Akaroa carved stone

This small stone was found on the beach at Akaroa. After opinions from several language scholars we believe the writing on the stone to be of South East Asian origin, part of the Austro-Asiatic language group. Possibly from India, near Burma or an area bordering China. Does anyone have any comments on this script?

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Easter Island Carved Chinese Stones

When visiting Easter Island, Matt Cribb took the following photographs near the quarry from where the huge stone statues are carved. The local guide showed him a Buddha statue at the eastern end of the quarry site which he insisted pre-dated the other carvings. One image is of the common Easter Island Moai, which have been carved and erected, but not moved to the shore. The other is of a unique statue: kneeling, with legs, gazing up (to the stars?) not out to sea, bearded, and with a disticntly rounded head. The guide insisted that this statue was the first to be carved on the Island and it is certainly more weathered than its neighbours.

Also found on Easter Island was this carved stone Chinese lion's head: "... They had split up to search for the stone face, and Allen had found it on the hill with the tree grove on top. It was about five feet across, with round bulging eyeballs, round cheeks, and an enormous mouth, opened and positioned to catch rainwater. It resembled the face of a stylized Chinese lion, sometimes known in American literature as "foo dog"..."

Can anybody shed any light on these anomalies?

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Berowa Waters Sydney sandstone carving

This photo of a curious carved rock was sent in by Jude Fernandez. The rock can be found near the river''s edge at Berowa Waters, NSW, Australia, and is easily accessable by water or land (at the end of the Northern car park of the Berowa Waters Ferry) . The area is about 25 kilometers from the sea.
The site of the carving is on the Great North Walk, an ancient walking track of the Aboriginal people that was revealed to the early European settlers. Can anybody shed any light on the carving? For a higher resolution photograph please email ianhudson@1421.tv

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Chinese figures on Spanish Church?

Reader believes that these stone carvings in the front of a Church in Ripoll, which is around 100K from Barcelona shows that there was a conection between China and Catalonia as far back as the XIII Century. Did the Chinese visit James I of Catalonia?
(Carles Camp)

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Sant Julia de Llica d'Amunt

Reader wonders if anybody could identify this writing which is in a stone block on the front of the parish church building of Sant Julią de Lliēą d''Amunt ( a town at 30 Km aprox north of Barcelona). Nobody to date has identified thislanguage. The front of the Church was built in the XVIth century, but the block could be older. (Carles Camp)

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Petroglyph in Jefferson county Missouri.

This petroglyph was photographed by Larry Wegmann in 1978/9 in Jefferson County, Missouri.
It was unlike any other petroglyph or pictograph he has documented. He has tried various European and African sources without success and wonders if it could be the result of pre-Columbian Chinese in the area.
We would be grateful for any comments or leads.
NB Larry Wegmann would like to stress that the photo may not be copied without his permission.

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Carving from Colombia

A reader sent us this photo of a stone figure that was found on the Pacific Coast of Colombia in an indigenous tomb. He points out that this seems to look more like a Chinese figure as the idigenous Colombians did not have beards. Can anyone shed any light on this?

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Pumpkins in China?

Reader Carlos Jimenez was puzzled to come across this sculpture of a pumpkin when visiting an exhibition of the famous Xi''An terracotta warriors from Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi''s burial complex. The objects in the exhibition are all dated to be from the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) or the Han Dynasty (206BC-220 AD). If, as most encyclopedias will tell you, pumpkins originated in the Americas, how did this sculpture come to be part of this fascinating collection? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Spherical boulders

On Champ Island, Franz Joseph Land, there are stones of perfect spherical shape along the coast line. They range from 10 cm in diameter up to up to 3 m in diameter. Is there a link between these stones and the Moeraki boulders? Could this be evidence to support the voyages of Zhou Wen whose fleet sailed across the North Arctic ocean along the seacoast of the Russian Arctic? (Vasily Popov)

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Sant Miquel de Cuixa carvings

In the north of Ripoll, in these part of Catalonia subjected to the French State there is a very old monastery called Sant Miquel de Cuixą. On some of the pillars of the twelve century cloister that remain in the monastery there are some strange sculptures of beings with the body of a monkey and the head of a man. There are also what appear to be Chinese faces and some animals that seem to be Chinese dragons. Can anyone shed any more light on these carvings?
Carles Camp i Perez

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Stone markings in Bahama island

A reader who works as part of an Ocean Rescue and Recovery team in Grand Bahama Island has found these unusual carvings in some local stones in the West end of the island. They were uncovered after hurricane Wilma under 4 inches of rock and sand. It appears to be native sand stone - ie exactly the same kind of stone as the others in the area. He has explored other local stones in the area and has not uncovered any other stones with similar markings. Can anybody shed any light on his finding? He has also come across some blue china in the area and round stone anchor. (Gary Simmons)

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Carved stones found near ancient bonsai tree

These carved stones are located nearby the Ancient tree resembling a Bonsai at Simonstown in Cape Point, South Africa. Please see under ''Flora and Fauna'' to see the tree.

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