Honduras leader proclaims archaeology bonanza but 'lost city' doubts linger
Honduras leader proclaims archaeology bonanza but 'lost city' doubts linger
President Juan Orlando Hernández flew in to endorse claims of a legendary ‘city of the Monkey God’ but scientists are sceptical and indigenous group furious
Alan Yuhas
@alanyuhas
Sunday 17 January 2016 06.00 EST
A new expedition to ruins in the Honduran jungle has prompted skepticism from archaeologists and fury from the country’s indigenous people, who say President Juan Orlando Hernández’s embrace of a legendary lost city of the Monkey God is “offensive, discriminatory and racist”.
Last week, Hernández swept down by helicopter to the site, which was first visited by archaeologists with a National Geographic team last year. Hernández showed off artifacts discovered at the site and told reporters that Honduras was obliged to protect its “national patrimony” – for tourism as much as history.
“Our country will offer at low prices and terms the archaeology of the Maya and the White City, the cultural life of the Garífuna, Lenca, Miskito and all the other native people. And also sun, sand and beaches,” he said.
Chris Fisher, of Colorado State University and an archaeologist with the National Geographic, told the Guardian the site is “now called the City of the Jaguar and they are referring to the region as the Ciudad Blanca (White City) preserve”. Fisher also warned of “much misinformation” in the press; early Honduran and international reports have used the names interchangeably.
The legend of the White City largely derives from Theodore Morde, an eccentric American who in 1940 told the New York Times that he had found an incredible “city of the monkey god”.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/17/honduras-lost-city-president-hernandez-doubts-archaeology
