Ten incredible texts from our ancient past

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There are literally thousands of incredible texts that have survived from the ancient world, which are etched onto copper, beautifully inscribed on papyrus, chipped onto tablets, and even written using the ink of ground down gold and precious stones. While it is impossible to choose the best of the bunch, we have chosen ten incredible texts to feature, which have served to open a window onto the daily lives of our ancestors and enhanced the knowledge we hold about our ancient past. 

1. The Dunhuang Manuscripts

The Dunhuang Manuscripts are a cache of around 20,000 important scrolls found in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang. The Dunhuang manuscripts date to between the 5th and 11th centuries A.D., and were sealed up in a chamber in a cave, hidden for about 900 years. Although the Dunhuang Manuscripts contain mostly Buddhist texts, there were other forms of sacred texts as well. These include Taoist, Nestorian Christian, and Manichaean texts. In addition, there were also secular texts that dealt with various areas of knowledge, such as mathematics, history, astronomy and literature. One of the significant aspects of the Dunhuang Manuscripts can be seen in the large amount of folk literature in it. As this form of literature is about the lives of ordinary people, it provides a unique perspective on their experiences, the way they associated with the wider society and the government, as well as their relationships with family and friends.

2. The Kangyur Written with 9 Precious  Stones   

  Tibetans practised a form of Shamanism called Bon. From the 6th to 8th centuries A.D., Buddhism slowly penetrated this mountainous region. The teachings of the Buddha were translated into Tibetan, but its final compilation was only achieved in the 14th century. This resulted in the creation of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, which consisted of the Kangyur, the “translated words (of the Buddha)”. As copies were made of the original Kangyur, this text was disseminated throughout Tibet.  One of these copies is the Kangyur written with 9 precious stones, which is the only copy in the world. The ink used in the writing of this Kangyur is literally made from precious stones. 9 types of ‘precious stones’, namely gold, silver, coral, pearl, mother of pearl, turquoise, lapis lazuli, copper and steel, were first made into powder and placed into cups designated for each ‘stone’. Some fresh water from a mountain spring or rain water would then be mixed with special sweet adhesives, goat’s milk, and added to the cups to produce the ink. Then, using a painting brush made of sable fur, the ink would be used to write on processed black paper. In addition to the text, paintings were also added to the Kangyur. These images were painted according to the artistic tradition of Zanabazar, and is said to “immediately give peace of mind and admiration to anybody who looks at it.”    

3. The Legendary Emerald Tablet   

 The Emerald Tablet is said to be a tablet of emerald or green stone inscribed with the secrets of the universe. The source of the original Emerald Tablet is unclear, hence it is surrounded by legends. The most common legend claims that the tablet was found in a caved tomb under the statue of Hermes in Tyana, clutched in the hands of the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus himself. Another legend suggests that it was the third son of Adam and Eve, Seth, who originally wrote it. Others believed that the tablet was once held within the Ark of the Covenant. Some even claim that the original source of the Emerald Tablet is none other than the fabled city of Atlantis.  The Emerald Tablet would become one of the pillars of Western alchemy. It was a highly influential text in Medieval and Renaissance alchemy, and probably still is today. In addition to translations of the Emerald Tablet, numerous commentaries have also been written regarding its contents.  Yet, despite the various interpretations available, it seems that none of their authors claim to possess knowledge of the whole truth. Furthermore, readers are encouraged to read the text and try to interpret and find the hidden truths themselves. 

 4. The Egyptian Dream Book

The Egyptian ‘Dream Book’ is preserved in the form of a papyrus with a hieratic script. This papyrus was found in the ancient Egyptian workers’ village of Deir el-Medina, near the Valley of the Kings. This papyrus has been dated to the early reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 B.C.). Each page of the papyrus begins with a vertical column of hieratic signs which translates as ‘If a man sees himself in a dream’. In each horizontal line that follows, a dream is described, and the diagnosis ‘good’ or ‘bad’, as well as the interpretation is provided. Thus, as an example: ‘If a man sees himself in a dream looking out of a window, good; it means the hearing of his cry’. The good dreams are listed first, followed by the bad ones (written in red, as it is the colour of bad omens).

