The curiosity of the forgotten, ancient, and deeply underground, mystery structure

There are all sorts of evidence of the various intelligences that occupied the earth in the past. Most are buried deep down inside mountains, or fossilized into stone, or twisted and bent into unrecognizable shapes and appearances.

I have cataloged numerous examples for the sake of curiosity. And they are able to tell us some things of interest.

In this article we will look at the discovery of a buried wall… not just a few feet under the ground (a meter), but rather many miles under the ground (kilometers down, down, and down). So far down, and so deeply underground that it is unfathomable how it got there.

Underground Wall

Indeed, often structures are often found deep, deep underground. These structures are frequently manufactured out of quarried stone; stone that is not locally quarried. The problem with such structures is that excavation at such great depths are problematic and require enormous financial outlays.

One such discovery was the 1927 find by W. W. McCormick of Abilene, Texas. Here, he reported his grandfather’s account of a stone block wall that was found deep within an Oklahoma coal mine (The reader should note the location of the wall relative to the Oil Lamp discovery.):

"In the year 1928, I, Atlas Almon Mathis, was working in coal mine No. 5., located two miles north of Heavener, Oklahoma. 

This was a shaft mine, and they told us it was two miles deep. The mine was so deep that they let us down into it on an elevator.... They pumped air down to us, it was so deep." 

The Location

This location in on the Eastern side of Oklahoma.

General location.

It has interesting topography and geology. Here’s a geologic map of the region. The mine in question could be either in the Arkoma Basin, or part of the Ozark Uplift.

The mines…

Much of the mining done in the Eastern half of Oklahoma are coal and lead-zinc. Given the story, and other stories of objects found in nearby coal seams, it seems quite probable that the story relates to a coal mine.

The two major types of mining towns in Oklahoma were coal and lead-zinc. The coal-mining regions cover much of the eastern half of the state, spanning over twelve thousand square miles. The most prominent coal-producing areas are in the McAlester and Coalgate districts of southeastern Oklahoma.

-Oklahoma Mining Towns

The Story

One evening, Mathis was blasting coal loose by explosives in “room 24” of this mine.

"The next morning, there were several concrete blocks laying in the room. 

These blocks were 12-inch cubes and were so smooth and polished on the outside that all six sides could serve as mirrors. 

Yet they were full of gravel, because I chipped one of them open with my pick, and it was plain concrete inside. 

As I started to timber the room up, it caved in; and I barely escaped. 

When I came back after the cave-in, a solid wall of these polished blocks was left exposed. About 100 to 150 yards farther down our air core, another miner struck this same wall, or one very similar." 

Size of the structure

The “wall” or structure feature is (at least) roughly 125 yards (125 meters) long on one side. That’s a pretty big structure.

The question is, what was it doing in the middle of a swampy lowland?

Age of the structure

The coal in the mine was Carboniferous, which would mean the wall was at least 286 million years old.

The Carboniferous Period

The Carboniferous Period is a geologic time period that took place between 360 to 286 million years ago. The Carboniferous Period is named after the rich coal deposits that are present in rock layers from this time period. The Carboniferous world was a remarkably different one to that we know today, but it is extremely significant nonetheless. The name Carboniferous is Latin for coal-bearing, which is appropriate given that much of the coal reserves we rely on today were formed during this time. Nonetheless, to today’s observer, the Carboniferous Earth would have looked and felt remarkably alien.

Map of the United States at this time showing the general location of the mine. At 300 million years ago, the area was lush swamps full of bogs and large aquatic reptiles.

The Age of Amphibians

The Carboniferous Period is also known as the Age of Amphibians. It is the fifth of six geologic periods that together make up the Paleozoic Era. The Carboniferous Period is preceded by the Devonian Period and followed by the Permian Period.

The climate of the Carboniferous Period was quite uniform (there were no distinct seasons).

It was also more humid and tropical than our present-day climate. The plant life of the Carboniferous Period resembled modern tropical plants.

Life in the Carboniferous Period.

The Carboniferous Period was a time when the first of many animal groups evolved: the first true bony fishes, the first sharks, the first amphibians, and the first amniotes.

During the Carboniferous Period, the vast oceans that covered the earth often flooded the continents, creating warm, shallow seas. It was during this time that the armored fish that had been abundant in the Devonian Period became extinct and were replaced by more modern fishes.

Vast Swamp Forests

Freshwater wetlands increased and formed vast swamp forests. Fossil remains show that air-breathing insects, arachnids, and myriapods were present during the Late Carboniferous.

Vast swamp bogs covered much of the planet, and were inhabited by enormous insects.

The seas were dominated by sharks and their relatives, and it was during this period that sharks underwent much diversification.

The Air Was Completely Different

The Carboniferous, as evidenced by air trapped in ice from that period, is known for having the highest percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere ever. If you were to visit the Carboniferous, you’d instantly notice that the air is ‘richer’ to breath, since it reached a peak of 35% oxygen as opposed to today’s 21%. This dramatic difference also allowed insects to grow to truly ungodly proportions.

The insects were HUGE.

It Was a Time of Enormous Climate Change

The early Carboniferous saw lush jungles and swamps span vast stretches of the world, and the average global temperature was some 6 °C warmer than it is today. The atmospheric CO2 content was also three times higher than preindustrial levels, making for a far stronger greenhouse effect than that which concerns us today. However, from the middle of the period, the glaciers started to advance from the poles, and global temperatures decreased to bring about a severe ice age.

Timekeeping Wasn’t Easy

If you were to be transported back to the Carboniferous, your alarm clock and calendar wouldn’t be much use. 350 million years ago, the day was only 22.4 hours long, and there were approximately 385 days in a year. The Earth’s faster rotation, combined with its thicker atmosphere, also made winds significantly stronger than they are today.

The Map Was Unrecognizable

Since the Carboniferous was so long, the natural movement of the tectonic plates had ample time to change the map significantly, but at no time did it look anything like the one we’re familiar with today.

By the end of the period, what is now Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia and South America were all joined together with Antarctica. The Eurasian tectonic plate was connected to this enormous southern content, named Gondwana, by a thick strip of land.

Insects ruled the earth

Long before dinosaurs, birds or mammals existed, insects ruled the Earth, leading the Carboniferous to be dubbed the Age of Insects.

Due to the much higher oxygen levels, insects were able to evolve to horror-movie sizes. The meganeura, for example, was a dragonfly sporting a 30-inch (75 cm) wingspan.

Although not technically an insect, the arthropleura was another enormous creepy-crawly, a millipede that grew as long as a car. Adapted perfectly for the Carboniferous atmosphere, animals such as these would not be able to survive in today’s air.

The enormous arthropleura.

Wow!

Arthropleura (name meaning “Jointed Ribs”) is a genus of millipede arthropod that originated during the Late Carboniferous period in what is now North America and Europe. A distant relative of modern millipedes and centipedes measuring 3 meters long, it was the largest known of all the terrestrial arthropods as well as the largest land invertebrate of all time and grew so large because of the high concentration of oxygen level in the Carboniferous’s atmosphere. Despite its large size, Arthropleura was herbivorous, in fact, one of the first mainly herbivorous terrestrial animals. They had strong jaws, but it is unlikely that it may have been poisonous for defense.

Here’s an interesting write-up on these impressive creatures…

Era & Discovery

Arthropleura lived in North America and Scotland during the Late Carboniferous, approximately 315 – 299 million years ago. It lived alongside other animals like Megarachne, Pulmonoscorpius, Meganeura, and even the primitive reptiles and giant predatory amphibians. Since their discovery in 1854, there are many fossilized footprints from Arthropleura can be found on the coast of Scotland in the Scottish land of Arron.

Physical Attributes

Arthropluera was perhaps the largest arthropod of the Carboniferous and was overall among the largest arthropods that ever lived, measuring on average between 6.6 – 10 feet (2 – 3 m) long, as large as a man or crocodile and as long as a car. However, there were very rare colossal specimens that were discovered to have measured around 20 feet (6 m) in length. Arthropleura is the largest land arthropod known, a huge relative of the modern millipedes closely resembling a giant centipede or millipede.

The reason why they were able to grow so large is that oxygen levels were 50% higher than today. The higher oxygen level content in the atmosphere of the Carboniferous could support larger species whose circulatory system was not as efficient as those of mammals and other species. Therefore, it allowed this creature (and many others) to grow to very large sizes. In addition, males and females were different in appearance. Arthropluera was arguably the largest known land invertebrate of all time and would have had few predators (If any as an adult.)

