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The Dropa Stones
The stones are disks inscribed with text allegedly describing the crash-landing of an alien craft in Tibet thousands of years ago.
In 1938, according to one source, Chi Pu Tei, a professor of archaeology at Beijing University, and his students were on an expedition to explore a series of caves in the Himalayan mountains of the remote Bayan-Kara-Ula range on the border of China and Tibet. The caves appeared to have been artificially carved into a system of tunnels and underground storerooms. It is alleged that the walls were squared and glazed, as if artificially cut into the mountain with great heat.
The explorers are said to have found many neat rows of tombs with short 138 cm skeletons buried within. The skeletons had abnormally big heads, and small, thin, fragile bodies. A member of the team suggested that these might be the remains of an unknown species of mountain gorilla. Prof. Chi Pu Tei was said to respond, "Whoever heard of apes burying one another?"
There were no epitaphs at the graves, but instead hundreds of 30 cm wide stone discs were found having 20 mm wide holes in their centers (the Dropa Stones). On the walls were carved pictures of the rising sun, moon, stars, the land, mountains, and lines of pea-sized dots connecting Earth with its sky. Along with the discs, the cave drawings were determined to be about 12 000 years old.
While studying the skeletons one of the members of the team stumbled on a large round stone disc half buried in the dust on the floor of the cave.
The disk was approximately nine inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thick. In the exact center was a perfectly round, 3/4" hole, and etched in its face was a fine groove spiraling out from the center to the rim, making the disk look for all the world like some kind of primitive phonograph record.
No one understood the meanings of the message. The disc was labeled and filed away among other finds in the area. For 20 years many experts in Peking tried to translate the disc. When the disks were closely examined by Dr. Tsum Um Nui of Beijing around 1958, he concluded that each groove actually consisted of a series of tiny hieroglyphs of unknown pattern and origin. The hieroglyphs were small and apparently needed a magnifying glass to see them clearly. Many of the hieroglyphics had been worn away by erosion. Finally Dr. Tsum Um Nui broke the code and started to decipher the "speaking grooves". Dr. Tsum is said to have deciphered the symbols, alleging they told the story of the crash-landing of a spaceship and the killing of most of the survivors by local people.Dr. Tsum's report supposedly appeared in a professional journal in 1962. He was allegedly ridiculed to the point of self-imposed exile in Japan, where he died. The Peking Academy of Pre-History never allowed him to publish or speak of his findings again.
716 more grooved stone discs were uncovered in the same caves. They told the story of a "space probe" by the inhabitants of another planet who came to the Baya-Kara-Ula mountain range. They had crash landed. Their peaceful intentions had been misinterpreted. Many of them had been hunted down and killed by members of the Han tribe, who lived in the neighboring caves.
They referred to themselves as the Dropas. They said they came down from the clouds in their space craft. It crashed landed in remote and inaccessible mountains. There was no way to build a new ship. Legend in the area spoke of small gaunt yellow faced men who came from the clouds long ago. The men had huge bulging heads and small bodies. They were so ugly they were hunted down and killed. This description is similar to the bodies found in the caves. On the walls of the caves archaeologists found crude pictures of the rising Sun, the Moon, unidentifiable stars and the earth all joined together by lines of pea-sized dots. The cave drawings have been dated around 12,000 years ago.
Translation of the disc
Dr. Tsum Um Nui felt the smooth face of the disk with the palm of his hand. "What could this disk possibly be?" he wondered. He knew of its recent history; how it was discovered in 1938 by a Chinese archaeologist in a cave high in the Himalayans, along with 715 similar disks; how buried nearby were skeletons of a strange tribe of people averaging only a little over four feet high; how it was found that each disk was inscribed with a tiny groove that spiraled around its face, and that the groove turned out to be an unknown hieroglyphic.
The writing was so small he had to use a magnifying glass to see it clearly. But the stones were old -- perhaps 12,000 years old, it was estimated -- and much of the hieroglyphics were difficult to make out or had been worn away by time and the elements. As he worked, many questions nagged the professor. How did these primitive people fashion these precise stones? How did they manage the almost microscopic writing? Who were they and what was the purpose of these hundreds of stones? Once the characters were transcribed, Dr. Tsum Um Nui began the arduous task of trying to decode its message. Eventually, he began to make progress.
A word emerged. Then another. A phrase became understandable, then an entire sentence. He had broken the code. He discerned that the messages on the stones were written by a people who called themselves the Dropa. But what they were saying to him 12,000 years later made no sense. What the Dropa had written must have been one of their cultural myths, or was part of some prehistoric religious ceremony. Or was it?. When he had completed the translation as much as he could, the professor sat back in his chair in disbelief. The story the Dropa related was nothing short of astounding. How would his colleagues react? How might the world react if this story was true? The professor wrote up a paper on his findings and presented it to the university for publication.
Their reaction was swift and emphatic: the paper would not be published. The Academy of Prehistory expressly forbade him to publish or even speak of his findings. The world, the academy decided, should not know about the Dropa and their fateful journey to Earth.
Dr. Tsum Um Nui's findings were eventually published, however. Just two years later, he published the paper entitled, "The Grooved Script Concerning Spaceships Which, as Recorded on the Discs, Landed on Earth 12,000 Years Ago". By some accounts, the academy relented and gave permission to the professor to publish the paper, and by other accounts he published it despite the official ban.
In either case, his translation and his theory were met with ridicule by the archaeology establishment. The translation was just too shattering to be taken at face value or as an historical account. It just could not be true. It would change everything we know about our history and humankind's place in the universe.
The Dropa disks tell the story of a space probe from a distant planet that crash-landed in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of the Himalayas. The occupants of the spacecraft - the Dropa - found refuge in the caves of the mountains. Despite their peaceful intentions, the Dropa were misunderstood by members of the Ham tribe who were occupying neighboring caves and who hunted down the aliens and even killed some of them.
