Monday, September 30, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-O - 2002 : Jim Harlan's 1816 web page maps

Welcome!


.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Steve Burdic has sent the following message:

"FYI

Jim Harlan's 1816 web page maps.
A great map resource for river history lovers.
Steve Burdic
http://lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu/index.shtml"

Friday, September 27, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-N - 2002 : Mannan Stone Clackmannanshire Milky Way Perseus

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

I have uploaded the new files
mannan.gif and
mannan.tif to our Ancient Britain files.

As previously indicated, the megaliths also marked the ancient regions of Scotland, many of which have been retained down to this day. One of these is Clackmannanshire, marked by the Mannan Stone, i.e. "Man Stone", which the clueless mainstrem archaeologists have provisionally identified with an alleged "sea god" named Mannau.

Let me say here clearly, that if your average archaeologist is not in a position to identify this giant megalith as an active phallic male object - and apparently he is not - then it is small wonder that that this academic field is such a desolate wasteland.

You be the judge - take a look at my drawings of the Mannan Stone and look at the pictures online.

In the astronomical and geodetic system of Scotland, the Mannan Stone represents the phallic protrusion of the Milky Way to the right side of the bottom of Perseus. Obviously, the ancients viewed the Pleiades near the head of this protrusion to be the semen of the universe.

Thursday, September 26, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-M : Mother Meldrum and Oldmeldrum Scotland

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

The old legend of "Mother Meldrum" in Exmoor has some interesting relatives, showing there is more to Meldrum than meets the eye.

There is Oldmeldrum (i.e. Old Meldrum) in Scotland, which is a little-known megalithic site near Aberdeen, at Sheldon Farm.

See
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~lib266/stones/oldmeldr.htm

As I have discovered, Oldmeldrum has 5 large megaliths in the shape of Cepheus, with Cepheus carved on the front of the single large megalith at the tip of the formation, above the dragon head of the Milky Way, thus confirming my identification of this region with this constellation.

I am thus uploading
oldmeldrum.gif and oldmeldrum.tif
to the Ancient Britain files.

Oldmeldrum is East of the Loanhead of Daviot (which I previously identified as the star eta-Cepheus) and near the "Hill of Barra", an ancient hill fort, the fort dating from the 1st millennium BC and the megaliths of course much older than that. See
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk:81/scotgaz/features/featurefirst8536.html

Linguistically, I think Cepheus may be related to Indo-European, viz. Latvian CEPURE, i.e. CE-PURE (Latvian "hat, cap") and KUPRIS viz. KU-PRIS "hump, stump", and hence BARRA. Cepheus is the protrusion above the head of the dragon.

This analysis also finds its support in Gaelic, where DRUM is a "ridge" so that MEL-DRUM is simply "the ridge of the Milky Way, MILky-way ridge", i.e. Cepheus.

We also have in Gaelic meile the thick stick by which the quern is turned, i.e. a quern, Irish meile, hand-mill or "grinder"
or more simply "mill drum".
So that this was Hamlet's Mill of heaven.
see http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb26.html

This puts the legendary Mother Meldrum in Exmoor in a completely different and new astronomical light.

LexiLine Journal #27-L - 2002 : Paviland Cave - Serpens Caput - South Wales

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

I have uploaded
paviland.gif and
paviland.tif
to the Ancient Britain Files.

Paviland is one of the archaeological sites in the United Kingdom which demonstrates the scope of confusion present in mainstream archaeology - as one can see from
http://www.archaeology.co.uk/issues/ca160/ca160.htm
http://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/oistage3/Secure/OIS-3i.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/wales/paviland.shtml
http://scarab.newport.ac.uk/pavi/paviland.html
http://intarch.ac.uk/antiquity/a-green.html

As noted at
http://www.adonde.com.pe/fundacion5000/AfarLuc1.htm

"PAVILAND CAVE
Location: Wales
This limestone cave was home to what has become known as "The Red Lady of Paviland". The remains of this young man (originally thought to be a woman) were stained with red ochre - perhaps indication of religious beliefs. This young man was also found with stone, bones and ivory tools as well as with many types of animal bones. When this cave was originally found the remains inside of it were explained by the Big Flood. The animal remains found within the cave were thought to have been swept into the cave by the flood waters and the skeleton was thought to have been buried there after the waters retreated and "man" settled in England.
"

IN FACT
As noted at http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/genetic2.htm:

"A bone from an earlier modern human, buried at the Paviland Cave in Wales 26,000 years ago [that is totally false], just one or two thousand years after Neanderthals had vanished, has also yielded a control-region sequence matching those of present-day people. But the researchers who extracted this sequence are uncertain whether it is genuinely ancient or might instead have come from a living person who handled the bone (Sykes, 2000). "

Read again "the DNA matches present-day people" - So there you have it - the DNA sequence is MODERN and the radiocarbon people have botched it terribly again.

The reason that artifacts are found at Paviland is that Merlin (Aesculapius) kept his souvenirs here of his worldwide journey with the Argonuats - this includes the ancient African necklace, pieces of ivory (from Africa) and mastodon bone, which he probably brought with him from Siberia, and many other artifacts of his voyage. Perhaps he also kept some old human skulls there which he brought from elsewhere on his voyage.

For a picture of the African necklace found at Paviland see
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/paviland_cave.html

All mainstream dating of the things found at Paviland is thus totally unreliable and mostly false.

As noted at
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba61/feat3.shtml:

"... confirmed the burial site by finding a spread of ochre associated with ivory rods parallel to the cave wall, and added to our understanding of how the body - which was incomplete at the time of discovery probably because of marine erosion - had been interred. The bones were deeply stained with red ochre, and the grave goods - ivory rod and bracelet fragments, and perforated periwinkle shells - were all similarly stained."

As stated at
http://www.croydoncavingclub.org.uk/Archive/Pelobates/069/S07.htm
all evidence for alleged ancient human occupation in the United Kingdom prior to the ice age comes from only four places: Paviland, Kent's Cavern, Gough's Cave and Creswell Crags - all of which I have shown to be megalithic sites in ca. 3117 BC.

Mainstream archaeologists have erred terribly here and genetic DNA evidence denies the veracity of their conclusions entirely.

If we were to believe the archaeologists' dating, we then had one human here from about 26,000 BC - surviving the period of glaciation together with Mastodon bones (in England ?!!!) and an African necklace - and then nothing until 20,0000 years later. This is all just wishful thinking by the archaeologists. In fact, the glaciation eliminated all traces of human occupation in the North and everything we find of human habitation is after that period.

[Update September 26, 2006]

The issue of Paviland is important, not just for our megalithic research. If we accept the radiocarbon date of ca. 25,000 years ago for the burial at Paviland, then this is the OLDEST human ever found in Europe - which stretches the imagination a bit.

It would mean that the shaman's burial took place prior to the ice age, survived a vast cover of ice intact, together with Mastodon bones and an African necklace and many other artifacts. Pretty farfetched really.

Here is what is written at
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/paviland_cave.html:

"Paviland Cave
In 1823, the first recorded discovery of fossil human remains took place at Goat's Hole Cave in Paviland on the Gower peninsula of South Wales. The excavator, Rev. William Buckland initially thought that it was the remains of a woman, probably of a Roman prostitute or witch. It was later discovered that they were the remains of a man, but the name "Red Lady of Paviland" is still used.

The remains were discovered buried in red clay in the cave. It was the first evidence of a ritual burial where a young man was buried and covered in red ochre and accompanied by grave goods mad out of bone, antler, and ivory. The remains date back to about 26,000 b.p. Paviland is the richest Early Upper Paleolithic site in the British Isles and is the only ceremonial burial of the Aurignacian age. This site, with over 40 radiocarbon dates, holds our understanding of the chronology of human activity and settlement from about 30,000 - 21,000 years ago.

The Red Lady of Paviland was buried with ivory ornaments and perforated sea-shell necklaces among other items.

Sources

Stephen Aldhouse-Green and Paul Pettitt, "Paviland Cave:
Contextualizing the `Red Lady."
Antiquity."

So, that is the - not undisputed - theory.

What speaks against this date?

1. We otherwise have no record of human burial prior to about 8000 BC anywhere, and certainly not in the sophistication found at Paviland.

2. The DNA analysis indicates the man is "modern", i.e. post-ice age.

3. The bones were soaked with red ochre - are we getting the radiocarbon date of something in the red ochre?

4. There are no records otherwise of Mastodons in the UK here - so Mastodon bones or ivory here were brought here from elsewhere in an age where travel to Mastodon-areas was possible by boat - this puts the date at no earlier than about 4000 BC.

5. The African Necklace finds no counterpart in 25,000 BC but would be well suited to the date I set to Paviland, which is ca. 3000 BC.

6. The burial involved a "shaman", "sorcerer" or "witch" - and, indeed, the first of this kind of burial ever found on earth. We have no records of such shamans in Europe prior to the ice age. But we do have a legend in the UK of a great shaman in remote days - his name was handed down to us as Merlin of legend and locally as "Mother Meldrum", a witch who lived part of the year on one cave (IMO Paviland - summer) and part of the year in another cave (IMO
Kents Cavern - winter). See
www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/Resources/Downloads/exmoor_access_l.pdf
where it is written:

"Stories about witches include Mother Meldrum, who lived in a cave near Tarr Steps in the summer and in another cave in the Valley of Rocks during the winter ".

(One cave on the Exmoor Coast - now assigned as the cave of Mother Meldrum by locals - is as good as inaccessible. See
http://www.geocities.com/exmoorwalker/. Another alleged and doubtful
location for the summer residence is found at
http://www.westcountrynow.com/main/itineraries/tours_lornadoone.cfm
where it is written:
"From Dunster take a drive to Exford en-route you will see Dunkery
Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor. The Beacon, used by the Doones
[Latvian Udeni - the "water people", i.e. Tautha de Danaan] to light
the way to their encampment, is now marked by a cairn of stones
[megalithic !]. Exford is situated on the banks of the river Exe and
is overlooked by high moorland. This is the parish where Tom Faggus
contrived to join forces with a group of men sent to apprehend him,
tricked them into emptying their guns and the robbed them at the
point of his own. From here you can travel south to Dulverton which
lies on the river Barle and has many old buildings of interest and
is also home of the Exmoor National Park Visitor Centre. All Saints
Church has a set of stained glass windows donated by Sir George
Williams, the founder of the YMCA, who was born at nearby Ashway
Farm. The ancient clapper bridge and Tarr Steps are probably of Iron
Age origins. This was the summer home of Mother Meldrum, the wise
woman of the story who warned John Ridd against the Doones."

