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!!!
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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.
03-10-2021
Hidden Chamber Inside Gibraltar Cave was Inhabited by Neanderthals for 100,000 Years
Hidden Chamber Inside Gibraltar Cave was Inhabited by Neanderthals for 100,000 Years
A chamber has been found by researchers who were excavating a cave network on the Rock of Gibraltar. The chamber was discovered in Vanguard Cave which is a part of the Gorham’s Cave complex and it was inhabited by Neanderthals for approximately 100,000 years. Furthermore, it has been closed off for about 40,000 years – until now.
While examining the cave, the team found a gap in the sediment so they widened it out and went inside where they discovered a 13-meter space located in the roof. They noticed broken rocks as well as stalactites coming down from the ceiling which indicated that there was an earthquake many years ago.
Inside of the chamber was a leg bone belonging to a lynx, large wing bone from a griffon vulture, a vertebrae from a spotted hyena, and a big dog whelk shell. Interestingly, there weren’t any marks on the animal bones to indicate that humans were involved in their deaths.
Additionally, the researchers noticed about half a dozen claw marks. In an interview with The Guardian, Professor Clive Finlayson, who is an evolutionary biologist and the director of the Gibraltar National Museum, explained the marks in further detail, “Something dragged things into there a long time ago,” adding, “…You’d normally associate that kind of claw mark with bears – and we do have bear remains in the cave, but they look a bit small to me. I wonder whether that lynx whose femur we found was actually scratching on the walls.”
The animals probably didn’t end up there on their own as stated by Professor Finlayson, “That bit of the cave is probably 20 metres above sea level today, so clearly somebody took it up there some time before 40,000 years ago.” “That’s already a hint that people have been up there.”
Other items associated with Neanderthals were found in different parts of the caves which include stone tools and hearths as well as more animal remains belonging to ibex, red deer, dolphins, and seals. Even a milk tooth belonging to a 4-year-old Neanderthal child was found four years ago, but it is believed that he or she was killed by hyenas and brought back to the cave.
As for what is next, Professor Finlayson said that future excavations are being planned for the caves to hopefully find more information regarding the Neanderthals, “One of the things that we’ve found on many levels of this cave is clear evidence of occupation – campfires and so on.” “I’m speculating now, but what we haven’t found is where they buried their own. Since we’re speculating, a chamber at the back of a cave could be quite suggestive – it’s total speculation, but you’re not going to bury people in your kitchen or in your living room.”
Since they inhabited the cave for about 100,000 years, the excavations will hopefully provide more items and information regarding the lives of Neanderthals. A picture of the cave can be seen here.
The Vanguard cave, part of the Gorham’s Cave complex, where the discovery was made. Photograph: Gibraltar government
From the left, the entrances to the Bennett’s, Gorham’s, Vanguard and Hyaena caves, which constitute the four main caves of the Gorham’s complex. Photograph: Clive Finlayson/Gibraltar Museum
An almost 4000-year-old clay tablet displays an early form of applied geometry practiced by the ancient Babylonians, thousands of years before the math was initially thought to have been discovered.
BACKGROUND: DID THE BABYLONIANS HAVE GEOMETRY?
Trigonometry was largely understood to have been first discovered by the Greeks around the second century BCE. The word itself came from a combination of the Greek words for ‘earth’ and ‘measure.’
Prominent figures such as Euclid and Pythagoras created foundations and theorems that were instrumental in advancing the understanding of mathematics throughout the western world. Some of their work is still being used in current modern applications, such as Pythagoras’ theorem regarding right triangles.
While the Greeks may have had the greatest impact worldwide with their mathematical discoveries, it would eventually be revealed that they were not the first. In 2017, researchers at the University of New South Wales found a famous Babylonian tablet from 3,700 years ago, known as “Plimpton 322,” that contained a trigonometric table inscribed on it. It had sequences of numbers that are known as Pythagorean triples, despite it being thousands of years before Pythagoras lived when the tablet was used.
The Plimpton 322 clay tablet, with numbers written in cuneiform script. (Image Source: Wikicommons)
ANALYSIS: THE ANCIENTS WERE MATH NERDS
Dr. Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales, who was a part of the same team that discovered Plimpton 322 in 2017, revealed that a different clay tablet from the same time period in Babylonia contained the oldest known record of applied geometry.
The tablet, known as “Si.427,” contains mathematical and legal records of land transactions at the time. It was discovered first in 1894 in what is now the province of Baghdad in Iraq—finding it proved to be a journey in itself for Mansfield, and efforts to decipher it tacked on further months of effort.
The tablet, similar to Plimpton 322, also displays the use of Pythagorean triples to make proper right angles. Si.427’s purpose regarding land has also led to researchers hypothesizing that one of the potential reasons Babylonians were interested in these more advanced forms of mathematics was to create accurate partitions and borders of their land.
The Babylonians created their own solutions, with the boundaries displayed on several additional tablets showcasing an apparent mastery of geographical and trigonometric properties. According to Dr. Mansfield, the Pythagorean triples used on the clay tablets is especially interesting because of their variety. An easy way to create a right angle is to create a triangle with a 3-4-5 pattern, with the largest number being attributed to the hypotenuse. The Babylonians used several different Pythagorean triples to accomplish the same goal, despite their numeric system making it particularly difficult and overall limiting in which triples can be created.
OUTLOOK: ANCIENT MATH AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FUTURE
From a historical perspective, the implications of these discoveries are relatively clear. The Babylonians possessed a significant understanding of geometry and trigonometry before it was even a thought in the minds of their alleged progenitors.
When it comes to Dr. Mansfield, his next move is to figure out the full extent of applications that ancient Babylonians used, what he refers to as, “proto-trigonometry” for. In addition to the information displayed on the front, Si.427’s backside contains a uniquely puzzling mystery that Mansfield hopes to soon crack. In large writing on the back of the tablet are the numbers: 25:29, written in this sexagesimal format. No one currently knows what these numbers mean, or even what they could potentially be referring to or measuring. However, Mansfield has stated he would like to work with other historians and mathematicians to develop theories as to what they may be.
Liam Stewart is a junior at NYU studying Journalism and Political Science. He is currently covering Science, Space, and Technology at The Debrief.
8 Ancient Chinese Inventions the West Had Not Imagined
8 Ancient Chinese Inventions the West Had Not Imagined
According to the statistics provided by the World Economic Forum, nowadays China can boast its position as the world’s second largest spender on scientific research and development, yielding only to the United States.
Yet, surprisingly enough, China is not only a producer but also an inventor of a great many things and even technologies that the US and much older nations use daily.
When numerous tribes were searching for the best lands all across Europe and couldn’t even imagine that the Atlantic Ocean separated them from the other large continents, the Chinese civilization was establishing, developing, and revolutionizing oriental science and technology.
Of course, China can’t be credited with the invention of the mobile phone, Internet or other modern technologies. But what this nation did give to the whole of humanity thousands of years ago advanced different industries and improved different aspects of human life. What’s more, the influence of all those ingenious ancient Chinese inventions can be tracked even to the 21st century.
However, that’s just a tiny part of the enormous heritage that ancient China left for the global future.
Documenting the Chinese Contribution
Dr. Joseph Needham was one of the first and most prominent Western scientists who tried to shed light on Chinese achievements and contributions to the development of our whole world. The British biochemist and historian became captivated by China’s attitude and approach to science and technology after his trip to this country in 1942.
Needham’s admiration for Chinese history, culture and language, as well as his extraordinary intelligence, led him to work on a huge project, now widely known as “ Science and Civilization in China ”.
It comprises 27 published books in 7 volumes on the subject and covers each and every aspect: from mathematics to medicine.
Science and Civilisation in China (Chinese translation) by Joseph Needham.
Joseph Needham enthusiastically described dozens of ancient Chinese inventions which were (and remain) widely used in the Western world that one couldn’t even imagine they actually had come from the Far East.
So, what did this centuries-old, wise, and still mysterious civilization give us for nothing, literally?
Paper, Toilet Paper, Paper Money, and the Menu
The invention of paper allowed the invention of the other three helpful things mentioned here. So, let’s put all four of them into one category – paper invention.
Europeans were buying papyrus from Egypt and using parchment for all those centuries when the Chinese were enjoying real paper. Although it didn’t look quite like the modern paper we are used to writing on, it turned out to be a more convenient and durable material.
Historical records attribute the invention of papermaking to Cai Lun, a eunuch of the emperor’s court. Although it’s officially acknowledged that papermaking was born in AD 105, recent investigations have traced it back to the 2nd century BC.
Some may argue that papyrus had been produced in Egypt since 3000 BC and served its purpose well for many centuries. However, in the 14th-15th centuries Europe also opted for paper. And this choice speaks for itself.
Obviously, if China invented papermaking, it must be the creator of… toilet paper. The first recorded use of it dates back to AD 851, during the Tang dynasty. But it was the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when the popularity of toilet paper among the imperial court increased.
In the Western world toilet paper became commercially available only in the second half on the 19th century, after it was “reinvented” by Joseph C. Gayetty in 1857.
In the 9th century AD the Chinese started using paper to print money. The first paper bills served as credit or exchange notes. Merchants could receive them for deposing metal coins, without any losses in the value of “cash”.
China has always been a grand trader, welcoming merchants and adventurers from all around the world. The large number of foreigners who couldn’t speak the Chinese language is said to be the reason for inventing… a restaurant menu as early as the times of the Song dynasty (960–1279). The Chinese already had paper, so using it to make menus was a reasonable idea, wasn’t it?
Printing
Despite the availability of much earlier artifacts of printing in the Far East, the Diamond Sutra is considered to be the very first book printed on paper at regular size. According to the records, it was made in AD 868, during the Tang dynasty. At that time woodblock printing was gaining popularity, simplifying the spread of religious texts without modifications.
Early masters put ink on an inscribed wooden block. The ink rolled over the surface of characters carved into the wood. After printing, a reversed picture of the wooden block was left on paper that took the ink easily. A single block could produce about 20,000 copies.
One century later Bi Sheng upgraded this technique by introducing movable type printing. Movable individual characters, carved on clay pieces and hardened with fire, could be attached to an iron plate to print one page of text. It was then broken up and reorganized to print another page.
By the way, Johann Gutenberg used almost the same technology to print the first Bible in the 1450s.
Alcohol
The 2004 research by University of Pennsylvania claimed that the Chinese might have been the first nation to discover fermentation and distillation processes used to create alcohol. The team of scientists studied dried organic materials that they found in ancient jars. The results of a complex analysis allowed them to state that the Chinese drank alcoholic beverages as early as 9,000 years ago.
The legend has it that Yi Di, the wife of Yu the Great, who was the emperor of the mystical dynasty Xia, was the first to prepare an alcoholic drink for her husband. That might have happened around 2000 BC.
So, the history of wine and beer making takes its roots from China, which nowadays is, ironically, not so well known for the production and export of alcohol.
Forks
Surely, chopsticks make an integral part of Chinese exotica. But the finds from the recent excavation of the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first non-mythical emperor of China (259 BC - 210 BC), prove that the Chinese created forks of quite a modern design many hundreds of years ago. Why the Chinese didn’t and don’t use them is another question.
Nonetheless, the West can thank this nation for their creativity and practicality. At the end of the day, it’s quite difficult for us to imagine our traditional breakfasts and dinners without forks.
Compass
Arab traders are likely to have brought the compass to Europe. Thus, our distant ancestors started using it in navigation to find the right direction in the stormy seas and to discover new lands.
However, the compass is one of the greatest ancient Chinese inventions. It was created around the 3rd century BC and initially used by… fortunetellers. Chinese navigators began to use it in ships not earlier than during the Song dynasty, that is around the 10th century AD.
By the way, unlike the modern compass that points north, the ancient Chinese compass pointed south. The “needle” of the Chinese compass was made from lodestone in the form of a spoon. Lodestone naturally points south, and that gave Chinese sailors an additional strategic advantage: south is always the direction of the sun when it’s midday. So there’s no wonder why smart Chinese navigation became a model for the whole world.
The prototype of our mechanical watches and clocks existed first in China too. Its creator was Buddhist monk Yi Xing. He came up with the first model of the mechanical clock in AD 725, two centuries before the idea of it struck Westerners.
According to his design, dripping water powered a big wheel which made one full revolution in one day – 24 hours.
During the Song dynasty, official Su Song modernized the clock so it could tell not only the time of the day but also the day of the month, the phase of the Moon, and the positions of some stars and planets. Su Song built a clock tower and added a chain-driven mechanism to the sophisticated system of gears and wheels that made the clock turn.
Earthquake Detector
We may know it better as a seismograph, though almost 2,000 years ago it looked more like a beautiful bronze vase. What was its secret?
Inside the vessel there is a pendulum that can be moved by an earth tremor. The swing of the pendulum sets in motion the internal levers inside the vessel. This triggers the release of a small ball held by a dragon that faces the direction of the epicenter of the tremor. This ball falls into the mouth of a frog right below it, hence heralding the danger.
