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Ägypten
zuletzt geändert am 23.09.2000
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 00:02:45 +0100
THE LOST CITY AT GIZA In the very shadow of the great pyramids of Giza,
American archaeologist Mark Lehner is uncovering what may have been part of a
lost city - the apparent home of the thousands who built and maintained the
world's largest monuments some 4,500 years ago. Egypt during these early years
has been described as a "civilization without cities" because urban
settlements like the walled cities that appeared about the same time elsewhere
in the Near East seemed to be missing from the valley of the Nile. Lehner's 12
years of excavations at Giza, which came to fruition this past year, are
charting a remarkable production center of this "proto-city" - long
galleries that open onto what seems to be Egypt's oldest paved street. With
support from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation and the David H. Koch
Foundation and the sponsorship of the Harvard Semitic Museum and the University
of Chicago's Oriental Institute, Lehner and his team are mapping three, and
possibly four, sets of these huge corridors or galleries. The complex likely
stretched over 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) along its north-south axis. Initial
evidence suggests they probably included residences, as well as bakeries,
food-processing facilities, copper-working centers and other workshops. The
work continues. The team has found evidence of what may be "workers'
houses" outside the gallery area, while other researchers report walls of
a large building that may be a palace. The Old Kingdom pharaohs of the Fourth
Dynasty clearly were creating the urban complexes needed for the incredible
construction projects that produced the pyramids.
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 21:55:27 +0100
Hi Listmembers As I've been away for a while I have a few news articles to
catch up on so here is another dose of News Canadians uncover 'Queen of Sheba'
temple WebPosted Wed Sep 13 10:32:26 2000 CALGARY - A team including Canadian
archeologists and geologists has found a 3,000-year-old temple from the reign
of the Queen of Sheba in a dig in the Middle East. The discovery is being
hailed as one of the greatest archeological finds since the ruins of Pompeii
and the pyramids of Giza. U. of C. archeologist Dr. Bill Glanzman, the
project's field director, says the Mahram Bilqis, or Temple of the Moon God,
was a sacred site for pilgrims through Arabia from 1200 BC to 550 AD. The
temple was found in the Arabian Desert in northern Yemen near the ancient city
of Marib, the capital of the kingdom of Queen Sheba. The temple has been buried
in the desert for more than a millennium. Glanzman says the temple contains
artifacts, pottery and art work. U of C's Dr. Brian Moorman says the excavation
team is using a geophysical surveying technique called ground-penetrating radar
to map out the temple. He says the technology allows them to see objects as
small as 20 centimetres in diameter as deep as six to eight metres underground.
So far, the team has identified walls, buildings, a roadway and even a
filled-in well. But the work is only about one per cent complete. The
international team of scientists is being organized by the American Foundation
for the Study of Man.
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/09/12/sheba000912 Tracy
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 19:35:34 -0000
From: chris.herald@egyptnews.co.uk
Subject: Herior's Tomb Found?
Herior's Tomb Found? Reports of a new discovery of an `intact' tomb dating from
the 20th Dynasty are slowly emerging from Luxor in Upper Egypt. EGYPTNEWS
sources have indicated that the tomb probably belongs to the High Priest Herior
who held office during the time of Ramesses XI. Herior's power and influence
grew to such an extent that he was able to usurp the throne of Egypt and
declare himself `First Prophet' or Priest of `Amun and King of Upper and Lower
Egypt'. EGYPTNEWS has no further details of the discovery at this time, or
confirmation of the tomb's contents, but we will keep readers posted as and
when the news breaks.
Chris Ogilvie-Herald
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 22:43:22 -0000
From: chris.herald@egyptnews.co.uk
Subject: IN THE NEWS (August)
EGYPTIANS FOUNDED COLONY IN IRELAND 3,500 YEARS AGO (Sunday Times 20/7/00 - by
Jan Battles) Following the resent EGPYTNEWS posting by Andrew Collins
highlighting the work of Lorraine Evans the Sunday Times has also published an
article about her book `Kingdom of the Ark' which investigates evidence of
Egyptians in Britain. Namely that a colony was established in Ireland by the
princess Meritaten, daughter of "Akhenaten and a half-sister of
Tutankhamun". For the full article see
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/08/20/stiireire01005.html
TUTANKHAMUN WAS PEAR-SHAPED Keeping it in the family, Dutch scientists have
concluded that Tutankhamun was pear-shaped and "suffering from a disease
which left him with large fatty hips". Based upon an analysis of his
clothes, researchers suggested that the King had a 79cm chest, a 74cm waist and
109cm hips. Jeez, doesn't fashion come into the equation! I hope no one checks
out my bell-bottom jeans from the 1970's as they might conclude I had
Elephantiasis. :-)
http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/08/08032000/0175-0564-britain- tutankhamen.asp
ALEXANDER'S TOMB Nicola Bonacasa, a pupil of Achille Adriani, the former head
of the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, has suggested that Alexander the
Great's last resting-place can be found in the cities Latin Cemetery. A
"rectangular alabaster tomb - which once contained a golden sarcophagus -
was discovered in 1907, but no one realised its significance". "The
tomb was Macedonian in style and was "exactly in the right spot"
because the Latin Cemetery stands where Ptolemy had his royal enclosure, at the
junction of the two principal roads of ancient Alexandria", said professor
Bonacasa. Full story at: http://www.the-
times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/08/14/timfgneur01007.html More news coming
soon, Chris Ogilvie-Herald
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 19:01:41 +0100
Hi listmembers
Not too much news at the moment, so here is an article on ancient treasures in
Egypt Tombs in an Old Kingdom Necropolis El Dakahlia governorate located in the
central Delta includes many important archaeological sites as the area used to
be the sixteenth and the seventeenth Nome of Lower Egypt during the pharaonic
era. The sites that revealed important remains are mainly Tell El Rabee, Tell
Temy El Emdeid, Tell El Mekdam and Tell El Balamoun. An Old Kingdom Necropolis
was discovered in Monshaet Ezzat, 15kms south Tell El Rabee that was Mendes.
Mendes was mentioned in the sarcophagi texts as the meeting place of Osiris and
Ra. They unified and became the "united Ba", the same texts estate
that Osir's ba was manifested through the ram's body consecutively Osir was
represented as a ram and the worship of Osir went on to the Ptolemaic era.
Mendes became the capital of Egypt during the 29th Dynasty. Civilization in the
area goes back to the Old Kingdom as the most ancient discovered tombs there
are mastabas referred to the first and second dynasties but scholars proved
their use during pre dynasties and archaic periods . The SCA archaeologists
started their excavations in September 1998. The Old Kingdom necropolis was
then discovered and the work is still on in order to cover more details related
to that period of the Egyptian history. The excavations revealed many important
objects namely exquisitely beautiful pottery utensils. Some of these utensils
bear significant signs as the fish symbol of Hat meheit, the deity that became
the major worshiped god in the 16th Nome in Mendes, actual Tell El Rabee 15kms
north the discovered necropolis. Hat Meheit was probably the first worshiped
god represented as a fish, symbol of economy in fishing "the fishing
community". That area was known in hieroglyph as Anebet then Djedet that
was mentioned in the geographic list registered over the walls of the white
compartment of Senousert I in El Karnak Temple in Luxor. Salem Gabr El
Boghdadi, chief archaeologist of the area and the responsible of the pre
mentioned excavations is fascinated by the unearthed alabaster, shiest and
arduous utensils, the plates in different size and shapes, but the masterpiece
is that beautiful knife bearing Den's serekh. Den was the fifth king of the
first Dynasty that ruled Egypt and the serekh was the shape that included the
king's name and was developed to become the cartouche. Some of his remains are
actually displayed in Cairo Museum. Hor, on top of the serekh is represented as
a falcon to express the fact that Den was a powerful king and that he, as a
ruler, was strong and his reign a particularly characteristic and prosperous.
