[Aztlan] New Discoveries in Puerto Rico

[Max Dashu]

Wow, we were just talking about Atabey and this came up on another 
list. This is really exciting because the relief has very strong 
similarities to the stela at Utuado that Wendy gave a link for.
Max

Puerto Rico site opens window into culture of Taino Indians
Austin American Statesman By MIKE WILLIAMS
Sunday, December 30, 2007

NEAR PONCE, Puerto Rico - The steep canyon walls echoed to the sounds of
humans for nearly a thousand years before Columbus arrived in the Americas.
Those voices were lost after Europeans settled the Caribbean, however, as
the Taino Indians were nearly wiped out by disease and enslavement.

Now, as a result of plans to build a flood control dam nearby,
archaeologists have stumbled onto a major discovery that may help
reconstruct the rhythms of life of those early Caribbean inhabitants.

Elsa Jimenez, a public affairs officer for the US Army Corps of Engineers,
points to carvings on a rock discovered in Puerto Rico.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/shared/news/82908231_PUERTO_DIG1.html
Archeologists from Atlanta working under a Corps contract discovered the
carvings while surveying the area prior to construction of a flood control
dam. The site will now be protected, and is considered one of the finest
found of pre-Columbian Taino Indians, who inhabited the Caribbean before
Europeans arrived.

An Atlanta-area archaeology firm working for the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has uncovered the outlines of a very large Taino ball court and
ceremonial site, complete with human graves, trash mounds, building imprints
and a few carved petroglyphs that are among the most intricate and detailed
ever discovered in the region.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/shared/news/82908231_PUERTO_DIG4.html

"Suddenly it went from a very good site to an extraordinary site," said
Chris Espenshade, who led a team of local archaeologists and workers from
New South Associates of Stone Mountain, Ga. at the dig this past summer and
fall. "Part of what makes it extraordinary is that we have everything here,
the midden (refuse) mound, the batey (ceremonial site), the house patterns,
the burials and the rock art."
-- 
Max Dashu
Suppressed Histories Archives
http://www.suppressedhistories.net
Real Women, Global Vision