Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Frank Calvert (1874, p. 127) reported: “I have had the good fortune to discover, in the vicinity of the Dardanelles, conclusive proofs of the existence of man during the Miocene period of the tertiary age. From the face of a cliff composed of strata of that period, at a geological depth of eight hundred feet, I have extracted a fragment of the joint of a bone of either a dinotherium [Deinotherium] or a mastodon, on the convex side of which is deeply incised the unmistakable figure of a horned quadruped, with arched neck, lozenge-shaped chest, long body, straight fore-legs, and broad feet. There are also traces of seven or eight other figures which, together with the hind quarters of the first, are nearly obliterated. The whole design encircles the exterior portion of the fragment, which measures nine inches in diameter and five in thickness. I have found in different parts of the same cliff, not far from the site of the engraved bone, a flint flake and some bones of animals, fractured longitudinally, obviously by the hand of man for the purpose of extracting the marrow, according to the practice of all primitive races.”

Calvert (1874, p. 127) added: “There can be no doubt as to the geological character of the formation from which I disinterred these interesting relics. The well known writer on the geology of Asia Minor, M. de Tchihatcheff, who visited this region, determined it to be of the miocene period; and the fact is further confirmed by the fossil bones, teeth, and shells of the epoch found there. I sent drawings of some of these fossils to Sir John Lubbock, who obligingly informs me that having submitted them to Messrs. G. Busk and Jeffreys, those eminent authorities have identified amongst them the remains of dinotherium, and the shell of a species of melania, both of which strictly appertain to the miocene epoch.” The Deinotherium is said by modern authorities to have existed from the Late Pliocene to the Early Miocene in Europe (Romer 1966, p. 386). It is thus quite possible that Calvert’s dating of the Dardanelles site as Miocene was correct. The Miocene is now said to extend from 5 to 25 million years before the present. According to the current dominant view, only exceedingly apelike hominids are supposed to have existed during that period. Even a Late Pliocene date of

2.5–3.0 million years for the Dardanelles site would predate the first toolmaking hominid (Homo habilis).

Calvert appears to have been sufficiently qualified to estimate the date of the Dardanelles site. David A. Traill (1986a, pp. 53–54), a professor of classics at the University of California at Davis, gives this information about him: “Calvert was the most distinguished of a family of British expatriates that was prominent in the Dardanelles . . . . he had a good knowledge of geology and paleontology.” Calvert conducted several important excavations in the Dardanelles region.

Calvert also played a very important role in finding the site of the famous city of Troy. Scholars usually give the credit for this to Heinrich Schliemann. But Traill (1986a, pp. 52–53) said of Calvert: “After excavating the ‘Tumulus of Priam’ on the Balli Dag (1863) and reading Charles Maclaren’s A Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy (Edinburgh 1822), he decided that Hissarlick must be the site of Troy. He purchased part of the mound and started to excavate in 1865, but lack of funds and the pressure of other commitments caused him to abandon the task. . . . After Schliemann’s unsuccessful diggings at Bunarbashi in 1868, Calvert persuaded him . . . that Hissarlick, not Bunarbashi, was the true site of Troy. Schliemann later downplayed both the significance of Calvert’s excavations and his role in awakening his interest in Hissarlick and successfully appropriated all the glory for himself. Calvert, however, was much the better scholar.”