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The Crystall Skulls
The crystal skulls are a number of human skull models fashioned from blocks of clear or milky quartz crystal rock, claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders. However, none of the specimens made available for scientific study were authenticated as pre-Columbian in origin. The results of these studies demonstrated that those examined were manufactured in the mid-19th century or later, almost certainly in Europe.Despite some claims presented in an assortment of popularizing literature, legends of crystal skulls with mystical powers do not figure in genuine Mesoamerican or other Native American mythologies and spiritual accounts.
The skulls are often claimed to exhibit paranormal phenomena by some members of the New Age movement, and have often been portrayed as such in fiction.
A distinction has been made by some modern researchers between the smaller bead-sized crystal skulls, which first appear in the mid-19th century, and the larger (approximately life-sized) skulls that appear toward the end of that century. The larger crystal skulls have attracted nearly all the popular attention in recent times, and researchers believe that all of these have been manufactured as forgeries in Europe.
Trade in fake pre-Columbian artifacts developed during the late 19th century to the extent that in 1886 Smithsonian archaeologist William Henry Holmes wrote an article called "'The Trade in Spurious Mexican Antiquities"' for Science. Although museums acquired skulls earlier, it was Eugène Boban, an antiquities dealer who opened his shop in Paris in 1870, who is most associated with 19th-century museum collections of crystal skulls. Most of Boban's collection, including three crystal skulls, was sold to the ethnographer Alphonse Pinart, who donated the collection to the Trocadéro Museum, which later became the Musée de l'Homme.
Many crystal skulls are claimed to be pre-Columbian, usually attributed to the Aztec or Maya civilizations. Mesoamerican art has numerous representations of skulls, but none of the skulls in museum collections come from documented excavations. Research carried out on several crystal skulls at the British Museum in 1967, 1996 and again in 2004 has shown that the indented lines marking the teeth (for these skulls had no separate jawbone, unlike the Mitchell-Hedges skull) were carved using jeweler's equipment (rotary tools) developed in the 19th century, making a supposed pre-Columbian origin problematic. The type of crystal was determined by examination of chlorite inclusions, and is only to be found in Madagascar and Brazil, and thus unobtainable or unknown within pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The study concluded that the skulls were crafted in the 19th century in Germany, quite likely at workshops in the Bavarian town of Idar-Oberstein renowned for crafting objects made from imported Brazilian quartz at this period in the late 19th century.
It has been established that both the British Museum and Paris's Musée de l'Homme crystal skulls were originally sold by the French antiquities dealer Eugène Boban, who was operating in Mexico City between 1860 and 1880. The British Museum crystal skull transited through New York's Tiffany's, whilst the Musée de l'Homme's crystal skull was donated by Alphonse Pinart, an ethnographer who had bought it from Boban.
An investigation carried out by the Smithsonian Institution in 1992 on a crystal skull provided by an anonymous source who claimed to have purchased it in Mexico City in 1960 and that it was of Aztec origin concluded that it, too, was made in recent years. According to the Smithsonian, Boban acquired the crystal skulls he sold from sources in Germany – findings that are in keeping with those of the British Museum.
A detailed study of the British Museum and Smithsonian crystal skulls was accepted for publication by the Journal of Archaeological Science in May 2008.Using electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, a team of British and American researchers found that the British Museum skull was worked with a harsh abrasive substance such as corundum or diamond, and shaped using a rotary disc tool made from some suitable metal. The Smithsonian specimen had been worked with a different abrasive, namely the silicon-carbon compound carborundum which is a synthetic substance manufactured using modern industrial techniques. Since the synthesis of carborundum dates only to the 1890s and its wider availability to the 20th century, the researchers concluded "The suggestion is that it was made in the 1950s or later".
The Mitchell-Hedges skull
Perhaps the most famous and enigmatic skull was allegedly discovered in 1924 by Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges, adopted daughter of British adventurer and popularist author F.A. Mitchell-Hedges. It is the subject of a video documentary made in 1990, Crystal Skull of Labaantun. It has been noted upon examination by Smithsonian researchers to be "very nearly a replica of the British Museum skull--almost exactly the same shape, but with more detailed modeling of the eyes and the teeth."
Anna Hedges claimed that she found the skull buried under a collapsed altar inside a temple in Lubaantun, in British Honduras, now Belize. As far as can be ascertained, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges himself made no mention of the alleged discovery in any of his writings on Lubaantun. Also, others present at the time of the excavation have not been documented as noting either the skull's discovery or Anna's presence at the dig.
In a 1970 letter, Anna also stated that she was "told by the few remaining Maya, and was used by the high priest to will death". The artifact is sometimes referred to as "The Skull of Doom", either because of its seemingly inexplicable properties and the supposed ill-luck of those who have handled it, or perhaps a play on 'Skull of Dunn' (Dunn being an associate of Mitchell-Hedges). Anna Mitchell-Hedges toured with the skull from 1967 exhibiting it on a pay-per-view basis, and continued to give interviews about the artifact until her death in 2007.
