Two 100,000-year-old skulls unearthed in China are up-ending ideas about human evolution. They appear to be hybrids of humans, neanderthals — and a third mysterious race. the so-called ‘mosaic’ skulls link to mysterious Denisovan humans who went extinct in the last ice age… The partial skulls, unearthed at the Lingjing excavation site in Xuchang, central China, offer new evidence of the behaviour and distribution of pre and early human populations in Eurasia. The new hominid skulls suggest a ‘hybrid’ human, mixed from humans, neandertals and a third unknown bloodline. And it’s largely unexpected. (READ MORE)
One of the most detailed accounts of giants in Peru was written by renowned conquistador and chronicler Pedro Cieza (pronounced see-es-a) de Leon who recorded a popular legend among the natives concerning giants that landed on the peninsula of Santa Elena The natives say that the giants were so large that a man of common stature measured only up to their knees. When the giants landed at Santa Elena they built massive houses and dug extremely deep wells. The infamous houses of the giants were still standing, and their wells were still in use, during and after the conquest of Peru, and are referenced numerous times in the historical records from that era… (READ MORE)
A creepy find by egyptologists of a pit full of ancient severed hands confirms a theory about a disturbing ancient Egyptian practice. The find connects fleetingly with the Bible, appearing in what some believe to be the throne room of Biblical Joseph. Egyptologists discovered 16 severed hands in the grounds surrounding buried in four pits in an ancient palace in Avaris, Egypt. The scientists estimated the hands had been separated from their rightful owners approximately 3,600 years ago. All were right hands and remarkably large. The find was indeed gruesome but not entirely surprising for the egyptologists, as it confirmed their belief that soldiers would cut off the hands of defeated enemies and present them to noblemen in return for a gold bounty. Hieroglyphics have been discovered depicting this practice. (READ MORE)
On Those Giant, 6-Fingered Cannibalistic Gods That Demanded Human Sacrifice
Considering what we’ve already documented concerning Chaco, we have by this time discussed cannibalism and human sacrifice there, but the truth is that as we discover this practice becoming more widespread during this era, we can see other apexes within their religious system beginning to surface as well. It would appear that polydactyly, having six fingers and/or toes, was a trait that would earn a person a place of reverence or respect as well—something I believe Mesoamericans and eventually some of the Anasazi connected to the offspring of the Cloudeaters, the gods. Anthropologist Patricia Crown led a study on this and discovered that while they were not necessarily believed to actually have been supernatural beings themselves (although Mayan culture does at times connect certain extrahuman powers to the trait), people displaying this characteristic were given a higher rank in society than the typical residents, and were awarded with special items and treatment.
On this matter, Crown said, “We found that people with six toes, especially, were common and seemed to be associated with important ritual structures and high-status objects like turquoise.”[i]
Polydactyly was found to be more common at Chaco than in other regions, which has puzzled some researchers. Discovered at Chaco were three in ninety-six skeletons, a ratio unusually high, at 3.1 percent, when in modern Native Americans, the ratio is .2 percent according to National Geographic.[ii]
Studying the petroglyphs, one can quickly see that six-fingered hands—or, more commonly among the rock art, six-toed footprints—are easy to find, meaning that it was noted frequently in the stories they were trying to leave behind. Something that particularly expresses the importance of these characteristics is that there are many areas where the handprint or footprint is embedded into the door frame right outside the kiva for prominence and notoriety, another indicator that this was given high regard and ritualistic rank.
Sandals accommodating an extra toe were also found in great quantity. Six-digited individuals were given honorary burials, placed with symbolic grave goods, and, in one instance, an individual even had an ornate anklet on his six-toed foot, and no adornment on his five-toed foot.
Another interesting find was at Ash Creek, where an “elite residence” was said to have contained a fragmentary cut of an ulna and humerus (bones) of a dwarf-sized individual. These were considered to be trophy memorabilia and not suspected to have been related in any way to the cannibalism that went on at Chaco.
The Rites Escalate
When we are looking at Chaco Canyon and the element of human sacrifice, we can also look at the Salmon Ruin, on a road linked with Chaco Canyon, where two adults were strongly suspected to have been cannibalized and another thirty—all of whom were children—were killed and burned, theorized to have probably been sacrificed to the Mayan diety Chichén Itzá.[iii] Noted in the ratio of burials for this particular site was the fact that children were strangely absent within the considerate burials, but that there were many who appeared to have died under suspicious circumstances and were burned.
At the Cases Grandes Ruin, archaeologist Charles C. Di Peso wrote of the five deities, (Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Xiuhtecutli, Xipe Totec, and Tlaloc) that he accredited the Chaco region’s cultural changes during this time to the following:
[They] were all intregal to this Mesoamerican cult, particularly as practiced by the Aztec, who paid special homage to Xipe during their festival of Tlacaxipeualiztli, the second month of their calendar, which occasioned the ceremonial scalping of certain of their sacrificial victims.… Cannibalism, though not unique to Xipe Tótec cultists, was nonetheless a meaningful function of their sect.[iv]
One strange find at Casa Rinconada was the condition of the human remains associated with this site. It was unique from other excavations in this region because of the fact that they were severely chewed. Many skeletons found here were partially missing and either the bones had been chewed and scattered by a “carnivore” or there had been postmortem human disturbance. Sadly, when Turner tried to retrieve them for further inspection, many of them were then missing. The vast majority reported on, however, were said to have had the ends chewed completely off, which was the only place within my studies that showed bones to have been chewed and scattered in such a way, with no sign of it having been a rodent, and possible expert explanations for the disarray ranged from man-made disturbances, to grave robbers, which didn’t account for the chewing. The reporting archaeologist pointed his dusty finger at local wild dogs or coyotes, but even himself stated:
Taken as a whole, there was significantly more modification, human and environmental, to Chacoan bodies than has been noted in comparably sized districts of the Mogollon, Classic-period Hohokam, or western Anasazi culture areas. Chaco Canyon is not only architecturally distinctive, it is also taphonomically strange.[v]
As Time Passes, Rituals Intensify
A particularly gruesome find was that of the location called Houck K, which was estimated closer to A.D. 1250. It would appear that the skeletons of adolescent and adult victims had had their chests disarticulated by “prying and bending their rib cages until the ribs snapped off near the vertebral column.”[vi] The expert coordinating the excavation presumed that the rib fragments were crushed and boiled to extract fat. They found, also at this location, two victims whose heads had been more than scalped. One had been fully flayed and the other had been cut to the upper nose. Of that, Turner stated:
Such facial mutilation could represent either socially pathological violence to the victim or, more likely to our minds, ceremonial flaying like that done to Mesoamerican Tlaloc or Xipe Totec sacrificial victims.[vii]
This is only one of many cases that presented acts such as facial flaying; skin of the deceased being worn; swapping skin, faces, heads, or other body parts between two corpses; and even tongue removal. The farther into this period in the Chacoan region we progress, the thicker the resemblance becomes to that of Mesoamerica, and specifically, Teotihuacan, pre-Aztec city in Middle Mexico that we mentioned before. For example, the sun god Tonatiuh, whose face and protruding tongue are seen at the center of the famous Sun Stone, is the god of the present (fifth) time, which began in 3114 B.C. Tonatiuh—who delivered important prophecies and demanded human sacrifices (more than twenty thousand victims per year were offered to him, according to Aztec and Spanish records, and in the single year of 1487, Aztec priests sacrificed eighty thousand people to him at the dedication of the reconstructed temple of the sun god)—was also known as the lord of the thirteen days (from 1 Death to 13 Flint), a number sacred to Aztec, Maya, and Freemasons for prophetic and mystical reasons.
