Category Archives: NORTH AMERICA

“Ancient Rocket” Found Beneath Pakal’s Tomb

“Ancient Rocket” Found Beneath Pakal’s Tomb

King Pacal’s stone Sarcophagus lid created considerable controversial hypotheses, one of which is Traditional scholars claiming the inscriptions tell of King Pacal on a journey to the underworld, but ancient astronaut theorists claim that the king is represented at the seat of a spacecraft’s controls and have dubbed him the Palenque astronaut.

King K’inich Janaab’ Pakal also known as Pacal was the Maya king of Palenque (today- Mexico).  He was most famous for raising the city of Palenque from relative obscurity to great power, his building projects in the city (especially the Temple of the Inscriptions), and his elaborately carved sarcophagus lid which has been interpreted as an ancient astronaut riding on a rocket ship. Pacal assumed the throne of Palenque at the age of 12, in 615 CE, and ruled successfully until his death at the age of 80.

Pacal was the son of Lady Sak K’uk who reigned as Queen of Palenque from 612-615 CE. She ruled for three years until her son reached maturity which, at that time, was the age of 12.

Pacal almost instantly began building enormous and elaborately worked monuments in order to celebrate both the city’s past and his family’s legitimate claim to rule.

Temple of the Inscriptions:

Temple of the Inscriptions pyramid was constructed in 675 CE and it was built as the tomb of Pacal. The Temple of the Inscriptions is a pyramid with a small building at the top inscribed with the second-longest continuous Mayan text yet uncovered in Mesoamerica.

Discovery:

For a century after Palenque was discovered, the pyramid was thought to be a religious center in the city (as the inscriptions were undecipherable) until the Mexican Archaeologist Alberto Ruiz recognized that the walls of the small temple continued down below the floor.

He discovered that the platform of the floor had drill holes, which had been sealed by stone plugs, and surmised that the Maya had lowered the floor into place with ropes, perhaps, to seal a royal tomb.

Between 1948 and 1952 CE, Ruiz worked with his team, excavating the temple and, finally, discovered the tomb of Pacal the Great. He shone his flashlight down into the tomb.

Whatever he has seen, he writes like this-

“Out of the dim shadows emerged a vision from a fairy tale, a fantastic, ethereal sight from another world. It seemed a huge magic grotto carved out of ice, the walls sparkling and glistening like snow crystals. Delicate festoons of stalactites hung like tassels of a curtain, and the stalagmites on the floor looked like drippings from a great candle.

The impression, in fact, was that of an abandoned chapel. Across the walls marched stucco figures in low relief. Then my eyes sought the floor. This was almost entirely filled with a great carved stone slab, in perfect condition.”

Pacal’s Sarcophagus:

The Sarcophagus’ lid measures 3.6×2 meters (12×7 feet) and shows king Pacal sitting in some kind of spacecraft. He is at an angle like modern-day astronauts upon lift-off. He is manipulating some controls.

He has some type of breathing apparatus or some type of a telescope in front of his face. His feet are on some type of pedal. And you have something that looks like an exhaust with flames.

His upper hand is manipulating some controls. From the lower hand,  he is turning something on. The heel of his left foot is on a kind of pedal and, outside the capsule, you see a linking flame. This is incredible. This is absolute proof of extraterrestrials.

The most famous symbol in this picture is that of the “World Tree”- Shows a man tilting backward at the base of a tree, with a bird high at the top, either falling into or springing out of what appears to be a large urn. Glyphs and symbols run around the edges of the lid, all representing important components of Mayan cosmology.

The World Tree, which the Maya believed had its roots in the underworld, trunk on the earthly plane, and branches high in paradise, and Pacal’s relationship to it in death.

The king is depicted either at the moment of his death falling from the earthly plane down into Xibalba or at the moment of his resurrection from the underworld, climbing up the World Tree toward paradise.