A translation of one of the passages says:
"The Dropa came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women, and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last they understood the sign language of the Dropa, they realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions".
The stones go on to say how the Dropa were unable to repair their disabled spacecraft and could not return to their home planet, and so were stranded on Earth. If that's true, have their descendents survived?.
Today, the isolated area is inhabited by two tribes of people who, in fact, call themselves the Dropa and the Han. Anthropologists have been unable to categorize either tribe into any other known race; they are neither Chinese nor Tibetan. Both tribes are of pygmy stature, adults measuring between 3-foot-6 and 4-foot-7 with an average height of 4-foot-2, and body weights of 38 to 52 pounds. They are yellow-skinned with thin bodies and disproportionately large heads, corresponding to the skeletal remains found in the caves in 1938.
They have sparse hair on their bodies and have large eyes that are not Asian in aspect, but have pale blue irises. Supposedly, there also is an ancient Chinese tale that might bear-out the Dropa's claims. The tale relates the story of a small, slender, yellow-skinned people who descended to the Earth from the clouds, and who were shunned by everyone because of their ugliness.
Strange Properties
In 1968, the Dropa stones came to the attention of W. Saitsew, a Russian scientist who re-published the findings of Tsum Um Nui and conducted tests on the disks that revealed some very peculiar properties. Physically, the granite stones contained high concentrations of cobalt and other metals -- a very hard stone indeed that would have made it difficult for the primitive people to carve the lettering, especially with such minute characters. When testing a disk with an oscillograph, a surprising oscillation rhythm was recorded as if, the scientists said, they had once been electrically charged or had functioned as electrical conductors.
Whatever their true nature, origin, or meaning, the Dropa stones present an intriguing puzzle for archaeologists and anthropologists. Were the Dropa truly visitors from some distant planet, or is their story merely a creation myth imagined by a primitive culture? If the latter is true, it adds one more such "myth" to the large number of stories from ancient cultures that claim their descendents came to Earth from the heavens. And if the former is true, the Dropa stones could represent the first recorded visit of an alien civilization to our planet. For now, the Dropa stones remain unexplained.
The 1962 article also discusses some technical details of the discs, underlining the potential factual nature of the story. It notes that the discs were composed of cobalt, iron and nickel—the only metals to produce a magnetic field.When placed on a special turntable they vibrated or hummed in an unusual rhythm as thought an electric charge was passing through them. It is as if they formed some part of an electrical circuit. Nickel is found largely in Canada and Central Africa, but in recent years it has been found in China, in the general area where the discs were located.Perhaps the creators of the discs used this metal composition for his long lasting qualities so later people may discover what happened to them?
The Dropa People
The mountains in the Bayan Kara Ula region rise to over 17,000 feet, but, in the valleys below, it is - though you are still 7,000 feet above sea level - pleasantly warm in the summer. Geologists believe it was even warmer 20,000 years ago; whatever the truth of the matter, this area contains traces of human habitation which go back to the very earliest prehistoric times.
One perhaps-not-quite-accidental geographical detail: Just north of the principal chain of the Bayan Kara Ula mountains, there lies a group of lakes with the ambiguous name of ‘Ocean of Stars’ (though ‘stars’ can also be translated as ‘waters’). In the first week of the New Year, the party of Chinese archaeologists led by Professor Chi Pu Tei discovered, in a group of caves in this mountainous region, a series of graves aligned in rows. There were no head stones to mark the graves, nor were there epitaphs; but, on the cave walls there were drawings of stick figures with elongated heads and, apparently, the sun, the moon and the stars.
The scientists carefully excavated the graves. They proved to contain skeletons with abnormally large skulls and tiny bodies no more than four feet long-far below the average size for the ethnic groups of our planet. Only the pygmies of the rain forests of Central Africa are in any way similar in proportion. The anatomy of these creatures consisted of a very slender, delicate skeletal structure, with narrow shoulders and thin extremities.
According to the expedition’s report, it was as if these creatures had had rickets, or their skeletal structure was related to that of flying mammals or birds whose limbs are built to with-stand great stress.
To this day, extremely ancient legends circulate in this part of China about small-bodied yellow beings said to have appeared out of the clouds, and who, because of their strange, ugly appearance and bizarre behavior, were attacked and in large part murdered by the local inhabitants. In more recent times, the rock caves upon which the archaeological team stumbled have continued to be shunned by the superstitious and suspicious local people; the caves are in effect taboo.
This may be why the mysterious relic also found by the scientists at the grave site had lain undisturbed by grave robbers for millennia.
The Dropas ruling couple (1947) Hueypah-La (4 ft. tall) and Veez-La (3 ft. 4 in. tall)
picture by Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans.
In his 1978 book, Sungods in Exile, David Agamon tells the story of the 1974 expedition of eccentric British scientist Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans to the Bayan Kara Ula mountain range.
On the way to the very inaccessible region to the northeast of the Himalaya, the English scientist was abandoned by his Tibetan carriers - they were terribly afraid of Baian-Kara-Ula - and only with tremendous effort did he manage to reach his destination.
After having won the faith of the locals, Dr. Karyl Robin-Evans was assigned a language-teacher in order to introduce him to the basics of the Dzopa-language and so he learned from Lurgan-La, religious guardian of the Dzopa, the history of the Dzopa.
Lurgan-La pointed out that they (Dzopa) originally came from a planet in the Sirius-system. There had been - about 20.000 years ago and again in the year 1014 - two exploration missions to earth. In 1014 the crash took place that lead to the accidents survivors being unable to leave earth again.
According to Agamon, Robin-Evans came across several hundred members of a dwarfish tribe known as the Dropa, who lived in a remote valley and whose average height was no more than about four feet.