A Glimpse of Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan has traces that may reach back as far as 200 B.C., but was at its peak between A.D. 150 and A.D. 750 at a possible population of up to two hundred thousand residents. While it is commonly believed that the city was raided, many experts also believe that its internal government had already begun to crumble from the inside out, citing civil unrest as the actual culprit for its demise. Some have even called it the Mesoamerican Tower of Babel, saying that residents adopted a new culture and simply migrated out of the area.[viii]
Regardless of the specific reasons the city’s infrastructure began to crumble, between A.D. 600 and A.D. 900, it is a well-documented fact that nomads looking for a new life migrated outward, and many of them headed north, as we have already established. A traveler leaving this place and coming to a new area would certainly be bringing along some gruesome rituals. See below what Fray Bernardino de Sahagún records about some of the rituals carried out for their deities; Tlaloc, Xipe Totec, Huitzilopochtli, and Quetzalcoatl in the Teotihuacan region:
They killed a large number of infants each year, and once dead they cooked and ate them.… Captives were killed by scalping them, taking the scalp off the top of the head…When the masters of these captives took their slaves to the temple where they were to be killed, they dragged them by the hair. As they pulled them up the steps of the Cú, some of these captives would faint, so their owners had to drag them by the hair as far as the block where they were to die.… After thus having torn their hearts out, and after pouring their blood into a jacara (bowl made of a gourd), which was given to the master of the dead slave, the body was thrown down the temple steps. From there it was taken by certain old men called Quaquaquilti, and carried to their calpul (or chapel), cut to pieces, and distributed among them to be eaten. Before cutting them up they would flay the bodies of the captives; others would dress in their skins and fight sham battles with other men.[ix]
He goes on from there to describe a horrific scene (one that is too graphic to include in this book) where some of the human sacrifice victims are burned alive, then pulled from the fire, at which point their hearts are ripped from their chests regardless of whether they are completely dead. This description seemed to me to be similar to the chest disarticulation that happened at Houck K, which we mentioned previously. The heart is then offered at the feet of the statue of, Xiuhtecutli, their god of fire.
Displaced Drifters Head North
Even in Teotihuacan art, one can find accountings of human sacrifice and cannibalism. Ancient deities that have been mentioned all throughout this chapter were associated with the legendary Dragon, who was worshipped by the gigantic Cloudeaters, who demanded grisly and shocking forms of worship. So, as a result of Teotihuacan crumbling at this time, combined with the Chacoan region’s population growing and beginning to thrive, it created the perfect place for these drifters to find a safe haven, bringing their influences, however malevolent, along with them. See how archaeological team Lister and Lister explain the phenomenon:
Realistically viewed, Chaco Canyon need not have been an actual cog in the Toltec organization of trading outposts to have been influenced by Mexican cultures, for shock waves emanating from an advanced epicenter have a way of reverberating outward to engulf otherwise removed entities.… News, ideas, and technological knowledge undoubtedly passed along the trade routes as readily as did material things, and the traveling salesmen of the times most likely played important roles in cultural diffusion. By that means, eyewitness accounts of Mesoamerican religious rituals, irrigation schemes, architectural embellishments, communication means, and other strange wonders may have reached Chaco. The descriptions may have inspired and encouraged local technicians and leaders to adopt those measures that would be beneficial to the Chacoans.[x]
Lister and Lister seem of the opinion that it would not have been necessary for Chaco to be involved with trade relations in order for the Mesoamerican to impact the area, that just by its mere proximity, the stimulus would have radiated outward and reached Chaco eventually, regardless. But beyond this archaeologist’s surmising, we have established that there was also, indeed, trade happening through the Chaco region, alongside the reach of influence. So there can be no doubt that the sway not only permeated the Chaco region, but that with lengthened exposure over time, the results were escalating. The farther into this time period that we venture to explore, the closer we get to A.D. 1300, the more heinous these acts become, and the more graphic and brutal the descriptions are. It would seem that the earliest recordings of cannibalism and violence during this period now appeared mellow in comparison with the accountings as time progressed.
Mini-Mesoamerica?
As we mentioned before, the ghastly facial flaying at Houck K is thought to have happened closer to A.D. 1250, whereas the “simpler” cannibalism and violence of Canyon Butte Ruin was possibly closer to A.D. 1000. If a person examines several sites from several different dates between A.D. 900 and A.D. 1300, they will see that the overall trend is increasing in repugnance as the years progress, which points toward the idea that infiltration began, and that slowly new ideas from Mesoamerican were introduced, and that over the period of time, as is often the case, people became desensitized and these ritual habits intensified.
When Two Worlds Collide
Allow me to recall the comment in I made earlier about the “triple-walled towers” that appeared in about A.D. 1275. Coincidence? We think not.
On the front cover of the 1963 National Monument Brochure for the site Hovenweep, which we visited and studied in our research for this book and the documentary film, proudly declared that its “ruins are noted for their square, oval, circular, and D-shaped towers and are perhaps the best preserved examples of Southwestern Indian defensive architecture.”[xi] The same goes on to describe the towers at this particular site as the “‘sentry boxes’ of a bygone people.”
The story of Hovenweep, as this same brochure tells, is as follows: Between approximately the years of A.D. 400 and A.D. 1100, ancient Native Americans dwelled peacefully in the valleys as hunter-gather, basket-making peoples. In about A.D. 1100, however, some unprecedented threat came to this area, forcing local farmers to move into more defensive locations, and that by A.D. 1200, the living style had generally become that of large, defensive groups housed together in group dwellings for safety. See how the story explains this phenomenon:
By 1200…people tended to withdraw completely from the open valleys and mesa tops to more defensible sites containing permanent springs situated in the heads of the Hovenweep canyons.[xii]
Hovenweep is thought by many to be the last example of architecture from this area in the Four Corners region. Despite the efforts of settlers there, however, like many other defensive sites at this point in time, a massacre occurred and those left alive likely fled.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW TRAILER)
Must-See Trailer For Documentary Being Released With CLOUDEATER Book Featuring Tom Horn, Steve Quayle, Timothy Alberino, And Actual Participants That Helped Dig Up The Giants!
We also know that population began to grow, slowly at first, as early as A.D. 900, but by A.D. 1200, occupancy in the Mesa Verde area was in full swing. By A.D. 1200, cliff dwellings were being constructed and inhabited. As I stated very early on in this work, some may argue that this story is backward, but when confronted with the evidence of localized culture change, timelines on locations such as Hovenweep, and the known nature of the defensive structures involved, this seems the chronological direction that makes the most sense. Additionally, most people claiming this timeline also adopt the theory that these people eventually migrated south following their deities. But studying the Teotihuacan history. both the Chaco region and further south will show that the very deities they were said to have followed actually existed in Mexico long before they were in the American Southwest, which further supports our timeline and directional flow. Being that the cultural and religious activity can be proven to date earlier in Mexico, it is reasonable to accept the same timeline on the cliff dwellings, towers, and outward migration as well.
