Secret HistoryS


Sherlock

Rongorongo and the unexpected path to the Mamari Tablet of Easter Island - a personal discovery

Michael Baldwin
Rozenberg Quarterly
Wed, 04 Jun 2025 20:15 UTC
rongorongo tablet lost language easter island rapa nui
© Yves Gellie/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesThis particular bit of rongorongo, photographed around 1999, was apparently carved with a shark tooth.

Comment: There is still room in the world for the dedicated independent researcher.

I never expected to make a meaningful contribution to one of the world's last undeciphered writing systems — especially not over a single weekend. But sometimes, curiosity grabs hold of you, and before you know it, you're completely consumed by a mystery that refuses to let go.

It was a regular Friday night. I was unwinding, scrolling through a few things online, when something sparked a memory — the Rongorongo tablets of Easter Island. I remembered reading about them years ago, and how nobody had cracked their meaning. That thought just stuck. No Rosetta Stone. No living tradition. Just intricate glyphs carved into ancient wood, waiting.

I've always loved learning about ancient human history, especially the things that are still unanswered. I look at it like this: if there's a theory about why something might be the way it is, and there's even a small chance it can be proven or disproven with just a little effort, I'm going to give it a shot. This was my first time seriously trying something like this.

Comment: More on the efforts to unravel the mystery of rongorongo:

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Rare Sassanid-era inscription condemning break of promise discovered in southern Iran


Tehran Times
Sun, 08 Jun 2025 17:15 UTC
Sassanid-era inscription
© Tehran Times
TEHRAN - A rare Sassanid-era inscription believed to condemn the act of betrayal and uphold the sanctity of loyalty and oaths has been discovered in the mountainous region of Marvdasht, Fars province, according to historian Dr. Abolhassan Atabaki.

Atabaki described the inscription as advisory in nature, carved in line with ancient Iranian ethical principles associated with Mithra (Mehr), the Zoroastrian deity of covenants and justice. "This inscription is a remarkable example of how ancient Iranians viewed loyalty as a sacred value, and betrayal as one of the gravest sins," he said.

In ancient Iranian belief, betrayal was thought to bring divine wrath and social ruin. "When a person breaks an oath, Mithra becomes enraged, and the violator's land suffers — facing drought, disorder, and decline," Atabaki explained. These values are also reflected in Zoroastrian teachings, where all adherents, regardless of faith or social status, are warned against oath-breaking.

The historian noted that even mythical covenants, such as the pact between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), were considered unbreakable, emphasizing the enduring power of sacred promises. "A person who breaks a vow or lies under oath is likened to one who renounces the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster," he said. Furthermore, dishonest judges or leaders who betray public trust were believed to cause natural and societal disorder, including reduced rainfall and weakened healing powers.
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Archaeology

More than 100 archaeological structures discovered in the Peruvian Andes

Garry Shaw
The Art Newspaper
Tue, 27 May 2025 19:22 UTC
archeology discoveries peru
© Heinz Plenge Pardo/World Monuments Fu ndThis marks the first major discovery in the region since the 1980s and more than doubles the number of known archaeological structures at the Chachapoya complex
Built by the Chachapoya civilisation, known as the "people of the cloud forest", the structures are located within a Unesco Mixed World Heritage site 500km north of Lima

Researchers working in Peru have discovered more than 100 previously unknown structures at the Gran Pajatén archaeological complex

, an ancient site located within Río Abiseo National Park, 500 km north of Lima. The park is a Unesco Mixed World Heritage site, and famous for the ruins left by the Chachapoya, a civilization that lived in the northeastern Andes of Peru from the 7th to the 16th centuries.

"Everyone on the team is very excited," says Juan Pablo de la Puente, the executive director of the World Monument Fund in Peru. "Contributing to a deeper understanding of the Chachapoya legacy is both a responsibility and a privilege. Indeed, it's a great responsibility we Peruvians have to the world."
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Info

An obscure anniversary, or once again about Japanese militarism

Ksenia Muratshina
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:02 UTC
Amidst the flood of other news and commemorative dates, the centenary of Northern Sakhalin's liberation from Japanese interventionists has gone almost unnoticed in the media stream. Why is this date significant, and how does the history of early 20th-century international relations remain profoundly relevant today?
Japanese Surrender
© New Eastern Outlook
A hundred years ago

On May 15, 1925, the red flag was raised again over the town of Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinskiy: the Soviet Union, through both military action and intense negotiations, was able to return the northern part of Sakhalin to Russia. The Japanese occupation of the north of the island had lasted since 1920, when the invaders treacherously violated the borders previously established by the Russo-Japanese War and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.

