Friday, January 4, 2008

"Ancient Civilization" Found?

Personally, I think it's - okay, I won't say it's baloney, I'll just say it's suspicious and leave it at that (for now). I wasn't going to report on this "find" of a supposedly heretofore unknown civilization near Lake Issyk (Tien Shan Mountains), but dondelion published a little blurb about it in our Random Round-up at Goddesschess last week. So, for what it is worth, here is a link to a story about it. What troubles me about this story is the lack of facts - this doesn't even qualify as a "tourist" or "amateur" slanted story - you know the type of story - basically entertaining "fluff." First, there are no dates given. Second, these expeditions and excavations(?) supposedly have taken place over eight years. After eight years on the job one would assume that there would be some BASIC information available about the discoveries. Why, then, such a lack of the most basic information in this story? Third, how come the ruins "next store" to the lake cannot be dated? The Scythians were a well known, distinctive group of people; if the Scythians were in the area, surely there are surviving artifacts that can be dated - even approximately would be better than leaving the reader dangling in mid-air! Why publish something like this in English without providing further information to back it up? Eight years of discoveries at this site - and we're first hearing about it now? I can - just barely in this day and age - accept that, because archaeologists are notoriously slow and paranoid about publishing their findings. But publishing this kind of story is - baloney.

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