Shout-out again to Charles C. Mann's excellent book 1491. One of my most eye-opening reads after 2000, in terms of information that I didn't possess yet, exceedingly well presented.
I went to a book talk of his (I believe part of the release for the follow-up 1493) and liked that he was humble and not afraid to acknowledge lack of data or the possibility of being wrong. Nice change from the classic “my theory explains everything” pitfall.
One unfortunate reality is that looters will get to these places long before archeologists. I think they try to keep things secret, but there are limits to what you can do.
I think this is where a few humble billionaires can make a real difference, in case they're reading this :)
Man, there's so much left to discover! South America, Turkiye, who knows, but so much.
One fascinating site not getting much attention is Zernaki Tepe, near the Van region. Some of it, if I've not confused it with something nearby, is buried under 40ft of sediment and its accessible parts exhibit some of the finest masonry work yet seen, with interlocking blocks, etc.
Estimated at 14k years, and probably older than Gobekli Tepe
Zernaki Tepe is obviously not from 14k BP. It's a grid plan urban center with aramaic inscriptions and thrown potsherds that use slip. I also can't find any papers actually arguing that it might be anywhere near that old, only some vastly more reasonable iron age dates.
the change in modern public record of the Maya during the lifetime of Arlen and Diane Chase is hard to overemphasize. "Blood of Kings" (book) is a search term.
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