In China earthquakes are frequent, so the stylish device did stand this country in good stead for hundreds of years.
The Western prototype of the modern seismograph was designed in Persia in the 13th century and in France no earlier than in the beginning of the 18th century.
Rockets
China’s recent achievements in space exploration are impressive. Probably, in the 3rd century AD the inventors of rockets couldn’t even dream that their descendants would once see the Earth from the skies. But the memory and historical records about their innovation inspired distant generations to build huge and powerful spacecrafts.
Drawing of an early Mongolian soldier lighting a rocket.
But let’s go back to the ancient times and see how it worked there.
The counter-force, required to set a rocket in motion, was produced by ignited gunpowder, which is actually another Chinese invention. For example, during the Song dynasty, the Chinese stuffed a paper tube with gunpowder and attached this tube to an arrow that they could launch with a bow.
Obviously, such invention was widely used in military. But it also became an integral part of traditional Chinese entertainment – fireworks.
These jars were discovered during excavations where a temple and graves were found in an ancient town near Columbia’s capital of Bogotá. The jars, which are called ofrendatarios, were created by the ancient Muisca people (they are also known as Chibcha) who were well known for their exceptional metal-crafting skills. In fact, their famous works have been linked to the mythical lost gold city of El Dorado.
Eight ceramic jars contained metal figurines with emeralds.
The jars and figurines date back approximately 600 years. The figurines were in a variety of shapes, such as snakes, other different animals, and even people wearing headdresses with weapons and staffs. There may have been a connection between the items and the temple in which they were found as explained by archaeologist Francisco Correa, “It’s very difficult to establish, I think there was some type of cult of the ancestors.” They could have been used as an offering and they could have possibly been made in reference to deities that were worshipped by the Muisca people.
They had to make trades with other groups in order to obtain gold because there weren’t any gold mines near them. Their goldwork was so magnificent that they were referenced to the golden city of El Dorado. The Muisca people had a tradition where the chief would be covered in an ointment that contained gold particles during specific ceremonies which were apparently some of the “…motivations of this [El Dorado] myth” as noted by Correa. Actually, the Spanish watched these ceremonies take place and they even recorded them in ancient chronicles (as well as mentioning their goldwork) which helped to influence the myth.
Emeralds
The Spanish took over the region between the years 1537 and 1540 which caused many of the Muisca people to die during the battle or from diseases. While many lives were lost, the Muisca people did continue to inhabit the area and there are still people today who are descendants of them.
Pictures of the jars, figurines, and emeralds can be seen here.
Here, an ofrendatario found at the Muisca site. (Image credit: Photo courtesy Francisco Correa)
A 3D scan of one of the metallic figurines found inside an ofrendatario. It has a human-like appearance.
A 3D scan of another of the metallic figurines found inside an ofrendatario.
Various artifacts were also found during the excavation of the site.
Emeralds were found inside the ofrendatarios.
The interior of an ofrendatario found at the site. The ancient Muisca placed metallic figurines and emeralds inside.
The myth of El Dorado comes from this object and the legend behind it. The zipa or Muisca king used to cover his body in gold dust. And from his raft, he offered treasures to the Guatavita goddess in the middle of the sacred lake. This old Muisca tradition became the origin of the legend of El Dorado. This Muisca raft figure is on display in the Gold Museum, Bogotá, Colombia.
Underground Caves and Tunnels - Why Did NASA Take Over the Canyon? Portals
Underground Caves and Tunnels - Why Did NASA Take Over the Canyon? Portals
Underground Caves and Tunnels – Why Did NASA Take Over the Canyon? Portals
The intricate tunnels and cave systems throughout the American Southwest have been used for sacred ceremonies and military programs alike. Piece together Hopi and Zuni folklore with eyewitness accounts to unlock the secrets of the four corners and its history of extraterrestrial influence. A vast subterranean complex of tunnels and caves in the American Southwest holds great importance to indigenous people, extraterrestrial civilizations and secret military programs staged within the earthly hollows.
Zuni and Hopi folklore tells us of the people who live in these grottos, which have long helped human civilizations to survive and thrive. They also tell us of powerful energetic nodes in the region that once served as sacred sites, but are now occupied by heavily armed military forces. Our experts try to unlock the secrets underlying the Four Corners region by examining folklore, eyewitness accounts and archeological discoveries which offers a retelling of human history with extraterrestrial connections.
Recent analysis of a large 1,500-year-old pyramid made by the Maya people revealed that it was built using rocks that were ejected from a massive volcanic eruption. As a matter of fact, the volcanic eruption was the largest to have occurred in Central America in the past 10,000 years and it was so powerful that it cooled off part of the planet.
The Ilopango volcano erupted around the year 539 AD in San Andrés, El Salvador. Known as the Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ) eruption, so much ash was released into the atmosphere over Central America that the Northern Hemisphere experienced cooler climate (almost 2 feet of ash – or 0.6 meters – would have been dumped in the valley where the pyramid was built). Additionally, the eruption spewed lava that reached dozens of miles away.
An engraving done in 1891 of the erupting Ilopango volcano. (Via Wikipedia)
It was previously believed that since the eruption was so powerful, those living in the area abandoned their settlements and stayed away for as long as several centuries. However, Akira Ichikawa, who is an archaeologist and postdoctoral associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), conducted recent analysis and carbon dating of a Mayan pyramid called the Campana structure that revealed locals returned to the area much earlier than previously thought – perhaps even as soon as five years after the eruption. And after they came back, the pyramid was constructed in the Zapotitán Valley approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the volcano.
The Maya people built the pyramid by using blocks that they carved from rocks that were ejected from the volcano (these rocks are called tephra). This is actually the first evidence ever found of a Mayan pyramid being built with tephra. Furthermore, the use of tephra to construct the pyramid may have had “…powerful religious or cosmological significance” as stated in the study.
The Campana structure sits on top of a platform that is almost 20 feet in height (6 meters), 262 feet in length (80 meters), and 180 feet in width (55 meters). The platform contains four terraces and a wide central staircase while the actual pyramid measures 43 feet in height (13 meters).
Chichen Itza is one of the most well known Mayan structures.
The fact that the ancient Maya people were able to build something so incredible from a volcanic eruption proves that some natural disasters can have an ending that’s not so tragic and that something magnificent came from it. (A picture of the Campana structure can be seen here.)
The Campana structure, with the San Salvador volcanic complex in the background.
(Image credit: Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd/ Photo by A. Ichikawa)
3D plan of the Campana structure, showing where excavations took place that uncovered the stone monument and evidence of the TBJ eruption. (Image credit: Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd/Courtesy of A. Ichikawa)
The study was published in the journal Antiquitywhere it can be read in full.
WETENSCHAPPERS HEBBEN MOGELIJK DE OUDSTE KUNSTWERKEN OP AARDE ONTDEKT
WETENSCHAPPERS HEBBEN MOGELIJK DE OUDSTE KUNSTWERKEN OP AARDE ONTDEKT
Vivian Lammerse
Het gaat om hand- en voetafdrukken die tussen 169.000 en 226.000 jaar geleden mogelijk door de kinderen van Denisovamensen zijn achtergelaten.
Enkele jaren geleden troffen onderzoekers op het Tibetaans Hoogland iets opvallends aan. Op een rotsachtig voorgebergte vonden ze een serie van vijf hand- en voetafdrukken. Ineen nieuwe studie hebben onderzoekers zich over deze bijzondere schilderingen gebogen. “Wat betekenen ze?” Vraagt onderzoeker Thomas Urban zich hardop af. “En hoe interpreteren we deze afdrukken? Ze zijn duidelijk niet per ongeluk achtergelaten.”
Hand- en voetafdrukken Na een grondige analyse blijken de afdrukken te dateren uit het midden Pleistoceen en tussen de 169.000 en 226.000 jaar oud te zijn. Hiermee zijn ze drie tot vier keer ouder dan de beroemde, tienduizenden jaren oude grotschilderingen aangetroffen in Indonesië, Frankrijk en Spanje. De onderzoekers veronderstellen dat een kind van ongeveer zeven jaar oud de voetafdrukken op het Tibetaans Hoogland heeft achtergelaten. Een kind van twaalf zou weleens zijn of haar hand op het gesteente kunnen hebben vereeuwigd.
Driedimensionale scan van de hand- en voetafdrukken ontdekt op het Tibetaans hoogland.
Afbeelding: Cornell Chornicle
Maar misschien belangrijker dan de leeftijd, is de vraag wie de afdrukken heeft achtergelaten. Waren het Homo sapiens? Of een uitgestorven mensachtige? Een geloofwaardige theorie, ondersteund door recent ontdekte skeletresten op het Tibetaans Hoogland, stelt dat het mogelijk Denisovamensen waren; een mysterieuze groep oude verwanten van de Neanderthalers. Als dat klopt, zou het betekenen dat de gevonden hand- en voetafdrukken mogelijk door de kinderen van Denisovamensen zijn achtergelaten.
Meer over de Denisovamens
Het bestaan van de Homo denisova werd voor het eerst ontdekt in 2010, toen onderzoekers een fossiel vingerkootje ontdekten. Het overblijfsel werd gevonden in de Denisova-grot in Siberië. Na analyse bleek dat het vingerkootje aan een tot dan toe onbekende mensachtige toebehoorde, die verschilde van de Neanderthaler. Na verder onderzoek kwamen onderzoekers erachter dat de Denisovamens zich zo’n 400.000 jaar geleden van de Neanderthalers afsplitsten. Terwijl de Neanderthalers in Europa en West-Azië leefden, koloniseerden de Homo denisova Azië. Die theorie werd bevestigd toen onderzoekers DNA van Denisovamensen terugvonden op het Tibetaans Hoogland. Denisovamensen leefden mogelijk tienduizenden jaren op rij in een op het eerste gezicht vrij onherbergzame gebied.
Maar de ontdekking van de afdrukken doet nog een andere prangende vraag rijzen. Want: kan het onder de noemer kunst worden geschaard? “Er is geen utilitaire verklaring voor,” zegt Urban. “Dus wat zijn ze? Kunnen we het zien als artistiek gedrag, een creatief gedrag; iets duidelijk menselijks?” En dat is een interessante vraag. Aangezien de hand- en voetafdrukken zo lang geleden zijn achtergelaten, zouden de afdrukken mogelijk de oudste kunstwerken op aarde kunnen vertegenwoordigen.
The ancient hand and footprints left by two children on a limestone stone section found on the Tibetan Plateau.
Plek De plek waar de hand- en voetafdrukken zijn achtergelaten, licht een tipje van de sluier op. Zo zijn ze op een glibberig en hellend oppervlak gezet. “Je loopt hier niet zomaar tegenaan,” zegt Urban. “Daarnaast is de kans ook klein dat iemand op deze manier is gevallen.”
Handafdrukken Daarnaast is het feit dat er naast de voetafdrukken, ook handafdrukken zijn gevonden, interessant. Hoewel voetafdrukken veelvuldig zijn aangetroffen, zijn handafdrukken veel zeldzamer. Deze zijn wel her en der in grotten ontdekt en geïnterpreteerd als abstracte kunst. En dus zouden de hand- en voetafdrukken gevonden op het Tibetaans Hoogland mogelijk ook dezelfde titel kunnen krijgen.
Wat is kunst? Een eeuwige vraag waar wetenschappers echter over blijven discussiëren is: wat is kunst precies? “Verschillende kampen hebben specifieke definities van kunst die prioriteit geven aan verschillende criteria,” zegt Urban. “Maar ik zou dat willen overstijgen. Er lijken namelijk beperkingen te zitten aan deze strikte categorieën. Ze weerhouden ons ervan om breder te denken over creatief gedrag.” De onderzoekers zijn er vrij zeker van dat de hand- en voetafdrukken aangetroffen op het Tibetaans Hoogland opzettelijk zijn achtergelaten. “Ik denk dat we kunnen aantonen dat dit geen utilitair gedrag is,” zegt Urban. “Dit heeft iets speels, creatiefs, mogelijk symbolisch. Dit raakt een zeer fundamentele vraag over wat het eigenlijk betekent om mens te zijn.” De onderzoeker pleit dan ook voor een bredere definitie van kunst, ook al zet dat sommige kenners op scherp.
Het zou betekenen dat onderzoekers dus mogelijk de oudste kunstwerken op aarde hebben ontdekt. En hoewel de exacte identiteit van de ‘kunstenaars’ mogelijk nooit bekend zal worden, laat het ‘kunstwerk’ wel zien dat het Tibetaans Hoogland tussen de 169.000 en 226.000 jaar geleden bewoond werd. En dat voegt weer een stukje toe aan de enorm complexe puzzel over onze eigen menselijke geschiedenis.
Anunnaki Underground Base? The mysterious entrances into Romania and Iraq
Anunnaki Underground Base? The mysterious entrances into Romania and Iraq
Underground military base theorists and researchers appear to have stumbled upon an Anunnaki underground base. And the worst of it is that the Pentagon seems to have discovered it previously.
