APWR Central

The Rolling Megaliths

A few months ago, on my other blog in BCS, I wrote about the pyramidiots' attempt to reinterpret a stecak at the base of the medieval town of Visoki as a megalith that had rolled down from the top of the 'pyramid'. [* for explanation of the term stecak, please see the end of post].

To recapture: this summer, speaking on the state television about this medieval tombstone at Visocica –

- Semir Osmanagic said:

„This block disperses illusions of domestic historiographers and archaeologists about being familiar with a part of the Bosnian medieval history. It has long been catalogued under the category of stecak. However, here it is a case of a typical concrete block which has its six sides that are clearly set at angles of ninety degrees therefore straight sides and it has nothing in common with the magnificent stecci of the Bosnian medieval history. Further analyses that we received from the Civil Engineering Institute in Tuzla show that exactly these concrete blocks poured on site make the pyramid flanks. It is known that the whole north flank is made of these blocks. On the other hand, here we are on the west flank of the pyramid and here it is obviously a case of one huge block that rolled from the top of the pyramid and because of its weight, it became unusable for the local population. They used the majority of the broken blocks, plates, for building of their homes, for foundations and walls. This one was too heavy for them to roll it to their potential construction sites. Therefore, these several tons here will become a good example to the future generations of how to distinguish illusion from reality. This example proves that the history of Bosnia does not go only six seven eight hundred back but thousands and thousads of years.“

During the same TV occasion, Osmanagic 'forgot' to mention another man-made stone block, positioned only a meter or two away from the rolling *megalith*:

This is the dilemma – did he 'forget' to mention the second stone because it would imply too many rolling stones from a shaky pyramid? Or because its profilation indicates a base of a stecak? Which, as Osmanagic claims, along with necropoleis and skeletons, never existed at Visocica.

Megaliths of Energy Temples

But that is not the first instance of this unscrupulous falsifying of stecci into megaliths. Osmanagic declared war on stecci even before he 'discovered pyramids' in Visoko, way back while writing his Alternativna historija, in the chapter on stone spheres, where he mentiones the stone spheres near the village of Zlokuce in the Kakanj municipality (adjacent to the Visoko municipality). The surrounding areas of this village and that of the nearby Vukanovici are well known for registered medieval and later necropoleis of stecci and nisani [singular: nisan – Bosnian Muslim tombstone form], as well as samotnjaci [singular: samotnjak – loner; single stecak on a distinguished spot, without a necropolis]. In Alternativna historija, Osmanagic 'forgets' to mention that the Zlokuce stone spheres are situated within one such necropolis, but he publishes a photo of one tombstone, giving the following title to it: „Stone monolith on an elevation near Zlokuce – top of a smaller astronomic/energy temple?“:

In this photo, in fact, is the medieval tombstone from the location of Meskovic near Zlokuce, and it was registered as a monument by the renown Bosnian professor Muhamed Kresevljakovic in the study by the Institute to Preserve Monuments, published in 1983 under the title of Evidencija nepokretnih spomenika kulture na području opštine Kakanj [Inventory of the Immobile Cultural Monuments in the Territory of the Kakanj Municipality]. In this study, prof. Kresevljakovic writes that the same tombstone is registered in another, older historiographic source, the significant ethnographic work Visocka nahija by Milenko S. Filipovic.

The above described unscrupulous falsifying of the known and established historical facts is indeed an arrogant spit in the face of the painstaking efforts of generations and generations of our historians and archaeologists who were not Arm-Chair careerists as Osmanagic attempts to portray them, but loving patriots who traversed this country on foot with pen and paper in hand, registering and rescuing from oblivion all this heritage that the Cosmic Beam Catcher wants to erase in one slide. This pyramidiotic humiliation of our experts and their multidecennial work gains an even sadder dimension if one remebers that it was the descendant of the mentioned erudites Muhamed and Hamdija Kresevljakovic who wrote that pitiful and overstretched panegyric to Semir Osmanagic this spring in Oslobodjenje.

