Atlantis and 2012
Atlantis
and 2012: The Science of the Lost Civilization and the Prophecies
of the Maya traces Maya astronomy back to Atlantis
- Shows that the Mayan Calendar was brought to Mexico by
survivors of Atlantis
- Correlates scientific studies with the Mayan Calendar to
reveal that 2012
could be the start of a new ice age
- Reveals the link between Atlantis and Lemuria discovered by
Edgar Cayce
Based on more than 25 years of research around the globe and
statements from Edgar Cayce about Atlantis and its Pacific sister
civilization of Lemuria, Frank Joseph reveals that the Mayan
Calendar was brought to Mexico by survivors of Atlantis.
Uncovering the Atlantean influences in both ancient Mesoamerican
culture and ancient Egyptian culture, he links the demise of
Atlantis with the birth of the Olmec civilization in Mexico (the
progenitors of the Maya), the beginning of the first Egyptian
dynasty, and the start of the Mayan Calendar.
Joseph explains that the Mayan Calendar was invented by the
combined genius of Atlantis and Lemuria and describes how it
predicts an eternal cycle of global creation, destruction, and
renewal. Correlating this recurring cycle with scientific studies
on glacial ice cores and predictions from the Hopi, the Incas, and
the Scandinavian Norse, Joseph reveals that 2012 could be the
start of a new ice age and the advent of a massive solar storm.
However, Joseph shows that the Maya knew the way to reestablish
civilization’s cosmic balance before time runs out.
Atlantis
and 2012: The Science of the Lost Civilization and the Prophecies
of the Maya
Book Reviews
“Once again Frank Joseph has shown that when it comes to
Atlantis and related subjects, no one else knows as much. In this
case he has taken on two very difficult subjects but has succeeded
in extracting some of the most fascinating history anyone has seen
in a long time.”
(J. Douglas Kenyon, editor of Forbidden History and Atlantis
Rising )
“I have reviewed dozens of books on the year 2012 and its
meaning and consequences, but Frank Joseph’s Atlantis and 2012
presents us with many facts and research ignored by most of the
other guides. I have especially high regard for Frank Joseph’s
courage to question what the majority of academia, government, and
media around the world have concluded about global warming. They
have ignored the research showing global warming is actually the
precursor to a new ice age. In addition to all the other
fascinating bits to be found in Atlantis and 2012, I find the most
important is Joseph’s emphasis on the reminder that global
warming may just be the trigger for an oncoming ice age, which we
now know can manifest in as little as 20 years!
“The Mayan civilization gave a gift to future humanity in the
form of their Mayan calendar. Having witnessed periodic
extinctions, they documented these cycles in the hopes of
preparing and maybe even preventing what they could not: a dark
end for our age. Their message is one of balancing the material
and spiritual dimensions, because an imbalance brings on social
decay and physical annihilation. Vested interests and the
domination of the corporate world, which enforces its status quo,
have brought us to the edge of extinction. Although humankind may
be vastly diminished, the planet will survive.
“The Atlanteans were much like us--in fact, they are us if
you consider reincarnation. Their insatiable appetite for material
prosperity and military might mirror the world governments of
today. Frank Joseph has used the works of two great seers, Plato
and Edgar Cayce, to guide us through our past and future. Thanks
to the Atlantis code (which we know as the Mayan calendar), he
shows that we still have hope that we might be able to avoid what
the Atlanteans failed to avoid. You must read this book--today!”
(Robert R. Hieronimus, Ph.D., author of United Symbolism of
America and host of 21st Century Radio )
"Mr. Joseph has assembled an impressive array of details,
some of which have been drawn from almost forgotten sources. . . .
[He] is, without doubt, one of the foremost writers on lost
civilizations, and makes it easy to follow and understand his
reasoning. Whether or not you believe in these continents; whether
or not you believe we are living in 'end times'; you can find
something of interest within these covers. Pick up a copy."
(Michael Gleason, reviewer, May 2010 )
"Joseph points to global cataclysms that affected our
planet in c.3100 BC, 2200BC, 1600 BC, and 1200 BC. The next
cataclysm could coincide with a solar superstorm and a reversal of
the Earth's magnetic field, bringing on a new ice age. He cautions
that our civilization could well be equally as fragile as those
that rose and fell before it under the influence of massive cosmic
and terrestrial forces."
(Nexus New Times Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 4, June/July 2010 )
"New age libraries will relish the unusually concrete
approach!"
(James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review, June 2010 )
"Much has been written over the years about the so-called
"Legend of Atlantis." More recently, a number of books
have appeared anticipating what will happen to the earth in
December 2012. . . for the first time we have in this new book by
Frank Joseph the most well researched link between these two
subjects."
(Alan Glassman, New Dawn Magazine, September 2010 )
By Frank Joseph
Although some Atlantologists concluded that the Great Flood was
caused by a celestial event,
not until 1997 did the scientific community generally concede that
a killer-comet was responsible for the demise of Bronze Age
Civilization. During a three-day symposium in July, leading
astronomers, geologists and climatologists met in Fitzwilliam
College, Cambridge, England, at an international conference of the
Society for Interdisciplinary Studies. Speakers included such
notables as astrophysicist Mark E. Bailey, Director of the Armagh
Observatory, in Northern Ireland; Marie-Agnes Courty, a geologist
from the French Center for Scientific Research; and Bas Van Geel,
a paleo-ecologist at the University of Amsterdam. Many of the one
hundred participants came from as far afield as Japan, North
America and Australia.
