The Tunguska Event
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Tunguska Siberia
The Tunguska Event, or Tunguska explosion, was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at around 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908 (June 17 in the Julian calendar, in use locally at the time).
Although the cause of the explosion is the subject of debate, it is commonly believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 miles) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.
Although the meteor or comet burst in the air rather than directly hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact. Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 megatons to as high as 30 megatons of TNT, with 10–15 megatons the most likely—roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear explosion set off in late February 1954, about 1,000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and about one-third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. The explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles). It is estimated that the shockwave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area. This possibility has helped to spark discussion of asteroid deflection strategies.
Although the Tunguska event is believed to be the largest impact event on land in Earth's recent history, impacts of similar size in remote ocean areas would have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.
thSelected eyewitness reports
Testimony of S. Semenov, as recorded by Leonid Kulik's expedition in 1930.
"At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara trading post (65 kilometres/40 miles south of the explosion), facing North. I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul's Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest (as Semenov showed, about 50 degrees up - expedition note). The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped."
e first Testimony of Chuchan of Shanyagir tribe, as recorded by I.M.Suslov in 1926
people to decode the message from another civilization.
In the case of the Tunguska event, some of the most compelling evidence comes from those who experienced the terror first hand.
In 1928, I. M. Suslov recorded the following testimony from a member of Shanyagir tribe
“We had a hut by the river with my brother Chekaren. We were sleeping. Suddenly we both woke up at the same time. Somebody shoved us. We heard whistling and felt strong wind. Chekaren said, "can you hear all those birds flying overhead?" We were both in the hut, couldn't see what was going on outside. Suddenly, I got shoved again, this time so hard I fell into the fire. I got scared. Chekaren got scared too. We started crying for out father, mother, brother, but no one answered.
“There was noise beyond the hut, we could hear trees falling down. Me and Chekaren got out of our sleeping bags and wanted to run out, but then the thunder struck. This was the first thunder. The Earth began to move and rock, wind hit our hut and knocked it over. My body was pushed down by sticks, but my head was in the clear. Then I saw a wonder: trees were falling, the branches were on fire, it became mighty bright, how can I say this, as if there was a second sun, my eyes were hurting, I even closed them. It was like what the Russians call lightning. And immediately there was a loud thunderclap. This was the second thunder. The morning was sunny, there were no clouds, our Sun was shining brightly as usual, and suddenly there came a second one!
Me and Chekaren had some difficulty getting under from the remains of our hut. Then we saw that above, but in a different place, there was another flash, and loud thunder came. This was the third thunder strike. Wind came again, knocked us off our feet, struck against the fallen trees.
“We looked at the fallen trees, watched the tree tops get snapped off, watched the fires. Suddenly Chekaren yelled "Look up" and pointed with his hand. I looked there and saw another flash, and it made another thunder. But the noise was less than before. This was the fourth strike, like normal thunder.
“Now I remember well there was also one more thunder strike, but it was small, and somewhere far away, where the Sun goes to sleep”.
Sibir newspaper, July 2, 1908
"On the 17th of June, around 9 in the AM, we observed an unusual natural occurrence. In the N Karelinski village (200 verst, or about 130 miles, N of Kirensk) the peasants saw to the North-West, rather high above the horizon, some strangely bright (impossible to look at) bluish-white heavenly body, which for 10 minutes moved downwards. The body appeared as a "pipe", i.e. a cylinder. The sky was cloudless, only a small dark cloud was observed in the general direction of the bright body. It was hot and dry. As the body neared the ground (forest), the bright body seemed to smudge, and then turned into a giant billow of black smoke, and a loud knocking (not thunder) was heard, as if large stones were falling, or artillery was fired. All buildings shook. At the same time the cloud began emitting flames of uncertain shapes. All villagers were stricken with panic and took to the streets, women cried, thinking it was the end of the world. "The author of these lines was meantime in the forest about 6 verst (about four miles) N of Kirensk, and heard to the NE some kind of artillery barrage, that repeated in intervals of 15 minutes at least 10 times. In Kirensk in a few buildings in the walls facing north-east window glass shook.
"Kezhemskoe village. On the 17th an unusual atmospheric event was observed. At 7:43 the noise akin to a strong wind was heard. Immediately afterwards a horrific thump sounded, followed by an earthquake which literally shook the buildings, as if they were hit by a large log or a heavy rock. The first thump was followed by a second, and then a third. Then - the interval between the first and the third thumps were accompanied by an unusual underground rattle, similar to a railway upon which dozens of trains are traveling at the same time. Afterwards for 5 to 6 minutes an exact likeness of artillery fire was heard: 50 to 60 salvoes in short, equal intervals, which got progressively weaker. After 1.5 - 2 minutes after one of the "barrages" six more thumps were heard, like cannon firing, but individual, loud, and accompanied by tremors. "The sky, at the first sight, appeared to be clear. There was no wind and no clouds. However upon closer inspection to the North, i.e. where most of the thumps were heard, a kind of an ashen cloud was seen near the horizon which kept getting smaller and more transparent, and possibly by around 2-3 p.m. completely disappeared.
There was little scientific curiosity about the impact at the time, possibly due to the isolation of the Tunguska region. If there were any early expeditions to the site, the records were likely to have been lost during the subsequent chaotic years — World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War.
The first recorded expedition arrived at the scene more than a decade after the event. In 1921, the Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, visiting the Podkamennaya Tunguska River basin as part of a survey for the Soviet Academy of Sciences, deduced from local accounts that the explosion had been caused by a giant meteorite impact. He persuaded the Soviet government to fund an expedition to the Tunguska region, based on the prospect of meteoric iron that could be salvaged to aid Soviet industry.
Photograph from the Soviet Academy of Science 1927 expedition led by Leonid Kulik
Kulik's party reached the site in 1927. To their surprise, no crater was to be found. There was instead a region of scorched trees about 50 kilometres (30 miles) across. A few near ground zero were still strangely standing upright, their branches and bark stripped off. Those farther away had been knocked down in a direction away from the center.
During the next ten years there were three more expeditions to the area. Kulik found a little "pothole" bog that he thought might be the crater, but after a laborious exercise in draining the bog, he found there were old stumps on the bottom, ruling out the possibility that it was a crater. In 1938, Kulik arranged for an aerial photographic survey of the area, which revealed that the event had knocked over trees in a huge butterfly-shaped pattern. Despite the large amount of devastation, there was no crater to be seen.
Expeditions sent to the area in the 1950s and 1960s found microscopic silicate and magnetite spheres in siftings of the soil. Similar spheres were predicted to exist in the felled trees, although they could not be detected by contemporary means. Later expeditions did identify such spheres in the resin of the trees, however. Chemical analysis showed that the spheres contained high proportions of nickel relative to iron, which is also found in meteorites, leading to the conclusion they were of extraterrestrial origin. The concentration of the spheres in different regions of the soil was also found to be consistent with the expected distribution of debris from a meteorite airburst.Later studies of the spheres found unusual ratios of numerous other metals relative to the surrounding environment, which was taken as further evidence of their extraterrestrial origin.
