Arcadia Discussion Zone

What is this silly fake tomb? This must be a new discovery. Is it near Rennes-les-Bains? This must be Leo Vinci's new discovery. Has he had an opportunity to report it to the Minister yet? Keep me informed.

Apparently Paul Smith didn't read this, from the DRAC website;

Page 1
SUMMARY OF DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED
(in triplicate)
- --
Curriculum vitae of the Chief Scientist
- --
Authorization (s) of owner (s) specifying the ground or parcels and stating the place of temporary storage and final destination of archaeological material to be discovered.
- --
(CRMH In case of protection under the Historic Monuments and Sites, agreement of the competent authority (CRMH or DIREN)
- --
Financial statement.
- --
Photocopy of the insurance contract covering risks incurred by the person responsible for the operation, service staff of the site (employees or volunteers) and passing travelers to contact the Service Regional archeology upon receipt of the permit and no later than one week before the start of the operation. Plans to join
: :
- --
Extract from map in 1 / 25 000 or map showing the location of the site.
- --
Extract of cadastral map showing the excavated areas.


In regard to VAM's question about when Ben said DRAC looked in the tomb hole, I assumed that was what he meant by the "interior", in the quote below, but maybe he only meant the interior of the cave in which the hole is situated. In that case, He must have only shown them the foam filled hole. That would mean that they didn't actually see a tomb, they saw a blob of foam. What a surprise they will get when they find out that there's nothing behind the foam.

What did they take measurements of?

again and again and again and again....How long will you play this boring game! WAIT UNTIL THINGS WILL HAPPEN!!!!! And don´t discuss the same crap like 5 month ago...
Do you think you can put such a pressure on Ben that he will finally reveal the location-FORGET IT!

Pat,

You make me laugh Tell 'em Pat : )

Have you made any more of that purple cabbage stuff agin : )

Although the duck was quite nice .....

And say 'guten tag' to Andrea : )

I don't feel like waiting for nothing to happen. I'll keep applying pressure until Hammott cracks and admits to the hoax. See how Pat can't take it anymore? Well, soon Hammott will also be unable to withstand the pressure and he'll break down and start sobbing and saying "alright, alright, I did it, I faked the tomb, just call JB off, for the love of all that's holy, call him off". Heh, heh, heh.

Now then, where's the letter of authorization Ben had to get from the landowners to excavate the tomb? He has got the letter, hasn't he? If not, then we'll be waiting a REAL long time for things to happen, won't we Pat? Now instead of waiting around for an excavation to mysteriously happen by itself, I suggest Ben contact the landowner, tell him there's a tomb on his property and he desecrated a corpse in it for a movie and didn't bother to give him 2 cents in royalties. After that, I'm sure he will be more than happy to write the letter authorizing a rail track to be built on his land, as VAM suggested, and to let the property destruction commence. Either that, or he'll tell Hammott to bugger off, put up some fencing and dig up the tomb himself and live happily ever after on the proceeds from all that treasure in those chests.

Wake up and smell the stale beer, Pat. No excavation will ever take place. It's all a pipe dream. As soon as the owner finds out about Hammott's shenanigans, he'll never let him within a mile of the tomb again.

Couldn't have put it better myself. People need to chill out - just let the whole thing take its course...

THINGS ARE NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!!
GET THAT?

WE WILL SEE!

At last we will have revenge my young apprentice ) (Star Wars)

Glad you like the duck and the red cabbage:-)))))
But nothings like Bens fu..... good oven potatos!!! Thanks 4 that Ben!

Is this DRAC procedure very different from your last archaeological excavation?

Yes, very different. With the last tomb I excavated in France, there was no hour of measuring, because there was nothing to measure. We simply snuck onto the guy's property without his permission, like in Ben's case, took a GPS reading, marked the position on a 1:25,000 map, then ran like hell. The guy came after us with a shotgun, but we were too fast. I asked the DRAC people why they didn't get permission from the owner to go onto his land first and they said "oh we don't care about trespassing laws, this is France".

I wonder if this is why genuine researchers encounter such opposition.

Yes, because of people like Bill Wilkinson. You know, your buddy and partner in French antiquities theft.

You mean it's not nice to mention the French antiquities theft? My apologies. I can see why that would be a touchy subject for Mr. Wilkinson.

Progress at last. I take this as a formal acknowledgement that Ben Hammott has definitely found French Antiquities. Congratulations. We can move forward from here.