5. The Copper Scroll

The Copper Scroll is part of the extraordinary cache of 1st Century documents first discovered in caves at Qumran, popularly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Copper Scroll, however, is very different from the other documents in the Qumran library.  In fact, it is so anomalous among the Dead Sea Scrolls – its author, script, style, language, genre, content, and medium all differ to the other scrolls – that scholars believe it must have been placed in the cave at a different time to the rest of the ancient documents.  As Professor Richard Freund stated, the copper scroll is “probably the most unique, the most important, and the least understood.” Unlike the other scrolls, which were literary works, the copper scroll contained a list.  It was no ordinary list, rather it contained directions to 64 locations where staggering quantities of treasure could be found.  Sixty-three of the locations refer to treasures of gold and silver, which have been estimated in the tonnes.  Tithing vessels are also listed among the entries, along with other vessels, and three locations featured scrolls. One entry apparently mentions priestly vestments.  In total, over 4,600 talents of precious metal are listed on the scroll, making the total haul worth in excess of a billion dollars.

6. The Sumerian King List

Out of the many incredible artefacts that have been recovered from sites in Iraq where flourishing Sumerian cities once stood, few have been more intriguing that the Sumerian King List, an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighbouring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of “official” kingship. What makes this artefact so unique is the fact that the list blends apparently mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers who are known to have existed.  Among all the examples of the Sumerian King List, the Weld-Blundell prism in the Ashmolean Museum cuneiform collection in Oxford represents the most extensive version as well as the most complete copy of the King List. The 8-inch-high prism contains four sides with two columns on each side. It is believed that it originally had a wooden spindle going through its centre so that it could be rotated and read on all four sides. It lists rulers from the antediluvian (“before the flood”) dynasties to the fourteenth ruler of the Isin dynasty (ca. 1763–1753 BC). The list is of immense value because it reflects very old traditions while at the same time providing an important chronological framework relating to the different periods of kingship in Sumeria, and even demonstrates remarkable parallels to accounts in Genesis.

7. Ancient bamboo medical books of legendary Bian Que

In 2013, archaeologists unearthed 920 bamboo strips within four Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD) tombs located in the town of Tianhui in the south-western city of Chengdu in China, containing recipes for treating ailments that date back 2,000 years.  Analyses of the texts revealed that some of them were written by the legendary Bian Que, China’s earliest known physician. Translation work has also revealed the remarkable contents of these ancient medical manuscripts. Experts say the works are based mainly on studies of determining disease by taking the patient’s pulse. Other practices mentioned include internal medicine, surgery, gynaecology, dermatology, ophthalmology as well as traumatology. In addition, 184 tiles are related to the medical treatment of horses, considered by the experts as one of the most important veterinarian works in ancient China.

8. Hammurabi’s Code of Laws

Hammurabi’s Code of Laws is one of the most famous collections of laws from the ancient world. Hammurabi (reigned from 1792-1750 B.C.) was the sixth ruler of the First Dynasty of Babylon. During his long reign, he oversaw the great expansion of his empire, and made Babylon a major power in Mesopotamia. By the time of Hammurabi’s death, Babylon was in control of the whole of Mesopotamia, although his successors were not able to maintain this control. Despite the rapid disintegration of his empire, his code of laws has survived the ravages of time, though it was only in the 20th century that they were rediscovered by archaeologists. These laws defined various types of crimes and the penalties to be applied, and is typically described as an ‘eye for an eye’ system of justice.

9. The Takenouchi Manuscripts

The Takenouchi manuscripts are a set of mysterious documents that were rewritten by a man named Takenouchino Matori 1,500 years ago in a mixture of Japanese and Chinese characters, transcribed from even older texts. According to legend, the original documents were written in divine characters many millennia ago by ‘the gods’. The unusual texts tell a story of humanity in a way that has never been told before, starting from the beginning of creation up until the emergence of Christianity. They talk of an era in our ancient past where mankind lived in peace and harmony, united under the rule of the son of a Supreme God. Trying to unravel the origins and authenticity of the Takenouchi documents is now an impossible task as the original manuscripts were allegedly confiscated by government authorities and later lost. As a result, much speculation has circulated regarding the accuracy, and indeed the agenda, of the Takenouchi texts.

10. The ancient texts of Timbuktu

Located at the gateway to the Sahara desert in what is now Mali, within the confines of the fertile zone of the Sudan, Timbuktu is one of the cities of Africa whose name is the most heavily charged with history.  Founded in the 5th century, it became an intellectual and spiritual capital, reaching its golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries.   Around seven hundred years ago, it was a bustling hub where travellers from Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, and Morocco met to trade in salt, gold, ivory and unfortunately, slaves.  But it wasn’t only ‘goods’ that were exchanged. Timbuktu was a place where ideas, philosophies, intellectual thought, and religious beliefs came together in a dynamic mix, and one of the primary ways in which such ideas were exchanged was through the sale of books.  The ancient texts of Timbuktu are an impressive sight – bundled in camel skin, goat skin, or calf leather and inscribed in gold, red, and jet-black ink, their pages are filled with words in striking calligraphy from Arabic and African languages, and contain an intriguing array of geometric designs. Subjects in the collections, spanning the 13th through 17th century, include the Koran, Sufism, philosophy, law, maths, medicine, astronomy, science, poetry and much more.  The manuscripts provide a window into the minds of the times’ leading thinkers as they pondered the meanings of their circumstances.

By April Holloway

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Inca History You Have Never Heard About

Inca History You Have Never Heard About

The history of the great Inca culture, as espoused in most books, and presented by most guides is full of factual errors; let’s go through some of them here:

It is believed by most academics that the Inca developed as a distinct society on the Island of the Sun and Island of the Moon in Lake Titicaca. However, this has in fact never been proven. All of the architecture on these islands, as seen above is very primitive.

They are said to have left the Lake Titicaca area about 1000 AD, and founded the city of Cusco at about that time. Above, the Coricancha is believed to have been the first building they constructed. But where would they have received the knowledge to do such impressive stone work? That is a question most guides and academics ignore.

You can see the Inca work on the right side of the above photo; relatively small stones integrated into a previous megalithic construction created long before their arrival. Thus, the Inca were not the “founders” of Cusco, they FOUND it. The earlier builders had vastly superior technology, and were likely called the Perhuas, from which we get the word Peru.

There was never such a thing as the Inca “empire.” It was in fact a confederation of states, with Cusco being the center. Unfortunately most that has been written about the Inca comes from Spanish chronicles. The Inca themselves kept most of their knowledge from these ruthless conquerors, in an attempt to protect their cultural integrity. The conventional history is thus blurred.

The famous Inca Trail leading to Machu Pic’chu is but a tiny part of their road system, which in total was about 25,000 miles long, from Colombia in the north to the middle of Chile and Argentina in the south, and into the Amazon. The Inca were ingenious at building rope bridges to interconnect many roads and trails. But the original road system was an inheritance from much older cultures.

The Inca never made artistic depictions of their leaders, and thus we do not know what they looked like. Just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in Cusco, the entire Inca royal family (who were the true Inca, not the general population) had been slaughtered in a civil war. Thus, even early Spanish portraits do not present a genuine depiction.

The Inca knew the concept of the wheel, as seen in this spindle used for spinning wool. Due to the hilly and mountainous nature of the Inca world, carts with wheels would have been useless. Thus, the Inca used Llama instead to move things. One Llama can carry 50 pounds, and sometimes 1000 were used to move vast amounts of goods.

The Inca had 2 forms of recording their language. The Khipu system of knotted cords used for accounting purposes, but recent revelations from Harvard PhD Gary Urton show that the Khipu was also a binary code, with the ability to convert words into numbers. A very advanced concept.

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Even Machu Pic’chu was not completely made from scratch by the Inca. As you can see in the above photo, lower sections of some of the structures are far superior to the upper areas. My estimation is that between 5 and 10 percent of Machu Pic’chu predates the Inca. They clearly found the remnants of a megalithic site, like Cusco, and built around it.

The Cyclopean Megalithic Works Of Italy

Ancient Canal Builders

 

http://www.ancientcanalbuilders.com/overview.html

7,100 to 7,400 years ago, an advanced civilization sprawled along the coast from the area around New York City down through Florida, across the Mississippi Delta, and into Texas and Mexico. There’s no reason to believe the culture didn’t stretch on into Central America, Brazil and the Caribbean, and possibly even farther. Such an enormous sprawl would suggest a population in excess of 30-50 million people, and more likely up around 200 million or more, if considering other groups spread around the Atlantic Rim.

