donderdag 27 maart 2014

     
   
When I first visited the famous British Museum the
antiques-department stunned me. The Louvre had a huge Egyptian collection, but the British had moved complete city-walls, huge statues and beautiful artwork. The famous “Algin-marbles” were exhibited, they still are, ornaments of the Athenian Parthenon. Greece wants them back (and I think they are right), but the English refuse. They are the heirs and preservers of civilization and they kept and preserved them for centuries. They were even payed for!
So the French ship with the Napoleonic looting of Egypt was not the only one that reached London. Not only the British but also
the French, the Italians, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the German and even the Belgians accumulated huge amounts of somebody else roots. They will have to go back to the original owners, which will boost national identity in a positive way. Indeed, many things willcome to pass.
So archeologist, historians and researches are studying artifacts completely out of context. Many objects were lost in the archives, warehouses and attics. Individuals and collectives of grave-robbers
smuggled jewelry and small objects out of Greece, Persia or Egypt. There still is a huge black market for antiques and there are enough collectors willing to pay huge amounts of money for golden or silver objects. Many of it is molten down to be turned into coins or bars. The Spanish are responsible for one of the biggest genocide in the history of humankind. In their greed for gold (and souls) the Indian-civilizations in Meso-America were destroyed, their people massacred. Unknown diseases were imported, that decimated the Aztecs, Inca and others. The second generation of conquistadores conquered empty cities. The return fleet was laden with silver and gold (and corn, potatoes, tobacco and cocaine) and some artifacts.
Sometimes an artifact is found and nobody knows, what it is. It does not fit.This is called an anomaly. The famous “Bagdad-battery” is an example, so is the “Antekythera-mechanism”. In this context you have to realize, that everything moves, changes, travels and even gets lost. When an anomaly is found, you have to be extra careful. I'll give you an example. A Dutch amateur-archeologist, named Tjerk Vermaning, found stone-age tools around his home-town in Drenthe. A huge discussion erupted, that broke several academic reputations. Vermaning thought, that history had to be rewritten.
He was right, but it was no their own.
In the northern part of Holland people lived for millennia on “terpen” natural of artificial hills in the flat landscape. The region was regularly flooded and the “terpen” grew in height. The Dutch managed to gain the upper hand and the sea and the rivers were sealed of and the land became habitable. All the time the “terpen” were used to live on. In the 19th century farmers wanted to improve the quality of their land. They used natural fertilizers, but discovered that the old, high places in “Friesland” and “Groningen”, contained extremely fertile soil. Being merchants the Frisian sold the soil and traditional living-areas were dug off and disappeared. The clay in the north was of extremely fertile too. So the Frisians sold clay as well. Especially to Drenthe, being sandy and poor. In recent years archeologists discovered that the mounds were of great historical importance. Even Roman artifacts are found.
Tjerk Vermaning was right. The stone-age tools were special and they would rewrite history. The history of the Northern Kingdom of Atlantis.

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