My adventures at the Bosnian pyramid complex in Visoko, Bosnia in the summer and fall of 2011 and my continuing adventures in ancient civilizations research.
"Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations" (1999)
by Jock Doubleday March 26, 2013
THERE IS SO MUCH NONSENSE in Robert M. Schoch's book, Voices
of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations,
that it's hard to keep up with it.
Almost every page of the book boasts unsubstantiated, diversionary, reductionistic, and simply nonsensical
statements in the guise of academic discourse.
The subtitle of the book, "A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations," is a misnomer. There is no scientist at the helm of this book but something strange and spooky.
Robert Milton Schoch Associate Professor of Natural Sciences at the College of General Studies, a two-year non-degree-granting unit of Boston University
Robert Schoch'sVoices of the Rocks, written by a Yale PhD in geology and geophysics, presents itself as a book of plain science, by which the author takes us on a journey of reasonable exploration. But in fact it is a book of witchcraft science, by which the author uses jargon word incantations to cast a smoky spell over his readers.
Fortunately, this spell can be broken with simple research and a skoch of common sense.
The Piri Reis Map
Let's look briefly at Schoch's bizarre
treatment of the Piri Reis map in Chapter 4, "Looking for the Lost
Cities":
Piri Reis map, 1513 (the only surviving fragment)
For reasons unknown, Schoch spends three pages trying to debunk the undebunkable
Piri Reis map, or, more accurately, trying to debunk the small fragment of Reis's map that is the only fragment to have survived into modern times. Schoch uses his trademark method of "investigation by
insinuation," or "science by surmise," also known as the Lazy Man's Science, finallyconcluding:
"The Piri Reis map contains no information of indisputably ancient origin, and the supposed coast of Antarctica could well be the lower reach of South America instead."
There is no truth to be found
in Schoch's two statements above. Let's look at Schoch's statements one by one.
First, the Piri Reis map is in fact of indisputably ancient origin, because Piri Reis
could not otherwise have drawn it in 1513 AD (Islamic year 919 AH).
Turkish Admiral Piri Reis
Reis states on the map itself that the map is based on 20 source maps: eight from the 4th century BC, six contemporary with Piri Reis, and six for which Reis gives no date.
How do we know for certain that Reis used ancient source maps? Because he depicted part of the coastline of Antarctica, the entire continent of which, in Piri Reis's time, had not been visible for at least 4,500 years. How could Reis have known what the coastline looked like? The answer is that he could not have known, unless he had access to maps created, at minimum, 4,500 years earlier, when Antarctica was at least to some extent ice free.
Many of the source maps Reis used must themselves have been based on even more ancient maps. Because accurate maps were so important to seafaring peoples, maps were constantly being compared, copied, and improved. An accurate map in ancient times was without any doubt whatsoever the most precious item onboard a seagoing ship.
Second, Schoch concludes that Reis's depiction of Antarctica may not be Antarctica at all but in fact
simply the lower reaches of South America, a conclusion that only a nonscientist could make.
The sole evidence that Schoch gives for his opinion is that the lower portion of South America curves east on the map. Schoch attributes the curving of South America's tip to Reis running out of room on his gazelle-skin parchment. Mimicking the CIA's Wikipedia, which states that "the 'extra' landmass is simply the South American coast . . . bent round to fit the parchment," Schoch states that "the supposed coast of Antarctica could well be the lower reach of South America."
To make the statement above, Robert Schoch, the lazy man's scientist, had to believe the following: Piri Reis, a man competent enough to navigate the ancient seas, was dim-witted enough to start a three-year map project on a piece of material too small for the map.
Not only did the project take Reis three years to complete, it was a project that included translating from different map scales and projections, a phenomenally challenging task that very few people on earth could perform successfully today.
Here Schoch commits one of the Seven Sins of the Scientific Orthodoxy, namely the Sin of Self-Projection (Sin #2): Unconsciously projecting one's flaws (egotism, small-mindedness, laziness) onto the peoples of the past. Robert Schoch might be too lazy to obtain the right materials for his projects (having read Voices of the Rocks, we know that he is), but ancient mariners, whose lives depended on their energetic competence, could have had no such weakness.
In fact, as simple research reveals, the reason the lower part of South America is curved to the east on the left-hand lower corner of the map, and the reason that the continent of Antarctica looks as if it might be South America's extended tip at the bottom center of the map, is that Piri Reis used an azimuthal equidistant projection, a sophisticated cartographic method that gives more accurate relative continent sizes than the modern standard of cylindrical projection, which unnaturally enlarges polar-region continents.
Below is a letter from the U.S. Air Force to Charles Hapgood, a college professor and amateur scientist who, in the 1950s, was just beginning his journey into the ocean of ancient history, a journey that would lead him to write the classic text, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, which demonstrated that ancient peoples had mapped the earth long before what people call the "ancient" Egyptians had come onto the scene.
Hapgood asked the USAF to examine the Piri Reis map, and the Air Force's reply is below:
From the date of Lt. Colonel Harold Z. Ohlmeyer's letter, we know that, 39 years before the publication of Schoch's Voices of the Rocks, there was solid evidence that the Piri Reis map accurately depicted the coastline of Antarctica. Further, at a 1997 lecture at Leeds University, two years before the publication of Schoch's Voices of the Rocks, Graham Hancock revealed that Piri Reis's depiction of Antarctica is corroborated by the depiction of Antarctica on maps drawn by both Mercator and Oronteus Finaeus, two well-known and highly accurate 16th century cartographers.
The Sin of Superficiality (Sin #4) is: Reaching scientific conclusions without properly engaging available scientific data. Robert Schoch, stirring ingredients into the witches' brew of his 1999 book, ignored the hard-won evidence of solid scientific research and instead gave his readers shoulder-shrugging speculation, superficial surmise, and cackling belief. The Yonaguni Monument
Illustrated model of the Yonaguni Monument
In Schoch's treatment of the Yonaguni Monument, our strange, lanky, bent, brew-stirring Yale graduate lopes deeper into Wonderland, beginning with his trademark high-five to
himself:
"When, not long after my work on the Sphinx, I
received an opportunity to explore one of the most recently discovered sites
pointing to the possibility of this vanished and unknown civilization, I jumped
at the chance to have a scientific look at it myself."
(It must be noted here that Schoch performed no original work on the Great Sphinx but, at the behest of John Anthony West, slapped his Yale degree across Rene A. Schwaller de Lubicz's
much earlier groundbreaking work. The prestige of Schoch's university degree allowed West to gain mainstream credence for the ancient Sphinx theory and allowed Schoch to enter pop culture as a rising archaeostar. Now Schoch's mind-numbing, science-free babble appears in tens of thousands of discussions worldwide on a significant array of subjects.)
Schoch continues:
"I got wind of Yonaguni through John Anthony
West, who himself heard about it from Shun Daichi, a translator who has
worked with both West and Graham Hancock. . . . Hancock and [his wife Santha]
Faiia made several dives to the monument [***actually hundreds of dives were
made by Hancock***], whose regularity convinced them it was indeed the work of
humans. Hancock, however, is no geologist, and he suggested to [wealthy
businessman Yasuo] Watanabe that he bring John Anthony West and me over for a
closer examination."
(Please note Schoch's phrasing in "Hancock, however, is no geologist," which gives the reader the impression that Hancock doesn't know mud from sand and at the same time gives the reader the impression that Schoch's expertise in geological matters is unquestioned and unquestionable. This kind of egotistical rhetoric is missing from real scientists' publications, as you will discover if you embark on research into any subject that science investigates.)
Schoch continues: "Superficially the monument has the appearance of a
platform or part of a step pyramid . . ."
The Yonaguni Monument. Photo by Santha Faiia.
Marine biota covering the Yonaguni Monument. Photo by Danielle Caceres-Bricheno.
"[T]he asymmetrical monument has uneven
stone steps, ranging in height from a foot and a half to several feet, on its
southern face. It looks like a great staircase up which only a giant could
stride. The surfaces have a regular smooth surface, like dressed stone.
"In all, I made six dives on the Yonaguni Monument.
Despite my initial shock, the closer I looked at the monument, the less convinced
I was that [professor Masaaki] Kimura was right about the structure's human
aspect. Much of the regularity of the surface was due not to a tooled
smoothness of the rock but to a thick, even coating of algae, corals, sponges,
and similar organisms."
(But Schoch is no marine biologist! How could
he possibly know about these mysterious things called algae, corals, sponges,
and similar organisms? Can't only marine biologists know about marine biota, in the same way
that only geologists can know about mudstone, sandstone, granite, etc.?)
Marine biota covering the Yonaguni Monument. Photo by Danielle Caceres-Bricheno.
Marine biota covering the Yonaguni Monument. Photo by Leanne and Rik Brezina.
Marine biota covering the Yonaguni Monument. Screen-grab of video image by Brett Terpstra.
Marine biota covering the Yonaguni Monument.
Looking at the photos above of the Yonaguni Monument, do we (who are no marine biologists but who do have eyes) find that marine biota make the surfaces of the monument look more smooth or less smooth?
Schoch drones on:
"In a number of spots I scraped the coating away, both
to determine what kind of stone lay beneath and to look for tool scars or
quarry marks. I found none."
If Schoch were making an argument, one could rebut it, but
there's nothing of substance here. A civilization capable of fashioning the
Yonaguni Monument, with its incredibly smooth and precisely angled surfaces,
would have no reason to leave tool or quarry marks, and certainly not marks
that could be found in a few minutes with a scraping tool wielded clumsily
underwater in one of the strongest currents of any dive site in the world. That
Schoch cites his senseless scraping as evidence of anything is evidence that he
has wandered from Wonderland to a place even more strange: Wonderland 2: The
Halls of Insanity.
To fill the pages of the book that he hopes to sell, Schoch
has to write something, of course. And because his agenda is, for reasons
unknown, to dismiss the intelligent design of the Yonaguni Monument, he has to come up with
words to string along in sentences. Those were some.
Our clairvoyant archaeologist continues with word-stringing:
"Even more telling [?], I couldn't find any evidence that Yonaguni consisted of separate pieces of stone. Stone blocks carved,
set in place, and arranged in an order would clearly indicate a human-made
structure.Rather, the monument is
essentially a single piece of solid, "living" bedrock . . ."
This is an extremely good example of what is known as a "straw man argument." To make a straw man argument, you
1) create an easy-to-rebut argument that your opponent did not make, 2) pretend
your opponent has made that argument, and 3) rebut that argument, claiming
victory.
Schoch pretends that someone, anyone, ever said that the
Yonaguni Monument is, or should be, separate blocks of carved stone. The only
way Schoch's evidence could be "more telling" is that, since nothing
had been told, this evidence is more of nothing.
Precisely parallel stand-alone stone blocks at the Yonaguni Monument.
Of course, there are in fact blocks of carved stone
associated with the monument, huge blocks whose placement and shape suggests a
highly technologically advanced culture. Which is why Schoch had to say "essentially
a single piece" of bedrock, because he
knew that many other stand-alone structures comprise the monument, though as a
practitioners of the lazy man's archaeology, he makes no mention of them.
Let's see how much more nothing Schoch can give us. You'll
be surprised.
"The horizontal terraces aren't really horizontal, and
the steps are not cut at precisely 90 degrees. A long channel about two feet
wide, which looks as if it had been excised by some giant stone-cutting tool,
proves to have a ragged, unworked bottom and to disappear into the bedrock as
two parallel natural fault lines."
Horizontal terrace pool on top of the Yonaguni Monument.
When Schoch states, "The horizontal terraces aren't
really horizontal," he lies in two ways. First, he sets up another straw
man argument, pretending that anyone ever stated as evidence for the monument's
artificial nature that there are perfectly horizontal surfaces on the monument.
Second, his bold statement of fact lacks original data to back it up: he
doesn't give us his own measurement data showing the terraces' true angle(s).
Thus, we can only conjecture that he's guessing: he didn't measure anything,
and thus we must conclude that he doesn't really know if there are perfectly horizontal surfaces on
the Yonaguni Monument. Guessing-and-proclamation is science, according to
Robert Schoch, geologist and geophysicist from Yale.
Trench (10 meters, or approximately 33 feet, long) near the Yonaguni Monument.
Schoch's "treatment" (conscious dismissal) of the
long-run trench at Yonaguni is similarly corrupted by straw man arguments.
Schoch claims 1) that anyone ever said that this obviously human-made trench
had a perfectly flat floor (in fact, it's stepped, like the rest of the
monument) and 2) that anyone ever said that the trench did not follow two
natural fault lines in the sandstone. In fact, it would have made sense for the
ancients to take advantage of these two parallel fault lines in creating the
trench, and one can imagine that these fault lines were indeed the inspiration
for the trench. Schoch makes no attempt whatsoever to address the mirror
oblique angles that comprise the sides of the trench, nor does he address the
regular smoothness of the trench's sides. Why does he leave out these crucial
features? No one but Schoch knows.
End of the trench.
Beginning of the trench.
Beginning of the trench.
Beginning of the trench.
Steps near the end of the trench.
Beginning of the trench.
Beginning of the trench.
Looking at the photos above, do you find that the trench looks as if it were naturally created? If you do, you may want to compare the photos above to a photo of a trench that was naturally created (below).
Naturally created trench near the Yonaguni Monument.
Schoch concludes his "treatment" (conscious
dismissal) of the Yonaguni Monument with a foray into elementary geology,
telling us that he discovered, by taking rock samples, something that everyone
already knew: that the monument was composed of sandstone and mudstone "of
the type we geologists call the Lower Miocene Yaeyama Group."