Their consensus was that an abundance of physical and cultural
evidence confirmed that periodic close encounters of a large comet
from the 5th Millennium B.C. to the early 11th Century B.C. were
responsible for several eras of wide-spread destruction on the
Earth's surface, including the forced end of the Bronze Age.
Swedish physicist, Lars Franzen (University of Goeteborg) and
archaeologist Thomas B. Larsson (University of Umea) pointed out
that general cooling, extreme precipitation, followed by
catastrophic flooding before 1000 B.C. were earmarks of a
celestial cataclysm. They concluded, "it is obvious
that these events were sudden and occurred world-wide". They
mentioned a particularly sharp change in climate, a steep drop in
temperatures and simultaneous rise in wet conditions, noticeable
in Europe, the Americas, the Near East, as far north as Alaska and
south to the Antarctic, circa 1,200 B.C. Lake levels increased
drastically, in some cases (Turkey's Lake Van) as much as 240
feet. Larsson said the abrupt rise in lake levels has been
verified in Sweden (Federsee), Ireland (Loughnashade), the United
States (Great Salt Lake), Canada (Wald sea Basin), Bolivia
(Titicaca) and Argentina (Lago Cardiel). Franzen told how Swedish,
English and Irish oak bog preserve a record of extreme and sudden
rainfall around 1,000 B.C. At Steng Moss, in Northumberland, there
was a six-fold increase in peat moss accumulation.
While such finds are generally unknown to the public, they have
long been recognized by climatologists as leading conditions of
the Plenard Period, from 1250 to 1000 B.C., when Earth's climate
sharply deteriorated. World temperatures suddenly fell nearly two
degrees Centigrade and rainfall was prodigious. British
anthropologist, Richard Desborough, said of the Plenard Period,
"the changes that came about were little short of fantastic.
The craftsmen and artists seem to have vanished almost without a
trace: there is little new stone construction of any sort, far
less any massive edifices; the metal workers' techniques revert to
primitive, and the potter, except in the early stages, loses his
purpose and inspiration; and the art of writing is forgotten. But
the outstanding feature is that by the end of the 12th Century
B.C., the population appears to have dwindled to about one-tenth
of what it had been little over a century before. This is no
normal decline, and the circumstances and events obviously have a
considerable bearing on the nature of the subsequent Dark ages,
and must be in part at least a cause of its existence".
Franzen and Larsson locate the focus of the Bronze Age catastrophe
in the the vicinity of Atlantis itself. "We even suggest that
relatively large asteroids or comets (c. 0.5 km diameter) hit
somewhere in the eastern Atlantic, possibly at the shelf of the
Atlantic west coast of Africa/Europe ... mainly affecting the
Mediterranean parts of Africa and Europe, but also globally".
As our planet turned on its axis, the proto-Encke Comet, Oljato,
bombarded every region in a world-wide swath from above the
Equator to below the Arctic Circle, according to the comet's
inclining angle to the Earth. Passing over the Caribbean, it
fired down an object one mile across. Moving a hundred times
the velocity of a 9 m.m. bullet, the asteroid plunged through the
water to explode on the sea floor with an explosive force equal to
one million megatons of TNT, excavating a crater on the submarine
bottom 900 feet deep. The resulting 1,000-foot wall of water swept
inland as far as Alabama killing every living thing in its path
and set off volcanoes from the Antilles to El Salvador.
Over North America, the comet let loose a barrage that blasted
a nuclear-like event in the Ohio Valley and triggered off a
hellish series of volcanic outbursts in Washington, Oregon and
Wyoming. Cosmic bomb-loads falling across the Pacific Ocean raised
roaring walls of water to obliterate whole island populations. In
the Hawaiian Islands of Lanai, Maui, Molokai and Oahu, deposits of
unconsolidated coral were placed nearly a thousand feet above the
coast by a monstrous wall of water. Tsunamis are gigantic waves
set in motion by submarine earthquakes, but they never begin to
approach the 1,000-foot high swell that was necessary to over-top
the Hawaiian Islands. Only a wave caused by the plunge of a
large meteorite or asteroid could have attained such enormous
proportions.
Approaching Asia, Oljato conjured volcanic and seismic
devastation throughout Japan and eastern Russia. The face of China
was obscured by catastrophic storms of corrosive ash-fall, as
nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere combined with nitric acid
released by the relentless impacts of celestial debris thousands
of miles away. India and the Middle East were tormented with
geologic violence from the merciless onslaught high overhead. But
Europe and the Near East, the cradle of Western Civilization, were
the special targets of Comet Oljato. As it passed over Anatolia,
the moment of "the Fire from Heaven" had arrived. A
veritable deluge of flame descended in waves of thunder from out
of the sky.
Hattusas, capital of the mighty Hittite Empire, erupted in a
fiery holocaust. Hundreds of cities and towns with hundreds of
thousands of their residents all across Asia Minor were abruptly
incinerated. Burned in great flashes of flame were the commercial
centers of Palestine and the Syrian fortresses. Unrelenting
earthquakes smashed Pharaoh's monumental temples to smoking ruin,
while the divine wrath threatened Lower Egypt with death by fire.
Libya, her once-fertile neighbor, was seared into a barren desert.