Arthropleura was heavily defended by thick, tough, and wide armor plating along its back. Underneath its armor were lots of small legs and a soft underbelly. On its head, it had two pincers and two antennae. The color of Arthropleura varied. Some of them were red with yellow lines whilst some were brown with yellow lines. The body of the Arthopleura was composed of thirty armored plates, which each had a pair of legs under them. However, it was not invincible as large amphibians, like Proterogyrinus, could relatively easily get the better of it. Even its own environment could threaten it. Sharp rocks could easily impale Arthropleura and the superpowered Carboniferous storms were often devastating to Arthropleura as well as other animals.

Behavior & Traits

Arthropleura was a solitary creature, often foraging on the forest floors of the Carboniferous. Arthropleura was a massive arthropod that they were such powerful beasts. In spite of its daunting appearance, it as a herbivore, feeding on the rotting foliage, dead-wood and leaves on the floor of the steamy Carboniferous Period swamp forests. Although later found out they were vegetarians, their strong jaws can still have delivered a nasty bite.

Arthropleura was herbivorous though when they were juveniles, they ate meat because they couldn't digest plants until they grew older. Arthropleura was one of the first animals to eat plants, they had strong jaws, but it is unlikely that it may have been poisonous for defense. Arthropleura was practically blind but had a good sense of smell and touch through which to detect other animals. It is discovered that while Arthropleura was a timid creature, it was also shown to be highly aggressive and could be easily provoked into attacking.

Most Arthropleura lived in piles of leaves or foliage or in small underground dens whilst some lived out in the open. As its body armor was colored similar to its surroundings, Arthropleura was camouflaged. However, its armor couldn't protect it from the Carboniferous forest fires. Although the animal would often crouch for cover on the ground, most of the time it was burned alive.

Defense

When it comes to fighting, their armor was their best defense unless it got split. Much like cobras, Arthropleura could rear up at its opponent so it could tower over it, tall enough to look humans right in the eye. And that rearing up was obviously a defensive reaction. However, rearing up would expose its soft innards and were a bulls-eye for predators. They could spray like modern millipedes and centipedes. They could secrete cyanide. That smells of almonds and when they spray in the eyes of their enemies, and it really burned. Uniquely, Arthropleura was also able to leap long distances, which allowed it to strike at its prey like a battering ram.

Additionally, Arthropleura possessed a deadly venom, injected into a victim through a long, thin, metallic-looking tube located behind its mandibles, in a similar manner to an insect bite. When a large mammal such as a human was poisoned by an Arthropleura, the venom would slowly attack their central nervous system, putting the bitten victim into a state of uncontrollable shaking and convulsion very shortly after being bitten, and rendering them barely able to move, before they lost consciousness after a while. An antivenin could be derived from pure samples of Arthropleura venom, but without this antidote, poisoned humans would have a zero chance of survival, dying a matter of hours after being bitten. If one did survive and recover from an Arthropleura's venomous bite, then they would still be left with short-term memory loss.

As did scorpions …

Scorpions are one of the oldest orders animals on Earth, having existed for some 430 million years. However, the early Carboniferous saw the most horrifying scorpion of all – the 28-inch (70 cm) long pulmonoscorpius, and the largest arachnid that ever lived. It’s likely that pulmonoscorpius lived on other arthropods and perhaps smaller amphibians. As is the case with Carboniferous insects, it is thought that the scorpion’s terrifyingly large size was also a due to the higher oxygen levels.

A pulmonoscorpius with some other “friends”.

Sharks Dominated the Seas

The early Carboniferous saw sharks at the top of the food chain in the seas, but they weren’t much like the sharks today. Among the stranger of the many species of that period was the akmonistion, characterized by its bizarre anvil-shaped crest and spines on the top of its head. Fortunately, however, at one metre (3 feet) long, it probably didn’t look particularly threatening.

However, the helicoprion, which first appeared towards the very end of the Carboniferous, grew three times longer, and it sported a circular sawblade for jaw.

The helicoprion.

Trilobites Started to Decline

Trilobites, a highly diverse class of marine arthropod, that ruled the Earth for hundreds of millions of years, started to decline rapidly towards the end of the Carboniferous period, likely due to competition with the explosion of versatile sea life. By the end of the period, only three families survived, which themselves became extinct some 250 million years ago.

Trilobites in the Carboniferous period.

Amphibians Were Highly Successful

Alongside insects, amphibians radiated to form the ancestors of the reptiles, birds and mammals that followed. These creatures made up the taxonomic clade of synapsida, which also includes all mammals.

The earliest of these was the archaeothyris, a lizard-like creature that grew about 20 inches long and lived some 306 million years ago.

The archaeothyris.

About the wall / structure…

Perfectly smooth sided concrete blocks show an assembly sequence involving exact molds. A mirror finish suggests metal or plastic mold forms with possible release chemical to get the sides so smooth. According to the miner, it appeared to be just everyday utility grade concrete.

Concrete cubes all totally finished with smooth mirror-like surfaces.

We can say that the use of perfectly square blocks and not rectagles is instructive. As anyone who has played with Legos can attest to, it’s awfully difficult to create an interlocking structure with just simple square blocks.

Blocks that fail to interlock require the supportive mortar to bind them together.

Thus, this is suggestive of a wall, a retaining wall, or some type of decorative finish.

Since, the miner did not say anything at all about this being the outer finish of a structure, we are left to conclude that it was part of a wall, a retaining wall or a rampart of some type.

Rampart retaining wall.

Followup story

According to Mathis, the mining company officers immediately pulled the men out of the mine and forbade them to speak about what they had seen.

Mathis said the Wilburton miners also told of finding “a solid block of silver in the shape of a barrel… with the prints of the staves on it,” in an area of coal dating between 280 and 320 million years ago.

Musings…

What could this be? Well, I am certainly curious. The things is that we really don’t know much about all this. It’s a wall found in an “impossibly” deep location underground. It’s made out of manufactured cement blocks at a time when the earth was covered in swamps, bogs and populated with large insects.

What else can we figure out?

What we do know is…

  • Other items suggestive of metal forgery, utensils, roads, clothing, wheeled transport and creature domestication has been found is nearby / related Carboniferous coal strata.
  • Combined together, this suggests a planet-wide series of socities and cultures that lived and thrived within the dense oxygen atmosphere, with it’s enormous insects and creatures.
  • Other items, such as the bell, and the wheeled cart suggest a society of dimunitive (child size) intelligent humanoids with insectoid attributes.

These other similiar trending explorations and discoveries are enough to better flush out what this wall-like structure represents.

Rather than a singular lone outpost in a swampy bog-like land, the picture is emerging of a large, planet-wide network of creatures that apparently seem to resemble the mantids as displayed in popular lore. They seem to have lived in societies that were well at home and comfortable in the dense swampy lands that existed on the earth at that time.

Do you want more?

I have more posts like this somewhere in my OOPART Index here…

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Anomalous Metallic Object Discovered Inside a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

Ai! We talk about thousands of year old anomalous objects, and MM introduces millions of years old objects. But what of billions of years old objects? What the fuck is going on?

Well, just today I have a “new” entry in the world of “what the fuck”. And you know these things come and go, and eventually completely disappear. But in reality just realize that our universe is completely populated with intelligence, and we are just infants in the grand scheme of things.

So whoa!

Anomalous Metallic Object Discovered Inside a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

This is a complete reprint from HERE. The usual disclaimers apply. You all know the drill.

As meteorite dealers, my wife Linda and I have continued supplying meteorites and importing new stock throughout lockdown. On Friday, April 17th 2020, I received a parcel of meteorites I had ordered from a dependable regular source. These were twenty examples of a very well-known and popular common chondrite known as NWA 869. One of them was different and appeared to contain a metallic object inside.

For over twenty years we have been the owners of the UK’s only full-time meteorite dealership, Spacerocks UK. We both have university qualifications in astronomy and have lectured widely at many of the country’s most auspicious institutions. At any one moment we have several thousand meteorites of all types in our inventory. We are therefore completely familiar with their appearance.

The origin of meteorites

At this point, it’s worth giving a brief explanation about what meteorites are and where they come from. The solar system (the Sun, planets, asteroids and comets) condensed from a cloud of dust and gas known as the solar nebula around five billion years ago. The first solid objects were millimetric spheres called chondrules. These joined together over a few million years to form increasingly large chunks. Eventually, by collision, these accreted to form planetissimals and finally, around 4.5 billion years ago, the eight large planets and other, smaller bodies that make up the solar system.

