Over the course of this semester we’ve discussed a large variety of topics in the realm of Pseduoarchaeology from Atlantis, to Aliens, to Giants. Of all these topics the one that interested me the most was that of Pre-Colombian contacts, insomuch as how fascinating history would have turned out had they been…real…but they were not. The cultural impact and exchange of such events, would be quite interesting to explore. When we approached and discussed this subject, as well as that of lost continents, it reminded me of another topic in Pseudohistory/archaeology, one that we did not discuss, perhaps because it didn’t solely sit within the realm of Pseudoarchaeology, but also bordered on outright myth and legend. This topic was that of the many Lost Cities of The New World.

Most famously associated with the legend of El Dorado culture, legends and ideas of Lost Cities (often with immense wealth and treasure hidden away) have permeated modern cultural associations with archaeology. Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, and that Dreamworks animation of the same name each have portrayed settings of Ancient Native American cities hidden in the jungle, filled with gold and treasure. These ideas find their roots in the age of exploration, despoliation, and colonization that followed the Columbian contact with the New World in the end of the 15th century. As European explorers continued to expand their maps and conquests in North and South America, dozens of notions of cities hidden from them abounded and spread, leading to numerous expeditions to find them. The City of the Caesars, for example, was said to be a city of an advanced people who lived in luxury with silver, diamonds, and everywhere about them. This city was purported to have been located in Patagonia. Though never found, rumors of it circulated for two-hundred years(1).

Now we ask, what does this have to do with the themes we covered in class? Much like notions of lost cities and ancient advanced peoples, the lost cities were sought out for similar reasons to what pseudoarchaeologists do today and did in yesteryear, albeit in majorly different proportions. Whereas most modern pseudotheorists are at least attempting to expand knowledge, if only to confirm their own biases and ideas, the explorers in search for the lost cities had very little scholastic intent. Gold, God and Glory were the major driving forces behind the searches for these cities. Yet, through these lenses we can see the precursors to modern Pseudoarchaeology. Much like Atlantis and The Moundbuilders, these cities were said to be owned by peoples (while still native) far more advanced than the actual people the explorers had encountered before. Instead of recognizing the local societies they were enslaving and decimating, the explorers could only imagine advanced societies just beyond the horizon, wealthy and powerful like the ones they knew at home. From 1540-1549, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led an expedition to find the Seven Cities of Gold, Cibola, that were supposed to have laid across the American West. He returned home disappointed, only finding even more societies he deemed savage and backward(2).

With no lost cities to be found, justification for conquest and disregard became easier for European powers, as did justifying pseudoarchaeological ideas regarding the continent they’d subjugated. “If they can’t build magnificent and wealthy metropolises for us to conquer, perhaps they could do nothing else. Perhaps someone else did.”

(1) Rodriguez S, 2004, Southern Chronicles: from the colonisation to the foundation of Ushuaia, Rubí Ediciones, Ushuaia, p. 50

(2) Drye W (2010) The Seven Cities of Cibola. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/archaeology/seven-cities-of-cibola/. Accessed 11 Dec 2019