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Saturday, July 16, 2016

Nunez Expedition 1771 Followup


1736

In my last article I mentioned that at the site of the two mine dumps was a pine with axe marks seemingly marking the spot, which sounds stupid because the mine dumps were sufficient enough for that... so why mark the tree? Well I also didn't have an increment borer with me that day but I made a return trip to core the tree to gain at least an idea as to when the axe marks were made...


Based on the core which was incomplete due to heart rot, the average rings on the outer circumference was about 40 rings per inch, the first thing to determine is whether the tree is old enough to bear an authentic mark from the Nunez expedition. Based on the overgrowth SINCE the axe marks were made, with an estimated overgrowth of 5 to 6 inches,  about 240 years have past since the axe marks were made.

This opportunity enabled me to visit another tree I found almost 20 years back, one I hade always questioned its authenticity. It was long over due for sampling, but unfortunately the tree had died since my last visit which has been some 5 or 6 years... The Carving is simple, and really did not lend any new insight and this perhaps is why I never cored it. The carving says, IWDP OCT 1736, almost 40 years prior to the Nunez expedition and 40 years prior to Escalante supposed only expedition by the Spanish into Utah.
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Photos from 1999 when the tree was still alive.

Now I know... I have heard it all concerning the age of aspens, the so called experts will tell you and aspen does not live more than 150 years, this is rubbish and has been proven to many times to count, the oldest aspen I have personally sampled, followed by an expert in the field, was just short of 500 years. I would be happy... no thrilled! to prove this to the skeptic...


The aspen above being dead when I arrived just a few days ago, makes it difficult to sample, fortunately another appearing to be about the same diameter, age etc... was just 5 feet away, with a 12 inch radius and focusing on the outer rings, I counted an average of 30 to 35 rings per inch and ignored the early years of the tree as the rings in early growth are larger, I estimated the age of the dead tree at about 300 + years. Now on aspens you cannot date the carving itself like you can a pine, but at least we do know the tree was at least 40 to 50 years of age when it was carved, ASSUMING the date and carving are authentic, a perfect age of an aspen for carving.



As it appears today.

What does IWDP stand for? If authentic, who was it in the Hoyt Peak area in 1736? Trappers? Spanish? French maybe?

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Nunez expediton of 1771 cache?

Some of you are familiar with the Nunez map and some are not... This map or copy of first came into my possession September 2nd 2001, the map created quite a stir at the time, the origins of this map is only known by a few and I cannot elaborate. When I first received the map two of the first things that caught my eye is the two presumed cache location on the map, those familiar with it know that I am referring to the double box with dots (Split Cache) and the box with the cross in the center with four intentional dots at each corner, likely being a delayed tithing shipment.



Why is there intentional dots placed at the four corners?
Compare to the double box located on the same map...



The first mentioned cache above was thought to be in a particular area where in most familiar with the map would ascertain... even I presumed this to be the place until my good friend Wild Bill sent me a photo of a tree he had found which would later prove to be an authentic carving upon an aspen, the aspen in question proved by core sample to be approximately 290 years of age, this being in 2010 and IF carved at the time of the Nunez expedition, the tree would would have been 51 years of age, a perfect tree age for carving... later we would locate nearby another 4 trees of an equivalent age, bearing the carving of a double box, Turtle, Heart and one legua symbol. Since this time we have been in the process of resolving the site, but the one important thing it taught us was... Perspective, any one familiar with the Nunez map knows that it is drawn erroneously out of perspective beyond what many are... the author of it in my estimation was not a cartographer, but no matter as he was able to capture details of landmarks making it in some ways better than those done by a cartographer.

The latter presumed cache location mentioned above for whatever reason I had not attempted to discover until recently when I was asked to review the map again for future expeditions. In reviewing my assumptions of 2005 or 06 when google earth first came about, I recognized certain things I had not in previous years. I made the corrections and as some of you know, made a trip yesterday to verify and discover of my new perspective was correct. This part of the story I will keep short but we did find what we think is the location indicated on the map, but we are no wiser as to what it means?

According to the observations made yesterday, it would appear there are two mine dumps a larger one and a smaller one above it. 




