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Major Archaeological Find in Puerto Rico Published: 10/28/07, 4:25 PM EDT By LAURA N. PEREZ SANCHEZSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. and Puerto Rican archaeologists say they have found the best-preserved pre-Columbian site in the Caribbean, which could shed light on virtually every aspect of Indian life in the region, from sacred rituals to eating habits. The archaeologists believe the site in southern Puerto Rico may have belonged to the Taino or pre-Taino people that inhabited the island before European colonization, although other tribes are a possibility. It contains stones etched with ancient petroglyphs that form a large plaza...

Contact: Joshua Weinberg joshua_weinberg@discovery.com 240-328-3988 Discovery Channel Pre-Columbian ruin discovered in PeruFind to be featured in Discovery Channel's new series Chasing Mummies Silver Spring, Md. -- Explorer Keith Muscutt has announced the existence of a previously unknown pre-Columbian ruin in Peru: the Huaca La Penitenciaría de la Meseta, which will be featured in Discovery Channel's new series, CHASING MUMMIES, premiering January 2008. Located in the cloud-forested eastern slope of the Andes mountains, the ruin is believed to belong to the ancient Chachapoya -- a civilization that flourished in the upper Amazon, between its Huallaga and the Marañón tributaries, from about...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mel Gibson will give audiences a preview of the ancient language spoken in his upcoming movie, "Apocalypto." During a brief appearance on the Academy Awards on Sunday, Gibson will speak Maya, the only language in the film. His last movie, "The Passion of the Christ," was performed in Latin and Aramaic. "I wanted to shake up the stale action-adventure genre," Gibson told Time for a story on the magazine's Web site. "So I think we almost had to come up with something utterly different like this." "Apocalypto" is set in pre-Columbian Mexico and is being shot...

1491: New Revelations Of The Americas Before Columbus By Charles C. Mann. Knopf. 480 pages. $30. Charles C. Mann's engagingly written, utterly absorbing "1491" tells us what scientists have recently learned about the American civilizations that vanished with the arrival of Columbus. Most of what we were taught about them may be wrong. For example, I thought of North America before Columbus as sparsely settled by people who had little impact on their environment: a place with great herds of buffalo like the ones that rumble through movies like "Dances With Wolves," where migrating flocks of passenger pigeons darkened the...

Underwater arrowheads, tools dazzle Maritime historians Last Updated Thu, 17 Feb 2005 15:28:09 EST CBC News HALIFAX - Archaeologists are showing off a treasure trove they call one of the most significant discoveries of Mi'kmaq artifacts in Nova Scotia. Hundreds of arrowheads and tools, some 8,000 years old, were discovered last summer along the Mersey River, near Kejimkujik National Park in the southwest region of the province. Workers from Nova Scotia Power were doing repairs to generating stations on the river. As water levels dropped in some areas, the riverbed was exposed for the first time since dams were built...

Field between Tecate, Ensenada yields tools By Sandra Dibble UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER February 16, 2005 TIJUANA – For the first time in Baja California, archaeologists have found significant evidence of hunters who settled the region between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, known as INAH, announced the recent recovery of more than 150 stone knives, spearheads, cutting utensils and other carved items from an open field between Tecate and Ensenada. The items are being linked to the San Dieguito people acknowledged as the earliest settlers of the region. San Dieguito sites have been amply...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 · Last updated 8:04 a.m. PT Tribes appeal Kennewick Man ruling, seek role in future finds THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KENNEWICK, Wash. -- Indian tribes that failed to block the scientific examination of the 9,400-year-old remains known as Kennewick Man are appealing a court ruling in hopes of gaining a role in future discoveries. The appeal of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was brought Monday by the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Nation, which claim Kennewick Man as an aboriginal ancestor. "It's a fundamental...

