Anomalies Explained? Living Fossils, pre-Ancient Artifacts

by **Starman** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 12:34 am

In the way of some things coincidental if not things explicit of syncronicity, I had recently been reading a 1982 Reader's Digest compilation of Mysteries of the Unexplained, referencing many old Science American and newspaper accounts of strange anomalies such as living fossils and seemingly modern artifacts found deeply buried in coal or rock given a geologic age in many cases of hundreds of thousands or even millions of years -- And then, earlier today, I stumbed on a recent Rense.com article providing several unique, alternative explanations for such abundantly-documented, bizarre phenomenon. The most intriguing hypotheses concern: high-energy/mass displacements, possibly involving local disruptions through changes in zero-point energy stasis brought about by natural forces such as tornados or cosmic 'accidents', or even as an unintended consequence of deliberate experiments by humans (from some future time) or even non-terrestrial intelligence; Alternatively, these 'fossils' and artifacts may be from an earlier date far in the past, which has been buried by eons of geologic processes. The high-energy causal-effect hypothesis is especially intriguing, since some recent theories and experiments in physics suggest curious effects due to changes in zero-energy states that might account for the apparant phenomenon of mass being able to pass thru matter in special circumstances. A dimly-related concept involves the exchange of mass between two parallel or causally-connected worlds resulting from spacetime ripples -- again, perhaps through some characteristic of the vacuum's zero-point energy fluctuation. Otherwise, how to account for such bizzare phenomena as delicate gold chains found encased in coal, or what seems like an ancient spark-plug discovered in a geode, or a pterodactyl found in a boulder, or a silver-chased candlestick found in a chunk of marble, or many other accounts of lizards and newts and toads or other artifacts found where there isn't any other 'reasonable' explanation? I was intrigued to find many of the same artefacts and phenomena of entombed animals I had read of in the Readers Digest volume discussed in the Rense Article, and also located additional web sources of these and other items. The Rense article cited and excerpted below, with several noteable examples and further links, Including: ANCIENT PAUL BUNYAN? * In 1826, a well dug near the Ohio river from a level 94 feet down, a buried tree stump was brought to the surface which showed the marks of an ax. The marks were deep and well-cut, indicating the use of a sharp and durable blade. The suspicion that the ax had been made of metal was confirmed when, embedded in the top of the stump, an advanced oxidized wedge of iron was found. The layer from which the stump came was estimated to be between 50,000 and 75,000 years old - nearly 10 times the accepted age of the supposed first metal usage. {Question is - HOW did it get there, 94ft. down?} CANDLESTICK HOLDER? * June, 1851 issue of Scientific American (volume 7, pages 298-299), two parts of a metallic vase dynamited out of solid rock on Meeting House Hill, Dorchester, Massachusetts. They formed a bell-shaped vase {candlestick holder?} 4 1/2 inches high, 6 1/2 inches at the base, 2 1/2 inches at the top and an eighth of an inch thick. The metal was an alloy of zinc and a considerable portion of silver. On the sides were six figures of a flower in bouquet arrangements, inlaid with pure silver, and around the lower part a vine, or wreath, also inlaid with silver. The chasing, carving, and inlaying are exquisitely done by the art of some unknown craftsman - yet this curiosity was blown out of solid pudding stone from 15 feet below the surface. Estimated age - 100,000 years. {This ornately designed object appears to be from a temple.} Pre-Ancient COIN FOUND AT LAWN RIDGE * At Lawn Ridge, 20 miles north of Peoria, Illinois, in August of 1870, three men were drilling a well and the pump brought up a small metal medallion to the surface from more than 100ft. down. It appeared in drill residue. W.H. Wilmot in a detailed statement, dated December 4, 1871, described the details of the deposits and depths of materials present during the boring, and the where the metal "coin" was uncovered. The strange coin-medallion is composed of an unidentified copper alloy, about the size and thickness of a U.S. quarter of that period. It was remarkably uniform in thickness, round, and the edges appeared to have been cut. Researcher William E. Dubois was convinced that the object had in fact passed through a rolling mill with the edges showing machining marks. Both sides were marked with artwork and hieroglyphics, as though it had been etched in acid, to a remarkable degree of intricacy. One side showed the figure of a woman wearing a crown or head-dress. The opposite side has another central figure, that looks like a crouching animal. It has long, pointed ears, large eyes and mouth, claw-like arms, and a long tail frayed at the very end. Below and to the left of it is another animal, which bears a strong resemblance to a horse. Around the outer edges of both sides are undecipherable hieroglyphics - and show all the signs of a form of alphabetic writing. {Someone with the proper background needs to evaluate this coin.