The adornments along the edges represent the sky and other glyphs the sun and moon and, still others, past rulers of Palenque and Pacal’s place among them. The bird at the top of the tree is the Bird of Heaven (also known as The Celestial Bird or Principal Bird Deity) who represents the realm of the gods in this piece, and the `urn’ beneath Pacal is the entrance to Xibalba.

The celestial bird represented the heavens and thus was pictured on the top of the World Tree. Roots of the World Tree extending into the underworld which is not just typical for depictions of the World Tree, it’s pretty much a requirement. In the underworld, we see a picture of the Mayan sun monster which Pacal is riding into the underworld. So Pacal is hitching a ride on the sun into the underworld.

In Mayan art whenever you see a so-called “traveler”- which is a person in transition from one world to the next – there must be something that is making that travel possible.

Sometimes it is a twisted umbilical cord, but almost always it is a serpent, often a double-headed serpent. In other words, being in the mouths of a double-headed serpent was a symbol of transition from one world to the next.

You can see that the so-called smoke is actually the traditional serpent’s beard which appears in almost every depiction of a serpent in Mayan art.

Maize, not metal, the key to native settlements’ history in New York

Maize, not metal, the key to native settlements’ history in New York

The Recent Cornell University research offers a more detailed historical timeline for the occupation of Native American sites in upstate New York, based on radiocarbon dating of organic materials and statistical modeling.

Reports from the study of a dozen sites in Mohawk Valley were recently published by Sturt Manning in the online journal PLoS ONE, the professor of classical archeology; and John Hart, curator in the research and collections division of the New York State Museum in Albany.

The findings, Manning said, are helping to refine our understanding of the social, political, and economic history of the Mohawk Valley region at the time of early European intervention.

The Iroquoian Study

The work is part of the Dating Iroquoia Project, involving researchers from Cornell, the University of Georgia, and the New York State Museum, and supported by the National Science Foundation.

The new paper continues and expands upon research on four Iroquoian ( Wendat) sites in southern Ontario, published by the project team in 2018. Using similar radiocarbon dating and statistical analysis methods, the 2018 findings also impacted the timelines of Iroquoian history and European contact.

A map showing the Mohawk Valley region in northeast North America and all the Iroquoian sites analyzed in this study.

“The Mohawk case was chosen because it is an iconic series of indigenous sites and was subject to one of the first big dating efforts in the 1990s,” said Manning. “We have now examined a southern Iroquois ( Haudenosaunee) case as well as a northern Iroquois (Wendat) case, and we again find that the previous dating scheme is flawed and needs revision.”

The Mohawk and Hudson river valleys were key inland routes for Europeans entering the region from the coast in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Colonization of the new world enriched Europe (Manning has described this period as “the beginning of the globalized world”) but brought disease and genocide to indigenous peoples, and their history during this time is often viewed in terms of trade and migration.

Iroquoian Trade Goods

The standard timeline created for historical narratives of indigenous settlement, Manning noted, has largely been based on the presence or absence of types of European trade goods – e.g., metal items or glass beads. Belying this Eurocentric colonial lens, trade practices differed from one native community to another, and not all of them accepted contact with, or goods from, European settlers.

Iroquois engaging in trade with Europeans.

To clarify the origins of metal goods found in the upstate New York settlements, the team used portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis to determine whether copper artifacts were of native or European origin. They then also re-assessed the dates of the sites using radiocarbon dating coupled with Bayesian statistical analysis.

Bayesian analysis, Manning explained, is “a statistical method that integrates prior knowledge in order to better define the probability parameters around a question or unknown. In this case, archaeological and ethnohistorical information was combined with data from a large set of radiocarbon dates in order to estimate occupation dates for a set of Mohawk villages across the 13th to early 17th centuries.”

The focus was on the period from the late 15th to the early 17th century, he said, or “the long 16th century of change in the northeast”. The results “add to a growing appreciation of the interregional variations in the circulation and adoption patterns of European goods in northeastern North America in the 16th to earlier 17th centuries,” Manning said.

