CHAPTER 5
Nuclear Warfare Among the "Primitives"
The world was the scene of great confusion after the
breakdown of unity at the world center. Maps reproduced by the
Renaissance cartographers show that the survey expeditions that
roamed the globe recorded ominous changes in the northern and
southern polar icecaps. Every one of the sacred historical
manuscripts seems to indicate that Job lived during this time
period, for certain areas of his story tell of a significant drop
in temperature, of freezing conditions, of ice formations
advancing from the north, of lowered ocean levels, of pronounced
evaporation and excessive flooding and melting of snow.
He experienced these phenomena while living in Uz, a town located
in northern Arabia. Today the climate in this area is extremely
arid and hot, yet he alluded to overflowing rivers and to rain
and even snow.
Puzzling? No, not to the climatologists, anyway, for to them
it is a fact that those weather conditions were once considered
normal in the Middle East, during the Ice Age!
The advent of climatic changes and glaciation certainly must
have had a dramatic effect on the progressive life-style and
development of the civilization centers and may have been
instrumental in the destruction of at least three of them.
Antarctica was one of the centers that were destroyed by the
expanding walls of ice. We will probably never know all the
details of the tragedy that struck both civilization and human
life in the Antarctic continent. History is frightfully silent on
matters relating to the coldest regions of the globe, yet there
are several indications from primitive sources that Antarctica
was indeed inhabited at a very remote period.
Francis Maziere, who has done extensive research into the
legends and folklore of the central Pacific island natives,
discovered that the Polynesians possessed a very sophisticated
knowledge of navigation and geography. They knew about such
far-removed locations as New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, and
even the southwest coast of South America, with the treacherous
waters of Drake Passage beyond the southern extremity of Cape
Horn. The Polynesians were also very familiar with the existence
of the Antarctic continent. According to their traditions, there
was a time when the land was not covered with ice, and several
nations of people inhabited it. The Australian aborigines talk of
Antarctica as a "land of the gods" which at an unknown time
became covered with "cool water and quartz crystals," a good
description of ice and snow by natives who had never seen such
substances in their native desert home.
Maziere found a Polynesian elder from Easter Island named
Veriveri who related that in the midst of the southern land was a
great cliff of red rock. Remarkably enough, an identical landmark
was discovered recently by an American expedition that ventured
into the heart of Antarctica. The red cliff, however, is situated
several hundred miles inland, so that it could not have been
observed from the coast. It would have been impossible for a
Polynesian to have traversed Antarctica in its present frozen
state to see the red cliff and live to tell about it. If an
ancestor of the Polynesians did observe the red escarpment, as
the legend would indicate someone did, this must have been when
the climatic conditions on Antarctica were radically different.
Another area that was overwhelmed by glaciation during the Ice
Age was the Arctic region, in particular the island of Greenland.
One Renaissance map showing Greenland free of ice is the Zeno
brothers' map of 1380.
This map was the result of a voyage made by the two Zeno
brothers from Venice in the early fourteenth century. Their
explorations supposedly took them to Iceland, Greenland and
perhaps as far as Nova Scotia. They drew a map of the North
Atlantic which was subsequently lost for two centuries before it
was rediscovered by a descendant of the Zenos.
A study of the chart reveals that the Zeno brothers could
not have been the original map makers. The brothers supposedly
touched land in Iceland and Greenland, yet their chart very
accurately shows longitude and latitude not only for these
locations, but also for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the German
Baltic coast, Scotland, and even such little-known landfalls as
the Shetland and Faroe islands. The map also shows evidence of
having been based on a polar projection, which was beyond the
abilities of the fourteenth-century geographers. The original map
makers likewise knew the correct lengths of degrees of longitude
for the entire North Atlantic; thus, it is very possible that the
map, instead of being a product after the fact, was drawn up by
the Zeno brothers before their voyage and was used to guide them
in their exploration of the northern lands.
Just how ancient the original source maps may have been is
indicated by the fact that the Zeno map shows Greenland
completely free of ice. Mountains in the interior are depicted,
and rivers are drawn flowing to the sea, where in many cases
glaciers are found today. Captain A. H. Mallery, whose initial
work on the Piri Reis map (Chapter 3) led him to study other
Renaissance charts such as the Zeno brothers', took special note
of the flat plain shown stretching the length of the Greenland
interior on this map, intersected midway by mountains. The
Paul-Emile Victor French Polar Expedition of 194749 found
precisely such topography from seismic profiles.
As with the revelation that Antarctica at one time was free
of ice and perhaps inhabited, we find similar legends of a
civilized people who once lived in northern lands which are now
buried under thousands of feet of ice. The legends tell of Thule,
Numinor and the Hyperboreans, inhabitants of the Arctic in
centuries past. Egerton Sykes, in his Dictionary of Nonclassical
Mythology, page 20, states his belief that the Norse legend of
Fimbelvetr, the "Terrible Winter" that launched the epic
disasters of Ragnarok and the destruction of the gods of
Valhalla, may reflect a historical fact: the obliteration of a
prehistoric civilization in the boreal regions by the Ice Age
catastrophe.
The remains of these civilized northern people have, of
course, disintegrated under the weight of millions of tons of
moving ice, but some evidence of their historical successors has
miraculously survived, for there are extensive ruins of a
sophisticated prehistoric culture that once existed in the Arctic
region. At Ipiutak on Point Hope, northern Alaska, there are the
ruins of a large settlement of 800 structures laid out in
carefully planned blocks and avenues-a community large enough to
have supported several thousand individuals. Unfortunately there
are very few artifacts that can tell us anything about the
Ipiutak settlement. What we do know is that the ancient
settlement was far from being a simple hunting community. There
are indications that these people had a knowledge of mathematics
and astronomy comparable to that of the ancient Mayas.
Archaeologists are astonished that a community the size of
Ipiutak could have existed at all, for it is situated on the
permafrost, far north of the Arctic Circle, where today small
bands of Eskimo hunters scratch out a meager livelihood. Ipiutak
could have supported so large and sophisticated a population only
if the climate of Alaska was decidedly different from the
present, and the only time when this region was considerably
warmer was before and at the beginning of the Ice Age.
Ipiutak was very probably settled by those people of the
Arctic high civilization center who escaped the first onslaught
of the polar glaciation but were overwhelmed as the freezing
conditions advanced farther south. The Ipiutak cemetery reveals
that the inhabitants were tall, blond individuals, similar to the
Cro-Magnons of Europe.
Not long ago Russian archaeologists discovered the remains
of a number of prehistoric settlements very similar to Ipiutak in
the midst of the frozen taiga in northeastern Siberia. Here too
the climate is very hostile to all forms of life, yet the
archaeologists found evidence of large Paleolithic, Neolithic and
even Bronze Age populations that appear to have lived
simultaneously in the same area. In Yakutia, Paleolithic rock
drawings have been discovered that are much like the cave
paintings of Magdalenian France and Spain. Between Yakutia and
western Europe, the land and the prehistoric cultures it
supported are completely devoid of evidence of any similar
artistic development. The only possible link between Siberia and
the European Cro-Magnon civilization is through the north, in the
direction of a common homeland and origin in the Arctic.
Historian Will Durant, in his Story of Civilization, made a
statement which may contain more truth than previously realized:
"Immense volumes have been written to expound our knowledge, and
conceal our ignorance, of primitive man. . . . Primitive cultures
were not necessarily the ancestors of our own; for all we know
they may be the degenerate remnants of higher cultures that
decayed when human leadership moved in in the wake of the ice.
A third post-Babel high civilization center to be destroyed
by the Ice Age was located in the Caribbean. Since 1968, strange
finds have been made in coastal waters around the Caribbean,
notably in the Bahama Banks. At depths ranging from 6 to 100 feet
there are numerous giant stone constructions-walls, great
squares, crosses and other geometric shapes, even archways and
pyramids-all encrusted with fossilized shells and petrified
mangrove roots, indicating their great age. Among the first finds
made were stretches of a wall composed of blocks measuring as
much as 18 by 20 by 10 feet and weighing approximately 25 tons
each. The wall appears to have encircled the islands of North and
South Bimini to form a dike. Along with the sea wall, 3- to
5-foot sections of fluted columns were also discovered, some
still fixed in their original positions, while others were found
lying in a jumble on the sea floor, covered with sand. Since the
pillars appear at regular intervals along the sunken wall, it is
believed they may have formed one continuous portico. Both the
wall and the pillars reveal a high level of engineering skill in
their construction.
Not far from the Bimini sea wall, divers have uncovered a
stone archway at a depth of 12 feet, a pyramid with a flattened
top and a base 140 by 180 feet, plus a huge circular stone
construction, made of 20-foot blocks, that appears to have been a
well-designed water reservoir when it existed above sea level.
Andros Island, near Pine Key, possesses its share of submarine
structures as well. In 1969 airline pilots photographed a 60 by
100-foot rectangular shape, clearly visible through the calm
waters. The eastern side and the western corners were partitioned
off. What is amazing is that this submerged rectangle is an
almost exact copy in size and design of the Temple of the
Turtles, an ancient Mayan sanctuary found at Uxmal in Yucatan,
indicating that the survivors of this Caribbean civilization
center may have influenced the development of the early Central
American cultures and the culture of the Mound Builders.
Other sunken ruins in the Caribbean area include a sea wall 30
feet high, running in a straight line for miles off Venezuela,
near the mouth of the Orinoco River; an acropolitan complex,
complete with streets, covering 5 acres in 6 feet of water off
the Cuban coast; remains of sunken buildings off Hispaniola, one
measuring 240 by 80 feet; several stone causeways, 30 to 100 feet
below the surface, which leave the shores of Quintana Roo,
Mexico, and Belize, British Honduras, and continue out to sea for
miles toward an unknown destination; a sea wall running along a
submarine cliff near Cay Lobos; and huge stone squares,
rectangles and crosses clearly of human design off the windward
and leeward sides of all the keys down to Orange Key.
These Caribbean ruins are perplexing to the archaeologists
and to orthodox historians, for the architecture is far beyond
the capabilities of either the Amerinds or the Spanish
conquistadors. It is even more disturbing that the most recent
period, when the present Caribbean sea floor was above sea level
and the mystery walls, pyramids and temples therefore could have
been built, was during the Ice Age. Apparently the Caribbean
civilization evolved during the time the ocean levels were at
their lowest, and it eventually was submerged when the Bahama
shelf was inundated by the rising of the sea caused by the
melting of the northern glaciers. The flooding in all probability
was very gradual, for many of the gargantuan submerged walls
appear to have been dikes built in an attempt to protect certain
areas from the rising sea. But the walls were not enough. The
ocean waters eventually rolled over the land, and the Caribbean
civilization disappeared.
While three of the post-Babel centers of high civilization
succumbed to natural disaster, the ruins of the remaining five
centers show evidence of man-made destruction-destruction of such
terrifying magnitude that we could not have imagined the like of
it prior to the end of World War II.
Evidence of the holocaust is found in the most notable of
the Hindu literary works, the Mahabharata, an epic poem of
200,000 lines, dating back in its present form to 500 B.c.
Textual evidence, however, indicates that the events depicted in
the Mahabharata took place 1,000 to 2,000 years earlier. Repeated
references are made to great godkings riding about in Vimanas or
"celestial cars," described as "aerial chariots with sides of
iron clad with wings."
Used for transportation in peaceful times, the Vimanas were
also employed during battle. The Mahabharata describes an 18-day
war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who inhabited the
upper regions of the Ganges. Not long after this war, a second
battle was waged against the Vrishnis and Andhakas in the same
region. In both battles Vimanas were used to launch a weapon of
terrible destructive power. The Mahabharata relates, "The valiant
Adwattan, remaining steadfast in his Vimana, landed upon the
water and from there unleashed the Agneya weapon, incapable of
being resisted by the very gods. Taking careful aim against his
foes, the preceptor's son let loose the blazing missile of
smokeless fire with tremendous force. Dense arrows of flame, like
a great shower, issued forth upon creation, encompassing the
enemy. Meteors flashed down from the sky. A thick gloom swiftly
settled upon the Pandava hosts. All points of the compass were
lost in darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds roared
upward, showering dust and gravel.
"Birds croaked madly, and beasts shuddered from the destruction.
The very elements seemed disturbed. The sun seemed to waver in
the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible violent
heat of this weapon. Elephants burst into flame and ran to and
fro in a frenzy, seeking protection from the terror. Over a vast
area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died. The waters
boiled, and the creatures residing therein also died. From all
points of the compass the arrows of flame rained continuously and
fiercely. The missile of Adwattan burst with the power of
thunder, and the hostile warriors collapsed like trees burnt in a
raging fire. Thousands of war vehicles fell down on all sides."
The description of the second battle is as frightening as
that of the first: "Gurkha, flying in his swift and powerful
Vimana, hurled against the three cities of the Vrishnis and
Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the
Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant
as ten thousand suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the
unknown weapon, the iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of
death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and
Andhakas.
"The corpses were so burnt that they were no longer recognizable.
Hair and nails fell out. Pottery broke without cause. Birds,
disturbed, circled in the air and were turned white. Foodstuffs
were poisoned. To escape, the warriors threw themselves in
streams to wash themselves and their equipment. With the
destruction ended, the Kuru king, Yudistthira, was informed of
the power of the iron thunderbolt and the slaughter of the
Vrishnis."
We could attribute these descriptions to the overactive
imagination of some unknown Hindu sage of long ago, but there are
too many details that make this unnervingly similar to an
eyewitness report of an atomic bomb explosion: the brightness of
the blast; the column of rising smoke and fire; the fallout,
intense heat and shock waves; the appearance of the victims; and
the effects of radiation poisoning.
Hindu scholars believe the ancient atomic explosions
occurred in either 3102 or 2449 B.C., with the latter as the more
probable date, because of the detailed astronomical configuration
given in connection with the battles in the Mahabharata. If the
latter date is correct, this means, in terms of Biblical
chronology, that atomic weapons must have been used about a
millennium after the Flood. According to traditional Hindu
history, the Bharata War took place not many generations after
the reign of Manu, who escaped a world-destroying Deluge with his
family in a boat-the Hindu equivalent of Noah and the ark.
When European scholars began their first examination of the
Mahabharata in the nineteenth century during the British imperial
rule of India, the many references to flying craft and weapons of
fearful fiery destruction were considered nothing more than
poetic hyperbole. In the words of one Victorian commentator, V.
R. Dikshitar, "Everything in this literature is imagination and
should be summarily dismissed as unreal." But with the initial
research into radiation and nuclear physics at the turn of the
century, there were already those who saw in the Mahabharata and
other ancient legends an indication of energies that were just
beginning to be understood by modern man. Physicist Frederick
Soddy, in his Interpretation of Radium, published in 1909,
remarked concerning the ancient accounts, "Can we not read in
them some justification for the belief that some former forgotten
race of men attained not only to the knowledge we have so
recently won, but also to the power that is not yet ours? ... I
believe that there have been civilizations in the past that were
familiar with atomic energy, and that by misusing it they were
totally destroyed."
Since 1945, of course, we have learned what the effects of
the destructive power of the atomic bomb are-and the descriptions
given in the Mahabharata have suddenly become very real.
The use of atomic weapons in India 4,400 years ago
presupposes a knowledge of nuclear physics rivaling our own.
There is evidence of such a knowledge preserved among the ancient
Hindu records. Several Sanskrit books, for example, contain
references to divisions of time that cover a very wide range. At
one extreme, according to Hindu texts dealing with cosmology, is
the kalpa or "Day of Brahma," a period of 4.32 billion years. At
the other, as described in the Bihath Sathaka, we find reference
to the kashta, equivalent to three onehundred-millionths
(0.00000003) of a second. Modern Sanskrit scholars have no idea
why such large and such miniscule time divisions were necessary
in antiquity. All they know is that they were used in the past,
and they are obliged to preserve the tradition.
Time divisions of any kind, however, imply that the duration
of something has been measured. The only phenomena in nature that
can be measured in billions of years or in millionths of a second
are the disintegration rates of radioisotopes. These rates range
from those of elements like uranium 238, with a half-life of 4.51
billion years, to subatomic particles such as K mesons and
hyperons, with mean halflives measured in the hundred-millionths,
billionths, trillionths, and even smaller fractions of a second.
The ranges of ancient Hindu time division and of radioisotope
disintegration thus partially coincide, and the former could have
been used to measure the latter.
If the ancient Hindus - or an earlier civilization from
which the Hindus inherited their time divisions-had a technology
that could study and measure nuclear and subnuclear matter, means
for using atomic energy was also accessible to them.
There are remains that strongly suggest that an atomic war
was indeed waged in the distant past. According to the
Mahabharata, the Bharata War, in which Vimanas and atomic weapons
were used, involved prehistoric inhabitants along the upper
Ganges River in northern India. Precisely in this region, between
the Ganges and the mountains of Rajamahal, there are numerous
charred ruins which have yet to be explored or excavated. What
observations have been made thus far indicate that the ruins were
not burned by ordinary fire. In many instances, they appear as
huge masses fused together, with deeply pitted surfaces,
described as looking like tin struck by a stream of molten steel.
Farther south, among the dense forests of the Deccan, are more
such ruins which may be of earlier origin, pointing to a war
antedating that of the Mahabharata and encompassing a far greater
area. The walls have been glazed, corroded and split by
tremendous heat. Within several of the buildings that remain
standing, even the surfaces of the stone furniture have been
vitrified: melted and then crystallized. No natural burning flame
or volcanic eruption could have produced a heat intense enough to
cause this phenomenon. Only the heat released through atomic
energy could have done this damage.
In the same region as this second group of ruins, Russian
researcher A. Gorbovsky reported, in his Riddles of the Ancient
Past, the discovery of a human skeleton the radioactivity of
which was fifty times above the normal level.
Outside India, similar remains of a nuclear holocaust have
been found. Researcher Erich von Fange describes the melted ruins
of a ziggurat structure situated not far from ancient Babylon:
"It appeared that fire had struck the tower and split it down to
the very foundation. . . . In different parts of the ruins,
immense brown and black masses of brickwork had [been] changed to
a vitrified state . . . subjected to some kind of fierce heat,
and completely molten. The whole ruin has the appearance of a
burnt mountain."
In 1952 archaeologists excavating in Israel unearthed at the
16-foot level a layer of fused green glass a quarter of an inch
thick and covering an area of several hundred square feet. It is
made of fused quartz sand with green discolorations, similar in
appearance to the layers of vitrified sand that were left after
the atomic tests in Nevada in the 1950s. Another such sheet of
glass was uncovered five years earlier in southern Iraq, near
Babylon, spread in a thin layer some distance below Babylonian,
Sumerian and Neolithic cultural levels. To the south, the western
Arabian desert is strewn with black rocks which show evidence of
having been subjected to intense radiation. There are 28 fields
of these scorched stones, called harras, covering an area of
7,000 square miles. In the southern Sahara Desert, engineer
Albion W. Hart discovered another expanse of green glass and
noted that the fused silica there was similar in appearance to
that found at the White Sands atomic test site. Still other
examples of vitrified soil have been discovered among remains in
the most desolate areas of the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Most
surprising of all are layers at Lop Nor in Sinkiang, near the
present Chinese atomic test site, where it is reported that there
is little difference between the patches of fused quartz left
after the modem nuclear detonations and those that had been there
ages before the Chinese became a nuclear power.
Elsewhere prehistoric forts and towers in Europe as far
north as the British Isles and the Lofoten Islands off Norway
have had their walls vitrified and stones fused by an unknown
energy, usually along their western sides. Many of the towers of
Scotland and the granite fortresses along the coast of Ireland
show evidence of having been melted to a depth of one foot.
One of the most amazing literary testimonies to man-made
destruction among the ancient advanced civilizations is found in
the Tibetan Stanzas of Dzyan, translated within the past century,
the original dating back several millennia. Like the Mahabharata,
the Stanzas of Dzyan depict a holocaust engulfing two warring
nations who utilize flying vehicles and fiery weapons.
"The great King of the Dazzling Face, the chief of all the
Yellowfaced, was sad, seeing the evil intentions of the
Dark-faced. He sent his air vehicles to all his brother chiefs
with pious men within, saying, Prepare, arise, men of the good
law, and escape while the land has not yet been overwhelmed by
the waters.
"The Lords of the Storm are also approaching. Their war vehicles
are nearing the land. One night and two days only shall the Lords
of the Dark-faced arrive on this patient land. She is doomed when
the waters descend on her. The Lords of the Dark-eyed have
prepared their magic Agneyastra [the Hindu 'Agneya weapon' - a
nuclear missile]. . . . They are also versed in Ashtar [the
highest magical knowledge]. Come, and use yours.
"Let every Lord of the Dazzling Face ensnare the air vehicle of
every Lord of the Dark-faced, lest any of them escape. . . .
"The great King fell upon his Dazzling Face and wept. When the
kings were assembled, the waters of the earth had already been
disturbed. The nations crossed the dry lands. They went beyond
the water mark. The kings reached then the safe lands in their
air vehicles, and arrived in the lands of fire and metal. . . .
"Stars [nuclear missiles?] showered on the lands of the
Dark-faced while they slept. The speaking beasts [radios?]
remained quiet. The Lords waited for orders, but they came not,
for their masters slept. The waters rose and covered the valleys.
. . . In the high lands there dwelt those who escaped, the men of
the yellow faces and of the straight eye."
Even though the translation of this text was made almost a
century ago, it describes forms of destruction we have become
familiar with only in the last thirty-two years. It is also
significant that the manmade destruction depicted in the text is
coupled with cataclysmic movements of ocean waters. This massive
flooding may have been touched off by the nuclear holocaust, but
more likely the inundation was a result of a sudden sea-level
change caused by the melting Ice Age glaciers. If the "Lords of
the Yellow-faced" were the Mongolian inhabitants of the ancient
Gobi high civilization center, the flooding may have been the
great tidal wave that swept across eastern Asia and into Siberia
at the end of the Ice Age. According to the Stanzas, another high
civilization center, described only as the "Lords of the
Dark-faced," had advance knowledge of the imminent deluge that
was about to weaken the Gobi center, and so decided to take
advantage of the situation and destroy the survivors with a
nuclear barrage and conventional air attack. The "Yellow-faced"
seem to have retaliated with a nuclear counterattack of their
own, and while a few of the Yellow-faced escaped the flooding and
nuclear destruction, the Darkfaced and their civilization appear
to have been annihilated. The final line of the text mentions
that among the survivors were also those of "the straight eye,"
the peoples of Europe and the Middle East. This would suggest
that these people also were involved in the nuclear conflict; the
remains of nuclear destruction in these areas bear testimony to
this.
One of the most interesting pieces of evidence of nuclear
devastation in the past is found on Easter Island, in the Pacific
Ocean. Apart from its huge monolithic statues and its curious
form of writing, the island is also famous for a unique form of
wood carving called moaikavakava. The carving invariably
represents a shrunken man, with certain grotesque anatomical
features depicted in remarkable detail. The first Europeans to
visit Easter Island reported that the natives were often willing
to part with these little statues, as if the figures did not
belong to them. Even today the miniature men are regarded by the
Easter Islanders as fearful and alien-a reminder of something
that was not of their experience, yet which remains horrifying
nonetheless.
Native legend attributes these statues to King Tu'ukoiho.
One night the king caught a glimpse of two misshapen dwarfish
beings who he believed were the spirits of the last members of a
race that had inhabited the island before the present native
population. Even though they were never seen again after his one
fleeting glance, the impression these wretched men made on the
king was so strong that he immediately set out to sculpt a
replica of them. The modern kavakava statues are believed to be
faithful copies of the king's original.
The style of these carvings is not in the least Polynesian,
and the sculpted facial features-hooked nose, staring eyes and
small squared beard - appear to be Semitic. The most interesting
peculiarity, however, is the appearance of the body. It is
emaciated, showing goiters, tumors, clenched mouth, collapsed
cervical vertebrae, and a distinct break between the lumbar and
the dorsal vertebrae. All these are medical indications of
exposure to a severe dosage of radiation.
Perhaps related to the kavakava carvings and the unfortunate
victims they represent are the remains of fiery destruction
discovered on the island. At the foot of the slopes of Mount
Rano-Kao there exists an immense furrow, half a mile in length
and approximately 200 yards wide. The furrow is sharply defined
on the landscape, because it is composed of obsidian, a vitrified
black rock which is not found anywhere else on the island.
Directly aligned with this trail of melted rock is a small crater
on a hill a mile away. The crater is perfectly circular and is
distinguished by a vegetation cover different from that growing
around it. The furrow and crater imply that in the unrecorded
past something landed here with tremendous force. Whether that
something was natural or man-made, of course, is open to
speculation. The kavakava statues and their indication of intense
irradiation of the island at some time in prehistory, however,
might possibly favor the latter possibility.
The continents of the New World also possess several
examples of prehistoric cultures destroyed by a great
conflagration. Not far from Cuzco, Peru, near the pre-Inca
fortress of Sacsahuaman, an area of 18,000 square yards of
mountain rock has been fused and crystallized. Not only the
mountainside, but a number of the dressed granite blocks of the
fortress itself show signs of similar vitrification through
extremely high radiated heat.
In Brazil there is a series of ruins called Sete Cidades,
situated south of Teresina between Piripiri and the Rio Longe.
The stones of these ruins have been melted by apocalyptic
energies, and squashed between the layers of rock protrude bits
of rusting metal that leave streaks like the traces of red tears
down the crystallized wall surface.
The most numerous vitrified remains in the New World are
located in the western United States. In 1850 the American
explorer Captain Ives William Walker was the first to view some
of these ruins, situated in Death Valley. He discovered a city
about a mile long, with the lines of the streets and the
positions of the buildings still visible. At the center he found
a huge rock, between 20 and 30 feet high, with the remains of an
enormous structure atop it. The southern side of both the rock
and the building was melted and vitrified. Walker assumed that a
volcano had been responsible for this phenomenon, but there is no
volcano in the area. In addition, tectonic heat could not have
caused such a liquefaction of the rock surface.
An associate of Captain Walker who followed up his initial
exploration commented, "The whole region between the rivers Gila
and San Juan is covered with remains. The ruins of cities are to
be found there which must be most extensive, and they are burnt
out and vitrified in part, full of fused stones and craters
caused by fires which were hot enough to liquefy rock or metal.
There are paving stones and houses torn with monstrous cracks ...
[as though they had] been attacked by a giant's fire-plough."
Other vitrified ruins have been found in parts of Southern
California, Arizona and Colorado. The Mohave Desert is reported
to contain several circular patches of fused glass.
If an unknown post-Flood civilization was indeed destroyed
by fire in western North America, we would expect that such a
holocaust would have been imprinted on the memory of those who
survived, to be told and repeated to the successive generations.
While studying Canadian Indian tribal folklore, ethnologist R.
Baker was told the following legend by a wise ram of a dying
totemic cult of northern Canada near the tundra region. The
legend tells of a time "before the cold descended from the
north," when the now-bleak tundra was instead rich in vegetation.
"In the days when great forests and flowering meadows were here,
demons came and made slaves of our people and sent the young to
die among the rocks and below the ground [mining?]. But then
arrived the thunderbird, and our people were freed. We learned
about the marvelous cities of the thunderbird, which were beyond
the big lakes and rivers to the south.
"Many of our people left us and saw these shining cities and
witnessed the grand homes and the mystery of men who flew upon
the skies. But then the demons returned, and there was terrible
destruction. Those of our people who had gone southward returned
to declare that all life in the cities was gone-nothing but
silence remained."
This is all the totemic Indians know of the matter, and they
cannot furnish any additional details about these events. This is
the story that has been repeated to them by their fathers and
forefathers.
The Hopi Indians of the Southwest have a very similar
tradition which offers yet another glimpse of otherwise
unrecorded events. The story is called "Kuskurza," the "Third
World Epoch," and is preserved in Frank Water's "Book of the
Hopi."
"Some of these of the Third World made a patuwvota and with their
magical powers made it soar through the sky. On this many of them
flew to a great city, attacked it and returned so quickly that
the inhabitants did not know where their attackers came from.
Soon others from many nations were making patuwvotas, and [they]
flew to attack one another. So corruption and destruction came to
the Third World people, as it had come to those who were before."
The ruins in the western United States show signs of having
been destroyed by radiated heat, mute testimony to an element of
fact that may underlie these legends. In addition, the
association of the annihilation of prehistoric cities with men
who flew through the air is disturbingly similar to the Hindu and
Tibetan records of air vehicles armed with nuclear weapons.
With the collapse of the post-Babel centers between 2900 and 2800
B.C., the world once again entered a brief period of confusion
and adjustment. To those inhabitants of the high civilization
centers who managed to survive, two choices were left. Either
they could begin again by reestablishing their own cultures, or
they could migrate and become members of those inferior cultures,
the Stone Age civilizations or the emerging civilizations of the
Mediterranean and Middle East, areas which for the most part were
unaffected by the natural and man-made catastrophes. Of those who
chose the first alternative, many survived only as simple
farmers. Richard Mooney comments in his book Colony Earth:
"The collapse of a technologically superior civilization would
have left little time for salvaging anything but essentials. The
survivors may have salvaged certain needed devices, among them a
few aircraft, which would have been required to maintain contact
with other survivors. In the course of time, it would have become
more and more difficult to keep such machines in working order.
Parts would wear out, sources of fuel and power would fail. If
the technology is destroyed, the capacity for manufacturing
machine parts or even making the right metals will no longer
exist. . . . In the end, all that would be left would be a memory
of strange dart-shaped flying things in which people once
traveled through the sky. Ages later, who would believe such
fantastic stories?"
When Noah and his family escaped the destruction of the
antediluvian civilization, they had passed through 120 years of
preparation, during which they had time to gather the knowledge
necessary to live and to begin a new culture in the post-Flood
era. But the destruction of the post-Babel centers must have come
swiftly and without warning, allowing no time to preserve much of
the knowledge. With the extinction of the technological
environment-the technical resources, and the coordination and
specialization of labor by both men and machines-the degree of
civilization that survived must have been very limited indeed.
Without industry, the survivors had to concentrate all their
efforts on producing their own essentials, and the establishment
of agricultural self-sufficiency must have been the first
priority. The tragedy is that once the knowledge possessed by the
high civilization diminished, the descendants of these surviving
farmers remained farmers and nothing more.
It is now evident that the survivors' offspring did in fact
establish a number of important agricultural centers. Up until
two decades ago, archaeologists were certain that agriculture was
first practiced in the Middle East's "fertile crescent," and that
from there it eventually spread throughout the entire world. But
new excavations in various sections of the globe have
considerably changed this erroneous concept. The new evidence now
points to the existence of major agricultural centers in
northeastern China, southeastern Asia, Mexico and Peru that are
just as old as that in the Middle East. These findings have
caused noticeable consternation among orthodox historians, for
they provide more questions than answers. The most disturbing
question of all is why these agricultural centers suddenly
appeared in different parts of the world at approximately the
same time. A probable answer may be found in their locations.
Middle East agriculture blossomed not far from those areas in
present-day Israel, Iraq and Arabia which were destroyed by
nuclear fire; the Chinese and Asian agricultural centers are only
a short distance from the Gobi and Indian civilization centers,
respectively; the Mexican agricultural sites are just south of
the Death Valley ruins; and the Peruvian agricultural center is
in the same locale as the melted facade of Sacsahuaman. More
recently, an additional agricultural center was discovered in
Venezuela, not far from the vitrified ruins in the Brazilian
jungle. Because almost total destruction hit the centers almost
simultaneously, it is only reasonable to assume that the
survivors would have developed their individual farming
communities within a short time of each other. The same
development can be seen in the history of pottery. Historians
thought for many years that the Middle East was the home of the
world's first pottery industry, just as it had been for
agriculture. Since then, however, pottery as old as the earliest
examples in the Middle East has been found in Japan.
Anthropologist J. Edmonson constructed a theoretical
framework in which he attempted to trace the first pottery in the
Middle East and Japan, as well as later finds in Asia and Africa,
back to a common origin. The theoretical center he discovered was
Ulan Bator, in Mongolia, precisely in the middle of the former
Gobi high civilization site!
The second choice open to the remnants of the races was to
migrate to and share what knowledge they still possessed with the
inferior civilizations of Europe and the Middle East that were
unaffected by the nuclear and Ice Age catastrophes. The impact of
a higher civilization on a lower one, of course, would have
produced profound results. This is exactly what we find to be
true in the histories of the known cultures. Paleolithic
civilization in Europe did not originate from Europe, but came in
successive influxes from the north and west. Similarly, in the
myth-histories of the ancient civilizations, we invariably find
the following order of events:
1. An initial period of rulership by god-kings of great knowledge
[corresponding to the pre-Babel period]
2. A period of confusion and regression, during which primitive
cultures briefly flourished [post-Babel]
3. The advent of culture-bearing foreigners and a sudden
explosion of architecture, social organization and religion,
which remained relatively unchanged in the succeeding millennia.
Orthodox historians unfortunately do not recognize the
existence of these mythical culture bearers, insisting instead
that the ancient civilizations were the result of slow but steady
development from Stone Age beginnings. But what these historians
have found impossible to explain is why the archaeological
evidence points to no transition whatsoever between the ancient
civilizations and their primitive forebears. Van der Veer makes
the most of this in his book Hidden Worlds, where he writes:
"Let us take the Egyptians as an example. The ability to build
pyramids demands at the least a knowledge of arithmetic,
architectural techniques and skill in transporting materials-all
of which suggests a long preliminary period, the existence of
which is unfortunately not supported by archaeology.
Archaeologists admit there is a problem here, but won't
investigate the reasons for it; they simply accept the idea of
the other civilizations; little is ever said about the
prehistoric background to these civilizations, as a result of
which they attempt to condense almost into insignificance a
period which must have covered thousands of years between the
Stone Age and the dynastic periods.
"It is impossible to accept these arguments; we believe-and
perhaps science, too, will come to believe-that at some stage in
the very earliest periods of prehistory, contact was made between
the ancient peoples and a still older race in possession of an
advanced civilization and a history stretching a long way back
indeed. It may be that there is a grain of truth in all
mythological stories and legends, and that somewhere on our
planet there once existed a race with a very sophisticated
civilization which perished because of one or more natural
disasters. The only really satisfactory theory is that the
survivors of this civilization were responsible for both the
technical skills and the art of writing possessed by the old
cultures, who brought knowledge to the people then living in the
Stone Age.
"What we think happened was this. Somewhere on earth a
civilization arose, or perhaps several civilizations, which
because of extremely favorable conditions flowered earlier than
any others. . . . We believe that one or more natural disasters
destroyed this original civilization, and that its survivors
found refuge among the inhabitants of those favored areas which
later gave rise to the ancient civilizations we now know about.
This is the only theory which virtually meets all the objections
and fills even the gaps we are reminded of in old myths and
legends."
......................
To be continued
Secrets of the Lost Races #6Solving the Enigma of the Cave Man
Unraveling the Enigma of the Cave Man
As the eight world civilization centers destroyed one
another, the suffering planet throbbed with pain and terror.
Everywhere death rained from the skies. Dense arrows of flame and
mushrooming clouds of fire unleashed by the Agneya weapon spewed
radiating waves of death over the battlefields, vaporizing both
men and machines. The knowledge that had been so carefully
preserved and carried through the Flood now became the tool of
destruction. Death ruled, and its horrifying stench of decay hung
heavy where once proud cities had stood. Gone was the global
unity-confusion was rampant.
With knowledge fractured, communications nonexistent, and
distrust and hatred the common denominator among the warring
nations, ideas and concepts could no longer be exchanged, and the
flow of inventiveness and technical advancement abruptly ceased.
