Mummified remains of a 30,000-year-old baby mammoth found in Canadian gold fields
A gold miner found a mummified baby woolly mammoth in the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory in Yukon, Canada. According to a press release from the local government, the female baby mammoth has been named Nun cho ga by the First Nation Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders, which translates to “big baby animal” in the Hän language.
Nun cho ga Baby Woolly Mammoth found in Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory, Yukon, CanadaYukon Government
Nun cho ga is the most complete mummified mammoth discovered in North America.
Nun cho ga died and was frozen in permafrost during the ice age, over 30,000 years old, said the press release. She would have roamed the Yukon alongside wild horses, cave lions, and giant steppe bison.
The frozen mammoth was recovered by geologists after a young miner in the Klondike gold fields found the remains while digging up muck.
Dr. Grant Zazula, the Yukon government’s paleontologist, said the miner had made the “most important discovery in paleontology in North America,”reported The Weather Channel.
The baby mammoth was probably with her mother when it but ventured off a little too far and got stuck in the mud, Zazula told The Weather Channel.
Professor Dan Shugar, from the University of Calgary, part of the team who excavated the woolly mammoth, said that this discovery was the “most exciting scientific thing I have ever been part of.”
He described how immaculately the mammoth had been preserved, saying that it still had intact toenails, hide, hair, trunk, and even intestines, with its last meal of grass still present.
According to the press release, Yukon is renowned for its store of ice age fossils, but rarely are such immaculate and well-preserved finds discovered. Zazula wrote in the press release that “As an ice age paleontologist, it has been one of my lifelong dreams to come face to face with a real woolly mammoth.
“That dream came true today. Nun cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world.”
The woolly mammoth, about the size of the African elephant, roamed the earth until about 4,000 years ago.
Early humans, hunted them for food and used mammoth bones and tusks for art, tools, and dwellings. Scientists are divided as to whether hunting or climate change drove them into extinction.
Ancient Egyptian Presence In North America: The Mysterious Fawn Hoof Mummy
This fascinating mummy was found over 200 years ago in one of the largest cave systems in America: The Mammoth Cave. There, miners discovered an extremely well-preserved mummy with red hair prepared and embalmed in an eerily similar way to the ancient Egyptians.
Mammoth Cave Mummy, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
After examining the mummy in the late 1800s, the Smithsonian Institute ‘lost’ the mummy. Some 200 years ago, a very unusual mummy was discovered in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.
There are a couple of things about the mummy which completely challenge what we have been taught to believe about history books, especially about the ability and accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians, their intrepid transoceanic voyages and their influence on other ancient cultures.
The mummy known as Fawn Hoof is considered by many as evidence that history books are wrong and that we are being given filtered information when it comes to ancient civilizations and the origins of mankind.
The mummy was mentioned in the book Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, by Angelo I. George where the author indicates that the mummy was found in the cave in September of 1811. According to George, the Ancient mummy was given the name “Fawn Hoof” in 1815 and ‘thousands’ of people saw the mummy as it was put on display.
But what’s the story behind the mummy and why is it so important?
Sometime between Between 1811 and 1813 (different authors vary on the date, a group of miners were working inside one of the Kentucky caves known as Short Cave.
One of the workers, who was excavating, came across a hard surface which proved to be a large rock with a flat surface. After miners had removed the rock they discovered a crypt that contained a mummy inside. But it wasn’t an ordinary mummy. In the past, such discoveries were not given much importance and people looked to make a profit out of history.
In 1816, Nahum Ward from Ohio visited the cave and purchased numerous artefacts and the Fawn Hoof Mummy. In addition to the Fawn Hoof Mummy, Ward also purchased other mummies and some of them were over reportedly 2500 years old.
Years went by and the collection purchased by Ward was placed in a travelling exhibition of rarities. Through the years, the Fawn Hoof Mummy travelled across the country. It was first taken to Lexington, Kentucky and later transferred to the American Antiquarian Society.
