Lost Golden City

One of the greatest finds by archaeologists is the 3,000 year old city that was lost to the sands of Egypt. It was unearthed within weeks of an excavation that started in September 2020.

This city dates back to the rein of Amenhotep III. He was one of Egypts most powerful pharaoh’s who ruled from 1391 to 1353. “The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun,” says Betsy Brian, a professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, US. Tutankhamun’s, almost intact tomb, was discovered in the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

This great find revealed a lage number of valuables such as, jewelry, colored pottery, scarab beetle amulets and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III. This city is believed to have been founded by Amenhotep III, one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful rulers. These precious artifacts were found on the site, near Valley of the Kings.

What these archaeologists have unearthed is the site of a large city in good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and rooms filled with tools of daily use. Several months after the dig started, several areas, (neighborhoods) have been uncovered; bakery, administrative district, and a residential area. They believe that through further archaeological work, they can expect to uncover tombs filled with treasures.

Egypt carried the remains of their country’s ancient rulers through Cairo in a historic procession. They seek to promote its ancient heritage to revive their tourism sector. It has been flagged after years of political disturbance and disruption that was caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. In this lavish spectacle, 22 mummies, 18 kings and four queens, were seen. They were transported from the neo-classical Egyptian Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization only 5km away. Among the mummies transferred to the new resting place was Amenhotep III and his wife, Queen Tiye.

A team working at Alexandria’s Taposiris Magna Temple, discovered 16 burias, in rock-cut tombs, that were popular during the Greek and Roman eras. Inside these tombs were poorly-preserved mummies with golden tongues. It is thought that the dead were given gold foil amulets, shaped like tongues so that they may speak before the court of the god Osiris n the afterlife. Osiris was, by the Egyptians, believed to be the lord of the underworld and judge of the dead.

The cartonnage around one of the mummy’s heads, was the gilded decorations that depicted a crown, horns, and a cobra snake. On the chest, the decorations depicted a necklace from which hung the head of a falcon, which is the symbol of the god Horus. Also found, is what appears to be the funeral of a masked woman, eight golden flakes of a golden wreath and eight marble masks that date back to the Greek and Roman eras. The antiquities ministry said that a number of coins bearing the name and portrait of Queen Cleopatra VII had previosly been found inside this temple. After the death of Cleopatra VII, Egypt had fallen under Roman domination.

This Lost City of Gold is a remarkable find by archaeologists and I for one, felt it needed to be shared with the world, as it may give us a further insight into the unknown, the unexplainable, and the once forgotten people who formed history today.

Thank you for joining me.

A Door into Evermoor

An interview with the author of this YA Fantatsy book, while being enthralled in the world he created, also provided insight. I too had no one that inspired me outside of Stephen King. It was just a passion I held within myself much like Kent Wayne, author of A Door into Evermore.

During my interview I asked questiions that would not only dive into his psyche when writing and creating this world, but also things that like myself, would help when we didn’t take those creative classes like everyone else, it was just within us to write.

Kent Wayne’s story for A Door into Evermoor, Vol. 1 of the Unbound Realm, as he stated, “Comes from my younger self’s desire to avoid adulting”. His character Jon, is in a somewhat similar situation. Kent stated that he had purposefully created him as a well-off, first-worlder, that was a blank slate in terms of being a person.

The simplest thing for this character to do is finish college, get a job, get married, etc., etc. This man has nothing to complain about, but he can’t articulate why he isn’t content, all he can do is complain about his prospects because they don’t bring him joy.

How many of us have ever felt this way?I for one have. So Kent Wayne created a world in which this character has a chance meeting with a military recruiter. For lack of a better phrase, this recruiter turns out to be a supernatural entity, that is also a protagonist in some of Wayne’s other books. This is where Jon will entera fantasy world where he is told he is the chosen one. Inside this book there are wonderous creatures and cultures. Despite the fact that this character is blown away by all its novely, he is still trying to escape responsibility and the problems in the fantasy world, which mirrors the ones on Earth.

Wayne states that this is why he called the realm, Evermoor. It is a play on words as in, “More of the same”.

I enjoyed what he had to say as far as the philosophical aspect. He based his series on the concept of the Eternal Realm. In a speech by Alan Watts, he puts forth the premise of “What would you do if you had the power within one night to dream a lifetime as you wished?

Wayne’s idea for this book is credited toward Kings’ book, Drawing of the Three, specifically where the character Roland drinks Pepsi and is blown away by the sweetness of the soda. The other credit is to Alan Watts’ speech and question he posed.

Waayne states, ” Much like how a lot of cool stuff reslults from Roland’s (Stephen King’s character in the Drawing of the Three), interactions with Earth. I wanted to describe the wonders Job feels when he encounters the magic of Evermoor. When takes the inhabitants of Evermoor back with him to Earth. I wanted to channel the same thing, only in reverse.”

