The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
14-07-2020
6 Advanced Ancient Inventions Beyond Modern Understanding
6 Advanced Ancient Inventions Beyond Modern Understanding
We’ve lost the secret to making some of history’s most useful inventions, and for all of our ingenuity and discoveries, our ancestors of thousands of years ago are still able to baffle us with their ingenuity and discoveries. We have developed the modern equivalent of some of these inventions, but only very recently.
1. Greek Fire: Mysterious Chemical Weapon
Image from an illuminated manuscript, the Madrid Skylitzes, showing Greek Fire in use against the fleet of the rebel Thomas the Slav. The caption above the left ship reads, “the fleet of the Romans setting ablaze the fleet of the enemies.”
The Byzantines of the 7th to 12th centuries hurled a mysterious substance at their enemies in naval battle. This liquid, shot through tubes or siphons, burned in water and could only be extinguished with vinegar, sand, and urine. We still don’t know what this chemical weapon , known as Greek Fire, was made of. The Byzantines guarded the secret jealously, ensuring only a select few knew the secret, and the knowledge was eventually lost altogether.
Three ancient accounts of a substance known as vitrum flexile , flexible glass, are not clear enough to determine that this substance actually existed. The story of its invention was first told by Petronius (d. 63 A.D.).
He wrote about a glassmaker who presented the Emperor Tiberius (who reigned 14–37 A.D.) with a glass vessel. He asked the emperor to hand it back to him, at which point, the glassmaker threw it to the floor. It didn’t break; it only dented, and the glassmaker hammered it quickly back into shape. Fearing the devaluation of precious metals, Tiberius ordered the inventor beheaded so the secret of vitrum flexile would die with him.
Pliny the Elder (d. 79 A.D.) told this story as well. He said that, although the story was frequently told, it may not be entirely true.
The version told a couple hundred years later by Dio Cassius morphed the glassmaker into a sort of magician. When the vessel was thrown to the floor, it broke and the glassmaker fixed it with his bare hands.
In 2012, the glass manufacturing company Corning introduced its flexible “Willow Glass.” Heat-resistant and flexible enough to be rolled up, it has proven especially useful in making solar panels.
If the unfortunate Roman glassmaker did indeed invent vitrum flexile, it seems he was thousands of years ahead of his time.
3. An Antidote to All Poisons
A so-called “universal antidote” against all poisons was said to have been developed by King Mithridates VI of Pontus (who reigned 120–63 B.C.) and perfected by Emperor Nero’s personal physician. The original formula was lost, explained Adrienne Mayor, a folklorist and historian of science at Stanford University, in a 2008 paper, titled “Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World.” But ancient historians told us that among its ingredients were opium, chopped vipers, and a combination of small doses of poisons and their antidotes.
The valuable substance was known as Mithridatium, named for King Mithridates VI.
Mayor noted that Serguei Popov, a former top biological weapons researcher in the Soviet Union’s massive Biopreparat program who defected to the United States in 1992, was attempting to make a modern-day Mithridatium.
4. Heat-Ray Weapon
A depiction of how Archimedes set on fire the Roman ships before Syracuse with the help of parabolic mirrors.
Greek mathematician Archimedes (d. 212 B.C.) developed a heat-ray weapon that defied the skills of Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” to replicate in 2004. Mayor described the weapon as “ranks of polished bronze shields reflecting the sun’s rays at enemy ships.”
Although “Mythbusters” failed to reproduce this ancient weapon and declared it a myth, MIT students succeeded in 2005. They combusted a boat in San Francisco harbor using the 2,200-year-old weapon.
A heat-ray weapon unveiled in 2001 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) used microwaves to penetrate “a victim’s skin, heating it to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, creating the sensation that one is on fire,” explained Mayor.
5. Roman Concrete
Roman concrete was used to construct the magnificent pantheon, which has endured for two millennia.
Source: BigStockPhoto.
The vast Roman structures that have lasted thousands of years are testaments to the advantages Roman concrete has over the concrete used nowadays, which shows signs of degradation after 50 years.
Researchers have worked in recent years to uncover the secret of this ancient concrete’s longevity. The secret ingredient is volcanic ash.
An article published in 2013 by the University of California–Berkeley News Center announced that university researchers described for the first time how the extraordinarily stable compound calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) binds the material. The process of making it would create lower carbon dioxide emissions than the process for making modern concrete. Some disadvantages of its use are, however, that it takes longer to dry, and although it lasts longer, it is weaker than modern concrete.
In medieval times, swords made of a substance called Damascus steel were being produced in the Middle East out of a raw material, known as Wootz steel, from Asia. It was perplexingly strong. It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that metal so strong would be forged again.
The secret of making the Middle East’s Damascus Steel has only reemerged under the inspection of scanning electron microscopes in modern laboratories. It was first used around 300 B.C. and the knowledge seems to have been inexplicably lost around the mid-18th century.
Nanotechnology was involved in the production of Damascus steel, in the sense that materials were added during the steel’s production to create chemical reactions at the quantum level, explained archaeology expert K. Kris Hirst in an article written for About Education. It was a kind of alchemy.
Hirst cited a study led by Peter Paufler at the University of Dresden and published in the journal Nature in 2006. Paufler and his team hypothesized that the natural properties of the source material from Asia (the Wootz steel), when combined with materials added during the production process in the Middle East, caused a reaction: “The metal developed a microstructure called ‘carbide nanotubes,’ extremely hard tubes of carbon that are expressed on the surface and create the blade’s hardness,” Hirst explained.
Materials added during the production of Damascus steel included Cassia auriculata bark, milkweed, vanadium, chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, and some rare elements, traces of which presumably came from the mines in India.
Hirst wrote, “What happened in the mid-18th century was that the chemical makeup of the raw material altered—the minute quantities of one or more of the minerals disappeared, perhaps because the particular lode was exhausted.”
Is There Something Hiding in Giza Pyramids?... Mysterious New Discoveries Made!
Is There Something Hiding in Giza Pyramids?... Mysterious New Discoveries Made!
Is There Something Hiding in Giza Pyramids?… Mysterious New Discoveries Made!
Erich Von Daniken – Mysterious findings in the Gize Pyramids continue to date. From the first pioneers and explorers to modern day scientific scanning, the pyramids hold on tight to their secrets. The discoveries made throughout the pyramids indicates that there could be other yet to be discovered rooms and possible artefacts.
Erich Von Daniken reveals the explorers involved throughout many years and what discoveries have been made including the more modern scientific undertakings.
Ingenious Abandoned Jungle City of Guayabo de Turrialba in Costa Rica
Ingenious Abandoned Jungle City of Guayabo de Turrialba in Costa Rica
South and Central America have many amazing archaeological sites, some of which were left behind by pre-Columbian peoples and cultures who left no written records. One of the most significant sites in Costa Rica is Guayabo de Turrialba. This mysterious city in the jungle was declared a National Monument in 1973, protected for future generations and further archeological exploration. In 2009 it was recognized by the American Engineering Society as an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
The Known History of Guayabo De Turrialba
Since the people who built the amazing city of Guayabo de Turrialba left no documentary evidence, we do not know what they were called, but thanks to archeologists who have studied this site, there have been numerous fascinating finds. These have helped researchers to establish some facts about the mysterious builders of Guayabo de Turrialba.
Guayabo de Turrialba monument covers 540 acres, but only a small portion has been uncovered.
