The writer of this column is almost 70 years old and a great grandpa. He has lived long enough and is enough of an intellectual explorer to have had his worldview shattered more than once. As a young man he was somewhat arrogant and smug in his certain knowledge that mankind’s accumulated knowledge provided us with correct answers regarding the history of our planet, our species and even the physical laws of the universe. This weekly column is intended to entertain you by exposing some of the more glaring scientific and historical anomalies which have been bypassed by our educational system. Your comments will be sincerely appreciated.
— Will Barkeley
barkley93611@yahoo.com

What if…?
Humans walked this earth, wearing shoes, between 213 and 248 million years ago?

Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson wrote a book titled Forbidden Archeology, The Hidden History of the Human Race, which was first published in 1993. To my mind this book is one that should be used as a college level textbook for a course in archeology. This will probably never happen because the book is more concerned with cataloging and describing anomalous true archeological discoveries than it is with following the accepted academic and “scientific” storyline regarding the existence of civilized beings on our earth—whether they were humans or not.

Footprint in an ancient rock (www.pip.com.au)

On page 807 of Forbidden Archeology is a photograph (Figure A2.6) with this descriptive text, “Partial shoe sole in Triassic rock from Nevada (Ballou 1922). The Triassic is dated at 213-248 million years ago.” In an article dated October 8, 1922, a Dr. W.H. Ballou wrote the following, “Some time ago, while he was prospecting for fossils in Nevada, John T. Reid, a distinguished mining engineer and geologist, stopped suddenly and looked down in utter bewilderment and amazement at a rock near his feet. For there, a part of the rock itself was what seemed to be a human footprint! Closer examination showed that it was not a mark of a naked foot, but was, apparently, a shoe sole, which had been turned into stone. The forepart was missing but there was the outline of at least two-thirds of it, and around this entire outline ran a well-defined sewn thread, which had, it appeared, attached the welt to the sole.”

The scientific “experts” who examined this find stated that it was “only a remarkable imitation, a lusus naturae, or ‘freak of nature’” while various manufacturers of shoes agreed that “originally the specimen was a hand-welted sole.”

The account goes on to state that under 20X magnification the minutest detail of thread twist and warp proves conclusively that the shoe sole is not a “resemblance,” but is strictly the handiwork of man. So, here we have, literally, hard evidence of mankind’s existence over 200 million years ago- if we agree on the dating of Triassic rocks. People who are believers and investors in the contemporary evolutionary storyline just cannot accept this evidence. To do so would mean changing their worldview and mindset and that is just too painful and too much trouble! Then they would be out of sync with their colleagues and maybe their colleagues would not respect them anymore.

My copy of Forbidden Archeology has 914 pages and it is just full of anomalous archeological material. I received an email this week from a paradigm defender who said to me, “But I could be wrong about why people like yourself pretend there is some problem with evolution (as opposed to there being a very few as-yet-unexplained anomalies.)” Notice that he admits the existence of “as-yet-unexplained anomalies” but implies that they are inconsequential because they are “very few”. From my own limited reading and Internet research I have discovered a very large number of anomalies, any one of which should make an honest investigator question the prevailing storyline. However, I believe that, in most situations like this, we are not dealing with honesty or the search for the truth, but with a gut level fear of the unknown. Paradigm defenders have to feel that they KNOW what existence is all about. Well, enough philosophizing…let’s get back to our anomalies, which is the real reason for this column.

A metallic sphere from South Africa with three parallel grooves around its equator (photo courtesy of Roelf Marx). The sphere was found in a Precambrian mineral deposit, said to be 2.8 billion years old. (p. 813, Forbidden Archeology)

How about a metallic sphere with three parallel grooves around its equator which was found in a Precambrian mineral deposit, said to be 2.8 billion years old??? (That’s even older than the Oklo nuclear reactors!) This account is on page 813 of Forbidden Archeology and also has a photograph of the specimen. The authors state, “Over the past several decades, South African miners have found hundreds of metallic spheres, at least one of which has three parallel grooves running around it equator (Figure A2.9).” “In the absence of a satisfactory natural explanation, the evidence is somewhat mysterious, leaving open the possibility that the South African grooved sphere was made by an intelligent being.” Wowee!

On page 798 is an account of an article which appeared in Scientific American in June, 1852. It details how some rock blasting was going on in Dorchester, Massachusetts and among the huge pieces of rock rubble (some weighing several tons) a metallic vase was discovered. The vase had been blown apart by the explosion but when the two pieces were fitted to each other it was a bell shaped vessel measuring 4.5 inches high, 6.5 inches at the base and 2.5 inches at the top. Quoting directly from the report “The body of this vessel resembles zinc in color, or a composition metal, in which there is a considerable portion of silver. On the side there are six figures of a flower, or bouquet, beautifully inlaid with pure silver, and around the lower part of the vessel a vine, or wreath, also inlaid with silver. The chasing, carving, and inlaying are exquisitely done by the art of some cunning workman. This curious and unknown vessel was blown out of the solid pudding stone, fifteen feet below the surface.”

The Scientific American goes on to ridicule this remarkable find. Of course, this same publication published articles for months after the Wright brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk stating that the whole affair was a hoax since heavier than air flight was impossible!