Across the Aegean Sea, the people of Crete fled for their lives
into the high mountains to escape the flaming, quaking doom of
their cities and towns below. In mainland Greece, the light of
civilization went out, replaced by a worse glow from the hundreds
of her settlements, citadels, palaces and temples girdled in high
flames. Coastal cities and harbors had their conflagrations
quenched by over-powering floods scarcely less devastating. The
same sea which nourished their inhabitants for a thousand years
had become their murderer.
Several large rivers which converge in the Hungarian Plain,
suddenly spilled over their banks to deluged this vast area of
low-lying land. The entire region was inundated with the ferocious
flood that wiped out a prosperous Bronze Age culture. It had come,
in the words of Swedish archaeologist, Adolf Aberg, to "an
unexpected end, after which the country is without any
discoverable sign of occupation and seems deserted".
Europe's largest fire consumed the Black Forest down to the
Swiss Alps. A counterpart to the ash-fall inundating China fell on
Britain, killing the majority of all living things there. The
worst was yet to come. Leaving the continent in flames, Comet
Oljato dispatched a salvo of cosmic bombs hurtling at 20,000 miles
per hour toward the ocean.
Breaking the sound-barrier each in turn, they filled the vast
chambers of the sky with reverberating thunders. At least one
meteorite hit the geologically sensitive Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It
suddenly awoke like the enraged Midgaard Serpent of Norse myth.
Sea-quakes rose in 500-foot tsunamis crashing 150 miles per hour
across the face of the deep. Volcanos roared in furious choruses
of streaming magma and piling cloud-banks of ash from Ascension
and Candlemas in the South Atlantic to Hekla in Iceland. Gran
Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in the Canaries exploded with
flames to rival heaven's, as the nearby coast of North Africa
writhed in seismic anguish. Stabbing like sharp pain through a raw
nerve, geologic violence shot along the length of the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge and across the fault boundary separating the Eurasian from
African plates to which it was connected and on which the island
of Atlantis was situated.
A trembler moving close to the speed of sound struck the submarine
foundations of Atlantis, detonating the sacred mountain. Unable to
vent the sudden force of so much erupting magma, one wall of the
volcano blasted out laterally. An inconceivable rush of sea rushed
into the gaping wound, where the extremes of water and fire
combined to implode the entire island. The opulent, powerful,
corrupt capital, with most of its screaming inhabitants, sank to
the bottom of the ocean it dominated for centuries --- the same
ocean to which it had given its own name.
Copyright by Frank Joseph
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Copies of "The Destruction of Atlantis"
(264 pgs, color photograph section) are available from Amazon.com
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The
Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the
Legendary Civilization (Paperback)
by Frank Joseph
Robert G. Bauval, author of The Orion Mystery and Message of
the Sphinx
Definitely a can't-put-downer and must-read book for the enthusiast of
ancient mysteries.
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Robert G. Bauval, author of The Orion Mystery and Message of the Sphinx :
"Intrepid globetrotter, researcher, and writer extraordinaire, Frank
Joseph takes the reader on a tour in search of Atlantis. Enjoy with him
the alchemical thrill of transforming dramatic legend into historical
reality and experience his passion and dedication as he unravels this
age-old story. Definitely a cant-put-downer and must-read book for the
enthusiast of ancient mysteries."
Review
Andrew Collins, author of From the Ashes of Angels and Gateway to Atlantis
: A valuable addition to the study of lost civilizations and ancient
maritime exploration. Essential reading for all true Atlantologists.
J. Douglas Kenyon, editor, Atlantis Rising magazine :
"Like a hot new detective story surrounded by dusty tomes, The
Destruction of Atlantis shines brightly amid the dim and dull fare from
the cloistered towers of academe and elsewhere."
Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus, Host of 21st-Century Radio, author
of Founding Fathers, Secret Societies : "'Where will it all end?'
people wonder. For the answer, let them look to Atlantis. On a scale of
one to ten, I give this book a 9.95. This book should be a standard-issue
text in all high school and college history courses. It will stand the
test of time."
David Hatcher Childress, author of Atlantis & the Power
System of the Gods and the Lost Cities series : "The Destruction of
Atlantis is an extensively researched volume that takes on the reality of
Atlantis in a conservative and well-reasoned approach. It deserves to be
part of every Atlantis library."
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Opening the Ark of the Covenant
By Frank Joseph and
Laura Beaudoin
It is remarkable that the Ark of the Covenant should have such
an enduring, popular allure, when so little is known about it. In
my research, I did “follow the bread-crumbs,” and they led me
to many of the places described in my book—Tenerife, Delos,
Delphi, Ilios, Giza, Cuzco, Teotihuacan, Nara, and dozens more
besides—largely unfamiliar names spread around the globe, but
all known at one time or another as "the Navel of the
World."
The term surfaced early during my research (a cover word for
"obsession") into the lost civilization of Atlantis,
beginning spring 1980. At that time, few believed the place had
actually existed, and I was not entirely sure myself. In the years
since then, my four books on the subject were published in a dozen
foreign editions, joining more material released about Plato's
sunken city since he first spoke of it twenty three hundred years
ago. These numerous volumes, compact discs, magazines, lectures,
television productions, and feature films reflect unprecedented,
international interest in Atlantis.
During late 2006, sociologists at Baylor University's Institute
for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, conducted “by far the
most comprehensive national religion survey to date,” according
to Cathy Lynn Grossman, a writer for USA Today. Their survey
revealed that 40 percent of Americans now believe Atlantis
actually existed before the dawn of recorded history.
Well, what has all that got to do with the Ark of the Covenant?