Amongst the unearthed objects a cylindrical seal bearing Hieroglyph
inscriptions that might represent the owner's title or his position, the signs
smr-sk3mr.sb3 might probably design the combination of the soul and the ba
according to the SCA archaeologists who worked hard to unearth properly these
valuable items. The discovered palettes are very few and don't exceed ten, but
the actually unearthed palette is exclusively beautiful in its designs as it
represents animals. The palette was restored as it was broken into four parts,
but thus repaired it looks almost complete. The rare symbols inscribed denote
its reference to the Old Kingdom. The inscriptions reveal a hunting dog
pursuing an elegant animal that looks like a jumping gazelle trying to run away
from the dog. That dog is also followed by an animal looking like a gazelle but
in a peaceful attitude; this attitude, according to the area manager Ibrahim El
Saidi, denotes peace and tranquility that were characteristic of the reign
during this period. The two animals represented in a unique position are the
symbol of the unification between Upper and Lower Egypt; the two animals facing
each others hold their tails in an upright position. Their long necks interlace
in a mythological appearance; this embrace is a significant sign of the
unification. The animals' nails are reproduced with the other animal
represented at the lower part of the palette, its an animal with long ears and
a tail lying at his back and standing in a very peaceful position. A feather
that looks like a palm tree is depicted to the furthest right of the palette
whose general shape is the representation of a heart completely intact apart
from the upper left part that is missing. The palette still needs a long study
in order to interpret properly the significance of the pre mentioned symbols,
as they might relate a specific event or simply a story like the other ten
discovered palettes referred to the same period and found at various dates.
Generally speaking the interpretation of the SCA archaeologists is that the
palette relates a certain struggle that had existed in the area and was
followed by unification and peace. This struggle occurred during Den's regency
known as king of Upper and Lower Egypt during the first Dynasty whose founder
was the famous Mena, Mena palette is actually exhibited in Cairo Museum in a
prominent place. Dr.Gaballah Ali Gaballah, Secretary General to the Supreme
Council checked on the site the progress of the works there and said " we
hope to discover more and more tombs related to this period that goes back to
five thousand years. We also hope that we can find more exclusive and rare
findings related to that important period of our history as excavations reveal
the consecutive and continuous progress of civilization over these important
spots in Egypt's land. We can easily notice, through the perpetual use of a
specific necropolis the evolution steps occurred in the Ancient Egyptian
Civilization. I praise the efforts of the SCA employees in the Egyptology
Department supervised by Dr.Mohamed El Soghayar". Monshaet Ezzat, El
Senbellawein, Dakahlia governorate is only part of a series of important
archaeological sites covering various ruling Dynasties periods. Tell El Rabee
is a 230 feddans surface including pharaonic relics and monuments such as
temples, compartments, granite naos, mastabas, rams necropolis with huge
granite sarcophagi.etc. Tell El Balamoun, 158 feddans was Diospolis Parva
during the Ptolemaic reign and was mentioned in important documents, in Edfu
texts she was the capital of Behdet Nome. Many important sites cover not only
Dakahlia governorate but also the whole Delta area and are subject of great
interest from the SCA and the foreign working missions acting in Egypt. URL:
http://guardians.net/sca/Monshaet_Ezzat.htm Tracy History-R-us listowner
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 19:04:07 +0100
... Egyptian Worker Tombs Copied Pharaohs'
Two mini-replicas of the great pyramids of Giza have been unearthed south of
the Sphinx, at the eastern foot of the three great pyramids. Containing the
bodies of the workers who built the pyramids and their supervisors, the
limestone tombs may throw new light on the knowledge of the funerary traditions
in ancient Egypt. "Now we can say that pyramid-shaped tombs were not a
privilege reserved to kings and nobility. Ordinary people were also allowed to
use the pyramid design to construct their own tombs," said Zahi Hawass,
director of the Giza plateau where the pyramids are located, announcing the
discovery on Thursday. Built 4,600 years ago, during the reign of the pharaoh
Cheops, the tombs are modeled exactly on the design made to house kings, with
false doors and causeways leading to an offering basin. The upper-level tombs,
made in limestone, were reserved for technicians, craftsmen and artisans, while
the lower-level tombs, made with "leftovers" from the pyramids
construction, housed the bodies of the workmen who positioned the huge stone
blocks. Like the great pyramids, the workers tombs bore inscriptions depicting
the worker's title - such as "Inspector of Pyramid Building" - curses
to ward off sacrilegious visitors, and even frescoes showing builders at work
with a customary dress very similar to the galabiyas, the traditional garb
peasants still wear today. Hawass said that the skeletons found in the tombs
show that the workforce also received good health care. Twelve skeletons had
splints on their hands for injuries probably caused by falling rocks; one had
an amputated leg and lived for 14 years after the surgery. Moreover, X-rays on
a skull revealed what may be one of the earliest examples of brain surgery.
According to Hawass, the findings dispel once and for all the popular belief
that the pyramids were built by whip-driven slaves: "This care would not
have been given to slaves," he said. Egyptologists are intrigued.
"The imitation of elements of the royal pyramid complex in these private
tombs is a process seen also at other periods, by which the fashions and styles
of the elite were copied by other levels of society, " said Alan Jeffrey
Spencer of the British Museum. "Yet this is an interesting discovery and
we hope that a full publication will appear soon so that we have access to the
details of the tombs' construction."
Tracy
History-R-us listowner
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 01:05:07 +0100
Hi listmembers
I hope that this gives an update on the underwatere cities found in Egypt, I
know one or two of you wanted and update SUBMERGED CITIES OFF THE COAST OF
EGYPT
An underwater archaeological survey of the Mediterranean just a few miles off
Egypt's north coast has revealed the remains of two 2,500-year-old cities,
possibly Menouthis and Herakleion, which served as trading hubs in the Late
Dynastic Period. Divers, working under the direction of Franck Goddio of the
Paris-based Institut Européen d'Archéologie Sous-Marine and
archaeologists from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities have located
well-preserved remains of houses; temples dedicated to the gods Isis, Serapis,
and Osiris; port facilities; fallen monuments; statues; inscriptions; ceramics;
and late Islamic and Byzantine jewelry and coins, all embedded in the sea floor
less than 30 feet below the water's surface. Discovered 1.2 and 3.5 miles
offshore from Aboukir, respectively, the two cities, which were founded
sometime in the sixth or seventh century B.C., are known from ancient authors.
Strabo, who visited Egypt in 26 B.C., described the geographic location of the
cities and their opulent way of life. Herodotus, writing four centuries
earlier, described the cities of the Nile Delta as looking like the islands of
the Aegean set amid a marsh. The Greek historian specifically mentions
Herakleion and its temple dedicated to Herakles. Herakleion had served as
Egypt's principal commercial port until the founding of Alexandria by Alexander
the Great in 331 B.C. By the fifth century A.D., however, these cities along
with the Hellenistic capital of Alexandria had been destroyed, toppled by a
series of earthquakes and tidal waves that struck the Egyptian coast, centered,
according to Stamford University geophysicist Amos Nur, on a nascent fault line
that stretches from Sicily to Cairo. Written sources tell us some 23
earthquakes struck North Africa between the years A.D. 320 and 1303, a
particularly severe one in the summer of A.D. 365. Over time the coastline
dropped more than 20 feet, the cities along it collapsing and slipping beneath
the waves, and gradually buried by silt depoisted by the Nile. The cities are
located in what was once the Canopic Branch of the Nile which disappeared in
the tectonic activity. Goddio, who gained notoriety with his work on what may
be the remains of Cleopatra's palace on the now submerged island of Antirrhodos
in Alexandria's Eastern Harbor and the discovery of Napoleon's Lost Fleet, sunk
at Aboukir in 1798, has spent two years looking for the cities. "With
Herakleion, in particular, we have an intact city, frozen in time," said
Goddio. Among the most extraordinary finds have been remnants of the so-called
Naos [temple] of the Decades (Ital Naos of the Decades) a fourth-century B.C.
black granite shrine found among the fallen remains of what may have been the
city of Menouthis, which had been a suburb of a larger town, Canopus, also
mentioned by ancient authors. Dedicated by the Pharaoh Nectanebo I, who reigned
from 380 to 362 B.C., the shrine was inscribed with images and texts explaining
the annual calender of 36 decades (ital decades) or ten-day periods defined by
the appearance and disappearance of stars known as decans (ital decans) in the
night sky. The texts describe the influence each star was believed to possess
over nature, animals, and humans--both communally and individually. Two slabs
from the chapel, which are currently in the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria
were recovered by the Ottoman Prince Omar Tousson, a pioneer in underwater
archaeology, in 1940. In 1957, scholars realized that another part of the
temple, a mysterious pyramid-shaped block, discovered on the beach at Aboukir
in 1777, was among the objects in the Egyptian collection of the Louvre in
Paris. "The newly recovered fragments," says Goddio, "provide
abundant new information on the workings of the Egyptian calendar." Save
for a few choice pieces, which will go on display in Egypt, Goddio and his team
plan to leave the ancient remains undisturbed for future generations.-- Tracy
History-R-us listowner
Amerika
zuletzt geändert am 23.09.2000
This must be one of the best finds for a long time Splendid Maya Palace Is
Found Hidden in Jungle By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD n a remote jungle of Guatemala,
among the remains of a little-known ancient city with a name meaning Place of
Serpents, archaeologists have uncovered one of the largest and most splendid
palaces of Maya kings ever discovered. Its 170 high-ceiling rooms were built
around 11 courtyards and spread over an area greater than two football fields.
