Among the Bosnian bloggers who, for two years, have exposed the various pseudo-archaeological manipulations by Semir Osmanagic and his friends, some use serious critical analyses, and some - or sometimes the same ones - prefer to use humour and derision. Among the last, one of the most formidable is the one who writes, under the pseudo "Izmo Guglic" (transparent allusion to the delirious heading "Iz mog ugla" on the Foundation website), the Expert blog (bs).
The "expert" Izmo has taken litterally Mr. Osmanagic’s attacks against "official science" and the "armchair scientists", as well as his call to "give back science to the people" [1]. So he decided, from his remote Bosnian village, to become in his turn a "great searcher" like Semir, and has implored him for two years to become a member of the team (bs). And, in order to prove to his idol Semir that he is able, Izmo began "excavations in situ in his yard", with, what is more, an actual "multidisciplinary project" as he excavates at the same time "a little bit with a pickaxe a little bit with a shovel".
For two years one could read on his blog the hilarious (and difficult to translate) adventures of the archaeologist Izmo: how his wife left when the hole in his yard became too huge; his troubles with the local authorities who accused him of trying to make an illegal branching on the underground water network; his attempts to obtain an "international validation" from his uncle emigrated in Germany, or a public financing of his project from the authorities; his dramatic encounter with the orbs (en) described by the "graduated engineer" Hrvoje Zujic in Ravne tunnel (bs) [2]; his dicovery of "Nazca lines" (bs) on the pyramids; and above all his numerous attempts at being included in the Foundation team. Then, since his last post in November 2007, nothing more: Izmo appeared to have abandoned his dream, never having received any answer from M. Osmanagic, nor any of his texts published on the Foundation website.
But others have been more lucky: thus, a man called Amer Kovacevic, Doctor of Philosophy, was able to have two texts published on the website during February of this year. In case the Foundation should suppress them, I attach them to this article for the sake of science. The first one, with the title "The Bosnian Lily, a consideration in favor of Semir Osmanagic’s thesis" (bs) [3]
makes a link between the triangular arrangement of the fleur-de-lys on medieval Bosnian King Tvrtko’s emblem, and the arrangement of the "pyramids":
A triangular arrangement that is also found on medieval coins:
And the author shows that the fleur-de-lys itself can be seen as formed of two triangles, the symbols of the "pyramids" of the Sun and of the Moon:
So that he concludes that the use of the fleur-de-lys by medieval Bosnia is probably not a coincidence, but maybe a remain of a "still unknown civilization".
The second text by D.Phil. Amer Kovacevic is of the same kind, maybe even more delirious.
Titled "Bosnian Stecci: the reference to Bosnian pyramids" (bs), it tries to insert the famous stecci, medieval Bosnian steles, in Mr. Osmanagic pseudo-archaeological chimera. The author shows a photograph of one of these steles:
but explains that one has to look at it turned upside down, as "truth is sometimes totally reverse of what is suggested to us by the orthodox vision of things":
So that one can discover that this stecak represents in fact a pyramid with trees on the top and two spirals inside! And the author asks numerous questions, as used to do Goran Cakic: were these steles parts of the actual pyramids? do the spirals represent vortexes of the mysterious energy that Russian academics measured last year? what forgotten secret from the distant past could they help to reveal? and so on...
This text was, for the Foundation team, so interesting that someone decided that it should be translated in English, an honor that could not attain most of the texts from the "deliriums corner". So that the curious reader may enjoy the fun to read it in its entirety (en).
It also excited the imagination of one familiar with the "deliriums corner", a Davorin Vrbancic, author of a theory [4] considering the pyramids as "manufactures of clouds", that he has summarized in this charming little sketch:
According to Mr. Vrbancic’s theories [5], the pyramids have been built by superior beings ("masters of the cosmos") searching for a habitable planet: upon the discovery of Earth during the last Ice Age, they would have set on it a series of warming installations using solar energy to produce water vapour and enhance the greenhouse effet [6].
D.Phil. Amer Kovacevic’s "discovery" has greatly rejoyced (bs) Mr. Vrbancic, who feels it is a confirmation of his own theory: among other points, he thinks that the spirals on the medieval steles represent "the internal circulation" of air and vapour within the pyramids, and that these stecci are showing the pattern of the functioning of solar energy cloud generators. Indeed, it is evident seeing another photograph of a stecak, where the hand of the pyramids creator holds a sun:
(but I could not understand why the first stecak had to be set upside down, and not this one???).