Not understanding psychology well enough to understand how motives become follow-on-actions,or how to turn a premise into a story, he had dabbled in writing in his teens and his early twenties. In his thirties he took a deep dive into his writing.

I absolutely love this man’s honesty. He states, ” What drives me each day is I’m not afraid to suck. My first drafts are clunky, filled with unnecessary repitition, and painful to read. All I’m looking for in the first draft is what triggers a sense of excitement or potential from me. Later, during the editing processs, I edit to death, around thirty drafts or so, and cut more than half of my original manuscript. I refine that potential and excitement into what I think will be enjoyable to other people.”

Wayne says that once he started studying himself more, writers block was the opposite for him. He promotes these questions:

• Why am I motivated to do the things I do?
• How do I see a problem through from start to finish, and why”?
• What did each step symbolize for me?

Wayne states that, “Those would be good places to start, in my opinion, if you want to vanquish writer’s block. ” Wayne asks, ” Why do characters see themselves the way they do, and how do I express that in a series of events? Then amp it up as much as possible; use your imagination to push that expression right up to theedge of absurdity, but don’t cross over, unless you’re a comedian.”

I dove into Kent Wayne’s own psych amd asked him about music and where his ideas for his characters came from. Here is what he had to say:

“I usually listen to cheerful, poppy music, even when I’m writing horrible stuff. like giant cyborgs pulling spinal vertebrea out from the little kids…….. (Apex in Echo 4). Taylor Swift, K-Pop, nineties soft rock…”

“My ideas for characters come from different angles. A lot of the time, I need to express certain philosophies or viewpoint to contrast with others. I try to build characters around these viewpoints, and try to sneak in a flavor into everything they do- into what they say, their history, and, of course, their behavior.”

Much like myself, Wayne stated that he had attended writing circles, but felt they were generally negative. It was a place where others judge each others’ writing- strictly against their own writing standards.

I enjoyed the writing advice he had to offer: ” As a writer, I would pay attention to rythm. Most of the other stuff-structure, psychology, etc- is covered in classed or texts. Rythm is probably the most fluid elemnt in writing, since it changes with culture and time…By rythm, I mean the cadence of words, much like the rhythm in dance or music. You want to use repetition to draw the reader in, but not too much , unless you’re trying to make a deliberate point with it. “

Kent Wayne uses the word “and” as an example. He says that the word flattens the rhythm.

He compares rhythm with chapters in a book. He doesn’t like it when he is reading a book, it’s fast paced, and it abruptly switches to a slow-paced scene. It throws things off for him. He says that this is why he edits his stories over and over. He suggest paying attention to rhythm, because it draws your reader in on a subconscious level.

Kent Wayne says his upcoming books will be volumes 2 and 3 of the Unbound Realm. I urge you to purchase his book” Door into Evermoor” on Amazon or wherever your purchase your books.

As an Amazon affilliat I am going to provide you with the link to purchase his book.

Thank you for following Voices, past, present, and future.

Vanishing Submarines

Questions still linger over a bizarre series of Cold War incidents involving four submarines that all vanished in the early months of 1968. What is it about these submarines that makes it so hard to solve what happened to them?

The Scorpion, a nuclear-powered submarine had just undergone weapons testing and type training at her port in Norfolk, Virginia only weeks earlier, but not without incident. There had bee an electrical fire that had erupted in one of the submarine’s escape hatches, it also experienced a Freon leak in its refrigeration systems. It is said that this might have contributed to the Scorpion observing a depth limitation of no more than 500 feet that following February.

Throughout the Cold War years, it was not uncommon for US and Soviet vessels to routinely observe one another, the Scorpion had been no exception to this as she made her departure from Rota. The US was aware that Soviet hunter-killer submarines were monitoring traffic exiting from the Naval base, and part of the detail the Scorpion was assigned involved observation of Soviet activity in the Atlantic.

The Scorpion had successfully detected and surveyed a Soviet Echo II-class submarine, along with an accompanying guided missile destroyer. Afterwards, the Scorpion had headed back on a northbound course toward Norfolk, (supposedly).

A US Naval communications station located at Nea Makri, Greece had began receiving an unusual amount of radio traffic from the Scorpion on May 20, 1967. The Scorpion had not been able to reach their most recent departure point and had made several attempts to dispatch radio traffic for more than 24 hours. A final radio dispatch on May 21 indicated that the Scorpion was pursuing a Soviet submarine and research group, with the aim of initiating “surveillance of the Soviets”, according to the last message.

Now only a week later, American newspapers had reported that the Scorpion had failed to return to Norfolk by its expected arrival date. The Navy had worried that an onboard failure, because of the electrical problems the ship had experienced the previous year, might have occurred, and prompted an initial search effort that would prove to be unsuccessful. The USS Scorpion was declared “presumed lost” in early June of 1968.

The Scorpion was only one of four submarines that had gone missing in 1968.

There have been theories about what could have happened to the Scorpion.