It is believed that the location was first inhabited in around 1000 BC, about the same time as Jerusalem was founded. Based on a survey of the city, it was at its peak in the 9 th century AD and it is believed that some 10,000 people resided here. It appears to have been a major regional administrative, political, cultural, and religious center . Based on the many finds of agricultural tools, the society was based on farming.
There is no evidence that it was a war-like society that practiced human sacrifice like its neighbors to the north, such as the Maya and the Aztecs.
The many great monuments that have been found at Guayabo de Turrialba indicate that it was a hierarchical society, ruled by chieftains or caciques. They would have been authority figures who could command a large number of people to build the monuments found at the site.
For reasons unknown, it was abandoned by 1400 AD, before colonization. Certainly, the Spanish Conquistadors left no records of the city, and it was forgotten, left to be concealed by the tropical jungle. It was only in the 19 th century that it was re-discovered and has since then been extensively investigated by archaeologists, although only a small area has been excavated.
Representation of the circular homes on stone foundation.
There are many impressive stone platforms at the site. The largest measures 76 feet (28m) in diameter and stands 9 feet (2.76m) high. The smaller mounds were once topped by conical wooden constructions, that would have been used either as temples or homes for the elite.
A cobbled road connecting the settlement led to the biggest stone platform , known as the ‘Central Mound’ which has been restored in recent years. The heart of the city is dominated by this large rectangular platform which was accessed by a stone staircase and may have been used in ceremonies and expressions of power. Along the road, leading into the plaza, are two structures, built in a ‘figure of eight’ which are unique to Costa Rica. Their purpose was either to protect the central plaza or to store goods.
Unlike Mesoamerican cultures, the many tombs found at the archaeological site did not contain golden burial goods . While many relics and artifacts found in the city, such as ornate grinding stones and pottery, are now on display in the National Museum in San Jose, pictographs carved on rocks remain at Guayabo de Turrialba. These images of amphibians and other animals may have had some religious or cultural significance.
Evidence remains of a sophisticated hydrological system which directed fresh water into several stone tanks with drainage to prevent flooding. Numerous stone circles may have been the foundations of family homes.
Fresh water capture tank built at Guayabo de Turrialba
Guayabo is situated near the attractive town of Turrialba on the slope of the extinct Turrialba volcano, a two-hour journey from the capital of San Jose. An admission fee is payable on entry and guided tours are available, although the monuments are all sign-posted.
Hotels near Guayabo, as well as a camping park, are available and visitors to the area can enjoy a day out to the butterfly farm near the city.
Archaeologists made an interesting discovery at the Qafzeh Cave which is located close to the city of Nazareth, Israel. In addition to the dozens of human skeletons who lived in that area during the Mediterranean Paleolithic time period, they also unearthed several perforated shells.
What’s so interesting about these shells – many of which were painted with ochre – is that they were strung together with string to connect them into a necklace sometime between 160,000 and 120,000 years ago.
In an article I wrote back in April of this year (which can be read here), I discussed how the world’s oldest string was created by Neanderthals in Abri du Maras, France, about 50,000 years ago, so the fact that these Israeli shells were connected with string strongly contradicts previous reports that it was first created tens of thousands of years later – and in a completely different country nevertheless.
Glycymeris nummaria shell
Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer, who is from Tel Aviv University and an author of the study, explained this further, “Modern humans collected unperforated cockle shells for symbolic purposes at 160,000 years ago or earlier, and around 120,000 they started collecting perforated shells and wearing them on a string. We conclude that strings, which had many more applications, were invented within this time frame.”
The shells belonged to the Glycymeris nummaria species of bivalve mollusks that are quite common in the Mediterranean as well as the northeastern part of the Atlantic. Researchers found that the Qafzeh people brought the perforated shells back to their cave which was located 40 kilometres (25 miles) away from the sea. Interestingly, researchers analyzed shells that were unearthed at Misliya Cave (on the northern coast of Israel) and found that the ancient inhabitants of the location (between 240,000 and 160,000 years ago) collected Glycymeris shells that weren’t perforated – or that didn’t have holes in them.
And since only about 40 percent of the Glycymeris shells found on the beach are naturally perforated, that would indicate that in ancient times, the shells with the holes in them were deliberately collected and then put on a string to make jewelry.
More Glycymeris nummaria shells
In order to test her hypothesis, Bar-Yosef Mayer conducted an experiment where she strung up shells using string that was made from wild flax and exposed it to different conditions that would cause it to eventually wear down, such as simulated sweat. The results were very interesting as she found that the use-wear patterns were consistent with those found on the Qafzeh shells, such as scratch marks that would have been created by the string and other scrapes that could have been caused by the beads banging against each other (like on a necklace or bracelet).
This is an incredible discovery as it appears that string was created tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought and used for stylish jewelry during that time. A picture of the shells can be seen here.
Famous Jurassic Park dinosaur the Dilophosaurus 'was bigger and more powerful' than the 1993 film shows - but it couldn't spit venom, new fossils reveal
Famous Jurassic Park dinosaur the Dilophosaurus 'was bigger and more powerful' than the 1993 film shows - but it couldn't spit venom, new fossils reveal
Researchers examined five fossil records to better understand Dilophosaurus
The dinosaur was first discovered 80 years ago but was very poorly understood
It is a 'pop culture' dinosaur having featured heavily in 1993 movie Jurassic Park
However, the depiction in Jurassic Park is 'nothing like' the real Dilophosaurus
Dilophosaurus, a dinosaur made famous by Jurassic Park that lived 183 million years ago, was 'bigger and more powerful' than the movie made it appear, study shows.
Researchers from the University of Texas studied Dilophosaurus fossils to better understand this 'pop culture dinosaur' and paint a true picture of its size.
In Jurassic Park the beast was depicted as a small lizard-like, venom-spitting dinosaur with a rattling frill around its neck and two paddle-like crests on its head.
Until now very little was actually known about the actual Dilophosaurus, giving filmmakers and storytellers more licence to 'use their imagination'.
The Texas team discovered that Dilophosaurus was far from the 'small lizard' seen in Jurassic park, it was the largest land animal of its time, reaching up to 20ft.
Hollywood made the Dilophosaurus famous, depicting it as almost adorable little creature with a hidden, deadly twist. But a new study shows that it was a lot bigger and more powerful than scientists, or movie makers, previously thought
This is the depiction of Dilophosaurus as seen in the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie Jurassic Park but it has been proved to be wrong, including the bright thrills around its neck
Dilophosaurus lived 183 million years ago during the Early Jurassic and 'had a lot in common' with modern birds, including air sacks in its bones.
'It's pretty much the best, worst-known dinosaur,' said lead author Adam Marsh. 'Until this study, nobody knew what Dilophosaurus looked like or how it evolved.'
Seeking answers to these questions, Marsh conducted an analysis of the five most-complete Dilophosaurus specimens so far discovered around the world.
The analysis is co-authored by Timothy Rowe from the University of Texas, who discovered two of the five Dilophosaurus specimens that were studied by Marsh.
The study adds clarity to a muddled record dating back to the first Dilophosaurus fossil to be discovered - that specimen set the standard for future discoveries.
That fossil was rebuilt with plaster, but the 1954 paper describing the find isn't clear about what was reconstructed or the decisions made in the reconstruction.
Scientists have found evidence that the Dilophosaurus' skull served as scaffolding for powerful jaw muscles, shattering the image of the dinosaur as more fragile and svelte that has been promoted in scientific literature and popular culture
Peter Makovicky, a palaeontologist from the University of Minnesota not involved in the study, said this made discovering the true nature of the dinosaur difficult.