The vast gaps between the orbits of the eight major planets are full of debris left over from these early days. Additionally, a region between Mars and Jupiter holds many thousands of smaller planetary objects known as asteroids. These occasionally collide (more so in the past), launching further rocky and metallic debris into the solar  system  .

If one of these fragments collides with the Earth on its passage around the Sun, it will heat up to over 6,000 degrees Celsius because of friction with the atmosphere. This is the cause of the familiar shooting stars, or meteors, we may see at night. If a chunk is large enough, it may survive and reach the surface of the Earth. This residual object is known as a meteorite.

Explaining the types of meteorites

There are, broadly speaking, three types of meteorite:

  • Chondrites: fragments of the original ancient stones that remain from the beginnings of the solar system. These often contain chondrules, the small spheres mentioned earlier. Chondrites are all around 5 billion years old.
  • Achondrites: stony material blasted off the surface of a planet, asteroid or satellite by the impact of another object. Achondrite meteorites have been proven to have originated on many bodies, including Mars, the Moon and asteroids such as Vesta,
  • Irons and stony irons are fragments of the cores of fully-formed small planets that were disrupted during collisions billions of years As the first planets grew in size, heavy elements such as nickel and iron sank to their centers to form metallic cores, like that of the Earth.

Generally speaking, meteorites are named after the place where they fell or were found. That’s why the iron meteorite that made the Arizona Meteor Crater is called Canyon Diablo and that which exploded over Russia in 1947 is known as Sikhote-Alin.

A 1.7kg individual meteorite from the Sikhote Alin meteorite shower (coasrsest octahedrite, class IIAB). This specimen is about 12cm wide. Sikhote Alin meteorite shower fell on 1947 February 12 in the dense forest of eastern Siberia, and over 23 tons of meteoritic material has been recovered. (H. Raab / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The NWA 869 meteorite in question

The meteorite we are discussing here, NWA 869, comes from a large strewn field which was the 869 th such to be discovered in North West Africa: hence its name. Why 869 is so prized by collectors is that most of meteorites  from this field are small, complete examples, rather than fragments of larger bodies that exploded as they passed through the atmosphere (see photos).

The majority have an attractive blue-grey fusion crust (melted surfaced) and their shape reflects their attitude as they streaked downwards. This is known as ‘orientation’: a bit like the way spacecraft enter the atmosphere heat- shield first. OK, that’s the technical stuff out of the way!

This NWA 869 meteorite was like nothing the writer had seen before. (Author supplied)

When I was processing the parcel of newly-arrived 869s, I suddenly noticed a metallic glint from one of them. This isn’t unusual: all chondrites contain nickel-iron and some (see photo) display quite obvious metallic flecks. This was different. In this case, the shiny region could be seen to be a small cylindrical feature around 6 mm (0.2 in) in diameter.

This metallic area was protruding at an angle from a region of glassy fusion crust, which, in places, could be seen to flow away from the object. Another interesting feature is that the cylinder had a small impact crater on its surface, something not uncommonly seen on iron meteorites or, indeed, spacecraft on their return from orbit.

The meteorite and its strange inclusion have been examined both microscopically and spectroscopically by a contact at the University of East Anglia. The preliminary results indicate that the silver cylinder is not composed of any of the usual accessory minerals found in meteorites. Further examination is scheduled.

I have no doubt at all that the object embedded in the NWA 869 meteorite was in place as the stone entered the Earth’s atmosphere some time in the past. Since the meteorite itself was formed several hundred millions of years before the planets, it begs the questions: who made it, and where did it originate before becoming part of the solar nebula? A very real possibility might be that the cylinder originated on a planet orbiting a Population 2 star that exploded as a nova several billion years before our solar system formed.

What does all this mean?

The oldest stars in the universe are, counterintuitively, called Population 3 stars. The “nuclear furnaces” at the heart of these were the origin of some of the elements “heavier” than hydrogen. As these ancient stars ran out of hydrogen, the larger ones would have shrunk, then exploded, releasing gas, dust and some of these heavier elements into the universe. It was this material that condensed to form Population 2 stars ten to fifteen billion years ago. The larger examples of these also underwent cataclysmic supernovae, generating regions of star formation where Population 1 stars like our Sun – and their associated planets – condensed.

The oldest stars in the universe are, counterintuitively, called Population 3 stars. The “nuclear furnaces” at the heart of these were the origin of some of the elements “heavier” than hydrogen. As these ancient stars ran out of hydrogen, the larger ones would have shrunk, then exploded, releasing gas, dust and some of these heavier elements into the universe. It was this material that condensed to form Population 2 stars ten to fifteen billion years.

It is now known that planets are very common. So far astronomers have discovered over 4,000! It is probably the case that most Pop 1 stars have planetary systems. Since the oldest of these stars were formed ten billion years ago – twice as long ago as the Sun – it would seem highly likely that life and ultimately civilizations evolved upon those in suitable locations.

Any that ended their lives as supernovae will have scattered all kinds of stellar, planetary and – possibly – archaeological debris into its galaxy. Either we are alone – unique – in the cosmos, or life occurs wherever there is the slightest possibility of it: in which case, we should expect to find alien artifacts within ancient meteorites.

You can find out more about the world of Meteoritics in David’s book, Spacerocks, available from Amazon.

Conclusion

Amazing stuff.

Most of the stuff that I, MM have dealt with is millions of years old. Not billions. So this is a great find. I really only know about the stuff prior to the formation of the solar system though the chatter of my pilot. And at that its all really limited. I never felt the need to inquire further. Maybe I should have. Never the less it’s interesting stuff. That is for certain.

It might be nice for someone in the UK to visit this person and have a first hand look at the object… of course, once the coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

A billions of year old object is most certainly something worth checking out. Don’t you agree? I mean it’s not everyday that you come across an object that is fabricated by intelligence that predates the solar system.

And finally, I want to provide a RUFUS video.

Remember all this insight in to how our universe really is, is really interesting. But seriously, it is how we live our lives that really matters.

If you have a dear friend on his deathbed, maybe it is the most Rufus thing to do is to defy the rules and conventions and instead to spend time with him in his last moments. Be the Rufus. Anything else is below you. Here’s my video HERE. 13MB.

You know who you are. (wink.)

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I have more posts in my OOPARTS section. Here…

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The archaeological dilemma of the 250,000 year old Hueyatlaco site remains

According to mainstream understandings, mankind is only around 6,000 years old. And while there is much evidence to support earlier dates going as far back as 30,000 years few will embrace the implications of these discoveries. Thus, we are faced with an enigma. What to make of remains that are dated at over  250,000 years old?

Could it be that everything that we were taught in school is wrong?

My opinion is YES.

Life and Living

There is a strong and significant percentage of the population that wants things; life and relationships, to be “black and white”. Where everything is simple. Where everything is cleanly put inside it’s own box; nicely labeled, categorized and filed away for future use. It certainly looks nice. It’s orderly. It’s easy to index. It’s great to conceptualize.

But…

Life is not that way.

And many people like to describe this key to organization through the understanding of disorganization as “shades of grey” as opposed to “black and white” thinking. But you know, that life isn’t something that is easily cataloged. It is dynamic, complex and endlessly interesting.

To understand things, you shouldn’t have single dedicated articles to only that particular issue. Like a website for a specific type of nail, or a website for how to groom poodles. For while they are easy to look up and search for, and helpful for writing an essay or report for school, they do not convey or transfer information in the same way as an up-front “hands on”, “face to face” discussion with a close friend would have.

If you are with a close friend, you will know them. You will understand their likes, and dislikes, their passions, their biases, and their exaggerations. And knowing that will best help you to understand the conveyance of information at hand.

Which is why you trust your best friend to help get you out of a mess, while you wouldn’t dare ask a colleague. Which is why you would believe a family member who told you not to buy a used car from THAT man, and why you wouldn’t believe Bill Clinton or Donald Trump when they offered to sell you a used car.

Don’t buy a car from this man.

Everything comes with context.

Everything.

Propaganda relies on the lack of full contextual information to control you.

For instance, the “China mishandled the Wuhan virus” narrative relies on the omission that Jon Bolton was the head of the Bio-weapon program for his entire term under the Trump Administration.

There are many such examples of this.

But let’s not digress too deeply.  Instead, let’s recognize that everything [1] comes with context, and that [2] it’s very difficult to provide contextual information inside of any article. Which is why we must assume [3] bias or slant in any information that you read or study.

