Episode 29 of the Archaeology Fantasies Podcast is live. If you haven’t given it a listen, go do it now! I apologize ahead of time for the fact that I can’t say Sam Osmanagich’s name correctly.
We’re talking about the Bosnian Pyramids.
For those who don’t know, the Bosnian Pyramids are not actual pyramids, they are a cluster of natural hills in central Bosnia and Herzegovina that started life off roughly pyramid in shape. I say they started that way because years of “excavation” on the hills has transformed them into what Sam Osmanagich, the ‘founder’ of said not-pyramids, wants them to be.
Osmanagich has decided that several of the hills in the range are actually pyramids and he’s renamed them as he sees fit. Visocica Hill, at 720 feet, is renamed the Pyramid of the Sun. Pljesevica Hill, at 350 feet, is renamed the Pyramid of the Moon. He claims there are others, a Pyramid of Love, A Pyramid of Earth, one to a Dragon, ect. I’m not entirely sure why any of them have the names that they do, but it made sense to Osmanagich, so we’ll run with it.
Osmanagich also makes the claim that there are labyrinths under the pyramids and long man-made tunnels. These tunnels supposedly connected the pyramids at one point and then filled in with sea water when the glaciers melted.
Let me state here that no professional archaeologist believes these are pyramids, calling it:
“A cruel hoax on an unsuspecting public [which] has no place in the world of genuine science (Bohannon 2006).”
That hasn’t stopped Osmanagich, who in true fringe style has tried to connect the names of actual archaeologist, geologists, and other scientists to his work. Most have either denied association with the project or been exposed as either unqualified or frauds (Rose 2006).
But what of the claims?
Aside from claiming hills are pyramids when they are clearly not, Osmanagich claims they are the oldest pyramids in the world. He says they are 12,000 years old putting their construction during a time when most of Europe was under a glacier and agriculture wasn’t really a thing yet (Woodward 2009). I’ve never really seen how he proposes prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers managed to build the largest pyramids on earth or why they would bother. He’s made a lukewarm argument that they are burial mounds, but there are no bodies associated with them.
What’s more, these incredibly advanced Hunter-Gatherers also apparently knew how to make and pour cement, and that is how they covered the sides of the pyramids (Woodward 2009). Never-mind that the geology of the hills matches that of the surrounding area, and the ‘cement’ Osmanagich is finding is actually alternating layers of conglomerate, clay and sandstone (Woodward 2009). Osmanagich’s cement idea is supported by French materials scientist, Joseph Davidovits, who also thinks the real pyramids in Egypt were made with poured concrete blocks (Woodward 2009). Because of this idea, Osmanagich instructed his workers to carve the hillside to create the impression of a stepped pyramid for the Pyramid of the Moon (Woodward 2009). So, like other fringe researchers in the past, he’s altered the area to fit his expectations, and then wants to pass it off as being authentic.
In this vein, Osmanagich has started digging in the ‘tunnels’ beneath the hills. Stating that he is going to widen these tunnels and extend them so that they will connect witht the other pyramids (Woodward 2009), never mind if they don’t currently. He claims that there are boulders that bear carvings that date back to 15,000 years ago, but that claim was challenged by a geologist and former employee who claimed the carvings appeared overnight, put there by another one of Osmanagich’s workers (Woodward 2009).
Yet Osmanagich is unapologetic in his blatant alteration of the area, and why shouldn’t he be?
Osmanagich says he plans to dig all the way to Visocica Hill, 1.4 miles away, adding that, with additional donations, he could reach it in as few as three years. “Ten years from now nobody will remember my critics,” he says as we start back toward the light, “and a million people will come to see what we have.” (Woodward 2009)
Osmanagich has official backing from the Bosnian Government (Woodward 2009). The Pyramid of the Sun Foundation, owned by Osmanagich, rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars in public donations and thousands more from state-owned companies (Woodward 2009). He’s got copious amounts of attention from the media and was awarded a seat on a scientific council in Russia (Woodward 2009). Creating fake archaeology and history is quite lucrative.
All that said, Osmanagich still can’t answer basic questions about the construction of the site. Things like, where did the workers come from? Where did they live while they worked? Who fed them? How did they make the cement? Where are the mixing stations, the pouring platforms, the tools? Where is the trash from all these people living one place? Where is the graveyard for the workers that died? Who organized them? What compelled them to build? And so on, and so on, and so on.
As is so often with the fringe, they see something big and shinny, and don’t think about the details. The details that real archaeologists want, the details that are real evidence. The details that every actual archaeological site possesses. These are always lacking because they are overlooked. As Ken likes to say, you can fake an artifact, but you can’t fake a whole site. Osmanagich had already run up against this with the international archaeological community, and it’s starting to catch up to him at home as well. We’ll just wait and see were all this ends up, but I’m guessing it’s not going to end well.
