Science Is Eating His Dust (Adventurer exploring Chachapoya civilization of Peru)

LA Times via Yahoo News ^ | Dec. 7, 2004 | Thomas H. Maugh

[FairOpinion]

Gene Savoy plunged into the Peruvian jungle half a century ago in search of the fabled El Dorado, a lost Incan city so wealthy that its king reputedly walked coated in gold dust.

Now semiretired, Savoy never found El Dorado. But along the way, he became the world's foremost chronicler of a forgotten civilization known as the Chachapoya — and a blight to traditional archeologists.

Savoy, 79, is among the last of a dying breed — the swashbuckling adventurer whose expeditions plow through the world's rain forests in search of lost history.

The tension between Savoy and the archeological establishment has unfolded in one of the most forbidding places in the world — a spot in northern Peru known as Ceja de Selva — the Eyebrow of the Jungle.

[FairOpinion]

Excerpted, because it's originally from the LA Times, but it's at Yahoo news now, so you don't need to log in.

Interesting -- we need people like Savoy, to go and explore, as we need archeologists who spend more time at each discovery.

[FairOpinion]

GGG PING

Veteran American explorer Gene Savoy stands beside his mule during an expedition to Peru's northern highland jungle in June 1985 during which he discovered Gran Vilaya, the capital of the mysterious Chachapoyas Indian kingdom. (AP Photo/)

[FairOpinion]

"He has probably seen more Chachapoya architecture than any man alive, discovering, by his own account, more than 40 ancient cities. The Peruvian government gave him a medal, the Order of the Gran Pajaten, for bringing attention to a region once thought archeologically barren. "

[FairOpinion]

Special early preview for you, before the GGG Ping.

I think it's quite interesting.

[fire_eye]

Oh, yeah, "Archaeological Establishment" - fatass pot-gutted tweed-cap-wearing snotty professors who made one trip to Mexico for their postdoc and then got a comfy job in a liberal-arts institution, married a student, and haven't budged since.

[Chances Are]

Hey, boy, you really nailed that one, didn't you?

Ca....

[carumba]

I wish you wouldn't beat around the bush. Just come out with what you think.

[Fred Nerks]

Interesting site on the Chachapoya people in Peru with lots of photographs, ruins etc:

http://www.kuelap.org/

[Drammach]

bttt

[thegreatbeast]

Later

[blam]

"I think it's quite interesting."

Thanks, I agree. Here's a link to a previous article with more detail.

Pre-Incan Ruins Emerging From Peru's Cloud Forests (Chachapoyas)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, FairO'.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[MacDorcha]

Very interesting... being a college student, this gives me yet ANOTHER idea of what to do with my life... lol.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[ForGod'sSake]

From the article: The better-known Maya and Incas recognized them[chacha's] as tall, light-skinned, preternaturally fierce warriors.

Ok, someone has an idea where these people came from? Are these Ainu(sp) maybe......possibly?

FGS

[blam]

"Ok, someone has an idea where these people came from? Are these Ainu(sp) maybe......possibly?"

Yup, either that or the exiled/stranded miners of King Solomon.

[ForGod'sSake]

...either that or the exiled/stranded miners of King Solomon.

Intriguing notion. We don't really know how long the Chacha's were around South America do we? Nobody knows where the Chachapoya came from, but starting about 1,300 years ago, they began to spread...

Their history would have to go back about another eight hundred years(+/-) to have been contemporaries of Solomon? Seems a stretch, but since we're only speculating anyway...

FGS

[Baraonda]

"I think it's quite interesting."

I don't.

[ForGod'sSake]

Whoops! Make that: Their history would have to go back about 1800 years(+/-). Seems Solomon was around about a thousand years BCE(BCE did replace BC did it not?).

FGS

[ForGod'sSake]

Are you trying to start something?

FGS