SECRETS of the Lost Races!

Modern science from long ago!

Certainly modern evolutionary teaching does not want you, or the school systems, to ever come close to reading what this book contains, for it blows away any idea that we have progressed from the caves to our modern space age world, over hundreds of thousands of years - Keith Hunt. Published 1977 SECRETS OF LOST RACES Discoveries of Advanced Technology in Ancient Civilizations by Rene Noorbergen Researched by Joey R. Jochmans CHAPTER ONE .......Regardless of the criticism heaped on the Bible, there is a serious trend among archaeologists to regard its historical books as reliable. Until the eighteenth century, few scholars doubted the trustworthiness of the Bible as a historical book of antiquity. The Creation, the story of the Flood, the sojourn of the Israelites in the desert were all deemed facts. But then things changed. The infamous "Age of Reason" breached the walls of faith, and with the coming of the new nineteenth-century theories of evolution and materialism, the historical Bible account was relegated to mythology, and the "enlightened age" began to regard the Bible as a well-contrived compilation of fables. Harry M. Orlinsky comments in Ancient Israel, "The heroic doings of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as described in the Book of Genesis, were discounted as mere myth. The very existence of Moses was doubted. Joshua was believed to have had little or nothing to do with the Israelite conquest of Canaan. David and Solomon were considered greatly overrated. . . ." This negative attitude to the Bible was reflected in more recent times, for example, in the writings of the well-known philosopher Bertrand Russell and the historiographer R.G.Collingwood. "For today, in considerable degree," Orlinsky continues, "the pendulum has swung the other way. Modern historians do not, to be sure, accept every part of the Bible equally as literal fact. Yet they have come to accept much of the Biblical data as constituting unusually reliable historical documents of antiquity, documents which take on new meaning and pertinence when they are analyzed in the light of the newly discovered extra-Biblical sources. Indeed, even the mythical parts of the Bible are now generally regarded as reliable reflection of fact, empirically grounded, and logical in their way. . . . More and more the older view that the Biblical data were suspect and even likely to be false, unless corroborated by extra-Biblical facts, is giving way to one which holds that, by and large, the Biblical accounts are more likely to be true than false, unless clear-cut evidence from sources outside the Bible demonstrates the reverse. " Professor William F. Albright, the world-renowned archaeologist of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, adds, "The Bible now forms, humanly considered, part of a great whole, to the outside parts of which it can be related. Its languages, the life and customs of its peoples, its history, and its ethical and religious ideas are all illustrated in innumerable ways by archaeological discovery." With these endorsements of the Bible as a historical document, we dare to venture into the first chapters of Genesis in order to help us trace the development of the human race and the technological and cultural achievements with which it coincided. There is nothing else that can penetrate the history of the pre-Flood period. Even modem dating methods are of no help, for they are applicable only to artifacts, not accounts, and these dating techniques cannot take us back further than 5,000 years. One of the world's foremast experts in modern dating metho ds, Dr.W.F.Libby, who wan the Nobel prize for his research on carbon-14 dating, was astonished to find that this was so. Trusting that his new-found tool would enable science to pull back the curtain of time, he was shocked to be confronted with sceience's limitations. "You read statements in books that such and such society or archaeological site is 20,000 years old," he commented. "We learned rather abruptly that these numbers, these ancient ages, are not known accurately; in fact, it is at about the time of the First Dynasty of Egypt that the first historical date of any real certainty has been established." Genesis tells us that Cain and Seth were born in 4969 B.c. and 4924 B.c. respectively, and upon maturity became the progenitors of two distinct races, isolated from one another. Known as Cainites and Sethites, they developed totally different life-styles. A close examination of the names and identifications given to the various tribal leaders or patriarchs that ruled the two races tends to bring us to a better understanding of their capabilities-and the conclusions we reach clash violently with the concept of crude cave men dragging their wives by the hair on the road to marital bliss. We know from the record that Cain lived in the land called Nod, meaning "place of exile." Genesis mentions that the land where he settled did not "yield her strength." There is no further information concerning the early years except that in approximately 4784 B.C. a son, Enoch, was born. Sometime between this date and Cain's death in 4059 B.C., Cain gathered his descendants together and built a city called Enoch City, named after his first son. Several observations can be made regarding the construction of this first city, which would require the development of a high order of mathematics; the manipulation of building materials, seemingly stones and wood; and a knowledge of architecture. A city also presupposes the beginning of some form of social and political organization, not only for the construction phase, but also for its subsequent maintenance and expansion. Upon assembling his descendants into one dwelling place, Cain set himself up as the first ruler over men, and by naming the city after his eldest son, he moved to establish a dynasty of rulers that would perpetuate his name. Enoch was the next Cainite, supposedly born in 4784 B.C. Little is known of the personal histories of the descendants of Cain other than their names and sequence of descent as recorded in Genesis, chapter four. However, it was the ancient practice to give men names that commemorated their status or character or major events in their lives. From their names we can now perceive something about each of the Cainites. The name Enoch means "devoted, the initiated (into secret learning), a teacher," and the implication is that Enoch was a man of knowledge, parti- cularly mystic knowledge. The fact that Cain named his city after Enoch suggests that the city was to be not just a political center but a religious one as well. Enoch City, with Enoch as its high priest, may have possessed its own sanctuary and sacrificial system. Irad, the son of Enoch, was born in approximately 4599 B.C. and died about 3689 B.C. His name means "a townsman, a prince of a city." The city where Irad was ruler was of course Enoch City, and its throne was his inheritance from his grandfather, who died during Irad's lifetime. This indicates that the dynasty of Cain remained intact at least to the third generation. Mehujael, the son of Irad, entered the scene at 4415 B.C., his name meaning "smitten of God." We do not know the manner in which this Cainite was struck down, whether by disease, malformation or natural disaster, but the record indicates that his condition was regarded as a punishment. Methusael, the next in line, was born in 4367 B.C. and died about 3398 B.C. and, as his name indicates, was "a great man before God." Lamech, the son of Methusael, was born in approximately 4180 B.C. and died about 3403 B.C. While the history woven around his father seems to indicate that there may have been a mixing of the two races for a while, perhaps for a specific but unnamed purpose, it doesn't seem to have affected the development of the Cainites and Sethites as separate races. However, immediately after the races had intermingled, the account indicates that open lawlessness was common in this developing society. Lamech means "a strong young man, a hero." The record indicates that he was not only strong, but also a murderer and the first polygamist mentioned. His declaration of the murder is lyric in form. It was at this time that the arts emerged. Lamech's first wife, Adah, was an artist, her name meaning "ornament, decoration, elegant"; the name of Zillah, his second wife, meant "a shadow figure, a maker of sound, a player," and she may well have been the first actress. Other members of the family are described as "such as dwell in tents," "such as have cattle," "wanderer," or "adventurer." No doubt the Cainites had become quite mobile and were roaming the countryside, seeking land for their flocks, and exploring various forms of the arts. Was it perhaps the loneliness in the fields that inspired the shepherds to try out new ways of accompanying their singing? We are not certain of this, yet Jubal, Adah's second son, was "the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ," indicating the beginnings of the fine art of instrumental music, both string and wind. With the arrival of Tubalcain (3860 B.C.), son of Zillah, technology entered the antediluvian world. Genesis 4:22 calls him "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." The production of metals is, of course, a very significant step in the development of a civilization, for it facilitates the way to higher forms of technology and more sophisticated tools and machinery. Iron presupposes knowledge of the techniques of ore extraction and purification; brass presumes knowledge of copper and zinc and their combinations in the production of metallurgical alloys. An artificer of metals is one who hammers, cuts and polishes metals; the shaping of metal instruments thus is implied. The form that these instruments took can be taken from the name Tubalcain itself. It means "the brass of Cain, brass weapons, a weaponsmith." Tubalcain therefore was the manufacturer of the first known metal weapons in history, and the production of weapons, of course, suggests war, or at least the threat of war. In 1968, Dr.Koriun Megurtchian of the Soviet Union unearthed what is considered to be the oldest large-scale metallurgical factory in the world, at Medzamor, in Soviet Armenia. Here, 4,500 years ago, an unknown prehistoric people worked with over 200 furnaces, producing an assortment of vases, knives, spearheads, rings, bracelets, etc. The Medzamor craftsmen wore mouth-filters and gloves while they labored and fashioned their wares of copper, lead, zinc, iron, gold, tin, manganese and fourteen kinds of bronze. The smelters also produced an assortment of metallic paints, ceramics and glass. But the most out-of-place discovery was several pairs of tweezers made of steel, taken from layers dating back before the first millennium B.C. The steel was later found to be of exceptionally high grade, and the discovery was verified by scientific organizations in the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. French journalist Jean Vidal, reporting in "Science et vie" of July 1969, expressed the belief that these finds point to an unknown period of technological development. "Medzamor," he wrote, "was founded by the wise men of earlier civilizations. They possessed knowledge they had acquired during a remote age unknown to us that deserves to be called scientific and industrial." What makes the Medzamor metallurgical site interesting to us is that it is within fifteen miles of Mount Ararat - the landing site of the survivors of the destroyed antediluvian civilizations. The development of the Sethites was in no way behind that of the Cainites. Seth, born about 4924 B.C., is not known as either a city dweller or a city builder, but seemed to have lived quietly on the fertile soil provided by the four rivers mentioned in the early records. Yet something happened to undermine the physical well-being of the Sethites, for his son, born in approximately 4819 B.C., carried the name Enos, which means "mortal, weak mankind." This may be indicative of disease taking its toll. The Hebrew Aggadah comments that during Enos's lifetime men's faces became more apelike. But there are more men to be considered in this short list of antediluvian greats. Cainan (4729 B.C.) was "an industrious man, a craftsman" as his name indicates, and he may have been the first to usher in the development of sophisticated tools - years before Tubalcain embarked on his weapons production. Simple tools had already been replaced by more complex ones which were perhaps used in carpentry, pottery, weaving, masonry, etc. By now the Sethite population was probably large enough so that its working force had become diversified, and as a craftsman Cainan typified the growing specialization of labor that has always accompanied an expanding culture. There are many others who should be listed here, but their reported professions were more spiritual, and because we are more concerned with the technological aspects of pre-Flood life, we will single out only three more Sethites: Methuselah (4367 B.C.); Lamech (4180 B.C.), son of Methuselah; and Noah (3998 B.C.), son of Lamech. With Methuselah we enter an era of open warfare. Bearing a name meaning "man of the flying dart, man of the arrow, man of war," he undoubtedly was a military man - and a successful one, for he lived longer (969 years) than any of the other patriarchs. His adversaries may have been indicated already when we discussed the descendants of Cainan. Methuselah, living in the same period as Tubalcain, the weaponsmith, was a master of several weapons, including the arrow and the "flying dart." Could this possibly have been a missile or a rocket, and is this the first indication of a major armed conflict between the two civilizations, the Cainites and the Sethites? We know from historical accounts that Jubal, Tubalcain's half brother, was the first to spread his influence by venturing into new lands. Perhaps his men threatened to invade the territories already inhabited by the Sethites. Lamech probably followed the profession of his father Methuselah, but he died at the age of 777, which was young compared to the average lifespan of 912 years for the pre-Flood patriarchs, not counting Enoch. He was even outlived by his father. Could his death have been the result of wounds inflicted in battle? Biblical Noah, who was born in 3998 B.C. and died in 3048 B.C., was the last of the antediluvian giants. Mentioned in mythology by various names such as Nu-u, Nu-wah and others, he was the man who, with his wife, his three sons and their wives, plus a representation of the animal kingdom, braved the turbulent waves of the Deluge in their vessel, thus ending the reign of the ten patriarchs. His sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, comprised the eleventh generation, and since part of their lives were lived after the Flood, they must be considered post-Flood patriarchs. We will never know the exact extent of the knowledge that was lost. Noah and his family were capable of reproducing only that of which they had personal knowledge, and this of course was limited because the only ones to reach the previously attained high standard of development were Noah and his sons. The technology that survived the Flood was the product of possibly ten generations of synergistic development, the intermediary steps of which had been totally destroyed. Noah and his family at least had the memory of a technological environment to fall back on, but Noah's son's children did not. All they knew and understood was the reduced civilization of their parents, a post-Deluge civilization that did not possess in its structure the gradual development behind the technological elements their parents preserved. In time the children began to lose the knowledge of the fundamental principles; and when the technological elements broke down and could not be replaced, they were discarded. The one chance to unify their descendants into an orderly, wellorganized society came at Babel, a city mentioned in the Book of Genesis. The story relates that at the Tower of Babel - the first skyscraper in history - a serious attempt was made to structure the rapidly growing population under one centralized authority, but this plan failed because their language became confused, and the communication necessary for the re-creation of the super-civilization that had existed before the Flood was destroyed. In chapters 10 and 11 of Genesis we find two other factors that hampered a complete restoration of antediluvian technology. The descendants of Noah became divided into nations and races, with the result that the common background they had shared was lost, with some people preserving the knowledge and others losing it. For those who managed to retain some pre-Flood knowledge, especially the more advanced elements of technology, the national and racial divisions of mankind caused a downward trend. Hindu records actually speak of highly destructive war waged with nuclear weapons, and there is every indication that these clashes occurred relatively soon after the Flood. Since very little survives a total nuclear war, it is conceivable that several advanced civilized centers vanished simultaneously, another probable factor in the disappearance of antediluvian technology in the post-Flood era. Genesis 11 brings in yet another element. The generation following Noah suddenly shows a decided decrease in the average lifespan, from more than 900 years to approximately 100 years. This, of course, severely limited the individual's chance to acquire knowledge and experience, and with shortened lives, the generations passed more rapidly. Considering that there were now more human memories involved in relaying and passing on all information, the likelihood increased that facts would become distorted. Writing, an element we consider extremely vital if not indispensable to our society, seems to have been completely unknown to the ancients. Is it possible they did not need it? Puzzling though it may be, there are indications that this may have been the case, because writing was actually considered to be a step backward for civilization, rather than a step forward. In his Phaedrus the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the legend of Toth, the Egyptian god who supposedly discovered the use of letters. In order to boast of his invention, the god demonstrated their use to King Thamus and claimed that this new-found form of communication would be an aid to wisdom. But the king condemned Toth and told him that just the opposite would be true. Writing, he judged, would encourage forgetfulness in the minds of those who learned, because they would not cultivate their memory. Students would learn the appearance instead of the reality of wisdom, reading and repeating words without knowing their meaning. He declared that writing would limit knowledge, not expand it. And it happened as he prophesied, for as we have already seen, the early Egyptian funeral texts are examples of just that development, as the scribes copied the texts without knowing their significance. Many historians have noted that the secularization of the written word in the past was not always an indication of the rise of a civilization; sometimes it was an omen of its decline. But regardless of King Thamus's objections, writing did become a reality and wielded its influence on the growing societies. It was a help to some, but acquiring the knowledge to write brought with it serious limitations. Memory was no longer the factor to rely on; now the storehouses of words became the prime factors in the dissemination of knowledge. Whereas before the Flood, technological facts had been transmitted from father to son, from scientist to scientist, now huge depositories of written knowledge were substituted for oral tradition, and as a result a privileged few became the sole custodians of this accumulating knowledge. When the rampaging armies of expanding nations invaded the lands, the great libraries of the world became the innocent victims of wanton destruction. Many of history's missing pages were torn out in those calamitous years. "The famous collection of Pisastratus [Pisanderl in Athens (sixth century B.C.) was ravaged. Fortunately the poems of Homer somehow survived. The papyri of the library of the Temple of Ptah in Memphis were totally destroyed. The same fate befell 200,000 volumes in the library of Pergamus in Asia Minor. The city of Carthage, razed by the Romans in a seventeen-day fire in 146 B.C., is said to have possessed a library of half a million volumes. But the greatest blow to history was the burning of the Alexandrian library in the Egyptian campaign of Julius Caesar, during which 700,000 priceless scrolls were irretrievably lost. . . . There was a complete catalogue of authors in 120 volumes with a brief biography of each author." The