VALSEQUILLO, Mexico

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Mark of Australia
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     Valsequillo - Mexico




 
« on: August 03, 2007, 04:13:19 pm » Quote 

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The archaeological sites around Valsequillo seem to provide hard evidence of humans existing in the Americas atleast 250,000 years ago !!!   Check it out ,here is the opening page of this website I stumbled across

  http://www.valsequilloclassic.net/nuke/index.php


Virginia Steen-McIntyre was born in Chicago into a working-class family. She received her AB from Augustana College, Rock Island in 1959 (geology, minors in chemistry and art), the MS from Washington State University (1965, geology, minor in soils), and the PhD from the University of Idaho (1977, geology, minor in ecology). She is a tephrochronologist (volcanic ash specialist) with a secondary interest in archaeological site stratigraphy. She has worked with others in the Valsequillo area, Mexico, since 1966 especially at the Hueyatlaco archaeologic site. She and her husband David live in Colorado.

The purpose of this website is threefold: To introduce the interested layman to the very early archaeologic sites clustered on the north shore of the Valsequillo Reservoir, 100 km east of Mexico City. To give much of the history of The Valsequillo from its beginning to 2004. To supply hard data for research scientists, much of it unpublished, that would be difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere.

Much of the data concerns Hueyatlaco, the youngest of four archaeologic sites discovered in 1964 by Mexican Prehistorian Juan Armenta Camacho and archaeologist Cynthia Irwin-Williams, then a graduate student in anthropology at Harvard. It contains the most complete sedimentary record. El Horno, a topographically lower, older site is also discussed. Both have been dated using U-series methods (on a bone and a tooth fragment respectively) to approximately 250,000 - 300,000 years. The Hueyatlaco site in addition has had volcanic ash layers dated by the zircon fission-track method and the tephra hydration dating method, and more recently its sedimentary layers by diatom stratigraphy. All methods agree as to the site's great age.
The word "classic" in the address is intentional. The Valsequillo Saga is ongoing, with new scientists, new excavations, new dates, new research. I refer to them as The New Valsequillo Project. There is disagreement between the old and the new groups that has not yet been resolved. We hope to work together to do so.


 
Virginia Steen-McIntyre
May 6, 2006

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Gwen Parker
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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico





« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2007, 01:21:07 am » Quote 

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Valsequillo Pleistocene archaeology and dating: ongoing controversy in Central Mexico
Authors: Silvia Gonzalez a;  David Huddart a; Matthew Bennett b (Show Biographies)
Affiliations:    a School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool
 b School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Dorset

DOI: 10.1080/00438240600963155





Abstract


A review of the Valsequillo archaeological finds from the last century is given, such as the cranial remains (Dorenburg and Ostrander skulls), the engraved bone fragments, butchering marks, green bone fractures and flint points and scrapers. However, most of these finds are now missing. Their original dating is reviewed, along with the controversial Uranium Series and Fission Track dates from Hueyatlaco. Further relative dating techniques, such as the use of diatoms and bone assemblages, are discussed. Recently human and animal footprints from the Xalnene Ash at Toluquilla quarry have been described, mapped and dated by optically stimulated luminescence, and there has been new dating of the Valsequillo Gravels by AMS radiocarbon dating of molluscs and electron spin resonance of mammoth bone. The Xalnene Ash dates have proved controversial and the dating issues are reviewed. A suggested dating framework for the Valsequillo sequence in which the archaeological artefacts and footprints are found is given and all the stratigraphy with archaeological remains is considered to be Late Pleistocene in age.   



http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a759339337~db=all~jumptype

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Gwen Parker
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                                                Re: Valsequillo - Mexico





 
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2007, 01:26:26 am » Quote 

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THE FIRST AMERICAN

 

THE SUPPRESSED STORY OF

THE PEOPLE WHO DISCOVERED

THE NEW WORLD



 
FOREWORD


THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE OF EARLY MAN.

THERE ARE TWO SUBPLOTS: EARLY MAN IN THE OLD WORLD AND

EARLY MAN IN THE NEW WORLD.


