Ancient City in the Clouds

Rio Abiseo National Park is over 10,000 feet above sea level in Peru’s Andes Mountains. It is known to hold ancient artifacts, which archaeologists are still uncovering. In 2025, they located over 100 structures that had previously been unknown. They are part of the Chachapoya civilization from between the seventh and sixteenth centuries.

The area was first found in the 1960s, and the national park was founded in 1983. During the 1980s, archaeological teams found 26 ancient structures. This new discovery of so many structures expands the knowledge of the Chachapoya civilization, known as the people of the cloud forest.

This civilization had sophisticated urban centers, ceremonial platforms, cliffside burial structures, and agricultural terraces. It also had a distinctive architectural and artistic language, which is displayed in circular buildings, geometric decorations and decorated burials.

Researchers used various forms of analysis to create a map of this site from 2022 through 2024. The site contained ceremonial buildings with high-relief friezes, views of the cloud forest, and mosaics depicting humans. Technology allowed them to see through the forest, map the area, and interpret construction techniques and layout.

Investigations confirm the Chachapoya presence as far back as the 14^th century with hints the site was used even earlier. A nearby network of pre-Hispanic roads connects the site to others in the region. It seems the civilization was part of a well-connected territory.

The remote location means that the site has been subject to minimal human intervention, which helps protect the history. Like many other sites in the region, however, this one is fragile and overgrown by vegetation.

While the team was there, it undertook conservation interventions to stairs and stone reliefs, as well as a partial reassembly of a perimeter wall. If enough archaeological teams started doing the same to site that they explore, these ancient cities might become habitable again.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/archaeologists-were-searching-a-forest-in-the-clouds-and-found-100-structures-from-an-ancient-city/ar-AA1Rzymu?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=692f2832a33a4d0c831eff647f741d05&ei=37

Why This Ancient Civilization Vanished

The ancient Indus River Valley civilization had gridded streets, multistory homes, flush toilets, and bustling shops. It traded gold, precious stones, and bronze carts with other areas along the region’s waterways. Some people carved human figurines and others made toys of clay. Crops included wheat, barley, and cotton. Tools were made to bring water from nearby rivers for crops.

The valley is largely located in Pakistan and northwest India. It hosted one of the most advanced societies at the time, rivaling Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. And then it disappeared.

Scientists have been looking at the environmental conditions in an attempt to explain the downfall of Harappa, one of the valley’s largest cities. Using paleoclimate data and computer models, they re-created the climate during the civilization’s existence, which was between 3000 and 1000 BC. During that time, four intense droughts dried up waterways and soils. This probably caused the Harappan residents to relocate frequently.

Harappa’s decline was partially caused by repeated, long, and intensifying rivers droughts that lasted centuries. It is thought that if there is less food and a weak government, such droughts can push a civilization over the brink. Despite the persistent droughts, this civilization lasted a long time.

Over 2,000 years, Harappan settlements became more concentrated closer to water.

Scientists determined that vigorous monsoons across the region created much wetter conditions than today. That was between 3000 and 2475 BC. But then drier conditions and increased temperatures came in. And droughts.

There were four droughts—each lasting more than 85 years—between 2425 and 1400 BC. The third drought was the worst and it peaked around 1733 BC. It lasted for 164 years and affected most of the region.

The rainfall changes meant lakes and shallow waterbodies shrank, river flow decreased, and the soil dried up. Lower rivers meant that trade boats and barges could only move at certain times. Agriculture also became tougher in areas away from waterways.

This pushed people to move, which may have contributed to the society’s decline.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/scientists-may-have-solved-why-this-ancient-advanced-civilization-vanished/ar-AA1RhqRG?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6928fae6b3a04bd585a20b944d8846b3&ei=14

Ancient Civilization Could Rewrite History

Archaeologists are uncovering something that challenges what we thought we knew about early human civilization. Deep in the Amazon rainforest, they have discovered an advanced settlement predating known civilizations by thousands of years. The sophistication of the tools, structures, and agricultural systems suggests that our ancestors were far more advanced than previously imagined.

Metal artifacts recovered from the site show bronze-working capabilities that shouldn’t exist for another millennium. The alloy compositions demonstrate a knowledge of tin-copper ratios considered sophisticated.

