Archive for February, 2007

On the Statistics Given Re:”Jesus Ossuary”

Religious, Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 27 2007

Posted by lagbnaft on Feb 25, 2007 12:56pm On LinkFilter.net

While I can’t consider myself a neutral witness to this particular news story, it isn’t my faith that is made nervous by it. Rather, it is the years of pop-religion tomes and badly researched conspiracy books that are going to come out of it that have me already irritated. :-) ﾃつ
ﾃつ
The case that these fairly common names of the place and time represent a ‘holy family ossuary’ goes like this: ﾃつ
ﾃつ
Another estimate, commissioned by Dr. James Tabor, chair of the department of religion studies at the University of North Carolina, puts the odds at one in 42 million. “If you took the entire population of Jerusalem at the time,” says Dr. Taber, “and put it in a stadium, and asked everyone named Jesus to stand up, you’d have about 2,700 men. Then you’d ask only those with a father named Joseph and a mother named Mary to remain standing. And then those with a brother named Yose and a brother named James. Statistically, you end up with one person.” ﾃつ
ﾃつ
Since they don’t actually know the family relationships of the people whose ossuaries were apparently found together, that should read more like this.

ﾃつ”If you took the entire population of Jerusalem at the time and put it in a stadium, and asked everyone named Jesus to stand up, you’d have about 2,700 men. Then you’d ask only those with a father named Joseph and relatives or close associates named Mary and Yose to remain standing.” My guess is that only about half of those men would have sat down. ﾃつ

1 Comment »

Central Ohio scholars criticize new Jesus documentary

Church of Darwin, Religious, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 26 2007

Associated Press Monday, February 26, 2007ﾃつ

JERUSALEM (AP)ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶戡rchaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by the Oscar-winning director James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets.

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典he Lost Tomb of Christ,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 small caskets used to store bones ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.

One of the caskets even bears the title, ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ笛udah, son of Jesus,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

Most Christians believe Jesusﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalemﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s Old City. The burial site identified in Cameronﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.

Two central Ohio religious scholars yesterday greeted Cameronﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s claims with skepticism.

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ溺ost obviously, Christians would wonder how to reconcile that with the story of the Resurrection,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ said N. Clayton Croy, associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Bexley. Croy said he doesnﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t dismiss the possibility of fraud, as has happened in similar cases.

The names used in Jesusﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ family were common at the time, he said, so even if the ossuariesﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ inscriptions were authenticated, the remains might well be of other people.

The Rev. Patrick Manning of the Pontifical College Josephinum dismissed Cameronﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s assertions as ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ途idiculous.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ鉄uch claims capture the imagination of a number of people,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ釘ut certainly the Catholic Church, and I would think most Christians traditions, would absolutely and categorically reject such things.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

Manning, vice rector of the Far North Side Roman Catholic seminary, likened Cameronﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s claims to those made by author Dan Brown in The DaVinci Code. He said most scholars donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t take seriously Brownﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s contention that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典his kind of thing is going to die on its own,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said of Cameronﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s documentary. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的t certainly doesnﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t fit in with 2,000 years of accumulated wisdom in the church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

In 1996, when the BBC aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims.

Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典hey just want to get money for it,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Kloner said.

The claims have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典he historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The documentary, he said, ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ田ontradicts the religious principles and the historic and spiritual principles that we hold tightly to.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the filmﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s hypothesis holds little weight.

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的 donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t think that Christians are going to buy into this,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Pfann said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ釘ut skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ滴ow possible is it?ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Pfann said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ徹n a scale of one through 10 ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 10 being completely possible ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 itﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s probably a one, maybe a one and a half.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Pfann is even unsure that the name ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ笛esusﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks itﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s more likely the name ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ滴anun.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

Kloner also said the filmmakersﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ assertions are false. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的t was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Kloner said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典he names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ Archaeologists also balk at the filmmakerﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s claim that the James Ossuary ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 the center of a famous antiquities fraud in Israel ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 might have originated from the same cave.