GOODLAND, Kan. - Scientists say mammoth and camel bones unearthed in northwest Kansas that date back 12,200 years could be part of "one of the most important archaeological sites in North America." The bones, found last June in Sherman County near the Colorado border, were alongside a piece of stone that archaeologists say was the kind used in tools that humans once used to butcher animals. Archaeological geologist Rolfe Mandel of the Kansas Geological Survey said carbon-14 dating completed last week shows the bones are between 12,200 and 12,300 years old, which could mean humans lived on the Great Plains...

Source: University of Kansas Released: Sat 12-Feb-2005, 09:00 ET Embargo expired: Tue 15-Feb-2005, 00:00 ET Discovery Could Change Dates for Human Arrival on the Great Plains Dated by carbon-14 methods at 12,200 years old, recently discovered bones could be the oldest evidence of human occupation in Kansas, and they may be the oldest evidence of humans on the Great Plains. For photos related to the story, go to http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/News/2005/kanorado.html Newswise — Bones of now-extinct animals and a rock fragment discovered last summer in northwestern Kansas could rewrite the history of humans on the Great Plains. The bones, which appear to...

New finds from an archaeological site near Mexico City support certain written and pictorial evidence concerning Aztec human sacrifice that historians previously doubted because the accounts seemed too exaggerated to be true. The discovery adds to the growing collection of evidence supporting human sacrifice and cannibalism among the founders of the Mexican empire. It also suggests that researchers might now be able to verify some 16th century Spanish accounts on the subject. The Spanish and the Aztecs documented at least four observations of cannibalism in the 16th and 17th centuries. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), whose men conquered the Aztecs...

Article Published: Thursday, January 27, 2005Archaeologists eagerly home in on Parker digs By Katy Human Denver Post Staff Writer Among the relics found at the Rueter-Hess Reservoir construction site in Parker are, from top to bottom, a Mallory point and McKean Complex points dating back about 4,500 years; a gorget preform, left, with the indication of being drilled; two 2,000-year- old arrowheads; and a bison bone that probably was cut or broken by humans. Parker - Five thousand years ago, a band of ancient people built homes on the edge of a stream in what is now Parker. It was...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - It has long been a matter of contention: Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as the history books say? Or did the Spanish conquerors overstate it to make the Indians look primitive? In recent years archaeologists have been uncovering mounting physical evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, if not number. Using high-tech forensic tools, archaeologists are proving that pre-Hispanic sacrifices often involved children and a broad array of intentionally brutal killing methods. For decades, many researchers believed Spanish accounts from the 16th and 17th centuries were biased...

Friday, Dec 31, 2004 Bison bone discovery turns B.C. history upside-down PENTICTON (BC Newspaper Group) — The year 2004 ends with a major story in archaeology, revealed by the use of new DNA technology on ancient bison bones scattered around western North America. The findings profoundly affect our understanding of how North America was populated by humans, and could have an impact on aboriginal politics as well. The conventional wisdom, taught to generations in school, speaks of a land bridge connecting Asia with Alaska. This now-submerged bridge was created by lower sea levels in the last ice age, which ended...

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that the oldest civilisation in the Americas dates back 400 years earlier than previously thought, according to research published today. New radiocarbon dating of 95 samples taken from pyramid mounds and houses suggest that by 3100 BC there were complex societies and communal building of religious monuments across three valleys in Peru. This emerging civilisation was the first in the Americas to develop centralised decision-making, formalised religion, social hierarchies and a mixed economy based on agriculture and fishing. The newly uncovered sites in the Fortaleza and Pativilca valleys, along with the nearby previously reported sites in...

5,000-Year-Old Artifacts Near Texas Coast By LYNN BREZOSKY The Associated Press Saturday, November 13, 2004; 8:50 PM HARLINGEN, Texas - Archaeologists have discovered a cache of artifacts near South Padre Island that they say could be up to 5,000 years old, potentially providing new clues about early peoples of the Texas coast. Ricklis said the find is significant because so little is known about the ancient Rio Grande Valley. Most early manmade items would have been eroded by sand and sea air, or washed out by the ever-changing course of the waterways of the Rio Grande basin near the Mexican...

