Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis and the Yucatan
Skeletal Remains Dating to 11,000 B.C.
Underwater caves off Yucatan Peninsula yield three old skeletons—remains date to 11,000 B.C. By Dr. Greg Little, September 10, 2004
At the international "Early Man in America Seminar" in Mexico City on September 9, 2004, an archaeological team from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History reported one of the most significant finds ever made in American archaeological history. Three well-preserved skeletons were discovered in underwater caves off the Caribbean coast of Yucatan during dives during 2001 and 2002. The skeletons were found in 65-foot-deep water. The University of California in Riverside carbon-dated charcoal samples found with one of the skeletons to over 13,000 calendar years ago—11,000 B.C. The find represents the oldest carbon date associated with any human bone remains found in the Americas. Mexican archaeologist Arturo Gonzalez led the dive team.
Gonzalez noted that during the last Ice Age, sea levels were much lower, but as we reported in our book and video documentary, "The ARE's Search for Atlantis," archaeologists from Florida State University's Underwater Archaeology Department (FSU) found that in the area "of the Bahamas in 10,500 B.C., the water levels were only about 100 feet lower than today. But areas of human occupation on these ancient shores tend to cluster at depths around the 45-foot level."
The major problem with Edgar Cayce's placement of a portion of Atlantis in the Bahamas and Caribbean region has long been the lack of archaeological finds definitively placing humans in the area earlier than 4000-6000 B.C. But FSU has found the remnants of human settlements along the continental shelf off Florida—dated to 10,000 B.C.—consistently in 45-feet of water. The Yucatan find now confirms that humans were in the region where the Cayce readings state that Atlanteans went just prior to the final destruction, which occurred circa 10,500 B.C.
According to Cayce, the Yucatan Hall of Records was established by a small group of Atlanteans, led by a priest named Iltar. They first went to coastal areas of Yucatan and then deeper inland. The location of the Yucatan Hall of Records is believed to be in Piedras Negras, Guatemala. But other Atlanteans fled to areas of Central and South America at the same time.
The new discovery of Yucatan remains dated to 11,000 B.C. comes as we are completing the video documentary, "The Yucatan Hall of Records," scheduled for release at the ARE's Annual Ancient Mysteries Conference. The discovery has been incorporated into the video and confirms several statements made by Andrew Collins, which were made during a videotaped interview for the documentary. Collins, author of the best selling, "Gateway to Atlantis," tells the story of Votan, the Guatemalan highlands version of Itzamna. In both the stories of Itzamna and Votan, related in Maya codices, the founder of the Maya culture was said to have come from an island in the east. Collins stated that substantial research has shown that Votan's origin was definitely Cuba. Both Itzamna and Votan carried written records with them. According to Collins, Votan landed on the shores of the Yucatan coast and gradually moved north. We believe that Cerritos Island, which we visited in August 2004, may have been the initial landing site of Iltar/Itzamna/Votan.
When he reached the first river he found, Votan followed it upstream for a long distance. When he reached a desirable location, he stopped and established the beginning of Maya civilization.
The Usumacinta River is the first river encountered when one follows the coast to the north. Collins now believes that Votan may well have stopped at the site of Piedras Negras, which lies on the Usumacinta and established "an outpost of Atlantis." The records carried by Votan would, therefore, probably have been placed where Votan stopped.
Of course, the major problems with dating this event to circa 10,000 B.C. are twofold. The first is that no human remains had ever been found in the Yucatan region definitively showing human occupation there anytime near 10,000 B.C. That problem has now been resolved. The second problem is that few, if any, Maya archaeologists are willing to concede dates earlier than 1000 B.C. for the beginnings of the Maya. But archaeologists at Piedras Negras have already confirmed dates at the site of at least 1000 B.C. and they believe that far older dates are highly likely to be found at the barely excavated site. For example, an altar at Piedras Negras has dates on it that relate to the beginning of the current Maya era in 3114 B.C. and stellar alignments of pyramids at Piedras Negras point to the rise of Orion's Belt in 3114 B.C. as well as the setting of Orion's Belt in 2012 A.D., the end date of the current Maya era. The same altar, however, also relates that a Piedras Negras ruler was present at an important event in 4900 B.C. meaning that either the event described is a complete fiction—or that Piedras Negras was occupied far earlier than thought. Finally, other monuments in the Maya world have dates extending to an astonishing 400 million-years ago.