library of Alexandria, however, survived this destruction and once again became a center of learning, the most important book depository in the Mediterranean world, until Omar, the second Caliph of Islam, used its millions of book rolls to heat the city's bathing facilities in 640 A.D. For six months the fires roared, fueled by the knowledge of the ancients. The Caliph decreed: "The contents of these books are in conformity with the Koran or they are not. If they are, the Koran is sufficient without them; if they are not, they are pernicious. Let them therefore be destroyed." Tomas, author of "We Are Not the First," comments that the fate of libraries in Asia was no better, for the Emperor Ch'in Shih Huang Ti of China caused all historical books to be burned in 212 B.C. Leo Isaurus sent 300,000 books to the incinerators in Constantinople in the eighth century. "The number of manuscripts annihilated by the Inquisition . . . in the Middle Ages can hardly be estimated. Because of these tragedies we have to depend on disconnected fragments, casual passages, and meager accounts. . . . The history of science would appear totally different were the book collection of Alexandria intact today." But all was not lost. After the Second World War the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls created a sensation among Biblical scholars, for these documents, dating back to the second century B.C., agreed remarkably with a Biblical manuscript known as the Masoretic Text of A.D.10. Somehow the texts had survive practically intact. More recently, the discovery in 1975 of the Eblite Tablets at Tel Mardiqh in Syria caused another wave of excite ent. The fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls could be dated to 200 B.C. in itself startling; but finding clay tablets that were inscribed in 2300 B.C. blew the lid off! With texts written in Canaanite and other languages, the 15,000 tablets revealed a wealth of correspondence, including political treaties, records, laws, religious texts and historical information. "It covers an important part of the post-Flood patriarchal period," one scholar told me recently. "It may well provide us with details that will shed a completely new light on the civilization that existed in their day." And it is the post-Flood patriarchal period that concerns us. Without question, a vast storehouse of ancient knowledge has been lost over the years, but not always destroyed. Originating in the period before the Deluge, it survived the angry waves in segments of selected knowledge, carefully preserved by the memories of the family of escapees. The antediluvians undoubtedly possessed extraordinary mental abilities, for they passed quickly through several successive stages of development. By the second generation they practiced agriculture and animal husbandry; possessed fire and simple tools; knew mathematics, astronomy and architecture; and were organizing themselves into the first urban social system. By the fourth generation, simple tools had developed by synergism into such crafts as weaving, carpentry and masonry. Finally, by the eighth generation, we witness a burst of inventiveness with the beginning of metallurgy, the art of warfare, and the development of the arts. The Genesis account of these elements of civilization may not seem impressive, but we must remember that these discoveries are the first causations from which all subsequent technological development originated. We must also keep in mind that the Bible, even though it contains much historical information, is basically a religious book, and the Biblical authors wrote down only those historical events that pertained to the development or decline of their religion. We should not expect the book of Genesis to delve into the technological aspects of the maturing civilizations. Caught up as we are in the age of development, we often fail to realize that development is a lesser achievement than causation. Development is the maturation of causation, but a causation is a distinct departure from one mode of existence to another - a completely unprecedented transformation. For example, the step forward which Tubalcain took from nonmetal to metal production must be considered a far greater accomplishment than any later developments in metallurgy. The first men to walk the face of the earth, in the first eight generations of the antediluvian era, advanced from no culture to culture by their own efforts, with no precedence whatsoever. They were the originators, the discoverers and inventors, not only of their own civilization but - through the survivors of the Flood - of all the civilizations that followed them in the post-Deluge era. For the reason previously given, the Genesis account unfortunately furnishes us few clues to the development of the antediluvian civilization after the time of Tubalcain. However, looking at what they possessed by that time, the potential for continued advancement toward the development of a high technological civilization most certainly existed. First, they had the necessary foundation in knowledge. By mastering mathematics, metallurgy and the fine arts, the antediluvians demonstrated their analytical, inventive and imaginative capabilities. The first two fields - mathematics and metals - are necessary for the introduction of machinery, the next synergistic step in tool development. Second, they had the needed human resources. Any technology depends on a work force that is large, organized and diversified. Genesis 6 tells us that "men began to multiply upon the face of the earth." The genealogy given in Chapter 5 of the historical record clearly implies that men had large families and longer procreative periods before the Flood. Although in most cases only one son in each family is named for the purpose of tracing the line of descent, it is also recorded that each patriarch "begat sons and daughters," implying that each of them produced at least four children. Furthermore, the age at which the patriarchs had their mentioned sons varies from 65 years for Mahalaleel and Enoch to 500 years for Noah: a range of 435 years. Thus, through the combined effects of lengthy lives and large families, the antediluvians rapidly "filled the earth." We know, too, that the greater portion of the pre-Flood population was organized. As early as the time of Cain, his first descendants had been gathered together into an urban society and taught to be subservient to a single political and religious head. The pre-Flood population was also diversified. From the time of Cainan, the fourth generation, the race had multiplied to the extent that they could support craftsmen and a variety of trades. What's more, there was sufficient time for an advanced civilization to develop. From Tubalcain's discovery of metalworking in approximately 4000 B.C. to the year of the Flood, 3398 B.C., is a period of 600 years within which further advancements could have been made. This is a vital point, for it took our civilization about 600 years to develop to what it is today - from gunpowder and printing to nuclear physics and computers. If this is where we are today after 600 years, just imagine how far the antediluvians could have advanced in the same length of time - the people who were the originators of civilization. While our antediluvian predecessors developed a technology that was in many ways similar to our own, some of the differences were so great that historians and archaeologists are still unable to correctly identify the representative remains. Most nonmechanically minded scholars do not realize that there are products of technology which do not resemble what we call machines - without shafts, rods or gears. For example, a network of lines traced with special metal - containing ink on specially treated paper can serve as a receiver for electromagnetic waves; a copper tube can serve as a resonator in the production of high-frequency waves; and the surface of a diamond can even be made to contain an image of the pages of 100,000 average-sized books! The problem, however, is that, as any technology advances, its methods and forms are often simplified and may not be recognizable to a civilization of inferior knowledge and understanding. Many out-of-place artifacts (ooparts) discovered today exhibit signs of a technology that not only matches our own, but in some cases surpasses it. Some of these ooparts seem so fantastic that we simply cannot grasp their significance. We can only recognize and understand these earlier developments as we ourselves approach or reach the same stage of advancement. A disturbing question, however, is how many out-of-place artifacts have been lost or remain unidentified in the basements of modern museums, because no one knows what they are? .................. To be continued Note: The dates given in this chapter are probably taken from the dates of the LXX or Septuigint (from the Hebrew to Greek of the Old Testament, written about 200 B.C.). The LXX adds about 100 years to the life span of those mentioned in Genesis 5. Hence about 1,000 years more that what the KJV would add up to. There is a good argument from many that the Genesis LXX is the truer translation from the original Hebrew. This fact being true, which is very likely, we also see the idea that God is working on a 7,000 year plan is blown away, as 7,000 years have already come and gone. Even if you want to argue from Usher's chronology of 404 B.C. for the creation of Adam, you still have over 6,000 years and the 1,000 year age is not yet here. The simple truth of the matter is that God IS NOT WORKING ON A 7 THOUSAND YEAR PLAN FOR THIS EARTH AND THE HUMANS UPON IT. Keith Hunt

SECRETS of the Lost Races #2

OOparts - baffles the Evolutionists!

Ooparts - Science in the Raw? The discoveries of the ooparts - witnesses of our most ancient past have thus far been accidental. They are remnants of a past we have never fully recognized or believed in. Because we do not totally comprehend the scope of this mysterious pre-Flood civilization, we stand aghast when confronted with the possible relics from such a civilization. "But where do the cave men fit in?" is a question often encountered when one discusses the greatness of our ancestors. "We are still climbing the ladder of social evolution," is another frequently heard comment. "There simply is no place for a super-civilization in our past." And, shrugging their shoulders at such naivete, the critics retreat to their niches of complacency. Yet what are they going to do with the ooparts? Too many have surfaced over the years for them simply to be ignored. Let's look at some of the recorded discoveries. An interesting item appeared in many of the nation's newspapers on April 10, 1967, reporting the discovery of an artifact and human remains at the Rocky Point Mine in Gulman, Colorado. At a depth of 400 feet below the surface, according to an account in the Saturday Herald of Iowa City, the excavators found human bone embedded in a silver vein. By geological standards, the find was estimated to be several million years old. But in addition to the bones, they uncovered a well-tempered copper arrowhead four inches long. Neither bone nor arrowhead belonged there, according to our way of thinking, yet there they were - unexplainable and certainly unexpected. The historians and geogists are unable to fit these remains into the theoretical framework of evolution; partly because of this, the find has been conveniently forgotten. But this strange discovery is not an isolated one. In the June 1851 issue of Scientific American (Vol. 7, p.298) a report concerning a metallic vase that had been dynamited out of solid rock on Meeting House Hill in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was reprinted from the Boston Transcript. The story said, "On putting the two parts together it formed a bell-shaped vessel, 4 and 1/2 inches high, 6 and 1/2 inches at the base, 2 and 1/2 inches at the top and about an eighth of an inch in thickness. The body of this vessel resembles zinc in color, or a composition metal in which there is a considerable portion of silver. On the sides there are six figures of a flower, a bouquet, beautifully inlaid with pure silver, and around the lower part of the vessel, a vine, or wreath, inlaid also with silver. The chasing, carving and inlaying are exquisitely done by the art of some cunning craftsman. This curious and unknown vessel was blown out of the solid pudding stone, fifteen feet below the surface." Where did it come from? Neither the geologists nor the archaeologists know, but the rock from which the man-made objet d'art was taken was estimated by them to be at least several million years old. As is the case with many puzzling discoveries, the vase was circulated from museum to museum, and then disappeared. No doubt it is gathering twentieth-century dust somewhere in a curator's dank basement... Precisely forty years later, on June 9, 1891, a somewhat similar find was made by Mrs.S.W.Culp of Morrisonville, Illinois. While she was shoveling coal into her kitchen stove, her attention was drawn to one lump of coal which had broken in two, revealing a gold chain of intricate workmanship. The Morrisonville Times of June 11 reported, "Mrs.Culp thought the chain had been dropped accidentally in the coal, but as she undertook to lift the chain up, the idea of its having been recently dropped was shown to be fallacious, for as the lump of coal broke, it separated almost in the middle, and the circular position of the chain placed the two ends near to each other; and as the lump separated, the middle of the chain became loosened while each end remained fastened to the coal. . . . This is a study for the students of archaeology who love to puzzle their brains out over the geological construction of the Earth from whose ancient depth the curious are always dropping out." The paper's editor really didn't know how to handle this bizarre discovery, but neither did the geologists, for the coal sample was supposedly from the Carboniferous period and so was thought to be several million years old. The Morrisonville chain was in no way unique, for another gold artifact of unknown origin was discovered in 1844 in a quarry near Rutherford Mills, England. On June 22 of that year, workmen blasting granite out of the pit suddenly came upon a gold thread eight feet below the surface, embedded in rock judged by geologists to be 60 million years old. Investigators sent by the London Times reported that in their opinion the thread had indeed been of artificial manufacture. Artifacts of precious metal have not been the only objects unearthed from solid rock. The Springfield (Illinois) Republican stated in 1851 that a businessman named Hiram de Witt had brought back with him from a trip to California a piece of auriferous quartz about the size of a man's fist, and while de Witt was showing the rock to a friend, it slipped from his hand and split upon striking the floor. In the center of the quartz, they discovered a cut-iron six-penny nail, slightly corroded but entirely straight, with a perfect head. The age of the quartz, you wonder? Scientists conclude that it is in excess of a million years! But this wasn't the first nail discovered. Six years before this find, Sir David Brewster made a report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science which created quite a stir. A nail obviously of human manufacture had been found half-embedded in a granite block excavated from the Kindgoodie Quarry in northern Britain. It was badly corroded, but identifiable, nonetheless. Once again, the granite was determined to be at least 60 million years old. Still another out-of-place artifact, a two-inch metal screw, was discovered in a piece of feldspar unearthed in 1865 from the Abbey Mine in Treasure City, Nevada. The screw had long since oxidized, but its form, particularly the shape of its threads, could easily be seen within the feldspar. Here too this discovery played havoc with accepted scientific theories, for how the impression of a two-inch metal screw could be found in something thought to be several million years old clearly perplexed the examiners. The Salzburg Cube The out-of-place objects that have been found in the various rock strata not only reveal evidence of simple metal production, but also indicate that the antediluvians had the ability to shape metal by machines and that they used metal in the construction of complicated machinery. In 1885, in the foundry of the Austrian Isador Braun of Vocklabruck, a block of coal dating from the Tertiary period was broken open. Inside was discovered a small metal cube. Fascinated by this sudden find, Braun's son took the mysterious cube to the Salzburg Museum, where it was subjected to meticulous examination by the Austrian physicist Karl Gurls. Tests indicated the cube was composed of a steel-and-nickel alloy. It measured 2.64 by 2.64 by 1.85 inches, weighed 1.73 pounds, and had a specific gravity of 7.75. The edges of this strange cube were perfectly straight and sharp; four of its sides were flat, while the two remaining sides, opposite each other, were convex. A rather deep groove had been cut all the way around the cube about midway up its height. There was no doubt that the cube was machine-made, and it seemed to be part of a larger mechanism. Unfortunately the cube disappeared from the Salzburg Museum in 1910, and during the bombings of the Second World War the museum's inventory files relating to the time period when the cube was on exhibit (1886-1910) were completely destroyed. However, there is still sufficient evidence to support the authenticity of the find, for an account of its discovery was published in the scientific journals Nature (London, 1886) and L'Astronomie (Paris, 1887). The Coso Artifact Another equally controversial find was made more recently. On February 13, 1961, three rock hunters, Mike Mikesell, Wallace Lane and Virginia Maxey, were collecting geodes about six miles northeast of Olancha, California. On this particular day, while searching in the Coso Mountains, they found a stone located near the top of a peak approximately 4,300 feet above sea level and about 340 feet above the dry bed of Owens Lake. The rockhounds mistakenly identified it as a geode, a round stone with a hollow interior lined with crystals, though it bore traces of fossil shells. The following day, when Mikesell cut the stone in half, ruining a ten-inch diamond saw in the process, he saw that it contained not crystals but rather something totally unfamiliar. Inside were the remains of some form of mechanical device. Beneath the outer layer of hardened clay, pebbles, and fossil inclusions was a hexagonal layer of an unknown substance softer than agate or jasper. This layer surrounded a three-quarter-inch-wide cylinder made of solid porcelain or ceramic, and in the center of the cylinder the finders discovered a two-millimeter shaft of bright metal. This shaft, the rock enthusiasts discovered, was magnetic and showed no signs of oxidation. Circling the ceramic cylinder were rings of copper, and these also had not corroded. Not knowing what to do with their unusual find, they sent the object to the Charles Ford Society, an organization specializing in examining extraordinary things. X-rays taken of the fossil-encrusted rock revealed further evidence that the content of the "geode" was indeed some form of mechanical apparatus. The photographs indicated that the metallic shaft was corroded at one end, but the other end was affixed to a spring or helix of metal. The Coso artifact, as it is now known, is believed to be more than just a piece of machinery. The finely shaped ceramic and metallic shaft and copper components hint at some form of electrical instrument. It bears a close resemblance to a spark plug, but there are certain features - particularly the spring or helix terminal - that do not correspond to any spark plug known today. To complicate the mystery surrounding this strange little instrument, the geologists tell us that the rock in which it was found has to be at least half a million years old. The controversy in which these finds are enveloped concerns the dates that have been assigned to them because of the strata in which they were discovered. There is no doubt that Mrs.Culp did find the gold chain in Carboniferous rock, and the discovery of the gold thread in the quarry near Rutherford Mills is also a matter of record, as are Hiram de Witt's iron nail, Sir David Brewster's report, and the metal screw found in the Abbey mine. But there is one vital factor that must not be overlooked: that the dates given for their origin cannot be relied on for accuracy. No conscientious geologist will dare attach any degree of certainty to the various dates given to the different layers of the earth's crust. It is more reasonable to look at the artifacts in the light of Deluge geology, which maintains