"No one has found anything like this since the turn of the last
century," Dr. Arthur A. Demarest, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville and leader of the discovery team, said yesterday in
describing the palace, which dates from the eighth century A.D. "What is
most incredible about this site is that most of the palace is buried virtually
intact." Dr. Demarest said that in size and preservation the palace, at
Cancuén, rivaled the buildings at the central acropolis in Tikal, one of
the grandest seats of Mayan power in Guatemala. Earlier expeditions had either
overlooked or underestimated the size and grandeur of the palace and the city
around it, a prosperous center of commerce and crafts at the head of navigation
on the Pasión River. The discovery and the first excavations at
Cancuén were made this summer by archaeologists led by Dr. Demarest and
Dr. Tomás Barrientos of the Universidád del Valle in Guatemala.
The expedition is sponsored by the Guatemalan Institute of Anthropology and
History, the National Geographic Society and Vanderbilt. "It's an
extraordinarily important find," said Dr. David Freidel, a Maya studies
specialist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who has no connection to
the work. "It's been a long time since a major palace complex has come to
light. A scientific investigation of the ruins should help us understand
political life in the late classic period of the Maya." The Maya
civilization was at the peak of its power in Central America and Mexico from
250 to 900, known as the classic period. The king who completed the palace -
inscriptions give his name as Tah ak Chaan - ruled Cancuén for about 50
years, beginning in 740. By this time, Dr. Freidel said, the focus of Mayan
political life and state ceremony had shifted from the grand outdoor plazas to
the palaces, which means that the buildings' art and architecture may reflect
the changing relationships of powerful rulers, nobles and allies. Even a
preliminary study of the site and its inscribed monuments has already produced
one surprise: there is no evidence that the city's rulers engaged in any major
wars with neighbors. Nor is there any sign of pyramids, the typically
spectacular bases for temples and manifestations of the religious roots of a
city's power. The absence of pyramid temples was the main reason previous
archaeologists largely passed by the ruins and failed to investigate the true
size of the palace. These discoveries alone may cause scholars to reconsider
some of their ideas about the Maya civilization, Dr. Demarest said. Here was a
city that appeared to prosper for hundreds of years without warfare or the
usual display of religion as sources of the power of Maya kings, particularly
toward the end of their dominance. "I have a book in press that I'll have
to revise," Dr. Demarest remarked. Unlike other Maya cities,
Cancuén appeared to use its strategic position at the foot of the
highlands, a source of jade, obsidian and other valuable commodities, to become
a commercial power throughout the lowlands. Dr. Demarest said the city must
have been larger, richer and more powerful than anyone had expected. Its rulers
appeared to have been single-mindedly dedicated to commerce. Some of the first
excavations of residences disclosed that the city had a relatively wealthy
middle class and many workshops for artisans producing elite goods for trade
far and wide. Jade is everywhere at the site, Dr. Demarest said. A young
middle- class woman was found in her grave with 10 jade inlaid teeth. Workmen
were buried with fine ceramic figurines with beautiful headdresses. At a
workshop lay a 35-pound chunk of jade, which artisans had been slicing for
pieces to manufacture ornaments. Other excavations turned up large amounts of
pyrite, commonly known as fool's gold. Thin sheets of it were being used in
making mirrors, one of the more prized possessions of the elite. All this might
never have been uncovered if Dr. Demarest had not literally fallen into the
discovery of the palace. After a decade of excavations at Dos Pilas and other
sites in northern Guatemala, where he found ample evidence of a highly
militaristic city- state called Petexbatún, Dr. Demarest decided last
year to visit Cancuén to follow up a lead. Members of his team had found
records of a marriage alliance between a Dos Pilas prince and a Cancuén
princess. She then came to Dos Pilas to live in her own small palace. Seeing
the architecture and crafts of Cancuén, Dr. Demarest said, "It
looks as if the princess brought her own artisans, because the stonework on her
palace is just like that at Cancuén and far superior to anything in the
Petexbatún region." Then the archaeologists looked more closely at
the ruins of what turned out to be the royal palace. "To the untrained
eye, the palace looks just like a great, jungle-covered hill," Dr.
Demarest said. While walking along the ruin's highest level, Dr. Demarest fell
up to his armpits into vegetation filling one of the courtyards. "That's
when I realized the entire hill was a three- story building and we were walking
on top of the roof," he said. So far, archaeologists have only dug test
holes into the palace ruins, enough to estimate the dimensions of the building.
The walls are built of solid limestone. They enclose a densely packed labyrinth
of rooms with 20-foot-high corbel-arched ceilings. The team's leaders estimate
it will take at least 10 years to excavate and partly restore the palace. They
are making plans to deploy a larger team of researchers and excavators at the
site next February, at the end of the rainy season. The region is free of civil
war now, Dr. Demarest said, but the government of Guatemala has little presence
there, and it is still a virtually lawless place. Dr. Demarest said the
expedition has mobilized and trained the people of the nearest village, El
Zapote, to stand guard over the new-found palace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/08/science/08MAYA.html
Tracy
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 14:38:21 -0700
Hi Jon, you wrote:
1) Did you speculate as to why they carved them there and not in Egypt?
2) When I read that someone has come up with "verifiable proof" of
anything, my first reaction is ...what is 'your' definition of verifiable
proof?
[JimB] re., 1) Both the Texts and the Figures pre-date the time of the Pharaohs
and Kings of Dynastic Egypt. For reasons that would take too long to explain
here ... but if you draw a line between Nasca and Giza, and then two 90 degree
meridional lines from both Nasca and Giza to converge at an ancient Pole
position now in Alaska, the resultant triangle has exactly the same base angles
as the Great Pyramid of Giza. [51 deg. 51 min]. Reason enough! 2)
"verifiable proof" means to me that if I am able to post
illustrations made from the photographs licensed to me by the [now closed]
Maria Richie foundation in Nasca, Peru along with passages from the Pyramid
Texts, you can judge for yourself. Part III of my book has as I said, nine
photographs and over fifty illustrations that accompany the passage quoted from
the Pyramid Texts. The reader can discover the same as I did!
Warm regards, JimB
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 13:52:34 -0700
Hi All!
I go by the name of JimB on the Internet, [Jim is my real name] I'm a graduate
engineer from Michigan State University in the U.S., and the author of
"The Gods, Gemini, and the Great Pyramid." I sincerely hope from this
published work that I have left a treasure of opportunity for others. "The
Gods..." [my conversational title for my book] is about many things,
shifting crusts and Nascan figures, its about Egyptian hieroglyphics, and
telepathic communication ... its about earthquakes, isostasy, and ancient
coral. My proudest contribution to history is in Part III of the book, therein
[by matching nine photographs and over fifty illustrations] to quotations from
R. O. Faulkner's "The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts" ... I provide
verifiable proof that the line figures on the plateau above Nasca, Peru are
actually the illustrations [i.e., the caricature double] for the story told in
the hieroglyphic Texts of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids of [Saqqara]
Egypt. The Nascan line figures were originated specifically to illustrate the
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts. I am currently researching my next book,
"On and On: The Story of the Ecliptic." which will take this line of
discovery beyond the Nascan figures. The relationship between the Saqqara texts
and the Nascan figures has never before been realized, and many will raise
questions. So let me say in advance, that no one that has read "The
Gods..." has ever raised a challenge. I'd be happy to answer any question
[within my ability to do so] regarding the Nascan figures or the Pyramid Texts.
It is a fantastic story and one that should broaden our appreciation for the
Ancients [who were in no way] restricted by their territorial boundaries.
