Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Milwaukee Public Museum and Meso and South America

I'd like to put one last article up for the MPM.  Their displays were exceptional and if you have some time to visit, I would highly recommend it.  They had artifacts from cultures I had never heard of before and many I am familiar with.  Here are some pictures from ancient cultures of MesoAmerica and South America.
























The above picture is of a gold disk showing a human sacrifice.  This is a practice that seemed to be global and was stamped out for the most part.  I haven't found the origin of the practice but I do have some theories as to how it got started.  The other part of this practice was cannabalism and this part is not mentioned often in the majority of the available literature.


























What I find interesting about the above picture is the skullcap of the figurines.  It is similar to what Ptah of ancient Egypt wore.






by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)



Sources:




Aztalan, Cahokia, Mississippian People, and Ireland?

Cultural diffusionism refers to the idea that certain practices and unique images, stories, or other items from one culture end up part of another culture when the two cultures meet.  After visiting the wonderful Milwaukee Public Museum and doing some further research, I am even more convinced of the idea that the old and new worlds were very connected before the time of Columbus.

As I mentioned in my books, the Ho-Chunk have the story of Red Horn in which two tribes were fighting and to end the fighting, a marriage between Red Horn and a Red-haired giantess was made.  The pottery displayed from Aztalan had a design very similar to a Celtic spiral.  And now, I have found a paper stating that strontium analysis was done on the human skeletal material from Aztalan and Cahokia and the conclusions were that some of the persons from Aztalan were born in or near Cahokia.

There are red-haired mummies found in Peru and recently European mummies (8,000 years old) were found in a Florida bog (Windover Bog).  One further piece of information to me besides the comparative mythology and scattering of European mummies, is the useage of mounds and mound effigies.  This was a common practice done in Ireland all through out Celtic Europe.  Of particular interest to me is the Man-Mound found in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  It is a horned man effigy.  Please take a look at what the man-mound looks like at this site:

http://www.saukcountyhistory.org/societyparkssites/manmoundpark.html


Now look at an item that was on display at the MPM from Peru:






What I find interesting is the similarity of the Man Mound in Baraboo and this item from Peru.  It reminds me of Cernunnos:







The horned man is a common theme in Southwestern Petroglyphs in America.






It is also found in an old image of Shiva-Pashupati from India:






With recent discoveries of the drug Cocaine and Tobacco in the ancient mummies of Egypt, the fact that cross-Atlantic or trans-oceanic travel occurred thousands of years ago is a fact as Cocaine and Tobacco were only found in MesoAmerica and South America during that time period.

I believe the evidence is mounting that trans-Atlantic travel in both directions occurred often and thousands of years ago and that many cultures have blended together as well as the blending of tribes from Europe and Pre-Columbus North, Central, and South America.

Perhaps I will write a paper on this and submit to an anthropology publication for the record.


by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)



Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Man_Mound.jpg

http://www.saukcountyhistory.org/societyparkssites/manmoundpark.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Detail_of_antlered_figure_on_the_Gundestrup_Cauldron.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shiva_Pashupati.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newspaper_rock.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroglyph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact_hypotheses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

Monday, August 27, 2012

Facebook

Hey Library Kids Fans,


Just wanted to let you know I am on facebook.  I've set up a business account where you can check for some quick updates:


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-Jean-Moran-The-Library-Kids/250328445032365



and a personal account where you can request to be friends and be able to make more comments or ask quick questions:


http://www.facebook.com/rita.j.moran




Thanks,


Rita Jean Moran




Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Red Haired Giants - Part 2

There are several mummies and skeletons being found that don't fit the mold for what is thought to be an ancient Native American.  Specifically the following sites contained these anomalies:


Windover Bog Mummies in Florida

Spirit Cave Man in Fallon, Nevada

The Sitecah of Lovelock Cave in Nevada

Kenniwick Man of Washington State

Mention of Giant Skeletons found all over the Midwest (Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and so on.)

The Princess at Aztalan

Red-Haired Mummies of Peru


It is a touchy subject as to the true origins of these ancient people; however, the truth must come out.  There are those such as myself that believe that Europeons travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and populated the Americas atleast 10,000 years ago and probably well before that.  Tales of St. Brendan and Viking travels to America help to corroborate this theory.