In the meantime go listen to episode 29 of the Archaeology Fantasies Podcast and hear what Ken and I have to say on the matter.
If you’d like to support this blog, consider donating on Patreon.
Want more on this topic? Go to: Mystery Sites That Aren’t.
Comment below or send an email to ArchyFantasies@gmail.com
Resources:
Bosnian Pyramids Website.
http://www.bosnianpyramids.org/. Accessed 2/19/16
Open Protest Letter to the Bosnian Government. written by the The European Association of Archaeologists – (EAA)
http://www.robertschoch.net/bosnia%20eaa%20denounces%20semir%20osmanagic%20pyramid%20archaeology%20dowell%20ct.htm. Accessed 2/19/16
Woodard, Colin
The Mystery of Bosnia’s Ancient Pyramids. Smithsonian Magazine Online. December 2009. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mystery-of-bosnias-ancient-pyramids-148990462/#6JECjwhBkxuU6aDb.99. Accessed 2/19/16
Rose, Mark
2006 Bosnian “Pyramids” Update. Archaeology Magazine Online. 14 June 2006.
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/osmanagic/update.html. Accessed 2/19/16
John Bohannon, 2006 “Researchers Helpless as Bosnian Pyramid Bandwagon Gathers Pace”. Science. 314:1862. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/314/5807/1862.1 Accessed 2/19/16
Archaeological Fantasies 
Indeed, I have found the remnants of a pyramid just over the New Britain/Plainville line that must have been built at least 20,000,000 years ago judging from the fact that it has eroded down to a pile of small stones about four feet high. Must have been bloody enormous to start with!
LikeLike
Saw a new episode was out about Stonehenge, so I thought this would be a good time to request a topic on non-US archeaology. I’d love it if you could discuss the relatively recent finding of the Cao Cao tomb in China and the current controversery (real or fake) about it. Can’t find much English discussion on it and am not a scholar myself so don’t have access to publications. I ask mostly because you guys talk a lot about the difficulty in faking a large site, and some of the scholars have said that this one is in fact fake, so it’d be interesting to hear what the current take is (most news I can find is four years old) and how you distinguish between a real site and a whole fake one, or how you decide if some relics are fake while others aren’t, or how you deal with relucs retrieved from grave robbers.
Also a request from a non-American: please when you’re describing (any) archeological find or site, describe it as if your listeners don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re not all familiar with (eg) Native American history, sites, etc, and it makes things hard to follow.
Thanks!
LikeLike
Interesting though by 2016 there has been a more than substantial trove of artifacts discovered that lend credence to the theory that that natural formations were obviously subjected to human intervention.
LikeLike
I like to know what those are exactly, as I haven’t been able to discern anything that is directly linked to the mountains, and would not already be expected for the area.
LikeLike
darn i guess troy wasnt in england either
LikeLike
How do you explain the concrete slabs on the sides which have been shown to the public and do have multiple layers with clay in between? In addition, what about the ceramic megaliths in th e tunnels with proven contents in the middle too? These weight tonnes, surely you dont believe these were faked and hauled up to the location?
LikeLike
I’m afraid I don’t know to what you are referring. The concrete slabs have been identified as natural process by everyone expect Osmanagić and his team. I have no clue what you mean by Ceramic Megaliths? is there a link you can share that can tell me more?
LikeLike
The fact this nutcase has direct support from the Bosnian government shows the sorry state of things in that country, even more than 20 years after the end of the civil war. That a country shattered by nationalism and pointless divisions is gullible enough to find new “meaning” and “pride” in an opportunistic crank’s blatant lies and fraud. Looks like a real mental diagnosis to me about the current state of the country and especially the people who are in power. “Real tourist sites, in a country as rich in interesting history as Bosnia ? Who cares about those, let them fall apart ! We can make up our own fake attractions instead !” 😦
I don’t dislike Bosnia, but as long as their government supports this sort of pseudoscience and kookery (as well as the pointless devastation of the local environment that goes with it), I think the EU should really rethink whether they should admit them as a member state some time in the future.
LikeLike
I just don’t understand why so many people immediately come down on someone like Osmanagich and label him things like nutcase and pseudo-archaeologist. Even if he’s 100% wrong in the end, why would anyone interested in things like pyramids not be excited about the possibility of more pyramids being found? And instead of ridiculing them if they’re wrong you say something like “nice try, maybe next time”
Personally, I tend to believe claims more the stronger the attempts to discredit the one making the claims. Because there is no reason to do that except to keep something from being brought to light that challenges the “mainstream” or accepted status quo. I cant think of any other field where you get such little support for new ideas and new discoveries.
By the way, this part (…lukewarm argument that they are burial mounds, but there are no bodies associated with them) is not a good argument against the man but more a good reason that the pyramids in Egypt aren’t the tombs they’re supposed to be
LikeLike