Où on causera de crânes mystérieux, de disparitions d'enfants mystérieuses, et d'entités souterraines mystérieuses.Citer:
Why are these elongated skulls at Hal Saflieni Hypogeum shrouded in mystery?The underground necropolis of Malta has its secrets.In the oldest underground temple and necropolis in the world - the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, here in Malta - was discovered a collection of skulls that show peculiar abnormalities and/or pathologies: sometimes inexistent cranial knitting lines, abnormally developed temporal partitions; evidence of drilling and swelling at the back of the head, possibly from recovered traumas; and, strangest of all, a lengthened skull lacking a fossa median, the join that runs along the top of the skull. The reason for these abnormalities have been shrouded in mystery.
Until 1985, the unearthed skulls were on display at the National Museum of Archaeology. Strangely, Heritage Malta, the authority responsible for Malta’s prehistoric heritage, removed them from public view around 30 years ago, and, since then, they have only been available to researchers by special permission.
Heritage Malta outright dismisses some theories which have been floating about, related to ‘serpent priests’ or ‘alien skulls’. Fair enough, the theories - despite the curious evidence - only exist within the realm of speculation. But, in 2017, Heritage Malta set out to completely ‘bust the myth’ regarding the elongated skulls at the refurbished Visitors Centre at the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. Why so much effort to dissuade anyone from believing that anything extraordinary had been found down there?
Photos and books by Dr Anton Mifsud and his colleague Dr Charles Savona Ventura, who first investigated the skulls, testify to their existence and abnormality. Vittorio Di Cesare and Adriano Forgione of HERA magazine, Rome, Italy were the only non-officials able to obtain permission to investigate the skulls. They published a very thorough article regarding their findings and it would seem that they were very impressed.
Most interesting to them was the skullcap with the lengthened posterior. Their research confirmed that the cranium was naturally long and not as a result of bandaging or boards, as was customary in ancient South American civilizations. And, they couldn't find evidence of median knitting, technically named sagitta, which is considered ‘impossible’ by medics and anatomists. Di Cesare and Forgione also did not discount that this find was particular to the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. They went on, in their article, to draw parallels and conclusions related to the Egyptian culture and so-called 'serpent priests'.
Meanwhile, Ms Rodriguez Aguilera was running for office in Miami as a Republican when an interview of her alien abduction as a child resurfaced. Therein she claimed the aliens had told her that “there are 30,000 skulls - different from those of human beings - in a cave on the Mediterranean island of Malta.” Is that so?
The skulls, dating back to 3000-2500 BC, were first discovered in 1902. By the 1920s, the National Geographic magazine (January to June, 1920 VOLUME XXXVII) reported that the first inhabitants of Malta were a race with elongated skulls:
“From an examination of the skeletons of the polished-stone age, it appears that the early inhabitants of Malta were a race of long-skulled people of lower medium height, akin to the early people of Egypt, who spread westward along the north coast of Africa, whence some went to Malta and Sicily and others to Sardinia and Spain.”
In fact, despite the attempts of Heritage Malta to water down the finding, the story of the elongated skulls of Malta has been reported far and wide. These include the following 4-minute Mystery History documentary.
Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, Denisovans, Modern Man … are the ‘long heads’ a hybrid species? A different species? Aliens? What is certain is that they were real and apparently revered as gods such that modern human beings purposefully mutilated themselves to look like them. Yet, instead of capitalising on this find, Malta hides away the ‘long-headed’ skulls and dismisses any notion that they could bear any special importance. Just…odd!
So while Heritage Malta shrugs off the extraordinary find in the depths of the earth at the Hypogeum, Belgian author Philip Coppens, who focuses on fringe science and alternative history, and others around the world, continue to raise interesting questions. Such as:
- Why were the reports of Emmanuel Magri, the first official excavator of the site, never published? Why, upon his death in 1907, had all of his notebooks on the excavation disappeared?
- Why, when it was originally reported that the bones of 33,000 people were found, was this figure later changed to 7,000, and then reduced again to a mere 100?
