1/12 🧵Its been awhile since I posted a thread, lets finish the week looking at one of the major cities of ancient Lycia in Turkey. Patara was known as far back as the bronze age Hittites and continued up to the mid 1300s AD. Lets check it out.


2/ The earliest mention of Patara comes from the Hittites Yalburt inscription where it was called Patar (sometimes Pattar) ~1200s BC where King Tudhaliya IV brags about subduing the Lukka peoples of coastal Anatolia which is considered to be Lycia. With the collapse of the Hittites in ~1100s led to rise of Lycia in the iron age.

1/6 🧵Of the things that live rent free in my mind, there's an entire subdivision for dolmens particularly the ones in the Caucasus region near the Black Sea. Lets look at this specific one that has a story its trying to tell.. if only we still spoke the language. 2/ This dolmen is located near Gelendzhik, in a village named Shiroka Shchel (Широкая Щель). Its situated in a small park behind a few stores. In a region with literally thousands of dolmens, this one is a rarity. Very few have the embossed decorative elements. Its said to be roughly dated around ~3000BC to ~2700BC.

1/9 🧵Apologies for no thread last week. I'm bad at organizing my time. Often when researching a topic another breadcrumb-trail will appear & since I have low impulse control I follow it... which lead me to Teishebaini in Armenia because (spoiler) it has nubs. Lets check it out.


2/ Teishebaini (Karmir Blur) was an ancient Urartian capital said to be founded by King Rusa II (685-645 BC) near modern Yerevan, Armenia. Named after one of the three major gods, Teisheba, it was destroyed ~590BC by Scythians.

1/9 🧵The one good thing about insomnia is it gives me more time for revisit topics that haunt my mind. Lets revisit one of the most important sites in South America in Bolivia - Tiwanaku & Puma Punku. This thread is going to be more disjointed than normal, apologies for that.


2/ Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) in Bolivia near Lake Titicaca is one of the most puzzling ruins in the world. Its understanding is hindered by looting, quarrying, questionable reconstruction and whatever disaster caused its abandonment. Ignore dating of site, its a subject on its own.

1/6 🧵 This image has been in my collection for years under the "menhir" category. I finally researched it and learned its technically not a "menhir" at all. Its a dolmen called Allée couverte de Tressé or La Maison des Fées near Tressé, France. Lets check it out. 2/ Dolmens with nubs or "breasts" as they're locally called are uncommon (at least to my understanding). La Maison des Fées is a passage tomb or "covered alley" dolmen first described in 15C AD. Its roughly 12m long, and ~1.3m wide with 8 capstones up to 40t in weight.

1/5 🧵 In the border region of Finland & Russia is the Republic of Karelia. In this region is Vottovaara mountain that attracts hikers and esotericists. The land is tough with cold wetlands. The sky always seems cloudy. Trees grow small and gnarled. And then there's the stones.





2/ I've covered this magical land before but while searching for more photos for my archive I found a few that I hadn't seen before and really made my mind spin. I'll save them for last. Lets review the many unusual massive stones balanced on much smaller ones.

1/6 🧵Long time followers know one of my interests is the concept of menhirs or standing stones. Lets look at those found in a region that stretches between Nigeria & Cameroon that have many different names Ikom / Bakor monoliths, Akwanshi or Atal stones.





2/ First described in the early 1900s the dating for these monuments says they're dated from perhaps as early as 200AD to 16C AD. I wont get into my issues with dating & instead focus on the art and stone themselves. Sizes range from ~ .5m to 2m stones depicting faces & patterns.

1/7 🧵I've covered this topic before but its due for a revisit. The subject of cart ruts is another thought-puzzle most often associated with Malta. These marks are found globally however. Lets focus on the 'royal road' in Turkey's Phrygian valley (Frig Vadisindeki kral yolu).





2/ The Phrygian valley is home to some truly spectacular monuments stretch back thousands of years showing how important this area was multiple cultures each leaving their own mark literally in the stone. These tracks are no different in that regard.

1/5 🧵In 1890 a man named Fred Fawcett was invited to go game hunting in the Ambukuthy hills (Wayanad district, India) & was shown carvings in a remote cleft in the rock. Fawcett immediately understood the significance of them. Lets take a look at the Edakkal cave carvings.





