By Baal, it’s a Kangaroo!
Or Cultural Diffusion and how we learnt to build Pyramids!

Once more a happy greeting to my multitudes of readers, I hope both of you are well, for me it has been not so, the scourge of a virus producing cluster migraines laid me low and whimpering for eight days straight. By Jove I wish they still had laudanum dispensed over the counter! I could have done with a stint of indulging in the Black Drop Habit like those romantic poets in Ken Russel’s surreal film Gothic. Anyway In an effort to distract from the blinding headache I slowly worked on part two of the ancient discoverers of Australia.
This time around it is the Phoenicians’ turn, now first we have to ask who were the Phoenicians and why would they be connected with Australia? Give Wiki a quick check (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia)and you’ll find a passable explanation of their origins society and influence, without getting into the overly academic. In short they where a city state civilisation based on the Levantine coast from Acre (now in Israel) north to encompass all of modern Lebanon. Their most famous or according to roman writers’ infamous successor was the Phoenician colony of Carthage which to Rome’s dismay dominated the western Mediterranean. Now according to historians we owe the Phoenicians a great deal, the phonetic alphabet for one. They also established a Mediterranean wide trading system that sourced tin from Britain, gold and iron from Spain and shipped wine to Egypt. On the whole they were the bustling middlemen of the ancient world, evidence also exists for linking them with trading ports along the Red Sea and across to India. According to the Greek historian Herodotus; Pharaoh Necho II around 600 BC launched an expedition manned by Phoenicians down the east coast of Africa to circumvent the continent. It took three years and is currently being re enacted (http://phoenicia.org.uk/ ) in a rebuilt replica of a Phoenician trading vessel based on the results of maritime archaeology. Herodotus seems to have considered this an amazing event well worthy of noting (vol 1 book IV section 42) and it if it happened it did prove the Phoenicians capable of long distance voyaging. Though Herodotus himself expressed amazement at the report and used it as a lead in for the feats of the Persian king of kings Darius the Great. The Persian monarch no doubt was looking for more lands to conquer and launched two similar expeditions to explore the eastern Indian Ocean from India to Eastern Africa and one to chart the west coast of Africa.
The results must have been unsatisfactory since there is no record of follow up voyages. This is the main written basis (apart from various exaggerated interpretations of biblical text) for Phoenicians wandering over to the Antipodes. The oft quoted land of Punt as a source of gold has been interpreted as to mean any patch of turf from the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean. In truth those brief mentions are a bit lean to base anything on. Now we do have archaeological evidence to back up the written accounts of Phoenicians regularly trading with Britain and the lands around the North Sea and down the western coast of Africa, possibly as far as Guinea. So long distance voyages were a fact of life, however in this age of easy ocean spanning travel we need to examine this a little deeper.
According to most written and archaeological accounts sea travel was essentially a coastal affair with the vessel pulling into shore as often as possible to resupply with food and water. The slightly later Greeks when travelling in triremes always beached their ships over night unless engaged in a longer crossing like from Sicily to Tunis. This coastal habit has been frequently mentioned by historians of the Mediterranean like Braudel. He felt that environmental determinism, ie how the land and environment shaped a people was essential to understanding their history and interactions. In this theory he believed that the capacity and technology for deep-ocean going travel encompassing a week or more out of sight of land was more common to fringe ocean dwellers along the Atlantic, where it was an essential survival skill for fishing and trade. There may be something in this since the oar driven trireme was the dominant vessel for warfare in the Mediterranean, from the Phoenicians up to the Venetians and Turks in the sixteenth century. However attempts to use this style of vessel in any but the calmest Atlantic weather usually resulted in them sinking. I bring up this little fact on ship capacity and technology to knock the first supposition on its head. There isn’t anyway short of teleportation that a Phoenician trireme was going to cross the Indian Ocean or the Timor Sea. Its survival from storms, disease or lack of water put the odds more in the range of winning lotto.