Robin-Evans spent six months among the Dropa. He learned their language and was introduced to their history and traditions. They told him their ancestors had come from a planet revolving around the star Sirius, and had crash - landed in a space-craft in this area a very long time before. Many had been killed. The survivors had become acclimatized to living on our planet.
In 1947 the Dr. Robin-Evans made for the "mysterious land of the Dzopa", travelling through Lhasa (Tibet) where he was granted an audience with the 14th Dalai Lama.
As Tibet wasn’t under the rule of China in 1947, Dr. Robin-Evans trip could easily be arranged.
What evidence is there for such a tribe ?
Dr Dendl found a 1933 clipping about a Chinese confrontation with dwarflike beings. Though some might argue that the location was in “Tibet”, at that time Baian-Kara-Ula was mistakenly labelled as being part of Tibet. The article relates how a woman, only 1 m 20 cm tall, was seen being escorted by Chinese soldiers and that she and her group were being held as slaves. There was also a statement that they were cannibals, but this might merely have been an excuse to cover for their inhumane treatment.
Martial arts one non-Shaolin derived southern style is the Ziran Men (Natural School). This style was created by a dwarf named Xu of Sichuan Province in the later years of the Ching Dynasty. Ching Dynasty (1644 - 1911)
The Associated Press, in a November,1995 article, reported that some 120 dwarfish beings had been discovered living in Sichuan Province in Central China, the tallest of them being no more than three feet ten inches in height, and the shortest adult measuring two feet one inch.
on 9 November 1995, the German publication Bild ran a report titled “Das Dorf der Zwerge – Umweltgifte schuld?” [“The Village of the Dwarfs – environmental pollution to blame?”] about the discovery.) The tallest adult in this village was three foot 10 inches (1.0 m 15 cm) tall; the smallest was two foot one inch (63.5 cm).
The location of the village is only a few hundred kilometres from the Baian-Kara-Ula mountain range. However, despite China’s becoming more open, this entire area including the village remains off limits to foreigners.
Chinese Dwarf Village Solved, The Star, January 27, 1997
Beijing (China) - Scientists have figured that excessive mercury levels in the driniking water of Huilong village in the Sichuan province was the reason that ten out of sixty villagers are not more than a meter tall. No new cases of dwarfism have been reported since the village had pollution-free drinking water.
In January,1997, Chinese ethnologists tried to discount this phenomenon of 120 dwarfish beings living in a single area by attributing their dwarfism to the high concentration of mercury in the soil of the region. They insisted the dwarfs must have absorbed the mercury in their drinking water over many generations. Dr. Norbert Felgenhauer, of the Munich Institute for Toxic Surgery, says that this explanation is nonsense. He says that mercury is a lethal poison harmful to any organ in the human body, and that the dwarfs would not have survived.
Moreover, he says, mercury cannot change human DNA and so cannot cause hereditary disease.
The Chinese authorities have never denied the existence of a ‘Village of the Dwarfs’ in Sichuan Province, nor that the village is located only two or three hundred miles east of the Bayan Kara Ula mountain region. This latter fact may indicate that the Dropa migrated from the mountains to the lowlands, and that they did so only recently These tiny people must have been isolated for many millennia before their discovery; otherwise, interbreeding with other ethnic groups would have resulted in an increase in their stature.
There is further evidence for the existence of a dwarfish people in China. Joerg Dendl, a doctoral candidate in history who lives in Berlin, has unearthed a report from 1911 which tells of repeated sightings of an extremely dwarfish people in Tibet and neighboring areas.
"120 dwarfs cannot be created only by chance, as the probabilities for stunted growth is one case among 20,000 - all we know about the theory of probability is against chance! Poisoned environments are not practicable as well, since the "Village of the Dwarfs" is far away from major cities and industries. I got this information from two faxes sent by Chinese Tourist Administration, and from several telephone calls with Secretary of the Chinese Ambassador in Bonn, Mr. Dai. Source : chinahistoryforum
From Shan Hai Jing (the Classic of Mountains and Seas-Birrel Trans.)
Roundample Country lies to its east. Its people are short and squat, and they wear a cap and belt. One author says that Roastdwarf Country lies east of Threehead Country.' - Book VI
"The Roundample People" are three feet tall and they live in caves. They are master inventors and they use the five grains.' - Comm.
There is the country of the Small People. Their name is the Little People.' - Book XIV
To the south of the land of the Female King, there is the land of Crimsonscholar. The people there are three or four feet tall.' - Comm.
Kui Xing 魁星 is a dwarf in Chinese myth. He is a companion or servant of Wen Chang, the god of literature
Evidence of the Dropa stones
Philip Coppens states on his website :
Quote : "In Xian we visited the Banpo Museum searching for the discs that Wegerer had photographed two decades earlier. But our optimism was not rewarded. Nowhere could we find any trace of the discs. Had Wegerer really made up the entire story? That seemed unlikely.
We asked our guides and Professor Wang Zhijun, director of the museum. At first, they denied the discs even existed! Within an hour of our having shown them the photographs, Zhijun stated that one of his predecessors had indeed given Wegerer permission to photograph the discs, that the discs did indeed exist or had at least existed. Shortly after having given Wegerer permission to photograph the discs, that director was ‘asked’ to resign. We learnt that, ever since, not a single trace of the director had been found.
Krassa, a compatriot of Wegerer, had managed to collect all four of Wegerer’s photographs.
Director Zhijun showed us—when he realised we would not leave without knowing all there was to know—a book on archaeology in which photographs of the discs could be seen. Afterwards, he took us to a nearby centre, the location where the museum’s artefacts were cleaned and catalogued. On one chair stood an enlarged copy of a stone disc. He hinted that, a few years ago, word had come down ‘from above’, from his superiors, that all traces of the discs had to be wiped out, and that he was to go on record as saying everything was one big lie. Such attitudes are of course not benevolent for anyone who wants to find the truth.Had Hausdorf and Krassa been less obstinate, they might have classed Wegerer as a hoaxer."
