A number of people have written over the past couple of days that I must surely have lost the remaining bits of my mind to question something so “obviously true” as Stonehenge, which as a video recounts was substantially “made up” in the period of modern history since 1900. No, I don’t think so…and you may have more questions when I waltz you through a few…well let’s call them inconvenient truths.
I use the term “made up” advisedly because I am not entirely sure of how much latitude should be given to the Stonehenge “reconstructors” who went about finding stones on the ground and then placed them where they believed them to belong and then insist that theirs is the only true possibility and that none other may exist. How much of the embedded “advanced knowledge” and presumed astronomical usage was due to liberties in stone placement?
Let me back up a bit for some broader context where I’ll give you some important insight into how our view of history shapes modern thought. On the one side of this discussion you have alternative archeology where a wide range of names like Eric Von Däniken, Graham Hancock, and Anatoly Fomenko may be found. Some hint of extra-human events is in these, for sure.
Yet on the other side are the defenders of the current ruling paradigm and those who (citing the science they were taught) espouse a worldview that may also not be precisely as presented.
No worries, this other side also believes in extra-human events, except that they hold the current intellectual high ground having their views “officialized” in rituals promoted at the State level in numerous Western and Middle Eastern countries. And toss in an Italian area city-state, if you care to round it out.
To make this a short dig into intellectual archeology, we begin with a fellow by the name of Julius Caesar Scaliger. “Who?” Right on…Wiki me, bro:
“Julius Caesar Scaliger (or Giulio Cesare della Scala) (April 23, 1484 – October 21, 1558) was an Italian scholar and physician who spent a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance humanism to defend Aristotelianism against the new learning. In spite of his arrogant and contentious disposition, his contemporary reputation was high, judging him so distinguished by his learning and talents that, according to Jacques August de Thou, none of the ancients could be placed above him, and the age in which he lived could not show his equal.’
“Well, what’s wrong with that?” you’re asking. Nothing, except some puffery in his bio if you dig into it, but follow the trail with me:
Julius had a son, by the name of Joseph Justus Scaliger who rewrote a good bit of history in his “Study on the Improvement of Time” and elsewhere. This, in turn was in some respects what the early Brits thought their heritage was all about, along with a 9th century monk by the name of Nennius. While there were others we can get a sense of how British history was cobbled up.
Let’s back up. Takeing a few “liberties” with historical accounts was not uncommon. A careful read of the Wiki entry on Scaliger (the elder) hints in this direction:
- On his own account
When he was twelve, his kinsman the emperor Maximilian placed him among his pages. He remained for seventeen years in the service of the emperor, distinguishing himself as a soldier and as a captain. He studied art under Albrecht Dürer.
In 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna, where his father and elder brother were killed, he displayed valour, and received the highest honours of chivalry from his imperial cousin, who conferred upon him with his own hands the Order of the Golden Spur, augmented with the collar and the eagle of gold. But this was the only reward he obtained.
He left the service of Maximilian, and after a brief employment by another kinsman, the duke of Ferrara, he decided to quit the military life, and in 1514 entered as a student at the University of Bologna. He decided to take holy orders, in the expectation that he would become cardinal, and then pope, when he would wrest from the Venetians his duchy of Verona, of which the republic had despoiled his ancestors. He soon gave up this plan, but remained at the university until 1519.
The next six years he passed at the castle of Vico Nuovo, in Piedmont, as a guest of the Della Rovere, at first dividing his time between military expeditions in the summer, and study, chiefly of medicine and natural history, in the winter, until a severe attack of rheumatic gout brought his military career to a close.
Henceforth his life was wholly devoted to study. In 1525 he accompanied Antonio della Rovera, bishop of Agen, to that city as his physician. Such is the outline of his own account of his early life.
- Later account
It was not until some time after his death that the enemies of his son first alleged that he was not of the family of La Scala, but was the son of Benedetto Bordone, an illuminator or schoolmaster of Verona; that he was educated at Padua, where he took the degree of M.D.; and that the story of his life and adventures before arriving at Agen was a tissue of fables. It certainly is supported by no other evidence than his own statements, some of which are inconsistent with well-ascertained facts.“
“”You mean the elder Scaliger stretched the Truth a good bit and made up history to suit himself?” Yes, it seems so. And that’s where things get interesting to my way of thinking. Seems there’s a pattern of history being written, or seriously contexted by winners. Stalin killed millions more than Hitler yet he was on the winning side…that sort of thing.