Chemical analysis of peat bogs from the area also revealed numerous anomalies considered consistent with an impact event. The isotopic signatures of stable carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen isotopes at the layer of the bogs corresponding to 1908 were found to be inconsistent with the isotopic ratios measured in the adjacent layers, and this abnormality was not found in bogs located outside the area. The region of the bogs showing these anomalous signatures also contains an unusually high proportion of iridium, similar to the iridium layer found in the K–T boundary. These unusual proportions are believed to result from debris from the impacting body that deposited in the bogs. The nitrogen is believed to have been deposited as acid rain, a suspected fallout from the explosion
UFO crash
Various UFO aficionados have claimed that the Tunguska event was the result of an exploding alien spaceship or even an alien weapon going off to "save the Earth from an imminent threat". These claims appear to originate from a science fiction story "A Visitor From Outer Space" penned by Soviet engineer Alexander Kazantsev in 1946, in which a nuclear-powered Martian spaceship, seeking fresh water from Lake Baikal, blew up in mid-air. This story was inspired by Kazantsev's visit to Hiroshima in late 1945.
Many events in Kazantsev's tale were subsequently confused with the actual occurrences at Tunguska. The nuclear-powered UFO hypothesis was adopted by TV drama critics Thomas Atkins and John Baxter in their book The Fire Came By (1976). The 1998 television series The Secret KGB UFO Files (Phenomenon: The Lost Archives), broadcast on Turner Network Television, referred to the Tunguska event as "the Russian Roswell" and claimed that crashed UFO debris had been recovered from the site. In 2004, a group from the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation claimed to have found the wreckage of an alien spacecraft at the site. In 2009, Dr Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation repeated these claims, based upon findings of the quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site, which, as he claims, represent the remnants of an alien spaceship control panel. The proponents of the UFO hypothesis have never been able to provide any significant evidence for their claims.
MosNews-Scientists from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk claim that they have discovered several artifacts with extraterrestrial writings near the fall site of the Tunguska meteorite, the Regnum news agency reports.
The president of the Tunguska Space Phenomenon research foundation told reporters that several quartz boulders with mysterious writings on them were found in the Tunguska river basin in 2006. The boulders were tested in Krasnoyarsk and Moscow and test results speak for the fact that they are of extraterrestrial origin, he said.
The boulders were covered in strange signs of artificial origin, presumably made with plasma.
Russian researchers suggested a hypothesis that the quartz tablets were parts of an information container delivered to Earth by the extraterrestrial spaceship that crashed in Tunguska region in 1908.
Russian researcher also said that scientists from the United States, Britain, France and Germany have requested the newly-found artifacts for research, but Russians want to be only ones to examine them.
Aliens downed Tunguska meteorite to protect our planet from devastation, stated Russian scientist Yuriy Lavbin about the 100 year old mystery surrounding the massive Siberian explosion. He showed 10 quartz crystals that he found at the place of the meteorite’s crash. Several of the crystals have holes in between, so they can be united in a chain.
- What could this chain serve for? Besides, some crystals have strange drawings on them. We don’t have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals. We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space”, - the scientist stated.
It was not until many years later that a Siberian scientist set up an expedition to the place of the meteorite’s crash. They searched carefully through the river banks and found unusual quartz boards. Mr. Lavbin states that such solid stones do not exist on our planet Earth. He told of an experiment that was done on the crystals: scientists tried to put some of the same drawing that were on the stones initially with a sophisticated laser machine.
How surprised they were to realize that the laser (that usually cuts metal objects into pieces) managed to put just some faint stripes, barely visible. The stones, have an entire system of different lines and circles on them. Scientists suppose that the stones used to be a part of the navigational system of a spaceship. All stones united form a map, which they could have used to cruise through the Universe.
In 1908, the UFO is thought to have hit the meteorite that weighed over 1 billion tones. If the meteorite fell down on Earth, all the people would have been dead, extinct. Scientists believe the aliens had interfered and put their lives on the line to make sure there isn't a direct impact with Earth.
A strange portrait of an extraterrestrial person on one of the stones proves this hypothesis - concluded Mr Lavbin.
Source : Wikipedia
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The Chicxulub Crater
The Chicxulub Crater (IPA: [tʃikʃuˈlub]) is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is located near the town of Chicxulub, after which the crater is named — as well as the rough translation of the Mayan name, "the tail of the devil." The crater is more than 180 kilometers (110 mi) in diameter, making the feature one of the largest confirmed impact structures in the world; the impacting bolide that formed the crater was at least 10 km (6 mi) in diameter.
The crater was discovered by Glen Penfield, a geophysicist who had been working in the Yucatán while looking for oil during the late 1970s. Penfield was unable to initially obtain evidence that the unique geological feature was in fact a crater, and gave up his search. Through contact with Alan Hildebrand, Penfield was able to obtain samples that suggested it was an impact feature. Evidence for the impact origin of the crater includes shocked quartz, a gravity anomaly, and tektites in surrounding areas.
The age of the rocks and isotope analysis show that this impact structure dates from the end of the Cretaceous Period, roughly 65 million years ago. The impact associated with the crater is implicated in causing the extinction of the dinosaurs as suggested by the K–T boundary, although some critics argue that the impact was not the sole reason and others debate whether there was a single impact or whether the Chicxulub impactor was one of several that may have struck the Earth at around the same time. Recent evidence suggests that the impactor may have been a piece of a much larger asteroid that broke up in a collision in distant space more than 160 million years ago.
According to a study1 published in the journal Nature in 2007, the Chicxulub crater was formed by an asteroid that had its origin in a great collision that took place in the main asteroid belt about 160 million years ago. The authors of the study, William Bottke and David Nesvorny from the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, and David Vokrouhlicky from Charles University, Czech Republic, used computer modeling to show that a surge in asteroid strikes on Earth in the last 100-200 million years was probably caused by the catastrophic disruption of a 170km-wide asteroid by another space rock of less than half its size. This collision resulted in a group of asteroids known today as the Baptistina family. The computer simulation indicated that a number of the original asteroids from this family found their way into the inner solar solar system, resulting not only in the Chicxulub crater but also other impact craters on Venus, Mars, and the Moon, including, probably, the 85km-wide Tycho crater on the Moon 108 million years ago.
