Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries by Brian Haughton (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

a stylized gold alloy flying fish pendant, comes from the Calima culture of southwest Colombia, (c. 200 B.C.- A.D. 600). A photo of such a pendant was included in Erich Von Daniken's 1972 book, The Gold of the Gods, and he believed the object represented an airplane used by outer space visitors. Although the figure is thought by archaeologists to represent a stylized version of a flying fish found in the region, there are some features, particularly those around the tail, which appear significantly different from anything found in nature.

@ David Hatcher Childress

A gold insect model from a tomb in Columbia.

More gold examples were fashioned by the Sinu culture of coastal Colombia, a gold-working community that existed between about A.D. 300 and A.D. 1550. These objects were about 5 centimeters long and were worn as pendants on neck chains. In 1954, some examples of the Sinu models were among the collection of ancient gold artifacts sent by the Colombian government on a United States tour; 15 years later a modern reproduction of one of the artifacts was given to zoologist and author Ivan T. Sanderson to examine. Apparently, his conclusion was that the object was not characteristic of any known winged animal. The front wings were delta-shaped and straight edged, for example, not like an animal or insect. Sanderson thought that it appeared more mechanical than biological, and even went as far as to suggest that it represented a high-speed aircraft at least 1,000 years old. In fact, the airplane-like

appearance of the objects encouraged Dr. Arthur Poyslee to conduct windtunnel experiments at the Aeronautical Institute of New York, where he came to a positive conclusion about the object's ability to fly. In August 1996, a reproduction of one of these gold models, built at a scale of 16:1, was flown successfully by three German engineers: Algund Eenboom, Peter Belting, and Conrad Liibbers. From their research, they concluded that the original artifact resembled a modern space shuttle or the supersonic Concorde rather than an insect.

Most of these intriguing South American pendants have four wings (or two wings and a tail) and do not look similar to any known insects or birds. Granted, they are stylized models, but the resemblance to an airplane, and even the space shuttle, is surprising. However, if we are to believe that the objects are supposed to represent some kind of aerial vehicle that actually flew, there are one or two problems with many of them. First, on the majority of the models the wings are depicted too far back from the object's center of gravity to allow for stable flight; second, the nose does not resemble anything on an aircraft.

Amazingly little original research into the origin of these artifacts has been done by advocates of the ancient airplane theory. Most of the Web articles about pre-Columbian airplanes mention "South American" or "Central American" models found in tombs, but no exact provenance is given for most of them, and usually no exact dates are mentioned. Perhaps this is partly due to the prolific looting of ancient tombs in Colombia, and the subsequent appearance of their contents on the antiquities market in South America, that still continues to this day. However, the vast majority of Internet sites devoted to the subject of South American ancient aircraft merely reproduce a 1996 article by Lumir G. Janku of the Anomalies and Enigmas Website. Without further research into their exact origin and cultural context, the labeling of these intriguing artifacts as ancient airplane models seems illadvised, to say the least.

Another small plane-like model, believed by Egyptologists to be that of a hawk with outstretched wings, comes from Saqqara in Egypt. It was apparently first discovered in 1898 in the tomb of Pa-di-Imen in north Saqqara, which dates to the fourth or third century B.C. The object is made of sycamore wood, with a length of 14.2 centimeters, wingspan of 18.3 centimeters, and weight of about 39 grams. There are hieroglyphs on the tail that read "The Gift of Amon." The

god Amon in ancient Egypt was usually associated with the wind. After its discovery, the object was stored in the Cairo Museum until 1969, when Khalil Messiha, an Egyptian professor of anatomy and student of ancient models, noticed its resemblance to a modern airplane, or glider. He also perceived that whereas other bird models in the Museum had legs and painted feathers, this one did not. Messiha was of the opinion that the design exhibited many aerodynamic qualities. After his brother, a flight engineer, made a balsa wood model of the object which flew successfully, Dr. Messiha was convinced that the Saqqara Bird represented an ancient scale model of a glider.

However, Martin Gregorie of Harlow, in Essex, who has designed, built, and flown gliders for more than 30 years, disagrees. Experimenting with the design he found that without a tailplane (the fixed horizontal tail surface of an airplane) which he believes the model never had, the model was totally unstable. Even after he had fitted a tailplane to the model, the results were unconvincing. Gregorie suggested that the model may have functioned as a weather vane or perhaps a child's toy. Larry Orcutt, of the Catchpenny Mysteries Website, believes the object could have been a weather vane to indicate wind direction on a boat. He bases his idea on bird figures on the mastheads of boats and ships shown on reliefs from the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, dating to the late New Kingdom (c. 12th century B.C.). Orcutt also notes that there are in fact traces of paint on the beak and tail, which indicates that it was once a richly painted model of a bird. The black eyes on the object, actually the ends of an obsidian bar which has been fitted through the head, are not shown in many of the photos circulating of the model, thus significantly increasing its resemblance to an airplane. Consequently, while the Saqqara Bird seems to possess one or two aerodynamic qualities,