Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries (54 page)

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Authors: Brian Haughton

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However, there is growing unease
among archaeologists throughout the
world about the genuineness of the
discovery. Many archaeologists believe that Osmanagic's findings are
actually the remains of Roman and
medieval structures on the hill. Professor Anthony Harding, president of
the European Association of Archaeologists, who visited the site, believes
the hill to be a natural formation.
Harding has expressed his disbelief at
the idea that the Upper Palaeolithic
hunter-gatherers who roamed the
area at the end of the last ice age
would have had the time, resources,
or inclination to construct such a vast
edifice.

Some of Osmanagic's claims certainly demonstrate a lack of knowledge of European prehistory. For
example, his statement that Visocica Hill "is actually Europe's first pyramid
in the heart of Bosnia" is untrue. There
are at least 16 examples of pyramids
in Greece, the oldest being the pyramid of Hellinikon, located southwest
of Athens in the Argolid. Although
this pyramid has been dated to 2720
B.C., some archaeologists dispute
these results, and believe a date at the
end of the fourth century B.C. more
likely. In appearance, the Greek
pyramids resemble those at Giza in

Egypt, though they are much smaller
in size.

Osmanagic's excavations are ongoing at the site of Visocica Hill, while
the world waits for convincing evidence (in the form of securely dated
structures or artifacts) to back up his
claim of ice age pyramids in Bosnia.
Hopefully, when excavation has uncovered the supposed structures, they
will be able to speak for themselves.

 
Enigmatic People

Who Murdered Hypatia?-Fe-
male philosopher, mathematician, and
teacher who lived in the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria, and was brutally murdered by a mob in the early
fifth century A.D.

Merlin the Magician-The origins of this powerful wizard and
prophet of Arthurian legends go back
to Celtic myth-and perhaps even further to a magical ancestral figure in
prehistoric times-who allegedly
erected the megalithic monument of
Stonehenge.

The Phoenicians-An ancient
seafaring and trading culture active
over a wide area of the ancient world.
They are known to have inhabited the
coastal plains of what are now Lebanon and Syria, the origins of this extraordinary maritime culture are
shrouded in mystery to this day.

Heinrich Cornelius AgrippaA massively influential German magician and occult writer, astrologer,
and alchemist of the 15th and 16th
centuries.

The Rosicrucians-A legendary
secretive Order dating from the 15th
or 17th century, but with supposed
origins much earlier, whose esoteric
rites were based on a mixture of early
Christianity and Egyptian mysteries.
Branches of the Rosicrucian Order still
exist today, but what are their real
origins, and how have they influenced
modern Freemasonry?

The Neanderthals-The Neanderthal was a species of the homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of
western Asia from about 230,000 to
29,000 years ago, before they apparently disappeared with the arrival of
modern humans. What happened to the
Neanderthals? Why did they die out?

Queen Boudicca-Queen of the
Celtic Iceni tribe of eastern Britain,
who led a devastating revolt against the
Roman invaders in A.D. 61. Boudicca and
her 250,000 British burned the newly
built London to the ground before being finally defeated in battle at a location which has never been discovered.
Where was this battle, and what happened to Boudicca afterwards?

The Dorians-Supposedly an ancient Greek tribe who either invaded
or migrated southwards into southern
Greece with the collapse of the Late
Bronze Age palace civilizations, centered on fortified citadels such as
Mycenae. Are the Dorians just a myth,
or is there evidence for the existence
of these enigmatic people?

The Boxgrove People-Around
500,000 years ago a group of Homo
heidelbergensis (an extinct species of
the genus homo) inhabited an area near

the modern village of Boxgrove in Sussex, England. What was life like for
these remote ancestors of modern humans and what happened to them?

The Fairy Folk of Britain and
Ireland-Although fairies in the form
of spirits or supernatural beings are
found in the legends, folklore, and
mythology of many different cultures,
they are especially prevalent in Britain and Ireland. What lies behind the
myths and tales of these legendary
beings?

 
Further Information
The Lost Land of Atlantis

Castleden, R. Atlantis Destroyed. New
York: Routledge, 2001.

Fagan, B. (ed) The Seventy Great
Mysteries of the Ancient World.
London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

James, P. The Sunken Kingdom: the
Atlantis Mystery Solved. London:
Pimlico, 1996.