Additional geological and geophysical evidence collected over the last few years now suggests that Chicxulub could be the largest impact basin to form on Earth in the last billion years or so. Over 200 thousand cubic kilometers of the Earth's crust was instantly vaporized, melted or ejected from the crater. Studies of this structure through additional scientific drill coring and seismic profiling will shed valuable new light on understanding the cratering process and its geological implications. Perhaps less clear but of more immediate concern is what additional studies of the Chicxulub basin-forming event could provide for research into modern global climate change. Concerns over global warming and acid rain production induced by human activities prompt important questions about the future health and economic security of the world's population. Experts readily admit, however, that modern climate change research is chock-full of uncertainties about how the Earth responds to the rapid and dramatic changes imposed by human activities. These uncertainties adversely affect predictions of sea level rise and changing climate patterns and impede the formulation of effective international climate change policies.
In recent years, several other craters of around the same age as Chicxulub have been discovered, all between latitudes 20°N and 70°N. Examples include the Silverpit crater in England's The North Sea and the Boltysh crater in Ukraine. Both are much smaller than Chicxulub, but likely to have been caused by objects many tens of metres across striking the Earth. This has led to the hypothesis that the Chicxulub impact may have been only one of several impacts that happened nearly at the same time. Another possible crater thought to have been formed at the same time is the Shiva crater, though the structure's status as a crater is contested.
Beginning in 1990, however, samples from the Pemex wells were located in Mexico City and teams of scientists from the United States and Mexico quickly developed an impressive case that the Chicxulub structure was indeed the KT "smoking gun." Mineral evidence of shock metamorphism, requiring pressures and strain rates considerably higher than those produced by terrestrial processes, indicated that the crystalline rocks within the basin were melt rocks formed by an impact event and not by volcanism. Biostratigraphic information indicates that the structure was formed in uppermost Cretaceous rocks, consistent with a KT age. Argon and uranium-lead age determinations reveal that the melt rocks and the associated breccias are the same age as the tiny spherules of impact glass found within KT boundary deposits in Haiti and Mexico and the unmelted granitic fragments found in KT boundary exposures throughout western North America. Isotopic analyses demonstrate that the Chicxulub melt rocks and the ejecta spherules originated from the same source rocks. Consequently, there is a clear chemical as well as temporal link between the Chicxulub structure and the KT boundary deposits.
In recent years, several other craters of around the same age as Chicxulub have been discovered, all between latitudes 20°N and 70°N. Examples include the Silverpit crater in England's The North Sea and the Boltysh crater in Ukraine. Both are much smaller than Chicxulub, but likely to have been caused by objects many tens of metres across striking the Earth. This has led to the hypothesis that the Chicxulub impact may have been only one of several impacts that happened nearly at the same time. Another possible crater thought to have been formed at the same time is the Shiva crater, though the structure's status as a crater is contested.
In late 2006, Ken MacLeod, a geology professor from the University of Missouri–Columbia, completed an analysis of sediment below the ocean's surface, bolstering the single-impact theory. MacLeod conducted his analysis approximately 4,500 kilometers (2,800 mi) from the Chicxulub Crater to control for possible changes in soil composition at the impact site, while still close enough to be affected by the impact. The analysis revealed there was only one layer of impact debris in the sediment, which indicated there was only one impact. Multiple-impact proponents such as Gerta Keller regard the results as "rather hyper-inflated" and do not agree with the conclusion of MacLeod's analysis
The collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 demonstrated that gravitational interactions can fragment a comet, giving rise to many impacts over a period of a few days if the comet should collide with a planet. Comets frequently undergo gravitational interactions with the gas giants, and similar disruptions and collisions are very likely to have occurred in the past. This scenario may have occurred on Earth 65 million years ago.
Animation by David Fuchs
( Might need refreshing the page )
Source : Wikipedia
The Chicxulub Impact
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The Chinese Pyramids
Wikipedia tells us that the so-called pyramids of China are actually ancient mausoleums and burial mounds. About 38 of them are located around 25 kilometres (16 mi) - 35 kilometres (22 mi) north-west of Xi'an, on the Qin Chuan Plains in Shaanxi Province. The most famous is the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, North-east of Xi'an and 1.7 km west of where the Terracotta Warriors were found. Google Earth clearly shows many of them and includes Panoramio photographs of many. They have flat tops, and thus are more similar in shape to the Teotihuacan pyramids north-east of Mexico City, Mexico than to the pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Although known in the West for at least a century, their existence has been made controversial by sensationalist publicity and the problems of Chinese archaeology under some regimes.
Mount Li mausoleum (or Qin Shi Huang mausoleum, is the largest chinese pyramid. The original height is 76 metres (249 ft), the present height is 47 metres (154 ft), and the size is 357 metres (1,171 ft) x 354 metres (1,161 ft).
Maoling mausoleum (or Great White Pyramid ) is the second largest chinese pyramid. The size is 222 metres (728 ft) x 217 metres (712 ft). It contains the tombs of emperor Wudi (156-87 BCE) of the Han dynasty and some family members and proteges.
In 1920, historian Henri Cordier wrote: “China’s ancient past is denied both to us and its population. Its grand past is slowly unveiled, similar to how Egypt’s was revealed. Later on, one learned of buildings, standing stones and other monuments that were not mentioned by the Chinese historians (as part of their history).” The largest country in the world was, and is, largely there to be discovered. Though accepted as a great civilisation, its ancient treasures were barely known. One rumour spoke about pyramids that could be found in desolate areas.
The location, reported 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Sian, is in an area of great archaeological importance, but few of the pyramids have ever been explored." Victor Segalen visited China in 1913 and wrote about the First Emperor's tomb (and other mound tombs in the region) in Mission Archeologique en Chine (1914): L'art funeraire a l'epoque des Han.
A letter from Chinese authorities, dated 1 November 1978, stated the scientists had learned that the so-called “pyramids” were burial tombs of emperors of the Western Han dynasty. “Records give a different version of the emperors’ lives. As the graves have not been scientifically analysed and no markings were seen on the ground, it is difficult to formulate conclusions.”
Still, there were historical records that spoke of pyramids. The head of the Ts’in-family, Che Houang-ti (the “Yellow Emperor”, the first to hold that title), changed Chinese society dramatically. He built the Chinese Wall upon listening to an oracle that prophesied a “barbarian” would attack China. By 1974 the Emperor had again risen to popularity with the discovery of his subterranean mausoleum. It contained no less than 6,000 terracotta warriors that were stored in combat mode and believed to be intended as protection for the deceased Emperor in his new existence. Historian Sseuma Ts’ien (135-85 BC) wrote that this Emperor united China and destroyed all ancient writings as a sign of the new era that was born. Some old books were apparently saved, mainly in Taoist temples.
Che Houang-ti ordered 700,000 people to build him a pyramid at Lin-t’ong, between Hnan and Si-ngan. The “Segalen mission”, a tour of China that Segalen made in 1913, measured the pyramid’s height at 48 metres, encompassing five terraces. One side measured 350 metres, 120 metres longer than the side of Great Pyramid at Gizeh, Egypt. With 1,960,000 cubic metres, it is fourth largest pyramid in the world. The pyramid at Cholula, Mexico, and the two largest pyramids at the Gizeh plateau precede it.