In 1876 the Fawn Hoof Mummy was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution by Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society. Due to the fact that the mummy was inadequately cared for and because it was transported a lot, the mummy suffered damage.
Researchers at the Smithsonian examined the mummy, dissected it and reported their findings.
At some point after that – like many other things that challenge history — the Fawn Hoof Mummy was completely lost.
According to initial reports, the mummy was found to have been a woman of around six feet in height.
The mummy was wrapped in deerskin, which in turn was decorated with leaf and vine patterns. The mummy was found to be in an extremely well-preserved condition even though the mummy was not analyzed by researchers for over 60 years after it was initially found.
Among the more unusual finding was the fact that this mummy-like other mummies found in Peru and Bolivia in recent times — had red hair.
It was concluded that the hair was cut to a length of an eighth of an inch, except for the back of the mummy’s head where the hair was about two inches long. Based on the artefacts found where the mummy was buried, it is believed that the woman was of great importance in ancient times.
However, researchers noted that among the most fascinating details about the Fawn Hoof Mummy is the fact that it was prepared and embalmed in an eerily similar way as the ancient Egyptians used to.
Reports indicate that the hands, ears, fingers, and the rest of the body were dried, but extremely well preserved.
But how is it possible that the mummy was lost? Is it possible that the mummy challenged historical doctrines set into place by certain institutions?
Many people believe that the Fawn Hoof Mummy is one of the many indicators which prove that thousands of years ago, before written history, ancient cultures around the globe were intricately connected and that transoceanic voyages occurred much sooner than mainstream scholars are willing to accept.
Deep-Sea Robot Reveals Treasures of $20 Billion San Jose Wreck
The legendary galleon is thought to be carrying 200 tons of gold, silver and precious stones. Now, there are new pictures of the deep-sea treasure. The contents of the historic San Jose galleon, which sank more than 300 years ago, still make the hearts of treasure hunters all over the world beat faster.
Columbia says the wreck is a ‘”national art treasure’
According to experts, at least 200 tons of gold, silver and gems are said to have been in the ship, which sank off the coast of the Colombian port city of Cartagena in 1708. Its value: is several billion US dollars.
When the shipwreck was discovered in 2015, then Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos presented it as “the most valuable treasure ever found in the history of mankind.”
Gold coins were only a part of the valuable treasures aboard the galleon
Gold, coins and canons
After the recent elaborate diving expedition at a depth of 950 meters (3,117 feet), the Colombian army has now published new pictures of the legendary ship and its treasures.
They show cast-iron cannons, porcelain dishes, pottery, glass bottles, but also apparently golden coins. They also display a part of the ship’s bow covered with seaweed and shells, as well as remains of the hull framework.
These are the most accurate images of the ship ever taken, according to acting Colombian President Ivan Duque.
What exactly might have been in these clay pots?
Other wrecks to be investigated
The teams have dived down in four missions with high-tech equipment, including a remote-controlled diving robot. In the process, they were able to determine that the wreck had remained unscathed by human intervention.
One day, the shipwreck is to be lifted out of the sea — an expensive undertaking
In addition to the spectacular images of the famous shipwreck, however, the descent into the depths has revealed something else. A few hundred meters away, the camera has come across two other wrecks: a galleon from the colonial period and a schooner from the post-colonial period.
Thirteen other sites, where other shipwrecks from the same eras are suspected, are still to be investigated.
Crockery was also found on the site
The San Jose: A national treasure
The treasures aboard the galleon San Jose were on their way from the Spanish colonies in Latin America to the court of the Spanish King Philip V in 1708, but they never arrived there: On the night of June 7, the ship and its treasures were sunk by the British fleet in the Caribbean Sea.
Only a few of the 600 or so crew members survived.
Colombia plans to salvage the wreck one day — at a cost equivalent to around €61 million ($65 million) — and then exhibit it in a museum in Cartagena. The country already calls the wreck and its riches a “national art treasure.”