With a complex system of harbors, canals and waterways extending for hundreds of miles all totaled, the kind of workforce it would take to achieve such a task would have been at least equivelant to what the same project would require today.

Such a society would need to have a complex system of controls. They would need a government and all the normal social systems that go hand-in-hand with a large population. And to support this society, there would need to be a viable and thriving economic system, and the security to protect it.

In order to build such advanced engineering systems, these ancient builders needed a clear understanding of engineering and construction that rivaled modern technologies. With the coastal water raising an average of 5′ every 100 years, they developed a water based transportation system that is unrivaled today.

To that end they must have structured their entire society around water transportation. They built habitation canal-ways around neighborhoods, towns, or fields. They constructed elaborate harbors with quays, wharfs, and docks to facilitate the loading and unloading of any sort of freight, people, minerals, livestock, perishables and dry goods.

As the water continued to rise, they built border canals, dikes and levees in an effort to protect their lands and control the water. Many of these features can still be identified under the water today.

The most spectacular and amazing feature of these features are offshore sunken harbors.

This particular harbor below is located about 2.3 miles out in the open ocean with no connection to land based use. It is about 6′ to 9′ below the current water table, suggesting it was in use prior to -7,000 years ago. (Ocean levels have risen about 5′ 5″ in the last 7,000 years.

The above harbor is going to be our first expedition, so coordinates are being withheld until we have an opportunity to dive on this location. The engineering design specifications of this harbor is more than 12,000′ i length and an average width of about 1,000′, with an estimated depth of 25′, giving a total of about 34 million cubic yards of material moved. At a rate of $15. per cubic yard of material, this project would cost about $500,000,000 in todays dollars to complete. Thats half a BILLION dollars. I would suggest it probably wasn’t completed with Deer Antler scrapers and reed baskets. This is one of several ‘linch-pin’ proofs of a civilization that existed on our coasts prior to the last great cataclysm, -7,000 years ago. If they built this harbor, then they in fact are the architects and builders of the long distance double lane canals in Louisiana, the multiple offshore harbors in New York, .the large matching canals in Mexico. They more than likely are directly related to the builders of the Bimini Road Harbor, as well as the Windover Bog People. 

Below is another harbor also about 2 miles offshore in the open ocean. It too, has no connection to any possible land based use, and like the above harbor, this one also is about 6′ to 10′ below the current mean ocean level. Our first expedition will to be to dive on these two harbors. Check the Florida section for additional locations.

The following harbor is cut from the sunken ‘secondary tidal shoulder’ on an unused section of Long Island, NY. It is connected to a series of very large channels that travese Long Island into Shinnicock Bay. The secondary tidal plain here is about 6′ under mean later level, suggestion this harbor was in use about the same time as the other sunken harbors described above. (About -7,000 years before present.) Check the NY section for an additional 12 sunken harbors in the Long Island area.

The near total lack of solid above ground structures is a strong indication of a cataclysmic event that destroyed the civilization. All that is left of this sprawling society are the remains of the Canals, Channels and Harbors. All other signs of their society, buildings, ships, and ground vehicles, have been scrubbed away completely in a great global cataclysm seven thousand some odd years ago.

This complex appears to have two building and use periods, one that is less structured and has the appearance of being built on top of the old system. The original berm on this center canal includes the large rectangle paddlehead. The second berm seems to have been cut out of the silted over section. It is not possible in this preview, to do justice to the many features of this complex, and much field work is required to make serious statements of potential purpose and function.

Ridge Island

Two canals that are close to unused land. The east canal is about 100 ft wide and and about 4750 ft long. The larger canal to the right is about 150 ft wide and over a mile long, at least of the portion that can be seen. Both these long and very wide canals have no discernible purpose that fit their size and shape.

Assuming the canals are 12 ft -14 ft deep, they represent an engineering project of moving a total of about 1,790,000 cubic yards of material. At somewhere around $10 per cubic yard cost to build, these canals would top $11,794,000 in todays dollar cost. If these were private canal, they would be the largest and most expensive private canals in the world.

East Moriches

An absolutely stunning piece of evidence. This is part of the Moriches channel, near the eastern end of Long Island. This unamed island has degraded, with aged sand spill covering over the Moriches channel. Just to the left, tidal flow and sand spill has completely degraded the channel.Sand spill from the small island to the right has overfilled the degraded channel. The depth here is very interesting, as it appears to be different and deeper than the secondary tidal shoulder. At least the tertiary tidal shoulder, and maybe deeper.

