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News Briefs 16-08-2004

By Rick MGon

Gantenbrink has been shafted again. No longer is he credited with the first robotic exploration of the Khufu Pyramid’s shafts. That honour goes to the 2002 American & National Geographic effort, according to zany Zahi Hawass. My last words: credit where credit is due, please.

  • Will Zahi Hawass shaft us again? I’m beginning to think that if they do discover something behind the shaft doors, it’s going to be a gold-framed portrait of Zahi Hawass.
  • The remains of Iron Age woman with rings on her toes. Iron Age man with piercings yet to be found.
  • Discovery of a 6000-year-old Pharaoh’s tomb. Warning: Hawass again.
  • A great article on Cahokia, the Mississippi mound mystery.
  • A plethora of problems plagues Parthenon. Twist your tongue around that.
  • Carved wooden figure linked to Seahenge, whose wooden posts may have been decorated with carvings similar to native American totem poles.
  • Ramses II keeps getting bigger and bigger. He must have had a small obelisk. Oh bloody hell, Hawass is quoted again.
  • A 17th-century prison used during the Inquisition will be opened as a museum. Damn, I was hoping they’d use it for its original purpose and keep politicians and terrorists there.
  • The Divine Winds that saved Japan twice in the 13th century. No flatulence jokes for this link, TDG is a mature civilised site. For flatulence, see the other links with Zahi Hawass quotes.
  • Indian students use Ancient Vedic maths for problem solving. Good thing they don’t use Ancient Chinese mathematics (a prize for anyone who gets this joke!).
  • A Crop Circle in Wiltshire displays Mayan 2012 doomsday calendar.
  • Geoff Stray reckons he has cracked the code of Crop Circles.
  • Experts found a piece of the Tunguska UFO. I hope it’s the black box!
  • Atlantis in the North Sea? I don’t remember this one, but Jameske might.
  • Russian monkeys play computer games. We also compile news reports for TDG. More bananas, Greg!
  • Despite being electrocuted, rats addicted to cocaine continue taking it.
  • Dolphin leaders keep pod together. Good to know one species of the animal kingdom isn’t smoking crack and playing computer games!
  • Ohmigods, giant mutant space ants are taking over Melbourne. Oh, they’re from Argentina. And they’re peaceful. I feel better now.
  • Bottled water for your cat? The ridiculous things people do for their pets.
  • Cannabis extract may shrink cancer tumours.
  • Global water supplies will continue to diminish if we don’t stop eating meat. Supersize me.
  • Heatwaves in Europe and North America to get worse.
  • Tokyo experiences record heatwave.
  • Space shuttles to get special safety upgrades.
  • Hubble captures giant space bubble.
  • Dust disk around star may contain planets.

Quote of the Day:

I believe that we’ve only found about 30 percent of Egyptian monuments, that 70 percent of them still lie buried underneath the ground. You never know what the sand will hide in the way of secrets.

Dr Zahi Hawass

Rick MG
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24 Comments

  1. Atlantis in the North Sea
    Take a press release from a University project mapping the old contours of the North Sea bottom when it was still above water. Note that when it was above water it was inhabited by indigent peoples who were the ancestors of some of the modern European stock. Then gratuitously add in the totally unrelated theories about Atlantis of the Theosophy movement and hope that no-one notices that the archeologist hasnt mentioned word one about Atlantis. Hey presto, a Pravda story. If this is the standard of their journalism then its possible the Tunguska UFO metal fragments will turn out to be a rusted beans can once used as a frisbee by foresters

    To sit in silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men

    1. Champagne journalism
      Cernig,

      Sensationalist tabloid journalism at its best! I’m surprised they didn’t interview the ship’s captain who claims to be pregnant with an Atlantean mermaid’s child.

      I wonder how the archaeologist feels for being misquoted. I’m sure Graham Hancock could give him some advice for how to deal with being taken out of context!

      Rico

  2. Will Zahi Hawass shaft us again?
    Here we go again. How can Pharoah Zahi be so sure that they will find anything at all behind the next doors – there was nothing behind the last one! Note that in 2 of the 3 articles in the news today he’s also managed to have a good moan at ‘unlicensed grave robbers’ again!!

    I do honestly hope there’s nothing there – maybe then people will realise that this man does not deserve either his position or his reputation.

  3. TDG News
    Over the years there has been some great news items posted here. However, every time Zahi Hawass’ name comes up it always seems to be accompanied by a derogatory comment. In today’s news we have no less than four instances of this within the first nine items. Not only is this form of reporting unprofessional its also extremely tedious!