Mount Bucegi Gallery.
Much has been said that there are hidden extraterrestrial bases in the world . However, is it possible that some Anunnaki underground bases still exist ?
One of the most important bases on the planet could possess Anunnaki technology. On Mount Bucegi , Romania, it could have been the place where Enki’s army , among other deities from ancient Mesopotamia, took refuge .
Anunnaki Underground Base
Many of the controllers who have been dedicated to the mapping and geolocation of underground military bases have heard of this base. It appears to be shielded by electromagnetic technology , which creates “invisibility.”
However, in 2002, the existence of a hole in the vicinity of Mount Bucegi was discovered. This strange cavity penetrated the interior of the rocky set.
The entrance immediately led to a perfectly made tunnel , so the experts assured that it must have been artificially manufactured .
This characteristic, added to the possible electromagnetic field that surrounds it and the satellite images, suggests that it is an underground base .
According to theorists, this base was first discovered by the Pentagon , who detected the wall of energy and the frequency of vibration around the “entrance.”
Furthermore, its characteristics are similar to another underground base discovered in Baghdad, Iraq, just before the start of the ” Iraq War .”
It is believed that this was the real reason why US troops invaded the country, and that others had seized it without the people of Iraq having knowledge of its existence.
Unknown technology found in the underground base in Iraq.
Unknown technology
The United States Army was able to penetrate the defense of the base thanks to an advanced unknown weaponry carried by two Pentagon generals , together with the adviser to the United States Presidency.
Only the entrance to this underground base was about 60 meters from the electromagnetic safety wall.
According to the theorists, weapons with a very advanced technology for humans were found inside . Plasma beams and machinery capable of penetrating beyond the earth’s crust at high speed.
After passing through the gigantic tunnel, they entered a large gallery that, despite having disconnected the energy barrier, could be seen with great clarity.
The other barrier that was still active, right in front of the first, began to emit even greater energy . The officers continued to descend, noticing 2 huge stone carvings , facing each other, about 2 meters high.
In them there were cuneiform writings, such as the one found in the Cueva de los Tayos or those of Lake Titicaca, only this was of a totally unknown origin.
This, according to the officials, presented proto-Sumerian characteristics, very similar to those found in the Pokotia Monolith.
It is possible that this underground base, along with the one found on Mount Bucegi, are actually underground bases used by the ancient Anunnaki kings during a millennial war. This theory could confirm the existence of ancient astronauts.
Is this the world’s oldest work of art? Sequence of hand and footprints discovered on the Tibetan Plateau dates back up to 226,000 years — and may be 'prehistoric graffiti' left by children
Is this the world’s oldest work of art? Sequence of hand and footprints discovered on the Tibetan Plateau dates back up to 226,000 years — and may be 'prehistoric graffiti' left by children
The 'art panel' was first discovered on a rocky outcrop in Quesang back in 2018
The prints were made into a limestone deposited near hot springs that hardened
Even a conservative dating estimate makes it 3–4 times older than other rock art
The team believe the prints were left by two children aged around seven and 12
It is unclear which species made the art, but Denisovans are known from the area
by Ian Randall For Mailonline
Researchers believe they may have identified the oldest-known work of art — a sequence of five hand and footprints thought to date back up to 226,000 years.
According to researchers led from China's Guangzhou University, the impressions are at least 3–4 times older than the cave paintings of France, Indonesia and Spain.
Found in 2018 on a rocky outcrop in Quesang, on the Tibetan Plateau, the prints may have been 'prehistoric graffiti' left by young Denisovan children, the team have said.
Researchers believe they may have identified the oldest-known work of art — a sequence of five hand and footprints thought to date back up to 226,000 years. Pictured: the prints as seen when rendered in a three-dimensional scan of the surface in which they were left
According to researchers led from China's Guangzhou University, the impressions (pictured) are at least 3–4 times older than the cave paintings of France, Indonesia and Spain
Found in 2018 on a rocky outcrop (pictured) in Quesang, on the Tibetan Plateau, the prints may have been 'prehistoric graffiti' left by young Denisovan children, the team have said
It is not certain which species of humans made the prints — but Denisovans are a reasonable bet, given the finding of their skeletal remains elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau. Pictured: an artist's impression of a young Denisovan
WHO EXACTLY MADE THE PRINTS?
Based on uranium series dating, the researchers have determined that the prints must have left between 169,000–226,000 years ago.
And measurements of the prints have led the team to conclude that the footprints were made by a child of around seven and the handprints one of more like 12 years of age.
It is not certain which species of humans made the prints — but Denisovans are a reasonable bet, given the finding of their skeletal remains elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau.
To help with the question of whether the prints constituted art, the team turned to archaeologist Thomas Urban of New York's Cornell University, whose research has included a study of human footprint's in New Mexico's White Sands National Park.
The first clue, he explained, came from the fact that the prints were pressed into travertine — a form of terrestrial limestone that is deposited in the vicinity of hot springs — that would have then hardened gradually over time.
'It would have been a slippery, sloped surface,' noted Mr Urban.
'You wouldn’t really run across it. Somebody didn’t fall like that. So why create this arrangement of prints? There’s not a utilitarian explanation for these. So what are they?'
'My angle was, can we think of these as a creative behaviour, something distinctly human. The interesting side of this is that it’s so early.'
'These young kids saw this medium and intentionally altered it. We can only speculate beyond that.
'This could be a kind of performance, a live show — like, somebody says, "hey, look at me, I’ve made my handprints over these footprints." '
Further evidence for the deliberate nature of the impressions comes from the fact that the rock has preserved handprints at all — unlike footprints, these are rare in the fossil record of human ancestors.
According to the team, the presence of the handprints ties the Tibetan impressions to a long tradition of art involving the stencilling of hands of cave walls.
Dated to between 169,000–226,000 years ago, however, the Quesang art panel is much older than its more famous peers.
Art found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and in Spain's El Castillo cave, for example, date back to around 40,000–45,000 years ago, while the the Chauvet cave paintings of France are only some 30,000 years old.
'It would have been a slippery, sloped surface,' said researcher Thomas Urban of the surface into which the prints were pressed. 'You wouldn’t really run across it. Somebody didn’t fall like that. So why create this arrangement of prints? There’s not a utilitarian explanation for these.'
'My angle was, can we think of these as a creative behaviour, something distinctly human. The interesting side of this is that it’s so early,' said Mr Urban, who hails from Cornell University
'These young kids saw this medium and intentionally altered it. We can only speculate beyond that. This could be a kind of performance, a live show — like, somebody says, "hey, look at me, I’ve made my handprints over these footprints," ' Mr Urban said. Pictured: a scan of the rock
Of course, some connoisseurs might bristle at the very notion that the Quesang prints in and of themselves constitute art.
'Different camps have specific definitions of art that prioritize various criteria,' Mr Urban commented.
He continued: 'But I would like to transcend that and say there can be limitations imposed by these strict categories that might inhibit us from thinking more broadly about creative behaviour.
'I think we can make a solid case that this is not utilitarian behaviour. There’s something playful, creative, possibly symbolic about this.
'This gets at a very fundamental question of what it actually means to be human.'
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science Bulletin.
Further evidence for the deliberate nature of the impressions comes from the fact that the rock has preserved handprints at all — unlike footprints, these are rare in the fossil record of human ancestors. Pictured: one of the footprints from the Tibetan art panel
According to the team, the presence of the handprints ties the Tibetan impressions to a long tradition of art involving the stencilling of hands of cave walls. Dated to between 169,000–226,000 years ago, however, the art panel from Quesang is much older than its peers
THE DENISOVANS EXPLAINED
Who were they?
The Denisovans are an extinct species of human that appear to have lived in Siberia and even down as far as southeast Asia.
The individuals belonged to a genetically distinct group of humans that were distantly related to Neanderthals but even more distantly related to us.
Although remains of these mysterious early humans have mostly been discovered at the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, DNA analysis has shown the ancient people were widespread across Asia.
Scientists were able to analyse DNA from a tooth and from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in southern Siberia.
The discovery was described as 'nothing short of sensational.'
In 2020, scientists reported Denisovan DNA in the Baishiya Karst Cave in Tibet.
This discovery marked the first time Denisovan DNA had been recovered from a location that is outside Denisova Cave.
How widespread were they?
Researchers are now beginning to find out just how big a part they played in our history.
DNA from these early humans has been found in the genomes of modern humans over a wide area of Asia, suggesting they once covered a vast range.
They are thought to have been a sister species of the Neanderthals, who lived in western Asia and Europe at around the same time.
The two species appear to have separated from a common ancestor around 200,000 years ago, while they split from the modern human Homo sapien lineage around 600,000 years ago.
Last year researchers even claimed they could have been the first to reach Australia.
Aboriginal people in Australia contain both Neanderthal DNA, as do most humans, and Denisovan DNA.
This latter genetic trace is present in Aboriginal people at the present day in much greater quantities than any other people around the world.
How advanced were they?
Bone and ivory beads found in the Denisova Cave were discovered in the same sediment layers as the Denisovan fossils, leading to suggestions they had sophisticated tools and jewellery.
Professor Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, said: 'Layer 11 in the cave contained a Denisovan girl's fingerbone near the bottom but worked bone and ivory artefacts higher up, suggesting that the Denisovans could have made the kind of tools normally associated with modern humans.
'However, direct dating work by the Oxford Radiocarbon Unit reported at the ESHE meeting suggests the Denisovan fossil is more than 50,000 years old, while the oldest 'advanced' artefacts are about 45,000 years old, a date which matches the appearance of modern humans elsewhere in Siberia.'
Did they breed with other species?
Yes. Today, around 5 per cent of the DNA of some Australasians – particularly people from Papua New Guinea – is Denisovans.
Now, researchers have found two distinct modern human genomes - one from Oceania and another from East Asia - both have distinct Denisovan ancestry.
The genomes are also completely different, suggesting there were at least two separate waves of prehistoric intermingling between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago.
Researchers already knew people living today on islands in the South Pacific have Denisovan ancestry.
But what they did not expect to find was individuals from East Asia carry a uniquely different type.
A popular sketch on The Late Show with David Letterman was “Is This Anything?”, where the host and the bandleader Paul Shaffer watched an individual or group perform an unusual stunt, then discussed whether the act was “something” or “nothing.” Archeologists excavating artifacts often seem to engage in a similar game as they attempt to figure out what is historically or monetarily valuable and what is just old stuff. A good example of this ‘game’ took place recently on the Tibetan Plateau with the discovery of hand and footprints on a wall that date back to the middle of the Pleistocene era, between 169,000 and 226,000 years ago. That’s significant, but it becomes game-changing as archeologists play a game that might be called, ‘Is This Art’? The answer could determine of this is the oldest artwork ever found or just cave kids having fun.
“The question is: What does this mean? How do we interpret these prints? They’re clearly not accidentally placed. There’s not a utilitarian explanation for these. So what are they? My angle was, can we think of these as an artistic behavior, a creative behavior, something distinctly human. The interesting side of this is that it’s so early.”
Are handprints art?
Thomas Urban, research scientist in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell and co-author of the paper, “Earliest Parietal Art: Hominin Hand and Foot Traces from the Middle Pleistocene of Tibet,” published in Science Bulletin, tells Phys.org about his analysis of five footprints and five handprints found on a rocky promontory at Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau in 2018. The prints were found in travertine, a freshwater limestone that was soft when they were made but hardened over time. While footprints are common, handprints are rare, and Urban suspected these were examples of parietal (immobile) art similar to hand stenciling often found on prehistoric cave walls – and the children who made them had a purpose in mind. (Photos here.)
A 3D-relief model of the Quesang fossil hand and footprints with colours showing the depth of the prints within the rocks.
One of the hand prints discovered in Tibet that is believed to have been made by children. Matthew Bennett, Author provided
“These young kids saw this medium and intentionally altered it. We can only speculate beyond that. This could be a kind of performance, a live show, like, somebody says, ‘hey, look at me, I’ve made my handprints over these footprints.'”
The oldest confirmed examples of prehistoric art are found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and in the El Castillo cave in Spain and date to between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. The famous Chauvet cave paintings in France are 30,000 years old. If the Tibetan hand and footprints are deemed to be real works of art, their age of 169,000 to 226,000 years almost pushes the others into the Museum of Modern Art, not the Museum of Natural History. Once that question is decided, an even bigger one looms. Study co-authors Matthew Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at Bournemouth University, and Sally Reynolds, Principal Academic in Hominin Palaeoecology at Bournemouth University, ask it in The Conversation:
“Were the children members of our own species, Homo sapiens, or members of another extinct archaic human species? There is nothing in the tracks to resolve this question. They may have been an enigmatic group of archaic humans referred to as the Denisovans, given other recent skeletal finds of this species on the plateau.”
As we learn more about the Denisovans, the Neanderthals and other potential archaic humans, we find more reasons to consider them as peers rather than less intelligent – and artistic — hominins.
It may have started 226,000 years ago, but there’s still a need for art in our modern world. Teach art in schools again!