} Recent calculations {performed in the late 1970's} based on uniform rates of alluvium deposition and radioisotope dates for this region estimate an age for materials from just below a depth of 100 feet to be between 100,000 and 150,000 years. A lost civilization once existed on the North American continent which worked in copper and other metals; possessed art and writing; attired themselves with crowns and other clothing; knew of and perhaps domesticated several animals including the horse; utilized acids for etching in a manner that is still not understood today; and perhaps the most disturbing, possessed forms of machinery for the cutting, rolling and processing of metal pieces. * Another enigmatic coin came from deep levels in a well located in Illinois. In 1851, in Whiteside County. A well-drilling bit brought up from a sand stratum 120 feet deep two copper artifacts: What appears to be a hook, and a ring. Their age is thought to be the same as that of the coin - about 150,000 years old. ANCIENT SPARK PLUG ENCASED IN GEODE. * On February 13,1961, three rock hunters - Mike Mikesell, Wallace Lane and Virginia Maxey - were collecting geodes about 12 miles east-southeast of Olancha, California. Geodes are spherical stones with hollow interiors lined with crystals. On this particular day, while searching in the Coso Mountains, they found one stone located near the top of a peak approximately 4,300 feet in elevation and about 340 feet above the dry bed of Owens Lake. The next day when Mikesell cut the stone in half. Inside were the remains of some form of mechanical device (See X-ray above.) Beneath the outer layer of hardened clay, pebbles and fossil inclusions is a hexagonal shaped layer of a substance resembling wood, softer than agate or jasper. This layer forms a casing around a three-quarter inch wide cylinder made of solid white porcelain or ceramic, and in the center of the cylinder is a two millimeter shaft of bright, brassy metal. This shaft, the rock hunters discovered, is magnetic, and after several years of exposure never showed traces of oxidation. Also, surrounding the ceramic cylinder are rings of copper, much of them now corroded. Also embedded in the rock, though separate from the cylinder, are two more man-made items - what look like a nail and a washer. The rock in which the electrical instrument was found was dated by a competent geologist at 500,000 years old. {Many who have seen this object, including this author believe it to be a spark plug of unknown origin. However, it is unlike any known to have been manufactured in the past century on earth.} [8] NAILS * The Illinois Springfield Republican reported in 1851 that a businessman named Hiram de Witt had a piece of auriferous quartz rock about the size of a man's fist. In the center of the quartz they discovered a cut-iron nail, six-penny size, slightly corroded but entirely straight, with a perfect head. The quartz was given an age of over one million years. * In Madrid 1572 there is an account of the Spanish Viceroy in Peru and a strange artifact. Indian miners removed from a subsurface layer of gravel a large conglomerate boulder, and broke it into piece. As the mass shattered to the hammer blow, out of the center of it fell a perfect six-inch nail. The nail was thoroughly examined, and verified its finding. Iron was unknown to the Peruvian Indians. The rock from which the nail was freed was 75,000 to 100,000 years in age. * In 1844, Sir David Brewster made a report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. A nail of obvious human manufacture had been found half-embedded in a sandstone block excavated from the Kindgoodie Quarry near Inchyra, in northern Britain. It was badly corroded, but identifiable nonetheless. The sandstone was determined to be at least 40 million years old. SCREW * In 1865, a two-inch metal screw was discovered in a piece of feldspar unearthed from the Abbey Mine in Treasure City, Nevada. The screw had long ago oxidized, but its form - particularly the shape of its threads - could be clearly seen in the feldspar. The stone was calculated to be 21 million years in age. {Other spring-like objects have been found in the high mountains of Russia, made of molybdenum and iridium.} IRON CUBE * In the fall of 1885, at an iron foundry in Upper Austria, a workman named Riedl was breaking up a block of tertiary brown coal to heat the foundry's giant smelters. Out dropped a strange cube-like object. In 1886, mining engineer Dr. Adolf Gurlt noted that the object, coated with a thin layer of rust, is made of iron and measures 2.64 by 2.64 by 1.85 inches, weighs 1.73 lbs.., and has a specific gravity measurement of 7.75. Four of the iron "cube's" sides are roughly flat, while the two remaining sides - opposite each other - are convex. A fairly deep groove was incised all the way around the object, about mid-way up its height. Other early studies on the iron artifact were in scientific journals of the day as Nature (London; November 11, 1886, page 36) and L'Astronomie (Paris; 1886, page 463). The iron cube is presently in the custody of Herrn O.R. Bernhardt of the Heimathaus Museum in Vocklabruck. In 1966-67, the iron "cube" was carefully analyzed by experts at the Vienna Natural History Museum using electron-beam microanalysis. They found no traces of nickel, chromium or cobalt in the iron - which means the object was not of meteoric origin. No sulfur was detected either, ruling out the chance of it being a pyrite. Because of a low magnesium content, the object was made of cast-iron. In 1973, Hubert Mattlianer concluded from yet another detailed investigation that the object had been made from a hand-sculptured lump of wax or clay pressed into a sand base, this forming the mold into which the iron had been poured. The final conclusion, then, is that the strange object is definitely man-made. What is not explained is what it was doing encased in coal dating to the Tertiary - 60 million years old. METAL NODULES * In 1968, unusual metal nodules were found entombed in an Aptian chalk bed in a quarry at Saint-Jean de Livet. The nodules are reddish brown, wafer-shaped and hollowed at the ends, measuring from 3 to 9 centimeters long and 1 to four centimeters wide. But what had these man-made objects been doing in chalk beds dating toward the end of the Cretaceous - over 120 million years? GOLD CHAIN * On June 9, 1891, Mrs. S.W. Culp of Morrisonville, Illinois was shoveling coal into her kitchen stove when a large lump broke in two and out from the center of it fell a gold chain. The chain was about 10 inches long, made of eight carat gold, weighed 8 pennyweight, and was described as being "of antique and quaint workmanship." Investigators were convinced the chain had not simply been accidentally dropped in with the coal: One portion of the coal lump still clung to the chain, while the part that had separated from it still bore the impression of where the chain had been encased. In this case, the "curious" "dropped out" of a piece of coal from the Pennsylvanian era - over 300 million years old. IRON POT * Similar events produced another metal object of even greater age. In 1912, two employees of the Municipal Electric Plant of Thomas, Oklahoma, were shoveling coal into the plant furnaces, using fuel which had been mined near neighboring Wilberton. One chunk of coal was too large to handle, so the workmen took a sledge hammer to it. Workmen found that the chunk contained an iron pot, and upon its removal, the two coal halves bore the "mold" of the pot in its interiors. Both employees signed affidavits testifying to the authenticity of the discovery, and the iron pot was subsequently examined by several experts - every one of which was most reluctant to comment on the pot, and the circumstances surrounding its discovery. This was most understandable, {?