In sum, as time passes, the pieces to the puzzle of the origin of the Maya civilization are slowly coming together. While we know that humans were in the Americas as long ago as 50,000 years, the area of the Caribbean has long presented an enigma in that evidence of human occupation there around 11,000-years ago has been absent. Now, the story related in Edgar Cayce's readings on Atlantis, The Yucatan Hall of Records, and the establishment of Maya civilization are gradually being confirmed.
Isla Cerritos—Mayan Sea Port, possibly Atlantan Ruins
2000-Year Old Maya Breakwater Made From Cut Limestone. By Dr. Greg Little.
I've wanted to go to Isla Cerritos for about a year, after I was captivated while reading about it during our earlier trip to Piedras Negras. Several textbooks on the Maya briefly mentioned Cerritos as having the most unique harbor in the entire Maya world. But virtually no additional details were given about it in these texts.
Cerritos is located off the coast of Yucatan situated right off the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula. Its position is at the location where the Gulf Stream and Carribean join. It is about 5 kilometers from the small fishing village of San Felipe and is a place where few tourists venture. The island was first reported in archaeological journals in 1963 and has been the focus of several intense excavations. Information on it has been published in highly specialized, hard-to-find journals such as "Mexicon" and the old "National Geographic Research Reports." We had to go to Vanderbilt University to actually find the published reports. Not a single research article on it is online, but there are three brief summary reports about it online.
In 1984/85 a massive excavation was done by a team of experienced archaeologists who wrote that it was the most unique site in the Maya world and that they had never encountered anything like it in their combined professional histories working in Yucatan. In one of their (15) 6 x 6 foot test pits, they dug through 13 separate habitation layers which included 8 separate floors from different buildings dated to different eras. Carbon dating showed that the island was actively used by the Maya (and others) between 300 BC to the 1400s. In 1984-85 the excavations recovered over 49,000 artifacts from the island during a surface collection—mostly pottery. The island, no more than 650 feet in diameter, was completely covered with 29 buildings and structures and had a seawall (a 'stone' retaining wall) encircling its shoreline. All of these are still visible but in total ruins, of course.
Numerous huge elevated platforms were built into the water from the shore at Cerritos. These were mooring areas and quays. The breakwater, almost all of which has been looted for its huge stone slabs, is now all under about a foot of water, extending up from the bottom about 4-5 feet today. A few remaining slabs of vertical stone stick up above the surface during low tide.
As all the articles stated, there is nothing else in the Americas that compares to Cerritos. My interest was peaked by none of the articles—not one—identifying the type of stone used in the construction of the massive shipping structures on the island or the breakwater. The archaeological reports all simply stated that massive "stone slabs" were used for these constructions, but they never clarified what the stone slabs were. I found that omission a glaring fact that seemed intriguing.
Cerritos—Trading Port With Guatemala, Belize, Bahamas, Cuba, & Florida
Archaeologists believe that Cerritos was a major stronghold that served as the main shipping outpost for Chichen Itza. In 1984-85 they found trading artifacts from the Guatemalan highlands, Belize, the highlands of Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas, and even Florida on the island. Strangely, they keep it all very, very quiet. It is definitely Mayan, and is in the official Yucatan registry of Maya archaeology sites.