What I find interesting is the intense pressure to prevent DNA testing of these finds or the fact that many of the remains that were turned over to museums have simply disappeared.  This is also the case for any finds of The Little People mummies from out west in America.  In the specific case of the Lovelock Cave mummies of Nevada, it is sited in wikipedia that a fraternity got a hold of a red-haired mummy from the cave and actually burnt it as part of an initiation ceremony in 1911.  How in the world was this allowed to happen?  Unfortunately, many mummies from Egypt were treated in a terrible manner as well and mummy unwrapping parties took place in the 1800s as well as the using of the mummies for fake medicinals.  According to wikipedia:

According to Paiute oral history, the Si-Te-Cah are a legendary tribe whose mummified remains were discovered (under four feet of guano) by miners in what is now known as “Lovelock Cave” in Lovelock, Nevada, United States. Although the cave had been mined since 1911, it was not until 1912 when miners notified authorities. An archeological excavation ensued producing 10,000 artifacts. "Si-Te-Cah" literally means “tule-eaters” in the language of the Paiute Indians. Tule is a fibrous water plant. In order to escape harassment from the Paiutes, the Si-Te-Cahs were said to have lived on rafts made of tule on the lake.
According to the Paiutes, the Si-Te-Cah were a hostile and warlike tribe who practiced cannibalism. The Si-Te-Cah and the Paiutes were at war, and after a long struggle a coalition of tribes trapped the remaining Si-Te-Cah in Lovelock Cave. When they refused to come out, the Indians piled brush before the cave mouth and set it aflame. The Si-Te-Cah were annihilated.
A written report by James H. Hart, the first of two miners to excavate the cave in the fall of 1911, recalls that in the north-central part of the cave, about four feet deep, "was a striking looking body of a man “six feet six inches tall.” His body was mummified and his hair distinctly red." (Loud & Harrington, page 87).
Unfortunately in the first year of mining, some of the human remains and artifacts were lost and destroyed. "The best specimen of the adult mummies was boiled and destroyed by a local fraternal lodge, which wanted the skeleton for initiation purposes." (Loud & Harrington, page 5). Also, several of the fiber sandals found in the cave were remarkably large, and one reported at over 15 inches (38 cm) in length was said to be on display at the Nevada Historical Society's museum in Reno in 1952.
I find the story of the fraternity's destruction of the mummy, even more suspicious.  It was as if the evidence of a giant race of red-haired people that dominated in the past, was being purposely suppressed.  We must press on for the truth.  According to wikipedia:


The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America[1][2]. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, thirteen miles east[3] of Fallon, Nevada by the husband-and-wife archaeological team of Sydney and Georgia Wheeler.

The Wheelers, working for the Nevada State Parks Commission, were surveying possible archaeological sites to prevent their loss due to guano mining. Upon entering Spirit Cave they discovered the remains of two people wrapped in tule matting. One set of remains, buried deeper than the other, had been partially mummified (the head and right shoulder). The Wheelers, with the assistance of local residents, recovered a total of sixty-seven artifacts from the cave.
These artifacts were examined at the Nevada State Museum where they were estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. They were deposited at the Nevada State Museum’s storage facility in Carson City where they remained for the next fifty-four years
In 1996 University of California, Riverside anthropologist R. Ervi Taylor examined seventeen of the Spirit Cave artifacts using mass spectrometry. The results indicated that the mummy was approximately 9,400 years old (uncalibrated Radio-Carbon Years Before-Present (RCYBP); ~11.5 Kya calibrated) — older than any previously known North American mummy.
In March 1997, the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony made a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claim of cultural affiliation with the artifacts[4].
Further study determined that the mummy exhibits Caucasoid characteristics resembling the Ainu[5], although a definitive affiliation has not been established. There is also a possible link to Polynesians and Australians that is stronger than to any Native American culture[5].
The findings were published[6] by the Nevada State Museum on October 24, 1999[citation needed], and drew immediate[7] national attention[8][9].
In September, 2006, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada ruled on a lawsuit by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and said that the Bureau of Land Management made an error in dismissing evidence without a full explanation. The court order remanded the matter back to the BLM for reconsideration of the evidence [10].

