Is reality the second best option?

May 17, 2006

5 min read

A British Puma flies over Visoko. Photo by Torbein.

I wasn’t too surprised by some of the responses to the Bosnian Pyramid posts, though the quantity was high. One reason for not writing more on it was the sheer number of visitors. I’ve had to pay for increased bandwidth which I can’t really afford to do again. There were a few people that noted I was an idiot, which told me nothing I didn’t know already, but no flaws in my reasoning. I assume that means that everyone accepts that the press releases coming out from Visoko are so nonsensical even an idiot can spot the errors. Therefore if you want to archaeologically examine the hill to find out what happened there in the past then the dig is probably a bad idea. There are lots of important things on the site and Osmanagić doesn’t seem to be aware of the problems he has recording it. Or else doesn’t care. But is the dig really about finding history or creating myth?

“And if it’s not a pyramid, then we make one,” said a man from Visoko after we asked him what he thinks of the pyramid shaped hill.

Butterflies and Bunnyrabbits

Nearby, the manager of a food factory was flogging “Bosnian Sun Pyramid” pralines. Hawkers sold hastily printed T-shirts and brandy in pyramid-shaped bottles while craftsmen turned out pyramid souvenirs. Retiree Rasim Kilalic turned his weekend home near the dig into a cafe. “Please God, let them find a pyramid,” he said, rushing to serve crowded tables.

Washington Post

There’s no doubt that the excavation and interest is helping the local economy. If that can be maintained and the town becomes a New Age mecca then this becomes an economic question. Is a pyramid, real or imaginary, worth more than the genuine remains on the hill? That is not an easy question to answer. Sites get destroyed all the time for economic reasons. Last month the Times reported on the destruction of Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi in Ecija, Spain. The Roman forum, and what are assumed to be the last surviving remains of the site were demolished for a car park. Is this reasonable? A hundred years ago such a thing was unnecessary. In fifty years time transport could change radically thanks to the oil peak. It is a short term decision. In contrast the decision to create a heritage park, even if it is created heritage, to boost the fortunes of a whole town doesn’t seem unreasonable.

This gives pause for thought when combined with John Jones’s comment:

Even if some of the pictures or the maps are wrong, there is still something there. This upsets you and you dont want your little world changed.

If the lack of evidence isn’t important and the site has value because of a truth of the heart, then he’s right – it could change the world for archaeologists. Not in terms of the theories they construct because you’re supposed to at least have some evidence to back up your claims. But if people decided that imagined heritage is more valuable than real heritage then that will strike at the concept of archaeologists being guardians of the past, which many believe. If reality is irrelevant to heritage claims then archaeologists’ grip on the past is loosened. Then there’s the argument that the concept of heritage is socially constructed and so not necessary connected to reality…

So it’s not necessarily a simple question to answer. What is the purpose of heritage? If it’s an economic asset then public demolition as a tourist magnet is an option to be considered. Ultimately it’s not whether or not the pyramid is real that will matter to the locals, it’s whether or not people will come to see it.

That makes some people see the pyramids as either real or hoax. While I don’t think they’re real I don’t think it automatically makes them a hoax either. A hoax is an intentional and insincere deception. If Osmanagić is perpetrating a hoax then he doesn’t believe the hill is a pyramid.

I did think he was sincere.

A hoaxer would try and avoid having his ideas tested. It’s about selling mystery. That’s why good Atlantis books put Atlantis somewhere like Antarctica or Mars or anywhere else that’s inaccessible. No one is going to dig through the pack ice to examine Antarctica for ancient ruins in the near future. Osmanagić on the other hand is digging his hill and plans to have it open as an exhibit in 2008. That’s astonishingly fast. If you assume the hardback of his new book comes out this summer, then the paperback next summer, that only leaves a year before it’s debunked and pulped when he’s proved wrong.

Then I read an email from Grace Fegan, an Irish archaeologist named in press releases as working on the site posted to http://prevara.bloger.hr/blog_12087.aspx which included this:

Mr Osmanagich used my name in connection with his project when he had no right to do so. He also seems to have made every attempt to make me into something that I am not. In addition he potentially misled those who visited the website that they could contact me, and that whatever responses they would receive would be from me.

Elsewhere Osmanagić claims he was misquoted when he suggested that the pyramid was built before the end of the Ice Age. One of the sites which is misquoting him is the official site. See questions 3 and 14.

Comments-wise you’re welcome to disagree with me. Disagreeing with me doesn’t mean that I’ll automatically assume you’re braindead. The mainstream media has been amazingly uncritical, so accepting that this is a pyramid is not stupid. This is why I don’t simply say accept what I’ve said either but check the workings of what I’ve done when examining his evidence.

I realise some people think it’s terribly arrogant to base your opinion on the evidence rather than whether or not the dig is a good show. What can I say? I am that arrogant. For instance I think the Titantic is a shipwreck purely on the evidence presented. I’ve never actually visited the site. There are thousands upon thousands of archaeological sites in Europe. It would be impossible to visit them all so you have to learn how to judge the evidence and make occaisional visits to some sites to check you’re interpreting the evidence in a reliable way.

Having said all that if you still think I’m a fool then you can say so below. I do request that you don’t offend other commenters though. That includes personal abuse directed at them and posting porn links.

It is a shame that while everyone’s been looking at Visoko they’ve missed some genuinely exciting archaeoastronomical discoveries in Peru and Brazil.

You can see the previous Bosnian Pyramid posts here.