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Pandas Sent by China Arrive in Qatar

Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
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Pandas Sent by China Arrive in Qatar

Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)
Suhail walks in his shelter at the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, near Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo, Lujain Jo)

Qatar received on Wednesday Chinese giant pandas Suhail and Soraya ahead of next month's World Cup.

Crowds of children and reporters watched as the four-year-old male and three-year-old female took their first steps in a temporary enclosure in a ceremony at the Al Khor park about 50 kilometers north of Doha.

The Chinese government sent the animals as gift to mark the World Cup that starts November 20.

Suhail, who weighs 130 kilograms, and his female partner, who is 70 kilos, must undergo a 21-day quarantine following their arrival along with two keepers, said Al Khor's zoological director Tim Bouts.

"In a few weeks, or in a month's time, they will be ready to be shown to the world," Bouts added.

Eight hundred kilograms of fresh bamboo will be flown in each week to feed them.

Pandas, which reproduce rarely in the wild and rely on a diet of bamboo in the mountains of western China, remain among the world's most threatened species. An estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild, while another 500 are in zoos or reserves, mostly in Sichuan.

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Rare Mummy Reveals Women’s Important Role in Oldest Center of Civilization in the Americas

The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
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Rare Mummy Reveals Women’s Important Role in Oldest Center of Civilization in the Americas

The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)

Archaeologists in Peru announced they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, in an area which for decades was used as a garbage dump.

The new discovery revealed the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas, researchers said.

“What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archaeologist David Palomino told AFP, according to CBS News.

The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for over 30 years until becoming an archaeological site in the 1990s.

Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000 years BC, contained skin, part of the nails and hair, and was wrapped in a shroud made of several layers of fabric and a mantle of macaw feathers. Macaws are colorful birds that belong to the parrot family.

The woman's funerary trousseau, which was presented to reporters at the culture ministry, included a toucan's beak, a stone bowl and a straw basket.

“This is an exceptional burial due to the preservation of skin, hair, and nails, a rare condition in this area, where usually only skeletal remains are recovered,” Peru's culture ministry said in a statement.

Preliminary analyses indicate that the remains found in December belong to a woman between 20 and 35 years old who was about five feet tall, and wearing a headdress - made with bundles of twisted threads - that represented her elevated social status.

Palomino told reporters the find showed that while “it was generally thought that rulers were men, or that they had more prominent roles in society” women had “played a very important role in the Caral civilization.”

Caral society developed between 3000 and 1800 BC, around the same time as other great cultures in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.

The city is situated in the fertile Supe valley, around 115 miles north of Lima and 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

It was declared a UN World Heritage Site in 2009.