Possible Lost Civilization Discovered in Honduran Jungle

[Flagg]

CNN

Lost city discovered in Honduran jungle

By Susannah Cullinane, CNN
Updated 8:49 AM ET, Thu March 5, 2015


CNN)—Archaeologists searching for a lost city in the jungles of Honduras have discovered the urban remains of what they believe is a vanished ancient civilization, National Geographic reports.

A writer and photographer for the magazine accompanied a team of scientists to Honduras' Mosquitia region on the trail of a legendary "White City" or "City of the Monkey God."

The expedition was launched after aerial light detection scanning -- known as LIDAR -- uncovered what appeared to be man-made structures below the rainforest, National Geographic said.

Seeking to confirm the discovery, a team of U.S. and Honduran archaeologists, a LIDAR engineer, an ethnobotanist, anthropologists and documentary filmmakers entered the remote region. They were protected by Honduran Special forces, the magazine said.

Writer Douglas Preston said the team emerged February 25, after documenting the ruins of a "vanished culture."

"In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don't even have a name for it," Douglas wrote. Archaeologists no longer believed in the existence of a single "White City," he said, instead believing there had been an entire civilization with many cities.

The expedition found earth works, including an earthen pyramid as well as a collection of stone sculptures, thought to potentially have been burial offerings.

Archaeologist Oscar Neil Cruz from the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) estimated they dated from A.D. 1000 to 1400, Douglas wrote.

The researchers were greeted by wildlife which appeared never before to have seen humans, wandering unafraid through their camp.

"This is clearly the most undisturbed rain forest in Central America. The importance of this place can't be overestimated," ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin told National Geographic.

The team left their finds unexcavated and are keeping the exact location of the site secret in an attempt to prevent looting.

But in his article, Douglas warned that that the area was nonetheless under threat, with illegal logging for cattle farming within a dozen miles.

IHAH director Virgilio Paredes Trapero told National Geographic that the forest and valley could disappear within eight years unless action was taken.

"The Honduran government is committed to protecting this area, but doesn't have the money. We urgently need international support."

I say "possible" simply because of the breathless tone of the article and CNN occasionally manages to out-stupid FOX from time to time.

[Pelranius]

1000-1400 AD, so I wonder if they were killed off in one of the Post Columbian plagues?

[Flagg]

Columbus Arrived at almost 1500 CE, so I doubt it. Unfortunately there is one thing I do know without a doubt: There will be like 12 'Ancient Aliens' episodes based on this whether it's a newly discovered lost culture/ civilization or just some NatGeo writer trying to make a name for themselves and hyping the shit out of what may be nothing. And that makes me very sad.

[Pelranius]

Columbus Arrived at almost 1500 CE, so I doubt it. Unfortunately there is one thing I do know without a doubt: There will be like 12 'Ancient Aliens' episodes based on this whether it's a newly discovered lost culture/ civilization or just some NatGeo writer trying to make a name for themselves and hyping the shit out of what may be nothing. And that makes me very sad.

Well, it is the History Channel after all.

Hernan Cortes did hear about some settlements in the general area of the Mosquito Coast, though it might have been conflated with preexisting local lore about abandoned cities.

Apparently its along the Mosquito coast of Honduras, which is the the southeast of Honduras (that seems to make any connection to post Classical Mayans rather unlikely).

[Ziggy Stardust]

Apparently its along the Mosquito coast of Honduras, which is the the southeast of Honduras (that seems to make any connection to post Classical Mayans rather unlikely).

It's really the eastern corner of Honduras (it is, incidentally, the first part of mainland America that Columbus reached, and I believe the place he first observed manatees, though I may be wrong on that second point).

In any case, the pre-Colombian history of the swath of Central America from eastern Honduras to Panama (and, in fact, beyond into Colombia and Ecuador) is relatively mysterious. The Mayans inhabited parts of western Honduras, but there is no evidence that they pushed east to the Mosquito Coast; on the other hand, they are known to have extended south, hugging the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. However, most of that part of Central America has an old but sparse archaeological record, and generally seem to be made up of a mix of a wide variety of separate tribes and language groups rather than having one dominant culture, like Mexico or the Andean states. The area is sometimes called the "Intermediate Area" or "Isthmo-Colombian Area", and we know very, very little about it.

