Explorers Find Ancient City in Remote Peru Jungle

Original Article:
An ancient walled city complex inhabited some 1,300 years ago by a culture later conquered by the Incas has been discovered deep in Peru's Amazon jungle, explorers said on Tuesday [...] Replete with stone agricultural terraces and water canals, the city complex is thought to have been home to the little-known Chachapoyas culture [...] According to early accounts by Spanish conquistadors who arrived in Peru in the early 1500s, the Chachapoyas were a fair-skinned warrior tribe famous for their tall stature. Today they are known for the giant burial coffins sculpted into human figures found in the northern jungle region.

Well Thats certainly interesting. I am wondering how good of a source the conquistadors would be for this sort of information. The article doesn't note if these people fair-skinned, but it does seem to say that it was the coffins, not the actual people, that were giants. It reminds me, as an aside, that Alexander the Great was supposed to have buried giant horse saddles and the like along the route of his conquests, for the express purpose of getting people to think these greeks had been giants amoung men. Perhaps these peoples had a similar idea?

that article also notes:
The discovery is the third notable ruin Gene Savoy has helped uncover in Peru. In 1964, Savoy found the site of the Incas' last refuge in the Cuzco region of southern Peru. A year later he took part in the discovery of the sacred city of Gran Pajaten in northern Peru.

Dang. The leader of the expedition is this guy's son apparently, named Sean. Pretty crazy family outings I guess. The Griswalds have got nothing on them.

Very interesting. Do you have a link to the article?

Originally posted by Frogs
Very interesting. Do you have a link to the article?

the words 'original article' highlighted in red are infact a link to it, you can click on it and a new window will pop up with it.

next summer i am going with my uncle on an archaelogical expedition to cambodia to explore a temple carved top down from stone. also we ar going on an expedition in south china. i will take pictures and post them.

Originally posted by phantompatriot
next summer i am going with my uncle on an archaelogical expedition to cambodia to explore a temple carved top down from stone. also we ar going on an expedition in south china. i will take pictures and post them.

Interesting. Is this a research expedition? Or archaeo-tourism? Is it part of a larger research project?

i guess its kind of both its also a chance for me to learn about how arceaology works.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by phantompatriot]

Originally posted by phantompatriot
i guess its kind of both its also a chance for me to learn about how arceaology works.

[edit on 19-8-2004 by phantompatriot]

Sounds like its going to be a really good time, I would like to do something like that myself one day. Definitely take some photos and post them here.

sounds like these giants were 6-7 feet tall. wow

here is an article and pictures of a temple in bombay india that is almost exactly like the one im going to.
www.anomalies-unlimited.com...

Doh! Sorry about asking for the orig. when it was there to start with..

It had been a long day A very long day....

You'll enjoy the dig -- it's a TON of work, but it's a real learning experience! I went on one this summer, in fact.

Nice find, Nygdan! The Chachapoyas were completely unknown to me... I'd have dismissed them as Bad Information if I hadn't seen the Yahoo article. I'll have to do some further research. (An odd linkage might be the Kennewick man... but I'm not sure of his relative age or the relative time of the Chachapoya tribes... but there are some linguistic links that could tie the two together.

Intriguing.

wow byrd thats great, atleast im not the only one here with knowledge of archaeology (others know to but your the first ive met thats been on a dig).

Originally posted by Byrd
Kennewick man

? Even if they are co-temporal, aren't they rather seperated in space?

but there are some linguistic links that could tie the two together.

Hows that?

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by Byrd
Kennewick man

? Even if they are co-temporal, aren't they rather seperated in space?

Yes, they are. But the people walked from up north (where Kennewick man was found) to South America, y'see. They idn't just suddenly telepolrt there.

but there are some linguistic links that could tie the two together.

Hows that?

These aren't the maps I was thinking of, but the language distribution maps show patterns of migration to some degree. I don't know what language those people speak, of course... but if we knew, it would be interesting to trace where the other tribes live who speak a similar language.
www.ling.su.se...