Is this the Face of Krijn, the First Neanderthal of The Netherlands?
Is this the Face of Krijn, the First Neanderthal of The Netherlands?
The first-ever Neanderthal found in The Netherlands, who scientists call Krijn, has now been brought more fully to life. A pair of “paleo-artists” who specialize in making life-like reconstructions of fossilized specimens have provided the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities ( Rijksmuseum van Oudheden ) with a sculpted version of this young Neanderthal’s face. The Kennis Brothers, who are based in Arnhem in the Netherlands, have chosen to portray Krijn with a big smile, which counteracts the usual dour image of our long-extinct evolutionary cousins.
The First Neanderthal in The Netherlands
When a piece of skull bone from a Neanderthal was found on a beach in the Dutch province of Zeeland more than a decade ago, no one dreamed it would be possible to figure out what that Neanderthal looked like based on such a small fragment. But scientists have learned a lot about Neanderthal characteristics from studying various fossilized skeletons recovered from around the world. This has allowed them to make precise estimates about Neanderthal appearance , both in general and for specific skeletal finds.
Scientists from Leiden University and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig studied the skull fragment found on the beach in Zeeland for several years. From the information they gathered, they were able to generate digital images of what Krijn probably looked like. These images proved highly useful to Alfons and Adrie Kennis, who were able to sculpt a detailed three-dimensional approximation of Krijn’s appearance that experts believe is highly accurate.
Krijn’s skull fragment was originally buried on the bottom of the North Sea. It was dug up and washed ashore during a dredging operation off the western Dutch coast, where it was discovered by amateur paleontologist, Luc Anthonis, in 2009. Anthonis passed the skull fragment on to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, where it was identified as the bone of an eyebrow ridge that belonged to a Neanderthal who lived sometime between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.
This was a remarkable discovery, because it was the first evidence ever found that showed a Neanderthal presence in The Netherlands.
A deeper examination by the Leiden University and the Max Planck Institute scientists revealed even more details about the skull fragment and its prehistorical owner. They determined the fragment had come from a young man of stocky build. A study of the isotopes locked up in the bone showed the young man’s diet consisted primarily of meat, which would be expected for someone who lived in a Neanderthal hunter-gatherer society in the ancient past.
Inside the eyebrow ridge bone, the scientists found an unusual hollowed-out area they concluded had been occupied by some type of tumor. This tumor was entirely benign, and except for its effect on Krijn’s appearance (it would have caused a swollen bump over his eye) it had no impact on his health.
Such a tumor has never been seen before in any other Neanderthal specimen, and its presence helped the Kennis Brothers create a facial reconstruction that is entirely unique among Neanderthal sculptures.
While the skeletal remains were technically found on Dutch soil, it should be noted that they originally came from off the Dutch coast. Krijn’s remains were buried at the bottom of the North Sea, which revealed something quite significant about his past.
Over the course of the Last Glacial Period, or Ice Age , sea levels rose and fell with the alternating advance and retreat of the earth’s glacial cover. When Krijn lived, sea levels in the northern hemisphere were relatively low, and in the North Sea they were 165 feet (50 meters) lower than they are today. The North Sea was much smaller at that time, and in what is now its southern and western parts the lowering of sea levels exposed a land bridge that connected the islands of the United Kingdom with continental Europe.
This land bridge is known as Doggerland, and it was located directly to the west of what is now the Dutch seacoast province of Zeeland. So while Krijn and his people might have traveled through Dutch territory, when he died, he died in Doggerland, where presumably he resided with his people most of the time.
During the last Ice Age, Doggerland stayed above sea level for tens of thousands of years. It even remained above water for a while after the Ice Age ended, in 9,700 BC. The last of its land area was submerged under the surface of the North Sea in approximately 5,800 BC, or a few thousand years after the Bering Strait land bridge that connected Asia with the Americas disappeared beneath the rising waters of the Pacific.
Over the course of its long history, a thriving and diverse ecosystem developed on Doggerland . Neanderthals existed alongside mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses , reindeer, wild horses, and many other large land animals that roamed far and wide in the northern hemisphere in prehistoric times. Modern humans eventually arrived on Doggerland as well, and remained there living as hunter-gatherers right to the end.
Neanderthals would have lived on Doggerland with modern humans for a time. But Neanderthals went extinct long before Doggerland did, so Krijn’s people were not around to see the final demise of their homeland.
Dutch archaeologists and paleontologists know that Doggerland has many secrets to reveal. Unfortunately, underwater exploration is expensive and difficult in the North Sea, given the murkiness of its waters and the depth at which Doggerland’s most fascinating treasures are buried. For now, the underwater remains of Doggerland remain largely inaccessible, forcing scientists to rely on dredging and fishing operations to pull up the occasional exciting specimen or artifact.
The Legendary Hyperborea and the Ancient Greeks: Who Really Discovered America?
The Legendary Hyperborea and the Ancient Greeks: Who Really Discovered America?
In his story of Atlantis, written at around 360 BC,Plato mentioneda grand island or continent across the Atlantic, one larger than Libya and Asia combined. This continent was so enormous, he said, “it encompassed (wrapped around) that veritable ocean”. Is it possible that Plato was talking about the American continent and not that of Atlantis, as many automatically assume when they read that story for the first time?
Let's not ignore that many scholars and researchers also show that proper translation of Plato's text places Atlantis in the Mediterranean and not in the Atlantic, or some other exotic location. Aside from those claims though, is it conceivable to accept that the ancient Greeks, around the 4th century BC, knew of the American continent across the Atlantic? Interestingly, several clues suggest that this may not be such an outlandish assumption after all.
Roughly twenty years ago, in 1996, Mark McMenamin, a professor of geology at Mount Holyoke College in the United States, discovered and interpreted a series of enigmatic markings on the reverse side of a Carthaginian gold coin, minted circa 350 BC, as an ancient map of the world. In the center of this world map there is a clear depiction of the Mediterranean basin. An image to the right of it is interpreted to represent Asia, while the image to the left is interpreted to represent the American continent. Professor McMenamin also found that all known specimens of this type of coin formed the same type of “world” map. This was an interesting discovery, no doubt; however, what is most interesting about this find, is that this particular Carthaginian coin was minted within the same decade when Plato unveiled the story of Atlantis and revealed that there was a large continent across from the Pillars of Hercules.
Carthaginian coins from circa 310–290 BC. Representational image only.
The Piri Reis world map, named after its maker, a Turkish admiral and renowned cartographer (1465-1553), drawn in 1513, merely two decades after the ‘discovery’ of America by Christopher Columbus, depicts the west coast of Africa, Europe, as well as the entire American continent on the Atlantic side. According to Piri Reis, however, his controversial map was based on several other charts, many dating as early as the 4th century BC!
Map of the world by Ottoman admiral Piri Reis, drawn in 1513.
While by any means the famous map does not come close to a satellite image, it still properly depicts the continents on both sides of the Atlantic, although with one major flaw. It shows the horn of South America turning sharply eastwards, almost at a 90-degree angle, as if South America "wraps around" the Atlantic at the bottom of the map. Of course, some go on to speculate that the horizontal body of that land could be that of Antarctica, thus the controversy, since Antarctica was not discovered until 300 years later.
Although the controversy in Piri Reis' map significantly diminishes without Antarctica in it, the existence of this map still helps reinforce a couple of assumptions made earlier. If truly Piri Reis borrowed from other ancient maps dating back to the 4th century BC, then unquestionably this reinforces the suggestion that Plato, at 360 BC, could have been aware of the American continent in order to include it in his story.
Moreover, is it possible that the apparent flaw on Piri Reis' map, which most likely also appeared on the much older originals, explains why Plato was under the false impression that the immense continent across from the Pillars of Hercules “encompassed” (wrapped around) the Atlantic Ocean. Just as in the northern hemisphere, where North America, along with Greenland, Iceland and few other islands seem to encompass the North Atlantic.
Map by Abraham Ortelius, Amsterdam 1572: at the top left Oceanvs Hyperborevs separates Iceland from Greenland.
Additional clues, though, not only suggest that the ancient Greeks knew of North America across the Atlantic, but as it appears, they were also familiar with the region around the Arctic Circle—in essence the broken bridge that connects northern Europe to North America. They called this land Hyperborea (a Greek word that means "Extremely North".)
Arctic continent on the Gerardus Mercator map of 1595.
Is this possible? While undoubtedly skeptics would dismiss this suggestion, interestingly, the Greeks believed that Hyperborea was an unspoiled territory so far north from Greece, the sun there never sets. Of course, the only place due north where the sun continuously shines, at least six months out of a year, is the region above the Arctic circle, a territory obviously not easily accessible, especially during the winter months. ‘Coincidentally’, the poet Pindar (522 BC – 443 BC) wrote that “neither by ship nor on foot would you find the marvelous road to the assembly of the Hyperboreans,” a statement that further corroborates the inaccessibility of this region.
So, when bearing in mind this place's location (somewhere “extremely north”,) the fact that is somewhere where the sun never sets, and this is a region inaccessible by foot or boat (most likely due to a frozen Arctic Ocean), where else can a place like this be? Can Hyperborea have been the figment of vivid imagination, or is it possible that there was some truth to this story, as in the case of other stories brought to us from ancient Greece, which involved real places wrapped in mythical elements? Such, among others, was the Palace of Knossos, which it was associated with the Minotaur (a mythical beast of half man and half bull,) the city of Troy which was connected with an epic war fought by demigods, and Mount Olympus, which was thought to be occupied by gods. What about Hyperborea though? Is it possible that the Greeks managed to navigate so far north, or was that knowledge passed down to them from others, such as the Minoans perhaps?
The road to Hyperborea and North America.
If, according to historians, the Bronze Age Minoans 4,000 years ago were often traveling as far as Scotland and the Orkney Islands to trade goods, is it inconceivable to assume that over time (going back and forth for a thousand years) they may have eventually reached Greenland (the edge of Hyperborea,) only a couple of short island stops away? And, if those ancient navigators managed to reach Greenland via island hopping, is it possible then to assume that they could have gone a bit further and ultimately reached North America, which in essence, is just around the corner?
Clues Buried Around the World
If not, where did thousands of tons of copper from the region around the Great Lakes disappear to during the Bronze Age? Most importantly, how did spices, plants and insects indigenous only to America find themselves in Santorini (a Minoan island) around the period of 1600 BC?
An excavation in the ancient city of Akrotiri, on the island of Santorini, revealed that a tobacco beetle (Lasioderma serricorne), an insect indigenous to America at the time, was found buried under the volcanic ash of the 1600 BC eruption. If tobacco was not introduced to Europeans until around 1518 AD, as history claims (nearly 3,000 years later), how else did this pest of stored tobacco got there.
Furthermore, how were the Egyptians able to obtain tobacco and other plants indigenous to America, like coca leaves, which were often used during mummification? Indeed, in 1992, German studies revealed that one third of all mummies tested, carried traces of nicotine on their hair, skin, and bones. Also, the same tobacco beetle found in Santorini was found inside the mummy of King Ramses II (1213 BC), as well as inside King Tutankhamen's tomb (1323 BC).
Following the Genetic Trail
If our early Mediterranean ancestors did not know of North America 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, how then did Haplogroup X, a Mediterranean gene, find itself in North America around that timeframe and as Plato claimed?
For those not familiar with genetics, each race around the planet is categorized by scientists according to their particular DNA haplogroup. For example, all American Indians contain haplogroups A, B, C, and D. As haplogroups A, C, and D are also found primarily in Asia, and B mainly in China and Japan, it is highly speculated by anthropologists that these four haplogroups traveled to North America during a glacier period when continents were once connected by ice.
A more recent study, though, on certain Native American tribes, especially those around the Great Lakes, revealed that in addition to the above haplogroups they were also found to carry haplogroup X. If Middle Easterners somehow made it to America 10,000 years ago, why do only tribes around the Great Lakes carry this particular gene? And, most importantly, how did Mediterranean people travel to North America?
If this was some random transfer, as some scientists maintain (see Solutrean Hypothesis), why then did no other haplogroup from at least a dozen in Europe at the time not follow X, as the four Asian haplogroups on the opposite side of the map ultimately followed each other via the Bering Strait? Is it possible that haplogroup X navigated to North America in a contained environment as Plato claimed? Or, is it possible, as the majority of anthropologists suggest, 10,000 years ago Mediterranean people walked to America while ice still connected the Asian and American continents at the Bering Strait?
A huge problem with the scientific claim, though, is that en route from the Middle East to America, the furthest region east of the Mediterranean to carry small traces of haplogroup X is that of the Altai Republic in southern Russia. No traces of haplogroup X (a variation of X, or another European haplogroup) exist further east of that region. We must also not ignore that mtDNA maps show that the highest concentrations of haplogroup X exist on the Atlantic side, around the Great Lakes, and not in Alaska or alongside the west coast, where, according to anthropologists, haplogroup X infiltrated America.
