THE MISSING ARTEFACTS
I
Already in November 2005, the Archaeological Park: Pyramid of the Sun Foundation in Visoko, run by Mr. Semir Osmanagic, published a report about its first diggings at the Visocica hill, at the very foot of the medieval burg Visoki ruins. The report, among other things, describes the finding of stone plates and parts of human skeletons:
„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.“The report does not provide information on where the partial skeleton was sent for analyses. That information has not been published by the Foundation to this very day, and neither any information on the results of alleged analyses. The Foundation crew systematically avoids answering questions about this find, although the find is consistent with the claims of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian archaeologists that at the foot of the medieval burg there is also a medieval necropolis. Mr. Osmanagic has on several occasions publicly denied the possibility of the existence of any necropoleis at the 'Pyramid of the Sun'. In the next photo of the so-called 'plateau' of the 'pyramid of the Sun' – click here for a larger image – taken by the APWR team last year in Visoko, you can see: A – the spot where the missing partial skeleton was dug up, B – hidden in the vegetation, remains of some masonry, never further explored nor explained by the Foundation, most possibly ruins of a medieval suburb structure, C – a profiled base of a medieval tombstone, D – the medieval tombstone which Mr. Osmanagic proclaimed a „megalith that had rolled down from the top of the pyramid“:
Also, compare the above Foundation report description of the Visocica skeletal finds in relation to stone plates and this medieval site in the village of Arnautovici, only a few kilometers away from Visoko. It is one of the tombs closed by stone plates, situated within the ruins of a royal church of the medieval Bosnian rulers:
II
On May 2, 2006, only a few weeks after the official begining of the „biggest geo-archaeological excavation in the world“ in Visoko, the local info web site Visoko.co.ba ran a news report with this information:
„At the probe nr. 1, researched by archaeologist Silvana Cobanov, material of organic origin has been found again, and it will be analyzed in a laboratory to establish its age.“The partial skeleton mentioned previously was found in the probe nr. 3. Therefore, the organic material in the probe nr. 1, mentioned here, refers to another set of organic material finds at the Visocica hill which was never fully reported and further analyzed by the Foundation.
III
One month later, on June 4, the Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list publishes an article titled Pyramids in Visoko already seen by 20.000 tourists with the following statement by Silvana Cobanov, a young archaeologist from Zadar (Croatia), employed last year by Mr. Osmanagic to supervise the diggings:
„We are now at the pyramid of the Sun, accross from here is the pyramid of the Moon, an over there, to the east, is the pyramid of the Dragon, the least explored one so far – explains Silvana. The work is being done on 40 active probes, digging spots, and the finds so far include neolithic tools, some ceramics and interesting stone plates that are, as the researchers claim, man made.“The neolithic tools and ceramics finds have never been mentioned by the Foundation or Mr. Osmanagic, neither on the official web site nor in any of the official reports.
IV
On the same month, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian archaeologists visited Visocica. Afterwards, Mr. Mirko Babic, director of the Bijeljina regional museum, said for the media:
„It was suppressed that the Osmanagic team illicitly dug up a 4x2m probe near the west wall of the fort and that I collected dozen of medieval ceramics fragments from the ground.“For the location of the probes illicitly dug up within the area of the protected national monument, click here – A, red arrows, point to the probes near the ruins of the west fort wall; B, blue arrow, points to the location of the medieval fort ruins. Small red arrow points to a probe that is most probably the probe nr. 1, mentioned in paragraph II. Click here to see more of these probes at the west flank of the Visocica hill.
V
On his blog Wing Beat, Ed Weinberg, who used to work for Mr. Osmanagic as a journalist last year, writes about how the young Greek archaeologist Nancy Gallou, excavating a probe at the Pljesevica hill – later renamed into the pyramid of the Moon – found six metal nails, but was told by the Foundation people to disregard the find.
VI
During my own visit to Visoko in August last year, I talked to some of the volunteers on the north flank of the Visocica hill, dubbed the pyramid of the Sun, who were excited that day over the ceramics found by „the Belgrade archaeologists“. It turned out that these „Belgrade archaeologists“ were a man and two teenage girls. They refused to answer any questions about the found ceramics. The „archaeologist“, eager to finish our conversation, said:
„We are all here on the same asignment.“
I never got a chance to find out what that really meant.
