Nexus - 0213 - New Times Magazine-pages

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i largest such treasure so far documented. The whereabouts of the the remains, yet nothing else was heard. Sanderson seemed con- man in armour is unknown and it is quite likely that it eventually _ vinced that the Smithsonian Institution had received the bizarre was taken to the Smithsonian Institution. relics, but wondered why they would not release the data. He asks, In a private conversation with a well-known historical researcher _... is it that these people cannot face rewriting all the text books?” (who shall remain nameless), I was told that a former employee of In 1944 an accidental discovery of an even more controversial the Smithsonian, who was dismissed for defending the view of dif- nature was made by Waldemar Julsrud at Acémbaro, Mexico. fusionism in the Americas (i.e., the heresy that other ancient civili- | Ac4mbaro is in the state of Guanajuato, 175 miles northwest of sations may have visited the shores of North and South America Mexico City. The strange archaeological site there yielded over during the many millennia before Columbus), alleged that the 33,500 objects of ceramic; stone, including jade; and knives of Smithsonian at one time had actually taken a barge full of unusual obsidian (sharper than steel and still used today in heart surgery). artefacts out into the Atlantic and dumped them in the ocean. Jalsrud, a prominent local German merchant, also found statues Though the idea of the Smithsonian's covering up a valuable _ ranging from less than an inch to six feet in length depicting great archaeological find is difficult to accept for some, there is, sadly, a _Teptiles, some of them in active association with humans--generally great deal of evidence to suggest that the Smithsonian Institution _ eating them, but in some bizarre statuettes an erotic association was has knowingly covered up and ‘lost’ important archaeological relics. indicated. To observers many of these creatures resembled The Stonewatch Newsletter of the Gungywamp Society in dinosaurs. Connecticut, which researches megalithic sites in New England, had Jalsrud crammed this collection into twelve rooms of his expand- a curious story in their Winter 1992 issue about stone coffins dis- ed house. There startling representations of Negroes, Orientals, and covered in 1892 in Alabama which were sent to the Smithsonian bearded Caucasians were included as were motifs of Egyptian, Institution and then ‘lost’. According to the newsletter, researcher © Sumerian and other ancient non-hemispheric civilisations, as well as Frederick J. Pohl wrote an intriguing letter in 1950 to the late Dr _ portrayals of Bigfoot.and aquatic monsterlike creatures, weird T.C. Lethbridge, a British archaeologist. human-animal mixtures, and a host of other inexplicable creations. The letter from Pohl stated, “A professor of geology sent me a Teeth from an extinct Ice Age horse, the skeleton of a mammoth, reprint (of the) Smithsonian Institution, The Crumf Burial Cave by and a number of human skulls were found at the same site as the Frank Burns, US Geological Survey, from the report of the US _ ceramic artefacts. National Museum for 1892, pp 451-454, 1984. In the Crumf Cave, Radio-carbon dating in the laboratories of the University of southem branch of the Warrior River, in Murphy's Valley, Blount Pennsylvania and additional tests using the thermoluminescence County, Alabama, accessible from Mobile Bay by river, were _ method of dating pottery were performed to determine the age of the coffins of wood hollowed out by fire, aided by stone or copper chis- objects. Results indicated the objects were made about 6,500 years els. Eight of these coffins were taken to the Smithsonian. They ago, around 4,500 BC. A team of experts at another university, were about 7.5’ long, 14" to 18" wide, 6" to 7" deep. Lids open. shown Jalrud's half-dozen samples but unaware of their origin, ruled "I wrote recently to the Smithsonian, and received reply March _out the possibility that they could have been modem reproductions. 11th from F.M. Setzler, Head Curator of Department of However, they fell silent when told of their controversial source. Anthropology. (He said) We have not been able to find the speci- In 1952, in an effort to debunk this weird collection which was mens in our collections, though records show that they were _ gaining a certain amount of fame, American archaeologist Charles Teceived,"" C. DiPeso claimed to have minutely examined the then 32,000 David Barron, President of the Gungywamp Society was eventu- _ pieces within not more than four hours spent at the home of Julsrud. ally told by the Smithsonian in 1992 that the coffins were actually _In a forthcoming book, long delayed by continuing developments in wooden troughs and that they could not be viewed anyway because _his investigation, archaeological investigator John H. Tierney, who they were housed in an asbestos-contaminated warehouse. This has lectured on the case for decades, points out that to have done warehouse was to be closed for the next ten years and no one was __ that DiPeso would have had to have inspected 133 pieces per minute allowed in except Smithsonian personnel! steadily for four hours, whereas in actuality, it would have required Ivan T. Sanderson, a well-known zoologist and frequent guest on | weeks merely to have separated the massive jumble of exhibits and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in the 1960s (usually with an exotic arranged them properly for a valid evaluation. animal like a pangolin or a lemur), once related a curious story Tiemey, who collaborated with the late Professor Hapgood, the about a letter he received regarding an engineer who was stationed late William N. Russell, and others in the investigation, charges that on the Aleutian island of Shemya during , a World War II. While building an airstrip, his crew bulldozed a group of hills and discov- ered under several sedimentary layers what appeared to be human remains. The Alaskan mound was in fact a graveyard of gigantic human remains, consisting of crania and long leg bones. The crania measured from 22 to 24 inches from base to crown. Since an adult skull nor- mally measures about eight inches from back to front, such a large crania would imply an immense size for a normally proportioned human. Furthermore, every skull was said to . have been neatly trepanned (a process of cut- ting a hole in the upper portion of the skull). In fact, the habit of flattening the skull of an infant and forcing it to grow in an elongat- ed shape was a practice used by ancient Peruvians, the Mayas, and the Flathead Indians of Montana. Sanderson tried to gather further proof, eventually receiving a letter from another member of the unit who con- ; : firmed the report. The letters both indicated A anenl portion of the thousands of ceramic and stone arti fac from the Acambaro col- that the Smithsonian Institution had collected lection. Photos courtesy of John H. Tierney. Vol 2, No 13 - 1993 NEXUS¢37 31