He can't
help condescending to his readers; we're not "we geologists." His
arrogance tells us everything we need to know about Robert Schoch. But let's
watch him drive the last nail into his own coffin.
"Rocks of this type contain numerous, well-defined,
parallel bedding planes that allow easy separation of the layers, and they are
crisscrossed by many joints and fractures running parallel to one another and
vertical to the bedding planes. . . . The more I looked at the highly regular
yet completely natural weathering of these sandstones, the more I became
convinced that the steplike and terracelike features of the underwater monument
resulted from natural processes working on the stone, not from the activity of
humans long ago. With its both vertical and horizontal fractures and joints,
the stone was like a huge, many-tiered wedding cake cut into pieces and ready
to serve. Subjected to thousands of years of surf, tides, typhoons, and storms,
the rock had broken off in great square and rectangular chunks that left the
visual impression of steps, plazas, and platforms."
Schoch never mentions the obvious flaw in his argument, committing Sin #1 of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Scientific Orthodoxy: The Sin of Omission (Consciously omitting key information that might undermine one's position). He doesn't mention that sandstone does not break smoothly or regularly on vertical planes. To achieve a smooth, regular vertical sandstone surface, one must in fact intelligently fashion it.
Schoch performs two egregious acts right in front of our faces, hoping we won't notice. He 1) proceeds unscientifically but 2) uses just enough science to suggest that his nonscience is scientific.
It's quite a magic act, if you step back from it. Schoch is
a master practitioner of words without substance, smoke and mirrors, what I
call Clairvoyant Archaeology, aka the Lazy Man's Science.
In Schoch's Hall of nonRecords, anything goes: even saying
the opposite of what one has just said, which is what he does in the next few
pages of his subchapter, "Yonaguni: The "Lost City" of
Japan."
Schoch backtracks, indeed swivels fully, saying that,
"the ancient inhabitants of the island may have partially reshaped or
enhanced a natural structure to give it the form they wished, either as a
structure on its own or as the foundation of a timber, mud, or stone building
that has since been destroyed. It is also possible that the monument served as
a quarry from which blocks were cut, following the natural bedding, joint, and
fracture planes of the rock, then removed to construct buildings that are now
long gone."
Having just authoritatively informed us a
page before that "the steplike
and terracelike features of the underwater monument resulted from
natural
processes working on the stone, not from the activity of humans long
ago,"
Schoch does a dizzying about-face and says that it's equally possible
that it
wasn't natural forces at all.
And of course he is correct. Here's what a
truly natural, long-weathered sandstone structure looks like:
Natural sandstone structure on the coast of Yonaguni Island. Photo by Cecelia and Gary Hagland from above the submerged Yonaguni Monument.
For this reason, and for other reasons, we know that the Yonaguni Monument, also a sandstone structure, has been fashioned by intelligent hands.
Schoch ends with the only scientific argument he is
kind enough to make in this subchapter, a very good scientific argument indeed, and one that is fully opposed to his main argument.
He notes, quite rightly, that the Yonaguni Monument is set
on the Tropic of Cancer as it appeared approximately 10,000 years ago, when it
is posited that the monument was created (before the post-ice age sea-level
rise that submerged it).
Whenever Schoch presents science,
it is virtually always someone else's idea, though Schoch invariably presents it as his own. Graham
Hancock was the originator of the idea that the Tropic of Cancer, which moves
over time, would have lined up with the Yonaguni Monument at a time in the past
when the monument was not submerged and could have been fashioned. Schoch stole this idea outright. He gave Hancock no
credit whatsoever. Anyone reading Schoch's book would think that Schoch came
up with the idea himself. This plagiarism is a documented fact (documented in Schoch's own book) and is truly shocking and scandalous.
Real scientists give credit where credit is due. The lineage
of ideas must be able to be traced for
science to work properly. Schoch arrogantly breaks this line,
leaving his readers to reconstruct it if they can.
Science in Schoch Land, as I have exhaustively and conclusively demonstrated in my two articles on 1) Schoch's views on the Bosnian pyramids and 2) Schoch's views on the Yonaguni Monument,
is akin to the science of a man on a cell phone taking a 15-minute
stroll through a museum. At the end of it, he doesn't know much, and all
he can impart to others is a vague sense of having been there.
It is impossible to respond to the profound level of
obfuscation, misdirection, scientific fraud, and full-on nonsense that Schoch
presents us with in this book. So I'll leave it to you to find the book at a
library as I did and draw your own conclusions.
Robert Milton Schoch Associate Professor of Natural Sciences at the College of General Studies, a two-year non-degree-granting unit of Boston University
"I maintain my conviction that there are NO pyramids at Visoko, Bosnia. Rather, all the so-called pyramids are the result of natural geological processes and phenomena that are currently being 'excavated' (i.e., modified) to look like pyramids." - Robert M. Schoch
ODDLY, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences at the College of General Studies at Boston University, Robert M. Schoch, has publicly claimed (repeatedly, and still maintains) that the pyramid complex discovered in April 2005 by Dr. Semir Osmanagić (Americanized as "Osmanagich")
in Visoko, Bosnia does not exist.
Schoch's libel shifted briefly to slander in August 2012, in an ad-hoc interview with U.S.O.K.S.'s Anne Fairman in Urfa, Turkey. In the interview, Schoch spoke of the Bosnian pyramids as "21st
century" pyramids, that is, as pyramids being created in modern times (not excavated) by Archaeological Park workers.
But let's go back to the beginning of Schoch's strange tango with anti-science in regard to the Bosnian pyramid complex.
In his November 10, 2006 letter to Science magazine, Schoch maligns and libels the Archaeological Park nonprofit project, stating that "fossils are being ignored and destroyed during the 'excavations,' as crews work to shape the natural hills into crude semblances of the Mayan-style step pyramids with which Osmanagic is so enamored."
This is a photo of an excavation site that Schoch visited on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. The excavation, also known as "Sonda 20," is of a large-stone terrace more than halfway up the pyramid.
Excavated structural stone terrace on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. Dr. Schoch has never written a word about the layer of dark brown soil that has accumulated to form a very deep layer on top of the artificial clay layer, a layer that itself sits on top of the structural stone terrace.)
Here is another excavation site that Dr. Schoch visited. This excavation is of a stone terrace near the base of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon.
Excavation of terrace "Sonda 1" on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (Photo by Philip Coppens.)
Notice the approximately two-meter-deep clay layer on the right, topped by another, smaller-stone terrace. Schoch accuses the Foundation of trying to make this excavation look like a "step pyramid." I wonder if Schoch makes a similar accusation of the workers on the Easter Island excavations?
Easter Island excavation. A step pyramid in the making?
Or perhaps there is a simpler answer. Perhaps it is standard archaeological practice to leave tall clay-layer or soil-layer steps with vertical faces.
Dr. Schoch claims that Archaeological Park excavations are evidence that the Foundation's volunteers are shaping several-million-ton mountains into the likenesses of pyramids to try to fool the world into thinking that ancient pyramids exist in Bosnia. The Foundation's teams of international volunteers (more than 900 in the last three years) might be surprised to learn what Robert Schoch thinks of them.
"Osmanagic's crews continue their excavations, and as a result the hills surrounding the vicinity of Visoko are being carved and sculpted into Mayan-style step pyramids [bolding mine] and their remains hauled off with a tremendous loss of artifacts and fossils. If there were no pyramids in Bosnia when Osmanagic started his project, it seems there will be by the time he is finished with it, to the detriment of the genuine ancient heritage of the region."
Instead of taking Dr. Schoch and his co-author to court, Dr. Semir Osmanagich simply offered a point-by-point response to Schoch's bizarre accusations in a May 22, 2011 article titled, "How Many Times Has Dr. Schoch Been Wrong?" Dr. Osmanagich concludes: ". . . when one comes
to Visoko and sees these great pyramids, one understands the absurdity
of Schoch's allegations."
Dr. Osmanagich, a scientist whose primary passion is uncovering humankind's true history, has little time for court battles. His days are filled with the Foundation's many projects, as he and his scientific colleagues from all over the world endeavor to "triangulate the mystery" of the largest, and the most ancient, documented pyramids in the world. Dr. Osmanagich has stated in radio and television interviews many times that, since 2007, he is not trying to prove that Bosnian pyramids exist but to find out what they're for.
Geologist's Report Proves Dr. Osmanagich Right Six Months Before Schoch's Arrival
A year before Robert Schoch and Colette Dowell came to take a look at the geology of central Bosnia, Dr. Amer Smailbegovic (PhD geophysics), began some serious work: an in-depth geological study of the Visoko valley's two primary pyramid-like structures: Visočica hill and Pljesevica hill.
Dr. Smailbegovic used data from six different satellite imaging systems, combined with year-2000SRTM (Space Shuttle Endeavor) topographic data, as well as aerial photography from the Geodesic Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as 1:50,000 scale topographic maps (courtesy of Geoimage). Dr. Smailbegovic combined all this data to create a digital topographic model that could be viewed from different angles. The most sophisticated technology known to humankind concluded what Semir Osmanagich's compass and his extensive experience with pyramids around the world had already told him: that ancient pyramids had in fact been built in Central Bosnia.
Dr. Smailbegovic published his findings in February 2006, six months before Robert Schoch and his companion came to Bosnia.
Although the findings of Dr. Smailbegovic's report are clear and unequivocal, its author humbly calls its findings "preliminary." Scientists are known for their humility in the face of an awesome universe. Notice the lack of the same humility in Dr. Schoch's report, which, on the basis of two photographs – one from the air and one from the ground – and without mentioning any previous geological reports' data,categorically dismisses the possibility of ancient artificial pyramid-shaped structures in the Visoko valley.
Dr. Smailbegovic's February
2006 geological report provides conclusive evidence that at least two artificially constructed pyramid-shaped structures exist at the two locations known for centuries as Visočica hill and Pljesevica hill. These structures were subsequently named by Dr. Osmanagich the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, respectively. It is extremely unlikely that Schoch read Dr. Smailbegovic's report. If he did read it and understand it, he would never have been foolish enough to claim that ancient pyramids don't exist in Bosnia.
Although it is very unlikely that Schoch, a Yale-educated geologist, read the report, I, an English major, did. Here are the findings from that report that are relevant to our discussion. Please keep in mind that 1) we wouldn't be having this discussion if Schoch had followed the mandates of the scientific method and that 2) Schoch's geological report unequivocally blames "tectonic stresses" for pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko valley.
Dr. Smailbegovic writes:
"The primary anomalies (Visočica and Pljesevica mounds) exhibited flat, triangular sides, aligned in NSWE directions, flat tops and clear geometric 'break-lines' between the flat sides. The automated linear-anomaly detector LINANAL (originally developed for tectonic studies of topographic lineaments) estimated the break angles [the slope of the hillsides] of 43.822 degrees (+/- 1.6) on the exposed facets, repeated within the same error envelope on all exposed sides (Figure 2). The observed phenomena should not be confused with triangular facets normally occurring in a tectonic setting, for those occurrences only exhibit single-side triangulation and are uneven in the appearance with a far lesser or greater incidence angle, whereas the observed anomalies exhibit two or more, even triangular sides with 4, ~~ 40-48 degree angular breaks. Furthermore, no observed fault strikes correspond with the triangular occurrences on the mounds, thus eliminating the possibility that they were a secondary product of recent tectonic movements." (Amer Smailbegovic, PhD geophysics, "Survey of Remote Sensing Techniques Used for the Anomaly Detection at the Presumed 'Pyramid' Locality near Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina," February 2006)
Isn't it nice to read real science? You know you're dealing with a real scientist by his or her style of writing. Real scientists are wedded to the facts, and the more detail the better. Real scientists are always anti-generality, anti-rhetoric, and (it goes without saying) anti-schmooze.
You don't have to be an expert in geology or geophysics to read good scientific English. You just need to know what the words mean to know what the scientist means. After all, that's how someone who wasn't a scientist became a scientist: by using his or her pre-PhD mind to grapple with a specific subject area.
Reading the above analysis, we (awakening humanity) discover a great deal about the structures in the Visoko valley. We learn, specifically, that natural tectonic uplift does not create multi-sided triangle structures.
We learn, specifically, that tectonic uplift, because it occurs along a fault-line, creates at most one triangular face (if any). We learn that "tectonic stresses" could not have been the creators of the pyramid-shaped structures in the Visoko valley, or the creators of pyramid-shaped structures anywhere else, for that matter.
Isn't science amazing? Science is clear, so very clear. Notice how many times Robert Schoch uses the word "seems" in his writing. This is the mark of a man who has not done his research.
The short,faux-science rambling that Robert Schoch provides his plebeian audience, in lieu of a thorough geological report, makes several things clear: 1) Robert Schoch thinks his readers are stupid and hopes that they remain so; 2) Robert Schoch was either too lazy to read Dr. Smailbegovic's report or too unethical to engage its science; and 3) Robert Schoch is, without any doubt whatsoever, anti-science.
Amazingly, Robert Schoch's anti-scientific views on the Bosnian pyramids do carry some weight in cyberspace and elsewhere. Some of the public have been caught in Schoch's sticky, schmoozy, anti-science web.
Edwin van Mossel, director and DP of the documentary film, "The Bosnian Pyramids: The Biggest Hoax In History?" has fully bought Schoch's anti-science nonsense. He responded to my January 2013 query by parroting the orthodoxy's "tectonics" argument: "It seemed so promising, but after a short week we noticed that there was a lot of breccia created by tectonics, and no 'pyramids' at all. Bosnia is loaded with natural pyramid-shaped hills! Every researcher who went there and came back with the conclusion 'no pyramids' is ignored. It would be great if I am wrong, but alas, I do not think I am . . ." Most documentary filmmakers who travel to Bosnia these days end up pointing their cameras at pyramids.