 

        Much is known about Early Man in the Old World, where new discoveries continue to expand our knowledge base.  Unfortunately, in the New World our knowledge is largely limited to Clovis and younger cultures.  The study of potential pre-Clovis sites is not encouraged, and those who report a possible pre-Clovis site do so at significant risk to their career.  An important part of this book reviews what is known about an Early Man site along the shore of Valsequillo Reservoir south of Puebla in central Mexico.  It is a fascinating tale with a lot of data--which are accepted by most geologists and not accepted by most archaeologists.

 

        As a scientist I am embarrassed that it has taken over thirty years for archaeologists and geologists to revisit the bone and artifact deposits of the Valsequillo Reservoir.  In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, data were presented that suggested Early Man had been in the New World much earlier than anyone had previously thought.  Rather than further investigate the discoveries, which is what should have been done, they were buried under the sands of time, in the hope that they would be forgotten.  My idea of science is to investigate anomalous data and hopefully learn something new.  Unfortunately, the “Clovis First” mentality was so ingrained in North American archaeology that no further work was undertaken.

 

        My first contact with the bone and artifact deposits of the Valsequillo Reservoir came in the early 1970’s, when I was asked if I would date zircons from some tephra units (layers of volcanic pumice and ash) that overlay the artifact-bearing beds.  I agreed to take on the study as I was aware of the controversy regarding the age of the site.  At the time I was sharing an office with Barney Szabo, the geochemist who had provided the uranium series dates that started the controversy.  His ages suggested that the artifact beds were in excess of 200,000 years old.  This did not sit well with the archeologist in charge of the project.  The original paper by Szabo, Malde, and Irwin-Williams (1969, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 6, p. 237-244) sets the stage for the controversy--geochronology versus archaeology.  This is the only paper of which I am aware where one coauthor submits a rebuttal in the midst of an otherwise straightforward scientific paper.



                                     



         Additional data suggesting an old age for the deposits came shortly after the Szabo paper.  Virginia Steen-McIntyre, while studying the characteristics of the overlying tephra units, discovered two things that suggested an old age.  While neither of the techniques she used provides a direct age in years, the results can be compared with similar material of known age and thus an age for the unknown deposits can be inferred.  She found that hypersthene crystals in the tephras were deeply etched.  Rather than being pristine, well-formed crystals, they looked more like a picket fence.  Hypersthene crystals from a 24,000-year-old tephra in a similar climatic environment elsewhere in Mexico displayed minimal evidence of etching, suggesting that the age of the Valsequillo tephras is greatly in excess of 24,000 years.  Her second piece of evidence is from tephra-hydration dating, based on the amount of water absorbed by the volcanic glass shards in the tephras.  When volcanic glass shards form, they typically contain minute gas bubbles.  With time the glass gradually absorbs water.  The greater the amount of water in the glass, the older is its age.  Eventually, the gas bubble cavities begin to fill with water.  This is known a superhydration.  Bubble cavities in the two Valsequillo tephra layers that could be dated by this method contain water.  Comparison of the percentage of water in the bubble cavities to the percentage in tephras of known age suggests an age of about 250,000 years for the Valsequillo tephras.  Thus by the time I got my zircons to date, three lines of evidence suggested that these deposits are greater than 200,000 years old.

 

        I determined fission-track ages on zircons from two of the tephra units overlying the artifact beds.  The Hueyatlaco ash yielded a zircon fission-track age of 370,000 ± 200,000 years and the Tetela brown mud yielded an age of 600,000 ± 340,000 years.  There is a 96% chance that the true age of these tephras lies within the range defined by the age and the plus or minus value.  Now, there were four different geological dating techniques that suggested a far greater antiquity to the artifacts than anyone in the archaeological community wanted to admit.

 

        Virginia Steen-McIntyre presented all of the results on the geology and age of the deposits at a symposium on New World archaeological geology in 1973.  The following quote from a summary of the conference (Geology, 1974, p. 77) has been on my wall ever since: “C. Irwin-Williams, who did the original archaeologic work, believes that such a great age is virtually impossible, and that sources of error must be sought in the dating methods.”

 

        With the exception of a few papers by Virginia Steen-McIntyre in the geological literature, the unique and exciting discovery of an old Early Man site in North America ceased to exist.  In my mind this is where the scientific method failed.  There were geologic indicators that someone had been here 200,000 or more years ago.  Unfortunately the existing paradigm was that no one preceded the Clovis culture to the Americas and that it was a waste of time and resources to even look for pre-Clovis sites.  Through the scientific method of investigating the world around us, many paradigms have come and gone, being replaced with newer ones: such as, the earth and other planets circle the sun, the earth is spherical, the continents have drifted, and evolution explains the great diversity of species.  The idea of Clovis being the first New World culture needs to be tested, not just accepted.