Early descriptions characterise the dinosaur as having a fragile crest and weak jaws, a description that influenced the depiction of Dilophosaurus in the 'Jurassic Park' book and movie as a svelte dinosaur that subdued its prey with venom.
In the movie the dinosaur is also shown as being able to reveal a rattling neck frill when confronting prey.
Marsh found no evidence for the rattling frill around its neck or signs of venom, adding that they were purely constructs of the Jurassic Park book and movie.
Marsh spent seven years looking at the three most complete Dilophosaurus skeletons and other more recently discovered remains to pain an accurate picture.
His evidence suggests the dinosaur was almost the opposite of what Jurassic Park showed - with jawbones serving as scaffolding for powerful muscles and signs the creature was a giant beast, reaching up to 20ft in length.
It would have been about half the size of a fully grown T. Rex and weighed up to three quarters of a ton - so it could have taken on very large prey.
'Dilophosaurus is clearly built for being a big macropredator,' Marsh told National Geographic. 'It's a large-bodied animal that was built for eating other animals.'
He also found that some bones were mottled with air pockets, which would have helped reinforce the skeleton, including its dual crest.
'They're kind of like bubble wrap - the bone is protected and strengthened,' he said.
These air sacs are not unique to Dilophosaurus, it is something they have in common with modern birds and the world's most massive dinosaurs.
In both cases, the air sacs lighten the load, which helped big dinosaurs manage their bulky bodies and also allow birds take to the skies.
Many birds use the air sacs to perform other functions, from inflating stretchy areas of skin during mating rituals, to creating booming calls and dispersing heat.
The intricate array of air pockets and ducts that extend from Dilophosaurus' sinus cavity into its crests means that the dinosaur may have been able to perform similar feats with its headgear.
That headgear is one feature Jurassic Park did get right, according to Marsh. He said it did have a double crest across the top of its snout that was a 'display feature'.
The right hind leg of Dilophosaurus. The dinosaur lived 183 million years ago during the Early Jurassic and 'had a lot in common' with modern birds, including air sacks in its bones
'It has those two thin bony crests running along the top of its skull, basically from the nostril and back over the eye socket,' Makovicky told National Geographic.
To learn more about how the fossils compared with one another, Marsh recorded hundreds of anatomical characteristics of each fossil.
He then used an algorithm to see how the specimens compared with the first fossil - which confirmed that they were indeed all Dilophosaurus.
The algorithm also revealed that there's a significant evolutionary gap between Dilophosaurus and its closest dinosaur relatives, which indicates there are probably many other relatives yet to be discovered.
The revised Dilophosaurus record will help paleontologists better identify specimens going forward and Marsh said that the research is already being put into action.
In the midst of his analysis, he discovered that a small braincase in the Jackson School's collections belonged to a Dilophosaurus.
'We realized that it wasn't a new type of dinosaur, but a juvenile Dilophosaurus, which is really cool,' Marsh said.
OK, before there is any confusion like the last time (you know who you are), ‘ochre’ is a natural clay earth pigment which contains ferric oxide, while ‘okra’ is the seed pod you put in your gumbo. Now that we’ve cleared that up (again), it will make more sense when you learn that 12,000-year-old ochre mines have been discovered in submerged caves on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, dating them back thousands of years before the preclassic Maya period – making this the earliest discovery of industry in a Mesoamerican period of nomads and agriculture. Whose mines were these?
“Here, we announce the discovery of the first subterranean ochre mine of Paleoindian age found in the Americas, offering compelling evidence for mining in three cave systems on the eastern Yucatán over a ~2000-year period between ~12 and 10 ka. The cave passages exhibit preserved evidence for ochre extraction pits, speleothem digging tools, shattered and piled flowstone debris, cairn navigational markers, and hearths yielding charcoal from highly resinous wood species. The sophistication and extent of the activities demonstrate a readiness to venture into the dark zones of the caves to prospect and collect what was evidently a highly valued mineral resource.”
“… what was evidently a highly valued mineral resource.” Ochre? Yes, ochre. Its colors range from yellow to red to brown and variations in between. Its usage dates back 200,000 years to prehistory, with evidence of it being used in burial ceremonies in Australia and Europe, as a body or leather paint and even as a medicine (to stop bleeding) or a sunblock. So it seems natural that the first people in the Americas would be excited to find it, but to make and effort to search in caves and mine it?
Not all ochre is easy to get to
“You have to be very, very careful about not getting lost,” he said. “You’ve got passages that kind of loop around and interconnect and then branch off and then connect into other systems.”
CBC.com proudly reported on native son Eduard Reinhardt, a McMaster University geo-archaeologist and expert cave diver who helped discover the mines and co-author the recent study about them in Science Advances.. While there weren’t submerged 12,000 year ago (that happened around 8,000 years ago, 2,000 years after they had been abandoned), these caves were small in many places and have numerous long tunnels and offshoots. Reinhardt found passages that would have been 2,130 feet (650 meters) from an opening. Because they were so long, it’s no surprise that he also found them strewn with cairns (mounds of stones) which may have been markers, and broken stalagmites and stalactites that could have been tools for digging. They also found ashes, possibly used for light – not a good thing, as any canary will tell you.
“It is pretty electrifying to be the first people to enter into an area that has not seen humans for thousands of years and to see what they left behind.”
Study co-author Sam Meacham, founder of El Centro Investigador del Sistema Acuífero de Quintana Roo AC (CINDAQ) and co-discoverer of the mines, indirectly points out what they didn’t find – human remains. While other caves in the area contained remains – including the skeleton of a woman who died 10,000 years ago at age 30 – these ochre mines held no miners. While mining could have drawn early natives to the caves, it seems more likely that most of them arrived later, when the miners had abandoned them, and used to tunnels for ceremonies, or perhaps even for burials.
Ochre was popular for cave art
“Ochre is such a universal material in terms of human history.”
That may be the most interesting part of this discovery – that this one colorful clay could have been used independently by early humans around the world for both common and unique purposes. While this discovery doesn’t change everything, it proves once again how much we don’t know – and that’s the real purpose of studying archeology and history … not to change but to learn more and learn from it.
A diver examines a landmark of piled stones left in the oldest ochre mine ever found in the Americas, used 10,000 to 12,000 years ago by the earliest inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere to procure the ancient commodity.
The mysterious artifacts—depicting strange beings with elongated heads, and oval-shaped eyes, as well as objects that resemble “spaceships” have been unearthed by a group of explorers in a Mexican cave.
A group of explorers has discovered in a Mexican cave evidence what they boast as the best evidence of alien contact on Earth.
The group of explorers recently visited the cave and explored it in detail.
The cave—part of three caves actually—is located between the cities of Veracruz and Puebla.
In two of the cases, researchers made unexpected discoveries including several carved stones with images that represent alien related engravings.
Furthermore, the group of explorers discovered a number of golden items in another cave.
On the surface of the stones, the group of researchers found evidence of what many people interpret as ‘extraterrestrial ships’ and ‘humanoid beings’; one of the stones, which was apparently fractured sometime in the past, supposedly shows the upper part of a spaceship together with a being which according to some people, is not from this world.
The depicted image features an alleged alien being standing next to an ancient ruler of a pre-Hispanic culture receiving a corncob, in addition to some other symbols that are still to be deciphered; these artifacts were dubbed “stones of the first encounter.”
Are these artifacts an elaborate hoax? If they are not, then we’ve come across one of the most unprecedented discoveries in history. Image Credit
The entire story sounds too good to be true—but is it?