that the stratified rock is the result of soil laid down by water. This signifies that the metal objects encased in the rocks were buried during the Flood, and thus their manufacture would date from before the Deluge. The ooparts certainly set the theories of the geologists against those of the historians, for one group holds stubbornly to the million-year-age theory, and the orthodox historians definitely are unwilling to accept the authenticity of a machine-made cube in a block of coal dating back to the Tertiary period. To them the existence of a highly advanced civilization one hundred million years ago is incredible. This exaggerated time element must be rejected. Since we acknowledge that coal is a product of vegetation destroyed, compressed and buried by water, the Salzburg cube, found in the so-called Tertiary coal, must therefore date from the pre-Flood period. Because the Coso artifact was found in sedimentary rock, we must conclude that this too was deposited during the great Flood. What makes these artifacts significant to us is that they reveal that the antediluvians had progressed beyond mere metal production and had obviously learned how to utilize certain forms of energy - in this case electricity - several thousand years before the reintroduction of this knowledge into our civilization. For years now, a slow but methodical search has been conducted to find the elusive ark of Noah, the ship that bridged the gap between the antediluvian and postdiluvian civilizations. We have always thought of it as a simple wooden ship, of which we know only the approximate dimensions. I have participated in numerous discussions speculating about the possible contents of the ship, yet in all those long, thought-provoking hours, no one ever thought of Noah and his family as members of a highly civilized race. Problems of waste disposal, ventilation, air conditioning, maintenance and lighting were disposed of with a casual wave of the hand. "Their civilization wasn't far enough advanced for a sophisticated technology," was the usual consensus. "Don't look for the impossible." Can it be that we were all wrong? ELECTRICITY Let's take a look at the Genesis description of the Flood nd the survival vessel, and focus our attention on two references. In this account we find two indications that lead us to believe that electricity may have played a vital role in the operation of the ark. One reference is found in Genesis 8:6, where the Hebrew word "challon" or "opening" is used, referring to the window through which Noah released the birds. The other reference, however, utilizes a different word "tsohar" - which is translated as "window" but does not mean window or opening at all! Where it is used (twenty-two times in the Old Testament), its meaning is given as "a brightness, a brilliance, the light of the noonday sun." Its cognates refer to something that "glistens, glitters or shines." Many Jewish scholars of the traditional school identify tsohar as "a light which has its origins in a shining crystal." For centuries Hebrew tradition has described the tsohar as an enormous gem or pearl that Noah hung from the rafters of the ark, and which, by some power contained within itself, illuminated the entire vessel for the duration of the Flood voyage. Noah's light source seems to have been preserved in history for hundreds of years, for we find indications that King Solomon of Israel may have used it in about 1000 B.C. An ancient Jewish manuscript entitled "The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek," translated by Sir E.A.Wallis Budge, contains this statement: "Now the House of Solomon the King was illuminated as by day, for in his wisdom he had made shining pearls which were like unto the sun, the moon and the stars in the roof of his house." In view of this, it is not surprising that Solomon himself once wrote, " . . . there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time which was before us." (Eccl.1:9-10). Electricity in one form or another has surfaced throughout the centuries. According to the historian Josephus Goriondes, Alexander the Great wrote to his teacher during his conquest of Persia that an island located off the coast of India was inhabited by men who ate raw fish and spoke a language akin to Greek. They believed that at one time Cainan, the great-grandson of Adam, was entombed on their island. Prior to the Flood, the tradition went, a high tower was situated over the sepulcher, protecting it in a remarkable way. Anyone who approached the tomb was struck dead by a flash of lightning that was discharged from the top of the tower. Of course, all was destroyed by the Flood, but the story of the tower and the tomb had been perpetuated by every generation inhabiting the island since the great catastrophe. What makes this tradition even more intriguing is that Cainan was a "craftsman," the inventor of many crafts. According to Bible chronology he died around 3819 B.C., which means that he lived for nearly a century following Tubalcain's discovery of the art of metallurgy. In keeping with his craftsmanship, Cainan, in the crowning years of his life, may have combined Tubalcain's knowledge of the properties of metals with his own ingenuity, and become the first man to discover and utilize the power of electricity. This certainly is not an illogical assumption when we have evidence that electricity was used after the Flood by craftsmen, the gold and silver-smiths of Babylonia and Persia. Another item concerning pre-Flood electricity comes to us from a fragment of a Sumerian text cited by the well-known archaeologist S.N.Kramer in his book "History Begins at Sumer" (p.200). The quoted text speaks of "Ziusudra, the King, the Preserver of the Seed of Mankind" and how he constructed a "huge boat which was tossed about" in a flood that overwhelmed the land. Ziusudra is identical to Berosus Xisuthros and the older Sumerian Utnapishtim. The Sumerian text also mentions that in the preparation of Ziusudra's "huge boat," the hero Utu brought "his rays [of the sun] into the boat, in order to give it light." Utu corresponds to Ubarat-utu in the Weld-Blundell Sumerian list, who was the eighth "king" of the ten pre-Flood rulers - the counterpart of the Biblical Methuselah. Bible chronologists state that Cainan, the discoverer of electricity, died in 3819 B.C.; and Noah, the utilizer of the electric tsohar in the ark, was born in 3998 B.C., which means that the two were not contemporaries and that Cainan was not the one who contributed his discovery to the ark. However, Methuselah was 548 years of age when Cainan died, and since he continued to live another 421 years, he certainly was present during the entire period of construction of the ark. Thus, having been a contemporary of both Cainan and Noah, he may have been the individual, as indicated in the Sumerian legend, who relayed the secrets of electric power to Noah. BATTERY POWER Electricity, however, does not seem to have been the only energy source of which the antediluvians had knowledge, for there are a number of out-of-place finds and historical records which suggest that they manipulated a wide range of power potentials. In Genesis 6:14, Noah was commanded to make the ark waterproof in a specific way: "[Thou] shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." The word for pitch as it is used here is the Hebrew "kopher" thought to be related to the Assyrian kupur - which means bitumen or asphalt. Now, asphalt is a petroleum product, and as we know, natural petroleum was formed by vegetable and animal remains that were subjected to tremendous heat and pressure. The Creationist geologists believe that this occurred when antediluvian life forms were buried by the Flood. (Actually it was the flood of Genesis 1:2 that created the coal and oil beds - Keith Hunt). Yet, the Genesis account clearly states that Noah was to waterproof the ark with asphalt, which raises the question, Was a petroleum product such as asphalt in existence before the Flood? Yes! It must have been, and since it did not happen naturally, we must assume it was produced artificially, which presupposes a highly advanced knowledge of chemistry, particularly in the area of hydrocarbons. If the antediluvians were knowledgeable in hydrocarbon chemistry and production, then the entire range of petroleum products was within their grasp, from waterproof sealants (the "pitch" of the ark) to plastics and other synthetic materials. Most important, however, they would have been able to produce machine lubricants and engine fuel. Is it mere chance that the root word of chemistry - chemia - is attributed to khem, the ancient name for the land of Egypt, or the land of Kham, derived from the Biblical Ham, one of the three sons of Noah? We do not know which of Noah's sons transmitted the knowledge of electricity to the succeeding generations, but the fact that it survived the Flood is certain, as modern research into the secrets of the ancients furnishes us with ample evidence. In 1938, Dr.Wilhelm Konig, a German archaeologist employed by the State Museum in Baghdad, Iraq, was aimlessly rummaging through the basement of the museum when he came upon a find that was to drastically alter all concepts of ancient science. It was a storage box containing a number of two-thousand-year-old clay pots which had been excavated at Kujut Rabua, a village southeast of Baghdad. At first glance the pots were noticeably unusual. Each one was 6 inches high and housed a cylinder of sheet copper 5 inches high and 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter. The edges of the cylinders seemed to have been soldered with a 60/40 lead-tin alloy, which is comparable to the solder in use today. The bottoms of the mysterious cylinders were capped with copper discs and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. Another insulating layer of bitumen sealed the tops of the pots and was also used to hold in place iron rods suspended into the center of the copper cylinders. The rods showed unmistakable evidence of having been corroded by an acid solution, long since evaporated. With a background in mechanics, Dr.Konig immediately recognized that this configuration of copper, iron and acid was not a chance arrangement, but that the clay pots were nothing less than ancient electric cells. Confirmation of his identification came after the Second World War when science historian Willy Ley, working with Willard Gray of the General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, constructed a duplicate model of the ancient clay pot cells. They discovered when they added copper sulfate, acetic acid or citric acid - all of which were well known two thousand years ago - the cells produced between 1 and 1/2 and 2 volts of electricity. Generation of electric current by the same means was not possible in our modern civilization until 1800. More such electric cells were found. Four similar clay pots containing copper cylinders were unearthed in a magician's hut near Tel Omar (Seleucia), also near Baghdad. Found with these pots were thin iron and copper rods which may have been used to connect the cells into a series - a battery - in order to produce a stronger voltage. Ten other cells were also uncovered at Ktesiphon - again in proximity to the city of Baghdad - by Professor E. Kuhnel of the Staatliches Museum in Berlin. These were found broken down into their component parts, as though they had been mass-produced and their manufacturer had been interrupted before assembling the pieces into working batteries! The ancient batteries found in the Baghdad Museum and elsewhere in Iraq all date from the Parthian period of Persian occupation, between 250 B.C. and A.D.650. However, electroplated objects, which presuppose the use of some form of battery, have been discovered in Iraq in Babylonian ruins dating back to 2000 B.C. It would appear that the Persians and later craftsmen in Baghdad inherited their batteries from one of the earliest civilizations in the Middle East. ELECTROPLATING Electroplated objects were also found in Egypt by a famous nineteenth-century French archaeologist Auguste Mariette. Excavating in the area of the Sphinx of Gizeh, Mariette came upon a number of artifacts at a depth of 60 feet. In the Grand Dictionaire Universal du 19th Siecle, he described the artifacts as "pieces of gold jewelry whose thinness and lightness make one believe they had been produced by electroplating, an industrial technique that we have been using for only two or three years." Down through the years, diverse sections of the world have yielded many accounts of bizarre and seemingly unexplainable lights, many of which may well have had their source in electric power. In West Irian - formerly Dutch New Guinea - is a village near Mount Wilhelmina with a layout of artificial illumination that in brightness equals any system we have in our western world. In a United Press dispatch in 1963 Harold Guard quotes visitors to the hamlet as saying that "they were terrified to see many moons suspended in the air and shining with great brightness." Other visitors have described these "moons" as huge stone balls that began to glow with a mysterious bright light as soon as the sun disappeared behind the tangled overgrowth of the jungle. Mounted on tall pillars, they projected a luminous glow over the entire village. This may be the same phenomenon described in 1601 by Barco Cenenera, who wrote about the conquistadors discovery of the city of Granmoxo near the source of the Paraguay River in the Planalto do Mato Grosso. He wrote, "On the summit of a 7 and 3/4-meter pillar was a great moon which illuminated all the lake, dispelling darkness." We know from the historical record that such secret Hebrew societies as the Kabala preserved the knowledge of electricity as late as the medieval period. Eliphas Levi, in his Histoire de la Magie, records the story of a mysterious French rabbi named Jechiele who was an advisor in the thirteenth-century court of Louis IX. Jechiele, his contemporaries report, often astounded the king with his "dazzling lamp that lighted itself." The lamp possessed no oil or wick, and Jechiele placed it in front of his house for all to see. What the lamp's secret source of energy was, the rabbi never revealed. Another device, one with which Jechiele used to protect himself, was a door knocker that literally shocked his enemies. The thirteenthcentury chroniclers tell how he "touched a nail driven into the wall of his study, and a crackling, bluish spark immediately leapt forth. Woe to anyone who touched the iron knocker at that moment: he would bend double, scream as if he had been burned, then he would run away as fast as his legs could carry him." It would appear that Jechiele pushed a dische button that sent an electric current into the iron knocker on his door. The ancients may have had more sources of light than we can imagine, and there are numerous indications that this was so. When the sepulcher of Pallas was opened near Rome in the early 1400s, it was found to be lighted by a lantern which had kept the inside of the tomb illuminated for more than two thousand years. Pausanias, who lived during the second century A.D., writes that the temple of Minerva had a light that could burn for at least a year. St.Augustine (A.D.354-430) claims that in an Egyptian temple dedicated to Isis a lamp burned which neither wind nor water could extinguish. Until the invention of electric lighting in 1890, we possessed only candles, torches and oil lamps, light sources that smoked and left sooty deposits on ceilings. No trace of smoke, however, was ever found either in the pyramids of Egypt or in the subterranean tombs of the pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. It has been thought that perhaps the Egyptians used some complicated system of lenses and mirrors to bring sunlight into the burial chambers, but no remains of any such system have ever been found. A number of ancient tombs, in fact, have tunnels and passageways that are too complex for a mirror system to have brought sufficient light into the inner chamber. The only alternative is that the Egyptians had a smokeless light source. Since the Egyptians possessed electricity to electroplate gold jewelry - as Mariette discovered - they may also have utilized it to illuminate their tombs. How sophisticated were the Egyptians in their understanding and utilization of electricity? In Room 17 in the Egyptian Temple of Dendera, built during the Ptolemaic period and dedicated to the goddess Hathor, a very mysterious picture is engraved on the wall. Egyptologists have been at a loss to explain the meaning of this picture in religious or mythological terms. Several electronics engineers, however, believe it contains information of a very different nature. First, to the extreme right appears a box on top of which sits an image of the Egyptian god Horus. On his head is his symbol - also the symbol of divine energy - the disc of the sun. This identifies the box as the energy source. Attached to the box is the representation of a braided cable, which electromagnetics engineer Professor John Harris has identified as a virtually exact copy of engineering illustrations used today for representing a bundle of conducting electrical wires. The cable runs from the box the full length of the floor of the picture and terminates both at the ends and at the bases of two very peculiar objects. Each of these objects rests on a pillar which Professor Harris has identified as a high-voltage insulator. Each object is also pictured as being operated by two Egyptian priests. The two peculiar objects in the temple picture look very much like TV picture tubes, an impression which may not be far from the truth, for electronics technician N. Zecharius has identified the objects as Crookes tubes, the forerunners of the modern television tube. In simplified terms, a Crookes tube consists of a vacuum contained in a glass encasement within which a fluorescent ray of electrons can be produced. When the tube is in operation, the ray originates where the cathode electrical wire enters the tube, and from there the ray extends the length of the tube to the opposite end. In the temple picture, the electron beam is represented as an outstretched serpent. The tail of the serpent begins where the cable from the energy box enters the tube, and the serpent's head touches the opposite end. In Egyptian art, the serpent was the symbol of divine energy. Now, the temple picture shows one tube on the extreme left of the picture to be operating under normal conditions. But in the case of the second tube, situated closer to the energy box on the right, an interesting experiment has been portrayed. Michael R. Freedman, an electrical and electromagnetics engineer, believes that the solar disc on Horus's head is a Van de Graaff generator, an apparatus which collects static electricity. A baboon is portrayed holding a metal knife between the Van de Graaff solar disc and the second tube. Under actual conditions, the static charge built up on the knife from the generator would cause the electron beam inside the Crookes tube to be diverted from the normal path, because the negatively charged knife and the negatively charged beam would repel each other. In the temple picture, the serpent's head in the second tube is turned away from the end of the tube, as though repulsed by the knife in the baboon's hand. When one looks at the temple picture as a whole, every aspect represents an important feature of a serious scientific experiment. The one tube with the straight serpent is the control (or the tube operating under normal conditions, for comparison); the other with the repelled serpent is the experimental tube (or the tube upon which new conditions have been imposed). Even the use of a baboon to hold the knife shows that the Egyptians were well aware of the powerful energies they were dealing with an the experiment themselves. The Crookes tube was of the fluoroscope, an instrument that uses x-rays for diagnosing internal injuries. We have no evidence as yet that the Egyptians possessed the fluoroscope, but we do have indications that the Hindus and Chinese did. FLUOROSCOPE and X RAYS An Indian contemporary of Buddha, a physician named Jivaka, was given the title King of Doctors about 500 B.C. Records tell us that he had a "gem" which he used for diagnosis, and that when a patient was placed before the gem it "illuminated his body as a lamp lights up all objects in a house, and so revealed the nature of his malady." Jivaka's magic gem disappeared in history, but three centuries later there was discovered in the palace of Hien-Yang in Shensi, a "precious mirror that illuminates the bones of the body." The mirror was rectangular - 4 by 5 feet - and gave off a strange light on both sides. The view of the organs of the body that the mirror gave could not be obstructed by