وبلاگ شخصی داوود امین الرعایا (ساتوآ)

THE MYSTERY OF ACAMBARO

The North American scientist Charles H. Hapgood, a dedicated

archeologist, revealed in 1973

 the results of his laborious study of an extraordinary collection of

32,000 artifacts, the property of the German collector Waldemar

Julsrud. The collection is composed of

 ceramics, carved wooden objects, and engraved stones all from the

region around Acambaro, in central Mexico (15). Looking at the

color reproductions of many of these

 objects, one notes that the images of human beings do not

resemble the inhabitants of the region in particular or the American

Indian in general; and the animal images seem to

 be fantastic, though some species of extinct animals can be

discerned. We see oriental, negroid, and aryan human types, and

we see, among the identifiable prehistoric animals

, anthropoids, anteaters, crabs, horses, camels, crocodiles, and

various species of dinosaur, including the stegasaurus,

corinthosaurus, tyranosaurus, plesiosaurus

, brontosaurus, and pelicosaurus (Fig. 30, 31, 32, and 33 - see

bottom of this page).

For over twenty years archeologists thought these pieces were

fakes. In support of this hypothesis they pointed out that 1) never

before had so many pieces been found in so

 small an area; 2) never before had such delicate and fragile objects

been preserved underground in such pristinity; 3) the objects made

reference to unknown cultures; 4)

 the absence of patina and the accumulation of saltpeter was

inexplicable, and 5) the depiction of dinosaurs was further proof

that the etchings were phony. The suggestion

 that the pieces were of recent manufacture, and that the person

who manufactured them was Odilon Tinajero, a resident of

Acambaro, who had sold specimens to the

 collection with the assurance that they were unearthed by him and

his family. But doubts remained: the collection contained pieces

that demonstrated considerable

 knowledge on some themes, such as the customs and legends of

the Indian people, and rare and exotic extinct animals; many also

showed extraordinary artistic ability. But Odilon

 Tinajeros scarcely knew how to read and write and like the rest of

his family had never exhibited any talent for things artistic.

Hapgood enlisted the services of a famous expert

 in the detection of falsifications. It had already been established

that the pieces had been fired in an open oven, and given the sheer

quantity of pieces that existed, this oven

 would have had to have been kept going day and night over a long

period of time which would in turn have required copious firewood.

The investigations carried out by the expert, the municipal

authorities, and by a local professor, however, conclude that: 1)

 Odilon Tinajero did not own an oven; 2) no one had seen smoke

that might reveal the functioning of such an oven, and 3) there was

not sufficient in the area to permit the

 firing of the thousands of specimens. Beyond this, Odilon Tinajero

was selling the pieces at a price which would not have covered the

investment needed to fabricate them

. Hapgood turned to laboratory analysis in order to try to verify the

age of the pieces. The analysis - using radiocarbon dating and the

thermoluminescent method - certified that the pieces were old. The

first method gave an age of 6,400 to 3,500 years, and the second,

for some pieces, an age of 4,500 years. Thus was Hapgood able to

demonstrate the archeological value of this incredible collection,

ending a long period of doubt and incredulity.

Among Hapgood's conclusions is the notion that the extinct animals

and the age of the pieces suggest that the culture of Acambaro

predates all others known in America, and that Acambaro culture

had an influence on all later cultures. He also thinks that they nay

have had a cult of reptiles, evidence of which appears in the

collection. He does not argue for the coexistence of extinct animals

and man in Acambaro. On this point Hapgood is correct: I think that

on the basis of this collection the coexistence of prehistoric animals

and the makers of the pieces cannot be postulated and that in all

probability the age of the pieces is not greater than that given out

in the laboratory report. I believe that this collection provides still

more proof of cultural mestizaje between the artifacts of the

gliptolithic era and the era of Acambaro man. Acambaro man must

have had an oral tradition, and by way of his ancestors he heard of

a world in which both man and prehistoric animals lived. This

information was probably obtained by his ancestors through some

gliptolithic objects, although it is possible that the information was

imparted directly from generation to generation since, as we saw in

Chapter One, while the splendor of the gliptolithic humanity came

to an end, the human genu did not. The cultural mestizaje seen in

the pieces from Acambaro can be seen in the alteration of the true

morphologies of some men and animals, through the particular

filter of the men who created the objects.

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(15) Charles H. Hapgood: Mystery in Acambaro. An account of the ceramic collection of the late Waldemar Julsrud in Acambaro, GTO., Mexico. Printed by Griswold Offset Printing, Inc. Brattlebaro, Vermont 1973.