Book : GODDESS MYSTERY CULTS AND THE MIRACLE OF MINYAN PREHISTORIC GREECE The Path of the Serpent

author: DIONYSIOUS PSILOPOULOS

chapter 7 

“Technical Achievements of Prehistoric Greeks and the Conspiracy of Silence”

page: 305 - 309

{ professors Kanellis and Kokkoros disputed the skeleton's very existence, claiming that only the skull had been found. Sarigiannidis, whose presence the professors had not perceived, took the floor and, before the audience, cited the testimony of several of his fellow villagers (present at the lecture) and rejected the allegations by Kanellis and Kokkoros, reminding them of the excuse they had given him for the supposed destruction of the skeletal finds.

Sarigiannidis's most serious allegation is that in August 1979 he was visited approximately four times by various individuals attempting to persuade him to sign a sworn statement declaring that he had found the skull at a higher location. On one occasion, three people, driving a black FIAT 127, the oldest of whom spoke German, offered him 400,000 German marks to sign that formal declaration. Having understood, as he mentions in his affidavit, the enormous significance of the Archanthropus, Sarigiannidis refused to cooperate and informed his associates and Poulianos. The latter immediately informed the then Minister of Public Order, Anastasios Balkos (1916-1995).

Poulianos also experienced a similar case of attempted bribery. In 1969 Poulianos published the Anthropological Data on the Origin of the Kretans, claiming that modern Kretans belong to an anthropological type formed during the Early Palaeolithic period and proving their indigenous nature. Immediately after the publication of the book, as Dafne Poulianou testifies in her husband's biography, a man who introduced himself as a Hebrew banker visited them in their home and asked Poulianos to change his conclusions about the biological continuity of the Kretans in exchange for any amount of money he wished. His wife recalls that Poulianos refused the offer, saying that the Kretans are indigenous and that they did not come from other places or fell from the sky (387).

Like Spyropoulos and Poulianos, archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi attempted to overturn established theories and faced harsh criticism from the Greek archaeological and political establishment. On 29 January 1995, the Egyptian government officially announced the discovery, in the Oasis of Siwa, of a magnificent 525 m² Hellenistic royal tomb, believed to be that of Alexander the Great. Greek archaeologist and director of the archaeological Greek mission at Siwa Oasis, Liana Souvaltzi, who was responsible for this discovery, excavated the area from 1989 to 1996 and discovered that the entire tomb complex measures 12,000 m². The main burial chamber is 51 m long with an outer width of 10.25 m. The entryway to this magnificent monument is guarded by lion statues. Moreover, a Corridor measuring 31.32 m long and 7 m wide leads to the tomb and to three chambers. The roof of the third chamber is in the shape of a pyramid and at the top stood an enormous lion statue. Greek inscriptions and Greek ornaments were everywhere. Specifically, the first inscription, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΑΜΜΩΝΟΣ ΡΑ (Alexander the son of Ammun Ra), dating from 290 to 284 BCE, fully convinced Souvaltzi that this tomb was indeed that of Alexander the Great. The first inscription was written, according to Souvaltzi, by Ptolemy I (367-282 BCE) and briefly records that Ptolemy I, Alexander's curator and trusted companion, carried Alexander's body, which weighed as much as a light shield (158). Roman emperor Traianus (53-117 CE), the writer of the second inscription, had visited the tomb of Alexander and reports that he repaired the monument in honour of the one who drank the poison, and that the monument was also dedicated to the eternal Zeus, an address that suits Alexander since he had been officially proclaimed the son of Ammon Zeus by the Siwa Oracle in February of 331 BCE (162).