Warm regards, JimB
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 20:52:42 +0100
> > Found: the world's oldest mummies > >
> > > THE spirits of an ancient South American civilisation are slowly
>giving up their secrets. On the barren coastline of northern Chile, one of
>the driest regions in the world, archeologists have stumbled across
>mummified bodies that predate those found in the pyramid tombs of Egypt by
>more than 6,000 years. > Desert heat and low humidity levels have
preserved the bodies for >10,000 years after elaborate mummification
techniques were used to >"rebuild" the dead, using sticks and sea
lion skin. > > The mummies - the oldest found - belong to members of the
Chinchorro >culture, which disappeared at least a millennium before the
Egyptians >thought of preserving their dead. Hundreds of bodies are being
uncovered in >sand dunes, their faces covered in clay masks and their torsos
bound with >woven reed, around the small town of Arica. > > Simple
fishing tools were sometimes buried with the bodies; a >contrast with the
golden treasures laid around the sarcophaguses of dead >pharaohs to
accompany them to the next world. > > Dr Joann Fletcher, a British
bioanthropologist who worked on >foetuses found in the tomb of Tutankhamen
and who has just returned from >examining many of the recently recovered
bodies in Chile, said: "The >Chinchorro seem to break all the rules.
> > "They lived in simple communities on the sea shore, in small
family >groups, grew no crops, living mainly on shellfish and sea lion meat.
At the >same time they had an incredibly sophisticated culture. > >
"There were no ceramics or fabrics, no wheels, no writing and yet >they
were anything but primitive. Why they used mummification is still not
>understood, but it must reflect their intense religious beliefs. They were
>recreating the moment of death." > > Fletcher has been staggered
by the number of high-quality mummified >bodies: "We were on the coast
one day when someone suddenly noticed a pair >of feet sticking out of a
nearby sand dune. They were beautifully >preserved, almost as if the body
had just been placed there. Staff at the >museum in Arica are almost afraid
to pick up the phone, knowing the caller >is likely to be reporting another
find in the district." > > The earliest bodies found so far, dating
back more than 10,000 >years, were preserved simply by allowing them to dry
out, but by about >9,000 years ago, mummification had become more elaborate
and ritualised. > > The dead body was decapitated and skinned and the
soft tissue >removed. The hands and feet were removed and dried intact. Hot
ashes were >then used to dry the remaining bones before the body was
reassembled, using >small twigs and reed binding. All the joints were bound
with reed and >tightly wrapped together. > > Next the skull was filled
with a mixture of grass, hair and ashes >and the face packed out before the
skin was reapplied. If there was not >enough human skin, they used sea lion
skin to cover the adults and pink >pelican skin to cover the bodies of
babies. > > Finally, a thick layer of paste made from ashes was used to
remodel >the face and body. It was then painted, largely in black and red.
> > Howard Reid, an anthropologist and film-maker in London who has seen
>the mummies, said: "The bodies - stuffed, coated and painted - have a
>rigidity that reminds me more of a corn dolly than a human. No other people
>use such an elaborate system of preservation." > > Each of the
mummies looks similar to the others. "There is the >minimum of detail,
yet they are incredibly powerful. It's like they have >been
re-upholstered," said Fletcher. > > She believes that the mummified
bodies were not immediately buried, >but stood upright or leant against
rocks. "You can tell this because in >some cases the faces have been
repainted several times. Once their long >hair was reattached, it would have
blown in the wind, giving the impression >of life." When they were
eventually buried, it was in family groups. > > She believes the fact
that the earliest mummies were of children and >foetuses suggests that women
started the process of mummification: "It may >be similar to the
Egyptian idea that the foetus possessed a kind of >regenerative power."
> > Medical examinations have shown that the Chinchorro were very
>healthy, although some suffered from a gut parasite derived from eating sea
>lions. Many adult males show a bone deformation in the ear known as
>auditory exostosis, caused by repeated exposure to cold water - presumably
>as the men dived for shellfish or hunted in the sea. It often results in
>deafness. > > Nobody knows why the Chinchorro disappeared as a
culture, although >many of their traditions were passed down and appear as
part of Inca >society. Only with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores
did the >customs started by the Chinchorro die. > > "The academic
world has yet to realise the significance of these >finds," said
Fletcher. "These are wonderful, wonderful discoveries." > >
> >Tracy >History-R-us listowner >
Hightech
zuletzt geändert am 02.08.2000
Archeologie
zuletzt geändert am 23.09.2000
Hi listmemebers Going back a few weeks to the debate of whether or not the
flood really happened, here is a new chapter of evidence: The first evidence
that humans lived in an area now covered by the Black Sea -- perhaps inundated
by the biblical flood -- has been found by a team of explorers. "Artifacts
at the site are clearly well preserved, with carved wooden beams, wooden
branches and stone tools," lead researcher Robert Ballard said. "We
realize the broad significance the discovery has and we're going to do our best
to learn more," Ballard said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his
ship off the northern coast of Turkey, west of the community of Sinop. Fredrik
Hiebert of the University of Pennsylvania, the team's chief archaeologist, said
the discovery "represents the first concrete evidence for occupation of
the Black Sea coast prior to its flooding." "This is a major
discovery that will begin to rewrite the history of the cultures in this key
area between Europe, Asia and the ancient Middle East," Hiebert said. The
remnants of human habitation were found in more than 300 feet of water about 12
miles off the coast of Turkey. >From freshwater lake to saltwater sea Many
ancient Middle Eastern cultures have legends of a great flood, including the
Bible story of Noah. Columbia University researchers William Ryan and Walter
Pittman speculated in their 1997 book "Noah's Flood" that when the
European glaciers melted, about 7,000 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea
overflowed into what was then a smaller freshwater lake to create the Black
Sea. Last year Ballard found indications of an ancient coastline miles out from
the current Black Sea coast. The new discovery provides evidence that people
once lived in that now inundated region. Ballard, a National Geographic Society
explorer in residence, said he studied shells found along the ancient coastline
and found two types. One group is an extinct type of freshwater shell, while
the second is from saltwater shellfish. The saltwater shells date from the
present back 6,500 years, while the freshwater shells all date to 7,000 years
ago and older. "So we know that there was a sudden and dramatic change
from a freshwater lake to a saltwater sea 7,000 years ago," he said
Tuesday. "And we know that as a result of that flood a vast amount of land
went under water. "And we now know that land was inhabited. What we don't
know is who these people are, we don't know how broad their settlements were
... but we're expanding our studies to try to determine that." Structures
found in underwater river valley Ballard said his team, using remote-controlled
underwater vessels with cameras, located a former river valley beneath the sea,
and in the valley was the collapsed structure. Remains include preserved wooden
beams that were worked by hand. The structure was "clearly built by
humans," and was characteristic of stone-age structures built 7,000 years
ago in the interior of Turkey, Ballard said. It contained a stone chisel and
two other stone tools with holes drilled through them, he said. Nothing has
been removed from the site. "When you first find a site you don't just run
in there and start picking up things," he said. The group is now mapping
the site and looking for other structures in the area. "This is a work in
progress," Ballard said. "It is critical to know the exact era of the
people who lived there, and to that end we hope to recover artifacts and wood
for carbon dating so we can figure out what sort of people lived there and the
nature of their tools." The discovery occurred within coastal waters of
Turkey, whose Directorate of Monuments and Museums has a representative on the
research vessel. Ballard, best known for finding the remains of the ships
Titanic, Bismarck and Yorktown, among other discoveries, operates the Institute
for Exploration in Mystic, Conn. His expedition is sponsored by the National
Geographic Society, which is planning a book and television programs on
Ballard's Black Sea research.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/09/13/great.flood.finds.ap/index.html
Tracy
There was a BBC documentary on this in late 1996. This link will take you to
details and there's also a transcript:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/horizon/noah.shtml
john_j_wall@yahoo.com
15.08.2000
Michael Cremo, co-author FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY and a speaker at this years
Questing Conference at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1 on
14 October gives an update on Miocene human artefects found in Portugal by
Portuguese geologist Carlos Ribeiro in the 19th century.
They date to between 5 and 25 million years and once again show the existence
at this early date of modern human beings with a stone technology comparable to
that of Palaeolithic man. More will be revealed in his much anticipated
lecture. Watch this space for further announcements from Michael. For now get
your tickets either via the credit card hotline on +44.20.7405.2120 at GSP 28
or by mail from Questing Conference, PO Box 189, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 1NF,
UK. Cheques in UK sterling only made payable to 'Questing Conference' Report
from Michael Cremo From July 10 to July 25 I was in Portugal doing research for
a paper that has been accepted for presentation at the European Association of
Archeologists annual meeting, which will be held in Lisbon in September. The
topic of the paper is stone artifacts discovered by Portuguese geologist Carlos
Ribeiro in the 19th century. These artifacts, although quite primitive, were
found in deposits belonging to the Miocene, a geological period that extends
from about 5 to 25 million years ago. This discoveries and others like them
attracted considerable attention in the late nineteenth century, but were
dropped from discussion after the discovery of Java Man in the early 1890s.