Madoc In AmericaNative American Histories in the USA Is truth stranger than fiction? Of course it is; it always has been One subject that has been debated for the last four hundred years was whether or not a Khumric-Welsh Prince called Madoc discovered America. Queen Elizabeth I was persuaded by her advisors that this was so and the Khumric-Welsh discovery was put forward as somehow giving England a prior claim in the political wrangles over first rights in the New World of the Americas. No one ever thought to investigate the British records. Caradoc of Llancarfan wrote about it circa...

The Mandans were an Indian tribe that lived in the Midwest, present day western North Dakota. The Mandans were different from other Indian tribes when White explorers encoutered them. Instead of the red skin and black hair, the Mandans had blonde or red hair, blue eyes, and light skin. Some spoke Welsh. The Mandans gladly welcomed the White explorers. It is believed they came from a Welsh settlement in the Ohio River Valley, which was first established in the mid 14th century, about 300 years before the first White settlers came to America. Madoc a Welsh prince is though to...

Ancient Amazon Settlements Uncovered Thu Sep 18, 7:26 PM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo! By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON - The Amazon River basin was not all a pristine, untouched wilderness before Columbus came to the Americas, as was once believed. Researchers have uncovered clusters of extensive settlements linked by wide roads with other communities and surrounded by agricultural developments. The researchers, including some descendants of pre-Columbian tribes that lived along the Amazon, have found evidence of densely settled, well-organized communities with roads, moats and bridges in the Upper Xingu part of the vast...

Did the Vikings Stay... Vatican Files May Offer Clues. / How did the Swedes end up in Minnesota?

Did the Vikings Stay... Vatican Files May Offer Clues. / How did the Swedes end up in Minnesota?

Archaeologist continues to dig up history By Marjorie Wertz For The Tribune-Review Sunday, October 17, 2004 In the past 30 years archaeologists worldwide have visited the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Washington County. The general public can now see what's involved in the archaeological dig that has proved the existence of early humans dating back 16,000 years. "The site was opened last year for the first time to the public," said David Scofield, director of Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life. "We are now in the process of getting an architect to create a design for a permanent roof over the excavation. This...

Extinct humans left louse legacy By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff The evolutionary history of head lice is tied very closely to that of their hosts Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals. It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia. Lice could have jumped from them on to our ancestors during fights, sex, clothes-sharing or even cannibalism. Details of the research appear...

Deseret Morning News, Sunday, October 03, 2004 Mexico discovery fuels debate about man's origins Archeologists are baffled by hominid bones By John Rice Associated Press MEXICO CITY — For decades, Federico Solorzano has gathered old bones from the shores of Mexico's largest lake — bones he found and bones he was brought, bones of beasts and bones of men. Mexican professor Federico Solorzano shows the supraorbital arch from the fossil of an early hominid. Guillermo Arias, Associated Press The longtime teacher of anthropology and paleontology was sifting through his collection one day when he noticed some that didn't seem to...

Was Columbus from Chios? Read Matt Barrett's review of the Book by Ruth G. Durlacher-Wolper Christophoros Columbus: A Byzantine Prince from Chios, Greece Was Columbus a woolworker from Genoa or a Byzantine Prince and sailor from the island of Chios in what was then the Republic of Genoa? There has been more written about Christopher Columbus than about any person with the exception of Jesus Christ, and yet his past has been shrouded in mystery. We all have been told that he came from Genoa, a city in Italy and sailed for Isabella and Ferdinand, the king and queen of...

After almost 10,000 years buried in the muck of the Columbia River, followed by six years in lab and museum vaults, the skeletal remains of Kennewick Man should be given to scientists looking for clues about how people first migrated to North America, a federal judge in Portland ruled yesterday. The ruling by U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks is a victory for eight anthropologists who fought the federal government's attempts to turn the remains over to a coalition of five Northwest tribes who want to rebury the "Ancient One." "We hung in there because we think these ancient remains are very...