The next argument a naysayer might bring up is that, again as stated early on, the cliff dwellings are not buildings of a defensive nature. Many so-called cultural experts during our investigation became confrontational, feeling that the ancient occupants’ integrity is under attack by way of their living situation. In exploring this, one must start with the most obvious question: Why? For what reason would groups of people choose to build into the side of a cliff, requiring such an arduous climb either upward or downward to reach it, unless there was an enormous threat from which one was trying to escape? Personally, in all of my research, I have yet to hear a really good answer to this question.
We have already established that there was, indeed, a threat migrating into the area, spreading, infiltrating further, as time went by. We propose that those who were living at ground level at a time before A.D. 800 were by A.D. 1200 grouping together, just as the evidence states, to escape to higher ground, either by way of cliff dwellings or protective towers, for safety and survival.
They literally ran for the hills…
The New Way of Life
Take a moment to review some statements made about the Anasazi cliff dwellings by David Roberts, author and writer for Smithsonian magazine:
They (had) lived the open or in easily accessible sites within canyons. But about 1250…began constructing settlements high in the cliffs…that offered defense and protection.…Toward the end of the 13th century, some cataclysmic event forced the Anasazi to flee those cliff houses and their homeland and to move.[xiii]
He goes on to describe a cliff dwelling he visited as a settlement that “seemed to exude paranoia, as if its builders lived in constant fear of attack.”[xiv] In his continued work, he also discusses cannibalism, executions, scalping, decapitating, “face removing” as we discussed earlier, and trophy bone collecting. On top of all of this, he documents a case of fossilized human excrement containing the human protein called myoglobin, which occurs only in cases of cannibalism and is irrefutable proof that the cannibalism did indeed occur.
Neighboring Gallina people also lived in cliff dwellings, had defensive towers, and sometimes even had underground tunnels interconnecting with buildings that were built at ground level. More recent excavations have shown that, at times, entire villages of theirs were massacred. Of this, archaeologist Tony Largaespada said, “Almost all of [the Gallina ever found] were murdered,” he said. “[Someone] was just killing them, case after case, every single time.”[xv] When discussing the cliff dwellings that these people lived in, Tony Largaespada said the dwellings provided “an excellent example of just how scared these people must have been.” He then went on to say, “It was occupied right at the end, and it was only occupied for a short period of time. It may have been all that was left, their last stronghold.”[xvi]
Gallina ruins that have been excavated were also said to have valuable items that had been left behind, and it would appear that, like many Anasazi sites abandoned within this era, the decision to leave was unexpected, hasty, and prompted by violence.
Sand Canyon
Sand Canyon was constructed around A.D. 1250. During excavation, without even trying, researchers found more than two thousand identifiable human bones and fragments. Archaeologists estimated these came from between forty and forty-five individuals, only nine of which were formally buried. Some skeletons were complete and some were scattered, and some piled “disarticulated.”[xvii] It is clearly stated many times in the reports made by excavators that many of the skeletons found were killed by a sudden, violent event that caused remaining occupants to vacate. While excavators are forthcoming about the fact that they did not excavate anywhere near the entire site, of what they did dig, the ratio of women and children was higher than typical. Although the report never mentions cannibalism or human sacrifice, the account of this site reads similarly to accounts from digs in locations where we know such activities occurred. Many bones found were burned, displayed perimortem cut and chopping marks, and were carelessly discarded in a pile. Loose, disembodied teeth were found in floors of kivas, a common anomaly within sites where cannibalism had occurred. Only one of the bodies unearthed was confirmed to be male; all others were women and children, and many were under the age of 10.
Of particular interest at Sand Canyon were two skeletons of people who appeared to be related to each other. One, the only confirmed male unearthed at the location, age 40–45 years old, was the tallest at this location, with a clavicle said to be “large and massive.” His female relative, second only to him in height at this location, possessed “thin, curved, porous bones; hundreds of wormian bones along the lamboidal suture; and extreme amount of cranial deformation; and an unusually pointed chin.”[xviii] The excavators use possible bone disorders as a reason for these formations, but I could not help think of worldwide testaments that the children born to those women that had been raped by the Cloudeaters (Nephilim) had similar features of six fingers, six toes, distorted mandibles, and double rows of teeth, just as the skeletons discovered at Sand Canyon in this gravesite where sudden and unexplainable violence and cannibalism had occurred. They each had clavicles of unusual size, and the male showed polydactyly, having six toes on his right foot. Both were missing certain teeth congenitally, and the male had double-peg teeth in place of third molars.
Like many other reports I came across in my studies, this was yet another that described, in many different places, that a sudden, violent event had caused rapid, unexpected evacuation.
One Last Appeal?
Tom Horn at Sun Temple
Sun Temple, excavated in the early 1900s by archaeologist Jesse W. Fewkes, was an uncovered anomaly within Mesa Verde, where many cliff dwellings were unearthed as well. The cliff dwellers were said to be sun worshippers, and of the nature of the Sun Temple, although in entirety still a mystery, is suspected to be a last appeal to their gods before migrating out of the area. In one area, where a stone fossil shaped like the sun is enveloped by three walls, Fewkes reported: “There can be no doubt that the walled enclosures was a shrine and the figure in it may be a key to the purpose of the building. The shape of the figure on the rock suggests a symbol of the sun, and if this suggestion be correct, there can hardly be a doubt that solar rites were performed about it.”[xix] Because the building was never roofed, it is debated that it was intended to never be covered, but as evidence shows, more likely, it was left unfinished. This makes sense, since it is dated to approximately A.D. 1225, and abandonment was approximately A.D. 1250–A.D. 1275. Also worth noting is that many of the structures from this era show evidence of having been built, then added to sporadically over time, always changing and being often repurposed within lifetimes. The Sun Temple, however, was a preconceived notion that was built at once from a premade plan, an ancient blueprint, pursued by many people of like mind, in unison. Fewkes describes in his report that few household goods or other items were found in this excavation. This lends itself to the notion that the building was not finished yet, as it was probably not yet being used. The walls, many of which were not yet plastered, show a Mexican-style masonry, at this time new to the Mesa Verde region. Could this be an indicator that it was even possibly an interracial effort? It was reported by Fewkes, leading archaeologist at its excavation, to have construction properties of both the original Chaco style and of the newer towers, such as were found at Ruin Canyon and Mancos Valley. See Fewkes’ statement of the construction of this building:
The argument that appeals most strongly to my mind supporting the theory that Sun Temple was a ceremonial building is the unity shown in its construction. A preconceived plan existed in the minds of the builders before they began work on the main building. Sun Temple was not constructed haphazard nor was its form due to addition of one clan after another, each adding rooms to an existing nucleus.… Those who made it must have belonged to several clans fused together, and if they united for this common work they were in a higher stage of sociological development than the loosely connected population of a cliff dwelling.… This building was constructed for worship, and its size is such that we may practically call it a temple.… Sun Temple was not built by an alien people, but by the cliff dwellers as a specialized building mainly for religious purposes and so far as known is the first of its type recognized in the Mesa Verde area.[xx]
The Sun Temple was indeed ruins that I [Tom] wanted to see, because it is a large and significant site that holds much mystery in that nobody, including archaeologists and cultural historians, know what it was for. An eroded stone basin with three indentations at the southwest corner of the structure suggests that it may have been purposed as a sundial to mark the changes in the seasons. Two kivas on top of the structure, together with the lack of windows or doors elsewhere, intimates that it was not meant for housing, which has led modern Pueblo Indians to propose that it was some type of ceremonial structure probably planned for ritual purposes dedicated to the Sun God. The amount of fallen stone that was removed during its excavation is said to indicate that the original walls were between eleven and fourteen feet tall. These walls were thick, double-coursed construction, with a rubble core placed between the panels for strength and insulation. After studying the Sun Temple and comparing it to ancient Mesoamerican culture and edifices, it is this author’s opinion (which is as good as anybody else’s, since we don’t really know) that this site may have been intended as a place for human sacrifice similar to those of the Aztec and Maya. I say this for a couple reasons. First, Dr. Don Mose Jr., a third-generation medicine man we met with for a large part of a day during this investigation (more about him later in this chapter), told us that the oldest legends of the Anasazi, which he had been told by his great-grandfather(who likewise had been told by his ancestors) included stories of the Anasazi turning to sorcery, sacrifice, and cannibalism after they “lost their way” and were driven insane by a reptilian creature, which they depict with a halo above his head. (Images of this being are included in the petroglyphs we filmed inside the canyons, and I believe they likely attest to the fallen reptile [or reptiles] of biblical fame, which also misled humanity.) Second, blood sacrifice was a religious activity in most premodern cultures during some stage of their development, especially as it involved invoking the gods, and the “Sun God” was typically chief among them. This included animals and humans or the bloodletting of community members during rituals overseen by their priests. In fact, the Mayans—who may have influenced the Anasazi or vice versa—believed “that the only way for the sun to rise was for them to sacrifice someone or something every day to the gods.”[xxi]
[iii] Christy and Jacqueline Turner, Man Corn, 131
[iv] Charles C. Di Peso, Casas Grandes, a Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, vol. 2: Medio Period. (Flagstaff, Arizona: Amerind Foundation, Northland Press, 1974), 574.