It has been pointed out that stone discs are a known ingredient of Chinese culture and are called “Bi” discs. Although their origin is unknown, these Bi discs have been dated to as far back as 10,000 BCE—thus largely coinciding with the time-frame of the alleged crash.
The story of the dropa stones and people is strange and has a good probability to be true it's also referred to as "The Chinese Roswell" we all know governments are the best when it comes to cover up something and saying "There nobody left alive to confirm the story so it's a fake" is really a poor reason ,following this reasoning then Roswell and Atlantis are for sure hoaxes.
Other interesting websites about The Droppa stones : bibliotecapleyades
Anna Mitchell-Hedges and a Crystal Skull.
The Chinese Roswell - Dropa discs
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The Batavia Shipwreck - Mutiny
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The Batavia Shipwreck and Mutiny
The Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). She was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and had 24 cast-iron cannons. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors. A twentieth century replica of the ship is also called the Batavia and can be visited in Lelystad, the Netherlands.
The dimensions were huge for that time, 45 meter long stem to stern and more than 10 meter width. The Batavia was built to the specifications and was therefore called a"spiegelretourschip".A three-master with a sail area of more than 1100 m2. The ship was equipped with extra boats in the form of a longboat and yawl and run on behalf of the Court (section) of the Amsterdam VOC. The Batavia was also well armed with its 24 cannons.There were 341 sailors aboard, 303 men and boys in the service of the VOC and 38 women and children as passengers.
Departure
On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies, to obtain spices. It sailed under commandeur and opperkoopman (upper- or senior merchant) Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as skipper.These two had previously encountered each other in Surat, India.. After a violent quarrel with Pelsaert Jacobsz was then reprimanded for misconduct.For the skippers it was often difficult to accept non-sailor over themselves . Jacobsz was downright vindictive nature. Important in this tragic history was the presence among them of the merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz, previously pharmacist in Haarlem, cunning and sharp tongue. Through his conduct, he may no longer be accepted Haarlem (A religious nut who had become infected in Haarlem by the atheistic ideology probably of the wicked Torrentius) .The painter Jan Simonsz van de Beeck Aka Torrentius(1589-1644) was a bon vivant with a wicked heart on the tongue. He earns good money and still lives with - in the deepest secrecy - "dirty pictures" (pornography). His beautiful life comes to an abrupt end when he is arrested in 1628 on charges of blasphemy and immorality .And therefore Jeronimus Cornelisz joined the VOC.
The ship carried12 boxes of gold and silver coins worth 260,000 guilders(1 / 5 of the total capital of the VOC in the East) , luxury consumer goods, silverware for Mughal Emperor Janghir, cloth, wine, cheese, beautiful clothing, merchandise, etc. and a box of very precious jewels (including a great cameo of agate (21x30 cm) who was cut in 312 for the Roman Emperor Constantine and was offered for sale by the Antwerp painter Rubens). Another treasure was the 'Rubens Vase' with images of Pan, carved from a single agate piece. Moreover, on board 130 large carved sandstone blocks that had to form a gate in the construction of the Castle of Batavia (served as ballast during the voyage).
About the Cameo :
Pelsaert has later after the mutiny personally ensured that the costly Big Cameo arrived safely in Batavia. After several unsuccessful attempts to to sell the cameo in India and Batavia , the cameo came to the Netherlands chief merchant Elias Boudaen his possessions after his death in 1652 . Only in 1765 the cameo appears again during an auction. It then exchanged ownership several times until finally in 1823 was bought for 50,000 guilders by King William I . It still lies in the Rijksmuseum in the Royal Coin Cabinet in Leiden.
Plot begins
When we realize that the Batavia was about 45 meter long (stem to stern) and over 10 meter wide and almost 350 crew members were (in addition to cargo, workplaces and recreation rooms for distinguished guests and under),then we can imagine that the ship must have been filled with people to every corner . Comfortable it was certainly not and cold even less comfortable, because fire was impossible to keep considering the fire hazard. Only in the galley fire could be made.
During the voyage, Jacobsz and Cornelisz conceived a plan to take the ship, which would allow them to start a new life somewhere, using the huge supply of trade gold and silver then on board. After leaving Cape Town, where they had stopped for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course, away from the rest of the fleet.During the first part of the journey skipper Jacobsz made significant advances towards Lucretia van der Mylen, who time and again but firmly rejected him.After that he started a wild relationship with her chambermaid Swaentie Hendricx.
Jacobsz and Cornelisz had already gathered a small group of men around them, and arranged an incident from which the mutiny was to ensue. This involved attacking a high-ranking young female passenger, Lucretia Jans, in order to provoke Pelsaert into disciplining the crew. They hoped to paint his discipline as unfair, and recruit more members out of sympathy. They struck on May 14 when Lucretia went on deck to get fresh air. The men stripped her and sexually abused her and smeared her from head to toe in excrement and dirt. . But during the interrogation that followed Pelsaert could not identify who the perpetrators had been. The victim, however, had recognized the voice of Jan Evertsz . But Pelsaert shall postponed this matter until they would arrive in Java and thus avoid a mutiny on the high seas.The mutineers were then forced to wait until Pelsaert made arrests, but he never acted.
Shipwrecked
On 4 June 1629 the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island , part of the Houtman Abrolhos off the Western Australian coast. Of the 322 aboard, most of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore, although 40 people drowned.Pelsaert and the survivors decided to incorporate them in two of the nearby islands. That becomes impossible due to the strong swell of the sea to approach the Batavia with the boats Seventy men, including inter merchant Cornelisz remain stranded on the ship and immediately begin the plundering of the ship.
