
Finding North America’s lost medieval city - benbreen
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/theres-a-1000-year-old-lost-city-beneath-the-st-louis-suburbs/
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neaden
It's amazing both: 1\. How much about the Native American history we still
don't know/understand. 2\. How little of what we do know is taught in schools
in the USA. I don't think I any of my HS classes went into any detail about
pre-contact North American history.

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Swizec
I wonder what the largest cause of this is. Two ideas come to mind:

1\. We just don't have access to pre-contact North America. We weren't there
to write about it, they didn't write about it, and we don't have a lore
lineage because we're not part of the culture.

2\. Considering what happened, it's more convenient to think that we didn't
really destroy anything much and we "brought culture to the savages" and made
things better.

Afaik much of Africa suffers from the same sort of problem.

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neaden
I think it is largely the second, after all many of the different nations did
have prolonged contact with America or the 13 colonies and have descendants
around right now who can tell us stuff. In regards to Africa, let's face it,
most of us (and I include myself here) are pretty bad with history. I would
have a hard time writing more then a cursory paragraph about the 30 years war
for instance even though it is an important part of European history and I
can't really tell you anything about the Taiping Rebellion except that the guy
on one side thoght he was Jesus' brother even though it happened at the same
time as the civil war and killed many many more people.

With Native American history though it is the history of where I live. I have
spent my whole life living in areas that were previously controlled by the
Anishinaabe people but never learned anything about them in class. To me that
would be like a German student knowing as little as me about the 30 years war
or a Chinese student who can't tell you the basics of the Taiping rebellion.

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aaron-lebo
This is a global issue. History is written by winners. There are a lot of
cultures within China or Russia or any other country that have been destroyed
over time in the goal of national progress.

History unfortunately does that to nations and peoples. The average European
is as ignorant about the Sami as the average American is about the Tonkawa.

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Mendenhall
If you are interested in the "mound" people, I strongly suggest books by
Charles Whittlesey. He mapped many of the works for the Smithsonian in the
1840s.

His books "Descriptions of ancient works in Ohio" and "Ancient mining on the
shores of lake superior" are available for free on google play books. He has
others as well.

There is some fascinating history that most dont know about. You can find
mounds on google maps as well if you know what to look for and line up the
maps etc.

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omegaworks
>The city's elites may have led the performance to show their political and
spiritual power, much the way their European counterparts of the same era were
conducting public executions and crusades.

I wish the article laid out more empirical evidence for this rather than
resorting to "well the Europeans were doing it, so this must have been what
they were also doing!"

> He and Alt were both very opposed to the idea that Cahokia might have been a
> trade center and called it a mistake to view the city as an economic entity.

Cities are inherently economic entities... Kind of gives the impression that
these archaeologists are imposing a bit of their own belief systems. It might
be more reflective of the informal writing style than anything else.

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bettyx1138
Wait, I thought Columbus discovered 'Murica. (Kidding.)

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rbritton
On that topic, the book 1492 is a pretty good read for anyone curious about
the history of the few hundred years surrounding that.

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jipumarino
You mean 1491, by Charles C. Mann? Good starting point for this subject.

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funthree
Geo-Central Patriarchal Parochialism of the Nibiru Sky.

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jabbanobodder
Don't tell the Mormons, they'll try and twist it somehow to prove their
history.

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dang
No religious flamewars on HN, please.

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themaninthedark
Vi is the best editor

