Ales stenar - the
Archaeologists Waterloo
I would like to comment Andrew Kobos' archaeological homepage whose biased presentation corresponds with the outdated poster information currently at display at Ales stenar. These texts are written by the long time retired professor of archaeology, Märta Strömberg. Unfortunately, these texts are based on biased assumptions which do not hold up in a serious multidisciplinary examination regarding the astronomical functions of Ales stenar. In spite of this, Strömberg's outdated ideas are presented on Andrew Kobos' biased and scientifically completely inferior homepage. The fact that Kobos has been blinded by an above- ranking professor will be his future dilemma. Instead he should have checked the unique suncalendarical purposes of Ales stenar from the observationsite. After this he should have checked the purposes of Stenhed and the Haväng Dolmen in the same way. From a biological point of view Kobos and his internet article resemble the following experiment. Quotation from the book "Aggression, the so called evil" by Konrad Lorenz: "A long time ago colleagues to Robert M. Yerkes made the extraordinarily interesting, yet startling, discovery that chimpanzees (a species that very well is able to learn through actual imitation) in principle only imitates individuals of a higher rank. In the experiment they removed a monkey of a lower rank from the group and then taught him separately how to get bananas from a (for the experiment especially constructed) food machine, through some rather complex grips. When the monkey was returned to the group together with the banana-machine the monkeys of higher rank tried to take away the bananas he had gotten from the machine, but none of the monkeys thought of observing the despised monkey during his work and then learn from him. A monkey of a higher rank was then taught to handle the machine in the same way and when this monkey was returned to the group the other monkeys observed him with the utmost interest and immediately learned the tricks by observing this monkey". This behavioural experiment concerning the monkeys is
significant in the way Kobos describes the (for him) higher ranking
professor of archaeology. If professor Strömberg, as the metaphor with the monkey of a higher rank, had been able to learn something new, then she would of course be able to check the suncalendarical functions of Ales stenar herself. Then she could go to Stenhed and the Haväng Dolmen and thus develop her knowledge in the same way as the higher ranking monkey in the metaphor. The fact is that Strömberg never made these examinations and this disqualifies her archaeological hypotheses. She has completely overlooked the most important facts concerning Ales stenar, i.e. the astronomical and suncalendarical functions of the construction. Another example of Strömberg's scientific negligence is the following: In 1995, an excavation was carried out at Ales stenar
on my initiative. In collaboration with Strömberg a fireplace was
found by the stemstone in northwest. In the presence of five witnesses
Strömberg concluded that this was the remains of burnt garbage
belonging to a military outpost from World War II. At the excavation
Strömberg was totally uninterested in the finding and did not want
to make a C14-dating of the sooty stones. After persuading the higher
ranking professor the five stones were picked up, put in plastic bags
and transported to the Department of Archaeology at Lund university.
About a week later I contacted Strömberg who, to my surprise, had
no intention to make the C14-dating. Her opinion was that it was not
an ancient finding. After further persuasion we agreed that I would
pick up the sooty stones and take them to the Department of Quaternary
Geology at Lund university for the C14-dating. Yes, all of this is actually true. The complete disregard from the unique astronomical functions of Ales stenar together with the above mentioned blunder give an adequate picture of the scientific credibility of archaeology-professor Strömberg. After my empirical studies were published Strömberg
has been leading a shameless slanderer- and mud-throwing campaign against
me and my work. Neither Strömberg nor any other archaeologist have
been able to disproof my research. In spite of this, the Custodian of
National Monuments Erik Wegraeus has banned me from presenting my film
documentation at Ales stenar. This is happening today in a democracy
like Sweden, a country whose minister of culture claims that she has
no right to intervene. |