It was as if a giant hand had suddenly demolished the nations,
grabbed the strings of knowledge and pulled them back.
The world was to be changed for a second time. Abandoning
the nightmare of the molten cities, leaving them in the clutches
of atomic radiation, small groups of panic-stricken survivors set
out to begin life once again in the mountains and jungles which
were untouched by the holocaust. Finding refuge in caves and
crevices marked the beginning of a new existence, far different
from the dubious blessings society had brought them. And while
the crumbled civilizations sought ways to reestablish themselves,
the people trying to recall from memory what had once been
entrusted to scrolls and metal plates, the "cave men" isolated
themselves from the mainstream. Their remains are still found
today, contributing to the conflict called evolution.
The new framework of history, based on discovery and
manuscript translation covering the activities of the human race
since the Flood, indicates that there really was no progressive
succession. Instead the developments of the Stone Age and the
cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia were merely discontinuous
offshoots of the world fragmentation after the building of the
Babel World Center. Limited (primitive) and advanced
civilizations existed at the same time, with each one aware of
the others' existence.
Death of the "Ape-Man"
To prove their theory, scientists up until a few years ago
were classifying various prehistoric human skeletal remains into
various positions on a hypothetical line of ascent, beginning
with the so-called ape-man and ending with modern man. More
recent finds, however, have revealed the disconcerting fact that
the basic human has always existed, not as the offspring of apes
or primitive beings, but as a man, since time began. Those known
to us as ape-men were simply humans who had degenerated from the
main human stock. Bjorn Kurten, author of Not from the Apes,
says: "It has been possible in the last decade to demonstrate
that the human lineage can be followed back into far more distant
times where it still retains its unique character. Indeed, we may
doubt that our ancestor was ever what could properly be called an
ape. This makes excellent sense zoologically. The contrasts
between apes and men in anatomy . . . are too great to be
reconciled with a relatively recent common origin, and the same
is true of behavior."
This is truly the age of discovery, even though not everyone
agrees with the conclusions reached. The "evolution" of man, as
seen through his technological regression, indicates that man did
not evolve; rather, he regressed. For nearly a century,
Neanderthal man, whose partial skeletal remains have been
discovered throughout Europe, was thought by the evolutionists to
have been a direct ancestor of modern man. But more recent
Neanderthal finds in the Middle East are more advanced, almost
like Homo sapiens in appearance, yet they are older than those
found in western Europe, forcing the paleontologists to concede
that the West European Neanderthalers constituted a step
backward. The most satisfactory explanation for the degeneracy of
the European Neanderthalers is as follows.
By their own volition the people severed their contacts with
the civilization centers, and they presently found themselves cut
off from the rest of mankind by the Ice Age glaciers that
blanketed northern and central Europe. Because of this isolation
and their limited numbers, considerable inbreeding occurred. With
such a limited gene pool, the appearance of bad genetic traits
was significantly increased, leading to birth defects and
physical mutations which produced the structures characteristic
of West European Neanderthal remains.
There are some paleontologists who are already beginning to
believe that this explanation may apply not only to Neanderthal
man but to the rest of the primitive "ape-men" as well. Harold G.
Coffin, Research Professor of the Geoscience Research Institute
in Berrien Springs, Michigan, comments: "Neanderthal man and
Cro-Magnon man are not a very useful support for evolution, for
they are so much like modern human beings. This is especially
true since the recent discovery that the classic descriptions of
Neanderthal man were based in large part on the remains of a
Neanderthal skeleton of a man suffering from severe
osteoarthritis."
An article entitled "Pathology and the Posture of the
Neanderthal Man," by researchers William L. Straus, Jr., and A.
J. A. Cove, lends considerable weight to this evaluation: "There
is thus no valid reason for the assumption that the posture of
Neanderthal man of the fourth glacial period differed
significantly from that of present-day man," they point out.
"This is not to deny that his limbs, as well as his skull,
exhibit distinctive features - features which collectively
distinguish him from all groups of modern men. . . . It may be
that the arthritic 'old man' of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, the
postural prototype of Neanderthal man, did actually stand and
walk with something of a pathological kyphosis; but, if so, he
has his counterparts in modern men similarly afflicted with
spinal osteoarthritis. He cannot, in view of his manifest
pathology, be used to provide us with a reliable picture of a
healthy, normal Neanderthalian. Notwithstanding, if he could be
reincarnated and placed in a New York subway - provided that he
were bathed, shaved, and dressed in modern clothing - it is
doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some of
its other denizens."
There are already some paleontologists who are beginning to
believe that this explanation, as well as that of recessive
genetic traits, may apply not only to Neanderthal man but to the
rest of the primitive "ape-men" as well. Two defects associated
with recessive genetic traits are endocrine and thyroid disorders
affecting the development of bones and other tissue, and
resulting in acromegaly and cretinism. The medical descriptions
of these two disorders are similar to the modern paleontological
descriptions of "ape-men" remains.
Such conditions occur rarely among populations with wide
ranges of breeding choice, but, as mentioned above, they can
become predominant in a people closely inbred because of
isolation. With this in mind, it is interesting to note in what
locations the remains of major prehistoric "ape-men" types have
been found:
Pithecanthropus was located in Indonesia
Sinanthropus in east China
Australopithecus in South Africa
Most primitive Neanderthalers in the western part of Europe
When we look at these localities in terms of the population
dispersal from Ararat following the Flood, we see that Ararat
constituted a central starting point, and the primitive men's
remains are found on the outer fringes.
While the designation "Stone Age" clearly does not apply to
these remnants of a chaotic culture who carved out a meager
existence far from the mainstream of civilization, it will have
to suffice for want of a more appropriate description. The
remains of these survivors are usually found in close proximity
to the materials that were most durable, stone or bone, hence
this name. Yet this does not preclude their having worked with
these materials exclusively; in fact, there is evidence that
they, like their more civilized neighbors, not only knew about,
but worked with metals. It is true that no actual metal tools
have ever been discovered among Stone Age relics, but this is
understandable, as metal tools will not last much longer than a
few thousand years when exposed to the weathering processes of
time. That the survivors indeed knew of the value of metal
becomes evident when we consider the many prehistoric mines that
have been located throughout the world. On the Mediterranean
island of Elba, there are iron-ore mines whose origins are lost
in antiquity. The Greeks considered the mines already ancient in
their own day and ascribed their origin to the Pelasgians, a
prehistoric people who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean
region.
Beyond Europe, a number of recently excavated sites have
greatly increased our knowledge of prehistoric mining operations.
Investigations conducted in 1967 and 1969 at Lion Cavern, near
Ngwenya in Swaziland, southern Africa, have shown that long
before the present Negroid population of Bantus, Bushmen and
Hottentots inhabited the area, at a time when local Neanderthal
types such as Rhodesian, Boskop and Florisbad man were extinct,
someone had already mined deposits of hematite and specularite,
forms of iron ore. This hematite has been found in conjunction
with Neanderthal remains at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in France and
dates back to the same period as the Ngwenya mines. It is now
believed that the "bloodstone" (hematite) was used as a cosmetic
and also for ritual purposes as a substitute for human blood in
burial ceremonies. The use of hematite in this specific manner
has been discovered as far away as Tasmania, off southern
Australia, and Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South
America - always in coastal areas. It is possible that the use of
bloodstone, and perhaps the material itself, may have been
exported over a considerable area in prehistoric times. This
extensive trade, of course, was totally out of keeping with modem
theories of the primitiveness of early man.
Not far from Ngwenya, at Border Cave in South Africa,
diggings in 1972 conducted by Adrian Boshier and Peter Beaumont
uncovered ten filled-in prehistoric mining pits, some up to 45
feet in depth. Again, hematite had been extracted. Associated
with the Border Cave remains were remains of both Neanderthal and
modern types of primitive man. Also found were agate knives still
sharp enough to cut paper, as well as evidence that the miners
used mathematics and kept records by making etchings on bone. It
would appear that the ore had sufficient economic value to prompt
the primitive diggers to keep track of what they produced.
Interestingly, some of the most fascinating evidence of
prehistoric mining is found in North America. In the Keweenaw
Peninsula and on Isle Royale in Michigan, in the copper-rich Lake
Superior region, there are ancient mines whose origins are
completely unknown even to the Indians. There are signs that
several thousand tons of copper were removed at a very early
date, yet not a single cultural artifact remains that could tell
us who the miners were. The American Antiquarian (vol. 25, p.
258) remarks, "There is no indication of any permanent settlement
near these mines. Not a vestige of a dwelling, nor a skeleton,
nor a bone has ever been found." What is known is that the
prehistoric miners had the means not only of extracting the ore,
but also of transporting it to a distant location, for not one
ounce of the ore was ever uncovered for use within a thousand
miles of the mine sites.
The first discovery of the prehistoric mining shafts was
made in 1848 by S.O.Knapp, an agent of the Minnesota Mining
Company. In passing over a portion of the company's grounds, he
observed a continuous depression in the soil, which he surmised
was formed by the disintegration of a vein. The depressions led
him to a cavern, where he noticed evidence of artificial
excavation. After clearing away the debris, he discovered
numerous stone hammers, and at the bottom of the hole was a vein
of ore which the ancient miners evidently had not finished
unearthing.
Two and a half miles east of the Ontonagon River, today the
center of the copper region of Michigan, Knapp discovered a
second mine. This shaft was situated in a rock wall: The
excavation, which reached a depth of 26 feet, had later been
filled in with clay and a tangled mass of vegetation - indicative
of an extremely old mine. At a depth of 18 feet, Knapp uncovered
a detached mass of copper weighing six tons. This mass had been
raised on timbers and wedges to about five feet above its
break-off point. The timbers were from six to eight inches in
diameter, and the ends showed the marks of a cutting tool. The
copper mass itself had been pounded smooth, and what had been
protruding pieces were broken off to facilitate transportation.
The shaft contained other copper masses, charcoal and other
evidence of fire, and a stone hammer weighing 36 pounds.
On Isle Royale, near the northern shore of Lake Superior,
prehistoric excavations are extensive, with some pits reaching 60
feet in depth. Upon opening one of the island pits, searchers
discovered that the mine had been worked to a depth of nine feet
through solid rock before a vein of copper 18 inches thick was
uncovered at the bottom. Obviously the miners were highly
intelligent and experienced both in the observation of locating
the veins and then in following them underground when their
course on the surface was interrupted. Many of the excavations
were connected underground, and drains were cut into the rock to
remove excess water. At one point, the Isle Royale excavations
extend for two miles in an almost straight line.
Still more curious than the Michigan copper mines is this
find reported in the February 1954 issue of Coal Age. During the
preceding year, miners at the Lion Coal Mine in Wattis, Utah,
broke into a preexisting tunnel system, of which there was no
modern record. The tunnels were so old, in fact, that the coal
residue in them had already oxidized to a great extent and could
no longer be of commercial value. On August 13, 1953, John E.
Wilson of the Department of Engineering and Jesse D. Jennings of
the Department of Anthropology of the University of Utah began an
exploration of the prehistoric coal mines. They found not only
tunnels, but also centralized coal rooms where the material had
been brought before being transported to the surface. The tunnels
averaged five to six feet in height and extended for several
hundred feet, following seams of coal in patterns similar to
modern mine layouts. The scientists were unable to find the
surface entrance of the old mine system, but they did trace an
eight-foot-high tunnel to a depth of 8,500 feet. Subsequent
investigation revealed that no local Indian tribe had ever used
coal or had a recollection of anyone who did. As with the
Michigan mines, some enterprising prehistoric people not only had
possessed the technology for mining the ore, but also had the
means of transporting the material to some unknown location.
Construction Techniques of the Stone-Age Man
A lack of metal artifacts certainly does not prove that the
people of the Stone Age did not use metals, nor does the fact
that most Paleolithic remains have been found in caves mean that
they were the single mode of habitation among Stone Age men.
Le-Grand-Pressigny in France has the most extensive deposits of
stone tools in the world - millions of cores and scrapers from
the Paleolithic Age are scattered over 10,000 acres, at depths
averaging three to six feet - yet there is not a single cave in
the area. At Charroux is another tool center of considerable
size, where even today one can pick up prehistoric stone axes
over twenty-five acres. Within three miles of the Charroux site,
in the hillsides along the Charente River, there are 49 caves,
but excavations have revealed no sign that any of these caverns
was ever inhabited by men.
Evidence that Stone Age men lived in well-constructed houses
is slowly surfacing and has upset preconceived views of how they
lived and flourished. In the Lascaux Caverns, world-renowned for
their Magdalenian paintings, one can still see the holes in the
rock that supported wooden crossbeams. Probably looking similar
to what Michelangelo utilized many millennia later, these
crossbeams held scaffolding that enabled the Cro-Magnon artists
to execute their works on the cave ceilings, ten to twelve feet
above the cavern floor. The evidence for this scaffolding is
significant, for in the opinion of Professor Doru Todericiu of
the University of Bucharest, the history of architecture shows
that scaffolding did not precede knowledge of masonry. If the
Lascaux artists constructed scaffolds, it is probable that they
also knew how to construct walls. "To deny this," Professor
Todericiu states, "would be like saying that the candle was
invented before anyone knew how to kindle fire."
Several examples of simple prehistoric stone construction
have been found which show a remarkable degree of sophistication.
The Abbe Breuil and Professor Lantier, in their book "Les hommes
de Page de la pierre ancienne," discuss the finding of a
prehistoric oven at Noailles: "[It was] made of squared stones
held in place by a packing of chalky clay and sand." In other
words, the Stone Age oven had been constructed using stones
shaped like bricks and mortared with cement.
Even in eastern Europe, where the early inhabitants did not
share the higher culture of the Magdalenian people of France, we
also find indications of a sophisticated knowledge of
construction.
The remnants of three huts of that period were recently
excavated at Vestonice on the lower slopes of the Pavlov hills in
Czechoslovakia. The largest of the three was 30 by 40 feet in
size, and its floor had been covered with limestone grit, a crude
form of cement. The smaller huts had been built in similar
fashion, using circular walls covered with limestone and clay.
These are considered to be among the oldest true walls surviving
in the world. What is also significant about the Vestonice site
is that a well-constructed beehive-shaped kiln containing
remnants of fired clay was found in one of the huts. Fragments of
sculptured clay heads of a fox and two bears were also unearthed.
Thus the use of fired clay was not beyond the scope of
Paleolithic culture, as had previously been thought.
What are perhaps the most disturbing prehistoric
construction and civilization finds were uncovered in 1965 by
archaeologist Dragoslav Srejovic at a site now called Starveco,
on the Danube River, on the Yugoslavian and Rumanian border.
Digging into the Yugoslavian bank, Srejovic first
encountered traces of a Roman road; beneath this were fragments
of proto-Greek pottery, and below these were Neolithic remnants
and traces of Mesolithic cultural artifacts.
Deeper still, Srejovic came upon something totally out of
place: the remains of a cement floor. More specifically, the
material was an amalgam of local limestone, sand and water,
considered a feat of chemistry and construction several millennia
ahead of its time. The cement surfaces were not placed
haphazardly, but were carefully laid out in large slabs to form
the foundations of houses. Several foundations were built one on
top of another, indicating that buildings had been constructed
and reconstructed over an indeterminate period. Yet there was
also remarkable uniformity. The layout of the houses in the later
periods was the same as that in the earlier periods - there was
no evidence of a gradual development from a simple to a complex
pattern. Rather, the Starveco village suddenly appeared, fully
mature, flourished, then decayed and was abandoned in the same
advanced state.
In addition to the foundations, the individual Starveco
buildings also showed a high order of architectural
sophistication. They all had one side larger in size than the
other three, with proportions of either 3:1 or 4:1. The larger
side was shaped like a 60-degree segment of a circle. This larger
side always faced toward the river, providing the occupants with
the maximum view of the Danube and the surrounding hilly country.
Inside each house, the shape of the dwelling was repeated in the
hearth or oven, which was bounded by carefully shaped stone slabs
and always located in the eastern or sunny end of the house.
Srejovic noted that the position of the hearth was significant,
as it was situated in the exact center of an equilateral triangle
if the lines of the house were extended. What the architectural
purpose of this was is not clear, but the implications of the
mathematical and geometrical knowledge indicated cannot be
ignored.
The same precision and order evident in the architecture is
also found in the arrangement of the dwellings at the Starveco
site.
The structures are laid out in what appears to have been a
planned fan shape, opening toward the riverbank. The larger
buildings, presumably those belonging to members of a higher
class or governing body, were located toward the center,
surrounding a paved plaza believed by Srejovic to have been a
marketplace or assembly square.
The Starveco site has yielded a number of other cultural
characteristics previously thought to have been developed
thousands of years later, in the Middle East. Behind the hearth
in each house, laborers unearthed the remains of altars,
indicating religious beliefs and practices. Each altar was
composed of a flat stone, with a cup impression for burning a
sacrifice, which faced two or more upright stones of reddish
sandstone. This sandstone had been excavated from an outcrop,
located in a ravine several miles away, and many of the stones
had carved wavy lines or chevrons in low relief, considered the
oldest examples of architectural decoration. Even more
significant was the discovery of twenty sculpted life-sized human
faces of stone. The faces were goggle-eyed, open-mouthed and
small-nosed, with some of the statues showing a suggestion of
shoulders, arms and a bust. The Starveco sculptures are believed
to be the oldest such life-sized, handfashioned stone works known
today.
An interesting aspect of the site was the evidence of very
good health among the Starveco population. There was a striking
absence of deformed or diseased bones, and the women were so
robustly built that it was difficult to tell their skeletal
remains from those of the men. Both sexes lived unusually long
lives - some into their eighties. This was indeed an increase
over the lifespans of those who inhabited the region during the
later Neolithic, Greek and Roman periods, when fifty years of age
was considered old.