Atlantis is one of the “bread-crumbs,” an unsuspected clue to
the mystery, like so many others—a Jesuit priest, the Great
Pyramid, a deformed pharaoh, Canada, a Japanese scuba diver, a
thousand-year-old tree, a famous Russian painter, a famous French
painter, an infamous French cardinal, American Indians, secret
societies, an Illinois woodworker. Individually incongruous, they
nevertheless comprise a vast mosaic spanning not only the world,
but the entire history of man. The image emerging from their
combined inter-relationship is wonderful and horrible, filled with
transfiguration, heroism, genius and beauty contrasted by deceit,
terror, madness, and mass-murder. It is an unexpected picture I
did not paint. I only found it after twenty six years of
continuous investigation.
This book is the summary and outcome of that long labor of
love. I was aided in its discovery by someone without whom my work
would have been woefully incomplete. If there is such a thing as
destiny, her appearance was perfectly timed. While in the midst of
researching the man who established the Order of the Knights
Templar in Jerusalem, both Laura Beaudoin, co-author of Opening
the Ark of the Covenant, and I learned that she is his linear
descendant. We then found that she is directly related to several
other key players in the Ark drama, from a figure in the Old
Testament to what may have been the sacred object's 17th Century
steward. Never interested in genealogy, and emotionally incapable
of boasting about her family tree, she provided absolutely unique
insight into the darkest corners of medieval politics.
Laura Beaudoin, co-author of
Opening
the Ark of the Covenant.
Despite the implications of this photograph, her new book is
a non-religious investigation of the controversial artifact.
Laura also owned a rare document, a privately published
Beaudoin family history, preserved by her mother, Dolores. Thanks
to this one-of-a-kind manuscript, we may read a hitherto unknown
chapter in the lost history of the Ark of the Covenant. That, in
essence, is the result of our combined effort: the first history
of this supremely enigmatic artifact, its pre-biblical origins,
true identity, and impact on the world.
Opening
the Ark of the Covenant
by Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
During the quarter of a century I spent researching
"Opening the Ark of the Covenant", I was continually
pestered by the problem of its whereabouts. I felt reasonably sure
I knew what it contained --- a specimen of solid-state technology
far in advance of the ancient times in which it was created. And
its application as a conscience-altering electronic quartz crystal
seemed credible. As the Aron ha Berit, it had passed to the
Israelites from Egypt, where it had been known as the Ben-Ben,
Bennu Stone, or "Phoenix Stone" for its random outbursts
of static electricity. In brief, the Ark was a gold-lined, wooden
box housing a kind of capacitor that accumulated, amplified and
discharged various forms of energy in its immediate vicinity.
Looking down on a recreation of the ark of
the Covenant reveals the so called
"Mercy Seat", a kind of platter where Yahweh appeared as
a static-electrical
discharge between the positively and negatively polarized
"cherubim".
Like the ancient Hebrews, the Egyptians falsely claimed the
"Stone of Destiny" as their own. Instead, its origins
stretch back into the mists of prehistory and myth. Edgar Cayce,
the Sleeping Prophet of the 20th Century, said it was earlier
known as the Tuoai, or "Fire Stone", it its own tower at
the center of Atlantis. With the cataclysmic destruction of that
civilization, its custodians brought it to the Nile Delta, where
it was placed atop a tall obelisk in An, referred by the Greeks as
Heliopolis, the City of the Sun.
The famous Luxor Pyramid of Las Vegas, Nevada
in a laser-light display
that resembles its Egyptian counterpart during the ancient past
whenever
Giza's Great Pyramid transduced seismic energy into a beam of
piezo-electricity.
During a period of foreign wars and civil upheaval, the refugee
Israelites escaped with Ben-Ben inside their traveling Ark, until
Solomon installed it in Jerusalem's holy-of-holies. There it
sparked Israel's Golden Age, until Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar
II conquered the city in 587 B.C., and laid the Temple flat in his
fruitless search for the Ark of the Covenant. Just before his
conquest, the Levite priests lowered it into a vertical shaft 150
feet through solid limestone. There it remained hidden for the
next seventeen centuries, until it was excavated by the Knights
Templar in 1127. They removed it in secret to France, handing it
over to another religious order, the Cathars. In his effort to
seize the Ark, Pope Innocent III launched a crusade that
eventually pushed the Cathars to their ultimate stronghold, the
mountain fortress of Montsegur, in the Pyrenees. In March, 1244,
it fell to a French Catholic army, but not before a quartet of
Cathars smuggled the Ark of the Covenant --- now known as the Holy
Grail --- out of the doomed castle. From that moment, its trail
splits into every direction of the compass.
Some investigators believe the four Cathars traveled by Templar
ship to Scotland, where the Ark-Grail was set up Rosslyn Chapel,
under the protection of Henry Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney.
Author Graham Phillips wonders if the sacred object went to the
so-called "Grail Chapel" at Whittington Castle, in
Shropshire, England. Former journalist, Graham Hancock, believes
the Ark is still attended by the single caretaker of a small
church in Axum, Ethiopia.
A strangely credible version of events has them bringing the
Ark of the Covenant to distant Japan, specifically, to the top of
Tsurgi, or "Sword Mountain", an oral tradition still
preserved by local people.
Remarkably, a number of theories place the Ark/Grail in North
America. The Cherokee Indians of the Middle West claim the Ark was
worshiped by their people for time out of mind, until the
Tennessee Valley Authority's dam projects forced them to relocate
it to Indiana, where it was venerated at least into the early
1970s. Abundant documentation establishes the efforts of the
Villa-Maries, an association of unconventional mystics, who left
France in the mid-17th Century for Montreal, Canada, where they
attempted to establish what they called the "New
Jerusalem", with the Ark of the Covenant at the centerpiece
of their religious experiment.
