Scientists have found an amazing number of intact Guadeloupe burials of the long-gone Taino people, shedding new light on this culture before Columbus arrived.
The beads were found at three sites in the Brooks Range with is the northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains in northern Alaska: located entirely within the Arctic Circle . The new study by Michael Kunz of the University of Alaska Museum of the North , and Robin Mills of the Bureau of Land Management , was published in the journal
American Antiquity . The researchers assert that the rare glass Italian objects are among “the oldest European-made items ever discovered in North America .”
These pre-Columbian artifacts found in Alaska are the oldest European-made items ever discovered in North America. (M. L. Kunz et al. /
Classic Serpentine Mask, (env. 450-650 AP. J.-C.). Courtesy of Christie s Images, Ltd.
A sale of pre-Columbian art at Christie’s Paris yesterday yielded a robust €2.5 million ($3 million), the auction house’s highest total yet for the category. Of the 39 lots on offer, only three failed to sell.
The figures achieved at the sale, titled “Quetzlcoatl: The Plumed Serpent,” are even more remarkable given recent authenticity concerns raised by a Mexican heritage organization, which also claims repatriation rights to many of the items.
The National Institute for Anthropology and History in Mexico came forward recently with a request for Christie’s to withdraw at least 30 pre-Hispanic works from the sale. It argued that most of the works are part of Mexico’s cultural patrimony, and that three other items in the sale are fakes (based on indications that they were recently fabricated). The institute filed a complaint last month about the auction with the attorney general’