In 2005, Israel charged five suspects with forgery in connection with the infamous bone box. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的 donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t think the James Ossuary came from the same cave,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ said Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University.

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的f it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ

Although the documentary makers claim to have found the tomb of Jesus, the British Broadcasting Corporation beat them to the punch by 11 years. Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government agency responsible for archaeology, declined to comment before the documentary was aired.

Point of information: S8int.com does not refer to anyone as “Reverend”, nor does it recognize a particular location as the official tomb of our Lord, Jesus Christ

No Comments »

Top 30 Problems with the Big Bang Theory

Science, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 25 2007

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾋCosmologists are often in error, but never in doubt.ﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶扠ev Landau /// ﾃ｢竄ｬﾋ廬 am certain that it is time to retire Landauﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s quote.ﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶拂osmologist Michael Turner

[Physics Today 2001/12, 10-11] [reprinted from Meta Research Bulletin 11, 6-13 (2002)]

Abstract. Earlier, we presented a simple list of the top ten problems with the Big Bang. Since that publication, we have had many requests for citations and additional details, which we provide here. We also respond to a few rebuttal arguments to the earlier list. Then we supplement the list based on the last four years of developments ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 with another 20 problems for the theory. (1)

Static universe models fit observational data better than expanding universe models. Static universe models match most observations with no adjustable parameters.

The Big Bang can match each of the critical observations, but only with adjustable parameters, one of which (the cosmic deceleration parameter) requires mutually exclusive values to match different tests. [[2],[3]]

The microwave ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ澱ackgroundﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ makes more sense as the limiting temperature of space heated by starlight than as the remnant of a fireball. The expression ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ鍍he temperature of spaceﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ is the title of chapter 13 of Sir Arthur Eddingtonﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s famous 1926 work, [[4]]

Eddington calculated the minimum temperature any body in space would cool to, given that it is immersed in the radiation of distant starlight. With no adjustable parameters, he obtained 3ﾃつｰK (later refined to 2.8ﾃつｰK [[5]]), essentially the same as the observed, so-called ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ澱ackgroundﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ, temperature. A similar calculation, although with less certain accuracy, applies to the limiting temperature of intergalactic space because of the radiation of galaxy light. [[6]]

So the intergalactic matter is like a ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ吐ogﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ, and would therefore provide a simpler explanation for the microwave radiation, including its blackbody-shaped spectrum. Such a fog also explains the otherwise troublesome ratio of infrared to radio intensities of radio galaxies. [[7]]

The amount of radiation emitted by distant galaxies falls with increasing wavelengths, as expected if the longer wavelengths are scattered by the intergalactic medium.

For example, the brightness ratio of radio galaxies at infrared and radio wavelengths changes with distance in a way which implies absorption. Basically, this means that the longer wavelengths are more easily absorbed by material between the galaxies. But then the microwave radiation (between the two wavelengths) should be absorbed by that medium too, and has no chance to reach us from such great distances, or to remain perfectly uniform while doing so. It must instead result from the radiation of microwaves from the intergalactic medium.

This argument alone implies that the microwaves could not be coming directly to us from a distance beyond all the galaxies, and therefore that the Big Bang theory cannot be correct. None of the predictions of the background temperature based on the Big Bang were close enough to qualify as successes, the worst being Gamowﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s upward-revised estimate of 50ﾃつｰK made in 1961, just two years before the actual discovery.

Clearly, without a realistic quantitative prediction, the Big Bangﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s hypothetical ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ吐ireballﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ becomes indistinguishable from the natural minimum temperature of all cold matter in space. But none of the predictions, which ranged between 5ﾃつｰK and 50ﾃつｰK, matched observations. [[8]] And the Big Bang offers no explanation for the kind of intensity variations with wavelength seen in radio galaxies.

