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World's Largest Pyramid Discovered in Bosnia?
kieran writes "Archaeologists have apparently begun to unearth a massive pyramid which had been masquerading as a hill in the Bosnian town of Visoko. At an estimated 722ft in height, it is expected to be 1/3 taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza."
I once read Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock which explored in depth the theory that ancient civilizations are linked by a possible master race. It is a very loose theory in that I ended the book more confused than anything and doubting not only Hancock but also the conventional history I learned in school. Whether that's good or bad, I can't really say.
What I can say is that even if they were half baked theories they certainly were outside the box.
In it, the position and building of massive structures (like pyramids) are very important to his theories. He linked the Egyptian and Incan/Pima cultures via structures and similarities in creation stories (the latter being quite weak). The worst part is that at the end he alludes to a possible alien influence in the matter of building these massive structures (because we can't understand what technology they used).
With this (possibly) even larger structure, I'm certain that this will give him more ammo for another book.
If you're interested in things like this, it's a good read. You can take pieces of it like the famous Pirie Ries maps that were coverd by Charles Hapgood. A similar theory is the also famous 1421 Theory. Be warned that many of these theories are unverifiable and can amount to simply someone's imagination running wild. They rely on events thousands of years old--a time darker than the the dark ages.
Be caution that most of the links below Hancock's Wikipedia page are just rebuttles disproving him as much of his work is a bit hard to swallow.
My work here is dung.
You know it strikes me that if things this big can escape our detection on a daily basis, just what else are we missing that may lie right in front of us. I mean this is of utterly rediculous proportions and yet it escaped both our vision, and our history? I think this must be added to the list of world wonders, word wonders how we missed it!
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
You can find large resolution photos and news on the Official website. Looks like they're still digging.
And everyone pointing to the archaeology organization site naming him as a nutjob, guess what folks? It won't be debunked until they've fully excavated the site. Whether or not the man in charge is crazy or not has little bearing on the validity of his claims, particularly when the evidence would be a gigantic fucking pyramid. There isn't anything to debate, it's either there or not.
Also, I'd say that a majority of the archaelogical society hates new findings that contradict their old theories, and can often go out of their way to ostracize and decredit people that publish or support findings that would invalidate all the time spent writing papers on any particularly well-accepted idea.
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
Maybe, but then again, finding pyramids isn't a trillion dollar industry. If you told somebody they'd get a billion dollars for finding a pyramid larger than the Great Pyramid, then i'm sure someone would have found it long ago.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Now there's a red flag if I ever saw one. Maybe there's more to this story than the archaeological establishment wants to acknowledge.
April 28, 2006 | 11:40 p.m. ET
Pyramid problems: Is the tale of the Bosnian pyramid too good to be true? Last week, The Associated Press reported evidence that a 2,120-foot-high hill in central Bosnia-Herzegovina might actually be a buried step pyramid. This week, Archaeology magazine questioned the scientific soundness of the operation and its leader, amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagic. Archaeology quotes experts who say there's little more to the project than "sensationalism and grandstanding," and worry that it may be damaging legitimate artifacts from medieval, Roman and Illyrian times.
There's certainly a good deal of kookiness surrounding the story. Osmanagic, for example, links his pyramid theories to Atlantis and the Maya, while an online petition aimed at stopping Osmanagic's dig refers darkly to U.S.-orchestrated conspiracy theories. Stay tuned for further twists in the tale, and feel free to send in your comments after you read Archaeology magazine's report.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
Yo! I found a European pyramid!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefz/115233678/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Cestius
As the photographer says:
"What makes my head spin is the thought that this was built 2,000 years ago, as a copy of the Great Pyramid which was built 2,500 years before that"
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
Actually, a lot of recent evidence suggests that the pyramids where not built by slaves, but rather by paid workers. See below:
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http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/070391.ht
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Elephant Essays - Custom Research Papers
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Both type efforts (archaeology and minerals/oil location) are benefiting from satellite remote sensing. We just recently had the lost city in guatemala found, the huge impact craters in the sahara, etc from satellite analysis (radar/photo). The impact craters were also helped by web based universal access, google maps helped amateur researchers there.
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As to the bosnian pyramid, it has long been known/suspected there in the locals handed down oral histories. It was more accurately RE-discovered. Just like when western scientists "discover" some new animal the locals have been *eating* forever and have names for.
There's another interesting development off the coast of cuba, an alleged underwater city.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/05/0
similar off of japan
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2004/s11072
(I am sure there are better links for those stories)
It's an interesting topic. A lot of oral and written tradition from around the world all relate a period in history with a "great flood". It will be nice if modern tech helps us discover what really happened and add to our knowledge of the real "olden days", whichever way it shakes out.
Actually, someone did find one bigger than the Great Pyramid long ago; in Mexico.
Close to my house (in the Netherlands) there is a small, perfectly conical, very steep, and pointy hill in the center of one of the major iron age sites of the country, in an otherwise nearly flat landscape. People used to believe it was manmade, but it turned out to be made by a glacier and simply used by those iron age people as a lookout or motte or something. If the iron age people had any influence on its shape, it is only by removing sand and stones.
If Illyrian remains from 12,000 yrs ago are found on and in the hill, this should suggest to any sane person that it is a natural hill, with caves in it. It certainly can't be younger than 12,000 yrs old. Mr. Osmanagic finds evidence contradicting his theory and interprets it as evidence the 'pyramid' must be at least 12,000 yrs old.
I am considering announcing that we have proof of extremely advanced stone age and iron age civilizations in the North Sea near the coast of the Netherlands that were able to drain polders we today can't. The proof is irrefutable: fishermen have been collecting artifacts from these ages in their nets for as long as we have written history. It is a mystery how they did this without even having mills and engines.
