Analysis of Rare Textiles from Honduras Ruins Suggests Mayans
Produced Fine Fabrics
Newswise [USA], 16-Apr-2008

Very few textiles from the Mayan culture have survived, so the
treasure trove of fabrics excavated from a tomb at the Copan ruins
in Honduras since the 1990s has generated considerable excitement.
Textiles conservator Margaret Ordoņez, a professor at the University
of Rhode Island, spent a month at the site in 2004 examining 100
textile samples found in a tomb, and since then she has been
analyzing tiny fragments of 49 samples she brought back to her lab
to see what she could learn from them. The tomb, one of three
excavated by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, was
of a woman of high status who was buried during the 5th
century. "What was most amazing was that there were as many as 25
layers of fabrics on an offertory platform and covering pottery in
the tomb, and they all had a different fabric structure, color, and
yarn size, so it's likely that the tomb was reopened â€" perhaps
several times -- and additional layers of textiles were laid there
years after her death," said Ordoņez.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/539875/

[repost from ArchNews Yahoo group]