The survivors, including all the women and children, were then transferred to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl. However, an initial survey of the islands found no fresh water and only limited food (sea lions and birds). Pelsaert realised the dire situation, and decided to search for water on the mainland.
On the largest island there were 180 people including nearly all the women,on the smaller island about 40 people. Pelsaert and Jacobsz. sat on the small island. Here was the longboat . For this small group was also much more water available than the for larger group. The people on the island had only a few barrels of water. Although he wanted to wait until the storm calmed down and then take off first cargo of the ship and get supplies .Pelsaert decided prompted by Jacobsz. and others to leave with the largest boat to look for water. Jacobsz. and Evertsz. establish a crew together. On June 6 in the morning they departed in the 30-foot (9.1 m) longboat to the other islands or the mainland of South Land to seek water.
On board of these were skipper Commander Pelsaert Jacobsz and his pregnant girlfriend Swaentie Hendricx. Also Jan Evertsz bosun, who was found guilty of the attack on Lucretia van der Mylen, was among them .In all but three of the shipwrecked on the small island were on board. Eleven sailors who dit not want a prolonged stay on the island join the next day with the smaller yawl in the expedition. The small yawl is lost during a landing attempt on the Southland so the crew is moved to the boat of Pelsaert. The three men not removed from the small island warned the 180 shipwrecked on the other island (later called Batavia's Graveyard) the island which had been secretly left by Pelsaert is named by the others 'Traitor Island'. As the boat was driven rapidly through wind power to the north and is was difficult return to the wreck Pelsaert decides to sail directly to Batavia. The 45 men, two women (including pregnant Swaentje Hendricx) and one child in the heavily loaded boat travels the 1200 nautical miles to Java in two weeks.On July 3, 1629, the castaways are picked up in the Sunda Strait by the "Frederick Henry" on July 7th they reached Batavia. Pelsaert reports to the Governor-General, Jan Coen, about Jacobsz. and Evertsz. Coen. Evertsz. is hung for the agression of Lucretia and Jacobsz. ends up in prison. Governor-General JP Coen Pelsaert gives the command to return to Batavia to recuperate the cargo and save the survivors.
Murder
Jeronimus Cornelisz, who had been left in charge of the survivors, was well aware that if that party ever reached the port of Batavia, Pelsaert would report the impending mutiny, and his position in the planned mutiny might become apparent. Therefore, he made plans to hijack any rescue ship that might return, and use the vessel to seek another safe haven. Cornelisz even made far-fetched plans to start a new kingdom, using the gold and silver from the wrecked Batavia. However, to carry out this plan, he first needed to eliminate any possible opponents.
Cornelisz had after about one months planned to hijack the ship the VOC would certainly send to safeguard the precious cargo and rescue the survivors.He concluded to carry out his plan with 40 loyal and strong men.The others he might discard.
Cornelisz's first deliberate act was to have all weapons and food supplies commandeered and placed under his control. He then moved a group of soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes(Wiebe Hayes from Winschoten was one of the soldiers for the VOC would be deployed in India. The soldiers were in civilian clothes. Their equipment and uniform would only be given to them at the destination), to nearby West Wallabi Island, under the false pretence of searching for water. They were told to light signal fires when they found water and they would then be rescued. Convinced that they would be unsuccessful, he then left them there to die.
When they could find no water in East Wallabi they tried to wade at low tide to the other island, West Wallabi, . That worked and they finally found water. They had already been 20 days on the search.
Three times they ignited fires, indicating that they had found water, but there was no boat to retrieve them. There were on western Wallabi however, advantages for survival by the presence of wallabi's (a small kangaroo species), birds, eggs and the ability to fish.
Cornelisz then had complete control. The remaining survivors would now face two months of unrelenting butchery and savagery.
Meanwhile divided Cornelisz. the other castaways on three islands, Batavia's Kerckhof Traitors Island and Robben Island. The killings began on Traitors Island. Initially in secret, but soon, when everyone knew what was happening openly. Cornelisz. who decided who and how someone had to be killed, but did not participated himself although he tried and failed to strangle a baby.Most men went along out of physical preservation with Cornelisz. People were send out in the boat driven by accomplices to get water, and then thrown overboard. When an individual was still able to swim and save himself and complained to Cornelisz, they were still killed by crushing their skull with a blowEleven patients were in a tent stabbed to death with daggers . Others were stabbed with swords, their throats cut, beaten to death, with hands and feet tied together thrown into the water or simply with a stroke of a sword beheaded. The latter was like an aptitude test of the mutineers to be. On the islands there was a horrific sadism. Even the seven children were not spared. Cornelisz was totally unpredictable and passionate. Twelve women were murdered. the twelve women were pregnant, too old, too young, or not beautiful enough. All were simply slaughtered, after being abused and horribly maimed or not . The mutineers left seven women in life. Five of them were for "general use" by the entire group of mutineers. Lucretia Jackson and another young woman (the daughter of the minister) had a preference, they had only to share the bed with one man . Lucretia was chosen to Jeronimus Cornelisz Lucretia was for Cornelisz. and the eldest daughter of Pastor Bastiaens, Judith, for his confidant Coenraat of Huijssen. The other women had to "oblige" to everyone. While the pastor and his daughter had dinner with the mutineers , his wife, his six other children and their maid were massacred by six men . Before Bastiaens returned they had buried all the bodies. One of Cornelisz's companions said later rather than to eat he preferred to kill , others were forced to kill immediately afterwards they were possibly the next victim .The position of the women was not to be envied.
