January 02, 2012

Lost Mayan city found in Georgia. Called Yupaha, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto searched for it unsuccessfully in 1540. Now a South African archeologist has hit paydirt! It's on a Cherokee sacred heritage site however... Not sure how that will end up playing out as excavations continue. The researchers are saying the Cherokees never built these ruins, which date to around the year 800.
posted by Dan Folkus 12 years ago
  • Sorry, the Mayan connection has been debunked; there was a tribal culture in the area (the Mississippians) that did a lot more building than the Cherokees did, but the scientist who made the discovery is quoted in an email that “The Maya connection to legitimate Georgia archaeology is a wild and unsubstantiated guess on the part of [the original article's author]. No archaeologists will defend this flight of fancy.” Which is too bad, in one respect. I would love to connect the "Mayan Doomsday 2012" tale to the fact that former Georgia Congresscritter Newt Gingrich is running for president.
  • The claim is only derivative at best. But are they digging on sacred land anyhow?
  • I don't care if it is Mayan or not. I love old crap that is hiding underneath stuff. It is inherently cool. There is a project going on a half block from my office involving the sewer lines and burying the power cables. It is taking much longer than anticipated because they keep finding things they don't expect buried underneath the road. Perhaps that stuff is Mayan...
  • It's just a shame that the only way to bring any attention to some serious Archeology is to attach a discovery to the Currently Trendy Dead Civilization (a combination of words I wish nobody ever had to use). As for the sacred site, I have to believe the excavators are working under specific restrictive conditions; whether or not, I hope they're paying the Cherokees big bucks for the access. At least nobody's building an "Indian Casino" there.
  • It was at that instant that the concept of "The Mayan Casino" was born... with the glitter of the huge revolving calendar game, blood sacrifice black jack, high stakes Spanish conquest and the Yaxha temple slots. "Gamble it all away before the year's end" was a slogan that seemed to work year after year.
  • Those crazy Mayans. Has anyone ever been right about predicting the end of the world?
  • I would totally go to a Mayan Casino. Of course, I will go to almost any casino.