Peru
Caral is the oldest known civilisation to have existed in the whole of the American continent, let alone Peru.
At least 5,000 years ago this culture sprung up in the Supe Valley, around 140 miles north of the modern city of Lima.
But there is one problem – the inhabitants of Caral were so advanced in technological terms that their culture must go back much further.
Having spent the best part of a year in Peru, I am certain there are still ancient ruins to be found buried in the sands of western Peru, and most likely they will be thousands of years older than Caral.
I have been keeping a minor secret for a little while, although not intentionally.
I have created a second YT channel, this time for my own home-made videos that I record while at archaeology sites. In the future I shall be making more “professional” versions of these videos – I use the term “professional” loosely – whereby I shall be giving a lot more historical data within the videos when recording.
These videos were recorded on my most recent visit to Greece, which was between 28 September and 11 October last year. I still have many videos to upload to this channel so I’ll give updates here as I go.
At the moment I have no plans to travel, which is probably a good thing with the amount of travelogues I still need to write. In Greece alone I took 5,700 photos and that project will likely take the best part of a year. I took around 3,700 photos in Turkey and I’m still writing those travelogues 9 months later! I hope to finish those before the 12-month period is up. It’s not the writing itself that takes time, it’s the uploading of the many photographs and the tagging of those pictures that is most time-consuming activity… and of course actually finding the time in my day-to-day life to focus on them. Mind you, the writing can take days with the often utterly useless sources of information available, which are notoriously unreliable. Firstly, Wikipedia is a no-go area and is often riddled with errors, and, as an example, with my recent Oxford University courses if you reference Wikipedia you will fail immediately, but I certainly wouldn’t use it myself anyway. Secondly, the small tour guide booklets you get for free at the sites are often dreadfully written and even more inaccurate than Wikipedia. Thirdly, the information boards at the actual archaeology sites are even worse. I was reading one yesterday from my photos that stated something like, “Alexander the Great arrived here in 186 BC”. Since Alexander the Great died in 323 BC that would be rather impossible. You have to conclude it’s a little worrying when the main information board at an archaeology site doesn’t even get basic facts correct. I wonder how many people are walking away and remembering this information when it’s not even accurate? Guide books that I have bought from sites, usually for around £10, which I tend to use as the main reference source in my travelogues, are also badly written and fail miserably with any historical accuracy. Without proper text books, which often cost a fortune, one is often searching through various sources and having to cross-reference many times just to ensure basic accuracy. That is why some of the travelogues are a little thin on the ground when it comes to historical information – it’s not my laziness I can assure you!
Anyway…
Once the Turkey section is complete I hope to accelerate the number of travelogues uploaded by focusing on other areas that have less photos, mostly locations in England.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of these videos, and I apologise in advance for my west country accent!
Turkey
Another travelogue, this time Antiphellos in ancient Lycia, today known as Kaş, a small fishing town on the coast of Asia Minor.
Still having problems with the quality of the featured image at the top of the page, and even my web guy is a bit mystified as to why this is occurring, despite a couple of hours’ work to try and correct it.
https://www.stephenmaybury.co.uk/travelogue/19-antiphellos-kas/
Turkey
My latest travelogue, this time the magical location of Olympos in Lycia, Anatolia.
Olympos is steeped in myth and mystery, to the point that there is very little historical information available.
That aside the setting for Olympos is rather stunning.
Unfortunately there have been some minor technical issues that my web guy is trying to solve, namely the quality of the featured image at the top of the travelogue is of rather poor quality. Hopefully this will be fixed as soon as possible.
https://www.stephenmaybury.co.uk/travelogue/18-olympos/
Iran
A very old grave has been discovered in the Burnt City in Iran, but its great age of 4,600 years is not the astonishing element of this incredible find.
The 40-year-old woman in the grave was also buried with 112 objects.
That may not seem so astonishing until you discover that another grave in the same location that was excavated in 1998 also contained 112 objects. That grave contained the remains of a man and a child.
This report does not tell us if the two graves were contemporaneous though, which is rather unhelpful.
There is some significance to the number 112. In mathematics it is the sum of six consecutive prime numbers – 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 and 29 – but it is unlikely those involved in the burial had any clue about, or interest in, such numbers.
It is mentioned in both the Quran and the Bible, but the grave’s antiquity rules out any reference to both.
The number 112 is also significant with Tibetan, Hindu and Chinese monks, who have 112 ways of Zen or Shiva.
If there is any religious reason for these artefacts then it can only lie with Hinduism, whish is the oldest religion on earth and is at least 6,000 years old. Also, in another article I recently posted here, a stone carving of Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman was found in neighbouring Iraq dating to 6,000 years ago.
Does that mean there is a connection? Probably not… but on the other hand the location of these graves, on the eastern side of Iran, is a lot closer to India than the carved stone found on the eastern side of Iraq, some 1,000 miles further west, and thus the same distance closer to India. I wouldn’t rule it out, but it does seem like a long shot.
I for one would love to know what on earth is going in these graves.
What does 112 mean?
I shall be awake all night now wondering… :-/
And then conclude at 6am that it’s just a coincidence and decide to get some sleep.
Italy
A Roman dry cleaners, thought to be around two thousand years old, has been restored at Pompeii and is now open to the public, although I must point out this opening is solely for looking at the archaeology, not for cleaning ones clothing… 🙂
Italy
An intact tomb found near Perugia may shed light on the enigmatic Etruscan civilisation that flourished long before the Roman empire.
Very little is known about the Etruscans, but this tomb may help archaeologists to understand more about their daily life and rituals.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/etruscan-tomb-found_56650848e4b08e945fefe486?
Greece / Italy
Like the buried remains of Pompeii, a part of ancient Selinunte in Sicily was preserved under a collpased building roof when invaders burnt the city in the 5th Century BC.
Archaeologists have even found uneaten food in bowls and unfired pots as the city was attacked rapidly and mercilessly by North African invaders.
The most important element, however, is this is the first time that archaeologists have been able to piece together an entire Greek city, as all other known cities only provide fragmentary evidence due to widespread destruction of the structures within them. In Selinunte, archaeologists have identified all 2,500 houses that existed in the city, providing invaluable evidence and giving scholars a complete insight into ancient Greek life.
**Breaking News**
England.
A new Roman road has been discovered in northwest England and is the first such road to be found in 150 years.
Archaeologists always knew there was a road linking Ribchester and Lancaster but for all this time they have been looking in the wrong place. The reason being that Roman roads generally took the shortest route possible from place to place i.e. a straight line. It seems in this case, however, our invading enemies appeared to adopt what would become the classically British method of making roads with bends and turns at just about every place imaginable!
Oddly the idea of straight roads, which is the most logical and time saving method, was completely ignored by later Britons. Although I guess making bendy roads instead of straight ones is bound to happen when you live in a land full of magic mushrooms!