The new authorities treated Sakhalin as it happened in the history of Japanese imperialism with the captured lands: they imposed their own orders, imposed their laws, traditions and language on the locals, organized the most brutal terror, atrocities against people, and in parallel mercilessly exploited natural resources and exported everything they could.

The victory over the invaders was achieved not only thanks to the strengthening of the Soviet state, the actions of the Red Army in the Far East and the brilliant successes of Soviet diplomacy in international negotiations, but also thanks to the outstanding efforts of the partisan liberation struggle of the Sakhalin inhabitants against the Japanese invaders. This is also a heroic page in our history, and it is no less important to preserve the memory of it than of many other glorious victories.
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Arrow Up

Soft power: a Phoenician invention, a Chinese path, a US claim

Hassan Hamadé
Voltairenet.org
Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00 UTC
Guernica
© unknownGuernica by Pablo Picasso
"Peace is a lying illusion, and justice is a philosophy of extinguished embers.
There is no justice without a balance of power, nor peace without a clash between terrorism and terrorism."
- Abou el-Kacem AChabi
Soft power is completely wrongly attributed to Professor Joseph S. Nye. In reality, this gentle technique, this capacity for seduction, this power to convince, is as old as the world. Hassan Hamadé reminds us that this is how the Phoenicians conquered the Mediterranean. He gives the Chinese examples of Mao Zedong proposing, in 1946, to copy the political model of the United States and Deng Xiaoping wearing a Texan hat. Ultimately, it was not Washington that took control of China, but Beijing that invaded the Western economy. Soft power is not about overwhelming your interlocutors with Hollywood films, but about adopting their codes to take advantage of their benefits.

These are the verses that immediately came to mind when I followed Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany — supported at the time by the majority of "Europeans."

Comment: Civilization is built on choice...to divide and conquer or support and rise together.

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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Artificial Stone: Has Marcell Foti Cracked the Megalithic Code?

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00 UTC
foti
In this episode of Mind Matters, Marcell Foti shares his groundbreaking Natron Theory, challenging conventional explanations for the construction of ancient megalithic structures. Foti, an IT professional turned independent researcher, proposes that ancient civilizations used a chemical process involving natron — a carbonate mineral used in ancient Egypt for mummification and as a detergent — to etch and dissolve granite into a moldable "waterglass" slurry, which could then be cast into precise stone shapes. Demonstrating with small-scale experiments, he explains how this method accounts for the seamless, complex features of structures like those in Peru and Egypt, offering a compelling alternative to traditional theories of chiseling. Follow Marcel's ongoing experiments and insights on Twitter and check out his book, The Natron Theory, for a deeper dive into this revolutionary idea.


Running Time: 01:11:29

Download: MP3 — 98.2 MB


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Archaeology

Blue-eyed toddler dubbed the 'Ice Prince' was buried with a sword and a piglet 1,350 years ago in Bavaria

Tom Metcalfe
Live Science
Mon, 02 Jun 2025 18:43 UTC
bavaria grave child roman era rich
© BLFDThe grave of the "Ice Prince" was found amid the ruins of a Roman-age villa near the Bavarian town of Mattsies in 2021.
The "Ice Prince" burial sheds light on a toddler from a wealthy family who lived around 1,350 years ago in Bavaria, Germany.

A blue-eyed boy buried in southern Germany more than 1,300 years ago was interred with rare riches — including a small sword, silk clothes and a gold cross — indicating that he came from a wealthy local family before he died of an infection at about 18 months old, a new analysis finds.

The remains of the child, dubbed the "Ice Prince" because archaeologists flash froze the burial chamber to excavate its contents in a single block, were discovered in 2021 near the town of Mattsies in Bavaria.