It is reported that local legends speak of a mysterious ‘ship’ that has remained since time immemorial, hidden somewhere near the caves.
This was the main reason why the group of explorers set out to search the area three months ago.
Their search has yielded totally unexpected results. They have come across—what they believe is—the ultimate evidence that aliens beings visited Earth thousands of years ago, and had direct contact with ancient cultures inhabiting Mexico at that time.
What the discovery suggests or, what implications the group of explorers will have is still to be seen.
Jose Aguayo explained how INAH—The National Institute of Anthropology and History—can not say anything about the find since it is not typical archeology for one main reason; the artifacts depict things that contradict mainstream history and go everything we’ve been told about our history and origins.
“If at any given moment the National Institute of Anthropology and History decided to collect the artifacts, it would have huge implications for both sides since the INAH—an official government agency—would basically accept one of the most denied ‘facts’—the existence of beings not from Earth, who directly influenced ancient cultures around the globe.
An ancient circle of deep trenches has been found near Stonehenge. Scientists say the newly discovery site offers insights into the lives of people who lived in the area 4,500 years ago.
A team of archaeologists has discovered a massive ring of prehistoric trenches at the site of an ancient village about 1.9 miles (3 km) from the famous Stonehenge monument in the U.K. The team believes the circle of pits – carbon dated to about 2,500 B.C. – might have guided some people toward religious sites in the area, while warning others not to cross a boundary.
The find also makes the site the largest prehistoric structure in Britain and possibly in Europe. That’s according to University of Bradford archaeologist Vincent Gaffney, lead author of the analysis, which was published online on June 21, 2020 in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Internet Archaeology. Bradford was quoted in a June 22 article at the New York Times:
It has completely transformed how we understand this landscape – there is no doubt about it.
The ring of shafts is 1.2 miles (2 km) wide, up to 33 feet (10 meters) across and 16 feet (5 meters) deep. It was discovered around a Neolithic village known as Durrington Walls, the site of a henge monument. Researchers have identified up to 20 shafts but estimate there may have been more than 30 originally.
This low-level aerial photograph clearly shows the earlier circular earthwork that surrounds the stone monument.
Nick Snashall is National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. She said:
As the place where the builders of Stonehenge lived and feasted, Durrington Walls is key to unlocking the story of the wider Stonehenge landscape, and this astonishing discovery offers us new insights into the lives and beliefs of our Neolithic ancestors.
Archaeologists believe the circle of shafts marks a boundary around the massive henge at Durrington. The features, along with an internal post line, might have guided some people toward religious sites in the area, while warning others not to cross a boundary. Gaffney told the New York Times:
Stonehenge was for the dead. Durrington was for the living. But now, what we are probably looking at was this great big boundary around them probably warning people of what they are approaching.
Gaffney said it was extraordinary that such a major find had been made so close to Stonehenge. He said in a statement:
The area around Stonehenge is among the most studied archaeological landscapes on Earth, and it is remarkable that the application of new technology can still lead to the discovery of such a massive prehistoric structure which, currently, is significantly larger than any comparative prehistoric monument that we know of in Britain, at least.
When these pits were first noted, it was thought they might be natural features – solution hollows in the chalk. Only when the larger picture emerged, through the geophysical surveys undertaken as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, could we join the dots and see there was a pattern on a massive scale.
Stonehenge closed on March 18, 2020 as the British government introduced measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. But English Heritage has announced that Stonehenge is now open for visitors, although tickets and other safety measures are required. If you can’t visit, take a virtual tour instead.
The size of the shafts and circuit surrounding Durrington Walls is without precedent within the UK. It demonstrates the significance of Durrington Walls Henge, the complexity of the monumental structures within the Stonehenge landscape, and the capacity and desire of Neolithic communities to record their cosmological belief systems in ways, and at a scale, that we had never previously anticipated.
Bottom line: A team of archaeologists has discovered a massive ring of prehistoric trenches at the site of an ancient village about 2 miles from the famous Stonehenge monument in the U.K.
Sunken Aboriginal Sites Discovery Dated Back To Time When Seabed Was Dry Land
Sunken Aboriginal Sites Discovery Dated Back To Time When Seabed Was Dry Land
The first underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites have been discovered off northwest Australia dating back thousands of years ago when the current seabed was dry land.
Aboriginal artefacts discovered off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia represent Australia’s oldest known underwater archaeology. The discoveries were made through a series of archaeological and geophysical surveys in the Dampier Archipelago, as part of the Deep History of Sea Country Project, funded through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project Scheme.
An international team of archaeologists from Flinders University, The University of Western Australia, James Cook University, ARA – Airborne Research Australia and the University of York (United Kingdom) partnered with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation to locate and investigate ancient artefacts at two underwater sites which have yielded hundreds of stone tools made by Aboriginal peoples, including grinding stones.
In a study published today in PLOS ONE, the ancient underwater sites, at Cape Bruguieres and Flying Foam Passage, provide new evidence of Aboriginal ways of life from when the seabed was dry land, due to lower sea levels, thousands of years ago.
The submerged cultural landscapes represent what is known today as Sea Country to many Indigenous Australians, who have a deep cultural, spiritual and historical connection to these underwater environments.
“Today we announce the discovery of two underwater archaeological sites that were once on dry land. This is an exciting step for Australian archaeology as we integrate maritime and Indigenous archaeology and draw connections between land and sea,” says Associate Professor Jonathan Benjamin who is the Maritime Archaeology Program Coordinator at Flinders University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
“Australia is a massive continent but few people realise that more than 30% of its land mass was drowned by sea-level rise after the last ice age. This means that a huge amount of the archaeological evidence documenting the lives of Aboriginal people is now underwater.
“Now we finally have the first proof that at least some of this archaeological evidence survived the process of sea level rise. The ancient coastal archaeology is not lost for good; we just haven’t found it yet. These new discoveries are a first step toward exploring the last real frontier of Australian archaeology.”
The dive team mapped 269 artefacts at Cape Bruguieres in shallow water at depths down to 2.4 metres below modern sea level. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of sea-level changes show the site is at least 7000 years old.A diver on the Deep History of Sea Country Project led by Flinders University,
Credit: Hiro Yoshida
The second site at Flying Foam Passage includes an underwater freshwater spring 14 metres below sea level. This site is estimated to be at least 8500 years old. Both sites may be much older as the dates represent minimum ages only; they may be even more ancient.
The team of archaeologists and geoscientists employed predictive modelling and various underwater and remote sensing techniques, including scientific diving methods, to confirm the location of sites and presence of artefacts.
“At one point there would have been dry land stretching out 160 km from the current shoreline. That land would have been owned and lived on by generations of Aboriginal people. Our discovery demonstrates that underwater archaeological material has survived sea-level rise, and although these sites are located in relatively shallow water, there will likely be more in deeper water offshore” says Chelsea Wiseman from Flinders University who has been working on the DHSC project as part of PhD research.
“These territories that are now underwater harboured favourable environments for Indigenous settlements including freshwater, ecological diversity and opportunities to exploit marine resources which would have supported relatively high population densities” says Dr Michael O’Leary, a marine geomorphologist at The University of Western Australia.”
The discovery of these sites emphasises the need for stronger federal legislation to protect and manage underwater heritage across 2 million square kilometres of landscapes that were once above sea level in Australia, and hold major insights into human history.
“Managing, investigating and understanding the archaelogy of the Australian continental shelf in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional owners and custodians is one of the last frontiers in Australian archaeology” said Associate Professor Benjamin.