Schoch's supporters in the archaeological community, though by no means legion, are certainly prominent: Anthony Harding, Zahi Hawass, Claudia Valentino (Editor-in-Chief of Archaeology Magazine) and others in the archaeological orthodoxy, an orthodoxy which is spearheaded by the brick-headed Archaeological Institute of America (which publishes Archaeology magazine) and the European Association of Archaeologists, whose stated aim, "to promote proper ethical and scientific standards for archaeological work" is at best a joke but more probably a lie to subvert the true history of humankind and keep the "rise of agriculture" professors in students and salaries.
Below is Schoch's only published photo of his airplane ride, courtesy of the Archaeological Park Foundation, over the Visoko valley:
Notice the photo's extreme lack of clarity, its haziness, its dimness, its distance. This is a geologist's only published photo of his aerial study? If I were given a plane ride over the Visoko valley, I'd take a lot more (and better) photos than this, and I don't even have a PhD in geology and geophysics from Yale. It almost seems that the photographer is trying to obscure the subject he is purporting to study.
Here's what one can see from the air, if one wants to, when flying over the Visoko valley:
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. (Photo by prof. Paolo Debertolis.)
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. (Photo by Daniel Pach.)
The above two photos were taken in late afternoon, looking southeast. (Please note: Robert Schoch did not take these photosor publish anything like these photos.)
A similar daytime trip by plane, taken by Nenad Djurdjević, Dr. Sara Acconci and Dr. Paolo Debertolis, yields these amazing images of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and surrounding ancient artificial structures (video footage by Nenad Djurdjević):
(Please note: Robert Schoch did not shoot or publish this video or any video like this of his free plane ride over the Visoko valley. What was he doing up there?)
Obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what they see in photos and in video footage taken from the air. But since Robert Schoch was brought to Bosnia to give his professional opinion on the possibility of the existence of ancient pyramids in Bosnia, we can only wonder:
1) Why does professional geologist Robert Schoch offer the readers of his official website only one hazy photo of his airplane excursion?
2) Why is this photo taken approximately a mile away from Visočica hill or the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun?
3) Why is this photo taken from the side and not more from above, which would better show the topography of the pyramid, or what Schoch believes to be a "natural hill"?
4) Does Dr. Schoch believe that a single distant aerial photo could help any geologist ascertain something about geological structures below?
5) Where are Dr. Schoch's photos of the other features that Dr. Osmanagich refers to? For instance, where are Schoch's photos of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon, the Bosnian Pyramid of the Dragon, the Bosnian Pyramid of Love, the Temple of Mother Earth, the Vratnica Tumulus?
6) If one were really interested in performing science as a geologist and geophysicist, wouldn't one want to capture each of these features with great clarity, and from many angles, so that one could study them at length later on and make a professional judgment based in part on this multitude of very clear photos?
7) Why is topographical analysis not an obvious concern of Dr. Schoch's? Is topography irrelevant to geology in the good doctor's mind?
8) Is this one small photo really the best that a Yale-educated geologist can do with two free hands and a camera, or was he just goofing around?
Dr. Schoch having a good time before his free plane ride over the Visoko valley.
Earth to Schoch . . . Earth to Schoch . . .
Our handsomely educated but under-performing Dr. Schoch continues his geological report:
"The geology around Visoko is incredibly rich,and I suggested to Osmanagic that, in lieu of 'pyramids,' he might redefine his 'Archaeological Park' as a 'Geological-Archaeological Park' and focus more on the geology. Visocica Hill (the one dubbed 'Pyramid of the Sun') and Pljesevica Hill ('Pyramid of the Moon') are composed of layers of sandstone, clay, mudstone, siltstone, and conglomerates apparently deposited in an ancient lake and river system during Miocene times (about 5.3 to 23 million years ago)."
Thank you for this Geology 101 course, Dr. Schoch. We're sure you're going to get to the point soon.
"The rocks have been tilted and bent due to tectonic stresses (this can be seen in the last photo to the right, which shows a natural folding and faulting in the rocks composing the side of a so-called pyramid in Visoko)."
The "last photo to the right" on Schoch's web page has been labeled by Schoch "faultfoldbosnia" (presumably, "fault fold bosnia"), and here it is:
Thank you, Dr. Schoch, for providing some evidence – finally – of something! We have a scientist acting like a scientist! Excellent!! (One wonders, however, if this photo shows what the good doctor thinks it does. "Fault fold" . . . ? Where? Horizontal? Vertical?)
Whatever our thoughts on Schoch's interpretation of the photo, his readers don't have any idea if this is a photo of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon or of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun or some other feature in or near Visoko. Neither the photo label nor the photo's text describes or names it. But hey, Schoch's readers will no doubt figure it out. If they dig. What would "digging" entail? Writing to Dr. Schoch to ask what this photo depicts. But if Dr. Schoch had wanted us to know this information, surely he would have provided it in the first place. We could always write Dr. Semir Osmanagich to ask what the photo depicts. I'm sure Dr. Osmanagich has nothing better to do than to identify a photo that Dr. Schoch took over six years ago.
But let's get back to our good Dr. Schoch's lecture:
"The tectonic forces plastically deformed the clays and mudstones, but the sandstones and conglomerates broke into semi-regularly shaped pieces that Osmanagic and his team have excavated in numerous places, interpreting them as 'pavements,' 'terraces,' 'concrete blocks,' 'foundation stones,' and so forth. . . ."
Notice that Dr. Schoch does not provide us with photos of these pavements, terraces, concrete blocks, foundation stones, "and so forth" that he so readily and unequivocally dismisses as natural. If Schoch had provided such photos, as a real scientist would have, the following photos, or something like them, are what we might have seen in his report.
Excavated artificial concrete on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Excavated artificial concrete on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Exposed northeast corner of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun –slope angle, 43.822 degrees.
Archaeological results, Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, 2005-2012. (See the video.)
Smooth-sided coarse-grained blocks on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (top levels of four levels total)
Smooth-sided coarse-grained blocks on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (top levels of four levels total)
Smooth-sided coarse-grained blocks on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (top levels of four levels total)
Above are photos of artificial concrete blocks that cover the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. How do we know these blocks are artificial? How do we know they are not the result of natural tectonic forces upheaving and breaking apart natural sedimentary layers?
As independent researcher Nenad Djurdjevićnotes, these knobby-topped concrete blocks could not have broken apart tectonically, as Dr. Schoch would have us believe, because the broken blocks would have exhibited irregular (non-smooth)sides.The points of weaknesswould have been small internal stones, and one side of a broken block would have gotten an internal stone, and one side would have gotten a hole where the internal stone had been. Instead, we see only smooth sides on the concreteblocks. Thus, we know that these blocks must be artificial. Schoch's "tectonic stresses" theorycannot explain the formation of the blocks in these photos. Perhaps that's why he never provided us with pictures, if in fact he ever took any.
Now, let's take a trek to the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon.
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon
Excavation sites on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (Sonda means "trench.")
Doubly inclined terrace, Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (Photo: Mike Collins, July 2011)
The above photo depicts a doubly inclined terrace near the base of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. What does "doubly inclined terrace" mean? This artificial stone terrace on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon is inclined in two ways. As it spirals around the pyramid (inclining up or down, depending on which way you're looking), it also inclines toward the center of the pyramid. Why does it incline toward the center? To keep the terrace from slipping down the side of the pyramid. This double inclination makes a structurally strong addition to the pyramid.
Let's get back to our photo montage, a montage markedly absent from Robert Schoch's "analysis" of the Bosnian pyramid complex.
Doubly inclined terrace on the Bosnian
Pyramid of the Moon.
(Photo: Mike Collins, July 2011)
For a detailed explanation of the soil, clay, stone-terrace relationship on the ancient Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon, feel free to watch a short video I shot on August 14, 2011 with a scientist named Nenad Djurdjević. The video is titled "Trek to the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon." Notice the attention to detail that independent researcher Mr. Djurdjević consistently exhibits.
Schoch continues:
". . . Interestingly, and tellingly, the sizes of the sandstone and conglomerate blocks found are a function of the thickness of the original rock layers. Thin sandstone layers, stressed tectonically, broke into small blocks while thick and durable conglomerate layers broke into massive blocks. This is exactly the pattern expected among natural rock formations."
This makes sense! Thin rocks break into small pieces, thick rocks break into bigger pieces. Excellent sleuthing, Dr. Schoch! We must applaud the good doctor, whose Yale education obviously hasn't let him down.
Does the good doctor provide any photos of what he calls "natural" rock
formations? No. But don't worry, they will be provided to you now by an English major. (None of us knows which pyramid or feature geologist Robert Schoch is referring to, but we'll do our best . . . by covering all bases.)
Let's walk up the pyramid for 20 minutes, or so. After a difficult climb from the first terrace composed of smaller stones, we come to another excavated terrace, this one composed of much larger stones.
Dr. Semir Osmanagich at the beginning of excavation work on terrace "Sonda 20." (Photo by Daniel Pach.)
Archaeological Park volunteers excavating terrace "Sonda 20" on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon.
Excavated terrace "Sonda 20" on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. The inclination of the terrace toward the center of the pyramidis clear.
Are
these the "blocks" that Schoch tells us "broke into small blocks" or
"broke into massive blocks"? We'll probably never know, because it's doubtful even he knows which blocks he was talking about after all this time. Further, "small" and "massive" are relative terms, are they not? And were there any measurements of the stones or the terraces provided by our good doctor, our "scientist" from Yale? No, there are not.
As we saw at the beginning of this article, the stonework above is part of a terrace excavated (revealed) on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (The Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon, let it be known, is 190 meters high, making it 43 meters taller than
the Great Pyramid of Egypt, which before erosion and other factors was
demonstrably 147 meters high. And both are much smaller than the gigantic Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, which reaches 220 meters.)
This is some of the stonework that Dr. Robert Schoch, harking from Yale University, claims to believe does not exist or, at best, was built on site by teams of modern-day international volunteers, none of whom were required to have any expertise whatsoever in stonework or pyramid building.
The photo above shows clearly the dark brown natural soil layer (on the top left) that has accumulated over many thousands of years to the depth of an average depth of 40 centimeters, according to the Bosnian Institute for Pedology (soil study). The amount of time that it takes for one centimeter of soil to accumulate, according to the Institute, is between 250 and 300 years. This amount of soil accumulation indicates an age for the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon of 10,000 to12,000 years.
How do we know that the clay layers on the Bosnian pyramids are artificial and not the result of natural geological processes? It is pure clay: there are no random stones, no bones, no organic material in it. The clay was therefore not brought to the pyramids by flooding from below or washed down by rainwater from above. The clay layers are sometimes thin, between smaller-stone supporting terraces, sometimes thicker.
Smaller supportive flat-laid stones can be seen in the clay layer.
"Sonda 20" stone terrace on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon.
The "Sonda 20" stone terrace, like its smaller-stone cousin shown previously, was structural; it was meant to support thousands of tons of clay sitting on it forever. It was not meant to be seen by anyone. We see (part of) it now clearly, only because Semir Osmanagich had the personal courage and the scientific fortitude to fight off early (and continuing) attacks from people like Robert Schoch, Anthony Harding, and other self-styled "scientists" who have used their positions of power to try to steer public, political, and scientific opinion away from legitimate scientific inquiry.
Gliwice Radiocarbon Laboratory results from the organic sample from the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (How to interpret carbon dating readings.)
Here, in this ever-so-precise placement of stones by the
ancients, is the artistic beauty that Schoch and his anti-science
colleagues tried, diligently, to deny to humankind forever – stonework
hidden from view for at least 12,086 years.Feast your eyes.
Early excavation of "Sonda 20" on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon
Early excavation of "Sonda 20" on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon
The photos and screen-shots above show us a stonework terrace that, though beautiful in its craft and patterning, was not created with beauty in mind.
This terrace is an ingenious example ofstructural stone terracing. Why did the ancients use stones of different sizes and different shapes, fitted together so skillfully here? Answer: to create a structure that would mitigate earthquake damage, just as the Egyptians did, just as the Maya did.Further, many of the stones' edges are curved in an "S" pattern. Fitting "S"-shaped stones together gave this ancient terrace additional flexibility, and therefore strength, during earthquake-caused lateral movement.
Side view of the excavated terrace. (Photo: Martijn Jongens, 2012)
Notice that the terrace has a foundation terrace directly below it, and that the foundation terrace itself has further terraces below it, built of smaller stones and interspersed with clay layers, to provide additional support.
As you can see in many of the photos above, and in my 2011 video, the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon's stone terrace continues to extend beneath the artificial clay layer. It is part of a wider terrace that continues beneath unexcavated clay. Thus, the stone terrace could not have been "placed" there by volunteers, or by Bosnian pyramids discoverer Semir
Osmanagich, in the middle of the night, as Robert Schoch might have us believe.
Stone terrace continues to extend beneath clay layer on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. (Photo by Daniel Pach.)
How far beneath the massive clay layer does this stone terrace extend? No one knows.
Please note that the stone terraces on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon use stones of three generally different sizes. Dr. Osmanagich states that there is a continuing series of three-terrace sets going up the pyramid. Each terrace-set is made up of three terraces: one terrace made of generally larger stones, one terrace made of generally smaller stones, and one terrace made of generally even smaller stones. The next set mirrors the first, and onward up the pyramid.