The Emperor possibly died in 210 BC. When his treasures were stored in the pyramids, it was decided the workers would be sealed inside the pyramid so no one could reveal where the pyramid was situated. Plants were planted on its sides so the pyramid would eventually take on the appearance of a natural hill. Sseuma Ts’ien wrote that subterranean streams of lead engulfed the pyramid, the ceiling depicted the sky, and the ground showed the expanse of the Empire. Crossbows were aimed at trespassers—a burglar alarm which wasn’t that successful, as General Hiang Yu was able to loot the pyramid in 207 BC.
The Segalen mission revealed more pyramids and tombs along the River Wei. These were dated to the Han period, following that of Emperor Che Houang-ti. As these were relatively recent pyramids, the scientists did want to entertain the notion that these “burial hills” might be “pyramids”, but, as mentioned, there were rumours of taller and more ancient ones.
In 1912, Fred Meyer Schroder and Oscar Maman travelled to Shensi. They not only dealt in tobacco and candles but also supplied the Mongolians with weapons. Their guide along the Chinese-Mongolian border was a monk, Bogdo (“the holy one”), who told them they would soon stumble upon some ancient pyramids. Though he himself had never seen them, he knew some could be found around the old town of Sian-Fu. “Mountains as high as the sky. They are no ordinary burial vaults, though emperors or empresses might be buried inside.” Bogdo knew seven pyramids had been discovered.
Schroder estimated the tallest one measured 300 metres high, its sides 500 metres long. This would mean this pyramid was the largest in the world, twice as large as the Great Pyramid at Gizeh. The volume was 20 times as large as the Great Pyramid at Gizeh. Both were built north-south/west-east.
“In the past, they were apparently partly covered with stones, but those have disappeared. A few stones lie at the bottom. It is an earthen pyramid, with giant gullies on its sides. They were the reason why the stones loosened and fell down. Its sides are now partially covered with trees and shrubs. It almost looks a natural hill. We rode around the pyramid, but did not discover any stairways or doors.”
When questioned, Bogdo believed it was at least 5,000 years old. Their ancient records claimed that even then the pyramids were “old”.
5000 years or even more - that’s a very long time. A time, when China was reigned by the so-called old emperors. The old Emperors continuously pointed out that they were not descended from terrestrial ancestry. But they were descended from the so called "Sons from Heaven", who came down to earth a long time ago on their metal-made Dragon from outer space. Yes, from outer space, as the old Chinese tradition point out!
Chinese archaeologist Wang Shiping of Xian estimates that theyare 4,500 years old. Ancient Buddhist texts and other surviving documents suggest that the monuments are over 5,000 years old.
Just how old are they? While many can be dated to various dynasties, others are believed to be older. Analyzing an aerial photograph of one set of pyramids east of Xi’an, ancient civilization researcher and author Graham Hancock determined that their layout coincided with the constellation of Gemini. However, computer analysis found that it is what Gemini would have looked like on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC.
Professor Wang Shiping from Shensi Historical Museum supposed that the Qui Chuan Pyramids were aligned due to astronomic constellations.
As well, they give evidence of an enormous know-how in geometry and mathematics. It was not before 1994, that some pyramids were discovered at Wei Ho River north of Xian. One of them standing nearly exactly on the geometric center of the old Chinese imperious. When scientist checked the position, they became aware that there was only a declination of a few meters to the actual geometric center.
In 2000, China recognized that there were some 400 pyramids in the Shanxi region, to the north of Xi’an. Smaller than the legendary “Great White” pyramid, these ancient remains have been classified by some as burial mounds. While some of these structures do in fact serve as tombs, others suggest the earliest Chinese pyramids served a more mysterious purpose.
What is the orientation of the pyramids?
Professor Shiping has revealed some interesting facts in this regard:
One of the recently discovered pyramids is located "at the exact geographical middle point of the country..."
As a rule the pyramids are oriented toward the stars.
The earliest pyramids were oriented with their main axis east-west, but in later centuries they were all oriented north-south
The Mystery of the Qin Shihuang Pyramid
Emperor Qin Shihuang is known for his obsessive search for the secret to immortality. His fever for attaining glory lead him to create one of the most intriguing and covetous marvels on the planet: the imposing “Terracotta Army”—a nearly mile long stretch of soldiers and horses representing his grand guard. The attention to detail is so exquisite that no two figures are the same; prompting some to believe that each figure was cast to represent an actual person from that time. The relics of this despotic monarch have captured the world’s attention since they were first uncovered in 1978. Yet, the treasures hidden within his mortuary pyramid remain conjecture.
According to ancient Chinese documents—the same texts that helped archeologists reveal the terracotta soldiers—Emperor Qin tried to outfit his subterranean pyramid with an exact replica of the Chinese territory. The texts explain that the interior giant vault of the chamber is embroidered with copper and marked with jewel encrusted accents, simulating the stars of the firmament. It also boasts of an artificial replica of the rivers of China, flowing with mercury. Scientific expeditions, in fact, confirm that the earth covering the surface of the pyramid had considerable concentrations of this liquid metal.
In 2002-2007, Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb (home of the terracotta warriors) was proven (using radar and other remote sensing technologies) to be more than a earth mound - underneath the dirt is a four-sided, nine-stepped pyramid, very similar to those in Central America. The image below is the shape they believe the pyramid takes.
" A US Air Force map detailing the area around the city of Xian, made with the use of satellite photographs, shows at least 16 pyramids. Xian, the ancient Sian-Fu, presently inhabited by more than six million souls, is much older than Peking (Beijing). Once it was the capital of the Empire: it was recognised as the umbilicus of China’s civilisation. Hartwig Hausdorf and his company of fellow travellers landed at the new Xian airport and, driving to the city and their hotel, saw one pyramid which stood along the road. It had been discovered a few years earlier, when Xian’s airport was relocated and a road to the city was engineered.
This pyramid would not even be the icing on the cake for Hausdorf who was passionate about China’s ancient history. In October 1994 he had climbed one pyramid and was able to count 20 more pyramids, all lying in the immediate vicinity. Yet, in March 1994 he had climbed that same pyramid and had seen only some of those pyramids. “It’s amazing how the weather in March didn’t allow me to see those pyramids. In October it was perfectly clear weather, and more revealed themselves.”