Now on to the Phoenician workhorse; a sail equipped cargo craft.
I am proud to admit our ancestors were no dumb bunnies, they came up with some very impressive solutions to a whole range of seaborne technical problems. Such as stitching and laminating hull planks to increase flexibility, thus reducing stresses from the battering of waves. The use of adjustable timber nails to fit and wedge the internal ribs and a sail capable of tacking into the wind. What an amazing feat, all this without the aid of Atlanteans or descended Spacemen! Either of which would be hard pressed to tie a bowline knot, let alone design a rugged sea going vessel and all its rigging. What the Egyptians were to pyramids the Phoenicians were to nautical engineering, if anyone could design and build seagoing vessels then it would have to be them. But you ask how does this justification of Phoenician naval magnificence sit with them not getting to Australia? Well considering their well founded sea travelling reputation they are the favoured choice for any pet theories on cross oceanic cultural fertilization. In plain language they’re supposed to have taught both the Mesoamericans and the Khymer to build pyramids. Now that’s really strange since there isn’t a single pyramid in all of Phoenicia!

Cultural Diffusion or how we learnt to build Pyramids!

Thus as expected we come back to pyramids, we just can’t seem to get away from them. These monumental structures have been touted as an apparently mysterious unifying feature amongst some prominent ancient cultures spanning two millennia. You’ll be shocked to hear that to a large number of ‘alternate’ experts the creation of these ceremonial or memorial edifices was only possible due to the guidance of benevolent aliens. Or far ranging seafarers, stocked with a cargo load of easily translated arcane scrolls, take your pick. Perhaps the universal concept of a dwelling could also be due to a similar cultural diffusion, there has to be a speculative book in that, I can just imagine the title now; Ancient Atlantean Mysteries and the Secrets Origins of the Modern House! With a title like that you could sell to both the Post-Modern set and the New Age Alternates, add in a genuine ‘Atlantean layout compass’ and bingo you’ve got the Feng Shui market as well.












Back to our friends the Phoenicians, for the amazing and instantaneous transfer of knowledge as maintained in the more luridly titled books it is somehow naturally assumed that every cargo vessel blown across an ocean to a remote and uncivilised shore naturally included an astronomer, engineer and stone mason. All of whom are experts in Egyptian building technology. Though strangely these ‘Phoenician’ passenger manifests are always lacking bronze or iron workers and carpenters, a singular omission. These passengers must have been blessed by the gods to survive weeks of drinking their own urine and been granted miraculous foresight to stock up on extra provisions.












Atlantean Cultural Diffusion, or not?

I suppose that’s how the Atlanteans disseminated their accumulated millenniums of ancient knowledge, passed down by wise and benevolent higher beings. I mean its pretty obvious they anticipated the island destroying cataclysm. Didn’t they? You can just picture it the high priest loftily announced that the sacred texts needed a refreshing jaunt around the harbour with the entire priesthood in a few very well provisioned vessels. Don’t worry about the earthquakes or lava spewing volcano, it’ll be fine, bye see you next month. Yeh right, as if that didn’t arouse the odd suspicion amongst the populus! Let’s ignore the fact that knowledge of engineering and astronomy belonged only to a minute fraction of a percent of the population, say one in four thousand. Anyway what escaping ship isn't complete with out its ravishing blonde princess?











Phoenicians- weather, sailing vessels and distance

So back to our Phoenicians who according to a number of experts in Australia not only discovered the sunburnt country but set up the ancient equivalent of a Rio Tinto mine and export facility in Queensland, located either at Sarina, Cooktown or Gympie, depending on whose internet version you find.
Now having raised those myths we will first deal with the possibility of Phoenicians discovering Australia.
The monsoonal weather system that sweeps the Indian Ocean dictates the sailing season in the entire South East Asian region, when it is in its east to west phase the passage to India and Arabia from the Spice Islands is fast and relatively safe. As the weather pattern swaps the converse is true, any ship’s captain reliant on the winds and who has knowledge of these phenomena will utilise this natural cycle, either for profit or survival. However this means that sea journeys in the East Africa to south East Asian arc have to be undertaken as annual expeditions. Which means travelling from the Red Sea to say the island of Timor could take an entire sailing season at the least. You have to remember that pre steam ship travelling was not fast, a good day’s sailing gave you fifty to seventy five miles with a following wind. If we accept the supposed claim of Phoenicians on the east coast of Australia then from a Timor base they would have had to sail a further fourteen hundred miles via the southern coast of New Guinea to reach the Torres Strait and then over a thousand miles south through the Great Barrier Reef to reach Sarina. That’s forty to fifty days straight passage without stopping for food, water or repairs. Considering they are also sailing along the extremely dangerous Barrier Reef. . . Well lets face it the odds of survival are not ones any sane person would bet on.
Okay that’s the distance and weather matters dealt with, now on to the chance of Phoenician discovery, if they reached the Timor islands region then it is only a three hundred miles to the northern tip of Australia. So if our intrepid ancient explorers had made it to the Spice Islands it was only a short step to Terra Australis!

By Baal it’s a Kangaroo!

Extract Captain Hanno’s log of the Baal’s Pride out from Byblos via Punt
Worshipful prince Hasdrubal lord of our city, may the goddess Arstarte smile upon you! As instructed I am dictating this record to Hamicar our third scribe, it is now two moons since we left the Aromatic Islands to the north on their report of a large land in the Southern Ocean. It is truly vast, greater in extent than the lands of the Pharaoh, we have sailed for all of that time along the coast of a great land. I tremble to report that so far we have discovered little in the way of trade opportunities or treasures. On our journey to the west the land is rocky with gigantic stone cliffs covered in trees, so broken and perilous was the passage that we lost one of our vessels to hidden reefs. Further south we could only find a land like unto the barren coast of Libya extending for many days sail, in desperate want of water we headed once more north.

Worshipful prince, I humbly report that this land is inhabited by tribes of Nubians similar to those on the coast south of Punt. We have landed and tried many times to engage them in trade, they speak no language any of our crew has heard nor are they always friendly, some times they have driven us away with spears and cast whirling bent sticks. The coast here is also inhabited by fierce monsters like unto the Nile crocodile but larger, several of our men have fallen victim to their savage attack. Searching for food and game has been difficult, though there is plentiful fish.

Worshipful prince, it has been a moon’s sail towards the rising sun and still we have found no towns or cities, the Nubians here have no metal, cloth or pottery, not even villages. It is my misfortune to report that we have not seen any sign of gold, tin or precious gems, due to the ferocity of these southern Nile crocodiles it has been impossible for our assayer to test for gold dust in the rivers. I also beg leave to report that a poisonous serpent has slain the assayer when he was exploring inland. The men with him did report a strange animal, it has the appearance of a gazelle but lacks horns instead it has a long tail and it stands on two legs and moves in great bounds by beating its tail on the ground.

Worshipful prince, I have had to abandon the expedition. In the furtherest east we came upon a great reef extending south for many days sail and at frequent peril of grounding the crew clamoured to return to our home waters for they are frightened by the numerous fearsome and perilous beasts. There may still be treasures and trade as yet undiscovered but we can find no sign of them and none of the Nubians can tell us what lies there.

Tyranny of Distance and The Reality of Improbability

So as you can see the Tyranny of Distance strikes again for Australia! As well as the simple fact that Phoenicians are merchants and traders like the Portuguese in the 16th century. Both societies required a port and goods to trade laid on, they don’t have the time or the resources to build extensive facilities. After all its always easier to seize some one else’s like the Portuguese did to Malacca when they arrived in the Spice Islands. The other fact that explodes the myth of Phoenicians in the Sunburnt Land is profit. As I said above they are primarily traders, and ships the essential transport vehicle of commerce are expensive. This being an accepted fact it is highly unlikely they’d send a fleet thousands of sea miles into the unknown with what would have to be hundreds of valuable skilled workers and supplies relying on dozens of supply ports along the way. As we have seen with the early modern exploitation of the Spice route by the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, long distance expeditions are frighteningly expensive. Losses were always high, several ships may depart on any venture, but that’s not how many return. Frequently a single leaky worm riddled vessel limps back to port crew decimated by scurvy and tropical diseases as it ties up to the docks all the investors pray that its packed to gunwales with gold, diamonds or spices. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate looming financial disaster and ruin.

When looked at the whole Phoenician –Australia situation as a simple cost –risk benefit analysis the prospect of their venturing this way diminishes dramatically. More telling is the local ready source of markets and resources, in other words follow the money! If gold and slaves are there for the picking on the East African coast and spices, gems and Lapis lazuli can be easily traded in India, then why risk the perils of distant and dangerous Terra Australis? Unless of course you have a few convicts to offload?

Naw, Punt salt mines are closer.

Bye all and as the doctor says – take the damned pills!

Who Discovered Australia!
Ancient discoverers of Australia
Or there’s a pyramid in my back paddock!

Evening and salutations to my growing hoard of devoted readers (both of them). Let me compliment you on your excellent selection of this blog to peruse from amongst the myriad wordings hovering expectantly in the ether.
I have recently been brushing up on my research on the discoverers of Australia. This is of course a fascinating subject and one I hope to pursue in depth when I get published.
To any publishers and agents out there, this is a not so subtle hint that there are bucks to be made getting my good self into print – ps look at 1421, more on that later. But enough of that shameless self promotion, back to the theme of this discussion.

Who did discover Australia?











Captain Cook!!!?

Now I remember learning in school four odd decades ago, about our historical discoverers, especially in the year 1970 when all Australians celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the Captain Cook expedition. We even minted a special fifty cent piece, which I sure I can find if I diligently searched through my dusty archived childhood coin collection. But that is a digression – we will cover the true place and achievements of Captain Cook at little later. In the meantime on to more contentious issues. Who exactly can reasonably be credited with the first discovery of the southern continent?

Ptolemy's map a 1467 version
The most reliable and decipherable ancient sources are various ancient Greek and Roman writers on geography. Herodotus, Ptolemy and Strabo are the most quoted. In their books they speculated on the existence of a Terra Australis (Great Southern Land), though at this distance in time it is difficult to judge whether their information was based on actual reports from passing traders, or on myth and sailors hearsay. Other writers, especially up to the Middle Ages, tended to be less specific and more fanciful in their speculations, including the more common reports of tribes of strange men with heads in the centre of their chests or of walking trees. Then when it came to discussing the condition of the great oceans, their reports always included a selection of ship devouring kraken, floating islands and luscious, and with any luck, lascivious mermaids. While this provides great background for many fantasy novels, it couldn’t in any way be regarded as accurate, though the curious part of these accounts is that sometimes the shadow of something substantial can be discerned through the fog of dragons. However they should never be taken as fact or used as hard evidence to claim earlier discoveries.
At this point I realise that this discussion is going to take a few sessions so let’s look at this as part 1.

The Ancient Discoverers of Australia. Or there’s a Pyramid in my back paddock!

Ancient Egyptian mine and temple in the Sinai


Here we shall examine and hopefully put to rest a few myths.
Firstly the Egyptians.
According to the internet, some self proclaimed experts reckoned that the continent of Australia was positively crawling with Bronze Age Egyptians who stripped the gold, silver and gems from this great southern mineral repository. Some of these distinguished gentlemen have even written books about their fabulous discoveries. Dozens of ruins, hundreds of idols and thousands of inscriptions. Most startling of all, apparently we have up to seven pyramids scattered across the country side. And we didn’t even realise it!
I mean, you can just picture it.

Ancient Egyptian priests


Go back three thousand years. Two Egyptian priests are strolling through the rugged Australian bush, dressed in pleated linen kilts, nattily corn rowed wigs and besplendidly kohled eyelids clambering over remote and inaccessible cliffs. Then all of a sudden they halt and one turns to his companion and points meaningfully at an uncleared patch of scrub in front of them. “Well, damn me Imhotep, isn’t this a spiffing place to wack up a pyramid, what?”
“I say Sekhmet, by Thoth, I think you’ve got it! Just look at this place! If I refer to my handy astronomical scroll, I believe we’ll find it corresponds perfectly with all the ley lines and heavenly constellations.”
By Crikey, won’t the Pharaoh be pleased – another pyramid!” chortles the first priest.
“What’s that make it Imhotep – seven?”
His companion sadly shakes his head. “No Sekhmet old chap, six by my count.”
The first priest is visibly staggered by the news. “Hows that Imhotep? I could’ve have sworn we’ve built seven.”

The Plans? Damned Architects!!!
“No, no Sekhmet. You really can’t count the one we built in that tidal estuary in Pharaohland up north by the gold mine. It did sink after all!”
“Oh well, I suppose six it is then.” replies Imhotep reluctantly, before rallying to the task. “When do you want to start this one?”
However all is not so rosy – Sekhmet is still shaking his head. “Well old chap, I’m sorry to say we can’t possibly manage it till some time next solar cycle.”
“What! That outrageous! Why not?” Imhotep is aghast at this dreadful revelation.
His friend patiently explains the complex issues surrounding the imminent non construction. “Well you see old chap, we just don’t have the navvies for it.”
This simple explanation doesn’t cut the mustard with Imhotep who waves urgently back towards the rising dust cloud of their last construction site.
“But we’ve got thousands of the blighters lounging around. Surely we can spare a few hundred to get it started?”
His passionate gestures fail to move a frowning Sekhmet. “Fraid not old bean. What with the gold mines, the roads, the temples, the port construction, the food transport and this abysmally hot weather we just can’t spare them.”

building !!!
Imhotep stamps his foot, coincidentally crushing one of those large black spiders that infest this region. This cannot be! The will of the Lord of the Nile cannot be hindered by paltry excuses. Then he has a sudden flash of inspiration. “What about those dark chappies? The local indigenous? Can’t we round up a thousand or so of them?
“Sorry tried that. Damned surly bunch these natives. Can’t get a decent days slaving out of them. A taste of the lash and they scarper off back into the bush.” Sekhmet gave the kind of shrug that spoke of hours of fruitless flogging.
Imhotep, clearly frustrated, was not going to let this lie. “Well damn me, we’ll just have to requisition another thousand slaves from Punt.” He was not going to be dissuaded from his appointed task by mere details. It was a sacred duty – pyramids must be built!

Hauling !!!
Sekhmet was of a different frame of mind, more practical for a start. Almost hesitantly he raised one more minor flaw in the divine plan.
“Ahh, my dear fellow, I fear we may have a few difficulties with that. No ships.”
“What! We had fifty yesterday! They can’t have disappeared overnight!”
“You see, those Phoenician wallahs who do the transport have jacked up and want to double the insurance rate. Something about vast reefs and lurking kraken and all that kind of rot.”
As expected Imhotep splutters into a new round of the argument.
And so on, and so forth…
I think we’ll leave the rest of the discussion to the imagination.

Ziggurat Mesopotamia


Back to our ancient discoverers. For some deeply felt reason, our ancestors had this driving urge to build upwards. In Egypt it was pyramids, in Britain artificial mounds like Avesbury, while in the Fertile Crescent it was ziggurats. All of these were great feats of construction, engineering and design. As their descendents and inheritors, we should feel justifiably proud of these achievements, all built, I may add, completely without the help of any grey, blue or slightly pinkish aliens. Now this cultural devotion also extended to different styles of religious temple complexes. Whether those were based on astronomical calculations or lunar and solar events is still up for debate. However both these kinds of projects required a great deal of social and cultural organisation for a long period of time, possibly spanning centuries. Hang on you say, isn’t this straying from the ancient discoverers of Australia theme? Well yes and no. This short segment is to provide the background for our area of discussion and now we venture into the realms of the present.

Need I say anything?
I am sure most of you have had some experience of building, whether its having worked in the construction industry, a DIY project or at least walked past a building site, and even glanced at a piccie of one in any number of home improvement magazines. Apart from our probable common ancestry on the plains of Africa, it is a unifying factor for modern humanity – we like to build, and we like to build allot! However, as you have probably noticed, this construction drive is a terribly messy practice and every job acquires piles of discarded rubbish, including excess concrete, broken tiles, bent nails, the carpenters’ McDonalds snack containers and even the odd Snickers wrappers. Now this mess can’t just lie around, ruining the landscape so a significant word (so long as it includes the words ‘no payment’) to the site manager and all this detritus magically disappears overnight. There simple – happy satisfied clients,that is so long as they don’t want to plant roses or any other toxin sensitive flowering shrub in the front garden, or the side lawn or excavated by the back fence and so on.


Archaeologist's 'McDonalds wrapper'
Now being that we are all afflicted by certain common traits of human nature, what makes you think the ancient Egyptians were any more scrupulous in tidying up? This is a fact of history and a rich haul for archaeologists, since ancient middens and rubbish heaps are their modern day treasure troves. Thus broken pots, as well as the discarded lunch wrappers of yesteryear have been the foundation of many careers. The careful excavation of their contents have told us that Egyptian pyramid and tomb workers liked beer, dates, fish, wheat porridge and it seems making snide remarks about the overseer and the client (via messages scratched on bits of pot). This sifting of acres and acres of accumulated rubbish left over from the pyramids and tombs has kept historians, archaeologists and Egyptologists from all the major universities, antiquarian societies and museums, busy for a hundred and fifty years, organising digs every season. Even distant institutions like Macquarie University in Sydney have had an ongoing site for the past thirty years. Believe it or not, even after all this frenzied activity there are still thousands of sites unexplored or unsurveyed.

