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November 1999 | |
 Amazing underground structure discovered on Orkney
Douglas Paterson, a 37-year-old farmer, with the help of Sandy Firth, 67, a retired teacher, made an amazing discovery at Tankerness on Orkney (Scotland). In just three days, on a spot on his farm called Mine Howe, Paterson unearthed two ancient stone staircases of 29 steps leading down through three subterranean chambers.
The mound was actually opened in April 1946, when a farmhand ploughing Mine Howe unearthed a stone slab which led to the first excavation by the community more than 50 years ago. After a while, the site was sealed it up again and it remained sealed until this year when it was re-discovered.
Archaeologists are convinced that the structure, which is the deepest of its kind ever found and features intricate stonework throughout, is probably a large earth house or a chambered tomb. First impressions suggest that it is probably Iron Age, but it could be much older.
The entrance is quite literally like a mine shaft going deep into the earth. The first 17 stone steps are steep and a rope has to be used to get down. Once down the first flight there is a small "landing"; from here are two chambers that "spiral" out from the main stairwell. In one of the chambers the skull of a dog (or possibly a seal) was found together with a broken hammer. From the landing, a second flight of 12 steps leads straight down into the bowels of the structure - a small chamber 9 meters (30 feet) down, with a 5.5 metres (18 feet) high beehive-shaped ceiling.
Julie Gibson, Orkney's county archaeologist, said that the discovery was extraordinary. "I have never seen anything like it before," she said. "I have to admit that I felt very frightened when I first went inside. I could hardly catch my breath because it was dark and such a confined space, but also because it was so surprising."
A photographic land survey has revealed a huge enclosing ditch with ritual middens facing east and west, possibly used for burnt offerings or cremations, which resemble other Neolithic sites dating back to 3000BC.
The public is unlikely to be given access to the site which Historic Scotland is being urged to make a protected, or scheduled, monument. After the excavation Mr Paterson wants to seal it over and return the land to grazing sheep.
Sources: Orkneyjar/Sigurd Towrie, The Times (November 10, 11 and 16 1999)
Miami Circle is nearly 2,000 year old
Archaeologists said that carbon dating tests show that a stone circle discovered at the mouth of the Miami River (Florida, U.S.A.) is a nearly 2,000-year-old trading post.
The circle, actually an oval about 12.2 to 15.2 metres (40 to 50 feet) across, consists of a number of holes dug into limestone. The holes may have been used to secure wooden poles for dwellings, or racks for drying fish. Scientists dated five items from the site, including bits of charcoal and bone collagen collected from the circle's holes and from on top of the bedrock. Four of the five items dated to about AD 125. The fifth item, a shark vertebrae, dated to the Spanish period in the mid-1600s.
"We know from the depth of the deposits that occupation of this site may have begun as early as 500 BC and certainly right up until the period of Spanish contact," archeologist Bob Carr said. "This was a continuously occupied site." Experts intend to use ground-penetrating radar within the next few weeks in an attempt to find other circle-like features beneath the weeds and dirt.
"The circle would certainly appear to be ancient, and it also seems to be the product of Native American hands," said archeologist Ryan Wheeler of the state Bureau of Archeological Research. John Ricisak, an archaeologist with the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Division, said members of Florida's ancient Glades culture probably used the site as a seasonal trading post. Archeologists also said they had found more holes similar to those that form the Circle, a suspected Indian relic about 2,000 years old. "It tends to suggest there may be other features similar to the Miami Circle that are out here," Florida archeologist Ryan Wheeler said.
The ultimate preservation of the circle remains uncertain; a developer had planned to build a $126 million apartment complex at the downtown site, but a judge ruled in June that the county can take the land. Florida's government has pledged $15 million toward its purchase but Miami-Dade County must raise the remaining $11.7 million. It needs to collect about $2 million in donations within the next four weeks to meet a deadline for payment of the initial $20 million to the developer.
Sources: ABC News, Associated Press (November 2 1999)
Cornish megalithic sites vandalized
The lethal substance, napalm, like that used in the Vietnam war, has been poured over two of Cornish (England) most ancient monuments and then set ablaze. In an anonymous letter sent to The Cornishman - the local newspaper - a group calling themselves Friends of the Stone said they had ceremoniously burnt the famous Men-an-Tol holed stone and the nearby Lanyon Quoit. The writer of the anonymous letter to The Cornishman included three photographs of the two ancient monuments covered in burning oil and ablaze with flames.
The police at Penzance are taking the matter seriously. "We have to assume it is napalm, so I will be talking to the council about getting the sites cordoned off for public safety reasons until the monuments can be cleaned," one of the police officers said. "Until we know exactly what the substance is that was used to burn the stones, no one should touch it, or go near the monuments."
