APWR Central

People Who Mean Something

“ANCHOR: Have you thought about.. that the whole idea of pyramids in Visoko could be used for preelection purposes? You know, we have elections in October, I don’t know if you’re going to vote, if you’re registered…

OSMANAGIC: Here.. Concerning.. uhm.. mixing politics and this project, I can say only this. This year we have 200 days of research. Untill the end of October. Next year we have 200 days. The following year 200 days. This is a project that will go on for years and decades. And elections will come and go. Political establishments will come and go. My wish is, in fact, that this project has support of all political establishments, because I think that is in the interest of this country. However.. uhm.. the Foundation is a non-political, non-governmental, non-profit organization and it will not interfere with political.. uhm.. elections and..

ANCHOR: What if political elections interfere with the Foundation?

OSMANAGIC: How?

ANCHOR: By Sulejman Tihic coming to kiss you at.. [refering to the May 24 visit by 12 foreign ambassadors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, lead by Mr. Sulejman Tihic, the then President of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Presidency, and the warm welcome by Mr. Semir Osmanagic on the Visocica hill plateau]

OSMANAGIC: First of all, Sulejman Tihic is the nominal chief of state and we were very proud that a chief of state made a visit to the archaeological site. After him, there were ambassadors..

ANCHOR: Do you think.. sorry for interrupting, do you think that this kiss will not be worth, I don’t know, a thousand votes in Visoko tomorrow? Because you’re not popular only in Visoko, but in that region, have you thought about that?

OSMANAGIC: No.

ANCHOR: Because then it, it’s worth a thousand votes.

OSMANAGIC: Well look, the pyramid was visited by dr. Haris Silajdzic too.. [Mr. Tihic’s presidential opponent in the October elections] ..so how about that? We sent out several invitations to dr. Zlatko Lagumdzija as well, who has not replied yet, most probably because of his other obligations, Mr. Dodik, etcetera. Therefore, uhm.. people who mean something, who are in the decision-making process surely must know.. uhm.. enough about this project. They are regularly informed, updated and I think it’s good that they come to the location so that they can.. uhm.. inform their partners accordingly, etcetera.”

Semir Osmanagic in radio-interview by Sarajevo-based Radio 202, June 16, 2006

After the above quoted inteview with Mr. Osmanagic, made in June this year, there is little room for any doubt about the perception of the Bosnian Pyramid Project in the eyes of the Foundation. The priorities are certainly not to rally relevant domestic and international archaeologists and other scientists, nor to produce detailed scientific reports that could be examined by the wider audience of skilled professionals. These are, obviously, not the people who mean anything in the eye of Mr. Osmanagic. Those who really do mean something are, apparently, the ones from the political establishment.

The inner structure of the Foundation indicates the same tendency – a project aimed at the economic, political and media establishments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, not at science of archaeology or geology.

Amela Odobasic

Ms. Odobasic is the spokesperson of the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation. Just like Mr. Hadziahmetovic, she also works for the already mentioned Communications Regulatory Agency – as the agency’s spokesperson too – and has a fascinating biography [opens a Word document], which says that she earned a degree in Public Affairs at the PR Institute, London, England.

Jasna Ahmetspahic

Another Foundation's PR person, actually the author of the Foundation's PR strategy [link to download a Word document, saved from the Foundation web site before it was removed along with other similar documents and names this spring], Ms. Ahmetspahic, happens to also be the spokesperson of the Zenica-Doboj Canton government, and the author of the government's PR strategy [.pdf document] as well.

To remind the reader, the Visoko municipality belongs to the Zenica-Doboj canton, and the cantonal government, particularly its Prime Minister Mr. Miralem Galijasevic, has on many occasions expressed staunch support for Mr. Osmanagic. Amazingly, other Foundation’s projects – involving ‘magical stone spheres’ and ‘energetic megalithical temples’ – geographically all fall within this particular canton.

As a matter of fact, the cantonal government dedication to Mr. Osmanagic’s projects is so tight that the Prime Minister Galijasevic even gave the finger, so to speak, to the higher, federal level this March, when the Federal Ministry for Culture and Sport annulled the excavating permits that the Foundation obtained from the Institute to Protect Monuments. As the Sarajevo-based daily Avaz wrote, Mr. Galijasevic refused to issue the order to stop excavations on the Visocica hill.