Community Life and Trade
Among both the cavern and constructed habitations that
existed during the Stone Age, we find ample evidence that the
inhabitants brought with them concepts of community cooperation
and communication. At Les Eyzies, in the Dordogne region of
France, numerous caves and rock shelters are clustered together;
all were inhabited at the same time. Evidence of cooperation
among the cave dwellers begins early, with the Aurignacian
period, when the region was occupied by just a few individuals.
Larger hearths indicated not only an increased population, but
also more complex social units. Similar kinds of tools were found
together, indicative of a specialization in both labor and the
sites of labor. A number of the sites were used only
occasionally, and the tools and bones uncovered were associated
with hunting spring and summer game. Ideas were also shared from
site to site. Several caves possessed drainage ditches, running
through the floor to the outside; all were of similar design and
construction. Ideas and concepts must also have been shared over
an extensive area, for among many of the Les Eyzies caverns are
fragments of seashells, indicating contact with a coastal region
- 100 miles away.
Other indications show that the cave men had an intimate
knowledge of the seas and must have been familiar with sea
travel. As previously noted, the cave-man civilization first
appeared along the western coasts of France and Spain, from the
direction of the sea. A bone baton found at Montgaudier is
engraved with figures of a spouting sperm whale and two seals so
detailed that they can be recognized as male and female.
Montgaudier is over 100 miles from the coast, indicating that
someone knowledgeable about marine life had recorded his
observations, which record had found its way far inland from its
source. Similarly, in the cave of Nerja, in the Malaga region of
southern Spain near the Mediterranean coast, at a deep and nearly
inaccessible place on the cavern wall are painted three dolphins,
two males and one female, in a face-to-face encounter. Their
creator - like the person who carved the image of the sperm
whale - would have had to journey far out on the open sea in
order to witness and record his story. If they did voyage by sea,
how far did they travel? Evidence of their journeys has been
found in coastal areas throughout the western Mediterranean-in
Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, Morocco and southern Spain. Even farther
away, Aurignacian tools and skeletal remains have been uncovered
in the New World. Professor J. L. Myers, in the Cambridge Ancient
History (vol.1, p.48) noted conspicuous similarities between
Aurignacian skulls found in Europe and prehistoric skulls
uncovered in Lagoa Santa in Brazil and other localities along the
coast of eastern South America.
Van der Veer reports that obsidian tools from El Ingor, in
the Andes mountains near Quito, Ecuador, are definitely related
in design to tools belonging to the late Upper Paleolithic in
France and Spain. Stone Age man must have had a considerable
knowledge of geography and navigation in order to reach and trade
with these distant locations.
Sophistication in Clothing
When the average person imagines a man of the Stone Age, he
usually pictures a crude-looking individual, dressed only in an
animal skin around his waist and over one shoulder. For decades
this was how anthropologists viewed prehistoric man. However, in
a cave near Lussac-les-Chateaux, in 1937, Leon Pericard and
Stephane Lwoff uncovered a number of engraved stones dating from
the Magdalenian period which drastically altered the accepted
picture. The flat stones showed men and women in casual poses,
wearing robes, boots, belts, coats and hats. One engraving is a
profile of a young lady who appears to be sitting and watching
something. She is dressed in a pant suit with a short-sleeved
jacket, a pair of small boots, and a decorated hat that flops
down over her right ear and touches her shoulder. Resting on her
lap is a square, flat object with a flap that folds down the
front, very much like a modern purse. Other examples show men
wearing welltailored pants and coats, broad belts with clasps,
and clipped beards and moustaches.
The Lussac etchings contradict everything that classical
prehistory had believed until that time, and anthropologists were
quick to label the drawings a fraud. But despite their hasty
judgments, the out-of-place pictures were authenticated in 1938,
with Abbe Breuil among those who demonstrated that the
well-dressed individuals had indeed lived during the Magdalenian
period of the Upper Paleolithic. Today, most of the stone
engravings are in the prehistory library of Lussacles-Chateaux,
with a few on exhibit in the Musee de I'Homme in Paris. But the
drawings that are shown are those which are not too revealing and
do not clash too strongly with conventional theories. The rest
are stored away and cannot be seen, except by special permission,
and then only by those individuals with "proper credentials." It
is felt that the pictures would be too "disturbing" for public
viewing.
The Lussac models are by no means the only evidence of
sophisticated dress from the Stone Age. Prehistoric cave
paintings from the Kalahari Desert of Southwest Africa, dated
within the Stone Age period, show light-skinned men with blond
beards and well-styled hair, wearing boots, tight-fitting pants,
multicolored shirts, and coats and gloves. Farther to the north,
the remains of a Paleolithic man were uncovered near Vladimir,
not far from Moscow, by Professor Otto Bader of the
Ethnographical Institute of the Academy of Soviet Sciences.
Christened "Vladimir man," the prehistoric individual was a
hunter of reindeer and mammoth, and the remnants of his clothing
indicated he was well attired. He wore a large pair of trousers
made of fur, an embroidered shirt, and a very practical jacket.
Scarcely anything remains of the actual clothing, but the pieces
could be reconstructed from the ivory badges and clasps that were
still intact.
Primitive Art Far Ahead of Its Time
Without question, the most universally recognized aspect of
Stone Age civilization is its art work, which has come to us in a
variety of forms, the most awe-inspiring being the polychrome
paintings found in the caverns of Lascaux, Altamira and other
caves in southern France and northern Spain. Paleolithic art
first appeared with the advent of Cro-Magnon in the Aurignacian
period and became more pronounced and widespread in the
Gravettian. Sculptured female statuettes, currently called the
Venus figurines, are found associated with most Gravettian
remains from France, across Europe and Asia, as far east as
Siberia. But it was not until the Magdalenian period, which must
truly be called a Renaissance, that art burst forth in a wide
range of styles and media of art.
The Magdalenian cave art and the way it was created tell us
much about the sophistication of their culture. The first step in
the execution of a cave painting was to sketch the animal or
other subject matter in outline. This was done either in charcoal
or by engraving with a flint. Following this came the application
of color, which was accomplished in a variety of ways: with the
fingers; with brushes of fur, feathers or mottled twigs; with
pads of moss; by blowing dry colors through a hollow reed or bone
tube; or by rubbing on the colors after mixing them with animal
fat and rolling them into crayons. A number of these crayons were
found at Altamira.
The colors the cave man had available were somewhat limited.
He did not use blues or greens, but utilized a violet-black
pigment made with manganese oxides. Chemical analysis shows that
the most commonly used colors were yellow (from ochre, i.e., iron
oxides), red and orange (from iron oxides and bison's blood), and
brown and black (from heated animal fat and charcoal). The
artists achieved a remarkable three-dimensional effect by
utilizing the natural contours of rock on the cavern walls and
ceilings. Small holes became the glaring eyes of a bison, cracks
became the wounds of a stricken deer, and odd-shaped bulges were
incorporated into the painting as the head or back hump of a
woolly rhinoceros or mammoth. Even today, as one gazes upon the
cavern figures, the contrasts between light and shadow created by
the natural rock contours give the impression that the painted
animals are alive and breathing, a technique and effect unique in
the history of art.
The cave paintings, when closely analyzed, reveal that the
sketching and application of color were done in bold, sure
strokes, with few apparent mistakes or corrections. This may
suggest that those who executed the art were true masters whose
confidence and exactness could only have been acquired after
years of training and experimentation. At Limeuil, in southwest
France, 137 stone slabs were found, with poorly drawn sketches on
them, dating from the Paleolithic age. In the midst of each
sketch, however, are details redrawn and corrected by someone who
was obviously artistically more mature. These drawings show all
the signs of a teacher's hand applied to a student's work - a
master training the eye of the novice in artistic perception.
Limeuil, it now appears, was a school for artists; not only for
sketchers, but for painters as well. In an adjacent grotto, a
bone tube still filled with paint ready to be blown against the
cavern wall was unearthed, as was a stone palette thick with
ochre waiting to be applied with a brush.
Not only was art taught, but artistic ideas were conveyed
from one place to another, sometimes over great distances. In
1903 a wall picture of a stately old bison, drawn with distinct
individuality, was found in a cavern at Font-de-Gaume in the
Dordogne, France. Twenty-three years later a stone slate was
uncovered in another cave 188 miles away, showing the sketch from
which the old bison had been drawn. Someone had undoubtedly
admired the Font-de-Gaume painting, acquired its original sketch
from the artist, and taken it home to keep as a memento or
perhaps to use as a model himself.
In describing the sophistication of Paleolithic art,
prehistorian Robert Silverberg says, "The cave paintings are
upsetting to those who prefer to think of Quaternary man as
little more than an ape. Not only do they indicate great
craftsmanship, but they point to a whole constellation of
conclusions: That primitive man had an organized society with
continuity and shape, religion and art. It was also dismaying to
learn that the earliest inhabitants of Western Europe . . . had
scaled heights of artistic achievement that would not be reached
again until late in the Christian era. That exploded the theory
[that] man's rise from barbarism had been steady and always
upward."
William F. Albright, in his "From the Stone Age to
Christianity," summed up modern research into Paleolithic art in
this way: "....though the number of motifs, techniques and media
available to him now is, of course, immeasurably greater, it is
very doubtful whether man's artistic capabilities are actually
any higher today than they were in late prehistoric times."
Examples of Prehistoric Mathematics and Astronomy
Among both cave paintings and various stone and bone
engravings we find not only realistic representations of nature
and everyday life, but also a great many abstract symbols called
tectiforms, claviforms and blazons. Sometimes the forms are
recognizable; other times they are not. These symbols no doubt
were meant to convey ideas and thus may be considered a Stone Age
form of pictograph writing. In many instances, these abstract
signs are simply composed of a series of lines, scratches or
dots, in carefully planned patterns. At first many prehistorians
regarded the series only as crude forms of decoration, but
now they are identified as notation - some strictly mathematical,
others of a chronological nature, recording such astronomical
phenomena as the phases of the moon.
One of the most intriguing specimens of prehistoric notation
was found on a mammoth tusk from Gontzi, a late Paleolithic site
west of Kiev in the Ukraine. The notation appears around the
edges of a flattened surface, marked off in graduations like the
divisions on a modern ruler or slide rule. The markings are
grouped along a horizontal line divided into series by longer
strokes at specific intervals. There are also a number of symbols
or figures appearing along the sequence, pointing to some event
at those intervals. Alexander Marshack, an American researcher,
analyzed the Gontzi notation and found unmistakable evidence that
it was indeed a detailed record of lunar phases. What's more, the
notation pointed to its use as a calculator; that is, the phases
of the moon could have been predicted in advance. The Gontzi bone
was thus a scientific instrument of a high order, demonstrating
that Paleolithic man was more than a mathematician and
astronomical observer; he was also a scientist who had applied
what he had observed, to create a workable formula that reflected
the repetition he had seen and measured in the night sky.
Evidence of Contact with Higher Civilizations - The Universal
Lunar Calendar
The existence of a lunar calendar used in the Stone Age
civilization is significant not only from a scientific viewpoint,
but also as evidence of contact between Stone Age peoples and the
peoples of the known ancient civilizations. New archaeological
research has discovered that almost every one of the ancient
cultures of the Middle East and the New World possessed, at the
earliest stages of their development, a primarily lunar
calendrical system. Professor Richard A. Parker, in a paper
concerning the origins of the calendar used by the Egyptian
court, notes that in the early dynastic period the system
employed was solar and stellar, based on the simultaneous rising
of the sun and the star Sirius once a year. Parker also explains
that, according to early dynastic symbolism and ritual, there
appears to have been an older calendrical tradition which was
lunar in character, dating back into predynastic times and to the
very beginnings of Egyptian history.
In Mesopotamia, the first calendars of the Sumerian
city-states were also lunar. The Sumerian month began with the
moon's first crescent, and the lengths of the months varied with
the period of the moon, 29 or 30 days - the same breakdown found
among the Stone Age recordings. A lunar calendar was also the
first calendrical system of the early Hindu and Chinese
civilizations. In the Americas, the first Amerind settlers on
both the northern and southern continents are known to have had
lunar calendars. The Incas, for example, had an official solar
calendar, but their division of the year into twelve months hints
at an earlier lunar-count tradition.
Historians have argued that the existence of a lunar
calendar in the Stone Age and also among the first civilizations
demonstrates their succession; that is, the time count of the
moon was developed first in the Stone Age, and then supposedly it
was gradually transmitted over tens of thousands of years to the
first civilized cultures. But the sacred historical manuscripts
furnish evidence that instead the Stone Age peoples and the
peoples of the ancient civilizations directly inherited a lunar
calendar system from a civilization older than them both.
In Genesis 7 and 8 we find the record of Noah's diary of the
Flood. The days of the months and the lengths of time Noah gives
for the duration of the events signify very little by themselves,
but when these are placed in the framework of the present Jewish
calendar, we can isolate some rather interesting data. First, ten
of the dates Noah records fall in the calendar on the Jewish
Sabbath, Saturday. This could not be coincidental, as it confirms
that the data were indeed based on a calendrical system similar
to the Jewish calendar - a system which has, in fact, remained
relatively unchanged in its basic structure for millennia. Noah
must have familiarized himself with the intricate apparent
movement of the sun, for he also marked off in his diary the
passing of a solar year of 365 days. But the most significant
fact is that the Jewish calendar, like the calendar which Noah
uses, is based on a lunar count of 354 days. This suggests that
the lunar calendar had its true origins during the antediluvian
period. By Noah's record, we know that the system was in use
immediately after the Flood, and no doubt it was transmitted to
his descendants. Following the fiasco at Babel, some of these
descendants, we know, remained civilized, while others lost their
knowledge. But the lunar calendar appears to have been preserved
among both the prehistoric primitive men and the post-Babel
civilizations.
Out-of-Place Alphabets and Ancient Memories
Perhaps the most significant evidence of contemporary
contacts
between the Stone Age culture and the Mediterranean civilizations
is the discovery of out-of-place writing among Paleolithic
remains. A piece of reindeer bone found in a cave near
Rochebertier, France, has markings on it that are more than just
decoration. They have every appearance of being the letters of
some form of writing. At first glance, one might think that this
is conclusive evidence of the existence of a written language
during the Paleolithic age, but the implications of the reindeer
bone go one step further. The letters resemble or in some cases
are identical to the enigmatic script of Tartessos, a city
civilization that existed in southern Spain and is believed by
some to be the Biblical Tarshish. What makes the similarities of
the writings truly remarkable is that orthodox prehistorians
place the reindeer bone in the Magdalenian period - by their
chronology, about 12,000 years old and the Tartessian
civilization recently has been assigned to the period between
2500 and 2000 B.C. There is an obvious discrepancy with this
dating, for it is highly unlikely that a script, once developed,
would have remained relatively unchanged for ten millennia. What
the two scripts do demonstrate is that the cultures in which they
were found must have been contemporaneous, rather than separated
by a vast span of time. The date of the peak of civilization in
Tartessos is becoming better established, and if there was a
contact between the Paleolithic people and the city of Tartessos,
then they must have existed in the same time period. Other finds
confirm this. Paleolithic antler bones found at Le Mas d'Azil and
La Madelaine are inscribed with signs identical to Phoenician
script from approximately 2000 B.C. Le Mas d'Azil is also the
site where many painted pebbles from the Azilian period of the
Mesolithic age have been discovered. A number of these pebbles
are marked with signs and symbols that were once predominant
throughout the Mediterranean-again, between 3000 and 2000 B.C.
Among the records and literature of the ancient civilizations are
many accounts of the existence of primitive men living and
communicating with civilized men in their day. One of the
earliest traditions known to historians is the Gilgamesh epic
from Mesopotamia, which tells the tale of the hero Gilgamesh and
his many adventures in the world immediately after Babel.
Gilgamesh's companion in his experiences was a strange individual
named Enkidu whose origins are most interesting. As a youth,
Enkidu was described as having lived as an animal among the
animals. His hair was long, his nails and teeth were developed
for gathering and eating herbs, and he was without intelligent
speech, precisely as were the more primitive of the degenerate
prehistoric types. He was found one day by his civilized
contemporaries, who took him captive and taught him the arts of
urban living. It is significant to note that Enkidu's background
was not unusual. His primitive life seems to have been regarded
as an everyday occurrence, implying that other men at that time
were known to live under similar conditions. Enkidu's unique role
in the story is that he is described as one of those very few
"wild men" who completely adjusted to Sumerian civilization.
In India, another epic story, the Ramayana, depicts a race
described as "ape-men" who aided the noble Rama in a war against
the Ravana kingdom of Ceylon. The most celebrated of them was
their general, Hanuman. His appearance, described in both the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, is that of an ape, but he was also
capable of humor, intelligent speech and great bravery. He was
known for his knowledge of the hills and forests (geography) and
for his cures from rare plants (herbal medicine). He is
represented in India today as a poet who wrote verse on stone.
Underlying the legend is a memory of degenerate men who worked in
stone. Equally significant is the fact that Hanuman is presently
worshipped as a god by millions of devout Hindus living in
southeastern India, in precisely the areas that are richest in
Paleolithic remains. As a curious note, many Hindus also believe
that the yeti - the mysterious "abominable snowmen" who are
thought to inhabit the inaccessible heights of the Himalayas -
may be the descendants of Hanuman and his apelike but intelligent
people.
The ancient Chinese likewise described a race of primitive
men coexisting with their own civilization, only they were not
pictured as a friendly host. The degenerates were called Mao-tse
in the Chinese treatise Shu King (part 4, ch. 27, p.291) and are
described as "an ancient and perverted race who in olden days
retired to live in rocky caves, and the descendants of whom are
still to be found in the vicinity of Canton." It is interesting
to recall that it was in Hong Kong, only a few miles from Canton,
that the giant teeth of Giganthropus were discovered. The Shu
King relates that the Mao-tse once "troubled the earth, which
became full of their robberies." The Lord Huang-ti, an emperor of
the Chinese Divine Dynasty, then saw how these people were
without virtue and ordered his generals Tchang and Lhy to
exterminate them. Perhaps it was this genocide that accounts for
the sudden disappearance of Sinanthropus and Giganthropus from
the Chinese paleontological record.
