Posted by Marvin Amstey on December 08, 1998 at 11:59:26:
In Reply to: Re: Clarification, please posted by James Allen on December 07, 1998 at 11:24:13:
: : Dear Jim,
: : Thanks for the reference to Barber's book.
: : I'm still unclear about the meaning of the rest of your post. I'm going to put what I think I read into my own words. Please correct it as appropriate.
: : Here goes:
: : 1. The sphinx is more than 10,000 years old, and is made of a red stone. There are carvings in red granite on several continents, including Africa, depicting naked horsemen holding tridents over their heads.
: : 2. The sphinx is related to the red granite carvings showing naked horsement with tridents. Is it the red color of the stone that links them? Since the red granite carvings occur on several continents (Which ones? How old are these carvings?), including Africa, and Egypt is an African country in which the sphinx is located, is the geography the link?
: : 3. Is the conjecture that the tridents were some kind of receiver for an unknown (to us) form of energy the response to my skepticism about massive stone structures being products of nomads? That is, is it being argued that they were able to accomplish this feat by having an energy source other than human labor with which to work?
: : 4. If that is the case, what evidence is there in support of the hypothesized high technology society having existed? Tridents on rock carvings, in and of themselves, are not evidence of anything much more high tech than a spear. Archeologists seem to find mostly stone tools, animal skins and bones in sites more than, say, 10,000 years old. Egyptian tombs provide no evidence of any form of labor more sophisticated than human power for construction of their massive structures. Nor am I aware of anything else found in old digs, biblical accounts, etc. that suggests such a thing.
: : 5. Is it being asserted that the basis of your preference for "other people's art" is that humankind has been degenerating for thousands of years and, I guess, what we think of as the developed world is the most degenerate of all?
: : Regards,
: : Steve
: : . Is it being asserted that the basis of your preference for "other people's art" is that humankind has been degenerating for
: thousands of years and, I guess, what we think of as the developed world is the most degenerate of all?
: : Well I don't know how seriously to respond. I was just showing how theories could be produced to incorporate the known facts instead of ignoring them. The Sphinyx is made out of limestone and not a red stone. I believe every continent has its enigmatic stone carvings. It was Moses that added four arms onto his rod making for seven arms in a minorah shape. Pharoahs rods were tridents and they held back the waters also but not as well and thus disaster. There might be very deep meaning hidden in that passage from the old torah. Who knows what secrets our history holds but i think the more glorious horizon for mankind is in his past and not the technological suicide virtual reality will eventually bring us. I like the art of the viscerally real human alien kind of being. it stirs my pot and puts beans on the cook in the morning. I love the stuff. Jim
I can appreciate loving the art of primative man, nomads, ethnographic art, whatever, but would you reallly like to live back then? How would you send these E-mails, how would we send rug images around for comment? If you lived back then, what art would you collect since all that "primative" stuff would be "modern"? I certainly would rather live now and enjoy the hunt for the old artifacts. The hunt is as exciting as the art since there is so little of it. Marvin