The skull is made from a block of clear quartz about the size of a small human cranium, measuring some 5 inches (13 cm) high, 7 inches (18 cm) long and 5 inches wide. The lower jaw is detached. In the early 1970s it came under the temporary care of freelance art restorer Frank Dorland, who claimed upon inspecting it that it had been "carved" with total disregard to the natural crystal axes without the use of metal tools. Dorland reported being unable to find any tell-tale scratch marks, except for traces of mechanical grinding on the teeth, and speculated it was first chiseled into rough form, probably using diamonds, and the finer shaping, grinding and polishing achieved through the use of sand over a period of 150 to 300 years. Although various claims have been made over the years regarding the skull's physical properties, such as an allegedly constant temperature of 70°F (21°C), Dorland reported that there was no difference in properties between it and other natural quartz crystals.
While in Dorland's care the skull came to the attention of writer Richard Garvin, at the time working at an advertising agency where he supervised Hewlett-Packard's advertising account. Garvin made arrangements for the skull to be examined at HP's crystal labs at Santa Clara, where it was subjected to several tests. The labs determined only that it was not a composite (as Dorland had supposed), but was fashioned from a single crystal of quartz. The lab test also established that the lower jaw had been fashioned from the same left-handed growing crystal as the rest of the skull. No investigation was made by HP as to its method of manufacture or dating.
As well as the traces of mechanical grinding on the teeth noted by Dorland,Mayanist archaeologist Norman Hammond reported that the holes (presumed to be intended for support pegs) showed signs of being made by drilling with metal. Anna Mitchell-Hedges refused subsequent requests to submit the skull to further scientific testing.
F. A. Mitchell-Hedges mentioned the skull only briefly in the first edition of his autobiography, Danger My Ally (1954), without specifying where or by whom it was found.He merely claimed that "it is at least 3,600 years old and according to legend was used by the High Priest of the Maya when performing esoteric rites. It is said that when he willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed". All subsequent editions of Danger My Ally omitted mention of the skull entirely.
Eugène Boban, main French dealer in pre-Columbian artifacts during the second half of the 19th century and probable source of many famous skullsThe earliest published reference to the skull is the July 1936 issue of the British anthropological journal Man, where it is described as in the possession of Mr. Sydney Burney, a London art dealer said to have owned it since 1933. No mention was made of Mitchell-Hedges. There is documentary evidence that Mitchell-Hedges bought it from Burney in 1944. The skull was in the custody of Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of Frederick. She steadfastly refused to let it be examined by experts (making very doubtful the claim that it was reported on by R. Stansmore Nutting in 1962). Somewhere between 1988–1990 Anna Mitchell-Hedges toured with the skull.
In her last eight years, Anna Mitchell-Hedges lived in Chesterton, Indiana, with Bill Homann, whom she married in 2002. She died on April 11, 2007. Since that time the Mitchell-Hedges Skull has been in the custody of Bill Homann. In April 2009, Five, a television channel, took the story and revealed that the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, recently tested under a special microscope in the Smithsonian Institution, had been manufactured with tools that Aztecs and Mayans simply did not have. Like the other skulls, this one is a fabrication dating from the second half of the 19th century. Bill Homann however continues to believe in its mystical properties.
The British Museum skull
The crystal skull of the British Museum first appeared in 1881, in the shop of the Paris antiquarian, Eugène Boban. Its origin was not stated in his catalog of the time. He is said to have tried to sell it to Mexico's national museum as an Aztec artifact, but was unsuccessful. Boban later moved his business to New York City, where the skull was sold to George H. Sisson. It was exhibited at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New York City in 1887 by George F. Kunz. It was sold at auction, and bought by Tiffany and Co., who later sold it at cost to the British Museum in 1897.This skull is very similar to the Mitchell-Hedges skull, although it is less detailed and does not have a movable lower jaw.What is interesting is that on the auction catalog there was mentioned another crystal skull. It was said it came from "The valley of Mexico" and described as Aztec.
The British Museum catalogs the skull's provenance as "probably European, 19th century AD"and describes it as "not an authentic pre-Columbian artefact".It has been established that this skull was made with modern tools, and that it is not authentic.
The Paris skull
The largest of the three skulls sold by Eugène Boban to Alphonse Pinart (sometimes called the Paris Skull), about 10 cm (4 in) high, has a hole drilled vertically through its center. It is part of a collection held at the Musée du Quai Branly, and was subjected to scientific tests carried out in 2007–08 by France's national Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums in France, or C2RMF). After a series of analyses carried out over three months, C2RMF engineers concluded that it was "certainly not pre-Columbian, it shows traces of polishing and abrasion by modern tools." Particle accelerator tests also revealed occluded traces of water that were dated to the 19th century, and the Quai Branly released a statement that the tests "seem to indicate that it was made late in the 19th century."