Joseph, F. The Atlantis Encyclopedia.
Franklin Lakes, N.J.: New Page
Books, 2005.

Spence, L. The History of Atlantis. New
York: Dover Publications, 2003.

"Echoes of Plato's Atlantis" by Dr. lain
Stewart. www.bbc.co. uk 1 history /
ancient /greeks /atlantis_Ol.shtml.

"Satellite images show Atlantis." http: / /
news.bbc.co. uk 12 / hi /science /nature /
3766863.stm.

America's Stonehenge:
The Puzzle of Mystery Hill

Feder, K.L. Frauds, Myths, and
Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience
in Archaeology. Columbus, OH:
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 2005.

Fell, Dr. Barry. America B.C. New
York: Pocket Books, 1976.

Williams, S. Fantastic Archaeology: The
Wild Side of North American History.
Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

"The Persistence of Memory: Cultural
Amnesia at the Millennium" by
Angela Labrador. http: / /
/
www.simons-rock.edu / -alabra
writing/ thesis. html.

America's Stonehenge homepage.
www.stonehengeusa.com.

Petra: The Mysterious City of Rock

Giulia Amadasi Guzzo, Maria, et al.
Petra. Chicago: University Of Chicago
Press, 2002.

Taylor, J. Petra and the Lost Kingdom
of the Nabataeans. Boston: Harvard
University Press, 2005.

Westwood, J. (ed) The Atlas of
Mysterious Places. London: Guild
Publishing, 1987.

Jordan Ministry of Tourism and
Antiquities. www. tourism.jo /
PastandPresent l Petrall. asp.

The Silbury Hill Enigma

James, P. & N. Thorpe, Ancient
Mysteries. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1999.

Pitts, M. Hengeworld. London: Arrow
Books, 2001

Pollard, J. & A. Reynolds Avebury:
Biography of a Landscape. Stroud,
Gloucestershire, U.K.: Tempus
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Article in the magazine British
Archaeology. www.britarch.ac.uk
/ ba / ba80 / featl. shtml.

English Heritage page on Silbury Hill.
www.english-heritage.org. uk /server/
show l conProperty.310.

Where Was Troy?

Fagan, B. (ed) The Seventy Great
Mysteries of the Ancient World.
London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

James, P. & N. Thorpe. Ancient
Mysteries. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1999.

Woods, M. In Search of the Trojan War.
London: BBC Books, 2005.

"Was there a Trojan War?" Article by
Manfred Korfmann on Archaeology
magazine website. www. archaeology.
org / 0405 / etc / troy. html.

Website of the new excavations at Troy.
www. uni-tuebingen. de l troia l eng l
index. html.

Chichen Itza: City of the Maya

Coe, M. D. The Maya.(7th edition)
London: Thames & Hudson, 2005.

Sharer, R.J. & Morley, S. G. The
Ancient Maya. (6th edition) Palo Alto,
Cali: Stanford University Press. 2005.

Mysterious Places.
www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/
TourEntrance.html. Tour of Chichen
Itza.

The Sphinx: An Archetypal Riddle

Bauval, R. & G. Hancock. Keeper of
Genesis: A Quest for the Hidden
Legacy of Mankind. London: Arrow,
2001.

Fagan, B. M. (ed). The Seventy Great
Mysteries of the Ancient World.
London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

James, P. & N. Thorpe. Ancient
Mysteries. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1999.

Jordan, P. & J. Ross. Riddles of the
Sphinx. New York: New York
University Press, 1998.

"Guardian's Sphinx-Guardian of the
Horizon." http: l I guardians. net/
egyptlsphinx.

"The Great Sphinx of Giza-An
Introduction" by Allen Winston.
www.touregypt.net/featurestories/
sphinxl.htm.

The Knossos Labyrinth
and the Myth of the Minotaur

Cadogan, G. Palaces of Minoan Crete.
London: Routledge, 1991.

Dickinson, O. The Aegean Bronze Age.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1994.

James, P., & N. Thorpe. Ancient
Mysteries. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1999.

The British School at Athens Knossos
page. www.bsa.gla.ac.uk/knosos/
index.htm.

