More than one visitor to this site has drawn my attention to this article published by the online newspaper EU Times: Scientists confirm pyramids in Bosnia are oldest known pyramids in the world. Here is the text of the article:

Bosnian pyramids have been finally confirmed. Pyramid experts from all over the world have confirmed the existence of the Bosnian pyramids. In addition, 90% of all these experts said that the the Bosnian pyramids are by far the world’s largest and oldest pyramids. There are five (5) pyramids in Bosnia and it is said that they are 12000-26000 years old. In 2010 UNESCO added the Bosnian pyramids into their World Heritage sites. UNESCO and the CIA are planning to make the Bosnian Pyramid Valley the world’s largest and most valuable historical monuments by 2012.
The Bosnian Pyramid Vally consists of the five following pyramids :
– Pyramid of Sun (world’s oldest and largest pyramid)
– Pyramid of Moon (world’s second oldest and largest pyramid)
– Pyramid of Love
– Pyramid of Earth
– Pyramid of Boson (sic !)

Clearly, the readers who forwarded the link to this article did so with the notion that this would shut me up good and proper. Alas, these people would do a lot better if they were somewhat less naive, and made more of an effort to check the reliability of sources found on the Internet!

Let’s start with the online "newspaper" itself. It bears a very illustrious name: the European Union Times, which, with joint nods in the direction of both the EU and the renowned Times of London, might almost lead us to believe that this was an official newspaper somehow linked with the European Union. But, title notwithstanding, a mere glance at the site is enough to reveal that the newspaper is nothing more than a rag: a right-wing, racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic rag. Curious readers might want to take a look beneath the "Culture" tab, for example, at the posts under the "Judaism" link; beneath the "Crimes" tab, at the posts under the "Immigration", "Holocaust" and "Interracial" links; or, beneath the “Criticism" tab, at the posts under the "Immorality", "Homosexuality" and "Multiculturalism” links. It’s also worth noting that no name (publisher, or editor) or address is to be found anywhere on the site; that most of the articles don’t cite any source; and, finally, that the domain name is registered in Canada (according to this article, the people originally responsible for registering the domain were closely connected with a North American racist group).

The European Union Times “Archaeology" link (beneath the “Science” tab) is in a similar vein to the others, consisting of archaeological news seen from a blatantly White Supremacist perspective. “Tutankhamun had Western European DNA", "A 7,000-year-old swastika has been discovered in Bulgaria","White mummies of Peru", "Tutankhamun wasn’t black”, and so on. Anything remotely capable of implying the superiority or antiquity of Europeans is promptly seized on and flagged up, to the point of completely distorting the interpretation of any particular discovery. As such, it is clear that Mr. Osmanagic’s thesis on "the mother of all pyramids" or “Bosnia, cradle of civilization" must have been sweet music to the ears of those who publish this material.

Turning now to the analysis of the text of the article itself, we find:
– a total absence of sources;
– "Pyramid experts around the world have confirmed ..." Which experts, pray? No names are given, nor the title of any publication;
– "90% of these experts say ..." Real precision there! With the sole purpose, of course, of conveying the impression that there are hundreds of such famous "experts" all lined up ...
– "It is stated that they (the pyramids) are ancient": where is this stated, and by whom?
– "In 2010, UNESCO added the Bosnian pyramids to the list of World Heritage Sites." Totally false! Mr. Osmanagic’s "pyramids" do not appear on the Cultural Heritage list, nor on the tentative list, as confirmed by the UNESCO website; and nor is any mention of the "pyramids” to be found on the schedule of new properties on the 2010 World Heritage listing;
– "UNESCO and the CIA are planning ..." The CIA?? How did they manage to get in on the act?? Disneyland, that we might bring ourselves to believe: but the CIA being interested in a monument or an archaeological park .. ?? This technique is the same as the one employed by hoaxers who use email to proclaim the arrival of the latest destructive and undetectable virus, its existence invariably confirmed by some household name (Microsoft, the CIA, CNN ... ) even if the organization thus named has never had anything to do with the virus in question ...
– the list concludes with the "pyramid of Boson", which is probably intended to designate what Mr. Osmanagic calls the pyramid of the Dragon, or the pyramid of the Dragon of Bosnia. The editors’ inability to get the right names for the so-called pyramids speaks volumes about the seriousness of their work!

The text of the article is followed by a series of photographs: but no captions, no sources. Most of them probably come from the Foundation website, but not all. For example, there is at least one photo taken by Colette Dowell, identified by the initials RMSCMD (Robert M. Schoch and Colette M. Dowell) which I very much doubt if EU Times has obtained permission to use. What’s even more inexcusable is that amongst these photos are pictures of objects from clearly identified cultures which, although found in Bosnia, have nothing to do with the Mr. Osmanagic’s "pyramids": for example, a Butmir culture vase, or the famous Vucedol Dove (see also here). In addition, there is the cover of a book by Emir Imamovic Pirke, which, whilst undeniably bearing the title, "Secret of the Valley of the Pyramids", is in sober fact a parody in which the author mocks the gullibility and stupidity of his Bosnian fellow citizens, the Osmanagic "pyramids" symbolizing this stupidity.

In short, the fact that this "astonishing news" has been posted on dozens of forums and web pages (see here to get an idea, or here, here (fr) or herefor a few more examples) is in itself an eloquent comment on the critical thinking skills of many of those who believe in Mr. Osmanagic and his theories ... In the words of Jean Rostand: "Having an open mind doesn’t mean that it has to be thrown open to every last piece of nonsense!”