L'immutabile percorso della mente del ciarlatano

A qualunque latitudine ed in qualsiasi lingua, la mente del ciarlatano segue sempre il medesimo percorso: costruisce secondo i medesimi canoni le proprie meravigliose farneticazioni. In questo caso, che mi pregio di presentare oggi, siamo fortunatamente ben lontani dalla Sardegna e dagli Shardana: ci troviamo, infatti, in Arizona, USA.
Ma i numerosi punti di contatto sono almeno tanto curiosamente numerosi da non potere NON essere portati all'attenzione.

- Si tratta di "petroglifi".
- Come è noto, i petroglifi non sono databili
- Sono presenti in una zona remota, ove non si reca mai nessuno, essendo tra l'altro proprietà privata.
- Essendo una zona mai frequentata, nessuno può dire: "il mese scorso non c'erano!".
- Sono "nascosti in piena vista" (un'espressione molto cara ai fantarcheologi, che riescono sempre a vedere ciò che persino gli studiosi del campo non hanno mai trovato).
- La scoperta è di quelle che permetteranno di "riscrivere la Storia".
- Tutte le elucubrazioni e ricerche sono partite da un appassionato che è (John A. Ruskamp, vedi il fondo dell'articolo riportato) un "educatore in pensione, uno statistico, un analista chimico" e che si è interessato della cosa solo per hobby.
- Ha recentemente pubblicato un articolo, sì è trovato sostenitori di nicchia David Keightley, massimo epigrafista di ossa oracolari cinesi) e si sta promuovendo in tutti i modi.
- Ha già trovato, in giro per gli States, circa 82 petroglifi (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oklahoma, e persino Ontario). 

Unica differenza: trattandosi degli USA, in cui la democrazia e la verità sono un'ossessione popolare diffusa, l'articolo di Ruskamp sarà sottoposto a "Peer Review": pertanto, sarà espressa una precisa sentenza scientifica su di lui e sul suo operato.

Researcher claims 


ancient Chinese explorers 


landed in America 

Americas, ArchaeoHeritage, Archaeology, Breakingnews, China, North America, USA 

John A. Ruskamp Jr., Ed.D., reports that he has identified an outstanding, history-changing treasure hidden in plain sight. 
High above a walking path in Albuquerque’s Petroglyph National Monument, Ruskamp spotted petroglyphs that struck him as unusual. After consulting with experts on Native American rock writing and ancient Chinese scripts to corroborate his analysis, he has concluded that the readable message preserved by these petroglyphs was likely inscribed by a group of Chinese explorers thousands of years ago. 

Petroglyphs found in Arizona that are said to show an ancient Chinese script 

 [Credit: John Ruskamp] 

On the fringe of archaeology have long been claims that the Chinese reached North America 
long before Europeans. 
With some renowned experts taking interest in Ruskamp’s discovery, those claims may be working their way from the fringe to the core. 
It doesn’t mean our history textbooks will change tomorrow. 
Anything short of discovering an undisturbed early Asiatic relic or village in the Americas may fail to convince those archaeologists who have dogmatically rejected evidence of an ancient Chinese presence in the New World, said Ruskamp. 

Cartouche 1, which reads "Set apart (for) 10 years together"

 [Credit: John Ruskamp] 

But, the disparate and widespread symbols he has found show many indications of authenticity. 
They have the potential to inspire a more serious investigation into early trans-Pacific interaction. 
To date, Ruskamp has identified over 82 petroglyphs matching unique ancient Chinese scripts not only at multiple sites in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but also nearby in Arizona, as well as in Utah, Nevada, California, Oklahoma, and Ontario. 
Collectively, he believes that most of these artifacts were created by an early Chinese exploratory expedition, although some appear to be reproductions made by Native people for their own purposes. 
One of Ruskamp’s staunchest supporters has been David N. Keightley, Ph.D., a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient who is considered by many to be the leading analyst in America of early Chinese oracle-bone writings. 
Keightley has helped Ruskamp decipher the scripts he has identified. 
One ancient message, preserved by three Arizona cartouche petroglyphs, translates as: “Set apart (for) 10 years together; declaring (to) return, (the) journey completed, (to the) house of the Sun; (the) journey completed together.” 
At the end of this text is an unidentified character that may be the author’s signature.

