FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

intact, the others having been looted at some point.The actual digging and recovery work lasted fouryears.This article was a confirmation that the El Conde relicsI had seen were genuine, as El Conde is a locality of SanPedro Lagunillas. However, what I found interesting is thatsimilar tombs had been found in South America, which ledto the hypothesis that there were cultural links between theinhabitants of Nayarit and those regions. This could very wellexplain why the ancient petroglyph symbols I had seen inAlta Vista were similar to the carving of a stone shown to mein Guadalajara, which originated from Machu Pichu, Peru.The western boundary of Nayarit is the Pacific Ocean andseafaring trade could very well have occurred. The peopleof ancient West Mexico, whose culture was markedly differentfrom the Aztec and Mayan civilizations, remain largelya mystery. Unfortunately, there are no hieroglyphic text oreven oral traditions available to archeologists to aid in thereconstruction of the histories or beliefs of those peoples.Much is left to speculation; what is known is principally derivedfrom the study of artifacts recovered from shaft tombs,which is why the inhabitants of the State of Nayarit are oftenreferred to as the “Shaft Tomb Culture.”Chapter 17False Idols RevealedStatue from Shaft Tomb, San Pedro Lagunillas area, Nayarit, Mexico.76