The Valley of Rocks is described at
www.moorlandrover.co.uk/exmoor.htm
"Our first stop this morning is the ancient clapper bridge at TARR
Steps on the River BARLE. From the ancient ridge road across
Sandyway and Fyldon we have distant views of the whole of North
Devon. A narrow coastal road takes us via Lee Abbey and Mother
MELDRUM'S CAVE into the VALLEY OF ROCKS. LYNTON – scene of a flood
disaster in 1952 – is on the agenda and we pause for tea beside the
river at WATERSMEET. " An area prone to flooding is not a very
likely area for an ancient residence - the ancients were smarter
than that.

7. The bones found are "singular" - why if there was an ancient
community here has nothing else been found from that period. Why are
all the rest of the finds in this area from a period ca. 3000 BC?

Friday, September 20, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-K - 2002 : Ancient Geodetic Measures - Russia - Egypt

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Tompkins in Secrets of the Great Pyramid writes of an ancient geodetic measure and has many references to it. Below are some I have selected:

MYCENAE - the LION GATE
(next to this gate is a so-called "Grave Circle" of stone blocks arranged in a circle)

Tompkins writes (p. 353):

"...the relief consists of a column between two facing lions. The column is sandwiched between two sets of parallel horizontal lines. At the bottom the column rests on a support on which three parallel lines are strongly marked. These three lines are the same three lines which occur in the hieroglyphic symbol for Southern Egypt; they represent the tropic of Cancer". The column represents the three basic meridians of Egypt.... "

RUSSIA and the BLACK SEA

Tompkins writes further about the three meridians (p. 346) :

"Beginning from [a] base line [a line identified by Tompkins at ca. 45 degrees along the north side of the Black Sea from the mouth of the Danube, across Crimea to the foot of the Caucasus],
Russia was surveyed [in ancient days] for a length of 10 degrees, along the three meridians which formed the three axes of Egypt, up to a latitude [of what Tompkins says is ca. 55 degrees but which we know from the megalithic site on the White Sea to extend to near the Arctic Circle]. The River Dnieper was understood to be a symmetric counterpart of the Nile, running between the same meridians. Key positions along the course of the Dnieper were identified with
corresponding key positions along the course of the Nile, up to the point of transferring Egyptian place names to Russia [note by AK - this process is in my opinion actually the reverse]. The information about the existence of this geodetic system is provided by the description of a map of Russia which is based on it. The description of the map indicates that it was used at the end of the sixth century B.C., but the map may be older; in any case there are other sources of information about the base line which indicate that it was marked in very early times.
"

This all supports my view that the Great Pyramid is at a key position in an ancient geodetic system which preceded the pyramids, but which we find around the world in the megaliths.

See
http://www.megaliths.net

LexiLine Journal #27-J - 2002 : How was the Great Pyramid built to the sky?

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

This continues my postings on "background information" required to properly understand the Great Pyramid.

Tompkins in his Secrets of the Great Pyramid writes at pp. 380 and 381 as follows:

"...it appears that there was drawn a plan of the Great Pyramid which included the calculation of the stars to be observed in order to obtain the direction of the north. After this plan was drawn, the ground of the Pyramid had to be cleared in order to proceed to the ceremony called "stretching the cord," which for the Egyptians was the equivalent of our laying of the first stone. This ceremony had the purpose of establishing the direction of true north and, as the Egyptians saw it, suspending the building from the sky by tying the building with an imaginary string to the axis of rotation of the vault of heaven. "

How was north determined? Tompkins writes (p. 380):

"If my interpretation of Egyptian sky charts is correct [it is so in our opinion - Andis Kaulins], the line that indicates the north used to be marked so as to pass through the celestial pole AND through the pole of the ecliptic. "

For the solar eclipse of July 25, 2430 BC on the Nile Delta this line - according to the Heifetz precessional planisphere - runs straight through the stars Zosma (Duhr) and Chort in Leo (the
Sphinx) which are represented by the King's and Queen's Chamber, as shown at
´
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi70.htm

In fact the west face of the Great Pyramid "is not oriented to the north, but is oriented 2'30" west of true north." This deviation from orientation to the north is, according to Tompkins, the result of the precession of the equinoxes from the date of the first plan to the actual laying of the first stone - since precession of the equinoxes "displaces the star taken as the polar star in practical calculations to the the west at a rate of about 50" a year.

It is this rate of precession which the Great Pyramid was intended to calculate exactly.

As Tompkins writes at page 382 in concluding his book "I have collected a mass of numerical evidence which shows that the inhabitants of the ancient world were acquainted with the rate of
the precession of the equinoxes [and solstices] and attached a major significance to it
."

LexiLine Journal #27-I - 2002 : The Law of King Athelstan of England and Ancient Astronomy

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

This posting gives more "background information" of importance to understand the Great Pyramid.

King Athelstan was, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the "first West Saxon king to have effective rule over the whole of England".

People wonder that a person trained in law and evidence such as myself is interested in ancient history - but law has a great deal to do with ancient history - and mainstream scholars in the field of ancient history, not being trained in law OR evidence, have really botched it all up terribly.

As the Britannica states under Athelstan:

"Six of Athelstan's extant codes of law reveal stern efforts to suppress theft and punish corruption. They are notable in containing provisions intended to comfort the destitute and mitigate the punishment of young offenders. The form and language of his many documents suggest the presence of a corps of skilled clerks and perhaps the beginning of the English civil service."

One of the laws of Athelstan defined the length of the English foot.
As written by Tompkins in the Secrets of the Great Pyramid (p. 344):

"The text of this law is included in the standard collections of medieval English laws. The words of law of Athelstan were repeated exactly in the legislation about measures [i.e. in the sense of
weights and measures] issued by King Henry I.... Athelstan prescribed that the king's girth shall extend from the royal residence for a distance of 3 miles, 3 furlongs, 9 acres, 9 feet, 9 palms, and 9 barleycorns. The King's girth was the area considered a direct extension of the King's place of residence and as such the area in which the King's peace was in force. This was the area in which attacks on private persons were crimes against the Crown [we retain this as "refuge" and "sanctuary" in modern times, e.g. people seeking refuge in embassies or churches]. The picturesque language of the law means that the King's girth extends for a radius of 18,250 feet, since it is a matter of the following units:

.....mile............................5280 feet [x 3]
.....furlong.......................600 feet [x 3]
.....acre............................66 feet [x 9]
.....palm...........................3/4 foot [lengthwise?] [x 9]
.....barleycorn................1/3 inch [x 9]

... My understanding [this is still Tompkins writing] of the law of King Athelstan is that the radius of the King's girth extended 6 minutes or 1/10 of degree from north to south. This implies that a degree was understood to be 365,000 English feet [note that this was made a multiple of 365], which is the length of the degree at the latitude of towns like Winchester...."

Tompkins then goes to show that this system of geodetic measure - rooted in an ancient measure of the Earth - is remarkably similar to that used in Pharaonic Egypt, a system which was astronomically anchored by the exact measurements made possible by the pyramids.

Thursday, September 19, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-H - 2002 : The Kammrath Globe of the World

Welcome!

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[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

One of the wonderful people I know here in Germany, Ernst Kammrath, [Update: he passed away on July 18, 2006]
has made one of the largest handmade globes in the world and I have
devoted a page to him and his world globe at

http://www.megaliths.net/kammrath.htm

You should all take a look at what is possible as "handiwork".
THIS is a project for your kids at school - something sensible !
Memories of Mercator....

At the moment the page is still in German, but the pictures are well
worth seeing and I will be translating everything into English soon.

[Update 2006 - Some of the main text has been translated into English.]

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-G - 2002 : Sardinia - Cala Gonone - Nuraghi Arvu = Ursa Minor

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

To our files at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files
[newer URL at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/]
in the folder for Sardinia [but in 2006 in the folder for Italy]
I have added
calagono.tif and calagono.gif
showing that the cupmarks found at Cala Gonone (on your maps near Dorgali),
as sent to me by Enrico Calzolari,
represent Ursa Minor,
which is also what Nuraghi Arvu represents.

This fits well since Cala Gonone
is betweeen Mamoiada (the Pole) on Sardinia
and La Spezia in Italy which represents Cassiopeia.
For a map see http://www.megaliths.net
under Italy.

LexiLine Journal #27-F - 2002 : Megalithic Site Pignone, Italy - Similarity to the Cheops Pyramid Heads

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

I have uploaded the files
pignone.tig and pignone.gif
to the Italy folder at the LexiLine files at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files [newer URL at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/]

showing a megalithic rock formation sent to me by Enrico Calzolari in Italy, a megalithic site which I show in the above drawings to be two heads to either side of the Milky Way to the right of Cassiopeia and Cepheus.

This representation is essentially the same in principle for this general part of the heavens as the megalithic wall we just saw discovered in the Cheops Pyramid where the comparable part of the heavens is shown as two opposing heads of the pharaoh with the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. [See our postings about this at LexiLine at
http://lexiline.blogspot.com/2002/09/lexiline-journal-27-2002-secret.html

[Update as a posting from Peter Szabo, a list member]

>by fear, intutition and phantasy i can see some faces here and there in your stone.
>i can hardy identify the whole picture as you describe.
>please could you draw them in a bit more ?

to which I answered:

I will contact Enrico Calzolari who sent me 5 photos of this site to see if I
can post them to our files. The heads are actually quite easy to see - one can
always argue about the details, but the main direction is correct.

[Update as a posting from Jean Buffum, a list member]

Ditto Peter's request.

I often wish you'd do more thorough explanation of "how to" view the correspondence of the astronomical bodies in the heavens and the megalithic stones or architectural monuments that were meant to mirror? them on the earth.

My formal education and professional experience was focused in the arts and pretty limited in the sciences. I have an easy time following your explanatory stuff in Linguistics, Hist. Mythology, even biogenetic stuff. But when it comes to astronomy, geodesics, etc., like the Egyptologists, I'm not adequately equipped to even ask good questions.

I'd appreciate some really basic 101 level stuff now and then. Like Peter, I hope you will describe your thoughts on the relationship between images on the stone found in the shaft of the Great Pyramid and astronomical configurations, principles in greater detail. I want to learn how to see the correspondence as you are seeing it, even more than I want to see what you are seeing in any particular case.