By August 16 , 124 murders were committed and at Batavia's Graveyard only 40 people were still alive.On August 20 Cornelisz gave himself the title Captain General. Some of the survivors tried to bring themself to safety on the island where the soldiers and Wiebe Hayes sat. Of these 25 men have reached the island, the others were prevented by the mutineers and killed by them. Ultimately, the extent of Hayes'groep was 48 men .One of the fugitives managed to reach the island in a homemade boat. Now this group could also try to get to a possibly passing by ship. Hayes foresaw an attack on his island by the mutineers and the soldiers put together makeshift weapons from materials washed up from the wreck. They also set a watch so that they were ready for the mutineers, and built a small fort out of limestone and coral blocks..Mid July the first attack was repulsed and the second a few days later, this time conducted Cornelisz. himself. Moreover, contrary to Hayes' men, Cornelisz. men in Batavia's Graveyard had a lack of water and food and were thereby weakened. On return to their island was Frans surgeon Jansz. was brutally murdered.
After this, the pastor tried to negotiate a deal. Eventually a deal was made that Hayes would swap their boat in exchange for badly needed clothes. Meanwhile Cornelisz tried to turn the French soldiers in the Hayes group to turn against Hayes he offered them 6000 guldens a head.However, Hayes was informed and when Cornelisz. and his five men set foot on land West Wallabi Cornelisz was captured and four men slain, one man, Wouter Loos, escaped. Wouter Loos became the new leader of the mutineers. They tried again, this time employing muskets to besiege Hayes' fort and almost defeating the soldiers.
But Wiebbe Hayes' soldiers prevailed again just as Pelsaert arrived. A race to the rescue ship now ensued between Cornelisz's men and the soldiers. But Wiebbe Hayes reached the ship first and was able to put his side of the story to Pelsaert first. After a short battle the combined force captured all of the mutineers.
Aftermath
Pelsaert decided to conduct a trial on the islands.The law on board a VOC ship happened at the time of the wreck of the Batavia ship was called the shipscouncil. This ship's council meeting, five people, namely the chief merchant, the captain, under the merchant, the first mate and the bosun. Normally they could just handle them lighter cases.
The heavier things like mutiny and murder were treated by the general council. This council consisted of the commander general of the fleet, all the chief merchants and all boaters. (In principle, perform all VOC ships in fleets.) If a ship from a fleet was alone then the shipscouncil recieved the broad powers of the general council and the shipscouncil also pronounce heavyer sanctions including the death penalty decision.
As the Saerdam was a rescue ship and Pelsaert the only merchant on board, the shipscouncil was composed of people from the Saerdam and Batavia. Salomon Deschamps, assistant vice merchant, was similarly added to this "court".
Help returns
The hastily mounted 'Saerdam' leaves on July 15th with 26 man crew , and reaches because of bad weather and due to the position of the wreck was incorrectly assessed, the Abrolhos only half September.
The hearings on board of the ship Saerdam initially took place at the Saerdam. But the next day they were moved to Batavia's Graveyard. After questioning, the mutineers were brought back to Robben Island. Torture by waterboarding was rarely required to make the accused to speak. Moreover,a confession obtained during torture, which also had to have a good reason to be aproved was not valid unless the confession was repeated later. Initially Cornelisz denied and he repeatedly tried to mislead the Board by admitting and then to withdraw the confession, but later he confessed everything. It soon was confirmed by questioning what inhuman scenes on the islands had played. Some mutineers had to begged Cornelisz to be allowed to murder someone. Others were forced to kill fellow sufferers. Also "judge" Deschamps escaped his fate not from his seat in the council. During the interrogations it came to light that he was, indeed forced, to strangle a baby with his hands.
On September 28, all hearings were held. It was decided not to bring the most dangerous rebels to the Batavia thus not jeopardising ship and crew . Jeronimus Cornelisz. still trying to commit suicide to escape his sentence, but takes not enouch poison in. On October 2 the sentences were carried out at Robben Island. With Cornelisz his hands were cut off before he was hanged.With four mutineers one hand was cut off before they were hanged, and two were hanged without chopping off their hands. Perhaps the punishment was less severe by the fact that Deschamps had seated in the ship's council meeting. So someone who "only" killed one or two people under pressure (such as Deschamps himself) usually finished with corporal punishment. Even if Deschamps himself escaped death, he was keelhauled three times and got 100 lashes.
On November 15 the Saerdam left of the horror site. The two youngest mutineers, initially sentenced to death Pelgrom the bije van Bemmel a cabin boy and Wouter Loos a soldier, were disposed on the Australian mainland at Wittecarra Creek a few miles south of Kalbarri at the Murchison River Mouth to find the VOC valuables. No news of them and find no trace even though years later VOC ships were told to watch out for them.thereby becoming Australia's first European settlers.Both were young but Wouter Loos had a very abrasive nature and was done away with by the aborigines. Pelgrom was said to have been accepted by them because he had red hair, and should have lived a long but very different life with the native population.
The remaining mutineers were taken to Batavia for trial,the Saerdam reached Batavia on December 5.