Limestone Used In Construction
Not to my surprise, the bottom foundations of the island’s building structures are all definitely made from coarse beachrock (a low-quality limestone). The looted remains of a dozen or so of the platforms that extended into the water are still there. They are all made the same way, an unusual and perhaps unique method. Cut Limestone slabs were stuck into the bottom vertically and placed side-by-side to form an enclosure. They then filled the inside area of the enclosure with smaller Limestone and then used large, flat slabs of Limestone to make flat tops on the platforms. Most of the large slabs have been looted by various groups over the years for construction, but some large pieces of Limestone remain on the platforms, quays, and dock areas. I also counted at least 5 large mooring stones next to the platforms and docks. Some of these had holes bored through the tops but all had rounded rope abrasion marks on them. The island itself is dangerous to walk around because many of the deep holes made by the archaeologists are still there. They are now covered with dense vegetation making walking and seeing the ground difficult. A hurricane that hit the area also left the island in a tangled mess with trees and vegetation lying on the surface everywhere. The remains of several pyramid structures remain and a fair amount of higher quality limestone, used for the exterior, is still there.
The Seawall—Also Limestone
The seawall on the shoreline of the island is only partially intact in various places. It was about 4-feet high and encircled the whole island creating a barrier to the waves. Again, it is also made from slabs of Limestone stuck vertically into the ground. The seawall appears to have been similar to the other Limestone constructions.
The Breakwater— Limestone
The breakwater that enclosed the harbor is now 1000-feet long and a fairly uniform 15 feet wide. It is about 120 feet from the shoreline. We filmed the entire length of the breakwater underwater. As the archaeological reports stated, it was made by first sticking large "slabs of Limestone” vertically into the bottom forming a 15-foot wide enclosure extending 1000 feet. The interior of the enclosure was then filled with smaller Limestone stones. Then, slabs of cut, flat Limestone were placed on the top forming a massive breakwater enclosure that extended above the surface. This breakwater also appears to have been used as defensive wall. Only a dozen or so of the large slabs from the breakwater top are still there. These seem to have slid off the top. The archaeological reports stated that most of the large stones had been looted and used for other construction during the past centuries. The ones that remain definitely look like the stones from the Bimini Road and Andros Platform. The largest ones we saw were perhaps 4 x 6 feet and a foot thick.
On the breakwater, we saw and filmed quite a few slabs of Limestone situated on top of each other. In general, the remaining breakwater is about 4-5 feet high and is covered with coral and very dense vegetation. In fact, it is downright beautiful and is teeming with fish and covered with beautiful plants. As the reports stated, the majority of the vertical slabs that formed the sides had been looted, but we found 40-50 of them still there. But thousands of them were once there. Some of them still extend through the surface of the water. The interior fill of small Limestone stones is generally intact. It is consistently a foot below the surface throughout the entire 1000-foot length.
Harbor Openings Formed From Limestone
There were at least three openings into the harbor through the breakwater. These we found exactly where the archaeological reports placed them on their surveys. The ends that formed these openings had large Limestone stones piled together, often on their sides, to make a solid ending point for the two sides of each opening. The largest opening, incredibly, had two very large platforms on each side that extended well above the waterline. These two platforms, according to the archaeological reports, had "perishable structures" erected on them, apparently guard towers and perhaps lighthouses. We found the remains of these larger platforms, but the "perishable structures" had, of course, long ago perished. Archaeologists speculate that the harbor housed 300-400 trading canoes at a time.
Bimini, Andros, & Mediterranean Harbors
John and Doris Van Auken accompanied Lora and I to the site and were duly impressed, and it gave us quite a bit of information and lends real credence to the breakwater theories for both Andros and Bimini. Skeptics who have demonstrated that the Bimini Road is constructed from Limestone have considered the origin of the road settled: they assert it was a natural formation that fractured into square and rectangular blocks while in place. This conclusion is apparently based on less than 20 corings done on stones at the Bimini Road. Because the corings showed that the stones seemed to be similar, the geologists who penned the skeptical articles assume that the Limestone formation is completely natural.