A Mormon confronts his myths Anthropologist faces expulsion for refuting link between Indians and Israelites Jan Cienski National Post Tuesday, December 03, 2002 CREDIT: The Canadian Press Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is said to have discovered a tablet that revealed American Indians were the descendants of ancient Hebrews. The assertion is contrary to historical fact. A Mormon anthropologist is facing excommunication after finding no genetic link between American Indians and the ancient Hebrews of Israel, questioning one of the central tenets of his church. Thomas Murphy conducted a review of the existing...

Associated Press KENANSVILLE — When workers digging up peat at a former central Florida sod farm unearthed human remains with their backhoe, they called the police. But this was a cold case that authorities were unlikely to solve. The bones found Thursday appeared to be those of a young man who died in his late teens or early 20s about 4,800 years ago, said Anthony Falsetti, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida. "It's quite significant because it ties into some earlier discoveries in the 1980s ... dating back to 8,000 years ago," Falsetti said Friday. "It...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - More than six years after the discovery of one of the oldest skeletons ever found in North America, a federal judge overturned a decision to give the bones to Indian tribes for reburial and ruled that scientists can keep them for more study. U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks said he reviewed 20,000 pages of documents before concluding that "nothing I have found in a careful examination of the administrative record" supported the government's decision to give the bones to the tribes. Scientific study of the ancient skeleton will benefit all people, including tribes, by offering clues to...

Tribes, archaeologists at odds over prehistoric cemetery By John W. Gonzalez HOUSTON CHRONICLE Monday, July 28, 2003 VICTORIA -- Prehistoric human remains and artifacts discovered in one of the continent's oldest known cemeteries will undergo extensive analysis, despite complaints of grave desecration from several American Indian tribes. Federal officials say they hope to minimize destructive tests on the human bones and promptly rebury them when studies are complete, but tribes say they are considering legal action to halt further analysis. "These are our ancestors," said Walter Celestine of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe in East Texas. After more than 18 months of...

Archaeologists split hairs over first arrivals A site in Oregon could shake America's view of history, says Sanjida O'Connell Thursday October 17, 2002 The Guardian Woodburn is a small agricultural town in the US state of Oregon. Next to the high school is Mammoth Park. It sounds cheesy, but Mammoth Park is a paleoarchaeological site whose findings could shake America's view of her history. In suitably prosaic fashion, the site was discovered in 1987, when local authorities tried to install a sewer line. At depths of 5m, workers found huge bones, but said nothing and took them home. Now, Mammoth...

Archaeologists unearth 1,700 year-old canal system near Lake Okeechobee By Rhonda Miller sun-sentinel.com Posted June 6 2002, 6:17 PM EDT ORTONA – Archaeologists on Thursday said they have uncovered a sophisticated 1,700 year-old canal system and a huge pond dug by ancient Indians near this tiny town, located west of Lake Okeechobee. The canal site is so important that it could rival the discovery four years ago of the mysterious Miami Circle ruins near downtown Miami, one expert said. Ortona, population 500, is located on Route 78 and is 13 miles west of Moore Haven. The town is sited just...

March 14, 2002 Archaeologists Find Mayan 'Masterpiece' in Guatemala By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD rchaeologists exploring deep in the rain forest of Guatemala have uncovered what they think is the earliest intact wall painting of the Maya civilization. A depiction of scenes from mythology and ritual, the 1,900-year-old mural is being hailed by experts as a masterpiece. Even though only part of the mural has been exposed so far, scholars said the scenes and portraits promised rare insights into the society and religion of the Maya. The paintings, dated about A.D. 100, are described as more extensive and better preserved than...

