Chontal Mayas from Campeche probably arrived in Georgia and South Carolina in the 550s AD!

They were following the path of a massive comet that passed over Central America in 536 AD then crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of Florida, creating Cape Canaveral then sending a wall of water from 125-500+ feet (38-153+ m) tall over southeast Georgia. The tsunami debris ridge is still 85 feet (26 m) tall near Darien, GA!

Their arrival was announced in Georgia and South Carolina by the sudden appearance of oval shaped houses, Mesoamerican style earthen “platform” pyramids and stamped pottery with “angular” geometric patterns.

My discoveries in 2025 and 2026 of the immense impact of Chontal Maya immigrants on the Southeast were made possible by the publication in Mexico of a Chontal Maya dictionary and my new AI computer being able to read and translate all relevant published archaeological reports in Mexico within a few seconds!

The Sea Peoples of the South Atlantic Coast series

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

The 536 AD Tsunami about to sweep over Sapelo and St. Simons Island, Georgia

Solving a puzzle from the past

Since the 1960s, archaeologists have been aware that Swift Creek villages in Southeast Georgia were suddenly abandoned in the mid-500s AD Elsewhere in the Southeast, the Swift Creek culture went into decline. They moved to the Northeast Georgia Mountains and later into the Hiwassee River Valley of western North Carolina, where some villages survived until around 1000 AD.

When a large meteor, asteroid or comet strikes the ocean, intense heat and mechanical energy, plus several gases are released into the atmosphere.  These gases are trapped in the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. Volcanic eruptions also leave several chemical traces in the ice caps . . . but they are different, primarily sulfates.  There were enormous ammonia spikes in 539 AD and 1014 AD trapped in the ice packs of Greenland, northern Canada, the Andes Mountains and Antarctica.  Volcanoes do not emit ammonia.

In 2009, Dr. Dallas Abbot of Columbia University found nodules associated with a major asteroid or comet strike at the “500s AD level” of the Greenland Ice Shelf.  She insisted that either a comet or asteroid played a role in the climatic catastrophe of the Sixth century, since volcanoes do not emit ammonia.  

Abbot also found nodules in the Caribbean Basin.  The concentration increased the closer one came to the Florida Coast. She eventually zeroed in on an impact location just off the coast of Cape Canaveral.

Very soon thereafter,  archaeologists in Mexico, plus professors at the University of Texas-Austin and  Tulane University accepted Abbott’s discovery as a major factor in the temporary collapse of the Maya Civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula between c. 536 AD and 600 AD.  There were also major volcanic eruptions in Mexico and Central America at that time. 

In 2010, a Greek archaeologist, Dr. Amand Laoupi, reinforced Abbot’s theories by revealing a second ammonia spike in the Arctic ice shelf in 536 AD.  The spike was clearly unrelated to Icelandic volcanic activity.  A comet or possibly an asteroid struck the Atlantic Ocean near Florida, which extinguished all life for hundreds of miles away.

The published academic papers of Dallas Abbott and her research associates from around the world, never mention the mass-disappearance of Native American towns in Southeast Georgia.  Even though the greatest destruction from the comet impact would have been in northeast Florida and much of eastern Georgia, academicians in those states apparently either did not know about her discovery and else, didn’t “get the connection.”

Finally reading the little black book

Long-time subscribers may recall that in 2020, I read the daily journal that I kept in Mexico during the fellowship . . . for the first time! Two entries really caught my eye. My guide in Campeche, Ana Rojas, told me that the “real” Mayas never lived near the ocean. The region within about 25 miles of the Gulf Coast was occupied by sea peoples, who had apparently migrated from South America to Mexico. Over time, their original language borrowed some Maya words, but their cultural traditions stayed distinct and much of their living often came from transporting goods around Mesoamerica, not farming.

Then was the archaeologist at Edzna. That’s the Hispanic name of the town. Its real name was Itzanoa, which is also the real name of the large town in Kansas. Etzanoa. It astound me that North American archaeologists still refuse to admit that large numbers of Itza, Chontal and Tamali Mayas immigrated into North America.

At the very time that Ana and I were visiting Edza, the INAH had discovered that about 50% of the population of Campeche had disappeared around 550 AD. There was no sign of mass deaths or a war. Mexican archaeologists knew that they had not immigrated into other parts of Mesoamerica. They didn’t know where they went.

There was no mass migration out of Campeche during the period from 800 AD and 1000 AD when the Lowland Maya city-states collapsed. In fact, most of the Campeche Maya cities and villages remained occupied until a catastrophic smallpox epidemic struck that region in the early 1500s.

Important maritime skills of the Chontal Mayas

The Chontal Mayas were the only Pre-Columbian peoples, who built sea-going vessels from wooden planks. They also were probably the only peoples, who constructed large sea-going sail craft. In fact, their sailboats were very similar in design and construction to Scandinavian Longboats. Their sailboats and larger freight canoes were quite capable of crossing the Gulf of Mexico or reaching any island in the Caribbean Sea. I have found several Archaic Swedish words in the Chontal vocabulary/ The most significant of these loan words was “mekko,” who was the king of a town or small province. The word has the same meaning in Muskogee-Creek.

Eastwood Village Site in the Nacoochee Valley of Georgia – c. 600 AD – 1000 AD

Instant information from an AI computer

I have trained my new AI computer to look first for archaeological reports, references and books published online in Mexico when asked about a tribe or archaeological site in Mexico. It often provides very different information than what Gringo archaeologists have posted in the USA version of Wikipedia.

The computer was asked two questions: (1) What style houses did the Chontal Mayas build in Pre-Columbian times.?(2) What style temples did the Chontal Mayas build?

(1) Most Chontal Mayas lived in oval houses. Some houses of their leaders and temples had parallel front and rear sides with round ends.

(2) The Chontal Mayas only constructed earthen pyramids, Most were approximately square, low platforms for their modest temples. (In other words . . . identical to the Eastwood Village Site.

You go figure . . .

Dr. Robert Wauchope from Columbia, SC first became nationally known as a result of his dissertation on Maya houses for Harvard University, He spent considerable time in southern Mexico, dong the research for this subject, The book published from his dissertation is outstanding. In contains professional quality architectural drawings. I carried his book in my backpack when I was on the fellowship in Mexico.

The Eastwood Village on the Chattahoochee River in the Nacoochee Valley of Georgia was the first entire community site that Wauchope excavated after graduating from Harvard and publishing his book. He did not begin writing his book on his 1939 archaeological work in North Georgia until the early 1960s. By that time he had been working on Maya archaeological sites in Mexico and Guatemala for over 15 years.

Wauchope noted in An Archaeological Survey of Northern Georgia that the Eastwood Site’s architecture and site plan were starkly different than anything in the Southeast before it. Yet, it never dawned on hip that this village could have been occupied by Maya immigrations.

Now you know!