The suspects where not in the clear yet , Governor-General Speckx (Coen was now deceased), was dissatisfied with Pelsaert's justice. The defendants were again, now for the Council of Justice, accountable. It was their view that the law by the ship's council was inadequate and not harsh enough and therefore unfair and they had again to appear before the Council of Justice. There even more unimaginable atrocities came to light. Late January 1630, the sentences were approved and passed.,The worst, living, guilty offender(he had killed seventeen people) was broken on the wheel and cut open from bottom to top. After this his body was exhibited, Five men were subsequently hanged, with one of them his right hand being shopped of first. One of the hanged men had been assistant vice merchant Deschamps who himself had been a few months earlier been part of the ships council on board who gave the sentences in the field.There were further sentences to flogging, branding, forced labor and exile. the rest recieved milder punishment and allowed to live.JANS, Lucretia, also known as Lucretia van der Miles (born Amsterdam about 1602 - died After 1641), merchant's wife, suspected of complicity in the mutiny of the Batavia and the killings, The Council of Justice of Batavia gathered witness statements and concluded that Lucretia Jackson was an accomplice to the crime. The number of incriminating statements to her was enormous. Jeronimus Cornelisz. had always separated her from the other people and contact between Lucretia and her companions had not been there. She was also in the privileged position that she was assigned to one man(Cornelisz), what had aroused jealousy with the other women . The charge was that she was guilty of "incitement to evil acts and the murder of the salvaged and rescued people , endangering others their lives by her false lies. Because she did not confess, the judge-advocate asked permission to be allowed to torture her. If he also got the permission , is not known. It is certain that Lucretia persisted in her denial and soon afterwards, released.Lucretia was in Batavia, but her future husband appeared to have been deceased. A year later she still married to Jacob Corneliszoon Cuick, sergeant of the army in VOC Batavia.
Those not taking part with the mutineers had been rewarded. Wiebe Hayes was richly rewarded with substantial salary increase and promotion.
In March 1631 the case was still open in the held in custody Captain Jacobsz. the case was submitted to the Heeren XVII.Captain Jacobsz, despite being tortured, did not confess to his part in planning the mutiny. Because of insufficient evidence against him was he released.
A board of inquiry decided that Pelsaert had exercised a lack of authority and was therefore partly responsible for what had happened. Francisco Pelsaert has apparently done his duty. Divers who he had brought on the Saerdam had recovered ten boxes of cash, silver fruit bowls and two guns. More than that, the sea did not yield. Pelsaert was later appointed to high office in Batavia, but he has not long to enjoy his promotion. In 1630 he died at age 35. Jewels he had brought over before his death to sell them, were confiscated by the Company. The proceeds of the sale flowed into the coffers of his employer.
Concerning the 38 passengers:
• 9 children and 1 woman have died From thirst and disease.
• 7 children and 12 women were killed by the mutineers.
• 7 women and 2 children arrived finally still alive in Batavia.
From the shipsjournal of Francisco Pelseart
Note what happened to the crew of the Batavia happened:
• 6 people deserted during the voyage
• 10 people died from scurvy and disease
• 40 people drowned during the shipwreck
• 20 people died On "Batavia's Graveyard by drinking salt water and by disease
• The boat arrived in Batavia with 45 people.
• Jeronimus Corneliszoon killed 96 people.
• Mutineers killed during arrest 4 people.
• Executed on Robben Island 7 persons.
• On put a shore put 2 people .
• During the journey by boat to Batavia crashed: 2 persons
• Returned by the Saerdam to Batavia: 68 persons
Source : P. Gretler, R. Parthesius, A. van der Zee.
Other interesting websites about The Batavia: The Batavia
In Dutch : The Voc
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The Nubian pyramids
The area of the Nile valley known as Nubia that lies within present day Sudan was home to three Kushite kingdoms during antiquity: the first with its capital at Kerma (2600–1520 BC), the second centered on Napata (1000–300 BC) and, finally, the kingdom of Meroë (300 BC–AD 300).
Kerma was Nubia's first centralized state with its own indigenous forms of architecture and burial customs. The last two kingdoms, Napata and Meroe, were heavily influenced culturally, economically, politically, and militarily by the powerful pharaonic Egyptian empire to the north. The Kushite kingdoms in turn competed strongly with Egypt, to the extent that during the late period of Ancient Egyptian history, the rulers of Napata conquered and unified Egypt herself, ruling as the pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
The Napatan domination of Egypt was relatively brief—it ended with the Assyrian conquest in 656 BC—but its cultural impact on the Napatans was enormous, and this coalesced into an extraordinary burst of pyramid-building activity that was sustained throughout the existence of Napata's successor kingdom, Meroë.
Approximately 220 pyramids were eventually constructed at three sites in Nubia over a period of a few hundred years to serve as tombs for the kings and queens of Napata and Meroë. The first of these was built at the site of el-Kurru, including the tombs of King Kashta and his son Piye (Piankhi), together with Piye's successors Shabaka, Shabataka, and Tanwetamani. Fourteen pyramids were constructed for their queens, several of whom were renowned warrior queens. This can be compared to approximately 120 pyramids that were constructed in Ancient Egypt over a period of 3000 years.
Later Napatan pyramids were sited at Nuri, on the west bank of the Nile in Upper Nubia. This necropolis was the burial place of 21 kings and 52 queens and princes including Anlami and Aspelta. The bodies of these kings were placed in huge granite sarcophagi. Aspelta's weighed 15.5 tons, and its lid weighed four tons. The oldest and largest pyramid at Nuri is that of the Napatan king and Twenty-fifth Dynasty pharaoh Taharqa.
The most extensive Nubian pyramid site is at Meroë, which is located between the fifth and sixth cataracts of the Nile, approximately one hundred kilometres north of Khartoum. During the Meroitic period, over forty queens and kings were buried there.
The physical proportions of Nubian pyramids differ markedly from the Egyptian edifices that influenced them: they are built of stepped courses of horizontally positioned stone blocks and range from approximately six to thirty metres in height, but rise from fairly small foundation footprints that rarely exceed eight metres in width, resulting in tall, narrow structures inclined at approximately seventy degrees. Most also have small Egyptian-inspired offering temple structures abutting their base. By comparison, Egyptian pyramids of similar height generally had foundation footprints that were at least five times larger and were inclined at angles of between forty and fifty degrees.
