Gary C. Daniels is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated television, video and multimedia writer and producer. He has a passion for history, archaeology, and astronomy. He is the founder and publisher of LostWorlds.org.
There is no better, more thorough history of the Mayan site of Palenque than George and David Stuart’s Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. The Stuart’s, both experts on the Maya in general and the site of Palenque in particular, manage to condense their expansive knowledge of the site into a relatively brief 243 pages [...]
The massive pre-Columbian site of Teotihuacan just outside of Mexico City still has many mysteries. Reaching its height around 200 AD after the completion of two enormous pyramids, archaeologists still know very little about who built this place or why. As mysterious as the pyramids is the fact that they were constructed over enormous underground [...]
Still a few surprises left in this world. Read the story below about a natural ‘eternal flame’ lit by Native Americans perhaps thousands of years ago that still burns today behind a waterfall in western New York: Nestled behind a waterfall in western New York state is an eternal flame whose beauty is only surpassed [...]
Over the past 100 years countless archaeological sites have been destroyed to provide road fill for America’s growing transportation network. Sadly, this tradition appears to be alive and well in Belize where a contractor recently bulldozed a Mayan temple at a site known as Noh Mul (“Big Hill”) in order to provide fill for a [...]
The standard story of the origins of Maya civilizations has them evolving from the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica, the Olmecs. Yet the latest research shows that this may not be the case and the Maya likely originated their own ideas about how to construct a city.
The ceremonial life of Native American civilizations before the arrival of Europeans was far more complicated than the simplistic notion of powwows and dreamcatchers as presented by countless Hollywood movies. The Moorehead Circle, part of the Fort Ancient complex in Ohio, is one case-in-point. New research has shown that this structure was more than just [...]
The Florentine Codex contains a wealth of information about the Aztecs written by the Aztecs themselves and translated by the Spanish priest Sahagun. Having been completed in 1577 the book has now finally arrived on the Internet. Find out more below: Historia general de las cosas de nueva España (General history of the things of [...]
The Pigs Point site in Maryland recently gave archaeologists a surprise as they unearthed burial pits that appear to have been in constant use/re-use over hundreds if not thousands of years. The earliest evidence of architectural structures in Maryland was also discovered at this site. As is usual with these discoveries, it has sent the [...]
Academics are constantly underestimating the complexity and sophistication of all ancient civilizations but perhaps more so with ancient Native American civilizations. The standard story goes that only people that practiced agriculture could develop the necessary surpluses to establish complex societies and civilization. It seems every time archaeologists put a spade into the earth what comes [...]
Tobacco was one of the most important substances among Native American tribes in the New World. At the time of European discovery this agricultural product was widespread throughout the Americas. How and when tobacco arrived in different regions throughout the New World is one of the questions those of us who are interested in long [...]
Tobacco is a plant that originated in South America and slowly over the ages migrated northward. The latest research shows that tobacco had reached the Pacific Northwest by 860 AD.
More evidence that ancient people were better seafarers than mainstream academics have given them credit for. The latest study shows Polynesian DNA found among tribes in Brazil. Why it is controversial within Academia that Polynesians made it to South America is quite bizarre considering they inhabited nearly every single piece of land in the Pacific [...]