[ix] Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, A History of Ancient Mexico, 1547-1577,vol. 1; Translated by F.R. Bandelier from the Spanish version of C.M. de Bustamante, (Nashville, TN: Fisk University Press, 1932) 273.
[x] Robert H. Lister and Florence C. Lister Chaco Canyon: Archaeology and Archaeologists, (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1981) 175.
[xix] Paul R. Franke, “Mesa Verde Notes, Vol. 5, Number 1, Sun Symbol Markings,” July 1933, National Parks Services History Online, last accessed December 13, 2016, http://www.npshistory.com/nature_notes/meve/vol5-1e.htm.
[xx] Jesse W. Fewkes, Rules and Regulations, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, Excavation and Repair of Sun Temple, (Washington: Government Printing Office 1926), 37-38, last accessed December 12, 2016, as seen online http://npshistory.com/brochures/meve/1926.pdf.
[xxi] Thomas Horn, On the Path of the Immortals, (Crane, MO: Defender Publishing, 2015), pgs 48–49
As thoroughly studied in the best-selling book, On the Path of the Immortals (Defender Publishing, 2015), biblical literalism depicts Leviathan as a real reptilian entity, a highly intelligent, immortal, divine creation in chaotic rebellion. When the underworld portal is opened, this sea serpent will briefly visit untold horror on the earth, only to face judgment when facing “the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).
The Behemoth depicted by Job 40:15–24 (10–19) is also best understood as a preternatural creature possessing supernatural characteristics.[i] While connections to other ancient Near-Eastern dragons have been suggested, Behemoth seems to be a distinct entity paired with Leviathan. This dragon might very well manifest from the earth when the portal to the Abyss is opened (Revelation 9:1). However, you might be surprised to learn that not all flying serpents in Scripture are fallen:
Although many Christians probably recoil at the thought that God created serpentine divine beings, as we demonstrated in chapter 1 (“What Is This All About?”), Scripture does support the notion. It is also telling how the Watchers were described in explicitly reptilian terms[ii] by the ancient Hebrews, lending support to the idea that fallen ones may have matched the depiction of human sacrifice-demanding “fiery serpents” whose characteristics are partly human in appearance. With a proper understanding of the biblical Seraphim and Watchers, the Mesoamerican connection no longer seems so fanciful. The plumed serpent gods of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans share the same basic description as the biblical flying serpentine humanoids.
Early Mesoamericans who worshiped the feathered serpent included the Olmec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Toltec, and Aztec. As early as Olmec times (1400 B.C.), the feathered or plumed serpent is depicted throughout North, Middle, and South America. For example, the late Olmec or Toltec culture known as Teotihuacan prominently displayed the serpentine god on the sides of the pyramid located at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.
The archaeological record shows that after the fall of Teotihuacan, the cult of the serpent spread to Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and Cholula—the New World’s largest pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcoatl.[iii]
The Incas of Peru, the Aztecs of Mexico, and the Mayas of Yucatan all worshipped similar winged serpent gods. The Inca referred to these rebel Seraphim as Amaru; the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl; and the Maya as Kukulkán. In Inca mythology, the amaru is a huge, double-headed, flying serpent that dwells underground.[iv] As a supernatural entity, the reptilian was believed to navigate portals between the netherworld of the dead to the natural world of the living.[v] While many have connected descriptions of Quetzalcoatl as a bearded man with similar descriptions of Viracocha, the latter is not represented as a winged, serpentine-human hybrid. However, in remarkable accord with Quetzalcoatl, the title Amaru Tupa was an honorific title denoting royalty.[vi] In fact, the Incan creator god Viracocha adopted “a stone image of an amaru”[vii] as his huauque, the “man-made double”[viii] representing the living king during his lifetime.
Quetzalcoatl is the Aztec name for the feathered-serpent deity and is one of the main gods of Mexico and northern Central America. In the Aztec civilization of central Mexico, the worship of Quetzalcoatl was ubiquitous. He was the flying reptile deity who reportedly said, “If ever my subjects were to see me, they would run away!”[ix] His winged reptilian adversary, Tezcatlipoca, was generally considered more powerful, as the god of night, sorcery, and destiny. During the twenty-day month of Toxcatl, a young man dressed up as Tezcatlipoca would be sacrificed.[x] Lesser known is that, like the Watcher angels in Genesis 6, Aztec tradition holds that their plumed serpent gods also created giants who were later destroyed in a worldwide flood:
According to Aztec myth, during the first age, or Sun, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created a race of giants from ashes, giving them acorns for nourishment. But the giants so enraged the gods due to their wickedness that the gods decided to end the giants’ existence and sent the jaguars to destroy them. Only seven survived the onslaught of the savage beasts. Later, when the gods summoned forth the waters to flood the Earth and destroy the first race of humans, these seven giants, the Xelhua, climbed the mountains to seek refuge from the thrashing waters that were enveloping the planet. Five of the giants survived the torrent, and in the end they built the great tower of Cholula to commemorate their survival of the flood.[xi]
The Incans similarly believed that Viracocha’s first creation was a race of wicked giants that he destroyed in a deluge.[xii] While it is usually held that all of the Nephilim were drowned in the Flood, there are similar Jewish traditions of one giant’s survival, King Og of Bashan.[xiii] A tradition of his survival is preserved in the Talmud.[xiv] Whether one accepts this ancient rabbinic tradition or not, the obvious parallel to the Aztec account entailing a few surviving giants demands an explanation. We suggest both traditions reflect actual historical events. Even so, such high strangeness is not so summarily relegated to the past.