New Study on Peopling of Americas Confirms Some Theories, Unsettles Others The New World was populated in at least two migrations, according to a paper presented by C. Loring Brace to the National Academy of Sciences. The settlers in the first wave, who walked across the Bering Land Bridge 15,000 years ago, were the forebears of present-day inhabitants south of the U.S.-Canadian border. The ancestors of linguistically distinct peoples including the Inuit, Aleut, and Na-Dene speakers made the watery crossing from Asia about 5,000 years ago.(The people are todays American Indian/Native Americans) The new study by Dr. Brace, professor of...

Columbus Day was the product of the Italian population of New York City, which organized the first celebration of the discovery of America on October 12, 1866. In 1869, the Italian – American population of San Francisco celebrated October 12, as Columbus Day. It was not until 1905, that a state, Colorado, observed a Columbus Day and in 1937 FDR proclaimed October 12 Columbus Day. Today Columbus Day is disparaged by liberal multiculturalists who distort the history of Christopher Columbus and has been since 1992. An October 2, 2003 post to the Portland Independent Media Center addressed the issue of...

Contact: Joel Schwarz joels@u.washington.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington Evidence acquits Clovis people of ancient killings, archaeologists say Archaeologists have uncovered another piece of evidence that seems to exonerate some of the earliest humans in North America of charges of exterminating 35 genera of Pleistocene epoch mammals. The Clovis people, who roamed large portions of North America 10,800 to 11,500 years ago and left behind highly distinctive and deadly fluted spear points, have been implicated in the exterminations by some scientists. Now researchers from the University of Washington and Southern Methodist University who examined evidence from all suggested Clovis-age killing sites...

Workers find signs of 7,500-year-old civilization while building water plant The Associated Press NORWELL, Mass. -- The discovery of a possible American Indian settlement as much as 7,500 years old has halted work on a new water treatment plant. Workers have found about 38 tools and stone chips used for making and repairing tools, as well as a hearth and a storage pit, at the site on South Street near Third Herring Brook. Lauren J. Cook, senior archaeologist on the team that surveyed the area, said it was unusual to find "features" of civilizations, like the hearth and the stone...

Dear Editor: This is a response to a pro wolf advocate stating that there has never been an attack by a "HEALTHY" wolf in North America, July 8,002 15 By Joy York, It has been widely discussed whether a healthy wild wolf has ever attacked a human on this continent. In fact, many say such attacks have never occurred in North America. HISTORY STATES OTHERWISE! It depends on which century you want to research wolves attacking and killing humans,1800's, 1900's or 2000's. Noted naturalist documented wolf attacks on humans. John James Audubon, of whom the Audubon society is named, reported...

World's dogs are descended from Asian wolves Scientists have found that almost all dogs share a common gene pool after analysing the DNA of hundreds of dogs from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. They have concluded domesticated dogs originated from wolves in East Asia nearly 15,000 years ago. The animals travelled with humans through Europe and Asia and across the Bering Strait with the first settlers in America. Swedish and Chinese scientists studied the genes of 654 dogs and found a higher genetic diversity among East Asian dogs suggested that people there were the first to domesticate dogs from...

Area sites used to dispute Clovis/extinction link By MIKE STARK Gazette Wyoming Bureau It's time to stop pointing an accusatory finger at some of the earliest people in North America, researchers say. For decades, the Clovis people have been blamed for exterminating as many as 35 types of animals more than 11,000 years ago, including mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, camels and other mammals that roamed the continent during the Pleistocene era. A study published this month in the Journal of World Prehistory says there's no evidence that the Clovis people hunted big-game animals into extinction. "There's just absolutely no support...

AVELLA, Pa. - Evidence that humans inhabited western Pennsylvania some 16,000 years ago - thousands of years earlier than most scholars believe - is still dividing archaeologists, 30 years after blade tools and materials to make beads were found in a rock shelter. Archaeologist J.M. Adovasio and his crew began to unearth the artifacts in the summer of 1973 at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Those findings challenged for the first time a belief cemented in the 1950s that humans had crossed the Bering Strait and first settled near Clovis, N.M., about 12,000 years ago. Adovasio...

