(Atlanta, GA) On December 21, 2011, architect and researcher Richard Thornton published an explosive article which suggested an archaeological site on the side of Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest peak located 100 miles north of Atlanta, was an ancient Mayan site. The article drew an enormous amount of attention from the public as well as a certain amount of derision from academics who derided the article as lunacy or simply dismissed it outright.
Could there really be an ancient Mayan village located in the north Georgia mountains? Having done my own research into this topic over the course of several years, I independently came to the same conclusion as Mr. Thornton thus was quite interested to see another researcher's take on the evidence. So let's cut to the chase and simply look at the evidence to see if it's possible the Maya reached north Georgia and constructed a village.
The Credentials
Mr. Thornton's evidence was based on his comparison of architectural and town planning features of the Georgia site and their similarity to Mayan sites in southern Mexico and Guatemala. I contacted Mr. Thornton to find out what his credentials were to make such comparisons and he informed me that he earned two masters degrees in Architecture and City Planning from Georgia Tech. He also taught a class on Mesoamerican Architecture at Georgia Tech as well as was awarded a fellowship to study Mesoamerican Architecture in Mexico under famed Mexican archaeologist Roman Pina-Chan of the prestigous National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Thus clearly Mr. Thornton has the credentials and education to do comparative studies between architectural and town planning details of sites in Georgia and Mexico.
The Evidence
What did Mr. Thornton find in his research? He noted that the terraces on the side of Brasstown Bald were unique in the southeastern United States yet were identical in form to mountainside terraces constructed by the Maya in southern Mexico and Guatemala.
Mr. Thornton also noted that on the opposite side of Brasstown Bald was an archaeological site known as the Kenimer Mound. He noted that archaeological studies of the site revealed that it was a natural hill that was carved into a pentagonal pyramid form. The archaeologist who studied the site stated it was quite unique and unlike anything else in the southeast. Mr. Thornton noted that similar pentagonal mounds have also been found at Mayan sites in southern Mexico. (Mr. Thorton sent me a copy of a site plan from a Maya site in Mexico that did, indeed, include two pentagonal mounds.)
Mr. Thornton also noted that when looking at old colonial maps of the region, several Native American towns were located nearby called Itsate. In the Hitchiti language, Itsate translates as "Itsa People." It was at this point that Mr. Thornton concluded that the Itza Maya of southern Mexico and Guatemala were the most likely builders of the stone terraces on the side of Brasstown Bald and the pentagonal Kenimer Mound on the opposite side of the same mountain.
Finally, Mr. Thornton noted that several words of Mayan origin appear in the Hitchiti language which is quite an enigma. Combined with all the preceding evidence Thornton concluded that this was more evidence that Mayans, likely the Itza Maya, were in north Georgia and responsible for the stone terraces and pentagonal mound.
The Controversy
Mr. Thornton's argument seems straight-forward but it set off a firestorm of controversy among academic archaeologists. They dismissed his observations outright in quite colorful language. Why Thornton's observations would evoke such a response is interesting in its own right and says much about the inner-workings of Academia. If Mr. Thornton's observations turn out to be true, it would overturn fifty years worth of denials by mainstream academics that there was any contact or connection between Native American tribes in the Southeastern U.S. and Mexico. People who have spent their entire careers argueing against such connections are not going to simply sit quietly while all their life's work gets overturned.
More Research Which Supports A Maya Presence in Georgia
There was nothing surprising about Thornton's research. My own research over the past several years has arrived at the same conclusion about a Mayan presence in Georgia and Florida independently of Mr. Thornton. For instance, a site in Florida called Fort Center near Lake Okeechobee offers the earliest evidence of corn agriculture in the eastern United States. The question naturally arises as to how corn, a Mexican plant, could show up in Florida before it showed up elsewhere in the southeast. The logical conclusion is that it was brought by people who arrived by boat. The archaeologist who excavated the site, William Sears, asserted in his book/archaeological report on Fort Center that this is precisely how corn came to be at this site.
Interestingly, while researching the Lake Okeechobee area I noticed that Lake Okeechobee was originally named Lake Mayaimi. It took its name from a tribe of Indians named the Mayaimi who lived around the lake. (This is where the city of Miami gets its name.) So in the same place where the first evidence of corn agriculture was discovered we find a tribe named Mayaimi. Interesting.
