Coligua
The ancient Serpentine city of Coligua, on the McHue farm in McHue, Arkansas - just outside of the City of Batesville, Arkansas.
Source: J. R. Damon and Google Maps Satellite Imagery 2023
After having lived in Arkansas for many years, I wanted to take this opportunity to include some Mounds local to where I lived. I chose this location instead of the Plum Bayou Mounds just outside of Little Rock Arkansas because, These mounds are an example of being on private property- with little to know preservation being done - if any at all. There may not even have been much excavation as there is little to no information about this place.
What I have observed in my research, is that the size of these mounds are incredible - this specific village would have been more like a city, having been able to sustain a population of 1000’s of people.
Topographical Map of some of the Mounds in Coligua, Arkansas
Source: J. R. Damon + Google Maps Satellite Imagery 2023
I want to preface this with, the breakthrough discovery I made was on the Last, Super Moon of the year and it was the Harvest Full Moon on Friday the 29th in September of 2023.
1st Breakthrough: Coligua’s precise location and alignment with a constellation called Auriga.
2nd Breakthrough: A giant Serpentine shape to the city that was inhabited by the people of Coligua.
The Greater province of Coligua
Source: Google Earth Pro & J. R. Damon
In the beginning of September in 2023, I found a particular mound site during my research for this book that caught my interest because of its proximity to where I currently live, which is in Baxter County, Arkansas.
Only, Two hours away from my location, just outside of the city of Batesville. A place named Coligua or Coligoa is mentioned on the route from conquistador Hernando De Soto. He was on a quest for Silver and Gold - but ended up giving the indigenous illness and disease - which is ultimately how he ended up dying himself.
Hernando De Soto, route taken in his search for Gold & Silver
Source: Arkansas Archeological Survey
I was looking for source material that I could utilize to try and understand more about this specific site and I found only two documents, the first was a book written by Charles Hudson called “Knights of Spain: Warriors of the Sun” and the second is from the Arkansas Archeological Survey:
First Encounters - Hernando de Soto in the Mississippi Valley, 1541-42
There is very little information and it's sparse. It basically outlines his route and what he encountered, but not much else. It is extremely obscure with no other indication that a survey has been done or any information about this ancient city at all. There is no public Archive that lists this place as notable.
The only other mention of Coligua, as of September 29th 2023, is in the Arkansas Encyclopedia - which references back to the Arkansas Archeological Survey data.
It’s worth noting that the mounds are located across about 100 different farms in the county.
This is a problem for archeology as each mound site would need specific permission from the landowners to study them, this is a great time for me to mention that settler families have a moral responsibility to the preservation and cataloging of these sites. So no further destruction may be done to them, no grave robbing, ect..
Without access to these sites the next best thing was to use maps.
After spending much time on researching and mulling over many types of topographic maps and satellite views from above, I needed to shift my focus.
Next I wanted to view the city from the North, looking South towards the Ridge Line, the reason why is that if Native ancestor's migrated North from the Land bridge, 150, 000 years ago ( according to Dr. Paulette Steeves ) then I wanted to see how it would look if you were to move from the North Pole to the South Pole.
This resulted in a great perspective. The town is built in a river valley between two ridgelines. Which would give a sense of safety and security, it would also be safer from extreme weather, warring tribes, megafauna - ect.
The Southern ridge line would also act as a natural barrier and a great place to navigate for the community as just north of the ridge is a river which flowed through the middle of their village - allowing for fresh clean drinking water, cleaning, and fishing at any time.
They were able to produce food in the large open fields and meadows, where they would grow large amounts of corn, sunflowers, squash, berries, nuts, and fruits, Ect.
Their agricultural surplus would have been used in ceremonial practices and for trading with other nations.
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Coligua Map looking South towards the River Valley Ridge Source: Google Maps Pro & J. R. Damon |
Shifting again to a 45 degree angle and from North to South - this allowed a much better point of view - by changing the way I was viewing the city it allowed me to understand it in a whole new way.
After taking screenshots of the mounds and processing them, the next thing I did was label the mounds:
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,
Y, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6, - these mounds here are most likely associated with Burial Mounds based on the way they are shaped - they create a bizarre landscape as seen on the right hand side in the following photo.
And Z which may have acted as a place to dispose of garbage, detritus ect.
By labeling the mounds,
This changed everything. Viewing the letters from above, it created a Constellation on the Earth.
A Serpent emerged from the landscape very clearly.
Greater Coligua and the Serpentine City
Source: Google Earth Pro & J. R. Damon
The most important discovery is the fact that the main city center plaza is in alignment with the constellation of Auriga in the night sky.
Coligua and the Constellation Auriga
Source: J. R. Damon
I am happy to have made this discovery and I hope my contribution towards indigenous archeoastronomy will be beneficial to future people.
The mounds on the McHue Family farm are part of a much larger landscape of mounds within the county that create the shape of a serpent.
The head of the serpent aligns with the constellation Auriga. Which is visible on this latitude and has been referenced in many other indigenous cultures throughout the world. There are petroglyphs of this star system all over Gaia.
There are other Serpent mound sites that have the head pointing towards the Solstice so this is a reminder that Serpentine related architecture is common among the Mississippian mound builders. However the scale of this city is immense and spans many miles.
Coligua Serpentine city plaza - Winter Solstice 7:53am
Source: Google Earth Pro & J. R. Damon
One of the remarkable discoveries about this amazing city is that the head of the Serpent is pointing towards the Winter Solstice.
This lighter shade you see on the right side of the mound structures is the light from the sun which touches the head of the Serpent.
Specifically Mounds D, G, and H are illuminated first.
Since these are located on private property and are inaccessible I thought the next best thing was to use an advanced technology like Virtual Reality. I wanted to explore it further and this allowed me to do so. I was able to move the Sun and see how it would look during the Solstice and Sunrise/Sunset as if I was standing on the mounds myself.
Looking East toward Sunrise, on Mound E looking towards Mounds D, G, & H
Source: Google Earth Pro & J. R. Damon
Although the specific details about the Coligua Indigenous people may not be well-documented and more work and research needs to be done to learn about these amazing people.
What we can understand from these mound sites and where they lived is that they were deeply spiritual people. They were able to build a giant serpentine city that was scaled across miles, and have it positioned to the Solstices while also being in alignment with a constellation in the night sky.
For More information on Decolonization please check out the work by Dr. Paulette Steeves
https://crowcanyon.org/people/steeves-paulette/
a word that is something academics and scholars should embrace
"Pyro-epistemology is a term I coined which metaphorically describes critical Indigenous scholarship. A practice of Pyro-epistemology is a ceremony in which cleanses the academic landscape of discussions that misinform worldviews and fuel racism." - Dr. Paulette Steeves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ieLFxg0zk
For More information on Arkansas Archeology you can check out the Arkansas Archeological Survey
https://archeology.uark.edu/