    1. I didn’t find Zahi in the news, he found me
      That’s ironic, because over the years I’ve come to find Zahi Hawass’ hypocrisy and double-standards to be “tedious”.

      I did not intentionally search for news items quoting Zahi Hawass; I looked for news about Egyptology in general, and Hawass happened to be quoted in each article. He’s in the media more often than Eddie Maguire. You may also note the Quote of the Day, which serves as a reminder that Hawass is not an evil man, he has commendable passion for the past; it’s just the saga of the Pyramid shafts has tarnished my respect for him, in my opinion.

      Next news brief I might post some Rense 9/11 conspiracy links …

    2. Re: Tedious
      Over the years I’ve discovered that people who find things ‘tedious’ are the very ones who can’t find humor in anything. They probably didn’t crack a smile when they read, “Ramses II keeps getting bigger and bigger. He must have had a small obelisk.”

    1. Yes, you’re right
      On the website, Zahi gives credit where it’s due; but only after he copped a lot of flack over National Geo’s failure to credit Gantenbrink in the lead up to the 2002 shaft door opening on live tv. Hawass is NatGeo’s man in Egypt and he controls the information NatGeo gets; he could have corrected them at any stage, but he didn’t. It took the efforts of a humble internet campaign for NatGeo to change its tune. Someone — in the SCA, certain Egyptologists, moronic tv executives, or all of the above — tried to rewrite the history of the pyramid shafts and exclude Gantenbrink. They failed, and I strongly believe it’s because of us, the public, who demand nothing less than truth and dignity from Egyptology.

      I do apologise for my sensationalist journalism — I was trying to provoke a litte debate. 😉

      “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

  5. Missing Egyptian Monuments
    “I believe that we’ve only found about 30 percent of Egyptian monuments, that 70 percent of them still lie buried underneath the ground.”

    If anybody else would have been in charge they would have found at least 15% of that missing 70 %.

    Hawass explains here why he’s not the right for the Job!

  6. “Hawass is NatGeo’s man in
    “Hawass is NatGeo’s man in Egypt and he controls the information NatGeo gets; he could have corrected them at any stage, but he didn’t. It took the efforts of a humble internet campaign for NatGeo to change its tune”.

    One wonders if anyone, other than a minority, sincerely believes that Hawass has the free time to check every statement made on his behalf.

    Are you seriously suggesting that National Geographic researchers aren’t capable of independently gathering information and updating their own producers/editors, and that it took an “internet campaign” to make them aware of Gatnebrink’s work?

    As far as Internet campaigns go, I seem to recall some seriously flawed campaigns, initiated by the ‘three musketeers’ i.e. Hancock, Bauval and West during the 1990’s, against Hawass! The legacy of which still permeates the Internet despite their obvious errors. A sad legacy that seems to dominate uninformed opinion and the news at TDG.

    1. egypt
      The word Egypt in a headline or a book title is like the word God.
      It sells like hot cakes.

      With people generally becoming more enlightened about religion there is a demand for knowledge at the present time unprecedented in human history.
      For truth seekers the great pyramid is the ultimate truth.
      For the man in charge, the Director of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, the great pyramid represents his own personal gold mine in his own suburban back yard.

      National Geographic is not a charitable organisation, they have their shareholders who want returns and they know that information about Egypt has always been a money-maker.

      NG and Hawass hitched their wagons to each others’ stars for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, and so far it’s been financially useful for both.

      The situation to which Rico refers has nothing to do with Bauval, Hancock and West.

      Hawass and NG have together been responsible for, if not fraud, then seriously misleading a public eager for any drops of information that fall from their lips.

      I refer to the documentary about supposedly opening newly found tombs for the first time on TV, and the finding of hidden shafts, and the intermittent flow of spurious information ever since this event.

      The dropping of Gantenbrink from the investigation appeared to be a very strange step and one can only wonder at the reason.

      I don’t know of any other situation in which NG has taken a part that has been as misleading as this one.

      I can think of nothing in my lifetime other than man venturing into space which carried the same excitement and promise that mankind was on the verge of entering a new era as the idea of the discovery of hidden information in the great pyramid.

      And yes I do believe that the TDG campaign to reinstate Gantenbrink is the only reason that his name would be mentioned on Hawass’ website.

      Whoever you are anonymous, you need to look closer at what is happening in Egypt.
      The pyramids belong to the world, not to Hawass, not even to Egypt.

      I cancelled my subscription to NG after the latest farcical association with Hawass and so did my friends.

      shadows

      1. Saving face (not the Sphinx’s)
        Often I wonder if it’s just Zahi Hawass saving face. Afterall, if the general public caught wind that it took the SCA almost a decade to investigate the Pyramid Shafts, they’d be entitled to wonder why it took so long. The public would ask what happened to Gantenbrink. Some would investigate and find that Zahi Hawass and many Egyptologists scoffed at the idea of further investigating the shafts, that there’s nothing new to be found there, it’d be a waste of time. They’d discover the ridicule those who campaigned for the shafts to be investigated suffered at the expense of people like Zahi Hawass. They’d then put two and two together and work out that Zahi Hawass has done a complete backflip over the Pyramid shafts and is now claiming what dozens have already said years ago. His hypocrisy and double standards would be exposed.

        I honestly believe a concerted effort was made to exclude Ganenbrink in 2002 just so the SCA and Hawass could save themselves the embarrassment of admitting to a decade of petty and vindictive selfishness and opportunism.

        It’s all so sad really … all we want is the honest truth!

        Rico

        “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

        1. Saving face
          “Afterall, if the general public caught wind that it took the SCA almost a decade to investigate the Pyramid Shafts, they’d be entitled to wonder why it took so long”.

          Do you seriously think that further investigation of the lower shafts in the Khufu Pyramid should have precedence over the preservation and cataloguing of artefacts found over the last 100 years? Artefacts that have been languishing in store houses due to lack of funding. Old bones, potshards and the like may not seem very much to you but they undoubtedly tell us more about AE culture, than another robot revealing yet again more pyramid core blocks. I could have some sympathy for your cause if it was a little more focused, such as retrieving and perhaps testing of the objects located in the lower northern shaft and the publication of inclination data etc, but you fail to address these issues and I remain unimpressed by your comments.

      2. re egypt
        “the idea of the discovery of hidden information in the great pyramid”.

        If this ‘information’ is ‘hidden’ and remains to be discovered, how do you know there is anything there to be revealed? Nice idea but your logic is crap.

        “Whoever you are anonymous, you need to look closer at what is happening in Egypt”.

        Who I am is of little importance but what I have to say might be very relevant. Thank you for your advice but I think I’m a little closer to happenings in Egypt than you think I am.

        “I cancelled my subscription to NG after the latest farcical association with Hawass and so did my friends”.

        That’s really adult of you but what excuse did your friends use? ‘Guys, it’s my ball and I’m taking it home…so there!’.

        1. re egypt
          The only comment worth responding to is the first one……

          I deliberately wrote the “idea” of hidden information….we don’t know there is hidden information.

          Please re-read your responses to me and notice the blind fury in each line.
          Nice to know I hit a nerve.

          shadows

        2. Re Egypt
          Hello Anon.

          I believe you when you say that you are much closer than most to what is happening in Egypt. For someone of little importance, you seem to want everyone to listen to your opinions.

          You obviously are very important and just can’t state your name for the record. You sound like someone very close to the great man. Someone on the “inside”!! Maybe Pharoh Zahiamunra’s partner?

          Maybe you are that great Egyptologist, Mark Lehner. How are your bread pots and fish bones going? Most educated people don’t beleive you when you use this “vital” evidence as proof for your theories that the people that cooked bread and caught fish were the pyramid builders.

          It’s hard to believe that the majority don’t believe that logic; don’t you think? Especially with your educational background. Who was it again that funded your education along with the Pharoh’s??

          Because you are on the “inside” and your opinions “might be very relevant”, do you know where any of the 4th Dynasty Kings are to be found? The great one seems to struggle with this task. Maybe some of the 4th Dynasty Pharohs are still in the GP. It is your Pharoh’s opinion that the GP was and is a tomb, and nothing else.

          Would that be considered “hidden information” and something that “remains to be discovered”????

          Please reply soon, but don’t sign your name. It adds to the “mystery” of it all. Imagine someone so intelligent, witty and spontanius writing on TGD and leaving the readers to wonder for hours on end who it really is.

          Forget pay TV, documentaries and the Oylmpics, your anon posts from the “inside” are what I live for.

          AAiek

          1. Re, re Egypt
            “Maybe some of the 4th Dynasty Pharohs are still in the GP. It is your Pharoh’s opinion that the GP was and is a tomb, and nothing else.”

            As Clint Eastwood once said: “Opinions are like arseholes, everyone’s got one”.