Both the Zenica-Doboj Canton government and the cantonal Tourism Board are sponsors of the Bosnian Pyramid Project. And just how much the real cultural, archaeological and historical heritage matter to these People Who Mean Something can be illustrated with this example from the Tourism Board web site: the text refers to the remains of the late medieval royal coronation and burial church in Arnautovici, while the images refer to the early medieval basilica in the town of Breza. It doesn't matter if the real monuments get mixed up, or even ordinary hills with pyramids, as long as there's a (tax payers') buck to squeeze.

to be continued…

Of Elites And Establishments

 „In the history of archaeological explorations, not only in Bosnia or even Europe but in the entire world, a phenomenon of an exploration like this one has certainly never been previously recorded. Namely, here we do not speak of an elitistic project by several experts of a narrow research team, here we talk about an open project which started on completelly voluntary basis and, because of such honest approach, it united firstly the Bosnians and Herzegovinians around the world, and secondly a large number of other nations, people who want to participate in this project. The Foundation, which is the leader of these works, is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-political organization.“

Semir Osmanagic, in the Bosnian Federal Television series Search For The Pyramid, August 27 episode 

„ANCHOR: In your.. em.. books, you wrote about this pyramid of power.. on.. on the planet. Tell me now, here, this entire establishment, here, you call them the club, I would add the elitistic club, do you think they belong to one of those pyramids of power that you wrote about?

OSMANAGIC: Things that have been happening in the previous couple of thousands of years are not coincidental in any way. The permanent thing is the concentration of power and knowledge in practically the same hands. In the hands of the elite. And the way in which this elite functions to keep elitistic knowledge for itself, that is, to keep the majority from that knowledge. The majority is served what it needs to be served through media, through the education system, etcetera.“

Semir Osmanagic in radio-interview by Sarajevo-based Radio 202, June 16, commenting the letter warning the UNESCO about the Bosnian Pyramid Project, signed by international archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and geologists

Since the beginning, the creators of the Bosnian Pyramid Project have been presenting it with populist and proletarian rhetorics, calculated to appeal to the wider Bosnian-Herzegovinian population tired of the prevailing post-war corruption, poverty and increasing social differences. To appeal to the masses angry at corrupt political and intellectual elites in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to gain their approval and trust – and eventually their money – Mr. Semir Osmanagic has reached for a discourse well known from our communist period in the former Yugoslavia – intellectualism equals corruption and deceit, ignorant simplicity equals honor and honesty. The logo of the pyramid-believers is a showell accompanied with a paraphrasing of the former communist proletarian motto: Let’s digg to victory! Even the campaigns of volunteers’ digging the Visoko hills are reminiscent of the campaigns organized by the Yugoslav Communist Party after the world war II, only those campaigns – to be honest – were directed at useful things and social priorities: constructions of rail-roads, schools, hospitals, industry objects, etc. Therefore, it is not so surprising that Mr. Semir Osmanagic was, at some point during early summer this year, even compared to Josip Broz Tito by the local Visoko population.

Presenting himself as the man from the masses and of the masses, Mr. Semir Osmanagic has loudly and publicly attacked all opponents, primarily Bosnian-Herzegovinian experts, as Arm-Chair Elitists who live off the back of ordinary people. This Who’s Who will show that things are quite the other way around. We will see how the Bosnian Pyramid Project is, in fact, run by the state officials and people who belong to the (corrupt) Bosnian-Herzegovinian economic and political establishment. As the song says, meet the Flintstones.

Mahir Hadziahmetovic

But that is not all. Mr. Hadziahmetovic also happens to be the Vice-Chairman of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Communications Regulatory Agency. This Agency “is an independent State institution with sole jurisdiction over telecommunications and broadcasting across the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.“ So, imagine you are a journalist or an editor of a Bosnian media outlet and you want to make a really detailed report about the Visoko phenomenon, with all kinds of different opinions, and perhaps interview some of Osmanagic's opponents. But then you remember that next month you have to renew your broadcasting licence at the CRA.

Last but not least, Mr. Hadziahmetovic is the Acting Director of the Petrol BH Oil Company, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian subsidiary of the Slovenian PETROL oil company. Today’s, November 27, news update on the Foundation web site says: “The investment sector delegation of the PETROL company from Ljubljana, lead by director Matjaz Martincic, has arrived to Visoko.” Why not? After all – check the Foundation sponsors list – PETROL is one of them.

