Europe’s pyramid history unveiled

[Dover]

Europe’s pyramid history unveiled

The possibility of European pyramids is like London busses: you wait for centuries, and all of a sudden, two come along at the same time: in early 2003 in Italy, and in 2005 in Bosnia. After less than one year’s of scientific analysis, the Bosnian pyramid is already identified as an artificial structure, thus finally providing proof that Europe does have a pyramid past.

Philip Coppens


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Europe begets a pyramid

On 31 October 2005, various news agencies including Associated Press ran a story headlined "Bosnian explorer finds 'Europe's first pyramids'". This statement, as so many headlines are, is wrong. There are many small pyramids that can be found across Europe, from France to Greece. The small pyramid of Falicon sits in the hinterland of the prosperous French resort of Nice and is more notorious for covering a subterranean chamber into which many descend but few resurface without the intervention of the local fire brigade. In Greece, there are now 16 catalogued pyramids. Though some may be natural, others—like the Hellenikon pyramid near the village of Argolis—are clearly man-made structures. Intriguingly, one thermo-luminescence test by the Academy of Athens has dated the structure to 2720 BC, contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramid age. Though pyramidal in shape, the European structures do not enthral like the Egyptian pyramids, which dwarf them in size. Five hundred years ago, with the discovery of the New World, pyramids were found in Mexico, but in 2001 the discovery of a pyramid complex in Caral, Peru, was announced and again has been dated as contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramid age. In 1994, the German tour operator Hartwig Hausdorf visited China and on his return reported on the existence of pyramids there—a discovery which has since been validated. The pyramids are even becoming a tourist attraction. Europe, it seemed, had been left behind...but not for long. Two discoveries—in Italy in 2003, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2005—changed that..cont'd

http://www.philipcoppens.com/euro_pyrs.html

[pitohui]

1. ok this is cool as hell

i don't really suppose europe just never noticed they had entire pyramids, i'm sure it's a tourist scam, but it still awakens the imagination doesn't it?

do you remember thomas disch? he proposed pyramids for minnesota or some such

[izzie]

2. I would say it is a easy shape so many used it

--

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. It's highly controversial, and disputed by real archaeologists

and geologists.

Unable to confirm any of this, I asked Dr. Hawass directly. Concerning Barakat, he states: "Mr. Barakat, the Egyptian geologist working with Mr. Osmanagic, knows nothing about Egyptian pyramids. He was not sent by the SCA, and we do not support or concur with his statements." The supposed pyramid, Dr. Hawass says, is "evidently a natural geologic formation" and that "Apart from its general outline, this hill bears absolutely no resemblance to the Egyptian pyramids." He concludes that, "Mr. Osmanic's theories are purely hallucinations on his part, with no scientific backing."
...
"Not any evidence at all has been found," says Harding, quoted by the Associated Press. "I've seen the site, in my opinion it is entirely natural." But the same article, widely carried with slight variations (here is one example), still describes Osmanagic as "the amateur Bosnian archaeologist who has been investigating Latin American pyramids for 15 years." The conclusions reached by him, that the Maya originally came from outer space, identify the kind of researcher Mr. Osmangic is, but that's ignored by the reporter.

The AP story also recycles the opinions of one Aly Abd Alla Barakat, said to be a geologist from the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority and familiar with his country's pyramids. His assessment: "My opinion is that this is a type of pyramid, probably a primitive pyramid." So, the "supercivilization" was apparently only able to come up with a "primitive pyramid." It's worth looking a bit closer at Barakat's conclusions, or at least the statements made by him. I haven't seen anything that resembles an official report, though according to a June 12 Agence France-Presse story "Barakat said that he had sent a report on the site to one of the world's leading Egyptologists, Zahi Hawass, who had recommended him to the foundation leading the excavation work." (I have not been able to confirm the claim he was recommended by Hawass.) In a Reuters report back on May 17, Barakat is said to have identified "sand layers" between the stones unearthed at Visoko as being "the same type of artificial cement used in ancient Egyptian pyramids." The AFP story quotes him as saying, "The white stuff I found between the blocks could be a glue. It is very similar to that we have found in the Giza pyramids." Glue? We seem to be operating in the fog of translation here, but surely a geologist familiar with the pyramids at Giza would know that the ancient Egyptians used gypsum mortar, sometimes gobs of it, to fill in between stone blocks.

So Harding, an archaeologist, says it's natural. Barakat, supposedly a geologist familiar with pyramids, says it's a "primitive pyramid." If only a group of eminent geologists familiar with this area would visit the site. Perhaps they could sort it all out. Oh, wait, actually they did already. There's a FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federal News Agency) report on an examination of the "pyramid" by professors from the Faculty of Mining and Geology at the University of Tuzla. This was apparently done in early May at the behest of Osmanagic's foundation, Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. Conclusions? According to team leader Sejfudin Vrabac, it's a natural geological formation and there are dozens of similar formations in the Sarajevo-Zenica mining basin alone.

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/osmanagic/update.html

[SteppingRazor]

4. I'd say highly controversial is putting it mildly...

from what I've heard and read, nearly the entire scientific community dismisses the Bosnian claim as pure idiocy. This is, admittedly, the first I've heard of the Italian one, but I imagine it's more of the same.

[Odin2005]

5. The only people who think that's a manmade object...

are the more nationalistic Bosniaks and the Atlantis cranks.

[Mistwell]

6. And yet...

It's a pretty hill :)