 

        I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when I learned that Marshall Payn was going to revisit the Valsequillo deposits.  A lot of new and exciting data have come from this renewed interest.  Perhaps the most exciting are the data presented by Sam VanLandingham on diatoms (microscopic fossils) from within the artifact beds and overlying (younger) beds.  He finds species of diatoms that became extinct about 80,000 years ago.  That is another piece of geological evidence that indicates an old age for these deposits.

 

        So now we have at least five independent geological age estimates that all indicate an old, pre-Clovis age for the Valsequillo site. 

 

        The factors that affect the accuracy of each of these techniques are so different that it is highly unlikely that all five techniques could fortuitously significantly overestimate the age.  One of my colleagues always tried to interpret geological processes using the principal of “Occam’s Razor”--the simplest explanation is usually correct.  In this case we have the choice of accepting the results of five independent geological techniques as correct and concluding that the artifacts are greater than 200,000 years old or, alternatively, arguing that, for very different reasons, there is something significantly wrong with each of the geological age estimates.

 

        I think that the readers of this book will find that the Clovis First paradigm is listing badly and quite possibly has sunk against the rocks of renewed scientific inquiry.

 

C. W. Naeser

Herndon, Virginia

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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2007, 01:30:15 am » Quote 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR - CHRIS HARDAKER



        I first introduced Chris Hardaker to CIRCULAR TIMES in 2005 with his paper titled, THE HEXAGON THE SOLSTICE & THE KIVA.  Many people have enjoyed his writings and I have watched through the past couple of years how Chris has dug about from "here to there" in search of remarkable findings in relationship to Clovis and any other early man. He has always been straight forward and a strong, yet casual character retaining his scientific methodology. While being personal in his writings he still portrays facts and theories with out using the sledge hammer approach; his research comes first, not his ego. Colette Dowell

 

        Chris Hardaker was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Brooklyn mother and a WW2 RAF pilot who was born in Mysore, India. When he was nine, his father took the family on a trip to his home in India, and then to Southeast Asia where we visited Bangkok and the Cambodian ruins of Ankor Wat, and ended up in Australia to visit his two brothers. Hardaker got an early view of the world, and supplemented by the constant brainwashing that came from a house full of National Geographics, it was natural that he was attracted to anthropology and archaeology. He has been a New World dirt archaeologist for over thirty years. With a BA from San Diego State University (1976) and a MA from the University of Arizona (1989), he is an explorer of principles that will further archaeological studies and interpretations. His involvement with Valsequillo arose from his investigations of fracture mechanics and stone tool making which cultivated a strong conviction in pre-Clovis horizons in the New World. [[Refs./website]] For the last 15 years he has also explored a fascination with Classical Geometry and its occurrence the world over in the form of symbols and architecture, and focused this newfound tool on the Native Americans of the Southwest and the Chaco Canyon ruins. He is also working to introduce this kind of math to K-12 curriculums.




                                                       






[[Refs. NAG Website]]
Chris Hardaker
Tucson, AZ

NATIVE AMERICAN GEOMETRY
http://earthmeasure.com

BIPOLAR REDUCTION: Variability or Chaos
http://earthmeasure.com/bipolar

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Current ms: 200,000 BC: The New American Archaeology and Why It Was Covered Up.

The Hexagon, the Solstice and the Kiva [Special issue of Symmetry: Culture and Science]. Symmetry in Ethnomathematics, 12(1-2), 167-183. Budapest, Hungary: International Symmetry Foundation. 2001 (actually published in 2003)

Great Kiva Design in Chaco Canyon: An Archaeology of Geometry
2002 Bridges Conference Proceedings (Towson University, Maryland; director: Dr. Reza Sarhangi.
(Presentation of paper at 2001 Bridges Conference, July 26-29, 2001, Southwest College, Kansas.)

“Towards Resolving Clovis Origins,” in Mammoth Trumpet, 16 (3): 14-16, 2001

Native American Geometry for K-12 Educators. Four workshops for Arizona Historical Society’s Archaeology Week activities, March 2001.

