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Look What They Found in Florida Before digging up the earth for a condominium complex in downtown Fort Walton Beach, Florida, archaeologists explored the undeveloped land and the work has paid off big time. They have found pieces of rare Indian pottery dating to 400 to 700 years before the time of Christ. The Associated Press and the Miami Herald report that thousands of pottery shards were discovered, many of which have decorated rims--highly unusual for that period of the early Weedon Island culture, said lead archaeologist Frank Servello. The decorations tell archaeologists that the plates and bowls were used by wealthy people, and that tells them that the people who lived there had a distinct class structure with the upper crust living on the sound--also the location of the main food source. In addition to the pottery shards, the archaeologists found shells and bones left over from meals, as well as kill pots in which holes had been punched to free the spirits of the potters or perhaps seal deals, Servello told AP. He also thinks the site on the Santa Rosa Sound was likely used for weddings and other lavish ceremonies. The artifacts were only found because of the imminent construction, which allowed archaeologists to dig much deeper than they normally would. Since the condo developer paid for the archaeological dig, that company has claim to the artifacts. Servello did say they might be given to the Indian Temple Mound Museum across the street from the site. Archaeologists recently dug up an ancient village--in Virginia. Click to find out who lived there. Chances are pretty good you'll recognize these names! Amazing Find: Pocahontas' Village Dug Up The site on which the archaeologists were digging was an old Virginia farm, located just above the York River. Deep in the ground they have unearthed what they are confident is Werowocomoco, the principal village of the Indian chieftain Powhatan, reports The Baltimore Sun. A powerful tribal leader, he controlled the Virginia Tidewater area when the English established the Jamestown colony in 1607. Powhatan had a daughter. Her name was Pocahontas. The story of Pocahontas is the stuff of American legend. It was she who supposedly intervened with her powerful father and pleaded with him to spare the life of Capt. John Smith, Jamestown's military leader. As romantic and exciting as the tale may be, it could be more myth than reality, according to historians. Since Smith never mentioned the incident until 1624 and all the witnesses had long since died by then, it's thought he may have invented the story to help sell his memoirs. But at least now we know that the village of Werowocomoco (pronounced weh-ro-wuh-KO-muh-ko) existed. "While the association of Werowocomoco with Jamestown is important, it really represents far more--literally, the culmination of over 15,000 years of Native Americans living in what we today call Virginia," E. Randolph Turner III, regional director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, told The Baltimore Sun. The English were living at Jamestown for a full eight months before they even encountered Powhatan. It was late in 1607 and Capt. Smith and his crew were exploring the Chickahominy River when they met an Indian hunting party that was loyal to Powhatan. The Englishmen were promptly marched to the village of Werowocomoco, which means "King's House." Although it was the seat of Powhatan's military and political power over 25,000 Indians, the village was not particularly impressive. It was small, housing less than 200 residents who lived in huts made of reed or bark mats that were laid over frames of bent saplings, reports The Baltimore Sun. But Smith was impressed. Powhatan, who had about 100 wives during his lifetime, had a dozen with him there. Many of his children were also in the village, including Pocahontas. Smith wrote in his memoir that when he met the chief he was "proudly lying upon a bedstead a foot high, upon 10 or 12 mats, richly hung with many chains of great pearls about his neck, and covered with a great covering of [raccoon] pelts." Preliminary excavations of the site, located about 16 miles north of Jamestown, have been so promising that Turner says there is "convincing evidence that we have indeed found the village." So far, they've uncovered numerous Indian and European artifacts that are consistent with a substantial village from the period, notes The Sun. Among the fascinating finds are small, elongated blue beads that were used by the English in trading with the Indians. This summer, more than 20 professional and student archaeologists will dig on the property. The group is working cooperatively with five of the eight Indian tribes recognized by the state of Virginia. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/pocahontasvillage/pocahontasvillage&floc=wn-np Look what they found in this Missouri cave! It's billed as the find of a lifetime. Look What They Found In a Missouri Cave No one knew the cave was even there until construction workers blasting dynamite into limestone for a new road in southwest Missouri near Springfield found it quite by accident. Even the paleontologist called in to investigate didn't think it would reveal any great mysteries. In fact, he was expecting to find a trash pit. Instead of trash, paleontologist Matt Forir of the Missouri Speleological Survey made the find of a lifetime: an Ice Age time capsule. Among other things, Forir has found proof that short-faced bears who weighed in at a whopping 1,400 pounds roamed the Ozarks during the Ice Age, reports The Associated Press. What's more, he was able to discern that these bears, whom he dubs the T-Rex of the Ice Age, struggled with arthritis and gout. A trio of extinct tortoises is embedded in a wall. Turtle shells have been found deep inside the cave. Forir calls the cave a picture to the past that holds infinite research possibilities. AP notes that he and other researchers are also investigating the possibility that herds of peccary, which are pig-like animals, once sought shelter in the caves thousands of years ago, as opposed to being dragged in by predators for food. "Everywhere you look in here, you find something significant," he acknowledged. Even the stalactites, flowstone, and soda straws that were created over the centuries drop-by-drop from water laden with minerals could yield valuable information for scientists, possibly allowing them to date the age of the cave which they now place in the Pleistocene Era. That would make it as young as 13,000 years old or as ancient as 1.8 million years. The animal tracks and dung tell scientists that animals sought refuge in the cave since most of them are not the kind of animals that normally live in caves. "It certainly indicates that maybe they were using these caves in a social sense, where herds of them were going in to get out of bad weather," Greg McDonald, a peccary expert and paleontological project coordinator for National Park Service in Denver, explained to AP. "It raises all kinds of interesting questions as far as what the importance of caves was in the natural history of these animals." Unlike the other 5,700 registered caves in Missouri, this one--called the Riverbluff Cave--is different in that it might provide enough evidence of Ice Age animals to give it national prominence. "There's no question this cave is a picture to the past," Kenneth C. Thomson, Southwest Missouri State geology professor and cave expert, told AP. Unfortunately, word of the cave's existence spread quickly and vandals invaded it. They carved into a centuries-old calcite column, flattened the fragile skeletal remains of a snake, and stole ancient mineral formations. Security has since been tightened, and the cave has been sealed while various researchers create a plan for exploring its treasures. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/missouricave/missouricave&floc=wn-np Look what archaeologists found while digging on the grounds of the opulent Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Look What They Found In North Carolina! Archaeologists digging on the grounds of the opulent Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina have found an American Indian mound that offers the most complete picture yet of the culture of a prehistoric people known as the Connestee, reports The Associated Press. The Connestee, who lived there between 200 and 400 A.D., may be the ancestors of the Cherokee tribe. So far, they've found evidence of five different earthen floors and about three dozen postholes suggesting a series of large structures, about 75 to 80 feet in diameter, as well as fragments of tools, pottery, hunting weapons, and pieces of clay figurines. They've also found artifacts from the Hopewell Indians of southern Ohio, indicating the two tribes had a trade relationship. "This mound has the potential for answering the questions and writing the whole history of the time period," Biltmore landscape curator William Alexander told AP. "The reason we're focusing on this site is that it's so pure." What really has the archaeologists excited is the dirt. The site, which measures 1,000 square feet, has multiple layers of dirt that are clearly stratified and distinguishable. Each layer--from mossy green to medium brown to orange to tan to dark brown to yellow--offers the trained eye valuable clues as to what happened at different points in the Connestee occupation. The dirt tells the real story. For example, the deepest layer is a yellow subsoil when the site was home to a Connestee village. The excavation is taking place on what was once a cornfield next to the Swannanoa River. The mound is located near the intersection of two major American Indian trails, what AP describes as the prehistoric equivalent of interstate highways. It has survived this long because it was inside the sprawling and largely undeveloped Biltmore property, which is now a national historic landmark. Its 8,000 acres include agricultural fields, woodlands, and forested mountains, as well as the nation's first professionally managed forest. When George Vanderbilt constructed it as a country retreat, the landscape architect gave strict instructions that no Indian remains were to be disturbed. Appalachian State University archaeologist Scott Shumate told AP that he thinks the large structure that's been found was a council house. "We can say as a tentative hypothesis that this was a council house," Shumate said. "People came from all surrounding villages for important ceremonies. It was the equivalent of a county seat. Maybe this place represents the social and spiritual center for a number of villages." Only half the mound will be excavated, a process that will take another 10 years to complete. The other half will be left undisturbed for future archaeologists who may have new technologies and different questions. --Cathryn Conroy http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=news/connestee/connestee&floc=wn-np This ancient Indian mystery that has stumped historians for generations has finally been solved--using corn cobs. Click to find out the fascinating details. Corn Cobs Solve Ancient Indian Mystery In the desolate Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico there is abundant evidence that as many as 6,000 to 10,000 ancient native Americans lived and worshiped there at one time. The remains of elaborate buildings--some as high as four stories and containing 800 rooms--indicate the location was used for rituals and ceremonies. Extensive villages were also built nearby. Why is this of special interest to historians? Because the land is so barren it's virtually uninhabitable. How did the people eat? How did they survive? Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey have solved the mystery. Call it the ultimate take-out food. After analyzing the chemical isotopic ratios of ancient corn cobs found on the site and the soil of fields at the foot of the Chuska Mountains 50 miles to the west and the San Juan River flood plain 56 miles to the north, scientists realized that these ancestral Pueblo people who lived between 850 and 1250 A.D. carried food on their backs for about 50 miles in the hot sun, navigating treacherous trails and even scaling cliffs. A network of roads and trails has been detected in aerial surveys to back up the claim, reports The Associated Press. This was long before Christopher Columbus arrived and brought the return of the horse to North America. "They had to haul it in on their backs," lead researcher Larry Benson told AP. He suspects that some food was produced in the canyon, but rainfall would have been sparse and the agricultural season so short that growing enough food to sustain that many people would have been impossible. "We suspect that during major construction, food had to be imported in order to support the laborers," Linda S. Cordell, director of the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder and a study co-author, told AP. The chemical analysis of the corn cobs confirms this theory as fact. The ancient people most likely carried corn meal, rather than the entire cob, because it would have been lighter. Good thing because they had to save their strength to also carry timber that was 10 to 20 feet long, as well as pottery a full 50 miles. "They were carrying trees all that way," Benson marveled to AP. There is one mystery that still remains unanswered: Why did they choose Chaco as a place for such elaborate construction? "It looks like that in whatever organization existed then, the place had some kind of power," Cordell speculated to AP. "It became an important place and subsequently an important ritual area." The research findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/indianmystery/indianmystery&floc=wn-np __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E-MAIL_TRIVIA/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