Hausdorf is not really flabbergasted no-one knew about the existence of such pyramids: “China has still a lot of mysteries—even the local population quite often isn’t aware of them. It’s a small miracle I received the go-ahead to enter some ‘no go’ areas. I was, in fact, the only one who was granted such favours. I assume there are two reasons for this. I regularly visit China with a group of tourists. In 1993, I became acquainted with Chen Jianli, an avid researcher of his country’s past. He assured me he would try and open a few doors inside the Chinese Ministry of Tourism. In fact, in March 19941 was able to visit some former ‘no go’ areas in the Shaanxi-province. I passed around some copies of my German book, Die Weisse Pyramide (The White Pyramid), to the right people. I talked to archaeologists who at first denied any pyramids existed, but finally recognised they did exist. I was most pleased when the same people gave me further permission to enter other ‘no go’ zones when I returned in October 1994. I never expected any of this would happen to me. But it seems it had to happen eventually. Following decades of rumour, someone had to clear the picture.”
To detail his problems, in March 1994 Hausdorf met Professor Feng Haozhang (a prominent member of Beijing’s academic circle), his assistant, Xie Duan Yu, and three colleagues. At first they denied the pyramids’ existence. But when Hausdorf showed them three photos of three different pyramids, they caved in. Hausdorf described his encounter: “It was as if I had entered a hive. The photographs I took in both March and October 1994 are the proof that squelched five decades of rumour. Most scientists denied the existence of pyramids in China. If any scientist still clings to that, show him my photographs.”
Still, China will not give up all its mysteries that easily. Several pyramids probably remain undiscovered, their existence perhaps even unknown to the Chinese scientists.
One mystery, however, definitely lingers on. At the end of the Second World War, pilot James Gaussman had to adjust his course due to engine problems. He tried to reach his base in Assam, India, having dropped off supplies inside China. As he turned around one mountain-top, a giant pyramid rose in the valley in front of him. It was white, made out of metal or stone. According to Gaussman it would have fitted perfectly in any fairy tale. A jewel-like stone crowned its top. “Though I wanted to set my plane on the ground and investigate, there was no way I could land it on that terrain.”
Gaussman flew three times around the structure, photographing the pyramid with the same camera with which he’d just photographed hostile troop movements. During his debriefing in Assam, he told his intelligence officer the world would be stunned when they learnt about that pyramid. “There was nothing around it, just this pyramid in the middle of nowhere. I think it’s extremely ancient. Who built it? Why? What’s inside?” Hausdorf and all in search of the “White Pyramid” have never been able to rediscover it. Gaussman’s photograph was developed and filed in a military archive where it remained for the next 40 years until Australian Brian Crowley published the photograph in his book, The Face on Mars.
Who built these pyramids? Bruce Cathie thinks he might know more. Using his harmonics, he believes there is a mathematical connection between the pyramids in China and the pyramids of Egypt. The number 16944 is present inside the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, he states, and there are 16944 minutes of arc between the longitude of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh and that of the tallest pyramid at Shensi. Their dispersal along the river reminds him of the placement of the pyramids in Egypt along the River Nile. Cathie believes that it is evidence that the pyramids were built by the same people. He also wonders whether the decades-long silence surrounding the pyramids was to allow the Chinese scientists to discover whether such a connection did indeed exist.
Hartwig Hausdorf spoke to Professor Wang Shiping who believes the pyramids have an astronomic alignment and could be dated to 1,500-500 BC. Records of that time speak of the emperors descending from heaven in flying dragons. And so Hausdorf has stumbled upon another fairy tale, of emperors descending from heaven, which scientists think is impossible. Rest assured, Hausdorf will also try to find out whether that ‘rumour’ is real or not."
This article originally appeared in Nexus New Times Magazine, in 1995, as well as Frontier Magazine 1.1 (1995).
Shroeder wrote about it in 1912:
“Each side of a pyramid was of different color: the northern side was black, the eastern – blue (teal), the southern – red and the western side had a tint of white. The flat top of the pyramid was covered with yellow soil (clay)”.
Source : Wikipedia
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The Cathedral De La Sagrada Familia
The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (official Catalan name; Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia; "Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family"), often simply called the Sagrada Família, is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. Considered the master-work of renowned Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), the project's vast scale and idiosyncratic design have made it one of Barcelona's (and Spain's) top tourist attractions for many years. A portion of the building's interior is scheduled to open for public worship and tours by September of 2010.
The Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), who worked on the project for over 40 years. Gaudi devoted the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavor. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2026. On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked, "My client is not in a hurry." After Gaudí's death in 1926, work continued under the direction of Domènech Sugranyes until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Parts of the unfinished church and Gaudí's models and workshop were destroyed during the war by Catalan anarchists. The present design is based on reconstructed versions of the lost plans as well as on modern adaptations. Since 1940 the architects Francesc Quintana, Isidre Puig Boada, Lluís Bonet i Gari and Francesc Cardoner have carried on the work. The current director and son of Lluís Bonet, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, has been introducing computers into the design and construction process since the 1980s. Mark Burry of New Zealand serves as Executive Architect and Researcher. Sculptures by J. Busquets, Etsuro Sotoo and the controversial Josep Subirachs decorate the fantastical façades.
According to the newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya, 2.26 million people visited the partially built church in 2004, making it one of the most popular attractions in Spain. The central nave vaulting was completed in 2000 and the main tasks since then have been the construction of the transept vaults and apse. As of 2006, work concentrates on the crossing and supporting structure for the main tower of Jesus Christ as well as the southern enclosure of the central nave which will become the Glory façade.
Recently, the Ministry of Public Works of Spain (Ministerio de Fomento in Spanish), has projected the construction of a tunnel for the high speed train just under where the principal façade of the temple has to be built. Although the ministry claims that the project poses no risk to the church, the engineers and architects of the temple disagree as there is no guarantee that the tunnel will not affect the stability of the building. A campaign is being waged by the Sagrada Família preservation society (Patronat de la Sagrada Família) and the neighbourhood association AVE pel Litoral.
Every part of the design of La Sagrada Família is rich with Christian symbolism, as Gaudí intended the church to be the "last great sanctuary of Christendom". Its most striking aspect is its spindle-shaped towers. A total of 18 tall towers are called for, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ. (According to the 2005 "Works Report" of the temple's official website, drawings signed by Gaudí found recently in the Municipal Archives indicate that the tower of the Virgin was in fact intended by Gaudí to be shorter than those of the evangelists, and this is the design — which the Works Report states is more compatible with the existing foundations — that will be followed. The same source explains the symbolism in terms of Christ being known through the Evangelists.) The Evangelists' towers will be surmounted by sculptures of their traditional symbols: a bull (St Luke), a winged man (St Matthew), an eagle (St John), and a lion (St Mark). The central tower of Jesus Christ is to be surmounted by a giant cross; the tower's total height (170 m) will be one metre less than that of Montjuïc, as Gaudí believed that his work should not surpass that of God. Lower towers are surmounted by communion hosts with sheaves of wheat and chalices with bunches of grapes, representing the Eucharist.