In 2009 the C2RMF researchers published results of further investigations to establish when the Paris skull had been carved. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis indicated the use of lapidary machine tools in its carving. The results of a new dating technique known as quartz hydration dating (QHD) demonstrated that the Paris skull had been carved later than a reference quartz specimen artefact, known to have been cut in 1740. The researchers conclude that the SEM and QHD results combined with the skull's known provenance indicate it was carved in the 18th or 19th century.
The Smithsonian Skull
The Smithsonian skull was mailed to the Smithsonian anonymously in 1992, and was claimed to be an Aztec object by its donor and was purportedly from the collection of Porfirio Diaz. It is the largest of the skulls, weighing 31 pounds and is 15 inches high. It was carved using carborundum, a modern abrasive. It has been displayed as a fake at the National Museum of Natural History.
Other interesting websites about Crystal Skulls : The Mitchell Hedges Crystal Skull , Crystal Skulls US , Old Crystal Skulls , Ancient crystal Skulls
Source : Wikipedia
Anna Mitchell-Hedges and a Crystal Skull.
Journeys with the Crystal Skull
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos on Crystal Skulls
Ancient flying machines
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The Istanbul Rocketship
Zecharia Sitchin (a scholar of Sumerian history and language)located this object in the archives of the Museum of Archaeology in Istanbul. As you can see, it appears to be a model of some sort of rocket sled with a space-suited figure riding in it.
Is this a replica (see photo's) of an ancient single-seat rocketship? That’s what it looks like to Zecharia Sitchin, the leading authority and scholar on the Ancient Astronaut theory.Hidden away in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum in Turkey for a quarter of a century, Sitchin recently convinced the Museum that this artifact may indeed be ancient, and not the modern forgery they concluded it must be, simply because our current view of our ancient history doesn’t include rocketships.
In his article in Atlantis Rising Magazine, Issue 15, Sitchin describes this object as "a sculpted scale model of what, to modern eyes, looks like a cone-nosed rocketship…Powered by a cluster of four exhaust engines in the back surrounding a larger exhaust engine, the rocketship has room for a sole pilot—actually shown and included in the scultpure." He describes the pilot as sitting with legs folded toward his chest, and wearing a one-piece "ribbed pressure suit" which becomes boots at the feet, and gloves at the hands, and points out that since the pilot’s head is missing, we cannot know whether the pilot wore a helmet, goggles, or other headgear. The artifact measures 23 centimeters long, 9.5 cm high, 8 cm wide, or 5.7 inches long, 3.8 inches high, and 3.5 inches wide.
Sitchin spent years tracking down the artifact,He discovered that the Istanbul Museum of Archaeology had been holding a stone carved relic that so closely detailed a modern space capsule that they refused It was excavated at Toprakkale, a city known in ancient times as Tuspa, southeast of Lake Van, Turkey, in 1973,where the kingdom of Urartu reigned briefly over, Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (ca. 1270 BC) first mention Uruartri as one of the states of Nairi – a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in Armenian Highland in the 13th - 11th centuries BC.
The museum curators decided this small artifact must be a forgery because it differs from the era’s style, and more importantly, it looks like a space capsule. They reasoned that since there were no space capsules in ancient times, it must be a modern fake, a practical joke, made of plaster of Paris and marble powder.
However, during Sitchin’s visit to Istanbul and the Museum in September 1997, he met with the Director, Dr. Pasinli, who took the artifact from a drawer, and allowed Stichin to examine and photograph it. It looked to Sitchin to be carved from a porous, volcanic ash stone, the details very precise. Dr. Pasinli asked Sitchin what he thought. It is not out of context, Sitchin told the Director and his colleagues, when you view various artifacts that also seem to represent an ancient, space faring civilization. In Sitchin’s "The Lost Realms," you’ll find illustrations of artifacts that may represent bearded spacemen and rocketships from Mexico, and from Lebanon, what might be a rocketship on a landing platform. He advised the Museum directors to allow viewers to decide for themselves what it is, while stating their own doubt about the artifact’s authenticity.
But the museum curator explained that the object was being kept out of sight because it could not be an authentic ancient artifact. It had to be modern. The reason, he said, was obvious: because it suggested the presence of a high technology that did not exist prior to the present era.
However, it was clear from the manner in which the object had been stored that it was actually highly prized by the museum authorities.
The museum displayed the object for a short time among a group of modern forgeries, in fact labeling it as a fraud, and then discreetly returned it to deep storage.