Elma Kovacevic

If you’re not impressed with Mr. Hadziahmetovic, then you will most certainly be impressed with Ms. Elma Kovacevic. She is the relentless and most dedicated leader of the Foundation’s committee for relations with international institutions. But just like Mr. Hadziahmetovic, she too happens to be working - surprise! - for the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Here is how it works. Today’s news from the Foundation web site (the Bosnian version), for example, carry the following news:

If you’re wondering what is Ms. Elma Kovacevic actually doing on this fair in Albania, here’s your answer: she is there with a delegation of the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Actually, as the Chamber’s official, she organized the participation of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian companies in this fair (link opens a Word document in BCS). And of all those companies and projects, miraculously switching from the Chamber's into the Foundation representative, she is promoting the Pyramid Project to the Albanian Prime Minister.

One wonders whether these people know any more where the so-called “non-profit, non-governmental and non-political” Foundation stops and the Foreign Trade Chamber begins, and vice versa. One also wonders whether these people know that this kind of priviledged position abuse in some civilized countries constitutes a serious economic and political scandal.

At Le site d'Irna you can find an excellent summary of the Visoko valley geological features, explaining why they may look like parts of artificial structures to a layman's eye. Using many technical terms, Irna has written this summary in a way comprehensible to people who do not have experience in geology. Providing many images and links to additional explanations of terms or similar geological formations in other parts of the world, this summary clearly shows that, as Irna writes, „all the features used by the Foundation as "evidence" of man-made "pyramids" can be explained by the geological history of the place.“

Our APWR photo gallery is continuously updated with more images that relate to the geological features of the Visocica and Pljesevica hills.

As the Bosnian Pyramid circus unfolds, many of the people who participated in it and substantially contributed to its exaggerated publicity are beginning to wash their hands and point fingers in other directions.

So is the case of the Foundation's expert for satellite imagery, Mr. Amer Smailbegovic. Even though he had provided and formulated the arguments for the theory of the Bosnian Pyramid Complex and co-authored the well-known *reconstruction* of it, when approached by the Science Magazine this September, Mr. Smailbegovic suddenly reached for the Gullibility Mask, reducing his role in the Project to the minimum:

„"I noticed that the area has a peculiar triangular-sided feature you don't see too often in a temperate environment," says Smailbegovic, who analyzed satellite imagery for Osmanagic. Thermal and radar imaging also made the hill seem "out of the ordinary," he says. So Smailbegovic wrote to Osmanagic that "there are anomalies present in your area of interest, and you may have something there. I suggest you find yourself an archaeologist and geologist to help you validate the area." But "the next thing I know," Smailbegovic says, "there was a headline in the Bosnian papers: Satellite imagery confirms Osmanagic's discovery of pyramids in Bosnia." This would prove to be the start of a barrage of "sensationalism," he says.“

What Mr. Smailbegovic somehow forgot to mention to the Science Magazine journalist is his visits with the regional politicians in April, when he – as a representative of Mr. Osmanagic's Foundation – had been convincing the regional political establishment of the existence of collosal structures in the Visoko valley:

„Dr. Smailbegovic explained the scientific argumentation reached at the beginning of the research, but also the most recent discoveries from a few days ago which clearly show that beneath these hills in the Visoko area there indeed are collosal buildings hiding, and they do not belong to the medieval period, but are much older.“

Other people involved with the Bosnian Pyramid Project seem to develop memory losses as well, while complaining about the Bosnian media sensationalism, portraying themselves as gullible victims of Mr. Osmanagic and dealing lessons on how Bosnians should deal with the shame that will undoubtedly come. Here it is in recent writing by Ms. Colette Dowell:

„Television, new papers and websites (Bosnia News, piramidasunca.com and others) announced our arrival in Bosnia as the "American Superstars," who would credit the claims of Semir's pyramids and Bosnia would receive its glory. It was a terrible position for us to be placed in. Semir would make a point of introducing us to investors and politicians and have us all stand around posing together for our pictures. The media was reporting and editing words Dr. Schoch never spoke and made it seem as if he was agreeing with Semir or that the excavations were a scientific challenge and he needed more time to evaluate them. The media even reported Dr. Schoch had a twinkle in his eye! We were always polite but never, never did Dr. Schoch agree with Semir's claims or make any of those statements as I was right there with him the whole time and I also was being interviewed as well. Dr. Schoch and I avoided many interviews, we knew what was going on. We were being used, exploited and given the 'red carpet' treatment as we were told many times to "gain our favor."“

