Most archaeologists contend that the Mayans died out in a mass extinction, so this find turns that theory on its head. Some experts are calling this the most important archaeological find ever. How about that?
Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an ancient Mayan city in the mountains of North Georgia believed to be at least 1,100 years old. According to Richard Thornton at Examiner.com, the ruins are reportedly what remains of a city built by Mayans fleeing wars, volcanic eruptions, droughts and famine.
In 1999, University of Georgia archeologist Mark Williams led an expedition to investigate the Kenimer Mound, a large, five-sided pyramid built in approximately 900 A.D. in the foothills of Georgia’s tallest mountain, Brasstown Bald. Many local residents has assumed for years that the pyramid was just another wooded hill, but in fact it was a structure built on an existing hill in a method common to Mayans living in Central America as well as to Southeastern Native American tribes.
One of my friends is a former archaeologist and a member of a North American tribe. She says Indians have been saying all along that the Mayans were here first, but of course, white people don’t pay any attention to oral traditions.
Next they’ll be telling us they found the lost colony of Jewish exiles fleeing the sack of the temple at the hands of the Babylonians and they brought a bunch of gold tablets with them to jot down what happened to them.
I don’t know about ‘most important ever,’ but very interesting. If true. The Maya have a unique set of material culture and demonstrating a relationship should be fairly straight forward. Mound builders (or pyramid builders, if you prefer) lived all across the southeastern US. I think I’ll wait for some material evidence in addition to mounded architecture before jumping on the band wagon.