any obstacle, which would be typical of the penetration power of x-rays. ATOMIC POWER Is it possible that some of these light sources employed energy-conversion methods like electricity, or could it have been something more exotic? Is it possible that the ancients found ways to harness atomic power in order to light small areas? In our day and age we recognize that atomic power will be an important source of energy for the future, but there are indications that atomic power is not new. Not long ago a surprising find was made in West Africa that sheds new light on how far back in history atomic energy was first (?) released. It was on September 25, 1972, when Dr.Francis Perrin, former chairman of the French High Commission for Atomic Energy, presented a report to the French Academy of Sciences concerning the discovery of the remains of a prehistoric nuclear chain reaction. Perrin's first inkling came when workers at the French Uranium Enrichment Center observed that uranium ore from a new mine at Oklo, 40 miles northwest of Franceville in Gabon, West Africa, was markedly depleted of uranium 235. All uranium deposits in the world today contain 0.715 per cent of U 235, but the Oklo mine uranium showed levels as low as 0.621 per cent. The only explanation that could be given for the missing U 235 was that it had been "burned" in a chain reaction. Evidence in support of this conclusion surfaced when investigators at the French Atomic Center at Cadarache detected four rare elements - neodymium, samarium, europium and cerium - in forms that are typical of the residue from uranium fission! Dr.Perrin concluded his report with the opinion that the Oklo uranium had undergone a nuclear chain reaction which had been spontaneously set off by natural causes. Since the Oklo uranium deposits were geologically estimated to be 1.7 billion years old, Dr.Perrin suggested that this is when the reaction took place, for at that time the uranium would have been at its purest. Following the publication of Dr.Perrin's report by the French Academy of Sciences, however, questions concerning his conclusions were raised by many experts. Glenn T. Seaborg, former head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Nobel prize winner for his work in the synthesis of heavy elements, pointed out that for uranium to "burn" in a reaction, conditions must be exactly right. Water is needed as a moderator to slow down the neutrons released as each uranium atom is split, in order to sustain the chain reaction. This water must be extremely pure. Even a few parts per million of any contaminant will "poison" the reaction, bringing it to a halt. The problem is that no water that pure exists naturally anywhere in the world! A second objection to Dr.Perrin's report involved the uranium itself. Several specialists in reactor engineering remarked that at no time in the geologically estimated history of the Oklo deposits was the uranium ore rich enough in U 235 for a natural reaction to have taken place. Even when the deposits supposedly were first formed, because of the slow rate of radioactive disintegration of U 235, the fissionable material would have constituted only 3 per cent of the deposits - far too low a level for a "burn." Yet a reaction did take place, suggesting that the original uranium was far richer in U 235 than a natural formation could have been. So what remains is evidence of a nuclear reaction that cannot be explained by natural means. If nature was not responsible, then the reaction must have been produced artificially. Is it possible that the Oklo uranium is the residue from an antediluvian reactor that was detroyed by the Flood and redeposited in West Africa? (No, it may have been the people then of West Africa did it themselves - Keith Hunt). ATOMIC PHYSICS Physicist Frederick Soddy made this significant statement concerning knowledge of atomic physics in ancient myths and legends on page 182 of his Interpretation of Radium (New York, 1920): "One is tempted to inquire how far the unsuspected aptness of some of these beliefs and sayings to the point of view so recently disclosed is the result of mere chance or coincidence, and how far it may be evidence of a wholly unknown and unsuspected ancient civilization of which all other relics have disappeared. It is curious to reflect, for example, upon the remarkable legends of the philosopher's stone, one of the earliest and most universal beliefs, the origin of which, however far back we penetrate into the records of the past, we probably do not trace to its real source. The philosopher's stone was accredited the power not only of transmuting metals, but of acting as the elixir of life. Now, whatever the origin of this apparently meaningless jumble of ideas may have been, it is really a perfect but very slightly allegorical expression of the actual present views we hold today. It does not require much effort of the imagination to see in energy the life of the physical universe and the key to the primary fountains of the physical universe today known to be transmutation. Is, then, this old association of the power of transmutation with," he concludes, "the elixir of life merely a coincidence? I prefer to believe it may be an echo from one of many previous epochs in the unrecorded history of the world, of an age of men which trod before the road we are treading today, in a past possibly so remote that even th very atoms of its civilization literally have had time to disintegrate." PLATINUM Contrary to what orthodox historians would like to admit, our ancient ancestors seem to have inherited an extremely sophisticated knowledge of metal-working from an earlier civilizationr. Not long ago, pre-Inca Peruvian ornaments and other objects made of platinum were discovered. This poses a serious problem, because in order to melt platinum, a temperature of about 1,755 degrees Celsius must be reached. We have no satisfactory answer to the question of how the ancient Peruvians were able to produce such a heat. A few years ago a metal belt-fastener with open-work ornamentation was found in China, in the burial site of the famous general of the Chin dynasty, Chou Chu, who lived from A.D. 265 to 316. The fastener was examined by the Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and by the Dunbai Polytechnic. Their analysis showed that the metal of the fastener was an alloy of 5 per cent manganese, 10 per cent copper - and 85 per cent aluminum. Aluminum supposedly was not discovered until 1803 and not produced successfully in pure form until 1854. Today, the process of extracting aluminum from bauxite is very complicated and involves the use of a Reverbier oven, refraction chamber and regenerator, as well as electrolysis and temperatures exceeding 950 degrees Celsius. The question is, Where did the Chinese acquire these elements of twentieth-century technology in the third century? It is possible that they may have even possessed methods of producing aluminum which are still unknown to us today. METAL HARDENING The ancient Palestinians see to have specialized in the perfection of metal-hardening techniques. Professor Clifford Wilson, while working for the Australian Institute of Archaeology, made this observation concerning a Palestinian bronze statue of Baal. One leg of the statue was missing, and when metalworkers were commissioned to add a modern one, they were surprised to find that they could not duplicate the original bronze. To their dismay and frustration, it was harder than any they could make. Ancient castings of large pieces as well as evidence of advanced hardening techniques are also found in other parts of the world. In the courtyard of Kutb Minar in Delhi, India, stands the Ashoka Pillar, a column of cast iron weighing approximately 6 tons and standing 23 feet 8 inches high, with a diameter of 16 inches. The column had stood in the temple of Muttra, capped with a Garuda, an image of the bird incarnation of the god Vishnu. But Moslem invaders destroyed the Garuda and tore the column from its original setting, reerecting it in Delhi in the eleventh century. How long it had been at Muttra we are not certain. It bears the inscription of an epitaph to King Chandragupta II, who died A.D. 413, signifying that it is perhaps fifteen hundred or more years old. The iron pillar poses a real mystery, not only because of its immense size, presupposing a sizeable casting job, but because of its age. Under the Indian tropical heat and monsoon downpours, a normal piece of iron manufactured in about 413 would have corroded and disappeared long ago. The Ashoka iron column, however, shows only traces of rust, and its existence after one and a half millennia is a testimony to a sophisticated unknown science which the ancients must have possessed. Another remarkable iron column exists at Kottenforst, a few miles west of Bonn, Germany. Locally it is known as the Iron Man. It has the appearance of a squared metal bar, with 4 feet 10 inches above ground and an estimated 9 feet beneath the surface. The iron column was first mentioned in a fourteenth-century document where it was described as marking a village boundary, but there is evidence that the column is much older. Associated with the Iron Man are an ancient stone walkway and the remains of an aqueduct which runs straight toward the column. Like the iron pillar of India, the Iron Man of Kottenforst shows some weathering but very little trace of rust. MORE ENIGMAS THE GREAT PYRAMID While some evidence points to the antediluvians having had a technological level that matched our own, there are also serious indications that in certain areas they entered a sphere of knowledge which has scarcely been nudged by our present-day science. One of the greatest enigmas in the world involves the Pyramid of Cheops, better known as the Great Pyramid, located on the west bank of the Nile at Gizeh, a short distance from Cairo. It was built in the early Old Kingdom approximately 800 years after the Flood and is purported to be the final resting place for the pharaoh, but no concrete evidence of this has ever been found. The role of the pyramid as a tomb has never totally satisfied most investigators and chroniclers. It has often been stated that this man-made mountain of 2,300,000 stone blocks must have served another purpose than as merely the mausoleum of an ancient ruler. From the fourth-century A.D. Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus to the ninth-century Arab savant Ibn Abd Hokem, the writers record the legend that deep within the interior of the pyramid mass were secret rooms containing the lore of a forgotten civilization. The various chambers within the pyramid have since been discovered and fully (?) explored, but nothing of any significance was ever found in them - not even the mummy for which the pyramid was built. We know now, however, that there was a grain of truth in the old legends, for the knowledge was not to be found in any hidden chamber; rather, it is believed that the pyramid itself is the knowledge. The mysterious pyramids have been visited by many scientists in the past and present, and a number of these men have noted unusual phenomena associated with the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. Not long after the turn of the century, the British inventor Alexander Siemens traveled to Egypt to see the pyramid and, accompanied by an Arab guide, climbed to the very top. On their reaching the summit, the guide called his attention to the curious fact that whenever he raised his hands with the fingers outstretched, he would hear a ringing in his ears. Siemens followed the Arab's example, but instead of hearing anything, he felt a distinct prickling sensation. Guessing there was something electromagnetic about what was happening, he quickly took a newspaper he had brought with him, moistened it with the contents of a wine bottle, and then wrapped the paper around the empty bottle. In this manner he had quickly manufactured a Leyden jar - a device which accumulates electrical energy. After holding the apparatus over his head, he realized that it became increasingly charged, to the point that sparks began to fly out of it. The Arab guide, who knew nothing about electricity, accused his tourist companion of witchcraft and attempted to seize Siemens by the arm. At that instant, Siemens lowered his spark-shooting bottle toward the man, giving the Arab such a shock that he was thrown to the stones upon which the two stood. On recovering, the terrified guide scrambled down the treacherous building blocks of the pyramid with scarcely a backward glance, and was never seen again. Siemens concluded that for some reason the pyramid was discharging a powerful flow of electromagnetic current, the "why" of which he could not answer. A more recent experiment conducted at the Great pyramid's sister structure, the neighboring Pyramid of Chephren, brought the enigma of the energy flow to worldwide attention. In 1968 a group of scientists from the Ein Shams University near Cairo conducted a milliondollar experiment to measure the cosmic rays passing through the pyramid. The goal was to determine whether any undiscovered chambers still existed in the pyramid, for as the cosmic rays strike the pyramid uniformly from all directions, they should, if the pyramid was solid, be recorded uniformly by the detection equipment. If there were vaults, however, the detection equipment would then show a different strength for those areas. For twenty-four hours a day for more than a year, magnetic tapes faithfully recorded the cosmic rays received by the detectors. Finally, at the termination of the experiment, the tapes were taken to the Ein Shams University to be analyzed by the IBM 1130 computer. The result was absolute chaos! Where there should have been a relatively uniform reading among all the tapes, the computer printouts that plotted the cosmic-ray patterns revealed that the readings were different from day to day. Dr.Amr Gohed, director of the experiment, was quoted in the London Times of July 14, 1969, as saying: "This is scientifically impossible. There is a mystery here which is beyond explanation. . . . Call it what you will, occultism, the curse of the pharaoh, sorcery or magic - there is some force that defies the laws of science at work in the pyramid." Perhaps the most significant experiment concerning "pyramid power" were carried out several years ago by a Frenchman named M. Bovis. Arriving at the Great Pyramid in the stifling heat of the day and eager to escape the suffocating temperature, he ventured into the centermost of the pyramid's chambers, called the King's Chamber. Ferreting among the accumulated garbage and debris, he discovered the body of a dead cat. What surprised Bovis was that, despite the humidity of the chamber air, the cat's body had not decayed, but instead had mummified. It was completely dehydrated! A credible explanation for this strange occurrence was not readily available, and Bovis was still perplexed about it when he arrived home in France. There he constructed a scale model of the Great Pyramid, with a base approximately one yard on a side. Recalling that the Great Pyramid is one of the most accurately oriented buildings known to engineering - its base is squared only five seconds, or 1/720 of a degree, off from magnetic north - he likewise aligned his pyramid model with the North Pole and concluded his experiment by placing several dead animals about one-third of the way up inside the pyramid. Without exception, the bodies of the animals did not putrefy but slowly dried out. Whatever organic matter was placed with the pyramid, the same phenomenon occurred. Brain tissue, when set in a regular box, began to decay within a matter of hours, but while protected by the pyramid's structure, it is reported to have remained unaffected for a period of up to two months. It simply became mummified, with a water loss of approximately 75 per cent. It was not until the 1950s that Bovis's work with pyramid models came to the attention of Kark Drbal, a Czechoslovakian radio engineer from Prague. He repeated Bovis's experiments and experienced the same results. But he went one step further, and the results of that experiment are still puzzling the experts. Drbal decided to subject a dull razor blade to the mysterious power of the pyramid. To his delight, the dull blade was transformed into a sharp one after fourteen days in the pyramid. Familiar with the scientific method, he duplicated the same experiment several times, with the same result - a force acting within the pyramid restored the blade's edge to its original sharpness. Visualizing a possible commercial market for his discovery, Drbal tried to have it patented, calling it the "Cheops Pyramid Razor Blade Sharpener." The Prague patent office, however, did not share his obvious enthusiasm and flatly refused even to consider its merits until its chief technical advisor constructed a pyramid model for himself and tested it with one of his own blades. To his surprise it worked, and as a result the "Pyramid Sharpener" was patented in Czechoslovakia in 1959 unter Patent No.91304. A small factory was built to produce little six-inch-high cardboard pyramids, but within a short time it was discovered that any type of construction material produced the same effect. As a result Drbal's pyramids are now being made from styrofoam. Since the introduction of Drbal's sharpening pyramids in 1960, a considerable amount of research has been conducted, both in the West and behind the Iron Curtain, to unlock the secrets of the pyramid's power. Most of this research has been conducted along scientific lines, but recently, as the mystery of the pyramid force has been probed deeper, science has been superseded by the supernatural. In the United State, Canada, Europe and Australia, pyramids are no longer being used to sharpen razor blades but are rapidly becoming instruments of the occult and are known as "Feedback-Mystic Pyramids." The prescribed technique, according to the occultists, is to write a statement or a wish on a piece of paper, insert it in a properly north-south-oriented pyramid, and then pray to the forces within the pyramid to grant the request. Those who have dealt with "pyramid power" in this manner claim that "something" is indeed answering their prayers a degree above and beyond mere chance. But there's more from Czechoslovakia. Robert Pavlita, another inventor, has taken a step beyond Drbal's pyramid and is now experimenting with all types of shapes and combinations of shapes. He has developed what is now known in psychic circles as the "psychotronic generator," a "machine" that supposedly is able to store up and run on energy which Pavlita claims originates from the human mind. When the operator simply concentrates on various points of the generator, the machine can attract nonmagnetic material to itself, drive small motors placed in a vacuum, purify polluted water, advance the growth of plants, and heal diseases; and in addition to all of this, it is reputed to be able to perform several occult extrasensory operations. The inventor avows that it can read minds, control thoughts, foretell the future, and communicate with entities that reside on another plane of existence. What makes these "psychotronic generators" so intriguing is that Pavlita admits - although somewhat reluctantly - that these machines are not of his invention! Rather, he states that he discovered the principle behind these incredible machines from a number of extremely ancient manuscripts located in the Prague library collection, which incidentally houses hundreds of relic writings still waiting to be deciphered and translated. The manuscripts selected by Pavlita were treatises on black magic - more specifically, magic based on a unified occult-technology developed by an advanced civilization antedating Egypt and Sumeria. "Pyramid power" and the "psychotronic generators" have a twofold implication. First, their ancient origin and highly sophisticated technology point to their source as having been before the Flood. They show that in the final days prior to the Flood the antediluvians had advanced in knowledge to a point where they crossed the line separating pure science from pure occultism. In some way they had managed to fuse the supernatural with the natural and in the process had destroyed their civilization. The second implication is far more ominous. The intensity of the research into the mystery of "pyramid power" and psychotronics is now rapidly approximating the same level that the antediluvians reached before the Flood. Today, both science and occult knowledge are beginning to approach their theoretical limits - aiming for the ultimate in technical and spiritual manipulation. Is it perhaps possible that we are again edging closer to the danger point? ................ To be continued

Secrets of the Lost Races #3

Travels of Ancient Explorers!

