Nexus - 0505 - New Times Magazine-pages

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SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE FOR ANCIENT MAN IN MEXICO SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE FOR ANCIENT MAN MEXICO ‘as someone actively hunting mammoth in Mexico a quarter-million years ago? In this article I give the geologic evidence for such a presence and relate the 25-year ongoing battle I've had with the establishment to get the information out to the public. So, 250,000 years ago—not 25,000, but 250,000. Closer to 275,000, actually—at least that's where the radiometric dates seem to cluster: zircon fission-track dates from two of the overlying volcanic units, and two uranium-series dates from a butchered camel skele- The discovery of ton that was found lying next to some well-made stone tools. No '*C [carbon-14] dates, of course—the site is much too old for that dating method. And that's just for Hueyatlaco tools among (way-at-LA-co), the youngest of the four sites. Fifteen metres lower in the sedimentary section, exposed only when the water of the fossilised mammoth reservoir is abnormally low, lies the oldest site, El Horno (el OR-no)—a mastodon kill site, that one, found with a slim stone flake still wedged between two of the teeth. bones, dated at Someone had tried to remove one of the molars. When? According to two uranium- least 250 000 years series dates on the tooth, some time more than 280,000 years ago! J old, extends the "How exciting! A new discovery?" you ask. No. The uranium-series [U-series] dates were published almost 30 years ago,’ and the . zircon fission-track dates over 17 years ago.’ But the scientific evidence and radiometric history of humans dating methods we geologists used to date the archaeologic sites fly in the face of an . . entrenched theory that has only lately been seriously questioned—a theory that declares in the Americas that humans have been in the New World (the Americas) only since the end of the last ice age some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. According to this prevailing view, both our data well beyond the and our dates are "impossible". Both are ignored by establishment science, and my career as a research geologist is ruined as a consequence. dates accepted by But for me. some good has come out of this after all. With no career to worry about, no H job to protect, no boss looking over my shoulder, I'm free at last to speak my mind. I establishment want to give you the true story about these ancient archaeologic sites. Who knows, it may science be the only time you'll ever hear it! ANCIENT HUNTERS AT VALSEQUILLO One hundred kilometres east of Mexico City and few kilometres south of the city of Puebla lies the Valsequillo (bal-say-KEY-yo) Reservoir. It nestles in a high mountain valley guarded by some of Mexico's most famous volcanoes: La Malinche, Tlaloc, Iztaccihuatl and steaming Popocatépetl. Surrounding the reservoir are low, buffy-tan badlands: thick, eroded deposits of ancient mudflows, lake beds, stream and overbank sediments, and volcanic ash and pumice lay- ANCIENT HUNTERS AT VALSEQUILLO One hundred kilometres east of Mexico City and few kilometres south of the city of Puebla lies the Valsequillo (bal-say-KEY-yo) Reservoir. It nestles in a high mountain valley guarded by some of Mexico's most famous volcanoes: La Malinche, Tlaloc, Iztaccihuatl and steaming Popocatépetl. Surrounding the reservoir are low, buffy-tan badlands: thick, eroded deposits of ancient mudflows, lake beds, stream and overbank sediments, and volcanic ash and pumice lay- ers. Grass-covered now, in the 1960s and 1970s when the climate was drier they were sparsely dotted with cactus and other spiny plants of the Mexican high desert. For over a century the area has been famous with palaeontologists and museums as a collecting locality. Weathering out of these badlands beds are well-preserved remains of an incredibly rich assortment of ice age (Pleistocene) animals: mammoth, mastodon, glyptodont, horse, camel, dire wolf and sabre-toothed cat, to name a few. Also weathering from these beds, as first noted over 60 years ago by the Mexican pre- historian Juan Armenta Camacho, are man-made artifacts of flaked flint, quartz and bone. Juan is the original hero of this story. Born and raised in the city of Puebla and of an inquiring mind, as a lad he would often go exploring along the shores of the reservoir and up the arroyos that fed into it. There, in 1935, he found eroding out of a sediment bank in by Virginia Steen-Mcintyre, PhD © 1998 PO Box 1167 Idaho Springs, CO 80452, USA E-mail: dub.ent@ix.netcom.com by Virginia Steen-Mcintyre, PhD © 1998 PO Box 1167 Idaho Springs, CO 80452, USA E-mail: dub.ent@ix.netcom.com NEXUS - 55 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1998