The discovery is particularly intriguing as tools show evidence of multiple heating and cooling cycles, indicating an understanding of complex tempering processes. The implications stretch far beyond South America and could connect ancient trade networks we never knew existed.

Stone monuments in the settlement align with celestial events with precision that rivals such observatories as Stonehenge. They track solstices, equinoxes, and even predict eclipses, which requires advanced geometric calculations.

Carbon dating places these structures centuries before similar structures appeared elsewhere in the world. They suggest not only astronomical knowledge but knowledge of the Earth’s axial tilt and seasonal variation. Such sophisticated calculations indicate a formal educational system and scientific methodology.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/archaeologists-say-newly-unearthed-civilization-could-rewrite-human-origins/ss-AA1MgmpH?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6917e2e9c68742688399dcc33fea5152&ei=66#image=10

Ancient Crime

Archaeologists have discovered that crime - particularly fraud and counterfeiting - are not new types of human activity. They can now prove that these underhanded dealings have been happening for millennium.

The evidence comes from 2 archeological sites in Spain; La Molina cave and the Cova del Gegant cave. At La Molina, 10 people were buried with goods that included pottery, bone awls, objects carved from ivory and amber beads. This site dates back to the 3rd millennium BC.

At the Cova del Gegant, an estimated 19 people were buried, dating from the 2nd millennium BC. These people were accompanied by pottery and ornamental beads made of lignite, coral, amber, shell and gold.

The amber beads tricked many archaeologists, but tests revealed that not all of them were real amber. Some of the ‘amber’ beads found at Cova del Gegant were found to be pieces of mollusk shell core coated with pine resin, and these were mixed in with real amber beads. The fake amber beads from La Molina were seeds coated with resin. Apparently this type of surface coating effectively emulated the translucence, shine and color of amber. In fact, similar methods of imitating turquoise in the Levant have been identified from the 6th millennium BC.

People started to trade commodities thousands of years ago in Europe. Amber was highly valuable and was used by leaders to cultivate an image of power and wealth. Some amber was brought to Spain from the Baltic Sea, but another trade route was through Sicily, which also supplied ivory, Alpine jade and cinnabar.

So why create fake amber beads? Perhaps there wasn’t enough real amber to fill the demand for it. Perhaps the traders - or their suppliers - saw a way to make ‘a fast buck’. And although the exotic goods buried with these people showed that they could afford the real thing, perhaps their survivors saw no reason to waste all the real, expensive stuff by burying it forever.

I heard it said once that ‘counterfeiting’ was the oldest profession, save one. At the time, I thought that was an overstatement. Maybe I was wrong.

https://www.newsweek.com/5000-year-old-fake-amber-beads-found-spanish-burial-sites-first-example-1406723

Gobekli Tepe

Gobekli Tepe is Turkish for “Potbelly Hill”, and refers to an archeological site in the SE Anatolia Region of Turkey. The ‘hill’ is 49 ft tall and about 980 ft in diameter. It is located 2,490 ft above sea level.

The construction of this site is believed to date back to the 10th to 8th millenium BC. It was built before pottery was invented in this area, and contains massive T-shaped stone pillars, the world’s oldest known megaliths. Surveys have discovered more than 200 pillars in about 20 circles. Each has a height up to 20 ft and weighs 10 tons. They are fitted into sockets that were hewn out of the bedrock.

The 2nd phase of this site was still pre-pottery, but newly erected pillars were smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors made of polished lime. The location was abandoned after that.

Dating of the site was accomplished by charcoal samples found in the lowest levels of the site. It is likely this charcoal indicates the end of the active phase of occupation, and that the actual structures were older.

The site sits on a flat, barren plateau connected on the north to a neighboring mountain range by a narrow promontory that shows evidence of human impact. In all other directions, the ridge descends steeply into slopes and steep cliffs.

The pillars were carved from the plateau edges, where several quarries have been identified, and 3 t-pillars found. The largest of these has been severed from the surrounding rock, and the other 2 are identified as t-pillars, but not yet separated.