This apeman, now considered to be Homo erectus, was found without any kind of
stone tools, in a geological context less than 1 million years old. So what was
to be done with the far older stone tools that had previously been discovered?
In my paper, I am suggesting that the theoretical picture of human evolution
that grew up around the Java Man discovery was responsible for eliminating
evidence such as Ribeiro's. My purpose in presenting the paper is renew
interest in this evidence for extreme human antiquity. Earlier this year, I
contacted the head of the national archeological organization in Portugal, and
requested permission to examine and photograph Ribeiro's artifacts and field
notes, maps, and letters. Permission was granted and I came to Lisbon earlier
this month. Ribeiro's artifacts are kept in the Museo Geologico, which is
located in the Academy of Sciences building in one of the older sections of
Lisbon. The director of the museum was quite helpful. Ribeiro's artifacts were
not on display in the museum, but were stored away. I went through the
collection, looking specifically for artifacts that he had described and
illustrated in his scientific publications. It was quite interesting to be
holding the artifacts in my hands, comparing them with 19th century drawings of
them and looking for matches. I found many of them. The artifacts were very
professionally photographed for me by an archeology student from the science
university in Budapest, Hungary. Even this research phase of writing my paper
has yielded some interesting results. The museum director has decided he wants
to bring Ribeiro's artifacts out of storage and again place them on display in
the museum. He is also going to get in touch with the organizers of the
September conference about having a special exhibit of the artifacts there.
After working for a week at the Museo Geological I went to the historical
archives of the library of the Ministry of Geology and Mineralogy in Alfragide,
one of the newer suburbs of Lisbon. There I was given full access to Ribeiro's
field notes, maps, and correspondence, and made copies and photographs of items
useful for my paper. The final step in the research process was to visit some
of the actual sites where Ribeiro collected his artifacts. Friends in Portugal
provided a good sports utility vehicle and served as guides, drivers, and
translators. With brief place descriptions from nineteenth century documents as
our only source of information, we somehow found our way to several of the
sites. It was not easy, because some of the place names had changed, and a
century and a half of development had altered the landscape. As we entered a
town or village, we would inquire about the old place names from the local
residents, who were often able to direct us. Most of the sites were off small
unpaved roads, and more than once we found ourselves a bit lost. One
interesting place was Monte Redondo, a small "mountain" in a remote
back country region northeast of Lisbon in the Tejo River valley. It is in the
midst of forests of pine and eucalyptus, and there is a small river running
nearby. Wandering around the base of Monte Redondo, we located some of the old
sites where Ribeiro and others collected artifacts. With the research phase now
completed, my next task is to write the paper, which is part of an ongoing
project to show that there is archeological evidence consistent with the
accounts of extreme human antiquity found in the Vedic literature.
sonstiges
zuletzt geändert am 02.09.2000
A Newsletter from Andrew Collins. Vol. 4, No. 3, Autumn 2000
Hello from the Questing Conference camp. There are no changes to the publicised
line-up, although ring the conference hotline on 01702.476614 for last minute
details. TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE DAY. Air tickets have already been
secured for Michael Cremo, the author of FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY, and Neil
Steede, the American archaeologist who has confirmed Posnansky’s findings
regarding Tiahuanaco’s greater antiquity and is currently working at Maya
sites in the Yucatan peninsula. All the rest of the speakers are highlighted on
the flyer, and can I suggest you check out the fully interactive conference
section of Eden – the Andrew Collins website at www.andrewcollins.net.
This contains a full description of each lecture and also a biography of the
speaker and a picture as well! There are also links to the speakers’ own
websites where applicable. ATLANTIS RESPONSE As mentioned briefly in the last
issue, the hardback edition of GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS sold out its run of 9,500
copies in just two months. The publishers, Headline, decided that they would
not go into a further print run since this would increase interest in the
paperback edition, which should be out in October. Response to the book has
been rich and varied. Some correspondents have added to my knowledge of
Caribbean and Bahaman prehistory, while others have contacted me to put forward
their own evidence for Atlantis being in some other part of the world. Some
have even felt indignant that I should bring into question their own personal
theories on the true location of Atlantis, particularly those who support a
psychic view of this lost island empire. From these responses I have been able
to determine exactly what is currently the most favoured candidate for the
location of Atlantis. Curiously enough, it is not the Bahamas or Caribbean, or
even the Mid-Atlantic, but Antarctica. This is most probably because of the
popularity this theory has received through its promotion in books such as
Graham Hancock’s FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS (1994) and Rand and Rose
Flem-Ath’s WHEN THE SKY FELL (1995). The idea also features in Rand’s
new book THE ATLANTIS BLUEPRINT, co-written with Questing Conference speaker
Colin Wilson, which is released in October. Although I accept that the
north-west region of Antarctican continent was occupied by Late Palaeolithic
settlers, most probably from Island Southeast Asia (after the work of Flavio
Barbiero and see the last EARTHQUEST NEWS), there are fundamental reasons why
Antarctica cannot be Atlantis. These are: Atlantis means ‘daughter of
Atlas’, the daughter being the island. The name was applied in the plural,
Atlantides, to islands in general located in the Atlantic Ocean. Atlas was the
hero-god and Titan of Greek myth who presided over the lands in the extreme
west, as well as the uncharted waters beyond the African coast. This is why the
Western Ocean was known as the Atlantic (‘of Atlas’) by Plato’s
age. The term was not applied to all oceans beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
Those that encircled the ancient world were known as Okeanos, the Ocean River,
and not the Atlantic. In consequence, it is clear that, in similar with
mythical islands such as the Hesperides and the Fortunate Isles, Atlantis was
located in the Western Ocean. Antarctica is due south of the African continent.
Nowhere does Plato suggest that Atlantis was due south of the Pillars of
Hercules. Atlantis was said by Plato to stand in front of an ‘opposite
continent’, to which it was linked via a series of ‘other
islands’. With point one in mind, our best shot at the identity of this
‘opposite continent’ is the Americas, suggesting that the ‘other
islands’ were island chains such as the Bahamas, the Lesser Antilles and
the Mid-Caribbean group. This implies that Atlantis stood in the same general
vicinity as these island chains. If Antarctica was Atlantis, then what was the
‘opposite continent’ - the back end of the Asian continent? If so,
what were the ‘other islands’ which linked it with Atlantis?
Australia? Indonesia? It just doesn’t make sense. Plato states that where
Atlantis had once stood was a shallow sea of mud and shoals, which in his day
prevented ‘voyagers’ from reaching the ‘opposite
continent’. Aristotle, Pseudo-Scylax and Himilco (via Avienus) also
mention this shallow sea, with the last two adding that it was covered by
seaweed. There seems to be little question that these ancient writers were
alluding to the Sargasso Sea, the vast area of seaweed the size of Europe which
stretched between the Azores in the Mid-Atlantic and the Bahamas on the western
Atlantic seaboard. There is mounting evidence to show that ancient Phoenician
and Carthaginian mariners reached the Sargasso Sea (Himilco, the fifth-century
BC Carthaginian navigator, said it could not be crossed in four months). If
Atlantis is to be placed in the vicinity of Antarctica, how might we explain
Plato’s reference to the ‘shallow sea’, since none exists in the
vicinity of the Antarctican continent. It makes more sense to conclude that
Plato was alluding to the westerly placed Sargasso Sea. Plato tells us that
‘voyagers’ travelled via Atlantis and ‘other islands’ to
the ‘opposite continent’. Moreover, that ‘in those days’
the ocean could be navigated by mariners from his own world. Surely, this
describes transatlantic journeys which took place prior to Plato’s age, c.
