Explores Uncover 1st European Stone Building in the Americas
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Panama City, Panama — A team of young explorers from operation Raleigh” probing dense jungle in Panama has discovered what is believed to be the earliest European stone building yet found anywhere in the Americas.
The discovery was made by eight venturers, aged 17 to 24 , at the site of the “Lost City of Acla,” the second major Spanish settlement to be founded on the mainland of America. It was built in 1515.
The team recently cut a three-meter trench through a low artificial mound on what appears to be the western end of the city. This revealed several courses of a circular structure made up of shaped coral blocks and man-made bricks thought to be the base of a 16th Century tower.
David Higgens, British archeologist on thee site said the stone wall “represents surprisingly sophisticated architecture for this period and the quality of other finds shows that this was far from being a primitive settlement.”
The first major Spanish settlement in the Americas was Santa Marie la Antiqua de Darien, which was founded in 1509, in what is now Colombia.
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