More than 50 polished pyrite mirrors were found in prehistoric graves at the Snaketown site, a Hohokam site, in Arizona. Most were found burned and buried with cremated remains. Pyrite mirrors like these were most likely made in Central Mexico and traded north to the U.S. between AD 650 and AD 950. Keep in mind that in many prehistoric cultures your reflection was your soul. So a mirror like this was magical and a high status object.
Tag Archives: Kathleen O’Neal Gear
Pyrite mirrors found in Arizona reveal ties to ancient Mexico.
- Saturday, 11 April 2015 06:27
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Rare petroglyphs revealed by monster surf in Hawaii: http://westerndigs.org/monster-surf-exposes-rare-petroglyphs-in-hawaii/
- Friday, 10 April 2015 06:24
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Last year monster waves, over 22 feet high, battered Hawaii and exposed rare petroglyphs… Very cool.
http://westerndigs.org/monster-surf-exposes-rare-petroglyphs-in-hawaii/
Fort Ancient culture and agriculture… http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/spring-2015/article/native-american-mound-builder-society-experienced-rapid-agricultural-development
- Wednesday, 08 April 2015 10:24
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Fort Ancient culture was a mound building culture and heavily reliant on maize agriculture, but were they “Mississippian” (People of the Morning Star) or a separate mound building culture descended from Hopewell (People of the Lakes)? We think they came directly out of Hopewell, but interacted with Mississippian peoples. What do you think?
Purgatorius! World’s earliest primate: http://westerndigs.org/bones-discovered-in-montana-are-of-the-worlds-earliest-primate-study-finds/
- Tuesday, 07 April 2015 06:12
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Such tiny bones for such an amazing discovery!
Our oldest #evolutionary ancestor was no bigger than a shrew and built for climbing through trees. The bones of this tiny creature were found in Montana at a place called Purgatory Hill, therefore this early primate is named Purgatorius, and dates to 65 million years ago.
Read more at: 
http://westerndigs.org/bones-discovered-in-montana-are-of-the-worlds-earliest-primate-study-finds/
What is “Hispanic?” How is it defined? Ethnic or cultural? http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/04/06/jeb-identified-himself-as-hispanic.html?via=newsletter&source=politics
- Monday, 06 April 2015 10:42
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From an anthropological point of view, these kinds of discussions are always interesting. Here’s the question we ask: How is “Hispanic” defined? Is it based upon the number of distinctly Hispanic genes in a person’s genome? Is it based on culture? If you were raised in Spain, Mexico, or South America and are fluent in the language are you Hispanic? A significant amount of Texas culture is Hispanic. That’s just a fact. Around the year 1836 most Americans and many Mexicans in Texas labeled themselves as Texicans. So…in today’s world, what is Hispanic?
What do you think?