"Golden Chief" Tomb Treasure Yields Clues to Unnamed Civilization

National Geographic News ^ | December 21, 2011 | James Owen

[SunkenCiv]

Photograph by David Coventry, National Geographic

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Renfield. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[ClearCase_guy]

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[reaganaut]

Nephite archeology ping

[Red_Devil 232]

Nice.

I thought Indie had found this years ago in the “Crystal Skull”.

[JoeProBono]

[Publius6961]

Newfound tombs in Central America are yielding thousand-year-old gold, gems, and even...

Someone redefined "Central America" while I wasn't looking.
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica were always the definition of "Central America," as documented on the national flag of at least two of those countries.

Panama was part of Colombia, as late as 1903, hence part of South America. Still considered such.

[martin_fierro]

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve never heard it considered as part of Central America until I read your post. Chiapas used to be part of the onetime republic which included nearly everything between Columbia (Panama) and Mexico (minus Chiapas).

[SunkenCiv]

I think that’s the group that built the Masonite temple.

[bunkerhill7]

The figure on the right appears to be a viking ship replete with shields and mast.

[gleeaikin]

Interesting speculation. Frankly it would not surprise me. This civilization grew and expanded about the same time that Mayan civilization was harmed by volcano and drought. Perhaps developed for the same reason as the find in the US state of George that SC posted recently.

[Talisker]

The figure on the right appears to be a viking ship replete with shields and mast.

Wow, good catch. I went back to the article, but it carefully didn't address the design - which probably means you nailed it.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Beautiful!

[afraidfortherepublic]

The figure on the right appears to be a viking ship replete with shields and mast.

Around 200 AD? Isn't that what Mormons claim? That Jesus arrived in the New world in a ship?

[SunkenCiv]

Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. There’s an anecdote (I couldn’t find it with a cursory web search) about one of the very first paintings on the wall of a tomb in Central America; it was of ships with sails.

[SunkenCiv]

Good point, T — also, it probably explains why we’re only shown a small bit of the whole piece.

[SunkenCiv]

That was apropos, and that’s the oddest tidbit in the story, really. :’)

[no-to-illegals]

Wow! Great find! The Vikings beat Columbus by several hundred years. With all the gold around there is probably Viking ships in the Atlantic laden with gold on the bottom of the Atlantic. With the technology, presently, have to believe there are nations knowing exactly where the gold is, if Viking ships were utilized to transport gold out of the area.