Sammye

I wrote the following answer to those requests:

OK,

To start, and in order to have a basis for understanding, it is essential to read the index page at
http://www.megaliths.net/
and also
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi18.htm or
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi70.htm and
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi30.htm

As far as the cupmarks in the shaft are concerned, the builders marked certain blocks of stone so that the foremen and their workers would put the blocks in the right place on the pyramid and - even more importantly - with the intended corners also in the right places. If you have a six-sided rectangular block of stone, there are 8 possible positions in placing this stone.

If the sides are A,B,C and D and the ends are E and F, then for end E forward any of the sides A,B,C and D can point upwards and the same is true for end F forward. If the blocks are perfectly rectangular or serve no special function, then it does not matter of course, but this becomes critical for finer construction work.

In the case of the markings at the end of the shaft in the Cheops Pyramid, the markings surely served as "notes" for the star watchers who marked the stellar positions visible to them (this of course was done when the shafts still had an open outlet to the sky at the position of the secret chamber and before the pyramid was "topped off".

That some kind of marking was required to avoid chaos on the building site is clear - there are two-and-a-half MILLION blocks of stone in the Great pyramid - differing in size depending on where they are and weighing from 2 to 70 tons apiece (Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid). When people speak of the building of the great pyramids they tend to ignore the problems of simple but necessary logistics. It is not enough just to cut blocks at the quarry - people had to have instructions all along the way - sizing the stones, transporting the stones to the right spot on the pyramid and placing the stones at the proper positions. Some kind of labelling and communication along the entire path from quarry to pyramid was essential.

What about the purpose of the shafts? Nothing shows the incompetence of mainstream Egyptology in this field more than their previous "establishment" view of these shafts as "air ventilaton shafts" - which is absolute nonsense.

As Tompkins writes in his Secrets of the Great Pyramid (pp. 133-137) way back in 1971:

"A glance at the outlines and cross sections of the pyramids of Saqqara, Dashur and Medum will show that, like ancient British observatories, each had a sighting passage pointed at a northern
star. The passage ended in an observation chamber with a corbeled roof with a small opening just at ground level, presumably for sighting a star directly overhead at the zenith, or for lowering a plumb line to coincide with a line sighted down the sloping passage."

Tompkins wrote that long before Bauval and Hancock.

The same closed-mindedness [found among Egyptologists] is true for the archaeologists.

Tompkins continues that last paragraph as follows: "The similarity [of the pyramids] to the structure at Maes-Howe [Orkneys, Scotland] is indeed amazing. Yet Maes-Howe has also been considered as nothing but a burial chamber. A recent writer on Maes-Howe discarded the theory that the mound might have had astronomical significance, saying that the belief is accepted by no "serious student of archeology".

Indeed, mainstream Egyptologists and archaeologists have taken delight in calling people who saw astronomical significance in these constructions as "Pyramidiots".

Let me say clearly and for all the world to hear that the only Pyramidiots out there are the vast majority of mainstream Egyptologists and archaeologists.

Please continue to ask questions - make them as specific as you can, and I will try to answer them as best as I can.

For example, there are serious issues. Why in the Great Pyramid do the shafts bend rather than being perfectly straight Did they use some kind of reflectors as mirrors - and why? Where were the measurements made? and at what stages in course of building the pyramid? Were corrections made for the motion of stars and resulting displacement in the course of the time it took to build a pyramid? These are the kinds of questions which the mainstream scientists should be addressing - not whether these shafts were "air shafts".

Many questions, by the way, are answered by Tompkins in his book Secrets of the Great Pyramid, the best book ever written on the pyramids - though even he has many theories, suppositions, myths, and errors. But in comparison to the erroneous pablum written by the Egyptologists and archaeologists up to now, Tompkins is gold. He is at least "scratching at the truth". The mainstream has been "scratching away the truth." That is a serious difference.

[Update October 2, 2002]

Enrico Calzolari gave me permission to upload his photo of Pignone, Italy and I have now uploaded this to our "Photos" file. I will put photos in this file in the future since the "Files" for drawings is rapidly becoming full.

The right head can be seen quite clearly. This is similar to what is drawn in the Secret Chamber of the Cheops Pyramid.

LexiLine Journal #27-E - 2002 : Potential new method for verifying dates of megaliths?

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Jean Buffum sent the following posting concerning "Potential new method for verifying dates of megaliths?"

The main thing of relevance to your work, at end of article linked below is "...the cosmogenic dating method developed by Cerling to date basalt flows and other landforms in the Grand Canyon. The technique measures how long a surface has been exposed to cosmic rays from space."

Michael Mandeville, (who I think may be subscribed to Lexiline Newsletter) suggested in one of his web site newsletters that the dating method might be worth investigating for possible application to dating of ancient monumental architecture......so perhaps might have potential as additional method of verifiying some of your propositions.

See article titled, "Is the Grand Canyon a Geologic Infant?" ...

[Update, 2006: the URL originally given is no longer available in 2006 but see http://snipurl.com/yqnr, a snipped URL of the Google cache of the article by Ed Stiles.]

LexiLine Journal #27-D - 2002 : Inventions of Civilization - Ancient Ukraine

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Here is a very fine page on the ancient Ukraine called

Ancient Inventions of Ukraine

by Andrew Gregorovich
at http://www.infoukes.com/history/inventions/

As Gregorovich writes:

"The Ancient World created many of the inventions which have contributed to the progress of civilization. Among these are a number which originated in Ukraine. Some of these are noted in the book Ancient Inventions, by Peter James and Nick Thorpe (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994). In this book review we would like to focus on these inventions which originated in Ukraine according to James and Thorpe and include some additional items they missed."

LexiLine Journal #27-C - 2002 : "in the days when we were all dark"?

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Carl Schoeman submitted the following posting:

Hi Andis,

Thanks for your welcoming note. In your note you mentioned an interesting theory that we were once all dark? My research brought me to the opposite conclusion. Could you please forward your sources to me for studying purposes? I.e. websites, literature, etc. and I will let you have mine.

Carl

> --- In LexiLine@y..., "Carl Schoeman" wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> > My name is Carl and I live in sunny South Africa in Darkest Africa.
>
> Carl,
>
> Welcome to the list.
>
> I have a very good friend who grew up in South Africa and he loved
> it there, and he is a very bright man. Through his influence, I
> developed a love for native South African folk music which I still
> retain today - i.e. Miriam Makeba etc.
>
> Indeed, I would rather listen to South Arican music than a lot of
> what is on the airwaves today.
>
> But some modern stuff is very good. The most popular singer in
> Belgium, Helmut Lotti, e.g. has a wonderful album put out several
> years ago called "Out of Africa" - terrific!
>
> I know you mean it tongue in cheek, but never would I myself call
> South Africa "darkest Africa" - it surely is the "pearl" of the
> African continent - and we all come from Africa way back when
> anyhow.... so if you want to trace the history of civilization back
> far enough, you will always wind up on the largest continent, and in
> the days when we were all dark.
>
> Race and darkness are NEVER the real problem - it is people and
> their BEHAVIOR that is the problem - everywhere.
>
> Andis

I posted the following answer to that posting:

Carl,

here is a nice web link discussing the theories

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/01/0111origins.html

Richard Leakey suggests - based on the social civilized organization of modern man - that we may derive from the KUNG! Bushmen, whose social organization can be seen as the precursor to modern man's social organization.

Since Latvian KUNG means "man, sir" KUNDZE is "lady" and since the Baltic languages are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues, which is why the Baltic is called "the Baltic" - for BALT in Latvian means white - the issue for me is moot. We are just paled-out darkies.

I personally do not know of any serious intelligent person who doubts the "Out of Africa" theory. There may be intelligent multi-regionalists out there, but I have never met one and I will not waste my time or the list's time on this stuff - it leads nowhere.

We will also not permit "creationist" nonsense to be discussed here. There are plenty of waste-your-time religious forums for that kind of thing online.

My view on religion is simple. Belief is not fact. It is the absence of fact.

LexiLine Journal #27-B - 2002 : Legend Rock Petroglyphs, Wyoming, USA

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

Sammye (Jean Buffum) has posted a number of photos to a new folder in our files (U.S.). By default - the posting of files or photos to our list by members is not permitted. If you wish to post files or photos, please contact me about it, telling me what you intend to post and I may enable this function for you if I think your photos should be in our files.

please see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files [newer URL is http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/] [Update in the year 2006 by Andis Kaulins: These files are now found in the LexiLine photograph files at http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/photos]

These photos relate to Legend Rock in Wyoming. Based on these photos I can say unequivocally that this is a major megalithic site. Some of the rocks on which the petroglyphs are found are clearly carved into the shape of large human heads - see if you can spot them. One rock also looks like a serpent's head. I would guess that the figures (petroglyphs) painted on these rocks are later in time and that the rocks themselves are the original megalithic star map.

Sammye, post more photos if you wish - this is a major site. Are there any photos giving an overview of the entire site so that we can place the location of the petroglyphs and rocks one to the other?

[Update September 18, 2002 by Jean Buffum]

Dear Andis and Lexiliners

Photos of Petroglyphs at "Legend Rock" site near Thermopolis,Wyoming have been uploaded to the "Files" section. To view choose files from the menu, then click on

U.S. Petroglyphs > Wyoming > Legend Rock

Will look forward to interpretations of their astronomical significance.

[Update in the year 2006 by Andis Kaulins: These files are now found in the LexiLine photograph files at http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/photos]

Cheers,

Sammye

Monday, September 16, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27-A - 2002 : The Secret Chamber in the Cheops Pyramid

Welcome!

.

[For a brief period after Newsletter 27 in the year 2002, we posted to LexiLine without giving a specific Newsletter number, and then resumed normal numbered postings with Newsletter 28. Hence the interceding postings (with related topics sometimes combined in one posting) are here named 27-A, 27-B, 27-C, etc.]

I am writing this at 8:15 p.m. European time (Berlin) on Monday, September 16, i.e. one hour earlier than London and six hours time difference to New York City.

In about 7 hours (i.e. at 3 a.am here - at least on our televesion screens), there will apparently be shown the first attempt to send a robot camera through a hole drilled in stone in the Cheops pyramid's "ventilation shaft" to see what is in the secret chamber of the Cheops pyramid (see "Gantenbrink" on the internet for more
info).

This could be one of the great sensations of history and science

see http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi30.htm

- so do not miss it - although I do not know for sure if the actual
attempt of the robot camera to look inside the Secret Chamber is
live or is earlier in real time, so consult your local TV guides.