A remarkably similar description of a race of primitive men
is found in the Bible in the Book of Job. The post-Flood
patriarch depicted a wild people with whom he did not wish to
associate. He described them as living in solitude in the
wilderness. They ate grasses and leaves, often resorted to
stealing food, and - like the Mao-tse-were called thieves and
robbers. These wild people also inhabited the rocks and cliffs
and brayed like animals, as they were without intelligent speech.
Job condemned them all as "a scourge to the land" and the
"children of fools." Many commentators believe that Job was
identical to Jobab, the thirteenth son of Joktan, mentioned in
the genealogy of Genesis 10. If this identification is valid, it
means that Job, a sixth-generation descendant of Noah, lived
about 2698 to 2348 B.C., which places him and the "wild people"
he described in the immediate post-Babel period.
Elements of Sophisticated Technology in Stone Age Cultures
Not only are there indications of contact between Stone Age
cultures and the known ancient civilizations, but we also find
instances demonstrating that on occasion prehistoric primitive
peoples also communicated with and benefited from the knowledge
of other unknown civilizations of a very advanced order. A number
of discoveries suggest the performance of sophisticated surgery
in prehistoric times.
Professor Andronik Jagharian, anthropologist and director of
operative surgery at the Erivan Medical Institute in Soviet
Armenia, examined a number of skulls from the ancient site of
Ishtikunuy, located near Lake Sevan. The site was inhabited by a
prehistoric people called the Khurits who settled the area prior
to 2000 B.C.
Two of the skulls examined by Professor Jagharian revealed
extraordinary skill in head surgery. The first is the skull of a
woman who died at approximately thirty-five years of age. In her
youth she had suffered a head injury which made a hole
one-quarter inch in size in her skull. This accident certainly
must have left brain tissue exposed, and a considerable amount of
blood must have been lost. The prehistoric surgeons skillfully
inserted a plug of animal bone, and the woman survived the
delicate operation. This could be seen from the woman's skull, as
her own cranial bone grew around the plug before she eventually
died years later.
The second Khurits skull shows evidence of even more
complicated surgery. The skull is of another woman, who was
approximately forty years old when she died. A blow to the head
had caused a blunt object about an inch in diameter to puncture
the skull, splintering the inner layers of cranial bone. The
surgeons of 4,000 years ago carefully cut a larger hole around
the puncture in order to remove the splinters that had penetrated
into the brain. Even by modern standards, such an operation would
be considered extremely difficult; yet the prehistoric operation
was successful. Evidence shows that the woman survived the
surgery for fifteen years.
Concerning his examination of both the skulls and the
surgical tools found at the Armenian site, Professor Jagharian
commented, "We have found 4,000-year-old obsidian razors at Lake
Sevan that are so sharp they can still be used today. Considering
the ancient tools the doctors had to work with, I would say they
were technically superior to modern-day surgeons."
Evidence of sophisticated prehistoric surgery believed to be
even older than the Khurits finds of Armenia was uncovered in
1969, when a Russian expedition of researchers from the
universities of Leningrad and Ashkhabad, led by Professor Leonid
Marmajarjan, discovered 30 skeletons in a cave in central Asia.
Dating techniques placed the age of the remains within the early
Paleolithic period. The skeletons were moved to the University of
Ashkhabad, where an extensive scientific examination was
undertaken.
In a report given to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in
November 1969, it was noted that a number of the central Asian
skeletons showed signs of surgery having been performed on them.
As with the Lake Sevan discoveries, there were several examples
of successful operations on the skull. But after examining the
skeletons, the Soviet scientists were astonished to find traces
of surgery having been performed in the area of the heart. The
ribs had been expertly cut, and there was also evidence that once
an opening had been made, the uncut ribs were further spread
apart by retraction. Every feature corresponded to what today is
called the "cardiac window," which enables surgeons to perform
open-heart surgery. The periosteum, or bony deposits on the cut
ribs, indicated that the patients survived three to five years
following this extremely delicate operation.
The success of these prehistoric examples of head and heart
surgery testifies to scientific developments which are not only
beyond the scope of the Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures as we
are beginning to understand them, but also far beyond the
developments of most of the ancient and even more recent
civilizations. The prehistoric operations presuppose an intimate
knowledge of anatomy, especially an understanding of blood flow
and its control, as well as advanced notions of hygiene and
anesthesia. These points are vital, for without them even the
most elementary operation is impossible. Until the last century,
the techniques employed in these fields were still so crude that
even the amputation of a limb usually resulted in shock or
sepsis. What is most significant is that we have as yet found no
evidence whatsoever of the development of these advanced medical
practices in the Stone Age cultures where the operated skeletons
were located. The surgical knowledge must have been borrowed or
performed in person by peoples of a highly technical civilization
that coexisted with the Stone Age cultures. This is not as
incredible as it may seem, when we consider how our present
computer civilization is living side by side with primitive Stone
Age cultures such as those of New Guineans and the Australian
aborigines. And just as modern medical missionaries from our
western civilization have saved the lives of thousands of natives
in Africa, South America and the Pacific, thousands of years ago
unrecognized civilizations utilizing medical knowledge that was
just as advanced as ours saved the lives of Stone Age primitives
in the same way.
What were the diseases they encountered among their own
people and the "primitives"?
I am sure we will never know exactly the variety of maladies
that afflicted early man, but a rare collection of statues in the
private collection of Professor Abner Weisman, a New York
gynecologist, has lifted at least part of the ignorance
concerning this period.
"When I started my collection in 1944," Dr.Weisman told us, when
we first interviewed him for a magazine article a number of years
ago, "most scientists were of the opinion that pre-Colombian art
and science were not all that old. Discoveries that have been
made in the late 1950s and early '60s have greatly altered that
idea. Now we know that several thousand years before the Aztecs,
Incas and Mayas, other highly civilized nations occupied that
part of America. Their legacy to us did not reach us via a
written language, but infiltrated our twentieth century in the
form of numerous statues that tell us about the variety of
diseases these people suffered. What they tell us is simply
mind-shattering."
We gazed at his collection of statues, and suddenly I began
to feel sorry for the nation represented by the so-recently
unearthed statues. The symptoms of ailments such as cancer,
smallpox and osteoarthritis are clearly visible on the often
realistically molded clay statues. Malnutrition, deformities -
some of them hideous - pregnancy in various stages, amputations
and even birth by Caesarean section are depicted in fine detail.
"Many experts believe that these statues were not really used for
instructional purposes, but that they were buried with the
deceased to indicate the cause of death. If that is true, then
things haven't really changed all that much," Weisman concluded.
"But it suddenly brings their medical history a lot closer to
us."
One of the most interesting aspects of this collection is
that it not only shows the diseases of the ancients, but also
supplies hints about the hospitalization of their patients. It is
obvious that many of the sick were treated in outdoor facilities,
for many of the statues are tied down on rather primitive
hospital
beds, some equipped with sunshields, while others are on beds
where entire sections of the mattresses have been removed,
eliminating pressure on bedsores.
In Lima, Peru, Dr.Jose Cabrena, professor of anthropology
and history at the University of Peru, has collected hundreds of
pre-Inca stone carvings discovered in remote areas of the Andes,
and these carvings tell of medical knowledge and operating
techniques so sophisticated and so refined that our medical
scientists of today stand aghast at their implications. The
scenes scraped in ageless rock, made by supposedly ignorant
Indians, depict among other things heart transplants, using
techniques that seem modern by today's standards. They show
Caesarean births, brain transplants, and still other forms of
surgery we have developed only within the last generation. Still
other stone carvings depict closeups of heart surgery, showing
blood vessels; surgeons at work with their instruments; and
patients connected via intricate tubing to lifesupport systems.
The scientists who have examined the carvings, or
photographs of them, are clearly baffled by this discovery.
Dr.E.Stanton Maxey, fellow of the American College of Surgeons,
says, ". . . in the photographs of stone carvings depicting heart
surgery, the detail is clear - the seven blood vessels coming
from the heart are faithfully copied. The whole thing looks like
a cardiac operation, and the surgeons seem to be using techniques
that fit with our modern knowledge. Another carving shows the
surgeons operating on a woman whose full abdomen, enlarged
breasts, and what seems to be a fetus strongly suggest a
Caesarean-section delivery.
How such ancient stones can carry a record of modern surgical
techniques is completely baffling. It would seem that somehow
those ancient people came into contact with a civilization far
more advanced than any we have dreamed existed then."
Who Shot Rhodesian Man?
At times the contact between prehistoric primitive man and
representatives of highly developed civilization appears to have
resulted in a less than peaceful coexistence. While some
prehistoric men were rescued from the portals of death by
medicine, others not so fortunate were killed by advanced
weapons.
The Museum of Natural History in London exhibits a
Neanderthal skull discovered near Broken Hill, in Rhodesia, in
1921. On the left side of the skull is a hole, perfectly round.
There are none of the radial cracks that would have resulted had
the hole been caused by a weapon such as an arrow or a spear.
Only a high-speed projectile such as a bullet could have made
such a hole. The skull directly opposite the hole is shattered,
having been blown out from the inside. This same feature is seen
in modern victims of head wounds received from shots from a
high-powered rifle. No slower projectile could have produced
either the neat hole or the shattering effect. A German forensic
authority from Berlin has positively stated that the cranial
damage to Rhodesian man's skull could not have been caused by
anything but a bullet. If a bullet was indeed fired at Rhodesian
man, then we may have to evaluate this in the light of two
possible conclusions: Either the Rhodesian remains are not as old
as claimed, at most two or three centuries, and he was shot by a
European colonizer or explorer; or the bones are as old as they
are claimed to be, and he was shot by a hunter or warrior
belonging to a very ancient yet highly advanced culture.
The second conclusion is the more plausible of the two,
especially since the Rhodesian skull was found 60 feet below the
surface. Only a period of several thousand years can account for
a deposit of that depth. To assume that nature could have
accumulated that much debris and soil over only two or three
hundred years would be ridiculous. Rhodesian man was shot by a
high-velocity projectile, but the bullet that killed him must
have been fired at an early period in human history.
The examination results of the Rhodesian skull are not the
only evidence that someone (or even some nations) possessed
rifles or similar pieces of armament in the distant past. The
Paleontological Museum of the USSR in Moscow contains an artifact
that strongly supports this conclusion. It is the skull of an
aurochs, a type of bison now extinct. The skull was discovered
west of the Lena River, and its age has been judged to be several
thousand years.
What arrested the attention of Professor Constantin Flerov,
curator of the Moscow Museum, and his colleagues was that the
forehead of the aurochs's skull was pierced by a small round
hole. The hole has an almost polished appearance, without radial
cracks, indicating that here too the projectile that penetrated
the animal's skull entered at a very high velocity in a nearly
level trajectory. There is no doubt that the aurochs was alive
when he was shot: the calcification around the aperture is
evidence of that. The distance between gunner and animal,
however, was too great to inflict a mortal wound. The animal
survived the wound, and died years later from other causes. But
his bones lasted through the ages, and with them evidence of the
destructive ability of a developed people.
....................
To be continued
Monuments in STONE!!Just How was it Done? SECRETS OF LOST RACES #7
Mystery MONUMENTS of the Builders
During the last twenty-five years, and particularly within
the last decade, serious questions have continually been raised
concerning the validity of the theory of evolution. They have
emerged not only from such areas of research as biology,
genetics, paleontology and geology, but also from the study of
archaeology, the science dealing with man's early products. All
over the world, on almost every continent, stand the remains of
colossal edifices of stone which, though admired for millennia,
have only recently been subjected to the scrutiny of men of
science in an attempt to probe the mysteries of their purpose and
construction.
What has been found by these men is one gigantic mass of
contradictions.
The popular view of history today is that we began in an
animal existence and stumbled along over an undetermined length
of time to eventually become a humanoid creature, only to pass
again through successive stages of crude tool making. This last
period is called the Stone Age. We are told that after all this
we finally achieved civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia,
through another lengthy process of trial and error mixed with
cultural invention and assimilation.
Sounds far-fetched? Yes, it does; yet this is the orthodox
view of history. This view, however, is increasingly being
challenged. Rather than corroborating the concept of slow,
gradual development of the arts and knowledge, a concept in line
with evolutionary theory, the monuments left by our early
ancestors point decidedly to an advanced technology in the remote
past, which either matches or surpasses our own.
There have been, of course, many theories formulated in
recent years in attempts to explain the origin of the ancient
edifices, but a satisfactory explanation cannot be found until
these theories are linked to those accomplishments of
antediluvian technology that somehow survived into the
postdiluvian era. Early man was no ape. He certainly had a
well-developed knowledge of mathematics and architecture, and he
must have belonged to a social order that combined the efforts
for the construction of cities and for the organization of
civilizations. Considering the astonishing accomplishments
achieved by the first generations that survived the Flood (the
Tower of Babel, world surveys, atomic power, flight, etc.), we
may well wonder what advanced forms of structural and
technological feats the antediluvians were responsible for prior
to their being swallowed up by the waters of the Deluge.
STONEHENGE Mystery Solved
Antiquity does not easily surrender its secrets, and
constant probing is necessary to extract even those minute
fragments of surviving knowledge which enable us to get a glimpse
of our ancestors' accomplishments. But what has been discovered
already only increases our eagerness to dig even deeper.
The mystery is intensified when we try to remove the obscurity
from the hundreds of stone monuments that are strewn across the
world, for, located on the crossings of the ley lines, these
prehistoric monuments of man have been erected for a definite
purpose by a race of great intelligence. Most puzzling of them
all is Stonehenge, the enigmatic ring of stone standing in
solitude on Salisbury Plain in southern England.
Since the seventeenth century, writers and scientists have
pondered the purpose for which Stonehenge was erected, and many
theories have been advanced to explain its origins. Perhaps the
one man who has done more to unravel the mystery of the ring of
stones is Gerald S. Hawkins, an astronomer and historian who
believes that the structure is a gigantic celestial calculator.
After many years of careful observation and research, Hawkins has
demonstrated with the aid of a computer that the Stonehenge
standing stones, or the spaces between them, were observation
posts pointing to the specific points of the risings and settings
of the sun, moon and stars at various times of the year. His
calculations have shown that by use of the Stonehenge
observatory, celestial phenomena could be accurately predicted.
Stonehenge is indeed a scientific instrument of the highest
order.
Diligent examination has revealed that the center underwent
three distinct waves of construction, several hundred years
apart---to meet the needs of a developing society. Charcoal
fragments taken from one of the chalk-filled pits, known as
"Aubrey Holes," are assigned a carbon-14 dating of 2000 B.C.,
plus or minus 275 years. Materials removed from other holes have
been dated between 2200 and 2100 B.C., which suggests that
Stonehenge may have been constructed almost within the first
millennium after the Deluge. The second building phase, known as
Stonehenge 2, did not begin until several hundred years after
Stonehenge was completed. Whereas the first phase had set the
basic scientific philosophy for the center, the main feature of
the renewed building was the first assembly at Stonehenge of
megaliths, or "large stones." As many as 82 of the 5-ton
bluestones were erected around the center of the old ridge-ditch
system, with the stones placed 6 feet apart and approximately 35
feet from the center point. It appears that the stones formed a
double circle, with a pattern of radiating spokes of two stones
each. Since the rings were open at the northeast, facing the
midsummer sunrise, the paired stones probably served as a series
of observation points for the ancient astronomers.
However, it is not merely their use that constitutes the
real mystery, but rather how these giant stones got to Salisbury
Plain in the first place. Every archaeologist who has examined
Stonehenge leaves with a different theory, but no one has been
able to explain how the builders were able to transport 80 of the
5-ton stones over a distance of 240 miles, crossing land and
water, from Prescelly Mountain in Wales to the construction site.
Nothing like this has ever been done by any other prehistoric
people.
Stonehenge 3 heightens this enigma even more, for
approximately one century after Phase 2, between 1800 and 1700
B.C., 81 or more stones were added to the complex, some of them
weighing between 40 and 50 tons. This deepens the Stonehenge
riddle even more, for the source of these rocks is the
Marlborough Downs, lying about 20 miles north of the complex. It
has been theorized that these immense stones were moved by
dragging them on wooden sledges which were rolled across log
rollers. If this is what actually happened, it took from 800 to
1,000 men to pull each stone, with another 200 to clear the path,
guide the sledges and move the log rollers from the back of the
sledge to the front. Even with efficient use of this manpower, it
would have taken the builders of Stonehenge seven years to
transport all the stones.
Where Was the Law of Gravity?
Was there perhaps another way? Is it possible that the
surviving science of the antediluvians included a method of
overcoming the law of gravity?
While actual proof has not surfaced as yet, there is a
medieval source that may offer a clue to an alternative
explanation.
The twelfth-century English historian Geoffrey of Monmouth
tells, in his "Historia de Gestis Regum Britanniae," the legend
of how the great boulders of Stonehenge came to be. He reports
that under the leadership of Uther Pendragon, the father of King
Arthur, a force of 15,000 Britons occupied the area where the
stones for the monument were to be placed. Once they had secured
the land, they set themselves to the task of removing the
boulders - but were unsuccessful. Even when using "great hawsers
. . . ropes . . . scaling ladders," etc., the army of men could
move the gigantic stones "never a whit the forwarder."
Suddenly they heard a peal of hilarious laughter. Merlin the
Wizard, who had accompanied the expeditionary force, came forward
and, telling the men to stand aside, began "putting together his
own engines" with which he "laid the stones down so lightly as
none would believe" possible. By means of these "special
engines," the stones were transported and set up at Stonehenge,
which "proved yet once again how skill surpasseth strength."
Geoffrey's story, of course, is a legend, but it may contain
some element of truth. Simple brute force alone would have
required tremendous amounts of human energy to move the stones -
even if it were possible to do so at all. The stones were
undoubtedly moved and transported in a special way unknown to us,
and the "engines" of Merlin may indicate that some form of
prehistoric machinery provided the lift needed. The fact that
modern cranes and lifting apparatus are barely able to move, let
alone lift, the gigantic sarsen stones does support this.
