Americas Populated Only Recently - LexiLine Journal 329

The highly acclaimed Edge Foundation
http://www.edge.org/
has 120 prominent minds commenting on John Brockman's question:
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?

At Law Pundit (http://www.lawpundit.com) I have been, inter alia, commenting on these comments by 120 prominent minds: The most recent is the belief that the Americas were populated only recently http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/diamond.html
a belief voiced by JARED DIAMOND, Professor, biologist and geographer at UCLA and author
of a superbly interesting book called Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670033375

Diamond believes that:

"[H]umans first reached the continents of North America, South America, and Australia only very recently, at or near the end of the last Ice Age."

and that

"Every year, discoveries of many purportedly older sites are announced, then to be forgotten. As the supporting evidence dissolves or remains disputed, we're now in a steady state of new claims and vanishing old claims, like a hydra constantly sprouting new heads."

The reason, says Diamond, is:

"It makes better newspaper headlines to report "Wow!! New discovery overturns the established paradigm of American archaeology!!" than to report, "Ho hum, yet another reportedly paradigm-overturning discovery fails to hold up."

Take a look at his entire statement, which is well worth reading.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/diamond.html

El-Hosh Egypt Petroglyph Deciphered as Astronomy - A Planisphere of the Heavens - LexiLine Journal 328

To our files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Egypt/ I have added the file nubianastro.png [the graphic below] which is my astronomical decipherment of a petroglyph from El-Hosh, Egypt, south of Edfu and north of Aswan.

The petroglyph is found at http://intarch.ac.uk/antiquity/huyge.html where Antiquity has an article entitled "Dating Egypt's oldest 'art': AMS 14C age determinations of rock varnishes covering petroglyphs at El-Hosh (Upper Egypt)" by D. Huyge, A. Watchman, M. De Dapper & E. Marchi.

Those authors date the El-Hosh Upper Egypt rock drawings by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C Method to the 6th millennium BC and allege that this is the oldest recorded graphic activity in the Nile Valley.

This measurement is in our opinion false.

The researchers had various locations at El-Hosh at their disposal and obtained the following values for the sites based on only FOUR values out of FIFTEEN samples taken - the remainder not having resulted in sufficient material for analysis:

"Abu Tanqurah Bahari, Locality 2, Panel 1 57553 6690 270 5900
(68%) 5300
Abu Tanqurah Bahari, Locality 7, Panel 1 60893 3740 300 2600
(68%) 1700
Gebelet Jussef, Locality 2, Panel 1 60892 2450 320 1000 (68%) 100
Abu Tanqurah Bahari, Locality 3, Panel 3 60891 2280 320 800 (68%)
ad 50"

Only ONE of the four, i.e. one of the total of FIFTEEN samples supports the ancient date alleged by the authors.

The other three samples gave a maximum date of 2600 BC. Hence, that one deviant sample is definitely questionable and highly unreliable. This work can by no means be used to allege that the El-Hosh rock art is from 6000 BC.

Quite the contrary, we have been able to decipher one of the panels as astronomy and can also categorically say that the phallic symbols visible on the petroglyph are phallic symbols. The allegedly present fish-trapping devices, alleged by the authors, do not exist. This should already have been clear since no fish are to be seen on the petroglyph.

The key to our decipherment was the lower left-hand figure, which we magnified in our graphics programs, and it clearly shows the head of a man holding two animals, one in each hand, as on the wall painting at Hierakonpolis, where this picture represents Sirius and Canis Major, based on my decipherment of it. See http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi240.htm

The phallic symbols represent in one case Gemini and the rest are the Milky Way. I recall seeing a documentary film some years ago that there are Nubian tribes in this region of the Nile that still practice phallic worship, so that these will be the authors of this rock drawing, perhaps in concert with a megalithic surveyor.

The petroglyph has a unique 3-D perspective if one stares at it for a while, which allows the long dark "posts" to be identified as a fence, which I interpret as marking the Vernal Equinox ca. 3000 BC. At that time, Orion is to the left of that equinox line, and so the three dark shorter posts with a larger square-like object in front of them (the star theta with M42 and M43) are the three stars of Orion's Belt.

The head above Orion can only be Auriga. Taurus is shown to the right of the equinox line as a V-shape. Perseus is in an animal with a thin long neck.

Cassiopeia (Cepheus is also possible) is a large human head. The remainder of the identifications are speculative and provisional due to the poor quality of the petroglyph.

Rightfulness of Claims to the Holy Land - LexiLine Journal 327

I have uploaded a map as the file holyland18thdynasty.png [the graphic below]


to our LexiLine files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Holy%20Land/
The map is based on a map found in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt p. 233.
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198150342/

Who rightfully claims the Holy Land of the Fertile Crescent?

In the previous posting, I published my "Decipherment of the Megaliths of the Holy Land", showing that these megalithic sites were erected ca. 3000 BC as an astronomically based survey of the land by the megalith builders.

Although the identity of the megalith makers may still be open to question, there is no question that megalithic markers served as boundary stones in ancient days. See Stars Stones and Scholars.

These boundaries were persistent and the owners of lands so marked have retained them for thousands of years, all over the world.

