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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Americas

Ancient places can be found all over America. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and open up a window on America’s history. Visiting such historical places in America can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present American history articles, highlighting the most interesting archaeological sites all over America, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

Devils Tower Star Trails. S
3 March, 2018 - 18:56 dhwty

Devils Tower: Born From the Earth After a Bear Mated with a Woman

Devils Tower in Wyoming, USA holds both historical and ancestral importance. This magnificent geological feature has long been considered sacred by the many of the Native American tribes who have...
Quiriguá Zoomorph P.
21 February, 2018 - 13:59 dhwty

The Marvelous Mayan Zoomorph Monoliths of Quiriguá

Elaborate designs adorn unique monoliths in an ancient Mayan site in Guatemala. There are immense stelae hailing past rulers and huge stones carved with majestic beasts and curious creatures. The...
Part of the Cochasquí archaeological site. (Santiago Martinez/ L. Ortiz) A mask found at the site. (Alicia McDermott)
15 February, 2018 - 18:51 Alicia McDermott

Cochasquí: The Immense Pyramids of Ecuador Provide Evidence for a Forgotten Civilization

The archaeological sites in Ecuador are often overshadowed by more popular locations in neighboring Colombia and Peru. However, archaeology enthusiasts have a wealth of options including more than...
Image shows the level of damage caused by the truck driving into the protected archaeological site.
31 January, 2018 - 18:51 aprilholloway

Driver Plows Truck into 2,000-Year-Old Nazca Lines Causing Irreversible Damage

In a shocking example of destruction of a fragile archaeological site, a truck driver has been charged with careless driving and entering a prohibited zone after he accidentally drove his truck over...
Path entrance to Machu Picchu. The bridge can be removed to prevent access by enemies.
26 January, 2018 - 18:46 ML Childs

The Secret Bridge to Peru’s Most Legendary City, Machu Picchu

“A devoted professor of archeology who suddenly finds himself in the far reaches of the earth trying to uncover some of the worlds’ oldest and most precious artifacts” certainly sounds like something...
Caves of Loltun, Mexico
16 January, 2018 - 19:00 ML Childs

Loltun Cave Art and Precious Clues to the Lost Mayan Civilization

There is a kid’s poem written by Jean Marzollo that begins: “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” It goes on speak about the challenges and wonders of Columbus’s voyage to...
Three of the mummies Leymebamba at the museum.
11 January, 2018 - 19:00 dhwty

Peruvian Necropolis Destroyed by Looters and Tourists is Preserved by Salvage Archaeology

The Laguna de los Condores (aptly known also as the Laguna de las Momias) is an archaeological site where a great number of mummies were found. This site is located in Leymebamba, in the northern...
Aerial view of Nahualac lake when dry. Image: Arturo Cruz, Terrasat Cartografía.
5 January, 2018 - 23:01 Theodoros Karasavvas

Has a Millennium Old ‘Floating’ Replica of the Aztec Cosmos Been Found In Mexico?

Mexican archaeologists claim to have unearthed a stone sanctuary in a small lake on the side of a volcano east of Mexico City that may have been created as a miniature model of the universe. Stone "...
Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress
14 December, 2017 - 23:00 Jason Jarrell

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Travelling to the Realm of the Dead at Grave Creek Mound - Part II

The large Grave Creek Mound proved to be an irresistible attraction to early antiquarians and curiosity seekers. In 1823, John Haywood mentioned the impressive mound: “of a conical form, 75 feet high...
Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress
14 December, 2017 - 18:55 Jason Jarrell

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Archaeology of the Grave Creek Mound - Part I

The City of Moundsville is located along the Ohio River in Marshall County, West Virginia. From the time of European settlement in the 1770s, Moundsville was regarded by antiquarians as one of the...
Pictorial representation of Pyramid in Teuchitlán Guachimontones Museum.
12 December, 2017 - 18:50 dhwty

Were Mexico’s Circular Pyramids Really Made for a Flying Ceremony?