It seems that Ms. Colette Dowell has forgotten that both she and Mr. Robert Schoch were warned about this superstar-treatment and possibility of their arrival to Bosnia being twisted for propaganda purposes, in an open letter that was sent to them before they went to Bosnia:

„Your upcoming visit to Visoko has been splashed all over the Bosnian media, following the euphoric announcement by the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation, giving out the impression that the sole fact of your decision to come to Bosnia means that the 'pyramids' do actually exist. The Foundation is not so careful in their wording as dr. Schoch is in his letter addressing this visit  – to the Bosnian public, the Foundation conveys that you are „joining the team of experts and the work on explaining the mystery of the Bosnian Pyramids Valley." The release makes a point that your visit is „just one of those by leading international experts who work on the process of international verification of the geo-archaeological research in the Bosnian Pyramids Valley." All of this would be in sharp contrast to the purpose of obtaining an objective, unbiased and independent insight, as pointed out by dr. Schoch in his above mentioned letter.“

To this letter, Ms. Dowell replied with how very much she enjoyed looking at the provided images and „reading up on some of the background information“ that was sent. To answer at least partially to the question of „who is going to rehabilitate the good reputation of the gullible, misleaded Bosnian people involved in the "greatest archaeological project"“, I know who is not going to bother themselves with that.

Run, hypocrites, run.

The Tiny Little Bosnia Doctrine

A recurrent theme in the pyramid-believers' reasoning and one of the principal arguments in their staunch support of the Pyramid Project is – it's good for the Bosnian tourism and economy. Even when confronted with evidence that there are no pyramids, they reason: it doesn't matter, we'll make one, we should not let go this opportunity for prosperity that will come with rivers and rivers of tourists who will flock here to see our miracle.

Almost every media report, foreign and domestic, on this ongoing Bosnian phenomenon is stamped with this conviction. Every time you see a media-clip of Mr. Osmanagic in the Indiana Jones hat you can be sure that at some point he will repeat his mantra on „tiny little Bosnia“ and how the pyramids will transform it into a „giant“ of this or that sort. The recently released excerpt from a documentary – made as a commercial production, of which I wrote previously, see The building blocks of Osmanagic's pyramids – stretches it further, by introducing a very emotionally and patriotically charged issue of the recent war:

“This 46 minutes documentary film features exclusive footage covering the initial excavations surrounding Visocica hill, commented by the supervising archeologists, as well as interviews with locals, politicians, filmmakers, popstars and - last but not least - the forgotten families of the fallen soldiers of Visoko, who, for the very first time in a decade, have hope for better times ahead.”

And who would dare to take away such hope, but an utter unpatriotic s.o.b? Even the private e-mails that some pyramid-skeptics receive curse them for being so unhumane and unconcerned for the future of the hungry and the weak and the poor of Tiny Little Bosnia. It is as if the Pyramid Project is a magical bullet to all our post-war problems, which will somehow be solved without us having to face and bare-handedly deal with the corruption of our political system or collapsing of our cultural and scientific institutions or our failing and ethnic apartheid education or our inner nationalisms and chauvinisms, etc., etc. As Mr. Osmanagic said in one TV show in Bosnia this May: those who want well to Bosnia will support my project, those who do not wish well to Bosnia are against me. (One wonders where could have this Texas-based entrepreneur picked up on such a doctrine…)

Not only has Mr. Osmanagic become the sole saviour of Tiny Little Bosnia, but the Visoko pyramids have become the only tourist value and national pride that this country has to offer to the world. Ask any of the children from the special schools or orphanages that Mr. Osmanagic has been busy visiting this summer, giving away copyrights for his books as “humanitarian aid”. What do we have in Visoko? The biggest pyramids in the world!

The Visoko valley – History’s Treasure Chest

When a visitor comes to Visoko today, it’s because he or she wants to see the controversial hills. After touring the Visocica or the Pljesevica probes, the visitor will have a lunch of cevapcici, or a triangular pizza, a couple of drinks, possibly buy a pyramid-shaped trincket or a T-shirt with Uncle Sam on it, and go home, disappointed or convinced of the existence of “the biggest and oldest ever built complex on the face of this planet” that will be fully visible only after “decades and decades of excavation”. Maybe, during the sightseeing of the Visocica hill north flank probes, just maybe will the visitor turn around to appreciate the amazing panorama of the Visoko valley. But even then, the visitor would not know what he or she is looking at. Because, apart from the pyramid-related information, nobody really bothers to tell you more about the real historical and cultural content of this valley. So, let’s enlarge that panorama and have a brief overview.

