The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
28-12-2022
The ‘Tunisian Atlantis’, an ancient civilization under the sands of Africa
The ‘Tunisian Atlantis’, an ancient civilization under the sands of Africa
Over the centuries many stories related to the existence and mysterious disappearance of Atlantis have been written . That is why it is considered one of the most widespread and interesting myths of classical prehistory. According to the legend, this advanced civilization sank under the waters without leaving any trace.
Unfortunately, ruins or archaeological remains could never be located, suggesting its possible location somewhere on the planet. Although different personalities throughout history have published their research providing interesting data on the subject.
One of those characters was the famous Greek writer Plato, who described a probable place where Atlantis would have been . But he was not the only one who dared to do it, in recent times other researchers have done it too. As incredible as it may seem, there is a coincidence on these possible places, it is about what is currently Tunisia.
Evidence of the existence of a Tunisian Atlantis
The country that we know today as Tunisia , has one of the oldest historical records of humanity. Archaeological excavations carried out to the south revealed that the region was inhabited by people 100,000 years ago .
Hence, Tunisia has been the cradle of some of the most developed cultures and civilizations in Europe. It was also recognized and mentioned by both ancient Greek and Egyptian writers.
Even the prestigious philosopher Plato of Greece, 2,400 years ago, came to point out that in ancient Tunisia there was a specific place, where the extinct Atlantis could have been based. It is not a secret that Plato dedicated himself for many years to that unsuccessful search and the tests led him to that conclusion.
In particular, Plato was referring to a place that by his description corresponds to the current city of Tozeur, very close to the many salt lakes that exist in the region.
Modern scholars agree with Plato
Efforts to try to find the location of the disappeared Atlantis have lasted over time, involving people of different times and nationalities. There are two personalities who, in the 1920s, agreed with Plato, when mentioning a certain place in Tunisia as the location of the lost civilization.
One of them was the scholar Albert Herrmann, who by deduction managed to establish a connection between the Chott el Djerid salt lake , with the Tritonis lake mentioned by Plato in his investigations. According to several writings made by the Greek literati, they located said lake in some part of the south of present-day Tunisia.
On the other hand, Dr. Paul Borchardt , a great scholar of the 20s, toured Tunisia driven by his research to establish the location of Atlantis. After years of collecting information and comparing ancient data, he concluded that under the sands of that country was the lost civilization.
Specifically, he pointed out that it could have been found somewhere between the modern city of Gabes ( Tacapae ) and the dry lake of Tritonis or Chott el Djerid. Gabes’s roots are very ancient, so much so that the ancient Greeks mention her by name in several of their reviews.
The salty lakes of Tunisia: a great enigma
Borchardt ‘s research highlights that the Hammeina dry lake was possibly an offshoot of the Chott el Djerid. This led him to conclude, by simple deduction, that on some occasion this lake had the name ” The Lake of the Atlanteans “, which was later called Tritonis.
It is interesting to note that Paul Borchardt himself led, for some time, a series of excavations around the Gabes dry lakes. The results were surprising, since ruins of an ancient city were found , as well as parts of an irrigation system. Unfortunately he was forced to suspend the excavations.
The change in topography
The historical records of the region where Tunisia is currently located, has undergone great changes in its topography. This is pointed out by several historians, among whom is the Greek Diodorus Siculus . According to him, a cataclysmic event devastated that vast area of North Africa around the year 1250 BC. c.
These devastating earthquakes may be the same ones that caused the collapse during the so-called ” Bronze Age ” . They are also credited with being responsible for the appearance of the many salt lakes that are now dry, because seismic activity separated the great Gulf from the rest of the Mediterranean.
So far they are just theories based on many coincidences, but nothing concrete due to the lack of physical evidence. The truth is that Atlantis continues somewhere under the earth, it may really be in Tunisia.
Solomon and Sheba: Were a Famous Pharaoh and Queen the Real Protagonists in this Love Story?
Solomon and Sheba: Were a Famous Pharaoh and Queen the Real Protagonists in this Love Story?
The story of Solomon and Sheba is well known as one of love. But it is only when we learn their true identities that we see how much affection and adoration Solomon had for his favorite Queen. He literally moved mountains to express that love for her - well mountains of sand and soil to be precise. They still stand as long lines of great Hills today which we can look upon and sense a greater love than what went into the building of the Pyramids.
The Famous Meeting of Sheba and Solomon
Let us look back at that famous meeting when Sheba first entered Solomon’s Palace.
“She was bidden to enter the Palace, and when she saw it she thought it was a pool of water, and bared her legs. But Solomon said, ‘It is a palace paved with glass.’ Koran, Chapter of the Ant.
‘Solomon and the Queen of Sheba’ by Giovanni Demin.
“Steadying herself on Solomon’s arm, she bent down, and removing her sandals modestly lifted the hem of her robe, and stretched out a toe to test the water. The King was taken back with surprise, fooled automatically into a momentary belief that she really did believe a river in some way flowed through the hall.
Now it was his turn to express confusion. “It isn’t water. They are only glass tiles.” Then he saw that she was only teasing, and stammered, “Well, some of my guests have thought it very true to life. But it is well done isn’t it?” The Tutankhamen Code.
Fragments of glazed tiles depicting water, fish, reeds and birds have only ever been found in the ruins of one ancient Palace, that of Ymn Htp III at Malqata near Luxor.
This fact, along with a number of other finds in Luxor, are examined in “Out of Egypt” by the British/Egyptian historian Ahmed Osman and every-one of them points only to one man as having been the legendary King Solomon , namely the Pharaoh YmnHtp III.
We are told in the Book of 1 Kings that Solomon’s Temple and Palace were so grand and sumptuous that there has to be some archaeological evidence for them - yet nothing has ever been found in modern day Israel despite umpteen digs over more than a hundred years. The fabulous remains in Luxor not only match all we are told in the Bible, but many of the ancient walls and columns still stand, shouting out their message that these were built by the 18th Dynasty Kings David and Solomon, otherwise known in Ancient Egypt as Dayhut and Salim Amen.
Top: Artistic interpretation of Solomon’s Temple ( CC BY 4.0 ). Bottom: Temple of Amenhotep III, Luxor, Egypt.
I can only put the blindness of those who do not see down to a religious zeal that just will not allow any belief that the Bible time-line is out by four centuries or that Israel was once a large part of Egypt, a country that they have been taught to hate, even though the Bible itself places Israel in Egypt in the Book of 1 Samuel.
Solomon and Sheba: Pharaoh Ymn Htp III and Queen Etiye Azeb
Ahmed Osman not only identified both Kings but also Solomon’s father-in-law, Joseph. The evidence is so extensive that there cannot be any doubt about either of them. The full details of such proof can be studied in Osman’s books and, if one prefers a lighter approach, in my novel The Tutankhamen Code .
Apart from some 13 facts pointed out be Ahmed Osman which match quite precisely all we are told in the book of 1 Kings I have been fortunate in recognizing 11 more. When these are also taken into account then not one iota of doubt can remain. Solomon was the Pharaoh Ymn Htp III and the love of his life was his Queen Etiye Azeb, better known to us as Sheba. Here are a few of the most significant matches of my own finds with the Bible account.
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Gates of Paradise).
It was the Greek Egyptian historian Manethos who wrote, “Thus it came about that 80,000 unclean individuals were rounded up and dispatched to the stone quarries”. This is the same figure given in 1 Kings 5:15. The term ‘unclean’ was used to denigrate anyone not conforming to the writer’s own religious beliefs.
In year 10 of Solomon’s reign he married a foreign princess named Gilukhepa and a Marriage Scarab was issued with these words, “Gilukhipa, persons in her harim: 317 women”. 1 Kings 11:3 gives it as 300 concubines, a very close match.
A commemorative scarab of Amenhotep III. This scarab belongs to a class called the "marriage scarabs," which affirm the divine power of the king and the legitimacy of his wife, Tiye. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
The Bible tells us that Solomon’s father was King David. The father of Ymn Htp III was actually named in separate hieroglyphs as DHWT, which has to be the same for it would have been spoken something like ‘Dayhut’. A shortcut hieroglyph was occasionally used, hence a different translation of ‘DJHWT’. Like many other names this sometimes had the letter ‘Y’ added on the end just as we do in English and another suffix ‘Ms’ simply meant ‘Born of’.
The Kebra Nagast names MenyELEk as the eldest son of Solomon and that he was also known as David. MenyELEk has the very same meaning as YmnTwtAnkh, better known today as ‘King Tut’.
The Hall of Columns at Malqata, Luxor has the same length and breadth as the measurements given in 1 Kings 7:6, within two to three centimeters.
The clincher is in his name Ymn Htp III. Ymn, the God name for the setting Sun in the West was always written as ‘AMEN’, even in Greek letters, by Manethos who was still versant with the old Egyptian language. Hetep or Hotep was the Egyptian word for Peace or Rest, which at that time in Hebrew was Salim. As a Hebrew King of Egypt, his own family and his own people would have called him Salim Amen which evolved into Salomon then Solomon. Foreign Kings ruling other countries speaking other languages and for many generations is not that unusual. Guillaume I of England is a case in point as is Georg I of England (who never spoke English.)
Colossal statue of Amenhotep III in the British Museum.
Robert Feather in his “The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran” suggests that the Egyptian word ‘Heprew’ is the origin of the name Hebrew and this has to be true for the hieroglyph for Heprew (Creations) was a Scarab Beetle - in Greek ‘Scarabaeus’ - and this is what St. Ambrose called the mythical Ever Coming Son, IWSA - Iesous - in the 4th century AD.
More Evidence on Solomon and Sheba’s True Identities
Ralph Ellis tells us in his “Jesus Last of the Pharaohs” that the names of Biblical patriarchs are nearly all those of other Egyptian Kings and some are even spelled exactly the same such as the Pharaoh Jacob. But there were also Kings called Joshua, Abel, Cain, Abram, Salah, Isaac, as well as Jacob, David, and Solomon.
Ahmed Osman also notes in his book that both the Koran and Jewish traditions have it that Joseph’s brothers entered the City by different gates. Ancient Thebes, now Luxor, was renowned for its many Gates and Pylons and there wasn’t another city in those days that could compare.
It is quite surprising that not one Egyptologist has ever noticed the legend found by Sir Wallis Budge which tells us that Solomon’s Queen was an Abyssinian girl named Eteye Azeb and then realized that the name of Ymn Htp III’s Queen they translate as ‘Tiye’ should begin with an ‘E’. This vowel was never written in Egyptian but we now know that it was from the Ethiopian spelling. Syllables were often reversed in writing so Azeb has to be Zeba or Sheba. The Kebra Nagast even tells us that Solomon and Eteye’s son was called Meny EL Ek and that he was also known as ‘David’ which is ‘Dwd’ in Hebrew and ‘Twt’ or Tut in Egyptian. Both EL and TWT were seen as Moon Gods, which explains the variation from Ymn Twt Ankh to Meny EL Ek.
We do know that the mother of Etiye, namely Tuya or Etuya, the wife of Joseph, came from the south and what is today Northern Sudan. That places a question mark over the lovely story told by Ahmed Osman about Ymn Htp having a pleasure lake built for Etiye at Zarw and presenting her with a Summer Palace. The loving Royal Couple ‘sailed thereon in the Royal Barge ‘Aten Gleams’. Osman then places Zarw as being somewhat east of the Suez Canal, which would have been close to her Israelite relatives in Goshen.
A Question of Location
The problem with that location is that the King did build a lake in front of her Palace at Malqata, with a ‘T’ shaped channel running from the Nile at Luxor and terminating in a large harbor by the Palace. A marriage scarab commemorating this wonderful gift from the King to his wife gives its length as 3,700 cubits (about 1,020 yards), and breadth about 700 cubits. One kilometer is 1093.61 yards, which is near enough the same.
Today a long line of hills marks the route of the Channel from the Nile to Malqata, each one once topped with a glorious shining Temple. Truly a Gift of Great Love.
Top Image: The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.
From an Ox to an “A”: The Ancient Egyptian Origins of the Latin Alphabet
From an Ox to an “A”: The Ancient Egyptian Origins of the Latin Alphabet
As crazy as it sounds, it’s now well attested that the letter “A” started out its evolution as the Egyptian hieroglyph for an ox. But its truly mind-blowing transformation came when turquoise miners in ancient Egypt adapted the hieroglyph, turning it into graffiti. This seemingly unimportant simplification actually spearheaded the creation of syllabic alphabets, such as the Latin alphabet, used all over the world today.
But who were these miners and why did they do this? The story starts in Egypt almost 4,000 years ago when the turquoise mines on the Sinai Peninsula gained importance on an industrial scale. Many people from different strata of Egypt’s Bronze Age society were involved in mining activities at this mountainous location now known as Serâbît el-Khâdim. In fact, there were many mining sites for different raw materials all over the Sinai Peninsula making it a quarrying hub.
From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to the Latin Alphabet
At that time, around 1900 BC, the Egyptian language was written using hieroglyphs. These were mostly logographic which meant each symbol represented a word rather than a sound. There were thousands of Egyptian hieroglyphs making learning, memorizing and writing them a specialist skill.
Similarly, the Bronze Age Mesopotamians wrote their Sumerian language using cuneiform pictographs on clay tablets. In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, the written language played a number of different roles from the cultic to the profane. Dedications to deities, pharaohs and kings were common, as were records of produce and land ownership.
However, in spite of the widespread use of these early writing systems , they were still incredibly complicated. It was the invention of the alphabetic system that was to revolutionize the way people could read and write because it simplified the whole process of literacy.
Temple of Hathor in Serâbît el-Khâdim in Egypt. (Felipe Ligeiro FL / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
Graffiti That Revolutionized Literacy: The Temple of Hathor in Serâbît el-Khâdim
Close to the Serâbît el-Khâdim mines, located in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, a temple to Hathor was in use for 800 years and offered spiritual protection to those working in them. The temple went through several phases of reconstruction, taking a central role in the lives of those who spent time or passed through this desert location.
This large sanctuary consisted of a processional avenue, multiple buildings and rooms and many stelae engraved with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Priests, miners, officials, interpreters, scribes and others all left inscriptions at the temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor who was known as the “mistress of turquoise,” amongst her other epithets.
Serâbît el-Khâdim was first discovered in 1762. Over the next hundred years, various visits were made by antiquarians who were interested in the area, especially after Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered in 1822. It was during an expedition to the abandoned mines and the temple in 1905 that two Egyptologists realized they had made an exceptional discovery. The married couple William and Hilda Flinders Petrie noticed graffiti in and around the mines which appeared to be a different script to the Egyptian hieroglyphs etched all over the site.
During their visit they documented, mapped and photographed fourteen turquoise mines, circular enclosures near the temple and the temple itself. References to many different pharaohs were found which showed how long the area had been in use, as well as tools, altars, figurines, amulets, pottery, seals and jewelry.
The unusual graffiti symbols were on fallen stones in the vicinity of the mines, as well as on several statues within the temple grounds. This was in contrast to the more formal stelae decorated with finely carved hieroglyphs leading up to the temple. There were very few etchings to work with compared to the many hieroglyphic inscriptions, but Petrie analyzed what there were and became convinced they had found the earliest evidence for an alphabetic system.
The Irish-born British Egyptologist Hilda Petrie and her husband the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie were the first to notice the graffiti markings at Serâbît el-Khâdim. ( Public domain )
Ancient Graffiti as Earliest Evidence of an Alphabetic System
It took until 1916 for the graffiti to be translated by fellow Egyptologist Alan Gardiner. He noticed the repeated use of several characters that he thought spelled out the word Baalat when considered phonetically. In Canaanite this meant “the mistress” which he took to be the equivalent to the Egyptian goddess Hathor.
But the real key to understanding these inscriptions came when he analyzed bilingual engravings etched onto the sides of a tiny sphinx figurine found in the temple. On one side there was an inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs saying “the beloved of Hathor,” while on the side there was an inscription in the strange graffiti saying “the beloved of Baalat.”
This was the Rosetta Stone of the day, but it went further than translating a second language. It showed that the second language was expressed in an adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphs and was being used syllabically. It soon became apparent that Petrie’s hunch had been correct. Here was a simplified version of Egyptian hieroglyphs where each character had been used to represent a sound rather than a word. It was the earliest known syllabic script and was celebrated as the potential forerunner to alphabetic systems in general.
Now known by experts as Proto-Sinaitic, it was to evolve and spread through trade and a significant input from the Phoenicians. But who drew the graffiti and exactly when they did it is still debated. It’s most likely that these graffiti first appeared during the reign of Amenemhet III in the middle Bronze Age. The general consensus is that it was created by Asiatic people, most likely of Caananite origin hence the inscriptions featuring Baalat.
The stelae with hieroglyphic dedications by interpreters also suggest that people speaking different languages were making trips to the mines. At that time in Egypt, many Asiatic people lived in the eastern delta region and there are records of Egyptians discussing their mixed parentage. So it’s perfectly possible that these groups were part of the expeditions to the mines recorded as having taken place.
A Serabit inscription found by Flinders Petrie at Serâbît el-Khâdim which spell out the name of the goddess Baalat. ( Public domain )
Semi-Literate Origins of a Revolutionary Concept
Whether the people writing the graffiti were learned or not is another debatable point. It's been argued that they were probably drawn by semi-literate people who were not well-versed in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and so used this abstract version to express themselves in their own language. The crude and inconsistent forms of these early letters and their location on random rocks, certainly lend weight to this theory.
But there are experts who think it’s just as likely these workers were skilled and educated. If it was barely literate mine workers who invented the alphabet for their own personal use, then it’s a remarkable accident of history because it completely changed the way language is written and read in many countries and cultures.
In 1993, similar inscriptions to those at Serâbît were discovered in the Wadi el-Hôl near Luxor. The inscriptions consisted of two lines carved into limestone rocks in the valley. At first it was thought they might be older than those at Serâbît, but experts now think that they came later so it’s possible that miners from Serâbît, who were familiar with the script, travelled to Wadi el-Hôl.
The graffiti went through several transformations over a long period before forming the base of multiple alphabets in use today. Experts aren’t clear on exactly when and how these symbols travelled outside of the Sinai Peninsula to take center stage in the future of literacy. But it’s certain it took many years.
The Evolution of Egyptian Hieroglyphs into the Latin Alphabet
What’s fascinating is to see how certain Egyptian hieroglyphs evolved via this Proto-Sinatic script into the Latin letters used today. For example, the letter “B” was the Egyptian hieroglyph for a house. The letter “H” started its life as the Egyptian hieroglyph for a fence and the letter “K” originated as the Egyptian hieroglyph for a hand. The Proto-Sinaitic, Ugaritic, Phoenician and Greek alphabets all stemmed from these early symbols and made their changes to them.
Interestingly, the early alphabets were abjads, which means they only had consonants. In Phoenician their version of the Egyptian hieroglyph for an ox represented a glottal stop, something that was of no benefit to the Greeks when they started to use the alphabet. Therefore, they changed the Phoenician letter known as “aleph” into the letter “alpha” and made it represent the vowel sound “a.”
Anyone who studies and analyses the past knows how important written language is. Texts and inscriptions give a lot of insight into the historic period that is unfortunately absent in the Neolithic and earlier. But, if it wasn’t for the introduction of the syllabic alphabet, it’s possible even less textual evidence from the past few thousands years would exist.
Of course, other factors helped the proliferation of the written language. The manufacture of paper, the improvement in education and the invention of the printing press to name but a few. However, it's clear that the syllabic alphabet made a significant contribution to the way information was recorded and passed on from the end of the Bronze Age onwards.
The origins and evolution of alphabetic systems and the Latin alphabet are complex subjects quite simplified here. But the point is that many useful inventions often start as happy accidents of history. Spoken languages also have long and convoluted stories which cannot be isolated from the multitude of factors that influenced their development.
Top image: Archaeologists have deciphered what could be the origins of the Latin alphabet in graffiti found at the Temple of Hathor near the Serâbît el-Khâdim mines. Serâbît el-Khâdim in the background and the evolution of the letter “A” in the foreground.
Colless, B.E. (2014). The Origin of the Alphabet: An Examination of the Goldwasser Hypothesis. Antiguo Oriente: cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente , (12), pp.71-104.
Gardiner, A.H. (1916). The Egyptian origin of the Semitic alphabet. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology , 3(1), pp.1-16.
Goldwasser, O. (2010). How the Alphabet was Born from Hieroglyphs. Biblical Archaeology Review, 36/2 pp. 40-53.
Mumford, G. (2015). The Sinai Peninsula and its environs: Our changing perceptions of a pivotal land bridge between Egypt, the Levant, and Arabia. ASAA Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 7(1), pp. 1-24.
It sometimes seems you can’t throw a stone in Central America without hitting a spot where there was once a Maya city, Maya temple or other hidden evidence of this civilization that once numbered in the millions and was noted for its architecture, highly developed writing system, art, mathematics, calendar and other amazing and advanced characteristics which were lost when their lands were invaded by the Europeans and their history was rewritten by them. While excavation and jungle clearing for development has revealed some of its lost past, much of the Maya culture is hidden under soil or thick vegetation.
LiDAR image showing triadic structures in the civic center of El Mirador.
That is why the new discovery in Guatemala is so significant – a geographically vast network of hundreds of long-lost settlements from 2,000 years ago has been found in the northern part of that country using LiDAR - "laser imaging, detection, and ranging" beamed from airplanes to create 3D images of hidden structures. This discover “challenges the old notion of sparse early human occupation” as it is comprised of roads, canals, a pyramid and dozens of ballcourts indicating this was a wealthy culture with leisure time for sports. What else is in this ancient Maya lost-and-found box called Guatemala?
The forests of Central America can hide a lot.
“LiDAR coverage of a large contiguous area within the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin (MCKB) of northern Guatemala has identified a concentration of Preclassic Maya sites (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 150) connected by causeways, forming a web of implied social, political, and economic interactions.”
In a new study published recently in the journal Cambridge Core. Richard Hansen, an archaeologist at Idaho State University and the project director, introduces the Mirador Basin Project - one of the largest, contiguous, regional LiDAR studies ever done on the Maya Lowlands region of central America that includes parts of Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. Hansen and his team spent years flying airborne LiDAR devices over the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin at altitudes of about 2,000 feet. The MCKB area is predominantly low-lying swamps, known as bajos, fed by rainfall on the surrounding hills. Infrared satellite images of the swampland taken in 1992 hinted that the bajo vegetation and the tropical forests on the hills were hiding something – but those same jungles and swamps made it nearly impossible for archeologists to get there, let alone do a proper job of excavating and searching for signs of Maya settlements. LiDAR has become a proven and valuable technique for penetrating this thick covers without damaging them and revealing detailed three-dimensional images of what lies underneath. And what lies underneath in the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin is much more than Hansen and his colleagues expected to find.
“The LiDAR survey revealed an extraordinary density and distribution of Maya sites concentrated in the MCKB, many of them linked directly or indirectly by a vast causeway network. Using hillshade models derived from a LiDAR DEM, at present 775 ancient Maya settlements (defined as an architectural cluster) have been identified within the southern lowland MCKB, of which 581 are unnamed. An additional 189 ancient Maya settlements of varying sizes were identified within the geomorphological borders of the southern MCKB, including the upland karst landscape along the Mirador Anticline, for a total of 964 settlements (of all periods), of which 645 are unnamed as yet.”
For starters, the LiDAR showed a network of 964 settlements in the basin, dating from around 1000 BCE to 150 CE – the Middle and Late Pre-Classic periods of the Maya civilization. The settlements or small villages were far from isolated from each other – the LiDAR shows them to be connected by causeways, dams, dikes, canals, common reservoirs, and common bajo areas in and around the center of the settlements as well as on their borders. The LiDAR scans showed that some settlements were so close and so well-connected to each other, as well as defined by swamp boundaries, they could be considered to be mega-settlements – cities, towns and larger villages numbering around 417. Besides the canals, the archeologists also identified 110 miles of raised roads which illustrated what a vast operation this was.
“(The) elevated Preclassic causeways suggest labor investments that defy organizational capabilities of lesser polities and potentially portray the strategies of governance in the Preclassic period. Settlement distributions, architectural continuities, chronological contemporaneity, and volumetric considerations of sites provide evidence for early centralized administrative and socio-economic strategies within a defined geographical region.”
But wait … there’s more!
The sites in the MCKB have a combined total of at least 30 ballcourts scattered throughout the settlements. The one excavated at Tintal is one of the larger ballcourts in the MCKB. The ballcourts in the MCKB consist of two parallel structures, often in a north–south axis, and measure between 30 and 60 feet long. The site of El Mirador has four small ballcourts and three larger ones in its Great Central Acropolis. IN addition to the numerous ballcourts, the LiDAR scan found a royal throne, specialized ceremonial sunken plazas, elaborate cosmological iconography, reservoirs and hydraulic systems, and massive platforms and constructions. All of this points to the Great Central Acropolis being the seat of power of the rulers in this area.
What else is hidden in the Guatemalan swamps and jungles?
Finally, the LiDAR revealed many more details of the pyramid of Danta in El Mirador. La Danta had three continuous elevated platforms and the archeologists estimated the surface was covered with 205,508 limestone blocks measuring an average size of 1.30 × 0.45 × 0.40 m (4.25 x 1.5 x 1.3 feet) – a mass that they estimate would have required 158 workers working continuously for five years just to quarry. Then, depending on the bedrock below the pyramid, it would have required 6 million to 10 million person-days of labor to build. That would need a high level of organization and management to accomplish – yet another trait of the Maya culture that has been lost in the retelling of its history. As the study concludes:
“The skeleton of the ancient political and economic structure as a kingdom-state in the Middle and Late Preclassic periods has a tantalizing presence in the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin.”
Ancient Mayan drawings carved on the stone wall.
Pictured: a map of the sites in the Mirador–Calakmul Karst Basin (Image: Hansen et al. / Ancient Mesoamerica)
A 3D LiDAR view showing of the pyramidal complex at La Danta
(Image: Hansen et al. / Ancient Mesoamerica)
LiDAR revealed hundreds of settlements — some sporting pyramids, platforms and ball courts
(Image: Hansen et al. / Ancient Mesoamerica)
Pictured: Examples of some of the causeways linking the sites
(Image: Hansen et al. / Ancient Mesoamerica)
The Maya are so much more than a calendar and some ballcourts. Let’s hope these LiDAR studies are allowed to continue and result in the preservation of their ancient structures and their history.
MENSELIJKE EVOLUTIE GAAT DOOR: NIEUWE GENEN ONTDEKT IN DNA DIE 'SPONTAAN' ZIJN ONTSTAAN
MENSELIJKE EVOLUTIE GAAT DOOR: NIEUWE GENEN ONTDEKT IN DNA DIE 'SPONTAAN' ZIJN ONTSTAAN
Jeannette Kras
De mens en de chimpansee gingen een kleine 7 miljoen jaar geleden elk hun eigen weg. Wij splitsten ons af, maar blijven tot op de dag van vandaag door-evolueren.
Nieuwe genen kunnen ontstaan door duplicatie, waarbij een deel van het genetisch materiaal op een chromosoom verdubbelt en het chromosoom langer maakt. Genetische duplicatie zorgt voor veranderingen in het genoom en is een belangrijke motor in de evolutie. Nieuwe genen kunnen echter ook ‘spontaan’ ontstaan uit kleine stukjes van ons DNA.
Genduplicatie Biomedische wetenschappers uit Griekenland en Ierland hebben 155 nieuwe genen geïdentificeerd in het menselijke genenpakket, die schijnbaar uit het niets toegevoegd zijn aan ons DNA. Sommigen van deze ‘nieuwe’ genen vinden hun oorsprong in lang vervlogen tijden, toen zoogdieren nog niet zo lang op aarde rondliepen. Enkele anderen van deze ‘microgenen’ lijken verband te houden met ziekten die specifiek zijn voor de mens.
“Dit project begon in 2017 omdat ik geïnteresseerd was in de evolutie van nieuwe genen en wilde uitzoeken hoe deze genen ontstaan”, zegt hoofdauteur Nikolaos Vakirlis. “We hebben het project een paar jaar noodgedwongen in de ijskast gezet, maar toen er een andere studie werd gepubliceerd, met een aantal zeer interessante nieuwe gegevens, konden we verder met ons onderzoek.”
Spontaan ontstaan Het onderzoeksteam maakte gebruik van een eerder gepubliceerde dataset van relevante nieuwe genen en maakte zo een voorouderlijk overzicht waarin het DNA van mensen is vergeleken met andere gewervelde diersoorten. Ze legden de genomen over elkaar heen en ontdekten dat er 155 ‘nieuwe’ genen ooit spontaan zijn ontstaan uit specifieke kleine DNA-fragmenten. De onderzoekers wilden meer weten over deze interessante ontdekking. Wat is dit voor genetische informatie?
“Het was fascinerend om zo’n totaal nieuw onderwerp aan te snijden en te onderzoeken”, zegt de Ierse onderzoeker Aoife McLysaght van het Trinity College in Dublin. “Als je je steeds verder gaat verdiepen in deze kleine stukjes DNA, merk je dat het werk steeds verder gaat richting de randen van wat nog analyseerbaar is. Het is lastig om in te schatten in hoeverre de onderzochte genen en genoomsequenties biologisch betekenisvol zijn. Dat is een enorme uitdaging.”
Patronen vinden Van deze 155 nieuwe genen zijn er 44 gelinkt aan allerhande verschillende problemen met celgroei. Het lijkt erop dat deze genen een belangrijke schakel zijn in het behoud van een gezond celleven. Aangezien het om menselijke genen gaat, zijn directe testen moeilijk uit te voeren. Wetenschappers moeten dus een andere manier vinden om erachter te komen welke effecten deze nieuwe genen op het menselijk lichaam kunnen hebben. Vakirlis en zijn team richtten zich op patronen in het DNA die erop kunnen wijzen of dit soort genen een rol spelen bij specifieke ziekten.
Drie van deze 155 nieuw gevonden genen bleken DNA-markers te hebben die gelinkt zijn aan erfelijke ziekten zoals spierdystrofie, retinitis pigmentosa (ernstige oogafwijking) en het Alazami-syndroom (groeistoornis). Naast genen met een link naar aandoeningen vonden de onderzoekers ook een nieuw gen dat gekoppeld is aan de ontwikkeling van menselijk hartweefsel. Dit gen ontstond direct nadat mens en chimpansee zich afsplitsten van de gorilla en laat mooi zien hoe snel een gen kan evolueren om essentieel te worden voor de bouw van een organisme.
Verborgen schatten “Er is nog veel werk te doen. Het lijkt me erg interessant om in toekomstige studies dieper in te gaan op deze microgenen en beter te begrijpen waar ze toe in staat zijn en of ze direct betrokken kunnen zijn bij welke ziekte dan ook”, zegt Vakirlis.
“Het is verleidelijk om deze genen te negeren, omdat ze zo moeilijk te bestuderen zijn. Het wordt echter meer en meer duidelijk dat de wetenschap zijn ogen niet mag sluiten voor deze fascinerende stukjes erfelijk materiaal”, aldus McLysaght. “Als onze aannames kloppen en we voort kunnen borduren op de conclusies uit deze studie, dan zijn er nog veel meer van dit soort relevante zaken diep verborgen in het menselijk genoom, die erop wachten om ontdekt te worden.”
Inscription Finally Confirms Biblical Record of Hezekiah’s Tunnel
Inscription Finally Confirms Biblical Record of Hezekiah’s Tunnel
Two Israeli archaeologists have successfully deciphered an 8th century BC inscription that was left on a wall in an underground tunnel located just outside the walls of the City of David (ancient Jerusalem). The inscription references the deeds of the legendary King Hezekiah , matching certain passages from the Book of Kings and Book of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible.
The task of deciphering the enigmatic lines, which were written in Old Hebrew script, was completed by Professor Gershon Galil, head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History at Haifa University, and Eli Shukron from the Bible and Ancient History research institute.
According to Galil, the inscriptions include a summation of the King’s primary accomplishments during the first 17 years of his kingship, which began in the late 8th century BC and continued into the early 7th century BC. These inscriptions list Hezekiah’s accomplishments as an infrastructure builder, religious and political leader, military conqueror and accumulator of wealth.
Because of its age and contents, the inscription represents a one-of-a-kind discovery within the context of Israeli archaeology.
“These are actually the earliest manuscripts of the Bible,” Galil said in the Jerusalem Post . “They predate the Ketef Hinnom silver amulets by about 100 years and theDead Sea Scrolls by hundreds of years. They also support the claim that scriptures in the Book of Kings are based on texts originating from chronicles and royal inscriptions, and that the Bible reflects historical reality and not imagination.”
Confirming Hezekiah’s Construction of the Siloam Tunnel
One of the events specifically referenced in the stone tablet’s inscription is the Siloam Tunnel water project, a celebrated infrastructure initiative that represents one of the most remarkable engineering feats of the ancient world.
The tunnel, which covered 1750 feet (533 meters), was designed to siphon waters from the Gihon Spring outside the walls of the City of David to the Pool of Siloam inside those walls. The construction of the tunnel was believed to have been a response to the military threat presented by the Assyrians during Hezekiah’s reign. In case the City of David were to come under siege, the tunnel would guarantee continued access to fresh water from outside the city.
The theory that King Hezekiah ordered the construction of the Siloam Tunnel water project has been widely accepted, but still considered unproven. Some academics have suggested the tunnel was actually built 100 years before the time of Hezekiah. But the newly decoded inscriptions would seem to put the issue to rest once and for all.
“Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, made the pool and the conduit, in the seventeenth year, in the second (day), in the fourth (month),” the deciphered inscription says in its first two lines.
By Galil’s calculation, this means it was completed in the year 709 BC. Hezekiah is believed to have ascended to the throne in about 726 BC, so it seems he must have ordered the construction of the tunnel in the very early days of his reign.
Left; Hezekiah's Tunnel ( Tamar Hayardeni/ CC BY 3.0 ) Right; Hand-colored photo/print of the site of the Pool of Siloam. (c. 1865)
The Gihon Spring was an underground water source located outside the walls of the ancient City of David (ancient Jerusalem). Its presence made the settlement of the City possible, and it was connected to the areas of settlement by a series of tunnels that allowed access to the spring in some cases and diversion of its water flow in others.
The story of how the Siloam Tunnel was built was revealed in 1880, when explorers in the now-dry underground aqueduct found an inscription on a wall that described the process in detail. But this inscription didn’t contain any text that would prove conclusively that it was built during the time of Hezekiah, as the Bible states in the Book of Kings and Book of Chronicles.
In 1909, another set of engravings was found on a rock wall in an access tunnel leading to the entrance of the Siloam Tunnel. But on initial examination this appeared to include only the frames used to surround inscriptions, with nothing written inside of them. The final verdict was that someone had intended to inscribe something here, but for one reason or another had never gotten around to it.
But Eli Shukron, long recognized as one of the most knowledgeable of all the archaeologists who’ve performed excavations in ancient Jerusalem, wasn’t so sure. He believed there might be faint inscriptions inside the frames that had not previously been detected, because they weren’t obvious to the naked eye. To prove his theory, Shukron recruited Gerston Galil to help him study the rock wall engravings more carefully.
“We took high-quality photos of these ‘frames,’ Professor Galil explained. “It soon became clear that there were indeed exciting and surprising texts there.”
Through their enterprising work, the Israeli archaeologists overturned a consensus that had held sway for more than a century.
“It turned out that there is an extremely impressive inscription there. Though eroded by time, the vast majority of the letters are legible,” Galil said.
In total the newly discovered inscriptions included 11 lines of text, which the archaeologists were able to comprehend in their entirety.
Galil explained that the ancient text was divided into five sections, arranged in literary rather than chronological order. These included the title of the inscription, referencing King Hezekiah, an accounting of his construction of the Siloam water project, a brief mention of his most notable military success (“he smote the Philistines from Ekron to Gaza”), lines about his actions as a religious reformer, and finally a boast about his wealth and the wealth of his kingdom, describing how he’d accumulated “a lot of silver and gold, perfumes and good ointment” in his treasure houses.
“This is an extremely important discovery that changes [some basic assumptions of] research, since until today it was commonly accepted that the kings of Israel and Judah, unlike the kings of the ancient Middle East, did not make themselves royal inscriptions and monuments… to commemorate their achievements,” Galil said.
Even More Confirmatory Evidence Emerges
The results of this new analysis seem conclusive. But Professors Galil and Shukron have produced an additional piece of evidence linking Hezekiah with the Siloam Tunnel . This is in the form of a small rock tablet, which contains a short inscription in Old Hebrew script that the two archaeologists were able to recently decipher, after more than a decade of determined effort.
Hezekiah inscription in Jerusalem
(Photo: Vladimir Neichin, Elad foundation)
The palm-sized tablet was discovered by Eli Shukron and another colleague in a man-made pool inside the Siloam Tunnel in 2007. It was mixed in with a collection of pottery shards that were dated to the 8th century BC.
The artifact contained just two lines of inscribed text, which Galil and Shukron have now translated into modern language. According to the archaeologists, this ancient writing says the following:
“Hezekiah built the pool in Jerusalem.”
So in a very short period of time, the same two archaeologists have produced two separate translations of ancient writings that show King Hezekiah was indeed responsible for the construction of the Siloam water project, as most scholars have long believed.
“In these new inscriptions, there are answers to many issues that scholars have debated for years,” Professor Galil said, speaking of the results of his and Professor Shukron’s work in total. “The inscriptions are evidence that Hezekiah carried out a comprehensive reform (before 709 BC) and even that he conquered Philistia, especially Ekron, and stationed soldiers there (in 712 BC). Moreover, Hezekiah is indeed the king who built the pool and the Siloam Tunnel and not others.”
The contents of the inscriptions and the story of how they were discovered and eventually deciphered will be revealed in full in an upcoming book entitled “The Inscriptions of Hezekiah King of Judah,” which Galil and Shukron will be co-authoring.
Top image:Photo of a replica of the previous Hezekiah’s tunnel inscription
Untouched and uɴʟooтᴇᴅ 4,400-yr-old тoмʙ of Egyptian High Priest Discovered
Untouched and uɴʟooтᴇᴅ 4,400-yr-old тoмʙ of Egyptian High Priest Discovered
Archaeologists in Egypt have made a new tomb discovery — the final resting place of a high priest, untouched for 4,400 years, decorated with hieroglyphics. The secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, described the find as “one of a kind in the last decades.”
The tomb was found buried in a ridge at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara.
It was untouched and unlooted. Officials say they expect more discoveries when archaeologists further excavate the site in the months to come.
The well-preserved tomb is decorated with scenes showing the royal priest alongside his mother, wife and other members of his family, the ministry said in a statement.
The high priest was devoted to his mother, evidence shows. “He mentions the name of his mother almost everywhere here,” said Waziri in an interview, pointing to the dozens of hieroglyphics, statues, and drawings.
“The colour is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old,” he added.
The high priest “Wahtye” served during the Fifth Dynasty reign of King Neferirkare (between 2500-2300 BC), at the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt. In addition to the name of the deceased, hieroglyphs carved into the stone above the tomb’s door reveal his multiple titles.
Saqqara pyramid of Djoser in Egypt.
The grave’s rectangular gallery is said to be covered in painted reliefs, sculptures, and inscriptions, all in excellent shape considering how much time has passed.
The reliefs depict Wahtye himself, his wife Weret Ptah, and his mother Merit Meen, as well as everyday activities that include hunting and sailing and manufacturing goods such as pottery, according to National Geographic.
The team of Egyptian archaeologists found five shafts in the tombs. They had removed a last layer of debris from the tomb on December 13, 2018, and found five shafts inside, Waziri said.
Pyramid of Djoser (Stepped pyramid), an archaeological remaining in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt.
One of the shafts was unsealed with nothing inside, but the other four were sealed. They are expecting to make discoveries when they excavate those shafts. He was hopeful about one shaft in particular.
“I can imagine that all of the objects can be found in this area,” he said in an interview, pointing at one of the sealed shafts. “This shaft should lead to a coffin or a sarcophagus of the owner of the tomb.”
The tomb is 33 feet long, 9 feet wide, and just under 10 feet high, Waziri said.
This picture taken on December 15, 2018, shows a general view of a newly-discovered tomb belonging to the high priest ‘Wahtye’ who served during the 5th dynasty reign of King Neferirkare (between 2500-2300 BC), at the Saqqara necropolis, 30 kilometres south of the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Various drawings depict “the manufacturing of pottery and wine, making the religious offerings, musical performances, boats sailing, the manufacturing of the funerary furniture, and hunting,” according to the site Egypt Today. Also, NPR is reporting that the Saqqara site is part of a larger complex where archaeologists have discovered art and architecture that yield insight into daily life in ancient Egypt.
The Fifth Dynasty ruled Egypt from about 2500 BC to 2350 BC, not long after the great pyramid of Giza was constructed.
Giza pyramids.
Saqqara served as the necropolis for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt for over 2 millennia.
Ancient Egyptians mummified humans to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, and animal mummies were used as religious offerings.
The rate of discoveries seems to be increasing. In November 2018, archaeologists unearthed eight new limestone sarcophagi containing mummies at a site that is 25 miles south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry said the mummies were dated to the Late Period (664-332 BC) and have an outer layer of cartonnage — papyrus or linen which is covered in plaster — decorated with a painted human form. Three of the mummies are well-preserved.
Images show the sarcophagus painted with the colours deep ochre and blue. Moreover, days before the eight mummies were found, the perfectly-preserved mummy of a woman was found inside a coffin in Egypt dating back more than 3,000 years.
That sarcophagus was opened on November 24th, which was one of two coffins discovered in El-Assasif, Luxor, on the bank of the Nile.
Researchers have discovered another 168 geoglyphs made in the soil of Peru's Nazca Desert, known as the Nazca lines.
The newly-discovered drawings – identified by a team at Yamagata University in Japan – depict humans, camelids, birds, killer whales, felines and snakes.
One of the human drawings looks like Homer Simpson, with big cartoon eyes and a patch of what looks like stubble around the mouth.
These 168 newly-found geoglyphs are thought to date between 100 BC and AD 300, according to experts, but other Nazca lines may go back even further to 400 BC.
More than 160 mysterious Nazca geoglyphs are discovered in Peru - including a Homer Simpson-style person (pictured)
These newly-found 168 geoglyphs are thought to date between 100 BC and AD 300, according to the Yamagata University experts
The Nazca lines
The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru.
They extend over an area of nearly 190 square miles (500 square km).
Most of the Nazca Lines were constructed more than 2,000 years ago by the people of the Nazca culture (c. 200 BCE-600 CE), though some clearly predate the Nazca and are considered to be the work of the earlier Paracas culture.
Subjects of the Nazca-made lines are generally plants and animals such as a monkey, a killer whale, a bird resembling a condor, a hummingbird, a pelican, a spider and various flowers, trees, and other plants - as well as geometric shapes, including triangles, trapezoids and spirals.
Source: Encyclopædia Britannica
Photos released by Yamagata University show some of the new discoveries, with lines manually added on the images to emphasize the original lines, which ahve faded due to erosion.
Yamagata University is working in collaboration with the IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center in New York to scan aerial images of the Peruvian site with artificial intelligence (AI).
It's thought AI can identify markings in the landscape that the human eye would otherwise miss.
'By using the newly discovered geoglyphs for AI analysis, Yamagata University aims to clarify the distribution patterns of the geoglyphs,' the university said in a statement.
'The results of this research will also be used for geoglyph conservation activities.'
The Nazca lines of Peru have fascinated archaeologists for centuries.
They are a group of geoglyphs – large motifs made in the ground – located in the Nazca Desert of southern Peru.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site stretches over an area of nearly 190 square miles between the towns of Nazca and Palpa, about 249 miles (400 km) south of Lima.
Archaeological surveys have previously found wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines, supporting a theory that ancient people used simple tools and surveying equipment to construct the lines.
Some geoglyphs depict animals, objects or compact shapes, while others are only simplistic geometric lines.
The newly-discovered drawings are thought to depict humans, camelids, birds, killer whales, felines and snakes (pictured)
The newly-found 168 geoglyphs are thought to date between 100 BC and AD 300. Pictured, one of the new discoveries, a bird geoglyph
What are geoglyphs?
Geoglyphs are works of art created by moving objects in the landscape, such as stones, trees and gravel.
A positive geoglyph is formed by materials being laid on the ground while a negative geoglyph is formed by removing material.
Though some geoglyphs clearly represent animals and other natural imagery, many have strange square, circular or hexagonal shapes.
The most famous geoglyphs are the Nazca lines in Peru, rediscovered in 1939. The cultural significance of these features remains unclear.
The Nazca lines were originally created by removing black or reddish-brown pebbles from the surface of the earth to expose a white sandy surface below.
The Yamagata team discovered them through field surveys conducted between June 2019 and February 2020 that used aerial photos and drones.
Adding the 168 new geoglyphs to those that are already known gives a new total of 358 Nazca Lines, they say, although they are thought to be hundreds more yet to be discovered.
Luis Jaime Castillo, a Peruvian archaeologist, previously told the Guardian that only five per cent of all the Nazca lines out there had been found.
Often, a geoglyph is too big to be appreciated at ground level, so only when one is high enough in the air can they discern the shapes of some of the designs.
For this reason, the intricacies of many of the designs were not fully realised until airplanes were invented and the artwork was seen from the sky.
The Nazca lines were apparently first spotted in 1939 when a pilot flew over the Nazca planes of the Peruvian coastal highlands – although its likely they were seen by locals on hill tops much earlier.
Contrary to the popular belief that the figures can only be seen from the air, many are actually visible from the surrounding foothills too.
The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs - large motifs made in the ground - located in the Nazca Desert of southern Peru
A spider geoglyph at Nazca. The figure is said to be 150 feet long and made out of one continuous line
However, the actual purpose of the mysterious Nazca Lines in Peru has long puzzled archaeologists.
Some believe they were intended to act as a kind of observatory, to point to the places where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set in the solstices.
Other theories suggest that they were created to be seen by the gods in the sky, while it's also possible that they were artistic expressions much like the ones we see today.
By uncovering more of these mysterious formations, archaeologists hope to piece together clues about their existence, IBM says.
WHAT ARE PERU'S MYSTERIOUS 'NAZCA LINES'?
Geoglyphs span large land tracts located between the towns of Palpa and Nazca. Some geoglyphs depict animals, objects or compact shapes; others are only simplistic lines.
The Nazca people lived in the area from 200 to 700 CE. Some of the designs are believed to be created instead by the Topará and Paracas people.
Most of the lines are formed by a shallow trench with a depth of between four inches (10cm) and six inches (15cm), made by removing the reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles that cover the surface of the Nazca desert and exposing the light-colored earth beneath.
This sublayer contains high amounts of lime which has hardened to form a protective layer that shields the lines from winds and prevents erosion.
An aerial view of a spiral-tailed monkey figure in Peru's mysterious Nazca Lines, located some 240 miles south of Lima. No one knows why the Pre-Inca Nazca culture made the figures and lines, some of them miles long
Paul Kosok, from Long Island University, is credited as the first scholar to seriously study the Nazca Lines.
He discovered that the lines converged at the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
Along with Maria Reiche, a German mathematician and archaeologist, Kosok proposed the figures were markers on the horizon to show where the sun and other celestial bodies rose.
168 New Geoglyphs Discovered, Adding to the Enigma of Peru’s Nazca Lines
168 New Geoglyphs Discovered, Adding to the Enigma of Peru’s Nazca Lines
A fresh set of 168 geoglyphs have been discovered by researchers in Peru’s intriguing Nazca Lines UNESCO World Heritage Site. The newly found drawings depict humans, camelids, birds, orcas, cats and snakes as well as simple lines and geometrical patterns.
Interestingly, one of the 50 or so human figures in the set is cartoon-like, with big rounded eyes and a stubble-like patch around the mouth, and bears a resemblance to Homer Simpson, the popular American animated sitcom character, reports the Daily Mail !
According to Science Alert , when the Nazca Lines , located in the Nazca Desert some 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of Lima, was designated a World Heritage Site in 1994, only around 30 geoglyphs had been identified and they mostly depicted plants and animals. By 2019 the number had risen to around 200 geoglyphs, several of which were human-like figures. However, Peruvian archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo told The Guardian in 2020, he believed this to be only 5 percent of the total number out there.
The Nazca Lines are vast geoglyphs carved into the sandy, rocky earth of the Nazca Desert lying between the towns of Palpa and Nazca in southern Peru. They stretch across an area of nearly 500 square kilometers (190 square miles).
They were created around 2,000 years ago by the Nazca people who inhabited the region between around 200 BC to AD 600. Some of the geoglyphs, though, even predate the Nazca, and are attributed to the earlier Paracas culture.
Most of the lines are a shallow 10 centimeters (4 inches) to 15 centimeters (6 inches) deep and are formed by removing the black or reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles of the Nazca Desert to expose a white sandy surface below. The sublayer contains high amounts of lime that has hardened to form a protective layer that prevents wind erosion to some extent.
Wooden stakes found in the ground at the end of some of the lines indicate that simple tools and surveying equipment were used to construct the lines that cover an extraordinary range of motifs from objects and shapes like triangles, trapezoids and spirals to flowers, trees and other plants, animals like a monkey, a condor-like bird, a humming bird, a killer whale, a pelican, a spider as well as humanoids and even a mythical beast sticking out its tongue.
Although many theories have been advanced to explain what purpose the lines served, none of them is entirely satisfactory or conclusive. Some believe that they were etched to please the eyes of the gods in the sky. Another notion is that they point to the places where the sun and other heavenly bodies rose or set in the solstices and served as a kind of observatory. Thus, they might have had ritual astronomical significance. Or, they could simply have been artistic expressions with no deeper significance.
Since the geoglyphs are usually so vast that the shapes and patterns cannot easily be discerned at ground level, it was only after airplanes were invented that they came to be “discovered”. They are believed to have first been spotted by a pilot flying over the Nazca planes. However, since many are visible from the surrounding hilltops too, the locals were probably always familiar with them.
The latest explorations by a team from Yamagata University working in collaboration with local archaeologists have added healthy number of 168 new geoglyphs, taking the total tally up to 358, although according to Castillo’s estimation this is still only a drop in the ocean.
Field surveys conducted by the Yamagata researchers between June 2019 and February 2020, using aerial photos and drones, helped them identify the new geoglyphs. Since these geoglyphs are simply etched into the soil by removing pebbles and rocks from the surface of the earth to expose the surface below, coupled with centuries of light erosion, they are sometimes difficult for the human eye to identify. So some of the information gathered by drones is even being scanned by AI to help pick any markings that the human eye might miss.
While it is hard to definitively date the new geoglyphs, based on the dating of the clay pots found near them, they are believed to have been created between 100 BC and AD 300.
The Yamagata University researchers intend to survey the entire length and breadth of the Nazca site with permission from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and with the help of local archaeologists. By uncovering as many of these designs as they can, they hope to crack the mystery of their creation.
Top image: A newly found Nazca line image, a humanoid reminiscent of Homer Simpson.
Ancient Environmental DNA Reveals Thriving 2-Million-Year-Old Life on Greenland
Ancient Environmental DNA Reveals Thriving 2-Million-Year-Old Life on Greenland
A “breakthrough” has been made in understanding the history of our planet. Studying ancient environmental DNA a team of researchers has now tracked and mapped the evolution of biological communities that existed some two million-years-ago (Mya).
Until now, the scientific understanding of Earth’s ancient biological lifeforms was greatly built on the oldest environmental DNA available, which was taken from a woolly mammoth that roamed in the Siberian tundra around 1 Mya. But a team of researchers has now sampled and interpreted DNA from sedimentary clay and quartz deposits taken from the permafrost of Greenland that dates back to around 2 million Mya.
Based on this new study of ancient environmental DNA, the team of researchers has presented a detailed picture of life in a 2-million-year-old (Myo) environment, describing it as “far removed from the icy shores of the Arctic Circle.” But more importantly, they think their new techniques and methodology might soon shine light on the ancient origins of humans .
A two-million- year-old trunk from a larch tree still stuck in the permafrost within the coastal deposits. The tree was carried to the sea by the rivers that eroded the former forested landscape.
A new paper published in the journal Nature explores an ancient ecosystem through the results of an analysis of “the oldest ancient environmental DNA recovered to date,” anywhere. The samples were all taken in the north of Greenland, and the study reveals the animal and plant species that roamed these northern territories approximately two Mya.
Author of the new paper, Geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says the new research opens “a new chapter spanning 1 million extra years of history.” And as a result of this new study scientists can now “look directly at the DNA of a past ecosystem that far back in time" added Eske.
Prof. Eske Willerslev and a colleague sample sediments for environmental DNA in Greenland.
(Courtesy of NOVA, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios & Handful of Films/ Nature)
Revolutionary Steps in Environmental DNA Analysis
The ancient environmental DNA was identified in samples taken at the Kap København Formation, located in Peary Land, North Greenland. Often described as a ‘polar desert’ this region is renowned for its rare fossils dating back to the Neogene period beginning 23.03 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period 2.58 Mya.
Notwithstanding, because ‘vertebrate’ fossils are rare in the Arctic researchers have always struggled to obtain samples that reveal new data about ancient biological communities. Eske explains that all previous research suggested that around 2–3 Mya the Kap København Formation region had experienced a much warmer climate with “temperatures 11–19 °C warmer than today.” But the new research was constructed around extracted and sequenced DNA “from 41 organic-rich sediment samples taken from 5 different sites within the Kap København Formation.”
Newly thawed moss from the permafrost coastal deposits. The moss originates from erosion of the river that cut through the landscape at Kap København some two million years ago.
Geologist Kurt Kjær of the University of Copenhagen explains that most of the samples were taken many years ago during other research projects. It wasn't until “a new generation of DNA extraction and sequencing equipment was developed” that extremely small and damaged fragments of DNA in the sediment samples could be analysed enabling the new “map a 2-million-year-old ecosystem."
The new model of the Greenland polar region some 2 Mya shows an ancient ecosystem thriving with fern and fauna. An open boreal forest was filled with “a mixed vegetation of poplar, birch and thuja trees, as well as a variety of Arctic and boreal shrubs and herbs.” Furthermore, mitochondrial DNA allowed the researchers to build a picture of the wildlife from the ground up.
On a microscopic scale, DNA was identified from microorganisms and fungi and the ancient world was populated by ants and fleas. On the other end of the spectrum giant mastodons roamed among reindeer, rodents and geese, and until this study it was thought that mastodons did not range as far north as Greenland. Then, in areas that were once ancient seas, the scientists recovered DNA from the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus).
Questing Ancient Origins
In conclusion, the authors suggest their data points towards “Earth's future in the face of a changing climate.” What they mean here is that they now have insights into the ability of different species to adapt to the changing environments resulting from temperature increases. Geogeneticist Mikkel Pederson of the University of Copenhagen said the new found information suggests that given time, “more species can evolve and adapt to wildly varying temperatures than previously thought.”
In the opening sentence this new research was described as a “breakthrough.” Why so? Now that ancient environmental DNA has been extracted from clay and quartz samples, and successfully analysed, the new technique might now be turned towards deposits from other locations around the world. Willerslev said “the possibilities are endless" and that if the new method was applied in Africa scientists might soon be gathering “ground-breaking information about the origin of the first humans and their ancestors."
Top image: Reconstruction of Kap København formation two-million years ago in a time where the temperature was significantly warmer than northernmost Greenland today.
Over the past century, thousands of pieces of slate engraved with images of owls have been unearthed from tombs and pits across the Iberian Peninsula, in what's now Portugal and Spain. The artifacts date from around 5,000 years ago, and for more than a century their function has flummoxed archaeologists. Many thought they represented goddesses and primarily served a ritual purpose. Findings fromnew research published Thursday, however, suggest a more prosaic function: They were toys made and used by children.
Víctor Díaz Núñez de Arenas, the study coauthor and researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid's department of art history, said the engravings' informal appearance made the team doubt they were exclusively ritual objects. Plus, many of them were found in homes and other archaeological sites that did not have a clearly ritual context.
To test the idea that they were instead toys, the research team examined 100 of the slate plaques, documenting which particular owl traits were featured in the engraving — feathery tufts, patterned feathers, a flat facial disk, a beak and wings. The researchers then compared them with 100 images of owls drawn earlier this year by children ages 4 to 13 at an elementary school in southwestern Spain. The students were asked by their teacher to sketch an owl in less than 20 minutes, with no further instructions.
The common species called little owl (Athene noctua) may have inspired some engraved slate plaques. Two fledglings are shown.
Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports
"The similarity of these plaques with the drawings made by children of our days is very remarkable," Díaz Núñez de Arenas said via email. "One of the things that they reveal to us about the children of that time is that their vision of what an owl is (is)very similar, if not identical, to what children of today have."
It's impossible to know exactly how prehistoric children would have played with the owls, he said, but many of the slates have perforations that could have allowed kids to insert real feathers at the top, Díaz Núñez de Arenas said.
Drawings of owls by present-day children were similar to the owls on the plaques, researchers said.
Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports
In addition to play, engraving the owls could have helped children learn a valuable prehistoric skill.
"The engraving of these plaques provided the youngest with an activity with which to learn the handling of the different techniques of carving and engraving of the stone, essential for the realization of other objects, such as knives or points of arrow used for functional tasks of daily life. It could even be a way to detect and select the most skilled members of the community for stone carving," he said.
Díaz Núñez de Arenas said the slate owls could have also played a ritual role, perhaps allowing children to participate in community ceremonies such as burials, offering their toys or dolls as a tribute to deceased loved ones.
This slate plaque with an engraving of an owl was part of the study.
Credit: Juan J. Negro/Scientific Reports
Archaeologist Dr. Brenna Hassett, a research associate at University College London who was not involved in the study, agreed that many ancient objects described as ritual might have multiple purposes and uses. She said that not enough was known about how children played in prehistory, and that it remains a relatively understudied field.
"We have to remember that many things would have been made of perishable materials — such as string and fur and wood — so that is one of the reasons it is so rare to find something that is unmistakably a 'toy,'" said Hassett, author of the 2022 book "Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood."
Top photo (from left): An original slate plaque modeled after an owl in Spain's Museo de Huelva is shown with a replica of a slate plaque from Valencina de la Concepción that's adorned with owl feathers inserted in drilled holes.
Live the Legend: 8 Mythical Places That Actually Exist
Live the Legend: 8 Mythical Places That Actually Exist
When it comes to ancient mythology it can sometimes be difficult to separate fact from fiction. While most myths are obviously fictional, they often contain at least a grain of truth. The ancients had to get their inspiration from somewhere. For example, the locations of some of the most popular myths are based on or set in real places. Here we have a list of mythical places that actually exist.
1. Mount Olympus: Home of the Greek Pantheon
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Greek mythology will be familiar with Mount Olympus. In ancient Greek religion, it served as the home of the twelve Olympians, the religion’s major deities.
Olympus was described in Homer’s Iliad as essentially being an ancient acropolis, a fortified hilltop palace complex. The palace consisted of golden gates guarded by the three Horai (goddesses of the seasons) and palaces for each of the Olympians (Zeus’s being the grandest, of course).
In the real world, Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. The mountain has 52 peaks and deep gorges with Mytikas peak supposedly acting as the home of the gods. The area surrounding the mountain has been declared an archaeological and historical site for the preservation of its monumental and historical character, found in numerous excavation sites.
The Greeks had a tendency to point at tall mountains and call them Olympus. While Mount Olympus in Greece is usually the one most associated with the ancient gods, other peaks named Olympus can be found all over the continent. Greece alone has four peaks called Olympus; Turkey has three, and Cyprus has one.
So really, Mount Olympus could count as all eight entries on this list (and that’s not even counting the 9 Mount Olympus peaks in North America or the one on Mars)!
With its majestic appearance reaching into the clouds, it’s no wonder ancient Greeks placed their deities on Mount Olympus
2. Sherwood Forest: Home of Robin Hood and His Merry Men
Thanks to various Hollywood adaptations, people from all over the world today are familiar with the legend of Robin Hood. Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. He was a skilled archer and swordsman, and most tales surrounding him feature him stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In most modern retellings, he is depicted as being of noble birth and having fought in the Crusades.
There is still a debate over whether Robin existed, and what the origins of his legends were. The myths make constant references to real historical figures dating back to the 13th Century AD. There are legal records dating back to 1226 that mention a man named Robert Hod who had his possessions confiscated and became an outlaw. It has also been suggested that the name Robin Hood was a moniker adopted by a group of bandits.
The myths of Robin Hood usually name his base of operations as Sherwood Forest in Nottingham, England. This is most definitely a real place. It is a National Nature Reserve covering 926 acres (375 hectares) but once covered an area of over 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares). The local municipality has done an excellent job over the years of fostering the forest's connection to the popular man of legend. As such, today the area is full of Robin Hood-themed tourist attractions.
The fall of Troy is one of the cornerstones of Greek mythology. In Greek literature, Troy was one of the most powerful kingdoms during the Greek Heroic Age, a period when gods and monsters roamed the earth.
In mythology, the Trojan War began when the city’s prince, Paris, abducted and/or eloped with Helen. Helen was said to be ancient Greece’s greatest beauty, who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus convinced all the great Greek leaders, who were bound by a special oath, to attack the city of Troy .
What followed was the greatest battle of Greek mythology. The Trojan War ended when the Greeks tricked their way into the mighty city by hiding in a great wooden horse they had given to the Trojans as a supposed peace offering.
The Trojan War has been depicted in numerous works of literature and art. View of Burning Troy, 18th century painting by Johann Georg Trautmann
In actual history, Troy was a real city in the region of Asia Minor which is modern-day Turkey. Until the late 19th century, Troy and the Trojan War were considered a legend. However, excavations in 1871 found ruins that closely matched depictions of the ancient city in myths.
The archaeological site at Troy consists of 9 layers dating back to the Early Bronze Age (3000-2500 BC) up to the Byzantine era (around 300 AD). It is believed the city of legend relates to one of the late Bronze Age levels.
Today, the site is easy to visit and is a popular tourist attraction as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . While we know for sure that Troy existed, the delineations between legend and fact are still being looked into.
For centuries, the city of Troy was believed to be a myth. However, excavations in the Canakkale province of Turkey have unearthed a multi-layered city matching Homer’s descriptions dating back to 3500 BC.
Camelot is another English legend that has seen modern popularity thanks to a glut of Hollywood adaptations. The legend of King Arthur centers on King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table .
King Arthur was said to have been early England's greatest king, and his capital city was Camelot. He and his knights were the epitome of chivalric duty. The most popular tales feature Arthur’s betrayal at the hands of his favorite knight, Sir Lancelot, and his Queen, Guinevere.
Over the centuries, historians have attempted to find out if there is any veracity to the Arthurian legends. Was Arthur based on a real king? Was Camelot real? There have been mixed results.
In 1542, the poet John Leland stated that the residents around Cadbury Castle, a Bronze and Iron Age hillfort in Somerset, believed it to be the original Camelot. This theory was bolstered by the fact the castle is close to the River Cam and the villages of Queen Cam and West Camel. Clearly, the thinking was that these place names had to be related to Camelot.
To dig down to the truth, there were large-scale archaeological excavations during the 20th century. These showed that the area had been a settlement since the 4th millennium BC. They also showed that around 470 AD a major Brittonic ruler and his war band had moved into the area and heavily fortified it. This was the largest known fortification of its time.
After these discoveries, Cadbury Castle was widely referred to as ‘the real Camelot’. Many historians disagree, however; these spoilsports point out that the site was built too late to be the Camelot of Arthurian legend.
All hope is not lost, however. Other sites in Cornwall and Shropshire, as well as Huddersfield, have also made claims that they are the original Camelot. It seems that as long as no definitive answer is found, there are lots of options left for people hoping to visit the ‘real’ Camelot.
Cadbury Castle in Somerset has been suggested as a location for the mythical Camelot since the 1700s. This 1723 hand-colored engraving is titled "Prospect of Camalet Castle. 15 Aug 1723."
5. Cyclopean Isles: Home to the Cyclops of Greek Mythology
One of the Greek leaders who played a key role in the fall of Troy was Odysseus. He was the hero who came up with the idea of using a hollow wooden horse to sneak the Greek troops into the city.
Odysseus is most famous, however, for his own set of myths that appear in Homer’s Odyssey. These myths tell the amazing story of how Odysseus and his brave men sailed back to Ithaca, Odysseus’s home kingdom. Odysseus faced many trials on his way home, but one of the most dangerous was the island of the cyclops. Early on in his journey, Odysseus and twelve of his men landed on an island where everything was bigger than usual. They come across a cave that was empty except for some simple shepherd’s belongings. They decided to slaughter one of the giant lambs on the island and enjoy a hearty meal.
When the shepherd returned, it was none other than the mighty cyclops Polyphemus, who was also a son of Neptune. Polyphemus immediately gobbled up two of Odysseus’s men before placing a boulder in the cave's doorway, trapping Odysseus and his men. Odysseus and his men waited until the cyclops was asleep and then blinded him using a sharpened log.
In a rage, Polyphemus cleared the entrance to the cave, searching for Odysseus and his men. Realizing his attackers had fled to the sea, Polyphemus began flinging rocks into the ocean in a vain attempt to crush them.
These rocks can be seen to this day just off the eastern coast of Sicily at the Riviera of the Cyclops. This is a stretch of rocky islands along the coast that features incredible rocky cliff faces. These islands in ancient Greece were said to have been home to Polyphemus and his kin. These days the area is home to beautiful seaside towns, citrus orchards, and amazing views of Mount Etna. Luckily, the Cyclops population appears to have died out.
Panorama of the Cyclopean isles in Aci Trezza. With no cyclops in sight, it’s all sun and fun on the coast of Sicily.
The legend of El Dorado is a tragic tale of human greed. It is also a confusing one. El Dorado was originally used by the Spanish in the 16th Century to refer to a mythical tribal chief. It was said this chief covered himself in gold and jewels and was then submerged in Lake Guatavita.
The 16th-century Spanish began to fixate on the idea of El Dorado; they couldn’t get enough gold. Through word of mouth, the legend evolved and was exaggerated from a man covered in gold, into a city, and eventually an empire covered in gold.
The Spanish conquistadors turned Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil upside down looking for the golden empire they had convinced themselves existed. In doing so, they wiped out countless indigenous tribes. Unsurprisingly, they never came across the mythical city.
However, this doesn’t mean there was no truth to the original legend. Historical texts do point toward an Incan tribe who lived near Lake Guatavita in modern-day Columbia. They did in fact have a ritual during which leaders would drop jewels, gold, and treasures into the lake.
The ruler of the Musica in present-day Colombia used to cover his body in gold dust and offer treasures to the Guatavita goddess from a raft in the middle of the sacred lake. This Muisca tradition became the origin of the legend of El Dorado. Muisca raft from 1500-1200 BC in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia
While anyone looking for the mythical city of gold is out of luck, this lake can be visited today. It is a stunningly beautiful tourist location. Sadly there is no gold to be found.
Although there is no city of gold, the countryside around Laguna Guatavita in Colombia is a relaxing place to visit and explore
Today, Japan is considered to be a Buddhist country, but Japan has a wealth of traditions and mythology that pre-date Buddhist teachings. One of these is the story of Yomi No Kune, part of an early Asian creation myth.
According to this myth, there were two early gods who were responsible for all creation. They were Izanagi and his sister-wife Izanami. According to the myth, Izanami died giving birth to the element fire. Izanagi, distraught in his grief, went on a journey to the underworld to retrieve her soul.
He discovered a dark and gloomy place where souls who were trapped in their bodies reside. Izanagi found his wife, but was told that during their journey back to the surface he must not look at her. Unfortunately, just as he approached the surface, he caught a glimpse of his rotting sister-bride behind him.
Izanami was outraged and sent demons chasing after her brother, trying to trap him in the underworld. Izanagi managed to escape and seal the entrance to the underworld, called Yomi No Kune, with a giant rock.
The legend finishes with the enraged Izanami promising to drag 1,000 souls into the underworld every day. Izanagi countered by promising to create 1,005 new ones.
18th century painting of the Shinto deities Izanagi and Izanami
The rock Izanagi placed to block Yomi No Kune is said to still exist to this day. It can be found in the Matsue area of Japan. The entrance to Yomi No Kune is called Yomotsu Hirasaka, and the boulder blocking it can be found behind the Iya shrine in Matsue. No one knows for sure which boulder in the area blocks the entrance, which is probably for the best. Visitors can also visit Izanami’s grave and shrine.
Yomotsu Hirasaka is the slope that leads to Yomi, the Japanese underworld.
8. The Giant’s Causeway: Built by Anger, Destroyed by Fear
The Giant’s Causeway can be found in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It is made up of over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns which, according to scientists, were the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. Collectively, the columns takes the appearance of steps leading from the cliff foot to under the waves.
Science is boring though. Local legends state that the basalt columns are the remnants of a causeway built by an ancient giant. The giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill, was challenged to a fight by a rival Scottish giant, Benandonner.
Eager to fight, Fionn built the causeway to cross the North Channel that separates Ireland and Scotland. Fionn then ended up hiding from Benandonner, after realizing his rival was much bigger than him. Fionn’s wife, Sadhbh, then disguised him as a baby and tucked him into a cradle.
When Benandonner saw this gigantic man-baby he panicked, thinking the child’s father must be truly gigantic. He fled across the Giant’s Causeway back to Scotland, destroying it as he went.
According to myth, the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland was created by the giant Benandonner destroying his steps as he fled back to Scotland
Many places in the world have inspired myths. Visiting these places gives us a look into the lives and beliefs of those who came before us. It may be a little disappointing to find them devoid of the kinds of magical beasts and treasures our ancestors believed they housed, but these places have lost none of their magic.
Today, most of these places are UNESCO World Heritage Sites or enjoy similar levels of protection. People for generations will continue to be able to read these myths and visit these amazing places, sharing in their magic. Maybe one day our ancestors will look at the tales we tell today and search for our inspiration.
Top Image: Visiting mythical places, like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland pictured, helps us connect with our past, as well as nature.
Exceptional Discovery Of Ancient Fresco Depicting Mythological Scenes In Peru
Exceptional Discovery Of Ancient Fresco Depicting Mythological Scenes In Peru
Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com
Archaeologists report they have made an exceptional discovery in Peru. An ancient fresco that has been lost for over a century has been rediscovered. Scientists have previously seen the fresco depicting mythological scenes in old black-and-white photographs, and now researchers can study the ancient drawings in detail at the site.
"It's an exceptional discovery, first of all, because it is rare to unearth wall paintings of such quality in pre-Colombian archeology," said Sam Ghavami, the Swiss archeologist who led excavations that uncovered the mural in October.
The pre-Hispanic fresco "Huaca pintada", in northern Peru, had not been seen in a century.
Credit: AFP
Ghavami spent four years looking for the rock painting, which he believes could be around 1,000 years old, with a team of Peruvian students.
"The composition of this painting is unique in the history of mural art in pre-Hispanic Peru," added the archaeologist, who trained at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
The ancient uncovered mural is about 30 meters (98 feet) long and forms a part of the “Huaca pintada” temple, which belonged to the Moche civilization that flourished from the 1st to 8th century. Famous for its ceramic art, the Moche people, the Moon, the rain, iguanas, and spiders. Their ancient beliefs and artistic skills are reflected in the newly discovered, extremely well-preserved mural that has images in blue, brown, red, white, and mustard yellow paint.
A procession os ancient warriors heading toward a birdlike deity is visible in one part of the mural.
The mural is part of the "Huaca pintada" temple which belonged to the Moche civilisation that flourished from the 1st to 8th century.
Credit: AFP
The painted images "appear to be inspired by the idea of a sacred hierarchy built around a cult of ancestors and their intimate links with the forces of nature," Ghavami told the AFP.
He told AFP that deciphering the mural's message would form part of his research. Still, he believes it "could be interpreted as a metaphorical image of the political and religious order of the region's ancient inhabitants."
Until now, archeologists had only seen the "Huaca pintada" fresco in old black and white photographs.
Credit: AFP
As reported by the AFP, "the discovery is also unusual as it shows a mixture of styles and elements of two pre-Incan cultures: the Moche and the Lambayeque, who lived on Peru's north coast between 900 and 1350 AD.
The mural's existence was only known via black and white photos taken in 1916 by the German ethnologist Hans Heinrich Bruning, who was living in Peru when he heard of the site after treasure hunters tried to loot it, but found nothing of value.
As the years went on, thick foliage took over, and no one had tried to look for the paintings until it piqued Ghavami's interest and he went in search of the long-lost fresco.
However, first he had a long battle to obtain permission from the family who own the land where the mural was found."
Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.comStaff Writer
An undated aerial picture shows the archeological site where a pre-Hispanic wall painting with mythological scenes was uncovered near the Lambayeque town of Illimo in northern Peru, after decades it was considered lost by archaeologists.
A third ancient human skull has been uncovered at a site in China. A 3D reconstruction of the second skull, discovered three decades ago and called Yunxian 2, is pictured.
Credit: Pascal Goetgheluck/SPL
Researchers are heralding the discovery of an ancient human skull in central China as an important find. As excavation of the remarkably intact fossil continues, archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists anticipate that the skull could give a fuller picture of the diverse family tree of archaic humans living throughout Eurasia in prehistoric times.
Archaeologists expect to finish excavating the ancient human skull in November, at the same site in Yun county, Hubei province in central China where the remains of two other million-year-old humans were found decades ago.
Photo: CCTV
No 3 skull of Yunxian Man is found in an excavation site known as Xuetangliangzi in Yunyang district, Shiyan city, Central China's Hubei province.
[Photo/Xinhua]
The skull was discovered on 18 May at an excavation site 20 kilometres west of Yunyang — formerly known as Yunxian — in central China’s Hubei province. It lies 35 metres from where two skulls — dubbed the Yunxian Man skulls — were unearthed in 1989 and 19901, and probably belongs to the same species of ancient people, say researchers.
“It’s a wonderful discovery,” says palaeoanthropologist Amélie Vialet at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, who has worked on the first two skulls, commonly referred to as Yunxian 1 and 2. Unlike those earlier discoveries, which were crushed and distorted after millennia underground, the third skull, Yunxian 3, seems to be in good condition.
In 2010, Vialet and her colleagues created digital reconstructions of the Yunxian 2 skull, and confirmed that it was probably a member of the archaic human species Homo erectus2. Dating of sediment and animal fossils from the site suggest that the Yunxian humans lived between 1.1 million and 800,000 years ago.
Is Yunxian Man Homo erectus?
Homo erectus was first described from fossils found on the Indonesian island of Java in the late nineteenth century. Javanese fossils dating to 1.5 million years ago suggest that members of the species might have been the first early humans to have ventured out of Africa.
Homo erectus was both widespread and long-lived. Remains have been found in eastern Africa, eastern Asia and possibly Europe, and they span a period from 1.9 million to 250,000 years ago. Because of this, there is a great deal of variability in the species’ fossil record, and the precise relationships between different populations are a matter of debate
The skulls of Yunxian 1 and 2 were distorted after millennia underground.
Credit: Alamy
The Yunxian 3 skull is half-buried in an upright position. Researchers have uncovered the forehead, including the brow ridge and eye sockets, as well as the top, back and left cheekbone of the skull. It is not yet known whether teeth or a lower jawbone are attached to the skull, says Gao Xing at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, who is leading the excavation.
Vialet says that the Yunxian 1 and 2 skulls share some features with older Javanese fossils, and others with younger Homo erectus fossils from mainland Asia. Like the Javanese fossils, they are large, big-brained skulls. But she says that they are less heavily built, a characteristic that usually indicates a more modern individual.
Researchers have found Homo erectus remains at more than a dozen sites across China. Vialet says that the ancient humans at Yunxian could be the ancestors of some of these populations, but their skulls bear distinct features that set them apart.
For example, fossils from around 700,000 years ago that were discovered in the Zhoukoudian cave system in suburban Beijing — known as the Peking Man Site — have a prominent sagittal keel, a crest that runs along the midline of the skull for the attachment of strong jaw muscles. The Yunxian skulls all seem to lack this feature, says Vialet.
Variable fossils
Yameng Zhang, a palaeoanthropologist at Shandong University, says that the Homo erectus fossils found in China are highly variable and researchers don’t know why. It could be that each population evolved independently in Asia. Or they could have been the result of multiple waves of expansion out of Africa, he says. “More complete Chinese H. erectus like Yunxian 3 are crucial to answer this question.”
Vialet says that the Yunxian 3 skull should be compared with Chinese as well as European hominin fossils, such as the 1.4-million-year-old face from the Sima del Elefante cave in Atapuerca, Spain, discovered in July. She is currently comparing Yunxian 2 with European hominin fossils, and says that the Yunxian people could be more similar to European populations from the middle Pleistocene epoch than they are to later specimens from China.
If the Yunxian 3 skull has teeth, especially molars, they could be useful for discerning evolutionary relationships with other early humans, says Clément Zanolli at the University of Bordeaux, France.
Archaeologists work to uncover the secrets of ancient humans at the site in Yun county, in the central Chinese province of Hubei.
Photo: Weibo
An age-old question
Once the Yunxian 3 skull is excavated, probably within the next few months, dating it will be an important task. Several techniques have been used to estimate the age of Yunxian 1 and Yunxian 2 at between 800,000 and 1.1 million years.
Wei Wang, a geochronologist at Shandong University, says that hominin fossils in China are often more difficult to date than fossils in Africa, because China lacks volcanic sediments that can be reliably dated by measuring the amounts of radioactive isotopes in the rock.
Jean-Jacques Bahain at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris dated sediments collected from the Yunxian site using electron spin resonance and uranium series dating3. This requires a close comparison between values taken from the fossil and the quartz in the sediment. But he says that the samples he measured weren’t collected at the same time and location as the Yunxian 1 and 2 skulls.
The discovery of Yunxian 3 therefore represents a unique opportunity to collect sediment samples from the ground that the skull sits in, he says.
Small animal fossils surrounding the Yunxian 3 skull are slowing the extraction process, according to Gao. Bahain says that such specimens could help to pinpoint the age of the Yunxian 3 skull, and also connect it to early human remains elsewhere in China that have been found with prehistoric fauna.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04142-0
References
Tianyuan, L. & Etler, D. Nature357, 404–407 (1992).
“Dunkleosteus” One of the largest and fiercest sharks 380 million years ago
“Dunkleosteus” One of the largest and fiercest sharks 380 million years ago
The name Dunkleosteus is a composition of two words, the word ‘osteon’ is a Greek word meaning bone, and Dunkle is kept in the honor of David Dunkle.
a famous American paleontologist whose works were focused mainly on fish fossils and is most famous for works in vertebrate paleontology of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
This placoderm is known to eat anything or at least most of the things and is also known to be speedy and powerful.
The Dunkleosteus is one of the largest placoderms to have ever lived and is considered to be one of the fiercest in the Late Devonian period which is also known as the ‘Age of Fishes’.
It has been recorded that the Dunkleosteus could weigh up to 8000 lb (3600 kg) and its length was up to 346 in (8.8 m).
The Dunkleosteus consists of ten species which are named D. terrelli, D. Belgicus, D. denisoni, D. marsaisi, D. magnificus, D. missouriensis, D. newberryi, D. amblyodoratus, and D.raveri.
The Dunkleosteus placoderms are known to be powerful and possess the ability to move their jaws quickly which helps them prey on animals easily.