 Cartouche 2, which reads, “Declaring (to) return, (the) journey completed,  (to the) house of the Sun” 

[Credit: John Ruskamp] 

The oracle-bone style of writing employed for creating a number of these ancient petroglyph scripts disappeared by royal decree from mankind’s memory around 1046 B.C., following the fall of the Shang Dynasty. It remained an unknown and totally forgotten form of writing until it was rediscovered in A.D. 1899 at Anyang, China. 
Ruskamp thus concluded that the mixed styles of Chinese scripts found in these Arizona petroglyphs indicates that they were made during a transitional period of writing in China, not long after 1046 B.C. 
Ruskamp gives the following translation for the Albuquerque petroglyphs: “Geng (a date; the seventh Chinese Heavenly Stem); Jie (to kneel down in reverence); Da (great—referring to a superior); Quan (dog—the sacrificial animal); Xian (offering worship to  deceased ancestors); and Da Jia (the name of the third king of the Shang dynasty).” 

Cartouche 3, which reads, "(The) journey completed together" 

[Credit: John Ruskamp] 

The Albuquerque petroglyphs use both Seal era and Bronze era Chinese scripts, suggesting they were also written during a transitional period in Chinese calligraphy, likely between 1046 B.C. and 475 B.C. The use of the title “Da” before the name “Jia,” suggests a date close to the end of the Shang Dynasty in 1046 B.C., as this appellation emerged during that time period and was replaced shortly thereafter. 
Michael F. Medrano, Ph.D., chief of the Division of Resource Management for Petroglyph National Monument, studied the petroglyphs at that location upon Ruskamp’s request. He said that, based on his more than 25 years of experience with local Native cultures, “These images do not readily appear to be associated with local tribal entities,” and “based on repatination appear to have antiquity to them.” 

Arizona cartouche petroglyphs  

[Credit: John Ruskamp] 

It is difficult to physically date petroglyphs with absolute certainty, notes Ruskamp. Yet the syntax and mix of Chinese scripts found at these two locations correspond to what experts would expect explorers from China to use some 2,500 years ago. For example, the Arizona ranch petroglyphs are divided into three sections each enclosed in a square known as a cartouche. Two of the cartouches are numbered; one with the Chinese script for “one” placed beneath it and in a similar manner the second cartouche has the ancient Chinese script meaning “second” inscribed beneath it. Together these numeric figures indicate the order in which these images should be read. Importantly, the cartouches are thus shown to be read in the traditional Chinese manner, from right to left. 

Evolution of Chinese symbols

  [Credit: John Ruskamp] 

The first two cartouches are rotated 90 degrees to the left of vertical and the third is rotated 90 degrees to the right. “The deliberate rotation of these writings, both to the left and right of vertical by an equal number of degrees, endorses their authenticity, for the rotation of individual scripts by Chinese calligraphers is well-documented,” wrote Ruskamp. 
Some of the symbols found in the petroglyphs are common to both Chinese script and ancient Native American writing. 
For instance, “The Chinese petroglyph figure of Jiu conveys the idea of “togetherness,” in much the same manner as the Nakwach symbol is now, and has been in the past, understood by the Hopi,” wrote Ruskamp. 
   Another similarity is the use of a rectilinear spiral to convey the concept of a “round-trip journey.” Though these similarities could be conceived as supporting a Native American origin for Ruskamp’s petroglyphs, Ruskamp stated: “The extensive Chinese vocabulary evidenced at each location advocates against the authorship of the figures evaluated in this study being credited to Native Americans. None of the more complex Chinese figures identified in this report are known to have any Native tribal affiliation.” 

The Arizona glyph site on what has always been, and still is, very private ranch property  located miles from any public access or road [Credit: John Ruskamp] 

The conclusion of his paper titled 'Ancient Chinese Rock Writings Confirm Early Trans-Pacific Interaction,' reads: “In contrast to any previous historical uncertainty, the comparative evidence presented in this report, which is supported by both analytical evaluation and expert opinion, documenting the presence of readable sequences of old Chinese scripts located upon the rocks of North America, establishes that prior to the extinction of oracle-bone script from human memory, approximately 2,500 years ago, trans-Pacific exchanges of epigraphic intellectual property took place between Chinese and North American populations.” 

He published the paper on his website, Asiaticechoes.org, in April and it is currently under peer review.
 Last October, he began presenting his findings in speaking engagements, including most recently to the Association of American Geographers in Chicago. 
He will next present at a meeting of the Little Colorado River Chapter of the Arizona Archaeology Society in Springerville, Arizona, on May 18. 
The editors of the journal Pre-Columbiana have confirmed they will soon publish Ruskamp’s article.
The journal is edited by Professor Emeritus Stephen C. Jett, Ph.D., University of California–Davis, with the assistance of an editorial board of distinguished professional 
scholars, and is dedicated to exploring Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact. 

A retired educator, statistician, and analytical chemist, Ruskamp pursued his study of petroglyphs as a hobby—little expecting to find what may lead to a great shift in how we view both American and Chinese history. 


Author: Tara MacIsaac | Source: Epoch Times [June 30, 2015]

Uso del Propulsore.

Conoscerlo è un conto (il propulsore era noto dal 18.000 a.C.) usarlo è un altro (mi sono sempre chiesto se i Protosardi ne avessero bisogno: non credo). 
Dimostrare che fosse usato  da una popolazione richiede ricerca. Per i Paleo indiani nord americani, eccola:


First Americans used spear-throwers to hunt large animals 



Despite a lack of archaeological evidence, the first North Americans have often been depicted hunting with spear-throwers, which are tools that can launch deadly spear points at high speeds. 
But now, a new analysis of microscopic fractures on Paleo-Indian spear points provides the first empirical evidence that America's first hunters really did use these weapons to tackle mammoths and other big game.

A nearly complete Clovis projectile point of dendritic chert, a mid-interval biface  of translucent quartz, displaying relatively heavy red ochre residue and an  "end-beveled" osseous rod, also exhibiting red ochre residue  [Credit: Sarah L. Anzick] 

The new study has implications for scientists' understanding of the way Paleo-Indians lived, researchers say. 
To understand the inner workings of extinct hunter-gatherer societies, it's important to first learn how the ancient peoples got the food they ate, because their lives were closely tied to their subsistence activities. 
Current models of Paleo-Indian society are based on the assumption that hunters sometimes used spear-throwers, or atlatls, said study author Karl Hutchings, an archaeologist at Thompson Rivers University in Canada. "We can now be assured that those assumptions were right," Hutchings told Live Science. Ancient hunting tools Similar to bows, atlatls can propel flexible, pointed shafts — called darts, rather than arrows — at high speeds across long distances. 
Essentially, they were sticklike tools that contained a hook or spur at one end to hold a dart. By swinging the spear-thrower overhead and forward, hunters could launch their darts with greater force than if they were to throw them like javelins. 
Archaeological evidence indicates that hunter-gathers in the Old World used atlatls beginning at least 18,000 years ago. 
Researchers have long thought that Paleo-Indians — including the people of the Clovis culture, who lived around 13,000 years ago and are considered one of the first American peoples — also hunted with spear-throwers. 
Researchers reasoned that "if the spear-thrower originated in the Old World, then it only made sense that it must have shown up with early [North American] colonists," Hutchings said. Additionally, Paleo-Indians were thought to have hunted big animals, such as mammoths and ground sloths, which would have required powerful, long-distance weapons to take the animals down safely. "People started wondering just how crazy you would have to be to run up to these things with just a sharp, broken rock tied to a stick." 

Karl Hutchings, an archaeologist at Thompson Rivers University in Canada,  holds a Clovis spear point [Credit: Karl Hutchings] 

But archaeological evidence of Paleo-Indian atlatls and darts is lacking because these tools were often made of wood, which doesn't preserve well — the only part of the weapons left in the archaeological record are the stone points, which could have also been used in other types of weapons, such as spears, Hutchings said. In comparison, ancient spear-throwers from Europe were often made of ivory or bone. 
The earliest known evidence of Paleo-Indian spear-throwers comes from 11,000-year-old "bannerstones," which are stone objects that may have functioned as atlatl weights, though the true function of bannerstones is debated, Hutchings said.
 The earliest solid evidence of atlatls in the New World, then, are 9,000- to 10,000-year-old spear-thrower hooks from Warm Mineral Springs, a sinkhole in Florida. However, these tools date back to the Early Archaic subperiod, which came after the Paleo-Indian period. 
Telltale fractures To see if the earliest North Americans — including people from the Clovis culture, Folsom culture (10,000 to 11,000 years ago) and other Paleo-Indians — used atlatls, Hutchings analyzed the fractures present in hundreds of spear points. He looked for clues that the weapon tips experienced high-velocity, mechanically propelled impacts. 
If a spear point hits a target hard enough, the energy of the impact will cause the tip to break. "When it breaks, it sends a shock wave through the stone that produces fractures, which are related to the amount and kind of force involved," Hutchings said. 
By measuring topographic features on the fracture surface, you can calculate the "fracture velocity" of the impact, or how quickly the fractures spread through the material, Hutchings explained. Because different weapons — spears, javelins, atlatls or bows — produce specific fracture velocities and related forces, you can work backward from a fracture to determine what caused it. Using this method, which he developed in the late 1990s, Hutchings determined the fracture velocities for 55 out of 668 Paleo-Indian artifacts that he examined. 
Of these points, about half of them exhibited fracture velocities that can only be achieved using an atlatl and dart or a bow and arrow.
 Because Paleo-Indians aren't thought to have had bows and arrows or other propulsive weapons, the findings suggest that they most likely used atlatls to launch their spear points, Hutchings said. Importantly, the method may also help scientists better understand ancient projectile technologies, by allowing them to trace the origin of the technologies and how they were used across societies and continents. 
"We can get a better resolution of when these technologies occurred, how they spread and why they spread," Hutchings said. Hutchings detailed his findings in the March issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. 