The Serefudin White Mosque

Let me begin with number 3, my personal urbanistic and architectural favourite. It is the Serefudin or the White Mosque, designed in 1969 and built in 1979 by architect Zlatko Ugljen. In 1983 this project was awarded the prestigeous Aga Khan Award for Architecture. For more high quality photos and information about this building, please visit the Archnet Library entry. Only a grand-master can so skillfully incorporate a modern design of unquestionable visual monumentality into a tight existing old urbanistic texture determined by the Ottoman cemetery and neighboring quarters. Take a look at the Visoko panorama once again and you will see how this project synthesizes other traditional architectural forms and shapes that appear in the historically Ottoman urban tissue of Visoko, respecting its proportions while taking own place in it. The interior is designed with equal mastery, offering an atmosphere of spiritual seclusion from the nearby busy town center.

The Visoko Hotel

Mr. Ugljen designed two more projects in Visoko during the 70s and the 80s, the Post Office and the Hotel Visoko. The hotel – number 2 in our panorama – with its plan of elongated horseshoe shapes evoking the plan of the medieval fortress on top of the Visocica hill is designed as a contemporary donjon, raising above the plane of Visoko roofs and keeping the entrance to the town. As such, the hotel maintained the visual line with the top of the Visocica hill, creating a unique urbanistic-temporal axis with the remains of the medieval fortress. Mr. Ugljen once again managed to synthesize the historical heritage of the region without disrupting its overall context.

These urbanistic qualities have, however, been largely abandonned in the post-war construction. As visible from our panorama, the donjon quality and the visual line between the hotel Visoko and the Visocica hill medieval remains are disrupted by the green, pink and blue factory-like buildings in front of it. The blue building – number 1 in our panorama – is the famous Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Motel, where all Pyramid Celebrities lodge at the expense of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian tax payer. Pay notice of how Visoko is described on the motel’s website. Also pay notice to how the motel snatched the view of the Visocica hill, now dubbed the Pyramid of the Sun.

The Visoko Hotel is currently out of business, rotting away awaiting its privatisation destiny.

The Regional Museum of Visoko

A lovely Austro-Hungarian building – marked M in our panorama – the work-place of Mr. Senad Hodovic, who, as his Wikipedia article says, “brought Mr. Osmanagic to Visoko”. It is this Museum that obtained all the excavating permits for Mr. Osmanagic and his Foundation. Mr. Osmanagic has on several occasions repeated that the Foundation is only the investor in the Pyramid Project and that the Museum is the actual executor of the project. However, Mr. Hodovic is no longer the member of the Foundation team, which leaves all kinds of legal questions wide open. Ironically, while the Foundation is harvesting 50.000 euros per month for this project, the ceiling in the Visoko Museum has recently collapsed for same reasons the same thing happened in the National Museum in Sarajevo. It’s good to have priorities, huh?

The Ottoman-Bosnian Architectural Heritage

Numbers 4, 6 and 7 in our panorama are the oldest Visoko mosques, historical gems of the Ottoman-Bosnian architectural heritage. Sadrvanska Mosque (no. 6) and Perutacka Mosque (no. 7) are obvious models for the White Mosque design. The Tabacica Mosque (no. 4), with its wooden minaret ellegantly appearing from the rich tree crowns at the bank of the Fojnica river, is one of the finest examples of the so-called Bosnian Style mosques. These sacral buildings with wooden minarets are an exclusive Bosnian feature and cannot be seen anywhere else in the Islamic historical architecture. Tabacica Mosque is also listed as the national monument of our country and for a detailed description of this cultural treasure, please visit the related entry in the database of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (CPNM).

The Franciscan (Classical) Gymnasium

On the other side of the Fojnica river, across from the Tabacica Mosque and the Visoko Hotel, one can visit one of the oldest educational facilities in the Visoko valley, the Franciscan classical gymnasium - marked 5 in our panorama – a part of the Franciscan monastery. These Franciscan facilities in Visoko are successors of the earliest Franciscan presence in Bosnia, when this order settled in the Visoko valley in the early 14^th century. The present-day Gymnasium, with its building dating from 1900, is a home to a rich ethnographic collection, a lapidaruim with artefacts from all historical periods, a numismatic collection and a library of 60.000 volumes.

