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John Teall - 08/27/00 06:21:51 My URL:http://www.jps.net/themnax/index.htm My Email:themnax@jps.net How did you arrive to this page: by way of the index of the archiology web ring Interests: this would be a longer list then my comment itself - the short list is trees, trains, computers and solitude - with the harmonious and sustainable intigration of nature and tecnology thrown in for good measure ... ~;) | Comments: many and divergent phenominae can produce similiar resaults and (while i am merely speculating) i would suspect such to be the case here - all or nearly all of the explanations advanced are probably each true in some cases - being myself an enthusiast of guideway based transportation systems it is tempting to me to leap to only partialy and inconclusively warrented assumptions and for this reason i mistrust to some degree my own instincts - yet surely something or things caused these artifacts to exist. the earliest usage of modern guideway based systems such as cast iron plateways having been in the mining industry and for good reason it is tempting and perhaps to some degree valid to speculate similiar motivations involved. i am also awaire for instance that there existed four wheeled but not steerable chariots before the more practical for its time and purpose two wheeled variety and that a level guideway can greatly increase the capacity to move bulk and massive loads - all pointing to some sort of early roman era mining activity. as i mentioned to begin with i am not suggesting this accounts for all or even a majority of such phenominae - only the most (to me) interesting - though for a majority or at least a large minority of cases this seems not unlikely - agricola's in re mechanibus is highly suggestive - if only by its very existence - not being more familiar with the sites in question - what they were mining where and for what purpose i dare not venture to guess - save that it would have to have been something (or multiples thereof) - requiring that large bulks of this material be transported. at any rat i am thrilled at the prospect this might be the case and really loved the pictures and would like to see more... |
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Oregon Trail - 02/14/00 22:38:17 My URL:http://www.OCTA-trails.org My Email:LWisch@trib.com | Comments: You asked if these ruts look similar to those on Deep Rut Hill. And the easy answer is YES!! When I look at the Mensija ruts photo, I could easily be convinced that this a photo of the western US emigrant trails. I don't know much about soil and climate conditions in Malta but one of the reasons that the ruts are so visible in the western US is because the climate is so dry. Deep Rut Hill is a bit of an anomaly in the trail ruts simply because hills in that area forced all the wagons to funnel through this one small area of sandstone rock. And sandstone is easily worn down. In other places, the wagons would spread out -- mostly because it was so dusty and dry. They didn't want to be in all the dust behind other wagons & they also needed to be able to get feed for their animals. If they had all stayed grouped together, the forage for animals would have been impossible to find. A question about your ruts -- have you ever flown over and had aerial photos taken to see what more they might tell you? That's been a valuable way of following the trail remnants out West. Incredibly, the scars that were left by all this traffic are so deep that, even where the land has been plowed and under cultivation for 100 years plus, from the air, you can still see the depressions of the ruts!! So there might be more to be learned from the air. Anyway, I am going to forward your information to the Overland Trails mailing list which is an Internet discussion group about the emigrant experience because I'm sure a lot of people there would be interested. And I am also going to try to find some appropriate place to include a link to your ruts on our website. This is just too interesting to keep to myself. So you may be hearing from others as a result. Again, thanks so much for sharing this. Let me know if there are other questions I might be able to answer for you. |
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Theunissen, Dan, CTR, AFPCA/SRS - 02/09/00 21:39:20 My Email:Dan.Theunissen@army.pentagon.mil | Comments: Hotmail poinike@hotmail.com Inbox Compose Addresses Folders Options Help Folder: Inbox From: "Theunissen, Dan, CTR, AFPCA/SRS" |