Various Dunkleosteus fossils have been found in North America, Morocco, Poland, and Belgium.
The Dunkleosteus comes across as a gripping species but unfortunately, there is limited information available about the species due to its extinction and age as it existed 360-370 million years ago.
While not much is known about a lot of parts of the Dunkleosteus body, a lot of information has been extracted from the fossils of Dunkleosteus and its reconstruction
It was discovered that the Dunkleosteus had a two-part bony and armored exterior. The Dunkleosteus is also known to have two pairs of sharp bony plates that formed a beak-like structure.
Reconstructions have also revealed that some species of the Dunkleosteus had pectoral fins and thus, the fin pattern in the placoderms is highly influenced by the movement requirements.
The species Dunkleosteus terrelli is known to have a more shark-like appearance with a strong anterior lobe on its tail.
The Dunkleosteus is known to be the fiercest fish alive during the Late Devonian period. It is known to be 346 in (8.8 m) long and could weigh up to 8000 lb (3600 kg), which makes it one of the largest placoderms ever lived.
The Dunkleosteus is known for its big and powerful build and is known to have an immense bite force that could chop prehistoric sharks easily.
A Dunkleosteus is known to be one of the largest species of fish ever lived. They could weigh up to 8000 lb (3600 kg) which makes them bulky animals.
It is believed that Dunkleosteus was not a particularly good swimmer. As it mostly was found in the shallow seas and oceans,
their bony structure was sufficient to defend themselves against other creatures in the fish and their availability did not lead Dunkleosteus to go deep into the sea to search for food.
The heavy and bony body with its armor-like bone structure made the Dunkleosteus slow swimmer.
The Dunkleosteus is known to have used a mechanism called four-bar linkage, which allowed it to open its jaw very fast and produce high bite force when closing the jaw.
The pressure generated helped the Dunkleosteus to cut through any cuticle or dental built or armor.
Thus, it is believed that apart from ammonites and other placoderm fish and sharks, and other free-swimming species, they are also known to eat fish from their own species when short of food.
This is supported with evidence of fish bones and other semi or indigested materials found in the fossils.
The habitat of a Dunkleosteus is rather unknown but it has been stated that Dunkleosteus was found in shallow seas of the world.
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It is believed that there is a high possibility that Dunkleosteus was one of the first animals to reproduce by the method of egg fertilization and thus, reproduce sexually.
The lifespan of a Dunkleosteus is unknown but it lived 360-370 million years ago during the Devonian period.
Are they dangerous?
The Dunkleosteus is considered to be one of the most dangerous sea predators.
A lot of factors have been associated with this armored predator which tends to make the Dunkleosteus one of the dangerous placoderms.
Its cannibalistic nature and ability to bend metal are the main reasons. Others include the strong jaw, bite force, pairs of sharp bony plates that make it capable of chopping or cutting hard materials or skins, and the large and strong build.
2.5 miles East by Southeast of Hill City Idaho. This (what Durchsince thinks is an) obvious ancient Native American site is located in what is now called the "Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh Wildlife Management Area". Geo-coordinates: 43 16 2.35 N , 115 0 37.82 W
Dutchsinse found this location accidentally due to earthquakes striking next to it.
Dutchsinse viewers and himself inquired on the origins of the site, answers received are NOT satisfactory, saying "might be, or must be" "farmers paying tribute to Indians".. and other foolish excuses made for what is an obvious heritage site for Indians from North America.
The + shape is well known as used by Native Americans in the past, and the animal shapes speak for themselves.
The designation of this location as a "MARSH" wildlife preserve is a disgrace to all Native Americans, and the canal system which connects each spot is also ancient (not to be confused with truck ruts which I show in the video the difference between the canals and the truck ruts). Notice the farmers plowing the fields across the street have likely destroyed at least one of the structures (hopefully unintentionally).
You can also see wagon paths from the old west Wagon trail going through these structures, meaning they are older than the earliest Western settlers!
There are no pictures of this site which can be find, no Native American sites dedicated nearby, and certainly not at the site in question.
Dutchsinse suggest people of Native American heritage immediately request this land to be handed over (since its just a marsh land owned by the gov shouldn't be a big deal for them to get ownership). They deserve full access for study, and he urges tribal people to go to this preserve immediately to stand watch so no one tears these apart any more than they already have.
Just like we would protect the Cahokia Mounds, these shapes and lakes/ canals need to be studied, preserved, and celebrated.
Dutchsinse hopes what he found helps, and if what he found has already been discovered, or if it turns out to NOT be Native American, Dutchsince said: "I am sorry .. I don't believe the government for many reasons... the response of "farmers dedicating it to Indians" just didn't sit right with me."
Update from Dutchsince:
It is confirmed! these animal shapes MATCH THE ANIMAL SHAPES IN WISCONSIN proved to be Native American mounds!!!! Especially the buffalo, rabbit, and bird (corn) shapes!
BOTH the Wisconsin Mounds (with the rabbit, buffalo and bird / corn shapes) as well as the Idaho mounds (with the rabbit, buffalo and bird / corn shapes).... BOTH ARE ON THE SAME EXACT LATITUDE down to a 10th of a point!
Wisconsin: Latitude 43 13 13.56 N , Longitude 90 27 38.31 W
Idaho site: Latitude 43 15 24.16 N , Longitude 115 0 49.31 W
They connect in a perfect straight line from West to East from Idaho to Wisconsin along 43.1N latitude!!!
The changes of having the same shapes in MOUNDS .. rabbits, buffalo, birds/corn.. on the SAME EXACT LATITUDE down to a 10th of a point (both at 43.1 N).. is next to impossible to NOT be related.
Some Bizarre Fossils and Ancient Artifacts That Should Not Exist
Some Bizarre Fossils and Ancient Artifacts That Should Not Exist
Brent Swancer
History can be a. difficult thing to try and comprehend. We are mostly left to look at written accounts and artifacts left behind by people from the past to try and peer through a foggy window into time. Going out beyond that we get into prehistory, the realm of dusting off fossils and trying somehow to piece together the natural history of our planet through the fossilized remains of the creatures that once inhabited past eras before humans were not even a glint in the eye of the universe. The fossil record of course is patchy, fossils are rare, and we have far from a complete picture of the millions of years that preceded our arrival. We are constantly unearthing new species and even whole new types of amazing organisms from the fossil record, and it can be quite wondrous. Yet, every once in a while there is a supposed fossil find that truly is meant to shake the foundations of what we think we know. From humans walking amongst the dinosaurs to mysterious prehistoric giants, here are some of the weirdest alleged fossils and ancient artifacts that should in no way exist
Some of the more well-known and numerous of what are often called “impossible fossils” are anomalous human tracks impressed into ancient rock that seem to stride up right alongside the lumbering dinosaurs that once crashed across the earth, as if there were humans out taking a stroll with the terrible lizards of before the dawn of time. This was a time long before humans or even our most remote ancestors were anything more than tiny rodent-like creatures cowering in the dark from the looming, terrifying presence of our hulking reptilian overlords, yet some weird findings seem to almost absurdly suggest that there were modern humans walking around.
By far the most controversial such case is a discovery made in 1908, along the Paluxy River of Texas, in the United States, near the city of Glen Rose at a place called Dinosaur Valley State Park. The area gets its name from the numerous well-preserved fossilized dinosaur footprints found meandering across the ancient river bed, but what wouldn’t be expected are the remnants of what appeared to be human tracks as well. These anomalous tracks became quite the tourist attraction during the 1930s, but were eventually discredited by a paleontologist named Ronald Bird, who came to the conclusion that some of the mysterious tracks were simply misidentified tracks of bipedal dinosaurs, which had been twisted by time and the way they were imprinted so as to look vaguely human, and others were actual fake forgeries chiseled into the rock by enterprising locals in order to draw in more visitors and of course make money.
This was not the last word on the Paluxy tracks, also called the Burdick Tracks, and in the 1970s they were embraced by Creationists, which will become a running theme throughout this article, but the tracks themselves have largely been debunked on several occasions by paleontologists claiming that they are actually just elongated prints from known dinosaurs. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the “human” footprints of the Paluxy River have managed to remain debated and discussed to this day, with numerous Creationist sites touting their authenticity and claiming conspiracy theories of a cover up by the scientific community. Indeed, there have been ongoing digs carried out there and new finds reportedly made by creationists all the way up to the present.
The most mysterious, oft-discussed, and most recently discovered of the anomalous tracks found at the Paluxy River is one most often referred to as the Alvis-Delk track, or just the Delk print, which is rather bizarrely an imprint of an Acrocanthosaurus track overlaying with what appears to be the print of a human foot measuring around 11 inches long. It is baffling in that it looks very much like a human made a print in the mud, only for the dinosaur to come lumbering by moments later and squish right into it. This particular bizarre track was supposedly found in 2000, by an Alvis Delk and James Bishop, who apparently removed it and had it sent to a laboratory, where it underwent vigorous X-ray and CT scan analysis and was allegedly found to have not been carved or altered in any way.
It is all very intriguing, but of course the footprint has been the target of much skepticism, especially since it has been kept hidden away by the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas, and most of the information available on the print has been released by creationists, which is perhaps enough to raise a few eyebrows for many. There is also not much that can be done to corroborate the veracity of the original analysis, and subsequent looks at the photos by paleontologists have produced criticism that the track does not seem to be genuine, leading to the idea that the print was nothing more than a forgery crafted by Delk for money. A good, detailed analysis of the mystery print can be found here for those who are interested. Whatever the case may be, the Delk track has continued to be controversial and debated.
While certainly the most well known of these anomalous prehistoric human footprints, the numerous, mostly officially debunked Paluxy tracks are far from the only examples found over the years. In the 1880s there was discovered some fossilized tracks in Jackson County, Kentucky, embedded in a layer of rock dating back to the Carboniferous Period, from about 359.2 to 299 million years ago. There in the stone were found some assorted tracks, including two clear human footprints, as well as what looked like those of a horse and a bear, none of which had any business roaming the swamps of this prehistoric era.
There was also a human footprint discovered in 1987 by paleontologist Jerry MacDonald in the U.S. state of New Mexico. MacDonald came across a sheet of rock from the Permian Period, 290 to 248 million years ago, that possessed the tracks of several ancient birds and assorted wildlife, as well as a clearly defined human footprint. Interestingly, once again, none of these tracks, human or not, should have been there in that stone, yet there they apparently were. The puzzling finding featured in a 1992 article in the Smithsonian Magazine, and still has not been satisfactorily explained. There have even purportedly been truly outlandish findings of what appear to be actual shoe prints in prehistoric rock, such as that found in a seam of 15-million-year-old coal at Fisher Canyon, Nevada. The size 13 footprint bizarrely shows what appears to be the imprint of the sole of a shoe, complete with visible stitching and uneven wear and tear. Natural phenomena or evidence of time travel? Who knows?
Some of these impossible handprints, footprints, and other weird fossils don’t even always appear to be from normal humans at all, but rather from some sort of giants. Take a fossilized footprint found near the towns of Mpaluzi and Lothair, South Africa, right on the Swaziland border. Called the “Goliath’s Footprint,” it seems to be a very human looking print pressed into the prehistoric stone, measuring a whopping four feet long and estimated as having been imprinted over 200 million years ago. Many skeptics point out that it is most likely just a very strange looking natural formation. There is also a “giant’s footprint” found in 1925 in the area of Bushy Peak, California, by a James Higgins, which measured 5 feet long, as well as prints of even greater size in the same region, which were written of in an article in the Hayward Semi-Weekly:
Pioneer residents claim a “footprint” similar to the description given by Higgins of the one on Bushy Peak, only of greater size can be seen on the John Bunting ranch near the Mission San Jose.This footprint measures nearly eight feet in its length. It is said, and is very deeply embedded In solid rock.The third mysterious foot mar is said to hare been seen on the Indian Reservation, near the Pleasant Valley road, between Sunol and Pleasanton. This footprint, like the others, is of immense size and deeply marked on a granite cliff.
Is this indicative that giants once roamed the earth, and left their inscrutable footprints etched into history? It is quite probable that these are natural anomalies or even hoaxes, yet many insist that these are true unexplained mysteries deserving of further attention. In the end, with all of these cases we are left with some rather compelling, yet ultimately not very helpful "evidence." It is just incredibly difficult to fit such fossils into what we know of natural history without having to rewrite everything. From what we know of evolution and the fossil record these findings should be impossible, there should be nothing even approaching human remains or footprints dating back tens or even hundreds of millions of years, and considering that there is nothing to prove any of this either way it has made for a perfect environment for endless debate and wild theories.
Of course creationists love this sort of thing, as it is a chance for them to latch onto some sort of evidence that humans did in fact co-exist with dinosaurs, yet how this helps their view that the Earth is young when these rocks date back hundreds of millions of years is anyone's guess. There are also the wild theories that this is indicative of the existence of time travel, with these explorers accidentally leaving evidence of their passing behind during their journeys through the recesses of ancient history and prehistory, and there is even the idea that ancient aliens could be behind such finds. While it seems so exciting to think that our natural history could be so spectacularly misunderstood up to now, it seems more likely that sadly this is mostly either hoaxed evidence or misinterpretation of natural phenomena, but whatever the case may ultimately be we are unable at this point to say for sure whether any of these discoveries are real or deduce what they mean. We just don't know, and they are curious oddities that will likely continue to fuel debate no matter what one's personal opinion might be.
Besides fossil footprints are relics or artifacts that have emerged to shatter what we understand of our Earth’s history, sending spiderwebs of cracks through what we thought we could see and distorting our sense of what we think we know, something so jarringly out of place as to make us question even reality itself. Here we have strange objects from the depths of time that have been dug up only to remain anomalies stuck in some fringe realm of history like strange ancient insects in amber, and indeed by all rights should not even exist at all.
If finding a fossilized human footprint or shoe print isn’t weird enough for you, how about finding an actual fossilized shoe? A curious account was first published in 1999 in a book called Why Do Men Believe Evolution Against All Odds? by Carl Baugh. Within the book is contained the strange case of a decidedly odd discovery supposedly made in 1980 at a creek bed near Iraan in west Texas. Amateur archeologist Jerry Stone reportedly was looking through the area when he stumbled across a leather boot which was claimed to have within it an actual fossilized human foot. The boot and its foot were apparently taken in for analysis, when the foot was purportedly found to be around 40 million years old, while the boot was not fossilized at all, and was estimated to have been manufactured in the 1950s. No explanation was given as to why the human foot should be fossilized while the boot remained normal.
Of course this bizarre artifact was snatched up by the Creationist Evidence Museum, where they claim it was subjected to various tests in 1997 and 2006, the findings which have been kept under wraps. Interestingly, the boot was suddenly removed from display for unexplained reasons, and has never been offered for independent analysis, which along with the lack of available lab results makes it all rather suspicious indeed. Despite the fact that there is no way at all to know if this boot was ever really examined or if it ever really even existed or not, there have nevertheless been efforts to try and explain it, such as that the boot had become filled with some sort of sediment that hardened and gave the impression of a fossil foot, or that it was even the result of the foot being liquified from the fall of an airplane, after which the flesh re-hardened into what appeared to be stone.
Without any further documentation there is no way to know at all how true any of it is or just what we are supposed to think of this one, and the so-called “Limestone Cowboy” remains just a weird curiosity that we will never be able to prove or disprove, fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. A similarly strange fossil find was made in 1968 in the state of Utah, where an apparent fossilized sandal was found in a chunk of rock about 300 million to 600 million years old, right beside the fossil of a trilobite. Even more amazingly, the trilobite in question, a creature which it is worth mentioning died out 280 million years ago, even appears to have been actually stepped on and crushed by the sandal. Time traveller, ancient alien, hoax? In addition to footprints there are also even supposed fossilized handprints, such as one that was apparently found in the 1995 near the city of Weatherford, Texas. The fossil shows what appears to be a human hand with clear fingers splayed out, pressed into Cretaceous rock that is estimated to be around 110 million years old, with the Creation Evidence Museum saying of it:
The fossil handprint(sic) is so specific that it displays impressions of the thumbnail, impressions of the tissue webbing between the thumb and index finger, and the impression left by penetration of the middle finger into the mud.