Click Here to Read Full Article at Meta Research

No Comments »

Is Nessie’s English Cousin Lurking in the Lakes? (Lake Windermere)

Crypto, Dinosaurs in Literature, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 25 2007

Daily Mail, Feb. 23, 2006

It is little more than a dark smudge near the surface of a lake ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 but it could still signify the birth of a new legend.

For this shadowy image is causing more than a ripple of interest among monster aficionados. And to the man who took it, the picture is proof that something strange lurks in the waters of Windermere.

Photographer Linden Adams, 35, was walking in the area with his wife Louise a fortnight ago. They were at a secluded spot more than 1,000ft up a mountain when they spotted the ‘creature’.

“It just came out of the blue,” said the father of two.

Click Here to Read Article

2 Comments »

Nazca Culture Dinosaur Depiction

Crypto, Dinosaurs in Literature, s8int.com, Science, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 13 2007

Photo: DinosaursandHumans.orgﾃつ

s8int.com: This Nazca Culture pottery was created more than 1 thousand years before scientists discovered that some sauropod dinosaurs had dermal spines as depicted by the Nazcansﾃつ

The Nazca culture flourished in the Nazca region between 300 BC and 800 AD. They created the famous Nazca lines and built an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today. Near the aqueducts open to tourists, there is an overlook point which includes an Inca building added after the Inca conquest of the area.

On the pampa, on which the Nazca lines were made, the ceremonial city of Cahuachi (1-500 AD) sits overlooking the lines. Modern knowledge about the culture of the Nazca is built upon studying the city of Cahuachi.

Dermal Spines Discovered in 1992

“Recent discoveries of fossilized sauropod skin (diplodocid) impressions reveal a very different appearance for these dinosaurs. The fossilized skin demonstrates that a median row of spines was present over the tail and may have continued along the body and neck. This gives these dinosaurs an ornamental profile of dermal spines.

The discoveries were made by the Sauria Museum of Aathal Switzerland, and paleontologist Stephen Czerkas, at the Howe Quarry in Wyoming. Czerkas published a preliminary report in Geology in December of 1992, and then a complete report in Gaia in December of 1994″…DinosaurMuseum

Click Here to See Original Source and to See More Photos

No Comments »

Design Correlation of the Towers in North Africa, Central America and East Asia for the Cities for Survival

s8int.com, Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, The Flood of Noah, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 09 2007

From Clifford Paiva, PhD:

“Enclosed are the frames correlating the common design from East Asia, Central America and North Africa.

Josephus attributes survival towers to Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah.

(Josephus who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Flavius Josephus[2], was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism…wikipedia)

Nimrod led the effort in the Iraq areaﾃ｢竄ｬﾂｦplaced the destruction of the surface of the planet directly at the feet of God, and vowed to construct towers of sufficient height that would preclude the possibility of submergence.

Click Here to Read Article

No Comments »

Against The Grain: ‘There are strong indications of intelligent design’

Science, Uncategorized | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 09 2007

Interview by Nick JacksonﾃつﾃつPublished: 08 February 2007ﾃつ

Published: 08 February 2007ﾃつ

Stuart Burgess is Professor of design and nature in the department of mechanical engineering at Bristol University. He argues that intelligent design is as valid a scientific concept as evolution.

Current scientific philosophy is to rule out completely the possibility that a creator was involved. But there is no scientific justification for making such a sweeping assumption. Science should always be open-minded.

Newton, Kelvin, Faraday and Pascal had no problem with a creator and with design. There is no reason why a modern scientist cannot take the same position as these eminent scientists.

Three hundred years ago, there was so much support for intelligent design that life could be difficult if you were an atheist. Now the opposite is true; life can be difficult if you show the slightest sympathy for intelligent design.

Evolution cannot be taken as a fact of science because of the ambiguities in the evidence. The fossil record can be evidence for and against evolution because of the gaps. Similarities in DNA code can be just as much evidence for a common designer as for evolution. Most significantly, scientists have failed to reproduce the spontaneous generation of life for 60 years.

Iﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ve been designing systems like spacecraft for more than 20 years. One of the lessons Iﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ve learnt is that complex systems require an immense amount of intelligence to design.

Iﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢ve seen a lot of irreducible complexity in engineering. I have also seen organs in nature that are apparently irreducible. An irreducibly complex organ is one where several parts are required simultaneously for the system to function usefully, so it cannot have evolved, bit by bit, over time.

The mammalian knee-joint is an organ that appears irreducible. Everyone has a four-bar linkage in their knee. Engineers know that for this to work, you need all four bars to be present.

Every time we walk, weﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢re using irreducible mechanisms. Evolutionists have not been able to explain how the knee joint evolved step by step. We cannot prove that an intelligent being designed these, but at present no one can prove that they evolved, either.

There is a real difference between intelligent design and creationism. Creationism is about who the designer is and why he created the world.

For this reason, I donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t think creationism should be taught in a science lesson. But the question of intelligent design is completely different. It only addresses the question of whether an intelligent designer is needed for life to have been possible. The possibility of a designer should be mentioned, however briefly.

I can understand that some people are worried about the implications of the existence of a creator, but itﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s not science to rule something out because you donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t like the implications.

Source Independent UK Online

No Comments »

3-D Model Shows Big Body of Water in Earth’s Mantle

Religious, Science, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 09 2007

“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.ﾃつIn the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened”…Genesis 7

“One of the most dramatic features in the Wysession et. al global mantle shear-wave attenuation model is a very high-attenuation anomaly at the top of the lower mantle beneath eastern Asia.ﾃつThis anomaly is believed due to water that has been pumped into the lower mantle via the long history of the subduction of oceanic lithosphere ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 crust and upper mantle ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 in this region.ﾃつ

The left figure is a slice through the earth, showing the attenuation anomalies within the mantle. The location of the slice ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 red line in the upper right figure ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 is a map of the seismic attenuation at a depth of roughly 620 miles.ﾃつ

In both images, red shows unusually soft and weak rock, and blue shows unusually stiff rock (yellow and white show near-average values). The two figures in the lower right are resolution tests to see if the data have the resolution to retrieve Earth structure in these parts of the Earth. The sharper the black-white transitions are, the better the resolution is”.ﾃつCredit: Washington University in St. Louisﾃつ

“A seismologist at Washington Universityin St. Louis has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 diminishing ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 deep in the Earth’s mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground water reservoir at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean”.

It is the first evidence for water existing in the Earth’s deep mantle.

Physorg.com

ﾃつ

1 Comment »

Redux: The Mystery of Chaco Canyon–54 Minute Movie

s8int.com, Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 06 2007

The Mystery of Chaco Canyon examines the deep enigmas presented by the massive prehistoric remains found in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico

After years of intensive research, Chaco Canyon, located in a desolate region of northwestern New Mexico, leaves us with more questions than answers. A unique feature in the construction of many of the pueblos is that they were aligned not only with the movements of the sun, but also the 18 1/2 year lunar cycle.

No other civilization is known to have accomplished this. Some 200 miles of straight roads 24- to 36-feet wide were built with raised beds, bridges, stairways and ramps. For the most part, these roads led to nowhere. For many years the theory prevailed that the “Chaco Phenomenon” existed as the distribution center for a large trading network. Colorful parrot feathers, copper bells and seashells from up to 3,000 miles away have been found in the ruins.

Huge pueblos, known as “Great Houses” are the distinguishing feature of a culture that flourished in this area starting around 850 AD and continued until 1250 AD. Ten massive structures, some four stories high, had approximately 3,000 rooms. Pueblo Bonito was the size of the Roman Coliseum

Click Here for Movie and Article

2 Comments »

Roman Descendants Found in China?