And once again in our modern world there's no place for such an artifact and it is classified as a Fraud.
Occam's Razor is a principal attributed to the 14th century Francican Friar William of Occham. The principal states; "All things being equal the simplest explanation tends to be the right one."
We believe the object to be the real deal.
The first manned spaceflight took place on April 12, 1961, that gave the"forgers"12 years to make the fake and bury it on the right place were later digs would be held, so that it would look real to the archeologists when they discover it and have that ancient look and feel.
Another example of Ancient flight is Pakal’s tomb it has been the focus of attention by some enthusiasts since its appearance in Erich von Däniken's 1968 best seller, "Chariots of the Gods?". Von Däniken reproduced a drawing of the sarcophagus lid (incorrectly labeling it as being from "Copan") and comparing Pacal's pose to that of 1960s Project Mercury astronauts, interpreting drawings underneath him as rockets, and touting it as supposed evidence of extra-terrestrial influence on the ancient Maya.
In the center of that frame is a man sitting, bending forward. He has a mask on his nose, he uses his two hands to manipulate some controls, and the heel of his left foot is on a kind of pedal with different adjustments. The rear portion is separated from him; he is sitting on a complicated chair, and outside of this whole frame, you see a little flame like an exhaust.
More about Zecharia Sitchin : The Official Web Site of Zecharia Sitchin ; bibliotecapleyades ; Statemaster
Source : Atlantium
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The Coso Artifact
The Coso Artifact is a spark plug found encased in a lump of hard clay or rock on February 13, 1961 by Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell while they were prospecting for geodes near the town of Olancha, California and long claimed as an example of an out-of-place artifact.
If a spark plug were encased in a 500,000-year-old mineral, this finding would represent a substantial scientific and historical anomaly, as spark plugs were invented in the 1800s. Critics have argued, however, that the Coso Artifact can be explained by known natural processes.
The origin of the artifact has been the cause of much speculation. Pseudoscientific suggestions for the artifact's origin have included:
An ancient advanced civilization (such as Atlantis);
Prehistoric extraterrestrial visitors to Earth;
Human time-travellers from the future leaving or losing the artifact during a visit to the past.
An investigation carried out by Pierre Stromberg and Paul Heinrich, with the help of members of the Spark Plug Collectors of America, Chad Windham, President of the Spark Plug Collectors of America suggested that the artifact is a 1920s-era Champion spark plug that likely powered a Ford Model T or Model A engine, modified to possibly serve mining operations in the Coso mountain range of California. Other spark plug collectors concurred with his assessment.
Stromberg and Heinrich's report indicates the spark plug became encased in a concretion composed of iron derived from the rusting spark plug. It is typical of iron and steel artifacts to rapidly form iron oxide concretions around them as they rust in the ground.
The story of the Coso Artifact has been embellished over the years, but nearly all accounts of the actual discovery are basically unchanged.
On February 13, 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell were seeking interesting mineral specimens, particularly geodes, for their "LM & V Rockhounds Gem and Gift Shop" in Olancha, California. On this particular day, the trio were about six miles northeast of Olancha, near the top of a peak about 4,300 feet in elevation and about 340 feet above the dry bed of Owens Lake. According to Maxey, "We hiked about three miles north, after we had parked some five miles east of State Highway 395, south of Olancha, California." At lunchtime, after collecting rocks most of the morning, all three placed their specimens in the rock sack Mikesell was carrying.
The next day in the gift shop's workroom, Mikesell ruined a nearly new diamond saw blade while cutting what he thought was a geode. Inside the nodule that was cut, Mikesell did not find a cavity as so many geodes have, but a perfectly circular section of very hard, white material that appeared to be porcelain. In the center of the porcelain cylinder, was a 2-millimeter shaft of bright metal. The metal shaft responded to a magnet.
There were still other odd qualities about the specimen. The outer layer of the specimen was encrusted with fossil shells and their fragments. In addition to shells, the discoverers noticed two nonmagnetic metallic metal objects in the crust, resembling a nail and a washer. Stranger still, the inner layer was hexagonal and seemed to form a casing around the hard porcelain cylinder. Within the inner layer, a layer of decomposing copper surrounded the porcelain cylinder.
Within a three-paragraph letter,Virginia Maxey, one of the discoverers, wrote:
"In the opinion of one trained geologist, it has taken at least 500,000 years for this nodule to attain its present form—and yet, when we cut it open, we discovered a manmade object within the geode's cavity"
The identity of the alleged trained geologist and his means of dating the nodule were never clarified, and his findings were never published in any known periodical. The nodule surrounding the spark plug may have accreted in a matter of years or decades, as demonstrated by examples of very similar iron or steel artifact-bearing nodules, which are discussed and illustrated by Cronyn (Cronyn, J.M. (1990). The Elements of Archaeological Conservation. London: Routledge)
Another investigation was conducted by creationist Ron Calais. Calais is the only other individual known to have physically inspected the artifact, and was allowed to take photographs of the nodule in both X ray and natural light. Calais's X rays brought interest in the artifact to a new level. The X ray of the upper end of the object seemed to reveal some sort of tiny spring or helix. INFO Journal Publisher Ronald J. Willis speculated that it could actually be "the remains of a corroded piece of metal with threads." The other half of the artifact revealed a sheath of metal, presumably copper, covering the porcelain cylinder.