Not visible in our panorama is another valuable Visoko cultural asset, listed as the national monument of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Orthodox church of St. Procopius.

The Wider Visoko Area

Okoliste is in itself a real archaeological treat. This Europe’s most important Neolithic site is researched in a joint effort of the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut and the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In September, in the Science Magazine article about the state of the Bosnian archaeology in the light of the pyramid-mania, John Bohannon wrote:

„Deeper in time, fundamental questions about Neolithic society have sustained one of the few remaining international collaborations in Bosnia. Over the past 4 years, a team led by Kujundzic-Vejzagic and Johannes Müller, an archaeologist at the University of Kiel, Germany, has been exploring a site near the town of Okoliste, 7 km away from the pyramid hunt. It has been identified as part of the Butmir culture, a source of richly decorated pottery and intricate statuettes discovered in 1893. Research on these artifacts and related 7000-year-old dwelling sites could help answer one of the central questions of prehistoric archaeology, says Müller: "How and why did we go from simple, egalitarian societies of small settlements to complex, hierarchical societies with big, dense settlements?"

Buried in the soil near Okoliste are the remains of the largest Neolithic settlement ever found in Europe: between 200 and 300 houses protected by a ring of three trenches and a raised bank. "I was astonished when I realized that this defended area alone could have been home to as many as 3000 people," Müller says. Settlements from contemporary Neolithic cultures in Europe were occupied by no more than 300.“

Yet, this truly internationally significant location has no place in the Bosnian public awareness. Even more strangely, it is completelly overlooked and ignored by the attention of the Visoko media. Mr. Hodovic, director of the Visoko Museum, according to a two years old report, is more concerned with who’s rubbing elbows with whom than with the actual significance of Okoliste:

“The German archeologists apparently chose the wrong partner when they teamed with the National Museum, according to the museum’s director, Sead Hodović. "They have to respect the Zenica-Doboj Cantonal law,” said Hodović. “This area is really under my jurisdiction and we should be their partners.””

And last, but not least of the Visoko valley historical treats, there is the medieval fortress and settlement on top of the Visocica hill… But these medieval remains will be treated in a separate post.

Conclusion

This is only a brief overview, a mapping out, of the cultural-archaeological-historical content of the Visoko valley. Just skimming over its rich and intertwined multicultural historical layers shows how superficial and ill-intended the propaganda of the Tiny Little Bosnia is. This content is more than enough to make an inhabitant of Visoko - or any Bosnian, for that matter - proud, and more than sufficient to provide for high-quality elitistic historical and cultural – read: expensive – tourism. Still, the majority of this content is actually rotting away because the public awareness and the political decision-making is directed elsewhere. It is obvious that Visoko is blessed with unique possibilites for development of tourism, research and economy. However, directing attention and funds to the alleged pyramids is not going to achieve this prosperity. Quite on the contrary from the widespread convictions of pyramid-believers, the Pyramid Project is sucking the oxygen out of any other touristic initiative directed at any other historical content of the Visoko valley.

We truly are throwing away our real historical and cultural heritage – and development opportunities! – to waste in exchange for Atlantis fairy tales. I for one would really like to know – once Mr. Semir Osmanagic puts a New Age pseudo-scientific stamp on the Visoko valley internationally, or even worse, turns it into a New Age Mecca – who is going to rehabilitate our real cultural and historical content for any serious international tourist or scientist alike? With all these cultural and historical riches, is Visoko going to be remembered only as that pyramid hoax from the tiny little Bosnia?

I

In November 2005, after the first diggings on the Visocica hill – dubbed the Pyramid of the Sun – the Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation published a report which, among other things, mentions that remains of two human skeletons were found on the hill plateau:

„However, in the second (II) sequence of sandstone plates at the right hand side of the probing well we found two plates one over another at the angle of approximately 25 degrees. Between those two plates there was clay marl and a human skeleton in it. The skeleton was not complete. It consisted of a left leg bones and fractions of a scull placed in the area of pelvis.