Before Souvaltzi and her team entered the final burial chamber, just as in the case of Spyropoulos, her license was mysteriously revoked by the Egyptian government under the direct intervention of the Greek government of Kostas Simitis, through the Greek cultural attaché and left- wing intellectual Kostis Moskof (1939-1998). In The Tomb of Alexander the Great in Siwa Oasis (2002), Souvaltzi narrates that at Christmas of 1996, when she went to the Egyptian General Secretary of Antiquities, Dr. Ali Hassan, to receive the already approved licenses, the latter told her that "your government asked me not to give you the license. Mr. Moskof came to my office, and I frankly say to you that I am surprised by the wrath he has against you" (231-232). In an interview with Kouvalakis for the Davlos journal, Souvaltzi notes that Hassan told her that the Greek government, through Moskof, had formally requested the revocation of her permits and the cessation of all excavations (11321). But even before that day, when she went to the Greek embassy in Cairo to report the good news of the discovery of the tomb, in the absence of the ambassador, she had the "bad luck," as she writes, to speak with Moskof. Moskof's reaction to the news was "negative" and he characteristically said to Souvaltzi: "and what could we do with a tomb, even if this tomb belongs to Alexander, when we have Cavafy here?" (50). Even after the Egyptian government's official announcement of the tomb's discovery, Greek ambassador Mr. Dimitrios Vidouris, according to Souvaltzi, never visited the site or supported the Greek mission, as was his responsibility. Souvaltzi believes that this discrimination was based on political criteria and that the ambassador was acting on orders from Moskof. It is worth mentioning that after the withdrawal of the license, both ambassador Vidouris and cultural attaché Moskof refused to see her. 

In July 1996, Souvaltzi visited the then president of the Hellenic Republic, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos (1926-2016), to brief him about the progress of the project and about the negative attitude of Cairo's Greek embassy. At the president's suggestion, Souvaltzi wrote to prime minister Simitis to request a meeting, which never took place. On 13 September 2014, Souvaltzi confessed that when she then asked for an explanation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Theodoros Pangalos, the latter told her that the "discovery of Alexander's tomb would increase nationalism in Greece, which was not desired at that time" (qtd. in Black, "Tomb of Alexander the Great Found"). Moreover, in the same commentary published in Ancient Origins magazine, Souvaltzi revealed that while she was in Egypt, the Israeli ambassador visited the tomb accompanied by a group of scientists. The Israeli ambassador acknowledged the significance of this discovery and confessed to Souvaltzi that it "would change the political situation in Egypt and disrupt the balances between a number of other countries." Moreover, Souvaltzi recalls that at the end of the visit, the ambassador congratulated her and expressed the wish that she be allowed to continue her work (Davlos 11326). Perhaps the other countries that the ambassador had in mind were primarily Greece, the then FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Makedonia), now Republic of North Makedonia, and the US. Greece was then pressured to give in to the demands of the Skopjansss and let them use the name 'Makedonia' as their country's official name. Greece's concern was that the appropriation of the name by the Skopjans would distort history and eventually imply territorial claims on the northern province of Greek Makedonia. Moreover, the Israeli ambassador told Souvaltzi that, "while she had the courage to fight for the truth, sometimes when you express the truth, you pay for it" (Black par. 17). Because of the resistance she received from the Greek state and because they stopped her at the most critical moment, just before entering the burial chamber, Souvaltzi is convinced that she is absolutely right and that she has indeed discovered the tomb of Alexander the Great (Davlos 11323). 

To this day no further excavations have been carried out at this burial monument, which remains in very poor condition. Souvaltzi boldly States in her book, which remains greek government's intransigent attitude, and specifically that of Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, as expressed through the Ministry of Culture, that is responsible for the collapse of this unique Greek monument and the destruction of such unique and crucial finds.

 In "The Despairing Cry" (18/12/2014), published in Ancient Origins, Souvaltzi declares that the tomb has now been "turned into a rubbish dump" and has almost been completely destroyed by rising underwater, wondering bitterly "why there is such hatred against this monument?" She adds that even if they do not want to accept that this is the Tomb of Alexander, "it is still a Greek monument at the heart of the largest and most inhospitable desert! So should it be destroyed because it talks to us about Greece?" (The Tomb of Alexander the Great in Siwa Oasis 250).

