Not a pyramid at all but rather a “natural formation,” says the Bosnian Culture Minister, Gavrilo Grahovac. So they’re pulling the plug on self-proclaimed, “amateur archaeologist,” Semir Osmanagic, who, for a little over a year now, has claimed that the geologic formations as Visoko, Bosnia are pyramids built by people in antiquity.
If true, the “pyramids” would be the largest in the world. However, not a shred of viable evidence has been produced to support the claim, which seems to be just so much fantasy generated by myster-mongers and significance-junkies. Read some of the details and a link to the story below the guide.
I found the article in the “World” section of the Croatian online news site, Javno, the exact url is here.
And the Javno article was refreshingly critical of the Osmanagic claims. And, by “critical,” I mean they gave a reasoned account of the situation compared with the mass-media attention of about a year ago.
The Culture Ministry found the “research” conducted by Osmanagic’s team to be questionable and the collaborators of Osmanagic to lack the credibility needed to allow for continued funding of their “project.” Also criticized by the Bosnian government, according to Javno, is the methods by which Osmanagic et al presented their findings, particularly the fact that they routinely kept their data from experts in relative fields.
The Bosnian Culture Ministry consulted experts including those in the fields of geology, mining, archaeology, and cultural preservation and arrived at the conclusion that Osmanagic’s foundation was not acting in the best interest of Bosnian cultural preservation and that the foundation is in violation of archaeological regulations. The Ministry even concluded that the nature of Osmanagic’s registration with the Bosnia-Herzegovina Justice Ministry may be suspect and should be “looked into.”
According to Osmanagic, his reckless destruction of the site (which does have legitimate cultural resources of the Roman period as well as perhaps others) is justified due to the “positive image” he’s created of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the world.
Personally, I’d have to disagree, since the image being created was potentially one of ridicule among serious academia. But this recent position of the Culture Ministry is one to be respected and it’s good to see truth and reason win out against pseudoscience and woo. I don’t know if the Ministry’s protection can extend to lands that are on private property or controlled by local governments, but it is certainly having the effect of keeping Osmanagic’s band of woo-woo’s from destroying cultural resources on much of the hill. According to Osmanigic’s woo-woo site, they are resuming “excavations” as of 28 June 2007 on local government controlled lands.
One can hardly blame local governments from trying to continue cashing in on Osmanagic’s nonsense since it is drawing tourism to the region. And, to be honest, the current situation isn’t much different than that of a typical cultural context in the United States, where private land owners are free to allow looters and idiots to ravage archaeological sites, plundering valuable pottery and lithic artifacts while completely ignoring the more culturally valuable contexts of these artifacts. I think, however, that many local governments are influenced by whether or not they receive federal funding, which may impact how they are required to preserve cultural and historical resources.
Meanwhile, Osmanagic and his foundation of woo are the continued laughing stock of the archaeological community -or, perhaps they would be if it weren’t for the fact that they are endangering genuine cultural resources with their pseudoscientific endeavor.
I’ve read an interesting article on Bosnian Pyramid about the corners of the pyramid. It would be an easy way to proof quickly the existence, but they dig near the corners but not the corners. Then they’ve dug something on the top of it, but not the top!? I’ve seen some pictures on Bosnian Pyramid Photo Gallery that really let me think again about this whole thing. Every day I believe less in this mystery.
The evidence that this is a geologic feature and NOTHING MORE is already established. I very briefly discuss this in this post. Geologists and real archaeologists have surveyed the site. There is no pyramid. There is a hill. QED.
On this hill, however, there are Roman era cultural remains, as well as perhaps other cultural periods, which are in genuine danger of being forever lost to the un-educated and inexperienced bumbling of self-styled “amateurs” who believe they are conducting archaeology.
It’s human nature to believe in all manner of mystery and seek to find significance in the mundane. Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria, the face on Mars, aliens built the pyramids at Giza, etc., etc. And Osmanagic is taking advantage of this tendency to further his own ego. This is the nutbar that wrote a book describing how the Maya civilization is descended from the people of Atlantis and they, in turn, are descended from space aliens.
I have followed the development with the Bosnian pyramids ever since it received about 30 seconds of recognition on a late night news program two and a half years ago. Only a fool would believe this to be a hoax. “Real” archaeologists are simply too afraid to admit that an “amateur” found real man made structures under the earths surface, that just so happen to be older than anything they have found. Deny the truth all you want, but there ARE pyramids in Bosnia. The evidence is clear with all the electro-magnetic fields emitting from the mountain that just so happen to be in the same pattern as those that are emitted in Giza, South America, and anywhere else that pyramids exist. Also, how do you account for the tunnels, the artifacts, the perfectly cut stones and the numerous local legends? Or are all those people just a bunch of liars? Examine the truth and the evidence,and you’ll see that history is soon to be re-written. Just because some “expert” says it isn’t there, doesn’t mean he’s right. “Experts” once said this earth is the center of the galaxy, if not the universe…a single man proved them wrong. Christopher Columbus also proved the rest of the world wrong when they said he would fall off the end of the world if he tried to find another way to the far east. Take from these historic lessons before you ass/u/me that there is nothing there. Osmanagic is simply another pioneer willing to take the risk to prove the “experts” wrong…and he will.