Ghost of a flea

Cemetary paths

Satellite imagery reveals Costa Rican cemetary paths overlay footpaths dating back 1,500 years. Time and travelling feet have worn grooves into hillsides as much as 3m deep.

"It appears that the cemetery was not the only sacred place, but so was the territory between the village and the cemetery, and the proper path use was to access the cemetery along precisely the same path used by their ancestors," he said. "The process of entering and leaving cemeteries was part of a belief system that included ceremonial feasting, tomb construction and the breaking of special pottery, grinding stones and other ritual activities at the cemeteries," said Sheets.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 8, 2003 10:21 AM