Archaeologists explore a rural field in Kansas, and a lost city emerges

[left-of-center2012]

Locals have long scoured fields and river banks for arrowheads and bits of pottery, amassing huge collections. Then there were those murky tales of a sprawling city on the Great Plains and a chief who drank from a goblet of gold.

A few years ago, Donald Blakeslee, an anthropologist and archaeology professor at Wichita State University, began piecing things together. And what he’s found has spurred a rethinking of traditional views on the early settlement of the Midwest, while potentially filling a major gap in American history.

Using freshly translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors more than 400 years ago and an array of high-tech equipment, Blakeslee located what he believes to be the lost city of Etzanoa, home to perhaps 20,000 people between 1450 and 1700.

They lived in thatched, beehive-shaped houses that ran for at least five miles along the bluffs and banks of the Walnut and Arkansas rivers. Blakeslee says the site is the second-largest ancient settlement in the country after Cahokia in Illinois.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-kansas-lost-city-20180819-htmlstory.html#

[elfin]

1. Thanks for finding and sharing this! nt

[SMC22307]

2. I love this sorta stuff...

thanks for sharing.

[PatSeg]

3. This is fascinating

Thanks for posting.

[dalton99a]

4. Great article.

[left-of-center2012]

5. Many are unaware Spanish conquistadors made it to Kansas

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján; (1510 – 22 September 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer
who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_V%C3%A1zquez_de_Coronado

[ChazII]

26. For what it's worth my high school was named for this explorer. n/t

[highplainsdem]

6. Thanks - fascinating article!

[marble falls]

7. Good stuff. Read "1491" and "Guns, Germs, Steel"...

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Mann
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond

[Glorfindel]

10. Two excellent books! I also recommend them.

I had never thought about it before I read "1491," but it only stands to reason that an infectious disease can spread more rapidly than human settlements.

[2naSalit]

12. Just what I was thinking

as I glanced over at my copy of "1491".

[marble falls]

16. Actually got my dad to read both of them. Diamonds got another book I can't rember it at ...

this senior moment .....

Collapse. That was a great book!

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

[2naSalit]

17. Both good writers.

I used to have a neighbor with whom I would share books, we both read these and has some good conversations about them. I haven't had a chance to look at "Collapse" yet but it's on my list.

[Glorfindel]

24. I, too, have been meaning to read "Collapse." This will spur me to get it done!

And I definitely know what you mean about senior moments. The trouble is, I was just about as absent-minded in my twenties as I am today.

[marble falls]

28. I was too. But for different reasons. I read Collapse first andthen 1491 and the Guns, Germs, Steel.

[HipChick]

8. Who did they steal that land from?

And how many died in the process?

[2naSalit]

13. "They" who?

[Cracklin Charlie]

9. Driving through that area always gives me a weird feeling.

It feels like the perfect place where a lot of folks would live in thatched, beehive shaped dwellings.

It’s eerie, and quiet, with few to no trees or people even now, with miles of whispery, grass covered plains. It’s very lovely, and seems otherworldly, like the surface of some other planet.

Very interesting article.

[GeorgeGist]

11. Seems cultural

It was a friendly encounter until the conquistadors decided to take hostages. That prompted the entire city to flee.

[Cryptoad]

14. White eyes

killed over 10 million Amer Indians and are still looking for ways to kill those that have survived !

[gtar100]

15. Sadly, if Europeans had been humble and friendly we could have just asked about the history here.

The Mayans had mountains of books, each nation of people in the Americas had at least an oral tradition but more so a way of life built upon traditions and practices that would have told us so much more than shards and ruins. All that was ripped up and destroyed before we even had a chance to observe. Now archeologists and anthropologists are trying to piece it back together with only hints of what existed before. If Europeans had shown even a modicum of respect who knows what we could have learned and what artifacts would remain.

[Nitram]

19. You are right, gtar. The Spanish also burned thousands of codices in the Aztecs' library

and used the stones of which the building was made to fill in the lake and build on what is now Mexico City.

[Marthe48]

23. Comment in the book 1491

Thinking of the exchange of ideas and culture between Europe and Asia, what if the world had had the same level of exchange with the cultures of the New World?

1491 promotes the idea that the Native Americans don't have as many defenses against some diseases, such as smallpox and measles, and up to 90% of the Native American people, no matter where they lived, were wiped out when they were exposed to diseases the Europeans were more resistant to.

I have a book, printed in 1907, titled The Indians' Book, by Natalie Curtis. She visited many tribes in the U.S. and wrote down their stories and music.

[left-of-center2012]

25. the book 1491

I read that book maybe 15 years ago.
If I remember correctly, it commented on how clean native Americans were in comparison to Europeans who regularly bathed each spring.
Thus the creation of perfumes to cover up european body odor.

[Marthe48]

30. I read it about the same time

It is a real eye-opener and I recommend reading to anyone interested in pre-columbian culture in North and South America.

Most of the shows about history and archaeology on television are old news and I am always so glad to read about new discoveries and advances in what someone has found.

I think with the amount of ruins and artifacts being found all over the world, that there were lively, adventurous, and inventive cultures all over the world.

[druidity33]

27. Any relation to Edward Curtis the Photographer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Curtis

[Marthe48]

29. I don't think so

He documented similar history and I think he is better known, because of his photography. Natalie Curtis had a music degree. After she wrote The Indians' Book, she wrote a 4 volume about African American music. She died in Paris in 1921. There are several internet resources if you want to know more about her.

I've had this book since I was 9, got it from my grandfather's home after he passed away. The pages are largely uncut, and I didn't want to damage it. But the pages I can read are awesome

[Nitram]

18. So much left to learn about migration and settlement to the Western Hemisphere.

Meanwhile, locals were permanently erasing the historical meaning of artifacts they collected by moving them from their resting places.

[Marthe48]

31. When I read in the article of huge collections

I thought that there's a lot more we won't know. I live in the Ohio Valley, with Hopewell mounds protected. The people older than me collected the same kind of objects here.

[Nitram]

32. I understand the impulse. Schools should educate kids about the importance of keeping artifacts in

place until they've been documented. I picked up Civil War mini-balls when I was a kid living near the location of the Battle of Bull Run (First Battle of Manassas). Every time we had a hard rain some would be uncovered. I don't think that did much to erase a piece of Civil War history, though.

[CaptainTruth]

20. Very cool! Thanks! nt

[elmac]

21. I've found several clovis arrowheads at my old middle school

The area is on a ridge, field overlooking a large lake. I figure there must have been a Paleo Indian summer camp there 10k years ago, it would have been a perfect spot for hunting, fishing.

[Bayard]

22. I love Native history

Thanks for posting this.

I especially liked this part:
"That’s when they were ambushed by 1,500 Escanxaques."

Greed, disrespect, and rudeness punished.