Virginia Maxey speculated that "one possibility is that it is barely 100 years old - something that lay in a mud bed, then got baked and hardened by the sun in a matter of a few years." However it was Maxey who supplied the claim that the artifact could be at least 500,000 years old. "Or else it is an instrument as old as legendary Mu or Atlantis. Perhaps it is a communications device or some sort of directional finder or some instrument made to utilize power principles we know nothing about."
INFO Journal editor Paul J. Willis speculated that the artifact was some sort of spark plug. His brother found the suggestion extraordinary. "I was thunderstruck," he wrote, "for suddenly all the parts seemed to fit. The object sliced in two shows a hexagonal part, a porcelain or ceramic insulator with a central metallic shaft - the basic components of any spark plug." However, the two could not reconcile the upper end featuring a "spring", "helix", or "metal threads" with any contemporary spark plug. So the mystery continued. The artifact even appeared briefly at the end of an "In Search Of..." episode hosted by Leonard Nimoy.
The Internet offers a plethora of other opinions on the subject. While most websites simply report the mystery as described earlier, some have taken to speculate on the purpose and origin of such a device.
Brian Wood, described as "International Director of MICAP (Multinational Investigations Cooperative on Aerial Phenomena) and Producer/Director of The Paranet Continuum Radio Program" suggested that if it isn't simply a spark plug, "My guess would be some sort of antenna. The construction reminds me of modern attempts at superconductors. Wonder if anyone's tried replicating the thing using ceramic superconductors and then cooling the thing off with liquid nitrogen to see what happens." (Source: http://emerald.oz.net/jz/sphinxt.html September 10, 1999).
Joe Held's "Joe's UFOs and Space Mysteries" thinks the device "looks similar to a small capacitor with several different materials. The object is roughly the size of an auto spark plug. Since the formation of geodes can take millions of years this was a very curious find indeed." (Source: http://members.tripod.com/J_Kidd/index.html September 10, 1999).
The location of the Coso artifact is currently unknown. Of its discoverers, Lane has died, Maxey is alive but avoids public comment, and the whereabouts of Mikesell are not known.
The Coso Artifact a 500.000 year old sparkplug ?
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The Kabwe skull or Broken Hill Skull
Kabwe skull or Kabwe cranium, or Broken Hill 1 is a hominin fossil that was frequently classified as belonging to Homo rhodesiensis. The cranium was found in an iron and zinc mine in Broken Hill Northern Rhodesia (now Kabwe, Zambia) in 1921 by Tom Zwiglaar, a Swiss miner. In addition to the cranium, an upper jaw from another individual, a sacrum, a tibia, and two femur fragments were also found. The skull was dubbed Rhodesian Man at the time of the find, but is now commonly referred to as the Broken Hill Skull or the Kabwe Cranium
The association between the bones is unclear, but the tibia and femur fossils are usually associated with the skull. Rhodesian Man is dated to be between 125,000 and 300,000 years old. Cranial capacity of the Broken Hill skull has been estimated at 1,100 cm³ , which, when coupled with the more recent dating, makes any direct link to older skulls unlikely and negates the 1.75 to 2.5 million year earlier erroneous dating. Bada & al (1974) published direct date of 110 ka for this specimen measured by aspartic acid racemisation The destruction of the paleoanthropological site has made layered dating impossible.
The skull is from an extremely robust individual, and has the comparatively largest brow-ridges of any known hominid remains. It was described as having a broad face similar to Homo neanderthalensis (ie. large nose and thick protruding brow ridges), and has been interpreted as an "African Neanderthal". However, when regarding the skulls extreme robustness, recent research has pointed to several features intermediate between modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthal. Most current experts believe Rhodesian Man to be within the group of Homo heidelbergensis though other designations such as Archaic Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens rhodesiensis have also been proposed. According to Tim White, it is probable that Rhodesian Man was the ancestor of Homo sapiens idaltu (Herto Man), which would be itself at the origin of Homo sapiens sapiens. No direct linkage of the species can so far be determined.
An Auroch is an large, extinct "buffalo like" animal. Many skeletons of this extinct type have been found in Europe.