With so many folks pointing to Nennius and Scaliger’s writings (which include obvious parallels to Roman and Byzantine events projected ex post facto into more modern times) why should anything from the period be completely trusted?
This historical revisionism is slowly being outed…and in much the same way that Graham Hancock has started to out early man as a druggie when he could, there has been some good Russian work in this “old lies oft told” area.
I happen to be a fan of A.T., Fomenko’s alternative work in history. Perhaps because the academic world has unleashed harsh attacks on his methods, as in this example over here, but when you come down to it, Fomenko is a serious (no bullshit) smart guy.
That criticism piece (a doctoral dissertation if you took time to read it) looks long and hard at Fomenko, yet is unquestioning of Scaliger of the prevailing Western paradigm. Moreover, it argued (in 2004) China was already being subdued by the Great Khan when Columbus began his “explorations.”
But surprise, surprise! Not quite! A year after this dissertation, out comes Charles C. Mann’s book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus which, as I told you some years back, documents how the Chinese were already global circumnavigators. And about the Chinese treasure fleet’s return to China before Columbus took off?
(Admiral – GU )…Zheng He returned from his voyages to find a new emperor, whose court was uninterested, even hostile, to the continuation of his naval adventures.
After Zheng He’s voyages, the treasure ships were decommissioned, and sat in harbours until they rotted away. Some suggest that the Emperor ordered the treasure ships and records to be burned, although exact information on their fate is not known.”
From these later emerging details, we can infer that Fomenko, like it or not, may be hot on the trail of Western historical revisionism. And this, my good reader, is why I remain this morning skeptical of swallowing all tales Stonehenge.
If you might be tempted to relinquish Fomenko’s works to the trash, please be advised that his writing in mathematics alone are best of class (some of which are listed here) and if you want to learn differential geometry and the magic of multi-varifolds in 3D spaces, you could do worse than study Fomenko’s co-authored Minimal Surfaces, Stratified Multivarifolds, and the Plateau Problem, Translations of Mathematical Monographs 84, Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, pp. ix+404, ISBN 0-8218-4536-5, MR 1093903, Zbl 0716.53003 . with Tr?ng Thi ?ào,
Not enough street creds? Seems to me that a mathematician would be ideal to study history since they may be more inclined that the “classically trained” to assemble facts and sift out revisions.
Speaking of Fomenko I’m trying to find a copy of his New Methods of Statistical Analysis of Historical Texts. Applications to Chronology. Antiquity in the Middle Ages. Greek and Bible History. Vols.1, 2, 3. – Edwin Mellen Press. USA. Lewiston. Queenston. Lampeter, 1999. if you happen to run across one as a sub-orbital price. The “short version” of sorts is over here which lays out some of his “Let’s apply math to history and see what rings true…” approach. Application of mathematic forensics to historical works for me.
Which gets me to Fomenko’s take on British history (ala Nennius & Scaliger, et al), which we find in his History: Fiction or Science? Chronology Vol.IV. where we find rather elegantly sketched out on page 571 a sketch showing how early writers apparently time-shifted a good bit of Byzantium’s history forward 200-275 years and repacked local tales into English history as sold today:
Do I recommend Fomenko’s books? Hell yes! Do I recommend believing hook, line, and sinker all tales of Stonehenge? No, sorry old boy. As none reader said, perhaps best:
Hi George;
Insomnia on the road again.
I put your headline above in Google and came up with this: http://askville.amazon.com/true-Stonehenge-largely-fraud/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=384015
Pretty obvious where the guy on YouTube got his, “evidence”, from. Probably some book about one of the major restorations.
But I must admit, it does beg the question: if the thing has stood for over 3,500 years as claimed – why has it needed so much work over the last 100 years or so to keep it intact? Hmmm……
Like the headline says: I’m only 50% on Stonehenge and 30% or maybe less on Scaliger.
It would be as if I were able to rewrite my own history. What would I call myself?
I will label myself a doctor, healer, shaman, technologist and list a few patents…..I figure two out of five would approximate Scaliger’s accuracy upon which whole layers of Western belief have been founded. My history would be revered as long as enemies didn’t arise and the PTB held to the beliefs I propose.
