldest known Maya calendar. This year has been particularly controversial among some cultists because of the belief that the Maya calendar predicts a major cataclysm - perhaps the end of the world - on Dec. 21, 2012. Archaeologists know that is not true, but the new find, written on the plaster equivalent of a modern scientist's whiteboard, strongly reinforces the idea that the Maya calendar projects thousands of years into the future.

A key consultant among several archeologists who served as advisors on Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" said he is disappointed that the film overlooks many of the Mayas' cultural and scientific achievements and portrays the people as "bloodthirsty savages." As a chase movie, "Apocalypto" is top-notch, said Richard D. Hansen, a professor of anthropology at Idaho State University who has written extensively about the Mayas. The sets, makeup and costumes are also "accurate to the nth degree," he noted.

The ancient Maya calendar ends Dec. 21, 2012, and Hollywood has wasted no time portraying the coming date as the trigger of a worldwide cataclysm. But in Mexico, where drug violence has hobbled the nation's $70-billion tourism industry, government leaders hope to counter Tinseltown's doomsday scenario by promoting 2012 as the year of the tourist. Several of Mexico's top tourism officials have been making the rounds in their northern neighbor, betting that an invitation to see Maya ruins will attract hordes of older, wealthier U.S. visitors keen on Mexican culture.

Hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years before Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process that made commercial rubber viable, Mesoamerican peoples were carrying out a similar process to produce rubber artifacts for a broad variety of uses, two MIT researchers have found. By varying the amount of materials they added to raw rubber, Mesoamericans were able to produce bouncy rubber balls for the Mayas' ceremonial games, resilient rubber sandals and sticky material used to glue implements to handles, the research shows.

Archeologists excavating in the Guatemalan rain forest have unearthed what appear to be the 1,300-year-old remains of a Maya warrior queen, a rare find in a society that was dominated by men. The previously untouched tomb was discovered in a royal palace at the Maya city of Waka, known today as El Peru. Once a city with tens of thousands of inhabitants, Waka is about 36 miles west of the Maya city of Tikal in what today is northern Guatemala.

The lost civilizations of pre-Columbian America trigger everybody's fantasy machine. People who never peeped into a museum or cracked a book have muzzy images of Indiana Jones pilfering a gold temple idol or certain beer commercials on TV showing nubile virgins about to be sacrificed to ferocious, feathered snake gods. A bit of real history soon teaches of Spanish conquistadors come to decimate Aztec and Inca, plundering gold and slaughtering thousands.

His kingdom wasn't much to behold--a declining city-state in its last gasps of power. For a king, he wasn't much to behold either. Only 5 feet 2, he had once suffered a broken neck and mysteriously lost all his teeth before he died, perhaps at the unusually young age of 35. His people apparently had neither the resources nor the desire to commemorate him with a temple or even a marker.

A royal palace and the remains of an ancient Maya city--one of the richest yet known--were recently found deep in a neglected part of a Guatemalan rain forest, scientists announced Thursday. The site, called Cancuen, has been known for a century but was generally dismissed as a place of little interest. Now Vanderbilt University archeologist Arthur Demarest says an enormous three-story palace showing signs of extraordinary riches is hidden within a tree-covered mound of rock, debris and dirt.

Satellite images of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, central Guatemala and Belize have shed new light on ancient Mayan civilization, such as the Mayas' settlement patterns and their use of natural resources, NASA scientists at the Ames Research Center said last week. The researchers in Mountain View, Calif., also found evidence of an ancient river plain, sea level changes and tectonic fault lines, which may have been important geographic elements in shaping Mayan civilization.

Maya Indie Film Series When: Friday through Thursday Where: Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd. Tickets: $8 to $11 Information: http://www.mayaindieseries.com

When director Gabriela Tagliavini was casting her latest film, "Without Men," starring Eva Longoria, Christian Slater and Kate del Castillo, she knew it was crucial to get the sexual chemistry right. Not between Longoria's character, an ordinary woman who becomes the "mayor" of a Latin American mountain village where all the males have been forced to join a guerrilla army, and Slater's character, a zealous gringo journalist. In the English-language comic fable, adapted from Colombian writer James Canon's novel "Tales From the Town of Widows," the key erotic connection involves Longoria and Del Castillo, cast as a seductive interloper who turns up in the suddenly all-female pueblo, as sleek and mysterious as Clint Eastwood strolling into a spaghetti western.

Sparks tonight VS. MINNESOTA When: 8. Where: Staples Center. On the air: NBA TV, Prime Ticket, WNBA.com. Records (2010): Sparks 13-21, Lynx 13-21. Record vs. Lynx (2010): 4-0. Update: This matchup features the return of Sparks forward Candace Parker, the 2008 WNBA most valuable player and rookie of the year, who missed much of last season after sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury in June.

The presenter and recipient of the John R. Wooden Award were both newsworthy Friday night at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Wooden's son Jim delivered the award as college basketball's player of the year to high-scoring Brigham Young guard Jimmer Fredette in the first appearance by a Wooden family member at the event in six years. The legendary UCLA coach and the club had a falling out in 2005 over the club's unhappiness with Wooden allowing his name to be used for another award given to Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a big heavy-metal fan, has fulfilled a lifelong dream by getting to meet his favorite rock band, Deep Purple. The British group met the leader for tea at his residence of Gorki outside Moscow on Wednesday, Russian news agencies said. The 45-year-old president told Deep Purple that it has been his favorite band since the age of 12. He also revealed that as a DJ at his school in Leningrad he would play rock music at discos, after first getting the approval of the Communist youth organization.

President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday to former President George H.W. Bush and 14 others, including poet Maya Angelou, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, investor Warren Buffett and basketball legend Bill Russell. The medal is the nation's highest civilian honor and is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions "to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Mayan Indians were having mixed reactions to Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" prior to Monday's screening of the movie in Mexico City after viewing bootleg copies of the bloody, pre-Columbian epic set in a Mexican jungle. In a region where pirate DVD copies are often available on street corners before movies even open, some Indians said the movie misrepresents the ancient Maya as a violent, bloodthirsty culture.

Inside a ruined pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle, archeologists have unearthed the oldest known Maya painting, a brightly colored 30-foot-long mural depicting the Maya creation myth and the coronation of the Maya's first earthly king. The paint-on-plaster image, 3 feet tall and nearly 2,100 years old, is several centuries older than other depictions of the creation myth.

For 40 years as a bishop in Mexico's impoverished Chiapas state, Samuel Ruiz championed the rights of the long-suffering Maya Indians who dominate the lush region. He learned their languages and adopted their customs into Roman Catholic practice. He also made powerful enemies among rich landowners, Mexican governments and even the Vatican. He mediated the Zapatista peasant revolt of the 1990s and was both praised for helping to avoid wider bloodshed and criticized for supposedly inciting the rebels in the first place.

If Thelma and Louise spontaneously took to producing comedy variety shows, the result might be a little like the show called "Trick: Bordello" ? a rollicking, multidimensional staged adventure that's a little bit sexy, a little bit spunky and a whole lot of funny. Flying by the seat of their pants, rising local comics Emily Maya Mills and Brandie Posey have buddied up to launch the raucous monthly comedy series last month at Bordello Bar downtown, on the edge of Little Tokyo. Next Sunday will see their second event, a Christmas ensemble they've billed as "a holiday extravaganza fit for virgins and atheists alike.