The
Abydos Helicopter & Secrets of the Golden
Section
At
Abydos, in
the ancient temple built by Seti I, and his son Ramses II,
on a heavy stone slab supporting the ceiling are
hieroglyphical writings, which are illustrated by a most eye catching,
and thought provoking
scene - an array of four futuristic craft.
dIf
this were modern art, we would have no doubt that it clearly shows a
helicopter next to a stacked formation of three harder
to identify advanced craft.
Disavowal stems strictly from the
fact
that this art is over 3,000 years old, and we know that there was no
advanced technology and science in our misty past - don't we?
Click
for larger version
photograph by
Sheri Nakken

(photographed November
1992 by Bruce Rawles )

The
top machine in the stack could be anything -
a boat, a hovercraft, a tank, even
a
flying saucer, or a vimana.
Below it seems to be a large airplane, or airship, possibly
carrying a big
object underneath, perhaps to the craft pictured below.Could it be a
behemoth futuristic ship further off in the distance?
The scene had caused some sensation in the nineties, but
soon
Egyptologists had identified at least two sets of overlapping
hieroglyphics in this picture. This proffered a simple
scientific explanation: What we see is
a palimpsest, i.e., an
accidental illusion. First
there were some original glyphs, which were later hidden by plaster,
and replaced by a set of different glyphs, engraved partially in stone
and partially in plaster. Eventually, the
plaster fell
out, and the overlapping hieroglyphs began
looking like images of modern craft..
Like it or not, there is no
denying that the images seem composed of standard hieroglyphs,
although it must be pointed out that
some are strangely distorted. Is this the final word then?
The Real Issue
What is at issue here? That the scene is a palimpsest, and not a single
work? It looks like it, but would it make any difference if
the scene were not
a palimpsest? Of course, it wouldn't. The Abydos scene would never be
judged on its own, but rather be judged by extrapolation from the rest
of reality, which is then presented monolithically opposed.
This verdict would continue to present it as the result of accidental, chaotic forces.
Entrenched conservative consensus is not a figment of
imagination. There are many other relatively relevant
controversies in this world like "vimanas" for instance, and all have
been discounted.
Thus, justly or unjustly, the Abydos scene would seem bound for the
dustbin of odd but
explicable curiosities.
Having reduced the Abydos scene to a philosophical problem of
Order & Chaos, we may feel betrayed by the
ancient artists. Perhaps, they knew something we don't, and chose to
essentially tease future spectators like us by
some true reflections of reality, which are yet worthless from a scientific
viewpoint as evidence. But, did they?
Order
& Chaos
Before giving up,
however, we should re-examine the basic
assumptions archaeologists and historians had made in
this case. Supreme among them is the assumption of chaos, as the
creating force behind the Abydos scene. This
applies especially, when the scene is believed to be a palimpsest,
which is chaotic by definition. If the scene were not judged as
palimpsest, it could not be hieroglyphic, as well, and thus would
have to be deemed art, and art is not always about realism, but also
about
imagination, and fantasy. We would wind up with a blend of
fantasy and laws of chance at work, and the verdict would
still be the same.
Evaluation: Present scientific consensus depends on the assumption of
Chaos as the ruling creative force behind the Abydos Helicopter scene.
To thwart the consensus, one would have to prove that the fundamental
nature of the glyphs is not subject to chaotic forces, but
instead to rational order. Not only do we have to prove that the
objects in the glyphs were created deliberately, but we have
to establish that the creator was more than an artist. To make the
glyphs scientifically meaningful, they would have to be custom
designed, constructed and encrypted with exact order. Then the
glyphs would take on special significance. Geometrical engineering of the glyphs draws parallels with engineering of advanced
transportation technology, which it may be showing.
Testing for Geometry
There was no layout analysis of the Abydos
scene by other researchers,
because of their a priori certainty that there was no need for it. But,
I felt this need, years ago, after getting briefly involved in a
discussion about the Abydos Helicopter
then raging on the Usenet. The
more I thought about the subject, the more I disliked as unnatural, and illogical the
Egyptological solution, of which the citation below
from a post by a well respected scholar, is a
fine example.
1998, Usenet Subject: Re:
India & UFOs
- a pict of helicopter, etc. Translattions?
Usenet groups:
sci.archaeology, sci.skeptic, alt.alien.visitors,
soc.history.ancient
Katherine Griffis-Greenberg (Deus
ex Machina) said:
> ..................................It
is acknowledged by all (AFAIK), that it is a
> carved
limestone that
was altered in antiquity with plaster, to give a
> new
meaning to the
phrases. That is, BTW, part of the definition of
>
a palimpsest,
of which these
inscriptions are a prime example.
<snip rest>
>
Regards.
>
Katherine
Griffis-Greenberg" Member, American Research
Center in
Egypt
>
International
Association of Egyptologists University of Alabama at Birmingham
>
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/1692/index.html
To register reserve to
how
the mystery of Abydos Helicopter was treated by
Egyptologists, I
put my final post to Katherine on the web. There, I let it slide
until I saw to my great surprise that the item ranked first in
Google search for
the keywords "Abydos" and "helicopter".
Under the
spotlight, suddenly, the article was in dire
need of upgrading.
Geometrical
analysis can sometimes
be the key to secrets in art. Yet, I had never heard
of it applied to the Abydos glyphs, and so, I decided to give it a try. Importation of
the image into CAD (Computer Assisted Drafting) gave me the means
of working accurately. Twice before, when dealing with controversial ancient artwork, I successfully tested
the hypothesis that the authors of thought-provoking imagery
had graciously validated it by meaningful and derivable design
methods.
seat1.htm
namon.htm
In both cases, Golden Section played a major
role, so it was the first thing to look for in the Abydos glyphs.
Already, some rectangles in the image struck me as very similar to the
Golden Rectangle.
Egyptians
Knew the Golden Section - Reconstruction as Proof
Contrary to being chaotic, the Abydos Helicopter
scene
is a deliberate creation. Its
order is of the highest magnitude, being based on the historically
famous Golden
Section. The palimpsest explanation is simply out of the question, because one can just fire
up a CAD program, and easily recreate the area under the helicopter in its exact main proportions from memory. The
engraving utilizes Geometry, and the
layout of the area is a variation on the basic Golden Section, wih
emphasis on Golden
Rectangles. The measure of ability to produce a given item
measures understanding of that item. Pure opinions are hard
to measure.
To begin with, golden rectangles in the area are
quite auspicious, and beg testing. To test the area under the helicopter for
golden section
proportions I had assumed the semicircle's diameter as the
starting
unit for the construction below.
1 - a unit (semi)circle
2 - an axis
Above - The semicircle in the glyph looks quite true, when tested by a
circle.