Science, Sophistication of Ancestors, Uncategorized, Unexplained Artifact | Posted by Chris Parker
Feb 05 2007

ﾃつBy Richard Spencer in Liqian, north-west China

ﾃつ

See Also: Blond Mummies in China

Back to s8int.com Bloggerﾃつ

Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests will prove one of historyﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s most unlikely legends ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 that they are descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity. Scientists have taken blood samples from 93 people living in and around Liqian, a settlement in north-western China on the fringes of the Gobi desert, more than 200 miles from the nearest city.ﾃつ

They are seeking an explanation for the unusual number of local people with western characteristics ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 green eyes, big noses, and even blonde hair ﾃ｢竄ｬ窶 mixed with traditional Chinese features. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ的 really think we are descended from the Romans,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ said Song Guorong, 48, who with his wavy hair, six-foot frame and strikingly long, hooked nose stands out from his short, round-faced office colleagues.ﾃつ

ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典here are the residents with these special features, and then there are also historical records about the existence of these people long ago,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said. Studies claiming that Liqian has Roman ancestry have greatly excited the impoverished county in which it is situated. The village is now overlooked by a pillared portico, in the hope of attracting tourists. A statue at the entrance of the nearby county town, Yongchang, shows a Roman legionary standing next to a Confucian scholar and a Muslim woman, as a symbol of racial harmony.ﾃつ

Even entrepreneurs have caught on: in Imperial City Entertainment Street there is a Caesar Karaoke bar. The townﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s link with Rome was first suggested by a professor of Chinese history at Oxford in the 1950s. Homer Dubs pulled together stories from the official histories, which said that Liqian was founded by soldiers captured in a war between the Chinese and the Huns in 36BC, and the legend of the missing army of Marcus Crassus, a Roman general. In 53BC Crassus was defeated disastrously and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe occupying what is now Iran, putting an end to Romeﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s eastward expansion.ﾃつ

But stories persisted that 145 Romans were taken captive and wandered the region for years. Prof Dubs theorised that they made their way as a mercenary troop eastwards, which was how a troop ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ努ith a fish-scale formationﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ came to be captured by the Chinese 17 years later.ﾃつ

He said the ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ吐ish-scale formationﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ was a reference to the Roman ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ鍍ortoiseﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ, a phalanx protected by shields on all sides and from above. Gu Jianming, who lives near Liqian, said it had come as a surprise to be told he might be descended from a European imperial army. But then the birth of his daughter was also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde hair. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ展e shaved it off a month after she was born but it just grew back the same colour,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ鄭t school they call her ﾃ｢竄ｬﾋ忱ellow hairﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢. Before we were told about the Romans, we had no idea about this. We are poor and have no family temple, so we donﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t know about our ancestors.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ敕つ

Another resident, Cai Junnian, 38, said his ruddy skin and green eyes meant he was now nicknamed Cai Luoma, or Cai the Roman, by friends. He has become a local celebrity, and was recently flown to the Italian consulate in Shanghai to meet his supposed relatives. The professorﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s hypothesis took almost 40 years to reach China. During Chairman Maoﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s rule, ideas of foreign ancestry were not ideologically welcome and the story was suppressed.ﾃつ

Mr Cai said his great-grandfather told him that there were Roman tombs in the Qilian mountains a day and a halfﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s walk away, but he had never connected them to the unusual appearance he inherited from his father. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ撤eople thought I had a skin problem,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said. The blood tests are part of a project undertaken by scientists and historians after local authorities loosened control over genetic research. The results will be published in a scientific journal. But Prof Xie Xiaodong, a geneticist from Lanzhou University, cautioned against over enthusiasm.ﾃつ

Even if they are descendants of the Roman empire, it doesnﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢t mean they are necessarily from the Roman army,ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ he said. ﾃ｢竄ｬﾅ典he empire covered a large area. Many soldiers were recruited locally, so anything is possible.ﾃ｢竄ｬﾂ The issue has split the universityﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s history department, with some scholars supporting the claim, some rejecting it. Prof Wang Shaokuan poured scorn on Prof Dubsﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢s thesis, saying the Huns themselves included Caucasians, Asians and Mongols.

1 Comment »