FOLLOWING IN THE TRACKS OF ANCIENT EXPLORERS THE ARK? The final events leading up to the Great Flood are still shrouded in the deepest mystery. There simply are no historical accounts other than the Bible story and the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic that can cast adequate light on one of the most mystifying tragedies of the ancient world. Perhaps because of this, these two venerable traditions are to be treasured more than any other account. Taken side by side, the stories reveal the stark terror that swept over the darkening world as the waters increased. The Gilgamesh epic says, "And when the storm came to an end and the terrible waterspouts ceased, I opened the windows and the light smote upon my face; I looked at the sea, tentatively observing, all humanity had turned to mud, and like seaweed the corpses floated. "I sat down and wept, and the tears fell upon my face." (Lines 128-137) "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." (Genesis 8:4) While the convulsive waters of the Deluge swirled around the ark, inside this stronghold existed another world all its own. Floundering on the angry waves for a period of 150 days before finally coming to rest on the mountains of Ararat, the ship provided shelter and refuge for Noah's family and representatives of the animal kingdom. Seven days after the massive door in the side of the ship had been shut tight, the first torrential rains and the initial shattering earthquakes from the depths of the antediluvian seas marked the end of one world and the beginning of another. For a full thirteen months, the survivors lived amidst chaotic destruction, yet they themselves remained totally preserved from the cataclysm, safely inside the self-supporting vessel as it traveled through a hostile environment. While the DIMENSIONS of the ship are still DEBATEABLE because of the UNCERTAINTY of the length of the cubit, the measure used in the Biblical account, most scholars maintain that the ship's length of 300 cubits, width of 50 cubits and height of 30 cubits should be translated to read 450 by 75 by 45 feet. Ancient manuscripts give various interpretations of the dimensions of the survival vessel, the oldest being Origen's description of the ark in "Homilies on Genesis." He says, "Judging from the description, I imagine that it had a rectangular bottom and that the walls converged gradually as they rose to the top, where the width was only one cubit. . . ." Origen continues, "Given the conditions resulting from the rain and the Deluge, a more appropriate shape could not have been given to the ark than this narrow summit which let the rainwater run down, like a roof, and this rectangular bottom flat on the water, keeping the ark from pitching or sinking under the action of the wind and the waves because of the animals' restlessness." But what about the specifications? you wonder. Why that specific ratio? Why not, for example, 300 by 200 by 20, or some other ratio? The specifications mentioned in Genesis speak of a boxlike construction, but not a square box; however, in the Gilgamesh epic, the ark was but a crudely designed cubic vessel having a tendency to turn with each gust of wind as if caught in a gigantic whirlpool. Noah's ark was different. Its length-to-breadth ratio of six to one (300 cubits to 50) has great advantage over the cubic contraption of the Babylonian epic. From the standpoint of stability and rolling, the ratio of 6:1 is about as nearly perfect as can be desired. Some of the mammoth tankers of today have a ratio of 7:1. The shipbuilder I. K. Brunel designed the ocean liner known as the "Great Britain" in 1844. The vessel's dimensions were 322 by 51 by 32 and 1/2 feet - proportions nearly identical to the dimensions of Noah's ark. Whereas Noah's ship ranks as the first of its kind, Brunel had several thousand years of shipbuilding expertise to rely on, but all the accumulated knowledge he could draw from did not give him a better ratio than that of the ark. Was Noah perhaps acting on advice supplied by a technology that had already reached its summit? In addition to the speculations concerning the nature and size of its cargo, there are many other aspects of life aboard the ark that deserve close scrutiny. It has often been thought that the only light source on the ark was a window in the roof which permitted the sunlight to penetrate to the interior of the vessel; however, this would not have been very practical, First, any free opening to the outside world would have allowed the water to pour in profusely during the torrential rains of the first 40 days; second, with storm clouds brewing above them, there were probably many overcast days and therefore very little sunlight; and third, a series of windows at the top would have lighted only the upper deck, and that dimly, leaving the remaining decks in darkness. If there was a light source, it had to be contained within the vessel itself. Any open fire as a source of light would have been out of the question. The tsohar, powered by electricity (?), may well have been their sole means of illumination. Here at least was something that provided a constant light for the entire Flood voyage and that could have been evenly dispersed on all decks. But what about air and potable water? Is it possible that the ship contained its own oxygen cycle, using collected plants as the method for air regeneration? Is it possible that Noah actually stored oxygen on the ark to enable him and his cargo to remain alive during the initial phase of the voyage, when the ship was sealed airtight as a precaution against the raging elements? If the antediluvians were familiar with hydrocarbons such as asphalt, as indicated in the ancient records, then they must have had the chemical proficiency to create and manipulate liquid oxygen. It is therefore not surprising to learn that the manufacture of oxygen was known in the immediate post-Flood era. In the Prince's Library of Ujjain in India, there is a well-preserved document called the "Agastya Samshita" which dates back to the first millennium B.C. It contains a detailed description not only of how to construct an electric battery, but also how to utilize this battery to "split" water into two gases - the electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen. Storing potable water aboard the ark may have generated many problems, for even though the various legendary accounts tell us that Noah lived on the ship for approximately a year, no mention is made of the food and water necessary for the sustenance of his family and the cargo of livestock. Is it possible that the ship contained watertight storage compartments in which these vital supplies were kept, or did Noah perhaps employ a system that pumped water from the sea and filtered out all impurities, thereby making it drinkable? While speculation reigns when we are attempting to explain the multiplicity of problems Noah must have encountered on his year-long voyage into the unknown, the question of animal cargo as cited in diverse accounts still baffles even the most liberal-minded investigator..... different animals did board the ark.... feeding and caring for these animals must have been a job of unbelievable proportions. In addition, a system must have been devised to guarantee that procreation did not occur too often, especially among the more fertile animals, so that the danger of overcrowding could be avoided. It is thought that perhaps the animals' metabolic rates were lowered. If this was achieved, then the feeding and mating would not have been so frequent. Perhaps this was accomplished by artificial means, using the scientific knowledge that Noah and his family possessed. Yet the lowering of their metabolism did not eliminate the need for feeding and care. It is possible that through some form of mechanization, a system of chutes and troughs was used along which food and water were distributed from the storage areas. A similar arrangement may have disposed of animal waste, which was either stored or perhaps ejected from the ark during the voyage. I prefer to think in terms of the latter possibility: knowing when to feed the animals and clean them, etc., demands a knowledge of time; however, during the first 40 days of the Flood, when the ship was completely shut up, there was no natural means of keeping track of time. Despite this obstacle, Noah was able to maintain an accurate and detailed diary of events as recorded in Genesis 7 and 8, which indicates that he may have possesse an artificial means of measuring time, probably a mechanical device. This is not unlikely, for at least one example of a timekeeping apparatus from the post-Flood era has been found near Greece. It was discovered in 1900 on the day before Easter Sunday, when sponge divers working off the Greek island of Antikytheros located a sunken Greek cargo vessel filled with bronze statues and other ancient artifacts. From various inscriptions, the shipwreck remains were dated between 80 and 50 B.C. Among the finds brought to the surface was a lump of corroded bronze and wood, which was transported together with the other artifacts to the National Museum in Athens. Several attempts were made to unravel the mystery of the bronze and wood mass, but all were unsuccessful. It was not until 1958 that the unidentified rusting mass came to the attention of Dr. Derek J. de Solla Price of Cambridge University. Using an innovative process for restoring oxidized objects, Dr. Price was able to salvage bits and pieces of the mass, and by combining these he tried to rebuild the device. To his amazement, he discovered that the lump had contained parts of an intricate miniature planetarium-computer fashioned from a special bronze alloy. The reconstructed machine was a small box containing more than twenty gearwheels intermeshed in a complex differential system. A crank spindle set the gears in motion at various speeds, turning pointers on three dials that calculated the rising and setting times and phases of the moon, and the positions of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, all with astonishing accuracy. What's more, it also indicated the time of day. The Antikytheros clock's construction exceeded the technical capabilities of the Greeks or any other recognized ancient civilizations - yet there it was. Its underlying concept must have originated in an earlier, still more advanced culture, probably that of the pre-Flood world. It is significant that the Antikytheros machine's main function was to calculate the passing of time through simulation of the movement of the heavenly spheres. Could there possibly be a connection with the way in which Noah reckoned his time in Genesis 7 and 8? His calculations also were based on the lunar calendral system, marking off the passing of a solar year. We do not know, of course, what power source turned the crank spindle of the Antikytheros machine, but it probably was the same source that also lit the tsohar. We will never know exactly what measures Noah took to preserve life during that year of confinement aboard the ark, but occasionally information will surface concerning the fact that somewhere there exists an account which tends to illuminate this dark period in man's history. In the months prior to the 1950 attempt of the Oriental Archaeological Research Expedition to find the illusive ark on Mount Ararat, the contents of a curious exchange of letters between Dr. Aaron J. Smith, the expedition's leader, and Dr. Philip W. Gooch were revealed, and if we ever needed to be shaken into changing the pace of our final arrangements for the trip to Turkey, this correspondence certainly did it. Quoting from what he claimed were ancient records in the possession of a Masonic order to which he belonged, Dr. Gooch gave the following information to an unsuspecting Dr. Smith: "There was a living witness on the ground who covered all the fine details of what went on during the Flood and after the Flood until her death in her 547th year," he wrote to Smith. "She was God's living witness, Noah's daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Japheth, a student of Methuselah, under whom she was apprenticed, and who taught her all that had preceded the Flood. She was educated in all the history of the human race up to that time. Her book - she called it her diary - is filled with things that occurred from Adam (?) to her death, and seems to me to be the most complete record of early human history ever recorded. Many of the problems confronting geologists today can easily be understood after one reads Amoela's diary. At her death, dying in the arms of her youngest son, Javan, her diary was placed in her mummified hands in a crystal quartz case, with tempered gold hinges and clasps, and was discovered by a highranking Mason in the latter part of the last century. The original and the translation are now in the possession of the Order." Subsequent correspondence with Dr. Gooch did not result in concrete evidence concerning the whereabouts of Amoela's diary, and his death shortly thereafter widened the credibility gap even more, as he never revealed the name or chapter of the Masonic lodge. (Probably because it never existed. As this is a story from the Mason world, I doubt it is true - Keith Hunt) Was Amoela's diary fact or fiction? It is now evident that we will never know the sources of Dr. Gooch's information. One thing, however, we do know. When the great door in the side of the ark was finally unsealed, it opened onto a totally new world, devoid of the life that once had been and ready to receive the life that had been preserved. The rampaging Flood waters had swept away the great technological antediluvian civilization, shattered it into a million pieces and deposited it in the bowels of the earth, away from the sight of the earth's only remaining tenants. (As the flood was LOCAL and did not cover the entire globe [see the studies on "Noah's flood was not Universal"] other objects of science back then were covered over by local eathquakes, and other natural changes in the earth's turning - Keith Hunt) For many centuries Christians have regarded the Mount of Ararat in eastern Turkey as the final resting place of the ark and the spot where the post-Flood civilization began. Only the Genesis account of the tragedy mentions Ararat - all other traditions are silent on this issue. This may be one of the reasons why not all archaeologists agree that the mountain we know today as Ararat is the same one mentioned in Noah's account even though the Turkish name for the mountain means "Mountain of the Ark," and the Persian name for it is translated "Mountain of Noah." The Babylonian legend indicates that the ship was stranded on Mount Nisir, and the Moslem world holds to the view that Mount Djudi is the location. The latter opinion, however, is hardly worth considering, as an increasing number of Islamic scholars have speculated that Mount Djudi may in reality be identical to Mount Ararat.... At various times in history, "Armenia" and "Ararat" have been used interchangeably to describe the same area, and even today, Ararat is the name of the province in which the famous mountain is located. Perhaps it is because of the many traditions that have attached themselves to Mount Ararat that the Armenians have always referred to the mountain as the "Mother of the World." Can there be something to this? Are there perchance factors that strengthen this traditional view of Ararat as the springboard of the post-Flood culture'? Concerning the Genesis 10 record of the dispersion of tribes and nations in the dawning days of Middle East history corroborating this "Mother of the World" concept, Professor W. F. Albright, internationally recognized as one of the leading authorities on Middle East archaeology, says, "It stands absolutely alone in ancient literature without a remote parallel even among the Greeks. . . . 'The Table of Nations' remains an astonishingly accurate document. . . . [It] shows such remarkable 'modern' understanding of the ethnic and linguistic situation in the modern world, in spite of all its complexity, that scholars never fail to be impressed with the author's knowledge of the subject." The list he refers to mentions the descendants of Noah, the offspring of his three sons. It gives the first generation of descendants of each son, and, what is more important, it lists the names, which often provide us with clues to their history and dwelling place. The first and second generations left their mark in Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor. Assyria, Phoenicia, Armenia, the Persian Gulf region and lands in between. The third generation (c. 3230-2780 B.C.) moved into Europe, Spain, southern Arabia, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, the Black Sea region, and Babylonia. The fourth generation (c. 3096-2647) made swift moves into the area presently called Yemen, the land that subsequently was known as the home of the Queen of Sheba. When the fifth generation (3001-2597 B.C.) arrived on the scene. the record tells of the descendants of Eber, meaning "pilgrim, migrant," the father of a widely scattered people called Habiru. Very little is known about the individual accomplishments of these people until the fifth generation is reached. Peleg (2867-2528 B.c.), whose name means "division, a measurement," is then mentioned, for Genesis 10:25 states, ". . . the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided. GEOGRAPHY It is very apparent from the generation list of the sons of Noah that the post-Flood peoples spread rapidly across the surface of the earth. In just the second generation, the grandchildren of the patriarch had settled in lands from Iran to Spain, from northern Europe to Ethiopia. The following generation and their offspring were of course even more widespread. It also becomes obvious that in order for the Genesis 10 genealogy list to have been composed, there must have been an advanced degree of communication among all these people. Someone living during the colonizing of these distant lands had the ability to correspond with all the descendants over a relatively long period of time - otherwise the composition of such a detailed listing as the "Table of Nations" would have been impossible. This communication between remote regions presupposes an early knowledge of geography. In fact, there is ample evidence that not long after the Deluge, the descendants of Noah carried out an extensive survey of the entire globe, mapping and charting every continent! The evidence for this post-Flood survey of the earth has been preserved in a number of medieval and Renaissance maps which are extremely accurate - so accurate that the longitude and latitude measurements, as well as the knowledge of the earth's surface that is revealed, extend far beyond the capabilities of the early historical cartographers. These cartographers admit - and there is intrinsic proof of this in the maps - that their maps were copies of still older maps whose origins were lost in antiquity. One map in particular that has received considerable attention is the Piri Reis chart of 1513. Piri Reis, whose actual name was Ahmet Muhiddin, not only distinguished himself as a captain in the Ottoman fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent, but was also an itinerant map maker and collector. In the most famous of his atlases, the Kitabi Bahriye, and in the notations on his 1513 chart, he revealed that he drew his maps from a composite of twenty older maps. Eight of these maps, he claimed, were from the time of "Alexander, Lord of the Two Horns," i.e., Alexander the Great. He secured other maps from a captured Spanish sailor in 1501 who told Piri Reis that he had been on Christopher Columbus's three voyages to the New World. In exchange for his freedom, the sailor gave the Turkish captain a number of charts which Columbus had used in locating the islands of the Western Hemisphere. Columbus had, in effect, only rediscovered lands which someone else had charted centuries before. The Bahriye Atlas remained in use after Piri Reis's death in 1554, but his chart of 1513 was lost until November 9, 1929, when Malil Edhem, director of the Turkish National Museum, was cleaning out debris from the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and discovered fragments of the old map. The map received scant publicity when it was found, but copies were sent to various prominent museums. It was not until 1956 that a visiting Turkish naval officer gave a copy of it to the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C., where Captain Arlington H. Mallery subjected the map to a comprehensive analysis. The first extraordinary feature about the map Mallery noted was that it showed South America and Africa in correct relative longitude. In the sixteenth century, when the map was drawn, longitude was found only by guesswork. It was another two hundred years before the correct longitudinal relationship between the two continents was established! Even more startling, however, was Mallery's discovery that the map accurately showed the coastline of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica - even though the map was drawn in 1513, and the southern continent's existence was not verified until 1819! But there was more. Mallery found that the islands and bays of the depicted coastline are the same as they appear below the antarctic ice sheet, as recently revealed by seismic echo soundings. In 1957 the map was presented to Reverend Daniel Lineham, S. J., director of the Western Observatory of Boston College, who had participated in an expedition to Antarctica. After careful examination, Lineham reached the same conclusion as Mallery: the Piri Reis map pictured, in great detail, regions scarcely explored today, including an antarctic mountain range that remained undiscovered by modern researchers until 1952. The unavoidable conclusion was that Piri Reis must have possessed charts drawn by someone who had mapped Antarctica before the ice cap covered the southern continent. The Piri Reis map could not have been a hoax, for no one in 1929, let alone in 1513, could have reproduced the geographical knowledge this chart contained. Following a radio broadcast about the map made by cartographer Walters of the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C., and Mallery and Lineham, the subject came to the attention of Professor Charles H. Hapgood. Working with mathematician Richard W. Strachan and students at Keene State College, Professor Hapgood conducted a most meticulous cartographical analysis of the map and other charts of the Renaissance. Professor Hapgood's examination resulted in a number of startling observations, each one of which augments the mystery of the map's origin. 1. The center of the Piri Reis map is located at the intersection of the meridian of Alexandria - 30 degrees East longitude - and the Tropic of Cancer. Because all the ancient Greek geographers based their maps on the meridian of Alexandria, its use as a center on the Piri Reis chart confirms Reis's statement that a number of the source maps he used dated back to the Alexandrian period. 2. Another indication of Greek influence in the map was the discovery that the map projection was based on an overestimate of 4 and 1/2 per cent in the circumference of the earth. Only one geographer in the ancient world had made that overestimation - the Greek Eratosthenes. When the Piri Reis map grid was redrawn to correct the Eratosthenes error, all existing longitude errors on the map were thereby reduced to almost zero. As Hapgood noted, this could only mean that the Greek cartographers, when they prepared their maps using the circumference of Eratosthenes, had before them source maps which had been drawn without the Eratosthenes error - in fact without error at all! The conclusion is obvious: the geographical knowledge which Piri Reis incorporated into his 1513 map ultimately originated not with the Greeks but with an earlier people who possessed a more advanced science of map making than even the Greeks! 