by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Cave_mummy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si-Te-Cah

http://www.nbbd.com/godo/history/windover/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennewick_Man

http://www.travelexplorations.com/discovery-of-chachapoya-peru-one-of-the-lost-white-migrations.4559041-17545.html

Ancient 8,000 year old Caucasian Mummies Found in Florida Bog Cemetery

This is a very interesting video:




Another interesting video on the find:




by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources:

http://www.nbbd.com/godo/history/windover/

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Dinosaurs

You can go to many museums today and look at the dinosaur bones on display.  The Field Museum of Chicago has a very good dinosaur display.  Here are a few pictures I took, when I visited:











Something I find interesting is the discovery of dinosaurs with feathers:






Dr. Sereno is a famous paleontologist from Illinois that has found some interesting remainders of dinosaurs.  He also has tried to put together websites and programs for children to study dinosaurs as well as other areas in the science fields.  His program is called Project Exploration.

http://www.projectexploration.org/

However, are dinosaurs really extinct?  It is said that there are still a few dinosaurs left in the Congo in Africa.  The natives call it Mokele-mbembe and it said to resemble a sauropod.  There are other names for other possible living dinosaurs.  According to wikipedia:


Reports of living dinosaurs come from many different locations, all over the world. Cryptids that are said to resemble dinosaurs have been seen in Africa, Australia, and Europe, as well as North America and South America.
The mysterious Loch Ness Monster and Ogopogo are also examples of the possibility of surviving water serpents of old. 

In my first book, The Library Kids Mystery of the Blue Mounds, the children use the Library to learn about dinosaurs.  They also learn a lesson about being being responsible from two baby dinosaurs.  All I can say is call me Dr. Sereno, maybe I can use the powers of the Library to help you find the living dinosaurs in Africa.  But you have to let them be free and not tell people where they live.  :)


By Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sereno

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Exploration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_dinosaur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo

Old Classic Books

When I was a kid, I read quite a few books in school.  Here is a list of some old classics I would recommend along with some recent titles:


Little House on the Praire by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Box Car Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Nancy Drew Mysteries

The Hardy Boy Mysteries

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Tale of Two Cities by  David Copperfield

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Little Women by Louisa M Alcott

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

and of course Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling



For the young adult and adult readers:


2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (part of the Earth Children Series)

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies by William Goldin

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Tales by Edgar Allen Poe

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton


I also found a site that has free audio and e-books that are in the public domain:

http://librivox.org/


Project Gutenberg also has free ebooks:

http://www.gutenberg.org/


Take a look.


By Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)





Monday, August 13, 2012

Cherokee, Iroquois, and Seminole Eastern American Natives and the Milwaukee Public Museum

The Iroqouis had a complex government system consisting of the following nations:  Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Senaca and they occupied the northeastern part of North America.  The Tuscarora joined the league later making it a six nation confederacy.

The Seminole lived in the southeastern part of America that is now known as Florida and the Cherokee lived in the southeastern part of America that is now known as Georgia, the Carolinas, and East Tennessee.

Here are some displays from the MPM for these people:





















The device in the corner looks like a butter churn from Europe.


From the Seminole:











From the Cherokee:







by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee





Woodland American Natives and the Milwaukee Public Musuem

The Woodland people were Native Americans who inhabited parts of the midwest that were East of the Mississippi such as Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and so on.  Here are some pictures of Woodland artifacts from the MPM:



























by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)



Sources:

http://www.tahtonka.com/woodland.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland_period


American Southwestern Natives and the Milwaukee Public Museum

The American Southwestern Natives included some of the oldest tribes of America.  The Anasazi were mysterious cliff dwellers as well as the Hohokam that are still being learned about, today.  The Hopi still live in Oraibi and the Navaho are still living their ways out west.  Here are some pictures of wonderful artifacts from the American Southwestern Natives:

From the Ancient Anasazi:












From the Hohokam:






From the Zuni and Navaho:










From the Hopi:




See the Hopi Squash Blossom on the pottery?  I took a picture of the jar upside down.  Take a better look:





















by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Sources: