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Bronze Passage

Mysterious people

Some people still do not perceive themselves as a community of people.

The most ancient inhabitants of Lake Titicaca, Uru Indians living in its vicinity even in the 8 millennium BC. Oe., for whatever reasons, have left the land and moved to man-made reed islands that float on the surface of the lake. Until now, their descendants still live on floating islands, steadfastly enduring frequent storms and eating mainly fish, and do not intend to return to the fertile coast. French anthropologist Jean-Velar, for a long time studying this strange tribe, tells a story about their Aboriginal origin:

We are - otherwise, we are inhabitants of the lake, we cat-sun, we are not human. We have to live here even before the sun began to illuminate the ground ... even at a time when the land was plunged into gloom, and when it was covered only the moon and stars ... when Lake Titicaca was much more than now ... Even then lived our fathers . No, we are not people ... Our blood is black, so we do not feel the cold nights lake ... We do not speak the language of the people, and people do not understand what we say. Their heads have a different shape than the rest of the Indians. We are very old, the oldest ... We are not people!

On the Gulf Coast with 3 Millennium IV century BC. Oe. lived in the mysterious Olmec tribe. They have developed mythology with an extensive pantheon of gods, erected massive stone buildings, were skilled stone carvers and excellent potters.

According to ancient legend, the Olmec (people from the land of rubber trees "), arrived by sea in the territory of modern Tabasco nearly 5,000 years ago, wise men had gone off and the remaining people inhabited the land and began to call themselves by the name of their great leader Olmeca Uimtoni. According to another legend, the Olmecs appeared in the union of the divine jaguar and the death of women.

The first and most ancient Olmec city is San Lorenzo (1400-900 years BC. E.), In which, according to archaeologists, lived up to 5,000 residents. Here is the oldest known in America today pyramids, built in the form of a cone with a diameter at the base about 130 meters. From the pyramids stretch two earthen mound, between which is located a stone mosaic floor in the form of a jaguar faces. San Lorenzo was built playground for ball games, drainage systems and stone sculptures.

In La Venta are monumental earthworks built taller than 30 meters. Their construction began in the tenth century BC. Oe. According to the calculations of archaeologists, the volume of the pyramid at La Venta was 4.7 million cubic meters for its construction required 800,000 man-days. On the territory of the settlement Tres Zapotes area three square kilometers archaeologists have discovered about 50 of the pyramidal hills.

Land of the Olmec were decorated with giant stone head height from 1,5 to 3 meters and weighing from 5 to 40 tons. They were first discovered American archaeologist Matthew Stirling in 1930. On the first discovery, he then wrote in his report:

The head was carved from a single massive basalt boulders. It rested on a foundation of rough stone blocks. Having cleared the ground, his head was pretty awesome view. Despite the significant size, it is treated very carefully and confidently, her proportions are perfect.

Thick lips, broad noses, and elongated earlobes indicate that the Olmecs to their anthropological features are more suitable for Negroid race, than the indigenous population of Central America.

Deposits of basalt, of which carved huge heads, located a few dozen kilometers from San Lorenzo. Moving boulders weighing up to 40 tons of such distances over rough terrain - not an easy task. The famous traveler and scientist Miroslav Stengle in "Secrets of the Indian pyramid" wrote:

It is often said about the difficulties of transporting the famous stone statues on Easter Island. But when I during his expedition to Easter Island to compare conditions moving moai from thence to the transport of stone blocks at La Venta - Movements that Jaguar Indians ", organized in 2500 years before the Polynesians of the Rapa Nui - I had to respectfully bow my head before the great act ...

To perform such a titanic work, of course, required some organization and planning. Olmec civilization was distinguished by a hierarchy and narrow professionalization: religious, administrative and economic issues involved specially trained people.

In addition to the head, the ancient Olmecs left, and other examples of monumental sculpture - stone stele carved with images, the sarcophagi with reliefs. They are all carved from basalt monoliths or other durable stone. Hands Jaguar Indians "were created and the various ornaments worn under clothing, jewelry - mostly of obsidian, jasper and jade.

The most common figures on the reliefs - anthropomorphic images of jaguars and jaguar-baby. Perhaps people-jaguars performed the same role as the Egyptian Thoth in ancient Egypt, it has been mentoring people or appointed by the gods overseers. Such a "guard" was to inspire not only respect but also fear.

Where did the Olmecs of South America, and which disappeared this amazing nation - these questions scientists have yet to be answered. It seems that the Olmecs were working on a rotational basis in the mines of the newcomers, who were returned to their homeland when the need for their work anymore. The territory inhabited by the Olmec, hardly found burial. Six of the remains of bodies, covered with half-rotten tissue, which archaeologists have discovered in one of the buildings may belong to the Olmec, who died as a result of occupational injuries, or Indians of other tribes who used the ancient Olmecs built to bury their dead.

From ancient peoples of South America in general there was something strange. Attained zenith culture Chavin, Wari, Paracas, Nazca suddenly sank into oblivion. Put forward a lot of assumptions about the mysterious decline of ancient civilizations, but a consensus, scientists have not yet come.

In the XVIII-XVII centuries BC. Oe. in the steppe region of the Southern Urals has developed civilization of the Bronze Age with the provisional name "The country towns", a contemporary of Stonehenge, the famous palaces of Cretan-Mycenaean culture and the Egyptian pyramids of the Middle Kingdom. In the territory, stretching along the eastern slopes of the Urals (400 kilometers from north to south and 200 kilometers from east to west), now known for more than two dozen ancient mounds, associated cemeteries and hundreds of small unfortified settlements. Unique in its preservation and the most studied cultural complex Arkaim was detected in 1987.

This fortified settlement, the largest metallurgical center for the production of bronze and an astronomical observatory. The city was surrounded by two rings of powerful defensive walls, their thickness at the bottom is 4-5 meters. The outer wall was built out of wooden crates, were killed primer with the addition of lime, and outside is faced with raw blocks. Around it was dug trench depth 1,5-2,5 meters. Two ring roads dwellings adjoined to the wall. In the center area in the form of a slightly flattened circle diameter of 25-27 meters. Under the deck circular street passed the ditch stormwater from a sump, where purified water to drip into the sand river.

In the settlement found numerous metallurgical furnaces for smelting bronze. In the analysis of waste production at arsenic revealed that residents used as a local metal, and transported from other remote regions, possibly because of Kargaly steppes (Orenburg region). Required for smelting charcoal is brought into this steppe zone from outside, and the origin of tin, a component of bronze, yet inexplicable.

Copper artifacts during excavations almost never found that very strange for the settlements, where the metal was smelted in huge (for that time) scale. Perhaps the inhabitants traded with neighbors bronze, but then living near tribal bronzes would be in excess, that is not supported by archaeological excavations. Where does the melted metal - is unknown.

The biggest mystery is the fate of this civilization. According to archeological data obtained that in the XVI century BC. Oe. residents of all settlements "Land of Cities" at the same time gathered their belongings, burned the town and disappeared in an unknown direction. No traces of the invasion of other tribes in their territory was not revealed.

Undoubtedly, in the distant past, some have attained a high level of development of civilization died as a result of several accidents that have occurred in 10 500 and 3500 years BC. Oe. The first cataclysm was caused by the passage of a massive object near the planet. The second - the Flood, which killed almost the entire population of Earth. Descendants miraculously survived those cataclysms of people still live in different regions of the globe.

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Demarko John

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