Until recently, everybody assumed there had never been anything of import there, because by the time of the Spanish conquest the area was only a collection of local chiefdoms instead of unified states. But in recent decades, a wealth of evidence has been found (especially using these laser equipped aircraft) of the ancient cities/states that had thrived in other areas that had previously been thought generally inhospitable (the Amazon and the Orinoco). I suspect more such discoveries to be made in that stretch of Central America over the next several decades.

[Sea Skimmer]

This is a super legit finding, and long rumored, as were several other lost cities in the Amazon we recently 100% confirmed as existing. The Americas had far more city building civilizations then we know of, which also means they surely had far more large scale warfare then we know anything about. That probably wiped out a good number of cities before multiple waves of multiple plagues each wiped out a large majority of everyone on both continents in the span of about ~100 years.

By the time Europeans really began showing up in large numbers all the abandon cities had been completely overrun with dense rainforest growth. Lost cities are very real, many have been found in the past few years, some by aerial surveys done by oil well prospectors.

This article is short but much closer to the source
http://news-beta.nationalgeographic.com ... chaeology/

By Douglas Preston
Photographs by Dave Yoder

PUBLISHED March 02, 2015
17

An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied “White City,” also referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.”

Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team, which returned from the site last Wednesday, also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned.
Picture of Honduran troops leading a fuel truck and convoy

Honduran troops lead a convoy through a town that served as the base for helicopters ferrying members of the expedition to a location in the Mosquitia rain forest where they examined ruins of an ancient city.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

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In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don’t even have a name for it.

Christopher Fisher, a Mesoamerican archaeologist on the team from Colorado State University, said the pristine, unlooted condition of the site was “incredibly rare.” He speculated that the cache, found at the base of the pyramid, may have been an offering.

“The undisturbed context is unique,” Fisher said. “This is a powerful ritual display, to take wealth objects like this out of circulation.”

The tops of 52 artifacts were peeking from the earth. Many more evidently lie below ground, with possible burials. They include stone ceremonial seats (called metates) and finely carved vessels decorated with snakes, zoomorphic figures, and vultures.

The most striking object emerging from the ground is the head of what Fisher speculated might be “a were-jaguar,” possibly depicting a shaman in a transformed, spirit state. Alternatively, the artifact might be related to ritualized ball games that were a feature of pre-Columbian life in Mesoamerica.

“The figure seems to be wearing a helmet,” said Fisher. Team member Oscar Neil Cruz, head archaeologist at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), believes the artifacts date to A.D. 1000 to 1400.

The objects were documented but left unexcavated. To protect the site from looters, its location is not being revealed.
Picture of a stream winds through part of an unexplored valley in Mosquitia in eastern Honduras

A stream winds through part of an unexplored valley in Mosquitia in eastern Honduras, a region long rumored to contain a legendary “White City,” also called the City of the Monkey God.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic
Stories of “Casa Blanca” and a Monkey God

The ruins were first identified in May 2012, during an aerial survey of a remote valley in La Mosquitia, a vast region of swamps, rivers, and mountains containing some of the last scientifically unexplored places on earth.

For a hundred years, explorers and prospectors told tales of the white ramparts of a lost city glimpsed above the jungle foliage. Indigenous stories speak of a “white house” or a “place of cacao” where Indians took refuge from Spanish conquistadores—a mystical, Eden-like paradise from which no one ever returned.

Since the 1920s, several expeditions had searched for the White City, or Ciudad Blanca. The eccentric explorer Theodore Morde mounted the most famous of these in 1940, under the aegis of the Museum of the American Indian (now part of the Smithsonian Institution).
Picture of former British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers prepare a helicopter pilot for liftoff

Former British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers prepare a helicopter pilot for liftoff from a landing zone cleared for a team of scientists surveying a secret location in the Mosquitia jungle. The helicopter ferried people and supplies from its base.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Morde returned from Mosquitia with thousands of artifacts, claiming to have entered the City. According to Morde, the indigenous people there said it contained a giant, buried statue of a monkey god. He refused to divulge the location out of fear, he said, that the site would be looted. He later committed suicide and his site—if it existed at all—was never identified.