All of the pyramid tombs of Nubia were plundered in ancient times, but wall reliefs preserved in the tomb chapels reveal that their royal occupants were mummified, covered with jewellery and laid to rest in wooden mummy cases. At the time of their exploration by archaeologists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some pyramids were found to contain the remains of bows, quivers of arrows, archers' thumb rings, horse harnesses, wooden boxes, furniture, pottery, colored glass, metal vessels, and many other artifacts attesting to extensive Meroitic trade with Egypt and the Hellenistic world.
A pyramid excavated at Meroë included hundreds of heavy items such as large blocks adorned with rock art and 390 stones that comprised the pyramid. A cow buried complete with eye ointment was also unearthed in the area to be flooded by the Meroë Dam, as were musical rocks that were tapped to create a melodic sound.
Other interesting websites about Nubian Pyramids: Kushite Pyramids in Nubia
Source : Wikipedia
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Nubia: The Black Kingdom Of Kush
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The Menhirs
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa, and Asia, but are most numerous in Western Europe; in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. In northwest France there are 1,200 menhirs. They originate from many different periods across pre-history, and were erected as part of a larger Megalithic culture that flourished in Europe and beyond.
The function of Menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Over the centuries they have variously been thought to have been used by Druids for human sacrifice, used as territorial markers or elements of a complex ideological system, or functioned as early calendars. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have substantial knowledge of prehistory; and their only reference points were provided by Classical literature. The developments of radiocarbon dating and tree-ring calibration have done much to further human knowledge in this area.
The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th century archaeologists. It is a combination of two words found in the Breton language; men (stone), and hir (long). In Modern Welsh they are described as maen hir, or "long stone." In modern Breton, the word peulvan is used.
Practically nothing is known of the social organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. We have no trace even of these peoples' language; however we do know that they buried their dead, and had the skills to grow cereal, farm, and make pottery, stone tools, and jewelry. Identifying their uses remains speculation. However, it is likely that many uses involved fertility rites and seasonal cycles. Until recently, menhirs were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the later third millennium BC; the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, perhaps back to six to seven thousand years ago.
Many menhirs are carved with megalithic art. This often turned them into anthropomorphic stelae, although images of objects such as stone axes, ploughs, shepherd crooks and yokes were common. With the exception of the stone axe, none of these motifs are definite, and the name used to describe them is largely for convenience. Some menhirs were broken up and incorporated into later passage graves where they had new megalithic art carved with little regard for the previous pictures. It is not known if this re-use was deliberate or if the passage grave builders just saw menhirs as a convenient source of stone (Le Roux 1992).
In Scandinavia, menhirs are called bautasten or bautastenar and continued to be erected during the Pre-Roman Iron Age and later, usually over the ashes of the dead. They were raised both as solitary stones and in formations, such as the stone ships and few stone circles.
Sometimes, they were raised only as commemoration to great people, a tradition which was continued as the runestones.
The tradition was strongest in Bornholm, Gotland and Götaland and appears to have followed the Goths, during the 1st century, to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, (now Northern Poland) where they are a characteristic of the Wielbark culture.
In many areas, standing stones were systematically toppled by Christians; of the many former standing menhirs of northern Germany, scarcely one stands today.
Menhirs in Sweden
In Sweden by the 13th century menhirs were erected as markers for the graves of warriors. The following lines are taken from the introduction of the Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson;
As to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age of Burning; because all the dead were consumed by fire, and over their ashes were raised standing stones.
For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time.
In the same work, Sturluson wrote that the Swedes burnt their dead king Vanlade and raised a stone over his ashes by the River Skyt (one of the tributaries of the River Fyris):
The Swedes took his body and burnt it at a river called Skytaa, where a standing stone was raised over him.[6]
The tradition is also mentioned in Hávamál.
Menhirs in France
Brittany stands out in the distribution of menhirs by virtue of both the density of monuments and the diversity of types. The largest surviving menhir in the world is located in Locmariaquer, Brittany, and is known as the Grand Menhir Brisé (Great Broken Menhir). Once nearly 20 meters high, today, it lies fractured into four pieces, but would have weighed near 330 tons when intact. It is placed third after the Thunder Stone in St. Petersburg and the Western Stone in the Western Wall as the heaviest object moved by humans without powered machinery.
Alignments of menhirs are common, the most famous being the Carnac stones in Brittany, where more than 3000 individual menhirs are arranged in four groups, and arrayed in rows stretching across four kilometres. Each set is organised with the tallest stones at the western end, and shorter ones at the eastern end. Some end with a semicircular cromlech, but many have since fallen or been destroyed.
The second largest concentration of menhirs in France is at the Cham des Bondons, located on high open limestone plain in the granitic Cévennes. The site is today protected by the Parc National des Cévennes. From the time pastoralism was established, the site was kept open by controlled burning and grazing
Menhirs in South America
It is possible to find menhirs in some indigenous tribes of South America. The U'wa people of Colombia have erected some of them in their ancestral territory. They affirm that those menhirs are the ancients of all the U'wa clans, who were turn into the stone piers of the world. They can be found in Chita and Chiscas, in Boyacá. There are 114 menhirs in the Provincial Park Los Menhires, in Argentina. The stones have an approximate height of 4 and 5 meters and 1 meter of width. They belonged to the Tafí people, an indigenous culture of the Tucumán province, and were used in fertility rites.
Menhirs in Serbia
The graves of the “Latins” and the “Jidovs” near the village Balwan (Bovan), north of Alexinati in Serbia
Popular culture
Asterix's sidekick, Obelix is a menhir manufacturer and delivery man, often seen carrying his trademark megalith on his back. In the comic, it is assumed by the Gauls that everyone needs a menhir, although the reason why is purposefully obscure. Obelix's menhir business is a conscious anachronism on the part of the writers; the menhir builders were long gone by the time the Celtic Gauls arrived.
Other interesting websites about Menhirs: Portalofmenhirs-dolmens
Source : Wikipedia
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