Giant chambers found under North Arizona

Another excellent archaeological find... I would love to go check this one out... would even consider leavning my job maybe...

New Orleans (AP) -- Three young archaelogists came to Northern Arizona and crept through sacred rooms, over rocky precipes and by dangerous rattlesnakes to discover a huge complex of catagombs that could rewrite theories about the Indians of the southwestern United States.

"It's absolutely mind-numbing. We would have never believed it could have existed," John W. Hohman, one of the three archaeologists, said Friday during the meeting of the 2,000 member Society of American Archaeology. "It will change a lot of what we believed about Indians in the Southwest. They may have been far more advanced than we believed."

Hohman admitted to feeling a bit like Indiana Jones, the archaeologists-adventurer from the movies. Armed with a flashlight and a pistol, it was Hohman who rapelled down the steep fissures, frequently dotted with rattlesnakes sunning themselves on rocky outcrops, into the catacombs.

The catacombs his expedition found are the first reported in the United States, officials at the conference said. "It's very exciting to have it announced at this conference. It's one of the few times we can say this is a first. Anytime you have a first in our business, it's exciting," said Dr.James Schoenwetter, professor of anthropology at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. "The idea of a very elaborate form of ceremonial chamber being built underground hundreds of years ago is surprising."

www.stevequayle.com...

Maybe it's where the cliff dwellers disappeared to after they escaped from the "enemy"! Dum dum dum.....

Dragonrider if you come to arizona to check it out i will go with you. I live in arizona.

It's probably just a relic left behind by those who built stonehenge or the Pyramids, maybe it's even dare I say it? The Reptoids?!?!?!

The story is dated 12 1/2 years ago...... What happened? Was the whole thing (no pun intended) buried?

What school were these students from? The article just said that a Prof at U of A thought the finds were interesting.

In general, when an article claims some spectacular thing, but doesn't mention either the names of the discoverers or where they operate from (or the exact location in which they found their discovery), I tend to sense a hoax.

Definitely the works of the Reptoids, they live underground, get discovered, eat the students and then eat anyone that finds out about it.

No seriously, it's a possibility, think about it!!

Further proof of large underground natural cavern system that is linked to tunnels and other underground bases.

Soon the truth will be out.

Strange I have been since before 1991 and never heard anything about this.

Lost Dutchman Mine?~~

Naw, i suspect a 'marketing gimmick'...as it noted a 'developing community' near the 'find'.....

let the buyer, beware!!

The lost dutchmen is said to be in the Superstition Mnts. which is not located in northern Arizona.

If you go, you'll have to stop at the museum there as well. Take hiking shoes (it's a climb to the place) and be prepared for a 2 hour trek to get in there.

And don't step on any archaeologists. Seriously.

This was an important find back in 1991, and there's been a lot of digs out there (no, no reptoids. Just the largest trading center in the Southwest.)

Here's more info on it:
www.arizonahandbook.com...

Dragonrider want to come and we can go explore??

There must be literally millions of unexplored caves in this earth.

I can imagine that some of them are massive and there well may be connections between number of them.

I am no caver so I don't know the current situation but have also heard that the military is interested in locating caves also for various reasons.

I have a friend who lives on an indian reservation in norther arizona, so I am going to ask her about this.

yes i believe there is a whole undergroun network of tunnels and caves that link our world

It is very easy relatively speaking, to find a series of unkown caves. When I lived in Austin, (back when I did go spelunking) there were well over 300+ known, named and mapped karstic caves, ranging in size from caverns to something smaller than sewer pipes. It was estimated that there were at least double that number unexplored in the same area.

i find this very interesting. I wonder what took people so long to publish it. didnt you say it was dated 12 years ago.