Similarly, Spyropoulos, referring to the Minyan hydraulic projects in Kopais, the covered royal tomb in Pelekete, the royal Theban tombs, and the Amphion monument, laments that the historical memory of our nation and its monumental heritage is being destroyed by the negligence, indifference, and wickedness of those who have received the mandate to protect it (172). How long, he asks, will fear and expediency frighten scientists to falsify facts? Are we living in a spiritual occupation and terrorism, worse than in the days of Galileo? He points out that the sites of his excavations have all been abandoned, and due to that abandonment and to pollution they are on the verge of extinction. Specifically, he refers to the shattered tomb of Oedipus' children and points out that despite his strong oral and written protests, its frescoes were torn down and transferred to warehouses in Athens, while others remained inside the ruined monument. Moreover, he adds that with the blessing of the local Ephorate of Antiquities, the hippodrome around the hill is now filled with rubble and building materials (II.244).

On 5 August 2017, in an event organized by the people of the village of Georgitsi who live in Attica (the Georgitsianoi), which took place in their hometown in Lakonia, where both Souvaltzi and Spyropoulos were guests of honour, Souvaltzi declared to her audience that archaeology has become a "political tool." Referring specifically to the obstacles that she and her colleague Spyropoulos encountered during their excavations in the oasis of Siwa and in Amphion and Pellana, respectively, Souvaltzi asserted that the promoters of globalization and the so-called new world order do not want Greeks' patriotic feeling or nationalism to be strengthened. Souvaltzi in particular confessed to her audience that the issue of Alexander the Great touches a sensitive nerve in the hearts of the Greeks and naturally the discovery of his tomb would increase their pride and nationalism. But those who are in control, she remarked, do not want Greeks to be reminded of their glorious past and be proud of it. They wish to make the Greeks forget that their civilization was the one that first transmitted culture to Europe and the East. Extreme forms of nationalism and racism should definitely be avoided, but does this mean that we must abolish nations and races? Canadian-American political commentator and senior editor of The Atlantic, David Frum, aptly notes that "without national borders, there are no nation-states. Without nation-states, there are electorates. Without electorates, there is no democracy”.

Perhaps, as Souvaltzi remarks, the controlling elite who want people to remain sedated, unable to think and judge for themselves (179), want to suppress any information that would overturn established historical knowledge. Souvaltzi, trying to fathom the political polemic she experienced, conjectures that it was perhaps the fear discovering in the tomb written documents that would perhaps change everything we know about Alexander, his time, and achievements. According to Souvaltzi there is a possibility that Ptolemy I, Alexander's most trusted friend, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and a man who participated in all of Alexander's military campaigns, had ordered his literary work, concerning the deeds of Alexander, to be transferred and stored somewhere safe within the tomb of Alexander (The Tomb of Alexander the Great in Siwa Oasis 178-179).

German robotics engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink experienced problems similar to those of Spyropoulos and Souvaltzi in his endeavour to explore the Queen's chamber shafts of the Great Pyramid. On 22 March 1993, while exploring the southern shaft through his robot, Upuaut II, Gantenbrink literally hit a wall when the robot stopped in front of a small, square 21x21 cm slab door bearing the remains of copper handles. After the announcement of this important discovery to the press on 16 April 1993, the project stopped. The German Archaeological Institute withdrew its support and the Egyptian authorities were reluctant to resume the exploration. This may be a simple matter of politics, as Gantenbrink was an engineer, not a trained Egyptologist. Hancock and Bauval comment that the major problem Gantenbrink encountered "was that he did not belong to the Egyptological profession but was regarded by the leading academics at Giza as a hired technician-which meant, by definition, that his views were assumed to have no merit" (Keeper of Genesis 126). Gantenbrink tried his best to convince the Egyptian authorities to restart the exploration of the shaft and discover what existed behind the slab, but to no avail. He even proposed to train an Egyptian technician and lend the robot to the Egyptians, but still the reply was negative. In words reminiscent of those by Souvaltzi, Gantenbrink reports in the Sunday Telegraph of 1 January 1995 that "I was scheduled to meet the Minister of Culture about the discovery, but it never happened. A press conference was scheduled. It never happened."

Obviously, this is not merely a matter of petty politics or professional rivalry and jealousy: it goes deeper since it involves politicians und governments. It appears there is a conspiracy of silence. }

  by author: DIONYSIOUS PSILOPOULOS