Thursday - January 05, 2012

Pickaxes Instead of Banjos

Mayan Ruins in Georgia? Archeologist Objects

The textbooks will tell you that the Mayan people thrived in Central America from about 250 to 900 A.D., building magnificent temples in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and southern Mexico.

But could they possibly have left stone ruins in the mountains of North Georgia? Richard Thornton thinks so. He says he’s an architect by training, but has been researching the history of native people in and around Georgia for years. On Examiner.com, he wrote about an 1,100-year-old archeological site near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, that he said “is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540.”

This might all be fairly arcane stuff, except that an archeologist he cited, Mark Williams of the University of Georgia, took exception. In the comments section after Thornton’s piece, he wrote, “I am the archaeologist Mark Williams mentioned in this article. This is total and complete bunk. There is no evidence of Maya in Georgia. Move along now.”

And thus were the comment flames ignited. Facebook wars. Twitter ambushes. This little tale went viral. Is it true? Is it possible? Is this all just a La Raza plot to now try to demand the East Coast as well?

Ruins in Georgia mountains show evidence of Maya connection

In 1839, English architect, Frederick Catherwood, and writer, John Stephens “rediscovered’ the Maya civilization on a two-year journey through southern Mexico.  When their book on the journey was published in 1841, readers in Europe and North America were astounded that the indigenous peoples of the Americas could produce such an advanced culture.  Architects in both continents immediately recognized the strong similarity in the architectural forms and town plans between southern Mexico and the Southeastern United States. Most agronomists were convinced that corn, beans and tobacco came to the natives of the United States and Canada from Mexico. 

In the decades since Catherwood’s and Stephens’ book, archaeologists have not identified any ruins in the United States which they considered to be built by a people who had originated in Mexico.  This was primarily due to their unfamiliarity with the descendants of the Southeastern mound-builders—tribes such as the Creeks, Alabamas, Natchez, Chitimachas and Choctaws.  In particular, the languages of the Creek Indians contain many Mesoamerican words.

Historians, architects and archaeologists have speculated for 170 years what happened to the Maya people. 

Follow the last link above to read Thorton’s thesis. But he isn’t just pointing a flint bladed heart removing knife at Georgia; he thinks the Mayans set up shop in Florida and North Carolina too!



This is how actual science works. Some old idea gets entrenched, and then some day somebody comes along with a new idea. Then they fight like cats for several generations, and if the new idea has actual merit and can take on all comers and still stand tall, when the dust settles everyone pretends that that’s what they all believed the whole time anyway, and everyone gets back to the serious business of drinking beer, chasing co-ed tail, and securing their next government grant.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/05/2012 at 03:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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