What is remarkable about one in particular in the Moscow Museum of Paleontology is that it has a bullet hole in its skull. The hole is round, without radial cracks that would result from slower projectiles like spears and arrows. The only known projectile that leaves this kind of smooth, round hole without radial cracks is a bullet because of its velocity.
A similar round, clean, smooth hole without radial cracks was found in the skull of a "Neanderthal" man found in the early 1920's in Rhodesia. The man supposedly died over 40,000 years ago.
The skull is currently at the British Museum. The skull was found more than fifty feet below ground level. In addition to the hole consistent only with that made by a bullet, the other side of the skull was blown out from the inside!
Now, a word about this photo. There aren't that many Neanderthal skulls in "captivity". I heard about this alleged bullet hole several years ago and I knew that it was a particular skull at the British Museum. I found this photo several years ago and I think it is important to say that the museum made no mention of the bullet hole at all.
It was simply one of the photos of the skull. I think that bears a lttle on its authenticity--it did not purport to be a picture of a skull with a bullet hole. That fact is something that the anthropologists apparently overlooked. Cuozzo, in his book, Buried Alive mentions actually getting his hands on the skull.
Of course, there are alternative explanations given for the hole, but it appears to have been the fatal wound and nothing we know of makes that kind of wound except a bullet---or perhaps a small meteorite, presumably traveling horizontally to the ground.
On the one hand, you have Paleontologists offering alternative scenarios for the hole, and on the other you have a German forensic scientist who examined the skull who states categorically that the wound could have come only from a bullet because of the velocity neccessary to produce the characteristics of the wound. One assumes that the forensic scientist would have some experience with bullet holes that perhaps an anthropologist or a paleoentolist may not have.
From the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution website:
The cranium shows evidence of disease and wounds that occurred in the lifetime of this individual. Ten of the upper teeth have cavities, and dental abscesses of the upper jaw are clearly visible in the upper photograph (above the right incisor/canine) and the middle photograph (above the first molar). Additionally, a partially healed wound is visible in the bottom two photographs, above and anterior of the hole for the ear. This wound measured roughly a quarter-inch across, and was made by either a piercing instrument or the tooth of a carnivore. Exactly which is unclear.
More on this skull : Dr Jack Cuozzo
The Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone
The mystery stone from Lake Winnipesaukee is an alleged out-of-place artifact (OOPArt), reportedly found in 1872 while workers were digging a hole for a fence post. It is a carved stone about 4 inches long and 2 1/2 inches thick, dark and egg-shaped, bearing a variety of symbols. The stone's age, purpose, and origin are unknown.
The stone was reportedly found embedded in a lump of clay in 1872 by workers digging a post-hole near Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith, New Hampshire. It garnered immediate attention due to its unusual ovoid form and the carvings on its surface. Seneca Ladd, a Meredith businessman who hired the workers, was given credit for the discovery. Upon Ladd's death in 1892, the stone passed to one of his daughters, who donated it to the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1927. The stone is currently on exhibit at the Museum of New Hampshire History.
Symbols
Carvings on one side of the stone show an ear of corn and several other figures. The other side is more abstract, featuring inverted arrows, a moon shape, some dots and a spiral. There is a hole through the stone, bored from both ends with different size bits (1/8 inch at top and 3/8 inch at bottom).
A borescope analysis of the stone's holes was performed in 1994. In a 2006 article by the Associated Press, state archaeologist Richard Boisvert suggested the holes were drilled by power tools from the 19th or 20th century. Boisvert reported, "I've seen a number of holes bored in stone with technology that you would associate with prehistoric North America. There's a certain amount of unevenness ... and this hole was extremely regular throughout. What we did not see was variations that would be consistent with something that was several hundred years old." Scratches in the lower bore suggest it was placed on a metal shaft and removed several times.On the very bottom drawn around one of the boring holes is a multi-sided geometric figure. It is very precise and even in the way it’s drawn, angles. It’s similar to a star, but it’s really a square superimposed on another square, so there are 8 straighter sides than you would have in the depiction of a star symbol.
Analysis has concluded the stone is a type of quartzite, derived from sandstone, or mylonite. This type of rock is not common in New Hampshire.
The egg is 4 inches long and 2 1/2 inches thick. Symbols include what look like inverted arrows, a moon, some dots, a spiral, an ear of corn, a depressed circle with three figures with one looking like a deer's leg, a face, a teepee, and starlike circles. There are holes bored in both ends of the stone, with different size bits. Each bore is straight, not tapered. Scratches in the lower bore suggest it was placed on a metal shaft and removed several times, according to an analysis done in 1994 by New England state officials.
The meaning (and possible purpose) of the drawings are not known, however many theories have been offered. The American Naturalist suggested that the relic "commemorates a treaty between two tribes". A 1931 letter sent to the historical society claimed it was a "thunderstone".