} since the object came from coal dated from 300 to 325 million years. - above excerpted from: <a href="http://www.rense.com/general66/solid.htm">www.rense.com/general66/solid.htm</a> How Solid Matter Can Pass Through Rock Ted Twietmeyer --ex-- Although it may sound implausible, there exists a considerable body of evidence that shows under certain conditions that matter can pass through other matter. This unusual effect is temporary in nature. We will also explore several examples of this phenomena. The term "transparency" or "transparent" refers to a temporary, altered state of an object which permits it to pass through other matter unaffected. This is similar to how a dropped rock falls to the ground without being affected by the air. [ more ] Further links: Other strange items at <a href="http://www.s8int.com/page9.html">www.s8int.com/page9.html</a> More spark plug images at <a href="http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page955.html">www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page955.html</a> **** <a href="http://www.anomaliesandquandaries.homestead.com/index1.html">www.anomaliesandquandarie...ndex1.html</a> Entombed Living Animals: This bizarre phenomena occurs when solid objects such as rocks, minerals, fossils, wood, or coal are split open and reveal living animals, usually reptiles or amphibians. The objects don't have air holes and many are unearthed from far below the surface. In addition, most of the animals crawl out of cavities within the objects, which have formed around their bodies and which are the same size as their bodies. The only explanation for this enigma seems to be that these animals have the ability to hibernate for millions of years. For additional information regarding entombed living animals: The Subversive Element: Stone Entombed Animals <a href="http://www.subversiveelement.com/UniqueEntombedAnimals.html">www.subversiveelement.com...imals.html</a> --ex-- In the later part of the 19th century a venerable lama named Situ Pema Wangyal Rinpoche was making a journey to Lhasa in the company of several friends. One day, much to the alarm of his companions he fell into a wrathful mood and that evening insisted on making camp on a barren plain where neither firewood or water could be found. The next morning, still in a bad humor, he obliged the party to leave the route to Lhasa and to head north to, as far as his companions knew, to nowhere. Since they held him in high esteem though they followed without question. After several hours they came to an enormous outcrop of rock, which Situ announced, it was their duty to break open. Since they had no tools except their wooden staffs, they fared rather poorly at this task. At this point, the lama took his staff and struck the rock a single blow. It shattered, and revealed inside was a large, repulsive looking creature that the lama gently lifted out and placed at his feet. As the salamander like animal panted for breath, Situ sat down and began to perform a certain yoga on the animals behalf. In Tibetan, this yoga is called pho - wa and is usually described as a transfer of consciousness. It is performed by lamas for the benefit of the dying. After a while, the creature died, funeral rites were performed and the creatures body was burned. Afterwards, Situ Rinpoche explained that he had liberated the animal, which in a previous life had had a connection to him, from one of the Hells. In Buddhist description of other realms of existence, these occassional Hells lie outside the main circles of Hell and are sometimes encountered in this world. Very often, they are instanced by the enclosure of a living animal inside solid stone. There are many cases of entombed animals being liberated from solid rock and sometimes even coal. In June 1851 well diggers at Blois, France split open a large flint rock and were startled to find a live toad inside. Another toad was inavertently freed from a solid lump of ore broken up by miners in Derby England, in 1852. And a Scientific American article in 1853 reported the discovery of a horned lizard alive in a block of stone in New Mexico, USA. ** The Unmuseum: Entombed Animals <a href="http://www.unmuseum.org/entombed.htm">www.unmuseum.org/entombed.htm</a> --ex-- Workers doing an excavation in Hartlepool, England, on April 7, 1865, split open a block of magnesium limestone to discover a living toad. The Hartlepool Free Press reported, "The cavity was no larger than its body, and presented the appearance of being cast for it. The toad's eyes shone with unusual brilliancy, and it was full of vivacity on its liberation." The animal was very pale when first discovered with a color similar to that of the rock that had encased it, but later the toad turned to an olive-brown. "It appeared," the Free Press continued, "when first discovered, desirous to perform the process of respiration, but evidently experienced some difficulty, and the only sign of success consisted of a 'barking' noise, which it continues to make invariably at present on being touched. The toad is in the possession of Mr. S. Horner, the president of the Natural Historical Society, and continues in as lively a state as when found. On a minute examination of its mouth it is found to be completely closed, and