The Church will have three grand façades: the Nativity façade to the East, the Glory façade to the South (yet to be completed) and the Passion façade to the West. The Nativity facade was built before work was interrupted in 1935 and bears the most direct Gaudí influence. The Passion façade is especially striking for its spare, gaunt, tormented characters, including emaciated figures of Christ being flogged and on the crucifix. These controversial designs are the work of Josep Maria Subirachs.
The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The central nave vaults reach 45 meters while the side nave vaults reach 30 meters. The transept has 3 aisles. The columns are on a 7.5 meter grid however the columns of the apse, resting on del Villar's foundation, do not adhere to the grid, requiring a section of columns of the ambulatory to transition to the grid thus creating a horseshoe pattern to the layout of those columns. The crossing rests on the four central columns of porphyry supporting a great hyperboloid surrounded by two rings of 12 hyperboloids (currently under construction). The central vault reaches 60 meters. The apse will be capped by a hyperboloid vault reaching 75 meters. Gaudi intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse, thus the graduated increase in vault loftiness.
The columns of the interior are a unique Gaudi design. Besides branching to support their load, their ever-changing surfaces are the result of the intersection of various geometric forms. The simplest example is that of a square base evolving into an octagon as the column rises, then a 16-sided form, and eventually to a circle. This effect is the result of a three-dimensional intersection of helicoidal columns (for example a square cross-section column twisting clockwise and a similar one twisting counter-clockwise).
The towers on the Nativity façade are crowned with geometrically shaped tops that are reminiscent of Cubism (they were finished around 1930), and the intricate decoration is contemporary to the style of Art Nouveau, but Gaudí's unique style drew primarily from nature, not other artists or architects, and resists categorization.
Gaudí used hyperboloid structures in later designs of the Sagrada Família (more obviously after 1914), however there are a few places on the nativity façade—a design not equated with Gaudí's ruled-surface design, where the hyperboloid crops up. For example, all around the scene with the pelican there are numerous examples (including the basket held by one of the figures). There is a hyperboloid adding structural stability to the cypress tree (by connecting it to the bridge). And finally, the "bishop's mitre" spires are capped with hyperboloid structures[2]. In his later designs, ruled surfaces are prominent in the nave's vaults and windows and the surfaces of the Passion facade.
Themes throughout the decoration include words from the liturgy. The towers are decorated with words such as "Hosanna", "Excelsis", and "Sanctus"; the great doors of the Passion façade reproduce words from the Bible in various languages including Catalan; and the Glory façade is to be decorated with the words from the Apostles' Creed.
Areas of the sanctuary will be designated to represent various concepts, such as saints, virtues and sins, and secular concepts such as regions, presumably with decoration to match.
Burials
Constantia of Sicily
Sibila de Forcia, Queen of Aragon
Antoni Gaudí
Marie de Lusignan, daughter of King Hugh III of Cyprus, third wife of James II of Aragon
Petronila of Aragon
The building works are expected to be completed around 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death, although the likelihood of meeting this date is disputed. The current project architect is Mark Burry who has made use of computer modelling to aid the design of the intricate form of the church. CAD/CAM technology has been used to speed up the construction of the building; initially, the construction work was expected to last for several hundred years, based on building techniques available in the early 1900s. The construction work calls for many pieces of stone to be machined to unique shapes, each being subtly different from the next, and these pieces are now being machined accurately off-site, reducing the overall construction time. The best description of the current means of construction and future plans is in a catalogue to an exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt am Main.
There is a current of thought among some renowned Catalan architects advocating a halt to construction[4], in order to respect Gaudí's original designs (which are not exhaustive and have been partially completed in recent years). The patrons and the politicians with any responsibility in the matter oppose this option.
The church is scheduled to open for worship by September 2010
Source : Wikipedia
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The Amber Room
The original Amber Room (English sometimes Amber Chamber, Russian: Янтарная комната Yantarnaya komnata, German: Bernsteinzimmer, Polish: Bursztynowa komnata) in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World".
The original Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701 to 1709 in Prussia. The room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram and remained at Charlottenburg Palace until 1716 when it was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire. In Russia it was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of amber. The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg. Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war. Its fate remains a mystery, and the search continues.
In 1979 efforts began to rebuild the Amber room at Tsarskoye Selo. In 2003, after decades of work by Russian craftsmen, the reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Amber Room was made from 1701 onwards in order to be installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first king of Prussia, at the urging of his second wife, Sophie Charlotte. The concept of the room and its design was by Andreas Schlüter. It was crafted by Gottfried Wolfram, master craftsman to the Danish court of King Frederick IV of Denmark, with help from the amber masters Ernst Schacht and Gottfried Turau from Danzig.
It did not, however, remain at Charlottenburg for long. Peter the Great admired it on a visit and in 1716, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the first king's son, presented it to him, and with that act cemented a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.
In 1755 Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia had it transferred and installed, first in the Winter Palace, and then in the Catherine Palace. From Berlin, Frederick II the Great sent her more Baltic amber, in order to fill out the originals in the new design by the tsarina's Italian court architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. After several other 18th-century renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tonnes of amber. It took over ten years to construct.
Shortly after the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II (Operation Barbarossa), the curators responsible for removing the art treasures in Leningrad tried to disassemble and remove the Amber Room. Over the years the amber had dried out and become brittle, so that when they tried to remove it, the fragile amber started to crumble. The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep Nazi forces from seizing it. However, the attempt to hide such a well-known piece of art failed.
German soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts. On 14 October 1941, Rittmeister Graf Solms-Laubach commanded the evacuation of 27 crates to Königsberg in East Prussia, for storage and display in the town's castle. On 13 November 1941, the newspaper Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung reported on an exhibition of part of the Bernsteinzimmer in Königsberg Castle.
Orders by Hitler given on 21 January 1945 and 24 January 1945 allowed the movement of possessions. From that day onwards, Albert Speer's administration could move culture goods of priority "I (o)". Erich Koch was in charge in Königsberg. Eyewitnesses claimed that crates had been sighted at the railway station. They might have been put aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff which left Gotenhafen (Gdynia) on January 30, and was sunk by a Soviet submarine. Another possible location is Weimar, the location of a planned propaganda center.[citation needed]
Later in the war, Königsberg was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force. It suffered further extensive damage at the hands of the advancing Soviets before and after its fall on April 9, 1945. It remained thereafter under Soviet control, eventually renamed Kaliningrad. The remains of the castle were destroyed by the Red Army during the 1960s
The Amber Room was never seen again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that components of the Amber Room survived the war. Indeed, two elements of the room's decoration (but not the amber panels themselves) were eventually rediscovered (see below).
There have been numerous conflicting reports and theories, among them that the Amber Room was destroyed by bombing, hidden in a now-lost subterranean bunker in Königsberg, buried in mines in the Ore Mountains, or taken onto a ship or submarine which was sunk by Soviet forces in the Baltic Sea.
