Semir Osmanagic advance the following theory: while most of Europe was, there 12,500 years, covered with thick layers of ice, the southern-European edge, from Spain to Turkey, passing by Italy, Croatia and Bosnia, supported the development of civilizations. The development of civilizations in the Pacific, Atlantic and the Middle East, left their mark on the architecture and the spiritual life of the civilizations of southern Europe. The millenary presence of the Illyrian civilization on these spaces left behind the pyramids as evidence. The ice sheets melting at that time caused the increase in sea level of several hundred meters. The traces of these civilizations were thus covered by the sea. Then, over time, the sea level dropped, leaving room for the development of plant life on the ruins of these civilizations.
The authors successively issued several dating. In 2005, when the site was discovered, Osmanagic said that the pyramids were built in 12000 BC. AD Then he said, some time later, that the dating of the site was not yet certain and that the pyramids had been built perhaps between 12,000 and 500 BC. J.-C.3 and then, after the discoveries made in 2006, declaring that the pyramids perhaps the oldest discovered to date were.
This uncertainty as to the exact timing of this hypothetical pyramid and its questionable theories about the existence of the city of Atlantide4 have earned Osmanagic strong criticism from international experts.
Excavations of the "Foundation of the archaeological park of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun" [change | change the code]
Semir Osmanagic created the Foundation "Archaeological Park Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun", which is in charge of excavations since the year 2005 the foundation was as composed of an international team of archaeologists, historians, of anthropologists and Egyptologists from Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Scotland, Slovenia, Egypt and the United States Unis5,6.
Excavations began in April 2006, and for the moment, no date has been announced. They focused initially on the highest of three hills Visočica presented today as "Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun." Then the work expanded to neighboring hills called "Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon" (Plješevica) and "Bosnian Pyramid of the Dragon" (Buci), identified by the NASA satellite (high resolution satellite, NASA Landsat-7 ) and aerial photography (the report mentions two other pyramids, including one named "pyramid Earth" (Krstac), the other being called "pyramid of Love" (Čemerac.) The names of two foothills find its source, according Osmanagic in their resemblance to the Mexican pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. A report issued by the foundation lists its conclusions on its research7. This report has received no confirmation of the international scientific community.
Position of the scientific community [change | change the code]
"Pyramid of the Moon"
The statements of the Foundation have been challenged by experts who accused her of promoting pseudo-scientific notions and damaging archaeological sites by its medieval excavations.
So Garrett Fagan, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "They should not be allowed to destroy genuine sites in their quest illusions [...] It is as if we allowed someone to devastate Stonehenge to find beneath the secret chambers of a former perdue8 wisdom. "In an open in The Times April 25, 2006 letter, Professor Anthony Harding, president of the European Association of Archaeologists, called the Osmanagic theories" silly and absurd "and expressed concern that no backup enough is put in place to protect the "rich heritage" of Bosnian "looting and uncontrolled exploitation or wild" 9.
Professor Hermann Parzinger (President of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin), Professor Willem Willems (Inspector General of Archeology Rijksinspectie (RIA) in The Hague), Dr. Jean-Paul Demoule (president of the National Institute of Archaeological Research preventive (INRAP) of Paris), Professor Romuald Schild (director of the Institute of Archaeology and ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw), Prof. Vassil Nikolov (director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia), Professor Anthony Harding (president of the European Association of Archaeologists in Prague) and Dr Mike Heyworth (director of the Council for British Archaeology of York) launched in December 2006 for an international petition denounce the "sham" and "waste of resources" that are the result of the fondation10. Enver Imamovic from the University of Sarajevo, a former director of the National Museum of Sarajevo, concerned that the excavations will damage historic sites such as the medieval royal capital Visoki, said that excavations "irreversibly destroy a national treasure" 11.
Critics of the foundation also highlight the lack of competence of some people who supported these theories. Thus the museum's director of Visoko, Senad Hodovic, who initially had supported the foundation, was a professor of Marxism in the Yugoslav republic and therefore did not recognized in archeology or geology skills (he has since removed the project ) 12,13. These critics also suggest that Harry Oldfield has a background in indienne14 traditional medicine, it is also the case of the German medium Karin Tag14.
Curtis Runnels, an expert in prehistoric Greece and the Balkans at Boston University, "Between 27,000 and 12,000, the Balkans were taken from the last glacial maximum, a period of very cold and dry climate , with glaciers in some mountain ranges. The only occupants were hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic up, who left behind campsites outdoors and traces of occupation in caves. These remains consist of simple stone tools, hearths, and remains of animals and plants eaten as food. These tribes had neither the tools nor the knowledge to build architecturaux15 monuments. "
According to an ancient source, May 8, 2006, members of a university team, headed by Professor Vrabac, conducted excavations in Visoko and gave a press conference in Tuzla to present the results. The university's Faculty of Mining, Geology and Engineering civil16 Tuzla17 University, led by Professor Dr Sejfudin Vrabac18, concluded that the hill is a natural geological formation, composed of layers of clastic sediments of various densities, and that its shape is the result of Endo-Dynamic and exodynamiques process during the post-Miocene. According to Professor Vrabac specialist paléogéologie, there are dozens of similar morphological formations in one mining area of Sarajevo-Zenica. The report of the geological team to Visoko, based on data from six core samples from 3 to 17 meters deep, is supported by the Council for Research and Teaching in the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Civil Engineering and by the Association of geologists of Bosnia Herzégovine19.
Stjepan Coric, a geologist at the University of Vienna, invited by Osmanagic to examine the site, it can be explained by natural formations. The boulders were formed at the bottom of a lake there are 7 million years old, these are breaches raised by tectonic forces that have given them their geometric shape. Tunnels undoubtedly belong to an old mine, without that we can specify their âge20.
After visiting the site and reviewing, Robert M. Schoch, of Boston University, concluded that it was only a geological formation of sandstone blocks broken by tectonic forces. Every feature highlighted by Osmanagic as being of human origin may, Schoch, receive a perfectly raisonnable21 geological explanation. For Schoch, who has also written two books on the pyramid builders, there are no pyramids in Visoko, but instead there is a wealth géologique22 and important archaeological sites for medieval and Neolithic eras. The inscription found by the Osmanagic team in tunnels is for him only récent23 hoax.
On 14 March 2007, a group of researchers geologists, historians and archaeologists in Bosnia, Europe and America has sent an open letter to Mr. Schwarz-Schilling, representative of the European Union in Bosnia letter. They denounce the amateurism of fouilles24 practiced in Visoko and interpretations of fondation25.
The foundation nor any of the experts she recommends have so far published results in a scientific conference or in a scientific journal peer.
Opinion in favor of the theory of Semir Osmanagic [change | change the code]
However, some people abound in the sense of this theory.
And Dr. Aly Barakat26 believes the site could house Visoko "first European pyramid" which would present similarities with the famous pyramids of Giza. He said the boulders found on the site were Bosnian carved by humans and were polished in the same manner as the pyramids of Gîza27. In a letter dated 27 June 2006 in the journal Archaeology Magazine, Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, criticizes these statements by saying that Dr. Barakat has self-inducted expert and in fact it is a impostor posing égyptologue28.
In 2006, Senad Hodovic museum director Visoko, said he did not question the assumptions of the researchers, "These pyramids are obviously the work of a civilization. But we need to do serious analysis to show who and when they were built. "29 It is far from the project.
