political history news

The 3rd century Persian profit Mani, the founder of Manicheism, identified four great empires in the world. He spoke of Rome, China, Persia, and Aksum.

What was Aksum, ands who were its people? And why do we not remember this kingdom, which ranked among the greatest in the ancient world?

The Kingdom of Aksum

Of course, there is one famous civilization missing from the list, and in its absence lies the first clue at to where Aksum came from. The great civilization of Egypt had by this point been subsumed into the Roman empire, and its collapse and fragmentation gave room for its neighbors to grow powerful and expand.

Aksum was based to the south east of Egypt, in the highlands of Tigray in present-day Ethiopia. It also included parts of Eritrea, eastern Sudan and, across the Gulf of Aden, much of modern day Yemen as well.

Aksum was known for its formidable naval forces and military might. The kingdom was also a powerful trading nation and had well established links with the other three great powers of the era. Through these trade links it grew wealthy, building great monuments, developing a sophisticated written script, and introducing Christianity to sub-Saharan Africa.

The kingdom is likely to have been founded during the 1st century AD and flourished from the 3rd to 6th century AD. Since the stone age, humans had occupied the region, and the agrarian communities thrived there for about a millennium. However, the origins of Aksum still remain a mystery.

Rise of the Kingdom of Aksum

Before Aksum, there was the kingdom of D’mt. Possibly arriving from Yemen across the water, this small kingdom had established themselves on the western shore of the Red Sea. But very little is known of this enigmatic kingdom and their relationship with Aksum. Were they replaced by the Aksumites, or possibly did they become the Aksumites themselves?

What seems most likely is that, following a period of decline for the D-mt, they fragmented and were replaced by a number of smaller kingdoms in the region. These kingdoms slowly came together in the 1st century AD and eventually became known as the large kingdom of Aksum.

• Meroe: Sudan’s Ancient Lost City of The Sands
• Egyptology and A Brief History of Egypt

The local geography of Aksum also contributed to its rise. Their capital city, also called Aksum, was located at the crossroads of prominent trade routes, and the fertile soil, climate, and rainfall patterns of the city made the region ideal for agriculture and herding of livestock.

The people of Aksum made the most of the opportunities available to them. Ivory and gold were the most valuable commodities for export, but they fully exploited all the resources of the region to enrich themselves. Rhinoceros horns, salt, emeralds, tortoise shells, myrrh, live animals, and slaves all came out of this flourishing power.

In return the Aksumites imported steel, iron, textiles, spices, jewelry, glassware, wine, olive oil, and weapons. Through the trade routes Aksum established across the Middle East, South Arabia, Egypt, China, and India, they grew rich and strong. The kingdom of Aksum was known to be the first African country to mint its own coins, of bronze, silver, and gold.

During the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Aksum rose to its peak of power. During those years, Aksum was a stratified, prosperous society with a clear hierarchy and division between the people and their rulers.

<iframe width=”987″ height=”541″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/S3G5ZklLkm0″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

Their capital city grew in terms of size, population, as well as the complexity of development. Through warfare, Aksum was also able to expand its territory. During the 4th century AD, King Ezana I of Aksum was even able to conquer the city-state of Meroe, which had been Egypt’s powerful southern neighbor for centuries.

The Genesis of African Christianity

Ezana I was not just a warmonger, however. The king of Aksum also officially adopted Christianity, replacing the indigenous polytheistic religion previously practiced by the Aksumites. Aksum also had some local quirks in its religion, such as the inclusion of Mahram, god of upheaval, war, and monarchy.

Other notable gods of the Aksumites were Hawbas, the moon deity, and Meder and Beher, the chthonic gods. In Astar, they also had their own representation of Venus. Various sacrifices were made by the people in order to honor those gods, and these seem to have been tolerated alongside Christianity, at least for a time.

It seems likely that Christianity was first introduced in the region through Egyptian traders and the missionaries that travelled with them. The kingdom of Aksum may have officially accepted Christianity owing to its important trade connections with the north African provinces of the Roman empire, also recently Christian.

The diplomatic connections of Aksum with Constantinople in the eastern Roman empire may have also accounted for the introduction of Christianity. However, there is also a more fanciful story as to the origin of Aksumite Christianity.

Traditional accounts tell of Frumentius, a shipwrecked traveler from Tyre in modern day Lebanon. This Frumentius was responsible for the introduction of Christianity in the kingdom of Aksum, serving as a teacher for the royal children, and later becoming the advisor and treasurer to the king, Ella Amida, the father of Ezana I.

• Italy’s Quest for the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia
• Who Built the Abandoned City of Djado? A Saharan Mystery

The form of Christianity in the kingdom of Aksum was similar to that in Coptic Egypt, and the Christian Patriarch of Alexandria was the figurehead in the Ethiopian Church. Aksumite churches were constructed, monasteries were founded, and the Bible was translated into different languages. The Church of Maryam Tsion, which famously today claims to house the original Ark of the Covenant, was the most important church in the kingdom of Aksum.

Writing and Art

The kingdom of Aksum had a writing system all of its own. One of the earliest examples of the writing system could be found on the schist rock slabs dating from the 2nd century AD. The script, known as Ethiopic or Ge’ez, resembles the languages of southern Arabia and apparently evolved from the language of the D’mt. The script is still being used in modern Ethiopia, and Christian Ethiopians have their own Ge’ez version of the Bible.

In terms of art, the kingdom of Aksum had potters who used to produce simple red and black terracotta ware without the use of a wheel. The wares had a matt finish appearance and were often coated with red stain.

Forms of the wares were bowls, cups, and spouted jugs. Geometric designs were decorated with the use of stamps, paintings, incisions, and three-dimensional pieces. One of the common decorative motifs was the Christian cross.

No large-scale statues were discovered from the kingdom of Aksum. However, stone bases, stone thrones, and small-scale figurines have been discovered.

Decline of Aksum

After weathering wars with Persia and internal strife, the kingdom of Aksum finally entered a terminal decline sometime during the late 6th century AD. The migration of western Bedja herders or overutilization of agricultural lands were the main reasons for the decline of the kingdom, although climate change may have also played a part.

Moreover, the policy of the kings of Aksum to give the tribal chiefs a great deal of autonomy also backfired, as this encouraged them to separate and form their own independent states. The loss of mercantile revenue from these breakaway kingdoms undermined the noble class of Aksum.

However, even in the 21st century, the kingdom of Aksum remains inhabited, and here we find the explanation for why they are not remembered today. Two of the other three great empires, Rome and Persia, fell with the passing centuries. China endures, still using her famous name of old.

Top Image: Reconstruction of an Aksumite palace. Source: A. Davey / CC BY 2.0.

By Bipin Dimri

Belmez Faces Appeared and Skeletons Were Found

The Belmez faces appeared in the Andalusian home. Wikimedia Commons.

