A team of explorers — including archaeologists and a documentary filmmaker — have just returned from an expedition in person, after using a new technology to search for evidence of ruins by plane.
They believe they have discovered an important ancient city, though the archeologists, including Chris Fisher from Colorado State University, do not think it is the White City of legend (despite some news coverage suggesting otherwise).
"The White City myth is fascinating, but it is just that — it's a myth," he said. "I don't think Ciudad Blanca actually exists."
He does, however, believe that what they found was something special.
He joined Morning Edition's Renee Montagne to discuss what he saw deep in the Mosquitia jungle.
On what they found:
We found some pretty fantastic artifacts, I think. There was a cache that consisted of 52 objects. So, a group of objects that had been left in place — probably as an offering, although that needs to be determined. They were ground-stone objects.
In Mesoamerica — the adjacent region — and in Latin America in general, one way that you showed your "elite-ness" was by not touching the ground. And so elites would sit on these kind of small thrones or seats. And some of the objects are those kinds of seats. And some of them have figures on them — anthropomorphic figures. One of those is the were-jaguar figure that's shown in National Geographic. There are also giant stone bowls that have carvings ... in relief on the sides. And those were placed in an area that it seems like has not been touched since they were originally left there several centuries ago.""
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