Many different individuals and groups, including a number of different entities from the government of the Soviet Union, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, without any success. At one point in 1998, two separate teams (one in Germany, the other in Lithuania) announced that they had located the Amber Room, the first in a silver mine, the second buried in a lagoon; neither produced the Amber Room.
However, in 1997 one Italian stone mosaic that was part of a set of four which had decorated the Amber Room did turn up in western Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who had helped pack up the Amber Room.
Recently, British investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, conducted lengthy research on the fate of the Amber Room, including extensive archival research in Russia. In 2004 their book, The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure, concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was burned down, shortly after Königsberg surrendered to occupying Soviet forces.
Documents from the archives showed that that was also the conclusion of the report of Alexander Brusov, chief of the first formal mission sent by the Soviet government to find the Amber Room, who wrote in June, 1945: "Summarizing all the facts, we can say that the Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945". Some years later, Brusov gave a contrary opinion; the book authors insinuate that this change of opinion was likely due to pressure from other Soviet officials, who did not want to be seen as responsible for the loss of the Amber Room.
Among other information from the archives was the revelation that the remains of the rest of the set of Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned debris of the castle. The authors' reasoning as to why the Soviets conducted extensive searches for the Amber Room in the years after WWII, even though their own experts had concluded that it was destroyed, is that it served the differing motives of several elements in the Soviet government: some wished to obscure (even from other branches of the Soviet government) the fact that Soviet soldiers may have been responsible for its destruction; others found the theft of the Amber Room a useful Cold War propaganda tool, and did not want to let go of a grievance that could be aired advantageously; still others did not want to share the blame for its destruction (through their failure to evacuate the Amber Room to safety at the start of the war).
Russian officials have denied the book's conclusions - angrily, in some cases. According to Adelaida Yolkina, senior researcher at the Pavlovsk Museum Estate: "It is impossible to see the Red Army being so careless that they let the Amber Room be destroyed." Other Russian experts were less sceptical, and had a different emphasis in their responses. Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, was very cautious in his comments, and said: "Most importantly, the destruction of the Amber Room during the Second World War is fault of the people who started the war". In reply, Catherine Scott-Clark, one of the authors, indicated that they only came to their conclusions with reluctance: "when we started working on this issue we were hoping to be able to find the Amber Room."
Since the book came out, a Russian veteran has given an interview in which he confirmed their basic conclusion as to the fate of the Amber Room, although he denies that the fires were deliberate. "I probably was one of the last people who saw the Amber Room", said Leonid Arinshtein, a literature expert with the nongovernmental Russian Culture Foundation, who was a Red Army lieutenant in charge of a rifle platoon in Königsberg in 1945. "The Red Army didn't burn anything", he said.
A variation of this theory is common currency amongst present-day residents of Kaliningrad. This is that part at least of the room was found in the cellars after WWII by the Red Army, in relatively good condition. This was not admitted at the time in order that blame should continue to rest upon the Germans. To preserve this story access to the ruins of the castle, which were substantial after WWII, was restricted, even to historical/archaeological surveys. During the 1960s, access to the site was suddenly withheld and the ruins were blown up by the Army, sealing any access to the underground area. The Dom Sovetov was built over the central area. The remains of the room may still be sited underground; however, as mentioned above, amber which is not cared for will crumble into dust. It is presumed that this is what has happened and that the Russian authorities, even after Communism, have been unwilling to admit this.
In 2008 multiple searches were made for the remains of the room near the German-Czech border, based on a "very credible" tip, but nothing was found in any of the locations.
In 1979 a reconstruction effort began at Tsarskoye Selo, based largely on black and white photographs of the original Amber Room. Financial difficulties to the project were solved with USD $3.5 million donated by the German company Ruhrgas AG. By 2003 the titanic work of the Russian craftsmen was mostly completed. The new room was dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 300-year anniversary of the city of Saint Petersburg.
Source : Wikipedia
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The City of Pompeii
Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in AD 79.
The volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under 60 feet of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1,700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire. Today, it is both one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with 2,571,725 visitors in 2007, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The archaeological digs at the site extend to the street level of the 79 AD volcanic event; deeper digs in older parts of Pompeii and core samples of nearby drillings have exposed layers of jumbled sediment that suggest that the city had suffered from the volcano and other seismic events before then. Three sheets of sediment have been found on top of the lava bedrock that lies below the city and, mixed in with the sediment, archaeologists have found bits of animal bone, pottery shards and plants. Using carbon dating, the oldest layer has been dated to the 8th-6th centuries BC, about the time that the city was founded. The other two layers are separated from the other layers by well-developed soil layers or Roman pavement and were laid in the 4th century BC and 2nd century BC. It is theorized that the layers of jumbled sediment were created by large landslides, perhaps triggered by extended rainfall.
The town was founded around the 7th-6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans, a people of central Italy, on what was an important crossroad between Cumae, Nola and Stabiae. It had already been used as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. According to Strabo, Pompeii was also captured by the Etruscans, and in fact recent excavations have shown the presence of Etruscan inscriptions and a 6th century BC necropolis. Pompeii was captured for the first time by the Greek colony of Cumae, allied with Syracuse, between 525 and 474 BC.
In the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered it (and all the other towns of Campania); the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. After the Samnite Wars (4th century BC), Pompeii was forced to accept the status of socium of Rome, maintaining however linguistic and administrative autonomy. In the 4th century BC it was fortified. Pompeii remained faithful to Rome during the Second Punic War.
Pompeii took part in the war that the towns of Campania initiated against Rome, but in 89 BC it was besieged by Sulla. Although the troops of the Social League, headed by Lucius Cluentius, helped in resisting the Romans, in 80 BC Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola, culminating in many of Sulla's veterans being given land and property, while many of those who went against Rome were ousted from their homes. It became a Roman colony with the name of Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. The town became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way. Agriculture, oil and wine production were also important.
It was fed with water by a spur from Aqua Augusta (Naples) built circa 20 BC by Agrippa, the main line supplying several other large towns, and finally the naval base at Misenum. The castellum in Pompeii is well preserved, and includes many interesting details of the distribution network and its controls.
The excavated town offers a snapshot of Roman life in the 1st century, frozen at the moment it was buried on 24 August 79. The Forum, the baths, many houses, and some out-of-town villas like the Villa of the Mysteries remain surprisingly well preserved.