Without any apparent cause, the stain began to develop over a period of time and eventually molded itself into a face. While this face was forming, the stain was said to have moved position. Terrified by this, Pereira tried to remove it several times by scrubbing vigorously. All of her efforts proved futile, so she solicited the assistance of her husband (Juan) and son (Miguel). Juan’s solution was a much more final one than mere cleaning. Along with their son, he took a pick-ax to the whole floor and cemented a new one in its stead. For about a week, things looked as though they had returned to normal. Then the face reappeared.

Skeletons Under the Kitchen

The Pereira’s still wanted this image removed on a permanent basis. But local gossip had somehow begun and quickly spread among the populace of the small Spanish town. When the Mayor heard about the Belmez Face, as it had been dubbed, he took steps to ensure that the image was not destroyed. They carefully removed it instead for serious study. The family asked the local council for any help that they could avail.

When surveyors came to the property, the decision to excavate the kitchen was taken. At the time it was considered the best and only method to try and understand why the face was present. It didn’t take workmen very long to find a potential clue to the appearance of the Belmez faces. Buried almost ten feet beneath the kitchen floor were some skeletons. Some of these had no skulls.

Prior to all of these skeletons being re-interred in a Catholic cemetery, the Belmez faces were tested and dated to be about 700 years old. The hole that was left was filled in and a new floor was cast in concrete. If the local council and the Pereira’s thought that their fifteen minutes of fame was over, then they were all mistaken. A couple of weeks of obscurity passed until another face, a different one than before, appeared.

Comings and Goings of Belmez Faces

Things were different this time around though. Instead of a single face making an appearance and refusing to budge no matter what, multiple faces began to appear on the floor. One visage would display prominently on the cement floor, only to be replaced by another. Sometimes this regeneration would happen over the course of mere hours. Some of the Belmez faces put on display were those of women and children. If the council had done anything for the Pereira’s, it actually made things worse for them.

Other Belmez faces. Source: unknown

Word of this occurrence didn’t start and stop in the town this time. The reports went national and even international, going as far as Germany and their renowned paranormal investigator Dr. Hans Bender. It was Bender that cited this activity as the most important case of the century. From the very beginning, all the Pereiras wanted to do was to rid themselves of the apparitions that had taken over their lives and their town. Now they were forced to endure a new terror… the curious. Visitors flocked to the house. All the students, researchers, priests, police officers, journalists, and skeptics all wanted to see for themselves this unexplained phenomenon.

Researchers Investigate and Seal Off the Kitchen

A full-scale investigation was launched. Samples of the concrete used were sent to the Instituto de Ceramica y Vidrio (ICV) for study. The ICV could find no evidence of any pigment, dyes or paint used, which ruled out a hoax. The remainder of the floor was photographed in sections and covered with a jacket that was sealed at the edges. Finally, the door and windows were all sealed with wax.

A German television crew filmed all of these precautionary measures with local dignitaries in attendance as well. Satisfied that nobody could tamper with the scene without detection, they left the kitchen alone for three months. When they officially unsealed the kitchen, the Faces of Belmez had moved and evolved.

Images imprinted on the floor. Source: Youtube

Skeptics and Theories

The unexplained mysteries happening at the Pereira home got the attention of investigators. Experiments designed to prove or disprove a hoax took place. Some tests were inconclusive, while others indicated that there were no paint substances on the concrete floor. Other suggestions for possible causes of all this were being considered. One of the prime candidates was a process known as Thoughtography. This is a psychokinetic ability that allows a person to project an image onto a surface either deliberately or accidentally. For this to be the case, then the prime suspect would be Maria Pereira.

Studies of the faces by academics did make notes that many of the expressions were identical to those of Maria at the time the faces would appear. Another clue used against her was the fact that the faces tended to appear while Maria was present. When she was away from the house, the activity would abate. A counter-argument to this proposal happened on the morning of 3 February 2004. Maria Pereira sadly passed away. But, the faces continued to appear on the bare stone floor of her kitchen.

And although there are many skeptics, others believe that the phenomenon continues to the present day.

Death of Elvis Presley

An Unbearable News Fans Refused to Accept

When the shocking news first broke, many fans refused to believe it. Some went as far as to insist that they had seen him beyond the given time of the announcement. The majority of these sightings were considered to be honest mistakes or even wishful thinking on the part of the witness(es).

At the time of Elvis’s recorded death, he was just 42 and half of his life firmly spent in the limelight. The official cause of death was given as heart failure, but there are some that believe that his abuse of prescription drugs ended his life.

A Misspelled Gravestone

On the day of the funeral, hundreds of thousands thronged the streets in an effort to catch a glimpse of the cortege. Among these people were fans, celebrities, and the media. The funeral was one of the first red flags for many fans and believers of the conspiracy. The huge gravestone prominent at Graceland actually has a typo upon it. Presley’s middle name was Aron but on the gravestone, it is embossed as Aaron. Opinion on this is divided even to this day. On the one hand, are those that swear Aaron is the correct interpretation of his middle name. On the other hand are those who believe that this is a deliberate message or signal.

Sightings of Elvis Presley Alive Since The Reported Death

Buoyed by this possibility, over the last 30 or 40 years, numerous sightings of Elvis Presley have been reported from all corners of the world. Among the more famous are the multitude of reported sightings in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Mike Joseph visited Graceland and took a snapshot of one of the windows of the Pool House behind the Meditation Gardens in January 1978. Clearly seen inside was a middle-aged man resting on a chair. This man was dark-haired and looked suspiciously like the former resident. This is five months following the King’s reported death.

And here is a 1984 photograph of Jesse Jackson and former Heavyweight World Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali. Exactly who is that man in the background?

A Wax Sculpture in the Coffin

When Elvis lay in state prior to his funeral, some who saw him stated on record that many of his features were wrong. Noted irregularities included the eyebrows, chin, and fingers. Others who looked at the image of Elvis the coffin insist that the occupant of the casket wasn’t human at all. This is in reference to the famous National Enquirer image that, allegedly, cost the magazine $18000 paid to one of Elvis’s cousins.

They surmise that it was a wax dummy laying in the coffin.  Additionally, an air-conditioning unit was allegedly installed inside the coffin to keep the wax cool in the Memphis heat. The entire coffin weighed close to a ton… literally.

Colonel Tom Parker’s Statement

Who could also forget what Colonel Tom Parker said in a press conference shortly after the announcement of Elvis’s death?

[blockquote align=”none” author=”Colonel Tom Parker”]Elvis didn’t die. The body did. We’re keeping up the good spirits. We’re keeping Elvis alive. I talked to him this morning and he told me to carry on.[/blockquote]

These comments can be interpreted a number of ways. Did he mean this literally?