Three-terrace set on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon
After so much wonderful science and sharp analysis, so satisfying to the intellect, it is unfortunate that we must return to Robert Schoch's unspecific, undocumented ramblings. And yet we must:
". . . The sandstones also typically preserve various sedimentary and depositional features, such as ripple marks and the traces of ancient burrowing animals. These same rocks are also rich in paleontology. In some of the sandstone layers, and in many of the mudstone layers, I found large accumulations of fossil leaf debris and even some fairly complete Miocene fossil leaves. I believe that the real treasure of Visoko may be a huge fossil biota just waiting to be uncovered, not some imaginary pyramids."
Schoch claims that he "found large accumulations of fossil leaf debris" in mudstone layers. Really? Where? In Visoko?He doesn't tell us. Where are the photos? He doesn't offer them. What is the relevance? One must conclude that the relevance for Schoch is that, because fossil leaf debris has been found in mudstone layers somewhere in the world, either in Visoko or elsewhere, mudstone layers in Visoko must not be excavated by those who are not specifically seeking fossil leaf debris or other fossil biota.
It is difficult to reply to an argument that is not really an argument, but let's try. Schoch is arguing, one must believe, that if you don't know what you are digging for, you should not be digging. This is an extremely odd argument to make. Adherence to it in the archaeological community would stop archaeology in its tracks. It is doubtful that any of the great archaeological discoveries were made by persons who knew what they were about to find. A shepherd dug around an odd-looking stone in Turkey and discovered Göbekli Tepe Ziyaret.
Göbekli Tepe Ziyaret, near Urfa in southeastern Turkey. (The word göbek means "navel" or "belly," the word Tepe means "hill," and the word Ziyaret means "visit." Thus "belly hill visit," or "belly hill visitation," or "the first visitation.")
Robert Schoch believes, apparently, that it is a moral imperative that pyramid excavators not be the ones to discover fossilized organic material like leaves, because they are digging for stones. The digging for fossilized organic material, in Schoch's mind, should be left to those who are actually looking for fossilized organic material. But if Schoch is right that there is "a huge fossil biota just waiting to be
uncovered," then why do we need to dig for it? The Great Schoch has used his Ground-Penetrating Razzmatazz (GPR) to create a new science: Clairvoyant Archaeology.
But disregarding Clairvoyant Archaeology and Ivy League razzmatazz, getting back to the simple rigors of science, rational persons agree that fossil leaf debris, or any fossils (or artifacts, for that matter), if they did indeed exist in the Visoko sedimentary layers, would be found by volunteers and archaeologists digging on the Bosnian pyramids project . . . but would not be found if digging did not occur. Schoch is willing to let that "huge fossil biota" wait a few years, decades, or centuries longer before being brought to light. Schoch's implication that anyone associated with the Archaeological Park project is automatically incompetent and would destroy such fossils is obviously outrageous.
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
As an example of how outrageous the world of Dr. "Strangeworld" Schoch is, a world in which pyramid-seekers are "ignoring" and "destroying" fossils, here are two fossilized leaves discovered in 2012 by the Archaeological Park Foundation's team, led by Italian archaeologist Dipl. Cons. Ricardo Brett.
Leaves, aka "organic material," found several meters deep beneath clay and artificial concrete layers on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun in 2012. (As reported in the Archaeological Park 2012 Report.)
(Please note that, in the real world, the world that Robert Schoch has vacated for parts unknown, the fossilized leaves above were *not destroyed* by the Archaeological Park team, as Clairvoyant Archaeologist Dr. Robert Schoch had assured us that they would be.)
Although it is obviously too much to ask a Yale-educated scientist like Dr. Robert Schoch to provide evidence of the fossilized leaves he's talking about (we can take his word for that they exist, right? – after all, he's got a PhD from Yale!), we, who don't have PhDs from Yale, have provided evidence of fossilized leaves.
Who is "we"? We are the people who are actively engaged in archaeological research and actively engaged in the dissemination of archaeological facts.
We distinguish ourselves from the anti-science Robert Schochs of the world, whose most prominent talents are muddying the waters of the crystal-clear river of science.
How do we know that the clay was artificially laid on top of the artificial concrete? Because, as stated, the clay is pure. It has no organic material in it: no sticks, no leaves, no bones, no stones. When summer 2011 volunteers dig through the clay with picks and shovels and other implements, they never hit stones. This is documented on video. The fact that the Pyramid of the Sun's clay is pure, meter after meter as the team digs down, gives us proper and solid scientific evidence that clay ingredients were brought to the pyramid and mixed with water there by intelligent hands.
How do we know that the concrete beneath the clay is artificial? Because the ancient concrete is many times harder than modern-day concrete. Dr. Osmanagich sums it up in this July 4, 2011 video interview (start at minute 52:00): "The concrete that covers the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun is 2 to 3 times better quality than our modern concretes in the 21st century. And it's measurable. We make concrete [today] which is in the range from 10 to 40 megapascals. That's the hardness. And this concrete on the Sun Pyramid is from 67 to 134 megapascals. . . . They [the ancients] had a better knowledge of those natural materials. . . . They applied certain formulas that we lost . .
."
Dr. Sara Acconci describes the mechanical excavation of super-dense ancient concrete on the side of the access ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. She mentions GPR (ground-penetrating radar) technology, which Italian sfcientist Vincenzo di Gregorio used to find hollow spaces beneath the ground.
The organic sample was found on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun embedded in one of the concrete blocks on the right.
Dr. Niccolò Bisconti works with the organic sample found in the concrete block on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
Unlike Dr. Schoch, scientists like Dr. Niccolò Bisconti, Dipl. Cons. Ricardo Brett, and Dr. Semir Osmanagich believe that evidence is required in the progress of science. They hold true to the bedrock principle of rigorous analysis before conclusion. Let's look again at what the good doctor Schoch "believes."
"I believe that the real treasure of Visoko may be a huge fossil biota just waiting to be uncovered, not some imaginary pyramids." - Dr. Robert M. Schoch
Let's take a quick look at one of Schoch's imaginary pyramids: the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
Excavated ancient stonework on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Excavated ancient stonework on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Excavated ancient stonework on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Excavated ancient stonework on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
These excavations comprise what Robert Schoch derogates in his late-2006 letter to Science magazine as "pyramid-mania." (He also puts "excavations" in quotes.) Notice that Schoch labels the
"excavation" of ancient pyramids "mania" . . . but then refuses to use science to show that the pyramid project is the fevered hoax he claims
it to be.
Where is Schoch's geological analysis of the soil on the hills/mountains, to a depth of up to a meter? Where is his analysis of the clay layers that alternate with stone layers on the Pyramid of the Moon and sit atop five million tons of super-dense ancient concrete (harder than granite) on the Pyramid of the Sun? Where is his analysis of the (at least) two tunnel systems in the Visoko valley? Why is thereno obvious attempt at scientific investigationassociated with Dr. Robert Schoch's categorical denial of an ancient and highly sophisticated civilization in Bosnia?
If geologist Dr. Robert Schoch doesn't believe in scientific investigation before scientific conclusion, then he doesn't believe in science. If he doesn't believe in science, what does he believe in? What comprises Robert Milton Schoch's mysterious belief system, his mysterious motivation, his mysterious agenda? Why is Robert Schoch pretending to be a scientist when he is quite obviously something else?
On an undated(?) page on his official website, a page titled "The Bosnian Pyramid Phenomenon," Schoch gives us an oddly disjointed, and fully unscientific account of his thoughts on route to proclaiming the Visoko valley fully ancient pyramids-free and ancient tunnel system-free:
Robert Schoch writes: "While wondering (sic) the streets of Visoko, being offered all sorts of pyramid souvenirs, from tee shirts to copper plates bearing depictions of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun (stylistically rendered either as a stepped Mayan-style pyramid or, less frequently, as a smooth-sided Giza-style pyramid), I continued to hope against hope that I could find some 'truth' underlying the 'pyramid mania' that has gripped the region. One last possibility might be the evidence of the reputed tunnels found in the area that supposedly connect one pyramid to another. I had the opportunity to explore one tunnel that is currently open; to put it mildly, I was disappointed with what I saw. The tunnel had clearly been entered and modified in recent times, as evidenced by the graffiti found in places, the collapsed ceilings and walls, and the stories that the Yugoslavian army (Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the former Yugoslavia) had once used the tunnels for military purposes, and possibly purposefully destroyed parts of them. If this was an ancient tunnel, it was difficult to tell now. The much-touted 'ancient inscriptions' seem not to be ancient at all. I was told by a reliable source that the inscriptions were not there when members of the 'pyramid team' initially entered the tunnels less than two years ago. The "ancient inscriptions" had been added since, perhaps non-maliciously, or perhaps as a downright hoax. So, no pyramids . . . "
There are so many lies, obfuscations, and diversions in this single paragraph that it will take some time to
get through them.
As we'll see in the end, however, it's not Schoch's lies that matter. It's the complete absence of science in his
"wonderings." One must wonder if his lies, his partial truths, and his stories are simply his ways of distracting readers from his lack of scientific conduct and (therefore) his lack of scientific results.
The following extraordinarily long list of lies refers only to the above paragraph. Though not technically endless,
Schoch's lies on his official website are legion, indeed epic. Readers are much safer, statistically speaking, to think that Schoch is lying about Bosnian geology, archaeology, and culture than telling the truth. That is an extremely bizarre and saddening thing to have to say about anyone.
Lie #1: "While wondering (sic) the streets of Visoko, being offered all sorts of pyramid souvenirs . . ."
In Schoch's first painterly lie, he wants you to believe that, as he wanders the street of Visoko, business persons walk up to him and offer him pyramid souvenirs.
The truth: Bosnian cultural values of modesty would never allow sellers to approach tourists with items for sale. Customersapproach sellers. In his first lie, Schoch disrespects Bosnian culture.
Lie #2: "I continued to hope against hope that I could find some 'truth' underlying the 'pyramid mania' that has gripped the region . . ."
Leaving
aside for the moment the genuineness of his "hoping against hope" that
he would find evidence of pyramids in Bosnia (he has given us no
evidence that he tried), let's look at Schoch's claim that the town of
Visoko was agog with "pyramid mania" in 2006. Even in 2011, when I spent 3 months in Visoko, there was no such thing that could be called "pyramid
mania." If we go back in time five years to
2006, the vast majority of Visoko residents did not believe that they
had been living their whole lives in the shadows of giant pyramids. If their cousins or brothers decided to sell pyramid souvenirs, they would simply be looked on as crazy (or, perhaps, in the post-war economy, very smart). Most
Bosnians even today have no interest whatsoever in the idea of Bosnian pyramids. To
Bosnian natives country-wide, and to the vast majority of Visoko residents to this day,
the pyramids look like forested mountains and might as well be
forested mountains, and if by some chance they aren't forested
mountains, what has that to do with them? Of the hundred or more
Bosnians I met when I lived in Visoko for three months in the late summer and
early fall of 2011, perhaps three had any interest whatsoever in talk of pyramids. But let's give Schoch the benefit of the doubt and say that 10% of
Visoko residents actually care, today, about ancient pyramids and actually
believe that ancient pyramids exist in or near the town of Visoko. In no sense
does such a percentage mean, or in any way suggest, that "pyramid mania" exists in Visoko in 2012. Certainly it did not in 2006. The truth:
If you want a blank stare, talk to a Visoko native about Bosnian pyramids. In Schoch's second
lie, he disrespects Bosnian culture.
Lie #3: "The tunnel had clearly been entered and modified in
recent times . . ."
The truth: Schoch's
lie here is his absurd implication that, in excavating an ancient
tunnel, archaeologists would neither enter nor modify it. In his third
lie, Schoch disrespects the discipline of archaeology and the scientific method.
Lie #4: ". . . as evidenced by the graffiti found in places . . ."
The truth:
No photographic, or other, evidence of (presumably modern?) graffiti has
been offered to his readers by the good Dr. Schoch in over six years. Schoch wants his readers to believe that, if he did indeed find modern graffiti at a site whose age has not yet been
determined, that find would make it a modern site. This logic leads us to conclude that the Sphinx is modern because someone spray-painted its paw. In his fourth lie, Schoch
disrespects the discipline of archaeology and the scientific method.
Lie #5: ". . . the collapsed ceilings
and walls . . ."
The truth: No
photographic or other evidence of collapsed ceilings or tunnel walls has
been offered to his readers by Dr. Schoch in over six years. Of course, any tunnel ancient or modern has a chance of collapsing. But the real
lie here is that Schoch wants his readers to believe that a collapsed
tunnel ceiling, or a collapsed tunnel wall, somehow makes a tunnel modern.
In his fifth lie, Schoch disrespects the scientific method.
The truth: Stories are not science. Schoch's lie here is that storieswithout documented storytellers
(legends) could somehow authentically and unequivocally date a tunnel
system or anything else. Even stories with documented storytellers are
not categorical evidence of anything. In his sixth lie, Schoch disrespects the scientific method.
Lie #7: ". . . that the Yugoslavian army (Bosnia and Herzegovina was
part of the former Yugoslavia) had once used the tunnels for military purposes, and
possibly purposefully destroyed parts of them."
The truth:
Modern usage of an older site does not make that site modern. Schoch's
lie here is that he wants his readers to believe that a tunnel system
used for modern military purposes must be a non-ancient tunnel. In his seventh lie, Schoch disrespects the discipline of archaeology.
Lie #8: "If this was an ancient tunnel, it was
difficult to tell now."