The usual construction begins with the six operations, or steps, as
shown above. Circles '4', and '5' help in obtaining the axial
cross, and are discarded afterwards. After this we have a choice of two
operations, which will produce the Φ-ratio in the position. The
diagram below uses the big green circle concentric with the red circle.
The yellow circle represents the glyphic semicircle, and becomes the
red circle in the diagram below. The green circle from above is
replaced by the blue square below.

The diagram of the classic Golden Section was imported into the Abydos image by
scaling the unit circle to the semicircle in the image. As seen below, this experiment worked like a charm.

We are looking
at the proof
that the glyphs are proportioned by the Golden
Section along the horizontal axis. The area under the helicopter is sectioned by vertical
lines into Φ proportions.
If the semi-circle's radius counts as 1 then the breadth of
the row
of six columns on the horizontal axis is (Φ²) 2.618.. From the semi-circle to the left on the axis we see successively the distances of
0.5 ←→ 0.5 ←→ Φ-1 (0.618..) ←→ Φ-1 x Φ-1 (0.381966..) ←→ Φ-1
and combined distances like
1 ←→ Φ (1.618..) ←→ 2 ←→ Φ² ( 2.618..)

Above - A square divided by golden grid
The square that we employed for the Golden Section turns out to fit the square
formation of columns, and triangles.
To get to its present location, the square rotates 45
degrees, and slides to the area's boundary on the left. Then it slides down, until the x-axis becomes
the square's upper
Golden Section divide (below).

The square fits the glyphic square of columns,
and triangles
very well on three sides, but we do see a bit of imprecision at the
top. But, this is amply made up for by the accuracy of the
Φ-rectangles within this square.
Here, it should be pointed out that it is the triangles, which give us
the width of
the square, and actuate the golden proportion. According
to
Egyptologists' chronology, the columns came first, but according to the
reconstruction by the Golden Section, the points of the square had been
given before any corresponding columns could be created!