New Elvis Presley Album?

As late as 2001, a new album of Elvis material went on sale. Released on an independent label, the album is called Kingtinued and features a host of cover songs such as Tears in Heaven (Eric Clapton), Livin’ La Vida Loca (Ricky Martin), Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen), and the Princess Diana version of Candle in the Wind (Elton John).

As music fans know, many of these tracks came about long after 1977. The producer of the album denied claims that Elvis had somehow returned to the recording studio. He stated the voice is actually that of Elvis impersonator Doug Church.

Lack of Tour Preparation and Lay Offs

Elvis should have been readying for a new tour. But for some reason did not request items such as costumes that are considered to be standard procedure for an upcoming tour. According to some reports, Elvis fired several old friends from their roles within his entourage. Rumor has it that these individuals were working on a book based on their time within Elvis’s inner circle.

AKA: John Burrows

On August 17, 1977, at the Memphis Airport, a man calling himself John Burrows bought and used a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Not only did he look and sound like Elvis Presley, but Burrows is a pseudonym of Elvis Presley for booking hotel rooms.

The Beatles Plot

Whether or not Elvis grew tired of his fame and decided to assassinate his public self, there can be little doubt that the aura of his legend has more than took over. His music and films still live on and are as popular now as they have always been. Elvis is an icon who helped propel a cultural revolution that ushered in the era of rock and roll. He came along when history needed him most and burned brightly for over two decades.

It’s pleasant to think Elvis Presley is alive and sunning on a tropical beach somewhere. Perhaps he still uses his trademark “Thank you! Thank you very much!.”

Sites pulled 2 January 2016

“I want to remain an eternal mystery to myself and others”, stated King Ludwig II of Bavaria. What happened when the king’s fairy-tale world and his role as monarch collided?

For many, the Bavarian castle of Schloss Hohenschwangau would seem a beautiful place to grow up. Perched high atop a mountain amidst stunning natural scenery, the castle seems every inch a fairy-tale palace.

But for Prince Ludwig II, the castle was the furthest thing from the idyllic setting it seemed to grow up in as a royal prince. He was educated to adhere to a rigid regimen from his birth in 1845. On the advice of their advisors, his mother, Marie of Prussia, and father, King Maximillian of Bavaria, kept a distance from Prince Ludwig and his younger brother, Prince Otto.

Thrust into the Real World

To keep the monarch focused on his duty to rule, a study and exercise regimen was created. Duty could make or break a king, and after failing to perform his duty during the German Revolution in 1864, his father abdicated. Ludwig was crowned King of Bavaria in the same year as he reached adulthood.

The people of Bavaria greeted the young, attractive king with open arms, especially the women who were attracted by his person as much as his position. But Ludwig had ascended to the throne at a perilous time: two years after becoming king, Bavaria and Austria had succumbed to Prussia in battle. Despite the fact that Bavaria had been granted some autonomy under the new Imperial Constitution, they were compelled to unite with twenty-one other monarchs to form the German Empire.

The monarchy had been constitutional up to this point, possessing of some but not entire influence; after this defeat, it had even less. Because of this early defeat, Prussia gained a lot of influence over Bavaria’s foreign policy and its young king.

The Fantastical World of Ludwig II

Ludwig didn’t do much differently as an adult from the boy his mother had described as a youngster who liked to put on plays, recite poems, and gift people money and property. He was frequently known to as the Swan King or, more famously, Der Märchenkönig (literally, “the Fairy Tale King”).

Uninterested in matters of the state he turned his attention to his fascination with French culture, which he idealized in his mind’s eye. Unhappy with how Bavaria was lacking in rich art, architecture, and music, he set out to build a multitude of fantastical castles, many taking their influence from the great French Palace of Versailles.

• Crown Prince Rudolph And The Mayerling Incident: Suicide Or Murder?
• The Suspicious Death of William II: Who Killed the Rufus?

Amongst his extravagant art projects, he constructed the castles of Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Herrenchiemsee. The king opted to hire theatrical set designers to construct the fortresses, making them all fantastical and far from reality. These castles were fictions, false battlements and vaulted ceilings held together with hidden wooden substructures. But they seemed every inch the perfect palaces Ludwig wanted them to be.

He had spent his days as a boy in Hohenschwangau Castle surrounded by the heroic German tales portrayed in the frescoes that adorned the castle’s walls. Ludwig was undoubtedly greatly affected by the artwork “Lohengrin” (“King of the Swan”) as he named one of his castles Schloss Neuschwanstein, meaning, “New Swan Stone Castle”. It was no coincidence this was the name of the castle owned by the Swan Knight Lohengrin in Richard Wagner’s famous opera.

Ludwig and Wagner

Richard Wagner’s music and operas fascinated Ludwig, who summoned the composer to a meeting with him in Munich in 1864. Many people credit the monarch for saving Wagner’s career by inviting him to stay in Munich and continue composing under his royal patronage.

Owing debts to numerous parties Wagner was at this point in his life only one step ahead of his creditors. His invitation to Munich was the narrowest of escapes from poverty or, worse, ending up in the hands of the many people he owed money to.

After his meeting with the king the composer wrote, “… Today I was brought to him. He is unfortunately so beautiful and wise, soulful and lordly, that I fear his life must fade away like a divine dream in this base world … You cannot imagine the magic of his regard: if he remains alive it will be a great miracle!”

The conservative residents of Munich, the state’s political capital, disliked Wagner and found his extreme anti-Semitism and philandering disturbing. Wagner’s life of opulence, luxury, and gossip was however short-lived, as Ludwig ordered him to leave six months after he arrived since his political views did not align with those of the Bavarian administration.

Forsaking his duty to his people and political alliance with his government the king continued to financially support Wagner. Completely caught up in the magical realms of Wagner’s operas, Ludwig confided in the composer that he planned to abdicate and join him. Wagner, alarmed at such a suggestion, shook the king out of his daydream and reminded him of his duty to his country and people.

Ever Deeper into a Fairy Tale

Ludwig’s self-perception was impacted by the fact that, as a constitutional king, he had limited influence over significant issues. A king in name but not in the original sense, he was left with a sense of estrangement from the position he occupied.

• The Duke of Buckingham: Was Dumas’s Hero also James I’s Lover?
• Nonsuch Palace: What Happened to Henry VIII’s Lost Castle?

The monarch gradually spent more time alone in his fantasy castles in an effort to create fairy-tale settings where he would feel like a real-life king rather than in Munich. He was enchanted by the belief that he must seem to be a king, creating the appearance of a magical kingdom and a holy one by the grace of God.

But his vision was expensive. His cabinet of ministers did not see eye to eye with Ludwig and had attempted to stop him from seeking loans from foreign ministries to construct yet more fantasy castles. Things came to a head and, sensing that he was about to dismiss the ministers in favor of a new cabinet, Ludwig’s parliament acted first.

