“Our understanding of the origins of Native Americans has been dealt a huge blow.” Thus James Felton, in discussing work indicating the western hemisphere was not first populated by the descendants of the Jomon people. The findings from dental study and other efforts instead support an earlier entrance by folks from Siberia. Against an “outside” threat to the traditional archaeological mainstream, David Wengrow offers Apocalypse No! Pseudo-Archaeology, Ancient Tech-Lords, and Ordinary People. But Wengrow’s response also challenges a traditional conception of human cultural development, as explained in his important recent book with the late David Graeber The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. But even within the hallowed halls of dirt-digging archaeology, seismic discoveries are to be had. Referencing a just-published Cambridge University Press article, Becky Ferreira informs that Archaeologists Discover Huge Lost Civilization in Guatemala. A years-long LiDAR laser remote-sensing study is behind this publication, which “challenges the old notion of sparse early human occupation” in the Mayan “Preclassical” period. And in noting another “lost” revelation, Jan Bartek asks Mysterious Ancient Circular Structure Discovered in Turkey — Has Zippalanda, The Lost City Of The Hittites Been Found?. So Jan Bartek, and explores the possibility of an answer. (WM)
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