3. The map as a whole reveals a remarkable accuracy of longitude and latitude measurements. In Piri Reis's day, instruments enabling a navigator to find correct longitude were nonexistent. Not until the invention of the chronometer in 1765 were accurate longitude readings possible. Determination of latitude, however, involves precise astronomical observation, but conspicuous differences are evident when it is done by trained men rather than by adventuresome explorers. On his first voyage to the New World, for example, Columbus made no longitudinal measurements and attempted only three for latitude which incidentally were all incorrect. For almost one hundred years after that famous voyage, European map makers, using the guesswork of the explorers, placed such large islands as Cuba and Hispaniola above rather than below the Tropic of Cancer! In contrast, not only are the Caribbean, Spanish, African and South American coasts on the Piri Reis map in correct positions relative to each other, but even such isolated land areas as the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, and the Canary Islands are accurately situated by latitude and longitude - the first two without error and the last within less than a degree. Hapgood commented that there simply is no way to explain the sophistication of the Piri Reis map in terms of the comparative ignorance of sixteenth-century cartographers. The map bears irrefutable testimony to a scientific achievement far surpassing the abilities of the navigators and map makers of the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, the Arab world, or any of the ancient geographers. It is the product of an unknown people antedating recognized history. 4. The Piri Reis chart depicts the Caribbean region at right angles to its normal (Mercator) position, and South America appears stretched out. Hapgood contends that the original source maps from which the Piri Reis map was made must have been drawn using a circular grid based on spherical trigonometry, with the focal point situated in Egypt. Testing this hypothesis, the Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navy drew a modern map using the same grid, and in such a construction the Caribbean indeed appeared at right angles and South America was elongated. This type of circular projection was not fully developed in Europe until centuries after the map was drawn. Piri Reis revealed his unfamiliarity with such a projection by treating the land area of the original as a flat Mercator-type relief and shifting and splicing the original grid to compensate for the curvature! The Piri Reis map also shows islands and several locations along the Central and South American coast which were either briefly explored but not accurately positioned or not discovered at all prior to 1513. These include the Isle of Pines, Andros Island, San Salvador, Jamaica and others. Farther down the coast of South America, the chart shows the mouths of the Amazon and the island of Marajo, correctly shaped and perfectly located in longitude and latitude. Undoubtedly, the most intriguing feature of the Piri Reis map is the coastline of Antarctica, showing the region of Queen Maud Land. Modern seismic maps disclose that this coast is a rugged one, with numerous mountain chains and individual peaks breaking through the present levels of ice. The Piri Reis map shows the same type of coast, but without the ice. In one instance, Mallery discovered two bays on the Piri Reis map where the seismic map showed land; however, when the experts were asked to check their measurements, they found that the sixteenth-century map was correct after all. What is the ultimate conclusion of the cartographers? Professor Hapgood and others see no way of reconciling the cartography of 1513 with the data on the controversial Piri Reis map concerning the geography of Antarctica. They concur that the chart indicates that someone possessing measuring techniques which were not employed in Europe until the nineteenth century mapped Antarctica before the continent was covered with ice. Core samples taken in the Ross Sea off the Antarctic coast in 1949 by the Byrd Expedition reveal that there was indeed a time in the distant past when fine-grain sediments were deposited, indicating an ice-free coast and rivers that conveyed silt down to the sea. Surprisingly enough, the much-analyzed Piri Reis map is not the only map to evince a futuristic knowledge of the earth in remote history. The Orontius Fineus map of 1531 shows rivers in Antarctica where today mile-thick glaciers flow; the Hadji Ahmed map of 1559 depicts the Ice Age land bridge that existed between Siberia and Alaska. The Zeno brothers, in 1380, may have accurately pictured the topography of Greenland below the northern icecap, while the Andrea Benincasa map of 1508 indicates that northern Europe was covered by the farthest advance of the Ice Age glaciation. The only realistic conclusion one can reach on the basis of the accumulative evidence of the medieval maps is that they all have their origin in source maps constructed by an advanced civilization antedating any of the known ancient cultures. Years before the Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman civilizations existed, at a time when the Antarctic and Arctic were just beginning to feel the advance of the unyielding sheets of glacial ice, this unknown culture possessed a knowledge of cartography comparable to what we have today. These people knew the correct size of the earth; they used spherical trigonometry in their mathematical measurements; and they utilized ultramodern cartographical projections. In addition to their science, these surveyors must also have had at their disposal an advanced form of technology - instruments, and trained specialists to use them, for measuring longitude and latitude. The pre-ancient civilization of the past, Professor Hapgood concludes, must have been organized and directed on a global scale. In order to place these findings on this ancient universal survey within the historical framework, as endorsed by Professor Albright, we must carry our assumptions a little further by saying that this survey had to have been made shortly after the Flood (when the land masses were left in their present forms), but before the ice began to accumulate at the poles. In Genesis 10:25 we meet a descendant of Noah called Peleg who was given his name because "in his day was the earth divided." The usual interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the division of nations; however, it could also mean division as in "allotment, marking off an area, a measurement." A more accurate translation of this historical passage could therefore read, "Peleg, in his day was the earth measured, or surveyed." Even more perplexing is that the record indicates that there have been others equally involved in this cartographic process. Mizraim, a grandson of Noah, comes to mind as one who may have shared responsibility of charting the world. His name means "to delineate, to draw up a plan, to make a representation," especially in association with measuring distances. Mizraim was the founder of ancient Egypt. It is significant to note that at least two of the Renaissance maps showing advanced knowledge, the Piri Reis chart and the Reinal chart, dating back to 1510, were based on a circular projection with the focal point in Egypt. A third descendant of Noah who presumably also participated in the mapping of the globe was Almodad, whose name, when translated from the Hebrew, means "measurer." In the Chaldean Paraphrase of Jonathan there is preserved an ancient tradition which tells that he was the "inventor of geometry," "qui mensurbat terran finibus" - "who measured the earth to its extremities." Almodad is regarded as a progenitor of the southern Arabians. Is there a connection between him and the fact that many of the Renaissance maps revealed peculiarities of the earth's geography which were first noticed by the Arabs, when taken from ancient sources never fully identified? The relationship between Peleg, Mizraim and Almodad may be even closer than at first suspected. According to the record, their lifespans overlap, so that the mapping process, covering perhaps the entire period from 2800 B.C. to 2500 B.C., a span of 300 years, was extended over enough years to be total and complete. This conclusion is backed by what we find in the Renaissance maps. It does not leave room for speculation, for among the maps of Antarctica, for example, the Bauche map of 1737 (copied from an older Greek map) shows the continent completely free of ice; the Orontius Fineus map of 1531 indicates that the center of the continent was beginning to fill with ice when its source maps were drawn, but the Piri Reis chart of 1513 and the Mercator chart of 1569 picture only the Antarctic coast left uncovered by glaciers. It is therefore apparent that Antarctica was surveyed not once but several times, before and during the period the southern polar icecap spread over the continent. In the Zeno brothers' map of 1339, Greenland is shown free of glaciers as it was prior to the Ice Age, while Ptolemy's map of the North depicts a glacial sheet advancing across south-central Greenland, and at the same time it shows glaciers retreating from northern Germany and southern Sweden. This could only have come from the findings of surveying parties that tracked the areas before, during, and after the Ice Age. The world contains a treasure of evidence pointing toward unceasing activity on the part of geographers, surveyors and scientifically oriented explorers during the gray dawn of post-Flood development. Other Evidence of Post-Flood Geographical Surveys The scope of the surveying techniques developed by the ancients should not be underestimated. The sacred Hindu books, the Puranas, refer to direct communication between India and distant places around the world. The Indians were well acquainted with western Europe, which they called Varaha-Dwipa. England was known to them as Sweta Saila, or "the Island of the White Cliffs"; and Hiranya or Ireland, as the Irish legends relate, was visited by the Dravidians, a group of men from India. The Irish say that they stayed for only a brief time and had come as surveyors, not invaders. But the Indian books go far beyond western Europe in their recollection. They describe North America, the Arctic Ocean, South and Central America, and other locations. Detailed research into the background of the ancient Sumerians has also provided us with some fascinating information which tends to connect the twelve zodiacal constellations with the characteristics of the lands found in the directions of those constellations. North-northwest of Sumer, toward Capricorn the Goat, is the Caucasus region known in ancient times for its wild mountain goats, and especially for its domesticated goats, which were exported to Sumer. To the northwest is Aquarius the Water Bearer, and in this direction are Asia Minor and the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In mythology, the special god of a river was always pictured as replenishing the source by pouring water into it. Pisces the Fish was found west-northwest, toward the Canaanite and Phoenician coasts, famous for their fishermen and bountiful catches - and so it continues with the other constellations. There was always a connection between the sign of the zodiac and the lands found in its direction, and when contemplating the geographical knowledge demonstrated by the zodiac and the countries it represents, one must conclude that during a very early period in their history the Sumerians were familiar with lands as distant as North Africa, India, Ethiopia, the plains of southern Russia, even including all of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia . . . certainly far beyond the accomplishments of a people often regarded as "primitive" ancients. Evidence of a World Survey in Egypt Serious consideration must be given to the involvement of Mizraim with the world survey that was conducted after the Flood. We know from Egyptian history that Mizraim is regarded as the forefather of all Egyptians, and it is significant that the secular records of Egypt testify that from a very early period the Egyptians were indeed knowledgeable about land measurements and practiced sophisticated surveying techniques. Livio Catullo Stecchini, one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient measures, discovered a peculiar hieroglyph that appeared on all the thrones of the pharaohs, beginning at the Fourth Dynasty. The hieroglyph is composed of knotted ropes symbolizing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt at the thirtieth parallel, where the southernmost tip of the Nile Delta crosses the meridian 31* 30' east of Greenwich, which appears to have been established as the prime meridian of Egypt in unknown antiquity. At the bottom of the hieroglyph are three pairs of horizontal lines of different lengths, depicting the three sets of values which the Egyptians gave the Tropic of Cancer. The middle line represented the conventional tropical latitude of 24* the lower line symbolized the actual latitude of 23* 51', and the top line lay at the latitude of 24* 6'. This last latitude, being 15' north of the true line, is important because 15' is half the diameter of the sun, which shows that the Egyptians understood that it is not the center of the sun but rather its outer rim which must be observed for geodetic survey. Precisely where 24* 6' crosses the Nile, on the island of Elephantine opposite Aswan, the Egyptians had an important astronomical observatory. Many significant cities of Egypt, it appears, were built in relation to the established prime meridian of Egypt and the Tropic of Cancer. The predynastic capital of Lower Egypt, Buto, was located precisely on the prime meridian, 31* 30', near the mouth of the Nile. Memphis, the first capital of unified Egypt, was also placed on the prime meridian, at 29* 51' - exactly 6* north of the Tropic of Cancer. In the Twelfth Dynasty the capital was moved once again, this time to Thebes. A new central meridian for Egypt had been established at 32* 38' east which paralleled the eastern edge of the Nile Delta. Thebes was located where the meridian touched an eastward bend in the Nile at 258 42' 5" north. What is amazing is that this parallel is almost exactly 2/7 the distance between the equator and the North Pole. The survey work of the Egyptians left its mark not only on the land of the Nile but throughout the rest of the ancient world as well. Stecchini has found that such early capitals as Nimrud in Mesopotamia, Sardis in Asia Minor, Susa in Persia, and even Anyang in China were established in relationship to the earliest prime meridian of Egypt. In terms of latitude, Delphi and Dodona, the two most important oracular shrines in early Greece, were also founded in relation to Egyptian measurement, being 7* and 8* respectively, north of Buto. Stecchini believes that when Alexander the Great destroyed Heliopolis, the center of Egyptian science, and replaced it with his own center at Alexandria, he may have destroyed the last vestiges of Egyptian survey knowledge. Far from being the great men of science they were for so long thought to have been, the later Alexandrian Greek geographers did nothing more than revive in part the advanced science of geography that had preceded them. Evidence of a World Survey in China Among the early Chinese we find evidence that they too possessed advanced knowledge obtained from the geographical survey of the world taken soon after the Flood. One of the oldest Chinese literary works that has survived is called the "Shan Hai King," The Classic of Mountains and Seas," a treatise on geography. Its authorship is ascribed to "the great Yu," who became Emperor in 2208 B.C., and the date for the writing of the treatise is approximately 2250 B.C. about a century after the death of Almodad, the seventh-generation descendant of Noah who "measured the earth to its extremities." For several hundred years after its writing, the Shan Hai King was regarded as a scientific work, but during the third century B.C., when many Chinese records were reevaluated and condensed, it was discovered that the geographical knowledge it contained did not correspond to any lands known at that time. Thus, the Shan Hai King was reclassified as myth and was relegated to an unimportant position in Chinese literature. Within the past few years, however, several portions of the Shan Hai King have been reexamined, and the information they contain has altered many previous assumptions concerning the treatise. In the Fourth Book, entitled "The Classic of Eastern Mountains," are four sections describing mountains located "beyond the Eastern Sea" - on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Each section begins by depicting the geographical features of a certain mountain - its height, shape, mineral deposits, surrounding rivers and types of plants and vegetation - then gives the direction and distance to the next mountain, and so on, until the narrative ends. By following these clues and the directions and distances provided, much as one would a road map, investigators have discovered that these sections describe in detail the topography of western and central North America. The first section begins on the Sweetwater River and proceeds southeast to Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming; then to Longs Peak, Grays Peak, Mount Princeton, and Blanca Peak in Colorado; to North Truchas Peak, Manzano Peak, and Sierra Blanca in New Mexico; then to Guadalupe Peak, Baldy Peak, and finally Chinati Peak, near the Rio Grande in Texas. The second section describes an expedition over an even more expansive area. It begins in Manitoba, at Hart Mountain near Lake Winnepeg, and proceeds to Moose Mountain in Saskatchewan; it goes from there to Sioux Pass (between Andes and Fairview) in Montana; to Wolf Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming; to Longs Peak, Mount Harvard, and Summit Peak in Colorado; then to Chicoma Peak, Baldy Peak, Cooks Peak, and Animas Peak in New Mexico; then on into Mexico, describing the Madero, Pamachic, Culiacan and Triangulo heights, reaching the Pacific Coast near Mazatlan. The third section is a tour of the mountains along the Pacific Coast: Mount Fairweather and Mount Burkett in Alaska; Prince Rupert and Mount Waddington in British Columbia; Mount Olympus in Washington; Mount Hood in Oregon; and Mount Shasta, Los Gatos, and Santa Barbara in California. The fourth and last section covers several peaks in a small area: Mount Rainier in Washington; Mount Hood, Bachelor Mountain, Gearhart Mountain, Mahogany Peak, and Crane Mountain in Oregon; and Trident Peak and Capitol Peak in Nevada. Not only is "The Classic of Eastern Mountains" a geographical survey, but the accounts in each section give the observations and experiences of the surveyors, from picking up black opals and gold nuggets in Nevada to watching the seals sporting on the rocks in San Francisco Bay. They were even amused by a strange animal who avoided its enemies by pretending to be dead: the native American opossum. Other portions of the Shan Hai King, specifically the Ninth and Fourteenth books, also describe regions in North America. One notable description given in the Fourteenth Book is of a "luminous" or "great canyon," "a stream flowing in a bottomless ravine," in the "place where the sun in born." Anyone who has witnessed a sunrise in the Grand Canyon will know what the early surveyors had seen. Still other parts of the Shan Hai King, currently under investigation, are said to be accounts of explorations farther to the east, in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley areas. It is very evident from the accuracy of the geographical details and the personal observations in the Shan Hai King that an extensive scientific survey of the North American continent was made by the Chinese almost 4,500 years ago. A World Survey - A World LANGUAGE After the initial inquiries into the Shan Hai King were begun, it was noticed that along many of the routes which the surveyors of North America took, there existed several examples of rock drawings. The most notable are Writing Rock near Grenora, North Dakota, and Writing-on-Stone in Alberta, Canada. Yet another rock script occurs in British Columbia, and petroglyph expert Philip Thornburg was the first to recognize among the stone pictures a carving of a sisutl - the Chinese dragon. Thornburg observed, "There does seem to be an Oriental background to them. Since they are carved in sandstone, it's virtually impossible to say what age they are. I've found some that were buried under a foot of topsoil. Now this wasn't the kind of topsoil that would have washed over them. This was formed there, placing the age of the carving around five to seven thousand years which is really ancient for this country." Thornburg discovered one petroglyph on Vancouver Island that had had a hole worn through it by dripping water, proof that it had been there for some time. William and Mae Marie Coxon, amateur archaeologists, have spent the last decade studying the Canadian and other petroglyphs found around the world. The conclusion of their research has been that at a very remote period in human history a group of people they call the Stone-Writers left their traces on every continent. By careful comparison, the Coxons discovered 241 special sequences of particular geometric signs and symbols. The distribution of examples of these sequences was 201 in the Middle East, 171 in the Far East, and 131 in the Americas. By dating the petroglyph remains in the Nile Valley to compare with the later Egyptian civilization, the Coxons were able to date the Stone-Writers' appearance as being about 1,500 years before the rise of Egypt. From the drawings themselves, the two researchers were able to describe the Stone-Writers as average to above average in height, wearing short kilts that came to the knees, much like the ancient Egyptian laborers. They must have possessed great strength and endurance to have penetrated into the inhospitable terrain where many of their glyphs were found. The Coxons are convinced that the Stone-Writers were not barbaric hunters or nomads but an intelligent people who were systematic in what they did; the symbols had meaning and purpose in their repetition and locations. The Coxons note, "They traveled the oceans, or at least the coastlines, and they penetrated far up into the continents along the rivers. . . . Along the streams, lakes and ocean shores, they left guide signs to mark the way for others who followed them. . . ." The Stone-Writers were thus explorers and geographers, probably the very same explorers and geographers who charted the world after the Flood. The Coxons' work in symbols is being verified by a number of other researchers. English archaeologist S. F. Hood, after studying tablets at the prehistoric site of Tartaria in Rumania, discovered correlations between the tablet symbols there and those found in Crete, Iraq, Egypt, and the Balkan countries. His conclusion was that a system of signs was used over an extensive area 6,000 years ago. N. Vlassa, of the Museum of Cluj, supports these findings with discoveries of his own. Almost identical symbols from the same time period appear at Vinca and Tordos in Rumania, at Troy, and on the Aegean island of Melos. On the basis of his own research and that of his colleagues, Hood believes that a single system of glyphs originated from Iraq or some other country in the Middle East and were disseminated from there over a wide area in a very short time. Oswald O. Tobisch, in his work Kult Symbol Schrift, has carried the research a step further and, like the Coxons, sees striking parallels in symbols in Africa, Europe, Asia and America. Symbols left on rocks and tablets for others presupposes communication by language. Significant research into language usage in the past has been done by the Irish etymologist John Philip Cohane. More specifically, Cohane has concentrated his efforts over the last several decades on a detailed study of the origins of words in almost every language around the world. He has discovered that many words contain similar root words or root combinations beyond what mere chance would permit. These reappearing roots, Cohane discovered early in his study, all have their origin in the Middle East and either figure prominently in Semitic legend or are found in the Old Testament, notably in Genesis. Cohane commented concerning these widely dispersed root words, "This is not to say there may not be a more logical, even earlier, point of origin than the Semites, but if so I have not been able to find it. On the basis of the evidence, it would seem that a high percentage of the people of the earth today are far more closely related than is generally assumed and that they are bound together by at least one early blood stream that is Semitic in origin." Later in his research Cohane was able to establish that there had been two major dispersals of peoples from the Middle East in the distant past, each group taking with it a previously established group of root words. The second of these was heavily concentrated in a limited area of the world: the Mediterranean