Considering that there is very little information on who found it or under what circumstances, plus the fact that it is another specimen kept by the Creation Evidence Museum and that no data has been released, this is another one that can be filed as questionable. Perhaps equally questionable is a supposed fossilized human hand print complete with fossil human finger kept by the museum, which is claimed to have been pulled up from Cretaceous limestone at the Commanche Peak Limestone formation in Texas. Speaking of strange fossilized remains, in 1981 archeologist Ed Conrad was inspecting an area of prehistoric coal dating back to the Carboniferous Era, around 360 million years ago, when he uncovered what appeared to be a human skull embedded within. How did it get there? No one really knows.
In June of 1936 there was a truly bizarre discovery made in London, Texas, in the United States, by a middle-aged couple who had been just out for a leisurely stroll near their home. During their walk, Max and Emma Hahn spotted something odd on the ground ahead of them and went to investigate what looked to be a rock with a piece of wood strangely protruding from it.
Curious as to why there should be this length of wood sticking out of a rock in the middle of nowhere, Max took it home and went about breaking the rock open. After breaking pieces of the rock away with a hammer and chisel, the couple were startled to see that the wood appeared to be the remnants of a handle of some sort of metal hammer head firmly encased within the rock. This is quite odd enough as it is, but it would get even stranger still when they took the unusual finding to a museum and the rock itself was found to be more than 400 million years old, and the head of the hammer itself was estimated at perhaps 500 million years old, with parts of its handle having supposedly begun to turn to coal over the eons as a testament to its vast age. Yet the object was obviously artificial, perfectly formed and the head possessing iron with a purity that could not occur in nature, unmistakably a hammer. How could this be?
The discovery was baffling, as of course there could not have been anyone around to fashion such a hammer so long ago, so was this the work of aliens, time travelers, or what? Creationists were certainly quick to jump on the discovery as well, and speculation soared. However, in the end although it is certainly odd, there is likely a more rational explanation. The problem is that the type of rock the hammer was found in, ancient limestone, is soft and could have been soluble and malleable enough to mold and form a concretion around the object over time under the right conditions, meaning a modern object such as a hammer could feasibly find its way into the midst of 400-million-year-old rock replete with fossils of long extinct organisms.
Although this would be very rare and unusual, it still is seen as more probable than a modern human being losing a hammer hundreds of millions of years ago. In the end we will probably never know, as the so-called London Hammer has not since been studied and the hammer head itself has never been reliably carbon dated for its age, just the rock around it. Making answers all the more elusive is the fact that the mysterious hammer now resides at the Creation Evidence Museum, which is obviously run by creationists who don’t seem to want it examined any further, meaning we will likely never know what is going on here or even what truth any of it holds.
The London Hammer
The London Hammer is reminiscent of other seemingly modern tools, parts, and equipment that have been anomalously found within stone or other materials that are often millions of years old. In 1820 some tools such as hammers and picks were found suspended in a layer of ancient limestone 50 feet below the ground at a stone quarry in Aix-en-Provence, France. Then, in 1852 a drill bit of all things was found ensconced within a solid chunk of coal that had been buried within a bed of ancient prehistoric clay and boulders in Scotland. There was no sign of any puncture in the coal or any indication as to how the drill bit could have been inserted within it, suggesting that it had been there when the coal formed, hundreds of millions of years ago.
More recently, in 1961 a group of friends in Olancha, California were looking for geodes when they found within one of them a modern spark of all things, and allegedly a geologist estimated the object as being 500,000 years old. In October of 1996 a group of researchers in the Kaluga region of western Russia located a screw complete with the fully formed head and nut embedded within rock that was found to be 300 to 350 million years old. Examination by various scientists showed that the object is most certainly artificial, but as to how it got into that rock no one knows.
Some other anomalous ancient artifacts are a little harder to adequately classify, and defy easy categorization. In 1885, a strange object was found by an iron smelter at a foundry in Vocklabruck, Austria. There, within a block of solid coal, was discovered a perfectly-formed cuboid object of what seemed to be iron or some other type of metal, measuring 2.64 by 2.64 by 1.85 inches and weighing 1.73 pounds, its purpose unknown. The outlandish cube-like object was sent to the Salzburg Museum, where it was analyzed by the Austrian physicist Karl Gurls and found to be made not of iron, but rather of a strange alloy composing steel and nickel, although it would later be deemed to be actually made of a forged iron. Further analysis showed that the object, whatever it was, was too precise in shape and made of too refined a metal to have been caused by any known naturally occurring phenomenon such as a meteorite strike, and was most likely machine-tooled and even probably just a part of a larger device or mechanism, although what type no one knows. What has come to be known as the Salzburg Cube or the Wolfsegg Iron has apparently been studied by scientists at the Geological Institute of Austria, who have also come to the conclusion that it seems to indeed be indeed artificial, and the object has even been featured in an 1886 edition of the scientific journal Nature, as well as an 1887 issue of the French journal L’Astronomie.
What was this strange object and how did it get within a chunk of coal dating to tens of millions of years ago? Was it truly a manufactured object, and if so what sort of enigmatic mechanism did it once belong to? It is difficult to tell for sure, as the Salzburg Cube has since disappeared completely, leaving only these vague 19th century reports behind. It might have been lost, misplaced, mislabeled, or filed away in some darkened backroom of a museum collection somewhere gathering dust, perhaps even stolen for unknown reasons. We only know for sure that it did exist, but without modern scientific analysis we will probably never know for sure what it was. Mysterious technology of the ancients, aliens in prehistory, time travelers, or unknown natural phenomena? Who knows?
Another truly bizarre historic discovery was made near Nampa, in Idaho, the United States in 1889 by workers who were in the process of digging a water well. The project necessitated drilling equipment, and at a depth of 300 feet under the earth a very strange object was spat forth from the steam pump of the machine, regurgitated up from the subterranean depths. There lying upon the ground was a miniature, brown figurine of some sort, which upon examination seemed to be made of some sort of clay. The figure had come up with a myriad of chunks and balls of the same material, and it was all coated with what was believed to be iron oxide. What was truly remarkable about the figurine was that it was a very skillfully carved likeness of what seemed to be a human woman, striking in its detail, including even faint markings that might be meant to represent clothing and jewelry. George Frederick Wright, a geologist at the Boston Society of Natural History, would later describe its discovery and the figure itself:
The record of the well shows that they had penetrated first about fifty feet of soil, then about fifteen feet of basalt, and afterwards passed through alternate beds of clay and quicksand, down to a depth of about three hundred feet when the sand pump began to bring up numerous clay balls, some of them more than two inches in diameter, densely coated with iron oxide. There is no ground to question the fact that this image came up in the sand pump from the depth reported. The object is about an inch and a half long, and remarkable for the perfection with which it represents the human form. It was a female figure, and had the lifelike lineaments in the parts which were finished that would do credit to the classic centers of art.
The thing is, how did it get into that strata deep down in the earth? The mysterious figurine was sent to be studied, and was found to have quartz grains that had been cemented by iron molecules, hinting at a vast age, and the rock where it was found was estimated to be around 2 million years old. This is obviously strange considering that this was the age of Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and these human ancestors at this point in time were not making detailed clay figurines, and even if they were why should it resemble in any way at all a modern human woman complete with clothing and jewelry?
The so-called Nampa Figurine has of course been used to challenge current theories of human evolution and migration, with one researcher and author of The Hidden History of the Human Race, Michael Cemo, writing of it:
Other than Homo sapiens sapiens, no hominid is known to have fashioned works of art like the Nampa figurine. The evidence therefore suggests that humans of the modern type were living in America at the Plio-Pleistocene age which dates about 2 million years ago. According to current Darwinian theories of evolution, figurines like the Idaho image are made only by humans of the modern type, who came into existence only about 200,000 years ago.
It is a far-out theory indeed, and there have been other ideas as well, such as that this was dropped off by a time traveler or that it was, of course, aliens. However, skeptics have pointed out that the figurine may be more modern than it seems, and may have been lying on the surface before drilling even began, or that it was even an intentionally crafted hoax. Nevertheless, much controversy and debate has surrounded the Nampa Figurine, and its origins remain wreathed in mystery and lost to time. Equally as perplexing and controversial is a discovery allegedly made in 1938 in the Baian-Kara-ula mountains on the border of China and Tibet, by Chinese archeologist and professor Chi Pu Tei. His expedition purportedly came across an underground network of tunnels, caves, and caverns that seemed to have been artificially excavated, leaving smooth glazed walls suggesting some immense heat had been used. Tei claimed that within this strange subterranean world they had found pictograms carved into the walls, which depicted star systems, the sun, and the moon, and even more bizarrely graves that supposedly held the remains of tiny humanoids measuring about 4 feet tall and with outsized heads. Perhaps even stranger were the objects they found half buried in the earth all around them.
The objects in question were a series of over 700 perfectly circular discs measuring up to a foot across, and which were said to have two grooves that emanated out from a perfectly round, 3/4" hole in the center to form a double spiral. Within the spirals were claimed to be minuscule hieroglyphics of an unknown type, so small that they were barely visible to the naked eye, and which required a magnifying glass to make out in any significant detail. Although this would have been seen as a monumental discovery, the discs allegedly found themselves looked away in storage at Beijing university for decades until 1962, when Chinese archeologist Tsum Um Nui supposedly took a look at them and the story would get even more bizarre still.
After careful analysis of the discs, this Tsum Um Nui claimed that he had actually managed to decipher them, and that they told an epic tale and often tragic tale of visitors from the stars. According to Nui, the discs spoke of a spaceship that had crashed into the mountains carrying a contingent of alien beings called the Dropa. The crash smashed the ship beyond their ability to repair, and so these mysterious beings had been forced to find refuge in the mountains and adapt to life on Earth, creating the tunnels and caverns in the process. The discs even supposedly give the harrowing account of some of these Dropa being mercilessly slaughtered by the Han Chinese.
It sounds completely absurd, and the general scientific community agreed, refusing to publish Nui’s paper on the matter and generally looking upon his claims with raised eyebrows and outright disdain. According to some accounts, the archeologist was even forbidden from even talking about the discs anymore after that, but the whole weird tale caught the attention of Russian scientist W. Saitsew, who apparently acquired some of the discs and studied them himself in 1968. Saitsew allegedly found the composition of the discs to be quite odd, comprised of a strange mix of cobalt and other metals that made the surface nearly impenetrably hard and deepening the mystery of the hieroglyphs etched upon them. He also claimed to have discovered that when placed on a specialized turntable the discs hummed and oscillated as if they had once held an electrical charge or served as conductors of some type.
It is unclear what happened to what have come to be known as the Dropa Discs after this, and Tsum Um Nui himself allegedly fled China to Japan, where he vanished into obscurity. We are left with very little to go on, and indeed there is much to cast doubt on whether the Dropa Discs ever even existed at all. For one there are no discs now to examine, with the estimated 712 discs all allegedly disappearing over the years. There is also rather suspiciously a lack of any photographic documentation of them at all. The only supposed photographs of the Dropa Discs were purportedly taken by the Austrian engineer Ernst Wegerer, who apparently located two of the discs during a visit to the Banpo Museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province in 1974. However, the photographs are fairly controversial and the discs themselves are obscured by camera flash.
The Dropa Discs
Other damning evidence against the existence of the Dropa Discs is that there are no real official scientific papesr written on them, with only the writings of Tsum Um Nui, the Russian scientists, and some second or third hand accounts to go on, and these are of questionable veracity at best. In fact, Tsum Um Nui appears to have no mention in any university or academic institution as an archeologist, and indeed it has been pointed out that Tsum Um Nui isn’t even a real Chinese name at all. There are likewise no official museum records to show that such discs were ever within their collections, nor is there any official documentation of the Chi Pu Tei expedition that supposedly found them in the first place, and indeed there is no way to know if it ever happened at all. Considering such a lack of any concrete evidence, if the Dropa Discs ever did exist then the Chinese have gone through great efforts to cover it all up. Perhaps more likely is that this is an intriguing archeological urban legend that has sort of taken up a life of its own. Regardless, these mysterious discs crafted by unknown hands have continued to be discussed and debated to this day.
With such mindbogglingly strange artifacts of course there have been numerous theories proposed over the years. One is that our understanding human technological development may be incorrect or skewed. Perhaps these ancient peoples were more advanced than previously thought, but we are still left with the conundrum that such discoveries are isolated and unique. If these civilizations had access to the ability to create such marvels, then where is the documentation of them and their schematics and plans? Indeed, if this technology was available shouldn’t there be more of these artifacts to be found rather than just single anomalies? Or was this perhaps just an expensive and exclusive technology and there are perhaps more examples out there that simply haven't been found? There is no way to know.
Other ideas branch further out into the fringe. Besides the obvious creationist theories, there are the ideas that this is evidence of ancient aliens meddling with human affairs, that these are evidence of time travel, or even that it is all indicative of some sort of inter-dimensional phenomena. Perhaps it is even something beyond our ability to understand, some new phenomenon that we have no inkling of. Whatever the case may be, there sure have been some strange things dug up from the earth and from below the sea, and these ancient mysteries will likely go on to puzzle and baffle for some time to come.
INSIDE AN ANCIENT POLISH SALT MINE THAT HAS UNDERGROUND LAKES, FULLY CARVED CHAPELS, AND CHANDELIERS MADE OF SALT
INSIDE AN ANCIENT POLISH SALT MINE THAT HAS UNDERGROUND LAKES, FULLY CARVED CHAPELS, AND CHANDELIERS MADE OF SALT
Inside an ancient Polish salt mine that has underground lakes, fully carved chapels, and chandeliers made of salt.
This Polish mine has fascinated millions of visitors, from the underground pools to an impressive carved chapel and is made entirely of salt
The Salt Mines of Wieliczka is located in the vicinity of Krakow and are on UNESCO World Heritage List since its construction in the 13th century, it has been explored by 45 million tourists.
Sitting on everyone’s kitchen counter is the kitchen staple so basic it’s borderline boring. And as I write, I’m already thinking of salt more than I have in this past year combined.
But the Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow, Poland proves that salt can be a masterpiece on its own. The mine was first opened in the 13th century, and today, it’s a part of the First UNESCO World Heritage List.
For a reason! The salt mine, which reaches -1072 ft at its deepest point, features underground lakes, 2,000 chambers, and chapels equipped with enormous chandeliers. And if that wasn’t enough, every little thing is made of salt. The mine is so unreal, it brings to mind a level in Tomb Raider, rather than a place thanks to which I season my dinner.
Tourists visit The Saint Kinga’s Chapel in the Wieliczka Salt Mine.
The history of Wieliczka salt mine dates back to the Middle Ages when it used to be called the Magnum Sal, or the Great Salt. In the 13th century, it was the largest source of salt in the country, which was crucial to the country’s economy. Today, it’s one of the main tourist attractions in Poland.
Daily email contacted Aleksandra Sieradzka from the marketing and communications department at the Wieliczka Salt Mine to find out more about this breathtaking place.
Aleksandra told us that all the 2000 chambers in the mine are carved of salt. “The corridors and even the floor are made of salt.”
There two chapels of St. Kinga and St. Anthony that are both made entirely of salt, including the altars and the statues of saints that were carved by the sculptor miners. “The chandeliers also contain crystal salt—the purest type of salt.”
Salt may seem like a fragile and delicate material, but it has a hardness similar to that of gypsum. “The processing of salt itself is not difficult; however, in order to professionally carve in salt, one needs to have a lot of experience with this material,” explained Aleksandra.
“Every block of salt is different—it differs not only in size or hardness but also in color, which can be used in an interesting way in the act of creation.”
Aleksandra confirmed that, if you’re lucky, you can pop into a party or two at the Mine. “That is true, there are a couple of chambers where you can have a party. One big ballroom (Warszawa Chamber) and a few smaller ones. The Mine is famous for its New Year’s concerts that take place during the first weekend of January.”