[Update September 16, 2002]

All the TV information you need about the opening of the Cheops
Secret Chamber - in about 6 hours - is found at

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0910_020913_egypt_1.html

[Update "Sensational Megalithaic Wall", September 17, 2002]

Did you watch the opening of the secret chamber? If you did, I hope you put it on video. I did and I have been studying the videomaterial. I imagine that most of the scholarly world saw no sensation in the secret chamber and the stone wall found - but I find it is sensational - for reasons you will find below.

This material will be posted to some of my sites soon. In addition, I am uploading
cheops1.gif and cheops1.tif and cheops2.gif and cheops2.tif to our files.

THE SECRET CHAMBER OF CHEOPS - MEGALITH FOUND
WHAT HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2002 ?


On September 17, 2002, nearly 10 years after Rudolf Gantenbrink's robot discovered a stone slab (with copper and gypsum seals) at the end of the southern shaft of the Queen's Chamber in the Cheops Pyramid, a worldwide TV broadcast showed a new high-tech robot photographing what lay behind the stone slab at the end of the shaft.

WHAT WAS FOUND BEHIND THE STONE SLAB? A MEGALITHIC WALL !

What was found was an ancient megalithic wall or a megalith built into the wall across from the shaft-end stone slab, an ancient megalith which is a "boulder" carved with figures and itself
standing alone in a small apparently otherwise empty room, and seemingly blocking the way to another room possibly filled with informational or worldly treasures.

The result, analyzed here on the same day as the TV program, was a fantastic, enormous discovery, clearly binding the megalithic age with the Pyramids - unmistakably CONNECTING the megaliths and the pyramid builders. The importance of this development has not yet
been recognized by anyone else other than this author. Furthermore, the September 17, 2002, finding confirmed this author's singular analysis of the Secret Chamber as being related to the Westcar Papyrus and the Qumran Copper Scroll. We predicted a seal would be found - and a large "seal" of megalithic proportions has indeed been found, guarding another chamber in the Great Pyramid.

WHY IS A MEGALITH INSIDE A PYRAMID A SENSATION?

Why is this megalith (viz. megalithic wall) a sensation? Because it is made of rough, carved stone. The ancient pharaohs went to a great deal of trouble to make smooth stones for the building of the Pyramid, so why in the innermost secret sanctum of the Great Pyramid of Cheops do we find a rough megalith apparently guarding another secret room?

THE MEGALITH STEMS FROM A MORE ANCIENT ERA

The days of the megalith-builders - as shown by this author at Megaliths.net - centered around ca. 3117 BC, one kingdom or ca. 684 years prior to the building of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The megalith in the Cheops Pyramid is much older than the pyramids. Does this mean that the Cheops Pyramid supplanted this ancient megalith at Giza? Did the Cheops Pyramid take its place? Was the calender "revised" due to precession - and was this the "revision" discussed in ancient documents by Gardiner and Erman? Surely it was so. The Cheops Pyramid replaced the megalith found in the secret chamber just uncovered. That is why it is there. We must of course
also ask: if an ancient megalith guards a room in the Great Pyramid, then it surely also guards something ancient - is this also the legendary Hall of Records? The future will tell.

WHY DID TODAY'S MAINSTREAM EGYPTOLOGISTS ERR?

Most past statements about the secret chamber made by "modern" mainstream Egyptologists have been proven wrong, wildly wrong. They did not know what they were talking about, and things have not gotten better for them after September 17, 2002. The reason for this is that the Egyptologists do not know or do not wish to accept the actual reason why the Great Pyramid was built - which was for geodetics and astronomy. Since the Egyptologists have little knowledge in these disciplines by training, they are as a group generally unprepared in any way to judge or analyze any of this new discovery and one should generally disregard their opinions on it. They carry no weight. Most Egyptologists are linguists, and nothing more. Except for perhaps Mr. Zahi Hawass, who is by heart and soul "The Keeper of the Pyramids", this is not an Egyptologist's expertise.

THE ANALYSIS BY ANDIS KAULINS - WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Being a good researcher means not to overlook things. While everyone has been concentrating on robots and stone slabs, no one has been looking at the obvious markings at the end of the shaft near the stone slab. These markings - in part clearly cup marks - as on many megaliths around the world - identify the stars to the North, West and East of the Queens Chamber shaft on the effective "date" of the building of the Cheops Pyramid, which is July 25, 2430 BC, when
there was a solar eclipse at the Summer Solstice point at sunrise (ca. 6 a.m.) - the time to which all data apply. [For a similar theory about the Cheops Pyramid, see the Egyptian Cosmology of Aymen Ibrahem.]

July 25, 2430 BC, 6 a.m. - Positions of the Stars

On July 25, 2430 B.C. starting at ca. 6 a.m. there was a solar eclipse over the Nile Delta at the Summer Solstice point. Looking north at this time one finds the North Celestial Pole in the tail of
Draco. In the East, there is a solar eclipse at sunrise below Chort and Zosma (Duhr) in Leo - this is represented by the importance of the Sphinx (Leo) and by the lion head found inscribed on the megalith in the room just behind the stone slab at the end of the southern shaft from the Queen's Chamber (see the graphic below). In the West, we find Andromeda and Pegasus. These positions are clearly marked on the stone blocks above and to the left and right of the stone slab at the end of the shaft. They tell us the stellar orientation perfectly.

See the graphic cheops1. gif or cheops1.tif showing the markings on blocks of stone above, left and right of the stone slab at the end of the shaft.

This stellar location matches the figures found inscribed on the megalith (viz. megalithic wall) found on September 17, 2002 opposite the stone slab at the end of the Cheops shaft. The megalith in entirety has the shape of a lion's head and of course has other figures carved on it in the interlocking fashion known for megaliths in the Neolithic era. Each half has a pharaoh's head, with the left head wearing the crown of Lower Egypt - the DESHRET - and the right head wearing the crown of Upper Egypt (Egyptologists' nonsensical P3 = PAR, i.e. Indo-Germanic, e.g. Latvian "OVER", German ÃœBER).

This megalith marks the Milky Way at Cassiopeia and Cepheus (Cheops). In terms of the sky, "lower Egypt" consists of the stars outside of the Milky Way whereas "upper Egypt" includes the stars within the ellipse of the Milky Way. There is also a distinction in terms of day and night, explained below.

Various incorrect names are applied to the names of the crowns of ancient Egypt, one already discussed above. The name DESHRET for the crown of Lower Egypt is the same as Latvian DEZHURET meaning "direct, watch, especially night duty". That is why this crown was later written NT, i.e. "night". DESHRET has NOTHING to do with the color "red", contrary to what the Egyptologists allege. The name HDT for the crown of Upper Egypt is the same as Latvian VADIT or VADZIT which means "to lead, to guide, to watch over, applied to day duty". VADIT i.e. HDT has NOTHING to do with the color "white", contrary to what the Egyptologists allege - it applies rather to "daylight".

See in our files cheops2.gif or cheops2.tif, for a graphic showing the figures inscribed on the megalith (megalithic wall) across from the Stone Slab in the room discovered in the Cheops Pyramid on September 17, 2002. Next to that graphic is a picture made with Starry Night
Pro and showing the two crowns of Egypt in a heavenly context.

CONCLUSION

The Cheops Pyramid is Hebrew Qevia "calendric fixing". It is the calendric fixing one kingdom or 684 years after the start of the Old Kingdom which is equal to 18 x 19 x 2 = 684 years - as a predictive multiple of the Saros (18 years) and Metonic (19 years) lunar and solar cycles. As written long ago by Eusebius "it is all astronomy" and will continue to be astronomy when the next secret chamber is opened behind the megalith - though I am not certain that any additional chamber must exist. The megalith is the required record.

[Update September 18, 2002]

A LexiLine member, Janice Benrath, wrote:

"Thanks, I'm a serious member. Last night's show on the Great Pyramid reminded
me a great deal of a book I read several years ago: The Message of the
Sphinx, by Hancock and Bauval.

Your previous email makes many of the same points the book did, as to the
location of constellations when the pyramid was built and the purpose of the
shafts. All very interesting.


Janice Bernath"

[Update September 18, 2002]

A LexiLine member, Cynthia Crowley, wrote twice:

1. "I too am a serious member....I also enjoyed last night's interesting program on the Great Pyramid and hope to see more like this in the future. And yes, I am also a fan of Hancock and Bauval. Thanks for keeping the list to the topic and though most do not email the list....I just wanted you to know it is appreciated. Cytnhia Crowley"

2. "Hello,What information! This is the most incredible and fascinating insight! I found it most fascinating and more exciting than anything imaginable. I was wondering if you had any pictures showing those marks that you mentioned as I was disapointed by the National Geographic picture. AllI could see was the rough stone with some cracks. I did not or am not trained to see some of the markings that you discussed. I am so glad to have read your amazing article which makes perfect sense. Why indeed would the Egyptians have a sealed off chamber to a large boulder in the middle of the pyramid. Why indeed!!!! Thank you forthe most astonishing observations. Cynthia Crowley"

LexiLine answer to Cynthia:

I do not have a program which would permit me to transport the video to the PC. Perhaps National Geographic will have a decent photograph online soon. Let me also say that I should have added the following to my previous observations: My use of the terms "megalithic wall", "megalith" or "boulder"should still be viewed with a bit caution until everything is really examined in full by Hawass and friends - they ARE experts at that kind of thing. It looks like a megalith on the photograph and looks like it is a roundish stone boulder, but you never know, it could be other material - we will have to wait until they develop robots to go up the shaft and actually touch the material, take sample scrapes and see what it is, how thick, if there is anything behind it, and so on. That will be quite exciting, I am sure. But if it is a megalithic stone - it is sensational.

[Update September 18, 2002 by Andis Kaulins regarding the Pharaoh crowns]

The full name of the crown of Upper Egypt (the one that looks like a pawn in a chess game) is p3 shmty in current mainstream Egyptological transcription. (3 is a symbol used sort of like an "r"
and was adopted as a symbol by the Egyptologists to further confuse what is already a disastrous linguistics in Egyptology.)

p3 shmty is actually Indo-European,
e.g. Latvian
pari zemitei
which means "over the land".

That the Latvian comparable is correct is proven by a variant form of writing this hieroglyph, which has the crown sitting on top of the nb-hieroglyph - half a circle with the flat top upward - i.e. the land, earth. (See in this regard Betro's book on the hieroglyphs)

[Update September 20, 2002, by Steve Burdic]

A LexiLine member, Steve Burdic, wrote:

"I came across these addresses at random on the internet. Puzzle in a Puzzle. Very interesting site on symbols.