Iroquoian History Reevaluated

In previous indigenous site studies, where artifacts indicated trade interactions, researchers might assume “that trade goods were equally available, and wanted, all over the region,” and that different indigenous groups shared common trade practices, he said. Direct radiocarbon dating of organic matter, such as maize kernels, tests those assumptions and removes the colonial lens, allowing an independent timeframe for historical narratives, Manning said.

At several major Iroquois sites lacking close European connections, independent radiocarbon studies indicate substantially different date ranges from the previous estimates based on trade goods.

“The re-dating of a number of Iroquoian sites also raises questions about the social, political and economic history of indigenous communities from the 14th to the 17th centuries,” Manning said. “For example … a shift to larger and fortified communities, and evidence of increased conflict,” was previously thought to have occurred around the mid-15th century.

The study of the Iroquoian sites also raises questions about the dating of conflicts.

But the radiocarbon findings from some larger sites in Ontario and their cultivated maize fields ¬- 2,000 acres or more in some instances — date the sites from the mid-16th to the start of the 17th century, he said. “However, as this New York state study shows, other areas had their own and differing trajectories. Thus with direct dating we start to see real, lived, histories of communities, and not some imposed generic assessment,” Manning said.

“The emerging new and independent timeframe for northeast North America will now form the basis of a wider indigenous history,” Manning stated, “free from a Eurocentric bias, with several past assumptions open for an overdue rethink.” Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews supporting full HD, ISDN, and web-based platforms.

Enigmalith the 100,000-Year-Old Alien Plug

Enigmalith the 100,000-Year-Old Alien Plug

It is one of the artifacts that a few have heard of, yet its characteristics are incredibly interesting. There have been dozens of objects discovered through the years that do not fit into the mainstream view of history, archaeology, and anthropology.

This discovery was made in 1998 when electrical engineer John. J. Williams found what appeared to be an electrical connector protruding from the ground on a hiking trip in North America.

The object was found in the middle of nowhere, far away from human settlements, industrial complexes, airports, factories, and electronic or nuclear plants. After digging further into the ground, Williams discovered a device with a triple plug, embedded into the rock.

Williams refused to give away the exact location where the object was found, which has led skeptics to conclude that this artifact is just another hoax. But is it?

Today the artifact is referred to as the Petradox, a device that has the undeniable aspect of an electrical component which ended up embedded into solid granite, stone composed of quartz and feldspar, with small traces of mica. There is a huge amount of secrecy surrounding the object.

Williams has received offers up to 500,000 dollars for the device but has refused to sell it. Williams stated that the artifact, however, is available to any researchers for analysis. So far, only a few individuals have taken the time to study the mysterious object, resembling without a doubt, an electrical component.

The Petradox is not an accretion, concretion, pumice or fossil. It does not contain any known resins, cement, glues, adhesives, limestone, mortar, or other non-rhyolite / non-granite binding agents. It is very hard.

The component itself is about 8 mm in diameter; the pins of the device are about 3 mm high, and the spacing between the pins is approximately 2.5 mm while the pin thickness is about 1 mm.

According to Williams, who has consulted an engineer and geologist to examine the object, the electronic component embedded in the granite reveals no trace of having been glued or welded in any known form, it is clear that the object already existed at the time of the formation of the rock.

According to geological analysis, researchers believe that the “rock” is at least 100,000 years old, something impossible if you believe that the object is of artificial origin.

The conventional understanding of the technological development of mankind tells us that there is no way humans could have made something like this at that time in history.

The device has been compared by some researchers to an electronic XLR connector or similar component. The artifact has a weak magnetic attraction, Ohmmeter readings indicate either open-circuit or very high impedance between the pins.

The artifact does not seem to be made out of wood, plastic, metal, rubber, or any other recognizable material. Williams has not allowed the object to be broken in half for analysis but X-ray tests have shown that the artifact has a mysterious “opaque internal structure” in the center of the stone.

