according to the spanish the maya offered blood to appease their gods. maya nobles committed excruciating acts of self-mutilation. here, a woman pulls a rope embedded with thorns through her tongue. by spilling blood, the nobles believed they could communicate with powerful ancestral spirits. this monument commemorates another bloodletting -- but whose ? stuart: in the glyphs that follow, we have the name of the person who is the subject of the sentence -- the one who let the blood. and in this case it's the king of copan. he has various titles that tell us that, for instance, here -- the number "13" -- that he was the thirteenth king in the sequence. now lastly, we have the personal name of the king. and you can see here another number using, in this case, three dots with three bars being 18. and then finally a head of an animal, which is a rabbit. and this is the name of "18 rabbit." keach: "18 rabbit" -- an odd name. but he was one of copan's greatest kings. he reigned from a.d. 695 to 738. on monuments, he's portrayed as a great warrior and shown to c

keach: bacabs and powatuns were the maya gods who held up the earth and the sky. they were also the patrons of scribes. bacabs wearing a star were found carved on a throne in a large house near the workshop. the house belonged to an important noble thought to have been a scribe. was the star being made for him ? the artisan's workshop is right next door to the house of the noble. was there some kind of relationship between the two ? there were not yet enough clues until preparations began for the reconstruction of the workshop, directed by project architect rudy larios. when larios began digging into the foundation, he made a startling discovery. interpreter: on dismantling the wall, we quickly found some stones that appeared very strange and a small slope in the west part of the room. when we investigated further we found this. keach: larios had discovered a hidden tomb beneath the artisan's workshop. the tomb had been reused at various times and several bodies were discovered, one on top of the other. the skeletons were removed from the tomb and taken to the lab

god of the hearth. these are the ruins of the ancient maya, who flourished from the time of christ to a.d. 900. at their height, maya settlements spanned southern mesoamerica from the yucatan in the north to el salvador in the south. the maya left behind dozens of cities mark by tall pyramids and imposing statues. these remnants offer a portrait of the maya elite. but archaeologist payson sheets was seeking a broader picture. man: we want to deal with the common people the people who are doing the farming, who are making the pottery who are doing the work for supporting society. and it's about time we know something about them how they lived. were they really exploited ? were they living lives of desperation just barely eking out an existence under the oppressive machinery of an exploitative government ? or were their lives fairly rich ? did they have things of beauty in their houses ? how did they live ? did they have a variety of foods stored in their houses ? were they scrinched into scuzzy little spaces, or did they have some open areas and a comfortable life ? that's what we're working on.

at 4:00 and 6:00 what maya would like everyone in our area to do something she says would make a big difference. and we'll tell you what the family who has devoted their lives to gody about their faith now. jacqueline london nbc 10 news. >>> well a new study suggests older women who are at higher risk for bone fracture may also be prone to gum disease. experts say lower estrogen levels after menopause can lead to changes in the body that may trigger gum disease. researchers say more studies are needed, but they say a woman's bone fracture risk could help indicate whether they are also at risk for gum disease. >>> and three men in austria are the first patients to undergo a bionic reconstruction of their hands. all three had lost the control of their arms due to nerve injuries in their necks. doctors replace their hands with prosthetic ones. the men can control the hands using nerves and muscles transplanted from their legs. and now the patients can hold objects and do more complex tasks like undoing the buttons on their shirts. quite amazing. >>> some young girls in our area will have a chance to become runway stars for a day and it is all for a good cause. they'l