Pompeii was a lively place, and evidence abounds of literally the smallest details of everyday life. For example, on the floor of one of the houses (Sirico's), a famous inscription Salve, lucru (Welcome, money), perhaps humorously intended, shows us a trading company owned by two partners, Sirico and Nummianus (but this could be a nickname, since nummus means coin, money). In other houses, details abound concerning professions and categories, such as for the "laundry" workers (Fullones). Wine jars have been found bearing what is apparently the world's earliest known marketing pun, Vesuvinum (combining Vesuvius and the Latin for wine, vinum). Graffiti carved on the walls shows us real street Latin (Vulgar Latin, a different dialect from the literary or classical Latin). In 89 BC, after the final occupation of the city by Roman General Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompeii was finally annexed to the Roman Republic. During this period, Pompeii underwent a vast process of infrastructural development, most of which was built during the Augustan period. Worth noting are an amphitheatre, a Palaestra with a central natatorium or swimming pool, and an aqueduct that provided water for more than 25 street fountains, at least four public baths, and a large number of private houses (domus) and businesses. The amphitheatre has been cited by modern scholars as a model of sophisticated design particularly in the area of crowd control.The aqueduct branched out through three main pipes from the Castellum Aquae, where the waters were collected before being distributed to the city; although it did much more than distribute the waters, it did so with the prerequisite that in the case of extreme drought, the water supply would first fail to reach the public baths (the least vital service), then private houses and businesses, and when there would be no water flow at all, the system would then at last fail to supply the public fountains (the most vital service) in the streets of Pompeii.The pools in Pompeii were used mostly for decoration
The large number of well-preserved frescoes throw a great light on everyday life and have been a major advance in art history of the ancient world, with the innovation of the Pompeian Styles (First/Second/Third Style). Some aspects of the culture were distinctly erotic, including phallic worship. A large collection of erotic votive objects and frescoes were found at Pompeii. Many were removed and kept until recently in a secret collection at the University of Naples.
At the time of the eruption, the town could have had some 20,000 inhabitants, and was located in an area in which Romans had their holiday villas. Prof. William Abbott explains, "At the time of the eruption, Pompeii had reached its high point in society as many Romans frequently visited Pompeii on vacations." It is the only ancient town of which the whole topographic structure is known precisely as it was, with no later modifications or additions. It was not distributed on a regular plan as we are used to seeing in Roman towns, due to the difficult terrain. But its streets are straight and laid out in a grid, in the purest Roman tradition; they are laid with polygonal stones, and have houses and shops on both sides of the street. It followed its decumanus and its cardo, centered on the forum.
Besides the forum, many other services were found: the Macellum (great food market), the Pistrinum (mill), the Thermopolium (sort of bar that served cold and hot beverages), and cauponae (small restaurants). An amphitheatre and two theatres have been found, along with a palaestra or gymnasium. A hotel (of 1,000 square metres) was found a short distance from the town; it is now nicknamed the "Grand Hotel Murecine".
In 2002 another important discovery at the mouth of the Sarno River revealed that the port also was populated and that people lived in palafittes, within a system of channels that suggested a likeness to Venice to some scientists. These studies are just beginning to produce results.
By the 1st century, Pompeii was one of a number of towns located around the base of Mount Vesuvius. The area had a substantial population which grew prosperous from the region's renowned agricultural fertility. Many of Pompeii's neighboring communities, most famously Herculaneum, also suffered damage or destruction during the 79 eruption. By coincidence it was the day after Vulcanalia, the festival of the Roman god of fire.
Pompeii and other cities affected by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The black cloud represents the general distribution of ash and cinder. Modern coast lines are shown.The people and buildings of Pompeii were covered in up to twelve different layers of soil. Pliny the Younger provides a first-hand account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from his position across the Bay of Naples at Misenum, in a version which was written 25 years after the event. The experience must have been etched on his memory given the trauma of the occasion, and the loss of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, with whom he had a close relationship. His uncle lost his life while attempting to rescue stranded victims. As Admiral of the fleet, he had ordered the ships of the Imperial Navy stationed at Misenum to cross the bay to assist evacuation attempts. Volcanologists have recognised the importance of Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption by calling similar events "Plinian".
The eruption was documented by contemporary historians and is universally accepted as having started on 24 August 79, based on one version of Pliny's letter. However the archeological excavations of Pompeii suggest that it was buried 2 months later; this is supported by another version of the letter. People buried in the ash appear to be wearing warmer clothing than the light summer clothes that would be expected in August. The fresh fruit and vegetables in the shops are typical of October, and conversely the summer fruit that would have been typical of August was already being sold in dried, or conserved form. Wine fermenting jars had been sealed over, and this would have happened around the end of October. The coins found in the purse of a woman buried in the ash include a commemorative coin that should have been minted at the end of September. So far there is no definitive theory as to why there should be such an apparent discrepancy.
After thick layers of ash covered the two towns, they were abandoned and eventually their names and locations were forgotten. Then Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738 by workmen working on the foundation of a summer palace for the King of Naples, Charles of Bourbon. Pompeii was rediscovered as the result of intentional excavations in 1748 by the Spanish military engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. These towns have since been excavated to reveal many intact buildings and wall paintings. The towns were actually found in 1599 by the architect Domenico Fontana, who was digging a new course for the river Sarno, but it took more than 150 years before a serious campaign was started to unearth them. Charles of Bourbon took great interest in the findings even after becoming king of Spain because the display of antiquities reinforced the political and cultural power of Naples.
Karl Weber directed the first real excavations; he was followed in 1764 by military engineer Franscisco la Vega. Franscisco la Vega was succeeded by his brother, Pietro, in 1804. During the French occupation Pietro worked with Christophe Saliceti.
Cast of a dog that archaeologists believe was chained outside the House of Vesonius Primus, a Pompeiian fullerGiuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the excavations in 1860. During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains. It was Fiorelli who realized these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to perfectly recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims. What resulted were highly accurate and eerie forms of the doomed Pompeiani who failed to escape, in their last moment of life, with the expression of terror often quite clearly visible . This technique is still in use today, with a clear resin now used instead of plaster because it is more durable, and does not destroy the bones, allowing further analysis.
Some have theorized that Fontana found some of the famous erotic frescoes and, due to the strict modesty prevalent during his time, reburied them in an attempt at archaeological censorship. This view is bolstered by reports of later excavators who felt that sites they were working on had already been visited and reburied. Even many recovered household items had a sexual theme. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the sexual mores of the ancient Roman culture of the time were much more liberal than most present-day cultures, although much of what might seem to us to be erotic imagery (eg. over-sized phalluses) was in fact fertility-imagery. This clash of cultures led to an unknown number of discoveries being hidden away again. A wall fresco which depicted Priapus, the ancient god of sex and fertility, with his extremely enlarged penis, was covered with plaster, even the older reproduction below was locked away "out of prudishness" and only opened on request and only rediscovered in 1998 due to rainfall .
In 1819, when King Francis I of Naples visited the Pompeii exhibition at the National Museum with his wife and daughter, he was so embarrassed by the erotic artwork that he decided to have it locked away in a secret cabinet, accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, it was briefly made accessible again at the end of the 1960s (the time of the sexual revolution) and was finally re-opened for viewing in 2000. Minors are still only allowed entry to the once secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian or with written permission.
A large number of artifacts come from Pompeii are preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Source : Wikipedia
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