basin, Europe, Africa, parts of Asia, the West Indies and Brazil. The first dispersal, however, though its traces are less apparent today than those of the second, covered the entire world, in a very short time, in Cohane's opinion. He says, "If one puts a charted overlay containing only the first group of names on top of a map of the world and then puts on top of that another charted overlay containing only the second group of names, the most logical conclusion is that, in prehistoric times, instead of one there were two dispersions from the Mediterranean, the first truly worldwide, the second petering out along the eastern coast of the Americas in one direction, [and] in Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand in the other direction. Again, there may be a more logical conclusion to be drawn from the data, but if so, I have not been able to think of one. And again . . . all the key names in both groups have prominent origin points in Semitic legends and mythology, as well as known Semitic place names." These findings tell us several things. The discovery of symbol and word dispersals from a common point of origin somewhere in the Middle East fully corroborates the historical Genesis record and its story of the dispersal of nations from one point. The worldwide language wave is also indicative of the ancient geographical survey of the world, as established by the maps found in Renaissance times. A great number of the significant roots were found by Cohane in geographical names. For those who seek in this a confirmation of the Biblical story, the Genesis 11:1 description of the conditions following the Deluge is interesting: "And the whole earth was one language, and one speech." Cohane's second language dispersal might well be identical with the language disturbance that followed the confusion at the Tower of Babel, as mentioned in Genesis 11:7. The Reason for a World Survey - The Earth's Magic Lines It is quite evident that soon after the Flood and before and after the language disorder, between the second and seventh post-Deluge generations (c. 3100-2500 B.C.), the descendants of Noah undertook a geographic survey and exploration of the entire world's surface, leaving their traces in the form of maps, symbols and place names. This was most assuredly accomplished with knowledge preserved from the antediluvian era, yet why was it done? Why did the ancients undertake such a momentous task? Why did they decide on this type of adventure ... There are some obvious explanations. As Noah and his family stepped down from their survival vessel, they looked upon a world totally alien to them. All the familiar landmarks had disappeared. Forests were gone, rugged mountain peaks faced them on all sides, and from the murky waters below rose the foul stench of decay. The earth that they once had known was now wiped completely clean of any previous civilization. It was as if they had landed on another planet. As the new generations were born and grew up on the foothills of Mount Ararat, their innate curiosity concerning this new land forced them to venture out into the hinterland, to explore for fertile valleys, plains and forests. The record shows that those early generations were well aware that they were the fathers of future nations, for their names often denoted their professions or the geographical areas they occupied. They moved out with stubborn insistence, initiating the first "land grab" in history, staking out their territories, and when they found an area which was suitable to become the home of a nation, they settled and laid claim to the newly acquired territory, reserving it for their children and their children's children.... The natural inclination of the post-Deluge generations would be to search for these treasure-troves. Professor Hapgood suggests still another reason. He believes that the mapping of a continent on such a vast scale, as with Antarctica, requiring much organization, numerous exploring expeditions and many stages of data compilation, must have been motivated by a powerful reason. He feels that economic gain may have been this reason; yet, the exploratory expeditions did more than merely discover and cultivate new areas; they actually divided the earth into parcels of land, with each one bounded by what are now called ley lines. Until a warm summer afternoon in the early 1920s, there was no indication other than the historical Genesis record that this ever occurred. Alfred Watkins, a merchant whose hobby was prehistory, was riding horseback through the Bredwardine hills near Hereford, England. On reaching the summit of a grassy hillock, he rested, letting his eyes gaze over the tranquil English landscape. Suddenly he saw something he'd never noticed before. Several church steeples were aligned straight across the countryside. Knowing that these churches had been constructed on the sites of prehistoric sanctuaries, he wondered whether it was possible that they had once been linked by an invisible web of lines. While still pondering this question, he suddenly realized that not only ancient temples, but also mounds, old standing stones, crosses, crossroads, sacred trees, moats and sacred wells also stood on the same lines! Racing home, Watkins painstakingly marked all the ancient sites and monuments he knew from his studies onto a one-inch ordnance map, and even though finding five or six points in alignment would have been beyond mere chance, he found himself confronted with eight, nine and even more points, all stretching out in precisely straight lines! Carrying his initial research a step further, he compared his points to positions on other maps he had marked, and discovered that the lines could be extended for miles and miles, usually ending at a mountain peak or a high cliff. Aided by a friend, Watkins undertook a detailed survey of all England and Scotland and everywhere they found further traces of a prehistoric network of dead-straight alignments that had once extended over the entire island. Building on the accomplishments of Watkins, Major H. Taylor of the British Army set out, accompanied by a professional surveyor, to do an even more detailed study of the strange alignments. Taylor discovered more landmarks previously not known, or at least not recorded in modern times. His findings were eventually published in a small book entitled "The Geometric Arrangement of Ancient Sites." But if he thought he'd have a publishing first, he was mistaken, for a year prior to the emergence of his book, a German geographer, Dr. Heinish, had already presented a paper dealing with the same discoveries before an international congress held at Amsterdam. Delivering his paper, "Principles of Prehistoric Cult Geography," he proposed to a hushed audience that at one time in the distant past a magical principle had existed by which holy sites were situated. They were placed, he submitted, on lines that were constructed in relation to the positions of the sun, moon and planets. In addition he claimed he had uncovered evidence that the units of measurement used to construct these lines were, like those of the early Egyptian geodetic surveys, based on simple fractions of the earth's dimensions. He had found examples of these lines not only in Britain but all over Europe and the Middle East. Greatly impressed by the vast extent and accuracy of the construction of these lines, Heinish concluded that they bore testimony to the past existence of a widespread civilization that possessed advanced knowledge of both technology and magic. Beyond the boundaries of Britain, the lines have been found in nearly every corner of the globe, and strangely enough, associated with them were numerous stories of a flow of magic energy! Ireland has many legends of fairy paths, along which fairies and other spiritual beings are supposed to travel at specific times of the year. Yet today these same "magic" routes have become well-worn roads and footpaths. In his book "The Fairy Faith of Celtic Countries," J. D. EvansWentz recalls how an old Irish seer explained to him that mysterious currents flow along the paths, but that their exact nature has been forgotten. Similar research conducted by Xavier Guichard strongly supported the findings of the British and German investigators. Referring to several old cities in his native France, Guichard said, "These cities were established in very ancient times according to immutable astronomical lines, determined first in the sky, then transferred to the earth at regular intervals, each equal to a 360th part of the globe." Evidence that these lines existed in remote history can be found in ancient literature. For example, in their conquest of the Etruscans, the early Romans noted standing stones set in linear patterns over the entire countryside of Tuscany. Later, during the Latin invasions of Greece, they recounted the fact that "stone pillars" were found running straight and true along the roads through the hilly Hellenic landscape. The Romans were not particularly surprised at finding these straight tracks, for they had discovered them in almost every country they subjugated: across Europe, North Africa, Crete, and as far west as the regions of ancient Babylon and Nineveh. We now recognize that the Romans' reputation as builders of straight thoroughfares was partly attributable to their simply utilizing sacred lines that existed long before their conquests, and which they then transformed into military and commercial routes. Even today, the Bedouins of North Africa use the line system marked out by standing stones and cairns to help them traverse the desert wastes. When were these stones erected? The nomads shake their heads when asked this question, for even though they need the markers for survival, they know nothing of their origin. While the lines have been forgotten in most countries, in other parts of the world the prehistoric line system is still being used. One such system exists in the interior of Australia among the aborigines, who tell of a past age, which they call "dream time," when the "creative gods" traversed the country and "reshaped" the land to conform to important paths called turingas. At certain times of the year, they say, the turingas become revitalized by the energies flowing through them, giving new life to the adjacent countryside. To ensure that this ancient fertilization still takes place, the aborigines gather at specific locations during certain times of the year, perform the ritualistic dances that have been dictated by the passing time, and pray to the force of the lines. They actually receive messages over vast distances and are forewarned of the approach of strangers - all through their system of magic lines. On the other side of the globe, as recently as the sixteenth century, the Incas used similar spirit lines with the Inca Temple of the Sun in Cuzco as their hub, but no one nation has valued the reported existence of these lines so much as the Chinese. Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Chinese practiced an art called fung-shui, or "wind and water," which means "what cannot be seen and cannot be grasped." The duty of the practitioners of fung-shui was to determine the flow of lung-mei, or "dragon currents," and interpret their influence in the regions they passed through. Every building, stone and planted tree was so placed in the Chinese landscape as to conform to the mysterious dragon currents that flowed along the lines. The main paths of the forces, the Chinese believed, were determined by the routes of the sun, moon and five major planets across the heavens. The dragon currents controlled Chinese life to a great extent, and in the feudal days of China, the Emperor would emphasize the country's dependence on the mysterious force by climbing an artificial mound called Col Hill near Peking several times a year to measure both the planetary and terrestrial energies and to fuse the two for the benefit of the land. Some researchers contend that this was an attempt to combine magic with reality. The ancient legends of earth currents which are affected by planetary motions and which in turn affect fertility are not fantasy or religious superstition; they are based on very real scientific principles. We are only beginning to realize today that the entire surface of the earth is bathed in the energy of the earth's magnetic field and that this field is subject to certain influences from above and below. The strength and direction of the magnetic currents vary according to the positions of the sun, moon and the closer planets in much the same way as the ebb and flow of the tides take place according to the position of the moon. At the same time, characteristics of magnetic currents are also influenced by the terrain over which they flow. A flat landscape exhibits placid and regular activity, while rocky or broken land shows disturbed behavior. Magnetic flows are especially agitated over the geologic faults over which many of the prehistoric ley lines have been found. While some investigators are studying the variations of current on the earth's surface, others are attempting to discover what effects these same currents have on certain nonliving and living components. After exhaustive research, involving 200,000 experiments over ten years, Giorgio Piccardi, Director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry in Florence, Italy, has concluded that water is extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields, and that as the fields are changed or influenced, so the chemistry of water may be altered. Piccardi also found that since the earth's energy field is subject to change by changes in the positions of the sun and moon, chemical reactions using water as a base also change accordingly. The Florentine chemist's work has been verified by W. H. Fisher of the National Center for Atmospheric Research of Boulder, Colorado, who noted further that since water is the liquid of life, electromagnetic fluctuations could thus affect growth. Drs. A. A. Boe and D. K. Salunkhe, horticulturists at Utah State University, have come up with significant results. When green tomatoes, for example, were placed within a magnetic field, they ripened four to six times faster than under normal conditions. The researchers also noted that seeds of a variety of plants grew many times faster than usual when they had been placed in a current. More recent research has uncovered not only that the living plant is stimulated, but that currents also affect the soil in which the plant grows. The movement of galactic bodies, it now appears, causes certain magnetic fluctuations which in turn increase the fertility of plants as the chemistry of the mineral content of the soil is changed. Of course we are only beginning to understand the principles behind celestial and terrestrial magnetic influences on the earth's surface, but it seems that people in centuries past not only knew these principles but applied them for their own benefit. First, these early people must have had the scientific knowledge to be aware of the currents' existence, so they developed a technology for detecting those currents. Second, they must have possessed the end product of a tremendous body of research and experimentation that covered centuries, perhaps, and by which they knew how to manipulate the currents toward a predictable result. We can only guess at this from what remains of the earlier culture, for we ourselves have not yet reached that level in our understanding. It appears that the currents began at certain natural energy "springs" in the earth, which were later marked as religious sites, and from here the currents were directed to specific centers, towers or mounds - where they were gathered and from which they were eventually dissipated to the surrounding countryside. Astronomical observation was of paramount importance, for only by a constant watch over the celestial movements could the waxing and waning of the currents be measured and anticipated. Directing the magnetic currents seems to have been accomplished by the placement of the standing stones along the ley lines. Throughout recorded history, special powers have been attributed to many of these stones by local traditions. A dolmen or stone group near Finistre, France, for example, is said to cure rheumatism; other neighboring stones are believed to heal fever and paralysis. Modern investigators have discovered that mysterious energies do emanate from a number of the stones, for photographs of them are sometimes marred by a mist of light surrounding their lower extremities. According to Gey Underweed, author of "The Pattern of the Past," the standing stones served the same purpose as the needles of Chinese acupuncture. Just as the needles are claimed to redirect the flow of "life forces" in the human body to restore health, so the standing stones were placed in such a manner so as to realign earth magnetism from the natural paths to artificial ones. Using special dowsing equipment for detection, Underwood found evidence that the magnetic currents in parts of his native Britain do in fact run in rows parallel to the straight lines of the standing stones with a precision that characterizes human construction rather than natural patterns. Ancient legends explain that the major purpose of the ley-line systems was for the increase of soil fertility and plant growth, but there appear to have been other uses for the lines as well. The modern Druids claim their forefathers built the ley lines and were able to utilize the linear energies for flight. On the day a line became "animated" by a sunrise directly down a path, the currents were directed so as to charge a body to such a degree that it could be levitated and made to move along the path of a specific level of magnetic intensity. Druidic tradition tells of such heroes as Mog Ruith, Bladud and the magician Abiris, who possessed flying vehicles activated by the leyline energies and were able to travel in them as far as Greece. The stories of these flights usually end in disaster - an eclipse takes place, suddenly terminating the power sources along the lines, and the hero and his craft plunge to earth and destruction. There is scientific fact behind these stories, for an eclipse of the sun or moon does indeed cause a sudden drop in the level of the earth's surface magnetic activity. We find that among many ancient cultures around the world there was an obsession with predicting eclipses. Perhaps the reason was not so much superstitious fear, as has always been assumed, but changes that eclipses wrought upon terrestrial magnetic flows. Looking at what we now know concerning the ley lines, we can make several observations. Examples of ley-line systems are found all over the earth - in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas - and the legends and traditions associated with them indicate that they were all based on the same principle, magnetic manipulation, and were used for the same purposes. Their conception certainly did not originate with one group of isolated people and then slowly spread to other neighboring groups; rather, the system appears to have sprung up all over the world simultaneously, planned by a culture that had surveyed the globe and charted the geographical features that revealed the underlying major centers of magnetic activity and inactivity. The very nature of the operation of the lines required that for the system to work to its full potential, all the terrestrial surface currents had to be accounted for. The ley-line system was thus a truly global system. Commenting on the lines, John Michell writes in "The View over Atlantis," "A great scientific instrument lies sprawled over the entire surface of the globe. At some period - perhaps it was about 4,000 years ago - almost every corner of the world was visited by a group of men who came with a particular task to accomplish. With the help of some remarkable power, by which they could cut and raise enormous blocks of stone, these men erected vast astronomical instruments, circles of erect pillars, pyramids, underground tunnels, cyclopean alignments, whose course from horizon to horizon was marked by stones, mounds, and earthworks. Such a global undertaking implies the existence of a single authority directing a unified effort involving the inhabitants of the whole world. Also, just as local sections of the ley lines had a specific center or even several nodes where the energies converged, so it is likely that the single authority operated from a world center where the energies of the entire global line system were gathered. The system appears to have operated for a period of time, but then something happened, something significant enough to mark a break in world conditions and to bring the world line system to an end. Before the event, the construction of the system had necessitated a unified world. At some specific point in time that unity was decisively broken. The single directing authority lost its power, and its world center ceased to operate. Following the event, new conditions prevailed, and the people of the world were fragmented into factions, making unity of effort and the coordinated working of the ley lines no longer possible. As Michell described it, "All we can suppose is that some overwhelming disaster, whether or not of natural origin, destroyed a system whose maintenance depended upon its control of certain natural forces across the entire earth. All attempts at reconstructing whatever it was that collapsed during the great upheaval have ever since been frustrated by schism and degeneration. Falling ever deeper into ignorance, increasingly at the mercy of rival idealists, the isolated groups of survivors all over the world forgot their former unity, and, in the course of striving to re-create some local version of the old universal system, perverted the tradition and lost its spiritual invocation." Eventually, even the perversions - the myths and legends of past powers - were partially garbled or forgotten, and the surviving local systems were abandoned. Today we are left with only shadows and remnants of the former universal system. Thanks to the discoveries made by archaeologists, much of what was considered legendary in the Genesis account of the rise of nations is now being found to be true. The story of a former world unity which was broken into factions is beginning to take on a realistic form. Founded on even older historical accounts, the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel relates the desperate efforts of the new generations to remain together "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." So they began to construct a world center and a tower that was to reach to the skies. It appears that as the post-Flood populations in the settled land around the globe were growing large enough to form the bases of active cultures, the people of the world were worried that their continued unity might one day be dissolved. Their fears were justified, for they were trying to reestablish the one-world civilization that the antediluvians had possessed. Babel was chosen to become the capital of the world, symbolizing the organization of the post-Flood peoples under a centralized authority, in the same way that Cain had organized his descendants under one rule by means of the construction of Enoch City. The city of Babel represented a "United Nations," or a political center for world government. The Tower of Babel, on the other hand, intended to be a great structure reaching to the skies, may have represented something even more significant. As noted earlier, there very likely had been a world center where the surface energies of the globe were eventually gathered from the global ley-line system. We know that the place where the currents were accumulated was usually characterized by a mound or tower. The Tower of Babel may have been the receiving station for the ley-line currents of the earth. By their possession of such a center of the world's energies, the ruling authorities at Babel literally controlled the world, for everyone who desired to benefit from the world ley-line system would have had to serve the rulers of Babel. We know from all accounts that the lines were used for occult purposes, so there were spiritual as well as material energies involved. The post-Flood ley-line system was very probably a reconstruction of a system used before the Flood. The antediluvians had developed a sophisticated form of technology that incorporated the use of both material and occult energies as its power base, and the ley-line system was simply a further extension of this occult technology. .................. To be continued

Secrets of Lost Races #4

Prehistoric Aviation!