The child's tomb was found south of the Upper Germanic Limes that once defined the Roman frontier. But the Western Roman Empire was extinguished in this area when Germanic tribes invaded in the early fifth century — centuries before the boy died in the seventh century.
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Star of David

1951-1962: Radioactive iodine-131 fallout blanketed nearly the entire US in gov't nuclear tests

John Fleetwood
JohnFleetwood.com
Fri, 30 May 2025 19:03 UTC
radioactive iodine fallout nuclear tests
© Screenshot SGS.Princeton.edu
The American public was dosed — without consent.

Between 1951 and 1962, the U.S. government detonated more than 100 nuclear bombs in the open air — at the Nevada Test Site and elsewhere — releasing radioactive fallout into skies that didn't respect state lines, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute.

Among the most dangerous byproducts was iodine-131 (I-131), a radioactive isotope that seeks out and embeds itself in the human thyroid gland, particularly in children.

Winds carried the fallout far and wide.

From Nevada to New York, Montana to Mississippi — every corner of the continental U.S. was blanketed.

It wasn't a localized tragedy.

It was a national exposure event.
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Info

Unearthing a forgotten monument in Turkey

Leman Altuntaş
Arkeonews Net
Sat, 31 May 2025 18:03 UTC
Kurt Tepesi
© Prof. Dr. Bahattin Çelik
In the arid plains of southeastern Anatolia, a quiet giant slumbers. While Göbekli Tepe has dazzled archaeologists and the global public alike as the world's earliest known temple complex, a lesser-known site within the Taş Tepeler archaeological zone is beginning to attract the curiosity of scholars: Kurt Tepesi. Long overshadowed by its more famous neighbors, Kurt Tepesi is now emerging as a crucial piece in the complex puzzle of early Neolithic society.

Located within the Şanlıurfa province of Türkiye, Kurt Tepesi forms part of the ambitious Taş Tepeler Project, a network of twelve archaeological mounds that challenge the traditional narrative of civilization's dawn. This collective of sites — including Karahan Tepe, Sayburç, Sefer Tepe, and Harbetsuvan — is revealing that monumental architecture, social organization, and symbolic behavior flourished in the Fertile Crescent far earlier than previously believed.

Yet among these names, Kurt Tepesi has remained strangely quiet in both media and academic circles. This is not due to a lack of potential. On the contrary, Kurt Tepesi may offer a rare window into a transitional phase of Neolithic life — one that bridges the gap between mobile forager societies and settled, symbolically complex communities.
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The Roman massacre that never happened according to a new study of an iconic archaeological site


Bournemouth University
Tue, 20 May 2025 08:19 UTC
2 Skeletons
© Martin SmithTwo of the skeletons excavated by Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s, dating from the 1st century AD. Both these individuals exhibit bladed weapon injuries, whilst one has a spear head lodged in his spine, previously interpreted (wrongly) as a Roman ballista bolt.
A new study by archaeologists at Bournemouth University (BU) has revealed that bodies recovered from a 'war-cemetery' previously attributed to the Roman Conquest of Britain at Maiden Castle Iron Age hillfort in Dorset, did not die in a single dramatic event.

A re-analysis of the burials, including a new programme of radiocarbon dating, has revealed that, rather than dying in a single, catastrophic event, individuals fell in periods of lethal violence spanning multiple generations, spread across the late first century BC to the early first century AD. This is suggestive of episodic periods of bloodshed, possibly the result of localised turmoil, executions or dynastic infighting during the decades leading up to the Roman Conquest of Britain.

BU's Dr Martin Smith, Associate Professor in Forensic and Biological Anthropology, who analysed the bodies said: "The find of dozens of human skeletons displaying lethal weapon injuries was never in doubt, however, by undertaking a systematic programme of radiocarbon dating we have been able to establish that these individuals died over a period of decades, rather than a single terrible event".

The 'war-cemetery' of Maiden Castle Iron Age hillfort in Dorset is one of Britain's most famous archaeological discoveries. Discovered in 1936, many of the skeletons unearthed had clear evidence of trauma to the head and upper body. Dig director at the time, Sir Mortimer Wheeler suggested, were "the marks of battle", caused during a furious but ultimately futile defence of the hillfort against an all-conquering Roman legion. Wheeler's colourful account of an attack on the native hillfort and the massacre of its defenders by invading Romans, was accepted as fact, becoming an iconic event in popular narratives of Britain's 'Island Story'.
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