the barking noise it makes proceeds from its nostrils. The claws of its fore feet are turned inwards, and its hind ones are of extraordinary length and unlike the present English toad." . . . In 1856 workmen in France were digging a tunnel for a railway line through some Jurassic limestone when a large creature stumbled out from inside. It flapped it wings, croaked, and then died. Workers said it had a 10-foot wingspan, black leathery skin and a toothed mouth. It was identified by a paleontology student as a pterodactyl... *** Living fossils <a href="http://www.qsl.net/w5www/livingfossils.html">www.qsl.net/w5www/livingfossils.html</a> Grooved Spheres (South Africa): Silver miners in South Africa have discovered hundreds of strangely grooved small metallic spheres embedded in sedimentary rock which is almost 3 billion years old. When one of the spheres was split open, a spongy material was found inside. The rock containing the spheres is soft while the spheres are hard and resist scratching. How they were grooved is as big an enigma as who created them. For additional information see: Grooved Sphere from South Africa, 2.8 Billion Years Old: UFO Area Conspiracies: 3-Billion Year Old Manufactured Spheroids? Grooved Sphere from South Africa, 2.8 Billion Years Old: <<a href="http://www.chez.com/lesovnis/htm/transvaalspheres.htm>">www.chez.com/lesovnis/htm...heres.htm></a> UFO Area Conspiracies: 3-Billion Year Old Manufactured Spheroids? <<a href="http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_ancient_spheroids.html>">www.ufoarea.com/aas_ancie...oids.html></a> --ex-- 3-Billion Year Old Manufactured Spheres? Source: Para-normal.com <<a href="http://www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/index.php>">www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/index.php></a> At least 200 have been found, and extracted out of deep rock at the Wonderstone Silver Mine in South Africa, averaging 1-4 inches in dia. and composed of a nickel-steel alloy that doesn't occur naturally. Some have a thin shell about a quarter inch thick, when broken open are filled with a strange spongy material that disintegrates into dust upon contact with air. A complete mystery according to Roelf Marx curator of the South African Klerksdorp Museum, as the one he has on exibit rotates on its own, ,locked in a display case, free of outside vibrations. The manufactured metallic spheroids have been mined out of a layer of pyrophyllite rock. Geologically and by the various radio-isotope dating techniques they are shown as being 2.8 - 3 billion years old, long before the emergence of humans. Somebody or Something obviously has been around for a long time, before primivive humans. They also baffled NASA, according to info from the Museum. Mystery Spheres Baffle NASA Stones, which are billions of years old and rotate on their axes, captured the attention of Mr. John Hund of Pietersburg fifteen years ago. Review previously published reports about Hund's journey to the Gestoptesfontein mine near Ottosdal in the Northern Province (South Africa) where he found a stone just like the one he read about and saw in the Klerksdorp museum. While playing with the stone on a very flat surface at a restaurant one day, Hund realized it was very well balanced. He took it to the California Space Institute at the University of California to have tests done to determine just how well balanced it was. "It turned out that the balance is so fine, it exceeded the limit of their measuring technology and these are the guys who make gyrocompasses for NASA. The stone is balanced to within one-hundred thousandths of an inch from absolute perfection," explains Hund. Nobody knows what these stones are. One NASA scientist told Hund that they do not have the technology to create anything as finely balanced as this. He said the only way that either nature or human technology could create something so finely balanced would be in zero gravity. Here is an extract of Mr. Hund's letter: The existence of the sphere came to my attention ca 1977 while removing endangered rock engravings from the site where pyrophyllite or "wonderstone", as it is commonly known in the region, is mined on the farm Gestoptefontein (meaning plugged fountain) near the little village of Ottosdal about 110 km from Klerksdorp in South Africa's Northwest Province. I was intrigued by the form of the spheres, grooves around the middle and the fact that they are as hard as steel, while the material (pyrophyllite) in which they are found, is as soft as limestone with a count of only 3 on the Moh scale. As you probably know, pyrophyllite (Al2 Si4 O10 (OH)2) is a secondary mineral and the deposits were formed by a process of sedimentation. On Gestoptefontein volcanic activity was responsible for the forming of outcrops varying in height from about 10 to 100 meters. The smooth and relatively soft surface on the slopes were ideal for the prehistoric dwellers (San) to make their engravings of animal and abstract designs. On Gestoptefontein these outcrops were "swan" into huge pieces by means of twisted steel cables running zig-zag on pulleys for several kilometers. These blocks were then sawn by the same method into more manageable pieces of about 500 x 500 mm. Occasionally the "sawing cable" got stuck on one of the metal spheres embedded in the pyrophyllite. According to Professor Andries Bisschoff of the University of Potchefstroom (retired some years ago) they are limonite concretions. Due to the relative scarcity of the spheres and the almost impossibility for outsiders to obtain samples from the mine, his conclusions have not been verified by other scientists. It is very strange that the grooves are always and only round the center. Mr. Credo Mutwa, a notorious witch doctor from the city of Soweto was brought to the museum by a TV - team some years ago and he as well as some amateur archaeologists believed the spheres to be from outer space. It is also hard for me to believe their theory. The original sphere exhibited in this museum was stolen by a white sangoma (witch - doctor) - not Mr. Mutwa, for its supposedly magic qualities and was never retrieved. [ more ] Regrdz! Starman