The Maya hold that Kukulkan, represented as a feathered serpent, came from heaven to earth. Accordingly, the quetzal bird representing heaven was chosen as his totem, and the serpent represents earth. Winged serpent iconography features prominently at Chichén Itzá, El Tajín, and throughout the Maya region. As discussed in the chapter 3, the Mayan cosmology has led to significant theological error in the New Age movement and was the impetus for most of the failed 2012 ascension predictions. The cumulative case that these plumed serpent deities are real immortal entities, fallen “fiery flying serpents,” or former seraphim, explains all of the mythological data in terms consistent with biblical theology.
The heinous practice of human sacrifice by the Aztecs,[xv] Mayans,[xvi] and Incans[xvii] is well enough attested to be uncontroversial. Some indigenous scholars defend the old ways on the grounds that, according to their cosmology, the gods did the same for the people. Some stories suggest vampirism, a practice associated with the fallen ones and their Nephilim progenies.[xviii] For example, in a creation myth found in the Florentine Codex, Quetzalcoatl offers his blood to give life to humanity. There are several other myths in which Mesoamerican gods offer their blood.[xix] What distinguishes this from the blood of Jesus in Christian theology is that it was a one-time offering by a willing participant who subsequently rose from the dead. In contrast, the Mesoamericans offered even their own flesh-and-blood children in various forms of ritualistic human sacrifice—a brutal idolatry that was good news to nobody. Identifying these bloodthirsty serpents as fallen “sons of God,” who defiantly court worship from humans and encourage various forms of extravagant ethical deviance, seems morally warranted from the original source documents of Mesoamerican religions.[xx]
It is nearly self-explanatory as to how such concepts of flying serpents could have extended from Mesoamerica to Native American tribes and apocalyptic beliefs. For instance, the “Cherokee Rattlesnake Prophecies” were written down by members of the Cherokee tribe during 1811–1812. These prophecies are similar to Mesoamerican apocalyptic belief and share the idea that sometime following the year 2012, a flying plumed serpent with human-hybrid features would return during a time of when the earth and heavens are shaken.
From my book Zenith 2016, a portion of the Rattlesnake Prophecy reads:
[Following] the year…2012 an alignment will take place both on the Cherokee calendar and in the heavens of the Rattlesnake Constellation.… It is the time of the double headed serpent stick. It is the time of the red of Orion and Jupiter against the white blue of Pleiades and Venus…the Cherokee Rattlesnake Constellation will take on a different configuration. The snake itself will remain, however; upon the Rattlesnake shall be added upon its head feathers, its eyes will open and glow, wings spring forth as a winged rattlesnake. It shall have hands and arms and in its hands shall be a bowl. The bowl will hold blood. Upon its tail of seven rattles shall be the glowing and movement of Pleiades. The Rattlesnake shall become a feathered rattlesnake or feathered serpent of Time/Untime.
While the Mayans and Cherokee were awaiting the return of their serpent deity, uninvited preternatural visitations were ongoing and still are. According to Chulin Pop, a contemporary Mayan, preternatural giants are still visiting the Watchers’ sins on the native peoples in the jungle. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, a professor at Montana State University, recorded his testimony:
They [seven-to-eight-foot giants] come from the stars in their big silver plates and they stay here sometimes only for a night; sometimes for a week or more. They take the women and make them have their babies. They have four fingers and no thumbs. Any man who tries to defend his women is sick for days. They have great powers. They make you hear words, but they never speak. They have weapons that make rocks and things disappear.[xxi]
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The transparent parallels between the ancient “sons of God,” who sinned “as Sodom and Gomorrah” by “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh” (Jude 7), worldwide reports of alien abduction, and this contemporary Mayan’s account, suggests a complex interrelated phenomenon. As with the cultural rebellion against biblical morality, modern-day testimony reminiscent of the Watchers’ lustful deviance imply the days of Noah and Lord’s return are upon us (Matthew 24:37; Luke 16:26). Stephen Quayle suggested that Americans consider this little poem, “Quetzalcotal, are evil leaders in this land waiting for you to claim America again as Amaruca, the Land of the Serpent?”[xxii]
This title—Amaruca—is, according to some people, the title from which “America” is taken. It is related to Mesoamerican history, serpent-worship, and giants, and according to Freemasonry, connects the founding of the United States and its Capitol designers with “wisdom” derived from the fallen flying seraph. Also from my book Zenith 2016:
The story begins long before the Spaniards arrived on this continent and was chronicled in the hieroglyphic characters (and repeated in oral history) of the sacred, indigenous Maya narrative called the Popol Vuh. Sometime between 1701 and 1703, a Dominican priest named Father Francisco Ximénez transcribed and translated the Mayan work into Spanish. Later his text was taken from Guatemala to Europe by Abbott Brasseur de Bourbough where it was translated into French. Today the Popol Vuh rests in Chicago’s Newberry Library, but what makes the script interesting is its creation narrative, history, and cosmology, especially as it relates to the worship of the great “feathered serpent” creator deity known as Q’uq’umatz; a god considered by scholars to be roughly equivalent to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and the Yucatec Mayan Kukulkan. According to Freemasons like Manly P. Hall, no other ancient work sets forth so completely the initiatory rituals of the great school of philosophic mystery, which was so central to America’s Baconian dream of the New Atlantis, than the Popol Vuh. What’s more, Hall says, it is in this region where we find the true origin of America’s name and destiny.
In The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly Hall writes:
This volume [Popol Vuh] alone is sufficient to establish incontestably the philosophical excellence of the red race.
“The Red ‘Children of the Sun,’” writes James Morgan Pryse, “do not worship the One God. For them that One God is absolutely impersonal, and all the Forces emanated from that One God are personal. This is the exact reverse of the popular western conception of a personal God and impersonal working forces in nature. Decide for yourself which of these beliefs is the more philosophical [Hall says sarcastically]. These Children of the Sun adore the Plumèd Serpent, who is the messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Gucumatz in Quiché; and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, ‘Land of the Plumèd Serpent.’ The priests of this [flying dragon], from their chief centre in the Cordilleras, once ruled both Americas. All the Red men who have remained true to the ancient religion are still under their sway. One of their strong centres was in Guatemala, and of their Order was the author of the book called Popol Vuh. In the Quiché tongue Gucumatz is the exact equivalent of Quetzalcoatl in the Nahuatl language; quetzal, the bird of Paradise; coatl, serpent—‘the Serpent veiled in plumes of the paradise-bird’!”
The Popol Vuh was discovered by Father Ximinez in the seventeenth century. It was translated into French by Brasseur de Bourbourg and published in 1861. The only complete English translation is that by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, which ran through the early files of The Word magazine and which is used as the basis of this article. A portion of the Popol Vuh was translated into English, with extremely valuable commentaries, by James Morgan Pryse, but unfortunately his translation was never completed. The second book of the Popol Vuh is largely devoted to the initiatory rituals of the Quiché nation. These ceremonials are of first importance to students of Masonic symbolism and mystical philosophy, since they establish beyond doubt the existence of ancient and divinely instituted Mystery schools on the American Continent.[xxiii]
Thus from Hall we learn that Freemasons like him believe “ancient and divinely instituted” mystery religion important to students of Masonry came to Amaruca/America—the Land of the Plumèd Serpent—from knowledge that the Red Man received from the dragon himself. What Hall conceals is that, even to this day, in the secret societies, Lucifer is considered this benevolent serpent-god who has nothing more than the best intentions for man, while Jehovah is an evil entity who tries to keep mankind in the dark and punishes him if he seeks the truest wisdom. Since these ancient serpent legends include the Mesoamerican feathered serpent gods and can be looked upon as a historical testament of that Angel thrown down by God, “then perhaps The Land of the Plumèd Serpent may also be known as the Land of Lucifer,” concludes Ken Hudnall in The Occult Connection II: The Hidden Race.[xxiv]
NEXT UP—On Those Giant, Cannibalistic Gods That Demanded Human Sacrifice
[i] B. F. Batto, “Behemoth,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) 165.