A thunderstone is an apparently worked stone object - often wedge-shaped like an axe blade that is alleged to have fallen from the sky. Tales of thunderstones are found in many cultures around the world, from Greece to China, and are often associated with a thunder god.They are also known as thunderaxes, storm stones, sky arrows, thunderbolts, lightning stones, sky axes, and thunder teeth. In Brazil, a thunderstone is known as a raio ("lightning flash").
Carved stone still mystifies scholars CNN - July 19, 2006
In 1872, so the story goes, workers digging a hole for a fence post near Lake Winnipesaukee in the central part of this New England state found a lump of clay that seemed out of place.
There was something inside -- a dark, odd-looking, egg-shaped stone with a variety of carvings, including a face, teepee, ear of corn and starlike circles. There were many questions: Who made the stone and why? How old was it? How was it carved?
To date, no one has been able to say for sure, and the item has come to be known as the "Mystery Stone." Seneca Ladd, a local businessman who hired the workers, was credited with the discovery. "As Mr. Ladd is quite a naturalist, and has already an extensive private collection of relics and specimens, he was delighted with the new discovery, and exhibited and explained the really remarkable relic with an enthusiasm which only the genuine student can feel," an article in The American Naturalist said that November.
Ladd died in 1892, and in 1927, one of his daughters donated the stone to the New Hampshire Historical Society. The stone, surrounded by mirrors showing off its symbols, is on display at the Museum of New Hampshire History, where it was last exhibited in 1996.
All the symbols on the 4-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-thick stone are open to interpretation. On one side, it has what looks like inverted arrows, a moon, some dots and a spiral. Another side shows the ear of corn and a depressed circle with three figures, one of which looks like a deer's leg.
The American Naturalist suggested that the stone "commemorates a treaty between two tribes." Others have guessed the stone is Celtic or Inuit. A letter to the historical society in 1931 suggested it was a "thunderstone," which, the writer said, "always present the appearance of having been machined or hand-worked: frequently they come from deep in the earth, embedded in lumps of clay, or even surrounded by solid rock or coral."
Another curious detail is that there are holes bored in both ends of the stone, with different size bits. Each bore is straight, not tapered. Scratches in the lower bore suggest it was placed on a metal shaft and removed several times, according to an analysis done by state officials in 1994.
"I've seen a number of holes bored in stone with technology that you would associate with prehistoric North America," said Richard Boisvert, state archaeologist. "There's a certain amount of unevenness ... and this hole was extremely regular throughout." Boisvert suggested the holes were drilled by power tools, perhaps from the 19th or 20th centuries. "What we did not see was variations that would be consistent with something that was several hundred years old," he said.
The analysis, which included comments from geologist Eugene Boudette, concluded that the stone is a type of quartzite, derived from sandstone, or mylonite, a fine-grained, laminated rock formed by the shifting of rock layers along faults. The rock type was not familiar to New Hampshire, but the state could not be ruled out as the source, Boudette said. Boisvert said to his knowledge, the stone is unique. "That makes it very hard to figure out where it fits," he said. One problem is the story of the stone's discovery is fuzzy, he said. "You couldn't be certain exactly what kind of context it came from. There's a lot of ambiguity there ... it's very difficult to evaluate it," he said. "The context of the discovery is sometimes more important than the item itself." For example, Boisvert said, if the item had been something used by a fraternal order that has its own secrets and mysteries, "that means the information doesn't get out very well, does it? The information may have been available at one point, but it's really no longer available to us. Who knows?"
Wesley Balla, the society's director of collections and exhibitions, said one avenue to explore might be looking for similar symbols. And, "there's also always the hope that there might be something more in either newspaper or manuscript form that might discuss the contents," he said. Balla said the discovery seems to reflect on the way artifacts were treated in the 19th century. The focus was more on the object itself, not on details such as how deep the soil was where it was found, if anything was found near it, or how far it was from the lake. "All of that is lost," he said.
More on this object : New Hampshire Historical Society
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The Phaistos Disc
The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). It is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion in Crete, Greece.
The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, on the south coast of Crete, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling towards the disc's center.
The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archeologists, and many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs. While it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is; most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Attempts at decipherment are generally thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs are found, as it is generally agreed that there is not enough context available for a meaningful analysis.
Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, a few scholars have forwarded the opinion that the disc is a forgery or a hoax.
The Phaistos Disc was discovered in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, near Hagia Triada, on the south coast of Crete; specifically the disc was found in the basement of room 8 in building 101 of a group of buildings to the northeast of the main palace. This grouping of 4 rooms also served as a formal entry into the palace complex. Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier recovered this remarkably intact "dish", about 15 cm in diameter and uniformly slightly more than one centimetre in thickness, on 3 July 1908 during his excavation of the first Minoan palace.