All sandstone plates in the III sequence were paved one over another under the same angle as it was done in the II sequence. In the II sequence of plates remains of a human skeleton were found again.

The remains of this skeleton were photographed by an archaeologist and its orientation was defined. Then they were packed and sent to analysis in order to determine how old they were.“

Images of these bones were never published on the official website of the Foundation. An APWR member, however, managed to photograph one of the skeletons on the location, in the period between September and October 2005.

Half a year later, in May 2006, Mr. Semir Osmanagic, director of the Foundation, gave a statement for the National Geographic, which was published in the article titled Pyramid in Bosnia -- Huge Hoax or Colossal Find?:

„Hopefully we can find some organic material, you know, the bones or the wooden fragments, or charcoal . … Then we can tell for sure.“

This statement creates an impression that no organic material or bones had been found during the diggings carried out by the Foundation, which is in direct contradicition with the Foundation's report issued six months prior to the National Geographic article. A whole year after the release of that report, in November 2006, it is still not known:

• where were the remains of skeletons sent for analyses?
• what kinds of analyses were carried out on these remains?
• what are the conclusions of these analyses?

II 

The remains of a medieval settlement on the Visocica hill, registered as a national monument of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the description of the found skeletons seem to support the opinion expressed by the archaeologist, historian and former director of the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina Mr. Enver Imamovic, who publicly warned in the spring of 2006 that Mr. Osmanagic's probes ran into a medieval necropolis on the Visocica hill. Mr. Osmanagic has publicly denied existence of any such burial grounds there.

However, other objects and remains on the Visocica hill plateau indicate that it could be a site of a medieval necropolis and a part of the known medieval settlement – primarily a rectangular tombstone, in Bosnia known as stecak. In this photograph of the plateau taken from the top of the Visocica hill and the remains of the medieval fortress, one can see the exact spots where: A – probe revealed human bones, B – foundation remains of a structure, hidden in vegetation, C – profiled base of a tombstone and D – tombstone (stecak).

Stone grave markers – stecak, pl. stecci – are the most famous and most recognizable feature of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian medieval culture and heritage. It would be a futile attempt, for reasons of sheer quantity, to list here even the most basic bibliography of domestic or foreign authors who researched and wrote about these remarkable and unique monuments. Instead, I will suggest that a reader goes to the Google cache of stecak images and quote from The Late Medieval Balkans, the work of one of the most respected international experts on the history of Balkans, John V.A. Fine:

„Bosnia and Hercegovina (roughly, Hum) are now famous for their enormous medieval gravestones (particularly those from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries) known a stecci. . . . These 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.“

However, Mr. Semir Osmanagic, who is neither a historian nor archaeologist, sees the Bosnian medieval heritage differently. He addressed the issue of these medieval tombstones on the Visocica plateau only once, in the August 27th episode of a series „Potraga za piramidom“ („Search for the pyramid“), aired by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Federal (state) Television each Sunday. In that episode, standing next to the stecak on the Visocica plateau, Osmanagic says:

„This block disperses illusions of domestic historiographers and archaeologists on knowing parts of the Bosnian medieval history. For a long time, it has been registered in catalogues as a stecak. However, it is a typical concrete block with six sides that are clearly set at the angle of 90 degrees, therefore straight sides, and it has nothing in common with the magnificent stecci of the Bosnian history. Further analyses that we got from the Tuzla Construction Institute showed that exactly this kind of blocks were poured on the site and made the pyramid flanks. It is known that the whole north side is built with these blocks. On the other hand, we are here on the west side of the pyramid and here it is obvious that one huge block rolled down from the top of the pyramid and because of its weight became unusable to the local population. They have used the majority of the broken blocks and plates for construction of their houses, for foundations and walls. This block was too heavy for them to roll it to their potential construction sites. Therefore, these several tons here will become one good example to the future generations on how to distinguish illusion from reality. This example shows that the history of Bosnia does not go only six, seven, eight hundred back, but thousands and thousands of years.“

For comparison, here is an image of another stecak in the Visoko valley, only quite some distance from the Visocica hill. It is situated in the village of Arnautovici, close to the remains of another medieval structure, in this case, a church. It appears that this kind of *blocks* are quite frequent at medieval sites.