“Our results represent the first step in a journey of discovery to explore the potential of archaeology on the continental shelves which can fill a major gap in the human history of the continent” he said.
In Murujuga, this adds substantial additional evidence to support the deep time history of human activities accompanying rock art production in this important National Heritage Listed Place.
Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation CEO Peter Jeffries says the discoveries will help the community add to the story of Aboriginal people in the Pilbara.
“Further exploration could unearth similar cultural relics and help us better understand the life of the people who were so connected to these areas of land which are now underwater.
“With this comes a new requirement for the careful management of Aboriginal sea country as it’s not automatically protected by current Heritage legislation, however plans are progressing to lead this change and protect our sea country land and heritage.”
The Largest Underwater Cave Was Just Discovered And It’s Full Of Mayan Artifacts
The Largest Underwater Cave Was Just Discovered And It’s Full Of Mayan Artifacts
One of the most impressive discoveries was made recently in the Mexican city of Tulum in the Yucatan Peninsula. Inside of what appeared to be a random submerged cave they uncovered a set of subterranean caverns that became the largest underwater cave system ever discovered by humanity.
Guillermo de Anda from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History stated that there are well over a hundred archeological findings in this cave system, and they all relate back to the ancient Mayan civilization.
The team that made the discovery is a part of the Great Maya Aquifer Project or GAM for short. They’ve been working towards discovering more about the ancient Mayan civilization for decades now.
They uncovered 358 cave systems, all submerged underwater, spread across 1,400 kilometers (870 miles). One of the systems was named the Sac Actun System, and thanks to its immense size they believed there to be two cave systems interjecting at first, but after further research, they uncovered that it was all part of the original cave system.
The secondary system was called Dos Ojos System and it was believed to be 93km long (57.8 miles) when it was, later on, uncovered that it was all a part of the Sac Actun System after all.
A 200,000 Year Old Annunaki Gold Civilization Might Rewrite History Books
A 200,000 Year Old Annunaki Gold Civilization Might Rewrite History Books
The discovery of ancient or even unknown civilizations has always fascinated archaeologists and scientists because such findings have added up to the known history by bringing in new episodes depicting the achievements of the old people who once dwelt on planet Earth.
However, when a team of archaeologists investigated this particular site, they couldn’t find a link between it and any other known culture. After carbon-14 was used in order to find the approximate time-period of the African remains, the archaeologists and historians were perplexed – the ruins were around since 160,000 to 200,000 years before Christ.
What makes this even more interesting is the fact that no advanced civilizations were thought to exist in South Africa in the past and that the first powerful cultures appeared in Sumeria, Egypt and other places.
When researcher and author, Michael Tellinger, teamed up with Johan Heine, a local pilot who had surveilled the area from above countless times, this mysterious settlement and its extreme importance was finally brought into discussion.
West of the port city of Maputo, about 150 miles inland, lies the remains of a colossal ancient metropolis that measures about 1,500 square miles and is considered part of an even larger picture measuring about 10,000 miles. Until recently, local people who encounters the strange stone foundations thought they were built by the indigenous people in the past and no one was attracted in discovering the exact origins, until Tellinger and Heine arrived.
When Heine first introduced me to the ancient stone ruins of southern Africa, he had no idea of the incredible discoveries we would achieve in the following years. The photographs, artifacts and evidence we accumulated, points towards a lost civilization that has never before been and precedes all others – not for a hundred years, or a few thousand years…but many thousands of years. – said Tellinger
The researchers were puzzled by the presence of so many gold mines remnants located in the vicinity of the ancient city. As Tellinger considers, this striking element shows how a timeworn civilization lived and prospered in this massive city while undertaking massive gold exploitations from the numerous mines around the settlement.
What they did with the gold remains a mystery because not much is known about a period so far away in time. Even though the site is only 150 miles away from an excellent port that could had facilitated a great way to ship their goods, we are still talking about 200,000 BC. Is it possible that they used the gold for trade or for sculpting statues and idols? Or could this enigmatic material possess a different, nobler value for these ancient people?
I see myself a fairly open-minded chap but I will admit that it took me well over a year for the penny to drop, and for me to realize that we are actually dealing with the oldest structures ever built by humans on Earth.
The main reason for this is that we have been taught that nothing of significance has ever come from southern Africa. That the powerful civilizations all emerged in Sumeria and Egypt and other places. We are told that until the settlement of the Bantu people from the north, which was supposed to have started sometime in the 12th century AD, this part of the world was filled by hunter gatherers and so-called Bushmen, who did not make any major contributions in technology or civilization. – Tellinger
The ancient ruins are scattered over an extremely large area. While most of them consist of circular stone circles buried in the sand, the climate change has blown the sand off, revealing other imposing structures with walls standing as high as 5 feet, while being over a meter in diameter; also roads were discovered, some extended over hundreds of miles, connecting the community and terraced agriculture.
Hundreds of mysterious golden-coloured orbs have been found buried in a hidden chamber deep beneath the Temple of Feathered Serpent in Mexico.
The discovery was made by archaeologists from the Mexico National Institute of Anthropology and History, who admit they have no idea what the spheres are for.
A tiny robot called Tláloc II-TC, which has been scanning tunnels deep beneath the famous temple, found the orbs using infrared scanners.
Scroll down for video
Hundreds of mysterious spheres have been discovered beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, just 30 miles from Mexico City
According to archaeologists from the Mexico National Institute of Anthropology and History, the spheres would have appeared to be made of gold because they are covered in jarosite - a bi-product of the oxidisation of pyrite, also known as Fool's Gold
Infrared scanners found the location of the chamber and the orbs. Archaeologists have no idea what the spheres would have been used for, although believe they may have been involved with religious rituals
THE TLALOC II-TC ROBOT
The Tláloc II-TC is named after the Aztec god of rain.
It is three-feet-long and can squeeze through tight spaces and explore small, hidden areas.
It is fitted with video cameras and a mechanical arm used to clear obstacles out of its way.
It is part of a robotic system called Tlaloque, which includes a large rover that carries the two smaller robots.
Once the Tlaloque arrives at a chamber, the robots break off and scan the area using infrared scanners.
A separate flying drone captures video footage.
They were hiding in a previously unexplored ancient chamber at the end of a stretch of 2,000-year-old unexplored tunnel on the Teotihuacan site, near the Pyramid of the Sun.
Jorge Zavala, an archaeologist on the dig said: 'They look like yellow spheres, but we do not know their meaning.
The spheres are made of clay and range from 1.5 to 5 inches in circumference.
They get their yellow colour from a material called jarosite.
Lead archaeologist Sergio Gomez explained that the spheres appear to be made of metal because jarosite is formed by the oxidation of pyrite, which is a metallic ore also known as Fool's Gold.
The walls in the chamber were also found to be dusted in pyrite, which gave it an appearance of a gold room.
The archaeologists therefore think that the orbs would have been used by 'high-ranking people, priests, or even rulers' to perform rituals within the tunnels.
Although, the team admit what part they played in these rituals, and what these rituals meant remain a mystery.
The team from the Mexican Institute have been using the robot for months to explore the tunnels under the celebrated temple, also known as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl.
Explorer: This robot may have made a momentous discovery in a 2,000-year-old tunnel in Mexico
The was the first image transmitted by the robot deep under the ancient temple
The social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site
WHAT WAS TEOTIHUACAN?
Teotihuaca means 'the place where men become gods'.
The site is thought to be a burial ground.