Each has newer working on top of it due to what appears to be the results of someone trying to located the covered entrances at about the turn of the century to about 70 years ago, we are still trying to sort this out with the evidences of barbed wire, nails and wire wrapped around a tree that would not seem to be very old.




In all of this, I wandered the site trying to find any evidence of antiquity although my eyes could plainly see the antiquity of the old tailings... finally I notice a scar on a large pine of unknown age located between the dumps, this type of scar I would normally ignore but looking closely I found the same axe mark pattern which can be found and the REAL Mine of the Utes location not two miles as a crow flies to the North. the overgrowth of 4 plus inches being the growth of the tree since it was carved or cut is equivalent to those found at another place believed to have been cut by those of the Nunez Expedition of 1771.


Based on the evidences viewed at the site, it would seem someone in the past found these two mine dumps, but apparently the mines had been back filled, this would be the reason that starting from the top of the two dumps, it would seem the finders began digging trenches away from the dumps which appears to be an attempt to find the hidden tunnels, at the end of one trench a hole heads on a downward angle about 25 feet but obviously it is not the mine. The other ends at a below the surface ledge. However it seems that over the years water has open a hole under the ledge, a hole I do not think the trenches knew of... 




This photo unfortunately was blurred...

You can see the hole that has washed out below the ledge... if only those who trenched this in the early 1900's knew how close they were... or did they find it and it has been fill with sluff off? it appears the large dump was the waste tailings and the smaller one was the ore pile with evidence of mineral.

The return trip to the site will be soon, but this time I will have in hand, my increment borer that has been missing ever since I last moved, I think I know where it is... ;-) 

Friday, July 1, 2016

Remebering the Ancients


The Former Resting Place of 
an Important Member of the Indigenous

Photos Courtesy of Wild Bill Mackey


From the early times of the European domination of the Americas, grave sites in the thousands were pilfered, plundered, the bones of ancestors and often bonafied mummies, taken and sold to those who coveted possession of them. Here is the location of one site where in the remains were taken by looters, and sold in the late 1800's, a popular and accepted practise in them days. Where the remains are today, no one knows. I often wonder how long before our grandfathers graves, will be considered fair game for archaeological excavation, all in the name of science. This one is in Paiute country and is still being periodically dug by looters...





Stories from prior to the Smithsonian Opression...


I just love the stories from before the oppression of Smithsonian and stories that can't be blamed as a hoax perpetrated by some religious organization trying to give credability to their belief. There is nothing like the reports of those who were there without the rationalizing comments of those of several generations later who claim to know as if they were there.


In the course of the year 1847, Mr. Benjamin E. Styles, when sinking a cistern on the banks of the Ohio, at Cincinnati, found, at a depth of nine feet ten inches, a gold plate with wavy edges, from three to four inches in length, and very nearly an inch wide, a little more than the tenth of an inch thick, and covered entirely over with engravings representing a variety of objects. The narrow frame which surrounds the plate is also in gold. Dr. Wise, the Rabbi of the synagogue of Cincinnati, has examined this valuable plate, and fancied he recognized forms which for the most part belong to Egyptian art. It is quite certain that we are struck at the first glance with the resemblance of these figures to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but it is equally certain that there is a marked difference between them, and that the learned in hieroglyphics declare that they do not at all comprehend them. They are Mexican glyphs, which cannot be explained in the present state of our knowledge. The print we have given of this very curious American antiquity, is copied from an engraving published by Drake and Co., printers, at St. Louis, Missouri.   


Innumerable Phoenician inscriptions have been reported and discredited by archaeologists. Six bronze plates inscribed with unknown characters, found in Illinois on the breast of a human skeleton 9 FEET LONG discovered in a tumulus at a depth of six and a half feet, are also mentioned by Brenchley, but the relies discovered in America seem generally to bear the strongest affinity to the Chinese. Mr. Southall gives the following interesting fact as having been laid before the New York Geographical Society in January 1873 by Dr. A. le Plongeon.