At first I thought the article was talking about something like Stonehenge; monoliths standing on end, some with a cap stone balanced atop 2 of them, but further on, the article had details that belied that thought. A large number of t-pillars were embedded in thick walls made of unworked rock that formed a circle, approximately 8 t-pillars per circle. Four of these circles have been discovered so far, with indications of another 16 not yet uncovered. It is unknown if these walled circles had a roof.

But the t-pillars were not just used in walls; in the center of each circle, 2 taller t-pillars faced each other. Stone benches were also found inside the circles. Many of the limestone t-pillars were decorated with symbols or depictions of many animals that may have been present at the time, but which no longer live in the area today. It is likely the area was forested at the time, with a large variety of animals, but millennia of human habitation and cultivation has reduced the area to a dust bowl environment.

Some of the floors of the circles were made of burnt lime, while others were bedrock.

After 8800 BC, the people stopped making circles and constructed small rectangular rooms. Rectangles are a more efficient use of space than circles, and are often associated with the emergence of the Neolithic age. However, t-pillars are still present, indicating these probably served the same purpose as the earlier circles, perhaps as a sanctuary. Several adjoining doorless and windowless rooms have floors of polished lime.

No evidence of domesticated plants or animals have been found at the site. It is assumed the inhabitants were hunters and gatherers who lived in villages part of the year. Still, very little evidence of residential use has been found. It is believed that the locations may have been used as a spiritual center even earlier than the dates given here.

So, here is a site that was created before pottery, metallurgy, writing, the wheel, agriculture or even animal husbandry. It would have taken organization of an advanced order, as it is estimated that up to 500 people would have been needed to extract and move the heavy pillars. I don’t know if that number includes the people doing the hunting and gathering to feed the people doing the heavy construction.

But around 8000 BC, the site ceased to be a ceremonial center to the people. Instead of simply abandoning the site, they deliberately filled it in with whatever rubble they had at hand, including animal and human bones. It was used for agriculture from then until the present.

It has been suggested that Gobekli Tepe was a place for remembering the dead, of putting them to rest in some way. (No obvious graves have yet been found.) It seems fitting, then, that when the Neolithic people ‘moved on’, when they invented pottery, agriculture and animal husbandry, they made an effort to bury their past.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

The Sky is Falling

If you follow me on facebook, you may have noticed that I have shared many articles on climate change and that I have started using the comment, “The Sky is Falling.”

It seemed more appropriate than saying, “The Boy Cried Wolf.” In that story, the boy is lying, only looking to introduce some excitement into his own life, without regard for the consequences.

Chicken Little, on the other hand, was telling the truth, as best he knew it. Something (a raindrop) had come down from the sky and hit him. He had never experienced anything like that before, so the logical conclusion was that something terrible was happening, the sky was falling! Chicken Little ran around the farmyard squawking his terrible news, trying to warn all the other farm critters.

Even that doesn’t exactly fit the problem of climate change. Chicken Little was very young and inexperienced. But it’s scientists who have been trying to warn the world’s population that the climate was changing far quicker than it should. They have lots of experience at studying climate and how it has changed in the past, and they have a pretty darn good idea where it’s headed.

In the past week, I have read several articles concerning the number and severity of heatwaves that have been happening around the world. Not only has the world been having more of them, not only have they broken records for daytime high temperatures, they’ve broken records for the highest low temperatures as well. That means that after a sweltering day, you don’t get much relief during the night, because the heat that has accumulated all day doesn’t dissipate fast enough.

I think Europe has already broken several summer records during a heatwave in June of this year. There’s no guarantee they won’t have another later this summer. Or this fall, or... whenever. A heatwave can happen at any time on the calendar, because it is a comparison between the present and what has been ‘normal’ previously.

The scientists don’t ‘think’ any particular place will start having a heatwave every year. But it could happen. After all, they wanted us to keep the warming of the Earth to 2°C or less. What are they saying now, that it’s officially reached a warming of 1.8°C? But in Europe, the temperatures reached +4 to +8°C over ‘normal’.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t get much done when the temperature gets to 95°F. I sure don’t want it to consistently reach 123°F. Or higher.

Maybe Chicken Little isn’t the best story for me to quote to try to get my point across, but it’s the one I can remember as the summer heat settles in. So I’ll keep squawking my warning and hope somebody is listening, because...

The sky is falling.

Bring the Green!