According to Williams, melted blobs of a metallic-like material on the component’s periphery indicate that some metal object near the Petradox was subjected to such high temperatures to cause metal melting and molten metal splashing or sputtering onto the embedded component.

Skeptics firmly believe that this 100,000-year-old electrical component is a manufactured hoax, but Williams does not agree.

He is convinced that he has found a genuine artifact that belonged to an advanced ancient civilization or an extraterrestrial race. Williams is willing to let researchers authenticate the artifact under certain conditions: that he is present during the analysis and that the rock remains unharmed.

There are some of us who believe that science does not have an interest in these objects because they are afraid of what they might find out. The artifact has two possibilities.

While scientific analysis could confirm it as being an elaborate hoax, it could also radically change our understanding of the history of mankind and change the way we look at history and our origins.

200 million-year-old shoe print found on a lump of coal

200 million-year-old shoe print found on a lump of coal

In the past, there have been countless mysterious discoveries that point to the fact that modern humans lived on Earth much earlier than scholars say. Such unexplained observations referred to by many authors as ‘ ooparts — or out of place artifacts’, these enigmatic findings push the boundaries set forth by mainstream scholars, challenging everything we know about modern humans and life on Earth.

A hundred years ago, a Nevada Mining Company employee named Albert E. Knapp made the enigmatic — and somewhat controversial — discovery. To be precise in January 1917.  In an article at creationism.org, we find a letter written by Mr. Knapp—the discoverer—dating back to January 15, 1917.

“I was intrigued by the fossil, which laid on the stone side among some loose rocks, as I descended the hill my attention was attracted by the fossil. I took it and placed it in my pocket for further analysis and it came to the conclusion that it is a layer from the heel of a shoe which had been pulled from the balance of the heel by suction; the rock was in a plastic state at that time. It was found in LIMESTONE OF THE TRIASSIC PERIOD, a belt of which runs through that section of the hills.”

There are however several websites that wrongly concluded that the ‘ 200 million-year-old fossilized shoeprint ‘ was found in Triassic rock near Fisher Canyon, Pershing County, Nevada by John Reid in 1922.

The enigmatic object caught the attention of several researchers who were looking forward to analyzing it. The object also caught the eyes of the media as we find two reports about the discovery in a March 19, 1922 story in the New York Times: “It would fit nicely a boy of ten or twelve years. The edges are as smooth as if freshly cut. The surprising part of it is what seems to be a double line of stitches, one near the outside edge of the sole and the other about a third of an inch inside the first. The ‘leather’ is thicker inside the inner welting and appears to be slightly bevelled, so that at the margin, half an inch wide, which runs outside, the sole is something like an eighth of an inch thick.

The symmetry is maintained perfectly throughout. The perfect lines pursued by the welting, and the appearance of hundreds of minute holes through which the sole was sewed to the shoe are the things which make the object such an extraordinary freak in the eyes of the scientists who examined it.

And an October 8, 1922 article by W. H. Ballou in the American Weekly section of the New York Sunday American titled: “Mystery of the Petrified Shoe Sole”:

“…Some time ago, while he was prospecting for fossils in Nevada, John T. Reid, a distinguished mining engineer, and geologist stopped suddenly and looked down in utter bewilderment and amazement at a rock near his feet. For there, a part of the rock itself was what seemed to be a human footprint! Closer inspection showed that it was not a mark of a naked foot, but was, apparently, a shoe sole which had been turned into stone.

The forepart was missing. But there was the outline of at least two-thirds of it, and around this outline ran a well-defined sewn thread which had, it appeared, attached the welt to the sole. Further on was another line of sewing, and in the center, where the foot would have rested had the object really been a shoe sole, there was an indentation, exactly such as would have been made by the bone of the heel rubbing upon and wearing down the material of which the sole had been made. Thus was found a fossil which is the foremost mystery of science today. For the rock in which it was found is at least 5 million years old…”

However, as noted by paleo.cc, the article that appeared in New York Sunday American mistakenly credits Reid instead of Knapp as the person who discovered it, but it offers misleading details about the age to the artifact.