Hellenic Ministry of Culture Knossos
page. www.culture.gr/2/21 /211 /
21123a / e211 wa03. html.

The Stone Sentinels of Easter Island

Fischer, S.R. Island at the End of the
World: The Turbulent History of
Easter Island. London: Reaktion
Books Ltd., 2006.

Flenley, J. & P. Bahn. The Enigmas of
Easter Island. Oxford, U.K., Oxford
University Press, 2003.

Pelta, K. Rediscovering Easter Island.
Minneapolis, MN: Lerner
Publications, 2001.

Unofficial Easter Island hompage
!
www.netaxs.coml-trance
rapanui.html.

The Lost Lands of Mu and Lemuria

Churchward, J. The Lost Continent of
Mu. C.W. Waldon, U.K.: Daniel Co.
Ltd., 1994 (1931).

Ramaswamy, Sumathi. The Lost Land
of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies,
Catastrophic Histories. Berkeley,
Calif.: University of California Press,
2005.

Account of the Yonaguni structures.
www.lauralee.com I japan. htm.

"Drowned Indian city could be world's
oldest." www.newscientist.com /
article. ns ?id=dn 1808.

Stonehenge:
Cult Center of the Ancestors

Atkinson, R.J.C. Stonehenge:
Archaeology and Interpretation.
London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Chippendale, C. Stonehenge Complete.
London: Thames and Hudson, 2004.

Pitts, M. Hengeworld. London: Arrow,
2001.

Pryor, F. Britain B.C. London: Harper
Perennial, 2004.

The Amesbury Archer burial.
www. wessexarch. co. uk /projects l
amesbury / introduction. html.

The Boscombe Bowmen burial.
www.wessexarch.co. uk /projects l
wiltshire / boscombe / bowmen /
index. html.

El Dorado: The Search
for the Lost City of Gold

Nicholl, C. The Creature in the Map.
New York: William Morrow & Co.,
1995.

Hemmings, J. The Search for El Dorado.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.

Westwood, J. (ed) The Atlas of
Mysterious Places. London: Guild
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http: / /news.bB.C.co.uk/1 /hi/world/
americas / 776952. stm-"Explorer
finds lost city."

The Lost City of Helike

"Echoes of Plato's Atlantis" by Dr. lain
Stewart. www.bbc.co.uk/history
ancient /greeks /atlantis_Ol.shtml.

Homepage of the Helike Foundation.
www.helike.org/index.shtml.

"The Road to Ancient Helike."
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features / 1100 feature. html.

Egyptian Treasure
From the Grand Canyon

Christensen, S. Frommer's Grand
Canyon National Park. Frommers.
2004.

Kaiser, J. Grand Canyon: The Complete
Guide : Grand Canyon National
Park. Hoboken, N.J.: Destination
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Powell, J.L. Grand Canyon: Solving
Earth's Grandest Puzzle. Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Pi Press, 2005.

Pyne, S.J. How the Canyon Became
Grand: A Short History. Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Pi Press, 1999.

"Lost City of the Dead in the Grand
Canyon." www.bibliotecapleyades.
net / esp_orionzone_8. htm.

"Canyonitis: Seeing evidence of ancient
Egypt in the Grand Canyon."
www.philipcoppens.com /
egyptiancanyon. html.

Newgrange:
Observatory, Temple, or Tomb?

O'Callaghan, C. Newgrange-Temple to
Life. Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press,
2004.

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Archaeology, Art and Legend.
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Pryor, F. Britain B.C. np.
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Stout, G. Newgrange and the Bend of
the Boyne. Cork, Ireland: Cork
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Information about Newgrange and
other Irish monuments.
www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm.

Machu Picchu: LosL CiLy of the Incas

Burger, R.L. & L.C. Salazar. (eds)
Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery
of the Incas. New Haven, Conn: Yale
University Press, 2004.

D'Altroy, T.N. The Incas. Oxford, U.K.:
Blackwell Publishers, 2003.

Machu Picchu on the National
Geographic website
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What Happened Lo the
Library of Alexandria?

Canfora, L. (trans. Martin Ryle). The
Vanished Library. A Wonder of the
Ancient World. Berkeley, Calif.:
University of California Press, 1989.

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