Exercise 7 - Dr.Card PDF

Preview

Summary

Dr.Card...

Description

The lost city of El Dorado is the topic that will be discussed in this short essay. So what is El Dorado? Taken from National Geographic, “ In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans believed that somewhere in the New World there was a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Their searches for this treasure wasted countless lives, drove at least one man to suicide, and put another man under the executioner's ax” (Drye). Simply, it is a city that contained many riches and where gold offerings were their way of life. Research and expedition have been held for centuries, however, there has never been concrete evidence that proves El Dorado is real. However, there are some suggestions or evidence that may link El Dorado to them. For instance, in an article by BBC it mentions, “ Incredibly, a gold raft depicting a scene exactly like that described by Juan Rodriguez Freyle was found in 1969 by three villagers in a small cave in the hills just to the south of Bogota. This scene of a man covered in gold going out into a sacred lake, such as Lake Guatavita, is the real story of El Dorado” (Dr. Jago Cooper). Here the evidence was an image that depicts the city of El Dorado, which some have said that it suggests that it might have been real at some point. However, a depiction of a city similar to El Dorado isn’t enough evidence to prove that it once was a real place. Similarly, “The cumulative results, then, of these expeditions have been hugely disappointing. Some gold has been found, as to have stone beads and pottery, but nothing, so far, to match the fabulous riches described in the legend of El Dorado” (Cartwright). Again, we have suggestions or a theory that gold and/or pottery might or might not have a link to El Dorado. As one can see now that this is a myth that has been hard to prove due to the lack of reliable evidence. However, even though it is a myth that has had little to no evidence it is one that many people are still intrigued about. Lastly, the evidence that holds the strongest argument is the ruins of a city that had been found in Bolivia. More specifically, “in the very area where Fawcett believed he would find the City of Z, Heckenberger and his team of researchers had discovered more than twenty pre-Columbian settlements. These settlements, which were occupied roughly between 800 and 1600 A.D., included houses and moats and palisade walls” (Grann). Here we have evidence of a city that could have been around the time or after the existence of El Dorado. This ultimately is a strong foundation to form an argument because if a city like this was found, then maybe there are others like this or one that could be El Dorado. Ultimately, all the evidence provided above isn’t reliable or one’s archeologist would find valuable since all of them have no direct link to El Dorado. If anything, these are a way to show that a lot of South America needs to be explored, but El Dorado might be something that is just fiction.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/archaeology/el-dorado/#close https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20964114 https://www.ancient.eu/El_Dorado/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/under-the-jungle...