Archaeologists discover passageways in 3,000-year-old Peruvian temple
Archaeologists have excavated a network of passageways under a 3,000-year-old temple in the Peruvian Andes. Chavin de Huantar temple was once a religious and administrative hub for people across the region, Reuters reported.
Archaeologists work on the new discovery in the Peruvian Andes in Ancash
Found earlier this month, the passageways have features believed to have been built earlier than the temple’s labyrinthine galleries, according to an archaeologist at Stanford University.
John Rick, who was involved in the discovery, said: “It’s a passageway, but it’s very different. It’s a different form of construction. It has features from earlier periods that we’ve never seen in passageways.”
At least 35 underground passageways, which sit 3,200m above sea level, have been found over several years, connecting with each other.
They were built between 1,200 and 200 years BC in the foothills of the Andes.
Chavin de Huantar, declared a World Heritage Site in 1985, was the inspiration and name of the operation carried out when the Peruvian armed forces built a network of tunnels to rescue 72 people taken hostage by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) rebel group at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima in 1997.
The archaeological site of Chavin de Huantar, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is seen some 155 miles (250 km) north of Lima on July 18, 2008.
It comes as archaeologists uncovered an “unprecedented” network of lost cities in the Amazon that shed light on how ancient civilisations constructed vast urban landscapes while living alongside nature.
Researchers used lidar technology, dubbed “lasers in the sky”, to scan through the tropical forest canopy, and examine sites found in the savannah forest of southwest Amazonia.
They uncovered a wide range of intricate settlements that have laid hidden under thick tree canopies for centuries in the Llanos de Mojos savannah forest in Bolivia.
The findings, described in the journal Nature on Wednesday, shed light on cities built by the Casarabe communities between AD500 and AD1400.
Heiko Prumers, an archaeologist and study co-author from the German Archaeological Institute, said the complexity of the settlements was “mind-blowing”.
The site features an unprecedented array of elaborate and intricate structures “unlike any previously discovered” in the region, including 5m high terraces covering 22 hectares – the equivalent of 30 football pitches – and 21m tall conical pyramids, say the scientists, including Jose Iriarte from the University of Exeter in the UK.
Researchers examined six areas within a 4,500 sq km region of the Llanos de Mojos, in the Bolivian Amazon, that belonged to the Casarabe culture.
They also found a vast network of reservoirs, causeways, and checkpoints, spanning several kilometres at the site.
1,000-Year-Old Aztatlán Burials Uncovered in Coastal Mexico
The space where the exploration is carried out corresponds to a natural mound in an area of estuaries, whose surface was used to establish occupation. To date, an Aztatlán-style pipe and three complete vessels have been found, although fragmented, as well as bone, remains from burials, until now unique in this port.
Findings of the Aztatlán culture.
Mazatlán, Sinaloa.- A new archaeological site of the Aztatlán culture with burials of unique characteristics has been discovered in the urban area of the port of this Sinaloa city, during the paving and infrastructure construction works, in the northern extension of the Avenida del Dolphin.
From May 16 to 28, the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), carried out the archaeological salvage. The site was found by workers when a pipe ruptured exposing human remains; After the corresponding expert opinion and since they were ancient vestiges, the INAH was called to rescue them.
The space, where the works are carried out, corresponds to a natural mound, located in an area of estuaries, whose surface was used in pre-Hispanic times to establish an occupation, on a high point to avoid flooding, while taking advantage of the ecosystem, reports archaeologist Víctor Joel Santos Ramírez, coordinator of the salvage.
Santos Ramírez, a researcher at the INAH Sinaloa Center, details that the surface of the mound was covered with rammed shell debris, to build perishable constructions on top and under this floor the human burials were placed, one of them accompanied by an excellently made Aztatlán-style glass: “In Mazatlan, a burial of these characteristics had not been found: under a shell floor and accompanied by fine ceramics, since burials inside pots are common in the region,” explains the archaeologist.