Moving the boulders to Stonehenge was one problem; elevating
them into their assigned positions may have been even more
complex, for the entire observatory was built not on level ground
but on a sloped surface. Measurements show that even this tilt
was compensated for by the builders with an astonishing degree of
accuracy.
Gerald Hawkins comments, in his book "Beyond Stonehenge,"
"Such precision of placement is, or was, astounding. To erect a
boulder so that it was horizontally aligned . . . was a task
difficult enough; to sink that great block into the ground just
so far and no further, so that its tip was aligned vertically to
an accuracy of inches, was an achievement requiring another whole
dimension of skill.
"How, in fact, was it done? If, after erection, the stone had
settled too deeply it would have been out of alignment - and how
could it have been lifted? Of course, if it had not settled far
enough its top could have been bashed away to lower it to the
proper height - but the top was not bashed. . . . Somehow, by a
technology unknown, the Stonehengers figured out beforehand the
depth of hole required to match up exactly, as far as the survey
shows, with this collection of variables. "
If such a task were assigned to a modern builder, Hawkins
further explains, he would not be able to do so without the aid
of a yard tape, plumb line, spirit levels, elevation sights, and
blueprints showing the land contour and the particular design of
each stone and its corresponding hole.
It is certainly apparent that the sagacious builders of
Stonehenge had access to tools and instruments of precision and
exactitude similar to those in use today.
The Stones and the Heavens
Since men of science down through the centuries first began
to examine the boulders of Stonehenge, there have been numerous
theories advanced to explain the construction's purpose; when
Gerald Hawkins initiated his research he approached his story
from an architectural standpoint. Touring the monument, he noted
that many of the archways were very narrow, ranging from one to
two feet in width.
When an observer looked through two aligned archways, his
view was restricted to a very small angle. It appeared that the
builders had intended to limit the viewer's field of observation
so that only one specific phenomenon could be seen. It seemed
that the placement of the stones and archways had been made with
the intention of stressing the importance of what was to be
observed.
Suddenly the idea occurred to Hawkins that the viewing lines
might have celestial significance. In order to test this theory,
he made a meticulous record of all the possible viewing
alignments through the archways.
His initial task completed, he then turned to a computer to
reconstruct the way the night sky looked between the years 2000
and 1500 B.C., particularly noting where certain celestial
phenomena associated with the sun and moon took place. It was
then just a matter of programming the computer to find whether
the Stonehenge viewing alignments and the positions of the sky
phenomena coincided.
The results were amazing! Twelve of the most significant
Stonehenge alignments pointed, with a mean accuracy of better
than a degree and a half, to important sky positions of the moon;
twelve more alignments pointed to important sky positions of the
sun with a mean accuracy of less than one degree. Checking
further with the computer, Hawkins discovered that the
probability that these Stonehenge alignments had not been planned
was less than one in ten million.
There was no doubt of it: Stonehenge was built and used as a
Stone Age astronomical observatory! This bizarre rock pile is
actually the remains of a monumental sky computer, and with it
the Stonehengers were able to predict and record with an
unprecedented degree of exactness the recurring patterns of the
sky and the eclipses and were also able to calculate the times
and seasons for the planting and harvesting of crops.
After the erection of the 50-ton boulders, Stonehenge was in
use for roughly 500 years before it was abandoned; however, the
operation of other stone computers continued, although they were
smaller in size. Scattered throughout Britain are other stone
rings, admittedly not as impressive in size, but equally
important to the society of the builders. Stonehenge was never a
unique concept - only its size was extraordinary.
In recent years Professor Alexander Thorns of Oxford
University has conducted a detailed survey of over 600 British
megalithic stone circles, and the dating methods employed in this
study show that they were erected between 2100 and 1500 B.C.
Here, too, as with Stonehenge, the dates were corroborated by
astronomical information.
But there were other discoveries. The study also revealed
that many of the circles were laid out with a precision that
today can be measured only by a highly qualified team of
surveyors. For example, not far from Stonehenge, the stones of
Avebury are set out with a scientific exactitude approaching 1 in
1,000, while those of Penmaenmawr have an error of only 1 in
1,500. This accuracy is also found on a much smaller scale, for
many of the stones have cup-and-ring markings which, when
carefully examined, are found to have been carved with a diameter
accuracy within a few thousandths of an inch!
Primitive workmanship? Hardly! This was an extremely
accomplished people, for an investigation of the 600 rings
indicated that the megalithic builders laid out the various
geometric forms according to an exact unit of length, what is now
known as the "megalithic yard": 2,720 feet. The uniformity of
this ancient unit of measurement suggests that one central
authority had planned and directed the construction of all the
rings.
"This unit was in use from one end of Britain to the other,"
Professor Thorns concluded. "It is not possible to detect by
statistical examination any difference between the values
determined from the English and Scottish circles. There must have
been a headquarters from which the standard rods were sent out,
but whether this was in these islands or on the Continent the
present investigation cannot determine. The length of the rods in
Scotland cannot have differed from that in England by more than
0.03 [inch]. If each small community had obtained the length by
copying the rod of its neighbor to the south, the accumulated
error would have been much greater than this."
The resulting conclusion could not be avoided. Professor
Thorns says, "The design of the necessary sectors, whether
obtained by pure reason or by some complex empirical operation,
demands a highly trained intellect. The discipline necessary
could not have arisen out of nothing. There must have been behind
it a school or system of mathematical reasoning, evidenced by the
remarkable designs that we find in the complex rings."
He was simply baffled by his discovery, which was compounded
by the realization that many of the ovoids, ellipses and circles
were based on the use of the Pythagorean triangles, a concept
which was thought to have originated with the Greeks, yet here
they were, 1,500 years before Pythagoras entered history.
Knowledge of the Moon "Wobble" 4,000 Years Ago
Perhaps one of the most impressive of the megalithic
stone-circle sites is Callernish, situated on Lewis, the
northernmost island of the Outer Hebrides, which has, among other
prehistoric landmarks, an avenue marked off in stones. It is this
stone avenue that has currently become the focal point of a new
discovery. As seen from Callernish, the midsummer moonset occurs
over Mount Clisham, and the avenue points directly toward the
mountain. Because the Callernish complex lies only 1.3 degrees
south of the arctic latitude for the moon, the megalithic
observers would have seen a peculiar phenomenon: once every 18 or
19 years the moon would appear to stand still about one degree
above the horizon. This 18/19-year cycle is, of course, the same
as that recorded at Stonehenge. The avenue stones are aligned in
such a way that the prehistoric astronomers were able to observe
what is called the moon's wobble - the small amplitude ripple of
the moon's declination at extreme positions. Before Callernish
was investigated, it was believed that this phenomenon was not
discovered until the sixteenth century, by Tycho Brahe. The
period of the wobble is 173 days, and the wobble reaches its
maximum amplitude immediately before the season for lunar
eclipses! The Callernish builders, it appears now, possessed a
unique computer in stone for predicting lunar eclipses.
Another significant point to note is that many of the
alignments of Callernish are the same as those found at
Stonehenge, with the key observation stones laid out in a very
similar geometric pattern. Callernish is situated at a latitude
where the moon appears to skim the horizon; Stonehenge is also
located at a spot where the extreme positions of the moon appear
at right angles to those of the sun.
If Callernish and Stonehenge are related works - and the
fact that they used the same basic measuring unit in their
structures would tend to confirm this - then the builders were
aware of the differences in the celestial phenomena observed at
both structures - differences which could easily have led to a
knowledge of the curvature and size of the earth.
Other Megalithic Sites in Britain
Even though the builders were engaged in massive
construction projects enabling them to chart the course of
heavenly bodies, this was hardly their only endeavor. At the same
time that Stonehenge and Callernish were being built, other
remarkable projects were undertaken. One of the most common was
the long barrow, or burial mound. Even though the greatest
concentration (350) of these is found in the Salisbury area of
England, the most outstanding one is located at West Kennet,
about 16 miles north of Stonehenge. Constructed long before 2000
B.C., this mound is 350 feet long and varies in width from 75
feet on the east end to 50 feet on the west, where it terminates
in a sepulcher approximately 35 feet wide, 43 feet long and 8
feet high. The entrance was blocked by several enormous stones,
one of which weighed about 20 tons. What is most fascinating
about this West Kennet barrow is that when dating techniques were
applied to it, it was found to be one of the oldest, if not the
oldest barrow in Britain. Yet it demonstrates building skills of
the highest order.
Excavation of the barrows has provided many surprises. They
have shattered the belief that the earliest Britons were isolated
from the rest of the world, because in fact their communication
with the Continent and the Mediterranean area was much greater
than that of the Britons of several centuries later. Among the
remains in the tombs were bronze pins from Bohemia, faience beads
from Egypt, and amber from the Baltic.
The builders surpassed the stone circles or burial mounds,
for half a mile beyond West Kennet is the largest artificial
earth mound in Europe, Silbury Hill. The reason for its existence
is still a mystery, although scientists now claim to be inching
closer to the truth. Conical in shape, it rises to a height of
130 feet, with a circular base more than 200 yards in diameter.
It covers 5.5 acres and its total volume has been estimated at
405,000 cubic feet, and its construction may have required as
much as 2 million man-hours - thought to be even greater than
that needed for building Stonehenge.
Many explanations have been given for the erection of this
massive structure, the first being that it was a huge burial
mound; however, excavations into the top and sides have revealed
no funerary or skeletal remains. Today the most accepted theory
is that the great hill, like Stonehenge, was designed to measure
celestial phenomena, for there are indications that a large
maypole may have topped the hill and that the shadow the pole
cast was used to calculate the length of the year. Invariably the
monuments erected in that period point to definite connections
with celestial observations, yet there is at least one known
exception. This monument, noted not for its great height but for
its length, is one of the greatest engineering feats accomplished
by the British megalithic builders.
From Salisbury Plain, beginning at the southern end of the
Avebury stone circle and extending for two hundred miles
northeastward to Norfolk, is an extraordinary prehistoric highway
called the Icknield Way. The road runs dead straight on level
ground and follows perfectly the contour of the land in hilly
areas. It is level and widens out in some places to the
equivalent of a modern four-lane highway. It is superior to any
road constructed by the Romans, yet it predates the Romans by
2,000 years. Why did the megalithic builders need a highway, when
archaeologists believe that they did not even have the wheel?
Europe, Africa and the Middle East Not Excluded
Communications must have been good between England and the
Continent, and the roadways and sea lanes were undoubtedly well
traveled, for the remains of the megalithic monuments were not
limited just to the British Isles. They are found scattered
across the globe. Stonehenge may have been the focal point of
activity, but from there the builders, architects and astronomers
fanned out over the entire world, leaving monuments wherever they
went. Across the Channel from England, in the French province of
Brittany, there are several megalithic sites. They are also found
at Kerlescan and Kermario; in fact, within a distance of 3,250
yards, there are nearly 3,000 menhirs (single standing stones),
most of them in rows pointing toward long-forgotten grave sites
and facing the midsummer sunrise. The remains of the chieftains
have long since become part of the earth, but their tombs endure,
a testament to their greatness.
Elsewhere in Brittany there are other megalithic monuments,
some of which are constructed from the largest standing stones on
record in western Europe. The menhir of Ile-Melon, unfortunately
destroyed during World War II, originally weighed 90 tons. The
largest was the "Fairy Stone" of Locmariaquer. Broken up by
lightning in the eighteenth century, it once stood 67 feet high
and weighed over 380 tons!
But, again, Britain and France are not the only countries
where the builders left their marks. Far beyond Brittany, on the
coasts of Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, Portugal, Spain, the
Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta, at Tiryns
and other Mycenaean sites, there is ample evidence of the past
work of the ancients. The grave sites and the stone circles all
testify to the skill of the builders. Their tracks are found even
in North Africa and the Middle East, telling us of their
far-reaching wanderings and of the spread of their civilization.
In Morocco, dolmens (a circle of stones capped by a larger
stone) are found in the district of Kabylia; a stone circle is
found near Tangiers. Other dolmens have been discovered in
Algeria, while Libya, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon have literally
hundreds of circles and free-standing stones, all testifying to
the builders' presence at one time.
And then there's Egypt. Stretched along the Nile, the sandy
countryside of the land of Amen-Ra is speckled with the remains
of dolmens which mark the sites where the ancient people buried
their dead and which were subsequently joined by the tombs of the
pharaohs.
Three sites in the Middle East are of particular interest
because of advanced scientific and engineering skills involved in
their construction. At Baalbek, in modern Lebanon, the Romans
constructed their magnificent temple to the sun, a temple which
was dwarfed in size, however, by the immense prehistoric
dressed-stone platform on which it was built. Of unknown age and
origin, the platform is a feat of engineering that has never been
equaled in history. It is made of individual stones 82 feet long
and 15 feet thick which are estimated to weigh between 1,200 and
1,500 tons each. Of the stones cut for the platform, the largest
one was not transported to the site but instead was left at the
quarry half a mile away. Called Hadjar el Gouble, or "The Stone
of the South," it weighs more than 2,000 tons. There are no
cranes or other lifting apparatus in the world today that can
budge, let alone lift, the titanic blocks of Baalbek - yet there
they are, cut and fitted together with such precision that a
knife blade cannot be inserted between the blocks.
The second site, equally remarkable, is located on the
windswept moor of the Golan Heights in Israeli - occupied Syria.
There Israeli archaeologist A.Itzhaki recently uncovered the
remains of five giant stone rings believed to be a thousand years
older than Stonehenge. A line drawn through the area where the
rings overlap points to true north. Because of the unreliability
of compass readings in the vicinity of basaltic rocks, the
engineering skills required to find true north were of a degree
of skill generally considered beyond the reach of the ancients.
The third site is far to the north, at Medzamor in Soviet
Armenia, where the Russian scientist Dr.K.Megurtchian has
discovered what is thought to be the oldest large-scale
metallurgical factory in the world. In close proximity to this,
geometric patterns that were found cut into the volcanic rock
point to various celestial phenomena. One distinct line points to
the spot on the horizon where the star Sirius rose between 2600
and 2500 B.C.
What is especially intriguing about the Medzamor site is
that it is located only 15 miles from Mount Ararat, the
historical and legendary landing place of the only survivors of
the antediluvian civilization.
Did the Megalithic Builders Reach the Americas?
With the passing of time, the controversy over who really
was the first to discover America becomes more intense, as if it
actually mattered. For years there have been pitched verbal
battles among renowned historians, lengthy intellectual
discussions, and countless magazine articles, all hoping to solve
this riddle. Was it Columbus? Could it have been Leif Erikson?
Still other names have been proposed and just as rapidly
discarded again. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere else - on a
prehistoric site called Mystery Hill in North Salem, New
Hampshire, where 22 large stones stand majestically on top of a
200foot-high hill. The origin and significance of the site are
shrouded in darkness; its age,however, is not. Carbon-14 tests
conducted in 1969 date Mystery Hill between 1225 and 800 B.C.,
long before the arrival of the Indian tribes that once inhabited
the area, but in the same time slot as similar megalithic
constructions in southern Europe.
Mystery Hill suffered partial destruction during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when some of the stonework
was removed and used to build a nearby sewer system.
The stones of Mystery Hill are arranged in an elaborate
system of tunnels, menhirs and dolmens, and have just recently
been found to be celestially aligned. Each year on the first day
of winter, for example, the sun, when viewed from the center of
the hill, sets directly over what is called the Winter Monolith.
Were the builders the first to leave their prints on the sandy
shores of the eastern coast of America? History remains silent
when confronted with this question, but the hill was definitely
built by someone, and its similarity to the megalithic sites of
Europe is more than coincidental.
Mystery Hill is not unique, however, for other sites not
unlike this prehistoric perplexity exist in different parts of
the Americas. On the Central American island of Bonacca,
archaeologist F.A.Mitchel Hedges discovered an ancient
800-yard-long wall enclosure with two large standing stones
reminiscent of those found at Stonehenge. The stones measured
approximately 7 feet in height by 2 and 1/2 feet in diameter.
Also discovered were a number of oddly shaped carved stones that
appeared to be older than the Mayan, Toltec and Aztec
civilizations. An even more startling find was made at La Venta,
at Villahermosa, Mexico, where there are menhirs and troughs in
long alignments that strikingly resemble the rows of stones found
in Brittany. Near the prehistoric fortress of Sacsahuaman, Peru,
on a rocky spur called K'emko, menhirs and other roughly hewn
stones have been found, once again corresponding in appearance to
the European monuments!
Orthodox historians unfortunately have done very little to
take note of the important megalithic sites found in the New
World, as their acceptance would disturb long-cherished theories.
They simply cannot account for the fact that a prehistoric race
such as megalithic man could have crossed the Atlantic and left
its mark in America, when supposedly more civilized later people
were unable to do so.
It is with the same closed-mindedness that the historians
look at the discoveries made in Asia and the Pacific, where
remains of the builders' activities have surfaced in the most
unexpected regions. In India dolmens dot the land from the
Nerbuddha River to Cape Comorin. At latest count, the Neermul
jungle of Central India has yielded at least 2,000 of the
monuments it has hidden for centuries, and another 2,200 have
been located in Dacca.
Monuments of a similar nature have also been found in China,
Korea and even Japan. The mystery of the builders' activities
increases as the geographical boundaries expand. On the
southeastern shore of Ponape, in the Senyavin Islands of
Micronesia, the remains of a huge temple complex called Metalamin
face the midsummer sunrise. There is every indication that in the
days of the builders, the population of Ponape Island was many
times what it is today, for Metalamin is sufficiently large to
seat as many as two million people! The ruins, like those in
Europe and America, are composed of vast stone blocks weighing as
much as 15 tons each. These blocks were transported from a quarry
approximately twenty miles away - with not a hint of how this was
accomplished.