And last but not least, we must not ignore that high traces of haplogroup X strangely exist in Scotland, Orkney Islands, Faroe Islands and Iceland, essentially all the island stops from Europe to North America.
Prehistoric primates had a sweet tooth! Squirrel-sized species that lived 54 million years ago gorged on sugary fruits — and had the first recorded cases of dental decay in mammals
Prehistoric primates had a sweet tooth! Squirrel-sized species that lived 54 million years ago gorged on sugary fruits — and had the first recorded cases of dental decay in mammals
Microsyops latidens was a tiny tree-dwelling primate from the Early Eocene
University of Toronto Scarborough experts studied 1,030 teeth and jaw fossils
These had all been unearthed from the Southern Bighorn Basin in Wyoming
Cavities appeared in 7.5% of fossils — a frequency higher than modern mammals
They also varied with time, suggesting changes in Microsyops latidens' diet
The team believe that these shifts may have been causes by climatic changes
The earliest known cases of dental cavities in mammals have been found in a squirrel-sized species that lived 54 million years ago and gorged itself on sugary fruits.
Fossil specimens of the prehistoric tree-dwelling primate — Microsyops latidens — were analysed by researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough.
An artist’s impression of an Eosimias primate, which lived between 45 and 40 million years ago
CLAUS LUNAU/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
They found that 7.5 per cent of all the fossils that they studied had cavities, with some layers containing a greater frequency than others.
This suggests that the diet of Microsyops latidens varied over time between foods with higher and lower sugar contents.
The earliest known cases of dental cavities in mammals have been found in a squirrel sized species that lived 54 million years ago and gorged itself on sugary fruits. Pictured: the dental cavities can be seen in this micro-CT reconstruction of Microsyops latidens' upper jaw
COMPARING DECAY
As part of their study, the experts compared the prevalence of cavities in the fossils of Microsyops latidens with those of modern primates.
Microsyops latidens suffered more cavities than most primates today.
There are exceptions, however — specifically among the genus Cebus (which contains the capuchins) and Saguinus (e.g. tamarins).
The study was conducted by anthropologists Keegan Selig and Mary Silcox of the University of Toronto Scarborough.
'Dental cavities or caries is a common disease among modern humans, affecting almost every adult,' the duo wrote in their paper.
'Caries frequency has been used to study dietary change in humans over time, based on an inferred tie between the incidence of caries and a carbohydrate-rich diet.
'However, the disease is not unique to our species. Among non-human primates, there is also variation in caries frequency associated with diet.
'This metric may provide a mechanism for studying diet in broader contexts, and across geological time.'
In their study, the researchers analysed a total of 1,030 individual fossil teeth and jaw sections that were unearthed in the Southern Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, in the US.
The team found that 77 of the specimens included dental cavities, which they say were likely caused by a diet that was high in fruit or other sugar-rich foods.
However, by dating the fossils based on the age of the sediments in which they were deposited, the pair determined that the frequency of cavities varied over time, with the fewest found in the oldest and youngest of the specimens.
This suggests that the diet of Microsyops latidens changed over time between foods with varying levels of sugar content, perhaps in response to changes in vegetation growth and food availability brought about by the climate fluctuations of the time.
'Microsyops latidens may have relied on food sources that were higher in sugar, and therefore more cariogenic [likely to cause tooth decay], during periods of climatic flux,' the researchers wrote in their paper. Pictured: a reconstructed slice through a cavity in a second molar
'Microsyops latidens may have relied on food sources that were higher in sugar, and therefore more cariogenic [likely to cause tooth decay], during periods of climatic flux,' the researchers wrote in their paper.
'This, they explained, could have been 'a result of increased competition for limited food sources, or a change in the food sources that were available. This, in turn, may have led to the noted increase in caries frequency.
'As more palaeoclimatic data become available, it is possible that we will see evidence of further climatic change during this period, which may have affected the food sources available to M. latidens,' they concluded.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
In their study, the researchers analysed a total of 1,030 individual fossil teeth and jaw sections that were unearthed in the Southern Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, in the US
TOOTH DECAY EXPLAINED
Tooth decay is damage to a tooth caused by dental plaque turning sugars into acid.
If plaque is allowed to build up, it can lead to problems, such as holes in the teeth (dental caries) and gum disease.
Dental abscesses, which are collections of pus at the end of the teeth or in the gums, may develop.
Symptoms of tooth decay
Tooth decay may not cause any pain.
But if you have dental caries, you might have:
- toothache — either continuous pain keeping you awake, or occasional sharp pain without an obvious cause; it can sometimes be painless
- tooth sensitivity — you may feel tenderness or pain when eating or drinking something hot, cold or sweet
- grey, brown or black spots appearing on your teeth
- bad breath
* an unpleasant taste in your mouth
Seeing a dentist
Visit your dentist regularly so early tooth decay can be treated as soon as possible and the prevention of further decay can begin.
Tooth decay is much easier and cheaper to treat in its early stages.
Dentists can usually identify tooth decay and further problems with a simple examination or X-ray.
Find your nearest dentist
It's also important to have regular dental check-ups.
Adults should have a check-up at least once every 2 years, and children under the age of 18 should have a check-up at least once a year.
Treatments for tooth decay
Early-stage tooth decay
Early-stage tooth decay, which is before a hole (or cavity) has formed in the tooth, can be reversed by:
- reducing how much and how frequently you have sugary foods and drinks
- brushing your teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste
Your dentist may apply a fluoride gel or fluoride paste to the affected tooth.
Fluoride helps to protect teeth by strengthening the enamel, making teeth more resistant to the acids from plaque that can cause tooth decay.
Treatments for holes in teeth
When there's a hole in the tooth, treatment may include:
- a filling or crown – this involves removing the dental decay and filling the hole or covering the tooth (read about what NHS fillings and crowns are made of)
- root canal treatment – this may be needed to remove tooth decay that's spread to the centre of the tooth where the blood and nerves are (the pulp)
- removing all or part of the tooth – this is usually advised when the tooth is badly damaged and cannot be restored; your dentist may be able to replace the tooth with a partial denture, bridge or implant
Preventing tooth decay in adults
Although tooth decay is a common problem, it's often entirely preventable.
The best way to avoid tooth decay and keep your gums as healthy as possible is to:
- visit your dentist regularly – your dentist will decide how often they need to see you based on the condition of your mouth, teeth and gums
- cut down on sugary and starchy food and drinks, particularly between meals or within an hour of going to bed – some medicines can also contain sugar, so it's best to look for sugar-free alternatives where possible
- look after your teeth and gums – brush your teeth properly with a fluoride toothpaste twice a day, and use floss and an interdental brush at least once a day
- see your dentist or a GP if you have a persistently dry mouth – this may be caused by certain medicines, treatments or medical conditions
Protecting your child's teeth
Establishing good eating habits by limiting sugary snacks and drinks can help your child avoid tooth decay.
Regular visits to the dentist at an early age should also be encouraged.
It's important to teach your child how to clean their teeth properly and regularly. Your dentist can show you how to do this.
Younger children should use a children's toothpaste, but make sure to read the label about how to use it.
Children should still brush their teeth twice a day, especially before bedtime.
What causes tooth decay
Your mouth is full of bacteria that form a film over the teeth called dental plaque.
When you consume food and drink high in carbohydrates, particularly sugary foods and drinks, the bacteria in plaque turn the carbohydrates into energy they need, producing acid at the same time.
The acid can break down the surface of your tooth, causing holes known as cavities.
Once cavities have formed in the enamel, the plaque and bacteria can reach the dentine, the softer bone-like material underneath the enamel.
As the dentine is softer than the enamel, the process of tooth decay speeds up.
Without treatment, bacteria will enter the pulp, the soft centre of the tooth that contains nerves and blood vessels.
At this stage, your nerves will be exposed to bacteria, usually making your tooth painful.
The bacteria can cause a dental abscess in the pulp and the infection could spread into the bone, causing another type of abscess.
The oldest dental cavities on a mammal date back 54 million years. As a matter of fact, experts have stated that cavities were actually quite common in early primates, specifically Microsyops latidens which were alive during the Early Eocene Period. Dental cavities have been found in more than 7% of the fossils belonging to that species.
While there isn’t much information regarding the Microsyops latidens species since they have no living descendants, experts believe that they lived in trees and ate fruits as well as insects.
There were a total of 1,030 dental fossils (jaws and teeth) that were found in Wyoming’s Southern Bighorn Basin that span a time frame of approximately 544,000 years during the Early Eocene Period. Of those samples, 77 of them (or 7.48%) contained cavities. The researchers stated that this is the “largest sample to date of fossil caries in a single extinct mammal species,” and the “earliest known sample of dental caries in an extinct mammal.” Another extinct primate that lived about 12.5 million years ago previously held the record for the oldest dental cavity until now.
As for what caused the cavities, scientists think that they were probably due to the consumption of sweet fruits and other sugary foods. Cavities form when mouth bacteria eats away sugar that is on the teeth and delivers a very acidic by-product that then eats the dental tissue; therefore creating a hole (cavity).
Additionally, the changes in the cavities throughout that time period suggested that the primates varied their food habits with some containing more sugar than others (the oldest and youngest fossils had the fewest number of cavities). This may have been caused by the climate fluctuating during the Early Eocene Period that could have affected vegetation and food.
Keegan Selig from the University of Toronto Scarborough explained this further, “We cannot be 100% certain that it was fruit that caused these cavities in M. Latidens. Other factors such as the pH and biochemistry of the mouth might also produce cavities,” adding, “But fruit, and specifically sugar, are major culprits in producing cavities, just like in our own mouths today.”
Some of the cavities found in the Microsyops latidens teeth were quite minor while others were severe. Experts are unsure whether or not the cavities had an effect on the primates’ health, but as Selig explained, “…having cavities, especially large ones, can lead to many health problems” like having an infection, soreness while chewing, and even losing the tooth. (A picture of an upper jaw with two cavities can be seen here.)
Part of the upper jaw from Microsyops latidens with two caries (cavities).
Credit: Keegan Selig
The study was published in Scientific Reports where it can be read in full.
It’s no secret that current Americans and residents of North American going all the way back to the first European on this land give the indigenous people of the land little credit for much of anything. A recent discovery in Louisiana changed that for some archeologists and possibly for some engineers – the massive earthen structures at a place ironically called Poverty Point were constructed in mere weeks yet have managed to solidly survive for 3,400 years. Some people living in buildings in the path of recent hurricanes may want to pay attention.
“We as a research community — and population as a whole — have undervalued native people and their ability to do this work and to do it quickly in the ways they did. One of the most remarkable things is that these earthworks have held together for more than 3,000 years with no failure or major erosion. By comparison, modern bridges, highways and dams fail with amazing regularity because building things out of dirt is more complicated than you would think. They really were incredible engineers with very sophisticated technical knowledge.”
Tristram R. “T.R.” Kidder, anthropology professor and lead author of the study published in the journal Southeastern Archeology, explains in a Washington University in St. Louis press release how his team of anthropologists used radiocarbon dating, microscopic analysis of soils and magnetic measurements of soils to study the Poverty Point World Heritage site in northern Louisiana. The massive mound is 72 feet high with concentric circles in front of it. It was made, starting in 1700 BCE, with nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil hauled, mixed and assembled by a hunter-fisher-gatherer culture without sophisticated tools, domesticated animals, wheeled carts or any other aids. Kidder believes the construction was completed in lifts, or layers of sediment deposited to increase the ridge height and linear dimensions before another layer was placed to expand the mound vertically and horizontally. Amazingly, there is no evidence of weathering between the layers, indicating they were built rapidly and the entire 2 million cubic yards hit 72 feet in a matter of weeks.
“Similar to the Roman concrete or rammed earth in China, Native Americans discovered sophisticated ways of mixing different types of materials to make them virtually indestructible, despite not being compacted. There’s some magic there that our modern engineers have not been able to figure out yet.”
Will they ever figure it out? Kidder thinks these Native American engineers descended from the original people who crossed the Bering Strait land bridge 15,000 years ago. The variety and magnitude of artifacts found there indicates it may have been a major trading center when the mound was built, providing the engineers with a large labor pool to haul, mix and pile the soil. Holes indicate that houses were built on the mound, but it appears news of the sheer magnitude of it spread and the mound became an important religious site where Native Americans came in pilgrimage.
An aerial view of the earthworks at Poverty Point. Excerpt from USDA Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service aerial photograph CTK-2BB-125.
Aerial photograph taken November 11, 1960.
While the mounds have stood for 3,400 years through hurricanes, heavy rains, flooding and erosion, the Native American builders didn’t. It appears they moved out around 1100 BCE due to hurricanes, heavy rains, flooding and erosion – i.e., climate change.
The mound at Poverty Point is not the most famous – the Serpent Mound in Ohio is – but perhaps it should be. Will modern engineers learn anything from these underappreciated yet obviously talented Native American builders? Possibly. Will the mound help today’s Americans better appreciate the talented people who lived here long before the Europeans? Has anything else managed to do that? Will climate change force modern people to abandon the structures they build? Definitely. How long will those structures last? You know the answer.