While all of these theories have merit, and are investigated in
my book, I tend to conclude that the Ark/Grail did not travel very
far from Montsegur in 1244. More likely, the four Cathars who
saved it from the clutches of the Pope concealed their sacred
charge in one of the innumerable caves that virtually honey-comb
the Pyrenees. In this natural hiding place, the holy artifact was
preserved against all attempts to possess it. Then, in 1858,
Bernarde-Marie Soubirous, a teenage sensitive, happened to stroll
in its vicinity just when it was being energized by the seismic
pressures which characterize the mountain range separating Spain
from France. Her receptive mind responded to the frequency
resonance emitted by the Ark/Grail, culturally concretizing her
experience in visions of the "White Lady".
Thus was born the curative site at Lourdes, where St.
Bernadette unwittingly accessed the mind-altering power of
the Grail. It continues to radiate its healing energies for many
millions of sufferers from all over the globe, none of who realize
that the singular magic of this place is generated by mankind's
oldest, most precious object --- the Ark of the Covenant.
Copyright by Frank Joseph
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission
Opening
the Ark of the Covenant
by Frank Joseph and Laura Beaudoin
The Lost Treasure of King Juba
By Frank Joseph
There are some disclosures which radically revolutionize
long-established conceptions of the world in which we live. The
subject of this story is one of them, because it demolishes what
Americans have been led to believe since their country was
founded; namely, that Christopher Columbus was its Discoverer. An
archaeological cave site in southern Illinois reveals instead that
tens of thousands of refugees sailing from the murder of their
king and the invasion of their homeland preceded him by nearly
fifteen centuries. Preferring a perilous transatlantic adventure
toslaughter and slavery on land, they entrusted their lives to the
sea.
But there is another side to this tale. It tells of the cave's
discovery, subsequent twenty years of imposed secrecy, the looting
of fabulous treasures, often bitter controversy, and final
disclosure. The second story is much older. It describes what was
once a splendid kingdom in the ancient Old World, a vital part of
the Roman Empire, once culturally rich and economically powerful,
but reduced to obscurity by war. Faced with almost certain death
at home or escaping over the uncertain open sea, some of its
survivors became First Century "boat-people". Most
successfully completed the crossing to America only a few years
after the death of Jesus.
While the majority of professional archaeologists dismiss such
transatlantic voyages as imaginative fantasy, they are
contradicted by a vast collection of inscribed and illustrated
stone tablets uncovered from a subterranean site in the American
Middle West. Often wonderful masterpieces of art, they comprise
literally thousands of portraits of men and women from a distant
land in ancient times. There are grim-faced soldiers and sagacious
priests, sailors, worshippers, kings and queens. They are
accompanied by tablets inscribed in several different written
languages, some of which have already been partially translated.
And there is gold, a treasure trove King Solomon in all his
splendor would have envied.
Both stories seem too fantastic for belief. Yet, an abundance
of hard and historical evidence supports their credibility. The
fabulously rich legacy buried nearly 2,000 years ago was known
only to the elders of a particular Indian tribe, whose last chief
broke the secret before he passed away. Even then, the whereabouts
of the cave were unknown until it was found by accident twenty
four years later. The sometimes acrimonious struggle to open the
site and unravel its significance has lasted almost as long.
That struggle still goes on. But the time has come for its
story to be told. It begins in the remote countryside of southern
Illinois, a cultural backwater practically forgotten somewhere
between St. Louis, at the western border with Missouri, and the
state university, in Carbondale, forty five miles north of
Kentucky. The inhabitants would have it no other way. Their
numbers are low and disparate. Although general income and
educational levels are below national or even state averages,
people are hard-working, bible-conscious, gun-owning patriots
residing mostly on old, isolated farms or in charming,
unprosperous little towns. Folks are friendly to but wary of
strangers. They prefer their largely anonymous, unvisited status.
Attitudes can be provincial, territorial and rural. Speech
patterns echo from below the Mason/Dixon Line. Among land-owners
there is a highly developed sense of protective sovereignty
regarding the properties they own and on which they grow crops,
mostly beans and corn.
Southern Illinois has always been a refuge for rugged
individuals. Local history tells of frontier-like lawlessness
dating back to gang wars with criminal interlopers, like Tony
Accardo or Al Capone, from Chicago, during the 1960s and
"Roaring Twenties", respectively, and much earlier, to
the Harpe brothers. They murdered some fifty victims at
Cave-in-the-Rock, on the Ohio River, before Micajah and Wiley were
beheaded in 1799.
Directly across the state from St. Louis, Richland is the next
nearest county to the Indiana border, in the east. Beyond its
sparsely uninhabited hills and ravines, squares of brown-green
farmland spread like pieces in an agricultural puzzle toward the
horizon. In the extreme northeast corner of Richland County bends
an elbow of the River Embarras, branching into Illinois from its
bigger sister, the Wabash. Locals have for generations enjoyed
exploring or picnicking in the numerous caves that honeycomb the
area. An infrequently visited site, certainly unknown outside its
immediate vicinity, was hardly more than a hole in the ground. But
the opening, about ten feet wide and eight feet from ceiling to
roof, was large enough for visitors to stoop through a kind of
natural corridor running about 15 feet into the side of a hill
perhaps three-quarters of a mile from the south bank of the
Embarras.