Several authors concluded upon closer inspection that the rock shows “a layer from the heel of a shoe which had been pulled up from the balance of the heel by suction, the rock being in a plastic state at the time.”

Furthermore, it is noted that the alleged shoe print was in a marvelous state of preservation—as the edges of the heel were smooth and rounded off as if cut and its right side appeared more worn than the left—an indicative sign that it had been worn on the right foot.

However, many authors and websites—who disagree with mainstream history mostly—argue that what Knapp found really amazing was that the rock in which the heel mark was made, was a Triassic rock—believed to be at least 220 million years old—which runs in a belt through the canyon hills where the enigmatic shoeprint was discovered.

But author Glen J. Kuban notes that there are several issues with the shoeprint interpretation.

The Kuban notes that from the only photographs from the artifact, we can deduce that it seems to be a broken ironstone concretion, one that may have suffered from erosion. Interestingly, such concretions tend to display ovoid shapes and concentric banding like the one discovered in the alleged 200 million-year-old shoe print.

As noted by essayfarm.com, Concretions are hard to compact accumulations of mineral matter and are found inside sedimentary rocks. Often concretions are mistaken for bones, fossils, meteorites and other odd objects. They can be so small that it requires a magnifying glass to be visible or as large as 10 feet in diameter and weigh hundreds of pounds.  Concretions can also have somewhat of regular shapes such as boxes, blocks, flat disks, pipes, cannonballs and have even been known to resemble parts of a human body such as a foot or ribs.

As noted in the book God-Or Gorilla by McCann, Alfred Watterson, 1879-1931, the Rockefeller Institute conducted microscopic photography of the print, which showed that the object in question contained the presence of two rows of stitching, about 1/3″ apart, with the appearance of hundreds of minute holes through which the soul was sewed to the shoe. Regrettably, no microscopy images were published to back the claims.

“The edges are rounded off smoothly as if it were freshly cut leather from an expert cobbler. The stone to which it is attached is about the size of a brick. The heel and part of the sole appear, the toe-end being missing.”

Creationsim.org states that the above-mentioned microphotographs showed very clearly that it bore a minute resemblance to a well-made piece of leather, stitched by hand, and at one time worn by a human foot.

The photographs showed the stitches very plainly; at one place it was double-stitched, and the twist of the thread could be clearly seen. The thread is smaller than any used by shoemakers of today. Minute crystals of sulphide of mercury are to be noticed throughout the spaces of this fossil shoe-sole, these minerals having been deposited in the long ago by waters which carried them in solution.

Regrettably, the present location of the artifact is unknown, so further studies cannot be conducted.

Petrified Opal Tree Trunk Situated In Arizona Its About 225 Million Years Old

Petrified Opal Tree Trunk Situated In Arizona Its About 225 Million Years Old

What happened to the wood that made it that way in the beautiful petrified trees in the forests of Arizona? They believe that petrified wood is so old that in the prehistoric period it has emerged. But do you know how petrified wood was made? This guide will show you how. What is petrified wood and how is it formed?

Fossil wood is considered to have grown when the material of the plant is buried by sediment. When the wood is buried deep in the muck, it is protected from decay caused by exposure to oxygen and organisms.

Because the wood is stored in deep water, the minerals in the groundwater flow through the sediment, replacing the original plant material such as silica, calcite, and pyrite.

Even very expensive minerals can infiltrate wood-like opal. The result is a fossil made from the original woody material, which often shows preserved details of tree bark, wood, and cellular structures.

This is probably the most popular petrified park in the world. The Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook in northeastern Arizona has established millions of years ago. About 225 million years ago, this was simply a lowland with a tropical climate with a dense forest.

Rivers made by tropical rainstorms washed mud and other sediments. This was where you would find giant coniferous trees 9 feet in diameter and towering 200 feet lived and died.

