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January 9, 2008
Found Again: the Garden of Eden
Claude Mariottini sure got this one right. I don't always agree with Claude but the man knows a Nigerian scam when he sees one.
Sunday's Macau Daily Times has a report on the Ikom Monoliths in Nigeria. The report starts with this amazing bit,
For the past couple of years, mysterious circles of carved stone figures, which villagers in southern Nigeria still worship on occasion, have been causing a frenzy of excitement. Newspapers have trumpeted the Ikom monoliths -- phallic-shaped pieces of volcanic rock largely ignored for centuries -- as being remnants of a glorious civilization made up in equal parts of ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. One theory even cites them as evidence that the biblical Garden of Eden lay in what is now Nigeria. [emphisis added]
To which Cluade responds,
To me, this story is similar to all the Nigerian scams that appear in your email box in the form of chain letters informing you that you are the beneficiary of millions of dollars left behind by a late millionaire. A word to the wise: caveat emptor. This is just another Nigerian scam.
But the Macau Daily Times article does end on a somewhat more rational note. That is, more rational if you think comparisons with Stonehenge are valid. And whatever you may think on that score, it's not completely nuts.
If the Nigerian press was quick to welcome any theory putting Nigeria in a positive light, the Nigerian government, in its submission to UNESCO, was more circumspect. In its justification of the stones' "outstanding universal value", the government states that they "bear a form of writing and a complex system of codified information". "The Ikom monoliths with their geometric inscriptions could be compared to the rock arts of Tanzania. The meanings of the codified symbols are known to only the artists," the submission says, before adding that the stones could be West Africa's answer to Britain's Stonehenge.
But like all "good" press accounts of legitimate archaeological finds, this one leads with nonsense.
Posted by Duane Smith at January 9, 2008 12:57 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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Comments
Duane,
Although the reference to Eden in the news report is bogus, I believe the Ikom monoliths may have some historical significance.
Thank you for making me an expert on Nigerian scams.
Claude Mariottini
Posted by: Claude Mariottini at January 9, 2008 1:26 PM
I wonder if I sent money to some Nigerians, if they would send me a few of those stones.
Posted by: Aydin at January 10, 2008 6:30 PM
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
Send me an email if it is important.