- Why were the elongated skulls removed from public view in 1985? Why are they now only available to researchers? Why are only six of the original eleven still at the museum? Where are the others?
- Why was the Hypogeum of Santa Lucia sealed off and never excavated since it was discovered in 1973?
- Why was the Brockdorff Circle - a hypogeum in Gozo - buried and forgotten after it was discovered in 1820, only to be rediscovered in 1964? And why did it take until 1987 and 1994 to properly excavate it? What might have gone missing since the 19th Century?
- Could there be any truth to the tales of strange giant humanoids dwelling in hidden caverns below the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum? Is there any truth to the tales of disappearing children? What could be the reason for the cover-ups?
What do you think? Source.Citer:
Stranger things: the mystery of the lost children of Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
A group of children and their teacher were forever lost underground at this UNESCO site. Or were they?
One of the more intriguing stories to come out of the Maltese islands tells of thirty school children who, they say, were forever lost in the hidden underground tunnels accessible from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. The tale has even made the headlines in national newspapers. The story is now the stuff of legend, with many claiming it is a hoax of sorts and others believing it to be a truth which someone has an interest in keeping hidden. Here's the available information so you can make up your own mind.
The legend of Malta’s underground tunnels
In the third (and last) sub-level of the Hypogeum, one of the burial chambers located at floor level is supposedly a doorway into another underground world. Interestingly, this lower level is no longer physically accessible to visitors after the recent refurbishment of the Hypogeum.
Local lore commonly states that Malta is riddled with underground tunnels. These, supposedly, exist in many overlapping layers that intersect and travel far and wide across the country; even beneath the sea all the way to Rome.
You may even stumble upon a conspiracy theory supporting the existence of a completely undocumented rock-cutting civilisation in Malta. It supports the notion that the Knights built their forts and cities over preexisting dug-out structures, using these ready-made ditches as a foundation for their own outstanding buildings. Among the evidence supporting this conspiracy theory is that rock-cut architecture was common in the ancient Mediterranean while ditches were no longer typical in the 16th century, when many of the Knights’ fortifications were built. Meanwhile, the carved bedrock is more weathered than the stone structures built over it and there are several strange features such as broken staircases and blocked up doorways.
With places such as the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum having been discovered several feet underground, and indicating that a rock cutting civilisation did abound on Malta, the notion of carving tunnels across the country does not sound so unrealistic. Could Malta truly have a hidden underground network of tunnels and catacombs kept hidden from public view?
The official statement
With regards to children lost in such tunnels, two printed articles on reputable magazines have surfaced, but officials today dispute the validity of the information given therein. Heritage Malta, the authority responsible for prehistoric sites in Malta, considers the story to be a myth; a myth that may have been created to force children to shy away from Malta’s many caverns and tunnels from fear for their own safety.
That the UNESCO World Heritage Site has been well-investigated would make sense. Meanwhile, an official report into the incident of lost children, or evidence of a collapse inside the Hypogeum which was meant to have entrapped them, has not been discovered.
The legend of the lost children
Since there’s nothing strange about the site and no evidence to support the story that children got lost in Malta’s secret underground, why does this tale still get told?
The tenacity of the legend can be blamed on these two independent reports, one appearing on the reputable National Geographic magazine and the other being a personal anecdote of Lois Jessup, British government employee, which was first published in Riley Crabb’s Borderland Science magazine by the Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (BSRF).
The National Geographic report
In the 1940 August issue - no. 78 - of the National Geographic magazine, Richard Walter wrote:
"Many subterranean passageways, including ancient catacombs, now are a part of the island's fortifications and defense system. Supplies are kept in many tunnels; others are bomb shelters. Beneath Valletta, some of the underground areas served as homes for the poor. Prehistoric men built temples and chambers in these vaults. In a pit beside one sacrificial altar lie thousands of human skeletons. Years ago one could walk underground from one end of Malta to the other. The Government closed the entrances to these tunnels after school children and their teachers became lost in the labyrinth while on a study tour and never returned." (pages 253–72).
