PureInsight | January 3, 2001
Images and messages from the incredible past
Metal-working is by no means the only sign of advanced culture: Other characteristics include such developments as art, architecture and writing. Since we have already observed several examples of metal production encased in geologic rock, it should be no surprise to find examples of other cultural elements also entombed deep within the earth.
In 1921, an Arkansan named Rowlands was digging in one of the many gravel pits on a line of small hillocks known as Crowley's Ridge, located two miles north of Finch. At a depth of 10 feet, Rowlands' shovel suddenly struck something large and solid. The object appeared at first to be a boulder, but excavating around it, Rowlands soon discovered that it was a large rock-sculptured head of a man. It stood about 4 feet high, and the figure had a squared, protruding chin, small, tight-lipped mouth, a short nose, and a furrowed brow and stare accented by two flat 'buttons' of inlaid gold for eyes. Two more gold discs ornamented the figure's ears, and a heart-shaped plug of copper was embedded in the chest. The top of the head was covered by a carved hood that draped down the nape, and attached to a piece around the neck. Near the head, and in the same layer, Rowlands dug up a number of smaller objects: a gold ring, a small coffer made of volcanic pumice (which does not exist in this region), and tiny carvings of men, animals, moons and stars.
The head and artifacts soon became a local attraction, and the newspapers dubbed the glowering figure 'King Crowley.' Several investigators authenticated the find, though they could not explain its presence in the ten-foot layer of gravel - geologically dated at 175,000 years. The head and objects were sent to the Arkansas Natural History Museum in Little Rock. The museum curators, who also examined the artifacts and had double-checked and documented their discovery, were confident in the findings' authenticity to place them on public display. At the same time, however, some of the small carving samples were mailed to the Smithsonian in Washington. The Smithsonian - being a far more conservative institution -described the carvings as truly 'unexplained items,' but could not reconcile the antiquity of the strata in which they had been brought to light. Finally, after fifteen years of vacillating on the subject, orthodoxy triumphed: The Smithsonian concluded that the Crowley Ridge artifacts could not be 175,000 years old as this contradicted established theory on the age of human civilization, and therefore declared the artifacts fakes. Conforming to this prestigious conservative pronouncement, the Little Rock museum promptly took the stone head and other objects off display, and eventually sold them to unnamed private collectors. The 'King Crowley' had was shipped off to California, and the rest of the collection was similarly scattered to the four winds. Today, the location of even a single object is unknown.
One wonders how many other valuable out-of-place items, because they do not conform to 'acceptable' schemes of history and geology, have been likewise thrown out or lost by Establishment institutions.
On June 27,1969, workmen cutting into a rock shelf situated on the Broadway Extension of 122nd Street, between Edmond and Oklahoma City, came upon a find that was to create much controversy among the experts. The find was an inlaid tile floor, found 3 feet below the surface, and covering several thousand square feet. Durwood Pate, an Oklahoma City geologist, commented on the floor in the Edmond Booster of July 3, 1969:
'I am sure this was man-made because the stones are placed in perfect sets of parallel lines which intersect to form a diamond shape, all pointing to the east. We found post holes which measure a perfect two rods from the other two. The top of the stone is very smooth, and if you lift one of them, you will find it is very jagged, which indicates wear on the surface. Everything is too well placed to be a natural formation.'
Pate also discovered a form of mortar between the tiles. He believes now that the tile surface served as a common floor for several human shelters over a wide area. Delbert Smith, a geologist and president of the Oklahoma Seismograph Company, summed up the mystery concerning the tile floor in the Tulsa World of June 29, 1969: 'There is no question about it. It had been laid there, but I have no idea by whom.' Yet another facet of the mystery involved the question of age. There are some differing opinions as to the geology involved, but the best estimate places the tiles at 200,000 years old.
On August 1, 1889, a professional well-driller, M.A. Kurtz, was working near his home in Nampa, Idaho, along with two other crewmen, when their steam pump suddenly spat out a piece of brownish clay 11/2 inches long that was clearly humanoid in appearance. The discovery was also eye-witnessed by several prominent citizens of Nampa. What amazed these men was that the little clay 'doll' had come from below a 15-foot layer of lava rock, 100 feet of sand, 6 inches of clay, 40 feet of more sand, then 165 feet composed of clay, sand, clay nodules mixed with sand, and coarse sand layers - a total of 320 feet.
The small 'doll' is composed of half clay and half quartz, and according to at least one expert, Professor Albert A. Wright of Oberlin College, it was not the product of a small child or amateur, but was made by a true artist. Though badly battered by time, the doll's appearance is still distinct: it has a bulbous head, with barely discernible mouth and eyes; broad shoulders; short, thick arms; and long legs, the right leg broken off. There are also faint geometric markings on the figure, which represent either clothing patterns or jewelry -they are found mostly on the chest around the neck, and on the arms and writs. The doll is the image of a person of a high civilization, artistically attired.
The Nampa doll came to the attention of Dr. G.F. Wright of the Boston Society of Natural History, who sought to verify the depth at which it was found - and thus also establish its great antiquity. In an on-location examination of Kurtz's equipment, the hole drilled, and interviews with the witnesses, Dr. Wright became convinced the find was genuine. Kurtz demonstrated that the well had been tubed with heavy iron tubing 6 inches in diameter, so that there was no mistake about the occurrence of the artifact at the stated depth. Furthermore, the pump worked in only one direction - had the object fallen into the hole from above, it would have been destroyed by the pump. Wright concluded in a report to the Boston Society that, 'There is no ground to question the fact that this image came up in the sand pump from the depth reported.' In another study, fellow Bostonian Professor F.W. Putnam found through microscopic analysis that quartz grains under the doll's right arm had been cemented by iron molecules. This too - independent of the fact of the depth of the discovery - is indicative of a great age.
How old is the Nampa object? The lava rock layer through which Kurtz's drill penetrated is part of the prehistoric lava flows of the Columbia Plateau which occurred before the advance of the last Ice Age. And below this layer, the image was discovered another 300 feet down. The best modern geologic estimate puts the date for the layer in which the doll was found at over 300,000 years. Today, the Nampa doll is on exhibit at the Idaho State Historical Society in Boise.
Curiously enough, a second doll-like figure was discovered sometime before 1880 near Marlboro in Stark County, Ohio, by workmen drilling a well. The image - made of black variegated marble and standing 6 inches tall - was unearthed from a depth of only 120 feet, but was embedded in sand and gravel of a similar type and age as that of the Nampa doll. There were two things remarkable about the Ohio figure: First, the marble it is made of is not indigenous to Ohio; and second, it bears an astonishing resemblance to the image found at Nampa. One can see in it the same bulbous head, simple facial features, stocky frame and long arms and legs. Did the two, the Ohio and Idaho 'dolls,' come from the same enigmatic lost civilization? The evidence answers yes.
