Uncategorized History

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The palace of the Queen of Sheba, an altar that held the Ark of the Covenant, found?
German archaeologists lead by Professor Helmut Ziegert claim to have found the palace of the Queen of Sheba, and an altar that held the Ark of the Covenant - raising disbelief in the archaelogical community. The location of the Ark, and its existence, has been a source of controversy. The Ark is at the centre of a debate about whether archaeology should chronicle the rise and fall of civilisations or explore the boundaries between myth and ancient history. The Ark, said to be the source of great power, was allegedly made of gold-plated acacia wood and topped with 2 golden angels. | by timesonline :: 2008-05-24 |

Crystal skulls are modern fakes, not the work of ancient American civilisations
Two of the best known crystal skulls are forgeries, a study shows. Examples held at the British Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC are anything but genuine, since results show the skulls were created using tools not available to the ancient Aztecs or Mayans. The researchers used an electron microscope to show that the skulls were likely shaped using a spinning disc-shaped tool made from copper. This "rotary wheel" technology was not used by pre-Columbian peoples. Analysis of genuine Aztec and Mixtec artefacts show they were created using tools made from stone and wood. | by bbc :: 2008-05-24 |

Oak Island - The world's longest and most expensive treasure hunt
It has been the central point of "the world's longest and most expensive treasure hunt" and "one of the world's deepest and most costly archaeological digs" -- and also "Canada's best-known mystery" and one of "the great mysteries of the world." It may even "represent an ancient artifact created by a past civilization of advanced capability." The subject of these exaggerated expressions is a mysterious shaft on Oak Island in Nova Scotia's Mahone Bay. For some two centuries, greed, and even death have attended the so-called "Money Pit" and "pirate tunnels" enigmas. Are they man-made (pirates, Knights Templar) or natural formations? | by csicop :: 2008-01-07 |

Did Da Vinci hide Old Testament god Jahveh's face in painting?
A new storm is brewing in the world of Da Vinci theorists after "The Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings World Foundation" -group claimed it has used mirrors to reveal hidden images in some of Da Vinci's most famous works. In recent years art history scholars have uncovered Templar knights, Mary Magdalene, a child and a musical script hidden in the Italian's paintings. Da Vinci, 1452-1519, often wrote in mirror writing, either to stop his rivals stealing his ideas or to hide his scientific theories, often deemed as revolutionary by Roman Catholic Church. The Virgin and Child sketch supposedly can be manipulated with mirrors to show the ancient Old Testament god Jahveh. | by telegraph :: 2007-12-07 |

The Siege of Malta in 1565 - Human heads as cannonballs
A hot June night on the island of Malta, and a Christian sentry patrolling at the foot of a fort on the Grand Harbour had spotted something drifting in the water. The alarm was raised. What they found horrified even battle-weary veterans: crosses pushed out by the enemy to float in the harbour, and crucified on each was the headless body of a Christian knight. This was psychological warfare at its most brutal, by the Turkish Muslim commander whose invading army had just vanquished the small outpost of Fort St Elmo. Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette vowed that the fort would not be taken while one last Christian lived in Malta. | by dailymail :: 2007-07-11 |

On the trail of the crusaders - The ghosts of the martyred Cathars
Medieval past of southern France and the ghosts of the martyred Cathars. It was the ruined citadel at Montsegur that got us hooked on the story of the Cathars, a breakaway group of Christians persecuted by the Catholic Church in 12th and 13th century France. Perched on a limestone peak this fortress sheltered a group of Cathars besieged by Catholic crusaders for 10 months. Eventually defeated, 220 men and women filed down a winding path to be burned en masse in an enclosure on the meadow below the citadel in 1244. Sitting inside Montsegur's ruined walls, it's hard to understand why a group of semi-vegetarians with anti-affluenza values so rattled the Catholic establishment. | by smh :: 2007-07-07 |

Historian Ronald Hutton - Study of the Druids will annoy their followers
Historian Ronald Hutton, author who has just published a book on Druids, and whose earlier work Triumph of the Moon, The Stations of the Sun, Shamanism centres on paganism, wicca, ceremonial magic and seasonal rituals, delights in both debunking and celebrating paganism. The Druids, a compact and lively account of what historians have made of these "appallingly insubstantial figures", could arguably be looked at as a history of the Druids in which no "real" Druid appears. The Druids left no writings, no images and no tombs. Accounts of them, from Tacitus down, are frustratingly inconclusive, biased and forged. | by independent :: 2007-05-14 |

400-year-old Voynich Manuscript continues to perplex code-breakers
Elements of the Voynich Manuscript story could fit into the plot of a best seller. A mysterious document whose secrets have puzzled scholars for centuries, the 234-page document is written in letters that do not correspond to any known language or code. Many theories have been forwarded and different techniques have been employed by historians and code breakers; no one has translated the document, and it is considered one of the most perplexing cryptological puzzles. Little of its history is certain; its author, meaning and purpose are unknown. It was first purchased by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II in the 16th century for 300 gold pieces... | by book-of-thoth :: 2007-05-05 |

Catholics and Conspiracies: due associations with secret societies
The Roman Catholic Church has always been an attractive target for conspiracy theorists, due to its sometimes mysterious-seeming rituals, its associations with secret societies like the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians, and its defensive reaction to scandals about priests. But what's most remarkable is that the church has also become a target for large number of Catholic conspiracy theorists -- and the tales these believers spin make The Da Vinci Code look like the work of a novice. | by splcenter :: 2007-01-19 |

Lubaantun's famous Crystal Skull still a mystery
Many stories have been written about the Crystal Skull which the explorer-archaeologist Federick A. Mitchell-Hedges bequeathed to his adopted daughter Anna. Her crystal skull is the largest and most beautiful of 3 skulls, all sculpted from the same crystal rock which is known to exist in the world. An absence of proper records makes the true origins and purpose of these crystal skulls a mystery. Although many archaeologists believe the skulls originated in Central America amongst the Aztecs, Mixtecs or the Maya civilisation. Others believe the workmanship found on these skulls to be far too sophisticated for ancient peoples. | by reporter :: 2006-07-07 |

Location fee funds Da Vinci Code rebuttal
Tonight at Winchester Cathedral The Da Vinci Code will be described as "usually stilted and often worse ... a sensationalist thriller ... with all its inaccuracies and absurdities" - and the makers of the film have paid for the swingeing attack. Last winter the tombs of Victorian worthies in the nave were wrapped up in fake ancient stonework, and the glorious medieval building was flooded with special effects mist, through which ranks of armoured Knights Templar assembled to surround the Pope. The cathedral will be seen in two scenes of the The Da Vinci Code, after several other English churches turned the film-makers down flat. | by guardian :: 2006-04-24 |

Mysteries surrounding Christianity's roots are hot reads
So here they are - the supposed secrets nobody wants you to know, least of all the Christian church. Jesus never died on the cross. No, he retired to Egypt. Or was it France? He sired a royal bloodline with wife Mary Magdalene. Can this all be true? No, say virtually all serious historians who deal with the first century. | by cbsnews :: 2006-04-16 |

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