It was found in the main cell of an underground "temple depository". These basement cells, only accessible from above, were neatly covered with a layer of fine plaster. Their content was poor in precious artifacts but rich in black earth and ashes, mixed with burnt bovine bones. In the northern part of the main cell, in the same black layer, a few inches south-east of the disc and about twenty inches above the floor, linear A tablet PH-1 was also found. The site apparently collapsed as a result of an earthquake, possibly linked with the explosive eruption of the Santorini volcano that affected large parts of the Mediterranean region in mid second millennium BC.
Yves Duhoux (1977) dates the disc to between 1850 BC and 1600 BC (MMIII) on the basis of Luigi Pernier's report, which says that the Disc was in a Middle Minoan undisturbed context. Jeppesen (1963) dates it to after 1400 (LMII-III). Doubting the viability of Pernier's report, Louis Godart (1990) resigns himself to admitting that archaeologically, the disc may be dated to anywhere in Middle or Late Minoan times (MMI-LMIII, a period spanning most of the 2nd millennium BC). J. Best (in Achterberg et al. 2004) suggests a date in the first half of the 14th century BC (LMIIIA) based on his dating of tablet PH 1.
There are 241 tokens on the disc, comprising 45 unique signs. Many of these 45 signs represent easily identifiable every-day things. In addition to these, there is a small diagonal line that occurs underneath the final sign in a group a total of 18 times. The disc shows traces of corrections made by the scribe in several places. The 45 symbols were numbered by Arthur Evans from 01 to 45, and this numbering has become the conventional reference used by most researchers. Some symbols have been compared with Linear A characters by Nahm,[8] Timm,[9] and others. Other scholars (J. Best, S. Davis) have pointed to similar resemblances with the Anatolian hieroglyphs, or with Egyptian hieroglyphs (A. Cuny). In the table below, the character "names" as given by Louis Godart (1995) are given in upper case; where other description or elaboration applies, they are given in lower case.
The Phaistos Disc signs have been assigned to Unicode 5.1. These include the 45 signs themselves as well as the combining oblique stroke described below, and occupy range 101D0-101FF of Plane 1 (the Supplementary Multilingual Plane).
There are a number of signs marked with an oblique stroke; the strokes are not imprinted but carved by hand, and are attached to the first or last sign of a "word", depending on the direction of reading chosen. Their meaning is a matter of discussion. One hypothesis, supported by Evans, Duhoux, Ohlenroth and others, is that they were used to subdivide the text into paragraphs, but alternative meanings have been offered by other scholars.
A great deal of speculation developed around the disc during the 20th century. The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur archeologists. Many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs. Historically, almost anything has been proposed, including prayers, a narrative or an adventure story, a "psalterion", a call to arms, a board game, and a geometric theorem. Some of the more fanciful interpretations of its meaning are classic examples of pseudoarchaeology.
Most linguistic interpretations assume a syllabary, based on the proportion of 45 symbols in a text of 241 tokens typical for that type of script; some assume a syllabary with interspersed logographic symbols, a property of every known syllabary of the Ancient Near East (Linear B as well as cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing). There are, however, also alphabetic and purely logographical interpretations.
While enthusiasts still believe the mystery can be solved, scholarly attempts at decipherment are thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs turn up somewhere, as it is generally thought that there is not enough context available for meaningful analysis. Any decipherment without external confirmation, such as successful comparison to other inscriptions, is unlikely to be accepted as conclusive.
There are a few main theories about the origin of the signs. For the first few decades after its discovery most scholars argued strongly against the local origin of the artifact. Evans (1909:24f.) wrote that
when one comes to compare the figures in detail with those of the Minoan hieroglyphic signary, very great discrepancy is observable... Out of the forty-five separate signs on the Phaistos Disk, no more than ten more or less resemble Cretan hieroglyphic forms... The human figures in their outline and costume are non-Minoan... The representation of the ship also differs from all similar designs that occur either among the hieroglyphic or the linear documents of Crete.
Glotz (1925:381) claimed that the clay was not from Crete. Ipsen (1929:15) concluded that the Disc was certainly from somewhere on the Aegean. Because of its differences from Linear A or B, Ipsen found it tempting to assume, like Evans, a non-Cretan origin for the Disc. He observes, however, that since Linear A was a common Aegean script such an assumption will not resolve the problem of multiplicity.
The Arkalochori Axe and other finds have made Cretan origin more popular: female images with pendulous breasts have also been found at Malia and Phaistos. (Godart 1995:125). Duhoux asserts the Cretan provenance of the disc; in his review of current research, Trauth (1990:154) comes to the conclusion that "Crete as source of the Disc can no longer be called into question". Andrew Robinson (2008) in a review in Nature, wrote "Most scholars today, including Duhoux, think it a plausible working hypothesis that the disc was made in Crete."
More On The Phaistos Disc : Lexiline
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