Ten Incredible Mummy Discoveries from Around the World

 

Mummies of humans and other animals have been found on every continent, both as a result of natural preservation through unique climatic conditions, and as intentionally preserved corpses for religious or cultural purposes. In addition to the well-known mummies of Ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of South America and Asia, as well as numerous other. Here we feature ten unique mummy discoveries from around the world.

The mummies of Qilakitsoq – Greenland

His little face still stares upwards, as if eternally waiting for his mother. From the moment he was discovered, the little Inuit baby captured hearts with his photograph plastered on magazines and news stories around the world. When he was first found, he was believed to be a doll, but it was soon discovered that it was actually the body of a six-month old baby boy. He was buried alive with his already dead mother – presumably because there was no one left to care for him. The small Inuit baby was found along with a two-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who were buried in two separate graves protected by a rock that overhung a shallow cave. The bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry, dehydrating winds, providing a remarkable opportunity to learn about the Greenland Inuit of half a millennium ago – they are the oldest preserved remains ever to be found there.

Tollund Man – Denmark

Tollund Man is the naturally mummified body of a man who lived during the 4th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was hanged as a sacrifice to the gods and placed in a peat bog where he remained preserved for more than two millennia. Today, the face of the Tollund Man is as preserved as the day he died. The look upon his face is calm and peaceful, as though looking upon a sleeping man.

The Lady of Dai Mummy – China

When talking about body preservation and mummies, people all over the world think of Egypt and the mummified bodies of Pharaohs, such as Tutankhamun. But how many know that the world’s best preserved bodies actually come from China? The Lady of Dai, otherwise known as The Diva Mummy, is a 2,100-year-old mummy from the Western Han Dynasty and the best preserved ancient human ever found. Just how this incredible level of preservation was accomplished has baffled and amazed scientists around the world. Xin Zhui, the Lady of Dai, died between 178 and 145 BC, at around 50 years of age. The objects inside her tomb indicated a woman of wealth and importance, and one who enjoyed the good things in life. But it was not the precious goods and fine fabrics that immediately caught the attention of archaeologists, rather it was the extraordinarily well-preserved state of her remains that captured their eyes.

The 500-Year-Old Inca Child Mummies – Argentina

Over a decade ago, the remains of three Incan children were found, remarkably preserved, atop the summit of Volcan Llullaillaco in Argentina. Last year, an analysis on the bodies of the 13-year-old ‘Maiden’ and her 4- to 5-year-old companions, Llullaillaco Boy and Lightening Girl, revealed that the children had been drugged and given alcohol on a regular basis as part of a year-long series of ceremonial processes leading up to their final sacrifice. Evidence suggests the sacrificial ceremony may have been used as a form of social control. Being selected for the ritual was supposed to be seen as a great honour, but it probably produced a climate of fear. In fact, it was a major offense for parents to show any sadness after giving up their children for the ceremony.

Tjayasetimu, the child star – Egypt

Tjayasetimu is the name of a little girl who was a star singer in ancient Egypt. Nearly three thousand years ago, she was a member of the royal choir and sang for the pharaohs in temples on the Nile. The seven-year-old girl, although heartbreakingly young when she died, was important enough to merit an elaborate mummification, a process normally reserved for Egyptian royalty and elite families. Tjayasetimu had been wrapped in painted bandages, her face covered with a delicate veil and hidden by a golden mask, and she had been placed in a gilded sarcophagus. The child star was well-preserved and still had a full head of shoulder-length hair. They could even see her milk teeth pushing up through her gums. At a height of just 4 feet, Tjayasetimu was far too small for her sarcophagus, although it is not clear why a casing was not made to fit her size. Scientists believe she died as a result of a short illness, such as cholera.

The Beauty of Loulan – China

Loulan was discovered in 1980, but it was 3800 years ago that she died on the trade route known as the Silk Road. The natural dryness and salty soil preserved her and over two hundred other mummies, individuals who had lived in several closely located settlements along the trade route. The mummy has been called the Loulan Beauty because of her amazingly preserved stately facial features that have remained quite beautiful even in death. Unfortunately, the region where she and the others were found is politically unstable and the discovery of the mummies in the Tarim Basin in China was seen as a possible instigating factor for unrest. The Chinese government has been reluctant to allow full access to the mummies because of their racial identity. The Tarim mummies are Caucasian and this fact has given credence to the claims of the local peoples, the Uyghur, who look more European than Asian that they are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the area and not later arrivals, as Chinese history claims.

