Trade Secrets

[Bmblbzzz]

And not long after the making of The Clangers. Could they actually have been intended as representations of astronauts to prove that China conducted space exploration thousands of years before the West?

[TisILeclerc]

If they were really warriors they'd all be posing with arms outstretched like Jet Li.

If they were astronauts they'd probably bring in the Aztec connection and have them all sitting in funny poses with handles and tubes all over the place.

Standing still like that reminds me of English Gentlemen and London civil servants. Perhaps they are an invasion force ready for an infusion of chi. They will be on every street corner in Picadilly with copies of the Times and a rolled up umbrella and briefcase ready to walk into parliament and take over.

[TisILeclerc]

After all the Chinese did invent the Civil Service, or so they say.

And paper and umbrellas as well.

[Boreades]

It's just like a lot of modern Chinese industries.

1) They start late,
2) copy the original Western inventors on a huge scale,
3) but then the market crashes and
4) the products end-up in land-fill sites.

[TisILeclerc]

I've been thinking in a meandering fashion.

What happened to the megalith builders once they'd covered the landscape with megaliths and there was no more room? Did they pack up tools and retire to the country to raise chickens or something or did they go off to building plots new?

Did they become teachers of stonework just in case there was a revival?

Were there any structures in Britain and northern Europe before the ice age swept them all away?

Assuming the pyramids are much older and pre ice age as some contend was there a move to rebuild in Europe once the thaw set in?

Travel to Orkney through ice free seas and build on the first bits of dry land and work your way round the coast as it was revealed until you are back to the ice free south of England. And then fill in the bits as they reappeared?

Perhaps they didn't have time to put points on them all and just left them at the post drawing board stage before they got fed up. Or maybe points had gone out of fashion?

Oh, and where did they get their skills from in the first place? A bit of a jump from chasing deer and elephants to building Stonehenge I would have thought? Unless it was a different lot of people in the first place.

[TisILeclerc]

Looks like the early Orkney people were chomping on roast vole. Which apparently they had brought direct from Belgium as has been previously mentioned.

If they were brought for food as we are told rabbits were later on it means that the people probably were Belgians on the move as we are also told the voles came direct from Belgium.

Assuming the Belgians at the time were Germanic speakers of one sort or another, although at that time perhaps there wasn't much of a selection, this would mean that the early Orcadians were also Germanic speakers?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37690206



MacVole to go as some may say.

[Boreades]

A recent genetic study on the same samples deduced that the vole was introduced to Orkney direct from what is now Belgium.
It is thought the rodents were brought to the island by sea along with cattle and deer by early farmers or traders.

Strange, I could have sworn we had another recent genetic study that said the voles were from Brittany?

[Boreades]

Orkney in the news again.

A Pictish stone carved with a cross and what is believed to be a dragon-like beast has been discovered in an eroded cliff face on Orkney.

Archaeologists believe it dates from the 8th Century and provides an insight into the early Christian period on Orkney.

It could be about 1,300 years old and from a time in Scotland's past that is largely a mystery to archaeologists and historians.

Ornately decorated Pictish stones are most commonly associated with parts of the Scottish Highlands and Aberdeenshire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-37798080

[Boreades]

3D model viewable here:
https://sketchfab.com/models/6de93d2233 ... 20b5/embed

[hvered]

A huge ancient shipyard has been unearthed on a small island just over a mile from the south coast of Turkey according to a report relayed word-for-word on the Megalithic Portal.

A huge shipyard, believed to be the oldest in the world, has been discovered on Dana Island in the southern province of Mersin’s Silifke district.

Academics believe that the huge shipyard, which includes nearly 270 slipways, could shed light on the 400-year “Dark Ages” of the Mediterranean over 1,000 years B.C.

270 slipways sounds a bit much even for a huge shipyard.

“This is the one and only in the world. The biggest shipyard that has been proven archaeologically in the world,” said Hakan Öniz, the head of Selçuk University’s Underwater Archaeology Department.

Ah. It can be explained on account of being a) 'the one and only' and b) the biggest in the world. On the say-so of Turkish archaeologists at least.

He also added that they had determined the existence of archaeological wreckages in the region. “But the most exciting for us was an iron spur that we found at a depth of 35 meters and that was used as the weapon of warships in ancient ages. Such an iron spur has been found for the first time in the world,” Öniz said.

Surely iron bars have turned up in other sites. Bits of tanks can be seen rusting away in many parts of the Middle East.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/huge-a ... sCatID=375