Archaeological salvage in Mazatlan Sinaloa.
This characteristic makes the finding relevant for the archaeology of the region, for which the INAH is seeking an agreement with the Mazatlan City Council, in order to protect the site as an archaeological reserve and resume excavation work in the near future, Santos Ramírez reported.
As of May 27, at the site, which is being explored by the archaeologist Paola Martínez Delgadillo, in charge of the fieldwork, and the restoration technician, Eduardo Núñez Montesinos, coordinated by the archaeologist Víctor Joel Santos Ramírez, an Aztatlán style pipe and three complete vessels, although fragmented, among which the glass stands out; in addition to the human bone remains in a poor state of conservation, due to the natural characteristics of the Mazatlán soil.
Aztatlán style glass of excellent billing.
The pottery found is of excellent technical quality, located in the Acaponeta phase (900-1100/1200 AD), reports Santos Ramírez.
The settlement was part of a broad culture that, according to research by Alfonso Grave Tirado, also an archaeologist from the INAH Sinaloa Center, a scholar of this region, developed from the year 900 AD, a date that coincides with the time of the greatest social development. , economic and political of southern Sinaloa and northern Nayarit, known in the archaeological literature as Horizonte Aztatlán.
The archaeologist comments that surely this is not the only pre-Hispanic site and that it is very likely that evidence of an important ancient settlement, still unknown, is found throughout this area.
According to Víctor Joel Santos Ramírez, there have been few archaeological sites registered in the port of Mazatlan -no more than 10-, since most have disappeared due to the growth of the urban sprawl and unfortunately, authorities are rarely notified. ; this case is the exception since the INAH was notified, the archaeologists have received the support of personnel from the Comprehensive Port Administration and the contractor company, as well as from the Mazatlán City Council to carry out the research work.
The excavation is carried out systematically, although it is very difficult due to the depth and hardness of the soil, it is estimated that the work will conclude this weekend with just an approximation of the site, concludes the archaeologist.
Mississippian Period Cave Art Tells A Tale From 6,500 Years Ago
On a cold winter’s day in 1980, a group of recreational cavers entered a narrow, wet stream passage south of Knoxville, Tennessee. They navigated a slippery mud slope and a tight keyhole through the cave wall, trudged through the stream itself, ducked through another keyhole and climbed more mud. Eventually, they entered a high and relatively dry passage deep in the cave’s “dark zone” – beyond the reach of external light.
Human figure from Mud Glyph Cave with raised right hand and Chunkey game piece in left hand. Alan Cressler
On the walls around them, they began to see lines and figures traced into remnant mud banks laid down long ago when the stream flowed at this higher level. No modern or historic graffiti marred the surfaces. They saw images of animals, people and transformational characters blending human characteristics with those of birds, and those of snakes with mammals.
Ancient cave art has long been one of the most compelling of all artefacts from the human past, fascinating both to scientists and to the public at large. Its visual expressions resonate across the ages as if the ancients speak to us from deep in time. And this group of cavers in 1980 had happened upon the first ancient cave art site in North America.
Since then archaeologists like me have discovered dozens more of these cave art sites in the Southeast. We’ve been able to learn details about when cave art first appeared in the region, when it was most frequently produced and what it might have been used for. We have also learned a great deal by working with the living descendants of the cave art makers, the present-day Native American peoples of the Southeast, about what cave art means and how important it was and is to Indigenous communities.
From the outside, these caves betray no hint of the ancient art that might be inside. Alan Cressler
Cave art in America?
Few people think of North America when they think about ancient cave art. A century before the Tennessee cavers made their own discovery, the world’s first modern discovery of cave art was made in 1879, at Altamira in northern Spain. The scientific establishment of the day immediately denied the authenticity of the site.
Subsequent discoveries served to authenticate this and other ancient sites. As the earliest expressions of human creativity, some perhaps 40,000 years old, European palaeolithic cave art is now justifiably famous worldwide.