The Teotihuacan people worshipped eight gods, and were known to carry out human sacrifices.
The ancient city was founded 2,500 years ago and was once one of the biggest cities on Earth with over 100,000 residents - Earth at this time only house 200 million people.
The city was totally abandoned in 700 AD and very little is know about the civilisation, or what caused the mass exodus.
The temple lies about 37 miles north of Mexico City and the site houses the remains of the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan in the Basin of Mexico.
It is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun.
Earlier this year, the team and the remote-controlled robot found three unexplored passages.
It was only expected to find one.
The discovery of the hidden passages and golden orbs could be highly important.
In 2010 experts said a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site.
When the civilisation was abandoned, almost 50,000 high-value objects including jade, stone, shell and pottery, such as ceramic beakers, were thrown into the tunnel because it was closed up.
The remote control vehicle is equipped with a video cameras and a mechanical arm to clear obstacles out of its way as it maneuvers through the tight passageway
Tourists look on at the archaeological area of the Quetzalcoatl Temple about 37 miles north of Mexico City
This map shows the chambers of the tunnel, found beneath the Temple of the Feathers Serpent, as plotted by the laser scanner. Archaeologists were only expecting to find one chamber, but the robot discovered three hidden rooms
No depiction of a ruler, or the tomb of a monarch, has ever been found, setting the metropolis apart from other pre-Hispanic cultures that deified their rulers.
Vertical excavations begun in 2009 to reach the mouth of the tunnel suggest this was a ruler's tomb, claims Gomez.
'I think the tunnel was the central element, the main element around which the rest of the ceremonial center was built,' Gomez said. 'This was the most sacred place.'
'There is a high possibility that in this place, in the central chamber, we can find the remains of those who ruled Teotihuacan,' he added.
Archaeologist Sergio Gomez from the National Institute of Anthropology and History explains the developments to the media
The robot is seen near the entrance of a tunnel in the archaeological area. After months of exploration it might have made a momentous discovery
VIDEO On camera. Robot explores the pyramid's tunnels...
Ancient sites are more often than not peppered with the mysteries of the past. They hold enigmas and unsolved clues that almost seem to taunt us through the mists of time, and as much as we study ancient sites, we usually seem to dig up more questions than answers. One fairly recent case of this happened in the country of Mexico, where a team of archeologists exploring a mysterious ancient city sent a robot down into its bowels and turned up more than they bargained for.
Sitting out at a site located fewer than 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the bustling urban center of Mexico City, lies one of the true wonders of the ancient world, a massive city built more than a thousand years before the arrival of the Aztecs. Called Teotihuacan, meaning “the place where men become gods,” it was once the center of a thriving megapolis of an estimated 100,000 residents, which at a time when the total population of the Earth was only 200 million made it perhaps one of the largest cities in the world at the time, seeing its heyday from between 100 B.C. and 650 A.D. The mysterious people of this city built by hand wide swaths of road, walls, elaborate buildings, and ornate temples such as the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon, which were grand pyramids not unlike those of faraway Egypt, to the point that when the Aztecs found it abandoned, they were awestruck by its splendor.
Teotihuacan is in and of itself an enigma. Although it was once perhaps the most populous and sprawling city the world had ever seen, almost nothing is known of its people and culture, and it was all mysteriously abandoned in some mass exodus event in around 700 A.D. for reasons unknown. Just about the only thing we know is that they worshipped around eight different gods, and made frequent animal and human sacrifices, but that is about it. In modern times this ancient city has been the focus of countless excavations, many of which have only deepened the mystery behind these long lost people, and although much of the surface of this place has been mapped, excavations have only scratched the surface of what lies beyond that, and there are also believed to be extensive labyrinthine systems of manmade tunnels and chambers underground that are completely uncharted territory. It is here at one of these places of perpetual darkness not looked upon with human eyes for thousands of years that yet another mystery would be found.
Teotihuacan
In 2013, something very odd was found down beneath a pyramid called the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, also known as Temple of Quetzalcoatl, when archaeologists from the Mexico National Institute of Anthropology and History were exploring its dank spider web of subterranean tunnels. To do this, they employed a robot called Tláloc II-TC. Measuring a mere 3 feet long, the remote-controlled robot was designed to squeeze into tight spaces too small for humans to enter, and it carries cameras, infrared scanners, 3-D mapping equipment, and a mechanical arm to push away debris in its path. Part of a robotic system called Tlaloque, it is carried to the target site by a larger rover, which dispenses it and another similar small robot like itself, and the system has been instrumental in uncovering numerous previously unknown tunnels, rooms, and side chambers. It was in one of these rooms that it would make a spectacular discovery. Archaeologist Sergio Gómez Chávez would say:
The robot was able to enter in the part of the tunnel which has not yet been excavated yet and found three chambers… We believe that high-ranking people, priests or even rulers, went down to the tunnel to perform rituals.
This was already exciting enough as it was, but what made it truly remarkable is what was found inside. There scattered all over the ground out in the open were hundreds of yellow clay spheres or orbs, measuring from 1.5 to 5 inches in circumference and covered with pyrite, also commonly called “fool’s gold,” which had over the centuries oxidized to become an amber mineral called jarosite. Because of this, back in pre-Hispanic times when they were first placed here the spheres would have appeared to be metallic, made of gold, and would have shone and glittered brilliantly. The walls too are covered in a coating of magnetite, pyrite and hematite, which would have made it seem as if the whole, scintillating chamber was crafted of solid gold. Truly it would have been a magnificent, breathtaking sight to see back in the time when people still ventured here long ago, but the archeologists have no idea at all as to what they mean or what their function was. Indeed, the whole origin and purpose of the chamber is a complete mystery, and it has been called by the team “an unprecedented discovery.”
One of the main ideas was that this was likely a place of great importance, perhaps the center of the whole complex and used as a place for rulers and high priests, either as a place for rituals, a burial chamber, or both, although it is an utter mystery as to what kinds of rituals might have been carried out here. The spheres might have been objects for ritual purposes, talismans, or as offerings to their gods. It would have been an incredibly important place, further supported by evidence that seems to show that the main tunnel that leads to the secret chambers was at one point totally sealed off, as if to protect something of great value, and the main tunnel itself is lined with jade, stone, shell and pottery objects that would have been luxury items at the time. It is thought that if the cave is explored further, there may be more discoveries in the darkness, perhaps even the remains of a ruler, never found before in the city of Teotihuacan. At the moment there are no answers, and they remain just another of the many questions the ancients have left in their wake for us to ponder.
The lost continent of Zealandia, which sank into the ocean 23 million years ago after breaking away from the supercontinent Gondwanaland, isn’t technically a ‘lost continent’ anymore – it was discovered in the 1990s and upgraded from microcontinent in 2017. However, most of its submerged 2 million-square-miles (5 million square kilometers) remain a mystery.
That changed this week when GNS Science — New Zealand’s leading provider of Earth, geoscience and isotope research and consultancy services – unveiled two new maps of Zealandia and an open-to-the-public interactive website with more data on Te Riu-a-Māui / Zealandia – the new name for the lost continent. Te Riu-a-Māui translates to the hills, valleys and plains of Māui – the great East Polynesian ancestor explorer of the Pacific Ocean. Māui is the mythical ancestor of all Polynesians who explored the Pacific.
“We’ve made these maps to provide an accurate, complete and up-to-date picture of the geology of the New Zealand and southwest Pacific area – better than we have had before.