In the chapter on stone spheres in Alternativna historija, Semir Osmanagic writes:

„Twenty kilometers from Kakanj in Central Bosnia, in a small village Zlokuce, there are several stone magmatic balls (material identical to that in Trn and Ponikve). On a small ten meter hill, above ground and partially buried, there are balls and elongated stone megaliths. In conversation with the inhabitants we found out that they think that the balls are a part of the "Greek cemetary" (allegedly, in ancient times in these parts there were Greeks who, after "seven severe winters", left this part of Bosnia). Also, they mentioned beneficial effect of the balls on horses that cannot urinate. The owners with horses make a few circles around the balls and afterwards the problem with urinating is solved.“

The idiom and toponym Greek cemetary in the Bosnian tradition and landscape always reveals a medieval necropolis with stecci, but Osmanagic could have seen that himself, while taking photos of his 'elongated stone megaliths' in the medieval necropolis of stecci at the Meskovic Hill near Zlokuce, as I explained above.

But the following falsification is particularly hilarious – attempting to establish as much credibility as possible for his theory of the natural phenomenon of stone spheres being in fact the generators of mysterious energies, Osmanagić used a folk tradition associated with the medieval tombstones and – asigned it to the spheres!

The folk custom of walking the animals with urinary problems around a stecak as a part of a curing process is a folk custom well known in the ethnology of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the above mentioned study, the Inventory of the Immobile Cultural Monuments in the Territory of the Kakanj Municipality, professor Kresevljakovic registered six other villages in the Kakanj municipality where this custom was still alive: Catici, Slapnica, Varesak, Zagradje, Mramor and Sopotnica. In Sopotnica, the animals would be taken around the entire necropolis instead of one tombstone, as in other villages.

But this custom can be found in other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well, for example, in Rama, where it is practiced by the Catholic population just the same. Nowhere, not in one single instance, has it been recorded that this custom involves any stone spheres. That is a pure fabrication of Semir Osmanagic, Ahmed Bosnic and Jovo Jovanovic.

Along the record-setting 33 medieval necropoleis of stecci and 16 samotnjaka in the Kakanj municipality, professor Kresevljakovic registered hundreds of other monuments, historical remains and folk customs and legends, some involving themes like fairies, enchanted wedding-parties, etc. Not a single one refers to any stone spheres. And as far as belief in the healing powers of some monuments is concerned, there is another tradition from the village of Ticici, associated, again, with the stecak there.

In the Turkish period, the tombstone got overgrown by vegetation and a local man whose wife had fallen ill had a dream that she would be healed if he cleaned the tomb and put a fence around it, to protect it. He did so, and the wife was cured. In memory of this legend, the villagers kept the fence around the tombstone up all untill the 20th century – Kresevljakovic took a picture of it for his 1983 Inventory.

Perhaps it is precisely this authentic, original Bosnian folk tradition – now endangered by the pyramidiotic attempts to falsify it for the needs of New Age fantasies – the one that carries the message of the deep wisdom of our folk: by preserving our authentic heritage, we are preserving ourselves. That is why our heritage must be protected from pyramidiotic falsifications and lies.

* From the website of the Bosnian Institute in London, UK:

„The stecci (singular: stecak), the monumental medieval tombstones that lie scattered across the landscape of Bosnia-Herzegovina are the country’s most legendary symbol. Although a few are found in Croatia and Montenegro, the vast majority are found within the borders of Bosnia-Herzegovina – 60,000 in all, of which approximately 10,000 are decorated (and sometimes inscribed). Appearing in the 12th century, the stecci reached their peak in the late 14th to 15th centuries, before dying away during the Ottoman occupation.“

From The Late Medieval Balkans by John V.A. Fine (pp. 486-87): „Bosnia and Herzegovina (roughly, Hum) are now famous for their enormous medieval gravestones (particularly those from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries) known as stecci. . . . The stones were carved into various shapes such as great sarcophagi (though these were solid blocks having the deceased buried beneath them), standing slabs, and great crosses. Though the majority are unmarked, some have carved motifs. These vary from simple geometrical designs (e.g., spirals, rosettes, crosses) to elaborate scenes (e.g., tournaments, hunting scenes, round dances, etc.). Some of their creators were excellent artists.“

For some examples of these tombstones from Stecci (1982) by Nada Miletic, please visit the APWR Gallery. In our gallery, you will also find the photo of the stecak at the Visocica plateau, another carved stone which is most probably the stecak base and the large image showing the both stones position at the Visocica plateau in relation to the position where the skeleton remains were found, all indicating existence of a larger necropolis on the plateau.