The truth: "Difficult"? Science is not now, nor has it ever been, concerned with the degree of difficulty of gathering
evidence. Schoch wants his readers to believe that the modernness of
the tunnel was so obvious, and so overwhelming, that discerning
ancientness was a task simply too difficult for him to undertake. In
his eighth lie, Schoch disrespects the discipline of archaeology and
the plain power of science in the hands of those willing to perform it. *** Please note ***: It would not be fair to criticize Dr. Schoch for concluding in 2006 that Ravne tunnel is not as obviously a work of the ancients as we know it to be today. In 2006, he would have had to get on his belly and squirm through it. Ravne tunnel is presently tall enough to walk through comfortably. My criticism of Schoch, as always in this article, is not criticism of his conclusions but criticism of how he arrives at those conclusions. Dr. Schoch is free, as all scientists are free, to conclude what he likes from the evidence at hand. The key questions are these: 1) Should reasonable persons take seriously a scientist who does not demonstrate to his readers that he is basing his conclusions on evidence? and 2) Should reasonable persons take seriously a scientist who, using conclusions not reached by the methods of science, attempts to deter, interrupt, or halt others' scientific inquiry, in this case by defamation, libel, and slander?
Lie #9: "The much-touted 'ancient inscriptions' seem not to be ancient
at all."
"Seem"? What does seem have to do with science? Further, what ancient inscriptions? Why have
photos of these inscriptions not been provided by the good doctor? Where is
Schoch's interpretation of the inscriptions? Where are the
interpretations of the inscriptions by other scientists? Why is he not both providing and critiquing evidence? What is he talking about?
The truth:
Schoch's lie here is that he wants his readers to believe that, simply
by looking at inscriptions (in which tunnel? where? in what kind of
stone?), he can tell with reasonable accuracy that the inscriptions in
question are, without any doubt whatsoever, "graffiti." In his ninth lie, Schoch disrespects the
rigorous discipline of science and every scientist who has ever
applied, or ever will apply, the scientific method to the natural world
or to artificial structures or artifacts. In his ninth lie, Schoch
disrespects the discipline of archaeology and the analytical
power of science.
Lie #10: "I was told by a reliable source that the inscriptions were not there when
members of the 'pyramid team' initially entered the tunnels less than two years ago." The truth:
Science has no interest whatsoever in what a scientist was told. Schoch
1) heard a story and 2) tells us that the story's anonymous teller is reliable without telling us how this reliability is concluded.
But science 1) has no interest in a story as conclusive evidence of anything and therefore 2) has
no interest in the reputation of the story's teller. Schoch's lie here
is that he wants us to believe that gossip – in this case, undocumented gossip – equates with evidence. In his tenth lie, Schoch disrespects science, which relies on evidence, not tales. Lie #11: "The 'ancient inscriptions' had been added since, perhaps non-maliciously, or perhaps
as a downright hoax." The truth:
No scientific method of any kind was employed by Schoch, and scientists
to this day have no idea what tunnels he was talking about or what
stones he was talking about, if any. Schoch wants us to
believe that, as a scientist, he has used the scientific method to conclude that the inscriptions in question
are without any doubt whatsoever modern inscriptions, i.e., "graffiti." (Why does he want us to believe that? Why does he think we will believe that if he does not provide evidence?) In
his eleventh lie, Schoch disrespects science. Lie #12:
By saying that inscriptions "had been added since, perhaps non-maliciously, or perhaps
as a downright hoax," Schoch wants us to believe that Dr. Semir Osmanagich, whose body of work
and dedication to the scientific method marks him as a true scientist,
was either 1) fooled by modern graffiti or 2) purposely used modern graffiti to fool others. Let's look at the first possibility in detail and leave the second possibility to the courts, if Schoch is ever sued by Dr. Osmanagich for libel. The truth: Regarding the inscriptions in question, Dr. Osmanagich asked researchers expert in the field of recognizing and deciphering ancient inscriptions to join the team of archaeologists working on the Archaeological Park project in Bosnia. Here is the testimony of two of those experts.
Friedrich Klára, independent researcher, concludes in "Comparison between Sign-Systems": "I found it interesting that these writings were not
chiseled into the stones; instead the writings were impressed into the stones.
Formerly having studied runes that had been chiseled, the difference was easy
to see. That means the stones with writing in the tunnel of Sun pyramid, were
in olden times soft building material, like . . . concrete or gypsum." [translated from the Hungarian by Zoltan Fabry] Friedrich Klára writes in "Old English Runic Writings and Symbols in Bosnian Ravne Tunnel?" "Gábor Szakács visited the area in June 2006 for the
first time. On the basis of the onsite inspection and after studying the
symbols, he came to the conclusion that there are great similarities between
the symbols of Visoco and the inscribed archeological find of Bajót in Hungary, [a find] which is about 18-20 thousand years old, [and] also the symbols of [the]
6-7000 years old Tordos-Vinca culture. The geographical locations of these
symbols would not exclude a possible connection. . . . Out of the 40 Bosnian
symbols 38 are found in the Carpathian Basin, which is a 95% match. . . . Brazilian
researcher, Paulo Stekel, compared the symbols of Bosnia to the Glozel symbols
from Southern France. He found that the forms of these symbols matched 55% of
the time. So, Géza Radics suggested that comparison should be made between the
Hungarian rovás (runas) characters and the symbols of Bosnia." [translated from the Hungarian by
Zoltan Fabry]In "Comparison between Sign-Systems," Szakács Gábor, independent researcher, journalist, and president
of the Association of the Forrai Sándor Runic Writers, writes:
"On one of the trips into the tunnel [Aly Barakat's
friend] Sanel [Silajdzic] and I were crawling on our stomachs to get
inside, about 150 meters in we filmed and photographed the writings on the
walls so later we could analyze them. The work was so exciting and memorable
because we found more writings on the big stones. The drawn bow with the arrow
attached was crystal clear, which was an incredible find because this sign
could be found from the Tordos-Vinca culture 8,200 years ago. This writing was
found on a clay ring in Tatárlaka (Tartaria - Transylvania), presently on
display in the Cluj Historical Museum (Kolozsvár - Transylvania). On this ring
the writings of the ligature letters " NY" and "D" were
clear to see. I am convinced that the Visoko Pyramids were connected to the
Carpathian Basin where the Tordos-Vinca culture lived. I wrote about my findings
to Semir Osmanagich. Since that trip my wife and I have been back to Visoko and
identified more than 10 letters from the Hungarian runic (Rovás) alphabet. . .
. I took over a 100 writing specialists with me [bolding mine] to give their opinion, they all
supported the earlier reports." [translated from the Hungarian by Zoltan Fabry] Of course, we still don't know what inscriptions Schoch is referring to. Perhaps he's talking about spray-painted graffiti somewhere near or in a cave or tunnel in or near Visoko. It's almost never clear what Schoch is talking about. Had Schoch offered a photo of what he dismissed as "graffiti," he might have offered any of these photos:
Molded or pressed (not etched) inscriptions on Megalith K-1 in Ravne tunnel labyrinth
Close-up of molded or pressed (not etched) inscriptions on Megalith K-1 in Ravne tunnel labyrinth
Molded or pressed (not etched) inscriptions on Megalith K-1 in Ravne tunnel labyrinth
The above photos were taken of the surface of Megalith K-1, an
artificially constructed (ceramic) megalith excavated in Ravne tunnel from beneath approximately two meters of
loose sand and rivers stones ("fill-in material"). What is "fill-in material"? It is the
material that was brought in to fill Ravne tunnel to the brim, except for the water side-channels, either by the culture that built the tunnel or, more probably, by a later culture. Volunteers transport the "fill-in material"
outside, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, cart by cart, and deposit it across the road so that archaeologists and volunteers caninspect it for artifacts, organic material, or anything else unusual.
After his host of unscientific, personal anecdotes about "pyramid-mania," his own deep and desperate wish to find ancient pyramids in Bosnia, and an unidentified graffiti, Dr. Robert Schoch categorically and casually concludes: Lie #13: So, no pyramids . . ." What? Science
does not allow unsupported conclusions. Schoch wants us to believe
that, because he believes (without evidence) that the "tunnels" (which
tunnels? he doesn't tell us) in the Visoko valley are not ancient, therefore
no ancient pyramids exist in the Visoko valley. Notice that Schoch
does not say something like, "The absence of ancient tunnels strikes a
blow to the pyramid hypothesis," or something that a real scientist
might say. He simply makes a conclusion, without evidence, based on
another conclusion that was also made without evidence, and his conclusion is categorical. The truth:
1) At least two ancient tunnel systems exist in the Visoko valley in
Bosnia, and 2) they are both associated with the ancient pyramid complex that
exists there. In his thirteenth lie, Schoch disrespects science.
A Tale of Two Tunnelsand the Person Who Did Not Name Them The two tunnels systems in the Visoko valley are startlingly different. Our good Dr. Schoch never mentions this most basic of facts. The two startlingly different tunnel systems have names. Dr. Schoch does not use these names. I will use them now. The two tunnel systems discovered and documented so far in the Visoko valley are the KTK tunnel system and the Ravne tunnel system, or Ravne tunnel labyrinth. Thirty-five meters of KTK tunnel had been excavated by March 12, 2006, when the photos below were taken. (Please note that this was four months before Schoch's visit in July/August of 2006, so it was at least this clean and "ready to enter" when and if he visited it.)
KTK tunnel entrance in Visoko, Bosnia
KTK tunnel in Visoko, Bosnia
KTK tunnel in Visoko, Bosnia
The fact that Schoch starts off his meandering musings with the word "tunnel" and ends up with the word "tunnels" is
shocking, but not surprising considering his (lack of) method thus far. The
fact that Schoch never names the tunnel system he is talking
about leads us to believe that he does not know the tunnels' names. Further, it leads us to suspect that he is not a scientist on an expedition to dig up facts but a person with a personal agenda, which may in fact be simply to take a vacation.
A scientist (a real scientist, one who follows the scientific method) would absolutely tell us which tunnel system he was referring to, he would absolutely provide photos of the tunnel(s) in question, he would absolutely provide quotes from, and links to,
other scientists' writings on the tunnel(s) in question, he would absolutely provide photos of the "graffiti" in question, and he would absolutely provide quotes from, and links to,
other scientists' writings on this alleged "graffiti."
Instead, the good Dr. Schochofferednothing whatsoever in the form of evidence or other scientists' corroborative testimonyor data
to back up his categorical denial of 1) anancient pyramid
complex-related tunnel network in Visoko, Bosnia and 2) ancient writings
on, in, or near one or more of the tunnel networks. Yes, it's true.
Before accusing the Archaeological Park Foundation of fraud, before publicly defaming Dr. Osmanagich, Dr. Schoch never even engaged the very basics of preliminary research performed by scientists on the structures in and near Visoko. This is a shameful record for someone who calls himself a scientist. In the more than six years since Schoch published his faux-science vacation log, he has never
(not once) engaged any of the massive amounts of scientific data pouring like a fountain out
of the Visoko valley. Scores of scientists in the fields of
archaeology, geology, engineering, mining, archaeoastronomy, physics,
anthropology, history, and more have published papers on the Bosnian
pyramids, Ravne tunnel, and related subjects, and Dr. Schoch has
remained ever-silent on this tide of data.
A Tale of Three Scientists
Dr. Osmanagich tells the story of his astonishing discovery, and his scientific approach to the many mysteries therein, in a July 8, 2007 interview: "[In 2005], I came to a central Bosnian town called Visoko. It's about 25 kilometers from the capital of Sarajevo. And I noticed a couple of peculiar hills. They had the perfect geometry of pyramids. When I put the compass to it, I noticed that the four sides of the hills are perfectly aligned with the cardinal points: east, west, north, south. . . ."
alignment of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun to the cardinal points
". . . And based on my experience with the pyramids in the world, and I have seen hundreds of them, I knew immediately that these are not natural hills but man-made objects covered by soil and vegetation. It was two years ago, in April of 2005. So I decided to fund, myself, the first geological surveys. And what I found out was that, on those two hills, there existed a bunch of blocks and plates shaped by man. Then we applied a lot of high-tech techniques, like satellite imagery, thermal analysis, radar analysis, topographic surveys. And each one of them confirmed that, really, the man-made objects, the huge colossal structures made of stone, do exist under the layers of soil. So finally, in April 2006, we started the biggest geo-archaeological project in the world. Last year only we spent more than 150,000 working hours digging and excavating on those couple of hills. We call them now the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon. . . . In the case of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, we are finding huge megalithic blocks: they are 7, 8, or 10 tons in weight. In the case of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon, we are finding the complex of terraces, built out of the sandstone plates and blocks. And finally, we have the complex network of underground tunnels that connect all the pyramids. And we have a total of five objects in the valley, which are called the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids. So really we have all the elements, like other pyramidal complexes: We have perfect geometry, we have perfect alignment to the cardinal points, we have four triangular sides, we have the network of the tunnels. And I must say, even though we are at the beginning of our research, that what we are finding is truly exciting. In the last year only, we had more than 250,000 visitors and tourists who came to see what we are researching here in central Bosnia." Professor of Egyptian archaeology Dr. Nabil Swelim, owner of three PhD titles in Archaeological Sciences and one of the world's leading Egyptologists, confirmed the man-made nature of the Bosnian pyramids in 2007.
Dr. Nabil Swelim (middle) inspects ancient concrete on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
From August 25-30, 2008, Dr. Swelim presided over the first International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids, linking his name and reputation forever with the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis. At the press conference in Visoko on August 25, 2008, Dr. Swelim stated: "The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid ever witnessed. It is an amazing structure of great importance to the entire world. . . . This is an amazing discovery and it is going to take us a lot of time to figure all this out, meaning how these fascinating structures were built." Fifty-five conference participants from 13 countries concluded that Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids was "an archaeological location." And two years before, Egyptian geologist Dr. Aly Barakat had already spent 42 days researching the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and the tunnels of the Visoko valley, and had concluded, with Dr. Swelim, that these were not natural features but structures made by intelligent hands.