The chief physician at Munich Asylum, Dr. Gudden, was tasked with quietly compiling a medical report outlining the king’s mental state. He deemed Ludwig insane, largely on the basis of rumors: examples of his bizarre actions were cited such as his pathological shyness, eating outside in the cold, avoiding state business, slobbish table manners, and violence toward servants.

The Fantasy is Destroyed

On June 10th 1886, a medical report declared that the king was, “Suffering from such a disorder, freedom of action can no longer be allowed, and Your Majesty is declared incapable of ruling, which incapacity will be not only for a year’s duration but for the length of Your Majesty’s life”.

Berg Castle, located south of Munich on Lake Starnberg, served as Ludwig’s prison. The night after his incarceration, Ludwig went for a stroll around the castle grounds with his physician, Dr. Gudden. This was the last time the 40 year old king or his doctor were ever seen alive.

The two men’s corpses were discovered in Lake Starnberg a few hours later. Although his death was ruled a suicide, the king was oddly discovered in only waist-deep water, and an autopsy showed that he had no water in his lungs. Even stranger, Dr. Gudden’s autopsy revealed that he had been strangled and had suffered a blow to the head.

The notes that the king’s personal fisherman, Jakob Lidl, left behind have sparked one explanation about the king’s demise. He claimed to have been waiting by on a boat, prepared to row the king to safety. However, just as Ludwig climbed onto the boat, a shot was fired from the opposing bank, instantly killing him. Is it conceivable that the king’s autopsy, which failed to report any wounds or scars on his body, was falsified?

It seems obvious that the king’s death, whether it was caused by murder or suicide, was a direct outcome of his own unceasing desire to establish a perfect mythical kingdom. The Swan King could never exist as anything other than a fantasy character.

Top Image: Ludwig’s great castle Neuschwanstein, every inch the fairy-tale palace. Source: Savvapanf Photo © / Adobe Stock; Unknown Author / Public Domain.

By Roisin Everard

In Cleveland, Ohio in 1993, the J C Smith funeral home had recently closed and was being cleared. When the cleaning workers emptied the funeral parlor’s dark basement, a mummified body was discovered, which shed light on a lost, tragic tale from 19th century Queensland. The discovery finally gave closure to a group of indigenous Australians and provided long-awaited answers to a mystery from their past.

The mummified body was that of an Aboriginal Australian man and was found to be the once-famous “Tambo”. In the 1880s, Tambo, along with his wife and 15 other indigenous people, was recruited as a star attraction by Phineas Taylor “P T” Barnum and James Anthony Bailey as part of Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was exhibited as part of the “human oddities” in the Circus’s dime museum (named for the price of entry), which had been displaying “Freak Shows” since the first half of the 19th century. Barnum is popularly considered a pioneer of such attractions.

Colonialism and the Narrative of Western Superiority

The 19th century saw a vast colonial expansion from the European powers across the globe. One of the domestic impacts of such expansion was a growing curiosity among the Western public to view examples of the cultures and unfamiliar peoples subjugated by this expansion. Examples of indigenous people with strikingly different appearances to Westerners were seen as part of the phenomena of “humans with oddities”. They were paraded in such circuses as Barnum & Bailey’s as examples of European colonizing triumphs against societies perceived as less advanced.

Indigenous Australians, c1904 (hwmobs / Flickr)

Indigenous people’s features and body proportions were unfavorably compared with the anatomy and morphology of Europeans. This created an erroneous and self-serving narrative regarding the superiority of the Western nations over other peoples, often depicted as savages. 19th century forefather of modern anthropology Johann Friedrich Blumenbach had gone further in casting Western man as the ideal for civilizational advancement. He claimed Westerners belonged to the Caucasian race, which was considered superior in comparison to other races because of its supposed corporeal harmony and aesthetic beauty.

On the Origin of “Freak Shows”

With the dawn of Enlightenment, anthropological science sparked a great deal of curiosity regarding the unfamiliar appearances of indigenous humans from around the globe. As the market expanded and people’s fascination for travel and science grew, “Freak Shows” exhibiting such peoples appeared to take advantage of this craze for “Orientalism”. These started in the zoological gardens and parks in 18th and 19th century Europe, where indigenous non-European people were displayed as exotic attractions, at a time when people’s interests in the more familiar zoological exhibits was in decline.

Barnum and Bailey advertised their circus as the “Greatest Show on Earth” (Library of Congress, Public domain)

By the first half of the 19th century, these exhibitions expanded to become part of circuses, dedicated exotic communities, wax figure museums, anatomy museums, fairs and “Cabinets of Curiosities”. 19th century evolution theory was co-opted in a nakedly chauvinist fashion, dividing the world outside of Europe into colonies of “savages”. Indigenous tribes like the Zulu, Khoikhoi, San people or the Aboriginal Australians were seen as physically anomalous humans and commonly compared to monsters, or animals. One of the most notorious early fairs, Bartholomew Fair, was described as a “Parliament of Monsters” by William Wordsworth.

• Frank Lentini: Three Legged Man and Circus Superstar
• Adam Rainer: The Giant and the Dwarf

The customs of such indigenous groups were also showcased to Western audiences as examples of technologically primitive cultures. Such representations further legitimized Western society’s colonialist expansion and their sense of cultural superiority. The dehumanizing nature of these “Freak Shows” created a fictional and self-aggrandizing hierarchy for Western audiences, implying that such expansionism and subjugation were natural and appropriate behaviors. These exhibitions remained culturally relevant until the collapse of the colonial empires in the mid-20th century.

Julia Pastrana from Mexico hairy woman. Date: circa 1850. Source: Archivist / Adobe Stock

Barnum and his “Human Circus of Oddities”

P T Barnum was a leading pioneer of these “Freak shows”. Barnum ventured into this industry in 1835, when he showcased a paralyzed slave he owned named Joice Heth. Although she was around 80 years old, Barnum advertised her as George Washington’s 161-year-old nurse. He exhibited her across the northeast of America until her death 1836, after which he made arrangements for Heth’s public dissection in pursuit of further profits.

There were popular claims at the time that Barnum had starved Heth while she was alive and forcibly removed her teeth to make her look older. These stories made their way into the penny press, but in spite of this (or possibly because of the notoriety that came with such stories) “Freak Shows” continued to gain popularity.

After 1841, Barnum reinvented his dime museum into a place of wonders, with these “Freak Shows” being the central attraction, broadly targeting a family audience. The “Freaks” were divided by Barnum into three categories – “born freaks” such as overweight ladies, dwarfs, “skeleton men” and giants; “exotic freaks” from indigenous cultures; and “self-made freaks”, for example those who performed novelty acts and heavily tattooed men. This again proved immensely popular and further cemented the reputation of Barnum as the “greatest freak showman”.

