In the context of the pyramidiotic hysteria in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in order to present a more realistic source for the historical and archaeological data of the Visoko area, I've recently published here on my blog the first chapters of the book "Visoko and its surroundings through history I". The book was published in 1984 and commissioned by the then socialist-run municipality of Visoko. Authors of the book are the esteemed Bosnian-Herzegovinian historians and archaeologists, some of them now deceased, Pavao Anđelić, Ivo Bojanovski, Borivoj Čović and Brunislav Marijanović. Many contributions to the entire project were made by the then director of the local Visoko museum, Ms. Ljiljana Tomičić.
In comparison with the claims made by Mr. Osmanagić about the archaeology of the region, the book shows that he not only concealed certain information from the Bosnian-Herzegovinian and international public, but that the now director of the local Visoko museum and associate of Mr. Osmanagić, Mr. Senad Hodović, should have informed him better of the locations where his teams are carrying out mass-scale amateur diggings. The insight into the first chapter of the book reveals that Mr. Osmanagić and his Foundation are not only endangering over 5 real and known prehistoric archaeological sites in the Visoko valley, but also that they have possibly demolished an Iron Age tomb at the foot of the Plješevica hill (so-called Pyramid of the Moon). That is the assessment so far, without possibly endangered antique, early and late medieval sites. On her blog, Irna gave an excellent insight into this matter.
I will get back to this with more detail in English later. For now, I'd like to give a broader context for some local reactions to this emerging information about the real archaeology of the Visoko region. Since I've announced in mid-August that I will publish this monography on my blog, I've heard that copies of this book are selling quite well in Visoko, so it may be that the public is not as uninformed about the real archaeology of the region as Mr. Semir Osmanagić and his pyramidiots would hope.
But there have been some other reactions too, surprisingly from people who seem to be critical of Osmanagić's project. One such reaction is by Mr. Mensur Omerbashich, who claims that the Visocica Hill could actually be a pyramid, only made by Romans. Even though there is no single evidence to support this claim, and even though I have not yet published the monography chapter related to the Roman period, Mr. Omerbashich has, real pseudoarchaeologist style, already concluded that it supports his theory.
In grounding his conclusions on lack of evidence instead on existence of it, and in dismissing entire blocks of existing knowledge grounded on one single and missinterpreted sentence, Mr. Omerbashich proves to be an example of a Balkan mythomaniac not much different from Mr. Osmanagić himself. As evident from some of his other writings, he is much more preoccupied with establishing the Illyrian roots of the modern Bosnians/Bosniacs, than actually giving an account of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian real archaeology:
„The Illyrians-Bogomils-Bosniaks continuity is self-evident as the above finds coincide with the settlements of today's Bosniaks (the Muslims of the Balkans). Note ancient maps [above] corroborating the early Antiquity-Ottoman Empire continuity too: there [left] you can see that, of the entire western Balkans, only Bosnia was called Illyria (proper) with own Sea called Illyricum Mare (part of a larger, Adriatic - Emperor Hadrian's Sea).“
This obsession with establishing vaccuum-tight historical continuity of a single religious, ethnic or national group while appropriating for it the entire regional history and thus excluding all other groups/cultures from it - that is the most indicative symptom of the Balkan historical mythomania. In this particular claim, Mr. Omerbashich follows in close footsteps of Mr. Enver Imamović, another critic of Mr. Semir Osmanagić, who too claims this Illyrian-Bosniac continuity in his written works. Mr. Osmanagić only pushed this myth a little further, to some unknown, 27.000 years old Pre-Illyrians, which could be why his theories became so popular especially among the Bosnian Muslim population. It should be noted that the Pyramid Project in Visoko receives a special attention from the religious leader of the Bosnian Muslims, Grand Mufti Mustafa Ef. Cerić, who has recently, during his third visit to the 'pyramids', said:
„Today I came to honor the enthusiast and the dreamer, because it is said that people are devided to those who remember, those who think and those who dream. Those who dream are the few, those who think are somewhat more, and the most numerous are those who remember what happened yesterday. Were it not for men like Semir, we would not be flying in airplanes today, because imagine the man who, for the first time, wanted to imitate a bird in flight? How they laughed at him and how they thought him crazy. There were many Giordano Brunos who were burned, because others were not able to understand them. I am very happy that one Bosnian appeared, came to Bosnia-Herzegovina and intrigued the whole world with his imagination that here in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the town of Visoko where I too was born, there are pyramids. I came to support him in his dreaming and since, in 2002, the Islamic Community of Bosnia-Herzegovina celebrated 120 years from the arrival of the Austro-Hungarians, and now we celebrate 600 years of Islam in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the Balkans, I think that these researches on pyramids will entice Bosnians to come up with the idea to celebrate 1.000 years of the Bosnian history. And then somebody will remember to celebrate 2.000, and when we are gone, somebody will celebrate 5.000 and then 10.000 years. By then, all that we search for now, will be found. Not only should we support Semir, but we should also learn from him. It is not only the question of digging up stones, proving the existence of tunnels or pyramids, but it is the message that Semir gives to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the world. That excites me and I want him to continue with it.“
Therefore, even if it may seem a strange marriage, it is not such a paradox that the New Atlantis narrative, planted in Bosnia by the Croatian New Age fanatics who are the most ardent followers of Semir Osmanagić, received such a warm welcome in some nationalistically charged Bosniac circles. Because, fundamentally, all historical myths have one common denominator: dillusions of grandeur or superiority over another human being, a group, a race, a culture or a civilization. Much of the attrocities and destruction in ex-Yugoslavia in the past 15 years actually started with one such historical myth, pushed to the limit by the Butcher of the Balkans, Slobodan Milošević.