As shown in the uploaded map, it is quite clear, for example, that the Holy Land was ruled by the Pharaohs of Egypt in the 18th Dynasty prior to the Amarna Period. See The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw, p. 233
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198150342/

Pharaonic presence in the Holy Land goes back to the early Dynasties (pp. 65-66, 77-78) and we think that Pharaonic civilization goes hand in hand with the history of the Hebrews. See generally http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexikwik.htm

Who were the megalith builders?

Shaw writes (pp. 65-66) that starting with Flinders Petrie, many persons have claimed that Egyptian civilization was founded by a migrating group of people, and we also hold to that view, especially since the recent discovery of long boats at Abydos dating to ca. 3000 BC.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/farflt.htm

Dieter Braasch in his book Pharaonen und Sumerer - Megalithiker aus dem Norden [The Pharoahs and Sumerians - Megalith Builders from the North],
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3878471661/ analyzes the history of ship-building technology in ancient days and suggests that the boat-building technology used by the Ancient
Egyptians to make seaworthy craft had to come from elsewhere originally, even if it were then later developed indigenously. It is also worth mentioning in this regard that the oldest known wooden boats stem from the Baltic Sea ca. 6000 BC [i.e. Balto-Scandia].
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/farflt.htm

What about Earlier Periods?

Earlier periods take us back again to the region of Madaba and Amman. We quote from the book Stars Stones and Scholars, p. 19:

"One of the earliest centers of civilization in the Ancient Near East is `Ain Ghazal, near Amman, Jordan. The archaeological excavation of `Ain Ghazal has led to stratified layers of inhabitation
representing the following – alleged – chronological time periods. [footnote 33: Gary Rollefson and Zeidan kafafi, The Town of 'Ain Ghazal, online at http://inic.utexas.edu/menic/ghazal/intro/int.html]

Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (MPPNB) 7250 – 6500 BC
Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (LPPNB) 6500 – 6000 BC
Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) 6000 – 5500 BC
Yarmukian Pottery Neolithic 5500 – 5000 BC (?)

Human figurines molded of clay and plaster – which look "Magdalenian" – appear at `Ain Ghazal and Jericho at the start of the MPPNB. [footnote 34: To see these figurines, go to http://www.asia.si.edu/jordan/html/jor_mm.htm the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery exhibition at the Smithsonian
Institution.]

The Yarmukian influx of pottery coincides with the [alleged Black Sea] Flood. Was the end of the MPPNB actually the time of the Flood? Rollefsen and Kafafi write that the end of the pre-pottery period in the Levant was marked by great changes in the settlement of the region. Farming villages in the area of modern Israel and the Jordan Valley were abandoned and migrating populations then surfaced in highland areas, as in Jordan, and certainly some at `Ain Ghazal. Was Ghazal the home of the Catals, Gaidels, Gaetuli & the later Cohen Gadols?"

Written further at Stars Stones and Scholars (p.23):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1412013445/

"Yosef Garfinkel writes that the term "Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC)" has been coined to deal with the results presented by the period from 6100 to 5600 BC, based on the new stratigraphic evidence from the site `Ain Ghazal near Amman, Jordan.

Previously there had been a transition seen from Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to the Yarmukian Neolithic Pottery Period, but this division could not deal effectively with the new archaeological finds.

Garfinkel concludes that Yarmukian pottery also at `Ain Ghazal and Jericho shows two different styles of workmanship and design and is thus evidence of the presence of two different peoples.

Yarmukian pottery (also spelled Yarmoukian) has been described by E.B. Banning to include decoration with bands in which rows of chevrons are incised [the herring-bone pattern]. [footnote 41: E.B. Banning, University of Toronto, Syllabus, Lecture of February 14, 2001, online at http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~banning/ARH_360files/360Y5.htm]

The pottery from Jericho IX, which is also called Lodian, on the other hand, is much more a painted pottery type, using diagonal lines and marked by knobs and handles near the rim. [footnote 42: E.B. Banning, ibid.]

Garfinkel writes, most significantly for an accurate understanding of the ancient history of the Near East, that there is a clear geographic distribution of the pottery types. [footnote 43: Yosef
Garfinkel, The Yarmukian Culture in Israel, Paleorient 19/1, 1993, pp.115-134, online at http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/archaeology/golan/articl11.htm]

The incised [geometric] Yarmukian pottery is found in the northern and central areas of present-day Israel, whereas the painted pottery [non-geometric] is found in the southern areas of present-day Israel. This north-south difference continues today.

Boian pottery is like Yarmukian pottery in design. Hence, incised pottery is the pottery of the peoples fleeing the Black Sea Flood. From the point of view of the present book, this means that
the 'people of the Flood', the Magdalenians, had arrived in the Near East, catalyzing ancient Near East Civilization. Indeed, the incised herring-bone design is then later found on the artifacts of thePharaohs."

This would mean that the migrant peoples were seafarers who came from Europe via the Black Sea, a hypothesis substantiated by the wooden boats from 3000 BC at Abydos.

These boats at Abydos used the following technology:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/farflt.htm

"After examining the hull section, Dr. Ward ["Dr. Cheryl Ward, a nautical archaeologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee"] said the flat-bottomed boat reflected "a previously undocumented style of construction" for that period. The boat appeared to be built from the outside in, in contrast to the later shipbuilding technique of starting with an internal frame. The thick planks were lashed together by rope fed through mortises. The seams between planks were filled with bundles of reeds to make the boat watertight. Additional reeds carpeted the floor."