Fallen trees and broken branches from these trees were buried by rich river sediments. Meanwhile, volcanoes nearby erupted numerous times and the ash and silica from these eruptions buried the area.

Eruptions caused large dense clouds of ash that buried the area and this quick cover prevented anything from escaping and of course, nothing can also move in, even oxygen and insects. In time, the soluble ash was dissolved by groundwater through the sediments. The dissolved ash became the source of silica that replaced the plant debris.

This silication process creates petrified wood. Aside from silica, trace amounts of iron, manganese and other minerals also penetrated the wood and this gave petrified wood a variety of colors. This is how the lovely Chinle Formation was made.

So how was this area discovered? Millions of years after the Chinle Formation were created, the entire area was dug and the rocks found on top of Chinle have eroded away.

What was discovered was wood here was much harder and resistant to weathering compared to the mudrocks and ash deposits in Chinle. Wood that was taken from the ground surface as nearby mudrocks and ash layers washed away.

Petrified Forest National Park is another world-class tourist site in the area, straddling Interstate 10 about 70 or 80 miles east of Meteor Crater.

The park covers 146 square miles.   It’s dry and often windy, but the elevation of 5400 feet means that it’s not as hot as desert areas at lower altitudes, and it’s mostly covered in the grass rather than cacti and other desert plants.

Of course, the big attraction here is the petrified trees, which grew here about 225 million years ago when this part of Arizona was at a much lower elevation near the shores of a large sea to the west.

As well as the trees, many fossilized animals such as clams, freshwater snails, giant amphibians, crocodile-like reptiles, and early dinosaurs have been found here.

At times volcanic ash was deposited on fallen trees in the forest here, and silica in the ash was dissolved by water and entered the trees, fossilizing them.

The silica in the logs crystallized into quartz, but often iron oxide and other minerals were mixed in, producing extraordinarily beautiful kaleidoscopic patterns and colors.

The petrified trees are often so attractive that a whole industry grew up around hauling them out from where they lay and cutting them up to make decorative furniture, wall displays, bookends, and other items. Theft from the park has always been a problem, and it’s estimated that around 12 tons of fossilized wood are stolen each year.

The Nampa Figurine: 2-million-year-old Relic or Just a Hoax?

The Nampa Figurine: 2-million-year-old Relic or Just a Hoax?

Nampa Statue or Nampa Figure is the figure discovered in Idaho in 1889 on the ground layers, that is believed two million years old.

This statue has given rise to theories on the origins of mankind. Some people say it’s just fake but this high class small human figure is a very interesting thing, which might have also the more natural explanation.

The theory of the two million years old human civilization may, of course, be possible, and here we must say that one statue would not make civilization.

The figure is found 300 feet deep, and it is 91 meters in the metric system. So the person or persons who dig that statue in the ground must spend very much time on that operation.

There is one special detail of that figure, and it seems to wear European clothes. Also, the figure seems hanged, but this might be only the imagination. There is claimed to have evil forces in this figure, what is the really mysterious artifact.

The Size of Nampa figure

But there is one very interesting explanation for this creature. This explanation is connected with the syndrome called “Savant autism”. This syndrome is causing the situation, that some people would have limits in the many skills, but in one special skill, this kind of person would be the best in the world. Some of those persons who are “savant autistic” are making extremely perfect things by using mud.

And those persons actually make those statues automatically. If that statue is made by some savant autistic, the family of that person would like to hide that thing, because those persons are sometimes faced with the violence, because they are different than others. That’s why this statue could be buried to the ground because the community wanted to hide the syndrome.

LwaLwa Statue

There are also many other theories about those strange creatures.  Of course, extraterrestrials and UFO:s might be the natural explanation. Sometimes I have thought that could behind those strange creatures be Cro-Magnon man, what was able to make the statue, but making the statue doesn’t mean, that they could write.

Or sometimes some persons have thought that maybe some slave has taken the special LwaLwa statue from Africa without permissions, and afraid the consequences.