Have you read the ‘Green New Deal resolution that’s been introduced in both houses of Congress? Nope, me neither. First, I wouldn’t have any idea where to find it. Second, if I did find it, I fear it would be written in ‘Congress-ese’, which I expect is nigh on impossible for laypeople to understand.

But I was fairly certain it did NOT say we had to get rid of cows, as one news anchor claimed.

So, when I ran across an article that attempted to explain exactly what was included in this resolution (not a bill, a resolution), I took the time to read that.

It makes great sense to me. I agree with it completely. Basically, it states that since climate change is not only real but already effecting the population of the US, costing us time, money and even heath dangers, that it is the responsibility of the administration to do everything it can to assist and encourage changes to infrastructure, social norms, and a whole host of other things to help all of us deal with those climate changes. Nowhere in it does it even mention cows.

What kind of assistance could the government provide? Where do I begin?

We started looking at installing solar panels on our roof decades ago. But at that time, they weren’t very effective and lasted about 10 years, so by the time they ‘paid for themselves’, you needed to replace them. Plus, we were in the midwest, where there were NO companies who offered solar panels or knew how to install them. We got solar panels installed on our roof within a year of moving to Florida. But we still had to take out a loan to do it, and we may never get any of the cost ‘returned’ to us by the government, because we don’t have enough income.

Here’s the first few ideas I have on how the government could ‘encourage’ this change to our infrastructure (moving our electricity needs to solar panels and/or windmills): Make arrangements for homeowners to get loans for solar panels (windmills) at a really low interest rate. Encourage (or require) power companies to start replacing their fossil-fuel-powered power plants with solar panels/windmills and batteries. Why not encourage businesses to install solar panels/windmills on their roofs? Or the side of their building? There have been some wonderful innovations in solar panels; I understand one guy even figured out how to embed solar ‘panels’ in roads, so... why aren’t we taking advantage of these things?

We’d like to get an electric car, but they aren’t any good if you plan to drive more than an hour or 2. And it’s not like you can pull into any gas station and ‘fill up’ when your battery gets low. When I first started looking at electric cars, it seemed you could drive for 4 hours, then you had to stop and ‘recharge’ for about 8 hours. Assuming you could find a place to do that. About 3 years ago, I heard that ‘high-speed recharging’ only took 45 minutes, but while the Kansas City area had nearly a dozen ‘stations’ where you could recharge, it only had 1 place where you could recharge quickly. Some of the theme parks in Florida offer recharging stations in their parking lots, but I don’t know if you pay extra to get one of those, or how long it takes there.

Why aren’t gas stations hedging their bets by installing recharging stations? Investment in solar panels/windmills, a couple large batteries and the recharging equipment could make road trips so much easier for those trying to help save the world. Motels could offer to recharge your car while you catch some zzs. Rest areas could also offer a recharge while your kids and pets are running off their pent-up energy and the family has a snack.

How many people would be buying an electric car if they knew they could get it charged up while they were out and about, rather than ONLY in their garage? Parking meters could become charging stations, so that you could fill up while you shop. Why not put solar panels and (tiny) windmills on a car, to help it go another mile or 2 down the road before you have to recharge?

There are lots of ways to help ‘encourage and assist’ efforts to save the world, and by extension, ourselves. We just need to stop thinking things like, “That isn’t how it’s done.”

What is This World Coming to? 6

Food. We all need it. We all have our favorites. But what will be available for us to eat in the coming much-warmer world?

Like the topic of ‘climate change’, this sub-topic is just as broad a question and just as difficult to sort out.

My initial belief was that the tropics would probably become pretty uninhabitable. After all, at least one city in the Middle East has already come too-d****d-close to that with a temperature of 115°F with 50% humidity. Places that are NOT deserts could be even worse. Deserts at least cool off at night, because they don’t have any cloud cover to hold the heat in. But when the humidity rises, cloudiness increases, so that heat could be held close to the ground. Also, when humidity rises, that ‘drop-dead’ temperature is lowered. At least as low as 96°F.

But the more I’ve researched, the less sure I am of that. I recently spent a few days looking at the countries in Central America, because I figured they were definitely in the ‘heavily tropical’ part of the world. The thing is, Central America is pretty mountainous, so a lot of the land is actually ‘temperate’. The low-lying jungle might not be a place people would want to live, but the highlands could still be habitable.