Guachimontones (known alternatively as Huachimontones) is an archaeological site located in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. This is an important site of the Teuchitlan tradition, which was a...
Quetzalcoatl – Public Domain, and El Castillo at Chichén Itzá – CC BY-SA 4.0
27 November, 2017 - 18:57 Carl Johan Calleman

The ‘Myth’ of the Plumed Serpent: Revealing the Real Message Behind the Feathered Snake

The Plumed (or Feathered) Serpent is a Mesoamerican myth that has fascinated modern people for quite some time. Among the Aztecs and Toltecs this divinity went by the name of Quetzalcoatl and to the...
: Ruins of the Haunted Eden Brown Estate Plantation Great House c. 1740 in 1993.
19 November, 2017 - 13:54 ML Childs

Murder in the Eden Brown Estate – Another Paradise Lost

There is something very alluring and ideal about places named Eden. The Garden of Eden – one of the first known references to Eden – is depicted in the Bible as a place free from sin. It was...
Sculpture of a head from 950-1150 AD found at Building Y in the Tajin Chico section. On display at the Tajin site museum, Veracruz state, Mexico
17 November, 2017 - 13:57 Marco M. Vigato

Mexico’s Haunted City of Thunder – El Tajin: Surprising Connections Between Cultures Worlds and Eras Apart

El Tajin is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the North of the state of Veracruz, near the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The city, one of the most flourishing of the Classic and early Post-...
A chamber found under the Plaza San Francisco during works on a subway station in Quito Ecuador.
16 November, 2017 - 23:00 ancient-origins

Subway Station or Cultural Preservation? Development Clashes with Patrimony at a World Heritage Site

The city of Quito, Ecuador is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site due to having the best-preserved and extensive historic centers in Latin America. But there is another, much older story below...
Chicanná: Enter the Maya House of the Serpent Mouth
12 November, 2017 - 21:57 dhwty

Chicanna: Enter the Maya House of the Serpent Mouth

A menacing serpent-like monster glares down at you as you cross the plaza of Chicanná in Mexico. While it is certainly an unnerving thought, you decide to step inside the gaping serpent’s mouth...
View from the Miami Circle at Brickell Point Site, from a balcony in a neighboring tower.
9 November, 2017 - 18:54 dhwty

What is this Mysterious Ancient Structure Found in Downtown Miami?

Downtown Miami, Florida is the home to a giant circle with hundreds of holes cut into the limestone bedrock. It is uncertain what the mysterious Pre-Columbian circle was made for – was an ancient...
Oceanides, Gustave Dore (1860-1869).
24 October, 2017 - 18:51 D.W. Naef

The Secret of Long Life? It’s All in the Water: Sacred Springs & Holy Wells

The belief in sacred springs and holy waters goes far back into the earliest religious myths of humankind, and is ubiquitous across every continent. An ancient primordial connection between water and...
Some of the Mitla mosaics.
20 October, 2017 - 18:49 dhwty

Mitla Mosaics: A Coded Language May Plaster the Walls of a Zapotec City of the Dead

Unique and curious designs plaster the walls of the most popular Zapotec archaeological site in Mexico. They are called the Mitla mosaics and are unrivalled in their precision and quality of...
Sak K'uk'/Lady Cormorant – Public Domain, Palenque, Mexico, Jiuguang Wang - CC BY SA 2.0
16 October, 2017 - 18:48 lennie

Temples of Palenque Reveal Story of Lady Cormorant and Her Three Sons, The Triad Gods

In the mountain rain forest of Chiapas, México, sits the ruins of Palenque, considered the most beautiful ancient Maya city. Silhouetted against a backdrop of natural hills and valleys, the elegant...
Castillo de San Felipe del Morro (El Morro), Puerto Rica
10 October, 2017 - 23:04 ML Childs

El Morro: The Great 16th Century Fort That Saved Puerto Rico from British and Dutch Invasions

Castillo de San Felipe del Morro is a fort that sits majestically on the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico in the capital city of San Juan. In 1983, the fort was declared a world heritage site by the...
Detail of Painting of Hopi man returning home. By Homer Coayama, ‘Hopi Man Coming Home From the Field’ (From author’s collection)
9 September, 2017 - 18:52 Thomas O. Mills

Help Find the Missing Corner of the Hopi Tablet To Prove Their Creation Story: Seeking Answers in the Chapel of the Tablet, Africa

[Editorial by Thomas O Mills, Hopi Cultural Center in Second Mesa, Arizona, USA ] I am sometimes asked, “How can we help the Hopi People?” Having lived with the Hopi for a number of years, I can...
Statue of the God Chac-Mool, located inside a chamber in the pyramid of Kukulcán in Chichén Itzá, Mexico
2 September, 2017 - 19:02 Cliff Dunning

A Rogue Archaeologist, Atlantis, and the Chac-Mool

In the late 1890s, as America was developing into an industrial heavyweight, its scientists and explorers were rediscovering Earth’s ancient past and charting forgotten civilizations around our...
Taos Pueblo. New Mexico, USA.
1 September, 2017 - 22:35 Caleb Strom

Taos Pueblo: Evoking the Story of Ancestral Puebloans for 1000 Years

North and South America had their own civilizations which flourished in pre-Columbian times. The western hemisphere’s population before the 15th century is estimated at about 100 million people...

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