Herodotus in his History (Book II)
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_herodotus_2.htm
[Herodotus Histories translated into English by G.C. Macaulay]
writes about Egyptian boats as follows:

"96. Their boats with which they carry cargoes are made of the thorny acacia, of which the form is very like that of the Kyrenian lotos, and that which exudes from it is gum. From this tree they cut pieces of wood about two cubits in length and arrange them like bricks, fastening the boat together by running a great number of long bolts through the two-cubit pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together, they lay cross-pieces[81] over the top, using no ribs for the sides; and within they caulk the seams with papyrus. They make one steering-oar for it, which is passed through the bottom of the boat; and they have a mast of acacia and sails of papyrus. These boats cannot sail up the river unless there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore: down-stream however they travel as follows:--they have a door-shaped crate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also a stone of about two talents weight bored with a hole; and of these the boatman lets the
crate float on in front of the boat, fastened with a rope, and the stone drag behind by another rope. The crate then, as the force of the stream presses upon it, goes on swiftly and draws on the /baris/ (for so these boats are called), while the stone dragging after it behind and sunk deep in the water keeps its course straight. These boats they have in great numbers and some of them carry many thousands of talents' burden."

See also Pharaonic Ships and Boats.
http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/timelines/topics/navigation.htm

Holy Land Megaliths Deciphered - Tall Al Umayri - Madaba Plains - LexiLine Journal 326

To our LexiLine Files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/ I have added a new folder entitled Holy Land: Decipherment of the Megaliths of the Holy Land
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Holy%20Land/

In that folder I am placing these files [here seen in the .png graphic below]
megalithsoftheholyland.gif and megalithsoftheholyland.png

under the title Astronomical Decipherment of the Megaliths of the Holy Land.

I am also uploading to that file another file already found in our LexiLine Jordan file
tallalumayri.png which shows the Megaliths of Tall al-Umayri, Madaba Plains, also
deciphered as astronomy by me previously.

These files intersect and complement one another as Tall al-Umayri, Madaba is a planisphere centered at Andromeda. In the megalithic survey of the Holy Land ca. 3000 BC, Madaba is a
star of Andromeda. It is a perfect match.

My book Stars Stones and Scholars does not have a decipherment of the megaliths of the Holy Land because I had previously not deciphered them due to insufficient materials.

Due to an amazing stroke of good fortune, I recently acquired a book by Dieter Braasch entitled "Pharaonen und Sumerer - Megalithiker aus dem Norden" which contains a map of megalithic sites in the Holy Land (p. 171) based on an original map published by Peter Thomsen (1875-
1954) in a book entitled "Kompendium der palästinensichen Altertumskunde" and published in 1913 (Verlag von J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1913. (VIII, 109 pp.) 23x16 cm. Wrappers, frontspiece, 42 text figures, German text.) AbeBooks at http://www.abebooks.com
has numerous copies available at varying prices.

According to my decipherment, which leaves no doubt whatsoever, The MEGALITHIC sites of the Holy Land (Fertile Crescent, today's Israel, Palestine, parts of Jordan) are an astronomical sky map (Planisphere) of the Heavens ca. 3000 BC, an astronomical geodetic survey which is
recorded at TALL AL UMAYRI on the Madaba Plains in Jordan south of Amman and east of Jerusalem with Madaba marking principally Andromeda as confirmed by this new megalithic map based on Thomsen (1914) and Braasch (1997) and as deciphered by yours truly, Andis Kaulins, in 2005.

Based on a Vernal Equinox point ca. 3000 BC just West of Beersheba, the megalithic sites on Thomsen's map extend from Beersheba in the South to Sidon in the North.

ALL of the megalithic sites of the Holy Land on Thomsen's map represent stars of the heavens. These sites are found organized into clusters of stars which represent classical stellar constellations of the sky, some as we see them today, some somewhat different, but all clearly recognizable. It would be possible to err on one or two such constellations, but not on this many. The overlap of the Holy Land Megaliths with this star map by pure chance is zero. There is no doubt that this was an ancient survey of the region by the megalith makers.

In the south are marked Aries, Triangulum, Andromeda, Perseus and Auriga. Today's Jerusalem would be located at the top of Perseus as the star gamma, west of Madaba (southwest of Amman, Jordan), which marks the star beta in Andromeda.

Perseus and Auriga are to the West of the Dead Sea, whereas Aries, Triangulum and Andromeda are to the right of the Dead Sea.

The River Jordan to the North thus marks Al Risha, the legendary cord of the fish in astronomy. I had suspected this earlier when I wrote about Madaba:

"In the astronomical survey of the fertile crescent, we thus find - provisionally - that Jordan apparently marked Andromeda, as evidenced by the large prominent stone in the temple which has the stars of Andromeda cupmarked on it. JORDAn is a name said to derive from Hebrew YARAD meaning "descend" or "flow down" and thus originally applied to the River Jordan. We find the ancient Arabic name al 'ARD for Andromeda to be possibly related (see Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, p. 36). Perhaps this is origin of the astronomical line marked here at Andromeda as al RISHA, the band of the fish, which was called ARIT in Egypt, according to Renouf. All of those terms are similar matching the geography to astronomy in the
hermetic tradition."

