“An interpretation of new data suggests that ritual activity
took place in southern Mexico more than 9,000 years ago. But the interpretation
has sparked a debate among Mesoamerican scholars.
The debate centers on a nondescript agave field just off the
highway that runs from Oaxaca City to the town of Mitla. During the mid-1960s,
Flannery conducted a survey of the region, and noted a scattering of flint
tools at the site, called Gheo-Shih by the locals. (The name, in the Zapotec
language, means “River of the Gourd Trees.”) Flannery asked Yale University’s
Frank Hole if he would oversee an excavation there given his expertise in stone
tools. Hole, a lanky and quiet man, agreed, using his vacation time to do the
work.
After digging several test pits, Hole found a few big
stones. "I followed the line of rocks, and the line got longer and
longer—and then I found a parallel line of rocks.”
The Whole Smithsonian Article:
Does that sound familiar to anyone else, that “following a
line of rocks” thing?
Or the arguments, such as: “How do they know the rocks weren’t moved?” he asks. Winter
notes that the area was settled in the late Post Classic period, and he
suggests that what appears to be an Archaic ritual space might be a road built
in Spanish colonial times.
No comments :
Post a Comment