“Early Man in the New World and Cultural Resource Management,” in Society of American Archaeology Bulletin, July 2000.

Chaco Canyon Kiva Geometry. Presented at American Anthropological Association national conference, Philadelphia, PA. December 1998.

"Distance Learning and the Retainment of Native American College Students," to be published in Pathways of Learning.

 
http://www.robertschoch.net/First%20American%20Clovis%20Archaeology%20Geology%20CH%20CMD%20CT.htm

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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2007, 01:31:34 am »

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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2007, 01:37:14 am » Quote 

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Research



Why are the footprints important?
 



The footprints research is vitally important for the study of the settlement of the Americas because it:
 
1.   Provides extensively validated data that directly challenges current theories on the peopling of the Americas.
The presence of 40,000 years old human footprints means that the ‘Clovis First’ model of human occupation can no longer be accepted as the first evidence of human presence in the Americas. New routes of migration that explain the existence of these much earlier sites now need urgent consideration.

2.   Re-confirms the significance of Central Mexico as one of the most important areas for the study of early human occupation in the Americas.

The research reported here supports a much earlier human migration than is currently accepted – with colonisation at around 40,000 years ago compared to 11,500 years ago as proposed by the Clovis First Model.

3.   Indicates that other suggested early occupation sites in the Americas should be re-evaluated carefully in a wider continental scale approach, rather than as isolated sites.
 
4.   Proves that the Valsequillo region has considerable potential for further studies of ancient human and animal footprints.

The Xalnene Ash occurs extensively within the Valsequillo Basin and further sites with human and animal footprints have been observed by the team in the area. Further investigation of the ‘Xalnene ash footprint layer’ may yield further data, enabling researchers to provide a more precise calculation of the height, pace and stride of the human population present. Such research would also give a better understanding of the association between animals and humans at this time.

5.   Adds to the global archive of human prints.
The presence of ancient human and animal prints is a rare occurrence in nature, because it requires special conditions for their preservation. The Valsequillo Basin footprints add to this literature and reflect specific environmental conditions for their preservation within this area of Central Mexico.

Well documented examples include the Laetoli prints in East Africa, the Roccamonfina prints in Italy; the Mesolithic prints from the Severn estuary and the Mesolithic to Bronze Age Formby footprints in the UK.

There are also reports of supposed Late Pleistocene human footprints preserved in volcanic sequences from Amanalco de Becerra (Estado de México) and middle Holocene from Acahualinca in Nicaragua.

6.   Helps to solve the archaeological controversy relating to the dating of the Valsequillo deposits. The research helps to resolve the controversy related to the antiquity of the archaeological (lithics and worked bone) and megafaunal remains that were reported in several archaeological sites scattered around the Valsequillo Basin (Hueyatlaco, El Horno, Barranca Caulapan) found in the Valsequillo Gravels in the 1960s and 1970s by Cynthia Irving Williams and Juan Armenta. The new dating evidence presented here, indicates that they are Late Pleistocene in age (approx. 20,000 to 40,000 years ago). A Mexican research team lead by Patricia Ochoa from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) in collaboration with Michael Waters of Texas A & M University has undertaken new excavation work at the original archaeological site of Hueyatlaco, so new results are expected soon on the association of megafaunal remains and lithics atthis site.

http://www.mexicanfootprints.co.uk/research.htm
 

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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2007, 03:45:19 am » Quote 

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Book Description


Forty years ago, an amateur prehistorian discovered an engraved mastodon bone near Mexico City, showing a virtual bestiary from the Ice Age. Harvard University took notice and excavated nearby sites around the Valsequillo Reservoir. They found perfectly buried kill sites with the oldest spearheads in the world. Some archaeologists postulated their age at 40,000 years, three times older than the official 12,000-year-old date for the first Americans. Then the shocker--United States Geology Survey (USGS) geologists came up with the date of 250,000 years old!

Even though these dates were published in peer-reviewed geological journals, archaeologists wrote off the geologists, saying they were mistaken and that their dates were too ridiculously old. Archaeologists never returned to the site and curiosity died out. Soon after, this once world-class archaeology region became off-limits for official research, a "professional forbidden zone."