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/14/1410.html Spiral

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/29/2913.html Venus describes a pentagram in the sky

I am following the discussion on Cheops and the robot. I thought it was telling that when the live announcer asked "What are those markings on the stone" Hawass answered before the words were out of her mouth "Its just cracks in the rock". That was literally the end of the show. Where are the rest of the shots where you could actually see what was in there? Stay tuned for the sequel.

Steve Burdic
"

[Update September 20, 2002, by Andis Kaulins]

Steve,

I looked at the symbol site - great site. Lots of new information, some good, some not so good - but do not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

As for what the robot photographed [in the Secret Chamber of the Pyramid of Cheops], it is singularly incredible that no photo of this is on the internet - I have looked at all the news agencies - there is nothing. I am a happy man to have made a video
at home so that I have something to work with.

The archaeologists again are trying to cover everything up and keep it for themselves.

For those of you on the list who do not know - a typical example of this was the Egyptian Turin Papyrus of Kings known as the "Turin Canon". When first found it was in near perfect condition. It came into the hands of an archaeologist who thought he could decipher it, and who then left it for many years in a drawer in his office so
that no one else could see or use it, and by the time other people got their hands on it - it was falling apart and greatly damaged, having to be pieced together from the thousands of scraps which remained. I have already pointed on my LexiLine website to several pieces of the Turin Papyrus which have been improperly pasted.

This is not an exception in archaeology and Egyptology. It is the rule.

Historically, the people in Egyptology and archaeology were adventurers, looking for THEIR buried treasure - and I suppose all are disappointed not to have found anything pecuniary in the secret chamber of Cheops - you can be sure the news media would have treated this all differently if they had found precious stones, gems, sapphires, diamonds, or gold and silver. As my father used to say, the Devil dances for a dollar.

What has happened in modern times is that the archaeologists have gone from adventurers to hoarders. Many are earning well from ancient artifacts, photos of such artifacts, exhibitions of such artifacts, etc., many of which artifacts were originally stolen goods.

The British Museum has 10 times more stuff disintegating in its cellars than are visible above ground. Some Egyptologists have safes at universities to keep their wares primarily for themselves. Other universities lock their Egyptology departments to visitors in order to keep non-insiders out.

When money is to be made from photos of their collections, it is often the books of the insiders and curators, who control the goods, who profit from the hoarded treasures. I am not really complaining - this is just the way the world works - but outsiders should be aware it works that way.

Do not be blinded by all the hype you read about academic search for truth. That is rare in mainstream academia in these fields. People write and publish what brings them chaired professorships, better salaries and honors - honors generally granted by commercial, educational and political vested interests. One does not write what
may cost you your job. So it is.

And those of us who are looking for that truth, independent of pecuniary gain, are a thorn in their sight. It has always been so and will always be so. But in the end, we always win. That is the fun part.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

LexiLine Journal #27 - 2002 : Mitochondrial Mutation Rate (mtDNA), Chronology, The Seven Daughters of Eve

Welcome!

.


That the mitochondrial mutation rate (set at about 1 mutation in 600 generations) is likely much higher than assumed by Sykes can be seen at the site of The Molecular History Research Center at
http://www.mhrc.net/mitochondria.htm
and
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/realeve/ask/ask_04.html

Some studies have shown a mutation rate of 1 in about 40 generations, see e.g. http://www.ridgenet.net/~do_while/sage/v2i6n.htm

Sykes places Ursula at 40000 BC in Greece whereas the oldest archaeological records of first humans in Greece would seem to be about 20000 BC as at Franchthi, Greece - see http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/franchthicave.html
so that a good argument could be made that all of Sykes dates should at least be halved.

If one does so then the dates correspond better with the dating of archaeological finds in the respective regions.

Xenia at [Sykes' calculated] 24000 years ago would [then more correctly] be ca. 12000 years ago, a date also assigned by the linguists to the spread of Indo-European from this central European region and close to the Mesolithic skulls found dating to ca. 8000 BC.

Helena in France [dated by Sykes] at 20000 years ago would [then more correctly] be ca. 10000 years ago and thus near the date of 9000 BC I assign to the astronomical paintings at Lascaux.

Velda in Spain [as dated by Sykes] at 17000 years would [then more correctly] be in the same chronologicalball park at ca. 9000 BC for the Altamira cave paintings near Santander.´

So as one can see, there is still much that we need to know and learn.

LexiLine Journal #26 - 2002 : The Seven Daughters of Eve (by Bryan Sykes)

Welcome!
.


The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes (Bantam Press, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-14876-8) is recommended as a good read for everyone although you may be interested in a strong criticism of the book at
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba66/book.shtml, a criticism which in its diffuse "science-pretending" jargonism is
as bad as what is being criticized. That book review exemplifies a regrettable misunderstanding in university education which presumes that learning or writing "big words" like phylogeneticist or empty meaningless catch phrases like "'African replacement model' versus the multiregional hypothesis" makes you a scientist. On the contrary, it just confuses the issue because everyone then concentrates on the interpretation of such idiotic man-made catch phrases rather than on the actual EVIDENCE as such. Hence, the book review is a criticism of style - not of content. Unfortunate. [Update: See the book review of Robin McKie of the Observer at the Guardian Online as a contrast].

MATERNAL MITOCHONDRIAL DNA

In his book Sykes gives a popular synopsis of modern genetic maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) results for human populations, explaining that 95% of all Europeans can trace their origins back to only seven women in prehistoric days and showing that nearly all peoples of the world can trace their origins back to ca. 33 women - though I think the most recent estimate is ca. 36 women, and some even say there are 22 ancient "clans" for Europe. It just depends on where you put the dividing lines. And as Sykes writes, new evidence will surely change these numbers. Nevertheless, the point is that we all go back to common ancestors, and not so long ago.

Sykes writes that these seven daughters can allegedly be "dated" chronologically and "located" geographically. They allegedly did not all live at the same time, based on mutational algorithms for DNA - where the mutational timeline used by Sykes is disputed. I personally think the mutations involved are more recent than currently assumed, but I am sure that the chronologies will get better as more genetic evidence comes in.

GENETICS and MAINSTREAM HISTORY

Although there is no doubt from the genetic evidence that man's origins are in Africa, the genetic evidence paints a different picture for Europe than that we are accustomed to reading in our
history books.

To make these seven daughters of Eve easier to remember, Sykes has given them individual names - and here they are, with their alleged date, alleged location, and percentage of today's European population:

HUNTERS AND GATHERERS (6 daughters)
Ursula
- allegedly 45,000 years ago - Greece, 11% (especially
prominent today in western Britain and Scandinavia)
Xenia - allegedly 25,000 years ago - between the Black Sea and
Caspian Sea, Ukraine, 6% (mostly Eastern Europe)
Helena - allegedly 20,000 years ago - Southern France, Dordogne,
Lascaux, 47% (continental Europe)
Velda - allegedly 17,000 years ago - northern Spain, Cantabria,
Santander, Altamira, 5% (one group allegedly went north as the Saami
of Finland and northern Norway)
Tara - allegedly 17,000 years ago - Tuscany, northwest Italy, La
Spezia, 9% (Mediterranean, western edge of Europe, particularly
numerous in the west of Britain and in Ireland
Katrine - allegedly 15,000 years ago - Venice, northeast Italy, 6%
(Italy, Mediterranean)

THE FARMERS (AGRICULTURALISTS) (1 daughter)
Jasmine
- allegedly 10,000 years ago - Near East - 17%, Sykes writes :
"One distinctive branch follows the Mediterranean coast to Spain and Portugal, whence it has found its way to the west of Britain where it is particularly common in Cornwall, Wales and the west of Scotland. The other branch shadows a route through central Europe taken by the farmers who first cultivated the fertile river valleys and then the plains of northern Europe. Both branches live, even now, close to the routes mapped out by their farming ancestors as they made their way gradually into Europe from the Near East. "

Of course each of these seven is also related to each other, as Sykes writes: "The clans of Helena and Velda are close to one another. They share a common ancestor.... Jasmine and Tara also have a common ancestor, as do Ursula and Katrine.... "

Sykes data, however, show some weaknesses either in analysis of the evidence or in chronological errors relating to interpretation of the genetic timeline of the data (this dating is made on mutational timeline assumptions which may not be accurate).

As Sykes states, "the common ancestor of all Europeans ... is near to where the Xenia branch leads off from the rest of the daughters. " He continues: "Through this woman [one mutational ancestor prior to Xenia] the whole of Europe is joined to the rest of the world. " That is a very significant statement.

If that is so, then the age of 25,000 years to Xenia is misleading since in terms of mutations, Xenia is only one ancestral DNA mutation removed from a "mother" who is connected to all the rest of the people of the world, not just the Europeans. By the same token, Helena and Velda are 3 mutations removed from that woman, Tara and Jasmine are also 3 mutations removed from that woman and Ursula and Katrine are also 3 mutations removed from that woman. Since all six of these daughters are 3 mutations removed, all of these daughters once surely comprised one group at the same time and place.

This may look like nitpicking, but it is crucial to the issue of who was where when first. If Xenia is closest (only 1 DNA mutation) to the rest of the peoples of the world, then Xenia (the Europeans of Eastern Europe) represent the "older" DNA form - whereas all the other six daughters of Eve, being 3 mutations removed, are "younger" DNA forms, and that is really nothing new,.

By correcting the position of Xenia, things begin to make sense, also in terms of linguistic analysis of Indo-European language.

Looked at in this manner, Syke's genetic data are to some degree just a modern repeat of what we already know from previous blood type distribution analysis at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi23.htm

LexiLine Journal #25 - 2002 : DNA - The Seven Daughters of Eve - Jason and the Argonauts

Welcome!
.


I finally got around to reading The Seven Daughters of Eve (Bantam Press, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-14876-8) by Bryan Sykes, showing how all the peoples of Europe can be traced back by DNA genetics to seven specific and geographically identifiable ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) "mothers" as it were - and also indicating that all the peoples of the world can be traced back to ca. 36 such mothers not too far back in prehistoric days.

95% of European mitochondrial DNA traces back to "the seven daughters of eve". Many departures from the norm are explainable - some are more difficult.

