Off to the Usumacinta River soon!
Will I find Atlantis’ Lost Hall of Records at Piedras Negras?
Will this trip be the subject of another of my books?
In late March I’ll join the Archaeological Conservancy for a ten-day trip to the states of Chiapas and Tabasco,
Mexico. The itinerary includes Yaxchilan, a Mayan ruin on the river bordering Guatemala and Mexico. Although its not on the schedule I’m hoping to hire a boat and go to the remote site called Piedras Negras, 20-25 miles downriver from Yaxchilan.
This ancient Mayan city is long abandoned and I’m told there has been no archaeological work there for many years. I hear it’s rapidly becoming a “lost city,” steadily being reclaimed by the jungle. It was once an important site before being overthrown and abandoned in the early 800s. At one point Piedras Negras had an estimated population of 50,000, making it the largest Mayan site west of Tikal, Guatemala.
There’s a strange, mysterious story about Piedras Negras. Edgar Cayce, the noted psychic who died in 1945, left thousands of pages of “readings” captured while he was in hypnotic trances. Many of these readings deal with Atlantis – in one, Cayce said that there were three Atlantean “Lost Halls of Records” where the knowledge of the ages was deposited before the island
nation was destroyed in an instant. These record depositories were located in far-flung places around the globe.
Piedras Negras, Guatemala was named by Cayce as one of the three sites. The Lost Hall of Records, according to his hypnotic revelation, was created by men from Atlantis in 10,000 BC. Obviously that was WAY before the Maya came along. Cayce’s organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), sponsored a trip to explore Piedras Negras. Greg and Lora Little stated that they found evidence of an extensive cave system known to locals and archaeologists. They further said the people who’ve excavated there believe Piedras Negras conceals something exciting and important.
For more information on this interesting and intriguing sidebar to the Piedras Negras story, see Dr. Greg Little’s “Preliminary Initial Report on the 2004 ARE Piedras Negras’ Expedition” (http://www.edgarcayce.org/_AncientMysteriesTemp/piedrasnegras200.html) and John Van Auken’s book “The Lost Hall of Records: Edgar Cayce’s Forgotten Record of Human History in the Ancient Yucatan” (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Hall-Records-Forgotten-History/dp/0940829339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425159211&sr=8-1&keywords=lost+hall+of+records)
Now back to the real world and my upcoming trip! We’ll see a number of well-known Mayan sites including one of my favorites, Palenque, which was the setting and subject of my book The Strangest Thing. I promise lots of pictures will be posted!
Speaking of the group I’m traveling with, if you haven’t heard of the Conservancy you should look them up www.archaeologicalconservancy.org. This group and their work to save significant sites are worthy of your tax-deductible contributions. They also sponsor great trips to very interesting places. Dr. John Henderson, an educator from Cornell with a fascinating knowledge of archaeology and anthropology, will lead the group’s tour this time. I’ve been on a trip with John before – his knowledge of the Maya is unsurpassed in my opinion. You can’t beat the insight he gives to the sites we’ll visit. I think I’ll keep Piedras Negras for myself – I doubt John Henderson wants to spend time searching for the Lost Hall of Records of the Atlanteans!