Cheryl Straffon, a member of Penwith Council's Sacred Sites Committee, confirmed that the stones were indeed badly damaged on November 5 and that the incident had been reported to the Cornwall Archeological Unit, English Heritage and the National Trust. She said that "Something did occur on November 5 at the Men-an-Tol and discovered the next day. It looks as if resin of some sort has been poured over the holed stone and an attempt made to set it alight."
When a Cornishman reporter visited the Lanyon Quoit he found three of the upright supports badly burnt by a blackened substance and the huge roof stone also blacked and covered in a sticky mess of black and white gunge.
The writer of the anonymous letter stated: "You do not deserve the heritage these monuments hold and therefore we intend to act further. By this time next week, Men-an-Tol will be gone. It shall be set up again, correctly aligned with pertinent sacred stones, in my back garden."
Andy Norfolk, chairman of Penwith's Sacred Stones Committee, says that damaging the stones is against the law, and he appealed to local people to keep an eye open and report anything suspicious. Anyone with any information should contact Sgt Clarke on 0990-777-444.
A geologist said that any damage is likely to have affected the surface 1/2 inch or so at most, but that's bad enough. It is possible that the flammable material could have penetrated cracks in the stone and caused deeper damage because the stone is so weathered. Of course we won't know the real extent of the damage until the residue coating the stone has been removed and this is very definitely a job for an expert.
Anne Preston-Jones of English Heritage said that she would be inspecting the monuments. "I will be compiling a damage report," she said. "We can't even remove the substance until permission is given as these are ancient monuments."
Sources: The Cornishman, The Stones Mailing List, This is Cornwall (November 8 and 9 1999)
A face carved on a standing stone at Callanish?
Last month, Archaeo News reported the claims of Dr Terence Meaden, an archaeologist who said there is a carving of a face on one of the major stones at Stonehenge. Now, there is a second report of the presence of another carved face, this time on the side of one of the Callanish stones in the Western Isles of Scotland.
Ancient stones enthusiast Martin McCarthy is a self-proclaimed sceptic when it comes to the suggestion that heads and faces have been carved into Neolithic standing stones, but he did get a surprise when studying some photographs he had taken at the Callanish complex a few years ago.
"One stone had a pattern on it that could have been a head, so I poked around through my other pictures and found a reasonably clear picture of the stone in question. It has a very clear - to my eyes, anyway - left-facing head with nicely proportioned eye, nose, cheek, lips and chin."
Is it really another face or is it the eye playing tricks? Humans are programmed to see patterns, especially faces, in natural objects. As babies, we learn this skill when we try to focus on our mother's face.
As others look and make up their own minds, Martin McCarthy remains a sceptic. "Whilst I do believe that this is probably just a random alignment of naturally-weathered shapes, I'd be delighted to be proven wrong."
Other archaeologists are in the process of studying the face supposed to be carved at Stonehenge. Many are remarking that, face or not, it is amazing that nobody has pointed out the markings before.
BBC News (November 9 1999)
Controversial submerged megalithic temple
Hubert Zeitlmair, a retired German real-estate investor, first went to Malta in 1993. Inspired by the 5,500-year-old megalithic temples he saw on Malta and Gozo and by the books of Zecharia Sitchin, who believes aliens are behind those and other early monuments, Zeitlmair began his own investigations. His crusade culminated in the discovery, at 10:00 AM on July 13, of what he believes are the submerged ruins of a megalithic temple. The discovery was anounced at a meeting of the Paleo Astronaut Society in Augsberg, Germany, on August 18.
The supposed ruins are said to be eight to 15 meters (26 to 49 feet) deep on a plateau about one-and-one-half miles off the city of Sliema on Malta's east coast. Although no plan of the "temple" is given, it is described as similar to the temples known on land, with an interior corridor off which are kidney-shaped rooms six to seven meters (22 to 23 feet) in diameter. The walls are said to be preserved to a height of four to six meters (13 to nearly 20 feet).
Chronology appears to be somewhat confused in Zeitlmair's interpretation. According to the "official" web site, he sees links between the submerged "temple" and both Noah's Flood and the rise in sea level following the end of the Ice Age. Furthermore, the presence of deeper sand deposits on the west side of the "ruins," the side toward Gibraltar, than on the east side is taken as an indication that the flooding of the Mediterranean by Atlantic waters (which really did occur) was involved in the inundation of the "temple." The Mediterranean flooding, however, took place some five million years ago. As to the builders of the temples, Zeitlmair defers to Zechariah Sitchin.
The Maltese Museum Department's archaeology curator Ruben Grima has visited the site, and was unconvinced that the stones on the seafloor are indeed a temple, according to archaeologist Anthony Bonanno of the University of Malta. Bonanno himself is skeptical of the find, noting that even if there is a submerged structure it does not mean the temples need to be re-dated.
Source: Archaeology Institute of America (November 9 1999)
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