The Tepexpan Man is the name of a skeleton, which was found on the shore of the former Lake Texcoco in central Mexico. Archaeologist Helmut de Terra discovered it in February 1947. The skeleton was dated to a time before Columbus discovered America, the Pre-Columbian era. The skeleton is that of a woman. It was found near mammoth remains; it is at least 10,000 years old. It was fancifully hailed by "Time" magazine as the oldest Mexican soldier. The skeleton was found lying face down with the arms under the chest and the legs drawn up to the stomach. The body most likely sunk into the mud surrounding it, leaving the shoulder, back, and hips exposed, which might explain why those elements are missing. It is possible that the body was originally put in the lake.
The deposits of the area where the skeleton was found dated the site where Tepexpan Man was found to about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Near the skeleton, there were the remains of five mammoths. They could be associated with obsidian flakes. Therefore, it was originally believed that Tepexpan Man dated to about 10,000 years ago. However, years later, researchers looked at the skeleton again and dated the remains using radiocarbon methods. It was then found to be closer to 2,000 years old. Dr. Silvia Gonzalez, a professor of geoarchaeology at John Moore University in Liverpool, used uranium isotope analysis to date the skeleton. Results showed that Tepexpan Man was 4,700 years old. She argues that contamination of the remains led to the wrong radiocarbon dates. Other critics have claimed that Tepexpan Man was an intrusion in that he was buried at a later date but dug into Pleistocene materials.
An analysis of Tepexpan Man that was published in the 1947 issue of The Science Newsletter claims that the individual was at least 40 at the time of death. This was determined by "united seams in the skull" (referring to sutures), and fused epiphyses in long bones.
In his first report, Helmut de Terra claims that "The other bones, in conjunction with the skull, indicate that the person was of male sex." Based on DNA analysis, a Mexican archaeologist has proposed that Tepexpan 'man' was actually a woman.
Tepexpan Man has a healed fracture on his right ulna. De Terra thought that due to this fracture and the proximity to mammoth fossils, Tepexpan Man may have been a hunter who was either killed by his fellow men or mortally wounded while hunting. The Science Newsletter claims that the individual suffered from a stiff neck due to the many limy deposits on the cervical vertebrae. This means that Tepexpan Man most likely suffered from arthritis.
The Science Newsletter described Tepexpan man in its 1947 edition. It described Tepexpan Man as having "a high-domed, thin-walled skull" which contained "a brain the same size as those of present-day Indians." The writers described a "solidly built" jawline and "prominent" brow ridges, as well as a "sharply prominent chin" which would separate him from earlier Neanderthals. Tepexpan Man only had three teeth left in his upper jaw. In his lower jaw, all of the molars had disappeared before his death. This was evidenced by the alveolar sockets being healed and smoothed over in the mandible. What was left on the mandible included incisors, "eye-teeth," and premolars that were worn but still in decent condition.
Dr. Gonzalez also reconstructed the environment of Lake Texcoco around the time of Tepexpan Man by analyzing sediments and fossils from the area. With her team, she analyzed sand, clay, and volcanic ash, as well as fossils of diatoms (microscopic algae) and ostracods. Ostracods are small crustaceans. When Tepexpan Man was alive, the lake was very deep, full of fish, and surrounded by trees. The environment surrounding Lake Texcoco changed a lot over the past 20,000 years: There were several volcanic eruptions. Water levels, and several types of vegetation also changed. These environmental changes clearly affected populations living in the area. Today, Lake Texcoco has almost dried up. It is on the northeast outskirts of Mexico City.
AMS radiocarbon dates of the sediments at Tepexpan show ages between 19,110±90 and 612±2214C years BP. New uranium-series date the skeleton to 4,700±200 years BP, which would indicate a Holocene age. The evidence suggests that there were large changes around Lake Texcoco in terms of the balance between water and land plants, C3 and C4 plants, saline, alkaline and freshwater conditions, volcanic activity, reworking of lake sediments, and input from the drainage basin throughout the late Pleistocene and late Holocene. These changes also had large effects on the prehistoric human populations living around the lake at this time.
Androgyne
Androgyne is the combination of any two genders or gender identities, usually man and woman, or genders related to masculinity and femininity, associated with androgyny. Different from androgynous, it's used as a gender identity rather than being a gender expression or presentation.
The word is a mixture of ἀνδρ- (anér", andr-, andro-", man) and γυνή (gunē, gyné", gyne", woman).
Operation Moonshot
Operation Moonshot is a programme by the UK government to allow many people in England to be tested for COVID-19 as a way to allow large gatherings of people to happen there while maintaining control over the virus. According to the "British Medical Journal", the programme aims to perform 10 million tests per day by 2021.
People are worried about it because, as a leaked government document says, it is thought it may cost £100bn, which is about three-quarters of what the NHS England costs every year. Statisticians say because any test can have inaccuracies, mass testing at this scale might cause hundreds of thousands of false positives a day, resulting in very large numbers of people being told they are infected when they are not infected.
Quesadilla
A quesadilla is a typical Mexican dish. It is a tortilla, with added cheese. The quesadilla is then folded, and either baked or fried. In the area around Mexico City, other ingredients such as meat or mushrooms are added as well.
Kathleen Byerly
Kathleen M. Bruyere (née Donahue, previously Byerly; 5 February 19443 September 2020) was an American military captain in the United States Navy. She was one of the twelve women named by "Time" magazine as Time Person of the Year in 1975.
In May 1975, she became the first female officer in the Navy to became the flag secretary to an admiral commanding an operational staff.
In 1977, Byerly was one of six officers who sued the United States Secretary of the Navy and the United States Secretary of Defense over their being restricted from serving on combat aircraft and ships. This led to the 1948 Women's Armed Services Integration Act being struck down as unconstitutional.
Byerly was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She died of cancer on 3 September 2020 in San Diego, California at the age of 76.
Narong Wongwan
Narong Wongwan (; 25 December 1925 – 10 September 2020) was a Thai politician and tobacco businessman. He was a long-term member of parliament representing Phrae.
He was the leader of the United Thai Party and the Justice Unity Party. He was publicly known as the "godfather" "(jao pho)" of Phrae or even "godfather of the North".
From 1983 to 1986, he was the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives. In 1992 for a short time, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand.
Wongwan died on 10 September 2020 at a hospital in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand from dementia, aged 94.
Bill Heller
Dr. Harold William "Bill" Heller (September 3, 1935 – September 11, 2020) was an American politician and educator. He was born in Scales Mound, Illinois. Heller was a member of the Democratic Party. From 2007 to 2011, he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives.
Heller died on September 11, 2020 in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of 85.
H. Jay Melosh