Yes, in that they were antiquities and they were in France. They were originally Israeli antiquities, a Qumranian cup and an Israeli alabastra. Somebody took them to France and buried them in that cave and then they were French antiquities.

Hi Pat,
I tried to duplicate Ben's potatos after getting back to the States in September - nowhere near as good.
Please say hello to Andrea.

Warmly,
A. Nesos ('Pete')

Now look,

His potatos were not that good. We all do that in England ; )

For the record, Ben is the mash king but his roasties are not a patch on mine!

VAM

I can only speak from experience and I can certify that Ben's MASHED SPUDS ARE THE GREATEST! But I plead ignorance regarding his roasties.

Bill Kersey - certifying Ben Hammotts mashed spuds! Cool

Pat - certifying Ben Hammotts hairy belly!!!!!

And I have to certify that RLC blokes are all very crazy...

BTW one day I have to taste your potatos VAM!!!!

I bet you say that to all the girls!

VAM

I am here late today. I put off coming in because I was burned out on all things Arcadia and needed a break. Plus I am not well versed in the tiniest little aspects of RLC lore as so many of you are here. I feel I rarely have anything new or of value to add..

Many of you must be asleep by now..But I'll place this discussion here primarily for Bill Kersey, when he wakes up on the morrow. Bill, you keep asserting the genuiness of Ben Hammot's discoveries. I explained yesterday (or was that the day before?) about the tomb in Kashmir, Roza Bal. Some were quick to jump in with the usual denials and rebuttals about the rod, the rishis and the pedigrees. I am used to these arguments. I've heard them all before. Read my book. All the research is in there, where it should be.

In Ben's case, he is not making such grandiose claims about the tomb he found....he is asking if it is a simple Templar tomb perhaps? Ben is facing the same issues though, regardless how old how valuable the site proves to be:


1.) First is Ben's own credibility. Is he a liar? A thief? A kook looking for fame, sensationalism and cash?

2.) The tomb is "fake".

3.) The artifacts are "fake", planted, or forged.

4.) The property is owned by someone else.

5.) The Governement takes no interest.

6.) The sanctity of private property becomes the overiding issues. Who now owns the land and what are their "rights", what are the rights of Departments of History and Antiquities, which differ from country to country and site to site?
Ponder this: If Tutankhamun's tomb was suddenly discovered unopend and untouched under an apartment building in Cairo that is owned by an Irish Catholic developer investing his life savings into a Cairo Muslim neighborhood (hypothetical of course) What would the issues be? I know one of them: forbidding others access to the information because they might "worship" and venerate the grave , thus promoting their beliefs in saints and heros and relics of another religion in competition with the State or popular religion. My guess is that Tutankhamun was not Jewish, Muslim or Christian, but these religions would become major issues.


7.) Religious claims as a basis forbidding DNA, claims made over the rights of the dead person's alleged bloodline::: he's "my" grandfather or "my" uncle and this is a family matter to prove our ancestry, our bloodline. An example in America when former black slaves demanded the opening and DNA testing of Thomas Jefferson's grave , their alleged grandfather who slept with his black slave girl and fathered a whole family line with her. Yes, DNA proved he did indeed father many children through this slave girl.


8.) And finally, how does one address the sanctity of the tombs, protect the sites from exploiters, graverobbers, opportunists and just plain stupid collectors?

Similar issues were raised concerning the Tialpot tomb and the ossuaries in Jerusalem. Similar issues surround the tomb in Kashmir and related sites there.

I can tell from reading these threads that in fact ben Hammot acted very responsibly under the circumstances. he made every effort to protect the tomb, even from the land owners if need be,,,until the correct authorities could take interest enough to proceed with validation. In fact, I greatly admire Ben for getting as far as he has gotten ....much further than I got with my research into Roza Bal..

If members of this forum were indeed interested to know the truth, I would back Ben all the way and flood DRAC with demands that they do their jobs right and immediately..put the pressure on them. Call your uncle who works in the next building for help getting connections to contact. Try every avenue you can think of to reach DRAC in support of Ben. It is not your decision to determine if it is fake or not....that's what we have experts for.

The problem is getting them to do their job, something even they don't agree on among themselves.

I am still trying to protect the site in Kashmir. I undesrtand Ben's dilema and all your scepticism but don;t quit on Ben. If he's done this for fame or money, that would be tragic and soon the whole world will know and he will be laughed and ridiculed, and maybe even face time as a guest of the State..I doubt he's trying to fool anyone. The risks are just too high. Let the experts decide.

Shasta