Noteworthy Website

One of my favorite websites is “Ancient Origins“. They offer up mysteries of the past, exciting discoveries and alternative views of history. Anyone with even a passing interest in history would find this site interesting.

Some of the articles are fantastical, while others are bland and boring and relates to obscure subject matter. But that’s all right. As long as your recognize what the website is, what it’s purpose is, and why it exists that is often enough to provide enough contextual information to understand the relative value of the articles that you are reading there.

In a way, websites with greatly diverse content is the modern day incarnations of periodicals and magazines. And while times have changed. Who we are haven’t.

The early years.

Back in my early teen years, I used to read “Treasure Magazine”. And inside that magazine (and others of a similar genre)  were stories of mysterious objects that people found. Some were found by metal detectors, while others were found in unlikely places, like a hidden room, or up in the rafters of a chicken coop. There were also stores of lost treasure, and the stories that had now become obscure local legends.

As a young boy, I “ate it up”. I literally read those magazines cover to cover, and then put them carefully in a stack (of magazines) that kept on a growing in the bathroom next to my bedroom. There, in that stack were issues of Mad Magazine, National Geographic, Weird Stories comic books, Analog Magazine, “The Good Old Days” and “Men’s” Magazines.

Magazines fit for a boy of 12.

For me, they took me to far off lands, strange adventures and interesting places. I could imagine myself fighting of hordes of hungry otters, discovering buried golden treasure, exploring an abandoned castle dungeon, and finding a book filled with secrets in a long lost attic.

In those days I would hastily make myself a sandwich out of leftover pot roast, slices of cheese, and a sliced tomato from the garden (plus some Miracle Whip brand mayonnaise) and put it on a plate. There, I would go to a quiet spot, eat my sandwich and read my magazines. All away from others so that I wouldn’t get “roped” into doing a new chore or other task.

(Mississippi style) pot roast sandwich.

I found this activity relaxing, fun and enjoyable. And more than a few times, my trusty cat Sedwick would scamper up the tree and let himself in to chill out besides me.

Such was my youth.

Now, you have to take everything into account. At that time, while I was busily attending “middle school”, the subjects (while interesting) were not the same. For it was the subjects that I read at home; the science fiction stories, the poetry, and the adventure stories that tickled my imagination. And that, I believe is critical. You cannot live your entire life believing everything that is taught to you. You have to probe, push and understand things in new and different ways.

And maybe they are bullshit, and don’t make sense.

But maybe they are real and are suggestive of other things. Certainly Erich vonniken greatly influenced me. And while I never (at that time) ever thought that I would some day meet the strange beings that I read about it was nice to have a contextual background that made the introduction of such beings more reasonable and palatable to me.

Now, I know that the past is interesting and colorful. Certainly my exposure to events, changes and things have greatly influenced my thoughts in this matter. And now when I read the fantastical, I judge things through the contextual lens of my background and my experience.

And here is one such story.

I read this story while I had a glass of basic red wine at my side, and a plate of toasted Italian bread with peppers, onions and cheese. And found the following article to be just as tasty as what I was enjoying.

Red wine and Italian bread.

Controversy at Hueyatlaco: When Did Humans First Inhabit the Americas?

Found HERE. Written on 28 April, 2021 - 18:53  Aleksa Vučković All credit to the author, and note that it was edited to fit this venue, and MM comments and thoughts abound.

What happens when an archaeological site is so extraordinary, that it threatens to eclipse everything we knew about history up to that point?

Some discoveries are just too hard to fully grasp, and that makes us question their accuracy.

Hueyatlaco in Mexico is one such archaeological site.

It is forcing us to reconsider the time frame of human habitation in South America.

By a lot.

The finds presented at Hueyatlaco are still a matter of heated debate amongst scholars today, but one thing is certain – there are still many unanswered questions which need to be explored.

The accepted history

Here is the accepted history for how, and when humans arrived to the Americas. Anything that differs from this narrative is rejected out of hand, and certainly enrages statists who have their careers and their reputation entangled with this narrative. The following is from an academic website.

The narrative;

Around 16,000 BP, people migrated from Siberia (Asia) to Alaska (North America) over the Bering Land Bridge (map below).

  • New evidence found in Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico, including tools made from a type of limestone not originating from the cave itself, suggests that humans first arrived in North America possibly as far back as 30,000 BP. At that time, the ice sheets covering North America during the last ice age were still extensive, which would have made cross-continental travel very difficult, and suggests that the Pacific coast was the more probable travel route. This idea is known as the Pacific Coastal Route Hypothesis.
    • This new research indicates that even though people likely reached North America no later than 26,500 to 19,000 BP, occupation did not become widespread until the very end of the last ice age, around 14,700 to 12,900 BP.
    • This new evidence dispels the Clovis-first model, named for evidence of human occupation in Clovis, New Mexico. This model suggests that the first people to reach North America traveled across the Bering Land Bridge and then into North America along an ice-free cross-continental corridor around 16,000 to 10,000 BP. It is likely that  by then North America had already been occupied by people who migrated via the Pacific coastal route.
    • Under the Pacific Coastal Route Hypothesis, people traveled south along the “kelp highway” of the western coast of the Americas because it was mainly ice-free and therefore easier to traverse than the ice-covered inland areas (map below). The coastal waters had common giant kelp species such as Durvillaea antarctica and Macrocystis pyrifera, which supported rich ecosystems that provided food, such as sea bass, cod, rockfish, sea urchins, abalones, and mussels for the migrating people. At the end of the last ice age, glaciers melted and sea levels rose, flooding the “kelp highway.”

  • During the last ice age, which peaked around 21,000 BP and ended around 10,700 BP, global sea levels were up to 100 meters lower than they are today because colder temperatures resulted in large amounts of water becoming frozen in glaciers.
  • The Bering Land Bridge existed during this time of low sea levels. When the glaciers melted and sea levels rose to their present-day position, the land bridge flooded and formed the Bering Strait that now separates Asia from North America. See below for an interactive map of the Bering Land Bridge and the Bering Strait over time.

After the initial migrations to North America, people began moving southward, following the Pacific coast from Alaska to Chile.

Those who made it to northern and central South America were limited to small communities because the cold, harsh climate of the ice age prevented populations from expanding.

A short period of rising temperatures and retreating glaciers followed, which allowed people to migrate further south and establish new settlements in Patagonia, such as in Monte Verde (map below).

Then, around 14,500 BP, in what is known as the Antarctic Climate Reversal, temperatures dropped as much as 6℃ below present-day and remained low for 2 millenia.

When temperatures rose yet again, more glaciers melted, flooding the Strait of Magellan and cutting the southernmost settlements on Tierra del Fuego off from the mainland (map below), leading to a cultural division between mainland and coastal inhabitants.

Anything that differs from this narrative is considered to be suspect or fraudulent.

Such is the archaeological dilemma of the 250,000 year old Hueyatlaco site.

The Valsequillo Basin

The site in question is located in Mexico in an area known as The Valsequillo Basin. It is a depressed area that used to be an enormous lake or series of lakes thousands of years ago.

The Valsequillo Basin is located near the city of Puebla, in Mexico.

Situated in the central part of the country, this basin has been the focus of much interest for geologists, archaeologists and the scientific world as a whole.

This interest was sparked due to the presence of numerous megafaunal remains and evidence of very early human habitation.

Megafauna, as we know, is the term commonly used for large animals that roamed the landscapes of the Pleistocene, such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and cave lions.

What is megafauna?

We’ve all heard stories from the age of the dinosaurs, when giant creatures the size of buses or even buildings roamed the land and the oceans, but their disappearance didn’t mean the end of the giants: In fact, megafauna was predominant in every continent on Earth, through multiple glaciations and climate change periods, until about 50,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene. That is, until humans entered the picture. Our increasing hunting and habitat pressure lead to a great decrease in the numbers and distribution of megafauna, followed by subsequent extinctions.

The decline of megafauna started so early in our history, and its progress was so steady, that only now are we starting to acknowledge and study the effects of megafauna in regulating our ecosystems and the impacts of megafaunal loss across the globe.

-True Nature Foundation

However, although rich in important discoveries, the site has always been the cause of much  controversy, simply because some of the theories surrounding it are very hard to fully grasp.

It has been proposed that the landscapes of the Early Pleistocene period were characterized by many deep lakes, and that this basin might once have been one such lake.

Reconstruction using GIS of the maximum level of the shallow Late Pleistocene lake at the Valsequillo Basin, Puebla, also shown are La Malinche Volcano and Cerro Toluquilla Volcano.