by **human** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:06 pm

linear time is illusion. (is what i end up thinking) you might find Michael Cremo's books interesting... Forbidden Archaeology & Human Devolution (if you havent already checked them) its interesting to read Credo Mutawa described as above... he is David Icke's favorite guy... one human?

by **marykmusic** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:43 pm

Credo is indeed an amazing gentleman. We have Icke's 6-hour video interview of him, as well as at least one book he wrote. I cannot imagine him called "notorious" except that something must be lost in the translation. Live animals in stone... reminds me of the time-travel of the U.S.S. Eldridge in 1943. When the ship showed up in Norfolk after disappearing from the Philadelphia navy yard, several men were imbedded within the structure of the ship. Others never recovered their sanity. The Montauk books (and others) by Preston Nichols and Peter Moon are a treasure-trove of interesting stories such as that... I just finished The Music of Time, which was a great read. --MaryK

by **PeterofLoneTree** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:09 am

One possible explanation for the tree stump with axe marks from 94' down: From: <a href="http://asms.k12.ar.us/armem/richards/">asms.k12.ar.us/armem/richards/</a> "In December of 1811, a the largest earthquake ever recorded in American History started. This earthquake, called the New Madrid Earthquake because of its primary location on the New Madrid Fault, near New Madrid, Missouri. From the effects of the 1811-1812 earthquakes, it can be estimated that they had a magnitude of 8.0 or higher on the not yet invented Richter scale. Large areas sank into the earth, new lakes were formed, and the Mississippi River changed its course due to the earthquakes".