"Who is Dr. Aly Barakat," you ask, "and why should I value his opinion about pyramids?" This is a good question, and it is a question that persons with open and inquiring minds naturally ask. Here is the answer.
is ageoarchaeologist and geologist from the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority in Cairo, Egypt and a member of the Egyptian Geological Survey.In May 2006, he was sent to Bosnia by then Minister of Egyptian Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, who had been asked by the Egyptian government, atDr. Osmanagich's request, to send an Egyptian geoarchaeological expert to weigh in on the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis. Dr. Barakat was specifically recommended by Dr. Hawass (though later Hawass denied recommending him), and Dr. Barakat came to Bosnia in May 2006 and performed his requested duties.
Dr. Aly Barakat with his hand in the Visoko valley earth
When Barakat returned to Egypt with a solid confirmation of artificially constructed ancient pyramids in Bosnia, Dr. Barakat's job was threatened by Hawass. This positive confirmation was particularly embarrassing for Dr. Hawass, as Hawass, like all orthodox archaeologists, had formed his own opinion before engaging the evidence; he had sent Dr. Hawass to bring back a negative. (Dr. Hawass's pre-evidence "orthodox reasoning" may have gone something like this: "How can there be pyramids in Bosnia when our Egyptian pyramids bring in so much money and give me, a reincarnated pharaoh, so much fame?")
On June 25, 2006, two days after Dr. Barakat stated in his written report that the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun was "man-made," Dr. Hawass held a press conference during which he stated: "There aren't pyramids in Bosnia, just a pile of stones. Blocks weighing 30 tons are natural. Barakat is no pyramid expert and Osmanagic is hallucinating." The methodical investigations performed by three true scientists, Dr. Swelim, Dr. Barakat, and Dr. Osmanagich, fell on the intentionally deaf ears of the archaeological orthodoxy. In his article, "The First International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Pyramids," Philip Coppens writes that "heavyweights of archaeology had concluded that the structures near
Visoko were manmade . . . [and this was] announced to the world in
2007, after a visit to the "Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids" by
Dr. Nabil Swelim. Unfortunately, hardly anyone in
the West has taken note of this, though the unscientific dismissals of
the likes of Anthony Harding, Robert Schoch and some [others] continue
to circulate and influence thinking. Indeed, it is clear that [Schoch, Harding, and others who dismiss the Bosnian pyramid hypothesis]
have no room for the paradigm shift that the man-made nature of these
structures will bring about." Science always has an uphill battle with belief and with self-interest. What does Dr. Schoch present, if anything, as scientific evidence
for his claim that ancient pyramids in Bosnia are, in fact, natural
hills or mountains? How does he combat the copious amounts of scientific data produced by Dr. Swelim, Dr. Barakat, Dr. Osmanagich and their associates? In the last six years, hasDr. Schoch been able in any way to back up his accusations of scientific
misconduct and scientific fraud on the part of Dr. Osmanagich's Archaeological Park Foundation?
The Access Ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun The largest documented pyramid in the world stands beneath a calm sky.
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, covered with trees and other vegetation. On its right (western) face, we see its access ramp.
On the right of the largest documented pyramid in the world is a smooth, exceedingly flat (comfortably traversable) access ramp built by the ancients, either from an existing hill or from newly brought material. On the bottom left of the pyramid, we see a small slice of the much smaller Bosnian Pyramid of Love, which stands southeast (in the background) of its much larger companion.
The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun stand 220 meters tall and at this height is one-third taller than the Great Pyramid in Egypt. It is also much more massive than the Great Pyramid. To support its phenomenal height, the ancients gave significantly more slope to the Pyramid of the Sun's sides. The slope angle of the Great Pyramid is 51 degrees, 51 minutes, and 14.3 seconds (also written as 51.51 degrees) for all four sides. The slope angle of Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun is 43.822, or more accurately is 43.822 degrees +/-1.6 degrees, for all four sides. This makes for a much more massive pyramid, because the base in necessarily far larger than that of its Egyptian cousin's steeper-sloping sides. On Robert M. Schoch's old official website, there is a picture of the Bosnian
Pyramid of the Sun taken from the west. The pyramid's western face, as we have noted, is where the pyramid's access ramp
is located. The caption of the pyramid photo, or more properly the access ramp photo, on Schoch's old official site is: "'Pyramid of the Sun' - Does this look like a pyramid?" This photographic angle and distance, from the west and close up, is one of the very few angles
from which one might view the Pyramid of the Sun and not see its pyramidal shape: its straight sloping edges and triangular faces. I won't use the good doctor's photo here, because it has RMSCMD (Robert Milton Schoch and Colette M. Dowell's initials) forbiddingly stamped on it. However, I just happen to have two very similar photos, which I have titled, with intended humor, "Access Ramp - Does this look like a pyramid?"
Access Ramp - Does this look like a pyramid?
Access Ramp - Does this look like a pyramid?
The two photos above were taken from approximately 75 yards farther away from the summit than Schoch's photo. Does the mound in the two photos above look like a pyramid? No. What it does look like, to those who have studied the geology and topography of the Visoko valley, is what it is: the ancient access ramp to the western side of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, which, by the way, evidence tells uswas, at least in part, created artificially by the ancients using earth and megalithic stones:
Excavated south side of the east-west access ramp on the west side of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Excavated south side of the east-west access ramp on the west side of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
If one were a scientist and one wanted to provide photographic documentation of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, one would show many different angles from many different distances. Here are a few angles that a real scientist might show:
Looking south over Visoko, we see the north face of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun,and in the background on the left we see part ofthe Bosnian Pyramid of Love.
Looking southeast over Visoko, from an aerial viewpoint, we see the north face of the BosnianPyramid of the Sun, and in the background on the left we see the Bosnian Pyramid of Love and,behind that, the concave Temple of Mother Earth.
Looking southeast over Visoko, from an aerial viewpoint, we see the shadowed northface of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and partof the city of Visoko in the foreground. (Photo by Daniel Pach.)
Looking southeast over Visoko, from an aerial viewpoint, we see the shadowed northface of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of Mother Earth directly behindit, and the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon on the left. (Photo by Daniel Pach.)
Looking southeast over Visoko, from an aerial viewpoint, we see the north face of theBosnian Pyramid of the Sun and part of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Love on the leftand a small slice of the Temple of Mother Earth directly behind it on the far left.
Looking south over the Visoko valley in winter, we see the north face of the BosnianPyramid of the Sun and much of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Love on the left andbehind it, anda good portion of the Temple of Mother Earth on the far left.
Looking south over the Visoko valley, we see thenorth faceof the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
Looking southwest over the Visoko valley, we see the north face of theBosnian Pyramid of the Sun, as well as part of its easternface, and partof the Bosnian Pyramid of the Love on the leftand behind it.
Klaus Dona presents 2011 satellite data on the elaborate tunnel systembeneath the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. Here wesee the western faceof the pyramid most prominently. Data was obtained using new GPR(ground-penetrating radar) satellite technology.
A screen-grab of a "History Channel" documentary on pyramids around the world.Here we see the entire Visoko valley pyramid complex, with the Bosnian Pyramidof the Moon on the left, the Temple of Mother Earth in the center, the BosnianPyramid of the Dragon to its right, the Bosnian Pyramid of Love toward us fromthere, and the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun closest to us on the right.
The above photo is a screen-grab of footage from a "History Channel" documentary, aired December 21, 2012, about pyramids around the world.
In the photo above, we are looking south. The Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun,
the largest documented pyramid in the world (1/3 taller than the Great
Pyramid of Egypt), is in the foreground on the right. Its north face is
toward us. Behind the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun is the
smaller Bosnian Pyramid of Love. In the center of the photo toward the back is the concave,
crescent-shaped Temple of Mother Earth. On the left is the
Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon, which looks small in this photo but is still taller than
the Great Pyramid of Egypt. (Please note: In the over six years since his July/August 2006 visit to Visoko, none of the above photographic angles on Bosnian Pyramid
of the Sun have ever been posted or discussed publicly by Dr. Robert M. Schoch.)
Bosnian pyramid complex with labeled structures
I wonder if it is a coincidence that the only other major non-academic public critic of the Bosnian Pyramid project, Colette Dowell, Schoch's old friend and the anonymous "Irna," has for her site's primary photographic evidence of a Bosnian pyramid "hoax" a photo of the access ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
Why is it, do you think, that Colette Dowell wants you to believe that a small and unremarkable hump is all there is to the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun? What motivates a prolific anonymous and non-anonymous libeler of the Archaeological Park Foundation, and of Semir Osmanagich himself, to reduce the largest documented pyramid in the world to a modest mound of earth with shrubbery on it? What sort of thoughts does one imagine are running around the brain of someone who has spent the last seven years of her life trying to document a Bosnian pyramids hoax, while at the same time she defrauds her readers from the very first image on her site? What sort of individual expects readers to take an anonymous author seriously? What sort of individual, writing anonymously about a subject about which she wrote non-anonymously, believes that her "style of speech" won't allow people to uncover her identity? Why does Colette Dowell think people are stupid enough to take her seriously? Dr. Semir Osmanagich and hundreds of scientists who have written papers on these pyramids and the tunnel systems associated with them, have shown unequivocally that ancient pyramids do exist in Bosnia. In fact, Dr. Osmanagich has said since 2007 that he is no longer trying to show that pyramids exist in Bosnia but to find out
what they are for. I personally introduced the Second International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Pyramids in September of 2011. (The First International Scientific Conference was in
2008). Between video interviews with the scientists speaking there, I listened for three days as real scientists provided their
findings on different aspects of pyramids in and near the town of Visoko, Bosnia. None
of the 22 scientists, authors, and researchers who spoke at this conference tried to prove that pyramids exist in Bosnia. All of the scientists simply presented their findings on one or more phenomena of existing pyramids or Ravne tunnel labyrinth or other features of the ancient pyramid complex in the Visoko valley. Here is the list of speakers whose presentations at the Second International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Pyramids the good doctor Robert Schoch missed, and whose research and findings he has not publicly engaged: David Hatcher Childress, author and independent researcher (U.S.) Klaus Dona, artifacts researcher (Austria) Stefan Erdmann, author and independent researcher (Germany) Hugh Newman, independent researcher (U.K.) Vincenzo Di Gregorio, independent researcher (Italy) Dr. Sam Semir Osmanagich, author and independent researcher, PhD History of Civilizations (Bosnia/U.S.) Dr. Sara Acconci, PhD Archaeology, Italy Dipl. Cons. Ricardo Brett, Archaeologist, Italy Dr. Paolo Debertolis, PhD Anthropology/Medicine (Italy) Mr. Domagoj Nikolic, Mr. Sci. (Croatia) Mr. Nenad Djurdjevic, Mr. Sci. (Italy) Mr. Gaibija Catic, construction engineer (Bosnia) Mr. Slobodan Mizdrak, physicist (Croatia) Dr. Enver Hasic, PhD Mining (Bosnia) Dr. Ivan Simatovic, PhD (Croatia) Heikki Savolainen, sound engineer (Finland) Prof. Lucia Krasovec Lucas, PhD Architecture (Italy) Janez Pelko, engineer (Slovenia) Goran Marjanovic, engineer (Serbia) Davor Jadrijevic (Croatia) Davor Ernard, engineer (Croatia) Dr. Eberhard Baumann, biologist (Germany) Gabriela Lukacs, Mr. Sci., pyramids researcher (Austria)
The Archaeological Orthodoxy Like all sciences, archaeology is split into two main groups: 1) the orthodoxy, who focus on what they stand to gain from the scientific status quo (these are primarily academics) and 2) the scientists, who focus on discovery according to the dictates of the scientific method. The archaeological orthodoxy presently has humanity by the throat. It tells us, very lovingly, that civilization is young and that the history of humankind is the relatively recent epiphany in our species' collective brain that one can grow crops instead of wandering around throwing spears. Oh yes, and along the way, a few kings had slaves who were very good at dragging megalithic blocks up ramps to build colossal tombs for egotistic royalty. This nonsense is actually taught and believed. Here are the persons in the archaeological orthodoxy most dangerous to science in the present day, in order of the power to inhibit, interrupt, and/or halt the performance of true science:
Very Dangerous to Science 1. Anthony Harding -
Professor of Archaeology. Former President of the European Association of
Archaeologists (2003-2009). Chairman of the Archaeology Section of the British
Academy. A ruthless champion of the scientific orthodoxy. 2. Claudia Valentino - Editor-in-Chief, Archaeology magazine. Has inherited, and continues to be responsible for, a seven-year Archaeology magazine moratorium on Bosnian archaeology. 3. Robert Schoch - Popular speaker and author on ancient
civilizations. A reckless libeler and slanderer whose soft-spoken speaking style, along with his ill-gotten fame, allow him to continue touring ancient sites on other people's money. Dangerous to Science
4. Jean-Paul Demoule - Professor of later European prehistory at Paris 1 University (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and President of INRAP. Demoule wrote a short, dismissive blurb on ancient pyramids in Bosnia for the Encyclopaedia Universalis (2007), stating, among other things: "Bosnia's professional archaeologists have all denounced this mystification, confirmed by a special delegation from the European Association of Archaeologists. In fact, Bosnia's ancient history is perfectly understood and offers no other traces of this mysterious [ancient] civilization." [translated from the French by Ann Diamond] . . . Responding to my January 2013 email query, Demoule wrote to me on January 10, 2013 to confirm his position and to further state that Archaeological Park excavations to date "have only found geological features and mining tunnels
from the Middle Age." (Quoted by permission.)