Horizontal lines from E, and F, with the
vertical line from H, divide the square into
golden sections. The lines are set by both the
top and bottom of the middle triangle row, the
upper columns,
and by the upper edges of the inner rectangles at bottom left
. The square
as above contains no less than eight Golden Rectangles, plus
corresponding squares. All fit the
layout of the engraved square really well.
• Two big golden rectangles: horizontal width = 2.618..units,
height = 1.618 units
• Golden rectangles based on the unit circle (base 1 unit long,
height 0.618)

We can recreate the golden rectangle limiting the area
under the helicopter, because its left bottom corner coincides with the
square's corner. The big rectangle
from under the
helicopter just happens to also be the perfect container
for the
upper two craft on the right, as well, if we see the plane as
transporting a suspended object. The
plane's horizontal axis, which seems
engraved in, is at the same time a Golden Section line for the
rectangle.
The rectangle on the left contains five smaller golden-rectangles, and
they all fit the engraving. The entire area under the helicopter forms a perfect Golden
Rectangle, when the helicopter's belly rests
upon the upper
line of the rectangle, although it's hard to see atthis resolution.
Fortunately, this marvellous fit is easy to see in the blow-up below .

A part of the rectangle line was cut away, because it was screening out the
belly line of the helicopter. The fit is visually
perfect. Mindful of the excellent fit of the other three sides, we
can say that this
rectangle is highly
accurate.
Another close-up then shows how the other rectangle also fits right on, at the top.

Layout
- Framing
There is a container for any object,
and the equivalent for
these Abydos craft would be rectangular frames, whose
size should be detemined by the objects themselves.

This rectangle frames two of the suspected craft
together with visual perfection (it is
the tightest
rectangular container for these two objects). Again it is a perfect (CAD drawn) GOLDEN
RECTANGLE. (the ratio between its sides is Φ).
Just like the helicopter reposes on a golden-rectangle, so
does the boat/tank .
The six rectangles
in the image above are all CAD-drawn golden-rectangles.
Interesting notes:
a - All of the area
under the helicopter is contained in a golden rectangle
b - The helicopter and the boat/tank both sit on golden
rectangles
c - Four of the rectangles originate from the lower left corner and two from the lower
right corner
d - The two yellow rectangles are of the same size
e - The rectangle on the lower right also contains a perfect square and
a smaller rectangle. Adding,
or subtracting a
square from a golden rectangle makes for another golden rectangle.
So, the
smaller rectangle is also a golden rectangle!

Each of the four Φ-rectangles above (two
yellow, two cyan, with
bases equal to the semicircle's base) has an engraved line, which
divides it into
a square, and another golden
rectangle.
That's altogether eight golden rectangles. Evidently, the
whole area is carefully
planned.

The
overlap between the
rectangles sets the column
thickness for the eventual reconstruction.
Two
Reconstructions
1) In principle, we can reconstruct
the area from the collected data, as shown below.

Janku points out the high
quality of craftsmanship throughout the
Abydos temple, and wonders why only this one inscription and no other
suffers
from shoddy quality. Well - we know that is not true. We can
actually
reconstruct a whole lot in the glyphs relying on the
Golden
Section. For instance, from the diagram below we
can deduce that the intended length of the helicopter body is exactly
2.118.. This
reconstruction is only going to get better, given time and resources
for more research, and naturally - researchers. Of course, such a
reconstruction would
not be possible without the original construction by
the
Egyptians.
2) When
given the image
of the Abydos Helicopter, it is possible to draw visually perfect
golden rectangles, and squares, and to divide segments into
golden
proportions just by relying on guidance by major edges, and boundaries
of the image.