Were they navigators as well as builders? History stands
mute on this question, but the fact remains that three thousand
miles away, southeast of Ponape, on tiny Malden in the Line
Islands, is a second group of ruins architecturally similar to
Metalamin!
There is, however, one important difference. The ruins on
Malden are connected to the rugged coastline by a number of
prehistoric basalt-paved highways, a situation which baffles the
scientists.
"But they can't be highways," the archaeologists cry out in
despair. "These people didn't have the wheel. . . ."
Oh, didn't they? There are still many ruins the builders have
left on other Pacific islands, but most of these are still being
excavated. One can say without hesitation, however, that the most
famous and mystifying of all the Pacific monuments are those
strange statues that stand in peaceful silence on a lonely rock
called Easter Island.
Unresolved Mystery of the Stone Faces
There are few detective stories as confounding as the one
that came to the attention of the western world on Easter morning
1722, when the Dutch explorer Jan Roggeveen first set eyes on a
tiny speck of land in the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
Unable to locate it on the navigational charts, he christened the
new-found territory Easter Island. With the anticipation of
finding treasure, he anchored his ship and rowed the few hundred
yards to the rocky shore. But he soon realized that the volcanic
isle had little to offer. There were no trees and no indigenous
animals, and Roggeveen found only a few hundred scantily clad
natives dwelling in huts along the jungle-fringed beaches. The
island was barren and inhospitable, yet it did give one thing to
the world: a mystery unrivaled anywhere in the vast Pacific.
Scattered over the rocky ground, strewn about the meadows of
sparse grass and sullenly peering from the slopes of the island's
volcanoes were hundreds of stone faces jutting out of the soil,
each with the same mute and meaningless expression, long straight
nose, narrow and tightly closed lips, sunken eye sockets, and low
forehead.
Who made them? Where did they come from? What was their
significance? Roggeveen and his crew undoubtedly gaped at them in
utter bewilderment, for nothing like this had ever been
encountered. The statues were certainly not the kind he would
carry back to Amsterdam as trophies of a discovery voyage. There
was something weird, something eerie about them, and the somber
expression on their stone faces became an ever-returning topic of
conversation on the long voyage home.
More than 250 years have passed since that day, and Jan
Roggeveen is now merely a name written on the pages of history
books, but the secret of the silent statues still continues to
evade us.
The enigmatic question surrounding the Easter Island statues
is not what they are supposed to represent, but rather how they
were moved from their quarry at the edge of the volcano
Rano-Raraku to their present sites, a distance of up to five
miles. In 1956 the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, known for
his Kon Tiki expedition, visited Easter Island to conduct the
first large-scale investigation of the statues and their history.
He soon realized that discovering their origin was not half as
challenging as solving the problem of how the monstrous heads had
been transported and erected. Convinced that the builders had
nothing but brute manpower at their disposal, he contracted a
dozen island natives to employ muscle to move a stone head. With
steadily increasing frustration, the team labored for 18 days,
using the "heave-ho" method, which at last enabled them to set up
one of the heads. This answered the question for Heyerdahl;
satisfied that he had found the solution, he abandoned the
project. His efforts are now being cited in many scientific
journals, but did he really duplicate the way it was done?
There are several objections to Heyerdahl's experiment which
cannot be ignored. What is generally not known is that the statue
chosen for the project by Heyerdahl's men was not the average
Easter Island statue, for the weight of the island heads is
roughly between 35 and 50 tons each, but the head which was
arduously moved by twelve sweating natives weighed somewhere
between 10 and 15 tons. Granted, it was still a momentous
achievement, but the result did not qualify it as a "typical"
example. Second, Heyerdahl's stone was transported only
a few hundred feet, across smooth sandy ground that exists only
at Anakena, the place from where the statue was moved. The
contrast between Anakena's terrain and that of the rest of the
island is too great, because the area over which the other stone
heads had to be transported consists of volcanic rock, which is
hard and uneven. If the heads had indeed been dragged across this
surface by Thor Heyerdahl's proposed method, then the stone
statues would have been grooved with long scars. None of the
statues reveal any such markings.
The type of equipment used in the moving process presents
another problem. Heyerdahl's natives utilized ropes and wooden
poles to aid them in erecting and maneuvering their statue - but
there originally was no wood on Easter Island. Currently sycamore
trees grow on the island, but only because some of the early
European settlers brought them there. The records of Jan
Roggeveen do not mention trees, and Captain Cook also noted an
absence of trees upon his arrival on the island. If wood was
indeed used by the builders, then they must have imported it by
ship from the nearest forest - 2,500 miles away. As for the
ropes, Heyerdahl's experimental team used sturdy,
well-manufactured ropes from Europe. It was fortunate for them
that they did, for ropes made from the indigenous reeds of Easter
Island were neither strong nor durable and were most certainly
not adequate to the job.
Heyerdahl's moving of one single stone head over a flat and
relatively even surface also had no bearing on how other heads
were moved up and down cliff walls, as there are many spots on
the island where this did occur in the days of the builders. At
the quarry of Rano-Raraku, 20-ton statues were carved near the
top of the crater, then lowered 300 feet, over the heads of other
statues. This was accomplished without leaving even a mark. The
stone heads sitting on ledges in the cliff of Ahu-Ririki are the
best illustration of this operation. Here the sheer rock face
plunges 1,000 feet, straight to the sea. The gusty winds at the
top are usually strong enough to blow a man off balance, while
the sea currents below are so treacherous that a boat cannot
approach the rock. Yet at an elevation of 600 feet on the cliff
wall stands a platform that bears the marks of a number of 25-ton
statues, the remains of which now lie on the ocean floor.
Heyerdahl may have moved one small head; he has yet to
present an answer that can withstand scientific test.
But he was not the first to fail. In the late nineteenth
century, the French ship La Flore visited Easter Island with the
intention of taking one of its statues back to Paris. It took a
500-man work force to carry the 7 and 1/2-foot-tall statue, one
of the smallest of the island heads. Today, much battered and
bruised by its ordeal, it can be viewed at the Musee de I'Homme.
Even though these two heads have been moved, the question
still lingers: How did the builders of Easter Island cut, move
and erect the gigantic heads, including those which approach the
size of a seven-story building?
There have been many theories about who actually created and
erected the solemn stone heads of Easter Island, but there are no
easy answers. Their origin has been attributed to nearly
everyone, from survivors of the so-called lost continents of Mu
and Lemuria, to tribes of wandering Polynesians who supposedly
sculptured the monolithic monstrosities to while away their idle
hours.
What, then, is the answer? Evidence of a more realistic
possibility is found in a group of stone buildings which few
modern explorers and researchers have diligently investigated.
Thirty-nine in number, they are located on Easter Island in
Orongo. Each structure is oval in shape, measures approximately
seven yards in length and two yards in width, and is topped by a
low circular ceiling. The foundation stones were laid beneath the
surface and were followed by rings of stone blocks, with each
ring narrowing toward the center until the sides converged in the
rounded roof. Francis Maziere, one of the few western experts who
have visited and described the ruins, was impressed with only one
point: that these stone buildings are nearly identical in shape
and construction with those erected by the builders in the
Mediterranean area! For those who still wonder about this
connection, there is one more feature linking these ruins with
those of the European structures. At the Orongo site lie the
remains of a small solar observatory, composed of one or possibly
more standing stones, by means of which the ancient observers
were able to calculate the movements of the sun. Was this perhaps
the beginning of a Stonehenge which was later abandoned?
There is no decisive evidence that the men of prehistory who
erected Stonehenge were also responsible for creating the stone
heads of Easter Island, but, judging from the ruins, it is
obvious that the two sites are parallel, not only because both
were constructed from stone blocks but also because their
building techniques were similarly advanced.
What Happened at Tiahuanaco?
Two thousand miles northeast of Easter Island, high in the
Andes mountains of Peru, on the picturesque shores of Lake
Titicaca, stand the remains of a city of startling dimensions -
and no one knows its origin. Not even the oldest living Indian
could tell of its history when questioned by the Spanish
conquistadors in their bloody assault on the area in 1549.
Whoever its engineers were, they certainly were not related to
the Indians in any way, as the foreign element is quite obvious
both from the style of the structures and from the fact that the
statues of Tiahuanaco depict strange-looking men with beards, not
the usual Indian faces which tend to be devoid of beard growth.
The society that developed the entire Tiahuanaco area had
technical abilities that astounded the conquistadors.
Archaeologists who have studied the site since its discovery
by the Spaniards have uncovered features thought to be unknown to
the ancients. The Akapana, or "Hill of Sacrifices," one of the
three important temple sites, was a huge truncated pyramid, 167
feet high, with a base 496 by 650 feet. The now-crumbling sides
of the impressive structure were perfectly squared with the
cardinal points of the compass, a feature common with other great
edifices found around the world, including the Great Pyramid of
Gizeh. The destructive plundering of the Spanish conquerors
erased clues which might have served as keys to unlock the
secrets of the ancient inhabitants, and the ravages of time have
done the rest. Today the side surfaces of the Akapana are rough
and torn; the stone slabs that provided a protective cover for
the mound have been hauled away and used in construction
projects. An enormous stone stairway that once flanked the hill
has also become a victim of gross vandalism. Today, only a few
steps remain. The reservoir system that once topped the Akapana
indicates the high degree of development of the builders. The
hill still reveals evidence of the precision-designed,
intricately cut stone conduits and overflow pipes, especially
graded to ensure the proper flow of water. Similar pipes are
found scattered throughout the Tiahuanaco complex, suggesting
that the city had a complete drainage, water supply, or sewage
system.
But other probes have extracted still more from the Andes. A
thousand feet north of Akapana is the Curicancha, or "The Temple
of the Sun." It rests on a stone platform 10 feet high and 440 by
390 feet on a side, composed of blocks weighing 100 to 200 tons
each! The walls of the temple complex itself are constructed of
blocks weighing 60 tons each, while the steps of the stone
stairway weigh an impressive 50 tons apiece. Other structural
units, composed of 200-ton blocks, lie haphazardly, just where
they fell. Tiahuanaco is a place where contradictions and
impossibilities reign supreme. Things that can't happen have
happened here. It's amazing that the city exists at all: the
entire metropolis was built 13,000 feet above sea level, and the
air pressure at that altitude is only 8 pounds per square inch,
as compared to 15 pounds at sea level. The thin, oxygen-poor air
sears the throat and nose, and even the slightest exertion may
cause nausea, headaches, and sometimes even heart attacks. In
addition, no seeds will sprout or grow at that elevation, which
means that there was no local food supply to support a large
working crew. Yet somehow, under extremely hostile conditions
that threatened life itself, the builders managed to maneuver
hundreds of stone slabs weighing up to 200 tons each into their
predetermined places. The quarry sites of the stones have been
discovered on an island in Lake Titicaca, but near the shore
opposite Curicancha. It was therefore necessary to transport the
stone over distances ranging from 30 to 90 miles. In rarefied air
the movement of massive objects over such great distances is not
possible by muscular strength, but the stones were moved
nevertheless and found resting places in Tiahuanaco.
If muscular energy was not sufficent, then what was used?
The Mystery Fortresses of the Andes
Tiahuanaco is by no means unique, for scattered throughout
the Andes are several fortresses of very similar design, all
predating the ancient Incas by an unknown period of time.
In Chile, high on the plateau of El Enladrillado, 233 stone
blocks are placed geometrically in an amphitheaterlike
arrangement. The blocks are roughly rectangular, some as large as
12 to 16 feet high, 20 to 30 feet long, and weighing several
hundred tons. As at Tiahuanaco, huge chairs of stone have also
been found in disarray among the ruins, each weighing a massive
10 tons. Perhaps the most important find at El Enladrillado was
the discovery of three standing stones at the very center of the
plateau. Each is 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Measurements reveal
that two of the stones are perfectly aligned with magnetic north,
while a line through one of these and the third stone points to
the midsummer sunrise. Were the builders here, too?
To the north, at Ollantaitambo, Peru, is another pre-Inca
fortress, with rock walls of tightly fitted blocks weighing
between 150 and 250 tons each. Most of the blocks consist of very
hard andesite, the quarries for which are situated on a
mountaintop seven miles away. Somehow, at an altitude of 10,000
feet, the unknown builders of Ollantaitambo carved and dressed
the stone (using tools, the nature of which we can only guess,
that could penetrate such hard rock), lowered the 200-ton blocks
down the mountainside, crossed a river canyon with 1,000-foot
sheer rock walls, then raised the blocks up another mountainside
and placed them in the fortress complex. As South American
antiquarian Hyatt Verrill notes, no number of men - Indian or
otherwise - could duplicate this feat with only stone implements
or crude metal tools, ropes, rollers and muscle power. "It is not
a question of skill, patience and time," Verrill explains. "It is
a human impossibility."
Is it possible instead that a higher form of prehistoric
technology was employed, of which we know absolutely nothing?
One of the most impressive "mystery fortresses" of the Andes is
Sacsahuaman, located on the outskirts of the ancient Inca capital
of Cuzco. It rests on an artificially leveled mountaintop at an
altitude of 12,000 feet, and consists of three outer lines of
gargantuan walls, 1,500 feet long and 54 feet wide, surrounding a
paved area containing a circular stone structure believed to be a
solar calendar. The ruins also include a 50,000-gallon water
reservoir, storage cisterns, ramps, citadels and underground
chambers.
What is truly remarkable about Sacsahuaman is the stonework.
Here extremely skilled stonemasons fit blocks weighing from 50 to
300 tons into intricate patterns. A block in one of the outer
walls, for example, has faces cut to fit perfectly with twelve
other blocks. Other blocks were cut with as many as 10, 12, and
even 36 sides. Yet all the blocks were fit together so precisely
that a mechanic's thickness gauge could not be inserted between
them.
And even more extraordinary is the fact that the entire
Sacsahuaman complex was built without cement.
As with the other mystery fortresses, the question of how
the stones of Sacsahuaman were transported remains unanswered.
The quarries from which the stones for Sacsahuaman were brought
are located 20 miles away, on the other side of a mountain range
and a deep river gorge. How the massive stones were moved across
such hopeless terrain is anyone's guess.
Sacsahuaman poses many mysteries, yet it possesses one more
which few orthodox historians are willing to recognize or study
because of its "impossibility." Within a few hundred yards of the
Sacsahuaman complex is a single stone block that was carved from
the mountainside and moved some distance before it was abandoned.
An earthquake apparently interrupted the progress of the movers,
for the stone was turned upside down and is damaged in several
places. It contains steps, platforms, holes and other
depressions - a masterpiece of precision cutting and dressing,
clearly intended to become a part of the fortification. What is
truly impossible about the block is that it is the size of a
five-story house and weighs an estimated 20,000 tons! We have no
combination of machinery today that could dislodge such a weight,
let alone move it any distance. The fact that the builders of
Sacsahuaman could and did move this block shows their mastery of
a technology which we as yet have not attained.
The Lines of Nazca Valley
The Andes conceal many ancient wonders of construction, not
all made of stones hauled across inconceivable distances. Not far
from the Pacific Ocean, in the Peruvian foothills of the Andes
250 miles south of Lima, is the historical city of Nazca. It is
of important archaeological value; however, the city's real
curiosity is not its relics but the valley in which it lies - a
strip of level desert ground 37 miles long and a mile wide.
Covering nearly every acre of the Nazca Valley are enormous
drawings scraped out on the desert floor-lines running in all
directions: elongated cleared areas, spirals, zigzags, birds,
spiders, monkeys, snakes, fish, etc. They were revealed by
removing the dark purple granite pebbles which lay on the Nazca
desert and exposing the light yellow sand just below the surface.
Since there is little rain or wind erosion at Nazca, the lines
and figures have remained intact for an undetermined number of
centuries. Yet during most of that time, travelers trekking
through the valley never noticed the drawings, because unless one
is standing directly on one of the lines, the areas where the
pebbles have been scraped away are not noticeable. Move a few
feet away, and the line blends into the rest of the rough desert
terrain.
Not until the 1930s, when the first commercial airlines
began operating over the Andes, did sightings from the air
confirm the existence of the Nazca drawings. Obscure on the
ground, they are clearly seen from above - clearly enough, in
fact, to have been viewed by the astronauts aboard Skylab,
orbiting 270 miles above the earth. Yet there is no high
mountain, plateau or other natural elevated point nearby from
which the Nazca artists themselves could have seen the drawings
in their true perspective. So why were they made? Did they serve
some purpose? Did the artists also perhaps master the art of
flight?
The first detailed study of the Nazca mystery was initiated
in 1946 by the German astronomer and archaeologist Dr.Marie
Reiche, who devoted the next twenty years to taking accurate
surveys of the ancient drawings and speculating on their
significance. Dr.Reiche focused her attention at first on the
numerous lines crisscrossing the valley. Many of these, she
discovered, ran straight and true for up to five miles. Some are
parallel to one another; others gradually converge, while still
others radiate from specific points - small mounds of boulders.
Dr.Reiche even discovered lines which appeared to run straight
into the bases of mountains and emerge on the other side in
complete alignment and at the same level. When the degree of
straightness of the Nazca lines was checked by modern measuring
equipment, a startling observation was made: the average error
was no more than 9 minutes of arc, a deviation of 4 and 1/2 yards
per mile. That figure is the limit of accuracy that can be
obtained by what is called photogrammetric survey. In other
words, the ancient lines were laid out straighter than can be
measured by the best of modern survey techniques. Dr.Reiche
stated, "The designers, who could only have recognized the
perfection of their own creations from the air, must have
previously planned and drawn them on a smaller scale. How they
were then able to put each line in its right place and alignment
accurately over large distances is a puzzle that will take us
many years to solve."
It is the opinion of Dr.Reiche and several other students of
the Nazca enigma that some of the lines may be aligned with the
risings and settings of the sun, moon, and possibly several
bright stars. In fact, recent investigations showed that 39 lines
do point to solar or lunar events and that 17 are associated with
the stars. But this is only a small number; the majority of the
lines have no celestial significance, and their purpose remains a
mystery.