[ii]As discussed in chapter 1, What Is This All About?—“4Q Amramb (4Q544),” Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, revised and extended 4th ed. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 312.(Previous ed.: London: Penguin, 1987).
[iii] William M. Ringle, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, and George J. Bey, “The Return of Quetzalcoatl,” Ancient Mesoamerica (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998) 183–232.
[iv] Paul R. Steele and Catherine J. Allen, “Amaru Tupa,” Handbook of Inca Mythology, Handbooks of World Mythology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004) 96.
[v] S. Smith, “Generative Landscapes: The Step Mountain Motif in Tiwanaku Iconography,” Ancient America, 12m (2011): 1–69.
[x]Bernardino de Sahagún, Monographs of the School of American Research, vol. 14, “General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex” (Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research, 1950–1982) 79.
[xi]Patrick Chouinard (09-28-2013), Lost Race of the Giants: The Mystery of Their Culture, Influence, and Decline throughout the World (Inner Traditions/Bear & Company) 129–130.
[xiii] Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University, 2004) 461.
[xiv] Joseph Barclay, The Talmud (London: John Murray, 1878): 23; Heinrich Ewald and Georg Heinrich August von Ewald, The History of Israel (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1883) 228.
[xv]John M. Ingham, “Human Sacrifice at Tenochtitln,” Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (1984) 379–400.
[xviii]Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) 125.
[xix]Jacques Soustelle, La Vida Cotidiana de Los Aztecas En Vísperas de La Conquista, 2. ed., Sección de Obras de Antropología (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1970) 102.
[xx]George L. Cowgill, “Ritual Sacrifice and the Feathered Serpent Pyramid at Teotihuacán, México,” Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, 1997, http://www.famsi.org/reports/96036/index.html (accessed January 30. 2015).
[xxi]Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, Sky People: Untold Stories of Alien Encounters in Mesoamerica (Pompton Plains, NJ: New Page, 2014) 172.
Unknown to most American’s, there is substantial evidence of Mesoamerican trade at Chaco Canyon as far back as A.D. 900. Its repertoire became so progressive that according to Craig Childs’ House of Rain, there were even those who called it the “Ancient Las Vegas.”[i]
Chaco is said to have bones and feathers of nearly every species of bird within a thousand miles,[ii] and although there is ample evidence that they had cacao beans, there isn’t a cacao tree for twelve hundred miles.[iii]
Interestingly, the pottery jars that were found at Chaco Canyon Pueblo Bonito, which were examined by Ms. Crown, anthropologist of University of New Mexico, were found to have traces of cacao, a Mesoamerican caffeinated drink, in them. These cylinders show pottery properties of having been actually crafted at Chaco Canyon, but display Mayan style art, further illustrating the blending of Chacoan and Mesoamerican cultures.[iv]
But some of the most fascinating proof of the Mesoamerican connection are the scarlet macaw bones that were found in what may have been an ancient aviary for keeping the birds in. These were uncovered in a small room to the side of a great kiva at the Pueblo Bonito, and were said to have died fairly young. It would appear that they were attempting to import and raise the birds for the use of their feathers in rituals. Because the macaw could “talk” it is believed they may also have played a shamanistic role in communicating with the spirit world as “familiars.” The climate at Chaco, however, was prohibitive, and the size of the bones indicate that the birds died before growing to full size.
Nevertheless, around A.D. 900, a very dark change began to take place at Chaco Canyon. Rituals seemed to shift from merely the use of items like bird feathers to a much more sinister tone, which brings us to the heart of our study, and possibly even to the crux of events that took place in the disappearance “overnight” of the Anasazi.
According to archaeologist Richard E. W. Adams in 1991:
The Toltec expanded into the northern frontier zone, or Gran Chichimeca, about A.D. 900 [making contact] with the cultures of what is now the southwestern United States…[and] trading copper bells and other items for turquoise, slaves, peyote, salt, and other commodities that the northerners provided. Cultural influences followed commerce, and it is believed that many traits in ethnographic religions of the U.S. Southwest derive from the Mesoamerican influence. Murals from Awatowi [sic] in the Hopi area seem to show regional versions of Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl appears in several areas, and Chaco Canyon in far-off northwestern New Mexico shows impressive architectural parallels with Toltec building.[v]
Likewise, archaeologist Erik K. Reed reported in 1964:
In the time between about A.D. 1150, or shortly after, and A.D. 1275 or 1300…in the eastern San Juan region…we find triple walled “towers” and other structures of bizarre ground plan. A number of detailed architectural features that appeared in the San Juan after A.D. 1050 seem to be of Mexican derivation and may well represent the arrival in the northern Southwest of the cult of Quezalcoatl.[vi]
Knowing about the timeline that Mexican influence began to trickle northward, reaching the Chaco region, we can gather from the information above that initial contact could have been made as early as A.D. 800, with trade beginning near A.D. 850, and by A.D. 900, trade, contact, and cultural mingling was in full swing. By A.D. 1275, however, something else happened. Suddenly triple-walled towers, cliff dwellings, and other defensive buildings sprung over the landscape.
Within just a few hundred years, a culture that had lived peaceably, built the thriving hub of economic trade called Chaco Canyon together, and who, on their own, had previously had little need for internal government, had split, become guarded toward each other, and eventually just disappeared. What happened?
According to Turner, in Man Corn, mentioned earlier, the answer is Mesoamerican, and particularly Mexican influence. As refugees from the fallen Teotihuacan worked their way northward, seeking new places to settle and bringing their religious and cultural influences with them, the flourishing Chaco Canyon provided a safe haven for these wanderers. Chaco, being a diversified center of exchange, religion, and increasingly differentiated peoples, slowly grew to be a place where many came to practice ceremonies, trade, or even attain certain supplies. See it as the National Parks Service describes below:
By 1050, Chaco had become the ceremonial, administrative, and economic center of the San Juan Basin. Its sphere of influence was extensive. Dozens of great houses in Chaco Canyon were connected by roads to more than 150 great houses throughout the region. It is thought that the great houses were not traditional farming villages occupied by large populations. They may instead have been impressive examples of “public architecture” that were used periodically during times of ceremony, commerce, and trading when temporary populations came to the canyon for these events.
What was at the heart of this great social experiment? Pueblo descendants say that Chaco was a special gathering place where many peoples and clans converged to share their ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge.… Chaco is also an enduring enigma for researchers. Was Chaco the hub of a turquoise-trading network established to acquire macaws, copper bells, shells, and other commodities from distant lands? Did Chaco distribute food and resources to growing populations when the climate failed them? Was Chaco “the center place,” binding a region together by a shared vision? We may never fully understand Chaco.
