They did not discover an empty wilderness.

They arrived in someone else’s homeland.

That is why the discovery at Capachequi is so powerful.

A tiny piece of a sword has helped reveal a much larger story.

It tells us where an army went.

But it also tells us who was already there.

It reminds us that beneath modern Georgia are layers of history that cannot be seen from the surface.

And perhaps most importantly, it shows how much of Indigenous history can survive even when written records are incomplete.