North of the Dead Sea, we find Cassiopeia to the right of Cord of the Fish except for one star to the left. The "5-point-dice" form of Cepheus is also to the right of the River Jordan as is Lacerta, a constellation which the ancients considered important in ancient days.

Above Cepheus we find stars of Draco (apparently intermingled with the bright stars of Ursa Minor?) in a large half circle to mark the North Ecliptic Pole, i.e. the immovable "eye of God" in the heavens.

To the left are the stars of Ursa Major (not complete - are some megalithic sites missing?). To the right of and above Draco, as well as to the right of the Sea of Galilee, we find megalithic sites
marking Cygnus and Lyra.

The big surprise is found further north where all the bright stars of Hercules are used to mark the northern region of the Holy Land.

To the left we find Tyros (Tyre) marking Arc-Turus and Sidon (Latvian Ziedon-is, blossom) marking Spica.

We do not know if any megalithic sites exist North or South of these marked Megaliths.

In spite of the constant strife over this region in modern times, in 3000 BC the Holy Land belonged to the megalith-makers.

UPDATE : A small correction has been made to this decipherment.

Norte Chico, Caral, Peru - 3000 BC - LexiLine Journal 325

ABC News in Australia carried the following story on Thursday, January 6, 2005. 4:00pm (AEDT) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1277690.htm

"US archaeologists accused of plagiarism

A Peruvian archaeologist has accused two US archaeologists of
plagiarising her work on the Caral complex, recently determined to be
the oldest site in the Americas.

The official news agency Andina reported Ruth Shady accused Chicago-
area archaeologists Jonathan Haas and his wife Winifred Creamer
before the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) with taking her
work on Caral, Ms Shady told Andina.

Mr Haas and Ms Creamer may want to appear as the discoverers of the
complex - one of the most important in the world due to its
antiquity - or they might be seeking money for their "alleged"
investigations, Ms Shady said.

Caral is located some 200 kilometres on the coast north of Lima.

It is part of several sites collectively known as the Norte Chico.

Researchers say the Norte Chico sites are 5,000 years old - much
older than previously sites in the Americas and from the same period
of the Egyptian pyramids.

Peru's National Institute of Culture (INC), headed by distinguished
archaeologist Luis Lumbreras, said the institute is working on a
formal document to submit to the SAA's ethics committee.

The report by Mr Haas - a curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, and
Ms Creamer, a professor at Northern Illinois University - was
published in December in the British journal Nature.

Recent work led by Ms Shady uncovered five 20-metre high terrace
pyramids in Caral.

The site has been known for some 40 years, but only studied in detail
over the past decade. -AFP"

I do not know the facts of the case and hence make no judgment on who
is right or wrong here, as I am sure it will be resolved within the
archaeological community.

This dispute, however, highlights the importance of the Norte Chico
culture for ancient history. Obviously, if pyramids are first
appearing at exactly the same time in Peru as they did in Egypt, then
it is simply impossible that these are unrelated developments.
Rather, the technology of the Old World has then clearly been brought
to the New World by ancient seafarers, as I have always claimed.

Northumberland (England) Rock Art - Stan Beckensall - LexiLine Journal 324

A website inspired by and celebrating the life work of rock art specialist Stan Beckensall has been established at Northumberland Rock Art, Web Access to the Beckensall Archive at
http://rockart.ncl.ac.uk/

The website features ca. 6000 images, including the planned inclusion of 250 new prehistoric rock carvings recently found in Northumberland (England) by Newcastle University archaeologists.

The Yorkshire Post of January 15, 2005 writes at http://snipurl.com/c1ww viz. http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=920898

in "Prehistoric rock art revealed" by Julie Hemmings:

"Experts are still grappling with the origins and meaning of these abstract carvings, believed to be the work of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people between 6,000 and 3,500 years ago. Discoveries by Newcastle University archaeologists include a collection at Goatstones, near Wark, Northumberland, where a haul of 14 carved stones was found. Elsewhere in the county, a farmer alerted the team to seven previously unrecorded panels on his land. Stones with similar cup and ring carvings have been found elsewhere, including Ilkley Moor and the Chesterfield area of Derbyshire. Last year English Heritage archaeologists discovered a carved stone, with unusual geometric carvings they think might be a map, near Fylingdales on the North York Moors. It was exposed after a major blaze on the moors in September 2003."

Numerous books by Beckensall are available through bookstores: e.g. Prehistoric Northumberland at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0752425439/
or British Prehistoric Rock Art at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0752425145/

Ancient Map of the Moon at Knowth - LexiLine Journal 323

Via the Center for Archaeoastronomy at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/ae32.html I ran across an April 22, 1999 BBC article by BBC News Online Science Editor Dr. David Whitehouse at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/325290.stm entitled Prehistoric Moon map unearthed and reporting on Dr. Philip Stooke, University of Western Ontario, Canada, who clearly has identified an ancient map of the Moon "carved into a rock in one of Ireland's most remarkable prehistoric tombs at Knowth, County Meath".

To see how close that Moon map is to more modern "Moon maps" see especially the Moon map of Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 at
http://snipurl.com/bzav
http://www.kernchemie.uni-mainz.de/~pfeiffer/aag/gut/vortr/v14.html

Whitehouse writes:

"The people who carved this Moon map were the first scientists," said Dr Stooke. "They knew a great deal about the motion of the Moon. They were not primitive at all."