VII
On May 12 last year, while the Croatian and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian media reported the above described sketchy and never followed-up on information about ceramics and organic material found in Visoko, the National Geographic magazine published an article about the Visoko project, titled Pyramid in Bosnia -- Huge Hoax or Collosal Find?. Semir Osmanagic gave the following statement to the magazine journalists, implying that no artefacts or finds have been dug up:
„Hopefully we can find some organic material, you know, the bones or the wooden fragments, or charcoal. … Then we can tell for sure.“VIII
During the presentation of the Bosnian pyramid project in Cairo on March 19 this year, Mr. Ali Barakat, who visited Visoko last year, said:
“I found artifacts when I was digging with my own hands,” he said. “I found a tool similar to a hammer. I also found on one of the glazed stones I unveiled myself a drawing of an arrow, this was the language used by Bosnians some 1000 years ago,” he said. He indicated that he had found a tomb behind one of the pyramids. It contained human bones and organic materials which could have been a preserved organ or liquid food. Barkat said he believed the grave was some 5,000 years old.“Semir Osmanagic never informed the Bosnian-Herzegovinian public about this hammer-like tool, the first word about it came in the report by an Egyptian journalist who followed the Cairo presentation.
The tomb to which Barakat refers is the structure uncovered at the Pljesevica hill, but Semir Osmanagic claims that this structure is an entrance into the pyramid. Findings of human bones and other organic material in relation to this structure have never been mentioned before. The datation of the structure given by Mr. Barakat places it within the context way off the one proposed by Mr. Osmanagic: a 27.000 or 12.000 years old pyramid.
Another observation can be made: if the alleged 'arrow-script' found on 'glazed stones' represents, in Barakat's words, „the language used by Bosnians some 1.000 years ago“, then such script must be much younger than the very well known and documented Bosnian Cyrillic, and certainly not the 27.000 years old, pre-Ice Age planetary proto-script as claimed by Semir's father, Muris Osmanagic.
IX
Mr. Barakat visited Bosnia-Herzegovina in June 2006. Four months after Ali Barakat – in his own words – found the above mentioned hammer-like tool and organic material during his visit to Visoko, Semir Osmanagic was holding a presentation about the Bosnian pyramid project in the city of Karlovac, in the neighboring Croatia, on October 14, 2006. During this presentation, as reported by the local Karlovac media, Mr. Osmanagic said:
„As far as artefacts in form of tools are concerned, none have been found, but, says Osmanagic, neither have such tools been found at other pyramids across the world. Figuratively speaking, the quality of the Egyptian pyramid material can be marked with number 6, while the quality of the best known copper tools can be marked with number 3. Why then even expect that these ancient civilizations built by using tools that we expect and are familiar with today?“X
On April 19, only last week, Semir Osmanagic told the local Visoko radio station that the skeletal remains, found in October 2005 and mentioned in the Foundation report in November 2005, are „lost“. In the radio interview, Mr. Osmanagic explained that the bones were sent to Zagreb (Croatia), but did not mention to which institute or laboratory. He said that money was requested to cover the costs of the analyses and since the Foundation did not have the money for it, the bones were then sent to London (UK). And then, Mr. Osmanagic explained, all trace of the bones was lost, but he expressed opinion that they somehow got back to Visoko and were deposited with the local undertaker. Unsure of any of these circumstances, despite the fact that the Foundation should have had enough money for such analyses – having received some 300.000 euros in donations last year (according to an Art Newspaper article from April 2006) – Mr. Osmanagic proceeded to explain that these skeletal remains mean nothing anyway since they were found at an „insignificant depth“, the pyramid being much „deeper than the bones“.
This refusal to date the uncovered skeletal remains comes in sharp contrast to his public addresses last year, when he lectured Bosnian-Herzegovinian experts on „new and modern methods of research“:
- in public TV show Face To Face, spring 2006, speaking to Ms. Zilka Kujundzic-Vejzagic, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian archaeologist and expert on prehistory (to this day, publicly and privately harassed for her critical view of Osmanagic's project):
„I will tell you precisely how long man has been living in these regions. There is a new science called anthropological genetics, where based on results, on DNA testing, one can follow the age and movement of every nation on the planet.“
„Genetic DNA can go precisely to a year.“- in public TV show Centralni zatvor, spring 2006:
„If we find any organic material, such as bones, such as wood, such as coal, then we will, naturally, do the radio-carbon method, C14, with which we can determine the real age of the pyramid, that is, the organic material inside the pyramid.“A year later, it is evident how that turned out.
CONCLUSIONAll these mentioned but unaccounted artefacts and finds are consistent with the existing knowledge on the archaeology of the Visoko region and particularly with the warnings by the local and international experts that Semir Osmanagic is destroying and endangering real and valuable archaeological locations and finds by conducting questionable and unprofessional diggings on locations most probably revealing neolithic to medieval sites.