However, no direct proof for this ever surfaced and dating has proven quite difficult for scholars.

Nevertheless, the area is of immense geological interest due to it being dominated by the stratovolcanoes  Popocatépetl and La  Malinche, and its location in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.

As such, this is a site with a time-worn history, which also helps shed some light on early human habitation of the region, because  geology and archaeology often go hand in hand.

Criticisms Mount Against Claim of Hominins in the Americas Over 100,000 Years Ago

Some of the first excavations at Hueyatlaco were carried out in 1961, when professor Cynthia Irwin-Williams conducted an extensive dig at the site.

Even before she arrived, the region was known as a place rich in animal fossils, which sparked the interest of scholars.

Irwin-Williams was soon joined by other prominent persons of the U.S. Geological Survey, notably Virginia Steen-McIntyre, who was responsible for publicizing the find and the magnificent discoveries it entailed.

Due to the vast numbers of animal fossils, it was commonly believed that this site was a kill site, where ancient humans butchered the animals they  hunted.

The countless animal remains were located in fluviatile deposits commonly known as Valsequillo gravels, which were often plain and exposed in the high cliff sides of the Valsequillo Reservoir.

In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluvioglacial is used. The White River is so named due to the clay it picks up in the Badlands of South Dakota.

-Fluvial processes - Wikipedia

Some of the ancient animal fossils found included  bison, camel, dire wolf, peccary, short-faced bear,  sloth, horse, tapir,  mammoth, saber-toothed cat, mastodon, glyptodon, four-horned antelope, and several other species.

glyptodon

But the really important finds were made in 1962, when Irwin-Williams discovered both animal bones and stone tools, together, in situ.

Indicative of tool-making humanoids that hunted and killed the animals.

The subsequent struggle to positively identify the age of these remains led to much controversy.

The tools that were discovered included some very crude and primitive implements, but also tools that were much more sophisticated, with double edges and detailed flaking construction.

Indicative of multiple societies, or the immensity of age of a singular society.

These tools were diverse and included quite elaborate projectile points, many of which were made from non-local materials.

Indicative of travel, or possibly trade.

This was a clear proof that Hueyatlaco was used by various groups of people for a long period of time.

Either way, these findings were quickly pushing back the previously believed timeline of human habitation in South America, which caused conflicts in the scientific world.

Dating to 250,000 years, when at the time, the earliest human presence was dated to 6,000 years ago.

Unhappy Historians

Very early on in the excavations, attempts were made to discredit the work done at Hueyatlaco, and some turned out to be blatant attacks on the work.

Someone seemingly had a problem with the idea that South America was inhabited so much earlier than was commonly believed.

In 1967, Jose Lorenzo, a member of the Mexican  Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia,  came forth with a controversial claim that the artifacts discovered were deliberately planted at the site, in a way that made it difficult to know whether they were actually discovered.

This gossip was seemingly unmerited and looked a lot like an attempt to disrupt the crew from making further claims at the site.

What is more, the suspicious activities did not stop here.

Irwin-Williams did make a startling discovery of mammoth bone fragments that were carved with intricate images, depicting various megafauna animals such as serpents and saber-toothed cats.

Similar carved images have been discovered all over the world, and are associated with early man.

However, these carved bones disappeared under puzzling circumstances, as if someone didn’t want them to reach the public eye.

Yet, while the evidence has disappeared, the photographs of the carvings survive.

By 1969, Irwin-Williams sought support in the scientific community, and gained support from three renowned scholars who visited the site of the excavations and confirmed that everything was being conducted in a professional manner.

During that same year, the team published their first scientific paper that detailed the excavations and the importance of the site.

And that importance was the age .

Dating the site

Various methods for dating the finds were utilized, many of which were revolutionary for the time.

The usual radiocarbon dating  indicated that the remains were roughly 35,000 years old.

However, dating by uranium suggested the remains to be far older, roughly 260,000 years old.

At the time, these results were considered an anomaly, especially due to the fact that general science proposed a general time of 16,000 years before present for the settling of the Americas.

Radiocarbon dating did not agree with uranium dating; thus creating an anomaly.

Some suggested that the strata (or geological layers) were eroded by ancient waterways, and that might have mixed up the specimens, and causing such differing results.

By 1973, scientists returned to Hueyatlaco, hoping to conduct new excavations and attempt to once more examine the layers and to resolve the oddities of dating the finds.

Their research concluded that the layers were not eroded and that specimens were not mixed up.

What is more, this new team managed to analyze volcanic ash from the site and apply the revolutionary zircon fission track dating method.

Through this geochemistry approach, they determined that the volcanic ash – discovered in the same layer as the tools – was roughly between 370,000 and 240,000 years old.

This confirmed the extremely old age of human habitation at the site, and further deepened the enigma that was Hueyatlaco.

The remote age of the artifacts was confirmed by the geochemistry method.

In time, plenty of friction arose between the team members, as they could not agree on the age, the direction in which the excavation was heading, or the accuracy of the dating methods.

Uranium dating was extremely new at the time, and its reliability not well known, while the fission track dating method had a substantial margin of error.

In time, the excavation team was separated by their views.

Site controversy

Irwin-Williams believed that the probable age was 20,000 years before present, although that view in itself was considered controversial by many.

On the other hand, Harold Malde and Virginia Steen-McIntyre, other team leaders, firmly believed the original dating of 200,000 years before present – which was so revolutionary that it was hard to comprehend.

Some suggested that the 20,000 year theory by Irwin-Williams was “puzzling” and almost a deliberate tactic to discredit the find.

This was believed mainly because no evidence for that age was found in the excavations at all.

Irwin-Williams never went forward to solidify her claims.

In fact, she never published a report on the site whatsoever, which led to questions on the honesty of her claims.

On the other hand, the other part of the team firmly believed in their 200,000 year theory, and were not willing to drop it.

Formal announcement

In 1981, this faction made up of Malde, Fryxell, and Steen-McIntyre published an extensive scientific paper in the  Journal of Quaternary Research , providing a detailed insight and evidence for the extremely old dating of human habitation at the site.

In their paper, they provided the results from four different dating tests: [1] the fission track, [2] the uranium-thorium test, [3] the study of mineral weathering to determine age, and [4] the tephra hydration tests.

All of these tests confirmed the age of the remains to be roughly 250,000 years old which confirmed their theories.

To that end, the authors wrote in their paper:

"The evidence outlined here consistently indicates that the Hueyatlaco site is about 250,000  years old. 

We who have worked on geological aspects of the Valsequillo area are painfully aware that so great an age poses an archaeological dilemma [...] 

In our view, the results reported here widen the window of time in which serious investigation of the age of Man in the New World  would be warranted. 

We continue to cast a critical eye on all the data, including our own."

This was an educated, accurate response that acknowledged that such a radical claim  did seem odd, but was not entirely impossible.

The story of Hueyatlaco continued to look like a deliberate attempt to discredit these finds or hide them under the carpet.

The evidence was there: early humans could have inhabited the so-called New World, the Americas, far earlier than was commonly believed.

Not good enough!

But seemingly, someone did not want that truth to be accepted.

To that end, Irwin-Williams, who was at odds with the rest of the team, raised objections to several aspects of the published paper, seemingly continuing her attacks on the finds.

The team were confident and quickly refuted her attempts to discredit their work.

Further secrets were soon revealed.

Virginia Steen-McIntyre was at one point fired from her job due to her claims, and she also revealed that some of the original team members were harassed, their careers were threatened, and they were proclaimed incompetent – all because of their involvement in the project.

So, we need to wonder, why did these findings cause so much enmity from mainstream science?

Sure, to some, the claims of such an old age might seem radical and hard to believe.

But rather than simply disagreeing with the claims, mainstream scholars went to great lengths to attack, harass, and fully discredit the professional work the team has conducted.

Nevertheless, as time progressed, new tests were conducted, providing new evidence and deepening the controversy related to the site.

Testing, testing and then even more testing!

In 2004, for example, researcher Sam Van Landingham conducted extensive bio- stratigraphic analysis, confirming that the strata that bore the discovered tools was some 250,000 years old.

He re- confirmed these finds once again in 2006.

He states in his papers that the samples can be dated to the so-called Sangamonian stage  (from 80,000 to 220,000 years before present) due to the presence of several diatom species only appearing in that age.

Diatoms are single-celled algae

Diatoms are algae that live in houses made of glass. They are the only organism on the planet with cell walls composed of transparent, opaline silica. Diatom cell walls are ornamented by intricate and striking patterns of silica.

More findings appeared in 2008, when paleomagnetic testing was conducted on the volcanic ash layers from the site, dating them to roughly 780,000 years before present.

The geological time scale is used by geologists and paleontologists to measure the history of the Earth and life. It is based on the fossils found in rocks of different ages and on radiometric dating of the rocks.

Sedimentary rocks (made from mud, sand, gravel or fossil shells) and volcanic lava flows are laid down in layers or beds. They build up over time so that that the layers at the bottom of the pile are older than the ones at the top. Geologists call this simple observation the Principle of Superposition, and it is most important way of working out the order of rocks in time. Ordering of rocks (and the fossils that they contain) in time from oldest to youngest is called relative age dating.

Once the rocks are placed in order from oldest to youngest, we also know the relative ages of the fossils that we collect from them.

Relative age dating tells us which fossils are older and which fossils are younger. It does not tell us the age of the fossils. To get an age in years, we use radiometric dating of the rocks. Not every rock can be dated this way, but volcanic ash deposits are among those that can be dated. The position of the fossils above or below a dated ash layer allows us to work out their ages.

-How paleontologists tell time

Hueyatlaco remains a true scientific anomaly.

It is not at all impossible that early man could have crossed over to the Americas much, much earlier than is currently believed.

In fact, there already is the conundrum of the Solutrean theory , which tells us that the  Clovis people , the proposed ancestors of the Native Americans, were not the first inhabitants of the Americas.

Besides these, there are numerous pieces of evidence across the continent that tell us that it is nigh time that we reconsider the history of human habitation in the Americas.

Some Conclusions

Assuming that the array of scientific evidence is correct, then the Hueyatlaco site is truly ancient and indicates tool-using, and tool-manufacturing humanoids 250,000 years ago. This not only turns conventional evolutionary theories “upside down”, but is pretty much discards the vast number of theories in support of human “land bridge” migration.

In short, for the humans to be in the Americas at this date, one of two things must have happened.

Either;

[A] Early man constructed ocean capable vessels and sailed across the wide oceans.

Or,

[B] Early man evolved independently in the Americas as well as in Africa.

We need to come to grips and accept the idea that there was probably various evolutionary clusters and separate lineages that did not originate from a common “Lucy” humanoid. Many died out, and many adapted and evolved, and many propagated throughout the world.

While not popular at this time, you can rest assured that this understanding will be embraced hundreds of years in the future.

But wait!

This is NOT a lone, isolated find.

Other Ancient Discoveries

There are many reported human skeletal finds which are in discordance with current evolutionary beliefs dating back to anomalously ancient geological periods in the distant past, way before it is accepted that human beings ever existed.

One intriguing report surfaced in an American journal called The Geologist dated December 1862:

“In Macoupin County, Illinois, the bones of a man were recently found on a coal-bed capped with two feet of slate rock, ninety feet below the surface of the earth. . . The bones, when found, were covered with a crust or coating of hard glossy matter, as black as coal itself, but when scraped away left the bones white and natural.” 

The coal in which the remains were found have been dated at between 320 and 286 million years old, which, despite a lack of supporting evidence and little information on the discovery, is certainly worthy of inclusion here.

The Foxhall Jaw

A better documented account of an anomalous find is of a human jaw discovered at Foxhall, England, in 1855 which was dug out of a quarry at a level of sixteen feet (4.88 meters) under ground level, dating the specimen to at least 2.5 million years old.

American physician Robert H. Collyer described the Foxhall jaw as ‘the oldest relic of human existence’.

The problem with this particular fossil was its modern appearance.

A more apelike mandible would have been more acceptable despite its great antiquity, but many dissenters disbelieved the authenticity of the bone ‘probably because the shape of the jaw was not primitive’, according to paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Buenos Aires Skull

A fully modern human skull was found in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in an Early Pliocene formation, revealing the presence of modern humans in South America between 1 and 1.5 million years ago.

But once more, the modern appearance of the skull doesn’t fit with conventional thinking on human origins so was discounted on these grounds alone.

Here we see a clear example of dating by morphology, and a distinct disregard of all other data, no matter how credible.

The thinking is simple; if it looks modern – it must be modern. No modern humans could possibly have existed that far back in time so it must be ruled out.

This approach employs illogical thinking if one considers that the skull was found in a Pre-Ensenadean stratum, which, according to present geological calculations, dates back up to 1.5 million years.

The scientific data, as with a plethora of cases worldwide, does not match the final analogy, and instead of pursuing the matter further until a satisfactory scientific conclusion is arrived upon, the discovery has slipped unsurprisingly into anonymity.

The Clichy Skeleton

In a quarry on the Avenue de Clichy, Paris, parts of a human skull were discovered along with a femur, tibia, and some foot bones by Eugene Bertrand in 1868.

The layer in which the Clichy skeleton was dug out from would make the fossils approximately 330,000 years old.

It wasn’t until Neanderthals became accepted as the Pleistocene ancestors of modern humans that French anthropologists were forced to drop the Clichy skeleton from the human evolutionary line, as a modern type of human could not predate their allegedly older Neanderthal relatives.

Neanderthals are conventionally understood to have existed from 30,000 to 150,000 years ago, and the Clichy skeleton which dated at over 300,000 years ago was simply not an acceptable find despite the evidence to support its authenticity.

The Ipswich Skeleton

In 1911, another anatomically modern human skeleton was discovered beneath a layer of glacial boulder clay near the town of Ipswich, in England, by J. Reid Moir.

Found at a depth of about 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) between a layer of clay and glacial sands, the skeleton could be as much as 400,000 years old.

Naturally, the modern appearance of the skeleton was the cause of strong opposition, but if the find had of been Neanderthal-like, there would have been no questions raised over its position in the glacial sediments.

As Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, Sir Arthur Keith explained,

“Under the presumption that the modern type of man is also modern in origin, a degree of high antiquity is denied to such specimens.”

The deposits in which the Ipswich skeleton was excavated from were recorded by the British Geological Survey as an intact layer of glacial boulder clay which had been laid down between the onset of the Anglian glaciation and the Hoxnian glaciations, a period that stretched between 330,000 and 400,000 years ago.

Some authorities have even put the beginning of the Mindel glaciation (which is equivalent to that of the Anglian) at around 600,000 years ago, which could potentially allow the Ipswich skeleton to also date back that far.

The deposits in which the Ipswich skeleton was excavated from were recorded by the British Geological Survey as an intact layer of glacial boulder clay which had been laid down between the onset of the Anglian glaciation and the Hoxnian glaciations, a period that stretched between 330,000 and 400,000 years ago.

Some authorities have even put the beginning of the Mindel glaciation (which is equivalent to that of the Anglian) at around 600,000 years ago, which could potentially allow the Ipswich skeleton to also date back that far.

The Castenedolo Bones

Situated in the southern slopes of the Alps, at Castenedolo, six miles (9.66 km) southeast of Brescia, lays a low hill called the Colle de Vento, where millions of years ago during the Pliocene period , layers of mollusks and coral were deposited by a warm sea washing in.

In 1860, Professor Giuseppe Ragazzoni traveled to Castenedolo to gather fossil shells in the Pliocene strata exposed in a pit at the base of the Colle de Vento. Reporting on his finds there Ragazzoni wrote:

“Searching along the bank of coral for shells, there came into my hand the top portion of a cranium, completely filled with pieces of coral cemented with blue-green clay characteristics of that formation. 

Astonished, I continued the search, and in addition to the top portion of the cranium I found other bones of the thorax and limbs, which quite apparently belonged to an individual of the human species.” 

Once more, negative reactions ensued by both geologists and scientists who were unwilling to accept the Pliocene age offered by Ragazzoni for the skeletal remains.

It was explained away by an insistence that the bones, due to their clearly modern characteristics, must have come from a recent burial and somehow or other found themselves among the Pliocene strata.

If in doubt, simply explain it away with logical thinking, even if you ignore the facts within plain sight and filter out the parts which do not fit.

Ragazzoni was understandably not pleased with the reception he received and the disregard given to his legitimate discovery of an anomalously ancient human skeleton, so he kept his eye on the site where he had found the relics once the land was sold to Carlo Germani in 1875, (on the advice of Ragazzoni, who had advised that the phosphate-rich clay could be sold to farmers as fertilizer).

Many more discoveries followed from 1879, as Germani kept his word and informed the professor immediately upon finding more bones in the pit.

Jaw fragments, teeth, backbone, ribs, arms, legs and feet were all dug out of the Pliocene formation which modern geologists have placed at around 3-4 million years old.

All of them were completely covered with and penetrated by the clay and small fragments of coral and shells, which removed any suspicion that the bones were those of persons buried in graves, and on the contrary confirmed the fact of their transport by the waves of the sea’, said Ragazzoni.

And on February 16, 1880, Germani informed Ragazzoni that a complete skeleton had been discovered, enveloped in a mass of blue-green clay, remains which turned out to be that of an anatomically modern human female.

“The complete skeleton was found in the middle of the layer of blue clay. . . The stratum of the blue clay, which is over 1 metre thick, has preserved its uniform stratification, and does not show any sign of disturbance” wrote Ragazzoni, adding, “The skeleton was very likely deposited in a kind of marine mud and not buried at a later time.”

After personally examining the Castenedolo skeletons at the Technical Institute of Brescia in 1883, Professor Giuseppe Sergi, an anatomist from the University of Rome, was convinced that they represented the remains of humans who had lived during the Pliocene period of the Tertiary.

Writing of his disdain towards the naysayers within the scientific community Sergi commented,

“The tendency to reject, by reason of theoretical preconceptions, any discoveries that can demonstrate a human presence in the Tertiary is, I believe, a kind of scientific prejudice. 

Natural science should be stripped of this prejudice.”

Anomalous Skeletons Have Their Place Too!

Unfortunately, this prejudice which continues to this day, shows no signs of abating, as Professor Sergi recognized back in the 19th century, ‘By means of a despotic scientific prejudice, call it what you will, every discovery of human remains in the Pliocene has been discredited.’

So why does its modern appearance override the other factors?

It doesn’t seem to be a very scientific approach to disregard an archaeological find simply because it does not conform to contemporary evolutionary theses.

The examples cited in this article are only a small selection which has been rescued from obscurity by vigilant researchers, but how many more cases have suffered similar dismissal due to their anomalistic circumstances ?

If science continues to sweep unusual discoveries under the carpet, how are we supposed to progress as a species if we are intent on denying data which contradicts our rigid paradigms?

It would appear that the knowledge filter has been in place for some time, much to the detriment of humankind and our quest to illuminate our foggy, mysterious ancient past.

Of course we cannot be sure of the validity of the anomalous finds mentioned above, but by ignoring the sheer volume of cases which question current scientific paradigms regarding the evolution of man, we are being denied the whole story – which can only be detrimental to the ongoing study of human evolution .

References

Meltzer, D. 2009.  First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America . University of California Press.

Steen-McIntyre, V. and Fryxell, R. and Malde, H. 1981.  Geologic Evidence for Age of Deposits at Hueyatlaco Archaeological Site . U.S. Geological Survey.

Various, 2016. “Early–Mid Pleistocene environments in the Valsequillo Basin, Central Mexico: a reassessment” in Journal of Quaternary Science .

Zillmer, H. 2010.  The Human History Mistake: The Neanderthals and Other Inventions of the Evolution and Earth Sciences . Trafford Publishing.

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The mystery find of a polished metal part within a geode that’s millions of years old

Here I am going to take a well-deserved break from the insanity of American-led global politics and discuss a curious find. A treasure, if your will. It is a mystery to some, and a curiosity to others. It is a geode with a polished, machined, and finished metal part inside of it.

Which is pretty much an interesting subject, anyways.

Just finding a geode to begin with is an excitement; an adventure. But to find one with a mysterious machined part inside is well… double exciting.

What is a Geode?

A geode is a Greek word that means the shape of the earth. The name originates from their shape, which is earthlike or oblong (like the shape of an egg). Geodes are consequently defined as secondary structures that are usually found in specific volcanic and sedimentary rocks.
.
A beautiful quartz geode.

Geologic Occurrence and Formation

Geodes are not found randomly here and there. Instead they are usually found in large numbers in areas where the rocks have formed in a special geochemical environment.

Most geodes localities are in A) stratified volcanic deposits such as basalts and tuffs; or B) stratified sedimentary carbonate deposits such as limestones and dolomites. A diversity of other environments can also occasionally yield a small number of geodes.

The geodes are said to be formed in any hollow or cavity like areas such as in tree roots or animal burrows.

Geodes in sedimentary rocks are usually found in limestones, dolomites, and calcareous shale. In these deposits a gas-filled void can serve as the opening for geode formation.

Shells, tree branches, roots and other organic materials often decay away to leave a void for the formation of mineral materials. These cavities can be filled with quartz, opal, agate or carbonate minerals. They are generally smaller than the geodes formed in volcanic rocks.

The Discovery

An uncommon quartz geode embedded with screw-threaded metal bar was discovered by a geode collector in Lanzhou, China. His name is a Mr. Zhilin Wang. He found this stone on a field research trip to Mazong Mountain area located on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang provinces.

The pear-shaped stone is extremely hard and has an unusual external black color. It is about 8 x 7 cm and weighs 466 grams. It’s interior is filled with quartz crystals. Which seems to suggest a void eventually  causing the creation of the geode over time.

The most surprising part of the stone is the embedded 6 cm long, cone-shaped metal bar which bears clear screw threads.

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The screw-threaded metal bar – clearly a manufactured item – is tightly enclosed in the black lithical material.

Yet the fact that it was buried in the ground long enough for hard rock to form around it, which rather means that it must be millions of years old.

The screw thread width remains consistent from the thick end to the thin end, instead of varying due to the growth of  rhe quartz crystals.

Truthfully, there is little that we can determine from the information available to us. Personally, I would love to have an analysis performed on the metal. That would tell us something about the part, and a few close up photos of the surface would indicate the manufacturing process and finishing techniques.

But what little we know can tell us a little more than what the rock find suggests.

The Age of the Geode

Using what we know, we can estimate the age of the formation of the geode by the age of the surrounding rock. We know that the geode was discovered by the Mr. Zhilin Wang while on a field research trip to Mazong Mountain area. This area consists of the Mazong mountains and the Jinta basin.

We present results from a multidisciplinary investigation of the Jiujing fault (JJF) system and adjacent Jiujing Basin in the southern Beishan block, western China. 

Structural and geomorphological fieldwork involving fault and landform investigations, remote sensing analysis of satellite and drone imagery, analysis of drill-core data, paleoseismological trench studies, and Quaternary dating of alluvial sediments suggest the JJF is a late Pleistocene to Holocene oblique sinistral-slip normal fault. 

Satellite image analysis indicates that the JJF is a connecting structure between two regional E-W-trending Quaternary left-lateral fault systems. 

The Jiujing Basin is the largest and best developed of three parallel NE-striking transtensional basins within an evolving sinistral transtensional duplex. Sinistral transtension is compatible with the orientation of inherited basement strike belts, NE-directed SHmax, and the modern E-NE-directed geodetic velocity field. Cosmogenic Al/10Be burial dating of the deepest sediments in the Jiujing Basin indicates that the basin began to form at ~5.5 Ma. 

-GeoScience World

It’s a “tough nut to crack”, but we are looking at geology that can date as far ago as 5.5 million years to the Late Pleistocene (129,000 to 11,700 years ago).

That’s a long period.

Never the less, it is unlikely that Anatomically modern humans (AMHs) of the Late Pleistocene were able to machine and thread metal tapered screws and place them inside a container for the geologic forces of heat and pressure over time to create a geode.

The Basic Geometry

The fact that this is a quartz geode indicates that it formed as the result of a stratified sedimentary carbonate deposit that surrounded a void. Over time, the forces of temperature and pressure acted upon the void and compressed it into the egg shaped geode that we see today.

If this speculation is correct, then it is possible that the virgin; pre-compressed void might have resembled something like this…

Of course, it’s really difficult to determine what the actual shape would be, or what the function was. What we only have to “go on” is the understanding on how certain types of geodes form, the dating of the rocky strata surrounding the object, and the observations of what is present.

Yet, even this tells us something.

This was a machined part or element within a subassembly that was buried and over time became a geode.

A Calrod

This polished metal rod like structure looks identical in shape, finish and appearance to an article that we, in the industry, refer to as a “calrod”.

Calrod heating elements generate dispersed heat by electrical energy conversion. Like many other heating elements, Calrod™ heaters also have an electrical supply running through them that gets converted to heat energy. A Calrod heater has a metallic alloy in its heating apparatus, which has resistance characteristics. This impedes the flow of current and transforms a portion of the energy into heat energy. This heat is passed on via radiation, and may be used to heat the surrounding air or water.

Heat can be transferred in a number of ways, through conduction, radiation and convection. In the case of the Calrod heater, heat is at first radiated to the surroundings, but it can be further dissipated through other methods of convection or conduction as well.

-Wattco

It’s a heating element that is used to maintain a temperature within a mechanism or chamber.

Calrod diagram.

Internal Structure Of The Heating Element In The Calrod Heater

The heating element of the Calrod heater is made of an alloy that consists of nickel and chromium. This mixture is said to make up an ideal alloy since it tends to have a minimum amount of resistance against heat generation. It also has a melting point that is quite high. This simply means that it will have higher chances of lasting longer, and this is of significant importance because it will be exposed to long term heating. Another brilliant advantage of using this alloy in the heating element is that it can be shaped to fit almost any kind of structure because it is highly malleable.

Calrod Heater Protection

Wire insulation within the Calrod heater is such that it is wrapped in a ceramic filler-binder. It also has a metal overcoat that conceals the element itself from air contact. With ceramic coating, there is more protection given to the element, as it is protected from the oxygen coming into contact with the surrounding air.

Insulation Calrod Heaters

Ceramic materials are chosen for insulation and protection of the Calrod heating elements due to the fact that they conduct the least amount of heat or electricity. Therefore, these materials are ideal for preventing heat or electrical energy from escaping. With this being most suitable for the outer surface, the metal encapsulation protects the element from any possible damage that might occur through mishandling.

What I would like

I would personally love to have a metallurgical analysis conducted on the metal rod. I would also like to look at the surface finish of the rod under a microscope. Those two items would be remarkably helpful in determining what the purpose of the object could have been.

I would also like to have a Psychometry reading conducted.

Psychometry is a psychic ability in which a person can sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it. Such a person can receive impressions from an object by holding it in his/her hands or, alternatively, touching it to the forehead.

Psychometry is a form of scrying–a psychic way of “seeing” something that is not ordinarily seeable. Some scry using a crystal ball, black glass or even the surface of water. With psychometry, this extraordinary vision is available through touch.

A person who has psychometric abilities–a psychometrist–can hold an antique glove and tell something about the history of that glove, the person who owned it, or about the experiences that person had while in the possession of that glove. The psychic may be able to sense what the person was like, what they did, or how they died. Perhaps most important, the psychic can sense how the person felt at a particular time. Emotions in particular, are most strongly “recorded” in the object.

The psychic may not be able to do this with all objects at all times and, as with all psychic abilities, accuracy can vary.

And here we diverge into psychometry…

A Brief History

“Psychometry” as a term was coined by Joseph R. Buchanan in 1842 (from the Greek words psyche, meaning “soul,” and metron, meaning “measure.”) Buchanan, an American professor of physiology, was one of the first people to experiment with psychometry.

Using his students as subjects, he placed various drugs in glass vials and then asked the students to identify the drugs merely by holding the vials. Their success rate was more than chance, and he published the results in his book, Journal of Man. To explain the phenomenon, Buchanan theorized that all objects have “souls” that retain a memory.

Intrigued and inspired by Buchanan’s work, American professor of geology William F. Denton conducted experiments to see if psychometry would work with his geological specimens. In 1854, he enlisted the help of his sister, Ann Denton Cridge. The professor wrapped his specimens in cloth so Ann could not see even what they were. She then placed the package to her forehead and was able to accurately describe the specimens through vivid mental images she was receiving.

From 1919 to 1922, Gustav Pagenstecher, a German doctor and psychical researcher, discovered psychometric abilities in one of his patients, Maria Reyes de Zierold. While holding an object, Maria could place herself in a trance and state facts about the object’s past and present, describing sights, sounds, smells and other feelings about the object’s “experience” in the world. Pagenstecher’s theory was that a psychometrist could tune into the experiential “vibrations” condensed in the object.

How Does Psychometry Work?

Pagenstecher’s vibration theory is getting the most serious attention from researchers. “Psychics say the information is conveyed to them,” writes Rosemary Ellen Guiley in Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience,

"through vibrations imbued into the objects by emotions and actions in the past."

These vibrations are not just a New Age concept, they have a scientific basis as well. In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot says that psychometric abilities

"suggest that the past is not lost, but still exists in some form accessible to human perception."

With the scientific knowledge that all matter on a subatomic level exists essentially as vibrations, Talbot asserts that consciousness and reality exist in a kind of hologram that contains a record of the past, present, and future; psychometrics may be able to tap into that record.

All actions, Talbot says,

"instead of fading into oblivion, [remain] recorded in the cosmic hologram and can always be accessed once again."

Yet other psychical researchers think the information about an object’s past is recorded in its aura – the field of energy surrounding every object.

According to an article at The Mystica:

"The connection between psychometry and auras is based on the theory that the human mind radiates an aura in all directions, and around the entire body which impresses everything within its orbit.
All objects, no matter how solid they appear, are porous, containing small or even minute holes. These minute crevices in the object's surface collect minute fragments of the mental aura of the person possessing the object. Since the brain generates the aura then something worn near the head would transmit better vibrations."

“Psychometry – Psychic Gifts Explained” likens the ability to a tape recorder, since our bodies give off magnetic energy fields. “If an object has been passed on down the family, it will contain information about its previous owners. The psychic can then be thought of as a tape player, playing back the information stored on the object.”

Mario Varvoglis, Ph.D. at “PSI Explorer” believes that psychometry is a special form of clairvoyance. “The individual performing the psychometry,” he writes, “may gain psychic impressions directly from the person to whom the object belongs (through telepathy) or may clairvoyantly learn about past or present events in the life of the person. The object may simply serve as a kind of focusing device which keeps the mind from wandering off in irrelevant directions.”

How to Do Psychometry

Although some believe that psychometry is controlled by spiritual beings, most researchers suspect that it is a natural ability of the human mind. Michael Talbot agrees, saying that

"the holographic idea suggests that the talent is latent in all of us."

Here’s how you can try it yourself:

      1. Choose a location that is quiet and as free of noises and distractions as possible.
      2. Sit in a relaxed position with your eyes closed. Rest your hands in your lap with your palms facing up.
      3. With your eyes remaining closed, ask someone to place an object in your hands. The person should not say anything; in fact, it’s best if there are several people in the room and you don’t know who the person is giving you the object. The object should be something the person has had in his/her possession for a long time. Many researchers believe that objects made of metal are best, theorizing that they have a better “memory.”
      4. Be still… as images and feelings come into your mind, speak them aloud. Don’t try to process the impressions you get. Say whatever you see, hear, feel or otherwise sense as you hold the object.
      5. Don’t judge your impressions. These impressions may be strange and meaningless to you, but they might be of significance to the owner of the object. Also, some impressions will be vague and others might be quite detailed. Don’t edit–speak them all.
"The more you try, the better you will become,"

Says Psychometry – Psychic Gifts Explained.

"You should start to see better results as your mind becomes used to 'seeing' the information. 

But you can progress; at first, you will be pleased to pick up on things correctly, but the next stage is to follow the pictures or feelings. 

There may a lot more information that you can obtain."

Don’t worry too much about your rate of accuracy, especially at first. Keep in mind that even the most renowned psychometrists have an accuracy rate of 80 to 90 percent; that is, they are inaccurate 10 to 20 percent of the time.

"The important thing is to be confident that you will gain accurate psychic impressions when you handle the object,"

Says Mario Varvoglis at PSI Explorer.

"It's also important not to try to figure out likely histories of the object, not to analyze and interpret your impressions to find if they make sense. 

It's better to simply observe all the impressions that come into your mind and describe them without clinging to them and without trying to control them. 

Often the most unexpected images are likely to be most correct."

Conclusion

Since there is little that we can learn from this object except that it appears to be the fossilized remains of some kind of chamber, the use of Psychometry might be useful in the interpretation of the object.

Barring that, the closest object that I can think of is something that resembles the oxygen tanks about the Apollo spacecraft.

Here is a nice illustration of it…

And, here is a nice diagram of it…

And here is a schematic showing the oxygen tanks where they were located inside the Apollo spacecraft.

You see, in outerspace, it isn’t enough to have a cylinder filled with air. You need to have a system that controls the temperature, and pressure of the vessel that contains the atmosphere that you breathe. Thus we have a vessel, tending to be spherical, with probes and a heater assembly.

Truthfully, this resembles the pre-compressed and aged mechanism that was found as a geode.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my OOPARTS section. Here…

Mysteries Explained

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