Author: Joseph Castro | Source: LiveScience [January 28, 2015]

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Elmo di guerra

Rare 

Tlingit war helmet 

discovered at museum

 The mystery began to unfold when Museum staffers began to select objects from the over 200,000 items in the Museum’s collections for a new display titled “People of the Northwest Coast.” Dr. Ellen Savulis, the Science Museum’s Curator of Anthropology, was intrigued by one of the items described in collections records as simply an “Aleutian hat.” 
Stored on a shelf for over 100 hundred years, a rare anthropological treasure was recently discovered in the Springfield Science Museum’s permanent collections. Museum Director David Stier, who has worked in museums collections for almost 30 years, describes the discovery as nothing less than “the find of a lifetime” [Credit: Springfield Museum] The object was relatively large, ornately carved, and made from a single piece of dense wood. Although Dr. Savulis’ main area of expertise is Northeastern United States archaeology, she had the foresight to question whether hats made by the Unangax, the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, were typically made from such dense wood. Upon further investigation, Dr. Savulis found that the only type of wooden hat made in the treeless Aleutians is the hunting hat or visor, made from a thin plank of driftwood bent into a lopsided cone. None of this information matched the object she had in front of her. Dr. Savulis suspected that she had a helmet of some kind, and enlisted the help of Steve Henrikson, Curator of Collections at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.  After hearing the description and an extensive viewing of artifact images, Mr. Henrikson responded enthusiastically, “This is a Tlingit war helmet, absolutely, no question!”  He went on to say that “it’s very rare - there are less than 100 Tlingit war helmets in existence that we know of. I’ve been studying them for over 20 years and I’m sure I’ve seen most of them.” Museum records show that the artifact was accepted into collections sometime after 1899, the year that the Springfield Science Museum (formerly the Museum of Natural History) moved into its own building at the Quadrangle.  The source of the artifact was not known, and it carried the simple label “Aleutian hat.” Having limited experience with cultural materials, museum specialist Albertus Lovejoy Dakin accepted the accuracy of the object’s label and entered it as such in the collection records. Some 40 years later the artifact received a permanent museum collection number from museum director Leo D. Otis, who still had no reason to dispute the “Aleutian hat” claim. There the artifact remained in its spot in the permanent collections, carefully preserved and unheralded, waiting to be found. According to Mr. Henrikson, we now know that the object is indeed a war helmet from the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska.  The style of the carving and decoration on the helmet (probably the emblem of a clan) dates it to the mid-19th century or earlier. With the mass importation of firearms to the region in the mid-1800’s, this sort of body armor became relegated to ceremonial uses. Today, a few helmets are still brought out at ceremonial gatherings, such as potlatches, to commemorate prominent events and honor past clan elders.  Because they are associated with combat, the helmets are not actually worn on the head during such peaceful gatherings, but are instead held in hand or perhaps held over the head of someone needing spiritual support. Henrikson estimates that there are approximately 95 war helmets in existence today, mostly in large museum collections. Many of these were collected by Russian explorers on the battlefield following clashes with the Tlingit. The largest collection of Tlingit armor is at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology in St. Petersburg. Beginning as protection for Tlingit warriors in battle, war helmets today serve the Tlingit as healing reminders of their rich and ancient history.  A glimpse of this rich history can be seen starting Thursday, December 26, when the helmet will be placed on display for the first time since arriving in Springfield over a century ago. Source: Springfield Museum [December 18, 2013]

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