Ötzi the Iceman – Germany

Ötzi the iceman, who was discovered by some German tourists in the Alps in 1991, was originally believed to be the frozen corpse of a mountaineer or soldier who died during World War I. Tests later confirmed the iceman dates back to 3,300 BC and most likely died from a blow to the back of the head. He is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy and, remarkably, his body contained the still intact blood cells, which resembled a modern sample of blood. They are the oldest blood cells ever identified. His body was so well-preserved that scientists were even able to determine that his last meal was red deer and herb bread, eaten with wheat bran, roots and fruit.

The Lady of Cao – Peru

On the beautiful northern coastline of Peru overlooking the blue Pacific, the place known as Huaca El Brujo (Sacred place of the Wizard) gives us an incredible glimpse into the culture of the Moche and the ‘Wizard’ buried there. Its two main pyramids, Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna, were once the centre of social and religious functions in the area and the final resting place of the tattooed mummy, who has come to be known as the Lady of Cao. Not an elderly woman, she died in her mid-twenties about fifteen hundred years ago, probably as a complication of childbirth. The Moche did not mummify their dead purposefully, but the conditions for desiccation just happened to preserve the Lady of Cao and by doing so also preserved her intricate tattoos. Although it is not believed that the more common members of Moche society were tattooed it could certainly be inferred from this burial that the highest status members were, and the tattoos probably represented and strengthened the individuals’ connection with the divine through sympathetic magic.

Mystery Mummies of Zeleniy Yar – Russia

Zeleniy Yar is a remote site near the Arctic Circle known to the indigenous Nenets people as “the end of the earth”. The unique site has revealed nearly a dozen mysterious mummies who appear to be foreign to the region, and whose artifacts can be traced back to ancient Persia, nearly 6,000 kilometres away. Scientists are undertaking genetic testing to determine the origins of the mummies and unlock the secrets of a mystery medieval civilization. The mummies were found in a well-preserved state, seemingly by accident, and wearing copper masks and covered in reindeer, beaver, wolverine, or bear fur. Many of their skulls are shattered or missing, while the skeletons were smashed. One of the mummies is a red-haired male, protected from chest to foot by copper plating. In his resting place, was an iron hatchet, furs, and a head buckle made of bronze depicting a bear.

The Mummies of Palermo Catacombs – Italy

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo are located in Sicily, Italy. In the 16th century, the Capuchin monks of Palermo discovered that their catacombs contained a natural preservative that helped mummify their dead. One of the most famous mummies is that of a two year old girl, Rosalia Lombardo. Rosalia was placed in the catacombs when she died in 1920. Her body is so well preserved that she looks as if she were just sleeping in her glass coffin, hence her nickname “Sleeping Beauty”. The secret for her excellent state of preservation was revealed a few years ago, when a hand-written memoir of the embalmer, Alfredo Salafia, was discovered. This memoir recorded the chemicals that he injected into Rosalia’s blood. These chemicals were formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin. It has been suggested that it was the zinc salts that were most responsible for Rosalia’s amazing state of preservation

By April Holloway

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The Shocking Technology of the Inca/Pre-Inca Civilization

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http://humansarefree.com/2014/02/the-shocking-technology-of-incapre-inca.html

The amazing technology of the Inca and pre-Inca cultures of the Andes in Peru always shocks and awes modern-day travelers. The Incas and pre-Incas understood and mastered the science behind brain surgery, genetically altered food, incredible engineering marvels, sophisticated astronomical wisdom and colossal geo-glyphs visible only from the sky: How did these “primitive” peoples develop such futuristic capabilities? The answer can be found in their advanced spiritual wisdom, which has not yet been deciphered or decoded by Western scholars and archaeologists. This advanced spiritual wisdom accelerated their cultural growth to a height completely unimaginable by 21st century thinkers and scholars.

1. Artificially Straightened Rivers It’s a little known and unexplainable fact that the Incas straightened entire sections of streams and rivers, including a two-mile span of the meandering and often turbulent Urubamba River:Above: Two photos showing two separate spans of the artificially-straightened Urubamba river.

