Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Origin of 'Spanish Armor,' Said to Have Been Found in Texas Desert, Stumps Scientists
Western Digs ^ | September 10, 2015 | Blake de Pastino

Posted on 09/13/2015 12:59:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Two pieces of iron armor -- reportedly first found in the desert of West Texas about 150 years ago -- have recently been analyzed by scientists in Nebraska, where the artifacts have been sitting for decades in museum storage.

Archaeologists have been able to determine that some of the armor's components are at least 200 years old, but details about who made it, who wore it, and where exactly it came from remain a total mystery.

"I don't know where this thing came from," said Dr. Peter Bleed, a University of Nebraska archaeologist who led the study.

"I hope researchers will look for more evidence about this."

Bleed supervised two anthropology students at the University of Nebraska -- Lindsay Long and Jessica Long, who are now graduate students at other institutions -- in their investigation of the armor as a research project.

The Nebraska History Museum acquired the armor in 1990, consisting of a black helmet and a neck covering called a gorget, made of a cotton twill backing covered with small iron scales.

But despite its storied past, the artifact -- and the lore that came with it -- had never been thoroughly studied.

"I thought the armor itself deserved to be documented, in part because it had been in a private collection since the 1890s," Bleed said.

The few records of the armor that exist came from U.S. cavalry officer and anthropologist Capt. John Gregory Bourke, who was given the gorget, helmet, and a breast- and backplate in 1870, from an army doctor who claimed to have found them "enclosing the bones of a man in the arid country between the waters of the Rio Grande and the Pecos."

(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: bourkearmor; godsgravesglyphs; spanisharmor
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 next last
To: Big Red Badger

The way the Spaniards stole all the Native American’s stuff, trashed their cities and massacred, totured and enslaved everyone who didn’t flee and hide in remote areas-I’ve always thought it was a fitting gotcha for the Natives left alive to appeal to their greed, string them along with that Cibola/Cities of Gold scam, leading them further and further into hard terrain they weren’t used to, making them vulnerable to attack by the Natives whose ancestors had lived there for at least 15-20 thousand years, so they were part of that terrain-now that was rough justice...

My Spanish ancestors-some of them, I’m sure-were greedy bastards, but the Native ones sent them off looking for something that probably didn’t even exist-in an arid, rough place where there was almost no water, full of dangerous animals and their own hostile relatives-got their own brand of “reparations”...


21 posted on 09/13/2015 2:57:12 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
Maybe it goes back to the Habsburg's.
22 posted on 09/13/2015 3:05:58 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Back in the 1960s, I read that some scale armor like this had been found east of Aztec NM and was in a bank vault at THE CITIZENS BANK there.


23 posted on 09/13/2015 3:15:17 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Looks similar to Spanish crossbowman armor.


24 posted on 09/13/2015 3:21:14 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Flick Lives
Seems odd to make a helmet and leave a round hole on the top. I wonder if there was a decorative metal cap or peak that’s now missing.

West Texas Desert. Dark helmet. I think I would prefer a hole in the top too.

25 posted on 09/13/2015 3:24:23 PM PDT by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: VerySadAmerican

;’)


26 posted on 09/13/2015 3:30:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Texan5

Cibola was a real place, apparently, but the one expedition that went up to find it and described it wound up mysterious because no one else subsequently found it. Probably found the tail end of culture about to dry up and blow away in the drought. The remains of irrigation canals and such around modern Phoenix is probably all that remains of one of the Cibola sites.


27 posted on 09/13/2015 3:34:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Oatka

That’s not just in the Americas, either.


28 posted on 09/13/2015 3:36:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Interesting.


29 posted on 09/13/2015 3:37:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Jane Long; TigersEye; Flick Lives; squarebarb; BenLurkin; Ruy Dias de Bivar

The hole in the helmet was for a crest (IMHO) putting the date no later than the early 19th c; Habsburgs, French, etc.


30 posted on 09/13/2015 3:39:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Big Red Badger

Thanks!

http://archive.org/stream/ontheborderwithc002470mbp/ontheborderwithc002470mbp_djvu.txt


31 posted on 09/13/2015 3:40:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
Dr. Rudolph, Dentist: Hello Mr. De-Sick-o. Coneheads photo: coneheads coneheads.jpg Beldar Conehead: DeChicco, my name is DeChicco.
32 posted on 09/13/2015 4:07:38 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

That is an excellent theory-I’m guessing the Natives lied to the Spaniards about all the treasure, though-I would have just for the pleasure of seeing them wandering around baking and thirsty in rattlesnake country...

I’ve never seen the canals in Arizona, but there are others here and there in the SW-my cousin’s husband always invited us to where he was doing digs before he got permanently tied to an admin position at the museum, and my first husband was from NM-we loved seeing the ruins in/near the desert on both sides of the border-you can see how the people of that time got into trouble in a drought when they had already crowded too many people near their water and food sources-they didn’t know not to do that, but they did try to remedy the situation by bringing water from further and further away with canals-sometimes covered with flat rocks, but in the end they always ended up getting sacked by another desperate tribe, or abandoning the place to find a place where there were more resources whenever there was a drought.


33 posted on 09/13/2015 4:22:01 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Some early Spanish expeditions into the Trans Pecos area of Texas such as that of Coronado had officers and probably some soldiers who wore armor. Before that, the Spanish found the Aztecs wearing quilted cotton armor so it wouldn’t be a big step from combining the coolness of cotton to the scale metal armor.

All this is so well known that I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned in the article.


34 posted on 09/13/2015 4:25:30 PM PDT by wildbill (If you check behind the shower curtain for a murderer, and find one.... what's yoIur plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I remember listening to the Bruce Williams show early in the 90’s.
A guy called in and said he had found a bunch of Spanish treasure somewhere in the SW United States.
He asked Bruce for guidance on what to do about it.

The caller seemed genuine; always wonder what happened to the caller; or if it was real.


35 posted on 09/13/2015 4:32:39 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Going to Planned Parenthood for medical care; would be like going to Auschwitz for medical care.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I read an interesting article years ago in which it was believed that Frey Marcos never got close to the cities but saw common pueblos glowing in the evening sun.
The expedition of Coronado found whole villages of “sodomites” and later villages of Indian families, but no gold. No gold cities. The soldiers began to refer to Marcos as “the Liar”.
The Indians then pointed Coronado toward Kansas looking for more towns which he never found, just tent villages.

The book I read said some of the priests stayed behind and established the first church in Kansas, beating out Florida. They were later killed after the Spanish army left.
Coronado heard of other Spanish to the South east, probably the De Soto expedition, and sent Indians to try to make contact.
In my youth I always found such explorations fascinating.


36 posted on 09/13/2015 4:37:18 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

John Upton Terrell wrote Apache Chronicle,,1972.

He describes Cabeza de Vacas’ exploration from Florida to the West coast of Mexico in 1535.
Four men on foot,, amazing !

The Cities of Gold were lies by the Spanish to encourage More exploration and settlement.


37 posted on 09/13/2015 4:40:34 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (UNSCANABLE in an IDIOCRACY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: wildbill

Stumps Scientists,,,!?

to busy with Global Cooling or some such crud.


38 posted on 09/13/2015 4:47:51 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (UNSCANABLE in an IDIOCRACY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

This sounds like a good Louis L’Amour Sackett novel.


39 posted on 09/13/2015 5:48:34 PM PDT by Sawdring
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Aztec Indians used cotton armor and the Spanish adopted it.


40 posted on 09/13/2015 5:50:59 PM PDT by ZULU (Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in N. America. Denali is Aleut for "scam artist.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson