Wonders in the Sky (86 page)

Fig. 40: The Tulli papyrus hoax

If the Tulli papyrus is authentic, the objects it describes must indeed be classified as UFOs. Their shape, luminosity and silent movement in the sky are familiar. The text quickly became a classic in books of the genre, used first by George Adamski and Desmond Leslie in their
Flying Saucers Have Landed
(1953) and later by popular writers such as Harold Wilkins in
Flying Saucers Uncensored
(1956). We could devote many pages to the evolution of this document during its first 50 years of life in ufology. However, space allows us only to outline the reasons we have not included it in the main body of this book.

First of all, the whereabouts of the Tulli Papyrus are completely unknown. Not even Boris de Rachewiltz knew where the original was kept. Later correspondence with Rachewiltz revealed he had only ever received the Egyptologist's personal notes, not the papyrus itself, and that even Albert Tulli had only made his transcription during a visit to the house of an antiquarian in Cairo in 1934. Reportedly, the papyrus had been too expensive for him to purchase at the time.

Secondly, the hieroglyphics Rachewiltz received, and which
Doubt
published, were not the characters on the original document. Tulli copied them down in hieratic – a kind of ancient Egyptian shorthand – and another Egyptologist, Etienne Marie-Felix Drioton (1889-1961), converted these into hieroglyphic symbols. We have no way of checking the accuracy of that conversion.

Finally, the contents of the papyrus seem somewhat too convenient a find for the editors of
Doubt
magazine. In one stroke the text combines flying saucers – a hot topic in the early 1950s – with rains of fish and other animals, a staple of Fortean research since the phenomenon was famously popularized by the Society's founder, Charles Fort. The fact that Rachewiltz was a member of the Fortean Society and a friend of Tiffany Thayer, also gives us cause for questioning the document's authenticity.

Circa 1447 BC, Nile Valley, Egypt
Moses and the blue object

Moses is seen brandishing a rod and triggering rains of blood, in an ancient illustration that shows a complex flying object. This picture is taken from the
Ashkenazi Haggadah
, in a section showing the Plagues of Egypt (Exodus 5-9). Reference: The British Library, Add. Ms. 14762.

The artist has represented an astonishing blue device hovering in the sky. The picture shows an object with four circular structures or openings, surrounded by flames and what appear to be bloody explosions. The hand of God at the end of a reddish-brown sleeve is extended below it, pointing to the assembled–and somewhat astonished – Hebrews. A flame is burning atop a nearby column.

The illustration represents a well-known event, the Seventh Plague sent against the Egyptians. The arm in the picture is textually referred to as “God's outstretched arm.” Here is the relevant Old Testament passage, as used by Jews today:

Fig. 41: Moses and the blue object

The image is from a 15th century manuscript composed and illuminated by Joel ben Simeon. That is, an illustration created 3,000 years after the event. It shows the fire (red and yellow) and hail (grey) sent by God. While the text itself does not mention any flying object in the sky, the artist, possibly influenced by tradition, has felt it necessary to display God's manifestation in the form of something resembling a flying machine.

Ca. 1440 BC, Elim, Sinai Desert, Arabic Peninsula
Manna Machine

The Zohar, a sacred Jewish text, describes a device miraculously providing food for the Hebrews as they flee:

“There are three upper heads; two, and one which contains them. The dew of the white head drops into the skull of the Small-faced One and there is it stored. And those parts which are found in the beard, they are shaped and lead downwards in many directions. In his lower eyes there are a left and a right eye, and these two have two colors, except when they are seen in the white light of the upper eye.”

Modern writers have speculated that in this puzzling text the ancient Hebrews, who lacked a technical vocabulary, used anatomical analogies to describe a complex flying machine that generated food to sustain the crowd as it moved through the desert.

Fig. 42: The Manna Machine

The Bible never tells us exactly what manna was and where it came from, but there are many Old Testament passages which describe its physical qualities and conditions associated with its appearance. The Bible's first reference to manna is in the
Book of Exodus
as the children of Israel are fleeing from Egypt and follow Moses into the wilderness. After six weeks of wandering, they begin complaining to Moses that they are tired and hungry. What happens next is truly extraordinary:

“
Then said the LORD unto Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not (16:4).'

 

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground (16: 14). And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: It is manna, for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, ‘This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.'”

Before 1200 BC
Mesopotamia's dark meteors and standing fireballs

At the dawn of recorded history, Mesopotamian tablets deserve a mention, if only because a popular author, Zechariah Sitchin, has offered an interpretation of some passages in terms of visits by astronauts from other planets (notably in
The Twelfth Planet
, Avon Books 1978).

It is a fact that some cuneiform literature deals with interesting celestial anomalies. Assyriologists have recognized these writings to be astromantic in nature, that is, texts explaining how to forecast the future by watching meteoric phenomena, as opposed to astrology, which deals with the movements of the planets. Some of these records are from 1200 BC or earlier, and were written in Hittite, but it is thought that they were copied from older Akkadian originals, not yet located.

The vast majority of these texts described phenomena that can be explained today as the natural observation of meteors, fireballs, and comets. The scribes did not generally report on specific incidents that had occurred but rather provided meanings to particular kinds of sightings. A handful of cuneiform references to sky phenomena have puzzled archaeologists and astronomers. For example, the following text: “If a fireball moves across the Wagon-Star and stands…” seems to describe a meteor that stays motionless in the sky. The word “sallummu” has been translated as “fireball” but it very literally could have been anything bright passing through the sky that stood still. One possibility is that ‘sallummu' was a meteor train that remained visible for some time across the face of the Wagon Star (Ursa Major), but the original text is not clear enough to reach a conclusion.