**Breaking News**
England
An ochre crayon found in North Yorkshire is 10,000 years old.
Noughts and Crosses, anyone?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-42831463
Israel / Africa
It’s almost funny.
Tunnel vision should be diagnosed as an illness contracted by scientists.
Greece
This is quite incredible….
https://www.rt.com/news/416375-technology-discovered-ancient-greek-pyramid-keros/
Turkey
My question is a rhetorical one.
Göbekli Tepe is by far the oldest site in the world. Dating to around 12,000 years ago, it is also the weirdest site in the world. Sinister, bizarre, and even paranormal to the extent that fundamental questions raise serious issues regarding the time we are living in today – that there is a direct connection between the two if certain interpretations of the carvings are to be believed. But that’s a story for another day.
In this article, yet again by the Guardian (although they cannot be held fully responsible for repeating what’s been said), we find loose assumptions based on scant evidence.
For a start the term ‘skull cult’ brings up visualisations of a group of primitive humans involved in cannibalistic activities and spending their time carving cranial bones. In fact those at Göbekli Tepe were so advanced it’s utterly frightening, and we are still scratching our heads trying to figure out the meaning of the site. Although the term ‘skull cult’ is based on certain criteria which is laid out in the original paper, most likely to eliminate these preconceived notions from the mind of the reader, we are still left with ideas that are wrong.
We also find the quote: “The site dates to a time when people were in transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers. The people of Göbekli Tepe had not domesticated plants or animals, but settled in the area, and used what resources they found around them.”
If I had a pound for every time this phrase was used I’d be a millionaire. These two sentences have no meaning whatsoever and I start to wonder if they are pinned up on the walls of journalists, ready to use when an archaeological story comes along. Firstly, until recently it was believed that ‘people were in transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers’ around 5,000 years ago. The discovery of Göbekli Tepe and other sites is constantly pushing this date back. But also this phrase has absolutely no meaning whatsoever, for a definition of this so-called transition is extremely fluid. It’s not as if there was a single, world-wide transition from hunting to farming, and clearly the two were never mutually exclusive. The second sentence in that phrase is nothing more than a joke; another regurgitated guess on the mark of the author.
We also see the phrase, ‘“They think the power from the dead is going to the living,” said Gresky.’ Now this is an actual quote from the scientist or archaeologist involved, but quite frankly I’d like to slap them around the face! On what grounds can you make such a guess? In what circumstances does this person think they can assume what was going on in the minds of those who were using the site 12,000 years ago?
The final example I’d like to give is the last paragraph: “Lee Clare, another scientist on the study, said that the shift towards settled life will have brought on new challenges as the population grew. The site itself would have served to build the group’s collective identity, one which could have been bolstered by the rituals of the skull cult.”
What a load of nonsense! Again, how do you, or can you, make such a statement based on little evidence?
It’s been argued by many that archaeology is not an actual science. This is a question that I have had to ponder on archaeology courses, and quite frankly the answer is very difficult. While we can say that the interpretation and measurement of stratigraphic layers and the finds within them are certainly being uncovered using the scientific method, the interpretation of every site and every find is open to manipulation by the minds of the those involved.
I’d like to see less guessing and more science, but sites like these don’t appear in the mainstream media without a sensational story attached to them, or in reference to an already well-known site, and therein lies the problem. Perhaps archaeology needs to go a little more ‘underground’…
Myanmar
The site of Mrauk U (pronounced Mrau-oo) is definitely worth a mention, if not for this appalling piece of journalism from the Guardian. One always has to be cautious of archaeology stories that appear in mainstream media publications.
Firstly there’s the line, “…following in the footsteps of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and the pyramids of Egypt”, referring to Myanmar’s attempts to give Mrauk U World Heritage status. Again we find the mainstream media making comparisons with other known sites that more often than not have absolutely nothing to do with the site in question, similar to the constant comparisons with Stonehenge whenever a site with standing stones is found.
Mrauk U is already a well-known tourist attraction – it’s not “forgotten” – and is the second most important site in Myanmar. The Guardian gives the impression the site is still empty and is being taken over by the encroaching jungle and needs to be cleared to be saved and used.
What’s actually happening is attempts to turn the site from an open tourist attraction, which it is, into a money-making site with gates, guards, and no doubt hotels, restaurants and probably a McDonalds.
Dear All,
It’s been a long while since I wrote a personal message.
I have to say 2017 was a bizarre and difficult year and just about everyone I know has experienced the same. Unfortunately since 2012 it seems each year gets worse so I’m not particularly optimistic about this one, but I shall keep smiling and keep moving on. Although the world did not end, the Maya clearly predicted a period of turmoil and instability that continues, with weird energies and feelings all around.
My own personal life has been rather stressful and that culminated in the loss of my paid day-to-day job at the end of November. I almost cancelled my trip to Greece because of that but I am so glad I didn’t.
So right now I am jobless but at the same time I know these things happen for a reason. Greece enabled me to do a lot of soul searching and think about what I don’t want, rather than what I do want. Thus some clarity has manifested. It’s time for me to make some drastic changes in my life, move away from where I’ve been living for the last 9 years and start again.
As for Greece itself, my second visit was just as awesome as the first, but this time I managed to visit 54 sites in 14 days, as opposed to the 25 sites in 10 days last time around. It was, on average, 4 sites per day, and this may seem as if I never even bothered to take note of them! However, many places had several sites next to each other, so it was easy to visit several sites a day. That said, I covered more than 2,000 miles in 14 days, travelled the entire Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece, and gathered another 4,000 photos to add to the 5,700 from last time. I will be starting the travelogues for these soon, but my website host is mortified how much space nearly 10,000 photos will take up! I also recorded a lot more videos this time around, with more detail of the locations, and these will be uploaded onto my YouTube channel in the coming months.
Naturally the trip contained ups and downs. We (my son was with me this time) got stuck in a snow blizzard in Thebes (Thiva), had to be helped out and damaged the car in the process (losing 100 Euros from my deposit). And on the last night I hit a kerb very hard turning around and the tyre had a blow out (costing me another 100 Euros for a new tyre and recovery). The car was stuck in the next town and we had to get a taxi back to our hotel. However, at all times I knew there was a reason this was happening… If the tyre had not blown we would have driven back to the hotel and gone straight to our room, missing the opportunity to sit downstairs with the new manager of the brand new hotel we were staying in in Marathon. It transpired he is massively into history himself, and after a long conversation he was so impressed with my work I’ve been invited to return to Greece to do lectures!
This project he has planned will start next September, is fully funded and is aimed at the younger generation i.e. school and university students. My flights and everything will be fully paid for, and I will be joining Greek university lecturers on the stage. Imagine that? It’s a very exciting opportunity and I am very much looking forward to it, but first I need to get my miserable life together!
My son and I both agreed on the most incredible part of our journey. On top of a mountain, 3,500 feet (1130 metres) in altitude, sits the mysterious Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae. On this particular day the mountain was covered in mist, and visibility was minimal. Suddenly, out of the mist, the huge tent that covers the temple appeared. It was such a surreal sight to see this massive structure standing on the top of a mountain, as if some bizarre, Indiana Jones-like mystery had been discovered and was being hidden from everyone. But that wasn’t the moment… The moment was when we entered the tent and all was literally complete darkness for a second, and then as our eyes quickly adjusted to the scene this massive temple just appeared in front of us as if it had jumped through time from Atlantis and landed in the present… Yes, it was exactly like that.
The pictures will not do the experience justice, but I hope you can get the idea nonetheless. And you certainly won’t grasp the size of this temple, it’s absolutely huge.