Clovis Man turns 75, plus 13,000 By MICHELLE SEEBER Clovis News Journal CLOVIS, N.M. — He lived among saber-toothed cats, hunted giant mammoths and bison and was smart enough to dig water wells. Other than that, even thousands of years later, we still don't know much about the people known collectively as Clovis Man. Last week marked 75 years since a local amateur archaeologist discovered Clovis Man at Blackwater Draw, about 14 miles southwest of Clovis in eastern New Mexico. Clovis people lived between 11,500 and 13,000 years ago. Since Clovis Man's discovery, evidence has surfaced that prehistoric man's first...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Museum of the American Indian opens today, a spectacular symbol of the cultural and political renaissance of the nation's "first people." With its sinewy limestone facade and prime spot on the National Mall, the 254,000-square-foot museum is a visually stunning showcase of 10,000 years of American Indian art, history and culture. More than 500 years after Indians' first, often disastrous contacts with Europeans -- and just a half-century after Congress passed a law trying to "terminate" tribes -- the museum offers American Indians "a prominent place of honor on the nation's front lawn," said W....

VINTAGE SKULLS Researcher Silvia Gonzalez examines a 13,000-year-old skull. (Liverpool John Moores University) The oldest human remains found in the Americas were recently "discovered" in the storeroom of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. Found in central Mexico in 1959, the five skulls were radiocarbon dated by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Mexico and found to be 13,000 years old. They pre-date the Clovis culture by a couple thousand years, adding to the growing evidence against the Clovis-first model for the first peopling of the Americas. Of additional significance is the shape of the skulls, which are...

In the American Monthly Magazine for January, 1836, is a short article on the skeleton, then in the Fall River Athenaeum, portions of which we shall extract, not because the description is faultless, but because it is the account of one J. Stark who examined the remains for the purpose of describing them to the public. With Mr. Stark's speculations accompanying his description we have little concern. More facts and greater reflection would probably have led him to very different conclusions. He describes the skeleton as " the remains of a human body, armed with a breastplate, a species of...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting a bill by Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell that they say could block their efforts. A two-word amendment would change an Indian graves-protection law to allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe. Scientists say the bill, if enacted, could have the effect of overturning a federal appeals court ruling that allowed them to study the 9,300-year- old bones.

In an otherwise unremarkable gravel bluff on the banks of the Bow River in Calgary, University of Alberta researchers Jiri Chlachula and Alan Bryan believe they have unearthed the remains of what could be the oldest human artifacts in North America, the pair announced this month. If substantiated, the discovery pushes back the known date of human settlement in North America by several thousand years. Other earth scientists are sceptical about the find's authenticity: U of A geomorphologist Rob Young describes it as "based only on pure speculation." ...Comments Prof. Young: "Any dude could have put that rock there."

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found elsewhere on this site has suggested people might have camped here and built fires by the north branch of the Potomac River, anywhere from 9,000 years ago to as much as 16,000 years ago... Some tools and bones have been found in Pennsylvania and Virginia that date well before the Clovis era, although scientists debate whether the dating is accurate.

Divers making dangerous probes through underwater caves near the Caribbean coast have discovered what appears to be one of oldest human skeletons in the Americas, archaeologists announced at a seminar that was ending on Friday. The report by a team from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History exploits a new way of investigating the past. Most coastal settlements by early Americans now lie deep beneath the sea, which during the Ice Age was hundreds of feet lower than now. Researchers at the international ``Early Man in America'' seminar here also reported other ancient finds -- including a California bone...

Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 September, 2004, 14:26 GMT 15:26 UK Tribe challenges American origins By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff, at the BA festival The skulls (r) are long and narrow, not in keeping with Native Indians' broader, rounder features. Some of the earliest settlers of America may have come from Australia, southern Asia, and the Pacific, new research suggests. Traditional theories have held that the first Americans originated from northern Asia. Dr Silvia Gonzalez conducted a study of ancient bones found in Mexico and found that they have very different characteristics to Native Americans. The results are...

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