We must never stop learning about – and learning from – the past.
RELATED VIDEO AND PHOTOS, selected and posted by peter2011
The mounds still rise as much as 66 feet above ground, more than 3,000 years after they were constructed.
Archaeologists investigated the construction process for the earthworks.
(Southeastern Archaeology)
A new study sheds light on the "sophisticated" engineering work by early Native Americans at the World Heritage Site at Poverty Point, Louisiana.
Phys Org.
“This in and of itself is remarkable because hunter-gatherers aren’t supposed to be able to do these activities,” Washington University anthropologist Tristram Kidder said.
Wetenschappers ontdekken fossiele ‘vliegende draak’ in Chileense woestijn
In de Chileense Atacamawoestijn hebben archeologen fossiele resten ontdekt van een prehistorisch dier dat zich laat omschrijven als ‘een vliegende draak’. Zo'n 200 tot 150 miljoen jaar geleden vloog de pterosaurus, voorzien van een lange staart, vleugels en scherpe uitstekende tanden, er zijn rondjes.
David van der Heeden
Het vliegende reptiel behoort tot een groep die al eerder op het noordelijk halfrond werd ontdekt. Naar nu blijkt heeft het zo uit Jurassic Park weggevlogen monster ook in Zuid-Amerika zijn vleugels uitgeslagen. De versteende botten van het dier werden al in 2009 ontdekt door de directeur van het natuurhistorisch museum van de Atacamawoestijn en werden jarenlang onderzocht door wetenschappers van de universiteit van Chili.
De ontdekking vormt het eerste bewijs dat de pterosauriërs - de eerste gewervelde dieren die konden vliegen, voorlopers van de Pterodactylus - ook op het zuidelijk halfrond voorkwamen. “Dit toont aan dat de dieren in deze groep wijder verspreid waren dan we tot nu toe wisten”, zegt onderzoeksleider Jhonatan Alarcon. De bevindingen van het team zijn gepubliceerd in wetenschapsjournaal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Het is overigens niet zo dat deze Rhamphorhynchus - vernoemd naar de groep waartoe de voorwereldlijke fladderaar behoorde - ongeschonden uit de grond werd gehaald. De deskundigen moesten het doen met een stuk bot uit de voorpoot, een mogelijke ruggenwervel en een gedeeltelijk vleugelkootje. Genoeg bewijs echter om de ‘koning van de lucht’ aan Zuid-Amerika te linken.
Wetenschappers denken dat de zuidelijke landmassa’s tijdens de Jura-periode aan elkaar zaten. Een supercontinent dat Gondwana wordt genoemd. Mogelijk de reden waarom andere leden van de dierengroep ook op Cuba zijn gevonden. “Waarschijnlijk vlogen ze van noord naar zuid”, aldus Alarcon. “Misschien zijn ze hier ooit aangekomen en gebleven, we weten het niet.”
Hoe groot het fabelachtige wezen precies was, schrijven de experts niet. Er zijn aanwijzingen dat het om een dier van ‘gemiddelde grootte’ ging. Een volwassen exemplaar. Sommige familieleden konden echter een vleugelspanwijdte van bijna twee meter bereiken, zo is bekend. Van Rhamphorhynchus zijn meer volledige skeletten gevonden dan van welk andere pterosauriërs maar ook. Hij had een spitse kop, zwemvliezen en at vis.
De Atacamawoestijn is een immens groot gebied, dat ooit onder het water van de Stille Oceaan schuilging. Nu oogt het als een maanlandschap. Sommige delen van de woestenij hebben al tientallen jaren geen regen gezien. Er zijn alleen stenen en zand te vinden. En fossielen voor wie zijn schep in de grond steekt. Het gebied staat bekend om zijn fossiele vondsten. Veel ervan worden net onder het dorre oppervlak gevonden.
The Great Salt Lake Enigma: Science Shows Anomalies – Evidence of a Global Flood?
The Great Salt Lake Enigma: Science Shows Anomalies – Evidence of a Global Flood?
When the first American settlers reached the shore of the Great Salt Lake in the middle of the 19th century, many of them believed that this vast inland sea was a remnant of the floodwaters that had swept across the whole Earth in theGreat Deluge. At that time, the acceptance of the Biblical deluge as a real and historical event was as universal as the flood itself was believed to be, among the educated and uneducated alike.
The currently accepted explanation of the Great Salt Lake’s formation is much more prosaic. According to geologists, the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA) is a remnant of a once much larger lake named Lake Bonneville that has since largely evaporated away. Supposedly, Lake Bonneville grew to such a large size because the region experienced much more precipitation during the Ice Age compared to today, and has shrunk to its present size due to decreasing rainfall following the ending of the last Ice Age. Also, scientists say that the Great Salt Lake’s salts originate from the rivers that bring in small amounts of dissolved salts, which then accumulate in the lake because it has no outlet. Utah’s official state website confirms this: “[it] is salty because it does not have an outlet. Tributary rivers are constantly bringing in small amounts of salt dissolved in their fresh water flow. Once in the Great Salt Lake much of the water evaporates leaving the salt behind.” In this article, I shall argue against the currently accepted explanation of the Great Salt Lake’s origins and attempt to rehabilitate the long-dismissed hypothesis of its oceanic origins.
Origins of The Great Salt Lake
Let us examine the official explanation of the origin of the Great Salt Lake’s salts line by line.
ISS/NASA imagery of the Great Salt Lake. Great Salt Lake, Utah, to the right (east) are the Wasatch Mountains, to the lower right is Salt Lake City, Utah.
First, it is stated that “[the Great Salt Lake] is salty because it does not have an outlet.” I will not dispute that the second part of this statement, namely “it does not have an outlet” is true. The Great Salt Lake certainly does not have an outlet, meaning that rivers flow into the lake (the Bear, Weber, and Provo/Jordan rivers), but no rivers flow out. Such a lake is a specific example of a general class of lakes called endorheic lakes, and the drainage basins within which these lakes are found are called endorheic basins, which are drainage basins from which no rivers flow out. The vast majority of the millions of lakes found across the world are not endorheic lakes; that is, almost all lakes have rivers that flow out of them, as well as into them.
The second statement in the Utah state website’s official explanation reads: “tributary rivers are constantly bringing in small amounts of salt dissolved in their fresh water flow.” This statement is also true, as can be verified by a Scientific American article written by Arthur Pillsbury:
“All natural waters, including those described as fresh, contain salts. A virgin stream emerging from a mountain watershed may contain as little as 50 parts per miIlion p.p.m.) of "salt," or total dissolved solids. Ocean water averages about 35,000 p.p.m., or about 3.5 percent, of dissolved solids.”
Mr. Pillsbury then goes on to emphasize that the word “salts,” in this context, does not mean only sodium and chloride, which are the primary constituents of the familiar table salt, but other ions, including but not limited to sodium, chloride, sulfate, potassium, calcium, and carbonate. Later on, he explains how these streams end up containing these minute concentrations of salt, namely through the action of weathering and erosion:
“Weathering takes place under conditions where there is ample opportunity for the mineral crystals that constitute rock to oxidize. Although weathering embraces physical, chemical and biological processes, the physical processes are pervasive and central. Mechanical action fractures rock, exposing a far greater surface area to weathering agents. For example, the alternate freezing and thawing of water in the crevices of the rock exerts forces of compression and expansion that can break down the strongest material. Flowing water, wind and the grinding action of rocks in the bed of streams and the bottom of glaciers all contribute to physical weathering. Weathering manufactures both salts and the particles of rock that are borne from the uplands to the lowlands, where they are the principal constituents of soil. ”
So far so good, or so it seems. What, then, are some inferences that can be drawn from these facts?
The Source of the Salt
First, is that the specific salt composition of rivers that drain a watershed will differ depending on the specific rocks and soils that make up the watershed. Given that different regions of the earth exhibit a great diversity of rocks and soils, one should expect that the profile of dissolved salts found in different rivers should correspondingly exhibit a great diversity. These conclusions are not merely plausible, but are in fact true, as can be verified by Table 5.3, which confirms that fresh waters that drain different types of rocks differ significantly in their distribution of dissolved salts.
Table 5.3 [Chart obtained from Tundisi, J. G., and Takako Matsumura. Tundisi. Limnology. Boca Raton: CRC, 2012. Print.]
And by extension, since it is these very salts dissolved in these rivers that are carried to the endorheic lakes, the salt compositions of these rivers determine the salt compositions of the lakes. So we should expect the distribution of dissolved salts in a river flowing into an endorheic lake to be similar to the distribution of dissolved salts in the endorheic lake itself—as the salts dissolved in the endorheic lake originate from these selfsame rivers.
By contrast, the salt composition of seawater is not determined by merely the salt composition of a particular river and the rocks and soils that are found in the specific watershed that this given river drains, but is rather determined by the average of all of the salt concentrations of all of the world’s rivers and the corresponding watersheds that these rivers drained averaged over the entire billions of years over which the oceans have existed.
Given these facts, if the currently accepted geological theory of the origin of the Great Salt Lake’s salts is correct, which is, as was described earlier, that these salts were eroded from the rock and soils within the Great Salt Lake’s watershed and then carried by rivers into the lake, then one would most certainly not expect the Great Salt Lake to have a salt composition that is nearly identical to that of seawater, as this would mean that the chemical composition of the rocks and soils that comprise the Great Salt Lake’s watershed and the salts that they generate upon being eroded happened to be nearly identical to average of the salt compositions of all of the worlds’ rivers averaged over billions of years.
Given that the Great Salt Lake watershed comprises less than a thousandth of the Earth’s total land area, this would be, to say the least, a most remarkable coincidence, since that would imply that a randomly picked and relatively tiny swath of the surface of the earth would have nearly the same distribution of rocks and soils as the average distribution of rocks and soils over the entire earth.
Table 4.5 [Adey, Walter H., and Karen Loveland.
"Physical Environment." Dynamic Aquaria: Building Living Ecosystems. San Diego: Academic, 1991. N. pag. Print.]
Chart of Various Salts in Lakes [information for chart obtained from table shown in table2.png + information about ocean from public domain Adey, Walter H., and Karen Loveland.
"Physical Environment." Dynamic Aquaria: Building Living Ecosystems. San Diego: Academic, 1991. N. pag. Print.]
And yet this most unlikeliest of coincidences happens to be true, for the Great Salt Lake’s salt composition is nearly identical to seawater, differing only in that its waters are slightly enriched in potassium and depleted in calcium compared to the ocean, as can be seen in the table (potassium was omitted in the chart because there was no potassium concentration data for the Bear River).
In fact, the salt composition of the Great Salt Lake is more similar to the seawater than it is to the very river, namely the Bear River, that feeds it, and is supposedly the source of its salts!
A Lake of Seawater
This chart weakens the currently accepted theory in two different ways . First, I have demonstrated earlier that an endorheic lake and the river which feeds it should have similar salt profiles, and this is clearly not the case. Secondly, I have also demonstrated that it is extremely unlikely that the Great Salt Lake, an endorheic lake, and seawater should have similar salt profiles, provided that the currently accepted theory of the origin of the Great Salt Lake’s salts is correct .
The size of the shallow lake fluctuates due to evaporation. Salt on the dried ground at Great Salt Lake.
Therefore, one may conclude, that in all probability, the currently accepted explanation for the origin of the salts of the Great Salt Lake—namely that the salts have been eroded from the rocks and soils found in the lake’s watershed, and carried to the lake by the rivers that flow into it—is incorrect with a very high probability, for one can only maintain that it is true by resorting to coincidence (which is by definition of very low probability).
Since there is only one other point of origin of these salts, namely the ocean, one is compelled to admit the possibility that these salts originated from the ocean. But this must mean that the ocean, at one point in the past, penetrated the Great Salt Lake’s watershed, which is located almost 600 miles away from the nearest ocean (the Pacific Ocean). Perhaps the impressions of the American settlers who first cast eyes on the Great Salt Lake, and thought that it was the work of God, were correct after all.
Brady Yoon is a software engineer and writer. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and a minor in anthropology at UCLA. He researches and writes about lost civilizations and other ancient mysteries.
Footprints that date back about 200 million years were discovered in India’s Thar Desert and were made by three different dinosaurs. The prints, which were found in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district close to Thaiat village, were made in the sediment of the seashore to the Tethys Ocean. This proves that the three-toed carnivorous dinosaurs did in fact inhabit the western part of the state millions of years ago during the Mesozoic Era.
The three dinosaur species that made the footprints were Eubrontes cf. giganteus, Eubrontes glenrosensis, and Grallator tenuis. The prints belonging to the Eubrontes cf. giganteus and Eubrontes glenrosensis species measured 35 centimeters (13.8 inches), while the one made by the Grallator tenuis was only 5.5 centimeters (2.2 inches).
(Not any of the dinosaurs mentioned in this article.)