Back in the late 1970s, after he made corings on the Road, geologist Eugene Shinn ran a carbon-dating test on a sample of a rock. His results showed that the "stones" were perhaps no more than 4000-years old. He supposedly used conch shell from one of the stones, but the actual location of the shell on or within the test stone is unknown. Nor do we know the precise methods used in the 1970s by the geologist and his helpers to obtain, secure, and test the sample. The probability of contamination in the carbon-dated sample seems more than likely. To my knowledge, no new carbon-dates of stone samples have been taken using modern methods or modern technology that would reduce sample contamination. In fact, as we have outlined in several articles in the Ancient Mysteries Newsletter and a book, a long-term, federally-funded study by American physicists has conclusively demonstrated that carbon-dating tests in the eastern half of the Americas yield results that are far too recent. The reason is that what the physicists have called a "nuclear event" occurred sometime just before10,000 B.C. Shinn and the other skeptical geologists have not apparently considered or mentioned the possibility of contamination or the strong possibility that the 10,000 B.C. nuclear event rendered carbon dating seriously flawed.
Skeptics may scoff at the "contamination" idea, but for several decades American archaeologists have claimed that carbon dated samples of materials found in damp Brazilian caves have to be contaminated. The reason for the alleged contamination is that the obtained dates from the samples match what the Brazilian archaeologists believe, but are directly against what the American archaeologists believe.
Interestingly, not one of the skeptical geologists has studied the hundred or so ancient breakwater harbors in the Mediterranean first-hand, nor do they mention them in their articles. It is either from ignorance about these constructions or a deliberate attempt to avoid discussing the obvious flaw to their assertions. The vast majority of those ancient Mediterranean harbors were constructed from Limestone. An obvious comparison to the Bimini Road corings and the carbon dating technique used would have been to core and carbon date a few Mediterranean harbors. None of the American geologists have done so. It is likely that if geologists had "discovered" the Mediterranean harbors they would have declared all of them to be natural. In sum, the skeptical claims proposing that the Bimini Road is a completely natural Limestone formation doesn't hold water. It may eventually turn out that the Bahamas stone formations are natural, but, as often happens in science, the research and/or conclusions by the skeptics may prove flawed and inaccurate.
With the verification that ancient harbors in both the Mediterranean and the Maya region were constructed from nearby sources of Limestone, it should now be clear that the Bimini Road and the Andros Platform may well be harbor formations. It's doubtful that any of the skeptics will like or accept the idea, but the facts are simple and intriguing. We hope that our pending expeditions may reveal compelling evidence. 2005 plans call for an extended search down the Gulf Stream and at two other specific locations. At the October Ancient Mysteries conference at the ARE, we will show video of the Cerritos harbor and other structures on the island.
Uxmal & Piedras Negras Expedition
Preliminary Initial Report on the 2004 A.R.E. Piedras Negras' Expedition. By Dr. Greg Little.
On April 19, 2004 my wife Lora and I left for Guatemala on an officially sanctioned A.R.E.-sponsored expedition to Piedras Negras, Guatemala, the site of Edgar Cayce's third Hall of Records. The book, the "Lost Hall of Records," by John Van Auken and Lora Little contains background on the site as well as the background from the Cayce readings, which indicated that Piedras Negras was the location of an Atlantean Hall of Records placed there around 10,000 B.C. We returned to Memphis on April 29.
The major written reports on our findings will be published in the ARE newsletter "Ancient Mysteries" in September 2004 and also in a "Venture Inward" article. Lora is writing both of those reports. In addition, we will be presenting our findings at the annual Ancient Mysteries conference at Virginia Beach on October 22-24. At the conference we will show a brief 20-minute video presentation (on DVD) of the expedition and make a longer DVD available. These venues will present the most important findings from the expedition and only a brief summary will be presented here.