The Nazca Artists---Their Knowledge of the World
As extraordinary as the lines are, the details of the many
animal figures etched out on the Nazca Valley floor are equally
as remarkable. One of the most puzzling is the picture of a
spider, 150 feet long, drawn with a single continuous line half a
mile in length. What is so peculiar about the spider is that one
of its legs is deliberately lengthened and extended, and at the
tip there is a small cleared area. There is only one spider known
that uses the tip of its third leg in precisely the manner
depicted in the desert drawing, and that is the Ricinulei, which
lives in caves deep in the Amazon jungle, a thousand miles from
Nazca. Known to scientists for its unique method of copulation,
for which the spider uses that extended leg in the described
manner, the Ricinulei is extremely rare. Its mode of reproduction
can be observed only with the aid of a microscope.
How the Nazca artists were able to find and then observe
their tiny model we cannot say, unless we ascribe to them a
knowledge of science equaling our own.
There are several indications, both from the valley etchings
and from remains of Nazca pottery found in the immediate desert
area, that the ancient artists had knowledge of the world far
beyond the horizons of Nazca. One desert drawing depicts a
thin-limbed monkey, recently identified as the spider monkey,
another inhabitant of the distant Amazon jungle. On one remnant
of a Nazca pot is a distinct picture of a white-breasted,
black-coated penguin. The difficulty here is that penguins are
indigenous to Antarctica - nearly 6,000 miles away, although they
are living in the Galapagos Islands. How could the Nazcans have
drawn the birds unless they had actually seen them?
The most startling picture of all, however, was found on
another piece of Nazca pottery, which showed faces of five girls
- one white, one red, one black, one brown and one yellow. These
colors could not have been chosen fortuitously, as all the races
of man have been clearly represented. The faces seem to indicate
that the Nazcans had knowledge, possibly even models to work
from, of each and every racial group around the world. Could this
be evidence of global communication in the distant past that
equaled that of modern times?
As the study of Nazca progresses, more questions have arisen
than can be answered. When were the Nazca drawings made? A wooden
post was discovered at the intersection of two of the Nazca
lines, and carbon-14 tests revealed a date of A.D. 500. From
this, orthodox historians have ascribed a relatively recent date
to the Nazca drawings: between A.D. 200 and 700. But it is not
known whether the post was placed while the lines were being made
or after they were finished. There is no way, in fact, to date
the lines themselves, and it is entirely possible that they could
be thousands of years older. How were they constructed? The
accuracy of the drawings over such a large area attests to a
remarkable engineering skill not previously believed possible for
any ancient people. There is a question not only of advanced
knowledge, but also of performance: the planning, engineering and
construction of the drawings would have required the energies of
a large number of workers. There is no water, food or shelter
anywhere in the desert valley of Nazca that could have provided
the necessities of life for so great an undertaking. So how was
it accomplished? And the most perplexing question of all, why?
Why were the drawings made in the first place? For that we have
as yet no satisfactory answer.
The Great Pyramid---The Great Enigma
It is not possible to discuss the profound knowledge of the
ancients without letting the mind drift in the direction of the
land of Amen-Ra. I recall endless lectures in Egyptology and
animated discussions on the role of the gods in Egyptian history.
I also remember long winter nights in the Egyptology room of the
university when I fought my way through Sir Alan Gardiner's
Egyptian grammar, deciphering funeral texts on ornate caskets
stolen from the graves of the pharaohs and their nobles. But
nothing really prepared me for the wonder and awe I felt when I
first viewed the pyramids from atop a swaying camel.
Coming face to face with the witness of history known as the
Pyramid of Cheops is an incomparable experience. Standing on a
rocky, artificially leveled plateau about ten miles west of
modern Cairo and not far from the rotting circus tent that houses
the Gizera nightclub, the Great Pyramid has silently beheld many
battles fought within its shadow during its 5,000-year history.
But perhaps the greatest battle of them all is the controversy
raging between orthodox historians on the one hand and
archaeologists, statisticians and more liberalminded historians
on the other, over the questions posed by the pharaoh's tomb, for
with each new year added to its history, the slumbering giant
becomes more puzzling.
The questions confronting science in connection with the
tomb of Cheops are multiple and are all related to the
construction of the 2,300,000 blocks weighing an average of 21
and 1/2 tons, with the largest of them - found in the roof the
King's Chamber, a dark musty-smelling room in the heart of the
structure - weighing over 70 tons each. Comparison of the blocks
with the quarries in Egypt has confirmed the theory that the
stones were brought to the site from a few miles away at Mokattan
as well as from Aswan to 500 miles south at Aswan.
Here, too, we face a problem when following in the tracks of
the builders. How were the blocks transported to the building
site and, almost equally important, how many workmen were
required to move them and how long did it take?
Guesswork will not suffice in ascertaining the truth about
these crucial points, for these problems are real.
I recall from my early studies that orthodox historians
spouted forth the same set of answers: Quarry inscriptions on a
number of the blocks ascribe the building of the pyramid to the
Pharaoh Cheops in the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Since his
reign lasted only 22 years, this would suggest a maximum time
period during which the structure was erected. The blocks were
either transported on wooden sledges or floated down the Nile on
wooden rafts. It is further believed that 100,000 men, working
for twenty years, completed the task of building the pyramid.
Fantastic? Not to the historians, for this is what is believed
and what is currently taught. After all, how can one expect great
efficiency from a nation whose citizenry was only one step beyond
the cave-man stage? As credible as it may seem to the historians,
this simple solution will certainly not resolve any of the
outstanding questions. The historians are concerned only with
history, not with logistics; yet that is where the answer lies.
Let's look at a few basic statistics. If 2,300,000 blocks
were placed in the pyramid in 20 years' time, that is, in 7,300
days, then we must assume that an incredible 315 blocks were
positioned each day, or 26 blocks per hour per 12-hour day. With
100,000 men, utilizing the most modern construction equipment
available today, our engineers would not be able to match this
"primitive" accomplishment. In addition, since nine months of the
year were customarily set aside for planting, cultivating and
harvesting, the work force could have spent only three months out
of every year on the construction site. Thus, even at the
exceptional rate of 315 stones per day, the amount of
time spent in building the pyramid would have been eighty years,
not twenty.
The famed Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie has estimated
that eight men might have been able to handle 10 of the 2 and
1/2-ton blocks in the required three months. Using only ropes and
wooden levers, it would have taken them six weeks to pull the
stones out of the quarry, another week to float them down the
Nile, and still another six weeks to drag them to the base of the
pyramid.
Eight men moving ten blocks means that 100,000 men could
have transported 125,000 blocks a year, completing the massive
construction project in the proposed twenty years. But this
increases the number of blocks to 1,500 per day-an impossibility
even by modern standards!
Manpower is another area that presents a problem. The
100,000 man labor force mentioned above is only the estimated
size of the transportation crew. Add to this another 100,000
stonemasons at the quarries; 100,000 builders at the pyramid
itself; still another 100,000 architects, planners, and
supervisors coordinating the project; 250,000 women and children
preparing meals and keeping shelters in good repair; and a
standing guard force of 300,000 policing the workers and keeping
order among them, and we are speaking of a project that required
almost one million people - in the total construction - one third
to one-half the estimated population of all of Egypt around 2700
B.C.
Does this sound even remotely reasonable? Not really; yet
this is what we are being taught at the universities of the
world. But to continually call upon the energies of a million
people, year after year for twenty years, is stretching
credibility to the limit.
Some maintain that the workers were mere slaves and did not
really detract from the native Egyptian labor force, but here too
we run into a snag. Herodotus, who visited Egypt in ancient times
and recorded its history, tells us that the Egyptians were paid
for their services in building the pyramids in wheat, beer and
other foodstuffs. What ruler could have paid one million workers
for three months labor every year for twenty years without going
bankrupt? And where would he have obtained the immeasurable
quantity of food with which to pay them?
The source from which we gather much of our knowledge about
Egyptian history has been the hieroglyphic inscriptions and tomb
paintings. Many orthodox historians use these tomb paintings to
support their improbable claim that the building blocks for the
pyramids were either hauled or floated, or both. To substantiate
their claims, they direct us to two tomb paintings, one in the
Twelfth-Dynasty tomb of the nobleman Djehutihotep, the other in
the funerary sanctuary of Queen Hatshepsut. The first shows a
statue being drawn on a wooden sledge pulled by 172 men, over
ground which has been purposely dampened. The second picture
depicts a number of Queen Hatshepsut's royal barges, which were
used to float stone obelisks down the Nile. Each barge, it
appears, had a displacement of about 1,500 tons.
On the surface this seems to provide adequate material to
defend the historians' position, but a closer examination of the
facts completely repudiates this. The objection is that the two
tomb paintings were made a thousand years after the pyramid was
built.
Sledges and barges may have been used to transport heavy
objects in the Twelfth Dynasty and later, but we are concerned
with methods employed in the Third Dynasty, not in the Twelfth.
There is no concrete evidence that these methods were used in the
construction of the Great Pyramid. In addition, we are referring
not merely to the transportation of a few heavy statues, but to
the logistical problem of moving 2,300,000 blocks. If for
argument's sake we want to believe in wooden sledges and barges,
from where would the voluminous supply of wood come? The trees of
the Nile Valley are date palms, a vital source of food that could
not have been spared. The wood therefore must have been imported.
We know from the Egyptians' records that as early as 2800 B.C.
they were importing large quantities of lumber from the Lebanon,
the ancient world's major source of cedar wood. Considering the
need and the size of the average Lebanese cedar, mathematicians
tell us 26 million trees would have been required to fashion the
necessary number of sledges and rafts. Neither the Lebanon nor
all the forests in the ancient world could have supplied that
much wood in twenty years, whether or not there was a fleet that
could carry it all!
The truth is that it did not take twenty years to build the
Great Pyramid of Cheops. Evidence from other pyramids built in
the same period indicates that such structures were erected at
incredible speeds. At Dahshur, for example, is the Pyramid of
Sneferu, approximately two-thirds the volume of the Great
Pyramid. An inscription in the northeast cornerstone of the
structure reveals that it was laid in the 21st year of Sneferu's
reign, while halfway up is a block with another inscription,
dated in the 22nd year. In other words, it took only
two years to raise the entire Pyramid of Sneferu.
A similar situation may also have occurred with the Cheops
structure, because it was completed in as little as four years
time. The fact that recent excavations not far from the Great
Pyramid have uncovered the remains of only 4,000 workmen's huts
increases rather than decreases the problem. There is no way
100,000 laborers could have been housed in 4,000 small huts, not
to mention the additional hundreds of thousands who were
involved. This undoubtedly places the historians in a difficult
position, for how can one explain the building of the Great
Pyramid in only four years time by just 4,000 workers, if only
wooden sledges and barges were utilized during a three months'
period every year?
Yet it was done, and probably in just that length of time,
but the builders used construction and engineering skills and
techniques known only to them. It was a technological feat beyond
comparison in either the ancient or the modern world. The
generations following the one that built Cheops soon found
themselves, however, in a steep decline. They were suffering from
atrophy of knowledge, a recession in technical ability and
cultural sophistication that permeated each succeeding dynasty
until the Egyptian civilization became a vague shadow of its
historical greatness. The hieroglyphics from the various
dynasties reveal decided changes in the Egyptians' life-style and
technology, and the combination of funerary texts known as the
Book of the Dead (mentioned in Chapter 1) strongly supports this.
The Egypt we know from the history books was indeed a mere
remnant of a highly progressive people who inherited technical
ability beyond our understanding. The knowledge that sparked
their civilization was transmitted to them by the eight survivors
of the Flood, and using this knowledge, Menes, the founder of
Egypt, rose to the challenge and began to transform chaos into
order.
EPILOGUE
What really transpired on this planet in the relatively
early years of human development will undoubtedly remain the
subject of heated controversy for years to come. Even a detailed
account of the nearunbelievable feats of prehistoric
technological inventiveness still leaves it difficult for us to
comprehend fully the outstanding accomplishments of our
"primitive" ancestors. Yet a thoughtful look at what the earth's
crust has quietly preserved for us can enable our minds to slip
back into the realm of unrecorded history and retrieve from it
those minute details which increase not only our understanding
but also our bewilderment, and which stimulate our desire to
learn more and more and more.
There is another way to interpret history - the ooparts have
proven that. The major assumption of orthodox historians - that
our civilization is the result of gradual development from
primitive beginnings - can now seriously be challenged. Ooparts,
Biblical history, archaeology, geology, paleontology, and
ordinary level-headed thinking have guided us in that direction.
The weight of evidence is growing daily - evidence that our early
ancestors created a society that surpassed ours in all aspects of
development. Let's not sell humanity short by attempting to link
the remains of the ancient technology to supposed visits of
creatures from outer space, by ascribing to beings from other
planets what in reality is the logical effect of the synergistic
growth of a human supercivilization.
Our beliefs about the prehistoric ages are constantly being
altered by new archaeological and paleoanthropological findings,
and thus in time significant portions of previously accepted and
even of now developing historical frameworks may become outdated
and may need to be changed. The surface of historical
interpretation has scarcely been scratched. Even the accumulated
facts gathered in these pages should be viewed as a vehicle to
stimulate deeper and more detailed studies.
An overview of history as it now appears to us may have
grave implications for our future, for the world has undergone a
number of important transitions, with still more to come.
Although we cannot accurately assign dates to memorable events
that transpired in history, it is believed that the years between
1950 and 220 B.C. marked a period of transition for almost every
civilization of the Old and New worlds. During this time, Egypt's
first kingdom slipped into paralyzing deterioration; Sumeria and
India were overwhelmed by barbaric invaders; China and the rest
of the Far East suffered a disastrous flood; and in the Americas,
the so-called primitive cultures were suddenly followed by more
advanced ones. In many instances, the societies that collapsed
and disappeared had had historical ties of one kind or another
with scattered remnants of the lost super-civilization, which in
turn was related to the world order of the antediluvians
through the Babel world center. The disintegration of the primary
stages of the known civilizations within a relatively short time
of each other at the end of the third millennium B.C. is
historically unexplainable. No single all-embracing cause can be
given for their sudden decline. The first global order was swept
away by a devastating Flood; the revival of world order broke
down at Babel. Both of these catastrophes destroyed order, but
not the memory of the technology the ancients had once enjoyed.
The terrifying means by which an oppressive authority might
once again consolidate its power for world domination remained
intact. Some of those who were entrusted with the preservation of
this awesome knowledge eventually used it to destroy one another
in a succession of nuclear holocausts. The survivors who
safeguarded the secret of the great knowledge ultimately fused it
with the cultures of subsequent civilizations. These
civilizations lasted to the end of the third millennium B.C. and
might have possessed sufficient potential to enable yet another
global authority to threaten nuclear warfare, but too much time
had elapsed and the desire for a world order had passed.
After 2000 B.C., as each of the Middle Eastern civilizations
experienced a brief period of revival, remnants of earlier
advanced technology once again surfaced, now greatly diminished,
however. Both Egypt and Babylonia seem to have preserved a number
of sophisticated records and artifacts from former civilizations.
The years between 250 B.C. and the dawn of the Christian era
witnessed a technological rekindling in these lands, which
produced, among other things, the electric battery used in Iraq
during the Parthian period, a small computer calendar constructed
in Greece in approximately 80 B.C., and a model glider plane
tested on the banks of the Nile during the reign of the
Ptolemies.
The brutal Roman invasion of the Middle East in the first
century B.C. extinguished this spark of revival. The Romans'
ruthlessness was an integral part of a wave of wanton destruction
that struck the Library of Carthage in 146 B.C., reducing its
irreplaceable 500,000 volumes to ashes. Later, at Pergamus in
Asia Minor, another 200,000 manuscripts, known to have contained
occult knowledge and perhaps the pre-Flood and pre-Babel wisdom
of the occult energies, were consigned to flames by rampaging
Christians. The most devastating blow, however, was dealt by
Julius Caesar when he burned the athenaeum of Alexandria,
destroying 700,000 of the most valued scientific works of the
classical world.
The few records that survived were jealously guarded by the
secret societies. Gradually these too passed into oblivion as a
result of relentless persecution and mounting ignorance; as each
society died, its secrets perished with it or were hidden in
depositories, never to be found again.
Today we are witnessing a rebirth in science and technology,
which to a large degree is a phenomenon totally independent of
historical developments. The first signs of a new scientific
thrust appeared in the West, primarily in Europe, and finally
achieved full maturity in the Industrial Revolution. As our
modern development becomes more complex and more daring, we are
beginning to reevaluate the remains and the artifacts of the past
and to recognize in them plateaus of knowledge we ourselves are
only now attaining.
We can wonder at this startling discovery of past
accomplishments, but it must also serve as a warning. Once again,
science is beginning to reach beyond the boundary separating
natural science from supernatural manipulation and again we are
stepping into the perilous region of the occult that was so boldy
penetrated by the antediluvians and the builders. Are we once
again approaching a danger point?
It has been said that history possesses the strange and
unexplainable ability to repeat itself.
Will we give it the impetus to make it happen - again?
.......................
NOTE:
NOW THAT IS SOME BOOK!!!
TODAY THE SOCIETIES OF THE MODERN SECULAR EVOLUTIONARY WORLD AND
ALL ITS SCHOOLS, DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW WHAT HAS BEEN
DISCOVERED, THEY CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT IT DISCUSSED IN THEIR
SCHOOLS.
SO YOU PARENTS, YOU THE CHILDREN OF GOD, IT'S TIME TO TEACH YOUR
CHILDREN ABOUT THE SECRETS OF LOST RACES. ARM YOURSLEF AND YOUR
CHILDREN WITH KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL GET YOU INTO TROUBLE WITH THE
SECULAR SCHOOL WORLD, BUT WHAT FUN THAT COULD BE, I COULD WISH
MYSELF BACK IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL AGAIN. :-) :-) :-)
Keith Hunt
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