by **Starman** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:06 am

The New Madrd Fault earthquakes occurring over a two-year period from 1811-1813 sure were remarkable for their extent, duration and peak intensity -- but I don't think they explain the strange finding. While reviewing info on the quakes I couldn't find anything to suggest the Ohio region would have been affected enough to bury trees so deeply. <a href="http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/index.htm">hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/index.htm</a> Good map showing relative severity of affected area; --quote-- Among them are three earthquakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812 near New Madrid, MO. They are among the Great earthquakes of known history, affecting the topography more than any other earthquake on the North American continent. Judging from their effects, they were of a magnitude of 8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale. They were felt over the entire United States outside of the Pacific coast. Large areas sank into the earth, new lakes were formed, the course of the Mississippi River was changed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres. Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. But fatalities and damage were low, because the area was sparsely settled then. *** <a href="http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt1.htm">hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt1.htm</a> Eyewitness record: --excerpt-- On the 16th of December, 1811, about two o'clock, A.M., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a very awful noise resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere, with sulphurious vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go, or what to do - the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species - the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi - the current of which was retrogade for a few minutes, owing as is supposed, to an irruption in its bed -- formed a scene truly horrible. From that time until about sunrise, a number of lighter shocks occurred; at which time one still more violent than the first took place, with the same accompaniments as the first, and the terror which had been excited in everyone, and indeed in all animal nature, was now, if possible doubled. The inhabitants fled in every direction to the country, supposing (if it can be admitted that their minds can be exercised at all) that there was less danger at a distance from, than near to the river. In one person, a female, the alarm was so great that she fainted, and could not be recovered. There were several shocks of a day, but lighter than those already mentioned until the 23d of January, 1812, when one occurred as violent as the severest of the former ones, accompanied by the same phenomena as the former. From this time until the 4th of February the earth was in continual agitation, visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day there was another shock, nearly as hard as the proceeding ones. Next day four such, and on the 7th about 4 o'clock A.M., a concussion took place so much more violent than those that had proceeded it, that it was dominated the hard shock. The awful darkness of the atmosphere, which was formerly saturated with sulphurious vapor, and the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise that accompanied it, together with all of the other phenomena mentioned as attending the former ones, formed a scene, the description of which would require the most sublimely fanciful imagination. At first the Mississippi seemed to recede from its banks, and its waters gathering up like a mountain, leaving for the moment many boats, which were here on their way to New Orleans, on bare sand, in which time the poor sailors made their escape from them. It then rising fifteen to twenty feet perpendicularly, and expanding, as it were, at the same moment, the banks were overflowed with the retrogade current, rapid as a torrent - the boats which before had been left on the sand were now torn from their moorings, and suddenly driven up a little creek, at the mouth of which they laid, to the distance in some instances, of nearly a quarter of a mile. The river falling immediately, as rapid as it had risen, receded in its banks again with such violence, that it took with it whole groves of young cotton-wood trees, which ledged its borders. They were broken off which such regularity, in some instances, that persons who had not witnessed the fact, would be difficultly persuaded, that is has not been the work of art. A great many fish were left on the banks, being unable to keep pace with the water. The river was literally covered with the wrecks of boats, and 'tis said that one was wrecked in which there was a lady and six children, all of whom were lost. In all the hard shocks mentioned, the earth was horribly torn to pieces - the surface of hundreds of acres, was, from time to time, covered over, in various depths, by the sand which issued from the fissures, which were made in great numbers all over this country, some of which closed up immediately after they had vomited forth their sand and water, which it must be remarked, was the matter generally thrown up. In some places, however, there was a substance somewhat resembling coal, or impure stone coal, thrown up with the sand. It is impossible to say what the depths of the fissures or irregular breaks were; we have reason to believe that some of them are very deep. The site of this town was evidently settled down at least fifteen feet, and not more than a half a mile below the town there does not appear to be any alteration on the bank of the river, but back from the river a small distance, the numerous large ponds or lakes, as they are called, which covered a great part of the country were nearly dried up. The beds of some of them are elevated above their former banks several feet, producing an alteration of ten, fifteen to twenty feet, from their original state. And lately it has been discovered that a lake was formed on the opposite side of the Mississippi, in the Indian country, upwards of one hundred miles in length, and from one to six miles in width, of the depth of ten to fifty feet. It has communication with the river at both ends, and it is conjectured that it will not be many years before the principal part, if not the whole of the Mississippi, will pass that way. ****** This is an extraordinary description of an incredible event -- I hadn't ever read anything so detailed about the New Madrid Fault earthquakes, which apparently consisted of some 2000 separate quakes and tremors occurring over a wide area and even over several days, during a one-year time frame. However, best descriptions I can find don't accord with such a tremendous subsidence as would be necessary to explain the stump recovered at 94 feet, nor was anywhere sufficiently severe effects experienced in Ohio or proximate to the Ohio river. The actual sinking of large or smaller areas of ground were probably no more than dozens of feet at the most. More detailed witness testimony of earthquake effects: <a href="http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt2.htm">hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt2.htm</a> --excerpt-- "On December 15, 1811, John Bradbury, a Scottish naturalist, was headed down the Mississippi River with a party of boatmen. They were tied up for the night just upstream from the Chicksaw Bluffs (the future Memphis) and Bradbury was fast asleep when "a most tremendous noise" panicked the group. "All nature seemed running into chaos," he later wrote, "as wild fowl fled, trees snapped and river banks tumbled into the water." Bradbury recorded twenty-seven shocks. "Called the New Madrid Earthquake, largely because New Madrid (Missouri) was the closest settlement, the quake acturally began along the Saint Francis River in Arkansas some sixty-five miles southwest of New Madrid. Bradbury was closer to the epicenter than the residents of the town of New Madrid who were awakened by shaking houses and falling chimneys. "After the first December rumbling, jolts continued. One Louisville observer recorded 1,874 separate quakes between December and March. During this time the epicenter moved closer to New Madrid, and on February 7 the residents deserted what once had bid fair to become the metropolis of the middle Mississippi River. The houses had fallen, and possibly even the land on which the town stood had sunk by March. . . . "Actually, the 1811-1812 earthquake was merely a continuation in a series which included rumblings in 1699, 1776, 1779, 1792, 1795, and 1804. These predecessor quakes were quite possibly even stronger; and some of the changes later credited to the New Madrid Quake probably came earlier. In time, the quake was credited with causing the Mississippi River to flow backward, with creating the "Sunk Lands" in the Saint Francis River Valley, in raising Crowley's Ridge, and creating Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. "If another quake of the magnitude of the New Madrid Quake of 1811 should hit the region, it would be the worst natural disaster in American history. Especially vulnerable are buildings of brick and concrete. Almost all of downtown Memphis would fall. The highways and interstate systems would be shattered and bridges destroyed. Massive gas line ruptures would threaten life and property. If the Mississippi River were already near flood stage, the destruction of levees could result in the flooding of perhaps a quarter of the state (of Arkansas). Overall the loss of life could run into the hundreds of thousands. ***** <a href="http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt3.htm">hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/accnt3.htm</a> This map shows the prime damage area as located where the states of Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Kansas and Arkansas meet -- including a portion of the Missouri river running into the Mississippi, as well as the Mississippi itself. Also more eyewitness testimony (but not as detailed as previously cited), concluding with: 14 April 1813 "We lived to make it to Pigeon Roost. We did not lose any lives but we had aplenty troubles. As much as I love my place in Kentucy - I never want to go back. From December to April no man - woman or animal if they could talk would dare to believe what we lived through. From what people say it was not that bad here - They felt the ground move and shake but it did not destroy cabins and trees like it did in Kentucky. I guess that things was as bad here but at least they could see the enemy. on 3 September 1812 the Shawnees that William thought was friendly went crazy and them savages killed twenty four people...." ** <a href="http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/hough/mitchill.html">pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/offi...chill.html</a> A detailed narrative description of the New Madrid earthquakes from individual sources prepared by US Representative Samual Mitchell and read before the NY Literary and Philosophical Society in Jan 1814, recording events between Dec. 16, 1811 and Dec. 18, 1813 -- comprising the entire Midwest, from NY and Washington, including Virginia and Louisianna and Alabama all the way to Michigan. What's esp. intriguing are widespread reports of sulpherous coal and carbonized wood and hot/warm water being expelled from holes in the ground, and fires/flames being observed in the area accompanying many quakes. Very freaky. I note, some 150,000 acres of forest in the main states affected were destroyed -- but whether by flooding, toppling, or forest fires isn't made explicit. Starman

by **gwbushmalecheerleader** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:20 am

Starman, I like this stuff. But the first story baffles me: How did they dig this well? Did they drill it? Dig it? I am not familiar with how 1826 welldiggers went 94ft, but today they use a drill 2 inches wide. Certainly that would not bring up a stump. How did 1826 well diggers do their wells?

by **gwbushmalecheerleader** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:37 am

You might enjoy this: <a href="http://www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_relics_/strange_relics_.html">www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_...lics_.html</a>

by **Starman** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:13 pm

Heyia GWBMC; Water-wells have a long history going back at least a couple thousand years, consisting of pits or deeper shafts (about a meter in diameter) dug-into the ground down to several hundred feet and lined with stone, mud-brick or even wood planks where necessary to keep loose layers from being displaced. Primitive rock-drilling drifts and punches, similiar to those used in early tunneling and mining, were used to break through rock and limestone strata. Before the development of steam-driven cable tool (percussion) drilling equipment and the use of double-wall casing pipe in the late 19th century, and later rotary-drill technology, wells were excavated and dug-out by hand, using human or animal-powered windlasses to raise buckets of excavated material to the surface. In excavating some early 18th and 19th century wells, gunpowder charges may have been used to assist breaking-up esp. hard, rock structures, similiar to the use of dynamite (and later, nitro and shaped-charges) in tunneling, road-work and mining. An archeological discussion of ancient water-wells: <a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/assem/issue7/thomas.html">www.shef.ac.uk/assem/issue7/thomas.html</a> Here's a source that claims well-drilling technology was first developed for deep brine-wells: <a href="http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/salt.htm">www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/salt.htm</a> "Well-digging technology was first developed for wells producing brine that was evaporated to make salt. One early location was Zigong in China, where natural gas was also available for heating the evaporation pans. Bamboo was used for pipes. The wells had wooden derricks, and were emptied by baling. The percussion drills were equipped with "jars" to improve the impact. This was very similar to the cable tools used extensively in the United States. The drilling methods were taken from the Kanawha Valley in Virginia to Pennsylvania by Edwin Clark to drill for oil instead. Rotary tools were imported from Russia around 1900 to drill in the soft sediments of the Gulf Coast, and rotary tools were also applied to brine wells. The invention of the rock bit by Hughes allowed rotary tools to dominate, since now they could attack hard rock even better than cable tools could." * Here's a description of digging a shaft by hand in tapping into an aquifer as the first step in constructing the elaborate gravity-fed system of underground conduits that comprise Iran's quanats, supplying the majority of the nation's fresh water needs: <a href="http://users.bart.nl/~leenders/txt/qanats.html">users.bart.nl/~leenders/txt/qanats.html</a> "Two diggers, called muqanni, take up this task. They set up a windlass at the surface to haul up the excavated material in leather buckets and proceed to dig a vertical shaft about three feet in diameter, one man working with a mattock and the other with a short-handled spade. As they load the spoil in the buckets, two workers at the surface pull it up with the windlass and pile it around the mouth of the shaft. If luck is with them, the diggers may strike an aquifer at a depth of 50 feet or less. Sometimes, however, they dig down 200 to 300 feet to reach water, and this necessitates installing a relay of windlasses at stages 100 feet apart on the way down." And, while not bearing on the original topic at all, I found the following description of Iran's remarkable quanats quite fascinating, so include it here: "The qanat system consists of underground channels that convey water from aquifers in highlands to the surface at lower levels by gravity. The qanat works of Iran were built on a scale that rivaled the great aqueducts of the Roman Empire. Whereas the Roman aqueducts now are only a historical curiosity, the Iranian system is still in use after 3,000 years and has continually been expanded. There are some 22,000 qanat units in Iran, comprising more than 170,000 miles of underground channels. The system supplies 75 percent of all the water used in that country, providing water not only for irrigation but also for house-hold consumption. Until recently (before the building of the Karaj Dam) the million inhabitants of the city of Tehran depended on a qanat system tapping the foothills of the Elburz Mountains for their entire water supply. . . . (quanats) deliver a total of 19,500 cubic feet of water per second - an amount equivalent to 75 percent of discharge of the Euphrates River into the Mesopotamian plain. This volume of water production would be sufficient to irrigate three million acres of arid land for cultivation if it were used entirely for agriculture. It has made a garden of what would otherwise have an uninhabitable desert. There are indications that in early times the country had a flourishing vegetation that gradually dried up, partly because of deforestation and the loss of fertile soil by erosion. The Persian people responded to potential disaster with an (innovative?) and farsighted solution that is a classic tribute to human resourcefulness." Jeez, imagine that -- the system is over 3000 years old, and consists of over 170,000 miles of underground channels! I'm constantly delighted at the unexpected vistas arising when researching one topic leads to other fascinating discoveries. BTW: Thanks for the Nasca/Strange Relics link; Are you familiar with Fortean Times, dedicated to exploring 'stange phenomena'? <a href="http://www.forteantimes.com/index.php">www.forteantimes.com/index.php</a> Good source for current news articles, article archives and related-topic links. Also, what looks interesting: <a href="http://www.rinf.com/">www.rinf.com/</a> "A non profit alternative media streaming site, with videos and audio articles on eclectic subjects, including The CIA on LSD, the 9/11 hearings and nanotechnology." Starman <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/pimp.gif ALT=":hat">