Summary
We began at Guatemala City and visited the National Archaeological Museum. Before arrival we had paid a $1020 fee to videotape at the museum and also obtain a license to produce a documentary using footage from the museum and at Piedras Negras. Making film for public showing (or mass media) is illegal without obtaining such a permit. We noticed a few people (Americans, unfortunately) in tour groups at the museum sneaking some video shots of some things, but the museum staff and the government are strict. The museum staff we very helpful and appreciative of our efforts to conform to their laws and regulations.
At the museum we spent the day with a Guatemalan archaeologist who has done extensive work at Piedras Negras. He was amazingly open and not only answered all our questions, but he gave us details of all the most recent digs at Piedras Negras as well as revealing the ideas and hypotheses held by various archaeologists who have an inordinate interest in Piedras Negras. In brief, archaeologists appear to believe that Piedras Negras conceals something very important and perhaps astonishing. In addition, while April 2004 has seen numerous sensationalized media reports detailing archaeological finds in the Maya lands, the most intriguing and important finds, made at a site in Guatemala's Peten Region,have been undisclosed. These discoveries show that the Maya were in the region far earlier than previously believed. Archaeologists fear that looters would destroy the site, so no information has been released to the media. In addition, at the museum we viewed and filmed a series of incredible artifacts that have been recovered from Piedras Negras.
Uxmal
Another interesting "find" at the museum related to an artifact that was recovered at Uxmal back in the 1800s. In the late 1800s, the Bureau of Ethnology reported on the discovery of a "Star of David" engraved on what has been assumed to be a sun disk at Uxmal. But no other similar finds had supposedly been made, so the artifact was essentially "forgotten" and pushed out of mind by mainstream archaeologists. However, on display in the museum is another Star of David that was recovered in Tikal a few years ago. The intricate engraving is on a circular shell. It is quite impressive.
One other interesting "discovery" at the museum is noteworthy. Over 70 years ago Edgar Cayce stated that the first people in South America entered the continent from the "South Pacific" as long ago as 50,000 B.C. American archaeologists have long held that such ideas are preposterous and impossible and our book "Ancient South America" relates the differences between the beliefs of North and South American archaeologists. An educational display in the Guatemala museum shows the first people entering the Americas from the South Pacific—just as Cayce stated. After viewing hundreds of such displays in North American museums (still depicting the "First Americans" entering from Siberia in 9500 B.C.) the "official" Guatemalan archaeological display seems to show they are more interested in discovering the truth about ancient America than maintaining academic dogma.
To Flores, Tikal, & Piedras Negras
We utilized "Maya Expeditions" as our "travel agency" to make the arrangements for our trip and serve as guides. The staff of Maya Expeditions (aka Copper Canyon Adventures) had also accompanied Scott Milburn on his brief, ARE-funded trip to Piedras Negras in the late 1990s, as well as on a brief tour Scott and a group of ARE members took there a few years ago.
From Guatemala City we flew to Flores and visited nearby Tikal. From there, we went by car on a 4-hour drive over rugged roads to the Usumacinta River. Rainforest jungle is being burned almost everywhere and the smoke from the fires fills the sky. At the river, we took a 5-hour ride on a small boat down the river to Piedras Negras. Five others accompanied us on the boat: 2 guides from Maya Expeditions, a boat captain, a boat helper, and a cook. We were dropped off at the main entrance to the site with the two guides while the others went about two more miles downstream to make camp. For the next six exhausting hours, we walked through the densely covered ruins examining numerous structures as well as familiarizing ourselves with the massive layout of the city. We walked several miles out of the site through jungle arriving at our riverside campsite only 45 minutes before dark.
We spent the next two exhausting days combing the many areas of the site briefly investigating a gigantic, dry cenote with walls several hundred feet deep. It was discovered less than three years ago via satellite imaging. We crawled around the steep sides of the site's main Acropolis (the apex of the mountain covered with stone buildings and pyramids) looking for a collapsed building, which we believed could have the remains of older buildings under its ruins. Our guides had never been to that area of Piedras Negras, a location where few people have visited, and no excavations have ever occurred there. We actually found the collapsed stone building, and moving several stone blocks from an area of the structure revealed older structures beneath it. As I removed layers of stones, I counted three distinct building layers before I encountered a much older structure with stones that I couldn't move. We suspect that this building hides an entrance into a tunnel and chambers deep within the mountain...and our conversation with the Guatemalan archaeologist revealed that he, and other archaeologists, believe the same thing.