Barnum & Bailey’s circus on tour in Germany (elycefeliz / Flickr)

With the popularization of “Freak Shows”, any examples of physical difference from European racial norms were displayed for public consumption by Western audiences. In the 19th century, a Khoisan woman named Saartjie Baartman, who was bought as a slave by British doctor William Dunlop in 1810, was given the name Hottentot Venus and was displayed in the marketplace and circuses under humiliating conditions, till her death in 1815.

Amongst the attractions displayed by Barnum, Charles Sherwood Stratton, a dwarf, became a star of the show under the stage name ‘General Tom Thumb’. His act included dancing, singing, jokes, as well as imitating mythological and historical people such as Hercules, Cupid, Samson or Napoleon Bonaparte.

Other oddities who gained popularity through Barnum’s “Freak Shows” were Bartola Velasquez and Maximo Valdez Nunez, known as “The Last of the Ancient Aztecs” or the “Aztec Children”, conjoined twins Chang and Eng who were known as the “Siamese Twins” and performed somersaults and acrobatics, and Annie Jones who was showcased as the “Bearded Girl” or “Bearded Lady”.

Tambo’s Recruitment

The story of Tambo, whose mummy was rediscovered in 1993, and his miseries in this circus began over a century earlier in the year 1883. Robert A Cunningham, a recruiter working for Barnum and Bailey’s circus, had travelled to Hinchinbrook and Palm islands, located in the far north of Queensland, to find new attractions for the next exhibition, to be titled “Ethnological Congress of Strange Tribes”.

Cunningham’s Aboriginal Circus, including Tambo (believed sitting, second from right) (Unknown Author, Public domain)

Cunningham was looking to add various indigenous people to the collection, which already featured southern Egypt’s Nubians, southern India’s Toda, Africa’s Zulus, and the USA’s Sioux. The Australian Aboriginal tribes were a new addition.

It is not certain how these people were persuaded or forced by Cunningham to join the exhibition, but according to the records, six men and two women from the Aboriginal tribe, as well as a boy belonging to the Wulguru clan, joined the troupe of Barnum and Bailey’s circus and left for Chicago from Palm Island and Hinchinbrook by ship in the year 1883. It is today believed that the people of the Aboriginal tribe were either tricked by Cunningham or given incentives like the promise of adventure, or expensive clothing.

University College London’s honorary research fellow and anthropologist Roslyn Poignant, in her book Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle, writes that chief among the reasons for indigenous people joining the troupe were “Displacement and dispossession in the colonies, chance and curiosity”. According to records from the time, only two members of the group knew the English language. While their records indicate that they went willingly along with Cunningham, it is unclear that any of the people recruited in such fashion truly understood to what they were agreeing.

Lies and Showmanship

These men and women were presented as “Australian Cannibal Boomerang Throwers” by Barnum, ignoring that boomerangs were not used by any of the indigenous people as their “chief weapon of warfare”, as Barnum had advertised.  Philip Rang, an Australian cinematographer speaking to BuzzFeed News, noted that the indigenous Australians became “the drawcard” for world exhibitions and these “Freak Shows”. “The Aboriginal groups were considered as boomerang-throwing cannibals, even though Aboriginal people weren’t cannibals,” he said.

Jumbo was stuffed after his death as an attraction (Barnum Museum of Natural History, Public domain)

Cassady is the owner of a small museum on Aboriginal history and culture in Mungalla Station in Queensland, which has an exhibition space where the stories of these men and women were put on display. As per Cassady, the Aboriginal people were measured by anthropologists and posed for photographs in Western clothing, as they toured from the US to Europe to Russia. These indigenous groups, as part of Barnum’s troupe, were also allowed by Barnum to visit fairs and dime museums in the USA. These were known for providing “edutainment”, referring to moral education and entertainment for the working class.

Typical dime museum advert, 1902 (stwalley / Flickr)

Walter Palm Island, a descendant of Tambo speaking to BuzzFeed News, noted of Tambo and the troupe “It was very degrading the things he (Tambo) had to do. I look at those old people in those photos and look at the expressions and I see the suffering. I can see the sadness in their face because of being away from country and being overseas in a foreign land and feeling out of place,”

Virtual Prisoners

There is evidence that some freedom and money were granted to these Aboriginal people after the performance season had ended. However, the tribal people were heavily reliant on Cunningham for shelter, medical care and food. The medical care provided was often insufficient and led to most of the troupe dying of pneumonia, as they failed to acclimatize to the cold conditions of the northern hemisphere. The first person to succumb to pneumonia in the troupe was Tambo.

• Min Min Lights of the Australian Outback
• Tennessee Town Hangs Murderous Mary the Elephant

The sources suggest that Tambo died just a year after he left his home. However, the injustice and atrocities these men and women were subjected to did not stop with their deaths. Cunningham and Barnum intended the dead body of Tambo to be placed permanently on display for the general public. And hence, before his relatives could complete any traditional rituals, his body was embalmed and displayed in a dime museum.

Cultural Theft and a Legacy of Shame

As Poignant notes, “He was subjected to a final, terrible indignity. His embalmed body was placed on show in Drew’s Dime Museum, and it remained on display there and elsewhere in Cleveland until well into the 20th century.”

After laying forgotten in the basement of a funeral home until 1993, his dead body was finally rediscovered and repatriated to Palm Island where his relatives were finally able to perform their customary funerary rituals, 110 years after Tambo breathed his last breath.

These “Freak Shows” gradually passed out of public favor in the first half of the 20th century with the rise in popularity of cinema, and an increase in international tourism after the Second World War. With the passage of more than half a century the truth of such exhibitions has faded from current public awareness, and there is a risk that the gross exploitation of such attractions might be whitewashed with the kind of entertainment offered by modern Hollywood blockbusters. This does disservice to the brutal mistreatment, suffering and abuse of indigenous peoples around the globe at the hands of exploitative entrepreneurs such as P T Barnum, “The Greatest Showman”.

Top Image: Human ‘strongman’ in a circus cage. Source: Pavel Losevsky / Adobe Stock

By Prisha

Nonsuch Palace was a royal palace built during the Tudor period by Henry VIII in Surrey, just south of London. It was built in 1538 and stood until the late 17th century. Today what little remains of it can be found in Nonsuch Park between the towns of Epsom and Ewell.

But in the design and the location it can be seen that this great building was a break from the norm. Unlike earlier castles this was not built for war, being located far from a reliable water supply and set out to emphasize luxury and fine living. This was a palace, not a fortress.

And a very expensive palace, at that. All in all, Nonsuch cost around £24,000 in the 16th century which is the equivalent to £10 million today. In its design and layout it is considered a key part of the introduction of the Renaissance ideas to England.