The passage tomb at Knowth is estimated to be about 5,000 years old. It was obviously built by men who had a sophisticated understanding of the motions of the Sun, Moon and stars.

It is known that many stone circles and ancient tombs are aligned with the Sun but less attention has been paid to possible lunar alignments. This is despite the fact that at certain times the Moon
can rise or set at any location on the horizon that the Sun can....

Investigations at Knowth almost 20 years ago showed that at certain times moonlight could shine down the eastern passage of the tomb.

Remarkably, the moonlight would also fall on the Neolithic lunar map."

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

This identification of a Moon Map at Knowth is important for understanding the sophistication of the ancient megalithic culture.

First, it shows that the ancients had more interest and more knowledge about astronomy than they have been given credit for by mainstream scholars.

Second, it shows that figures were carved on stone by the ancients to represent astronomical objects.

Third, it shows that the ancients mapped astronomical objects by carving onto rock, which was their "paper". All three of these support the decipherment of the megaliths as found in Stars Stones and Scholars.

Origins of the Words for the Names of Metals - LexiLine Journal 322

At LexiLine I have a page devoted to the origin of the names of the metals, see
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi139.htm

Peter van der Krogt cites to may work at his interesting site devoted to Elementymology
http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/
i.e. to the origin of the names of the elements, including metals.

I recently sent him the following observations based on my reading of his work:

"Thank you for including my thoughts about the etymologies of metals in your pages. I would prefer „futuristic" to the word „peculiar" but they are your pages, so you must use what you feel to be accurate. I am not sure, however, if departing from mainstream thought is properly categorized as „peculiar", especially in linguistics. Most mainstream linguists are still living in the 18th century and have not caught up with the times. The Baltic languages are very archaic (are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues) but since most linguists do not speak them and are too lazy to learn them, they ignore them, to the detriment of etymology.

TIN

I noticed that you have Turkish Kalay and Indo-Iranian k"alah for tin. The Latvian term for „smith" is Kalej(s) so that we surely have an ancient connection there.

Latvian also makes sense of Latin stannum since Latvian stien(is) means „bar" or „ingot" which I see as related to Latvian stiep-, a word applied to things that are ductile, extensible, tensile, i.e. capable of being stretched out. Latvian stiepam(s) or stienam(s) would mean literally „stretchable". In other words, the Latvian term for „bar" or „ingot" is probably based on the molten „shapeable" form of bars or ingots as ancient smiths formed them before they hardened during the process of cooling.

Note that you can thus isolate three separate lines of etymology for words naming tin:

1) one line of etymology based on naming the metal by the ductile bars and ingots in molten form (Latvian stien-, Latin stannum – I place Latvian first because it is simply more archaic than Latin)
2) one line of etymology based on the firing procedure in the oven (Latvian alva, Slavic olovo), i.e. adding more air to the fire for greater heat
3) one line of etymology based on „smithing" per se (Latvian kalej-)

The Hebrew term b-dil may be related to Latvian dzel(s) „iron" (see dzel- at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi139.htm. That makes sense since the Greek comparable term kassitoros and Arabic qaSdir are surely to be divided as a word into the enclitic particle ka- plus sidero-, the Greek term for „iron". Since
Latvian ka- means „as", kassiteros would mean „like iron". Hence, the hypothetical *ka-tsvi?ra- looks pretty good from here. The root of sidero- is surely found retained in e.g. German sieden meaning „boil", the comparable term to latvian vār-. „boil".

That pretty much takes care of the etymology of words for Tin. All are related to smithing, molting and boiling.

COPPER

You explain northern Slavic Miedz or MED for Copper as being corruptions from the German Schmied meaning „smith". This is rather doubtful as the etymology for German Schmied viz. English Smith is not even known beyond Old Norse smidhja.
I bet some German linguist came up with that one.

In Latvian MAT(et) means „to tarnish" as copper does or to „deaden" or „dull" metal, so that here you have a case of copper being named for that feature.

You probably also see Latvian MAT- in the root of the English word METal, i.e. as named for those metals which „tarnish". Metal is currently seen to stem from Greek metallon, and that word too is surely rooted in MET- or MAT- „tarnish", which appplies to almost all metals except those such as gold which we view to be „noble metals", or as the Germans say „Edelmetall".

Calendar Start December 25, 3117 BC - LexiLine Journal 321

UPDATE from the year 2010

Please note: The astronomical Delta-T value is disputed among the astronomers and influences the calculation of solar eclipses. For example, our original calculation of a December 25, 3117 B.C. solar eclipse may, according to Alcyone Software http://www.alcyone.de/, actually be the June 29, 3117 B.C. (Julian) solar eclipse over Cairo. This does not influence our basic arguments, but only details. The first Dynasty began at this time, even if shifted six months.
______________

A reader has written to ask how I arrived at December 25, 3117 BC as the alleged start of the Pharaonic Egyptian, Hindu (Vedic) and Maya calendar(s). Here is my answer.