We see a couple more pretty alignments, which should
not be there, if the scene were really a palimpsest.
Conclusion
This study of the Abydos Helicopter image
now has
significant scientific value, as hoped for from the outset. At the very
least, the study provides the only grounds, on which we can reasonably
disagree with the reigning scientific consensus. It shows the
noteworthy mathematical properties of the image, indicating that the
image is not a palimpsest, something that has never been demonstrated
before.
Moreover, this is
the third instance in my research of constructed ancient art, which
deals with the Golden Section.
From the prehistoric France 14,000 years ago, to the Nazca lines, to
the Abydos temple, the mathematical connection is clear. The Abydos
Helicopter study provides a fairly simple and easily comprehensible
example of what I have done in the former two cases, which I
admit, are harder to grasp. Yet, look at their predictive value in
this case, since this study has literally breezed through to a
successful finish. All three studies are the same in that in
each the image has been constructed by relying in large measure on
the Golden Section. Only the first two discoveries,
however, are
both based on exactly the same unique
idea
- aptly titled "Seal of Atlantis".
In the end, we have to come to terms with the consequences of these
three discoveries backing up as possibly true a whole range of
fantastic suppositions about our past. What's reasonable is that somewhere there
was once an advanced prehistoric civilisation. Was it on this planet? I don't know. There were advanced flying
machines. There was also the encoding of mathematical information into
art. The rest is up to the reader.
Prediction
The
Cubit (basic unit
of length) used in the temple, will in some manner be derived from the construction of the 5-pointed star seen in this article.
• It is possible that the diameter of the unit circle will prove to be the
Cubit (basic unit
of length) used in the temple,
or
• the cubit used in the temple will be found by substituting
the Cone & Square formation (learned from my study of
La Marche, and
Nasca) over the square in our Abydos construction, and will be
the same as
the La Marche, and Nasca units.
• the cubit used in the Giza
plan, was again conceived in an original manner, although derived from
the construction of the 5-pointed star
This would further
prove a
direct connection
between La Marche, Nasca, Giza, and Abydos.
© Jiri
Mruzek
Vancouver, BC, Canada To write to me, just
use my full name minus the space. I'm over at yahoo dotcom.
Notes - My Original Reasons to be
skeptical of the Egyptological explanations
In December,
1998 I
pretty well signed off from the discussion with this
observation: ... contrary to the popular scientific myth
that
the glyphs are engraved on a solid block, photographs
indicate otherwise.
The glyphs appear
to be engraved
on a thin layer of stone facing covering the solid stone,
except, where the
facing broke
away.
There
is the self-evident - the smooth surface of the inside block laid bare,
where the limestone plate fell off - the jagged dark
breakline in the facing against the smooth unbroken block - the ledge,
which looks chiseled into the pillar itself, on which the now broken
plate had
rested.
Detail
from a photograph by Sheri Nakken
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/egypt.htm
http://www.finart.be/UfocomHq/abydos2.htm>
The glyphs are engraved on stone plates
encasing solid
stone block, except where the plate broke away. This reveals an option
the ancient Egyptians had. Being the great stone masons that
they
were,
wouldn't it be better to:
Strip
the Old
Facing, and replace it with a brand new one?
Using a 'tabula rasa' should be far superior to hocus-pocus
plaster. If
the objective was to get
rid of the
old writing, so as not to play
games with the new writing's future, the technique of
using new
outside plates of limestone would have been most efficient in
accomplishing this goal.
The engraving work on the plates was most likely done on the ground,
then elevated into position on the supporting ledge. For any
subsequent changes, I
believe, the facing plate could be brought back to the ground, and resanded,
or replaced by a new limestone plate. This could explain
the fine quality of the glyphs with regard to their alignment and
proportioning.
Some
obvious disadvantages of plaster.
The inscription on the stone plate was important, how could it have
been sloppily patched over with plaster?
One,
plaster would
be hard to match exactly to the stone's texture
and shade of
color. There
would always be some shadows of the old writing haunting the new.
Two,
the plaster filling is bound to react differently to changes in
moisture and temperature than the solid stone. It should
become loose
in
its shallow bed fairly fast.
Three,
whoever was to alter the text had to become a willy nilly composer of
the form created out of the old and the new texts seen together. This
person had to be aware of the combined shapes
lurking on the
limestone with the plaster absent, unless we presume him senseless.
Therefore, it
is likely that the designer-composer would strive to give these shapes
some
meaning. It is not my fault, this meaning translates into an array of
high-tech machines.
Four,
how could the solid, perfectionist Egyptian artisans and architects be
so naive as to suppose someone would help in the future
to preserve the
plaster and the usurping texts over the ones plastered over? Solid
stone wins over plaster in lasting almost forever, so why would the
pharaoh junior face eternity of exposure as thief and liar after
a spell of undeserved fame as shortlived as the conterfeiting
plaster?
Lastly,
the work on the temple was still in progress in Ramses' time. There
were materials and artisans available on site to do a solid job,
no need for the monkey business of the palimpsest unless the palimpsest
was deliberate.
Most all of Katherine's colleagues seem oblivious to these options.
Martin Stower thought that the blocks were solid, as he wrote that the
'structural integrity' of the blocks holding up the weight of the
massive roof
might have been compromised if the Egyptians had exercised yet another
option, I
had mentioned in our discussion:
Completely
Rubbing Out the fairly shallow Old Glyphs".
Doing a solid job on the inscriptions would
not require
much extra effort, considering all the work that had to be done - like
scaffolding. Using
sanded or resanded stone instead
of
plaster
was the only permanent
solution,
and
the
Egyptians
knew it. That's how things were done throughout the temple with one
alleged exception - our Abydos Helicopter scene. This
strains my credulity. After all, this was the civilisation of artisans,
who once had polished 22 acres of hard Mokattan limestone with
optometrist's precision in a rather short span of several years
of mantling the Pyramid. Yet, here, we have an extremely
important message about a victory by the father pharaoh, which the
pharaoh junior is stealing credit for. So he has it
done in the cheapest and shoddiest possible manner using
plaster over the few square feet of stone, which could easily have been
resanded first. If need be, the artisans could have easily done the
same even in granite, this was just limestone. Moreover this
is reported to be the only one such negligent spot in the entire
temple. The rest is marked by outstanding craftsmanship. Yeah, right..
Katherine
Griffis said:
>
There is a graphic
representation of the original titulary, showing how
> it was rendered a certain way, and then, by visual overlay,
how
the
> successive titulary was imposed into the older one.
This
representation
> is at the website as well.
That
graphic is above - It shows two recarvings, and is still short on the
origin of some parts of the glyphs, which are shown in red in the
graphic. Please, note,
how the supposed glyph of the hand was fraudulently restored
to normal proportions.
The
Hand