But similar cave art had never been found anywhere in North America, although Native American rock art outside of caves has been recorded since Europeans arrived. Artwork deep under the ground was unknown in 1980, and the Southeast was an unlikely place to find it given how much archaeology had been done there since the colonial period.
Nevertheless, the Tennessee cavers recognized that they were seeing something extraordinary and brought archaeologist Charles Faulkner to the cave. He initiated a research project there, naming the site Mud Glyph Cave. His archaeological work showed that the art was from the Mississippian culture, some 800 years old, and depicted imagery characteristic of ancient Native American religious beliefs. Many of those beliefs are still held by the descendants of Mississippian peoples: the modern Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Muscogee, Seminole and Yuchi, among others.
After the Mud Glyph Cave discovery, archaeologists here at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville initiated systematic cave surveys. Today, we have catalogued 92 dark-zone cave art sites in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. There are also a few sites known in Arkansas, Missouri and Wisconsin.
What did they depict?
There are three forms of southeastern cave art.
Mud glyphs are drawings traced into pliable mud surfaces preserved in caves, like those from Mud Glyph Cave.
Petroglyphs are drawings incised directly into the limestone of the cave walls.
Pictographs are paintings, usually made with charcoal-based pigments, placed on the cave walls.
Sometimes, more than one technique is found in the same cave, and none of the methods seems to appear earlier or later in time that the others.
Archaic Period pictograph of a hunter and prey dated to 6,500 years ago. Alan Cressler
Some southeastern cave art is quite ancient. The oldest cave art sites date to some 6,500 years ago, during the Archaic Period (10,000-1000 B.C.). These early sites are rare and seem to be clustered on the modern Kentucky-Tennessee state line. The imagery was simple and often abstract, although representational pictures do exist.
Woodland Period petroglyph of a box-shaped human-like creature with a long neck and u-shaped head. Alan Cressler
Cave art sites increase in number over time. The Woodland Period (1000 B.C. – A.D. 1000) saw more common and more widespread art production. Abstract art was still abundant and less worldly. Probably more spiritual subject matter was common. During the Woodland, conflations between humans and animals, like “bird-humans,” made their first appearance.
The Mississippian Period (A.D. 1000-1500) is the last precontact phase in the Southeast before Europeans arrived, and this was when much of the dark-zone cave art was produced. The subject matter is clearly religious and includes spirit people and animals that do not exist in the natural world. There is also strong evidence that Mississippian art caves were compositions, with images organized through the cave passages in systematic ways to suggest stories or narratives told through their locations and relations.
Mississippian Period pictograph showing an animal with talons for feet, a blunt forehead and long snout, with a long curving tail over the back. Alan Cressler
Cave art continued into the modern era
In recent years, researchers have realized that cave art has strong connections to the historic tribes that occupied the Southeast at the time of the European invasion.
In several caves in Alabama and Tennessee, mid-19th-century inscriptions were written on cave walls in Cherokee Syllabary. This writing system was invented by the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah between 1800 and 1824 and was quickly adopted as the tribe’s primary means of written expression.
On a cave wall in Alabama, an 1828 Cherokee syllabary inscription relating to a stickball ceremony. Alan Cressler
Cherokee archaeologists, historians and language experts have joined forces with nonnative archaeologists like me to document and translate these cave writings. As it turns out, they refer to various important religious ceremonies and spiritual concepts that emphasize the sacred nature of caves, their isolation and their connection to powerful spirits. These texts reflect similar religious ideas to those represented by graphic images in earlier, precontact time periods.
Based on all the rediscoveries researchers have made since Mud Glyph Cave was first explored more than four decades ago, cave art in the Southeast was created over a long period of time. These artists worked in ancient times when ancestral Native Americans lived by foraging in the rich natural landscapes of the Southeast all the way through to the historic period just before the Trail of Tears saw the forced removal of indigenous people east of the Mississippi River in the 1830s.