Egyptian tomb
Okay I think we have set the scene. Building temples and other ancient structures, even for a few generations, generates a lot of waste. So much that anyone with a modicum of training or at least a few archaeological reference books on pottery styles, should be capable of identifying their location. In fact it is pottery and the decendant of a famous explorer of Australia, Mathew Flinders Petrie, (the irrepressable Mathew Flinders of circumnavigating Australia fame, was his grandfather) who come up with a simple way of cataloguing pottery by style and placement at the dig site to give an accurate date to excavated layers. That’s why Time Team go birko when they find any pottery shards. Yoo hoo – instant dating!

Ahem... where are the mummies???
Thus we finally come to Australia and its plethora of pyramids and temples and those who identified them. How did they do that you ask? Well it appears that one expert in particular is responsible for large number of claims, he also runs an “Archaeological” Research Centre. This gentleman has single handedly found dozens of relics and remnants. In fact it seems that every time he goes for a walk in the bush anywhere in the country he literally trips over the stuff just begging to be found – stone tools, megalithic temples, acres of carved inscription, wouldn’t you know, the place is just lousy with it. Amazing! Absolutely incredible! Astounding and several more words to that effect. A brief survey of his website (type in Yowie, UFO and Egyptians in the Google boxes and see what comes up) and online ‘research’ journal will give you the general idea. However in all his discoveries our gentleman appears a bit hard up on the kind of physical evidence usually accepted as valid. Unfortunately all he has to offer are a few freshly carved rough stone heads and a scattering of Egyptian touristy style scarabs. Now at this stage my discerning reader will of course ask, well what about the pots? What pots? Why the ones used by the dozen everyday for water or beer or cooking. The ones they dig up by the bucket full on any archaeological site. The ones that prove beyond a doubt that someone lived and worked there, in short – builders rubbish. Well unfortunately there aren’t any at all, so we must assume that the visiting Egyptians went completely native scorning the use of any pottery items in favour of grass baskets.

Grave goods abscent from OZ
Now what did they put in those grass baskets, any wheat or grains? Perhaps some dates, certainly not beer or wine since they didn’t have pots. Now we come to another difficulty. They couldn’t have eaten any of their usual foods since we haven’t found any remnant grains, date palms, oxen, donkeys or camels (except for the ones we introduced in the 1860s). That means the Egyptians would have had to slaughter the native wildlife by the tens of thousand to feed all these workers busy building the pyramids, ports and temples. Of course that would leave evidence of massive kill and cooking sites and either flint, copper or bronze arrow and spear heads by the kilo. Unless they all ate fish. However those aboriginal shell middens we’ve been excavating for decades would have coughed up a hefty layer of non-native items.
So scratch the physical evidence.

I could resist it an 'instant' UFO crop circle at Silbury

Thus we come to the last reason to discount any ancient Egyptian discoverers. Why would they come here, the most furtherest corner of the globe (apart from Antarctica)? Why gold we are told! What, did they run out of gold in Punt (believed to be on the East African coast)? I don’t think so. The Arab traders were still pulling it out in the 1500’s with no signs of running out. Maybe it was spices? Ahh no – we didn’t have any. That was India and the Spice Islands to the north. Perhaps it was our superb exotic timber? Probably not, once more there were until recently thousands of square miles of teak, ebony, rosewood and cinnabar in Africa and Asia. Someone else mentioned tin, the essential ingredient in bronze as a justification. It’s a pity then that the trade routes to Britain and India were closer and the natives were happy enough to do all the hard work like mining and refining.


A phoenican-egyptian stone figure allegedly 'discovered' in OZ


Finally we come to the supposed physical objects. A quick stroll through the Internet archives and message boards gives a very good indication of the same pieces of carving, scarabs and coins recycled as proof of ancient Egyptians. Now I hate to be so cynical towards my fellow man but don’t you find it a tad strange that these items are always discovered in complete isolation or found at the bottom of an improbably deep hole conveniently dug for a well or foundation. I mean if this was a NCIS investigation and a friend’s life depended on its credibility, would you believe the presented evidence? (As a general rule when faking hieroglyphs don’t use modern steel tools or cut through a hundred year old lichen – do a search for the Gosford glyphs and see what I mean)
So in conclusion I would have to rule out the ancient Egyptians as discoverers of Australia. So if you do think you’ve found a pyramid in the back paddock, I’d do a bit of serious checking before announcing it to the world.

Bye all and as the doctor says – take the damned pills!