He may be a nutjob.
I certainly find the notion of commonality with Mesoamerican "pyramids" somewhat ridiculous - since the Mesoamerican "pyramids" were not really pyramids (both geometrically, and in the egyptian sense). The Mesoamerican structures were not used for burials. They were used as platforms for temples, and had a completely different method of construction and religious significance.
I would think that this Bosnian "pyramid" (not geometrically a pyramid - the top is flat) more likely has more in common with the Egyptian/African pyramids (both in style, and religious significance) given the regional cultural influences.
However, there are also "pyramids" in Greece, Spain, Italy, China, and the UK. The Greek pyramids were simply pyramid-shaped watch towers. In Italy, a Roman noble had one built as a tomb, inspired by Egyptian pyramids. In the UK and China, we're talking about a pyramid-shaped burial mound made of piled-up clay or dirt - again with a flat top.
The significant things about this pyramid, are basically Osmanegic's claim of dating. He claims they're 12,000 years old. That's a little gutsy, considering that the area was likely under a glacier at the time, and there's no other evidence of any kind of advanced civilization anywhere near there. But when you go that far back in time, things get really sketchy, and evidence is mostly decayed or crumbled beyond any use.
Okay, so let me be clear on this - I *do* consider Osmanegic to be a nut job. I *do* agree with some of the Bosnian archaeological community that he will very likely, in the process of unearthing his pyramid, destroy a lot of good medieval archaeological sites (there was a Crusades-era fortress built on the top of this hill). However, I accept that the evidence he's presented so far, on the shape of the hill, the presence of tunnels, and the unearthing of stone blocks, that this very well could be a real pyramid. I just really doubt that it's as old as he's saying it is. Older than the Egyptian pyramids? Could be. The Greek pyramid is about 100 years older. (though MUCH smaller). So we know that the Egyptians didn't invent the geometric shape (whoo-tee doo). But the size coupled with the date, is pretty significant.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I like how you take the skepticism of a few experts, posit that all experts believed that, and promptly conclude that all experts cannot be trusted on anything.
g ic/index.html:
...And with a frequency in harmony, the Earth will, via the Sun, be connected with the center of our Galaxy. These facts become exceptionally important when we realize that we are rapidly approaching December 2012, a date which the Maya have marked as the time of arrival of the Galactic Energy Cluster which will enlighten us."
I would also like to conclude with a quote from the archaeologist concerned, from http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/osmana
"Ordinary watchmakers repair our watches and put them into accordance with Earthly time. It is my theory that the Maya should be considered watchmakers of the cosmos whose mission it is to adjust the Earthly frequency and bring it into accordance with the vibrations of our Sun. Once the Earth begins to vibrate in harmony with the Sun, information will be able to travel in both directions without limitation. And then we will be able to understand why all ancient peoples worshipped the Sun and dedicated their rituals to this. The Sun is the source of all life on this planet and the source of all information and knowledge.
Enquiring minds want to know!
Yes, a thousand years of common understanding is definitely a reliable source of information. What have I been thinking, trusing empiricism and the modern sciences all these years? Clearly, I've been suffering from a brain fever, and need a good leeching to remove the black humours from my system.
I spent far too much money on education, when all I needed was the five thousand years of common understanding gathering dust on my bookshelf. I mean, if you can't trust that the first woman was grown from the rib of the first man, sho was in turn formed from river clay, then what can you trust?
Ok, I'm done now. It was really just that bit about the understanding that got me, the rest was quite insightful (though not informative, either the mods don't know the difference between the two words or they've recently moved from crack to LSD). Hope you aren't offended by the nitpicking.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
Let's not forget that most of the really great discoveries are found by amateurs and nutjobs. The experts cannot be everywhere.
The skepticism in the archaeological community is understandable, but there are being a little overbearing. All their models depend on having civilizations that create monuments, not monuments being evidence for civilizations. One need only examine the work of Shockley in regard to the Sphinx to see how aggressive the pros can get when their models are challenged.
Now, the really great discoveries do come from amateurs and wackos. But only a few. Most of them are just plain wrong. So the experts are kinda right to express heavy skepticism. But I agree, let the man finance his dig. If he uncovers more and more cut stone blocks, the archaeologists will be eating humble pie, especially that Zawari guy who has consistently chewed Shockley's ass off and has to be "THE GUY" who discovers everything in Egypt now.
The evidence for a lost "pre-civilization" keeps growing. We have found tobacco in ancient Egyptian tombs and a curious correlation of various mega-lith complexes around the world built in the image of the various signs of the Zodiac. If this is indeed a pyramid, it could be yet another in this pattern (along with the Pyramids in China). I don't think this the work of Aliens. It's just the work of an ancient civilization that rose, kept it's secrets too close to the vest then died off. And perhaps it WAS the Atlantians and Plato just did not have his details straight. The odds of various pre-cultures spontaneously deciding to build their mega-liths using a unique Zodiac sign over thousands of years is pretty low.
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Social Security has a MASSIVE surplus and it needs someplace to invest it's money. Congress has a voracious need to borry money to mean general fund obligations and it's cheaper to borrow money from a trust fund than to incur debt from external entities.
The fraud comes in when you include FICA revenues in for the caluculation of the deficit. The real deficit is quite a bit higher when you consider what the federal government owes to the Social Security Trust fund.
If the Congress and the President can get it's financial house in order and pay down the debt (along with the debt service obligations), than the looming crisis is really a non-issue. But Bush seems really motivated to MAKE the crisis happen and then pretend he wants to stave it off with a plan that would DOUBLE the obligations of Social Security in the short term.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!