A Brief Review of a Selection of Incredible, Lost, Forgotten or Ignored News from Our Recent Past-Article 2

By Chris Parker s8int.com 2007 

Relics At UR Point to Pre-Flood Race
Religious Symbols Discovered Below 56-Foot Level of Shaft Traced to Prehistoric Era
Pottery Factory Found
New York Times, February 24, 1930
 

Special to The New York Times. Phil, Pa,. Feb 22

Religious symbols, the handiwork of peoples who existed in Southern Mesopotamia before the great flood described in Genesis, have been unearthed at the site of Ur of the Chaldees by the joint expedition of the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British Museum, according to a report just received from C. Leonard Woolley, the Field director.

A complete prehistoric pottery factory and a copper figure of Rim-Sin, a Sumerian king who lived about 1900 B.C., were also uncovered.

As a result of the recent discoveries Mr. Woolley believes the expedition is able to trace the chronology of Southern Mesopotamia from the time of man's first settlement in the marshes to the close of the Sargonid period, about 2600 B.C.

Mr. Woolley went on to describe the dig; they had found levels of buildings representing 8 ages superimposed upon each other. They had taken the dig down to the 56-foot level at a date they estimated to be 3200 B.C.

Below the eighth level they found a pottery factory, represented by voluminous pottery shards and a large number of kilns. The kilns were buried on four levels testifying to the long span of time that the factory was in existence.

They discovered levels of graves and pottery. At one point the pottery was simple and almost primitive and yet below that the pottery technique color and style was high.

They reasoned that the high style pottery, below the level of the simple pottery and represented a pre-flood civilization. The primitive pottery  represented a people climbing back up to civilization after the flood.

Links with Antediluvian Religion

The upper graves marked the degeneration of the al-Ubaid period, the lower illustrated its zenith. In three of the latter we have found objects of a different sort, painted clay figurines of women grotesquely modeled on an archaic convention. Too delicate to be dolls, these queer slender figures, as also one of a painted bird with outspread wings, must be connected with the religion of the race which inhabited Ur before the flood.

Already we have reached the levels that mark that disaster.
 

An undisturbed copper 'idol' in the form of a king with a basket of mortar on his head and models of bricks at his feet they decided marked a building as a temple of Enki, the water-god and its restoration in 1900 B.C.

One of Woolley's many discoveries in the region was a "giant headdress from Ur--at least claimed to be by some.... From the Royal Tombs of UR. Giant gold headdress of Queen Puabi. This Gold headdress is three times the size of a 'normal' human head....(various)

"Sir Leonard Woolley the famed British Archaeologist is credited with the discovery of the tomb of Pu-Abi, which was excavated along with some 1800 other graves at the "Royal Cemetery of Ur" by Woolley and his team between 1926 and 1932.

Pu-Abi's tomb was nearly unique among the other excavations not only because of the large amount of incredibly high quality and well preserved grave goods, but also because her tomb had been untouched by looters through the millennia. She was also buried with five soldiers and 23 "ladies in waiting for", retainers who had apparently poisoned themselves (or been poisoned by others) to serve their mistress in the next world.

The amount of grave goods that Woolley uncover in Pu-abi's tomb were staggering: A magnificent, if heavy, golden headdress made of golden leaves, rings, and plates, a superb lyre, complete with the golden and lapis-lazuli encrusted bearded bulls head, a profusion of gold table ware, golden, carnelian, and lapis lazuli cylindrical beads for extravagant necklaces and belts, a chariot adorned with lioness' heads in silver, and an abundance of silver, lapis lazuli, and golden rings and bracelets....Wikipedia
 

Disputed Biblical Stories Get Support from Exhibition of Rare Ancient Relics
New York Times
December 22, 1953
 

One can't be sure that the Smithsonian would today sponsor an exhibit of 1,500 items calculated to support a 'fundamentalist' view of the Bible but back in 1953, they did just that. An article in the New York Times heralded described the event.

Washington, Dec 21 (UP)�The Smithsonian Institution is about to open to public view a collection of rare, archaeological finds tracing the history of mankind through 500 centuries. The exhibit provides material support for disputed stories in the Bible.

The ancient treasures/weapons, manuscripts, statuary, mosaics and religious relics will be on display at the museum Jan. 10 through Jan.27.

Most of the items have been unearthed in the last two decades of a period that has revolutionized archaeological understanding of the Biblical era.

Reportedly, among the exhibits were; copper from King Solomon's mines, the jawbone of an ass, as utilized by Samson in his battles with the Philistines and notably, a sling from the time of the epic battle between David and Goliath.

William Albright, an Archaeologist from Johns Hopkins University thought that the exhibits would revolutionize our understanding of the Bible. He thought that the new data provided support for a fundamental understanding of Biblical events.

Among the conclusions reached by the exhibitors was that King Solomon was even more wealthy than he was depicted in scriptures. 

