
Robot Finds Mysterious Spheres in Ancient Temple - joshuahedlund
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/mysterious-spheres-emerge-from-ancient-temple-130429.htm
======
stephenhuey
That's not just any temple. When the Aztecs discovered that city, they gave it
a name in their Nahuatl language: Teotihuacan means "place of the gods"
because they had no idea who built that city, and to this day no one has
figured out the origin. 2 millennia ago, it was the largest city in the
Americas, covering 30 sq km. The mystery can take your imagination on a wild
ride, and I half-expected to see the Predator dropping down out of the sky as
he made his rounds on the world's pyramids. ;) I recommend you visit, because
it's quite accessible via a half-hour bus ride from the north station in
Mexico City.

~~~
dalore
Well the spheres do sound like "Alien" eggs.

------
fein
You have a remote controlled robot, but not a single photo of this cool,
unknown object?

Please tell me I missed something on that site.

On another note, this is pretty cool:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosite#Use_in_materials_scien...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosite#Use_in_materials_science)

especially the bit about frustrated magnets. I wonder if the creators of these
had any concept of this phenomenon.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Here they are: [http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/1.spheres-660x433-mysterious-
sp...](http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/1.spheres-660x433-mysterious-
spheres-130429.jpg)

~~~
nollidge
I don't really get why they call them "spheres". Maybe there's some analysis
they did to figure out that they used to actually be spherical, but why
doesn't the article mention that?

~~~
ars
They don't look like spheres to me either.

But I guess "robot finds rocks on the ground" doesn't have the same ring to
it.

~~~
psychometry
One expects spheres to be roughly spherical. These are not.

------
RobotCaleb
Why do designers think a bar over the content at the top of a webpage is a
good thing? There are a lot you types around here, maybe this question can be
answered.

I use (used to use, anyway. Before everyone decided to mount a bar at the top)
space or page-down to read stuff online. When there's a bar riding above the
content I can't use space anymore. I have to use space and then my arrow keys
because the visible portion doesn't match what the browser thinks of the page,
so it ends up doing a full-size page down, which means the bar covers text I
haven't read yet. :(

~~~
mbrubeck
Chrome and Firefox both correct for fixed-position headers to make
pageup/pagedn/space work correctly in pages like this one. Some details:

<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=780345>

<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=830479>

~~~
zevyoura
Chrome does not compensate properly on the linked page. Firefox does. I've
written a short article about the issues with this implementation of fixed
headers here: <http://gist.io/4950242>

------
teamonkey
"Tell us what you think of this site" lightbox + close button too small to
press accurately on a touch device = walk away

~~~
rowanseymour
It's broken even for Chrome on my laptop. Nasty little bit of Flash that
renders this page barely viewable

~~~
coldpie
To everyone who has asked: this is why we use NoScript :)

------
joshuahedlund
What are the chances that we're on the cusp of a golden age of archaeological
discovery as robots/drones/etc advance in capabilities and allow us to deeply
explore ruins, underground lairs, underwater wrecks, and other remains of
past, buried civilizations that previously required human-sized openings /
human-supportable environments? Or is it more likely to be continued marginal
advancements over time as we keep discovering the next-hardest stuff to
discover? (It's been decades since Alvin explored the Titanic, but the
technology is getting much better and much more affordable.) Either way, it's
an exciting time to be alive.

------
pyre
It's the Temple of the Feathered _Serpent_ , and they don't get the
significant of round objects buried in the ground? Seems to me that it's
possible that they would represent eggs, though I'm no expert on Meso-American
culture/religion.

~~~
astrodust
Maybe they've discovered an ancient bowling alley.

------
arethuza
Related in some way to the Costa Rica Spheres?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica>

~~~
krapp
This is much closer to what I was imagining...

Except in my head they were also levitating in the midst of a vast antechamber
paved with demihuman skulls, while bathed in a murky, sourceless flame whose
flicker caused the wall reliefs to seem to dance, and stab at the probe with
wicked implements of shadow.

So I suppose disappointment was inevitable :\

------
joshuahedlund
Since this page appears to be uselessly bloated for many users, here is the
text: (I cannot find a link to another news article)

Hundreds of mysterious spheres lie beneath the Temple of the Feathered
Serpent, an ancient six-level step pyramid just 30 miles from Mexico City.

The enigmatic spheres were found during an archaeological dig using a camera-
equipped robot at one of the most important buildings in the pre-Hispanic city
of Teotihuacan.

"They look like yellow spheres, but we do not know their meaning. It's an
unprecedented discovery," said Jorge Zavala, an archaeologist at Mexico's
National Anthropology and History Institute.

The Mesoamerican ruins of Teotihuacan, a World Heritage Site, represent one of
the largest urban centers of the ancient world. Thought to have been
established around 100 B.C., the pyramid-filled city had more than 100,000
inhabitants at its peak, but was abandoned for mysterious reasons around 700
A.D. -- long before the Aztecs arrived in the 1300s.

