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Michael Cremo
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Biography Michael was born in 1948 in the United States. In 1966 he entered the School of International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in preparation for a career in diplomacy or one of the intelligence services. But in the turmoil of the Vietnam War era and the counterculture revolution of the 1960s, he left the university, heading for Prague to take part in the Czechoslovakian independence movement. |
By the time he arrived in Europe, the Russia and the Warsaw Pact had invaded Czechoslovakia, so he headed further East, a journey that eventually led to his becoming a disciple of Krishna guru Bhaktivedanta Swami and a student of the ancient Sanskrit writings of India. It was in these writings that he encountered histories of a human presence on this planet going back millions of years.
In 1984, he and Richard Thompson, inspired by their studies of the Sanskrit histories, began work on their monumental Forbidden Archaeology, which documents evidence for extreme human antiquity. Published after eight years of research in 1993, it quickly became an international underground classic, and has for years been a bestseller in the archaeology category on Amazon.com, world's largest internet bookseller.
Michael A. Cremo has become an internationally known expert on the history of archaeology and anomalous archaeological evidence for extreme human antiquity. He is research associate in history of science for the Bhaktivedanta Institute, and is a member of the History of Science Society, the Philosophy of Science Association, the World Archaeological Congress, and the European Association of Archaeologists. His most recent scientific publication is "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record," presented at the World Archaeological Congress 3, 1994, and now included in the proceedings volume Time and Archaeology, edited by archaeologist Tim Murray for Routledge (1999). His latest book, Forbidden Archaeology's Impact, documents the sometimes explosive reactions of orthodox scientists to his work.
The Lecture...
Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race
Michael I first heard
give a variation of this lecture at the San Marino conference in March,
and it was this that convinced me that we should bring him over from
the United States to give his presentation at the Questing Conference.
He is the co-author of FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY, a book of extraordinary
merit which appeared for the first time in 1993. It argues persuasively
that human beings, little different to you or I, have been around for
at least 300 million years. This evidence comes from human remains and
sophisticated artefacts found in geological strata that predate the
conventionally-held time-scale of anatomically modern humans. Some isolated
pieces of evidence push the date of our presence back even further,
to as much as 2 billion years ago. Michael spoke, for instance, of finds
made during the California
Gold Rush. According to a book from 1880 entitled THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS
OF THE SIERRA NEVADA, written by California state geologist Dr J. D.
Whitney, miners tunnelling in Tuolumne Table Mountain often came across
human remains and stone tools. They even uncovered stone pestle and
mortars of a design similar to that used through till modern times.
The problem, however, is that the rock strata in question belongs to
the Eocene, the geological epoch which spans between 55 and 38 million
years ago. The finds eventually found their way into the Museum of Natural
History at the University of California at Berkeley, where they remain
hidden to this day.
In 1996 the American
broadcasting network NBC commissioned the
making of a documentary which was to feature the discoveries from Tuolumne
Table Mountain, and was presented by actor Charlton Heston. Not only
did the museum refuse to allow the company to even see the items, but
Darwinian scientists attempted to persuade NBC to drop the whole project.
After the program aired, Darwinian scientists attempted to persuade
NBC not to show it a second time, as NBC had announced it would do.
NBC did, however, resist this pressure, and aired the highly popular
program a second time. Even Afterwards, the same scientists asked the
United States government to force NBC to broadcast apologies for airing
the program, and they also asked they government to fine NBC for this
alleged offence. Thankfully, the government ignored these attempts to
censor and suppress this valuable information.
Michael spoke about
the case of the 3.7 million year old footprints found in 1979 at Laetoli,
Tanzania, by Mary Leakey, the mother of Richard Leakey. She said they
were indistinguishable from those of modern man, homo sapiens sapiens,
even though we have only been around for the last 100,000 years. As
might be expected, the academic community ignored the implications of
the humanlike footprints found by Mary Leakey. The situation was made
all more complex when it was announced in
the mid 1990s that palaeontologists in South Africa, led by Ron Clarke,
had uncovered at Sterkfontein the skeleton of what they took to be the
oldest ancestor of the human race. A member of the species known as
Australopithecus, this hominid stood upright and had toes one and half
times larger than those of modern man. Furthermore, his very long big
toe stuck outwards at an angle, like a human thumb. Michael Cremo lectured
at a conference on archaeology where Dr Clarke also presented a paper.
Michael asked him why the foot of his Sterkfontein ape man was so different
from Mary Leakey's footprints, which resembled those of modern man and
were of the same age. Clarke replied that these obviously showed Australopithecus
walking with his big toe in and the rest of his toes turned under. At
this suggestion, Michael chuckled to himself - not because of the throwaway
answer but because the entire audience of archaeologists was nodding
in agreement! They accepted this explanation without any quibble whatsoever.
Then there is the case of American geologist Virginia Steen-McIntyre. She was brought in by an archaeological team working at two sites in Mexico - Hueyatlaco and El Horno - in order that she might be able to date sophisticated stone tools found at a deep level. She demonstrated that the strata in question dated to a period corresponding to 250,000 years ago. Yet her findings were immediately dismissed as impossible since it is considered that humans with the ability to create stone tools of this calibre did not exist in this epoch whilst America was unoccupied prior to 30,000 years ago.
The archaeologist leading the excavation not only ignored Dr Steen-McIntyre's findings in his report, but she also concluded that the stone tools were just 23,000 years old based on a Carbon-14 date obtained from a site five kilometres away! Thankfully the whole affair was highlighted by Cremo in FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY and in the aforementioned NBC documentary, with the result that the site is now being studied by more open-minded archaeologists.
Michael went on to highlight evidence of stone tools which have been discovered in Belgium within rock strata dated to 30 million years' old. He was able to inspect and photograph the boxes full of these implements on a visit to the museum [Royal Museum of Natural Sciences] a few years ago. Although crude in design, they seriously contradict the view currently held by palaeontologists, which proposes that sophisticated human beings only appearedbetween 100,000 and 200,000 years ago
So what is the answer to this perplexing enigma?
Scientists attempt
to explain such enigmas by suggesting that human remains and stone tools
found at deep levels are the result of intrusive burials. All this means
is that holes are dug in which bodies and artefacts are placed. When
found they can therefore be misinterpreted as stemming from a much earlier
age than they are in reality. Perhaps this is a solution in some cases.
However, Michael then detailed a case in which a human skeleton, anatomically
similar to modern man, was found beneath a solid layer of slate. The
rock strata in question was 300 million years' old! Then there is the
story of the gold chain found by Mrs. S. W. Culp of Morrisonville, Illinois,
in 1891. She was placing coal on a fire when one block fractured to
reveal the item still attached to both pieces of rock. The discovery
was included as a news curio in an edition of the MORRISONVILLE TIMES.
From this article Michael was able establish that the coal had come
from a mine in the same state as the aforementioned
300-million-year-old human skeleton. Moreover, the coal itself was dated
to around 260-320 million years' old. Can this all be coincidence alone?
Michael Cremo's presentation was quite simply stunning. If he is correct in his findings it means that the emergence of humanity has taken place on various occasions during the earth's long history (the earliest evidence of life dates to three and a half billion years ago). It could therefore be a cyclic process, whereby the current human race is destroyed and reborn time and time again. How advanced it becomes is dependent on how long it is allowed to evolve before its inevitable destruction, most probably through catastrophes caused by impact events.
All I can suggest is that you read FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY, or its abbreviated form THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE, and realise for yourself that we are being denied the truth regarding the origins of our own species.
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