Yet another baffling report that claims some answers have been given from satellites in space.
In Nazca there are many puquios – spiralling walkways that lead down to aqueducts. I was fortunate to have walked down one of these back in 2005, get into the aqueduct and clamber through to the next puquios, quite a distance away. The thing that amazed me was how cool the aqueducts were compared with the hot 35-or-so degree heat outside.
The article claims that satellite imagery has provided some new answers regarding irrigation and water supply, but I see nothing new in this report.
I am also tired of the continuous rhetoric regarding the Nazca Lines themselves – that they pointed to sources of water. I do not believe that theory for one second and never have. What would you do if the place where you lived had no water supply? Would you spend years making lines and geoglyphs on the ground? Personally, I would move to a place where there is a water supply!
The geoglyphs also have no connection with pointing to sources of water and, although they may be from a later time period, most likely had more relevance to the stars above. I believe the lines had a more mystical and shamanic purpose than a mundane scientific one, but then we approach ancient problems from the modern mind and do not consider the minds of our ancestors, whose daily lives were preoccupied with the stars and ritual, not to mention the daily fight to find food and water.
Put simply, no one has any clue about the Nazca Lines as far as I am concerned, and scientists continually appear to put two and two together and make five.
India
A temple has been discovered off the coast of Chennai in India, and is thought to be around 2,000 years old.
Divers have found a ten-metre wall, stairs and carved stone blocks in 27 feet of water, and the ruins are more than 800 metres from the current shoreline.
As for the rest of the story, mainly that the area was swallowed up by a tsunami in 952 AD, I have doubts about the validity. Having been to that area there is nothing but ocean. Any tsunami waters would have receded. The article also states that the area was left under water when sea levels rose, and that the carvings are not normal for the time period given. Basically the facts given seem to be nothing but guesswork, and perhaps this site could be much older than the 2,000 years suggested by said guesswork. It’s certainly one of those cases where pre-conceived notions of time scales override the evidence at the site, and it also appears they are trying to fit the buildings into the chronology of others found in the same area. At least that’s the way it appears to me. The clue, for me, is the unusual stone carvings that are not consistent with other temples from a “later” period.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/travel/2000-year-old-temple-found-underwater-off-indian-coast/article/461795?utm_content=buffer6b897&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
It is hard to imagine that such large discoveries still await us all around the world, what with all of our technology, especially Lidar that is revealing so much, but it is suggested that only 10% of the world’s antiquities have been uncovered thus far.
In Egypt an entire necropolis has been discovered at a quarry site known as Gebel el Sisila, and so far more than 40 tombs have come to light. Dated to around 3,400 years ago (1400 BC) the tombs are rock cut, a method used all over India and Asia Minor, as well as Egypt.
Brazil
One of the little publicised aspects of South American archaeology is the idea that very large civilisations had already previously existed and were gone long before Europeans arrived and decimated the indigenous populations, mostly through foreign diseases with which the natives had no natural defence.
We are all familiar with the Nazca lines in Peru, the Inca Empire that stretched from Ecuador to Chile and further inland, the countless civilisations stretched along the entire Peruvian coastline, and many others, but very little is known about the Brazilian cultures that have come to light in recent years.
I was extremely fortunate, and brave I might add, to have spent the best part of a year in South America, 90% of that time in Peru, and I witnessed first hand many of the ancient cities and sites in that area – the Nazca, Inca, Wari, Moche, to name a very few. But in Brazil deforestation has uncovered massive earthworks that have only been seen previously in North America. The forest of the Amazon, if left to its own devices, will quickly swallow any traces of ancient civilisations. Only deforestation has uncovered these traces, and it is more than likely that many such places still exist under the forest canopy. The only real way to uncover these unknown civilisations is to map the entire Amazon using Lidar, but due to the massive size of the Amazon that could take many decades of continuous flyovers. I sincerely hope, however, that we will learn a lot more about South American civilisations, for it is my belief that the south was populated long before the north.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/is-there-an-ancient-civilisation-buried-under-the-155419057.html
Our lives would not be the same today if it wasn’t for the ancient Silk Road, meandering its way across Asia for thousands of miles. It was a trade route where goods were exchanged between east and west, and it shaped modern trade methods and gave us goods we would otherwise never have seen.
