Ancient ruins rewriting China history

[Dover]

Ancient ruins rewriting China history
by Benjamin Robertson in Chengdu
Monday 10 October 2005 9:36 AM GMT



The Shu Dynasty (1122 BCE to 221 BCE) of China, were they worshippers of an all powerful sun god, a Southeast Asian tribe that took a wrong turn, or perhaps a civilisation inspired by aliens?





The mysteries surrounding China's most famous burial site have yet to be fully solved but archaeologists sifting through the evidence have already gathered enough to begin rewriting the nation's history books.

...cont'd

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6D639A4C-D735-4CD2-A215-A593EC27D5D9.htm

[expatriot]

1. oh great - more "evidence" of extraterrestrial intervention

overemphasis of facial features is very typical of certain artistic traditions, especially those of a tribal or animistic influence. Look at the masks of Africa or statues of Easter island.

[UncleSepp]

5. Isn't it interesting, though, that people now think of aliens?

To me, that kind of reaction is fascinating. Earlier generations might have contextualized the same facial features as belonging to elves or fairies or goblins. Now, folklore has changed, and aliens from space have taken the place of beings from the "otherworld".

Personally, I like hearing reports that cover explanations and reactions from the sober and scientific to the fantastic. It shows that we are still not so far removed from the tribal and animistic cultures, and keeps us from getting too high on ourselves as being superior to peoples of the past.

That being said, the first thing I thought of looking at the ears on the figures was one of my uncles. He's got remarkably pointy ears, as do many of the people in that side of the family. Angled eyes, with the outside corner higher than the inside corner, also run in the family. Maybe those features existed in the population that produced these figures, and the people either liked them so much or found them so odd-looking that those features became incorporated into their art.

It makes me think of Barbie dolls and corsetry and boob implants, too. Nobody really looks like a Barbie doll, but it's an exaggeration of a certain physical type that does exist and is considered attractive. Nobody really looked much like the figures depicted on Inca artwork, either. However, women will wear corsets and get boob implants, modifying their bodies to look more like the exaggerated ideal exemplified by a Barbie doll, much in the same way that skull binding, ear piercing, and other forms of body modification helped Mesoamericans look more like the exaggerated ideals their artwork presented. I wonder if the people who made these artworks also changed their bodies to try to look more like this ideal?

[Dover]

6. Well...exactly how far back into history does this alien 'folklore' go?

http://xfacts.com/old/

http://www.crystalinks.com/ufohistory.html

Of course the whole concept of 'alien' might be challenged...
but 'folklore'?

[onager]

7. Those paintings have been debunked repeatedly.

ART and UFOs? No thanks, only art...

...Worst of all, by considering these elements as the representation of something real or really seen by the artist, they assume that the artist, eg. an Italian artist of the (1400's) or an anonymous Byzantine painter, may actually be allowed to insert any non canonical or un-codified element into a religious representation.

On the contrary, in past times the commissioners (those who choose the subject and supervised the execution of the art work - in these cases the religious institutions) would have never allowed the author to insert into a work of art anything other than what previously decided, especially in case of religious subjects. In this latter case, in addition, restrictions were even stronger.

http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_eng.htm

Here's a direct link to the painting with the man, dog and "UFO:"

http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_5_eng.htm

[On the Road]

2. Wow -- Thank you for This

Had never heard of this civilization. And people dump on Al-Jazeera -- how come none of the US networks or newspapers have picked up on this?

[tatertop]

3. Just what I was thinking. I like Al-Jazeera

Fascinating find

[tatertop]

4. Just what I was thinking. I like Al-Jazeera

Fascinating find

[The Magistrate]

8. Locking

"Please do not post threads about pseudoscience (astrology, homeopathy, crop circles, bigfoot, alien abductions, and the like), which is not science."