SECRETS OF LOST RACES #4 CHAPTER 4 ADVANCED AVIATION IN PREHISTORIC TIMES! Soon after the destruction of the Babel world center, a number of secondary civilization centers emerged in various parts of the world. The initial catastrophe that cast the globe into a period of chaos and confusion may have lasted as long as a century, during which time many of the pre-Babel nations lost contact with one another, while still others were probably overrun by migrating tribes uprooted in the confusion. The technology of many of them was not affected, however, and they were able to maintain their high level of sophistication and knowledge. The Renaissance maps tell us that at least five generations of ancient cartographers from a highly advanced civilization made a series of uninterrupted surveys of the world before, during and at the end of the Ice Age. The conditions under which they operated must have been subject to major modifications, for whereas in pre-Babel days they had lived under a "one world command," the post-Babel world presented an entirely different situation. The world was now split into political factions, each one claiming sovereignty over and independence of the others. The former global cooperation had evaporated, and the various political and national entities began to strive for world domination. During the first part of the century of confusion after Babel, the rivalry did nothing to disturb the balance of power, but toward the end of the first hundred years, natural catastrophes, probably initiated by the beginning of the Ice Age, greatly affected the already uneasy truce that existed between them. The violence that followed led to the mutual destruction of these groups. The advanced technology they had struggled so hard to preserve for their national greatness now spawned an arsenal of weaponry that ultimately destroyed them. There were eight centers of post-Babel high civilization where the remnants of the pre-Flood technology were treasured and utilized. These centers were in the Middle East, northern Europe, the Arctic, India, what is now the Gobi Desert, Antarctica, western and central South America, and southwestern North America and the Caribbean. During the initial period of chaos, these centers were cut off from one another, but communications were soon reestablished. One of these contact methods appears to have been by air, strange as that may seem in our age, for we still consider the Wright brothers' invention a spontaneous outburst of creativity befitting the twentieth century. Many legends recorded by subsequent peoples contain remembrances of a period when aviation was a well-known concept and flight was a frequent occurrence. One of the earliest preserved records of flight is in a Babylonian set of laws called the Halkatha, which contains this passage: "To operate a flying machine is a great privilege. Knowledge of flying is most ancient, a gift of the gods of old for saving lives." The Babylonian "Epic of Etana," describing a prehistoric flight, is preserved for us in fragmentary text and cuneiform dating back to a period between 3000 and 2400 B.C. The epic tells of Etana, a poor shepherd who finds an eagle with injured wings. He nurses the eagle back to health, and in return the eagle promises to take him on a journey up into the heavens. Etana thereupon mounts the bird, and together they soar off into the sky, gazing at intervals down on the earth below. At the first stage, the eagle cries, "Behold, my friend, the land and how it is! Look upon the sea also. Lo, the land has become like a hill and the sea like a watercourse!" This observation is made after an ascent of a double hour's march - in modern terms, six to eight miles high. Rising high above Mesopotamia, Etana can see the mountains of Armenia in the north, and to the southeast, the "sea" of the Persian Gulf looking like a "watercourse" or river stretching to the horizon. According to the inscriptions, the two climb three double marches higher before the eagle again directs Etana's attention to the earth's appearance. From here, he says, the earth looks like a "plantation" and the land is like a "hut" surrounded by the "courtyard of the sea." Etana has reached a height from which he can see the waters of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, encompassing the Middle East. As they look from still farther up, the land appears to be like a "grinding stone" and the sea like a "gardener's canal" or irrigation ditch. The mountains are no longer distinguishable; from this altitude the surface appears even and curved, like the surface of a grindstone. At the circumference Etana sees the waters of the oceans surrounding Asia, Europe, and Africa. Higher still, the eagle remarks that the earth now looks like a "garden," the sea like a "wicker basket." The various characteristic shapes of the continents are now apparent, as are their orange deserts, dark green forested areas, gray valleys and brown-yellow mountains, which look like the colored patches of a garden. Now Etana also sees the oceans of the world, this time no longer as a surrounding ditch but as separate basins, like various "baskets" filled with water. Finally he reaches a height where he in unable to distinguish between land and sea. He has reached an altitude where the clouds and water vapor of the atmosphere hide most of the earth's features in a bluish-white haze. At this point the journey ends, and Etana is returned to earth. The only myth element the epic contains is the eagle, who may represent some form of aircraft that with the passing of time was transformed into a bird by a people ignorant of the mechanics of flight. Whatever the vehicle of ascent may have been, the "Epic of Etana" certainly supplies us with a very accurate description of the earth's surface from various altitudes - descriptions which were not verified in our own era until the high-altitude aerial flights of the 1950s and the first space shots of the 1960s. Question: Who made and recorded this observation in the ancient East before 2400 B.C.? Another Chaldean work, the Sifr'ala, dates back more than 5,000 years, and though fragmentary, it is a work filling almost a hundred pages of English translation. Archaeologist and ethnologist Y. N. Iban A'haraon, who worked on its decipherment, found to his astonishment that the Sifr'ala is a detailed account of how to build and operate an aircraft. The text speaks of various parts such as vibrating spheres, graphite rods and copper coils; and on the subject of flight the writer comments on wind resistance, gliding and stability. Unfortunately, many key lines of the text are missing, making any attempt at reconstructing the craft impossible. Early Chinese annals also contain several references to the art of flying. Emperor Shun, who reigned between 2258 and 2208 B.C., reportedly not only constructed a flying craft but also tested a parachute - more than thirty-six centuries before Leonardo da Vinci. In 1766 B.C. another Chinese Emperor, Cheng Tang, ordered a court artisan named Ki-Kung-Shi to construct a flying apparatus. The craftsman built the machine and flew it to the province of Honan on a test flight. The Emperor, however, had the aerial craft destroyed so that its secret might not fall into the wrong hands. The secret of flight seems to have survived until the third century B.C., for the Chinese poet Chu Yun penned his experiences while flying in a jade-colored craft over the Gobi Desert to the Kunlun mountains in the southwest. He made an aerial survey of the region and accurately described how the high-soaring craft was unaffected by the wind and dust of the wasteland below. And even as late as the fourth century A.D. another Chinese writer, Ko-Hung, spoke of a "flying car" made of wood and possessing "rotating blades" that caused the car to travel skyward. In the same century, a flying craft also appeared in Ceylon, where the Buddhist monk Gunarvarman used it to fly to the island of Java - a distance of 2,000 miles. References to flight also appear in the Budhasvamin Brihat Katha Shlokasamgraha of Nepal, a twelfth-century written version of an oral tradition of unknown age. It was first published in Europe in Felix Lacote's French translation in 1908. The Brihat Katha tells the story of Rumanvit, the servant of a king who desired to travel about the earth in a flying vehicle. In order to satisfy his master, Rumanvit commanded the court designers to construct the needed flying apparatus, but they informed him that they were unable to do so. They knew the workings of many machines, they declared, but the secret of flying machines was known only to the "Yavanas." Yavana was the Sanskrit name for the lighter-skinned peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. More specifically, Yavana is derived from Javan, the name of one of Noah's grandsons, whose descendants inhabited mainland Greece and the Mediterranean islands in the first few centuries following the Flood. The story of Rumanvit ends with the appearance at his master's court of a Yavana from the west who fulfills the monarch's wish to see the world from the air, but without revealing to him the mechanics of flying. There appears to have been a conscious effort on the the part of the high civilization centers not to proliferate advanced technology among those post-Babel peoples who had lost knowledge, but rather to keep that technology for their own use and power. Ancient Flight in the Pacific Legends very similar to those of the Nepalese are found among the Polynesians. On the South Pacific island of Ponape, the natives tell of learned men with lighter skins than their own, who came from the west long before the European explorers arrived. These former lightskinned men came in "shining boats" that "flew above the sea." Their stay was very brief, but the natives still speak of the "magical works" the ancient Westerners performed. The aboriginal inhabitants of Mangareva, the largest of the Gambier Islands, also have a tradition of flight which dates from the ancient past. They recount how a "flying canoe" with "great wings clasped tightly to the side" appeared before them, and how the "priests" who operated it were able to fly great distances - as far as the Hawaiian Islands, nearly 2,500 miles away. Robert Lee Eskridge, a collector of Polynesian folklore, found a native on the island of Tara-Vai who gave him a detailed description and showed him an actual artist's model of the ancient flying canoe. According to Eskridge, it certainly represented some form of flying apparatus, and the wings in particular reminded him of those of the winged solar disc of the god Horus, frequently pictured in Egyptian art. The Saqqara "Bird" In 1898, a small model plane was discovered in a tomb near Saqqara, Egypt, and was dated at approximately 200 B.C. At the time of its discovery, the birth of modern aviation was still several years away, and so, when the strange object was sent to the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, it was catalogued as Special Register No. 6347, Rm. 22, and then shelved to gather dust among other miscellaneous artifacts - unrecognized for what it really was. An artist's conception of the Saqqara "bird" as it was discovered in an Egyptian tomb in 1898. This object, which at first was thought to be a model of a bird, flies perfectly as a glider, even though there are indications that it may originally have possessed a propulsion mechanism at the tail. The design of the "bird" is highly sophisticated. In 1969, Dr. Kalil Messiha, an Egyptologist and archaeologist, was cleaning out the museum's basement storage area when he happened on a box marked simply "bird objects" and discovered the model. The other contents of the box were obvious bird figurines, but one artifact was definitely out of place, possessing characteristics which, though not found in birds, yet are part of modern aircraft. Dr. Messiha, who as a youth had been a model-plane enthusiast, immediately recognized the aircraft features and persuaded the Under Secretary of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Dr. Mohammed Gamal El Din Moukhtar, to form a committee to investigate the model. The research committee was formed on December 23, 1971, and consisted of a number of historians and aviation experts. They were so impressed by the preliminary findings that they recommended the model be hung as a centerpiece in the Central Hall of the Cairo Museum. The model's wings are straight and aerodynamically shaped, with a span of 7.2 inches. The pointed nose is 1.3 inches long, and the body of the craft measures 5.6 inches long, tapered and terminating in a vertical tail fin. A separate slotted piece on the tail is precisely like the back stabilizer section of a modern plane. The small craft is made of very light sycamore wood and weighs 1.11 ounces. When asked to analyze the model, several aerodynamics engineers and pilots found a number of remarkable features, all indicating knowledge of principles of aircraft design which had taken European and American designers a century of airfoil experimental work to discover and perfect. Besides an aerodynamic shape of fuselage and wing that revealed design compensation for camber - the rise of the curve of the wing - the wing itself was found to be counter-dihedral, which provided a tremendous lift force. It appears the ancient craft's purpose was more for carrying large amounts of freight than for reaching high speeds, for designers agreed it could have carried heavy loads, but at extremely slow speed, i.e., below 60 miles an hour. One expert, in fact, noted that there is a remarkable similarity between the down-pointing nose and pointed wing of the Egyptian plane and a new oblique-wing aircraft under consideration by NASA. It too is, specifically designed for heavy cargo and low-powered flight. We do not know, however, what the power source of the ancient craft was. The lower part of the tail is jagged - evidently something has been broken off - so that it may have held some form of motor. The engineers noted that the model did make a perfect glider just as it was; in fact, it would have taken only a small catapult to get a life-sized model into the air. Even today, though it is over 2,000 years old, the little plane still soars through the air for a considerable distance with only a slight push of the hand! Another feature aerodynamics experts discovered when they attempted to make a blueprint of the plane was that all of its highly accurate integral proportions were present in ratios of 2:1 or 3:1. It is clear that the ancient model was not accidental or meant only to be a toy; rather, it was the end product of an enormous body of computation and experimentation. Dr. Messiha noted that the ancient Egyptians always built scale models of everything they made, for their tombs were filled with small detailed temples, obelisks, houses, chariots, ships, etc. Now that a model plane has been found, Dr. Messiha wonders whether somewhere under the desert sands along the Nile there may be the remains of life-sized gliders. More recently, several other model planes have been uncovered from other tombs and identified, bringing the total number of Egyptian gliders to fourteen. As biologist-zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson, head of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, commented, "The concrete evidence that the ancients knew of flight was forced upon us only a few years ago. Now we have to explain it. And when we do we will have to rearrange a great many of our concepts of ancient history." A Gold Plane from the New World In 1954 the government of Colombia sent part of its collection of ancient gold artifacts on a tour to six museums in the United States. During the U.S. tour, Emanuel M. Staubs, one of the leading jewelers in America, was commissioned to make cast reproductions of six of the gold pieces. Fifteen years later, one of the casts was given to Ivan T. Sanderson for an analysis. After making a thorough examination of the artifact and consulting a number of aerodynamics experts, Sanderson came to a mind-boggling conclusion. In his opinion, the gold object is a model of a jet aircraft at least a thousand years old. The object is approximately two inches long and was worn as a pendant on a chain around the neck. Discovered in northern Colombia, the artifact has been classified as Sinu, a pre-Inca culture dating between A.D. 500 and 800. For want of better identification, the Colombian government labeled the find a "zoomorfica"; that is, an animalshaped object. From a zoological standpoint, however, both biologist Sanderson and Dr. Arthur Poyslee of the Aeronautical Institute of New York concluded that the object does not represent any known type of winged animal, whether bird, bat, insect, flying fish, skate or ray. In fact, the little Colombian artifact has features that are more mechanical than biological. Among the important features are the front wings, which are deltoid, with perfectly straight edges - very animal-like. Aircraft designer Arthur Young also noted that if the gold object did represent a flying animal, the front wings are located in the wrong place. They are too far back on the body to coincide with the animal's center of gravity. The wings are in the right place aerodynamically, however, for a tail-engine jet. Test pilot and aerodynamics expert Jack A. Ullrich pointed out further that the delta shape of the front wings and the aerodynamic tapering of the fuselage imply that the original aircraft was jetpowered, with the ability to fly at supersonic speeds. After examining close-up photographs of the gold model, taken from the front angle, still another aircraft engineer, Adolph Heuer, noted a third indication of the original plane's potential of performance. While most modern planes have wings angled slightly upward, only the higher-powered planes have wings that tilt downward. This feature can be seen on the supersonic Concorde, and it can also be seen on the Colombian gold object. The tail is perhaps the least animal - but most airplane - like feature of the gold model. It is right-triangular in shape, flat-surfaced, and rigidly perpendicular to the body and delta wings. No bird or insect has a tail like this. Only fish have upright tail fins, but none has an upright fin without a counterbalancing lower one. The triangular configuration of the gold model, however, is standard design on modern aircraft. Another interesting feature about the tail is the insignia that appears on the left face of the rudder, precisely where identification marks appear on many airplanes today. The insignia is perhaps as out of place as the gold model itself, because it has been identified as the Aramaic or early Hebrew letter beth, or B. This would indicate that the original aircraft may have come not from Colombia but from somewhere in the Middle East. The gold airplane is by no means the only such model aircraft discovered in the New World. Six very similar gold objects, each complete with aerodynamically designed fuselage, wings, and right-triangular rudder, are on display in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, and two others are on exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and in the Museum of Primitive Art in New York City. Along with those in Bogota, Colombia, such objects number fourteen in all. Again, they are well over 1,000 years old, but the area from which they come is quite extensive. These other planes were discovered in Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Peru. If people from the Middle East did make flights across the Atlantic, they must have made a number of contacts with the semiprimitive inhabitants in both Central and South America. Lookihg at the models together, we find they appear to be variations of a single aircraft design. They are either an artist's impression of something he saw himself or his interpretation of a mythical or legendary description of aircraft from the more distant past. The early form of the Hebrew beth on the Colombian model strongly supports this conclusion and puts the original aircraft and its flight to the Americas before the second millennium B.C. The Hindu Vimanas Some of the most remarkable descriptions of prehistoric aircraft come to us from India. Among the ancient Hindu sacred books we find the Samaranga Sutradhara, a collection of texts compiled in the eleventh century but which date back to unknown antiquity. The Samaranga contains 230 stanzas that describe in detail every possible aspect of flying, from how the apparatus was powered to the proper clothing and diet of the pilots. Recently the International Academy of Sanskrit Research in Mysore, India, conducted a special study of the ancient work and published its findings in a book entitled Aeronautics, "a Manuscript From the Prehistoric Past." The text revealed a knowledge of aircraft design, function and performance that is above and beyond what the laws of chance would permit had the work been only the product of someone's imagination. The following are a few translated excerpts from the text: "The aircraft which can go by its own force like a bird - on the earth or water or through the air - is called a Vimana. That which can travel in the sky from place to place is called a Vimana by the sages of old." "The body must be strong and durable and built of light wood [Laghu-data], shaped like a bird in flight with wings outstretched [mahavinhanga]. Within it must be placed the mercury engine, with its heating apparatus made of iron underneath. "In the larger craft [Data-Vmana], because it is built heavier [alaghu], four strong containers of mercury must be built into the interior. When these are heated by controlled fire from the iron containers, the Vimana possesses thunder power through the mercury. The iron engine must have properly welded joints to be filled with mercury, and when fire is conducted to the upper part, it develops power with the roar of a lion. By means of the energy latent in mercury, the driving whirlwind is set in motion, and the traveler sitting inside the Vimana may travel in the air, to such a distance as to look like a pearl in the sky." Conspicuously missing from the ancient text is any distinct description of how the Vimanas were actually constructed. The reason for the lack of detail, the ancient sages declared, was that "any person not initiated in the art of building machines of flight will cause mischief." In other words, the intricate knowledge of aircraft and flying in the post-Flood era was carefully controlled by a select few. The chief puzzle concerning the Hindu Vimanas as they are described in the Samaranga, however, is their propulsion, which as the text stated was somehow supplied by "the energy latent in mercury." It is interesting that the element mercury had a special place in the sciences of the ancients and of the alchemists of medieval Europe. The British nuclear physicist Edward Neville da Costa Andrade, in a speech delivered at Cambridge in July 1946, noted that the famed discoverer of the laws of gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton, knew something about the secret of mercury. Quoting Lord Atterbury, a contemporary of Newton, Andrade said, "Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost." Andrade continued, quoting Newton, "'Because the way by which mercury may be impregnated, it has been thought fit to be concealed by others that have known it, and therefore may possibly be an inlet to something more noble, not to be communicated without immense danger to the world.'" What it is about mercury that could be of "immense danger" to the world we do not know. Yet it seems apparent that the ancients were well aware of the practical application of mercury. Recently Soviet explorers excavating a cave near Tashkent in the Uzbek S.S.R. discovered a number of conical ceramic pots, each carefully sealed and each containing a single drop of mercury. A description and illustrations of the mysterious pots were published in the Soviet periodical "The Modern Technologist." There is no clue to what these mercury containers were used for, but they must have been highly treasured and used for something that is beyond our present understanding and technology. It was a secret that was found, used and preserved by a select few - only to be lost again, perhaps forever. .................... To be continued

The Meltdown Continues

Saturday, October 29, 2022

SECRETS OF LOST RACES--- THE BOOK! #1