posted on Oct, 3 2003 @ 10:41 PM
Another excellent archaeological find... I would love to go check this one out... would even consider leavning my job maybe...
New Orleans (AP) -- Three young archaelogists came to Northern Arizona and crept through sacred rooms, over rocky precipes and by dangerous
rattlesnakes to discover a huge complex of catagombs that could rewrite theories about the Indians of the southwestern United States.
"It's absolutely mind-numbing. We would have never believed it could have existed," John W. Hohman, one of the three archaeologists, said Friday
during the meeting of the 2,000 member Society of American Archaeology. "It will change a lot of what we believed about Indians in the Southwest.
They may have been far more advanced than we believed."
Hohman admitted to feeling a bit like Indiana Jones, the archaeologists-adventurer from the movies. Armed with a flashlight and a pistol, it was
Hohman who rapelled down the steep fissures, frequently dotted with rattlesnakes sunning themselves on rocky outcrops, into the catacombs.
The catacombs his expedition found are the first reported in the United States, officials at the conference said. "It's very exciting to have it
announced at this conference. It's one of the few times we can say this is a first. Anytime you have a first in our business, it's exciting," said
Dr.James Schoenwetter, professor of anthropology at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. "The idea of a very elaborate form of ceremonial chamber
being built underground hundreds of years ago is surprising."
www.stevequayle.com...