We can only imagine how enormous the whole underground structure is because only 2% of it is accessible to tourists. Meanwhile, the salt mine corridors form an actual labyrinth that stretches up to a whopping 498 ft in length. There are 9 levels in total and the lowest one is located at 1072 ft below ground.
But Wieliczka is only the fifth-biggest salt mine out there. Ontario is home to the biggest one in the world, which is located 1800 ft under Lake Huron.
Compass Minerals’ Goderich salt mine is as deep as the CN Tower in Toronto is tall. The second-biggest is Khewra Salt Mines in Pakistan, and the third-place belongs to Prahova Salt Mine in Romania.
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
This holds true for many aspects of life. But how far can this idiom be taken?
As we all know, the first nuclear bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945 at the White Sands Proving Ground in Los Alamos, New Mexico. But was that really the first time the Earth had witnessed a nuclear explosion? According to the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic of ancient India, nuclear war has already taken place, some 4,000 years ago.
This 1.8 million-word text tells the tale of a devastating conflict that culminated with the utter destruction typical in the case of an atomic blast.
The manuscripts say that using flying machines called Vimanas, humans deployed ” a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe.” Sounds familiar? They go on saying that this projectile caused an incandescent pillar of smoke and fire “as bright as ten thousand suns”.
The Earth shook and arrows of flame rained continuously. The scorching heat caused the death of animals and humans alike. The waters boiled, killing off all forms of aquatic life. Soon after, hair and nails started falling out, food was poisoned and pottery cracked without cause.
Birds lost their sense of direction and circled endlessly, became white and dropped dead. We now know that birds use the Earth’s magnetic lines for direction and losing their sense of direction would be probable in the case of a great magnetic anomaly.
The Mahabharata is regarded as mostly mythic but one would wonder how could people describe the particularities of a nuclear explosion without witnessing it firsthand. And the ancient Indian epic isn’t the only scripture that alludes to a disaster of this kind.
In the Bible we have the story of Joseph, recorded in the book of Genesis. After being sold as a slave in Egypt he manages to gain great favor from the pharaoh by interpreting his dream and warning him of the impending famine. What could have caused a seven-year famine in the entire world at the time?
Some say that this scenario is compatible with the nuclear winter following the detonation of a powerful enough nuclear bomb. Another interesting aspect is that the average lifespan of the generations preceding Joseph was around 200 years but those following him do not exceed 130 years.
According to the Bible, this event took place roughly 2000 years before the birth of Christ. Some would argue that the Bible cannot be considered a legitimate historical source but sometimes connecting the dots leads to interesting results.
And then we have the legend of Atlantis. The Atlanteans were a technologically advanced civilization. They too possessed flying machines called vailxi and they also had fearsome weapons of mass destruction. This is largely a work of fiction propagated by Plato, but the legend of Atlantis mentions an entire continent sinking to the bottom of the ocean in a cataclysmic manner.
Robert Oppenheimer had a leading role in the Manhattan Project – the program that created the atomic bomb. When a reporter asked him “How does it feel to be the father of the atomic bomb?” he responded with another question: “You mean in modern times?” Witnessing the detonation firsthand, he famously quoted the Bhagvad Gita, a part of the Mahabharata, saying “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
This subject is obstinately avoided by the scientific community but there is evidence supporting events such as this one. This evidence routinely comes in the form of fused glass fragments found in many deserts all over the world.
These pieces of glass closely resemble those found at the Alamogordo atomic proving grounds. Desert glass forms when temperatures in excess of 3,300 degrees Fahrenheit (1,800º Celsius) cause the sand grains to melt and fuse together.
They were first described by Patrick Clayton who encountered them while surveying the Sahara in 1932. Clayton discovered huge chunks of yellowish-green glass in the sand and presented them to fellow geologists. A possible explanation came almost 50 years later when one of the engineers that helped create the atomic bomb was revisiting the testing site in New Mexico. He noticed glass fragments that were similar to those he had seen in the desert, albeit much smaller.
New Mexico atomic glass, named Trinitite, after the Trinity Project
Being open-minded, he made a connection. Being an engineer, he did the math and was astounded by the results.
In order to produce desert glass the size of the pieces found by Clayton, the explosion had to have been 10,000 more powerful than the one in New Mexico.
A very plausible explanation was proposed: the glass had formed due to asteroid/ comet/ giant meteorite impacts. Such impacts would certainly fit the profile as they cold easily produce the tremendous amount of heat required to fuse silicon crystals.
But an impact that great would also leave behind a noticeably large crater and no such craters were found in the desert.
Glass was found in the Sahara, the Mojave and the Desert of Libya but neither sonar nor satellite imagery could find any accompanying craters.
Furthermore, the Libyan glass had a very high purity and clarity (over 99 percent). In the case of meteorite impact, the silicon is fused together with iron from the meteorite itself as well as other adulterants.
Meteoritic desert glass
When we piece together all the clues, the picture becomes clearer and we have to ask ourselves: is it truly impossible that ancient civilizations reached a technological level similar to others?
Have we truly explored all possibilities? After all, depictions of terrible weapons capable to obliterate entire cities are found in the legends of many cultures, separated by both space and time. Were those depictions nothing more than the work of human imagination envisioning the superlative weapon? What about the physical evidence then? Where does it fit?
In our opinion, considering ourselves the first and only civilization on Earth to have split the atom is nothing short of absolute vanity.
The pharaohs exchange the pyramids for the Valley of the Kings
The pharaohs exchange the pyramids for the Valley of the Kings
On November 26, 1922, the English Egyptologist Howard Carterpeered anxiously through a small hole he had made minutes before in that intact door.
Behind it was the antechamber in which the objects of the funerary trousseau of King Tutankhamun were piled up. To the anxious question of Lord Carnarvon, his companion and patron, if he could see anything in the dim light of the candle, Carter only said: “Yes, wonderful things.”
Three days later, the official opening of the tomb took place before illustrious personalities, privileged witnesses of what many already described as the most important archaeological discovery of the century.
The place that had served as an eternity abode for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom was regaining its leading role in history.
The necropolis was carved out of the mountainous slopes of the west bank of the Nile, facing present-day Luxor. The ancient Egyptians called this space “the place of the gods west of Thebes”.
Inaugurated by the kings of the 18th dynasty, it remained active until the end of the 20th dynasty. Its origin, its expansion and its final abandonment were a reflection of funerary customs developed throughout one of the most splendid periods of Egypt.
The location, architecture and decoration of the tombs are loaded with important magical-religious symbolism.
In search of eternity
The tomb was the most important work in the life of the ancient Egyptian, in which he invested all his efforts. It was not only the place that would house his remains, but it was conceived as a sacred space from which to achieve his survival in the afterlife.
This belief was based on the idea of overcoming death as a continuous and eternal rebirth.
However, the destiny reserved for the king of Egypt was very different from the one that the rest of the mortals were going to enjoy.
While for these the afterlife was an idyllic reproduction of earthly Egypt, which they entered after successfully passing the Judgment of Osiris, the pharaoh’s destiny was in heaven, together with the gods.
The king’s death was only the beginning of his regeneration, and the tomb was the architectural setting in which it would take place. The deceased king would ascend to heaven and merge with the sun disk.
The New Kingdom monarch was strongly assimilated to the god Osiris. This, king of the gods, was killed and brought back to life thanks to the magic of his wife Isis, then becoming the sovereign of the kingdom of the dead.
The entrance of the deceased king into his tomb is the entrance to the underworld dominated by Osiris, from which he will emerge regenerated like the sun at dawn. The delicate balance between the solar and Osiriac elements will characterize the tombs of the Valley.
The valley is born
Work on the tomb of a king was undertaken immediately after his coronation, under the orders of a high official or the vizier. Once the death of the monarch had occurred, there were only 70 days, once the embalming process had been completed, to finalize the details of the transfer of the mummy and to install the funerary trousseau.
The kings who inaugurated the 18th dynasty chose as their burial place an area of the Theban mountain dominated by a spectacular pyramid-shaped peak sculpted by erosion.
The choice of the place was determined by its proximity to the city of Thebes, named the new capital of Egypt. Throughout the New Kingdom, the Theban area arose as a great sacred space where both shores were closely related.
The eastern one housed the Temples of Karnak and Luxor. Meanwhile, in the west, the most important necropolises of the period were excavated: The Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Nobles.
The funerary temples, where the cult of the deceased king was celebrated, were separated for the first time from the tomb and were built on the same shore, but in the plain area.
The royalty had chosen to excavate their tombs in the prehistoric valleys of the desert, sheltered by the two goddesses who protected the place: Hathor, “the lady of the west”, and Meretseger, “the one who loves silence”.
The steep slopes and high cliffs were the perfect setting to recreate the new funerary conceptions that would be put into practice throughout the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
The kings ordered the work of their tombs to specialized workers. This was the origin of the artisan village of the “Place of Truth”, the current Deir el-Medina, a few kilometers from the Valley.
They were excellent stonemasons, specialists in cutting limestone strata and finding solutions to unexpected problems. Tombs like Hatshepsut’s show how they must have altered the direction of the tunnels because of the rock.
The frenetic activity in the Valley forced a strong organization of the workers, who organized themselves into two teams of 70 men each, working 10 days for one party.
The royal tomb underwent constant evolution throughout the New Kingdom, paralleling the religious development imposed by each dynasty.
This evolution was carried out according to the location and the design was simplified, but the size was enlarged and the decoration was increased.
The paths of the sun
On the occasion of the pharaoh’s death, the funeral procession transported the king from the eastern bank of Thebes to the western one.
As the sun sank below the horizon, the royal mummy reached the mountain and descended into the Valley of the Kings, making the same circuit as the setting sun.
Thus began the search for the regeneration of the deceased king linked to the destiny of the sun god Ra. The royal tomb became the architectural space that reproduced Ra’s journey through the underworld of Osiris.
That is why the type of tomb chosen was also underground, excavated in the rock, something that the kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty had already experienced for the first time. The type of pyramid tomb inspired solely by solar conceptions was definitively abandoned.
From the entrance of the tomb to the chamber of the sarcophagus, the pharaoh would follow the same path as the sun. Crossing the threshold, there was a sequence of corridors and stairs that reproduced the daily course of the sun during the day and night.
Each corridor was called the path of the sun (“first path of the sun, second path of the sun”…).
The first tombs of the 18th dynasty accentuated Osiris’ symbolism. They were conceived as entrances to the depths of the underworld, carving out steeply sloping corridors into the heart of the mountain.
The tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, the longest in the Valley with its more than two hundred meters, acquires a drop of almost one hundred. It was designed with the shaft bent into the characteristic “L” shape.
Later, the Ramesside tombs reinterpreted this idea and opted for a rectilinear east-west axis that underlined the solar character by representing the trajectory of the star.
The blue ceilings, sprinkled with stars, reproduced the diurnal journey of the sun , showing its transformation from a resplendent yellow disc in the form of a scarab to its entry into the night as an aged god with a ram’s head.
At the other end of the tomb was the chamber that would house the royal sarcophagus. Supported by four pillars, it was rectangular (occasionally it was cartridge-shaped).
It was called the “Room of Gold” because it was the place where the definitive regeneration of the king would take place.
In some tombs, such as that of Tutankhamun, the walls were painted yellow in clear allusion to their solar appearance. The sarcophagus was placed transversely in the chamber, but in the 20th dynasty it was symbolically aligned with the rectilinear solar axis. The ceiling simulated the celestial vault.
An astronomical ceiling with the representation of constellations and parts of the calendar is found for the first time in the tomb of Seti I.
When in 1817 Giovanni B. Belzoni, one of the great adventurers of the Valley, discovered the tomb, he already described it as one of the jewels of the necropolis.
landscapes of the beyond
The decorative program was adapted to the architecture of the tomb and was rigorously fixed. In the 18th dynasty, the decoration only affected the rooms, while in the Ramesside period it was extended to all surfaces.
The wall decorations illustrated Ra’s nocturnal journey through the underworld. This daily journey of the sun was understood by the Egyptians as a journey by boat on an underground river in imitation of the journey through the Nile.
On this journey, the god Ra is accompanied by other gods who assist him in his daily victory.
The themes of the scenes are drawn from compositions expressly created for the king. These funerary “books” constituted a detailed map of the geography of the underground world and an essential “guide” to know how to successfully overcome the obstacles that appeared along the way.
The key was to know all the secrets: the names, the charms… to defeat the enemies.
Thus, one of the most repeated episodes is the formulas for the annihilation of the serpent Apophis “Apep”, incarnation of the forces of chaos and eternal adversary of Ra. Every night it was dismembered to be reborn the next day.
The main composition represented what the Egyptians called “what is in the Lower World”, or Book of the Amduat. It described the sun’s journey through the 12 night hours, which corresponded to 12 regions of the underground world.
In the last hour the sun was reborn over the horizon in the shape of a snake. The sarcophagus chamber will become the reserved space at the twelfth hour.
On the basis of the Book of the Amduat , another of the great compositions was elaborated: The Book of the Doors.
Each of the 12 hours was now separated by a gate defended by jinn and fire-breathing serpents. The vision of a different subterranean world, conceived as a succession of caverns and holes that the sun had to pass through, was described in the Book of Caverns.
Other texts such as the Litany of Ra or the Book of Heaven were widely developed in the Ramesside period, and imagined an increasingly complex afterlife for the king.
The closure of the tomb
The burial of the pharaoh was carried out by the successor king, since it was understood as an act of legitimation. Thus, King Ay was in charge of organizing the tomb of Tutankhamun and directing the funerals.
In the burial chamber he was represented performing the rite of “opening the mouth” of the young monarch’s mummy, the purpose of which was to restore the physical faculties of speaking or eating.
The funerary equipment of the pharaoh was made up of objects that were useful to him in the afterlife, such as food offerings, furniture, jewelry or ritual figures. All of them with an inherent magical-religious charge.
But without a doubt the main piece was the sarcophagus. The mummy was placed inside a wooden coffin which, in turn, was inserted into several coffins.
A rectangular stone sarcophagus enclosed the complex. Most of the sarcophagi were opened as a result of looting and transfers. Only Thutmose I and Thutmose III kept their original coffin.
Near the sarcophagus the canopic jars were placed, which contained the organs extracted in the mummification.
Once the sarcophagus was placed in the chamber, and a ritual banquet was held, the successive corridors and rooms were sealed with large stone slabs.
Decline and abandonment
Although the arrival of the Ramessides to the throne meant the transfer of the capital to Memphis, Thebes remained as a religious capital and tombs continued to be built in its necropolis.
In fact, the latest burial discovered in the Valley is that of Ramses XI, although it was never finished.
At the end of the New Kingdom, the Valley of the Kings witnessed its most convulsive period, the result of the political instability and economic crisis that marked the last reigns of the 20th dynasty.
Surveillance in the necropolis decreased, and uncontrolled grave robbing proliferated. Looting networks often acted with the complicity of workers from Deir el-Medina.
The discontent among the artisans had led to several protests that even led, as in the 29th year of Ramses III, to a general strike.
From the beginning of the New Kingdom the violability of the necropolis was already evident. Tutankhamun’s tomb was desecrated on several occasions shortly after its closure. Some were looted before being occupied, as happened with Seti II.
The scandal would break out during the reign of Ramses IX, who ordered the opening of numerous legal proceedings against offenders. Various papyri recorded the trials and convictions, exposing the corruption of high-ranking Theban officials.
The weakness of the royal authority exercised by Ramses XI allowed the High Priest of the god Amun in Thebes to authorize the free looting of the Theban necropolises to finance the expenses of the temple.
This instability ended with a political division that would give way to another stage in the history of Egypt: The Third Intermediate Period.
The north was in the hands of the Twenty-first Dynasty, which built its own necropolis in the new capital of Tanis. Thebes and southern Egypt came under the control of the High Priests.
The Valley of the Kings was abandoned by the pharaohs, being reused only on occasion for non-royal burials. With the lack of work, the Deir el-Medina community evacuated the city.
The clergy of Amun began a slow dismantling of the royal tombs, scouring the Valley in a contradictory performance: The pious restoration of the royal mummies and the unrestrained search for the gold they contained.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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