We are continuing to pursue the first people in our area from pre-historic time. The history is just now being written. From where did they come? When?

What do we know of the Original Americans? They came from someplace, not local.

How do you learn of new things besides taking formal classes? How do we keep coming up with ideas for articles that are across such a broad range of fields? There are many ways to say it, but you do research.

The predominant direction comes from my co-author. She asks a lot of what-if questions and absolutely loves day-trips to look at things.

What things? It does not matter. My co-author is a puzzle solver. She loves jigsaw puzzles which are extremely complex in patterns, colors, and shapes. Sudoku mathematical puzzles were invented for her talents. She is an artist and she insists she is not a mathematician or scientific analyst.

I am a research scientist and historical philosopher by education, training, and experience. How different is that? Her recurring question is “How do you do all that research? That is so frustrating to me to look through all those old artifacts.” I literally cannot stand to do a jigsaw puzzle, I do not like board games, and Sudoku irritates me, a scientist, and mathematician.

But once we get past the process, we are both puzzle solvers, just using different tools. Our interests align in history, heritage, and culture. We are fascinated by “how did they do that?” We like the same architecture, bright and light not dark and depressing.

We thrive on nature and how folks managed it to get where society is. I am intrigued by natural law (laws of physics) that we see in nature, she is intrigued by the patterns. Again, different tools, but similar results. We are both frustrated with traffic, congestion, and constraints, which is associated with our intrigue of ancient explorers, when they were literally the only people within a thousand miles.

Maybe that explains our living on a ranch, but we still like the utility of air-conditioning, the practicality of a light switch, and the availability but not addiction to electronic communications.

So, when she suggests this week, we need to re-establish where we are, it is prudent to listen. We have now done 100 columns with 20 articles on Original Americans, where they came from, and how they did it.

We found that actual, factual, scientifically verified history is not what is taught in school. In the process, we also found that actual, factual, documented conditions of nature, climate, and environment are not what is taught in school. Why? Tradition wins over different concepts. It seems the ancient adage, “Follow the money,” has held throughout the time of human government.

As scientists and puzzle solvers we report observations, conditions, and reasons from laws of nature. We provide the ferreted information to others with different skill sets to use the information.

This revelation was not even on our radar. We were chasing our ancient family in this area.

What discovery kicked-off the research?

Watson Brake is the oldest known earthwork ziggurat (mound) complex in North America. Located in the river deltas and swamps of Louisiana, there are simply no stones to make other type structures. Surviving from 3500 BCE, it appears that even dirt can be a permanent architecture. To clarify, “ziggurat” is a word derived from ancient Akkadian of that early time-frame meaning “to build on a raised area.”

The location predates the Egyptian pyramids, British Stonehenge, Aztecs, Mayans, Easter Island, and other traditional ancient historical monuments. Consequently, the ziggurats of Watson Brake are among the oldest evidence of civilization in the world.

Dating to the time of the Sumerians and the ziggurats at Ba’bel, and on the same precise latitude, these literally appear connected with the cradle of civilization. Historical accounts from Sumerian and the eastern Mediterranean, language, mathematics, astronomy, navigation, artifacts, rocks, bowls, maps, and narcotics make a strong link.

This is not a one-off installation. In the US state of Louisiana alone, over 800 mound structures are identifiable and documented along the abundant rivers and bayous, not far from the open sea of the Gulf. It appears the identified sites are near a substantial waterway often associated with the Ouachita River drainage.

That river system extends inland to this region near Mena, Arkansas. In our archaeological survey of the area, we observed several more sites.

Although we have not surveyed all, the ziggurat / mound sites by and large are accessible with Columbus size sea-going vessels, like replicas we have seen on the Arkansas River.

Contrast that with the home of the Spiro Mounds downriver from us along the Arkansas River. Spiro was the capitol of the mounds culture five-thousand years later in its heyday up to 1400 CE. However, few other notable mound societies are around the state.

Why? Absence of year-around navigable waterways appears to be the major reason. The fact they were an established riverine culture points to why there were artifacts between Spiro and Aztecs.

Think about the history of the Original Americans at Watson Brake and the Ouachita mounds from a world perspective. The pervasive question is where did they come from to set up a sophisticated, mathematical, intellectual culture?

Clearly, they did not progress from ignorant cave-dwellers. There are no caves in the bayous and swamps.