            First off you might like to consider that a Pyramid is not in isolation. It is surrounded by a Mortuary Complex, various cult temples, causeways, surrounding walls and the like. The primary purpose of the complex was not only a funerary internment for the dead King but a continuation of his cult. “Say my name and I live forever”.

            Egyptologists do not consider a Pyramid, in isolation, as simply a tomb we recognise that it also may be symbolic in nature…precisely what it embodies is probably lost in antiquity. However, the current general consensus is that some Egyptian Kings were entombed in pyramids. There is some evidence to support this notion but it is not entirely conclusive. On the other hand, there is much less evidence to support the notion that they were entombed elsewhere. Therefore the pervading view, at present, is that Kings were entombed in the Mortuary Complex and that their most likely resting place was in or under a pyramid. If this is proven not to be the case, it really isn’t such a big shift in ideology for most Egyptologists to accept. But, on the other hand, you might find a lot of irate Historians!

          2. Re Egypt
            “Anon” / Mark

            “Egyptologists do not consider a Pyramid, in isolation, as simply a tomb we recognise that it also may be symbolic in nature…precisely what it embodies is probably lost in antiquity.”

            I will asume that by the above admission, as in “WE”, that you are, or claim to be an “Egyptologist”. Had an idea of your own lately Mark?

            You state: “On the other hand, there is much less evidence to support the notion that they were entombed elsewhere. Therefore the pervading view, at present, is that Kings were entombed in the Mortuary Complex and that their most likely resting place was in or under a pyramid.”

            Are you one that believes that lack of evidence proves theories?

            Are you an Egyptologist that would admit that there are some real issues with dating of the GP.

            Are you prepared to admit that the “4th dynasty” structures are so advanced compared to later structures(5th dynasty and so on) that there would appear to have been an information vacumn at the end of the 4th dynasty? If so, how do you explain this?

            Do you agree with the construction of a wall around the Giza complex?

            Are these structures world property or Egypt’s?

            If we are to understand some of these issues before we all face the weighing of the feather, then do you agree that there should be a united world approach to investigation and refurbishment, and not a lone ranger approach with the apparent intention of proving that current Egyptians descendents constructed everything?

            Why did the Egyptian Government stop DNA testing of the 18th dynasty Royal family several years ago? Where the results ‘leaving the country’ as some would say?

            Looking forward to your reply with a fish sandwich in my hand

            AAiek

          3. Re: Egypt
            “Are you one that believes that lack of evidence proves theories”?

            That isn’t what I said!

            “Are you an Egyptologist that would admit that there are some real issues with dating of the GP”?

            No. I personally have no problem with the conventional date for any of the Egyptian pyramids, give or take a couple hundred years.

            “Are you prepared to admit that the “4th dynasty” structures are so advanced compared to later structures(5th dynasty and so on) that there would appear to have been an information vacumn at the end of the 4th dynasty? If so, how do you explain this”?

            Economics or perhaps a shift in emphasis to Sun Temples and/or half a dozen other reasons.

            Look, you’re obviously interested in AE and are an intelligent person but you seem to have a bias towards alternative interpretations. So I would suggest you read a lot more material and then make an informed judgment. In the meantime I see little point in me continuing this thread.

            Yours,

            Howard Carter, aka Battiscombe Gunn, aka whatever.

  7. Can’t resist anymore
    Annonymous, uh, with all due respect, I respect your intelligence, way to go. But I do not see that Rico or Greg or anybody else here has been unprofessional in any way. Hawass is an inconsiderate, egomaniac, hypocrite jerk. I am as astonished as Rico must be that you have been reading the Daily Grail all this time and somehow have missed the dozens of examples, annecdotes, and demonstrations of this. No need to apologize, mates, you were right the first time.

    1. Re: Can’t resist anymore
      “Annonymous, uh, with all due respect, I respect your intelligence, way to go. But I do not see that Rico or Greg or anybody else here has been unprofessional in any way”.

      As a reporter, it is generally considered unprofessional to express personal opinions, obvious bias or derogatory comments whilst reporting the news. I merely bought this to the attention of TDG, particularly because there were at least four instances of this within the first nine news items. With regard to Zahi Hawass, whatever you, others or I may think of him, a history of derogatory comments is tedious especially when you get four in one day. And on top of that we have a headline devoid of any reality that insists someone, whomever, said something when they didn’t. And to put the icing on the cake, the author of the said headline didn’t have the decency to admit his error. If that isn’t unprofessional I don’t know what is!

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