The Nampa figure is quite small, and maybe it was specially made for some purpose.  Maybe this statue is bought by some slave, who would dig it in the ground because white men punished non-christian slaves.

And that statue was the religious symbol. Some stories are told that this statue was carried by escaped slaves sometimes on the 18th. or 19th. century. But why this slave would use all that time for digging this statue so deep.

The process would take a very long time, and if this person would get help from other people, should there be some reason for that trouble.

Then this person digs that statue in the ground because that person didn’t want that it would get into the hands of the slave keepers. But those are only theories.

A Canadian archaeologist walking her dog finds a 9,000-year-old artifact on Thompson River

A Canadian archaeologist walking her dog finds a 9,000-year-old artifact on Thompson River

An archaeologist from Kamloops came through a piece of history dating from 9,000 to 6,000 years while she was out with her dog for a walk.

Heritage director Joanne Hammond, and assistant CEO of Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corp., spotted the spearhead this weekend as she walked along the Thompson River.

“Wherever it’s not developed & there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to find something,” Hammond says.

Joanne Hammond found a spearhead this past weekend as she was walking along the Thompson River on the Kamloops north shore thanks to the low water levels. It could be up to 9,000 years old.

She says the term ‘site’ can mean anything from a single artifact to an entire village.

Currently, Hammond is in a Process of registering it as an archeological site near the northern shore of Kamloops, which would grant it recognition and protection by the government. The Department of Forestry and Agriculture, Natural Resources Activities, Rural Development shall send photos, planning sites and a Report to the Ministry of Archaeology.

She considered a spearhead in the Kamloops region among the oldest. She says previous studies and radiocarbon dating have helped research teams to consider how long the points were used, and says even the shape hints to when and how it was used.

“That’s a really distinctive style. In general, the bigger and more robust points tend to be older,” Hammond says. “The most recent style of a point is specific to Kamloops is called the Kamloops points and it’s this very small triangle points with notches at the sides, they’re very distinctive.”

She says the older, rounder spearhead was used before atlatls were invented to throw spears further and faster. That means the hunter who used this spearhead would have most likely worked with others to take down large game such as elk, deer, and sheep.

“It would’ve been a pretty risky thing to do by yourself, so most of the hunting was done communally,” she says.

Hammond says nearly every year, she finds one or two artifacts while out and about. With 265 designated sites within 10 kilometers of the downtown area, Kamloops is second only to Victoria for the number of sites within close proximity to the city.

“(Kamloops) was always a pretty important hub. It was a pretty dense residential area in pre-contact times, and a trading hub and a travel corridor, so it does have a higher number of archeological sites than other areas,” Hammond says. “It’s a good example of when things like this come up to be reminded of the depth and intensity of the cultures that were here before them.”

“Just because we pave over it, doesn’t mean it disappears,” she says.

There are 165 sites within city limits, 200 sites on the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc land, and 175 sites located in what is known as the Secwepemc Cradle between Kamloops and Chase.

Registering the sites can help officials to monitor historical areas, but any artifacts found – even if not on a designated site – are still protected by law, according to Hammond. She recommends reporting a found artifact the Secwepemc Museum.

“There are a lot of circumstances where people are concerned that someone else is going to nick it if they do leave it there, and that is legitimate… we recommend that people leave it. You can hide it under something, pretty much a few leaves are going to do the trick.”

Hammond says removing an artifact such as a spearhead can disrupt archeological research in the area.

“The majority of the value of the artifact is in its context, its location and the things it’s associated with,” Hammond says. “As soon as you remove it, that context is lost and so most of the information we can learn from a site is lost, and all you have left is a collectible… So we really, strongly encourage people to leave it there.”

3,400-Year-Old Ball Court Found in Mexico’s Highlands

3,400-Year-Old Ball Court Found in Mexico’s Highlands

Two ancient ball courts were found in a remote area of highland in Mexico. This forces experts to reconsider how an important ballgame and cultural custom in ancient Mexico originated. In the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization, the findings also show the importance of highland areas.