Archaeologists have now uncovered a new stretch of the famous road that wound its way up into Tibet, a country that today has been wiped off the map by an organised and silent campaign (mainly due to deliberate western media ignorance) by the Chinese to take its territory, not to mention the murder of thousands of Tibetans over many decades. That issue is mentioned in my book, ‘The Evolution’, but it is also another story to be discussed another time.
This discovery was made when archaeologists started digging in a 1,800-year-old tomb in the highlands of Tibet, 13,000 feet (4,300m) above sea level. The tomb contained Chinese goods including a gold mask, silk woven fabrics and bronze artefacts.
At least two “lost battles” have been discovered on an ancient manuscript in the Austrian National Library.
The text, written in the 11th Century and copied from an original that was contemporaneous with the actual battles, talks of a Goth invasion of Greece. The text even describes a battle at the pass at Thermopylae, infamous for the battle of the 300 Spartans in the Greco-Persian Wars of the 5th Century BC.
The original text was written by an Athenian writer called Dexippus, and it starts with a description of ranks of Goths lined up at Thessalonica, much further to the north of Thermopylae. Unable to capture the city, the Goths then turned south towards Athens.
It seems later at Thermopylae, judging by the text, that the Greeks were unusually under-armed and their commander, a general named Marianus, had to remind his soldiers of the famous battles fought by their ancestors to instil morale. The outcome of that battle is uncertain.
The Goths were invading armies from northern and central Europe that proved to be a real pain for the Roman Empire. It was in fact the Goths who caused the empire to fall (along with internal empirical corruption) with their constant attacks and invasions into empire territory. The Goths tended to sack cities, rather than inhabit them, as they were more interested in rape and plunder than territorial control. The Goths eventually settled into the northern lands of the empire; many Roman military commanders were of Goth origin and this may have diluted the empire through misguided loyalties. Certainly the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD was a telling scene and a turning point in the downfall of the empire.
Indonesia
An astonishing find in Indonesia – an entire Hindu temple has been discovered, ironically in the grounds of an Islamic university, and will provide more insight into Indonesia’s Hindu history.
When builders started work on a new library it was clear something was wrong with the ground beneath their feet. A staggering three meters underground they came across the temple walls, and then rains exposed the top of a statue. The perfectly preserved statue turned out to be the god Ganesha.
The temple may be the most intact Hindu temple in the whole of Indonesia, as it is thought it was buried by the devastation caused by a volcanic eruption in the 10th Century. Because of the burial of the temple, the artefacts and walls discovered are the best preserved ever found in Indonesia from that time period.
Quite frankly an amazing discovery!
http://www.eibela.com/english/article/1,000-years-old-hindu-temple-discovered-in-indonesia
Turkey
The ancient city of Miletus.
I am SO happy to announce that I have FINALLY finished the Turkey historical travelogues on my website!
It has taken more than twelve months and I am thrilled and relieved to have done so. Now I can take stock and move on to other projects, but first I need to put my life back in order! I also need to get back to writing my second novel, the follow-up to The Evolution.
https://www.stephenmaybury.co.uk/travelogue/24-miletus/
**Breaking News**
England
A Roman villa has been discovered near Tisbury, Wiltshire, and it is thought to be one of the largest villas ever discovered in England.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-36062538
Turkey
This time we visit the massive Temple of Apollo at Didyma, one of the largest temples ever built. It rivalled, and was about the same size as, the Artemision at Ephesus – the Temple of Artemis – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
After more than a year I have just one more travelogue to go to finish the Turkey section…
https://www.stephenmaybury.co.uk/travelogue/23-didyma/
**Breaking News**
Bosnia
A mysterious giant stone ball has been discovered in Bosnia. Just as I was thinking I had come across every weird discovery imaginable this ball, if proven to be man-made, will open up a whole new level of weirdness!