But the dark side to this arrangement, as Turner also speculates, is that Mesoamerican nomads came not only seeking to influence their new comrades, but to infiltrate and gain control. According to Apache, Navajo, and other tribes, this “takeover” was coupled with the arrival of giants. Turner even goes so far as to suggest that human sacrifice to their gods, Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl, and cannibalism both for rituals’ sake and for psychological terrorism, became the means for all the blood shed at what was once the peaceful Chaco Canyon. As we reveal later, the “ritual” in this cannibalism dated back to the Watchers, Nephilim, and the goal of modifying one’s DNA to become a fit-extension for incarnation by Rephaim, the spirits of dead giants.
And Then There Were None
Anyone who begins to research the reasons for migration away from this area will quickly find many accounts similar to what Ricky R. Lightfoot states below of the Duckfoot Pit houses near Mesa Verde:
In all three burned pit structures, human skeletons covered or overlapped the hearths, yet the bones were burned only on the top, where they were exposed to the heat of the burning roof or of fires set inside the structure to ignite the roof. Although it is not clear why so many bodies were deposited in structures at abandonment, it appears that abandonment was rapid, with no intent to return. Structures were destroyed with usable tools and containers left inside. These details of abandonment suggest that the site may have been abandoned rapidly as the result of some catastrophe that caused the death of six or more individuals, including men, women, and children, and that the structures were destroyed as part of a funerary and abandonment ritual.[vii]
Likewise, a person can quickly find evidence stating that the migration was not due to lack of food or other necessities. For example, in regards to food availability in Chaco Canyon, Turner stated that judging from the size of the animal bones that had accumulated at just one trash mound in Chaco, twenty-six people could have eaten almost half a cottontail rabbit every day for seventy years.[viii]
Something Wicked This Way Comes
In the title to the book, Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest, the phrase “man corn” was chosen as the direct translation from the ancient Aztec word, tlacatlaolli, which, literally translated, means “sacred meal of sacrificed human meat cooked with corn.”[ix] In this work, anthropologist Turner, along with his wife and partner Jacqueline Turner, actually reviewed many cases of cannibalism and violence in the Southwest (over seventy sites), and created clear, definable criteria (which are now considered standard by many experts) for proving when a case does or does not include cannibalism, and the circumstances of the act, when possible.
Something to help determine the circumstances of death and dismemberment during an archaeological excavation, especially when cannibalism is suspected, is to study the condition in which bones are found. “Considerate burials,” those done in respect and care toward the deceased, are different than those Turner calls “non-burial pit or floor deposits,” also known as charnel deposits. This will usually contain fragments of many individuals, literally piled together haphazardly, dismembered and disregarded, often showing evidence of telltale signs that the bones were processed in the same way as local food animals. Some (but not all) of these indicators are: processing marks on the human bones, such as cutting marks or chopping indentations that match the locally found bones known to be from food animals; damage pattern on human bones does not match local environmental damage patterns, deposits of human cannibalized bone does not match the considerate burials or even violent but non-cannibalized burials; “pot polishing” is found, which is caused when perimortem (occurring at the time of death) human bones are boiled in ceramic; and the observation of bone that has aged differently due to soft tissue being removed before burial or discarding.
When faced with the evidence, there is little doubt that cannibalism indeed happened not only at Chaco Canyon, but at many other sites throughout the same region. Accounts seem to become trend around A.D. 900 and continue until nearly A.D 1300, when the trend seems to taper off considerably. Throughout Turner’s studies in just the Four Corners area alone, he was able to confirm the consuming of 286 individuals at thirty-eight sites.[x] This doesn’t even begin to touch on the suspected cases wherein evidence was inconclusive, mishandled, or (conveniently?) simply missing.
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Considering the proof of cannibalism in Chaco Canyon, the reader’s next question may be: Why? In light of the above statements made by Lightfoot and Turner, we know that there was access to food, and that there was also violence in the region. We also know that Mesoamericans had by this time moved northward, and were bringing their gods, Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl, among others, along with them. It is also well documented that in years before this, in Mesoamerica, human sacrifice to these deities, along with cannibalism, torture, genital mutilation, and even activities like flaying and orgies were commonplace in their ritual and religious activities. Knowing that they were in a refugee state and looking to lay roots down in a new area, it seems logical that they would bring these activities with them, especially if they were looking to attain good will from these deities in their new homeland.
In their studies of alleged cannibalism and human sacrifice at Chaco Canyon, Turner and Turner found that this activity was not due to starvation, but was actually ritual in nature. Consequently, it should be noted that Turner was not the only expert claiming cannibalism, either. In 1902, anthropologist Walter Hough wrote of his excavation at Canyon Butte Ruin:
In the cemetery, among other orderly burials, was uncovered a heap of broken human bones belonging to three individuals. It was evident that the shattered bones had been clean when they were placed in the ground, and some fragments showed scorching by fire. The marks of the implements used in cracking the bones were still traceable. Without doubt, this ossuary is the record of a cannibal feast, and its discovery is interesting to science as being the first material proof of cannibalism among our North American Indians.[xi]
Farther Down the Rabbit Hole
Interestingly, within the vicinity of Walter Hough’s discovery, a petroglyph clearly portrays a horned serpent, possibly resembling Quetzalcoatl, coming out from behind a warrior who is pointing a bow and arrow at an unarmed figure, whose hands are held up, defenselessly.
In 1920, ethnologist, anthropologist and archaeologist George H. Pepper came across cannibalized human bones accompanied by a probable case of human sacrifice at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. Pepper had previously excavated Peñasco Blanco, another site not far from Chaco where he documented human cannibalism. But when he surrendered the bones from the Pueblo Bonito, they were misplaced and further investigation was not possible. Because of his other credible work, experts accept his findings. Remarkably, another point can be made by this particular dig site: The killing that took place here was not that of warfare. Left behind was, as Turner explained, thirty thousand turquoise, shell, and jet beads; various ornaments; many carvings; thirty or more bowls; and many jars and pitchers.[xii]
He goes on to say of the human sacrifice that took place there:
“…wealth of grave goods and had received…cranial trauma and cutting, as well as cutting of his neck—…looks more like Mesoamerican sacrificial burials evidencing mutilation…than like any other known rich burial in the Southwest.[xiii]
Of the 175 rooms and kivas excavated at this site, only four had skeletons in them. Being that intramural burial was fairly commonplace, this becomes an unusual ratio. Another detail that points to human sacrifice is the gender ratios within the rooms. In one room, the skeletons of ten individuals were found, nine of which were females and one of which was a fetus. Bones were carelessly scattered across the floor. In another room, at least nine of the ten or eleven individuals found were female as well. In another room, twenty-four skeletons were found, seventeen of which were female and six were children. It is also interesting to note that knives, presumably imported, found in this location are said to be similar to those used in Mesoamerican human sacrifice:
They far excel in skill and execution all other blades known to me from the main Pueblo area.… I doubt that their better has been found elsewhere in the Unites States.… The materials used are foreign to Chaco Canyon.[xiv]
Turner, when speaking of these knives, goes on to compare them to those used in the human sacrifices at the great Aztec Templo Mayor, called tecpatl, to the warrior god Huitzilopochtli.