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Perhaps one of the best and in other ex-Yugoslav countries yet unparalleled examples of nationalistic historical and cultural narratives is the Serb(ian) project called Projekat Rastko and it's part dedicated to archaeology: The Library of Serb Archaeology. In that virtual library, providing that you read Cyrillic and speak Serbian so that the whole world can understand you, almost any 'scientific' paper that you open contains pearls of wisdom such as this one:
„Serbia is a noble country, generous to man. It's territory marked the center of the civilized world in several instances, and it often was the cradle of men and ideas that had fundamental impact on the economic, cultural or political history of Europe.“ (Dragoslav Srejović, WHEN WE WERE THE CULTURAL CENTER OF THE WORLD)
In other 'scientific' papers there, you will find out how archaeological evidence supports the truth that Serbs and only Serbs lived always and everywhere in the Balkans since the time immemorial; even if their tribes or groups and their countries were called somewhat differently at times:
„Even after the diffusion of Serbs into a dozen of statelets by the end of the 14th century, the original ethnic space kept its cultural homogeneity. That is best exemplified by stećci. Stećci are massive tombstone monuments, most often in the shape of huge trunks. Some of them are decorated, with human figures or symbolical compositions or lines. Their art is well-known and draws attention since long. Propaganda used to portray stećci as a form of Bogomil art for a long time, which was proven wrong. The inscriptions on stećci are without exception Cyrilic.
Necropoleis of stećci are situated on the same places of the ancient pagan graveyards with mounds. That means settlements in the vicinity, and that there is continuity in keeping the old, cattle-raising way of life. With the spreading of the Serbs westward (Vlasi), the use of stećci spread too, so there is a lot of them in Dalmatia and in Krajina, from Cetina to Lika and Pakrac.“ (Đorđe Janković, ETHNIC SPACE OF SERBS IN THE BALKANS IN THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE LIGHT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND WRITTEN SOURCES)
These would be the same medieval tombstone monuments that some of Mr. Semir Osmanagić's associates from Croatia, namely Mr. Marijan Grakalić, prefer to present as Croatian cultural heritage. As a matter of fact, this summer I visited some of the above mentioned necropoleis of stećci in Croatia, „from Cetina to Lika“ (Cista Provo), and discovered that they are neatly accompanied by unequivocal attributes of their supposed Croatianhood, religious and national identity – the cross and the red-and-white checkerboarded flag – just in case one suddenly forgets that they are in Croatia, or plunges into an identity crisis and/or begins to doubt the Croatian cultural and civilizational significance:
While you wonder what does a medieval necropolis and a protected national monument have to do with some tragic outcomes of the WWII, here is another example of how a historical monument in the Balkans in never just that: a historical monument. It always has to mean something and have a deeper contemporary political dimension. Some such monuments from the Ottoman period that did not agree well with the newly discovered Croatianhood at the beginning of the 90s had ended up like the Old Bridge in Mostar or the old center of Stolac; others, like the remains of the Hadžibeg's Fort, another protected national monument, ended up branded with more „martyr“ plates – this time dedicated to:
„. . . countless Croat victims from the time of the Turkish slavery; numerous martyrs of Hadži-beg's terror; on the wall of the dungeon a memorial is built by the municipality of Neum and village of Hutovo.“:
Perhaps this psychotic race for the most exclusive national continuity and for the oldest, most martyred ancestry – as if the Balkans is some retirement home for geriatric victimized nations – represents the true context of the popularity that the Pyramid Project gained in Bosnia-Herzegovina, even among the educated people. Because, in the Balkans, the real cultural, historical and archaeological heritage is nothing if it doesn't prove that you were and are, somehow, „the center of the world“.
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