Date: Mondays, October 3 & 10, 2022
Time: 2 - 4 PM
Place: ISU, CHESTNUT BUILDING ROOM 107 (CHANGED FROM PRINTED PROGRAM GUIDE)
Cost: $10

Archaeology as it has been routinely practiced until recently has been a destructive process. Once a site or ruin is thoroughly excavated and studied, it can never be recreated in its original form. New technology utilizing signals from above ground allows archaeologists to study undisturbed sites using ground penetration radar, Lidar infra red and radar, and even satellite imagery. These new technologies penetrate soil and rainforest canopies to help archaeologists unlock previously unknown mysteries of the past.

The two-part class will examine an exciting and dangerous expedition to a remote region of Honduras to uncover what had long been described as “Ciudad Blanca”, the ancient “White City”. OLLI participants will read Douglas Preston’s 2017 book THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD. They will hear in-depth discussions by the famous National Geographic and New Yorker Magazine author and the expedition director and filmmaker Steve Elkins, who take them on an exciting and mysterious vicarious journey where they encounter wild rainforest jaguars, deadly fer-de-lance snakes, dangerous drug cartel members, and a myriad of wild creatures and natural enemies of human well-being. The adventure will culminate in life-threatening illness to all of the expedition members that will remind participants of “the curse of the mummy” that has been linked to such explorers as Howard Carter, discoverer of King Tut’s tomb, and others.