I next looked for a migration legend to see if any other Native American tribe was associated with this area and discovered that the Hitchiti migration legend placed them in the Lake Okeechobee area after having arrived on the Florida coast from a "place of reeds." In the Mayan language, "place of reeds" is a metaphor for a large city. Thus, this legend suggests the Hitchiti were Mayan who left a major city in Mexico before arriving on the coast of Florida and settling near Lake Okeechobee. The legend then states they traveled north and settled permanently. The Hitchiti were located in Georgia at the time of European contact which is consistent with the legend.
I now decided to focus on the Hitchiti and see if I could find any linquistic similarities between the Hitchiti and Mayan languages. I only knew one Mayan phrase off the top of my head: Chichen Itza, the great Mayan city in the Yucatan. I knew that chichen meant "mouth of the well" in Mayan with chi meaning "mouth" and chen meaning "well." I consulted a Hitchiti-English dictionary and to my amazement discovered that chi also meant "mouth" in Hitchiti and chahni meant "well" thus chichahni meant "mouth of the well" in Hitchiti. I have no idea what the odds are of finding a correlation on the first try but I was now even more intrigued.
At this point I decided to find out more about the Maya and who would be capable of an ocean voyage to reach Florida. I quickly found the research of Douglas Peck on the Chontal Maya and their seafaring accomplishments.The Chontal Maya were great seafarers and navigators who controlled all the coastal trade routes from Mexico down to Central America. They also made voyages into the Caribbean. Thus they were the most likely candidates to have traveled to Florida bringing corn along with them.
I also read J. Eric Thompson's book Maya History and Religion and discovered the Chontal Maya called themselves the Putun or Poton and called their province Acala. Interestingly, there is a city called Ocala in Florida. It is named after a Native American province recorded in the journals of the first Spanish conquistadors to pass through the area in the early 1500s. While reading the Spanish journals I was astonished to read the name of the first Native American tribe they met in the vicinity of Ocala: the Potani. Thus we have a province called Ocala and a people called Potani in Florida and a Poton people living in a province called Acala in Mexico.
By this point I was convinced that the Poton Maya (Chontal Maya) had definitely reached Florida but what about Georgia? While researching the first French colony in the New World at Fort Caroline in modern-day Jacksonville, Florida I read in the French journals that they travelled to the Apalachian Mountains and encountered a tribe mining gold. (America's first gold rush took place in these same mountains thus we know there was once significant gold in the area.) This was odd since archaeologists have never found many gold artifacts in Native American graves in the region. So who was this tribe and what were they doing with the gold?
Once again I was surpised to learn that the name of this tribe as recorded by the French explorers was Potanou. Were the Poton Maya mining gold in the Apalachian mountains and shipping it back to Mexico? Was this the reason so few gold artifacts were discovered in eastern North America?
We know the Maya were doing something similar in the American southwest at Chaco Canyon. Archaeologists have found southwestern turquois in mosaics at Chichen Itza and Mayan chocolate residue in drinking cups at Chaco Canyon. This is an overland distance of over 2,000 miles. By comparison, Florida is an overwater distance of only 450 miles. In addition, archaeologists have found Mayan jade at sites in the eastern Caribbean on the island of Antigua which is an overwater distance of 1700 miles. (See Map) Clearly, reaching Florida would have been quite easy for the Putun Maya. In fact, the Gulf Loop Current flows north past the Yucatan and goes directly to Florida thus even without sailing technology one could simply float on the currents and arrive in Florida.
In fact, researcher Douglas Peck has noted that when Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon encountered the indigenous people of south Florida they were not only aware of the Yucatan peninsula and the civilizations that existed there but were able to give him exact navigational headings by which to reach it. This would only be possible if there was contact between the Yucatan and Florida.
Conclusions
Thus I was not surprised that Mr. Thornton discovered a site in the Georgia mountains that appeared to be of Maya origin. My own research has led me to believe the Maya had a presence of some sort in the southeastern U.S. What was surprising is that he discovered several placenames called Itsate near those sites which translates as "Itsa people" in the Hitchiti language spoken in the area. This reminded me of the great Mayan scholar J. Eric Thompson's belief that the Putun Maya (Chontal Maya) and Itza Maya were either related or the same people.
Which brings about the question: was the site in the Georgia mountains similar in function to Chaco Canyon which appears to be a place where high value trade items were collected and shipped to Chichen Itza for use by the city's elites?
There is much more evidence of this Mesoamerican connection which I will cover in future articles. Until then you can find me on facebook, subscribe to my newsletter, or find out more about my upcoming book, Maya In America: The Untold Story of Ancient America. You can also read more of my research at the following links:
Comments