2. Massive, Endless & Incredibly Straight Superhighways The Incas also built massive, endless super-highways along much of South America’s West Coast—roads that go on and on for endless miles, and that appear so eerily straight they seem scribed by the hand of a giant architect.

3. Advanced Brain Surgery By the 1300s, the Incas has become experts at brain surgery and were performing operations on the skull at a much higher success rate — better than 85 percent — than later surgeons in Europe, who were lucky to save 25 percent of their patients   

4. Ingenious Stone Terraces The Incas were also exceptional horticulturalists. Their ingenious stone terraces tamed the steep Andean slopes, transforming precipitous terrain into fertile farmland. In many cases, entire mountains were terraced, including 13,000 ft. high Peruvian slopes:Above Left and Right: Terraces at Machu Picchu. Right: Llama decorations created by stones in the terraces at Choquequirao.

Terracing technology, along with a permanent system of irrigation, the selection of seeds, and the invention of a calendar for planting and harvesting, provided ideal conditions for the genetic manipulation of food—another enigma. By some estimates, more than half of the foods the world eats today were developed on the terraces of Andean farmers, including 20 varieties of maize.

5. Impossible Architecture 

Another amazing accomplishment can be seen in the hundreds of architectural stone masterpieces the Incas created. One example is the legendary Sacsayhuaman, a breathtaking archaeological site made with megalithic stones precisely cut and placed in ominous jigsaw-like patterns called “polygonal.” Above Left: The gigantic stones of Sacsayhuaman. One stone block is 28 ft. high and weighs 300 tons (same weight as 300 cars). Right: The Stone of Twelve Angles. More than a ‘structural’ purpose, what ‘symbolic’ meaning does this artwork hold? Spanish chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega was so amazed he said Sacsayhuaman seems to have been “made by some form of magic — built by demons rather than men!” Conquistador Francisco Pizarro’s secretary Pedro Sancho remarked that anyone seeing the site’s massive stones and ominous geometric patterns “would say that they cannot have been placed there by human hands.”

6. Enigmatic Carved Effigies 

Yet another mystery lies in the unique and now-famous mountain plateau called Markawasi, 80 km northeast of Lima. Geologically unlike any of the surrounding Andes, Markawasi is home to a mysterious stone forest comprised of a series of enigmatic and massive carved effigies, including mind-boggling winged sphinxes, elephants, camels, and other animals, many of which never existed on the continent.

One example is shown below (damaged by time):Above: The so-called “Face of Time” (i.e., the “Monument of Humanity”), a 60-foot tall sphinx-like stone sculpture of a young man whose visage slowly ages as the sun transits the sky. The image draws a symbolic parallel to the day “aging” from the sun’s rise to the sun’s evening death.

7. Architecture With Seemingly Magical Properties

Another enigma exists in how the Incas and pre-Incas captured natural forces in their buildings and landmarks, giving the appearance of magic.  In the 2 minute video shown below (taped by the present writer at Ollantaytambo, Peru, in 2002) we catch a glimpse of this apparent magic, which marks evidence of a high technology.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeJyRytnoH0&feature=player_embedded

The Incas had no written language, no iron tools, no wheeled vehicles, no cranes or lifting devices. But, somehow, between the years 1000 and 1532 AD, they created a metropolitan and agricultural empire that encompassed more than half the West Coast of South America. At its peak, Tawa-Inti-Suyu, or Land of the Four Quarters, as the Incas called their kingdom, was the largest on Earth.

Who were these mysterious master stonemasons and builders, and why does their bizarre technology look like something from the distant future, rather than the primitive past?

Inheritors Of An Advanced Legacy

The answer is, the Incas were the inheritors of a rich ancestral tradition that stretched back many generations and even thousands of years. The Incas and the pre-Incas before them possessed a high spiritual wisdom the depth and power of which is unknown to modern Western cultures.

Their advanced spirituality endowed the Incas with what we might today describe as “superhuman” skills and abilities, including psychic power, clairvoyance, mind of matter, self-healing and an understanding of the laws of gravity, nature and astronomy that has not yet been uncovered in our “modern” civilization.

For more, please read “Written In Stone: Decoding The Secret Masonic Religion Hidden in Gothic Cathedrals And World Architecture” by Richard Cassaro.