January 8, 2024
5,200 years of migrations from Mexico to California may be the origin of a mystery language
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-years-migrations-mexico-california-mystery.html
January 8, 2024
Discovery of ‘Calendar’ Rock Carvings from Ancestral Pueblo in US Southwest Surpasses ‘Wildest Expectations’
https://www.newsweek.com/archaeologists-find-ancient-native-american-calendar-colorado-border-1852956
September 21, 2023
Scarlet Secrets: Scientists Uncover Ancient Breeding of Scarlet Macaws
Scitech Daily has the report here; https://scitechdaily.com/scarlet-secrets-scientists-uncover-ancient-breeding-of-scarlet-macaws/
Mike Ruggeri’s Ancient North America News https://mikeruggerisancientnorthamerica.tumblr.com
May 10, 2023
Native Americans Conducted Large-Scale Copper Mining 6,000 Years Ago
ScientificAmerican has the report here;
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/native-americans-conducted-large-scale-copper-mining-6-000-years-ago/
May 10, 2023
Wichita State professor uncovers forgotten native nation that could ‘revolutionize’ history of the Great Plains
Wichita.edu has the report here;
https://www.wichita.edu/about/wsunews/news/2023/03-march/quivira_3.php?fbclid=IwAR08lU637CIqJdpso_JIFsW-exzO9r6sK7MlRrQOFXCboTCRQG703-c7Vjs
November 22, 2022
New Research on Parrots at Ancient Southwest Sites
Researchers led by a University of Texas at Austin team are finding out that thick billed parrots found at sites in the Southwest were captured locally and not all of them were imported from Mexico. They do not live in the US today due top habitat loss and hunting. They were abundant in the 1930’s in the Southwest from New Mexico to Arizona and northern Mexico. They live in pine forests. The researchers found that at the 10 sites where thick billed parrots have been found all had buildings made of pine timber. All had pine forests near by. They probably captured the parrots when they were gathering timber.
So the idea that all of the brightly colored parrots found in Southwest sites were from Mexico will change.
The research is published in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.
Eurekalert has the report here:
October 21, 2022
The Great Serpent Mound and the Milky Way
Archaeologist Brad Lepper wrote an article about the influence of the Milky Way on the construction of Serpent Mound in Ohio for a special forum on cosmic influences on ancient construction. Serpent Mound represents the Great Serpent, Lord of the Underworld.
In indigenous cultures, the Great Serpent is represented by the Milky Way. Ohio has two effigy mounds, the Serpent Mound and the “Alligator” mound which represents the Underwater Panther. Wisonsin has thousands of effigy mounds built between 700-1150 CE by the Effigy Mound Culture.
Brad and his colleagues believe Serpent Mound is three separate mounds representing two figures, the Great Serpent and First Woman who is represented as a wishbone shaped mound with an oval earthwork representing her spread legs and the jaws of the Serpent. The oval is The First Woman’s womb which is the portal through which the Sun sets in the evening. First Woman mated with the Great Serpent and acquired the Great Serpent’s powers of regeneration which she used to create all life.
Serpent Mound was built in 1100 CE by the Fort Ancient Culture who were also influenced by the Mississippian civilization centered at the site of Cahokia in Illinois,
Brad Lepper is the Senior Archaeologist for the Ohio History Connection’s World Heritage Program
The forum articles are published in the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology
Columbus Dispatch has Brad’s research here: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/columns/2022/09/15/look-up-for-another-view-of-ancient-mounds/69493331007/
October 21, 2022
Oldest Mounds Ever Built in North America Researched
Two grassy mounds located at Louisiana State University containing thousands of charred mammoth bones and with a cosmic alignment of both mounds towards a star are among 800 mounds of this type in Louisiana Sediment cores have been taken from the two mounds and they found layers of burned ash from reed and cane plants and burned bone fragments in the cores.
Radiocarbon dating show that the mounds were built 11,000 years ago, and built up over thousands of years. The 11,000 years ago date places these mounds as the oldest ever built in North America. 8,200 years ago, the earlier southern mound was abandoned in a cold period in the Northern hemisphere which lasted 150 years. 7,500 years ago they built a second mound and reworked the abandoned mound 6,000 years ago.
The mounds were aligned with the giant star Arcturus.
The research is published in the American Journal of Science by Yale University.
More information: Brooks B. Ellwood et al, The LSU campus mounds, with construction beginning at ∼11,000 BP, are the oldest known extant man-made structures in the Americas American Journal of Science (2022). DOI: 10.2475/06.2022.02 PhysOrg has the report here:
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-campus-mounds-oldest-human-made-north.html?fbclid=IwAR34EsPboxUDoDlpfQOIrFcGn57DSX166uvnsdOEudKWJNUNgJdTZXxr5Bs
October 21, 2022
Important Middle Woodland Canal in Ancient Alabama Analyzed
A mile long canal built for canoe travel by Native Americans between 576-650 CE connected the Gulf of Mexico to Oyster Bay and Little Lagoon in Alabama. They built dams at both ends of the canal to guard against flooding of the canal. In the winter, canoes could traverse the distance to the Gulf. In the summer, it would have been a footpath through the forest.
Middle Woodland villagers, living at Plash Island, probably built the canal to get to camps closer to the Gulf to process, smoke and dry fish and shell fish for preservation. They were not agriculturists so this was crucial to their survival.
The canal would have also been a good conduit for long distance trade from Mobile Bay to the entire southeast. And there is no evidence for a chiefly elite during this time period. So an equalitarian effort was undertaken to build the canal and constantly clean the canal out and divvy up the water.
The research was published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.
The report is here at Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologists-dig-up-1400-year-old-native-american-canal-in-alabama-180980742/
August 5, 2022
New Research at the Mississippian Capital of Cahokia
Researchers using paleoenvironmental analysis at the giant Mississippian site of Cahokia in Illinois, which exploded into prominence at 1050 CE and thrived for 300 years, was thought to have had four large plazas on the north, south, east and west which surrounded the very large temple known as Monk’s Mound, have found that the north plaza was almost always underwater. Cahokia was built on a flood plain beneath the confluence of the Missouri and Illinois Rivers.
The north plaza is built at the lowest elevation of the site. Two creeks ran through it and it flooded when the Mississippi swelled after heavy rains. The research team extracted sediment cores at the north plaza, took soil samples and analyzed carbon isotope in the soil and found that the area was wet all year. Water was important to Cahokia since they grew wetland plants and traded up and down the Mississippi. Their religious vision would probably have included water in their creation stories.
The chief researcher, Caitlin Rankin, from the Illinois State Archaeological Survey wrote the research paper on this find.
The National Geographic Society and National Science Foundation supported this work.
To reach Caitlin Rankin, email rankinc@illinois.edu
The paper “The exceptional environmental setting of the north plaza, Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, USA” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau.
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2022.2077824
news.illinois.edu has the report here;
https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/626821378?fbclid=IwAR3472YzF2JyIer-3UE2IMz_oGFY6dRb-S8iGnpdmzSCIqKQprr3dD6vYu0#image-2
Mike Ruggeri’s Ancient Cahokia
https://mikeruggerisancientcahokla.tumblr.com