FINDS NEAR BAGDAD: Ten Thousand Tablets in an Enormous Building
Possibly Antediluvian (Pre-Flood) Records
From the London Times
January 31, 1882
 

A Mr. Rassam reported to the Times of London on a monumental discovery he had made at a location approximately 15 miles outside of Bagdad in 1882.

I met with an Arab who told me that he knew of an old ruined city, the remains of which were to be found within five hours of Bagdad that is to say, taking the computation of three miles an hour, the place he knew was 15 miles from Bagdad.

As we were traveling along the route pointed out by the Arab, we came at a distance of four hours journeying upon an old ruin that I had never seen before, a ruin of great magnitude so large, indeed that it must be about three miles in circumference.

Later, while surveying the building they encountered among other things a layer of asphalt, which surprised them. They found a number of Assyrian artifacts including two cylinders, all of which were sent back to the London museum.

Mr. Rassam reported that this City, was supposed to have been the oldest city in the world, founded by Noah, after the flood. By tradition, according to Mr. Rassam, Noah was supposed to have stored antediluvian records there in that city.
Subsequently, the team reportedly found 10,000 tablets covered with Assyrian style writing (antediluvian?) all of which were sent back to England.

The Three Stone Heads
Published Feb 18, 1871
New York Times
 

Among other interesting relics lately found in Oregon, what are known as the three stone heads have attracted much attention, and are now being widely discussed.

These are heads of extinct animals, not men, and so can furnish only collateral data of an ethnological character.

They are, nevertheless, extremely interesting, and their discovery may prove of important service in constructing the history of American zoology.

The Three Stone Heads were found embedded in stone in the Cascade Range, near Mount Hood, in Eastern Oregon. They are pronounced by the best local authorities to be older than Mount Hood itself, to have been formerly fifteen hundred below the surface, and to have been uncovered by the slow action of a mountain ravine through which had flowed the freshets of thousands of years.

The heads belong to an extinct race, and appear to have been allied with a species now widely separated. They had the teeth of a ruminants with tusks. One of them must have been something like the camel and something like the tapir and is said to be entirely new to science.
The article describes the second head as being similar to the first but very possibly an entirely different animal altogether and the third head as representing another extinct animal which was much larger than the other two and clearly of a different species.

The rocks from which the stone heads came were supposed to have been of the Miocene (thought by science to span 5.3 million to 23.8 million years ago) or mid Tertiary periods (1.8 million years to 65 million years ago). If the time period is correct, who was around before Mount Hood itelf and was sculpting stone heads of currently extinct creatures?

The author goes on to speculate on the impact such discoveries would have on Darwinism;

with the accumulation of material like these new-found relics, the resources of science will, of course, be increased for the determination of the stupendous problems connected with the origin of the species.

Whether the ancient view of distinct creation in each instance, the Darwinian view of the development of various types from the same original one, the theory of evolution through the unfolding of one species into another, or the theory of special providence creating species for special fields is to be sustained or exploded by the progress of discovery, we may conjecture but cannot decide.

Curious Relics from the Swiss Lakes
From the Hartford Times, Nov. 7 1866
Copyright New York Times
 

In 1854, the water level at Lake Zurich had fallen very low and the inhabitants of the lake area took the opportunity to make repairs on the banks. After digging down a foot and a half they began to find tools, and implements of stone, bronze, horn and iron as well as pottery shards.

The remains of piles, long poles driven into the bottom of the lake were found regularly spaced a few feet apart.

 Close examination by Dr. Keller, President of the Swiss Antiquarian Society, satisfied him that these piles had supported a raised platform; that on this platform huts had been raised; and that after being thus occupied, probably for centuries, the structure had been destroyed by fire.

The huts it would seem were for the most part circular in shape, measuring from 10 to 15 feet in diameter; they were of wattles plastered with clay, masses of which, hardened by fire, still bearing the marks received from the wattles when wet, have been recovered from the beds of the lakes.

Further investigations have shown that most of the lakes of Europe have been thus inhabited. Up to 1864, 200 such pile villages have been found in Switzerland alone, and some of them of great size, containing not less than 100,000 piles.
 

The age of the pile villages at that time were estimated to be from three thousand to seven thousand years old or even older. So who were these ancient, unknown peoples with the technology to live above the lakes of Europe drawing their sustenance there from?

The artifacts found indicate that the inhabitants of the pfahlbauten ate the meat of the ox, cow and pig, and the now extinct auroch, raised wheat and barley, that their women knitted and made pottery, that of the fruits they ate raspberries, apples and elderberries and that they rode horses.

A strange water nut, now unknown was found in a hermetically sealed glass tube.

Hunter Says He Saw Prehistoric Monster
Belgian Returns from Congo with a Story of Tracking Down a Brontosaurus
Copyright New York Times
December 13, 1919
 

London, December 12. Details of the alleged discovery of a survivor of the prehistoric Brontosaurus are given in a relayed Rueter message from Bulawayo by the Belgian prospector and big game hunter, M. Gapelle, who has returned there from the interior of the Congo States.