The dates I use are based on an many years of analysis of Pharaonic Egpytian dynasties and other sources - Sumerian artifacts, the Maya and Hindu calendars, etc., which are currently said to start in 3114 BC and 3012 BC respectively - see e.g.

http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html
http://www.vedicsky.com/KeyFeatures.pdf
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-ancient.html

as well as on the basis of a study of solar eclipses and on the way the megaliths mark the sky at megalithic sties. Due to precession, the sky "moves" - as seen from the earth - in a cycle of ca. 26,000 years, so that the positions of the solstices and equinoxes in the sky of stars (as marked e.g. on the megaliths) also move. If a solstice or equinox is marked on an ancient stone as taking place within a given constellation, the date can be computed. There is a lot of information at http://www.megaliths.net on this but for the calendar in particular see:

http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi20.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi760.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi18.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi768.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi762.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi75.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi203.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi78.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi102.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi11.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi69.htm

This is complicated stuff. For now, my analysis must be considered very speculative, until or unless it is confirmed down the road by other researchers. The Maya scholars do not budge from their August 3114 BC date, but as I show at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi75.htm they are clearly in error.

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio is Ursa Major - LexiLine Journal 320

I just had a couple questions sent to me by a reader. Here are my answers to those two questions.

1. I think that the Great Serpent Mound of Ohio represents the stars of Ursa Major. This is part of an ancient survey of the Americas by astronomy, as I describe in my book Stars Stones and Scholars – where I have the Great Serpent Mound designated as Chilicotte, Ohio. The serpent is thus wrapped around and below the North Pole ca. 3117 BC. This is to be distinguished from Draco, which is wrapped around the North Ecliptic Pole, which is not the Pole Star, but rather the center around which the circle of precession – as represented by the Pole Star on that circle of precession – winds on its path of ca. 26,000 years.

2. The ancients were able to determine – as we do – that precession accounts for a shift of equinoxes and solstices and pole star by one degree in the stars every 72 years, so that a "fullcircle" is made in about 26,000 years, i.e. 72 x 360 degrees = 25920 years. This knowledge could have been obtained by the ancients within a few hundred years of observing the stars, but may have been the product of millennia of observing the stars prior to 3000 BC.

Human Blood Groups and World Distribution - Sources - LexiLine Journal 319

The distribution of human blood groups is one key to ancient human
migrations: see the LexiLine website pages on this topic at:
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi23.htm (try to solve the puzzle
I have posed in the text of the first graphic on that page)
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi165.htm
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi9.htm

For some general introductory and more sophisticated sources on human
blood groups, see these pages online:

Blood Groups, Blood Typing and Blood Transfusions
http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/landsteiner/readmore.html

Racial & Ethnic Distribution of ABO Blood Types
(from L. Beckman, A Contribution to the Physical Anthropology and
Population Genetics which is updated at bloodbook.com)
http://www.bloodbook.com/world-abo.html

Background articles are found at PBS Red Gold
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/
for example, biographies of famous innovators for the ABO system:

Karl Landsteiner
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/innovators/bio_landsteiner.html -

Ludwig Hirszfeld
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/innovators/bio_hirszfeld.html
Hirszfeld is cited as Hirsfeld at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi23.htm

There are many more human blood groups than just the ABO system:
http://jove.prohosting.com/~scarfex/blood/groups.html

A good book on the subject is Human Blood Groups by Geoff Daniels,
Bristol Institute for Transfusion Sciences, Bristol
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=0632056460

See also the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory
http://www.blood.co.uk/ibgrl/About/History.htm

Fort Huachuca Rock Art near Tuscon Arizona marks Aquila in the Ancient Survey of the Americas by Astronomy - LexiLine Journal 318

In his December 27, 2004 article "Tribal rock art offers clues to religious beliefs of old" at
http://snipurl.com/bsfz
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=122704a4_rockart

Paul Allen of the Tucson Citizen writes about rock art on a mountain ledge near Fort Huachuca, about 70 miles southeast of Tuscon, Arizona, near the border to Mexico.

The article has a photo by Tanja Linton of one of four large eagles (each about 4 feet from wingtip to wingtip) painted on this rock face.

The rock face also has a figure in colored skirt and headdress on it, together with a serpent extending about twelve feet across the rock face, with the head at the figure's hand.

Based on our decipherment of Hueco Tanks near El Paso (also on the border to Mexico) - which is nearly due East of Fort Huachuca - as marking Serpens Caput in the ancient survey of the Americas by astronomy, Fort Huachuca then marks the stars of Aquila (the Eagle) and Serpens Cauda in this ancient survey.

Obviously, the four eagles mark the Eagle, Aquila, also perhaps representing each of the four major stars making up the diamond-shape of this stellar shape.

The serpent at Fort Huachuca will surely mark Serpens Cauda. The motif of eagle and serpent for this part of the heavens is also prevalent in the Old World. (See Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning under "Aquila".)

Hueco Tanks Rock Art El Paso Texas - LexiLine Journal 317

Hueco Tanks, 32 miles NE of El Paso, Texas, is a historic site http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/hueco/ with a lot of ancient painted rock art.

My attention was caught by a photo of Hueco Tanks by Victor Calzada in a December 30, 2004 article by Diana Washington Valdez in the El Paso Times news online at
http://snipurl.com/bse9
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041230-5800.shtml

As I have often noted, rock art drawings are generally not as old as the sculpted stones at those same rock art sites, upon which or near which the rock drawings are made by later generations, and from which the rock drawing motifs originate. These sacred sites are generally extremely old.