More recently, documentary filmmakers Steve Elkins and Bill Benenson launched a search for the lost city.

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They identified a crater-shaped valley, encircled by steep mountains, as a possible location.

To survey it, in 2012 they enlisted the help of the Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston. A Cessna Skymaster, carrying a million-dollar lidar scanner, flew over the valley, probing the jungle canopy with laser light. lidar—“Light Detection and Ranging”—is able to map the ground even through dense rain forest, delineating any archaeological features that might be present.

When the images were processed, they revealed unnatural features stretching for more than a mile through the valley. When Fisher analyzed the images, he found that the terrain along the river had been almost entirely reshaped by human hands.
1 / 4

Former British SAS soldier Andrew Wood hacks through thick foliage to clear a way for scientists to investigate an archaeological site first identified using an aerial imaging technology called lidar.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Archaeologist Oscar Neil Cruz of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History examines a building stone discovered during a foray to a location identified by lidar as a place of interest. Several such construction stones, apparently shaped by hand, were found in a row at the top of what appears to be an ancient plaza.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Former British SAS commando Steve “Sully” Sullivan (right) waits while the scientific team puzzles over a construction stone that they believe was carved by members of a vanished civilization yet to be identified.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Frequent rains turned the expedition camp into a sea of mud.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

The evidence of public and ceremonial architecture, giant earthworks and house mounds, possible irrigation canals and reservoirs, all led Fisher to conclude that the settlement was, indeed, a pre-Columbian city.
Threatened by Deforestation

An archaeological discovery isn’t confirmed until it has been “ground-truthed.” The ground exploration team consisted of American and Honduran archaeologists, a lidar engineer, an anthropologist, an ethnobotanist, documentary filmmakers, and support personnel. Sixteen Honduran Special Forces soldiers provided security. The National Geographic Society sent a photographer and a writer.

The expedition confirmed on the ground all the features seen in the lidar images, along with much more. It was indeed an ancient city. Archaeologists, however, no longer believe in the existence of a single “lost city,” or Ciudad Blanca, as described in the legends. They believe Mosquitia harbors many such “lost cities,” which taken together represent something far more important—a lost civilization.
Picture of Anna Cohen, a University of Washington anthropology grad student, documents artifacts

Anna Cohen, a University of Washington anthropology grad student, documents a cache of more than 50 artifacts discovered in the jungle. Following scientific protocol, no objects were removed from the site. The scientists hope to mount an expedition soon to further document and excavate the site before it can be found by looters.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

The valley is densely carpeted in a rain forest so primeval that the animals appear never to have seen humans before. An advance team clearing a landing zone for helicopters supplying the expedition noted spider monkeys peering down curiously from the trees above, and guinea hen and a tapir wandering into camp, unafraid of the human visitors.

This is clearly the most undisturbed rain forest in Central America. The importance of this place can’t be overestimated.

Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist

“This is clearly the most undisturbed rain forest in Central America,” said the expedition’s ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, who spent 30 years in Amazonia. “The importance of this place can’t be overestimated.”

The region also is gravely threatened. Deforestation for ranching has checkerboarded the jungle to within a dozen miles of the valley. Huge swaths of virgin rain forest are being cut illegally and burned to make way for cattle. The region has become one of the biggest beef-producing areas in Central America, supplying meat to fast-food franchises in the United States.
Picture of in addition to looting, another threat to the newly discovered ruins is deforestation

In addition to looting, another threat to the newly discovered ruins is deforestation for cattle ranching, seen here on a hillside on the way to the site. At its present pace, deforestation could reach the valley within a few years.

Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic

Virgilio Paredes Trapero, the director of the IHAH, under whose auspices the expedition operated, spent several days at the site. He concluded: “If we don’t do something right away, most of this forest and valley will be gone in eight years.” He spread his hands. “The Honduran government is committed to protecting this area, but doesn’t have the money. We urgently need international support.”