The excavation at the temple focused on a 330-foot-long tunnel which runs
under the structure. The conduit was discovered in 2003 when heavy rain
uncovered a hole a few feet from the pyramid.

Exploring the tunnel, which was deliberately filled with debris and ruins by
the Teotihuacan people, required several years of preliminary work and
planning.

"Finally, a few months ago we found two side chambers at 72 and 74 meters (236
and 242 feet) from the entrance. We called them North Chamber and South
Chamber,” archaeologist Sergio Gómez Chávez, director of the Tlalocan Project,
told Discovery News.

The archaeologists explored the tunnel with a remote-controlled robot called
Tlaloc II-TC, which has an infrared camera and a laser scanner that generates
3D visualization of the spaces beneath the temple.

"The robot was able to enter in the part of the tunnel which has not yet been
excavated yet and found three chambers between 100 and 110 meters (328 and 360
feet) from the entrance," Gómez Chávez said.

The mysterious spheres lay in both the north and south chambers. Ranging from
1.5 to 5 inches, the objects have a core of clay and are covered with a yellow
material called jarosite.

"This material is formed by the oxidation of pyrite, which is a metallic ore,"
Gómez Chávez said. "It means that in pre-hispanic times they appeared as if
they were metallic spheres. There are hundreds of these in the south chamber."

According to George Cowgill, professor emeritus at Arizona State University
and the author of several publications on Teotihuacan, the spheres are a
fascinating find.

"Pyrite was certainly used by the Teotihuacanos and other ancient Mesoamerican
societies," Cowgill told Discovery News. "Originally the spheres would have
shown brilliantly. They are indeed unique, but I have no idea what they mean."

Even the walls and ceiling of both chambers were covered with a mineral powder
composed of magnetite, pyrite and hematite which provided a special brightness
to the place.

"We believe that high-ranking people, priests or even rulers, went down to the
tunnel to perform rituals," Gómez Chávez said.

Indeed the archaeologists found many offerings, including pottery and wooden
masks covered with inlaid rock crystal, jade and quartz -- all dating from
around 100 A.D.

Gómez Chávez and his team now look forward to the next phase of the project --
exploring the last part of the tunnel and three chambers which archaeologists
have seen through the robot cameras.

"The tunnel is in pristine condition, untouched for almost two millennia,"
said Ng “TC” Tze Chuen, an independent researcher who worked on the design of
the Tláloc II-TC robot. "Can you can imagine what can be found inside?"

Ng, who helped create the Djedi robot that explored Egypt's Great Pyramid in
2010, believes the Mexican tunnel might lead to one of the most significant
archaeological finds in Teotihuacan.

"The results are very encouraging indeed," he said.

According to Gómez Chávez, the tunnel was sealed twice by the Teotihuacan
people. Thick walls, erected to block access, were demolished about 1,800
years ago in order to deposit something very important in the central chamber
at the end of the tunnel.

"Maybe in this place," Gómez Chávez said, "we will find the remains of those
who ruled Teotihuacan.”

~~~
exodust
No way! The page works fine.

Copying and pasting whole articles into comments? Maybe when the internet
actually breaks, do that. But when a couple of people have a whinge about a
lightbox, or someone else complains about Flash which doesn't seem to be
there...

What if they edit their article? Will you update your post with those
corrections?

~~~
ivix
The page is actively hostile towards readers. On my mobile device, a large
'survey' box covers the text, which cannot be closed. The discovery.com
website is broken.

------
koops
Best headline I've seen on HN in years.

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fiatmoney
You can see some better pictures of them here, along with the archaeologist:

[http://lh4.ggpht.com/_--
Z3sZFnME0/TKN3KSl_pmI/AAAAAAAAAJY/09...](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_--
Z3sZFnME0/TKN3KSl_pmI/AAAAAAAAAJY/09nMxFSGf8c/s800/a_148NewtRipleyNest.jpg)

------
jstanley
"Mysterious Spheres"? They look like ordinary rocks to me.

------
janlukacs
Call Ripley to open the easter eggs.

~~~
kbenson
That was my first thought too! It's totally a (bad?) sci-fi movie plot:

1) Ancient pyramid? Check

2) Hidden tunnel under pyramid to special room? Check

3) Weird items of unknown purpose hidden in room? Check

4) Tunnel filled in and hidden from view by ancient people? Check

5) Tunnel uncovered in modern times by accident? Check

6) Modern Archaeologists disturb ancient alien eggs causing decimation of the
human race? Che...

~~~
flagnog
facemasks... uhhh, facemasks? Who was supposed to bring the facemasks?!?!

------
sodiumphosphate
Damn. Still no ancient aliens.

------
michaelochurch
Cast Analyze so you don't waste MP on spells that don't work.

~~~
zackzackzack
Use bayesian logic first! They're yellow therefore they are likely electric
type. Cast a rockslide spell first and see if you get type damage.

------
drifting
Why is this posted to Hacker News? It didn't seem at all related to
programming or starting a business

~~~
vyrotek
<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

_On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity._