But almost nothing remains, whereas other contemporary buildings have lasted almost unchanged to this day. What happened to Nonsuch, Henry VIII’s great palace?

A Monumental Undertaking

Nonsuch palace was one of the most grand and expensive building projects of Henry VIII’s reign. It was built on the site of Cuddington which is near Ewell. The site was prepared by destroying the church and village, although the villagers were compensated.

Work began on the 22nd of April 1538, which was the first day of Henry’s thirtieth regnal year. It was also six months after the birth of Edward his first son, so it would seem Henry was in a cheerful mood.

In the written record, Nonsuch appears in the building accounts by June of that year, and by all accounts it was a magnificent place, with documents regularly boasting that there was no palace that was its equal anywhere in the world. Construction continued throughout the 1530s and well into the 1540s.

• Cold Hearted: Why Did Empress Anna Ivanovna Build An Ice Palace?
• The Witch-Queen of England? Revisiting Anne Boleyn’s Guilt

Due to the size of the project, vast amounts of land were purchased, and several major roads were re-routed and bypassed to the palace. The area later became Nonsuch Great Park, Henry’s prized hunting ground.

What Happened to the Palace?

However it seems that the palace was too grand a design to be realized for Henry. Despite the amount of money that it cost; the palace was still incomplete when the king died in 1547. It was sold in 1556 by his daughter Mary I.

Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel was the man who bought it and who later completed it, but it was no longer a royal palace and records are less clear. It was certainly finished by the time that Elizabeth I and the Dutch Republic signed the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585, and was clearly an impressive building.

By the 1590s, the palace was back under royal ownership as Anne of Denmark, who would later become consort of King James I, inherited it. However, the park area was not released from royal control until 1605, two years after the death of Elizabeth I.

It seems Anne did not care for the estate, rarely visiting it. James I first appointed Viscount Lumley as the keeper of the palace and the park area surrounding it. In 1606, he was succeeded by the Earl of Worcester who renamed the lodge there Worcester House. James I and the later Charles I were known to have visited to enjoy the racing and hunting the estate afforded.

The Nonsuch estate was confiscated in the 17th century, however, when Parliament won the English Civil War. It was let out to Parliamentarian supporters. First was Algernon Sidney, a commissioner at the trial of Charles I, and then Colonel Robert Lilburne, a respected general within the army.

It was finally sold to Major-General John Lambert who was regarded as one of the most talented generals in the parliamentary army before being passed to Thomas Pride who was a key player in the trial and beheading of Charles I in 1649. He held it until his eventual death in 1658.

The Palace of Nonsuch was given back to royal hands after 1660 when the monarchy was reinstated. It was given to Queen Henrietta Maria. There is a written account from 1666 from John Evelyn who visited and talked about the various decorations, emblems, and reliefs that decorate the palace but, ominously, these notes also commented on how the palace had started to deteriorate.

The palace remained in royal hands until 1670 when Charles II gave it to his mistress Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine. Sadly, this was the death knell for the palace: Barbara had nonsuch summarily demolished and sold off to pay for her gambling debts.

• Sacsayhuaman: Incan Fortress or Palace of Worship?
• The Glorious Revolution: Did the Dutch Steal the English Crown?

Some of the materials and elements were incorporated into other buildings. The wood paneling is located and still can be seen today at the Great Hall in Losely Park. Sadly, there is no trace of the original building left today.

The British Museum holds some pieces that can be seen, and you can still see the land on which the old church used to be before it was demolished. It seems that Nonsuch was too large and too expensive to maintain for anyone apart from royalty, and so for the price of a few debts it was lost forever.

Archaeological Evidence

Today, there are only three contemporary images of the palace that can still be seen. They do not, however, reveal much about the layout or the details of how the structure was organized or built.

Following the digging of trenches on the estate during WWII, there were reports of pottery being found in the area where the palace stood. The layout is also still visible from the air which can provide additional evidence of what it may have looked like.

In 1959=60 the grounds were extensively excavated, and much was learned about the palace. The dig revealed that the palace had inner and outer courtyards with fortified gatehouses. The outer courtyards were relatively plain whilst the inner courtyards revealed decorative stucco panels that were molded in high relief.

It was fortified in a medieval style to the north but had ornate and lavish decorations in the south representing a more Renaissance style. The excavations were one of the first post-medieval sites to be investigated and helped to develop post-medieval archaeology.

One of the most impressive aspects of the palace was the gardens. There is a contemporary account of them that exists in John Speed’s Map of Surrey from 1610. It shows how the gardens were designed and the spectacular ornaments that decorated them, including large fountains and pyramid obelisks.

This type of lavish spending was a mainstay of Henry VIII’s reign. The real tragedy lies, however, that it no longer stands in its full glory to be seen in completion today.

Top Image: Queen Elizabeth I comes to visit Nonsuch Palace. Source: British Museum / Public Domain.

By Kurt Readman

Irish mythology can be deeply frustrating. On the one hand, we know comparatively little about the people and their beliefs: we have no Romans to document who they were, and what other evidence we have is scarce. On the other hand, what does survive hints of a mythos both rich and unusual.

They were originally said to have come from the sea or underneath the earth. Later rumors claimed that they were sea raiders and giants. The Fomori are the great rivals of Ireland’s first settlers and of the Tuatha De Danann, the other mythical race in Irish mythology.

Despite this, the two races are recorded as having offspring with each other. The Tuath De Danann would eventually manage to defeat the Fomorians in the Battle of Mag Tuired.

This mythical saga following the Fomori bears many similarities to other Indo-European myths of war. Examples include the Norse mythological war of the Aesir and Vanir and the Olympians and Titans in Greek Mythology.

Some researchers claim that the Fomorians were supernatural people who represented the destructive power of nature and the wild. They were the personification of all of the dangers such as chaos, death, blight, drought, and darkness.

Origins

In order to trace the history of the Fomori name, one must go back through the Old and Middle Irish lexicon. They are typically referred to as the Fomoire or the Fomoiri when referred to as a plural.

Sometimes, the term for a singular would be a Fomoir. Additionally, and most commonly in Middle Irish, they are referred to as Fomoraig in the plural and a Fomorach in the singular. In the Lebor Bretnach (Irish Nennius) written in the 11th century, the Fomori are Latinized and referred to as Muiridi.

• Manannán mac Lir: The Otherworldly God of Irish Myth
• The Abhartach: The Irish Walking Dead and the Origin of Dracula?

There has been much debate around the etymology of the name. The first part of the name is mostly agreed upon by scholars. In Old Irish “fo”, can be translated to the under, below, lower, and beneath.

Unfortunately, the next part of the word becomes more difficult to translate. One suggestion is that “mur” in the Old Irish can be translated to sea. Thus, the term for the Formori is undersea people. The origin of this etymology is what is agreed by some of the medieval writers.