In 2015, in the mountains of Oaxaca, southern Mexico, a group of archeologists from George Washington University in Washington D.C. was investigating a site known as Etlatongo.

They were examining an open raised area and believed they were excavating a prehistoric public building or space. However, by 2017, to their astonishment, they had found ancient ball courts.

Location of Etlatongo in Mesoamerica and the setting of its ballcourt.

The archaeologists had found two stone ball courts, the earliest one, dates to about 1374 BC. This was based on the radiocarbon dating of burnt wood found at the site. This means that it is the oldest one ever found in the Mexican highlands, by some 800 years.

According to Science News, “the oldest known ball court dates to about 3,650 years ago at a non- Olmec coast site at Paso de la Amada.”

Both ball courts were made of stone and were walled-in areas roughly about 18 ft wide (6m). Earthen mounds were used to buttress the structures. The courts were quite similar to ball alleys. Most spectators would view the game from the mounds. These courts were regularly maintained and rebuilt, and they were in use for around 175 years. 

Excavations at Etlatongo in southern Mexico probed beneath surface remains of a Spanish hacienda’s threshing floor (shown) to reveal two ancient ball courts, built atop each other.

Jeffrey Blomster an archaeologist from George Washington University, who took part in the excavation told Gizmodo that there were some architectural changes observable between the two sites, “the older court having banquettes [like a long bench] and the younger court eliminating the banquettes and instead of having steeper walls adjacent to the alley.”

These probably reflect changes in the game over a period of time. Some of the courts have not been investigated because of their state. Blomster told Gizmodo that “we tried to be very careful and not expose more of the ballcourts than we needed to, as they are so fragile and delicate.”

Science News reports that the study found that “the second ball court was burnt and taken out of use.” This happened about 1200 BC according to radio-carbon dating and was done most likely by the local inhabitants as part of a ceremony. Why this was done is a mystery, but it seems that there were no ball courts at this site after this date.

An archaeologist, David Carballo, from Boston University stated to Science News that the discovery shows “that some of the earliest villages and towns in the highlands in Mexico were playing a ballgame comparable to the most prestigious version of the sport known as ullamaliztli.”

This was a game that was played by the Aztecs and it was very popular with them, and during their competitions, they would often hold human sacrifices. Similar ballgames were also played by the Maya and other Mesoamerican societies. 

The games often symbolized “the regeneration of life and the maintenance of the cosmic order,” according to Gizmodo. They were also important as religious, social and political gatherings.

Some 2,300 ball courts have been found across Mexico and Central America. The game involved a solid rubber ball and the aim of the game was to keep it in constant motions, like volleyball.

The players used only their hips and bodies to keep the ball in play, which they did by hitting it off the walls. These games could be brutal and there are sources that state that the losers were often sacrificed to the gods.

Depiction of players hitting a rubber ball with their hips in a version of Mesoamerica’s famous ballgame.

Apart from the structures of the ball courts the team also found several artifacts and bones, both human and non-human. They also unearthed 14 fragments of figurines of ballplayers. They were wearing Olmec style clothing such as “thick belts above a loincloth and sometimes a chest plate,” reports Science News. 

The Olmecs were a very influential society and it appears that they influenced the development of the game and had cultural contacts with the Mexican highlands.

Partial ballgame player figurines such as this (shown from the front and side) were unearthed at a mountain site in southern Mexico.

Because the rubber used to make the balls came from the coastal areas, such as those controlled by the Olmecs it was long assumed that the game originated in the southern lowlands. However, the finds of the two ball courts are changing this view.

Gizmodo quotes the team members who made the discovery as saying that they find is evidence that the Mexican highlands were “important players in the origin and evolution of the Mexican ballgame.”

The find also shows that the highlands of Mexico were important in the development and spread of Mesoamerican culture. A variant of the ballgame that was played in the ball alleys is still played in Mexico to this day. Thus, making it possibly the world’s oldest sport.