350 BC. Evidence has recently come to light of Phoenician and Carthaginian
contact with the Canary Isles as early as the sixth-century BC (after the work
of Pablo Atoche Peña). The Canaries would unquestionably have been used
as a maritime staging post for transatlantic journeys which could have utilised
the Canary Current, the North Equatorial Current and the Trade Winds to reach
the Caribbean. Moreover, there is every indication that the root language
behind the Atlantis legend was not high Atlantean, or Egyptian, but West
Semitic, the language of the Phoenicians and their sister colony, the
Carthaginians. If Atlantis was Antarctica, how might we explain the
transoceanic voyages referred to by Plato and the West Semitic root to the
story? All the indications are that Atlantis was located on the western
Atlantic seaboard, and this indeed appears to be the second most popular theory
as to the true location of Atlantis. This is for two basic reasons –
firstly, the scholarly work being put forward by both my colleague Emilio
Spedicato of Bergamo University and myself. Emilio sees Atlantis as Hispaniola
and I see it as Cuba and the now sunken regions of the Bahamas and Caribbean.
Secondly, since the late 1960s followers of Edgar Cayce have favoured this
region of the globe as the place where evidence of a lost supercontinent would
be found. It was in August-September 1968 that reports first surfaced
concerning the alleged discovery of a ‘temple’ structure off Andros,
the largest of the Bahaman islands, and a ‘road’ structure laying off
the coast of Bimini’s North Island. Although neither of these features are
likely to provide the hard evidence necessary to convince the archaeological
world of the former existence of a prehistoric culture on the Bahaman landmass,
no less than 60 sites of possible archaeological significance have come to
light in its shallow waters. The third most popular site for the true location
of Atlantis is the Mid-Atlantic, the Azores in particular, which remains the
dedicated atlantologists’ choice. This is because they see Plato as having
proposed the existence of a huge super-continent the size of Libya (North
Africa) and Asia (from the Nile across to the Indus river in Pakistan)
combined. Since it was said to have been located in the Atlantic Ocean, the
only obvious position for it would have been the Northern Atlantic Ocean, an
idea first popularised with the publication in 1882 of Ignatius Donnelly’s
classic ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. Yet as I demonstrate in GATEWAY TO
ATLANTIS, the enormous size expressed for the Atlantean landmass is blatantly
contradicted in Plato’s dialogues and appears to relate not to the extent
of Atlantis as an island, but to the islands over which the Atlantean kings
held domain. In the Critias, the second of the dialogues, the island of
Atlantis is described as tiny in comparison, plausibly as little as 600 x 400
kilometres in size, a point also realised by Emilio Spedicato. OLDEST
FLORIDIANS Recently, evidence has come to light of a sophisticated human
culture existing on Florida’s Gulf coast as early as 10,000 BC. Human
remains dating back 7,000 years and tools and weapons dating back 12,000 years
have been found over a period of many years at a now threatened site at Fort
Myers. Current excavations being conducted by marine archaeologist John Gifford
of the University of Miami hope to uncover evidence of the oldest humans in
North America. However, archaeologists fear that they are fighting a losing
battle as pollutants from ever encroaching urban development flood the site.
The finds are coming from a 75-yard-wide sinkhole that descends to a depth of
220 feet. Known as Little Salt Spring, it is located between Fort Myers and
Sarasota, and was donated to the University in 1982 following the discovery of
artefacts there during the 1970s. These were found to have been preserved in a
good condition due to the unique nature of the water, which has been described
as ‘brackish’ and ‘anoxic’, in that it has very little
oxygen whatsoever. Regular scuba dives have been made into the sinkhole by a
team led by Gifford, who has argued against the artificial construction of the
Bimini Road. They have removed objects such as tools and weapons from ledges,
caves and basins placed at different levels of different time periods. Among
the items found include a completely new type of wooden tool which has been
named a ‘putter’, due to its resemblance to a golf club. Six of these
tools have been found which are thought to be around 8,500 years ago. In
addition to the ‘putters’, a weapon has been found similar to the
boomerang of Australia, Egypt and Europe. This ‘nonreturning’
variant, as it has been described, is thought to be 9,000 years old and is
perhaps the oldest example of this weapon so far discovered. More
significantly, a form of atlatl, a kind of spear thrower well-known among
Pre-Colombian cultures of Mexico such as the Aztecs, has also been retrieved
from the sinkhole. There was also a bead made from a bird’s bone, which
has been drilled and is thought to be around 8,500 years old. One of the most
interesting finds was the discovery on a ledge 85 feet down of a collapsed
shell of an extinct species of land tortoise. It had been pierced through by a
wooden stake which revealed a Carbon-14 date of 12,000 BP (before present). The
whole thing was perfectly preserved, and now Gifford and his colleagues hope to
find human remains of the same age on the same ledge. If this were to be the
case, they would predate North America’s oldest accepted human remains,
which are those of the greatly controversial Kennewick Man, which was found in
Washington State around four years ago and is around 9,000 years old. In
addition to the artefacts, an ancient cemetery has been found in peat on the
edge of the sinkhole. It has produced 7000-year-old human bones, some of which
were ceremonially wrapped in grass. In past ages Little Salt Spring was filled
with fresh water which would have attracted peoples from far and wide. Yet as
the sea-levels rose in the nearby Gulf of Mexico at the end of the last Ice
Age, the waters would have become more and more salty, driving away settlers
but preserving their artefacts through to the present day. Yet now the area is
being encroached once more, and this time by modern habitation and recreational
facilities. Housing estates, schools and golf courses threaten the equilibrium
of the sinkhole because the water run off >from this urban development is
pouring pollutants into the sinkhole. Gifford is currently making a number of
tests in the hope that he can preserve the quality of the water for future
generations. (For further information check out the Miami Herald website.
Thanks to David Southwell for bringing this story to my attention). The
importance of Little Salt Spring is to emphasise just how easy it would have
been for this fairly sophisticated prehistoric culture to have ventured across
the Florida Straight to the Bahamas, which I suggest was inhabited prior to a
major natural catastrophe around 9000-8500 BC, and plausibly afterwards in
areas which were finally reclaimed by the rising sea-level between
approximately 8000 and 3000 BC. The Little Salt Spring material is clear
evidence that some of the most advanced ancient Americans were in Florida at
exactly the right time, and so could have constituted the memory of a former
Bahaman culture - Plato’s Atlantean race. I look forward to further
evidence of a human presence >from the Little Salt Spring site. MYSTERIES OF
THE PAST Some 350 people packed Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 on
Saturday, 4 March for the Mysteries of the Past conference. They were treated
to exclusive lectures on key subjects such as crystal optics in ancient times,
the location of Atlantis, transoceanic contact with the Americas and the nature
of cosmic catastrophes on earth. The whole day was a huge success. Yet due to
lectures over-running (including my own) the much anticipated panel debate had
to be cancelled. The key lecture was given by Robert Temple, the author of THE
SIRIUS MYSTERY and the newly published book THE CRYSTAL SUN (Century, 2000). He
presented a series of slides showing optical lenses found in museums across the
ancient world, including some from the British Museum. I was amazed at the
sheer number which exist, showing clearly that civilisations such as the
Romans, Hellenic Greeks, Carthaginians, Assyrians and Chinese were blatantly
aware of this ancient technology. There were also pictures of the famous
Nineveh lens found by Sir Henry Layard at the palace of the Assyrian king
Sargon in the nineteenth century. This example probably dates to the seventh or
eighth century BC. I was particularly intrigued by the lenses and microscopic
carvings found during excavations in Egypt. Robert explained that here was
perhaps the oldest evidence for crystal lens technology, dating back as far as
predynastic times, c. 3100 BC. Once more this confirms the theory that the
ancient Egyptians possessed technologies that are simply denied them by
conventional Egyptologists. Robert went on to display what is arguably the most
remarkable of his discoveries relating to crystal optics in ancient times. This
is a Greek pot shard that actually shows a male figure with a slim conical tube
held up to his left eye – the image on the cover of his book. As he
pointed out, thousands of people file past this item every day and yet no one
has ever proposed that it is a telescope. I have to say that this is a very
convincing piece of evidence in support of his theory. Robert must be applauded
for bringing this artefact to the attention of the world. There seems little