In an interview with The Hindu, Virendra Singh Parihar, Assistant Professor, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, stated that the three species were all types of theropods. Theropods were bipedal dinosaurs and the ancient ancestors of more than 9,000 of today’s birds. In fact, they were quite similar to modern birds as they had three toes and air-filled hollow bones. Some theropods had feathers and even built nests for their eggs. They were fast and agile which helped them to hunt.
Both of the Eubrontes species were believed to have measured between 12 and 15 meters in length (39 to 49 feet) and weighed between 500 and 700 kilograms (1,102 to 1,543 pounds). The Grallator tenuis, however, was much smaller and about the same height as a really tall human, measuring about two meters tall (6.6 feet) and three meters in length (9.8 feet).
The climate in the region where the dinosaur prints were found was different millions of years ago. Geochemical analysis revealed that the environment in which the dinosaurs lived in was seasonal to semi-arid (this means that it was dry but they did receive some rain) and the researchers also believe that the sea levels changed numerous times during the early part of the Jurassic Period (this was around the same time that the prints were made).
(Not any of the dinosaurs mentioned in this article.)
This is hopefully just the first of many more dinosaur-related discoveries in the region as stated by Dr. Parihar, “It is just the beginning of the findings of dinosaur remains in Rajasthan. More discoveries of dinosaur fossils will be made in the near future.” I look forward to seeing what more they will find.
Astonishing Human Heads: Do Satellite Photographs Now Prove Existence of Humans on Antarctica…6000 Years Ago? – Part I
Astonishing Human Heads: Do Satellite Photographs Now Prove Existence of Humans on Antarctica…6000 Years Ago? – Part I
Accurate geographical and cartographical information concerning the continent of Antarctica has only really been uncovered since AD 1822. However, in direct contradiction, ancient maps reveal Antarctica completely free of glaciation thousands of years beforehand.
According to experts in ancient cartography and oceanography, only a very advanced maritime culture exploring Antarctica after the end of the last Ice Age, 11000 years ago, could possibly have created such maps. So, who was this suddenly, incredibly advanced civilization?
The beautiful but formidable landscape of Antarctica.
The failure to find an acceptable answer to this cartographic mystery led to speculation that ancient maps were produced by highly advanced aliens, because to produce maps of huge continental land masses, they could only be plotted accurately from an aerial perspective using surveying equipment especially designed for the purpose!
So, aliens excluded, which highly technically advanced cartographers could traverse our planet many thousands of years before the likes of Columbus, et al? Where did they come from and how did they come to possess the expertise and navigational ability to sail vast oceans and, most importantly, to record their findings on maps alleged to have been the sources of information passed on to ‘modern’ explorers like Columbus, Cook, Magellan or Vasco da Gama, for example.
Surprising Satellite Photography Reveals Antarctica’s Distant Past
To quote an example, there is the 16th Century ‘Buache’ map which he (Buache) claims to have been made by a very ancient civilization which accurately mapped the continent of Antarctica completely free of its one-mile deep ice cap. However, with no concrete proof to substantiate his claims, experts suspect Buache's map was probably the product of a vivid imagination. But was it? We shall see later.
“Map of the Southern Lands contained between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Pole, where the new discoveries made in 1739 to the south of the Cape of Good Hope may be seen” by Philippe Buache.
Author, space archaeologist, and independent researcher, William James Veall has taken advantage of Antarctica's present narrow extension of coastal deglaciation and used remote sensing satellite photography to expose a number of absolutely astonishing human heads and animal portraits together with inscriptive material clearly demonstrating someone had touched down on at least three separate areas of Antarctica coastline in the distant past.
FIGURE 1: Modern map of Antarctica indicating the section of the Ross Sea coastline, the subject of Space Archaeologist William James Veall's probing by remote sensing satellite (in red) and the extended ice-free section of the Ross Sea coastline as shown on the AD 1512 maps of Oronteus Finaeus (marked green).
William Veall continues: Many readers of Ancient Origins already know I use the technique of remote sensing satellite photography to expose ground-based imagery: rock sculptures, intaglios, pictographs, petroglyphs and epigraphy symbols. Currently, I am also involved in using satellite technology for the extremely important service of detection, preservation and protection of archaeological sites world-wide from theft and acts of vandalism. (GlobalXplorer)
Utilizing this same technique, I have been very successful tracing the coastline 'hops' of trans-oceanic voyagers around South America, the seaboard of North East America, Newfoundland, the West Coast of Africa, Uruguay and even down the eastern coast of Australia (see table 1) with some most incredible revelations.
FIGURE 2: Table 1. Ancient symbols discovered along the eastern coastline of Australia by William James Veall, March 2017.
(Copyright WJV 2017)
Was Antarctica Once Ice-Free?
Following the rather fruitful foray along the east coast of Australia I decided to chance my luck and put to the test the statement made by the Greek geographer, cartographer and mathematician, Marinus of Tyre who in 400 BC reported he had knowledge of an ancient map depicting Antarctica free of ice.
Logically, the nearest point of any trans-oceanic contact with Antarctica using the eastern Australian coastline as a guide would be to cross the South Atlantic, sail into the Antarctic circle, and come ashore at some point roughly in the region of Wilkes Land; the same area selected by Ross in AD 1840-1843.
It is not unreasonable to assume on the premise that the extreme eastern Australian seaboard runs southwards following roughly the 153º anti-meridian that ancient explorers would have 'coast hopped' this meridian in easily measured steps of latitude known in ancient navigational parlance as 'running the latitudes' in conjunction with certain overhead constellations, thus enabling them to cross the oceans until they reached the continent of Antarctica.
After a preliminary scanning of most of the Antarctic perimeter, a deglaciated section of the Ross Sea region appeared to be the only area that might yield sufficient arcti-factual data to make this 'shot in the dark' have any real significance to answer the question: Are there any signs of indigenous or external activity which may account for the fact that various ancient sea maps purport to show all or parts of the Antarctica coastline free of ice?
So firstly, how did Marinus of Tyre learn of the existence of ‘Antarctica’ in 400 BC and secondly, did Buache really have access to ancient maps which allowed him to construct what he claimed to be a true representation of the continent of Antarctica... minus its covering of frozen ice and snow?
Apparently, it was Aristotle who told Marinus of the existence of a continent named 'Terra Australis' surrounding the South Pole. Marinus then marked the world map he was compiling from other ancient maps with this same title. But, most fascinating of all, his map showed Terra Australis (Antarctica) without the traditional ice shield. However, the ancient maps Marinus allegedly used mysteriously 'disappeared' so we have no way of verifying his story.
By the same token; this does not explain how other ancient cartographers, like Oronteus Finaeus and Hadji Ahmed could also claim they had access to maps 6,000 years old (4000 BC) depicting the continent of Antarctica completely free of an ice cap. From where did their maps originate and who compiled them? I believe I may have chanced upon an answer.
I must confess, prior to my Antarctica 'shot in the dark'—apart from knowing Antarctica housed the South Pole... and a few penguins—I really had no preconceived ideas about this ice-coated region at the southernmost tip of Planet Earth. Imagine my surprise to discover quite by chance I had followed the now familiar 'modern' explorers’ sea route to Antarctica and coincidentally landed my remote sensing satellite probe virtually at the same anchorage chosen by Amundsen (1911-1912) and Scott (1910-1913).
Rounding Cape Adare and into the Ross Sea, I scanned the eastern coastline along a stretch where the Ross Sea borders Victoria Land. Quite coincidentally, a section of deglaciated shoreline had retreated a little inland leaving a roughly two-kilometer (1.24-mile) stretch exposed, albeit, some places still covered with traces of glaciation. According to the most recent scientific surveys, the Eastern Antarctica ice shield has, even over just the last twenty years, begun to melt at an alarming rate suspected to be as a result of global warming.
I had barely crossed the halfway mark along the Ross Sea shoreline when I had the shock of my life!
Human Heads
The satellite had captured very clearly a human head image (portrait) staring out from the rocky terrain. (Figures 7 and 7a) This was not supposed to happen: the presence of Mankind in any form, prehistoric or otherwise had never ever been detected on Antarctica—a continent currently believed to have been ice covered for eight to nine million years, and would logically be virgin territory free of any prehistoric indigenous inhabitants until well after the end of the great Ice Age, 12,000 years ago.
FIGURES 7 and 7a: The very first portrait I discovered on Antarctica; this amazing figure wearing a tricorn hat is carved into a deglaciated rock surface, some 25 meters in height x 32 meters width, it features a human head, Caucasian in appearance, with gentile facial features and lightly epicanthic, expressive eyes. The left cheek (facing) is pecked with a Cretan style 'star'; the forehead with a diamond point GIS. Beneath the right eye (facing) is a small pecked triangle. Just opposite are pecked two Linear A characters.
Research carried out by Reading University in the UK strongly suggests an advanced civilization did exist many thousands of years before the Egyptians, Sumerians or Babylonians; this culture of Black Peoples (the Kiffian Era) due to climatic changes were driven south from their homelands of the "Green Sahara" (9000 – 4000 BC) to eventually merge their allegedly quite advanced technology with the less developed peoples in the southern regions, Egypt, for example. (see References: ' Black Mummy of the Green Sahara' - an excellent video).
Scanning the Ross Sea rocky coastline eventually exposed some forty or so human head portraits, including animal heads and, including those in Table 2, nearly one hundred pecked symbols. My method of analysis has been developed over many years studying literally hundreds of satellite imagery situations across the mountains and deserts of the world, enabling the creation of extremely critical rules for precise imagery interpretation.
FIGURE 3: Table 2 Chart depicting the ancient symbols uncovered along the Ross Sea coastline of Antarctica by Space Archaeologist, William James Veall in April 2017. (Copyright WJV 2017)
FIGURE 4: Table 3: Comparing Linear A and Linear B scripts from Tables 1 and 2.
[Authors note:The backgrounds to Figures 5 to 12 have been lightly diffused to improve image clarity, but this original satellite imagery has not been retouched in any way. The added silhouette is not intended to be a 'portrait' but simply an aid to identifying the pose of the satellite image. Figs 5 to 12 are published under the Google Earth 'Permissions of Fair Use'.]
FIGURES 5 and 5a: A petroglyph, located on Marambio Island in the north-west corner of the Antarctic, has a most unusual monkey-face profile, subtending the head of an eagle. The head is marked with an open loop GIS symbol on the left cheek. Three circles (stones) are conjoined at the rear of the eagle's head. A date perhaps?
Which particular culture used this motif as its signature icon to announce its presence on Antarctica? The head is 34 meters high by 50 meters wide (111.5 feet by 164 feet), the Eagle 18 meters high by 39 meters in length (59 feet by 128 feet). The two conjoined 'Gods' appear to represent Hanuman, the all-powerful Hindu Monkey God and the Eagle, the Hindu God, Garuda … but in the ANTARCTIC?
FIGURE 6: I originally ignored this rock-strewn debris but careful maneuvering of the remote sensing camera shot exposed a pattern of rocks seemingly set in the form of an ancient legend embedded into the seashore. Unfortunately, the seaward portion of the text is now submerged under (melt) water. Exposed size 50 meters in length x 25 meters (164 by 82 feet) wide.
Was this message a Dedication to celebrate a long-held dream of stepping ashore on Planet Earth's most iconic land mass; acting as a counterweight to balance Global Earth with another great land mass in the north—the Arctic? I believe so.
The characters appear very similar to the Minoan Linear A 'accountancy' script, circa 1800 – 1400 BC; this is immensely interesting because the 'dots and dashes' just might translate into chronological data, in other words - announcing the arrival and date of European mans' first footfall on the continent of Antarctica?
Interestingly, Table 3 quite clearly depicts characters are both Linear A and B types, whereas virtually all the subsequent inscriptive material (see table 2) along the Ross Sea coastline is 'pecked' in a more advanced alphabet of Phoenician genre. Thus, by inference, the landing must have taken place well before 1200 BC because after that time the Phoenician genre (1100 BC) began to dominate 'writing'.
One further fact that might confirm that the message was a 'Dedication of Arrival' ; the triangle symbol gives an exact latitude 72 21 04 00 S and longitude 170 15 37 00E. In my experience, a triangle followed by a capital 'A' almost always signified a geodetic of importance.
Further, why set this co-ordinate on a fragile shoreline when all others are carved into the cliff face? Answer: many years earlier the coastline was greatly extended, as proven by both the Oronteus Finaeus and Buache ancient maps (see Figure 1 map, green extension).
FIGURES 7 and 7a: The very first portrait I discovered on Antarctica; this amazing figure wearing a tricorn hat is carved into a deglaciated rock surface.
FIGURES 8 and 8a: This figure, 23 meters high x 20 meters in width is clearly of 'Native' ancestry. The head appears to have an unusual projecting jawline. A gnomon records the 170.16.26.00 longitude co-ordinate of this particular image.
Reading the back history of Antarctica, references clearly state that there was never any indigenous flora and fauna of any kind present on the continent because the land mass had been completely covered in an ice sheet for at least nine million years... before even prehistoric Man.
