Follow-up: Oldest Mesoamerican Pyramid Tomb Found in Mexico

Prior blog post.

Is it just me?  I mean yeah, darlings, I'm getting a bit older now, but still - I don't seem to recall all the emphasis on the Mormons and BYU in the first article I read about this discovery that I'm now seeing in this article.  Talk about agendas, geez!  Question is - which agendas (agendae?) have priority???

I am also quite puzzled by conflicting references within this story that the a female was buried on a landing OUTSIDE the presumably dominant male's tomb but then a later statement in the article that the male and female were "buried side by side."  The archaeologist who made that statement obviously has an entirely different concept of what "side by side" means in the English language. 

To confuse things even further, the first article (prior blog post) seems to indicate that the female and male were buried in separate tombs of equal significance as far as artifacts and, at least implied, similar pomp and circmstance. 

Now tell me, how could someone buried on what amounts to a step outside of someone else's tomb be of equal significance with the person inside the tomb, unless the intepretations that we are being given in these reports are, er, shall we say, somewhat shaded?  To what purpose?

You can find the full article at Deseret News
BYU archaeologists discover ancient royal tomb in Mexico that may be oldest in Americas
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010 12:45 a.m. MDT

PROVO — Whoever they were, the two adults went out of this life in style — their bodies adorned with jade carvings shaped like monkeys and crocodiles, and their mouths filled with precious jewels and tiny seashells.

Archaeologists who recently discovered the final resting place of what may have been a royal couple in the ancient city of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico, believe this is one of the oldest pyramid tombs in Mesoamerica, dating back nearly 2,700 years.

. . .

The main tomb held an ornately decorated male and two sacrificial victims, with a similarly adorned woman, presumably the man's wife or lover, on a landing outside his tomb.

. . .

With a handful of unanswered research questions, Clark sent Bachand back in 2008 to continue excavating. And this season, they got lucky.

Besides the spectacular amount and quality of the artifacts, it's also the first time Clark, a well-respected Mesoamerican archaeologist, said he had heard of a male and a female buried next to each other, at least in this Mesoamerican time frame.   . . .