Another fascinating element of this particular dig site is that among the skulls found, an adult male, along with one other individual in a separate room, displayed “chipping” on their teeth. “Chipping” was a Mexican and Mesoamerican dental modification culturally followed closer to the Teotihuacan region. It is reasonable to believe that these were migrants from further south, not native to the Chaco area. To find two individuals within this proximity suggests that there could have been a genetic relationship between the two. Their presence, along with the activities that took place propose that Mesoamerican connection influence, and possibly particularly Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl influence, had a hand in the direction that the culture was beginning to flow. Allow me as well to remind you that this is the very site where the cacao drinks were consumed from Mayan-looking jars, near the makeshift aviary filled with the bones of scarlet macaws, at the hub of what was becoming the “Ancient Las Vegas.”
Turner sums this idea up very well as follows:
[A] hypothesis of human sacrifice can be entertained because…unusual sex ratios.… Where else in the Southwest does a large ruin have…very little intramural burial, possible cannibalism…unequal sexual representation, perimortem trauma, disarticulated bodies…few subfloor infant burials…skeletal remains of a possible Mexican, and evidence of direct trade and ideological contact with Mesoamerica?[xv]
This is only one of multiple reports of such type of accounts during this time, throughout this region. We can rule out cannibalism for the sake of warfare; exocannibalism wherein a people consume the enemy for the sake of gaining their attributes. If this were the case, they would not be eating women and children; they would center this action on the strongest of their opponents’ peoples, such as warriors, chiefs, etc.
Undeniable Onslaught of Evidence
Despite eliminating starvation and warfare as reasons, we still know that cannibalism was rampant in this area during this three hundred- to five hundred-year period, as was human sacrifice. As Earl H. Morris describes an excavation in La Plata in 1939:
L. Shapiro noticed a few potsherds and bits of bone…which led him to dig into the earth between the wall and the head of the talus slope…mixed through the burned layer were many bones, principally human, most of them splintered and charred wholly or in part…a large corrugated jar had been buried. It was full of human bones, all of them broken, and some blackened in spots by fire…of the latter, the breast bone and lumbar vertebrae were the largest and broadest I have ever seen. There can be little doubt that…persons were cooked and eaten beneath shelter of the ledge.[xvi]
Morris goes on, describing six skeletons found at another location in La Plata, also in 1939:
They had the dead white appearance characteristic of bones that have been cooked, or freed from the soft parts before being covered with earth. This was not the bleach resulting from sunlight. A minor portion were browned, and some charred from exposure to fire. All facts considered, it would be difficult to regard this mass of human remains as other than the residuum of a cannibalistic rite or orgy.[xvii]
Other locations documented as having proven cannibalism include: Coombs Site; Polacca Wash, where at least twelve children ranging from age 1 to 17 were cannibalized, and it was said that sexual and genital mutilation took place, such as removal of breasts and male genitals; Leroux Wash, where at least fourteen children ages 3 to 17 were cannibalized along with approximately twenty-one adults; Casas Grandes, which was located near a serpent mound and where inside was unearthed a polychrome jar that was painted with a plumed serpent believed by some archaeologists to be a portrayal of Quetzalcoatl; Mancos Canyon; Burnt Mesa, Huerfano Mesa; Largo-Gallina; Monument Valley; Ash Creek; Cottonwood Wash; Marshview Hamlet; Rattlesnake Ruin; and many, many more.
At Aztec Wash, the archaeologist who led the excavation went a step further in his report. He noted not only how much of the skeleton was processed for food, but how much was not processed for food. This detail helps to disarm the idea, if there were any doubt left in our minds, that the motivation for the cannibalism was not due to starvation.
If cannibalism did occur, the large numbers of articulated bones in association with processed bones suggests that starvation was not the main motivation. Starving people would probably try to utilize as much of a body as possible, rather than leave prime parts to scavengers.[xviii]
Or, according to author Douglas Preston:
Starvation cannibalism did not explain the extreme mutilation of the bodies before they were consumed, or the huge charnel deposits, consisting of as many as thirty-five people (that’s almost a ton of edible human meat), or the bones discarded as trash. Furthermore, there was no evidence of starvation cannibalism (or any other kind of cannibalism) among the Anasazi’s immediate neighbors, the Hohokam and the Mogollon, who lived in equally harsh environments and endured the same droughts.[xix]
So, having established that there was indeed cannibalism at Chaco, and having also ruled out starvation or warfare as motive, we are left just the final option as an explanation: possible psychological terrorism, but more importantly and more likely, DNA-altering ritualism. Since those looking to terrorize or intimidate were also bringing with them deities that required such activities, even a mixture of these elements as incentive is believable. There were many other events taking place at Chaco that also back up this argument. We will discuss those later, along with the migration of these human-sacrifice demanding, Nephilim-worshipping demonic gods that infiltrated early America.
COMING UP NEXT: The Dragon, Watchers, and the Occult Connection
[v] Richard E. W. Adams, Prehistoric Mesoamerica, Third Edition (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), 310.
[vi] J.D. Jennings and E. Norbeck, The Greater Southwest, Prehistoric Man in the New World (Chicago, IL: 1964), 183184.
[vii] Ricky R. Lightfoot, The Duckfoot Site, Vol. 1: Descriptive Archaeology (Cortez, CO: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Occasional Paper 3, 1993), 297–302.
[viii] Christy Turner II and Jacqueline Turner, Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1999), 461.
[xi] Walter Hough, “Ancient Peoples of the Petrified Forest of Arizona,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 105 (New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1902), 897–901.
[xii] Christy and Jacqueline Turner, Man Corn, 127.
[xiv] Neil M. Judd, “The Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito,” 1954, Smithsonian Collections, (Publication 4172), Washington D.C., 1954.
[xv] Christy and Jacqueline Turner, Man Corn, 129.
[xvi] Earl H. Morris, “Archaeological Studies in the La Plata District, Southwestern Colorado and Northwestern New Mexico,” Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 519 (Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1939), 75.
[xviii] Michael H. Dice, Disarticulated Human Remains from Reach III of the Towaoc CanalUte Mountain Ute Reservation, Montezuma County, Colorado, Report prepared for Bureau of Reclamation, upper Colorado Region, Salt Lake City, Utah (Cortez, CO: Complete Archaeological Services Associates), 1993.
When we are looking at Chaco Canyon and the element of human sacrifice, we can also look at the Salmon Ruin, on a road linked with Chaco Canyon, where two adults were strongly suspected to have been cannibalized and another thirty—all of whom were children—were killed and burned, theorized to have probably been sacrificed to the Mayan diety Chichén Itzá.
Neighboring Gallina people also lived in cliff dwellings, had defensive towers, and sometimes even had underground tunnels interconnecting with buildings that were built at ground level. More recent excavations have shown that, at times, entire villages of theirs were massacred. Of this, archaeologist Tony Largaespada said, “Almost all of [the Gallina ever found] were murdered,” he said. “[Someone] was just killing them, case after case, every single time.”
According to Aztec myth, during the first age, or Sun, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created a race of giants from ashes, giving them acorns for nourishment. But the giants so enraged the gods due to their wickedness that the gods decided to end the giants’ existence and sent the jaguars to destroy them. Only seven survived the onslaught of the savage beasts. Later, when the gods summoned forth the waters to flood the Earth and destroy the first race of humans, these seven giants, the Xelhua, climbed the mountains to seek refuge from the thrashing waters that were enveloping the planet. Five of the giants survived the torrent, and in the end they built the great tower of Cholula to commemorate their survival of the flood.
This volume [Popol Vuh] alone is sufficient to establish incontestably the philosophical excellence of the red race.
