Archeology

Qumran lies close to the Dead Sea at its north western end, some 40 km east of Jerusalem.Here, in an incredibly dry and sun bleached area there is, strangely enough, no need for zinc oxide protective blocker, or life guards.Lying some 1200 feet below sea level at the lowest point on earth, the damaging rays of the sun are screened out by the extra layer of atmosphere, and the concentration of salts in the Dead Sea is so high that anyone falling in immediately pops to the surface and cannot sink. If a settlement is ever reached between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, under the so-called Road Map for Peace, due to reach its conclusion in 2005, it is likelyQumran will fall into the area of a new Palestinian State and one of the most important of all the Jewish historical sites will no longer be under Israeli jurisdiction.

Prior to 1967 the area around Qumran was controlled by the Jordanians and had been since the end of the war which saw Israel established as an independent State in 1948.So why is Qumran so important in historical and biblical terms? Part of our modern awareness of its significance derives from a day back in the Spring of 1947 when the first of some 85,000 textual items, ranging from tiny fragments to almost complete scrolls were discovered in hillside caves behind Qumran. They turned out to contain biblical texts, written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek from virtually every book of the Old Testament, and as such, predated any previously found Hebrew material by over 1,000 years. For the first time scholars and theologians had the astounding opportunity to look at parts of the Bible in its original language, rather than from handed down versions copied, and re-copied, and altered over the intervening millennium. In essence these biblical texts, which comprise part of what are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, showed we received most of the Old Testament in its authentic anc......

For the past twelve years, Graham Hancock has been bent on mastering the mysteries of northern Africa, encompassing Ethiopia and Egypt in his quest for knowledge of both the Ark of the Covenant and, most recently, the monuments of the Giza plateau.Nor, for that matter, is he a stranger to the pyramids of Mexico and Central America, or the Andes' strange ruins and landscapes.Through the process of writing and promoting two massive books - The Sign and the Seal: The Search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant and most recently Fingerprints of the Gods: Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilizations - Hancock has emerged as a leading figure in the heighteninginternational debate over the antiquity of civilization and the degree of astronomical knowledge extant in the world prior to the second millennium BC. "He has come here from the land of the living, he has got rid of the dust that was on him, he has filled his body with magic, he has mastered the land with what he knew..."- Spell 35, Coffin TextsHancock's search for the Ark, of course, might tempt a writer to cast him as a thinking person's Indiana Jones.

In reality, his work has more in common in both style and significance with that of Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh (authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail) than, say, the books of Erich Von Daniken. At a time when many people speak lightly of "paradigmshifts" in basic knowledge, Graham Hancock is laying the groundwork for a new generation of scholarship. In the course of his research, Hancock (together with his professional photographer wife Santha Faia) has visited the relevant sites, vividly describing both the scenes he has encountered and his personal impressions of them. Nor does he shrink from providing the reader with exhaustively documented information gleaned from the world's best libraries in order to provide color, detail and texture in the complex pictures he paints. The Manchester Guardian, in reviewing The Sign and the Seal, said it would probably be "as popular as the 'Raider' films," describing the book as "an intellectual whodunit with whom we can all identify." In person, Graham Hancock has......

Erik Von Daniken’s series of books, which began with Chariots of the Gods, presented archeological evidence while recounting many mythological traditions that have “gods” arriving on Earth from a distant world and bringing technology and the arts of civilised life to primitive human tribes.Many writers followed Von Daniken’s lead and an entire school of alternative historical thought called the “ancient astronaut” theory emerged over the years. This school must be distinguished from another branch largely defined by such writers as Graham Hancock, which we can sum up as the “lost civilisation” school.The latter does not figure intothis discussion nor is it covered in my book The Genesis Race because it never really addresses the issue of the ultimate origins of Man or civilisation.

Even if you accept the idea ancient Egypt and Sumer had their origins in Atlantis, who created that civilisation and from what precursors? The essential questions the author has been studying over the past three decades are: 1) how did life originate and evolve on Earth?, and 2) how did civilisation suddenly emerge from mankind’s primitive roots? To my mind it seemed the ancient astronaut theory could be defeated if Darwin’s theory proved to be correct, which “official science” claims it has been. That premise can be justified using several valid argumThe essential questions the author has been studying over the past three decades are: 1) how did life originate and evolve on Earth?, and 2) how didcivilisation suddenly emerge from mankind’s primitive roots? To my mind it seemed the ancient astronaut theory could be defeated if Darwin’s theory proved to be correct, which “official science” claims it has been. That premise can be justified using several valid arguments.The “ancient astronaut” theory generally includes the idea summed up in the first chapter of Genesis, which indicates the “gods” genetically engineered a proto-human race. The actual verse reads, “Let us make man in our image.” If Darwinism is accurate then this assertion would be untrue and the notion of cosmic intervention by an advanced race would fall apart.The second reason is Darwin’s theory has not only been applied to biology, it is also used to explain the emergence and development of human civilisation by a processreferre......

Sami El-Raghy’s visit to Egypt in 1992 had nothing to do with gold exploration — at least not at first. A 1962 graduate of the University of Alexandria, El-Raghy had been living in Australia for nearly three decades, successfully working the mining areas of the country’s Western reaches, where he pioneered the exploration and exploitation of key finds.El-Raghy, founder of Centamin Mining, had returned home to look at the Rosetta Mineral Sands Deposit, a valuable, if unglamorous, 37-metric-ton deposit of ilmenite and zircon located 60 kilometers east of Alexandria.While hewas visiting the offices of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA), he noticed an unusual wall hanging: a copy of the oldest geologic map in the world. The 3,200-year-old papyrus map, discovered in Luxor in 1820, showed the locations of the Pharaonic mines in the Fawakhir district between present-day Edfu and Marsa Alam. Intrigued, Sami quickly concluded his business in Rosetta and made his way to the Eastern Desert to seek out the long-dormant mines of the Pharaohs.

What he found some 600 kilometers southwest of Cairo was an incredibly rich mineral deposit — essentially neglected for two millennia — that could transform not just the Red Sea Governorate but the entire Egyptian economy when it is brought on stream later this year. “It’s a great story, isn’t it?” says Josef El-Raghy, Sami’sson, who is also managing director and CEO of Centamin Egypt. “I know it’s been written up that way before, but it’s really quite a stretch. People have known about the gold down there for centuries, but the last mining operation was British and lasted up until Nasser kicked them out in the ’50s.” Even that exceptionally small-scale operation paled in comparison to what the Pharaohs had managed centuries before. While ancient maps sparking a treasure hunt à la Indiana Jones may be a slight stretch, Josef is certain the company’s concessions on the Red Sea coast will have a massive impact on Egypt’s economy. It’s a matter of sheer size, he says. “The Red Sea Hills run from just south of Hurghada nearly all the way to the Sudanese border,” he begins. “That’s comparable to the area that begins in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, where I grew up. Thatco......