question that lenses were used as early as 3100 BC to fashion microscopic
carvings in Egypt and that this tradition continued through to at least the
fall of the Roman empire. Moreover, there is good reason to suppose that
telescopes, plausibly made from dried plant stems such as the giant hog-weed,
were used to observe the celestial and stellar bodies in a manner not popular
again until the Renaissance period. Understanding the properties of light in
association with lenses, an explanation perhaps of the story of
Prometheus’ who drew down the divine fire, seems to be the key to
understanding the enigmas associated with the veneration of the sun from Egypt
to Greece and Persia. Lenses would have had not only a practical purpose but
also a religious function that focused the energy of the divine. Look out for
Robert’s book, it’s a good one. EGYPTIANS IN BRITAIN Word comes of a
new book set to cause immense controversy in archaeological circles. Penned by
Egyptologist Lorraine Evans, KINGDOM OF THE ARK describes how a group of
Egyptians reached Bronze Age Britain by boat around 1330-1300 BC. Moreover,
those involved are thought to have been followers of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who
arrived in the company of his daughter, the princess Merytaten. She was the
royal wife of Smenkhkare, the relatively unknown Amarna king, who succeeded
Akhenaten to the throne after his death around 1350 BC. Lorraine Evans believes
that the followers of Akhenaten’s monotheistic Aten faith were escaping
the religious persecutions of Horemheb, the pharaoh who succeeded the kings
Tutankhamun and Aye following the death of Smenkhkare. As absurd as this
proposal might seem, Lorraine Evans has collected together considerable
evidence to back up her theories. She outlines the controversy surrounding the
discovery in September 1937 of three intact sailing vessels at North Ferriby in
Yorkshire. Archaeologists who examined them at the time were convinced that
they were of Viking origin. Due to the war effort, and the fact that the museum
where the boats were housed got bombed out, the matter went unresolved. Then in
the 1950s it was realised that some of the vessels’ timbers had been
transported to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich before the bomb
struck. Samples were thus sent to the British Museum for analysis. The results
stunned everyone, for the wood provided Carbon-14 dates in the region of
1350-1300 BC (later confirmed using recalibration processes). Moreover, in the
1980s Dr Sean McGrail of the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University, noted
the similarity between the Ferriby boat remains and the design and construction
of high-prowled, sea-going vessels built by the ancient Egyptians. Indeed, he
compared them directly to the planked boats found at Giza. Add to this the
discovery of faience beads from Akhenaten’s city at Tell el-Amarna found
in Late Bronze Age barrows near Stonehenge and a necklace of similar faience
beads found during 1955 in a Bronze Age burial in Tara, County Meath, Ireland,
and the likelihood of Egyptians visiting Britain becomes more realistic. Yet
Lorraine does not end the story here. She has examined ancient texts which
speak of the British race as being the descendents of an Egyptian princess
named Scota, whose father bears the same name as the one given to Akhenaten by
Manetho, the fourth century BC Egyptian historian. Before now the account of
Scota’s foundation of a British royal dynasty has been discarded as a
romantic fable, created in order to give the Irish and Scottish an ancient
pedigree of biblical proportions. Now her story might prove to be the key to
unraveling the appearance in Britain of followers of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and
plausibly even Merytaten himself, some time around 1330-1320 BC. For those of
you who have been readers of my books since the early days, the idea that
Akhenaten’s followers ending their days in Britain should come as o
surprise. In my 1992 book THE SEVENTH SWORD, I suggested that displaced
followers of Akhenaten, including some of his close personal aids, arrived in
Britain around 1320 BC bringing with them the remains of Akhenaten’s
daughter Merytaten and other holy relics (including a green stone jewel!).
Although I now feel that Graham Phillips (the main inspiration for the ideas)
and I probably got our facts confused in some respect, there is no way that we
could have imagined that 20 years later these views would be echoed in a
scholarly work by a British Egyptologist. For those wishing to know more about
our thoughts on the matter, attempt to track down Graham’s 1984 book THE
GREEN STONE or my own THE SEVENTH SWORD. Lorraine’s book KINGDOM OF THE
ARK is published by Simon and Schuster on 27th August. Watch out for her at the
Questing Conference, where she will be available to sign books and answer
questions. OTHER NEW BOOKS Graham Phillips new book THE MARIAN CONSPIRACY (not
his choice of title), published by Macmillan, is a rollercoaster-ride of
revelations. It begins in the suburbs of Jerusalem with Graham visiting the
various sites connected with the life of Jesus and then focuses on the quest to
find the resting place of the Virgin Mary. Little by little he leads the reader
westwards to Britain, the only obvious haven for those escaping Roman authority
in the first century AD, and then on to the Isle of Anglesey. This was the
Druid stronghold until its sacking by the legions of the Emperor Nero in AD 61.
Graham’s conclusion is that there is a real likelihood that the Virgin
Mary ended her days on the island. Moreover, that her grave and earthly remains
existed on Anglesey and were guarded by individuals who preserved the knowledge
in secret through till medieval times. Moreover, that this guardian figure was
synonymous with the Grail guardian in the Grail romances. All these matters are
discussed in Graham’s lecture at the Questing Conference this year. The
strange thing here is that at the same time that Graham was looking for the
site of a certain holy well connected with the grave of the Virgin Mary in
1997, my colleague Richard Ward and I were searching Anglesey for the same well
for quite separate reasons. In light of this knowledge, and the sheer fact it
is a brilliant read, I recommend Graham’s book. Another important book I
read recently was THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOON by Ronald Hutton, who currently
occupies the Seat of History at the University of Bristol. It catalogues the
development and influences of modern pagan witchcraft, and shows that the main
protagonist by far was respected Egyptologist Margaret Murray. She produced two
seminal works THE WITCH CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE and GOD OF THE WITCHES, which
presented the theory that European folklore and seasonal festivals were a
survival of an age old witch religion. These ideas were taken literally by a
man named Gerald Gardner, who almost single-handedly created the modern pagan
witch religion (with a little help from the writings of occultist Aleister
Crowley and a Rosicrucian Theatre on the edge of the New Forest). What I found
most interesting was the influences that came to bear on the creation, or
‘revival’, of the witch cult. Throughout the nineteenth century
classicists had been elevating the role of gods and goddesses to that of major
aspects of the natural world, and setting up altars to them. Pan ceased to be
the god of shepherds as he had been in classical myth, but instead became the
regenerative power of nature – a symbol of male potency - while Diana, the
huntress, was seen as the expression of femininity both in nature and in
connection with the moon. Together they became the role models for the Horned
God and Lady of the witch religion in a manner that had no real historical
precedent. I have an interest in this subject as Essex, my home county,
produced two of the best known ‘cunning’ men of nineteenth-century
English history – James ‘Cunning’ Murrell, who lived in the
nearby town of Hadleigh, and George Pickingill, who lived in the village of
Canewdon. I have researched both characters, and the knowledge left
particularly by Murrell helps us understand the role of such individuals in
rural communities. Murrell was revered locally as being able to break witches
curses, cure animals, discover lost property, cast horoscopes, read
people’s minds and be in two places at once. He extenuated his reputation
by wearing a long frock coat, flat, wide-brimmed hard hat and thick metal
goggles like something out of a sci-fi film. Furthermore, he would wander the
Hadleigh downs (and Leigh-on-Sea) carrying a fancy umbrella on which was hooked
a frail basket in which herbs would be placed. Both are dealt with in
Hutton’s important work on this subject. For those living within easy
reach of Leigh-on-Sea, remember that on the first Monday of each month I run
public meetings under the name Earthquest at the Cobham Lodge Hotel, Cobham
Road, Westcliff-on-Sea. Doors open at 7.15 pm and admission is £2.50.
Subjects featured so far include Egypt, Atlantis, earth mysteries, ancient
technologies, questing, orgone and psi-tech experiments (with my colleague
Rodney Hale). See you at the Questing Conference. Chao, Andrew Collins
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 16:47:11 +0100
Hi listmembers
... Remeber a few weeks back I posted about the body found at Stonehenge, well
here is an update L O N D O N, July 14 - A mysterious execution some 1,300
years ago could force historians to rewrite the history of Stonehenge, and even
rethink their ideas about early English society, an archaeologist said today.