As surveys continue, researchers uncover more dark cave sites every year – in fact, four new caves were found in the first half of 2021. With each new discovery, the tradition is beginning to approach the richness and diversity of the Paleolithic art of Europe, where 350 sites are currently known. That archaeologists were unaware of the dark-zone cave art of the American Southeast even 40 years ago demonstrates the kinds of new discoveries that can be made even in regions that have been explored for centuries.
The Ancient Giants Of Nevada And The Mystery Of Lovelock Cave
Was North America once inhabited by a race of giants? According to an old legend supported by several challenging archaeological finds, it is possible. Many Native American tribes tell stories about the long-forgotten existence of a race of humans that were much taller and stronger than ordinary men.
These giants are described as both brave and barbaric and legends often mention their cruelty towards whomever they pleased.
The Paiute, a tribe that settled in the Nevada region thousands of years ago, have an outstanding legend about a race of red-haired giants called the Si-Te-Cah.
The ancestors of the Paiute described them as savage and inhospitable cannibals.
In the Northern Paiute language, ‘Si-Te-Cah’ literally means ‘tule-eaters.’
Legend has it that the giants came from a distant island by crossing the ocean on rafts built using the fibrous tule plant.
As odd as it may sound, this legend repeats itself all over the Americas, suggesting it might be an incomplete chronicle of a real event that happened long ago.
In Crónicas del Perú, sixteenth-century Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León recorded an ancient Peruvian tale about the origin of the South American giants.
According to legend, they “came by sea in rafts of reeds after the manner of large boats; some of the men were so tall that from the knee down they were as big as the length of an ordinary fair-sized man.”
Could the giants of Peru and the Si-Te-Cah have been survivors of a massive cataclysm who took refuge on the American continent?
Legend tells that the Si-Te-Cah waged war on the Paiute and all other neighbouring tribes, spreading terror and devastation. Finally, after years of conflict, the tribes united against the common enemy and began to decimate them.
The last remaining red-haired giants were chased off and sought shelter inside a cave. The tribes started a fire at the cave entrance, suffocating and burning alive the Si-Te-Cah. Those driven out by the smoke were also killed.
The tribes then sealed off the mouth of the cave so that no one might set eyes on those who had once plagued their land. They were all but forgotten until a random event brought them back to light.
In 1886, a mining engineer named John T. Reid happened to hear the legend from a group of Paiutes while prospecting near Lovelock, Nevada.
The Indians told him that the legend was real and the cave was located nearby. When he saw the cave for himself, Reid knew he was onto something.
Reid was unable to begin digging himself but news spread and soon, Lovelock cave was attracting attention. Unfortunately, the attention was profit-driven as guano deposits were discovered inside.
A company started by miners David Pugh and James Hart began excavating the precious resource in 1911 and had soon shipped more than 250 tons to a fertilizer company in San Francisco.
Any artefacts that might have been discovered were probably neglected or lost.
After the surface layer of guano had been mined, strange objects started to surface.
This led to an official excavation being performed in 1912 by the University of California and another one took place in 1924. Reports told about thousands of artifacts being recovered, some of them being truly unusual.
Although their claims have not been verified (it comes as no surprise), sources said the mummified remains of several red-haired ancient giants were found buried in the cave.
Measuring between 8 to 10 feet in height, these mummies have since been referred to as the Lovelock Giants.
Another intriguing find was a pair of 15 inch-long sandals that showed signs of having been worn. Allegedly, other unusually large items were recovered but have since been locked away in museum warehouses and private collection.
A piece of evidence that remains on-site until this day is a giant hand print, embedded on a boulder inside Lovelock Cave. We won’t go into further debate pertaining to this aspect and its implications.
Needless to say, this discovery has led many into believing the Paiute legend of the Si-Te-Cah might be more than just folklore.
