Eric Tepe News Today

It's no secret that sports fanatics tend to treat their favorite game as a sacred thing, but a new discovery suggests the ancient Maya took it to a whole new level.

Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest evidence of ceremonial offerings on ballgame court by the ancient Maya in Mexico.

Experts have found a "special" ritual deposit below an ancient ball court that includes psychoactive and ceremonial plant remains.

Advances in environmental DNA sequencing show that these areas were for more than just for recreation.

Advances in environmental DNA sequencing show that these areas were for more than just for recreation.

Archaeological evidence adds ball courts to the list of Maya structures that were blessed with offerings.

1:01 When Botanist Thomas Lea went looking for plants in the 1840s, he did it in Northside and Cumminsville on  the Ludlow estate and others. What was most striking were the wetlands where hundreds of lady slipper orchids bloomed. "It was a very different place then, just a few decades after Cincinnati was founded," says UC Biologist Eric Tepe, who is working with Conover to log plants now. Lea identified 714 species in 1844. His work was published posthumously in 1849. Many of his plant sampl...