At the far end of this seemingly insignificant cave was a small
chamber, natural or man-made, it was difficult to determine. Its
walls were decorated with what visitors assumed were "Indian
signs"---apparently old carvings of bizarre animals,
inscrutable glyphs, and strangely costumed men, all rendered in
faded, primitive stick-form.
Obviously, the cave had been used by Kickapoo or Shawnee
tribes, who inhabited the Richland County region into the early
1800s. No one gave the place a second thought until 1982.
Certainly, professional archaeologists, if they even knew it
existed, never declared the site off-limits to public entry, nor
forbade anyone from doing what they pleased there.
On April 2, a 47-year-old "caver" entered its dark
recesses out-fitted with flashlight, pick-hammer and knapsack. He
had come from his home in Olney, a small town about 15 miles away.
Born in West Virginia, Russell E. Burrows moved after a stint in
the U.S. Army during the Korean War to southern Illinois, where he
developed an interest in local history, and began amassing
everyday objects from the past.
Over time, he found ox shoes, square nails, iron pots,
lanterns, and other19th or early 20th Century artifacts for his
growing collection. A wood-worker by vocation, he could appreciate
these hand-made items of yesteryear. Perhaps something of the kind
might be found in the curious little cave he heard tell of.
Finding it deserted, as it usually was, he paused momentarily to
scan an uncertain sky, as muted thunder boomed ominously in the
distance. He found the interior as described, a small,
unimpressive natural enclosure like others he knew. Proceeding to
its apparent termination, Burrows stepped into the close confines
of the chamber. Perhaps it was artificial, but why anyone would go
to the bother of carving it out made no sense. Then again, the
Indians did things no modern white man could figure out. The glare
of his flashlight passed over a series of their crude drawings
adorning the walls here and there. They might make colorful
additions to his rather lackluster collection of common pioneer
nick-nacks.
Clearly, there were no 19th Century hob-nails laying about.
With the first taps of his hammer, however, he noticed something
strange. The impacts did not make quite the solid sound he
expected. They produced a lighter reverberation, as though a
hollow space lay on the other side. Curious to learn if a cavity
did indeed lie just beyond, he swung his pick against the face of
the wall. As he labored with a will, he was encouraged by what
seemed like the echoes of his hammer blows coming from some place
deeper in the hill.
The work was difficult, but Burrows was a strong man, and after
perhaps fifteen minutes of sweated effort, the stones in the wall
began to give. Suddenly, they tumbled heavily away, thudding to
the ground, and disclosed another small chamber, this one
unquestionably artificial. It was the opening to a flight of stone
steps leading down into the earth. He played his flashlight over
them, then carefully followed its illumination into the otherwise
impenetrable darkness. The flight of stairs was steep, and he
descended cautiously, side-ways, eventually reaching bottom. He
estimated it was about thirty feet from the entrance above. A
long, dead-straight corridor disappeared into the darkness before
him. His bright flashlight lit up its still, dank interior, as
Burrows carefully entered.
The tunnel was perfectly hewn, and hung with very old-fashioned
oil lamps at regular intervals. They looked like something out of
a movie he may have seen once about ancient Rome. He proceeded
cautiously. The atmosphere was heavy with mystery, and snakes,
especially deadly copper-heads, were known to favor such
subterranean environments. But he encountered no serpents. The
muted sound of his footfalls in the almost stifling confines was
all he heard. The tunnel went on and on, as he passed dozens of
dead oil lamps on either wall.
Turning the beam of his flashlight at the low ceiling, he saw
that its entire length was covered with black smudges, the
residue, apparently, of innumerable torches that once passed this
way, how long ago, he could not guess. After Burrows had walked
about 500 feet, the corridor seemed to come to an abrupt end.
Instead, it made a sharp right turn, as his flashlight pointed the
way. It illuminated another great length, running straight ahead
beyond the white reach of its flickering bulb.
He proceeded a few paces, when a low, open portal, minus a
door, appeared unexpectedly on his left. Ducking down under its
low lintel, he entered a small chamber, then almost at once
staggered backward in surprise. Gleaming in the harsh beam of his
flashlight stood the five-foot-tall statue of a man wrought in
solid gold. Nor was this just the representation of any man. Its
beneficent pose and holes in the wrists of the outstretched arms
clearly identified the figure. A few feet behind the statue, to
its left, was a raised platform perhaps three feet high. On it had
been laid a full-size sarcophagus, likewise executed in gold.
Recovering from the shock of his discovery, Burrows
breathlessly admired the spectacular craftsmanship of both
objects, but refrained from touching them. He could hardly believe
what he saw. Leaving the chamber, he found several more in quick
succession.
Across the floor of one were stacked edged weapons---a metal
sword with shield and battle-ax, together with a set of bronze
spears individually ranging from three to six feet in length.
There was copper or bronze armor---breast-plates and greaves, even
helmets. Nearby, stood stone statuettes of noble-looking men and
women dressed in strange garb suggestive of the ancient Nile
Valley or Carthage. Stone and clay-fired jars or urns, some of
them half as tall as a man, were positioned in two corners at the
far end of the room. A number had long ago fallen over and broken
open to reveal their contents---leather or hide scrolls covered
with an inscrutable written language. Scattered among these jars
were smaller oil lamps, like those attached to the walls of the
corridor, and paint pots.
