mesoamerica had no wheels that were usable in any meaningful sense.they had no draft animals to pull a wheeled vehicle if they had had a wheeled vehicle. so all goods were taken in one of two ways -- by canoe or raft where there was water -- and except for the coastal areas, bodies of water that were navigable for any length of time were quite rare in mesoamerica. the typically, these porters were carrying approximately 50 pounds. now, you can, of course, carry more or you can carry less. but the more you carry, the shorter the distance you can usually go. so 50 pounds was about average for long-distance, day-after-day carriage. keach: so for copan's metateros, the market potential was limited by technology. because they had to carry the stones to market on their backs, the market had to be close by. filomeno's problem is similar. although he can use a bus to get his metates to market, the cost of transportation must be added to the sale price. if filomeno transports his metates much beyond the neighboring market town, he must add the cost of a round-

take vo blanca ---nuevos descubrimient os revelan que las civilizaciones de mesoamerica se expandieron.. take vo cesar ---cientos de personas desafian las bajas temperaturas de la bahia con tal de recibir alimentos para celebrar la navidad... cesar --decenas de personas esperaron en fila para su oportunidad de llevarse despensa a su casa que regalo la iglesia "glide memorial" en san francisco. vo --podrian haber llegado alrededor de 5 mil 500 personas, muchos de la tercera edad. --los oficiales de la iglesia exhortaron a donar para estas fechas especialmente de tanta necesidad. --la donacion de hoy, fue gracias a la aportacion de algunas coorporacion es. blanca ---ahora veamos las imagenes del dia.... take pkg video 1 --en guatemala, los descendientes de los mayas comenzaron a celebrar hoy un parteaguas muy importante en el calendario maya. --este viernes diciembre 21, un ciclo de 5, 125 aÑos de este calendario, termina. --muchos libros y peliculas han tratado el tema de los rumores del final del mundo pero los arqueologos y expertos dicen que no hay evidencia de tal interpretacion. vi

covered with 1,300 glyphs, these steps form the longest single inscription in mesoamerica. archaeologist bill fash. fash: the hieroglyphic stairway represents an encyclopedia of copan history. what it's saying is that copan is a powerful kingdom. it has been from its inception, and all of the copan kings were great warriors. the interesting thing is, when you look at the archaeological context of the stairway, you realize that all was not well in river city. keach: workers enter a tunnel behind the staircase. twelve centuries earlier, other workers had built the hieroglyphic stairs on top of an existing building. the space between was filled with rubble, which was usually densely packed. this fill is very loose. why such shoddy construction ? was it evidence that the king who commissioned the stairway had little support among his workers ? what had gone wrong ? once again, a maya king had been killed by a rival kingdom. at copan, that king was 18 rabbit. the hieroglyphic staircase was built by his successors in a symbolic attempt to assert the status of copan's ruling dynas