I have uploaded a section of the photo in question together with my interpretation of it
to our North America folder at the LexiLine Files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files as huecotanks.jpg [the graphic below]


As you can see there, Hueco Tanks in my opinion marks the stars of Serpens Caput at the Autumn Equinox ca. 3117 BC, an interpretation which fits my previous decipherment of other sites in the USA as marking an ancient survey of America by astronomy. Serpens Caput was as yet missing from this astronomical picture, but fits in perfectly with the astronomy of the other sites that I have deciphered.

Also identified at Hueco Tanks appears to be Ophiuchus as a man's head - a frequent representation of Ophiuchus on ancient sites. The carving is unmistakeable. Next to the human head is a serpent's carved head, clearly seen when magnified, marking Serpens Caput. To the left of Ophiuchus is a strange diamond-shaped rock which would seem totally out of place as a natural phenomenon, marking the diamond-shape of Aquila next to Ophiuchus. This must have been carved into that shape. I am unable to identify the figure marking Hercules. To the right of Serpens Caput appears to be a bear, marking Boötes and Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

Ancient and Modern Celestial Navigation -"star-path" sailing - Nautical Astronomy - Ancient Crete - LexiLine Journal 316

Navigation by celestial objects in modern times is discussed at CelestialNavigation.net
http://www.celestialnavigation.net/astro.html and at Henning Umland's, A Short Guide to Celestial Navigation. http://home.t-online.de/home/h.umland/ In part, modern navigation is complicated mathematics.

Ancient celestial navigation http://www.celestialnavigation.net/history.html had to be much more simple than that, but not that much is known about the navigation used in distant prehistoric periods.

The following is a seminal source for an understanding of ancient navigation:
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/anth/abstracts/davisd.html
Navigation in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean - Thesis by Danny Lee Davis of Texas A&M University, which can be downloaded as a .pdf of 21.58 MB (some pages unfortunately sloppily scanned), at http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Davis-MA2001.pdf. This is an absolutely new and essential work in this field, especially chapter V "Night-Time Navigation and Celestial Aids" and Chapter VI Ancient Navigational Systems: A Synthesis of the Evidence (p.186) including the Section "Imagining Ancient Systems of Navigation: A View from Antiquity: The Neolithic System".

Davis writes among other things about "star-path" sailing. This method of sailing steers directly by the stars, keeping the vessel directed toward a particular star and changing the star used as stars change their positions over time. Davis writes - correctly in our opinion - that this may explain the depiction of particular stars above the bows or sterns of ships on ancient reliefs.

Davis also writes about ancient navigation as follows:

"Crete is believed to have been colonized by migrant farmers from Anatolia as early as the eighth or seventh millennium B.C., although hunter-gatherers surely landed there earlier. Broodbank and Strasser have shown that the colonization of this island must have been deliberate and that a minimum number of people and livestock were required to sustain its initial population. From what we know of visibility and the limitations of paddled craft, this colonization and its maintenance are a further indication that a navigation system embracing celestial observation was in place this early. The colonization of many other Aegean island and Cyprus in the Final Neolithic serves also to indicate a high level of navigational confidence -- and one that must have entailed the usage of some system of reference for sailing at night, if only the circumpolar stars for orientation." (pp. 145-146)

Other sources on celestial navigation are:

Traditional Navigation in the Western Pacific
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/navigation/Intro.html
showing navigation by rising and setting stars
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Navigation/sidereal/sidereal2.html

Gary Agranat - Astronomy: Time and Navigation (links)
http://members.aol.com/gca7sky/time.htm

Peter Ifland, in The History of the Sextant
http://www.mat.uc.pt/~helios/Mestre/Novemb00/H61iflan.htm discusses how the North Celestial Pole (currently the star Polaris) can be used to determined latitude and how the Arabs later used the kamal, see http://snipurl.com/brqd for this purpose, employing also their fingers (issabah) for measurement. Ifland also explains the concept of "shooting the stars". Take a look at that. Ifland is the author of Taking the Stars: Celestial Navigation from Argonauts to Astronauts. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1575240955/

Peter Tyson - Secrets of Ancient Navigation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/secrets.html

John Davis - Seaman's Secrets
http://www.mcallen.lib.tx.us/books/seasecr/dseasec1.htm

Cogswell and Schiøtz - Navigation in the Information Age: Potential Use of GIS for Sustainability and Self-Determination in Hawai'i
http://www.hawaii-nation.org/gis/4-history.html

E.G. R. Taylor - The Haven-Finding Art: A History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook, published by Hollis & Carter,London, for the Institute of Navigation, 1956.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CJJMB/
See also http://www.celestialnavigation.net/haven.htm.

Charles H. Cotter - A History of Nautical Astronomy, William Clowes and Sons, London
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0370004604/

Charles H. Cotter - The Complete Nautical Astronomer
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPLbi=385653480?

Nick Strobel - Astronomy Notes
http://www.astronomynotes.com/
and History of Astronomy
http://www.astronomynotes.com/history/s1.htm

Heavenly Mathematics: Cultural Astronomy
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/heavenly.shtml

The Mariners Museum
http://www.mariner.org//educationalad/ageofex/

The Gilbertese Skydome. Polynesian and Micronesian Astronomy
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi72.htm

Crichton E.M. Miller - Ancient Navigation
http://www.crichtonmiller.com/Navigation.htm

Ancient Navigation Techniques
http://snipurl.com/brql
http://vizproto.prism.asu.edu/vp/classes/sp04/willis_s/TI2/vmad.htm

Ancient Discovery Before Christ
http://snipurl.com/brqn
http://www.sevenoceans.com/MaritimeDiscovery/AncientDiscoveryBeforeChrist.htm

The Etruscan Bronze Liver of Piacenza
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi8.htm

Ancient Kansas Astronomy - Intaglios - LexiLine Journal 315

Beccy Tanner at the The Wichita Eagle has a December 19, 2004 story
at http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/10450663.htm
entitled "Figures carved into prairie are a story of ancient beliefs".