We made a careful look at one of the most enigmatic pyramids at Piedras Negras, a structure seldom visited by those few who make the trek to the site—it is simply too difficult to get to and has had little attention—until very recently. Based on something we were told by the Guatemalan archaeologist about the pyramid we subsequently found solid evidence that a tunnel or cave system is present at Piedras Negras. This was a sensational find, and we believe that the ARE could play a pivotal role in discovering the tunnel complex at Piedras Negras. Lora's articles and our presentation at the October conference will detail this find.
We also entered numerous caves at the site and found at least a dozen more that we didn't feel were necessary or safe to enter. (These caves were found despite official reports on Piedras Negras relating that only a handful of small caves were there.) A few of these caves are fairly deep—30-60 feet. We also investigated numerous petroglyphs, carvings, and stele found all over the site. Significantly, we discovered that stone spheres (polished stone balls) have been uncovered at Piedras Negras. They are similar to ones uncovered in Costa Rica. The ones we saw were a foot to two feet in diameter. (Most of those at Costa Rica were the same size, but the large ones at Costa Rica have garnered the most attention.) Since less than 1/1000 of 1% of the site has been investigated, there are, no doubt, many more stone spheres to be found at Piedras Negras as well as countless other artifacts.
While cutting a path around the steep side of the Acropolis, in an area of dense jungle growth, we could occasionally see the outer layer of fitted stone blocks that formed the impressive, steep walls of the mountain when it was adapted as a building platform. I found a beautiful slab of carved white stone with a perfect hole bored through it at an angle. The hole was about two inches in diameter. Curious stones, building blocks, and artifacts are strewn everywhere.
The trip was extremely exhausting and very hot and humid. Piedras Negras remains much like it was when it was first "discovered" in the 1800s. Some rugged "trails" are established at the site, but only to the areas where recent excavations have been undertaken and the typical places the few visitors to Piedras Negras go. The vast bulk of the site remains under jungle and even the guides who go to the site don't go to most of the structures—there simply isn't time to make way to them without staying at the location for several days.
There are numerous other significant details of the trip we will relate, but as stated at the beginning of this report, we are saving these for the articles and the conference. We took about 8 hours of digital video footage taking along two different videos. One of these was a high-end "movie" quality video. We anticipated having the high humidity ruin the footage as well as possibly destroying the cameras' delicate electronics. We had expected the same "tragedy" the prior year during our expeditions to Andros filming on salt water. Lots of salt-water spray did get on our digital camera then, but thankfully the camera never failed. At Piedras Negras, the cameras were drenched in sweat and constant high humidity. But they worked perfectly—and still do. Our luck holds.
Who Was Edgar Cayce?
Twentieth Century Clairvoyant
For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep state by lying down on a couch, closing his eyes, and folding his hands over his stomach. This state of relaxation and meditation enabled him to place his mind in contact with all time and space. From this state he could respond to questions such as "What are the secrets of the universe?" His responses to these questions came to be called "readings" and contain insights so valuable that even to this day individuals have found practical help for everything from maintaining a well-balanced diet and improving human relationships to overcoming life-threatening illnesses and experiencing a closer walk with God.
Although Cayce died more than sixty years ago, the timeliness of the material in the readings is evidenced by approximately one dozen biographies and more than 300 titles that discuss various aspects of this man's life and work. These books contain a corpus of information so valuable that even Edgar Cayce himself might have hesitated to predict their impact on the contemporary world. Further details of Cayce's life and work are explored in the classic book There Is a River (1942) by Thomas Sugrue.
Information Provided Courtesy of
www.edgarcayce.org
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