Did the Mayans build a city in Georgia?
Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction? If it's not true, at least it's a fairly harmless belief.
Have a nice day Mark
True enough. You too.
Well - it is not that far, although I think calling them "ruins," is somewhat of a stretch.
May be a poor word choice for them, your right Mark, good point. I can personally attest to the Yucatan and nearby folks ability to make it that far in considerable numbers though, and by any means possible. Might take a good bit longer by foot but where there's a will there's a way lol.
North America had a Native American population that build mounds across the continent... Some where fairly big, and were not just mounds but rather pyramids and other unique structures.
If anything like this is found in Georgia my money isn't on the remains of the Mayan culture, but rather local tribes which, I think are rather different from the Mayans.
If the terrace was created around 900 AD, that places about a century after the rise of the mound-building culture.
If the photo loads correctly, the green triangles are mounds...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_cultureProbably the results of the Mississippi Death Cult as they were in this area of the southeast. I've researched andwritten several hubs on their culture and the magnificent mounds they constructed. Fascinating culture, but not of Mayan origin in my opinion.
If any one on here is an expert its you Randy. But are any of the other Mississippi dealt cult mounds laid out similar to Brasstowns Balds? Do any of them have terracing like this one?
I haven't had a chance to see the whole layout of the complex yet, Alastar. Some mounds of the Mississippians were terraced but these were not placed directly on the sides of mountains or hills. However, they erected many different types of earthworks and fortifications because of their using the indigenous woodland tribes as sacrificial offerings.
Some of these woodland tribes resented this.
This is why all Mississippian complexes had walls, moats, or other defensive structures around their towns and temple complexes. They also used the seasonal equinoxes as guides for laying out some of their mounds and temples.
It will be interesting to see what is found at this site, though.
So the possibility remains, however slight, that they could be Mayan, or at least something other than Mississippian. The terracing is unique in it being on the mountain. As you know Randy the great Mayan civilization disappeared almost overnight in archaeological terms, so maybe a group did trek to the north Ga. area. Perhaps with the publicity on it now some serious work will be done and that should prove most interesting whatever is found, your right.
Oh, and speaking of fortifications and such, when i was researching the Tuscarora War in N.C. came on the fact they constructed the most elaborate and complex defensive structures in the colonial era, bar none. Didn't do them any good as their food supplies couldn't out last a protracted siege.
I've often wondered if pre-Columbian contact with Europeans might not explain some of the native settlements which were depopulated all of a sudden. Common diseases from the Old World would have decimated the native populations much as early Spanish explorers reported on their first explorations in the eastern part of the US.
Not yet, Holle. I missed going when we went to Eufaula awhile back, but I'm making a special trip there before long. It's a bit different than other Mississippian complexes. though. It's one of the few complexes in this area I've yet to visit.
There is a bit of controversy as to exactly where Kolomoki fits into the picture. Some believe it it predates the Mississippian culture because of the Weeden island type pottery found there. Someone broke into the museum several years ago and made off with lots of valuable artifacts which--as far as I know-- haven't been found yet/ Looking forward to seeing the sit in person.
Still, Etowah is certainly the largest of the complexes in the southeast and perhaps the best preserved. It's hard to beat the earth lodge at Ocmulgee for it's original baked clay floor though. You may have seen the photos of it on some of my hubs about the Ocmulgee complex. Fascinating!
We are way behind on studying these sites in Georgia. There are still boxes of artifacts sitting in storage at Ocmulgee which were excavated in the 30's and 40's which have never been cataloged or researched. We spend time and money all over the world but fail to fully research sites in our own states.
There is another mound complex a few miles down the river from the Ocmulgee site I want to visit, but one may only go there under supervision by park officials and when the river is low enough to gain access to the site. It too still lacks proper research. This site has one of the only two spiral mounds in the US. It is called the Lamar site and is only one of several other sites not properly researched yet.
There is still lots to be learned from these sites if we ever get around to actually excavating them.
Believe your on to something there for real Randy. A new book out called DNA USA implies for example that the Chippewa have more Euro markers than Native; and the one Cherokee volunteer in the study barely had any Native Amer markers at all. Thanks for that awesome info.
No telling what modern science will be able to tell us about these cultures one of these days, Alastar! I've always felt Europeans have visited here much more than we suspected before.
Perhaps we'll never know exactly HOW the first immigrants arrived here, Alastar. Some of them, as you suggest, may have followed the huge rafts of seaweed along the northwest coast in small boats to eventually arrive here.
Now some scientists believe the earliest Americans may have arrived over 40,000 years ago if the Topper site is any indication. What a wonderful thing it must have been to have discovered an entire continent literally teeming with game and free for the taking!
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