However, the Visocica plateau stecak is not the only example of Mr. Osmanagic's attempts to *correct illusions* of the Bosnian history. We find it again in his „multivolume works“, in a chapter dealing with stone spheres. Mr. Osmanagic's interpretations of such spheres in Bosnia will be the subject of a separate post; for now it is only interesting to scroll down to this illustration in this chapter, and give the translation of the text beneath the image:

„Stone monolith on the hill near Zlokuce – top of a small astronomic/energetic temple?“

The Meskovic hill (near the village of Zlokuce in the Kakanj municipality, which borders with the Visoko municipality) to which Mr. Osmanagic refers with this image is a well-known medieval necropolis of stecci, registered as such in the Inventory of the Immobile Cultural Monuments in the Territory of the Kakanj Municipality, published in 1983 by the Institute to Protect Cultural Monuments of Bosnia-Herzegovina (predecessor of the present-day Commission to Protect National Monuments).

It appears that Mr. Osmanagic tends to *correct* this particular Bosnian historical and cultural heritage on systematic basis.

III

In the spring of 2006, some twenty leading Bosnian historians and archaeologists directed a public outcry at our government and the Bosnian public to raise awareness of the danger to our cultural and historical heritage posed by active *corrections* by Mr. Osmanagic and his Foundation. Shortly afterwards, a Visoko municipal official suggested in the municipality assembly that all critics of Osmanagic's project should be denied access to research locations and have their degrees revoked.

It is up to the educated reader of this blog to form an opinion on how justified these concerns about Mr. Osmanagic's activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina are.

The first visitors to this blog will need no particular introduction. The information that will be presented here is about the phenomenon of the so-called ‘Bosnian pyramids’. It is not just an archaeological or a geological phenomenon, as its producers would have you believe. It's more of a contemporary sociological and anthropological phenomenon of a whole society being manipulated into embracing pseudo-science as a patriotic duty and a civilizational value.

Imagine for a moment. The British Museum has its ceiling collapse for the second time in one year. Some of its most valuable and unique collections are in grave danger. The Museum's Library is closed because there’s no money to pay for heating and maintenance. The lack of adequate heating in winter poses another danger to the Museum artefacts. The British Minister of Culture not only does not hand in a resignation, but does not even give a public statement. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and the British Parliament, along with several other government bodies and state-owned companies, donate hundreds of thousands of euros to a group of New Age followers who are digging up Stonehenge and claiming that the site hides remains of a 27.000 years old civilization. British politicians – instead of trying to save the British Museum or to protect the British historical and cultural heritage and values – try to convince the UNESCO that these New Age claims are rooted in scientific evidence.

Imagine what an episode of Monty Python that would be.

And now for real. On September 6, the ceiling of the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina collapsed for the second time in the last twelve months. The damage from the first incident earlier this year has not yet been treated because of lack of money. The second incident threatens not only the existence of the valuable artifacts, but also the entire existence of this Bosnia-Herzegovina's oldest scientific and cultural institution. The Bosnian Culture Minister does not resign and does not even issue a public statement. Instead, his Ministry hands out an emergency sum of money, which is not sufficient to meet even the damage from the first incident.

Other government bodies, responsible for directing allocated budget for financing and maintining the National Museum – such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Council of Ministers – do not even address the issue. Several of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian cultural institutions, including the National Museum, even had to announce a law suit against the Council of Ministers for not giving them the money that has already been allocated by the budget and that sits in the government bank accounts.

Let me repeat that – our scientific and cultural institutions have to sue our own government for not giving them the money that our budget provides for these institutions.

Simultaneoulsy, the director of the Pyramid Project, Mr. Semir Osmanagic, recently tells a Croatian newspaper that his project costs 50.000 euros per month. These costs are largely met by tens of thousands of Bosnian convertible marks (2KM=1€) from the government budget and are poured into the Bosnian Pyramid Project through donations by government bodies such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Foreign Trade Chamber, the cantonal Ministries of Culture, municipal funds, state-owned companies (e.g. BH Telecom), etc.

Imagine what a scandal that should be. But for some reason, it is not. For some reason, it is considered a patriotic duty to accept the certain demise of the existing historical and cultural heritage of our country and to exchange it for a fake.

This blog will bring English translations and summaries of months of analyses, information gathering and photos from articles published in BCS* by the APWR. APWR is not an organization nor it is affiliated with any interest group in this ongoing phenomenon. It is a small team of four Bosnian-Herzegovinian individuals who do not believe that truth and patriotism are mutually exclusive concepts.