A further development came later which claimed that “mor” meant great/big and thus their name would be the great under(world) ones or the Underworld Giants. A modern theory, followed by scholars, is that the name comes from a hypothetical old Irish term for a phantom or a demon.

This comes from the Morrigan, an old Irish mythological figure, and the antiquated English word mare (as in nightmare). This would fit, translating the name again as something like the underworld demons or phantoms.

The very first stories of the Fomori do indeed regard them as malevolent spirits that lived underwater and in the nether regions of the earth. One of the earliest mentions of the Fomori, dating from the 7th century from an elegy for Mess-Telmann, they are said to live under the world of men. Later on, they were described as sea raiders which was likely influenced by the real-life Viking raids on Ireland that dominated in the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries.

Usually, the Fomori are described as monstrous looking. In some stories, the Fomori have the body of a man with the head of a goat. This is how they were described in the Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow).

Other times they are described as only having one eye, one arm, and one leg. However, those Fomorians are usually the ones with the Tuath De. These are Elatha and his son Bres. Interestingly, these people were described as darkly beautiful.

The Fomorians are usually depicted as the enemies of the Tuath De as they are completely contrasting characters. As well as this, the Fomori are the rivals of Ireland’s first settlers. However, many sources say that there was an overlap between the Fomorians and Tuath De. Interestingly they are both presided over by the figure of Tetra.

The conflict that raged between the Fomorians and the Tuath De bears an incredible resemblance to other mythological conflicts. As mentioned previously, the similarity in the stories can be seen in the Vanir and the Aesir, the Olympians and the Titans but also in the Ancient Hinduism Vedic mythology between the Devas and Asuras. It has been posited that the Tuath De learning agricultural skills and knowledge is similar to the other cultures where the defeated races are representative of the fertility of the soil.

Myths

One of the most prevalent myths surrounding the Fomorians comes from the myth of Partholon in which he and his people are the first to invade Ireland after a flood. However, the Fomorians were already there.

• The Banshee: Celtic Messengers of Death
• Icelanders and the Huldufolk: A Nation Gripped by its Legends

They had arrived two hundred years earlier and lived off fish and fowl. This was until Partholon arrived with the plow and oxen. Partholon managed to defeat the Fomorians, but his people soon were killed by a plague.

The next people to arrive were Nemed and his people. Supposedly they arrived 30 years after the death of Patholon’s people. Nemed also encountered the Fomorians when they arrived.

However, in this myth, the Fomorians were seafarers from the Middle East who descended from Noah. Nemed proved to be successful in fighting the Fomorians but when Nemed died, the Fomorian Kings of Conand and Morc enslaved his people, demanding heavy tributes of grain, cattle, and children.

A huge battle followed an uprising from the remaining people of Nemed which cost both sides dearly. The war was only stopped by a flood that drowned many people.

One of the final battles that the Fomori would face was against the Tuatha De. The Tuatha De were supposed to be the gods of the Goidellic Irish people. The Tuatha De defeated the Fomorians and claimed possession of Ireland after the battle of Mag Tuired.

However, the Fomorians were not completely defeated. One of the earliest Tuath De kings was claimed to be the half-Fomorian Bres, and it was this that finally brought peace between the two supernatural peoples.

By Kurt Readman

Some of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries are the so-called “out of place artifacts”. These strange finds, as unexpected as they are inexplicable, are highly valued for what they might be able to tell us about our history.

Such is the case with the Antikythera Mechanism, which reveals a level of Ancient Greek navigational and computational sophistication few suspected. Similarly the Maine Penny, once dismissed as a fake is now seen as tentative proof of Vikings in North America centuries before Columbus.

They are highly controversial for the same reason. Artifacts such as the Baghdad Battery or the London Hammer are often dismissed as modern misunderstandings, if not outright fakes.

And then there are the artifacts on which we can only theorize. Such is the Tamil Bell.

A Cooking Pot, No Less

The Tamil Bell was discovered in the 1830s by Cornish missionary William Colenso, who had travelled to New Zealand. The bell was discovered near Whangarei, where it was being used by Maori women to boil potatoes.

The bell was made of bronze and had been broken at some point, which is probably why it was discarded and pressed into service as a coking pot. But what was most intriguing about the bell was the inscription which ran around the outside.

The inscription read “Mukaiyyatīṉ vakkucu uṭaiya kappal uṭaiya maṇi” which would have been as baffling to the Maori as to you or me. For the inscription was in Old Tamil, a language that had no place in 19th century New Zealand.

Nor was this an antiquated throwback, similar to Latin inscriptions on churches and government buildings. Some of the characters used in the inscription were not used in current Tamil script, and it appeared that the bell may have been centuries old at the time of its discovery.

Of course the bell being even older only exacerbated the conundrum of its discovery. Happily, there was a clue to go on.

The inscription translates to “Mohoyiden Buks ship’s bell” and this seems to have solved part of the problem, at least. A maritime expedition was something of which the Tamils were entirely capable.

It is also possible that the Tamils had made it as far as New Zealand, which would suggest contact between the two peoples far earlier than had previously thought. It is this which makes out-of-place artifacts so valued, as they can often correct our understanding of history in this way.

Of course, it could as easily have been dropped off of discarded by a Portuguese trader who had visited both the Tamils and the Maori. Or it could have come from a shipwreck, although this requires a mounting stack of coincidences and stretches credulity.

The Tamil Bell today sits in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Its origin remains a mystery, and we have only these theories to go on.

Top Image: The Tamil Bell and its inscription. Source: John Turnbull Thomson / Public Domain.

By Joseph Green

In the year 1967 an Italian immigrant (L.R.) was living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He lived in a little room on 92nd Street, rented from a Ukrainian family. The room, about 3 m (10 feet) by 3 m (10 feet) was beneath the roof, with a window looking towards the north-east.

A Light in the Sky

November 4th, 1967 was a cold Saturday, but the weather was otherwise quite good. It was about 11.30 pm when L.R. came back home after spending the evening with some Italian friends living in 95th Street.

Once back in his sparsely furnished room, he started to prepare a cup of coffee before going to bed. He placed the machine on the gas ring and, waiting for the coffee to come through, was smoking a cigarette, looking out of his window.

He could see the sky and part of the Saskatchewan River, at that moment iced-up, running alongside the Riverside Municipal Golf Course about 1,500 m (0.9 miles) away.

After a few minutes of contemplation of the landscape, suddenly, L.R. spotted a brilliant light in the dark sky. It was moving, coming from the east and headed fast towards the north, perpendicular to his point of observation.

At first, he thought it was a plane, because the airport was not far away. But its path and its behavior did not seem like that of a plane, and it was this that had attracted his attention.

As he watched, the brilliant dot started to descend, coming lower to the ground. Then it stopped, hanging in midair, and L.R could see now that it was rounded and globular in shape. It started to emit an intense pulsating reddish light, about double the size of a car’s headlight.

A Visitor to the Golf Course

Suddenly the light went off, and the object was no longer visible. But in the position where the object should have been, a bright blue ring appeared, approaching the ground and becoming bigger and bigger until it, too, disappeared.

These rings appeared three times, before the object itself reappeared with its reddish pulsating light. It remained there for about 10 minutes. By now it was about 11.45 pm, and another small light detached itself from the main object, moving rapidly and approaching the ground in an oblique path.

At this point L.R. switched off the light in his room and turned off the gas ring. Then, full of fear and curiosity, he took his place again at the window.

The little object was still high in the sky when he returned, appearing to be some 500 m (1,640 feet) up. It started to slow down, until it almost stopped, but continued to head towards the ground.

L.R. could see it clearly by now. It was round, truncated at both poles, and was silver in color. It rotated slowly on itself and emitted a buzzing sound like an electric transformer, emanating a soft violet light.

Then suddenly the little object moved again, flying over the Saskatchewan river and landing on the grass of the Riverside Municipal Golf Course almost a mile away. There, the light of the object went out.

• Lonnie Zamora: A Credible UFO Sighting?
• The Copper Scroll of Treasures

It remained extinguished for about 5 minutes. Then, the little object lit up again and took off, returning towards the main object which had remained unmoving throughout.

When the little object reached the main object, it disappeared, swallowed by the main object. The red light became more brilliant and pulsating as the larger object accelerated, moving slowly at first and then faster as it disappeared towards the north.

Physical Evidence

The day after, Sunday November 5th, L.R. woke up early and looked in the newspaper for some news about the phenomenon. He didn’t find any news, so he decided to investigate the place he had seen the little object land: the Municipal Golf Course.

After about half an hour of searching he found, on the grass, the traces of the landing he had seen: a ring of squashed grass, some 5 m (16 feet) wide. At a distance of about two meters (6.5 feet) from the ring’s edge he also found holes in the ground, of about 10cm (4 inches) in diameter.

Satisfied he had not imagined that entire thing, L.R. was leaving the spot when a twinkling on the ground attracted his attention, and he saw a piece of metal peeping out among the blades of grass. When he stopped to examine it, he found It was a square plate of a material like copper.

The size of the plate was 17.3 cm (6.8 inches) wide by 12.5 cm (4.9 inches) high. The plate was very fragile, only about 1 mm (0.04 inches) thick, little more than foil. And it was covered with strange characters and writing.

He took the plate home with him.

In the days that followed he looked again for a story in the newspapers, but still didn’t find anything. Unsure as to the best course of action, at last he decided not to declare the phenomena to the police. He was an immigrant in a foreign country and didn’t wish to have problems with his passport. Besides, would anyone have believed his story?

So, he kept the plate in his little garret room. And, six years later when he was able to come back to Italy, he brought the plate with him.

Further Investigation

I think it was approximately 1976 or 1977 when I read this story, in the Italian magazine “Il Giornale dei Misteri.” The black and white photo of the plate published beside the article was what first attracted my attention, and my curiosity.

I had to see it, I wanted to see the plate in color. At that time I was living in Rome and after some telephone calls to the magazine I obtained the telephone numbers of L.R. who was living in Southern Italy, near Naples.

Thus, I got in telephone contact with him. He confirmed the story and told me he was not interested in analyzing the plate, in spite of my insistence. It was just like a lucky mascot for him, stored in his strongbox, and all this interest about his story was starting to disturb him.

Moreover, he didn’t have much interest in UFOs and related matters. So, after this conversation, I proposed to send a friend of mine, living closer to his town, with the task of taking a photo of this strange plate, nothing more. He agreed, and I sent my friend to see him.

Since this I have had no further contact with him, but I have been working in my free time to try to understand this puzzling plate. As far as I know, no other researchers have ever studied or done research on this strange object.

• What or Who Were The Foo Fighters? Strange WWII Lights In The Sky
• The Battle of Los Angeles

And during these years no magazine or newspaper has ever written a single additional word about this story, except me. I have published information on this event a couple of times, hoping to spark some curiosity in some scholar, but always without success.

A Search for Explanations

I can offer a few straightforward explanations for what L.R. observed and found:

It seems clear that L.R. saw some kind of UFO, which dispatched a smaller lander to touch down on the golf course. I think that the piece of metal could have been left there intentionally by the smaller object, or its occupants.

Alternatively, the piece of metal could have been there before the alleged landing. Or possibly the UFO occupants wanted someone to witness the phenomenon, and investigate the spot.

In fact, without the sighting, the piece of metal would likely not have stirred up any curiosity, and surely ended in the rubbish sack of the Riverside Municipal Golf Course gardeners.

And yes, I thought the plate and the story could be a fake. But I still think L.R. was sincere, and he was hardly in a position to create a story like this, engraved copper evidence and all.

I have tried to contact some semiologists via the internet, with no great success. Only one took the time to reply in detail, telling me that the symbols embossed on the plaque appeared to be a mix of ancient symbols in different languages, including the Celtic alphabet Ogham.

Furthermore, to investigate further one should distinguish consonants from vowels, list the various symbols and calculate the number of times the same symbol appears, and start to work out patterns in the text. Not really suitable work for a curious old girl like me.

Of course, the semiologist wasn’t interested in studying the plate directly.

A Postscript: the Loss of the Plate

About 15 years ago I again contacted L.R. by phone to know if he had any news, or had maybe changed his mind about analyzing the plate. He told me sadly he didn’t have the plate anymore, and proceeded to relate a crazy story.

He was sitting in the car getting ready to go to work when he heard a “pop” at the car window. He realized that there had been a gunshot and scrambled out of the car, hiding and calling the police.

The Carabinieri arrive and, having verified the shot, they take his car away for checks and analysis. He was a bit apprehensive about this because for some time he had been carrying the metal plate in his work bag, as a good luck charm alongside his office papers. And the bag was propped on the passenger seat.

After about a week, the Carabinieri returned the car to him. But the bag was not there. And he, after much reflection, preferred not to ask for it.

It is not my intention to convince anyone what UFOs are, if alien life forms exist or are visiting Earth. I know well this is a controversial matter for most. I am just offering this story in an attempt to provide unbiased information for research purposes, or for those just interested in the subject.

But while the original of the plate may be lost, the pictures remain. Maybe, just maybe the answers to this riddle lie in what is written on the copper. Can you crack the code of the Edmonton UFO?

Top Image: The copper plate. While the original is lost, a translation may be possible. Source: Daniela Giordano.

by Daniela Giordano