2/ Fawcett's would return again in 1894-1895 and would hire locals to help clear a path to the "cave" and began documenting the carvings. Fawcett was keenly aware of their significance. In 1901 he would go on to publish a detailed article on the cave & carvings.

1/4 🧵I recently covered Phaistos, a Minoan site. During the 1908 excavations, one of the most interesting artifacts found is the "Phaistos Disc". It is a baked clay disc roughly 15cm in radius. It features 45 unique glyphs grouped into 61 sections totaling 241 symbols.





2/ Its uncertain the disc was even made in Phaistos. Its symbology is a mix of Linear A, Linear B and other glyphs found in Anatolia. In 2022 an archaeologist Gareth Owens claimed to have deciphered it as hymn to Astartes/Venus - that claim has been disputed.

1/9 🧵I recently covered the Minoan site of Hagia Triada. I wanted to focus on another Minoan site, not that far from Hagia Triada. Lets look at Phaistos (Faistos) - part palace, part administrative center, part foundry, part temple.





2/ Located on a ridge near the Mesara plain in southern central Crete, not much remains today of Phaistos because of similar reasons to Hagia Triada - building material choice, earthquakes and conquest. What is left though tantalizes the mind.

1/8 🧵There's a small site on top of a hill in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia that is little known and little researched. Few studies have been conducted & dating it is contradictory. Its referred to as Leso-Kefar (Лесо-Кефар) for the nearby village. Lets take a look. 2/ Leso-Kefar is considered an Alani site dated to perhaps 1000AD. There are iron age dated dolmens carved with various runes, christian crosses and modern graffiti. Multiple cultures spanning multiple epochs have left their mark.

1/7 🧵I wanted to branch out to something a bit different & look at folklore & mysteries for a change, in particular one I've been curious out for awhile. Lets talk about the Japanese legend of the woman in the "hollow boat" aka Utsurobune (Utsuro-bune / 虚舟 or うつろ 舟) 2/ There are many versions of this story but the gist is that around 1803 towards the end of the Edo period & isolation period a strange "boat" was spotted by fishermen floating in the sea near modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture. The fisherman sailed out & towed the boat to shore.

1/9 🧵Lets revisit a site that, like so many others, haunts me. The so-called "Roman quarry" in Baalbek where the Hajjar al-Hibla (Hadjar el Hibla) aka Stone of the Pregnant Woman lies. This is my second thread on this mysterious site, lets take another look at it. 2/ The "quarry" is located less than 1km (.6miles) from the temple complex in Baalbek Lebanon. The Hajjar al-Hibla being the most prominent feature jutting out at a 15.5 deg angle. The quarry is actually much larger with a modern road cutting it in two both with large megaliths.

1/7 🧵Revisiting Tiwanaku/Pumapunku in Bolivia again because it haunts me like a ghost. It truly is a crime against humanity what has happened to this remarkable site through the years of looting, quarrying and rearranging. We can only see ghosts & shadows of what came before. 2/ For this thread I just want to focus on a few observations that float in my head regarding this place. First is the variety of clamps that were used. Looking at the indention left behind, there wasn't a standard clamp used, the ends could be round, or slim or T-shaped.

1/ 5 🧵The quarry of the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan deserves a second look. These image are again a series of questions I don't have answers to. There are theories that suggest stone softening took place either with acid/vinegar or something esoteric like Solmon's shamir. 2/ As previously mentioned the drill holes and pits around the obelisk itself and other parts of the quarry are a real mystery. The pounding stones do not explain these holes. Drilling large diameter holes into granite is an impressive accomplishment on its own.

1/6 As an addendum to my recent Venus thread where I postulate that the earliest of the Venus statues are not fertility objects. I want to talk about near obsession neolithic Malta had with depicting obesity the "Fat Ladies" as they're known. 2/ From around 5000BC up to 2000BC multiple figures both large & small were created with very similar themes - pleated skirt, extremely large buttocks & thighs, tiny feet & and similar hair style. These were originally thought to portray a "Mother Goddess" cult.