When we scale the width of a typical hand
hieroglyph up
to the width of the hand glyph, the two become completely
disproportional in their
length!
Janku's interpretation of the glyph's origin now appears most doubtful.
Let's remember that hieroglyphs are generally fairly
realistic
representations
- whereas, the alleged hand glyph is highly unorthodox, and
no
other hieroglyphic hands like it are known, I presume. It must be a record setter for distortion.
If there ever was plaster, it had since
fallen out completely.
This
is
attested to by the smooth and regular edges of the glyphs
as they are now.
What bird?
There
is a bird perching on the (semi)circle. Janku believes it is a chick.
So, we overlay the chick over the stone shape, and it fits fairly well,
in the head area especially. However, when we overlay another
sign
of a bird over the area - it fits even better! It fits everything
perfectly
except for the top of the head.
w
Negativity
More good fit with the birds below..

K

Katherine Griffis: It
was decided in
antiquity to
replace the five-fold royal titulary of
Seti I with that
of his son and successor, Ramesses II. In the photos, we clearly see "Who
repulses the Nine Bows," which
figures in some of
the Two-Ladies names of Seti I, replaced
by "Who protects Egypt and overthrows
the
foreign countries," a Two-Ladies name
of Ramesses II.

© Photo copyright
Lumir G. Janku
http://www.ufocom.org/pages/v_us/m_archeo/Abydos/abydos.html
Quote from an article by Lumir G. Janku, in
which Janku admits to a few
questionmarks still remaining.
http://www.enigmas.org/aef/lib/archeo/abydosm.shtml
There
is one aspect of the inscription which is puzzling. The temple in
Abydos (or Abdjou, as the location was called by Egyptians), is quite a
remarkable edifice, especially as far as the quality of glyphs is
concerned. They are all very
precise and
as far as I can judge, there's no trace of sloppy workmanship anywhere
in the temple,
bare
the above inscription.
!!! That really deserves an exclamation mark. The
truth is diametrically opposite. Once the truth is twisted it becomes a
pretzel.
Janku
also wrote:
The
temple
was build by Seti I and finished by his son, Ramses II, during an era
of
classical revival. The obvious corrections on the inscription in
question are thus seemingly out of place. But without the translation
of
the inscription, it is difficult to propose a hypothesis for why the
original inscription was changed, apparently twice.
In
other words, as Egyptologists try to put everything back together,
there is always something left over, something unidentifiable,
and so there arises the need for yet another supposed alteration by the
Egyptian carvers. The official story line gets all messed up. Really,
granting possession of secrets by the Egyptian Temple, why
should
some of those not be perpetuated
on temple walls in enigmatic scenes created
out of
hieroglyphical Lego?
Stone-Age analogy of the Abydos
Helicopter scene - Another Palimpsest?
I've faced a similar predicament once before. In a picture of a 14,000
years old engraving from France, I've discovered
a scene, which to me is equivalent to the Abydos scene in that
it shows an array of ancient
technology. Naturally, I was keen on announcing it to
the world at large.
The girl could be almost completely dismantled into sections representing machines. Two legs as planes, left
thigh
as a sailing ship, right thigh as perhaps a submerine, the
torso
as a lens with a pyramid inside, the lens being further divisible into
a flying saucer and a fighter like aircraft.

By the way, this Stone-Age engraving is
also considered a palimpsest. This time it is an
agglomeration of
successive engravings on a single limestone tablet, in which it is only
easy to make out the figure of a young woman wearing a hat, jacket,
pants, boots, and apparently toting a handbag - an otherwise utterly
revelational fact per se.
My vision had been
attributed to wishful, selective perception. I was
cited faces in clouds, Rorschach ink-blots, the man
in
the Moon, etc. Of course, I had always understood such
counter-arguments perfectly well, as in general they are valid more
often than not. For instance, I saw the girl as well as anybody else,
but I felt
strongly that her legs were designed to look like aircraft, when tipped
back 90 degrees to the left. Each orientation was dominated by its own
scene. The picture had a logic of its own.
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