Around the same time as the second Lovelock Cave excavation, another dig revealed a set of equally-disturbing finds.
According to a 1931 article published in the Nevada Review-Miner, two giant skeletons had been found buried in a dry lake bed close to Lovelock, Nevada.
The oversized remains measured 8.5, respectively 10 feet in height and were mummified in a manner similar to the one employed by ancient Egyptians.
Another common trait between these mummified giant remains and the ones discovered as far south as Lake Titicaca is the presence of red hair.
While some scientists believe the reddish colour is a result of the interaction with the environment in which they were buried, the mummies verify the legends, which described the Si-Te-Cah and their kin as red-haired giants.
Proponents of alternative history believe these violent giants were none other than the biblical Nephilim, the forsworn offspring of the ‘Sons of God’ with the ‘daughters of men.’
If this is true, there’s little chance we might get to see any of the giant mummies. Those interested in keeping history secret will never disclose their location.
Lost Ancient City Discovered In The Heart Of The USA
When speaking about lost cities, the first thing that jumps to mind is a lost city, buried beneath the sands somewhere in Egypt. Or a lost city located somewhere in the most unexplored parts of the Amazon. However, sometimes, lost cities are found in the mundane of places. If you travel to Arkansas City, Kansas you’ll find evidence of one such ancient city.
by Janice Friedman
Archaeologists believe they have come across the city of Etzanoa (the “Great Settlement”), an ancient settlement mentioned by Spanish explorers during the 16th century.
Image: One of the few maps allegedly showing the location of the Native American city of Etzanoa (labelled in the top middle)
For hundreds of years, the ‘Great Settlement’ is thought to have been the home of more than 20,000 people.
This fact places the city of Etzanoa as one of the oldest native American settlements in the United States, second only to the ancient ‘Pyramid’ city of Cahokia, in central Illinois.
The first accounts mentioning the ancient city of Etzanoa come from Spanish gold-seeking conquistadores.
Translated records from the 1600’s tell the story of Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador, founder, and governor of New Mexico who travelled from New Mexico into southern Kansas, in search of the lost city of Quivira—one of the mythical “Seven Cities of Gold” that were never found.
Juan de Oñate’s expedition was greeted peacefully by the inhabitants of Etzanoa.
However, after the Spaniards started taking hostages, the residents fled.
Eventually, the conquistadores explored the area, and their homes searching for valuables but decided it was too risky as the Natives could attack them at any moment.
Eventually, they decided to return to New Mexico, but de Oñate’s expedition was attacked by one thousand warriors belonging to the Escanxaque tribe.
After suffering heavy losses, the conquistadores returned to New Mexico.
Nearly a century later, French explorers travelled to the region but found nothing. The entire city vanished, and the French found no evidence of the people of the city of Etzanoa.
A Discovery That Changes Early American History
For years have people in present-day Arkansas City come across a number of ancient artefacts like arrowheads, and pottery, but no one was aware of the fact that there was a massive, archaeological gold mine hidden beneath their feet.
That is until Anthropologist and archaeologist professor Donald Blakeslee decided to take a more detailed look.
According to the L.A. Times, Blakeslee used translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors (the expedition led by Juan de Oñate) who came across the land more than 400 years ago to conclude that these ancient artefacts were the remnants of the Native American lost city of Etzanoa.
“‘I thought, ‘Wow, their eyewitness descriptions are so clear it’s like you were there,’” Blakeslee told the Times about reading the conquistador’s accounts. “I wanted to see if the archaeology fit their descriptions. Every single detail matched this place.”
Based on ancient accounts, maps as well as artefacts that have so far been recorded, it is estimated that the Native American city of Etzanoa was in fact home to a massive population of Native American Indians.
In fact, according to Blakeslee, Etzanoa is most likely the second-largest settlement in the modern-day United States. The city spanned more than 5 miles between the Walnut and Arkansas rivers, where 20,000 people lived in “thatched, beehive-shaped houses.”