Sykes has several examples of mitochondrial DNA sequences which are quite unusual - pointing - in my opinion - to ancient connections of peoples by way of the sea:

1. An Edinburgh schoolteacher with clear Scottish ancestry traceable back 200 years nevertheless has Polynesian mitochondrial DNA...as Sykes writes "is she perhaps the descendant of a Tahitian princess who fell in love with a handsome ship's captain...?"

2. Sykes writes: "There are many other equally mysterious journeys recorded in our DNA: the Korean sequence that turns up regularly [note that word "regularly"] in fishermen from Norway and northern Scotland; the unmistakably African DNA in a dairy farmer from Somerset...; the [mitochondrial] sequence of a book salesman from Manchester that is so unusual that his closest match is found among the native Australians of Queensland.... "

3. Sykes refers to two fishermen on a small island off the west coast of Scotland who show quite unusual mitochondrial sequences, which Sykes describes as follows: (p. 358)

"One outstanding genetic journey involves a complete circumnavigation of the world [emphasis added]. Two fishermen on a small island off the west coast of Scotland have unusual mitochondrial sequences...we [found] matches ... one in Portugal and one in Finland. These were
still unusual sequences to find in Europe, not part of the seven original
[European] clans. The Portuguese sequence matched several from South America, and the Finnish DNA was close to sequences found in Siberia, where we also found the ancestral sequence of the South Americans. So the two fishermen were indeed related - but only through a common ancestor from Siberia. One line of maternal ancestors had travelled from Siberia along the coast of the Arctic Ocean to Scandinavia, then on to the west of Scotland, perhaps aboard a Viking ship. The other had crossed into America over the Bering Straits, then down to Brazil. At some time, presumably after Brazil became a Portuguese colony, a woman carrying this piece of DNA crossed the Atlantic to Portugal, from where, somehow, it had found its way up the Atlantic coast to the west of Scotland. The two journeys had ended on the same small island after travelling in
opposite directions from the other side of the world.
"

As you can see, Sykes has to presume a whole series of unusual and unconvincing ancient events to explain the factual data. Of course, the Scottish sequences are much more easily explained by presuming only one event - that some of the ancient Argonauts brought some women from abroad (Siberia, Korea, South America, Polynesia) with them upon returning to their point of origin ca. 3000 BC. Note how the unusual DNA sequences concentrate on Norway and northern
Scotland particularly and seem to concentrate on fishermen, many of whom trace their ancestry back to generations of ancient seafarers.

I think as more DNA research worldwide is done, we will in fact be able to trace the ancient voyage of the Argonauts quite accurately through the traces of DNA they left behind - also in distand lands.

[Update September 15, 2006]

Kevin cdt@midcoast.com.au, a LexiLine member, wrote:

"Eve and her seven daughters is an excellent read, having visited the Islands of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, cook Isands, New Zealand and having the pleasure of working with the Torres Islanders of the top end of Australia.

It sure makes you wonder how these people all over six foot tall of very very large stature, dark skinned are related to the DNA of people living in Taiwan and southern China.

Kevin
"

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

LexiLine Journal #24 - 2002 : Peterborough Petroglpyhs Canada

Welcome!

.


I have finally been successful in deciphering the Peterborough Petroglyphs in entirety and have uploaded the decipherment as

peterborough.tif - excellent quality picture
and
peterborough.gif - rather poor quality but less memory required and
less download time

to the LexiLine Files at the new folder for Canada at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files [new URL at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/]

The Peterborough Petroglyphs are spectacular and contain an ancient map of the north of North America, surveyed by astronomy, and clearly showing the St. Lawrence Seaway, for example, as well as Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac.

My rather rough drawing of the Peterborough Petroglyphs is based on a very large drawing found in the back map pocket of the The Sacred Art of the Algonkians: A Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs by Joan M. Vastokas and Romas K. Vastokas, Mansard Press, P.O. Box 443, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 6Z3, a book which cost me a fortune to buy used, but it was worth the Vastokas map of the glyphs.

Of course, the Vastokas had no idea that the petroglpyhs were an ancient geodetic map surveyed by the stars - including the southern stars, and their analysis is confined to the normal ethnological remarks about signs and symbols, but the making of the map was a gargantuan task which the Vastokas did beautifully.

Also spectacular at Peterborough is the presence of four signs on the glyph reading GNOMON and these four signs are the same as those found for the identical astronomical positon at Lewes, England. We thus have an absolutely certain connection of the Peterborough Petroglyphs to the megalithic peoples of Ancient Britain (and surely the Baltic and Scandinavia), so that I date this map to ca. 3117 BC, as all neolithic megalithic sites seem to stem from approximately that era.

[Update, September 8, 2002]

Steve Burdic sent me the following questions regarding the Peterborough Petroglyphs and I have added many answers.

>Andis:

>Your Peterborough Petroglyphs decipherment was very exciting "to me but
>raised many questions about the image itself, the pictographs, their
>relationship to the stars and geography. I will simply list the questions
>and trust they will guide you to explanations either to this email or in
>your future work. Keep in mind that I am a supporter and that some of these
>questions come from the perspective of those who are skeptical or not
>knowledgeable about geodetic/astronomical relationships.

>1. There are so many petroglyphic images that do not seem to relate to
>stars. Are the glyphs in groups that generally stand for constellations or
>are the individual stars depicted?

I think most of the glyphs (300 clearly redrawable and ca. 600 vague ones) represent stars. But what I have drawn there is very meager. I may try to upload some scans of the very large original map - this would have to be done in at least 10 parts, but then you would have a clear picture – the map is copyrighted by the Vastokas but I
think "fair use" would permit me to reproduce it on LexiLine. I will try to contact the Vastokas first.

Some of the rock art figures do not represent stars but are in my opinion clearly symbols of the so-called Tifinag script. The Ojibwa Algonkians also had a symbolic script.

Found at the site also were 30 gneiss hammer-stones (ca. 2 pounds each) used for carving. NOTHING ELSE at the site has been found from the original era except for some small pieces of clay pottery which could have been put there at any time. On the other hand, small stones with an origin in this Great Lakes region were found at the Miami Circle in Florida (see the LexiLine files) – a site which I date to ca. 3117 BC.

Modern experiments have shown that a smaller glyph could be pecked out of the limestone in about 30 minutes - so that the makers of the petroglyphs did not have to stay long to finish their work, although perhaps half-a-day's work might be required for some of the larger figures.

(but they may also have used copper – see below) Material in quotes from the Vastokas book....

The rock exposure for the glyphs is "roughly rectangular and is sectioned by several fissures, seams, and a series of pits."

The "north half of the decorated surface is divided by a deep fissure, almost a foot wide, at the bottom of which runs an intermittent underground stream [this in my analysis represents the
St. Lawrence Seaway]. Several other narrower fissures and seams subdivide the surface into smaller panels within which are contained the engraved figures. "

How old is the site?
"One remarkable [neighboring] Archaic site, east of [Algonkian Park], on Allumette Island in the Ottawa River, has a radiocarbon date of fifty-two hundred years ago and has yielded over a thousand copper artifacts."... "

"One site nearer to the petroglyphs [a so-called Laurentian hunter site] about 2 and 1/2 miles SE at the mouth of Jack Creek produced finds dating to ca. 5000 years ago." These will be our ancient Peterborough stonemasons.

These sites would put our Peterborough petroglyph makers around 3117 B.C.

Vastokas conclude the petroglyphs date to 900 to 1400 AD. This of course is wrong. Virtually NOTHING at all supports that date. Quite the contrary, "It seems that the very deep glyphs were engraved over eroded or shallower earlier forms."

The map on page 28 of Vastokas book shows a map of the distribution of Algonkian language speakers in North America - and this pretty much corresponds to the map formed by the rock drawing - it is again, as we know from the megaliths, a map defining territorial borders. As Vastokas write "... the Peterborough Petroglyph site would have been situated at the borderline between Algonkian and Iroquoian territory."

>2. The geographic background is broken up into color bands: light green,
>green, gray, blue; what do they depict?

I have added the colors to my rough redrawing of the map to show possible divisions and to much better show the glyphs - black on white is harder to distinguish (download the map and remove the colors in your drawing program and you will see) - otherwise the original map is simply black and white. "The rock is white crystalline limestone, ground smooth and flat by the ice of the last ice age." To get good contrast, the Vastokas darkened figures with black chalk or crayon for purposes of photography.

The added colors are intended to show more clearly the demarcations on the rock drawing on the ground. As you can see, the map is divided - as I view it - into two halves left and right with a middle section of creation at Hydrus - which I imagine was regarded to be the fountain of the deep, and also two halves north and south, with the St. Lawrence being the dividing line. In Algonkian belief Midewiwin (viz. Midewegan – location of the first Midewiwin "lodge", i.e. house) - the "hole in the sky" at the center of the universe between the earth and sky – is born in the bowels of the earth and then rises – we see this hole in the sky at Peterborough. The Algonkian cosmic axis runs along the upward-growing cedar tree – i.e. the Norse Irminsul – which is also pictured at Peterborough. The Ojibwa also had Midewiwin bark scrolls and Mide songs, used as
mnemonic devices. The head of the figure I identify as the pole star has twelve spokes as hairs on its head – the division of the zodiac into twelve regions. This figure is erroneously identified by the Vastokas as a "sun-figure" or as "the Great Spirit".

Does Algonkian retain traces of Latvian? Of course [speculative]….
Algonkian muzzinabikon "history" = Latvian muzina
("life" diminutive form) plus bija- "what was", pagaj- "past"
Algonkian saeawin "love" = Latvian sievina ("wife"
diminutive form)
Algonkian kekewin "pictographs" = Latvian kuoku "wood" vina "those"

The blue color enables easier location of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Chesapeake Bay (I forgot to mark this latter on my map drawing, but see if you can find it in the blue region), I made this portion blue, but of course the blue is not all water - and I do not know how far the rock drawing viz. rock actually extends beyond the Vastokas map. The original map color is black and white.

>3. The blue color seems to depict water; what is the actual outline of the
>land/water boundary.

Just ignore the colors to get the original rock drawing. I have added the color for easier identification.

>4. The orange color was explained as it related to the original rock
>drawings. Are there geographic features that would correspond to them
>(lakes, rivers, glacial scour marks) or an explanation of why the sky would
>be divided in that manner. There is a typo on the word divided in the
>explanation. (should be divide)

Sorry for the typo. The orange color shows deep - in part man-made, in part natural fissures - cut into the original rock. These are deep ridges which no one has been able to explain up to now.