If you want to step out back, I can find some rocks and rearrange them based on science and method and prove this part of East Texas is where the Mayflower landed.
Still in all seriousness there is an out of place pile of rounded river rocks not native to this area which have collapsed in such a way to be appear to likely be a chimney from historical times. But for me to reconstruct that and place belief that the family who lived in that cabin were named Smith and held high astronomical events? Puh-lease!
We can believe science to a demonstrable point, but beyond there it becomes highly rationalized speculation, and that was my point on Tuesday and it’s worth thinking about more this morning.
Reader’s Writes
Reader Anthony has a fine perspective on current events…
Been trying to process the Snowden stuff. Read Bamford’s Puzzle Palace years ago, so, intellectually at least, no big thing. But. But, emotionally a different matter. Kind of like, being told, late in life that you were adopted. I still love my parents, as I still love my country, but it is some how different.
The bit of information that puts everything in a new light: the night before Clapper testified before Congress and told Wyden and the American people some less than true things about NSA, he had been given the
questions that he would be asked. Now, is this standard practice? If
so, then all Congressional hearings are dog-and-pony shows, erh,
political theater. So how was Mr Clapper punished for his lie? He
was given the task of reforming the NSA!
OK, time for comic relief. A rodeo clown, at the Missouri State Fair (for those who do not know it, a rodeo is a form of folk theater) has
been banished for life from performing there!!! His offense???
Wearing an Obama mask and suggesting that bull should trample him. Now the job of a rodeo clown is to get the bull away from the fallen rider, So, wearing an Obama mask and running away was the right thing to do, confronted with a Republican bull.
If you use the Poor Peoples Polling Service – google “impeach Obama” – you get 65 million hits, but if you google “rodeo clown” you get 105
million hits. What does this tell us? Well. that some clown just
pulled the get rich and famous card out of the deck of life, and will be seen, soon, on Letterman.
As the Old Hippy said, I don’t need to smoke weed anymore, I get off watching the evening news. It is all theater folks, it is all theater.
Well, except with the doobies you don’t get 18-minutes per hour of “Buy this now!” and “Tell your Doctor.”
Although next time I go in to see my doc for further oil exploration in my left arm, I have about 10-pages (single-spaced) of things I’m supposed to tell him…
Router Cooking
Then there was this note from my pal Bill about the four wi-fi routers here at the ranch which drive four computers and three Kindles in the house, five computers pushing nine screens, another Kindle, an Android and a partridge in a pear tree in the office…
So a good friend of mine was an FAA Engineer/Microwave guy for 30 years. He collected a lot of knowledge about the effects of radiation at different frequencies. Told me that first bad place is 220Mc, next is 800 and above and especially 2.4Ghz type stuff. So frequencies are not all created equal as to their effect. And that means that your working in high RF environments don’t matter if they were below 22OMc.
One other thing. I have a router because I have, when they are all hooked up and turned on, 3 computers running right now. Two desktops, one Laptop. NOTE my router is NOT WIFI. I do not use any WIFI stuff in my house. All Cat 5 cables, works fine. Much more secure too than WIFI.
Just thought I would throw in a few tidbits to gum up the works.
bill
No gum in this: Actually, the key thing to know is that ionizing radiation actually picks up significantly above about 10 MHz and every real serious ham radio station always has a Maximum Permissible Exposure study on file in order to assure compliance with RF exposure limits. My old one is over here if you want to look at one…
So yes, I’m aware of the issues but I haven’t noticed any adverse health effects so far. Except, of course that I ding every few minutes and I have an uncontrollable impulse to turn myself over and look for a START button…
Things Ahead
Got a lot of emails I’m just starting to catch up on, since I’ve been putting so much time into research on the Peoplenomics/trading/Kondratiev side of the house and still tuning the server and underlying apps for best performance (and doing this stuff is non-trivial when it comes to time sinks).
I have a marvelous long report that came in as the Ramblings from Ray series, and if I can get his permission, I may post a Rambling’s from Ray under Sunday Ketchup…he’s a good thinker, writer, and such…contributions like his (and yours, if you make them) are what keep us on top of the game here.
Well, that’s it…here at the ranch, Thursday is trash day. We wonder if that will carry into markets today or not…but the preopen sure looks like it.