Well, a wonderful delirious construction. But what gives it all its piquancy, is the revealing made on the 28th of February: the "Doctor of Philosophy Amer Kovacevic" is none other, of course, than our friend Izmo Guglic (bs), who finally succeeded in making true his dream of entering the Osmanagic team! One has to think that a title of "Doctor", even totally false, has impressed Mr. Osmanagic [7] much more than Izmo’s hard work with his pickaxe and his shovel. In any case, it’s Mr. Osmanagic himself who gave the green light to the publication on the Foundation website of Izmo’s "works", as can be seen by the congratulation mail, titled "Spirals in the stone", that he sent to the "Doctor of Philosophy":
"Excellent text Amer. Senad please publish it in ’News’ and in ’Iz mog ugla’"
Indeed it seems that Doctor Amer has become the darling of the entire team, judging by the mails published on Izmo’s blog, coming from various team members, congratulating him for his open mind and recommending him not to be distressed by the "agressive and ruthless" opponents. He even apparently became a member of the "family circle", as he is among the recipients of a mail from Mr. Osmanagic that was probably not intended for the public:
mail unveiling a project of "communication campaign" to counterbalance the negative influence of "opponents" on the web by creating a "network" of pro-pyramid websites, and by flooding the forums, the archaeology websites, and Wikipedia, with "positive news" of the project [8]. Maybe someone should inform of this Wikipedia administrators, who already had some hard time in the past trying to protect the objectivity of the article about the Bosnian pyramids (en)!
Apparently Mr. Osmanagic and his team have decided not to react to the revealing of the lack of seriousness of their Doctor in Philosophy; indeed his texts are still on the Foundation website [9]. What is more, a new article about the stecci (bs) appeared on the 29th of February (and this time not in the "deliriums corner"). Beside a series of photographs of steles, a short text echoes the idea that they could be "something else" than medieval tombstones, and supposes that they could have been shaped at a different time and with a different purpose. Mr. Osmanagic, it seems, is firmly determined to go on with his undertaking of "recovery" of Bosnian real archaeology, that Stultitia described, as early as 2006, in this article (en).
In any case, beside the huge burst of laughter that this story of Izmo joining the Foundation team caused in Bosnia (at least among the ones connected to the Web, as no newspaper, till now, has made any mention of it), it is especially interesting by the confirmation, if any was needed, of the quality of the scientific work of Mr. Osmanagic and his friends, who are ready to believe - and to disseminate - any delirious idea as soon as it seems to agree with their "project".
Update, 5th of March 2008
Well, "Doctor" Amer Kovecevic’s ideas are really inspiring for the Foundation "experts". Today was indeed published a new text, from an author as unknown as was Doctor Kovacevic, about the origin of the stecci (bs). According to the "dipl.org.inf." (?) from Slovenia Fatih Hodzic, all of these stecci, even if they were re-used during the Middle Ages, are remains, scattered by some cataclysm on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of an ancient lost civilization:
One cannot learn anything more about this "ancient civilization" on the Foundation website. But, if one goes directly to the author’s website (en), one will learn that this ancient civilization is none other than Atlantis, located, according to Mr. Hodzic, in the Adriatic, and destroyed 10,500 years ago by the fall of an asteroid which raised tsunamis and floods, and scattered the remains of the Atlantidean buildings on the coasts:
That’s to much to be true... is the "dipl.org.inf." Fatih Hodzic an alter-ego or a disciple of Izmo? Where will stop this overbidding in deliriums and in rewriting History on the Foundation website?
In any case, whether the "dipl.org.inf." Fatih Hodzic exists or doesn’t, whether this text is a new joke, or is one more fantasy by a sincere crank, it is published on the Foundation website. However, why did they alter this text and erased any mention of Atlantis [10]? because it did not appear sufficiently "serious" for "the biggest archaeological project of the century"?
Update, 6th of March 2008
Contrary to what I wrote above, there is one Bosnia newspaper that mentioned the adventures of Izmo Guglic / Amer Kovacevic. BHDani magazine, in its issue 560 publishe today, has an article about "All Osmanagic’s experts" (bs):
where Vuk Bacanovic gives all the details about the "Izmo Guglic affair" [11]. But, for Vuk Bacanovic, the story is not so funny: he indeed points to the fact that the Foundation which published such nonsense received last year 100,000 KM from the Zenica-Doboj Canton, from a total of 150,000 KM devoted to the archaeology of Visoko region...