Geographic features: It is clear that Peterborough near Stony Lake was near a major prehistoric artery of communication and travel (so Champlain in describing Huron trails in 1615), being on a waterway connecting Georgian Bay and the Bay of Quinte.

>5. Do the ethnographic explanations in the book ever relate to star
>knowledge? Do the petroglyphs relate to known (indian or other) star
>knowledge? The argo, centaurus, lupus grouping is particularly evocative.

The Vastokas book has some general reference to alleged "solar symbols" on the map e.g., for the two major symbols in the center of the rock drawing. Of course, that is completely wrong. This is the NIGHT sky.

Interestingly, the regional native American Indians had NO KNOWLEDGE of this rock drawing - either in person, legend or ancient written records - prior to its discovery in the modern era. If this had been a sacred native American Indian site, that would be quite strange. It actually looks as if the rock drawing were once made by someone long ago - as I allege, by people not from that region - and then left there for posterity to discover.

The site was only discovered in the year 1954 by mining company employees.

Moreover, as the Vastokas note, some of the glyphs are quite unique to North America - but as I might add - find comparables in the Old World. The Vastokas allege in the introduction that "external and internal evidence will readily show that the Peterborough Petroglyphs were carved by native Canadians before the coming of the Europeans to southern Ontario. Less easily determined, however, are ... which particular Indian group made them, when, and to what
purpose.
" The fact is, there is little external or internal evidence at all that some aboriginal Canadians ever made them and as Vastokas subsequently admit "[r]econstruction of the meaning behind prehistoric forms of art ... is a difficult task, and in no small danger of
erroneous conclusions.
"

Vastokas write, "There is nothing on the site... to suggest European contact". This of course is not true. All one has to do is to compare some of the rock drawings on this site with those found
in Norway and Sweden which the Vastokas do - e.g. the boats at page 123 – only to conclude that "there is no need for comparison", in spite of the fact that these boats look Scandinavian to almost everyone and surely not like canoes. This mainstream blindness to early European contact to the Americas is widespread.

>6. A more general question-what is the effect of the skymap/earth based map
>distortions caused by different projections. I am familiar with distortions
>with different land based projections but not skymaps.

What distortion are you referring to? The Heifetz planisphere for example stretches the constellations at the horizon so that they look on the sky map just as these constellations appear to the actual earth observer. Software programs such as Starry Night Pro do not correct for this.
>7. Have you dealt with the mirror image effect of viewing the stars from
>the ground or from above. Most skymaps depict the stars as seen from the
>ground but I have a star globe that views the stars as if looking down on
>them from outer space.

Yes, of course.

>I hope you find these questions stimulating. Please keep up the good work.

>Steve Burdic< <<<<<<<<<<<<

UPDATE MARCH 7, 2003


In a message dated 3/4/2003 11:08:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, Joe
Fortin forpin@hotmail.com writes:

> Greetings!
>
> I had an opertunity to read over your stuff on the petroglyphs. I
> must say, that you look like you've put a lot of time into this.
> However, I do have some questions.
>
> 1. How did the carvings survive from 3117BC until the present? I
> can't remeber if it was the Vastokas or Paul Sweetman (1954) who
> stated that the site was a located on a soft marbel. This soft
> marbel is easily scratched by a thumb nail, so how could it survive
> for 5000 years?

Geoglogy is not my field so I can only make some speculative
comments about it. One must always remember, perhaps my dating
could be wrong, though I doubt it - but it is possible.

Vastokas in their book, Sacred Art of the Algonkians, which I have at hand, at p. 10 give an estimate by Sweetman of the University of Toronto who "suggested that the forms could be as old as thirty-five hundred years or as recent as four hundred years," so another 1500 years may not make that much difference. The Vastokas say the stone is very high quality white crystalline limestone, i.e. white marble - and refer at p. 19 to comparable rock drawings in southern Minnesota 3/4 of an inch deep - so that if the original petroglyphs at Peterborough
were similarly deep, as I think they may have been, even if they had eroded quite a bit
in the interim, their outlines might still be visible, even after 5000 years. The Vastokas could only make some outlines visible by using black chalk and running their fingers over the rock surfaces.

Also, there used to be pine forests there and perhaps the needles covered the rock and protected it, also from discovery. After all, the site was only found in 1954 and was unknown to the local Native-Canadian tribes, so it must have been covered in some manner all these years and perhaps only recently exposed? Again, this is out of my field, just speculation.

There is substantiated evidence of nearby occupation dating to that era and as the Vastokas write at p. 21, it was "from about seven to three thousand years ago, during which man established himself in the deciduous forests of northeastern North America...."

It also appears possible that the "hammers" used in the "Miami Circle" in Florida - which have been traced to Canada - could come from this region. I also date the Miami Circle to 5000 years ago.

> 2. That is a beautiful map of the carvings, however I am unclear of
> a few points. First off, how could you have the Southern Triange and
> Orion on the site? Are you suggesting that both were visible in the
> night ski at such a northern latitude (or is it longditude?) 5000
> years ago? As well, you've labeled one carving "Telescopium".
> Telescopium was named by Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid
> 1700's. How could ancient peoples use the term, when it hadn't been
> coined?

The map is based on a wonderful and much better and maybe 10 times larger map in the back pocket of Vastokas book which of course I could not reproduce for copyright reasons - and which is far too large for the internet anyway. My map is at best an approximation. The book cost me a fortune to buy but you can still probably find a copy at http://www.abebooks.com, where I bought mine. Be sure to get a copy where the map is still intact in the back pocket, but it will cost you about a hundred and fifty dollars - at least mine did. That is quite a bit for a book.

The constellations mean that the ancients were seafarers and knew of these stars through their voyaging. I have deciphered several sites worldwide that show the stars of Telescopium usually as two eyes of a human head. Obviously, the ancients did not call these stars Telescopium in prehistoric days, but these stars were still there in the sky nevertheless and their relative
isolation as a duo does make them the "eyes" of that part of the heavens.

> 3. Just out of curioity, have you ever visited the Peterborough
> Petroglyphs? It might be worth your time to investage the site using
> the racked-lighting system that has been installed. I found it to be very useful.
> Joe

I have never been there and it is on my maor list of things to do especially since I have friends in the Finger Lakes District of New York and that is not that far away (by US standards).

I have no doubt I will accomplish this in coming years. Travelling is always a matter of cash and time - all of which are always in short supply. The original sites are always fabulous beyond compare to visit because I do not go as a tourist but with the eyes of the men who were there many thousands of years ago.

But for now, thank goodness for the Vastokas and their book. If you find any gross errors in my drawing let me know. I have only the Vastokas map to go by.

And welcome to LexiLine - I will be affirming your membership right after I send this letter.

Do you want this correspondence submitted to the list? I think it would interest the members.

Enjoy,

Andis

In a message dated 3/6/2003 3:46:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
forpin@hotmail.com writes:

> Please, my all means, feel free to post my questions.
>
>
> Joe

UPDATE March 15, 2003 by JOE FORTIN


Subj: The Peterborough Petroglyphs: More Questions
Date: 3/11/2003 2:23:43 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: "Joe Fortin"
To: AKaulins@aol.com

Mr. Kaulins,

I have some more questions for you in regards to your work on the
Peterborough Petroglyphs. However, before I go on, I'd like to
share with you a bit of my background.

I am a Natural Heritage Educator (interpreter) with Petroglyphs
Provincial Park, the park in which the Peterborough Petroglyphs are
protected. Part of my job as an interpreter is to make sure I am up
to date on just about every piece of information I can find about
the site. I have read not only Vastokas' work, but also that of Dr.
Barry Fell (Bronze Age America), and Paul Sweetman (Preliminary
Report...). Each of these individuals have brought their own
theories and ideas to light about the petroglyphs. I hope you view
my questions as belonging to someone who merely is trying to expand
upon their current understanding.

1. At the bottom end of your map, you have the notation "count of
60". I am wondering to what this count is refering to. What is the
significance of '60'? Which glyph is this in reference to (the
upside-down 'U' with two dots below)?

2. I am confused to what the 'chin', 'mouth', 'nose' and 'eye' are
in reference to. Are you suggesting that there is a face in the
site?

3. The majority of the orange sections of your map occur in
naturally occuring fisures and fractures of the marble. Our park
geologist has told us that the calcite marble naturally forms
straight cracks at sixty and ninety degrees. What evidence to you
have to suggest that they are man made?

4. I am wondering how you were able to assign names to the different
carvings. For example, the constellation Orion doesn't look
anything like the glyph that you have labed with that name.

5. What is 'GNOMON'? Is it a place?

6. Am I correct in assuming that the Reticulum Horologium refers to
the super-cluster of galaxies?

7. If natives did not make the majority of the carvings, who are you
suggesting did? Current park theory suggests that the carvers (most
likely a member of the Algonkian group) would have traveled to the
site and stayed for only a short period of time. The closest
settlement to the petroglyphs is at Quackenbush, representing an
Iroquoian village, about ten kilometres from Petroglyphs and does
not fall into our timeline.

8. You spoke of a camp of Laurentian hunters. Was this something
you got from the Vastokas or another source?

I have also included some websites that have images of the
petroglyph site. I assume that these are all are least four or five
years old, as the park has established restrictions on photography
(at the request of the Curve Lake First Nation).

http://www16.brinkster.com/xdigerati/personal/petro.html
http://www.canadianheritage.org/reproductions/20632.htm <-- this one
gives a good feel for how shallow some of the carvings are now. The
large birdcarving (I belive you have it labeled 'Virgo') is perhaps
the deepest carving at the site, and you can get a feel for how
shallow even it is.

Please feel free to post these questions and your responses to the
groups page.

One last quick question. What is your degree in from the University
of Nebraska, and what does "J.D. Stanford University" mean?

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I would be
more than happy to help foster a better understanding of this
important site.

Respectfuly,

Joe Fortin
Natural Heritage Education
Petroglyphs Provinical Park

UPDATE March 15, 2003 by Andis Kaulins

My answers to Joe Fortin's questions about the Peterborough
Petroglyphs are as follows:

>1. At the bottom end of your map, you have the notation "count of
>60". I am wondering to what this count is refering to. What is
>the significance of '60'? Which glyph is this in reference to (the
>upside-down 'U' with two dots below)?