A recessed shelf, cut into the stone cave wall, and supporting
the sculpted images of Egyptian-like deities, ran around the whole
interior of the enclosure. Against one wall were piles of perhaps
100 flat, black stones, each one engraved with a human profile and
unreadable inscription.
The faces portrayed a bewildering variety of men and women
(mostly men depicted as soldiers in Roman-style helmets, or
priests in robes) with European or Semitic facial features, but
wearing the togas and uniforms of civilizations long since past
into history. Stepping into an adjacent chamber of similar
dimensions, Burrows noticed a vault cut into the rock face of the
cave. It flared in the glare of his flashlight with numerous piles
of gold coins---what was later to prove more than a ton's worth.
This same vault contained a quart-sized stone bowl filled with
uncut diamonds.
Nearly faint with these discoveries, he played the flashlight
in his trembling hand over the far wall of the chamber, and saw at
once that it opened to another. It was much larger, about twenty
by twenty five feet, at the center of which lay a large stone
sarcophagus. Inside was a gold coffin of superb workmanship. Like
the smaller compartments, enormous piles of black stones
emblazoned with lengthy, peculiar inscriptions, strange symbols,
and the images of both human beings and animals filled the
crypt. The persons portrayed were an impossible mix of apparent
Romans, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Christians, American Indians, even
black Africans. Some of the animals depicted on the stones, such
as lions, elephants and camels, were not native to America, at
least before the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. Yet, here they
were, depicted in all their incongruity.
The unreality of this subterranean site was making him dizzy.
He needed fresh air, to get back into the upper world. The
atmosphere was stiflingly close with some nameless presence.
Returning to the third chamber, he availed himself of as much
bounty as he could carry, then hurried at all speed, his bulging
knap-sack and sagging pockets clanking with gold coins and several
dozen diamonds.
In moments, he was scrambling through the broken down wall,
back into the little chamber at the back of the cave. Burrows was
elated by his incredible good fortune. It was the find of a
lifetime. Clearly, whatever this place was, he thought, its
importance and wealth were too great to leave unguarded. He tried
to reassemble the old wall hammered down to gain entrance, but
anyone who happened to see the re-positioned stones would know
they were recently dislodged. The cave, while rarely visited, was
now especially vulnerable to inquisitive persons like himself.
Others might find the break-in and loot the rest of the
treasures. Re-emerging into the open air, he was relieved to find
himself still alone. Since he could not hope to restore the
collapsed wall to the aged condition in which he found it, Burrows
concealed the cave opening itself. His Korean War experience in
the Army had not been forgotten. He dragged shrubs and tree limbs
over the gaping hole to camouflage its appearance, then re-aligned
large stones to alter the face in the immediate surroundings.
Within an hour, the cave was so thoroughly disguised, anyone not
intimately familiar with its vicinity would never relocate the
opening. Satisfied that his find was safely hidden under the
subtly tampered environment, he returned to his pick-up truck
perhaps 200 feet away. Afternoon declined toward evening. Deep
shadows were already filling in gullies and ravines. They obscured
the location even more effectively than his natural concealment of
foliage and rocks.
The fabulous find was his by right of discovery, regardless who
happened to presently own the property on which it was found. And
it would remain his so long as he preserved the secrecy of its
whereabouts. No matter who may someday try to claim it, he mused
to himself as he trudged through the lengthening twilight toward
his home, the site would hereafter and forever be known as
"Burrows Cave".
Nineteen years later, Russell Burrows publicly presented a
detailed description of the events of April 2 before an
international archaeology conference in the Vienna Art Center,
Austria. "The cave itself is 535 feet deep to its terminal
breakdown," he said. "The down-angle is six degrees. The
artifacts which I recovered were located in the silt on the most
part. However, some were recovered from niches and shelves along
the walls. Also to be seen are lamps cut out of knobs of rock on
the walls. There are several of these lamps, since they seem to be
positioned every fifteen or twenty feet." Remarkably, these
dimensions and features are similar to the Kubr-er-Roumia, King
Juba II's mausoleum from which his mummified body and treasure
trove were removed ahead of the Roman invasion of 44 A.D. The
first professional investigators of his tomb "found
themselves in a long gallery about eight feet high and 6.5 feet
broad.
There were niches along the walls which seemed as if they had
been made to hold lamps", according to historian, A.
MacCallum Scott (p.173). Like its southern Illinois counterpart,
the royal Mauretanian sepulchral corridor "was about 500 feet
long". "The area above these lamps is blackened by smoke
from the lamps, which most likely burned animal fat or oil of some
kind. I once lit ten candles at some of the lamp positions, and
then turned off my lights, and was surprised that the area was
well illuminated. In the largest area of the cave are five statues
made of the same black material as are the artifacts displayed
here. These statues are arranged in a semi-circle, and they are in
appearance on the order of Egyptian figures: the left foot forward
and the left arm forward. Held in left hand is a staff. Since
these statues are some eight or more feet tall, and are made of
the black material, I will estimate their weight to be four to six
tons, this, since the black material is very dense and heavy.
"I also discovered that there are thirteen doorways cut
into the walls of the cave. These doorways are closed by cut and
well-fitted blocks of stone, the seams of which are sealed with a
pitch or bees' wax. I removed one of the blocks, and was amazed to
discover that the sealed doorways were the entrance into a burial
crypt, which was about twelve feet square, with a stone bier in
the center. In this crypt, I found the skeleton of a male; this
was determined by the pelvic bone. On his skeleton was copper,
gold and jewels, and lying on the bier with him was his sword, ax
and shield. There was, and still is, large jars, one of which has
fallen and broken. Inside the broken jar was to be seen twenty or
so rolled-up scrolls. I did not touch them, knowing full well that
by doing such, I could destroy them. They are still as I left
them.