He followed up strange footprints for twelve miles and at length, he says, sighted a beast of the rhinoceros order with large scales reaching far down it body.

Of course, there's no longer a dinosaur known as the brontosaurus; scientists had mistakenly placed the wrong head on the body of a sauropod.

If M. Gapelle actually did see a dinosaur that day, it would be now called the diplodocus.

Ashanti Tribe Dinosaur
 

:"In the 1960's, a leading jewel designer called Emanuel Staub was commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania...to produce replicas of a series of small gold weights obtained in Ghana. ...

So well crafted were they that the animals that they depicted could be instantly identified by zoologists--all but one, that is, which could not be satisfactorily reconciled with any known animal, until Staub saw it." (Shuker, Dr. Karl P.N., In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, 1995, p. 20.)

Originally photographed resting on its hind legs (as if bipedal), this enigmatic Ashanti gold figurine was difficult to identify. Once properly positioned, Staub noted that the mysterious artifact bears a striking resemblance to a dinosaur.

Perhaps this figurine was an attempt to model the sauropod Mokele-mbembe creature that is said to inhabit remote regions of equatorial Africa still today.

According to M. Gapelle, he did what any big game hunter would do when he comes upon a supposedly long extinct, possibly last surviving member of a species; he fired several shots at it whereupon it disappeared, perhaps forever into a swamp.

Mr. Gapelle further described the creature as having very thick, kangaroo like tail, a horn on is snout and a hump on its back.

According to the article the Smithsonian had a team of more than twenty persons in the field at the same time hunting for the same creature and that a number of the Smithsonian team had been killed in a rail accident.

The article goes on to quote a Dr. G.F. Harmer, zoologist and spoilsport from the British Museum, who doubted (while keeping an open mind) that any of the race of dinosaurs had survived from so late an age.

Army of French Hunters Tracks Dragon with Wolf Lieutenant Leading Quest
By Associated Press
Published Sept 3, 1934 New York Times
 

St. Gaudens, France, Sept 2.---The ancient wolf lore of this region within the shadow of the once savage Pyrenees was called into play today to track down a monster with phosphorescent eyes reported sighted here.

Despite storms sweeping the district, hundreds of hunters and sightseers headed by the St. Gaudens district's wolf lieutenant spent the week-end exploring Lake Camon, long regarded by geologists as the last trace of an ancient inland sea, in an effort to find the beast.

At one time in France there were 1,100 wolf lieutenants who acted as the official master of a pack of hounds whose purpose it was to protect communities from dangers such as wolves.

The monster in this case was described as prehistoric, twenty five feet long and five feet thick. It was reportedly covered with scales and had shining eyes. As of the time of the article, they had not yet found the creature.
 

Trail of Monster Seen in Scotland
Big-Game Hunter Finds Fresh Tracks of �Four-Fingered Sea Beast� at Loch Ness.
Reports are Reinforced
Many Reliable Residents of the Region Had Told of Seeing Animal 50 Feet Long.
December 22, 1933
 

Special Cable to the New York Times. London, Dec. 21---M.A Weatherell, Central American big game hunter, has found, according to the Daily Mail, a definite spoor of a huge amphibian n the shores of Loch Ness, the region from which stories of a remarkable prehistoric sea monster have emanated lately.

Mr. Weatherell described the creature as being twenty feet long, four fingered with evidence of claw marks or nails left on the bank. He further described the creature as 'soft footed' with four pads, eight inches across.

It appeared from tracks and marks which were only hours old that the creature had attempted to climb a gravel bank of the Loch and fallen back.

Local eyewitnesses of which there seemed to be many were relieved that someone with some 'expert' knowledge was backing there claims. They had chaffed a bit at the skepticism that there reports received.

The 'sea monster' had first been reported the previous August and since that time many witnesses, even those of the 'conservative type' the writer states had seen the 'monster'. By conservative, perhaps he meant; non-drinkers.

A Commander Gould, British Navy, retired, an author of a book on the subject, had interviewed 51 eyewitnesses and came to the conclusion that at least one creature inhabited the Loch. Interviewing the 51 witnesses one by one and asking each either to draw or direct a drawing of what they had seen he reached the following conclusion;

The creature is at least 50 feet long with a maximum circumference of 5 feet. The creature tapered at the head and tail. It had four flippers or paddles. It was dark brown or dark grey in color and is able to raise its head quite a distance above the water.

It had a darker area that ran down the center of its back. It had small appendages, possibly gills where one might expect to see ears. It was quite flexible.
 

Commander Gould went on to speculate that it was simply an elongated form of the 'common newt'?

Witnesses had put the speed of the creature at 15 knots (17.3 miles per hour).

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