The Valsequillo discoveries were legendary, but regarded as "fringe" by professional archaeologists. Why this radical turn-about? What was found that was so unspeakable, so impossible? What happened to these artifacts--America's earliest art and spearheads, and why don't archaeologists seem to care? In the new book, The First American, archaeologist Christopher Hardaker tries to unearth the mystery.

The book details the events of the discovery and its subsequent dismissal, as well as the attempt in 2001 by a wealthy outsider to find the truth about the Valsequillo discoveries. Included in The First American are photos of the original artifacts, and excerpts from reports, letters, and memos from the site participants themselves.

Archaeologists will once again be forced to ask the same question their mentors asked: Are we too in love with our own theories to ignore the evidence of science yet again? And readers will hear the real story of the great Valsequillo discoveries, the greatest story of early American man never told.





From the Back Cover


"Read Christopher Hardaker's shocking and enlightening book and you will realize that what we are taught about prehistory is often not the truth but a story fashioned by archaeologists to serve their own worldviews, careers, ego and interests. Hardaker does us all a service by exposing the facts and fictions behind conventional wisdom about the peopling of the Americas."


--Graham Hancock, best-selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods





"Famed British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler once said, `Archaeology is not a science; it is a vendetta.' Chris Hardaker gives a perfect example in his stunning blow-by-blow account of the attempts by the archeological establishment to dismiss and suppress the amazing date of 250,000 years obtained by geologists for the Valsequillo sites in Mexico."


--Michael A. Cremo, best-selling author of Forbidden Archeology





"As a scientist I am embarrassed that it has taken over 30 years for archaeologists and geologists to revisit the bone and artifact deposits of Valsequillo Reservoir. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, data were presented that suggested Early Man had been in the New World much earlier than anyone had previously thought. Rather than further investigate the discoveries, which is what should have been done, they were buried under the sands of time, in the hope that they would be forgotten.
Now we have at least five independent geological age estimates that all indicate an old, pre-Clovis age for the Valsequillo site. We have the choice of accepting the results as correct and concluding that the artifacts are greater than 200,000 years old or arguing that there is something significantly wrong with each of the geological age estimates."



--from the Foreword by Charles Naeser, geochemist, United States Geological Survey

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Mark of Australia
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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2007, 05:59:09 pm » Quote 

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Thanks Gwen 

I've just been reading the book now actually .I'm exactly half way through it . I have no qualms in saying that it is one of the best books I have ever read. When I'm finished it'll probably be THE best.

Reading how the Mexican boss of archaeology in the Valsequillo region was such a LIAR and almost (probably) CRIMINAL , made me so mad just reading it.! Worse than the way the stupid establishment behaved about it.   

But I'm only half way through,and there is the promise that Valsequillo is coming under renewed investigation. (Can't Wait!)

I still don't know what happened to Cynthia Irwin-Williams,the lead archaeologist at the site.It's getting really interesting.I have not felt inspired by a book since Forbidden Archaeology, but this book has more of the human element ,it helps that it follows a single event and doesn't try to document all relevant sites like F.A. does.

I can't really do the book justice with my descriptions.

I suggest everyone here try to get a hold of this book.Even more so than Forbidden Archaeology!! F.A. would be way to technical for most readers,even here ,And too dry . But The First American is a quarter of the length of F.A and 4 times more entertaining .

As described in Gwen's posts below ,the book contains copies of letters to and from the scientists involved. There are quite a lot of letters ,and it adds to the personal feel of the story .The author has a very enthusiastic,even light-hearted style that complements (contrasts) the seriousness and outrageousness of the situation in the book.  I think that is good because I get the feeling it would be just TOO 'heavy' (for me) if the author was overly serious.(since I was getting really pissed at some of the acts by the 'establishment' described in the book). 

Oh if I haven't already mentioned on the forum ,the book also mentions how Valsequillo was briefly covered in Forbidden Archaeology.

It is really interesting to see how just one of the sites mentioned in F.A. could have such an epic associated with it.

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     Re: Valsequillo - Mexico
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2007, 06:35:00 pm » Quote 

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I'm sorry I just have to say .., the part in the story where the Mexican archaeology boss tries to force signed confessions of planting artefacts from the hired diggers virtually at gun point  !!!   if I wasn't fuming enough   geez