by **winsomecowboy** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:10 pm

I visit daily,have done for months. It's always educational although sometimes the frustration associated with my ignorance and its associated impotence makes me feel a little overwhelmed. I respect those of you who keep on going forward. That said I have to confess to being an international pantomime by proffession. I find humour helps. This link is an attempt at answering some, if not all, of these anomalies. <a href="http://www.venganza.org/">www.venganza.org/</a>

by **gwbushmalecheerleader** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:22 am

I had no idea that recorded well digging goes back almost 10,000 years. Incredible. Just finished the first link. I always like going back in time... Gonna check out the Fortean link now. Thanks.

by **gwbushmalecheerleader** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:34 am

This is from BBC link I found on Forteantimes link. It has to be a misprint, right???: "Ancient bone not from monkey spy Monkey bone The bone was found on a beach near Hartlepool Hopes of unravelling the mystery of the legendary Hartlepool monkey - said to have been hanged as a Napoleonic spy - have been scuppered by science. Earlier this month archaeologists hoped a leg bone found in the sea close to the town could have been from a monkey. Folklore says a French ship was wrecked off Hartlepool in the Napoleonic Wars. A monkey found in the water was hanged by fishermen fearing it was a spy. However, tests show the bone to be from a prehistoric deer. The mystery was solved by experts from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Durham and Tees Archaeology. Peter Rowe, of Tees Archaeology, said: "We could tell straight away that the bone was ancient. It has a tell-tale black surface which suggests that it has come from a prehistoric peat bed. Tribes of hunters "It's also partly fossilised, which is something we don't often see - it could well be one of the oldest artefacts ever to be found on Teesside." Tees Archaeology took the bone to the University of Durham where zoo archaeologist Peter Rowley-Conwy identified it as the shin bone of a red deer. The bone probably dates from at least 6,000 years ago - a time when Britain was still part of mainland Europe. Herds of deer would have migrated across the land followed by tribes of hunters who prized them for their meat, skins and antlers." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Huh??? Am I the only one that thinks Britain wasn't connected to the mainland 6,000 years ago??

Anomalies Explained? Living Fossils, pre-Ancient Artifacts

Anomalies Explained? Living Fossils, pre-Ancient Artifacts

linear time is illusion

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Anomlies Explained?

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Re: Anomalies Explained? Living Fossils, pre-Ancient Artifac

Re: Anomalies Explained? Living Fossils, pre-Ancient Artifac

re: pre-modern well-digging methods

anomalies

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Re: re: pre-modern well-digging methods

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