The only things I have seen similar to this are those giant balls found in Mexico, related to the Olmec culture.
https://www.rt.com/viral/339580-indiana-jones-ball-bosnia/
**Breaking News**
Mongolia
A 1,500-year-old Turkic woman, buried with a horse in the Altai Mountains, appears to be wearing “Adidas” trainers! Naturally there are those claiming time travel, but seriously this is quite an astonishing find as decorative shoes are pretty much unheard of so far back in time. In those days people were lucky to even have shoes, so to have some form of decoration clearly shows this woman was a very important person. The experts unravelling the mummy, however, do not believe she was from the elite caste, which makes the discovery all the more intriguing. She was buried with many other goods though, including a horse and some stunningly decorated textiles. The burial is reported to be the most intact Turkic burial ever found.
The burial has been found at 9,000 ft, hence the level of preservation, and it appears the horse was sacrificed to join the dead woman in her grave.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3533493/Ancient-mummy-unearthed-Mongolia-6th-century-Turkic-woman-buried-sacrficed-horse-beautifully-stitched-clothes-1-500-years-ago.html
And about time too – alcohol will now be banned at the Stonehenge solstice.
I first went to Stonehenge when it “re-opened” to the public around the year 1999. There were approximately 5,000 people there. There was no alcohol but there was a proper pagan vibe and it was a magical night. The following year 10,000 people showed up. The following year 15,000. By around 2005 or 2006 there were an estimated 50,000 people turning up, drunken louts everywhere, people climbing on the stones were cheered instead of being told to get down, the mess was despicable and by then I’d had enough. I wasn’t enjoying it any more and I stopped going. That was the last time.
But now I will go back and I will hope to recapture that original vibe. The numbers have been reduced to around 30,000 these days, still a lot, but I hope the alcohol ban will mean all those people who jump on the bandwagon and go just to party without even a clue what Stonehenge is all about will no longer turn up.
What has disgusted me the most is that self-proclaimed leader of the druids, Arthur Pendragon, who has started a campaign against the alcohol ban and vented his anger at the organisers who were intending on doing so, claiming that it is simply a money-making scheme since the organisers also intend to charge for parking. I am all for paying to park if there are no drunken louts – I am sure it costs a small fortune to organise the event and you, Arthur Pendragon, are nothing more than a hypocrite. Stuff your alcohol up your solstice! The feedback shows clearly the majority of people want an alcohol ban and Arthur Pendragon has lost a lot of respect in recent weeks with his outspoken nonsense.
Turkey
Well that one was much easier, and a pleasure to write about!
Euromos contains one of the best preserved and most fascinating temples in the whole of Asia Minor, but the bizarre thing about the Euromos temple is that it was never finished. Many of the columns were left unfluted and some of them were even left semi-fluted – the masons appear to have literally downed their tools and they never finished the job. It’s almost as if a plague swept through the area and left everything stuck in a moment in time,or as if suddenly everyone ran away and never returned…
Very strange indeed.
https://www.stephenmaybury.co.uk/travelogue/22-euromos/
Another place I have been very lucky to visit – the Elephanta Caves in Mumbai – is still awaiting its renovation.
The caves aren’t exactly in Mumbai, they are on an island of the same name – Elephanta Island – seven miles east and an hour’s boat ride from the jetty at the Gateway to India, near the Taj Mahal Hotel.
The island is a magical place with huge temples cut into the rock, similar to those at Ajanta and Ellora. Unfortunately the Portuguese used the island for target practice and damaged many of the deities. A couple of hundred years after the British “inherited” Mumbai (Bombay as it was then) from the Portuguese, the free standing, life-sized elephant that was located at the main Shiva temple entrance was removed for safety and transported to the Jijamata Udyaan zoo, where it still resides today.
The island is full of monkeys who will steal anything they can get their hands on, so keeping ones belongings close is a must!
Naturally I could write all day about this amazing place but I won’t. The renovations that have been proposed include upgrading the train that takes visitors from the jetty to the island entrance and, more importantly, extending the covered walkway all the way to the jetty. That would be a godsend as I remember the heat was so intense that I bought a hat at the jetty and took the train, just to get cover. Mumbai is the hottest place I have ever visited and the humidity is almost unbearable. I have been to Mumbai twice (April 2012 and May 2014) and both those months are the two hottest of the year. I visited the caves on my first visit.