5. Curtis Runnels - Professor of archaeology at Boston University and editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology. Runnels joined the fray early on in a 2006 National Geographic News article, stating: "Mr. Osmangic (sic) offers no concrete physical evidence to support his claims, despite the fact that they are fantastic. . . . The [Visoko] area was in fact occupied by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers with a Stone Age technology sufficient for building fires, tents, and simple hunting implements like bows and arrows. They were not pyramid builders." Runnels graciously replied on January 10, 2013 to my email query of the same date with the following reiteration: "These natural hills have nothing to do with pyramids. There have been no new data to change this conclusion." (Quoted by permission.) Runnels is a full-fledged propitiate of the archaeological orthodoxy and therefore a continuing danger to science. 6. Joshua Foer - An established and extremely adept writer, co-founder of the Online Guide to the World's Wonders & Curiosities. Turned his acute and fertile mind to the destruction of Semir Osmanagich's archaeological endeavors in Bosnia in 2007. Will probably hop over to the side of science soon on this issue. 7. Colin Woodard - Wrote two articles attempting to turn the story of the discovery of ancient pyramids in Bosnia into the tale of a hoax. Here is Woodard's description of Semir Osmanagich, whose PhD is in the history of civilizations and who has written ten books on pyramids around the world: "Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian-American metal-shop owner in Houston and self-described 'alternative historian'" . . . Woodard, a skilled juggler of the facts, is dangerous to science, though it's doubtful that he'll have the chutzpah to come out a third time against ancient pyramids in Bosnia, in light of the Foundation's awesome and continuing record of archaeological discovery.
8. John Bohannon - A journalist whose style of reportage was plainly echoed by Colin Woodard (above). In his hit-piece, "Mad about Pyramids," Bohannon describes Dr. Osmanagich as "a Bosnian businessman who runs a construction company in Houston, Texas . . ." Bohannon somehow left out Dr. Osmanagich's PhD in the history of civilizations and his 10 books on pyramids around the world. Bohannon is a skilled journalist, a TED Talk speaker, and a continuing danger to science.
9. Colette Dowell, aka the anonymous "Irna" - A silly but unfortunately prolific woman with emotional ties to persons bent on suppressing Bosnian archaeology and the true history of humankind. A continuing danger to science. 10. Mark Rose - Former Online Editorial Director for
Archaeological Institute of America (which also publishes the unrepentantly orthodoxical Archaeology magazine), co-author of the 2010 "Great
Discoveries in Archaeology: The Past Revealed." A minor figure on the scene, but with continuing potential to do harm to science. 11. Garrett G. Fagan - An academic figure somewhat careless with his words, Fagan, professor of ancient history at Pennsylvania State University, with an interest in "archaeological method," states in "Pyramid in Bosnia – Huge Hoax or Colossal Find?" National Geographic News, May 12, 2006 (re-quoted from the London Times): "It's as if someone were given permission to bulldoze Stonehenge to find secret chambers of lost ancient wisdom underneath." Professor Fagan is a continuing danger to science.
12.Tera C. Pruitt - A tangential academic figure whom the scientific world may never hear from again. However, Pruitt's academic background, her passion for fantasy, and her acute talent for the extreme misuse of facts in the steering of reality toward her personal agenda, all make her pretentious dismissal of ancient pyramids in Bosnia, and her unctuous insinuations of hoax, more of a bedrock for future calumny than a one-off. She begins her article with the standard biographical omissions used like a rubber-stamp by the archaeological orthodoxy: "In 2005, a businessman and alternative historian named Semir Osmanagić . . ." And off she goes. A continuing danger to science.
13. Robert Steven Bianchi - Author, editor, documentary consultant, and contributing editor to Archaeology magazine. Sycophant to the archaeological orthodoxy and therefore a continuing danger to science. 14. Alun Salt - Archaeoastronomer associated with Leicester University. No significant writings to date, beyond his original hit-pieces, "Bosnian Pyramids?" and "The Bosnian Pyramid Threatens to Spread." Still a danger to science because of his profession and his continuing association with Leicester University, which may make people believe that he has something worth listening to say on the subject of Bosnian pyramids. No Longer Dangerous to Science 15. Vassil Nikolov - One of the original signers of the Declaration against the Bosnian pyramids project. Now discredited because of charges of criminal corruption. 16. Vuk Bačanović - One of the early detractors of the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis, this then-22-year-old native's ad hominem enthusiasms (attacks on the characters of both Dr. Osmanagich and Dr. Nabil Swelim) were picked up and amplified by other Bosnian pyramids detractors who had little other material to work with. However, although Bačanović has written at least one other article since then, he has not been published on the subject of archaeology since his original February 8, 2008 outburst in the Sarajevo news magazine Dani.
Of the self-adulating, criminally charged, and eventually routed ex-Minister of Egyptian Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, Semir Osmanagich writes:
"With revolution in Egypt it wasn't possible to hide 1.600 documents that demonstrate that Dr. Zahi Hawass stole precious artifacts, falsified historical findings (making them appear younger than they really are, because they didn't fit into official history), and fired archeologists, Egyptologists, guides and state officials, who spoke loudly about corruption of his office." Although Zahi Hawass, like Vassil Nikolov above, will never be able to recover whatever scientific credibility he might once have had, he is still quoted by the archaeological orthodoxy as an authority on the absence of pyramids in Bosnia. This is actually quite humorous, as it shows clearly thefull-on insanity of the archaeological orthodoxy, which normally manages to exhibit a modicum, more than a modicum, of rationality. With these handfuls of orthodox archaeologist and hamster-wheel journalists hell-bent on running in circles, with only a few degreed non-criminals left to take Schoch's side in his attack against archaeological sanity, we come again to the question we started with: What in Amun's name is Robert Schoch thinking, doing, and planning? Why does Robert Schoch
believe, with Archaeology magazine, and with the discredited Zahi Hawass, and with the discredited Vassil Nikolov, and with the orthodox academics who have never been to Bosnia but who shout from their armchairs that ancient pyramids are absent from this fertile pyramids-stuffed valley . . . why does the good doctor Schoch believe that pyramids, which are manifestly pyramids, are not pyramids? Perhaps Dr. Schoch has taken his cue from the "Pharaonic" Zahi Hawass.Or perhaps our good doctor Schoch has taken his cue from another veteran of scientific suppression, Professor Anthony Harding.
Anthony Harding, professor at the University of Exeter
Anthony Harding, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, Chairman of the Archaeology Section
of the British Academy, and former President of the European
Association of Archaeologists (2003-2009), weighed in on the subject of the Bosnian pyramids in the spring of 2006: "'Not any evidence at all has been found' to
support the claim the site would be an archaeological site, he said. 'I've seen the site, [and] in my opinion it is entirely natural.'" . . . When asked to comment on Harding's statement, Mario Gerussi,
the director of Osmanagic's team leading the excavations, said the team had not
been informed of the timing of Harding's visit and that none of the staff at
the site had seen him there." "It adds insult to injury," Harding writes in a letter to the London Times (April 18, 2006) "when rich outsiders can come in and spend large sums pursuing their absurd theories (the construction of a colossal pyramid so large that it dwarfs even those of Egypt or Mesoamerica? 12,000 years ago?), in ways that most other countries would never countenance, instead of devoting their cash to the preservation of the endangered genuine sites and monuments in which Bosnia-Herzegovina abounds. And the cause of protecting that heritage is also diminished when a publication that prides itself on being a newspaper of record devotes a whole page spread to such nonsense." Anthony Harding's sole evidence to claim that pyramids in don't exist in Visoko, Bosnia?Here it is:"I visited the 'pyramid' together with Predrag Novakovic and Sylvie Květinová [a secretary and an administrator] on 8 June [2006], and we confirmed that the stone exposed is of entirely natural origin." On December 11, 2006, Professor Harding and six other European archaeologists published the following Declaration protesting archaeological research on ancient pyramids in Bosnia:
"DECLARATION
- We, the undersigned professional archaeologists from all parts of
Europe, wish to protest strongly at the continuing support by the
Bosnian authorities for the so-called "pyramid" project being conducted
on hills at and near Visoko. This scheme is a cruel hoax on an unsuspecting public and has no place in the world of genuine science.
It is a waste of scarce resources that would be much better used in
protecting the genuine archaeological heritage and is diverting
attention from the pressing problems that are affecting professional
archaeologists in Bosnia-Herzegovina on a daily basis. [Signed,] Professor Hermann Parzinger, President, German Archaeological Institute, Berlin Professor Willem Willems, Inspector General, Rijksinspectie Archeologie (RIA), The Hague Dr Jean-Paul Demoule, President, Institut nationale de recherches archéologiques préventives (INRAP), Paris Professor Romuald Schild, Director, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw Professor Vassil Nikolov, Director, Institute of Archaeology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia Professor Anthony Harding, President, European Association of Archaeologists, c/o Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague Dr Mike Heyworth, Director, Council for British Archaeology, York 11 December 2006" Interestingly, before signing the above Declaration, none of the archaeologists except for Harding visited the site. Concerning
his visit to the site, Anthony Harding himself stated that 1) he did not
contact the archaeological team before his arrival, 2) he did not ask
anyone on the Foundation's archaeological team to be shown the relevant
digs and/or artifacts, and 3) he did not meet with anyone who could
have shown him the relevant digs and/or artifacts. To this date, Harding has provided no
photographic evidence to back up his claim that he visited the
site, and Harding has provided no photos or data to support his public
conclusion on the pyramids hypothesis in Bosnia, a conclusion which, very oddly,
he asks us to believe is"scientific." In short, Harding embarrassed
both himself and his profession by stating unequivocal negative conclusions about
pyramids in Bosnia after spending a reported 15 minutes in Visoko. Anthony Harding's entire documented evidence that ancient pyramids do not exist in the Visoko valley is . . . nothing. There is no evidence. Harding has provided no evidence, and has made no reference to, or critique of, other scientists' evidence, to support his unequivocal dismissal of ancient pyramids in the Visoko valley. One must admit that the "analysis" provided by Anthony Harding, perhaps Europe's highest-ranking archaeologist, is breathtaking.
In the January/February 2007 issue of British Archaeology, a publication of the educational charity called The Council for British Archaeology,
Professor Harding amplified his
detraction in "The great Bosnian pyramid scheme," stating that any claims of pyramids in Bosnia "belonged to a fantasy world" and adding that "a manned landing on the (non-) planet Pluto in the next 20 years is more likely" than ancient pyramids in Bosnia. Harding admits that he drew his negative conclusion about ancient pyramids in Bosnia the first time he read about Dr. Osmanagich's archaeological project. It's true: Harding admits, in print, in his own article, that he dismissed the idea of ancient pyramids in Bosnia before looking at any data, before weighing any new evidence whatsoever on the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis. This is a startling admission for a scientist to make. Shocking. We also know, without question, that Harding's visit to Visoko was meant solely to forestall criticism that he hadn't visited the project. We know this without question because he states it himself in his own article. Anthony Harding writes: "In the days following my letter [to the London Times], I was bombarded with requests for information. As a result, I decided that I would take advantage of a visit to Zadar, Croatia, in early June to drive on to Sarajevo to discuss the situation with professional colleagues there. On our way down, Predrag Novakovic (EAA secretary), Sylvie Kvetinová (administrator) and I called in at the hill of Visocica, on the edge of the town of Visoko, and looked at the excavation trenches that had been opened. We did this solely in order to avoid the charge, already laid at our door, that we had condemned the project without seeing it for ourselves. [Bolding mine.] As we expected, we saw areas of natural stone (a breccia), with fissures and cracks; but no sign of anything that looked like archaeology. The cracking in the rock was similar to many exposures we had seen in the past on natural rock formations, and did not look anything like a human construction. Geologists who have seen the site have said the same; the hill is similar in formation to many others in the Sarajevo-Zenica mining basin." Notice that Harding doesn't name these "trenches" that he tells us he
has studied with his two colleagues (a secretary and an administrator – hey, that's better than nothing). How could he tell us the names of the trenches, when he never met with, or
spoke with, the archaeologist who named them? And because he never told us the names of these trenches, scientists cannot be sure to which trenches he is referring. This is the opposite of science, which leaves a trail as plain as day. Harding's admission of conclusion before study is absolutely shocking. And it leads us to wonder if he was able, in fact, to "study" any archaeological evidence at all in Visoko. Can a person study something about which he has already made a conclusion? Imagine the hubris of a man who believes that his position as president of the European Association of Archaeologists obviates him from weighing evidence in making a scientific conclusion. Imagine what a man must think of himself to believe that his opinion should be taken as scientific conclusion and scientific fact. You have just imagined Anthony Harding. This is a man whom Robert Schoch, anti-science to his core, might idolize. Oddly, Harding is still around. He is no longer president of the E.A.A., but he is still a professor of archaeology, influencing students year after year. Professor Harding's continuing belief (confirmed Friday,
January 4, 2013 by his email response to my email query) from the pedestal of his academic position, is that
there are no ancient pyramids in Bosnia.
Can scientists have differing opinions about the Bosnian
pyramids? Of course they can. Scientists are entitled to their
opinions about anything and everything under the sun.