The Jessup anecdote
Just a week before the alleged disappearance of 30 children, Lois Jessup had visited the Hypogeum for the first time. There, she convinced the guide to allow her to investigate one of the aforementioned burial chambers, and she was allowed to do so, though "at her own risk".
She crawled through the passage and emerged on a ledge inside a large, seemingly bottomless cavern. Another ledge across the chasm led to an entrance in the far wall. From this, she witnessed several giant humanoids emerge in a single file. Noticing her, they raised their palms towards her, causing her to panic and retreat. Then, a slippery wet creature brushed past her and a violent wind blew inside the underground cavern, snuffing out her candle. The rest of her party was emerging onto the ledge at this point and, terrorised, she insisted they turn back to the Hypogeum, where the guide, seeing her state, gave her a "knowing look".
Eventually, she revisited the Hypogeum only to discover that the tunnel was boarded up and her first guide, seemingly, never existed. The new guide denied everything. This is the story she told.
Allegedly, the children were never found but were heard wailing from underground for several weeks in different parts of the island. However, no-one could locate where the sound was coming from. And - adding further to the mystery - none of these so-called witnesses are alive today to explain more.
There's mention of an official story that the children and their teacher had entered a tunnel which had caved in just as the last one made it through. Yet, while there's no evidence of a cave-in, and there are no surviving official news reports, the authorities are striving to 'bust the myth' at the new visitor centre. Could there have been a cover-up? Could there have been an attempt to erase the story of the lost children from collective memory, as if it had never even happened?
Why would Walter and Jessup have made up such a story and in what interest would the Maltese authorities hide its network of underground tunnels? Meanwhile, conspiracy theory or not, the Knights are known to have changed the face of Malta with their forts and palaces; and they had good reason to bury any evidence of previous prominent civilisations on the island before their arrival.
In your opinion, should there be a renewed interest in exploring the foundations of such historic forts and cities and in snooping around Malta’s underground?
Source.Étrange affaire dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler.
Après, je peux tout à fait imaginer que l'île de Malte offre un terreau fertile à l'apparition de telles croyances. Déjà, elle a toujours été très peuplée — donc on peut tout à fait assister à la naissance de légendes et de "on dit" à l'auteur inconnu, ce qu'une île moins peuplée où tout le monde se connaîtrait permettrait beaucoup plus difficilement.
Aussi, l'archipel maltais est peuplé depuis très longtemps, et a connu à la fois de nombreuses civilisations bâtisseuses et de longues périodes de dépeuplement : les premières cultures connues ont bâti des temples gigantesques parmi les plus anciens du monde, puis ont disparu sans laisser de traces ; d'autres populations sont arrivées de Sicile, ont à leur tour bâti des temples, et se sont plus ou moins évanouies avant l'arrivée des Carthaginois ; lesquels, à l'instar des Romains et des Grecs, ont à leur tour bâti des cités, avant d'être déportés par les Arabes ; qui vivaient eux aussi leur vie lorsque les chevaliers de l'Ordre de Malte sont arrivés. Chaque civilisation découvrait donc une île déserte, emplie de bâtiments qui, plus ils étaient anciens, plus ils étaient mystérieux.
D'anciennes légendes maltaises faisaient état de Géants ayant bâti les temples les plus anciens.
Que l'on additionne des légendes anciennes, des civilisations disparues et inconnues, une île sur-urbanisée et un peu de sensationnalisme journalistique mal placé, et l'on trouve à mon avis la clef de ce mystère.
(Ou bien ce sont vraiment des prêtres serpents qui vivent dans les sous-sols de Malte, et qui enlèvent des enfants quand le coeur leur en dit).
La question se pose après de l'intérêt qu'aurait une société souterraine, voulant présumablement demeurer cacher, d'escamoter une classe d'école entière... surtout après avoir laissé filer un témoin quelques semaines à peine auparavant.