Postscript and errata to 8th edition

Errata Eighth Edition

As usual, when posting I was working from memory and not from reference books - so made an error or two. For one, Oetzi had arsenic in his hair, not copper, arsenic is produced as vapors when smelting copper ore; the presence of it in fairly high concentrations in his hair is strong evidence that he was directly and closely involved in the smelting and production of copper. The experts make no apologies for having the "Copper age" dates so far off either, just say that it is "remarkable" that Oetzi had a copper axe, and now claim that copper was being worked at least 1000 years before this time. This is the sort of attitude that irritates me - an all-knowing, conceited, arrogant element among historians that will not admit when they were so "remarkably" wrong about the timing of copper working. And it is this element among historians which is the most vocal and influential, those who have open minds and do not make such sweeping statements are a minority and a silent one at that.

Recent studies of DNA of Pacific rats and Polynesian people proves they are of Asian origins, which disproves Thor Heyerdahl's premise of a Peruvian origin. However, he did prove that cross-oceanic travel with the most simple craft was very possible, and brought up several issues that will not fit with the isolation idea. In particular, the sweet potato - which is native to Peru, and called there by local Indians "kumara" is the same plant found scattered across the South Pacific, also called by the same name among Polynesians. The sweet potato could not survive salt water, so could only have traveled across the Pacific by the aid of human beings. The bottle gourd too, traveled across the Pacific; cocoanuts too must have been propagated by human beings - it cannot survive in salt water for any length of time, the salt water seeps in through the 'eyes' of the cocoanut and spoils it. Since it is believed to be of American origins, the only answer is that ancient seafarers were transporting these plant products across the oceans! Yet historians still insist that no such ancient seafarers could ever have crossed the oceans, they must have sailed along within sight of shore at all times. This despite the number of finds of ancient shipwrecks in deep waters far from any shore by Robert Ballard, Willard Bascom and others. The nationality of the great majority of these ancient shipwrecks? Phoenician and Carthaginian. What a surprise.

Then there are the mysteries of cotton and hemp. Cotton made it from the Old World to the New some time in antiquity; no historian even mentions it, but it is a fact, and apparently made the voyage long after the Bering land bridge had sunk beneath the sea. Cristopher Columbus was offered spools of cotton thread for trade by the natives of America on his very first voyage. Hemp is another problem - it too apparently crossed from the Old World to the New in ancient times, and is ignored by historians as evidence of ancient contact across the oceans. Here too, the linkage to Phoenicians and Carthaginians is clear - hemp was a particular item of trade among these peoples; the Phoenicians built a rope bridge for Xerxes to cross the Hellespont with his massive army to invade Europe in 480 BC of hemp, which held up to storms and weather while the Egyptian papyrus rope bridge failed; Carthaginians carried it in their ships as cargo, both as a 'smoke' as as rope and fibers, it was found in Carthaginian shipwrecks dating to 260 BC. Ancient American Indians used hemp too, for ropes and weaving of nets and cloth. Mayan rope bridges built of hemp ropes were found still standing by the early Spanish explorers. Recently these historians have "discovered" the fact that cloves from the Moluccas islands, (near Australia) were being used in ancient Egypt, proving that SOMEONE was transporting them a tremendous distance.

There are theorists who propose Egyptians or Celts or Atlantians as the source of these mysterious migrations of plants and products, ignoring the fact that Egyptians and Celts were no great seafarers and that Atlantians would be too far back in history (11,000 years plus) and ignoring the obvious agents of such transmission, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians who were great explorers and traders. Herodotus even mentions in passing that Cinnamon came from the Phoenicians, who brought it from some near-mythical place. He also mentions the Phoenicians selling Cassia, which came from far SE Asia. Then there are the Egyptian mummies which when tested proved to have ingested both tobacco and coca, uniquely American products. The skeptics howled that this must be contamination, or from some African or Asian plants which were similar, again ignoring the obvious solution - that someone was bringing these products from America to Egypt in ancient times. Remember the rule of Occam's Razor, that in questions where one cannot find the answer directly, the simplest answer is usually correct. It is so violently distasteful to these guys that the very idea that some seafarers might have been trading with America that they will grasp at any answer, no matter how ridiculous, in order not to admit that some ancient contact was taking place. This is the purpose of my book, and I must get it done as others are already working on similar lines!

