Gordonvale scarab – 3

For the earlier parts of the Gordonvale scarab story go to Part 1 and Part 2.

A practical joke?

This leads me to propose that that finding of the scarab was a practical joke.  Not singling out Isaac Brown or any unnamed perpetrator, we have a well that needs re-digging on a property either immediately before, during or maybe even just after the Great War.  The standard process would be [1] hoaxer brings scarab in his pocket, [2] chucks it in hole when no one is looking, [3] innocent pulls up a spadeful of dirt and sees scarab, [4] hilarity ensues, [5] culprit confesses, [6] revenge plotted.  That would work anywhere in Australia.  In Gordonvale, however, the joke has added meaning and irresistibility, because it and Egypt are the only two places on Earth where you get money for digging up scarabs.

I would argue that the standard joke was given a much sharper edge in the Gordonvale area, precisely because farmers would have been aware of the double meaning of the scarab beetle.  For the joke to work the scarab has to be so out of place and incongruous that it cannot have been mistaken for a rock.  Therefore a fairly large one was required.  When it was dug up, the joke worked on three distinct levels.

Gordonvale scarab – 2

For the first part of this discussion go to Part 1.

Clive Morton’s account

Almost all mentions of the Gordonvale scarab say that it was found when digging a well in 1910, 1911 or 1912.  In a paper held by the Mulgrave Settlers Museum local historian and author Clive Morton offered a slightly different account.  He says

The Egyptian scarab beetle above was dug up at Napiers property at Packers Camp between 1912 and 1915.  The Napiers tried to draw water from nearby Mackeys Creek with a windmill and a pipe buried under the dirt road and into what came to be called the Pump Hole which was a favourite swimming hole up until the 1950s when it silted up.  Napiers found that the pump would not draw and they asked for expert advice. This came from either Muir chief engineer of Mulgrave Mill and later a water driller or a man called Ebrington. The advice was to lower the suction pipe under the mill to assist with drawing the water which they did and the scarab beetle came up with one shovel full of dirt.  Claims that Isaac Brown a local man brought a fake scarab beetle home from the Middle East during WW1 are wrong because he did not get to the Middle East as his troop ship returned to Sydney from a day or two on the way when the war ended.  [Morton no date]

Morton’s additional detail is important – it provides an exact find location, the property owner and clarifies that it took place when an existing windmill pump drawing water from Mackey’s Creek was being repaired.  The scarab came from what seems to have been the first spadeful of dirt.  The date is later than that usually cited, and there is an interesting, unprompted mention of Isaac Brown, who could not have planted it as a hoax.

Gordonvale scarab – 1

The Gordonvale scarab is one of two found in remote Australian locations that are frequently brought forward in support of secret visitor claims.  The other, the Daly River scarab from the Northern Territory, is much better known, and has already been discussed in the Secret Visitors Project.

While the Gordonvale scarab appears to have been known about in that part of northern Queensland for decades, it only achieved publicity from about 1985 through Marilyn Pye’s investigations of alleged Egyptian sites near Walsh’s Pyramid, a naturally pyramidal mountain near Gordonvale.  Since then it has been cited either in conjunction with Pye’s other claims or been picked up by others as demonstrating Egyptian presence in far north Queensland.

In this post, and the two following, I want to take a close look at the Gordonvale scarab and put forward what I think are the key elements of its discovery, and why it should not be considered as proof of Egyptian contact.

More from Walsh’s Pyramid, Queensland

This post has been deleted.

Sumerians? No, wait – Egyptians!

A thread recently appeared on the Unexplained Mysteries Forum, titled ‘Ancient Sumerians and Egyptians in Australia -  Ancient Sumerian engravings found on Pyramid Mountain near Cairns’.

Update 25 May 2012 – The remainder of this post and subsequent comments have been removed at the request of one of the contributors to that forum.

 

Ptolemy IV coin found in Queensland – Part 4

Previously I had posted three long blog entries [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3] about the Ptolemy IV coin allegedly found in Queensland by Andy Henderson in 1910.  My conclusion based on the published photos was that the coin published by Michael Terry was a modern forgery, and that Rex Gilroy’s published picture was of a completely different coin.  As there still remained many unanswered questions, I recently examined Michael Terry’s papers in the National Library of Australia, hoping to get more detail on the story.  Here is what I found.

Ptolemy IV coin found in Queensland – Part 3

This posting is about the discovery of a Ptolemaic Egyptian coin that was reputed to have been made in 1910 by a farmer in coastal Queensland.  The story of its discovery and subsequent identification as evidence of secret visitors is set out in Part 1.  In Part 2 the coin evidence is described and analysed.  This analysis identified that there are, in fact, two different coins, and that there is a high likelihood that one is a modern forgery.  The implications of this are now considered as part of an overall assessment of the validity of the find.

Ptolemy IV coin found in Queensland – Part 2

The first part of this post discussed the discovery of a Ptolemy IV bronze coin, dating from 221-204 BC, by a farmer in north Queensland in 1910.  In this part we discuss the coin itself and identify some problems with the evidence that need to be resolved before it is used to support any claims for Egyptian contact with Australia.

Two coins

The first significant problem is that Henderson found only one coin, but Terry and later Gilroy illustrated two different specimens that are each supposed to be the actual coin.  The photo included in Terry’s 1966 and later articles is clearly different to the one shown by Gilroy [1995: 256].

Both coins shown in Figure 1 [Terry] and Figure 2 [Gilroy] – are bronze coins of Ptolemy IV, known as ‘Philopater’ to distinguish him from the other 15 Ptolemies who eventually ruled Hellenistic Egypt prior to its incorporation into the Roman Empire.  Ptolemy IV reigned from 221 to 204 BC.  The coin depicts him on the obverse in the guise of Zeus Ammon, signified by ram horns, and the obverse has an eagle with spread wings grasping thunderbolts.  Along the obverse can be read the inscription ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ  ['Ptolemy King' in Greek].  Between the eagle’s legs there is a small star.  This is a control mark that indicated it was minted following an undated monetary reform during Ptolemy IV’s reign.

Ptolemy IV coin found in Queensland – Part 1

One commonly cited piece of evidence in support of secret visitors is the discovery of a coin of Ptolemy IV of Egypt by a farmer in northern Queensland in 1910.  Unlike many comparable claims we know the date,  the discoverer, the location and circumstances and clear images of the coin have been published.  These add considerable circumstantial context and a strong sense of authenticity to the claim.  Importantly the discovery predates the Great War, when a large number of Australians served in the Middle East and may have brought souvenirs such as Egyptian coins and scarabs back to Australia, adding to its legitimacy.  The claim was first published in 1965 and since then has been repeated frequently in print and through replication on the internet.  In this post I will look at the claim and how reliable it is as evidence for secret visitors.