Tag: ancient mystery

Neil Armstrong and the Lost Library of Gold

We had to write this article because the whole thing sounds like Pulp Fiction from the 1930’s.  What’s most shocking about this story (besides the fact that Neil Armstrong did go searching for a lost library of gold in South America) is that it was so out of character for America’s first man on the moon.  He was always such a steady guy, so in 1976 when he went down to Southeastern Ecuador to look for a lost library of gold…it counts as an anomaly.  In fact, outside of the moon landing, this is the most famous expedition of the intrepid adventurer known as: Neil.

The Discovery

The expedition began with a discovery.  A local Salesian priest named Father Carlo Crespi (1891-1982) worked with the indigenous people of Ecuador.  He was a revered humanitarian, academic and historian.  He is credited with acquiring the first film footage of the native Shuar people of the region in the 1920’s, and they liked him.  They liked him a lot.  They began to bring him local artifacts they found as thanks for his kindness.  Many of the artifacts were metallic and included strange writing.

Father Carlo Crespi – With his Ethnogrpahic Collection – Wikidata

Crespi knew the natives were poor but proud.  While he thought they might be reluctant to accept donations, they would accept payment for the objects they brought to Crespi.  So, the villagers continued to bring Crespi objects and he would pay for them when he could (even if the objects were fake).  The result was a collection of 50,000 artifacts from various periods of South American history ( and not just South American).  Many of them were authentic. Over time, Father Crespi is estimated to have collected 50,000 artifacts. The objects were kept in the courtyard of the church Maria Auxiliadora in Ecuador.  However, in 1962 there was a fire and many of the objects were lost. Many of the remaining artifacts disappeared with the assumption they were sold to private collectors, claimed by the Vatican or just plain stolen.  Still, some of the artifacts remain as does photographic evidence of the collection and they contain numerous anomalies.

The objects bear similarities to artifacts from distant ancient cultures such as Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, China, and Africa.  The writing and alphabet on some of the objects is completely unknown and intricate.  It matches no known alphabet, ancient or otherwise.  Furthermore, pyramids identical to the Egyptian pyramids (rather than the stepped pyramids of South America) are depicted along with a symbol resembling the “Eye of Horus” or “Eye of Providence.”  It can be seen hovering over the top of the pyramid the same way it can be seen on the dollar bill or The Great Seal of the USA.  What remains of the objects is no longer accessible to the public and the origin and date of the artifacts remains unknown.  Naturally, this mystery attracted interest and speculation.

Depiction of a Pyramid – Father Crespi Collection

The Entrance to the Cave

In the 1960’s an explorer by the name of János Juan Móricz claimed to have discovered a library within a massive cave system which would come to be known as “La Cueva de los Tayos” or The Tayos Cave System.  He claimed to have wandered through the system until he came to a hall of man-made walls and architecture.  Within these halls were tablets made of precious metals such as gold and silver with strange writing on them.  Móricz thought they contained the history of humanity.

He claimed the symbology on the artifacts resembled ancient Sumerian and Egyptian pieces.  However, once Móricz left the cave system he (apparently) lost track of the library but was able to still identify the entrance.  The claims made by Móricz echoed the artifacts collected by Father Crespi, which made researchers wonder if Móricz had not found the source of the objects given to Crespi by the Natives.

Cueva de los Tayos, Ecuador – Google Maps

This theorizing culminated with the publication of a book by ancient astronaut theorist Erich Van Daniken titled “Gold of the Gods.”  In the book, Van Daniken expanded on the alleged findings of Móricz and publicized the idea that the Metal Library was extraterrestrial in origin.  He believed the findings in Ecuador were similar to findings at other ancient sites, such as Nan Madol in Micronesia. Van Daniken argues these sites show contact between ancient cultures over vast distances and artifacts which go beyond coincidental, and point to past contact with ancient aliens and advanced technology.

Exploration

Stan Hall was a Scottish researcher and engineer with a penchant for exploration and adventure.  He became intrigued by Móricz ‘claims and attempted to mount an expedition.  Through an acquaintance(they had a distant relation), Hall reached out to Neil Armstrong who was living on a farm in Ohio and teaching Aerospace Engineering.  For reasons of his own, Armstrong agreed to join Hall on the expedition and this added the star power needed for the expedition to gain resources.  Funding came from the governments of the United Kingdom and Ecuador, allowing Armstrong and Hall to pursue the “Metal Library” of legend.

In 1976 Hall and Armstrong entered the cave accompanied by more than a hundred people including top scientists, joint special forces and sperologists.  They did not find the library, but they did find evidence of human occupation along with a body dating back to 1500 BCE.  They also found more than 100 new species of butterflies, 40 new species of bats and 200 new species of beetles.  It’s still one of the largest cave explorations ever conducted and Neil’s second most-famous adventure.

Legend of Los Tayos 1976 program

Today, Stan Hall’s grand-daughter Eileen Hall still explores the area and leads expeditions in the hopes of finding “The Metal Library.”  The cave system entered by Armstrong and Hall has been heavily explored since the 1970’s.  There are even tours into parts of it.  Yet, there is controversy as to how much of the cave has been explored.  There is also debate as to whether or not Armstrong and Hall went through the right entrance to find the Metal Library.  Adventurers still head to the Tayos caves today in hopes of finding the hidden pathway of Juan Móricz and the Metal Library of the ancient aliens.

Analysis

Armstrong’s involvement and evidence of Father Crespi’s collection are the two strangest pieces of evidence in this affair.  Stan Hall was also known as an analytical and logical man.  While less is known of Juan Móricz, who did know the entrance to the cave system.  Yet, he (suspiciously)  did not bring back evidence of the metal library or its exact location.  Crespi’s collection is a complete unknown.  What remains of it might be in the Vatican museum or has been taken by private collectors and thieves, which would make them very hard to verify.  Finding and dating the objects in Crespi’s collection seems to be the shortest and most logical path to determining whether or not they are authentic and anomalous. So, we’ll hope one turns up available for study. Until then, we can hope one of the present day adventurers into the unknown hands us a metal library card.

The Oldest Human Anomalies

For our first ancient history post we thought it made sense to start at the beginning. Evolutionary history is interesting, and the competing species of humans, is also an interesting piece of our history which is still being uncovered. In terms of evolutionary history, we’ll just say something resembling humans existed 6 million years ago and one of those species became Australopithecus.

From Australopithecus developed the genus homo somewhere around 2.8 million years ago, and from a data driven anomalists perspective, this is where things start to get interesting. They started making stone tools, and that gives us more to go off of than the fossil record.

First stone tool dated 3.3 million years ago. *fair use

There are certainly many mysteries buried in our deep past, but we simply have no way of knowing what they are unless we find a fossil or remnants of humanity.

Theories abound involving everything from aliens to monsters. Yet, we’re lucky to find bones which predate the homo genus. So, we don’t hold out much hope for discovering links to anomalies we study in the time before civilization.

We’ll just point out the one anomaly we just told you and go back to fossils. The genus of homo is supposed to have coincided with the rise of the making of stone tools. Yet, the picture above shows a stone tool existing 500k years before the homo genus. This is odd. A distant human ancestor was using stone tools.

When the homo genus arrives on the scene (2.8 million years ago), they have bigger brains and more tool making.

A huge barrier in front of our window to the past is created by the fossil record (or lack thereof). Not everything that dies creates a fossil. Bones turn to dust unless something intervenes.

So, in order to preserve bones and DNA we need something to die in a specific way, or under specific circumstances. Something like a dying creature falling into tree sap (a la Jurassic Park) will do it. Many fossils are contained in layers of rock, and these layers give us a good idea of when they existed.

Yet as you can see from the modern record, fossil preservation is somewhat random. Therefore, many creatures have come and gone on this planet, and we have no idea what they were.

From what we currently know, humanity began or was located in Africa. Our ancestors left Africa in two waves. The first wave occurred between 130k to 100k years ago. The second wave came around 70k to 50k years ago.

Here is another area which is ripe for theory and exploration. Why did they end up settling where they did and when? Australia 65k years ago, Eurasia 60k years ago and Americas 15k years ago. Shifting geography and migration patterns account for much of the movement in this time, but we find the specifics of where these groups chose to settle fascinating.

Many ancient dwelling are located near water sources which makes perfect sense, but what about the ones which are not? Why mine granite rocks 500 miles away from the Egyptian pyramids? Seems an awful long way to carry them. We’re just using Egypt as an example of a strange megalithic site. There are many more. Why was Stonehenge built? No one knows. Period. Thus, as humanity begins to build and create art. We find evidence of our first anomalies.

We’ll look forward to exploring some of the ancient sites with you in greater detail. For example, the “Baghdad Batteries” are likely actual batteries which date back to 300 b.c.

Now that’s an anomaly.

Coming Soon:

Industrialization

Modern Era

Information Age

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