The Vastokas interpret these symbols as "moose tracks" and other
symbols next to them as "bear tracks" and still others next to them
as "deer or rabbit tracks".(Sacred Art of the Algonkians, pp. 114-
116). These symbols are found in the lower right hand corner of the
Peterborough Petroglyphs. "Animal tracking" is not my field, so I do
not know whether these symbols were originally animal tracks in
conception or not - they could be, why not - but the "bear track"
symbols are not always in pairs and are found in many places on the
Petroglyphs, also just to the right and above of the "moose track
symbols" where I identify this region of the Petroglyphs with
Aquila. There the bear tracks could easily be seen as individual
stars along the left axis of Aquila. Since they are not all paired -
the "tracks" theory is not probable.

Each upside down "U" is in my opinion a 10 (as in Egyptian
hieroglyphs - see http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi66.htm) -
and each pebble is "1" - the Vastokas had pictured five of these
symbols ("U" plus "2 pebbles"), so I thought this was 5 x 12 = 60,
but I had no idea what it meant, so I gave no explanation previously.

Upon reviewing the actual photograph of the "moose tracks" at Plate
23 in Vastokas book (p. 114), however, I find the Vastokas have left
one such "moose track" out of their map drawing, and there are
actually 6 such symbols, with one still higher yet than the topmost
symbol shown on the Vastokas map.

Hence, we actually have 6 x 12 = 72 as a number marked there and
that now makes sense at this location since this number line is
directly below the back of Pegasus and the front of Capricorn, a
position which marks the Winter Solstice in ca. 3117
BC. Every 72 years the position of the solstice moves one degree
within the stars - we call this "precession" of the equinoxes and
solstices. The precessional circle of 360 degrees is thus traveled
in 25920 years. This position is thus the GNOMON of precession.
According to Peter Tompkins, Secrets of the Great Pyramid, p.
372, "most usually [Greek] gnomon means "pointer of the dial" and
the "geodetic gnomon" (p. 387) is "a vertical pillar whose shadow
can be used to determine time, distance, and latitude." Even the
Australian Aborigines also had "pointer stars" (see my answer
to 6 below).

Hence, the makers of the petroglyphs are telling us that the pointer
of the dial of heaven is the winter solstice point and that this
dial is moved one degree every 72 years. [In modern times, we adjust
for this problem by adding leap years to your calendar.]

>2. I am confused to what the 'chin', 'mouth', 'nose' and 'eye'
>are in reference to. Are you suggesting that there is a face in
>the site?

Yes, perhaps this is chance, but the right side of the Petroglyphs
does clearly resemble a face. I have not been on site and do not
know what is beyond the border's edge of that face or whether there
is any geologic evidence that that stone's edges have been worked by
hand to be that way. It is not critical to my analysis. I merely
note what I see (or think I see).

>3. The majority of the orange sections of your map occur in
>naturally occuring fisures and fractures of the marble. Our park
>geologist has told us that the calcite marble naturally forms
>straight cracks at sixty and ninety degrees. What evidence to you
>have to suggest that they are man made?

I would turn the question around. For slabs of marble anywhere else
on the ground in Canada or elsewhere, are there other locations or
photos you can refer me to where such intermittent and wide fissures
and fractures have a similar shape, depth, extension and roundness
of edges? I do not know if this is so - I am asking the geologist
for photos of one similar site showing such fissures.

In any case, it is not critical to my analysis whether these
fissures are purely natural, "man-improved" natural or man-carved.
Surely many fissures are natural to rocks. Indeed, there would be no
problem with admitting that all are natural originally and
suggesting that the ancients then selected this particular slab of
rock especially because the already previously existng "lines" were
well suited and thus adaptable to the ancient's astronomical purpose
and design. I stated "man-made" however because it seems to me -
based on the photos that I have seen - that the fissures
appear "rounded" at the surface level and some - especially the
short fissures and rounded holes - appear to be "carved" into the
rock. But I am no geologist and will have to abide by what the
geologists tell us. I have a good friend who is a university
professor and whose field is geology - he tells me my questions
about the carving of rocks are difficult to answer.

>4. I am wondering how you were able to assign names to the
>different carvings. For example, the constellation Orion doesn't
>look anything like the glyph that you have labed with that name.

I have deciphered a number of ancient artifacts which show ORION as
a large rotating wheel in heaven - just as at the Peterborough
Petroglyphs - see in our LexiLine files under
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%20Planispheres/

(note that Yahoo will cut off the URLs below so you have to enter
the full link by hand or go to the URL above and find the graphics
under "Utah Indians North America" or "Egypt-Norse Connection" etc.)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/Utah%20Indians%20North%20America/utahplan.gif
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/Kurgan%20planisphere/maikop2.gif
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/Egypt%20-%20Norse%20connection/egypnors.gif
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/Egypt%20-%20Norse%20connection/egypship.gif
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/TanumAtFossumSweden/tanumdd.gif
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Ancient%
20Planispheres/TanumAtFossumSweden/tanum001.gif

Essentially, the three stars of Orion's Belt are the middle of the
wheel and the other stars circulate around, originally as animals
driving the wheel.

>5. What is 'GNOMON'? Is it a place?

See my answer to question Nr. 1 above.

>6. Am I correct in assuming that the Reticulum Horologium refers
>to the super-cluster of galaxies?

These are constellations in the southern skies, not visible at
Peterborough, but with which the ancients were familiar as
prehistoric sea voyagers. Ancient legends - see Richard Hinckley
Allen, Star Names, Dover Publications - recount that an ancient king
had the southern skies mapped in a manner comparable to that already
known for the northern skies. Of course, our current names for the
constellations of the southern skies are "modern". For example,
Hydrus is a modern constellation named by Johann Bayer and published
in his 1603 atlas. Horologium is a southern constellation mapped out
by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille circa 1750. Reticulum was mapped by
Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille about 1752.

See http://the-tech.mit.edu/~derz/constellations.pdf
where it is written as follows:

"La Caille (1713–62) can be regarded as the
Hevelius of the southern hemisphere, the man
who completed the earlier surveys by Keyser
and de Houtman and the first person to
systematically observe the whole sky. During
11 frenetic months of observation in Cape Town
(1750–1754), La Caille charted over 10,000
stars with a half-inch telescope. The names of
his constellations leave little doubt as to what
dominated his thoughts:
ANTLIA (the air pump),
CAELUM (the engraver's tool),
CIRCINUS (the geometer's compass),
FORNAX (after Lavoisier's chemical furnace),
HOROLOGIUM (the clock),
MICROSCOPIUM (the microscope),
NORMA (the carpenter's square),
OCTANS (Hadley's octant),
PICTOR (the easel),
RETICULUM (the telescope reticule, used for
centering stars),
SCULPTOR (the Sculptor), and
TELESCOPIUM (the telescope).

In addition, La Caille honored Table
Mountain with the constellation MENSA, a
constellation perpetually enshrouded in the
Large Magellanic Cloud just as Table Mountain
is so often wreathed in clouds.
Not content with having invented 13 new
constellations, mainly named for tools and
instruments, La Caille also saw fit to break up
the expansive classical constellation Argo
Navis, in turn creating CARINA (the keel), VELA
(the sail), PUPPIS (the poop deck), and PYXIS (the
ship's compass house)." [end of quote]

But of course, these southern stars existed long before these modern
men lived, and the southern stars were known to ancient peoples of
the south and to seafarers, who shaped them somewhat differently
than we do today, but not that far differently apparently, since
certain star groups appear as natural "pictures" and are grouped
together by different peoples in similar ways.

See e.g.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/parchive/2001/S2001-Mar-
16/library.thinkquest.org/C005462/emu.html
(the above is very interesting to our discussion since it shows rock
carvings as constellations of the southern sky)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2668539.stm
http://ching.apana.org.au/~paulc/loreaussie.html
http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/the_southern_cross.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005462/abastro.html
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/parchive/2001/S2001-Mar-
16/library.thinkquest.org/C005462/scross.html

Moreover, American Indians saw the Northern stars quite similarly to
Western systems
See e.g.
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stars/startabs.html#hillsmap

>7. If natives did not make the majority of the carvings, who are
>you suggesting did? Current park theory suggests that the carvers
>(most likely a member of the Algonkian group) would have traveled
>to the site and stayed for only a short period of time. The
>closest settlement to the petroglyphs is at Quackenbush,
>representing an Iroquoian village, about ten kilometres
>from Petroglyphs and does not fall into our timeline.

Obviously, all ancient peoples had an "astronomy" in the sense that
they observed the stars and gave different groups of stars different
names. However, more sophisticated astronomy involving precession of
the solstices and equinoxes, plus an understanding that there is a
north ecliptic pole and a north celestial pole, and applying this
astronomy to geodetics is a different matter. In my opinion, the
people who made the Peterborough Petroglyphs are the same people who
made the Miami Circle, i.e. ancient seafarers who were surveying the
Earth ca. 3117 BC. Perhaps these are also the forefathers of some of
the Indian Tribes now found there - and maybe not - this is not my
field. I personally doubt that the native Indian tribes made these
drawings, they do not look Indian but rather Scandinavian.
Especially the boats depicted are very similar to Norse and
predynastic Egyptian boats as found in graphics cited above in my
answer to question 4. As to originating original origins, the
geneticists will be able to answer that question in due time. (See
also the Vastokas discussion
p. 138)

>8. You spoke of a camp of Laurentian hunters. Was this something
you got from the Vastokas or another source?

Vastokas write at p. 24 "What supplementary archaeological evidence
is available is limited to seven small fragments of pottery [in my
opinion these are much younger and thus useless - AK] and, possibly,
two nearby sites. One of these sites, two and a half miles southeast
of the petroglyphs, at the mouth of Jack Creek, produced some worked
flint chips, a stone gouge, and a ground slate point, finds that
would date the presence of Laurentian [sic] hunters in this vicinity
at least five thousand years ago." [Note: it is probably an
error to call these Laurentian hunters - they seem to be the People
of the Shield, as explained below]

The much younger Iroquois Quackenbush settlement that you refer to
is also referred to by the Vastokas (p. 24) where they write "The
second site, five miles southeast of the petroglyphs, at the very
edge of the Canadian Shield [this was the ancient geodetic border]
is a sizeable Iroquois village that flourished some five hundred
years ago."

The "People of the Shield" were the culture, as the Vastokas write
(p. 21) which involved "tools and ornaments of stone and copper as
well as red ochre...." [red ochre was used to bury the shaman at
Paviland in the United Kingdom] "They were ... fishermen .. who
located their campsites along the major rivers, interior lakes, and
islands accessible only by watercraft."