"In searching among the ruins of the Grand Chimu's city, situated between Trujillo and the pool of Huanchaco, some silver idols have been found inscribed with very ancient Chinese characters. Some have been likewise dug up from the mounds in the valley of Chinca Alta, four hundred miles to the southward. I have examined these idols carefully. They bore marks of being very ancient. Two that were in my possession re presented a man sitting cross-legged on the back of a tortoise. The head was shaved, except the top, from which depended, hanging on the back, a lock of hair braided Chinese fashion. The arms of the figure were ex tended, the hands rested on short pillars ; and notwithstanding this relic was very much eaten by rust and the salts contained in the earth, where for centuries it had lain undisturbed, some signs were plainly visible on the pillars. They somewhat resembled the Chinese writing, but seemed somewhat different from those in use to-day. The finding of these relies was quite important in my estimation. I set forth in search of a person who could interpret them for me and dispel my doubts. 1 knew a very intelligent Chinaman, acknowledged to be by his countrymen a gentleman of great literary attainments. He examined the queer object for a long time without speaking a word ; looked at me, looked at my relic again, his features betraying astonishment, nay, veneration not altogether free from awe. He was evidently overcome by a strange feeling. ' Very odd,' said he at last. '”These are very ancient characters, used in China thousands of years ago, before the invention of those now employed. They mean Fo-hi (Recent Origin of Man) Hence he believes a small colony at Eten, on the Peruvian coast, who still speak a language understood by Chinese coolies, to be the descendants of those who brought to Peru these silver idols.

This discovery, however, does not stand alone; here is an in stance from Ashe's “Travels in America " (1809), which has always appeared to us of peculiar interest. " Near Marietta, under huge blocks of stone, was found a beautiful tessellated pavement, representing a warrior with a snake under his feet, the figure composed of dyed -wood, bone, and small pieces of terreous and testaceous substances, which crumbled to dust when exposed to the air. The actual pavement was composed of flat stones one inch deep, two inches square, and the pre vailing colours, white, green, dark blue, and pale spotted red, all peculiar to the lakes, and not t o be found nearer. The whole, fixed in a thin layer of sand over a large piece of beech bark covering a skeleton of great size, extended in a bark shell, which also contained 1. an earthen urn or pot of earthenware, in which were several small broken bones and some white sediment. The urn appeared to be made of sand and flint vitrified, which rings like a rumer glass, holds about two gallons, has a top or cover of the same material, and resists fire as completely as iron or brass. 2. A stone hatchet with a groove round the pole, by which it was fastened with a with to the handle. 3. Twenty-four arrow points made of flint and bone. 4. A quantity of beads, round, oval, and square ; coloured green, black, white, blue, and yellow. 5. Conch shell, decomposed into chalk, fourteen inches long and twenty-three in circumference. 6. Under a heap of dust and tenuous shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of brass rings, cut by an art unknown to me out of a connection had ceased before the discovery of iron.


It is commonly asserted that all the American races are of one stock, yet the monuments of Central America and Mexico reveal races as distinct as those represented in Egyptian paintings. If, however, the civilization of America is not indigenous, the question arises whether it was derived from Egypt or from China, and which of those two can claim to be the original birthplace of civilization. We believe neither, but that the origin of all alike must be sought in that almost submerged continent now represented by the numerous Polynesian groups, stretching, as Mr. Southall says, diagonally across the Pacific in the direction of Peru, in many of which islands are found megalithic monuments of a pyramidal character not traceable to the present inhabitants, The submergence of this great continent is noted by Mr. Southall as a proof of the great changes which have taken place on the globe in recent times, and justifying his theory that similar changes in the northern hemisphere have been recent and cataclysmal ; but he surely could not have been aware that Darwin has demonstrated beyond a doubt, by the natural history of the coral polype, that the rate of the submergence has been regular, and so gradual as to allow the growth of coral to keep pace with the subsidence. If this was solid piece of that metal, and in such a manner in the southern hemisphere, we may reason that the rings are suspended from each other without the aid of solder or any other visible agency whatever. Each ring is three inches i ii diameter, and has a horizontal circumference half an inch wide, on both sides of which are strongly etched a variety of characters resembling Chinese. It appears, there fore/' adds the discoverer, "that these ancient Indians did not know the use of iron ; that they had a communication with the sea, although now 2000 miles from it, and knew the manufacture of cloth now unknown to any nation north of Mexico.