"The next crypt which I opened and examined was much the
same as the first in size and structure. However, the skeletal
remains was that of a female and two children. In the area of the
heart of the woman's was embedded through the rib a golden blade
large enough to have penetrated the heart. It appeared to me that
since the blade, which was shaped like a large spear-point or
blade, had become 'locked' in place by bone, so that, when the
effort to remove it was made, it was pulled loose from its shaft,
and was left in place. The children each had a large hole in their
foreheads. Lying on the bier with the remains was two ax-heads
made of pure white marble. One of these axes fit the holes in the
children's' heads perfectly.
Also to be seen in this crypt is more of the large jars, but
none are broken, so I cannot report what is included in them.
There is also much burial finery on all of these skeletons.
"Further back and in a lower level of the cave is another
burial crypt, which is much larger and different, in that there is
a sarcophagus in the center which has a stone lid closing it.
Inside is to be found a fine golden coffin much like those seen in
Egyptian burials. Inside the coffin is another, what appears to
be, mummy. I cannot state for certain that that is the case,
because I did not disturb the decaying cloth around the body. In
this crypt, which was closed by a round, rock, wheel-like device,
which when the final cut was made, dropped into a trough and
rolled downward, closing the crypt, is a shelf cut out of the
stone walls. "There are many statues of what appears to be
Amen-Ra, the Egyptian god. There is also to be seen in this crypt
many other artifacts, such as what appears to be bronze spears of
all sizes. Bronze swords and shields, as well as other personal
items. None of this material was disturbed by me, and the coffin
was closed, as well as the sarcophagus, and the crypt
itself."
Listening to his matter-of-fact presentation delivered in a
steady, West Virginian drawl, the continental scientists assembled
in Vienna's meeting hall were stunned. Such a tale was utterly
beyond belief. But there was more than narrative to Burrows'
fantastic story. Much more.
Article Related Photos
One of the 7,000 or more portrait stones
removed from the
southern Illinois cave. This one appears to represent a military
officer.
The exceptionally well-executed likeness of a
high-ranking officer
from the southern Illinois cave.
The profile of a Semitic priest, as indicated
by his ritual pony-tail and Hebrew
inscription at left, although the inscription at bottom is
Numidian,
a North African written language.
This Christ-like profile from the southern
Illinois cave features the Hebrew word for Yahweh at the top; a
foliated cross at left, and, beneath it, the glyph for Alexander
Helios, the son of Queen Cleopatra who may have led North African
refugees to North America
in 41 A.D.
A gold coin from the southern Illinois cave
features Cleopatra's elephantine
emblem and a Numidian inscription.
This portrait of a soldier from the southern
Illinois cave features the representation
of a comet or meteor at the top. Bottom-right is the Phoenician
numeral for "27",
perhaps the age of the man depicted on the stone.
Judging from his helmet, this warrior
portrayed on a stone from the southern
Illinois cave belonged to the Roman Era equivalent of a
"special forces" unit.
Copyright by Frank Joseph
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
"The Lost Treasure of King Juba" --- with 115 photos
and illistrations of the Cave's artifacts --- is available from
amazon.com
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The
Lost Treasure of King Juba: The Evidence of Africans in
America before Columbus (Paperback)
by Frank Joseph
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Book Description
The story of a mysterious southern Illinois
treasure cave and its proof of the presence of Africans
in North America long before Columbus.
-
Includes over 100 photographs of the
artifacts discovered.
-
Re-creates the historic voyage of King
Juba and his Mauretanian sailors across the Atlantic
to rebuild their society in the New World.
-
Explains the mystery of the Washitaws,
a tribal group of African origin, first encountered
by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In 1982 Russell E. Burrows, a treasure
hunter in southern Illinois, stumbled on a cache of
ancient weapons, jewels, and gold sarcophagi in a remote
cave. There also were stone tablets inscribed with
illustrations of Roman-like soldiers, Jews, early
Christians, and West African sailors. These relics
fueled a bitter controversy in the archaeological
community regarding their authenticity, leading Burrows
to destroy the entrance to the cave.
Researching more than 7,000 artifacts
removed from the cave before it was sealed, Frank Joseph
explains how these objects came to be buried in the
middle of the United States. It started with Cleopatra,
whose daughter was made queen of the semi-independent
realm of Mauretania, present-day Morocco, which she
ruled with her husband, King Juba II. Following the
execution of their son, Ptolemy, by Emperor Caligula,
the Mauretanians rebelled against their Roman overlords
and made their way into what is now Ghana. There they
constructed a fleet of ships for a transatlantic voyage
to a land where they hoped to rebuild their kingdom safe
from Roman rule. They took with them a great prize
unsuccessfully sought by two Roman emperors: Cleopatra's
golden treasure and King Juba's encyclopedic library of
ancient wisdom.
Fully illustrated with many previously
unpublished photographs of artifacts retrieved from the
southern Illinois site, The Lost Treasure of King Juba
is a compelling story that could force us to rethink the
early history of our nation and the possibility that
Africans arrived on our continent nearly fifteen
centuries before Columbus.
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EUP
radio interview (18MB - MP3)
Full
podcast
with Frank Joseph at eup.mikes-pc.net
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