The story is about ancient intaglios (figures or designs carved into surfaces) found in Kansas. These "ground drawings" in Kansas are drawn on trenches along hillsides and show figures of a serpent holding a ball in its mouth, then another serpent, a turtle, a duck and two caterpillars.

Kansas archaeologists and anthropologists see the figures as possibly marking the solstices and the stars and planets for ritual purposes.

Donald Blakeslee, professor of archaeology at Wichita State, compares the Kansas council circles to Stonehenge in England as sacred calendars the sun hits at certain points during the solstices.

"'The native people in Mexico connect the caterpillars with meteors
and meteor showers -- they have a celestial connection,' Blakeslee
said."

In other words, we know from that knowledge that the caterpillars mark portions of the sky in which annual major meteor showers occur (there are only a few of these - see
http://skytour.homestead.com/met2005.html). Knowing that, we have a good chance to put the rest of the intaglios into their proper astronomical places.

Possible dates for the caterpillars are then the meteor showers known as:

1. the Perseids
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/25jun_perseids2004.htm are major meteor showers which peak around August 12 and at which time the caterpillars can be quite a nuisance in Kansas http://hayandforage.com/news/farming_kansas_growers_battle/

2. the Lyrids http://skytour.homestead.com/met2005.html which appear in Spring

Some caterpillars appear http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/ornamentals/caterpillars.html twice a year (in Spring and Midsummer). Are the two intaglios of caterpillars next to each other or separated by other figures?

Without knowing the inter-related locations of the figures on the ground in Kansas, their identification is guesswork on our part, but we think that at least one of the Kansas caterpillars could mark the Perseids. The Perseids appear in August but are found in the Perseid Radiant, which is at the top of the constellation of Perseus.

If the caterpillar is close to the duck, then the duck may mark the Pleiades (indeed, the duck marks the Pleiades (Latvian Pīlītes "ducks") clear back to the time of Lascaux, ca. 9000 BC - see
Stars Stones and Scholars

The turtle then would mark Orion - as it did for the Maya
http://www.isourcecom.com/maya/cities/uxmal/houseoftheturtles.htm see also
http://turtlemountain.org/exhibits/mythandhistory/orion" concerning the turtle as marking Orion on Native American medicine wheels.

One serpent figure would then be Hydra.

The serpent holding a ball in its mouth could mark the center of heaven, but this would depend on the location of this serpent with respect to the other figures. Again, I do not have a plan of the
figures on the ground. Otherwise, I could make the identifications with more certainty.

Norte Chico Civilization in Peru dated to ca. 3000 BC - Mound Builders in Uruguay ca. 2800 BC - LexiLine Journal 314

Throughout past years I have maintained that the human calendar of the Pharaohs, Maya, and Hindu began in 3117 BC and that a megalithic survey of the Earth by astronomy in connection with that calendar was made at that same time by ancient megalithic seafarers from the Old World.

This approximate date is again substantiated in Nature (Vol. 432, No. 7020, 23 December 2004, p. 1020) http://snipurl.com/bpfe viz. http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/dynapage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v432/n7020/index.html in an article by JONATHAN HAAS, WINIFRED CREAMER & ALVARO RUIZ entitled "Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico
region in Peru".

That article has been reported by e.g. the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4115421.stm and at Stone Pages http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001070.html

The article concludes on the basis of radiocarbon dating that the Andean Norte Chico civilization in Peru, which is characterized by stone step pyramids (platform mounds) started ca. 3000 BC. The Norte Chico are traditionally thought to have been seafarers.

Here again we have further evidence of my megalithic theory - as more and more dates worldwide for megalithic cultures center around a date of ca. 3000 BC.

However, the authors make the unfortunate and erroneous claim, as reported in the New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6829 that this culture - in less than 150 years - went "from small hunter-gatherer bands to great big permanent communities with monumental architectures."

Obviously, such things do not happen in such time periods - the technology involved is far too complex and impossible to develop in such a time period - and hence the only possible explanation is that this technology was imported by peoples foreign to the indigenous cultures of the Americas.

Moundbilders have also been found in Uruguay for the period starting ca. 2800 BC as reported in Nature (Vol. 432, No. 7017, 02 December 2004, p. 614) http://snipurl.com/bpfi viz.
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v432/n7017/index.html
in an article by JOSÉ IRIARTE, IRENE HOLST, OSCAR MAROZZI, CLAUDIA LISTOPAD,
EDUARDO ALONSO, ANDRÉS RINDERKNECHT & JUAN MONTAÑA entitled "Evidence for cultivar adoption and emerging complexity during the mid-Holocene in the La Plata basin".

See also Iriarte at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/si-aca113004.php or
http://snipurl.com/bpfp

The article has been reported by e.g. the Seattle Times http://snipurl.com/bpfk viz.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002109592_farm05.htm