The expedition was made possible with the permission, partnership, and support of the government of Honduras; Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Avarado; Virgilio Paredes Trapero, director of the Honduran Institute for Anthropology and History (IHAH); Oscar Neil Cruz, Chief of the Archaeology Division of IHAH, as well as Minister of Defense Samuel Reyes and the Armed Forces of Honduras under the command of Gen. Fredy Santiago Díaz Zelaya, with Gen. Carlos Roberto Puerto and Lt. Col. Willy Joel Oseguera, and the soldiers of TESON, Honduran Special Forces.

Douglas Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and other publications. His account of Coronado’s search for the Seven Cities of Gold was recently issued as an e-book.

[Ziggy Stardust]

The Americas had far more city building civilizations then we know of, which also means they surely had far more large scale warfare then we know anything about.

Indeed. The sophistication of some of these societies is only now coming to light. It's only relatively recently that archaeologists and historians began to really research Olmec sites; for a long time, they were considered a minor city-state at the frontiers of the Aztec Empire. The sites at Kuhikugu in the Amazon are connected by networks of roads and canals, with evidence of extensive defenseworks, irrigation systems, and dams.

By the time Europeans really began showing up in large numbers all the abandon cities had been completely overrun with dense rainforest growth. Lost cities are very real, many have been found in the past few years, some by aerial surveys done by oil well prospectors.

It is amazing how dense and impenetrable the rainforest can be. It really is an impassable barrier, especially in a region as mountainous as eastern Honduras. Even large and durable human structures won't last more than 5-10 years untended in the jungle before they are so overgrown they just look like hills or mounds; when you consider cities that have been abandoned for several hundred, it is almost amazing that it is possible to find the ruins at all, even with LIDAR.

In any case, I hope they are able to do some excavations and work at the site before it is looted. I fear it won't take very long that to happen. They don't disclose the location, but based on the description they give it is pretty obvious that they are referring to the valley of the Rio Platano or one of its tributaries. Even without extensive knowledge of the region, it's possible to narrow the possible region down a decent amount: I would guess it's close to where the river flows out of the Tawahka indigenous reserve. The river flows through a remote, crater-shaped valley there; but it is still only a couple of dozen miles from farmland (as specified in the article). It can't be much further upstream from that, where there are dam construction projects on the Rio Guayambre, and it can't be much further downstream, where the terrain gets less mountainous. This is just my educated guesswork; dedicated looters in Honduras who better understand the terrain (and may have connections in the Honduran army, that escorted the research team to the site) will probably figure out the location pretty quickly.

[Flagg]

Awesome, I'm glad it's a real thing and not some NatGeo producer trying to stealthily hype some BS show about naked people looking for lost cities. Really interesting too.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Columbus Arrived at almost 1500 CE, so I doubt it.

This is less true than it should be in the case of civilizational collapse in the Americas. Columbus marks the start of permanent settlement and intentional genocide. But many civilizations abruptly collapsed a few decades beforehand, with those in North America happening first, like the Mississippi culture and the city of Cahokia. The answer of course is that the diseases may have been introduced before Columbus by the Grand Banks fishermen who landed to trade and salt their catches. Terra do Bacalhau, Portugal's Island of Cod may have been Newfoundland, or the Basque expeditions or for that matter fishermen from western England, or all three, had been reaching the Grand Banks consistently during the 15th century, and this provides a method of disease transmission.

[Simon_Jester]

I've never actually heard that suggested before but it really should have occurred to me...

Hm. I wonder if we have any means to track whether widespread deaths in North American civilizations were caused by disease?

There are other explanations for a civilizational collapse, of course- we have good written records about the fall of a number of Mayan city-states indicating that civil war, droughts, or other similar disasters were responsible. That said, disease is certainly a credible explanation and it's quite possible that it was introduced before Columbus for all I know.

Although in this particular case... if the disease in question had gotten to a city-state in Honduras, it should have already spread through the Aztec lands first, and they would have recorded it. So if the Aztecs weren't struck by a plague around that time, odds are no one south of them was either.