Crops, on the other hand, might not like the new weather patterns that could come. Even without the global temperature rising, people living in those countries right now have trouble providing food for their families year after year. The rainy season and hurricanes can produce mud slides and flooding. If that doesn’t happen, they could lose their crops because of drought, like the one they’ve been suffering through the last few years.

Anthropologists believe the Mayan civilization crashed because of a severe drought. Now that area is facing another drought, and who knows how bad it will become? None of the articles I read mentioned wild fires like we’ve had in the western states, but will there come a time when Central American starts to burn?

These were my thoughts as I studied this particular area, looking for food crops that might not survive where they have been thriving and will need to be transplanted elsewhere. I don’t have any answers on that yet. The export crops grown here might be okay, as long as they can get enough water. I’ll have to research individual crops - for instance, bananas - in order to take a guess on their prognosis.

Still more to come!

Long Lost City

There are lots of stories about lost cities. I like to read about them after the archeologists have had some time to dig them up. So this time, I went out looking for what was known about Mohenjo-Daro.

This city was founded around 2500 BC in what is now Pakistan, and was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley civilization. But that civilization declined, and the city was abandoned sometime during the 19^th century BC. It was discovered in the 1920s, so I figure they’ve had time to find some interesting tidbits about who lived there. Let’s see what they’ve found.

Mohenjo-Daro is what it is called now, and that either means “Mound of Dead Men” or “Mound of Mohan”, where Mohan is apparently another name for Krishna. Examination of a city seal found during excavation suggests the city’s name was originally Kukkutarma, the “City of the Cockerel”. It is possible that cock-fighting was a ritual and religious activity here, with chickens bred and raised for that purpose, rather than as food. This city may also be where chicken domestication began, and was then introduced to the rest of the world.

Whatever it was called at the time, the city was built on a ridge between 2 rivers. It was an advanced city, with sophisticated civil engineering and urban development. It was one of the known merchant cities of the Indus Valley civilization.

Mohenjo-Daro was built on a grid pattern, with buildings made of fired bricks, sun-dried mud bricks, and wooden superstructures. One estimate of its maximum population is 40,000 people. It covered about 300 hectares, which is a little more than 741 acres.

The city had 2 sections: the Citidel and the Lower City. The Citidel was built on a 39-foot-tall mound made of mud bricks. It included baths, a residential structure to house 5,000 people, and 2 large assembly areas. The city as a whole had a central market with a big well. Households got their water from smaller wells scattered around town. Waste water flowed into covered drains that lined the major streets. Some houses had their own room set aside for bathing, and 1 even had a furnace to heat bath water! Almost every house had an inner courtyard that included a door to a side street. Some houses were 2 stories tall.

One archeologist found a large building that he thought looked like a place to store grain, calling it The Great Granary. A later archeologist pointed out there was no indication of grain being stored there, and he referred to it as a Great Hall of Unknown Function. Not far away is a large and elaborate bath, waterproofed with a lining of bitumen, which may have been used for religious purification. The city also included “College Hall”, 78 rooms in several buildings that may have been priestly residences.

The city had no walls surrounding it, only guard towers on the west and defensive fortifications on the south. Likewise, no weapons have been found there. It was destroyed 8 times, probably by floods. Each time, it was rebuilt directly on top of the previous city.

Artifacts they found include standing and sitting figures, copper and stone tools, balance scales and their weights, gold and jasper jewelry, beads of ivory, lapis, carnelian and gold, and children’s toys. One bronze figurine depicts a young girl dancing. Since it was bronze, the Indus Valley people knew how to blend metals, casting and other methods of using metal. It also shows that entertainment – such as dancing – was important to them. One of the toys was a cart pulled by oxen, so they did use wheels.

What hasn’t been found is any obvious palace or place of government, although it is suspected that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center of the Indus Valley civilization. The many baths and grid structure of the streets have implied to some that the culture was more interested in order and cleanliness than they were in rulers.

This is the kind of information I like. I can almost see the city and hear the people living their lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/mohenjo-daro/

http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/9-facts-you-must-know-about-mohenjo-daro-before-watching-the-film-258775.html