“Their value is that they provide a fresh context in which to explain and understand the setting of New Zealand’s volcanoes, plate boundary and sedimentary basins.”
Geologist Dr. Nick Mortimer, lead author of the maps, reveals in the press release that the maps are so much more than just the boundaries of Zealandia – they will help bring the geological history of New Zealand’s volcanoes from the mythical to the historical.
“Users can zoom and pan around different thematic geoscience webmaps of the region. They can readily view and interrogate the maps and turn layers on or off. They can also query features in the layers and generate custom maps of their own.”
Program Leader Dr. Vaughan Stagpoole describes how easy it is to use the webmaps. Traditionalists can also purchase printed copies at the GNS Science store. The three maps available so far are a Geoscience data webmap showing general information about the size and shape of Zealandia; a Tectonic webmap showing major faults, plate boundaries and locations of ancient and modern volcanoes; and a Bathymetric webmap color-contrasting the solid land and seabed to show coastlines, territorial limits and names of major undersea features. All are provided here courtesy of GNS Science, which holds their license.
While the maps are impressive, GNS Science will continue its research and update the maps and interactive website as more information becomes available.
"The Thing" Found in Antarctica Is a Monster's Egg
"The Thing" Found in Antarctica Is a Monster's Egg
An artist’s interpretation of a baby mosasaur emerging from an egg
Credit: John Maisano/Jackson School of Geosciences.
In 2011, Chilean scientists discovered a mysterious fossil in Antarctica that looked like a deflated football. For nearly a decade, the specimen sat unlabeled and unstudied in the collections of Chile’s National Museum of Natural History, with scientists identifying it only by its sci-fi movie-inspired nickname - “The Thing.”
A side view of the fossil of the giant egg.
Credit: Legendre et al. 2020
An analysis led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has found that the fossil is a giant, soft-shell egg from about 66 million years ago. Measuring in at more than 11 by 7 inches, the egg is the largest soft-shell egg ever discovered and the second-largest egg of any known animal.
The specimen is the first fossil egg found in Antarctica and pushes the limits of how big scientists thought soft-shell eggs could grow. Aside from its astounding size, the fossil is significant because scientists think it was laid by an extinct, giant marine reptile, such as a mosasaur — a discovery that challenges the prevailing thought that such creatures did not lay eggs.
“It is from an animal the size of a large dinosaur, but it is completely unlike a dinosaur egg,” said lead author Lucas Legendre, a postdoctoral researcher at UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences. “It is most similar to the eggs of lizards and snakes, but it is from a truly giant relative of these animals.”
A study describing the fossil egg was published in Nature on June 17.
Co-author David Rubilar-Rogers of Chile’s National Museum of Natural History was one of the scientists who discovered the fossil in 2011. He showed it to every geologist who came to the museum, hoping somebody had an idea, but he didn’t find anyone until Julia Clarke, a professor in the Jackson School’s Department of Geological Sciences, visited in 2018.
“I showed it to her and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be a deflated egg!” Rubilar-Rogers said.
A diagram showing the fossil egg, its parts and size relative to an adult human.The giant egg has a soft shell. This is shown in dark gray in the drawing, with arrows pointing to its folds and surrounding sediment shown as light gray.
Credit: Legendre et al. 2020
Using a suite of microscopes to study samples, Legendre found several layers of membrane that confirmed that the fossil was indeed an egg. The structure is very similar to transparent, quick-hatching, eggs laid by some snakes and lizards today, he said. However, because the fossil egg is hatched and contains no skeleton, Legendre had to use other means to zero in on the type of reptile that laid it.
He compiled a data set to compare the body size of 259 living reptiles to the size of their eggs, and he found that the reptile that laid the egg would have been more than 20 feet long from the tip of its snout to the end of its body, not counting a tail. In both size and living reptile relations, an ancient marine reptile fits the bill.
An artist’s interpretation of a mosasaur, an extinct marine reptile that scientists think may have laid the egg. An adult mosasaur is shown next to the egg and a hatchling.
Credit: Francisco Hueichaleo, 2020.
Adding to that evidence, the rock formation where the egg was discovered also hosts skeletons from baby mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, along with adult specimens.
“Many authors have hypothesized that this was sort of a nursery site with shallow protected water, a cove environment where the young ones would have had a quiet setting to grow up,” Legendre said.
The paper does not discuss how the ancient reptile might have laid the eggs. But the researchers have two competing ideas.
One involves the egg hatching in the open water, which is how some species of sea snakes give birth. The other involves the reptile depositing the eggs on a beach and hatchlings scuttling into the ocean like baby sea turtles.
The researchers say that this would demand some fancy maneuvering by the mother because giant marine reptiles were too heavy to support their body weight on land. Laying the eggs would require the reptile to wriggle its tail on shore while staying mostly submerged, and supported, by water.
“We can’t exclude the idea that they shoved their tail end up on shore because nothing like this has ever been discovered,” Clarke said.
The study’s other co-authors are Clarke, Jackson School graduate students Sarah Davis and Grace Musser, and Rodrigo Otero and Alexander Vargas of the University of Chile. Rubilar-Rogers led the expedition organized by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) in the Antarctic Peninsula, where he and Otero discovered the fossil.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Program and the National Research and Development Agency of Chile funded the research.
Contacts and sources:
Monica KortshaUniversity of Texas at Austin
Publication:
A giant soft-shelled egg from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica. Lucas J. Legendre, David Rubilar-Rogers, Grace M. Musser, Sarah N. Davis, Rodrigo A. Otero, Alexander O. Vargas, Julia A. Clarke. Nature, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2377-7
Huge Discovery! Largest Prehistoric Site Ever Discovered In Britain Is Located Right Next to Stonehenge
Huge Discovery! Largest Prehistoric Site Ever Discovered In Britain Is Located Right Next to Stonehenge
In an extraordinary discovery, archaeologists have uncovered the largest prehistoric site ever, found in Britain, it’s situated just next to Stonehenge! The archaeologists discovered a ring of prehistoric shafts that were dug thousands of years ago. These fascinating shafts are 1.2 miles wide with huge stone circles of Durrington Walls in the center. The Durrington Walls are situated a mere 2 miles away from Stonehenge! These large shafts are about 10 meters in diameter and 5 meters into the ground. Experts have tested these shafts and can confirm that they are Neolithic and were dug over 4,500 years ago.
Egyptian Power Plant of Giza… The Construction and Function of the Great Pyramid
Egyptian Power Plant of Giza… The Construction and Function of the Great Pyramid
Were power tools used to build the great pyramids? The great pyramid of Giza was built with the precision of a machine, and Christopher Dunn explains that it therefore must have the function of a machine. Combining his extensive background as a master craftsman in high-level aerospace manufacturing with his years of research on the Giza plateau, he brings forward new insights into the construction and function of the great pyramid.
What comes to light is the nature of the tools used to carve and move stones, something that could only have been done with massive power tools. But where did the power come from?
A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena.
Secret Advanced Ancient Egyptian Science, so Inexplicable it Is Beyond Our Capabilities Today
Secret Advanced Ancient Egyptian Science, so Inexplicable it Is Beyond Our Capabilities Today
The great temples and monuments of ancient Egypt continue to fascinate and … As the civilization advanced, so did their knowledge and skill until, by the time of the … amount of effort required in building the monuments one finds in Egypt today. … Verner, M. The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt’s Great …
Egyptians are the people inhabiting the country of Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to the Mediterranean and enclosed by desert both to the east and to the west. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since antiquity.
