Since the 1920s, several expeditions had searched for the White City, or Ciudad Blanca. Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic Indigenous stories speak of a “white house” or a “place of cacao” where Indians took refuge from Spanish conquistadores-a mystical, Eden-like paradise from which no one ever returned.įormer British SAS soldier Andrew Wood hacks through thick foliage to clear a way for scientists to investigate an archaeological site first identified using an aerial imaging technology called lidar. The ruins were first identified in May 2012, during an aerial survey of a remote valley in La Mosquitia, a vast region of swamps, rivers, and mountains containing some of the last scientifically unexplored places on earth.įor a hundred years, explorers and prospectors told tales of the white ramparts of a lost city glimpsed above the jungle foliage.
Stories of “Casa Blanca” and a Monkey God To protect the site from looters, its location is not being revealed. The objects were documented but left unexcavated. Team member Oscar Neil Cruz, head archaeologist at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), believes the artifacts date to A.D. “The figure seems to be wearing a helmet,” said Fisher. Alternatively, the artifact might be related to ritualized ball games that were a feature of pre-Columbian life in Mesoamerica. The most striking object emerging from the ground is the head of what Fisher speculated might be “a were-jaguar,” possibly depicting a shaman in a transformed, spirit state.
They include stone ceremonial seats (called metates) and finely carved vessels decorated with snakes, zoomorphic figures, and vultures. Many more evidently lie below ground, with possible burials. The tops of 52 artifacts were peeking from the earth. “This is a powerful ritual display, to take wealth objects like this out of circulation.” “The undisturbed context is unique,” Fisher said. Archaeologists don’t even have a name for it.Ĭhristopher Fisher, a Mesoamerican archaeologist on the team from Colorado State University, said the pristine, unlooted condition of the site was “incredibly rare.” He speculated that the cache, found at the base of the pyramid, may have been an offering.
In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Honduran troops lead a convoy through a town that served as the base for helicopters ferrying members of the expedition to a location in the Mosquitia rain forest where they examined ruins of an ancient city.
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