NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 VOLUME 65, NUMBER 6 CONTENTS features 25 The Maya Sense of Time As one Maya calendar reaches the end of a cycle, we take a look at how an ancient people understood their place in the cosmos BY ZACH ZORICH 30 Factory of Wealth A mint from the Han Dynasty produced billions of coins that enabled vast economic growth and trade along the Silk Road BY LAUREN HILGERS 36 Zeugma After the Flood New excavations continue to tell the story of an ancient city at the crossroads between east and west BY MATTHEW BRUNWASSER 42 Down by the Savannah Riverside By studying ancient landforms, archaeologists are uncovering evidence of a novel hunter-gatherer behavior BY MARGARET SHAKESPEARE 48 Pilgrimage to Sudan Miracles of Banganarti BY JARRETT A. LOBELL 48 A portrait of St. Damian in the medieval Church of the Archangel Raphael in Sudan. Cover: The Temple of the Inscriptions at the Maya city of Palenque in Mexico may have been engineered to align with the setting sun on December 21st. COPYRIGHT KENNETH GARRETT 1