The Carthaginians excelled their parents the Phoenicians, using the 'gnomon' and astrolabes as well as the magnetic compass ("baetillium" or the "bones of Typhon") to navigate their way with ease. They plated the hulls of their ships with this sheets of lead or copper to prevent the attacks of shipworms, which would destroy wooden ships traveling in the tropics; this practice was not rediscovered until the British many centuries later. They hired mercenaries as sailors and soldiers from many lands, including Celts, Greeks, Germans, Scyths and many others, which would lead to some confusing clues left behind. They kept the Americas their national secret land, and threatened with death any who would dare to sail there. Indian seer tradition repeats this in large degree, including the fact that they (American Indians) were encouraged to kill any trespassers who ventured to "Turtle Island" (America). When Carthage was destroyed by Rome, contact was lost. Some Iberian-punic adventurers did apparently try to return, and Plutarch records that one American came to the ruins of Carthage where he remained for some time. Oh well, so much for the errata and addenda, will close here.
Oroblanco

Eighth Edition

Useless News and other blather

Well the first bit of my work to appear in a book will be on the store shelves this fall. I wrote up a piece on Carthaginian explorers reaching America, and it will appear in an anthology tentatively titled "Mysterious Roots; the Disinformation Guide to Lost Civilizations" which will be edited by Preston Peet. Among the other contributors will be Graham Hancock and Michael Cremo, so the book ought to be pretty interesting stuff.


The title is still not locked in, the Disinformation company is not happy with the title and has posted a blog to fish for some title suggestions. When the title is locked in, I will post an update here. As for my own book, now in the sixth year of work and still not finished, well that should be wrapped up and (hopefully) will be published not too long afterwards. The title is The Secret of Carthage, but again one never knows what the publisher will decide!


Among the latest stuff on TV, we have been edified with such tidbits as Oetzi, the "iceman" who died in the Alps some 5300 years ago. Oetzi had so little respect for our modern historians, that he had among his belongings a copper axe, which is nearly 1000 years too soon according to those same historians. Oetzi had a surprising array of accesories with him, such as a backpack as good as any modern type, grass stuffed in his shoes for insulation, many different types of mosses, some for packing material, some for toilet paper, some for medicine, he had tatoos which were evidence of early acupuncture, again this is supposed to have been invented in China not in southern Europe! Oetzi also had copper in his hair, which proved that he had been involved in smelting the metal. Yep boy our historians sure know their stuff!


Hollywood is frequently attacked for being wildly inaccurate in their portrayals, yet in some features they are even tame compared with reality. For example, with the 'Afro-central' neuvo-history, we are taught that Egyptians were black Africans - however Rameses (the Great) had an aquiline nose and flaming red hair! If Hollywood ever depicted Rameses with flaming red hair they would probably face tremendous ostracism.


The UFO files tonight proved to be a repeat, and ended the program with the tidy 'scientific' answer to the abduction phenomenon; this is nothing but a mental affliction caused by electromagnetic pulses! As disparaging and insulting to the intelligence as this "answer" is, perhaps there is a crumb of truth here. For this theory to work, there must be a source of these electromagnetic pulses, keep this in mind. One possibility of the UFO and alien phenomena is that it is contact with a type of beings who are composed of electricity; there is evidence to support this too, for example the Quran states that Djinn are made of "smokeless fire" and are older than humans, the ancient Phoenicians said that the "watchers" were made of "fire" and that their natural shape was that of an egg. The strange incident of the Mothman was tied in mysteriously with electricity, and many UFO witnesses report strange electrical phenomena when in the presence of the craft. If these are beings who are actually composed of electricity, then these magnetic pulses could well be coming from them - this would mean that abductions are very much real, and could take place anywhere even in downtown New York City or in your safe warm bedroom! More on this later...


That is it for this edition, will fill in the rest of the news in an update later.

Oroblanco

"We must find a way, or we will make one." --Hannibal Barca