A Message on the Shore: Do Satellite Photographs Now Prove Existence of Humans on Antarctica…6000 Years Ago? – Part II
A Message on the Shore: Do Satellite Photographs Now Prove Existence of Humans on Antarctica…6000 Years Ago? – Part II
Reading the history of Antarctica, references clearly state that there was never any indigenous flora and fauna of any kind present on the continent because the land mass had been completely covered in an ice sheet for at least nine million years... before even prehistoric Man.
According to experts in ancient cartography and oceanography, only a very advanced maritime culture exploring Antarctica after the end of the last Ice Age, 11000 years ago, could possibly have created accurate geographical and cartographical information in maps. Yet such maps seemingly exist. So, who was this suddenly, incredibly advanced civilization?
Now this discovery by William James Veall asks the question: who carved with such finesse two massive deer heads, which by their conformation suggest they may be of the Huemul species? Sculpture size (per each) averages 18 meters length by six meters width (59 by 20 feet).
FIGURES 9 and 9a: Amongst the plethora of Antarctica imagery I have recorded each piece of imagery brought forth its own particular surprise. The two animals depicted in this exciting figure were no exception.
Were the two sculptures homeland icons or had successive waves of immigrants imported deer as a source of live food or milk provision; this poses another question: from where? The nearest habitat for the Huemul species of deer would likely be Patagonia, South America.
A Heumul, male south Andean deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) in Cerro Castillo National Reserve, Aysén Region, Chile.
There is a possible solution. During a period of temperate climate, did a sea route open between Cape Horn (Patagonia) and the Shetland Islands? I am quite confident in putting forward this suggestion because distinct traces of rock art activity are visible on the rock faces of some of the islands in the Shetland group. (to be published later)
Also, Nelson Island directly faces Peninsula Antarctica where I have recorded more human head portraiture, one of which is MS 3815 depicted in Figure 5, located on Marambio Island. Did some peoples set foot on Antarctica before or after those who landed at Ross Sea? Also, did the same people in a great period of climatic change either circumnavigate or use a deglaciated land route across Antarctica to reach the Ross Sea community? Hence, explaining why there are different races immortalized in its human head portraiture.
The answer to such questions is a huge and separate project in itself, probably even greater than the Ross Sea investigation because it must take into account transient movement of humans and animals between the tip of South America and Peninsula Antarctica, likely intervals of glaciation and deglaciation during periods of climatic change.
If the current glacial melt-down continues there will inevitably be the discovery of more human head portraits, with, perhaps, some very important inscriptive material; all of which will make fascinating comparisons with the Ross Sea anchorage and solve the question of who really were the first to set foot on Antarctica.
FIGURE 10 and 10a What an amazing discovery! Carved entirely from white rock, an oval shaped human head with a round eyed, rather chilling stare marked with ancient symbols. Dots in a circle about a center point motif is typical late 13th century BC. Mycenaean. (Size 44 meters high x 33 meters width).
FIGURE 11 and 11a: A superbly sculptured human head in a 'Romanesque/Greco' style helmet with an open loop GIS mark on the front panel. The portrait, nearly 800 meters in height by 400 meters wide is carved into the steep face of a mountain ridge. Immediately to the right (facing) is a very distinct GIS symbol which gives a latitudinal reading of 82º 25 15 00S. Six hundred meters to the east is 'pecked' a diamond point GIS indicating the longitude of the site.
Satellite photographs show the sculpture is on a mountain side in the Holyoake Range. The very fact this colossal bust was carved in such a remote snowbound location greatly puzzled me, although I do accept the bust may have been carved if this area of Antarctica had once upon a time become ice-free and accessible. When and by whom, and for what purpose was this massive figure set in this particular location?
Satellite Navigation Reveals Ancient Records
And then, I remembered reading from an excellent book by the late Prof. Charles Hapgood, (FRGS) " Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings " that Oronteus Finaeus had plotted the position of the South Pole from ancient maps he had acquired. Hapgood cannily computed that Oronteus Finaeus' South Pole was in fact 7.5º (800 km/497 miles) from the true South Pole we recognize today.
Now came the moment of truth! My satellite navigator had, on the 9th May 2017, recorded a latitudinal reading of 82º 25' for the statue, almost the 7.5º from the true South Pole. I then checked out the longitudinal co-ordinate, 160º 32'.
Each co-ordinate confirmed almost exactly the position of the South Pole—precisely as Oronteus Finaeus had marked upon his 1531 AD map.
I firmly believe the gigantic 800-meter-high (2625 feet) sculpture was carved, not only to permanently mark what was believed to be, at the time, the true South Pole, but to honor and record in Memoriam the first peoples ever to knowingly reach the 'South Pole'.
Messages on the Seashore
The very last thing I expected to end up doing was writing an in-depth article, analyzing and creating artwork for numerous portraits, drawing maps, plus epigraphy tables, all resulting from a fun-loving hunch to circumnavigate the vast continent of Antarctica by remote sensing satellite—all out of sheer curiosity.
To find a whole host of human head portraits, seemingly of at least five differing cultures, plus animal heads, all interspersed with a mass of inscriptive material and, romantically, ' a message on the seashore', was mind-blowing to say the least.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, against all the known odds, that Antarctica had been visited in the ancient past with possibly some long-term habitation along, at least, the coastal regions in periods of more temperate climate; this proof completely rebuts the long-held belief that "Antarctica NEVER had any native people living there, in fact until AD 1822, NO ONE had even set eyes on Antarctica."
But surely the 'icing on the cake' was when I discovered the importance of the massive figure carved in the Holyoake mountain range to commemorate the discovery of and record the exact location of the South Pole as extrapolated from Oronteus Finaeus' ancient maps.
I have a slight reservation about this point, having recorded by remote sensing hundreds of GIS (Geodetic and Identification) markers. I have always been astonished at the incredible accuracy achieved by the ancient map makers— and I am not talking in 'degrees' but 'minutes' of accuracy—quietly suggestive of an ancient civilization possessing knowledge of astronomy, navigation and map-making with superlative scientific equipment not equaled by 'modern' man until at least the 19th century.
Dating of artifactual material is at best very much trial and error. The dress code of any ancient statue or portrait is almost always a sound clue to provenance. Here, one clue is in the rather 'Romanesque/Greco' style of helmet as seen above. In fact, along the Ross Sea section there appears to be at least four busts similarly helmeted, suggesting an expeditionary force from the Mediterranean had indeed succeeded in reaching Antarctica.
As a space archaeologist, I make no claims to having expertise in epigraphy; this does not preclude making observations about the material I have uncovered in the course of my research. Therefore, is it possible to derive a time frame simply from the inscriptive material I have charted in Tables 1 – 3)? The answer is yes. Firstly, by observing the historical extremities of the tabulated charts.
The very earliest stage of the Antarctic epigraphy chain would need to have Egyptian hieroglyphs: there are NONE. An end point to my tabulated chain would need to include the 'modernized' Greek alphabet, Hebrew, and perhaps even Roman lettering. There are NONE. Thus, we have established the limits of the charted inscriptive material.
Table 1 "Symbols discovered along the east coast of Australia".
(Copyright WJV 2017)
Table 1 "Symbols discovered along the east coast of Australia" . MS 3755, Col 5, depicts a Proto-Sinaitic character, (man joyously waving arms about) circa 1850 BC. Is this the first link in the hypothesis? As we examine other characters in Tables 1 and 2 we find a bias towards the Minoan script, Linear A. Now, Linear A was developed, circa 1800 BC - 1400 BC, and used essentially as an 'accounting script'. Hence ‘dots and dashes’ signifying a base 10 script. (see table 3 and the "message on the sands" )
Table 2. Chart depicting the ancient symbols uncovered along the Ross Sea coastline of Antarctica by Space Archaeologist, William James Veall in April 2017. (Copyright WJV 2017)
Table 3. “Message on the sands”
(Copyright WJV 2017)
However, one will notice within the 'mix' (Tables 1, 2 and 3) are characters from the Mycenaean script Linear B, developed circa 1500 BC – 1200 BC and mainly used for communication.
Thus, we have a start date in our timeline made up from Proto-Sinaiatic (1850 BC) paralleled with Linear A (1800 BC - 1400 BC), followed by Linear B (1500 BC – 1200 BC). Linear B was followed by the Phoenician alphabet (1100 BC) which continued down into the Iron age (1050 BC) thence to be taken over by Greek alphabetical variants (800 - 750 BC).
According to the inscriptive material, the Ross Sea region of Antarctica was subject to visitations and possible semi-permanent habitation during a period(s) of deglaciation 1850 BC through to, say at least 1050 BC, a time scale allowing for overlap—not far off 1000 years.
Also, I believe, over this 1000-year time span Antarctica was eventually circumnavigated 'en total' hence the map of Antarctica was actually bit-mapped, thus producing the historically reported series of slightly disjointed local maps.
An in-depth appraisal of glaciation and deglaciation of Antarctica even over just 10,000 years is extremely complex and outside the remit of this article. Suffice it to say, if perchance the 'message in the sands' was one of farewell, why was it 'written' in Linear A / Linear B and not the same alphabet as the mass of inscriptive material shown in Table 2? Were there successive visitations over the 1000-year period? Perhaps with the latter waves using a more 'modern' form of written communication.
Who Could have Created Such Works?
We have already discussed it was Aristotle who informed Marinus of Tyre in 400 BC of the existence of a Continent called Terra Australis (Antarctica) which he had gleaned from (local) maps hundreds of years old.
Now, if we accept the ancient maps Aristotle referred to, stretch back hundreds of years, 1450 BC is well within an acceptable time frame. A time frame that encompasses the period when the Minoans were extremely active commercial maritime traders, superb artisans at producing amazing gold and bronze human figurines and natural forms (animals (deer), birds, flowers and fish) and obviously would have included a range of iron and bronze tools for shipbuilding to fine arts.
A detail of the dolphin fresco, the Minoan palace of Knossos, Crete, (1700-1450 BCE)
The Ross Sea sculptures could only have been carved by highly skilled artists working with possibly some of the hardest rock known to man; these artisans would surely have needed 'mauls and chisels' made from durable bronze or iron. This fact is very important because the dates of the Minoan Bronze Age (1500 – 1200 BC) and subsequent slight overlap into the Early Iron Age (1050 BC) firmly keep the Minoans in our postulated timeframe.
Many Different Cultures?
One very interesting point arises when considering, in such a short stretch of shoreline, there are at least five completely differing cultures depicted by the physiognomy of the busts; I do not believe they are a generation arising from linear development because quite simply we would be looking at tens of thousands of years, not just 10,000 years of deglaciated history.
What is more, the ancient artists have carefully selected their rock face work-pieces to reflect the color tones of the faces they desired to portray, hence, presenting us with everlasting original portraits of inhabitants 'in the flesh' exactly as they were centuries ago.
Strangely, even the portraits of the most primitive peoples are marked with the same 'international' loop or diamond point GIS, clearly indicating the statues are contemporaneous alongside the copius amounts of inscriptive material; this, as we have already said, is readily dateable between the limits of 1850 BC – 800 BC.
I cannot state categorically that Minoans were the very first to see or set foot upon the shores of Antarctica; that is something we will never know for certain. The very fact that 'primitive' busts were evident amongst the sculptures suggests local native 'Fisherfolk' from say Patagonia, New Guinea or Southern Australia, for example, could equally have taken advantage of a temperate climate window and were actually in residence before the Minoans arrived.
Clearly without close forensic examination I am unable to say one way or the other whether the Minoans with their passion for recreating all living creatures in paintings or sculptural form conceived the Ross Sea shoreline as a museum masterpiece, or whether the more primitive residents had the capability and tools to fashion imagery according to their own likeness before the Minoans arrived... and used a GIS insignia. (I don't think so?)
And to finish, some HOT NEWS:
FIGURE 12 and 12a: Fig 12 is the original untouched satellite photograph. Fig. 12a has been lightly retouched by pencil only.
This latest satellite capture shows here again we have the strange juxtaposition between the primitive form and symbolic material. Just where does this 'prehistoric' specimen of humanity fit into Antarctica's exposed chain of humanity?
Note the low forehead embellished with floral headband, small eyes set under a heavy brow (cranial) ridge. See the broad, squat nose over a large mouth showing very clearly a set of protruding sharp canines. Notice the flower, lower bottom right, amongst the inscriptive material.
Bearing in mind the previous Australia/Antarctica contact mentioned above, I suspect the image represents an early Aboriginal arrival on the Continent, but associated with inscriptive material… it’s a continuing mystery!
Finally, the fascinating question everyone will ask: Do you believe, now that Antarctica has been partially exposed, this continent will turn out to be the real 'Punt' and mysterious island of 'Atlantis'?
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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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![Table 5.3 [Chart obtained from Tundisi, J. G., and Takako Matsumura. Tundisi. Limnology. Boca Raton: CRC, 2012. Print.]](https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Table-5.3.jpg?itok=YqgxbQor)