• A Hydrogen Explosion- this was the proximal cause for the loss and was assessed and analyzed. It was determined by this analysis that the leading theory for the loss was a result of a hydrogen build-up due to changes in the ventilation line-up while proceeding to periscope depth. This is consistent with two small explosions aboard the Scorpion, only a half-second apart, that were picked up by hydrophones.
• The classified version of the US Navy’s court of inquiries report, finally released in 1993, listed accidents involving the Mark 37 Torpedo as 3 of the most probable causes for the loss of the Submarine, which included a hot-running torpedo, an accidentally or deliberately launched weapon, or that inadvertent activation of a torpedo by stray voltage.
• A later theory was that a torpedo may have exploded in the tube , which could have been caused by an uncontrollable fire in the torpedo room. The Mark 46 silver-zinc battery used in the Mark 37 torpedo had a tendency to overheat, and in extreme cases could cause fire that was strong enough to cause a low-order detonation of the warhead. If the detonation had occured, it might have opened the boat’s large torpedo- loading hatch and caused the Scorpion to flood and sink.
• The submarine could have been destroyed by a “hot-running torpedo”. Other subs in that fleet had replaced their defective torpedo batteries, but the Navy had wanted the Scorpion to complete its mission first. If the Scorpion had fired a defective topedo, it could have sought out a target and turned back to strike the sub that had launched it.

While all of these theories are plausible, might I just reiterate that the Scorpion had been en route to gather intelligence on a Soviet naval group conducting operations in the Atlantic. While the mission for which the submarine was diverted from their original course back to her home port is a matter of record, its detail still remain classified.

There is evidence that points toward involvement by the KGB spy ring led by John Anthony Walker Jr., who was in the heart of the U.S Navy’s communications. It could have known that the Scorpion submarine was coming to investigate the Soviet flotilla. There is a theory that suggests that both navies agreed to hide the truth about both USS Scorpion and K-129 incidents.

While results of the US Navy’ various investigations into the loss of the Scorpion remain inconclusive, if we take the information that we do know, I can only find two theories that make possble sense: the faulty battery and the fact that this submarine was investigating the Soviets at the time of their demise. I can only leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions as to what might have happened to these 99 crew members aboard the submarine that no one has answers for.

The Oak Island Mysteries

In the off-chance that you haven’t been watching the Oak Island Mystery TV series, here is a little background into the mysteries behind the island.

Oak Island Mystery refers to the stories of buried treasures and unexplained objects that are found on or near Oak Island in Nova Scotia.

A number of attempts have been made to locate these treasures and artifacts. Many theories about the artifacts on the island range from pirate treasures to Shakespearean manuscripts, possibly th Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, the Grail and the Ark having been buried there by the Knights Templar.

This should peak your interest, so travel with me now into the depths of the Oak Island Mystery.

Various items over the years have surfaced, and some of which have been carbon-dated and found to be hundreds of years old. Now although these items are considered treasures in their own right, no significant main treasure site has ever been found. The original dig site, in an unknow location, was dug by early explorers and is known as “The Mone Pit”. “The Curse” is said to have originated more than a century ago and it states that seven men will die in the search for the treasure before it is found. To date, six men have died in efforts to find this treasure. An account was written in 1862. The Onslow Company excavated 80-90 feet. Afterward the pit flooded with seawater up to the 33-foot level…..attempts to remove this water was unsuccessful.

Treasure hunters later claimed that coconut fibers were discovered beneath the surface of a beach in 1851, known as Smith’s Cove. This led to a theory that the beach had been converted into a siphon, feeding the seawater into the pit through a man-made tunnel.

A STONE WITH ALLEGED MARKINGS

A stone was found 90 feet below the surface, and was said to have been inscribed with “mysterious markings”. An article claimed that the stone was held by the Smith family. A treasure hunter George Cook, claimed that Smith built the stone into his chimney in 1824 and said that he was shown the stone by Smith in the chimney around 1850. At that time Cook said, “There were some crude cut letters, figures or characters upon it. I cannont recollect which but they appear as if they had been scraped out by a blunt instrumen, raher than cut with a sharp one.” In 1864, Cook had made inquiries and discovered that the chimney had been enclosed in wood and surrounded by a staircase making the stone no longer visible. One researcher who read the cipher on the stone said the scratchings on the stone transcribe as, “Forty feet below, two million pound lie buried”.

Many theories have come about in regards to “the money pit”. The most fanciful of all is that the pit held a pirate treasure buried by Captain Kidd. Kidd and Henry Avery were reported as having took treasure together, and Oak Island was their community bank. Another theory involved Edward Teach (Blackbeard) who said that he buried his treasure, “where none but Satan and myself can find it.”

There is also an unproven story alleging that Marie Antoinett’s jewels, all missing except for specimens in museum collections, may have been hidden on the island when she reportedly instructed her maid to flee with her jewels.

If you are one interested in buried treasures, it may be worth looking at the television series, where it claims that the islands secrets are revealed.