The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on the open downland of
Salisbury Plain 2 miles (3 kilometres) west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire,
in Southern England. (ABCNEWS.com/ Magellan Geographix) Mike Pitts believes the
bones of a decapitated Saxon man could shatter the established theory that
Stonehenge was abandoned as a relic about 1,500 BC, and show the site still
held a dark power over Britons about 700 AD. A Significant Beheading "This
man's execution was a unique event at a unique moment in British history,"
Pitts said, after carbon dating suggested the bones were from the late seventh
century. "To be important enough to be taken there for execution, the man
may have been a king or someone who transgressed early law in some severe
way." Pitts said. Stonehenge still draws thousands of visitors each year
to Salisbury Plain in southwest England, and modern-day druids have fought for
years for the right to worship at the stones on the summer solstice. Analysis
of the man's bones has shown that he was about five feet five inches tall (1.62
metres), and between 30 and 40 years old. Studies on his spine suggest he was
decapitated from behind, probably at an execution ceremony rather than as a
sacrifice, Pitts said. Clues of Societal Change "At the time this man was
killed, English was starting to be widely spoken, Christianity was being
adopted over paganism and the roots of our modern legal ideas of right and
wrong were emerging," Pitts said. "This body could yield vital clues
about our society at that time." The fact that the man was taken to
Stonehenge to be beheaded shows not only that the victim was not the average
Saxon but that the circle was still a special place, Pitts said.
"Stonehenge must still have been a place outside the usual boundaries of
life, a place associated with power and evil," Pitts said. The bones were
unearthed in 1923 but archaeologists thought they had been destroyed in
war-time bombing. They came to light again last year when Pitts stumbled across
the skull, spine and leg bones in a box in the basement of London's Natural
History Museum.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/stonehenge000714.html
Tracy
History-R-us listowner
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 20:28:11 +0100 From: "Tracy Norman"
If what is said in this article is true, then what is the chances of it being
the fact behind the myths in all other countries Greek Myths: Not Necessariliy
Mythical Neither an archaeologist nor a paleontologist herself, Adrienne Mayor
has nonetheless done some digging deep into the past and found literary and
artistic clues -- and not a few huge fossils -- that seem to explain the
inspiration for many of the giants, monsters and other strange creatures in the
mythology of antiquity. "I have discovered that if you take all the places
of Greek myths, those specific locales turn out to be abundant fossil
sites," Ms. Mayor, a classical folklorist and independent scholar, said in
an interview. "But there is also a lot of natural knowledge embedded in
those myths, showing that Greek perceptions about fossils were pretty amazing
for prescientific people." Her years of research thus challenge the widely
held view that natural historians in classical Greece and Rome lacked the
knowledge to interpret large vertebrate fossils as organic remains of the past.
That conceptual breakthrough, representing the start of the modern science of
paleontology, was supposedly made by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in
1806. Yet much like today's fossil hunters, Ms. Mayor found, ancient Greeks and
Romans collected and measured the petrified bones they encountered and
displayed them in temples and museums. They, too, recognized fossils as
evidence of past life, now extinct, anticipating Cuvier by more than 2,000
years. Still, the ancients often let their culture-bound imaginations run in
unscientific directions. In her book, "The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times," published in May by Princeton
University Press, Ms. Mayor draws on a close study of classical texts to show
that some of the more impressive and mysterious fossils were used as evidence
supporting existing myths or creating new ones. The Homeric legend of Heracles
rescuing Hesione by slaying the Monster of Troy, for example, may have a
paleontological origin. Ms. Mayor pointed out that in the earliest known
illustration of the Heracles legend, painted on a Corinthian vase, the
monster's skull closely matched that of an extinct giraffe. Such fossils are
plentiful on the Greek islands and western coast of Turkey and are mentioned in
classical literature. The vase painting from the sixth century B.C., Ms. Mayor
concluded, is most likely "the earliest artistic record of a vertebrate
fossil discovery." Fossils found and displayed in antiquity on the island
of Samos probably inspired the story of savage monsters called Neades, whose
reverberating bellows were said to tear the earth apart. The Greeks thus had a
neat explanation for two perplexing phenomena, the gigantic bones and the
earthquakes that frequently devastated their land. Other discoveries of huge
mammal bones were viewed as confirmation of the ancient Greek belief in
ancestral heroes as 15-foot giants. Mastodon fossils on Samos were hailed as
the remains of the war elephants Dionysus is supposed to have deployed in his
mythic battle with the Amazons. And where did the idea of the griffin come
from? Aristeas, a seventh-century B.C. traveler, wrote of the gold-seeking
Scythians who fought creatures in the Gobi Desert that resembled "lions
but with the beak and wings of an eagle." These fierce creatures
presumably nested on the ground and guarded deposits of gold. In reality, Ms.
Mayor concluded, the griffin "was based on illiterate nomads' observations
of dinosaur skeletons in the deserts of Central Asia." Ms. Mayor's success
in piecing together the griffin legend encouraged her to examine other Greek
and Roman texts for "the world's oldest written descriptions of fossil
finds," which had been overlooked by most classics scholars and historians
of science. On a visit to Samos, she studied a rich collection of prehistoric
bones and skulls with which the ancients must have been familiar. She began to
put texts and fossils together and saw the ancients in a new light. "Just
as a fossil is 'petrified time,' so is an ancient artifact or text," she
wrote. "The tasks of paleontologists and classical historians and
archaeologists are remarkably similar -- to excavate, decipher and bring to
life the tantalizing remnants of a time we will never see." Although Ms.
Mayor's interpretations may draw fire from some scholars, the response to her
book has so far been favorable. John R. Horner, a dinosaur paleontologist at
the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., has called it "the best
account ever concerning the real meaning of mythical creatures." In a
review in the journal Science, Dr. Mott T. Greene, a historian of geology at
the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., praised Ms. Mayor's
"well-documented contention that the ancients constructed their deep time
as we have constructed ours, through the discovery and analysis of the fossil
bones of extinct creatures." "If they told stories about these
fossils that differ from our own," Dr. Greene continued, "they
examined the fossils with the same techniques we employ today: comparative
anatomy, skeletal reconstruction, paleogeography and museum display." Art
historians think that Ms. Mayor may well have solved the puzzle of the
Corinthian vase depicting Heracles shooting arrows at the head of the monster
of the Troy legend. The vase, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
had mystified the experts because its monster does not conform to the
conventional serpentine image of Greek sea monsters. Some experts like Sir John
Boardman, an art historian at Oxford University in England, suspected that the
vase was the work of an incompetent artist. But when Ms. Mayor called attention
to the similarity between the monster and the skull of an extinct giraffe, Dr.
Boardman agreed and invited her to expand on this interpretation in an article,
which was published in the February issue of The Oxford Journal of Archaeology.
Paleontologists also agreed that the skull of an extinct giraffe, possibly
Samotherium, often found eroding out of rock outcrops in the region, may have
been the artist's model and perhaps even the inspiration for the original myth.
"This vase," Ms. Mayor wrote, "is valuable evidence for the role
that observations of fossilized animal remains played in ancient myths of
monsters." Dr. Kate A. Robson Brown, an anthropologist at the University
of Bristol in England, thinks that some of Ms. Mayor's fossil-myth connections
may be a stretch. As she noted in the current issue of Natural History
magazine, "Many cultures around the globe have colorful giant lore --
Norse fables and Australian creation stories come to mind -- without the
benefit of rich fossil deposits." Ms. Mayor said her study of ancient
texts revealed ample evidence of a "bone rush" among Greeks in the
fifth century B.C. Every discovery of huge bones, it seems, prompted
speculation that they belonged to this hero or that giant. Many of these finds
happened to occur, Ms. Mayor said, at places where the gods and giants of
mythology had met in battle. She found in a second-century A.D. geography by
the traveler Pausanias an account of the excitement created by the discovery of
bones of heroic proportions that were taken to be those of mighty Ajax, of
Trojan War legend. "Ajax's kneecaps were exactly the size of a discus for
the boys' pentathlon," Pausanias wrote. "Many scholars are not used
to perceiving natural knowledge expressed in mythological language," Ms.
Mayor said. "If the study of fossils was not mentioned by Aristotle or
Thucydides, and it wasn't, then it just didn't exist for many classicists and
ancient historians." But, in a recent lecture at Cornell University, Ms.
Mayor contended that bones of titanic mastodons at Samos inspired not just
myths but "earthshaking concepts in early paleontological thinking."
The story of the monstrous Neades, she said, "contains the germ of the
idea of extinction" long before Cuvier; these fossils were interpreted as
the remains of strange, oversized creatures that lived before humans, and were
no more. In time, after large Indian elephants became known, the myth of the
Neades was abandoned. The huge bones of Samos were then explained by invoking
the myth of Dionysus and the war elephants in battle against the Amazons. As
Ms. Mayor said, the first myth showed that the perceptive ancients were able to
relate a fossil species to living animals, well before modern paleontology. The
revised myth of the war elephants showed that they were responsive to new
zoological knowledge, adapting mythology the way scientists today sometimes
have to reshape theory.