But science is a harsh mistress. She makes heavy and specific demands. None of the seven archaeologists listed above, including Anthony Harding, have complied with a single one of the many rigorous demands of science in the case of the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis. Not a single one of these scientists ever properly visited any of the Foundation's excavation sites. What does "properly visited" mean? It means "visited the sites with an open mind" and with an intent to gather and critique data. What, then, are the views of these seven archaeological professionals, in early January of 2013, on the subject of ancient pyramids in Bosnian? What do these seven scientists have to say six years after trying very, very hard to take down an archaeological project that would in the end brilliantly survive their attacks and forever change human history? From Anthony Harding and his six Declaration-signing colleagues, we have the following replies to my January 3, 2013 email request for a quote on the subject of pyramids in Bosnia. (Please note that none of the replies below are quotes but simply brief summaries of respondents' replies.) 1. Anthony Harding - Replied on January 4, 2013 to say that his views on the subject of pyramids in Bosnia have not changed and that he declines to be quoted in this article. 2. Romuald Schild - Replied on January 4, 2013 to say he has not followed the archaeological work on the Bosnian pyramids.
3. Jean-Paul Demoule - Replied on January 9, 2013 to give me the text of his 2007 article, "Les pyramides
bosniaques" (Encyclopaedia Universalis,
pp. 298-299). . . . He also replied to my further inquiry and gave me permission
to quote his January 10, 2013 views on ancient pyramids in Bosnia. Demoule writes on January 10, 2013: "The [Archaeological Park] excavations have only found geological features and mining tunnels
from the Middle Age. It is clear that it was never any prehistoric 'pyramid' in Visoko.[Bolding mine.] Bosnian prehistory is perfectly known as are
known the paleolithic societies there 15.000 years ago. The expertise of the
European Association of Archaeologists and of all the Bosnian professional
archaeologists was perfectly clear and unanimous. The only interesting point in
Visoko is the invention of a new national myth based on natural curiosities.
The reason for my interest on this problem is my more general interest about
the connexion and interrelations between archaeology and the actual societies,
and the role, use and abuse of archaeology in national identities. Sincerely Jean-Paul Demoule" 4. Willem Willems - Has not replied.
5. Hermann Parzinger - Has not replied.
6. Vassil Nikolov - Has not replied.
7. Mike Heyworth - Has not replied. Thus the majority – five out of seven – of the men who sought to shut down the Archaeological Park's work in Bosnia in 2006 have nothing to say on the subject six years and one month later. No shouts of victory, no satisfying list of concrete evidence thatthe idea of ancient pyramids in Bosnia was nothing more than myth, no scientificconsensus that the idea of ancient pyramids in Bosnia was always just a fantasy. Nothing. Only silence. From the other two, Harding and Demoule, we have categorical denials of pyramids in Bosnia, 1) without evidence and 2) without citation.
These seven men, remember, are the men who were so certain that there were no pyramids in Bosnia that they were willing to advise, in fact implore, Bosnian state and local governmental agencies to halt financial and promotional support for the Archaeological Park nonprofit foundation. Harding, a true believer in the "Hockey Stick" graph of human advancement, went further. Philip Coppens tells the tale of the zealous Exeter-ensconced proselyte of the archaeological orthodoxy. Coppens summarizes Harding's meltdown in the following radio interview (start video at minute 24:25): "Anthony Harding [then president of the European
Association of Archaeologists] mounted a vicious crusade, whereby he basically
said that if any Western archaeologist would ever be seen as helping to dig on
the Bosnian pyramids, he would personally make sure that that person would
never work on an archaeological site ever again in Europe." Hard to believe? Here's a July 22, 2012 video interview with Dr. Sara Acconci (start at minute 13:35), who was Lead Archaeologist for the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation from 2011-2012. Dr. Acconci says:
"The [orthodox] scientific community is against the
project. So just to summarize . . . they told me, 'You will never be able to
find a job as an archaeologist [if you work on the Bosnian pyramids project].'
. . . I started as a volunteer [in the summer of 2010]. . . . When I came back
to Italy, my professor asked me, 'What did you do this summer?' And I said,
"I was excavating the biggest and oldest pyramid in the world.' And
she told me, 'It's better if you will not speak about it, because you will
never obtain your second graduation.' . . . So I asked them why. And they told
me, 'Because we should [have to] rewrite history, and we should [have
to] admit that we are not the most advanced civilization ever.' . . . They were pretty clear. So I just decided to
play their game. And when I obtained my second graduation, I told everybody,
'Thank you so much, because with this piece of paper, I can go in Bosnia and
excavate the biggest pyramid in the world.'" And she did. For two years. Here is Dr. Acconci talking in late 2011 about the mechanical excavation of super-dense ancient concrete on the access ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.
Do you notice a pattern in the detractors of the Bosnian pyramid complex? These are largely academicians: persons who holdpositions of influence in the academic world. These persons, whose actions are demonstrably and egregiously anti-scientific, are in the position to regularly influence minds young and old on subjects about which they are prejudiced. Academia is, and has always been, the haunt of orthodoxy, and orthodoxy is the enemy of science. What is Dr. Schoch's secret motivation, if any, for this surrender to the orthodoxy, for this enormous denial and
reconstruction of reality? What is Schoch's mysterious agenda? After more than
six years, you'd think we'd know. It is interesting to note that Robert Schoch's anti-science agenda (though not his tactics) matches perfectly the agenda of Archaeology
magazine. Archaeology instituted a complete moratorium on
Bosnian archaeology in 2006. That's a long time for the world's premier
archaeological magazine to ignore the archaeology of an entire country. My October 16, 2011 letter to Archaeology on their bizarre moratorium remains unanswered. Although Archaeology has the same agenda as Schoch, their tactics are not quite the same. Archaeology maintains a cone of silence around Bosnia, and Schoch occasionally pelts it with sidewinder rocks. In a 2012 interview, Graham Hancock, journalist, author, and a true scientific seeker, says: "If we look at the history of science, even within
recorded history, we can see that the great advances in science have always
been made against a background of enormous resistance from the 'establishment.'
If we just blindly accept what the so-called authorities tell us, then we'll
never make any kind of progress in ideas. It's essential to keep an open mind
to all possibilities, and not to be bound down by theories and ideas put forward
by an entrenched establishment who have a vested interest in those very
theories and ideas."
Let us
try imagine, for a moment, the level of intrigue and cynicism
necessary for the archaeological orthodoxy to make the decision to try to shut down
one man, Semir Osmanagich – to try to keep him from uncovering the
world's greatest archaeological treasure deep in the heart of Bosnia. Let us try to imagine, for a moment, the psychological
makeup of persons who, to foil one archaeologist, have laboriously
endeavored to alter the path of the river of science, straining with
everything they have to steer science away from an entire country,
hoping to keep buried forever the greatest
archaeological truths discovered in the last hundred years. This is what we have in the personalities of Robert Schoch, Anthony Harding, self-styled "Pharaoh" Zahi Hawass, Archaeology
magazine's editor-in-chief, Claudia Valentino, and her editorial
colleagues, all of whom have capitulated to the dark will of anti-science and anti-human orthodoxy. As of 2011, the Archaeological Park Foundation, ignored
since its inception by the archaeological orthodoxy, has the largest
summertime excavation team of any archaeological dig in the world. Philip Coppens states
on December 10, 2012: "Each year, Sam's foundation organizes a Summer
Camp,
in which professional archaeologists and amateur archaeologists can help
and do
archaeological digs. Last year, it was actually the largest
archaeological
excavation in the world,[emphasis mine] numbers-wise, of people being involved." The flower of science that escaped, just barely, the tread of the iron boot of orthodoxy, has spread unto a glorious field. A Snake in the Garden of Science But don't rest on your laurels, science.Scarily (very scarily), an unknown number of years ago Robert Schoch befriended Walter Cruttenden. In the early part of this millennium, Walter Cruttenden wrote a book titled Lost Star: Of Myth and Time (2006). The book is, without question, the most important book of the first decade of the new millennium. It may be the most important book of the last 100 years. Bringing together ancient wisdomfrom many different cultures, and the most modern of science, Lost Star: Of Myth and Time posits, and demonstrates, that Earth's sun is in a co-orbit with Sirius. The period of this co-orbit is approximately 24,000 years.
I won't go into the ramifications of this finding in this article.
Proposed Sol-Sirius co-orbit, with an accelerating
rate of return on the part of Sirius
I contacted Mr. Cruttenden in February 2009 and corresponded with him occasionally about a potential writing project related to his book. I have spoken with him on the phone several times. He is a truly remarkable man. Like Dr. Osmanagich, he truly cares about science. He simply wants to discover the truth about our world and about human history. I found out recently that Robert Schoch has Cruttenden's ear and even his friendship. I haven't been able to discover the details of how Schoch came to befriend Cruttenden, but I know that it happened several years ago. I wrote to Cruttenden in early October 2011, giving him the data on Schoch's anti-scientific position about pyramids in Bosnia. Unfortunately, their friendship has not allowed Cruttenden to assimilate this data. It is alarming to find a rigorous scientist like Walter Cruttenden influenced against science in general, and against the Bosnian pyramids project in particular, for no other reason than that Schoch has told him to be against it. Schoch's out-of-the-blue friendship with
one of the most important scientists of our day strikes me as chilling,
and I remark on it here for reasons that you might imagine. There is a Snake in the Garden of Science, and he comes soft-spoken and sincere. On May 22, 2011, Dr. Semir Osmanagich published an article entitled, "How Many Times Has Dr. Robert Schoch Been Wrong?" In this article, Dr. Osmanagich details, painstakingly, the list of egregiously false statements made by Robert Schoch about the Bosnian pyramid complex and the extensive, multi-leveled tunnel system that wanders below it.
The good Dr. Schoch may not know this, but he came very close to bringing down the Archaeological Park project early on with his host of lies. Because of Schoch's statements, Dr. Osmanagich came within a hair's breadth of having both his reputation and his work – arguably the most important archaeological work being performed today in Europe – taken from him. All because of the libelous, scandalous claims of a faux-scientist. Is a scientist allowed to have an opinion that is different from the opinions of other scientists? Yes. (This is how science progresses.)
Is it reasonable to call into question scientific opinions that are not based on science, as I have repeatedly in this article? Yes.
Has Dr. Robert M. Schoch "acted like a scientist" in regards to the Bosnian pyramid complex during the last six-plus years? Absolutely not.
Is it reasonable to ask scientists who are not acting like scientists to stop libeling scientists and others who are acting like scientists? Yes.
Is it reasonable to believe that a real scientist will revise his opinion as new data becomes available? Yes.
Is it reasonable to say that six years is a long time for a revision of Dr. Schoch's initial opinion in the case of the Bosnian pyramids hypothesis? Yes, especially when his unscientific libel and slander against Dr. Semir Osmanagich, the Archaeological Park Foundation, and its workers and volunteers continue to this day.
"That
will be our worst enemy," Dr. Swelim continues,"to try to prove that what we are looking at is A or B
or C. We have to go with our investigation and see where it leads us. It
doesn't have to make us happy. If we are seeking happiness, then we are really
dreaming. We are seeking facts." Do you see, do you feel, the difference between this great Egyptian archaeologist's words and the words of Robert Schoch? Can you feel the difference between Dr. Swelim's attitude, his modesty and humility before the great tasks of science, and Dr. Schoch's cavalier, reckless arrogance that allows him continually to cast scientific method to the wind? I feel it, and this odd disparity has given me the motivation to write this article.
A Conspiracy of Silence
The conspiracy of ridicule against the Bosnian pyramids – a
conspiracy that spanned mid-2005-2007 and was amplified by rising star Robert M. Schoch – turned into a conspiracy of silenceafter it became clear that Semir Osmanagich had
indeed unveiled a great mystery in Europe. Robert Schoch still maintains on his site that "there are NO pyramids at Visoko, Bosnia," [his emphasis] but this is merely an echo of former conviction, an old website entry hanging on. Schoch has notpublished one word about Bosnian pyramids in five years. Archaeology magazine has published nothing about Bosnian pyramids, or even Bosnian archaeology, since Semir Osmanagich first cried "pyramids!" in Bosnia in April of 2005. The main detractors in the archaeological orthodoxy have either declined to respond to polite inquiries or have responded and declined to be cited. Thus, and in other ways, the archaeological orthodoxy's conspiracy continues.
* * *
Dr. Semir Osmanagich
"If one wants to be treated as a scientist, he has to stay
open, and he has to be ready to learn and accept the new knowledge.
"The Mysterious Anti-Scientific Agenda of Robert Schoch: Part One - The Bosnian Pyramid Complex" is dedicated to the memory of Philip Coppens, who died of natural causes on the eveningof December 30, 2012. Philip Coppens was a man of scientific
2nd International Scientific Conference in Visoko, and worked briefly
(for the month of October 2011) as Public Relations Director for the
Archaeological Park Foundation. Jacques Cousteau was his idol growing up, and he planned to become a marine biologist. His interest in the sciences, especially in biology, paleontology, and archaeology, has not waned, though he chose to become a writer. He has written eight feature-length screenplays, 40 plays (including two musicals), 200 songs in various genres, a manuscript of 170 poems, and four children's stories. He has also written two eBooks on natural health: Spontaneous Creation: 101 Reasons Not to Have Your Baby in a Hospital
and Into the Labyrinth: Discovering the Truth about Vaccination. One of his plays, This Dreamer Cometh, which deals specifically with the subject of the academic orthodoxy, concernsabrilliant graduate studentat Tufts University who is jailed and institutionalized for her conspicuously unorthodox equine field research.
Mr. Doubleday can be contacted at jockdoubleday dottt writer at gmail dottt com.
Jock Doubleday on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun August 11, 2011
Part Two of this series, "The Yonaguni Monument," looks atDr. Robert Schoch's continuingcommitment to anti-science as the good doctortakes on the colossal man-made structure off the coast ofJapanknown as the Yonaguni Monument.