Secret Advanced Ancient Egyptian Science, So Inexplicable It is Beyond Our Capabilities Today
In archeology, sometimes you can teach an old site new tricks, it seems. New research reports the discovery of at least 20 huge shafts forming a circle at Durrington Walls, the site of a stone-age village about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Stonehenge.
The position of the shafts in relation to Durrington Walls and the village of Durrington, UK. Image credits Vincent Gaffney et al., (2020), intarch.
The discovery of this major, buried monument could help us better understand how the iconic stone circle in England came to be, or what its purpose was.
Ancient digs
“The size of the shafts and circuit surrounding Durrington Walls is currently unique,” says Vince Gaffney, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford and corresponding author of the paper describing the findings.
“It demonstrates the significance of Durrington Walls Henge, the complexity of the monumental structures within the Stonehenge landscape, and the capacity and desire of Neolithic communities to record their cosmological belief systems in ways, and at a scale, that we had never previously anticipated.”
When the shafts were first found, the team assumed they were natural structures, formed by water flowing through the chalky subsurface. However, remote sensing and sampling quickly showed that this wasn’t the case, and that the shafts were built by human hands.
Researchers say the shafts appear to have been dug around 4,500 years ago. Exactly what their purpose was remains unclear, but the team suspects they served a religious purpose, for example acting as a boundary around a circular monument known as the Durrington Walls henge.
The shafts are, on average, 864 metres from Durrington Walls henge, forming a circle around 2 kilometers in diameter. They are over 10 meters (32 feet) in diameter and 5 meters (16 feet) deep. Although 20 have been discovered so far, there are likely more to be found at the site.
“When these pits were first noted it was thought they might be natural features—solution hollows in the chalk,” says Gaffney. But geophysical surveys carried out at the side showed “there was a pattern on a massive scale.”
Britain is a hotbed for archaeology. Stonehenge, built between 3000 B.C. and 1600 B.C., is iconic across much of the world and one of the country’s top tourist attractions, and a feat of engineering during its day — but it’s by no means the country’s only stone circle. These structures are thousands of years old and the reasons why they were built are still poorly understood It was likely a religious or spiritual place, or a means of keeping track of the seasons.
Among the more exciting implications of this finding is that it betrays a relatively advanced understanding of mathematics, without which the ancient builders couldn’t have produced a neat and organized circle on the scale seen here.
The paper “A Massive, Late Neolithic Pit Structure associated with Durrington Walls Henge” has been published in the journal Internet Archaeology.
If you travelled to the Tuva mountains in Southern Russia, some 1,300 m (4,300 ft) above sea level, you might find a rather inconspicuous lake called Tere-Khol, hidden among the rolling hills. The lake itself would not be very interesting were it not for an island in its midst.
In truth, the island itself is also nothing special. It’s what’s on it that’s truly spectacular: the Uyghur Por-Bajin complex.
Aerial view of Por-Bajin from the west. The complex is situated on an island in a lake. Scientists have pinned its construction on the year 777 CE, using a special carbon-14 dating technique. Image credits: Andrei Panin
The Por-Bajin complex was built by the Uyghurs, a Turkic minority ethnic group scattered across several areas in today’s Russia, Mongolia, and China. Por-Bajin was built more than 1,000 years ago but was abandoned for centuries until it was rediscovered in the 18th century
The complex measures 215 x 162 meters (705 x 531 feet), with outer walls measuring 12 meters high (39 feet). Building this big of a complex — and on an island in a lake, of all places — is not an easy feat. It was known that the complex was built by nomadic Uyghurs at some point in the 8th century, but much to the archaeologists’ surprise, the complex appears to have never been used.
So why would you go to all this trouble and build this structure if you’re never gonna use it?
To get to the bottom of this, a team of researchers worked to determine the exact year when the complex was built.
“In order to understand this, the exact construction date was required to find out which local leader, or khan, gave the orders for the construction,” explains Margot Kuitems, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Isotope Research at the University of Groningen.
The problem is that radiocarbon dating is only accurate to a few decades, and if you want to know exactly who ordered the construction of the complex, that’s not good enough.
So researchers had to dig deep into the bag of (science) tricks to find the exact year — and they also got a bit lucky.
Trees, carbon, and archaeology
Carbon-14 (an isotope of carbon) is created in the upper atmosphere. When plants absorb carbon dioxide during their respiration, they mostly take in Carbon-12 (which makes the vast majority of the carbon in the atmosphere). But with it, plants also absorb a tiny amount of Carbon-14.
But when the plant starts to decay and decompose, the carbon uptake is stopped, and the less-stable Carbon-14 starts to decay. So if you look at a plant today, you’ll find a specific ratio of Carbon-12/Carbon-14. But if you were to look at a plant that lived 100 years ago, you’d find a different ratio. So by looking at this ratio, you can get a good idea of the age of that plant (or other organic material).
The rate of Carbon-14 production in the atmosphere varies slightly from year to year, but this is where the researchers got a bit lucky.
In 2013, Japanese Professor Fusa Miyake found a spectacular spike in Carbon-14 content in the year 775. The spike can be detected in tree rings that grew in that year, and therefore, can be used to date the year accurately.
“When you find wood at an archeological site from that period, you can look for the spike by measuring the carbon-14 content of subsequent tree rings,” explains Kuitems.
Example of wood circles under a microscope. Image credits: Andrei Panin.
Armed with this piece of information, the team examined a beam taken from the very foundation of the Por-Bajin complex. The tree had 45 rings, followed by bark. The 43rd ring featured the Carbon-14 spike, so that was the year 775 — which means the tree was cut 2 years later, in 777.
“So, we knew the tree was felled in 777. Tree ring specialist and co-author Petra Doeve determined that the final, partial ring was created in the spring,” adds Kuitems.
Russian archaeologists had already determined that the complex was built quickly, in 1-2 years, so the date probably stands true for the entire structure.
So what does this tell us?
In the year 777, Tengri Bögü Khan was the leading khan. He is famous for converting to Manichaeism, a religion spread by a Persian prophet based on a good-evil duality. Manichaeism had some success in some areas, but unfortunately for Bögü Khan, most of his people opposed it. He was actually killed in an anti-Manichaean rebellion in 779. Here too, the researchers got a bit lucky, because this particular event was a smoking gun indicating what really happened to this impressive complex.
“All this ties in neatly with the archeological evidence,” explains Kuitems. It is likely that the complex was built to serve as a Manichaean monastery. “This explains why it was never used after the anti-Manichaeans defeated Bögü Khan. If it had been a palace or a fortress, it is more likely that the victors would have moved in.”
So this approach helped researchers solve a long-standing conundrum, and could be used in other settings, researchers argue.
“This technology can be really useful in cases where an exact date is required,” researchers conclude.
Today, there are over 10,000,000 Uyghurs, spread over the geographical territory of several countries. Notably, over 1 million Uyghurs (up to 3 million, by some estimates) are said to be detained in concentration camps in Xianjiang, China.
Journal Reference: Margot Kuitems el al., “Radiocarbon-based approach capable of subannual precision resolves the origins of the site of Por-Bajin,” PNAS (2020).
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
.jpg)
Dinosaurs that lived 200 million years ago may have used...
Turn your garden into Jurassic World: Google launches 10 new...
A little TOO realistic? Canadian museum reveals farting,..
Why T-Rex had a knobbly skull: Large dinosaurs were much...
First permanent British settlers in America were CANNIBALS..
Does this mysterious Hebrew stone reveal a messiah BEFORE...
.jpg)
