Legendary Lost Persian Army Found in Sahara

FOXNews ^ | 11/9/09 | Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni

[LibWhacker]

Herodotus wrote of a 50,000-man strong army that set out on foot into the Egyptian desert in 525 B.C. and was never heard from again ... until today.

A pair of Italian archaeologists have uncovered bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert. Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are hopeful that they've finally found the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses II and his armied were buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C. He wrote, "a wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear."

[LibWhacker]

More here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[SolidWood]

Fascinating. An archeologist's gold mine.

The Achaemenid "violin" shields were neat.

Iran History Ping!

[donhunt]

It had to have been George Bush’s fault.

[edcoil]

I told them LEFT at the SECOND sand dune.....

[El Sordo]

Cool.

[edcoil]

Sorry, Iran does not exist. It is called Persia.

[mcmuffin]

ROFL X’s 2

[SolidWood]

Huh? If that’s a joke, it’s lost on me.

[G8 Diplomat]

The first shah of Iran asked that the world refer to his country as “Iran.” Persia is the Western corruption of the Pars tribe, the first Aryan settlers in the region. Iran means “land of the Aryans.”

[Grizzled Bear]

At the time of their disappearance, they were following a rabbit who said, “Maybe I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque...”

[grey_whiskers]

WTF? Herotodus got something *right* ?

Cheers!

[omega4179]

I wish that would happen to the Basij and Mullahs.

[allmendream]

Herodotus got quite a bit right, there is a good reason he is called ‘the first historian’. He records what he heard, many things quite fantastical, but says of many things “this I saw with my own eye.”

Travel guides in the Middle Ages had the East populated by headless people with faces in their torso's and other fantastical creatures. Herodotus was a shining beacon of truth compared to such rubbish.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	WOW! I've waited over twenty-five years (hey, I'm only 51) since I first read about this; I'll have to post some of the archival stuff from my folder, "Cambyses' Lost Army". Meanwhile, Happy Belated Birthday, Herodotus, oh Father of History! Thanks LibWhacker! Of course, this has been announced before, and turned out to be incorrect, but I'm FIRED UP (in case no one could tell). To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Little Bill]

Put a spear in the cleft and you have a Shield Wall, an interlocking wall of Iron Points. The Ancient Greeks did the same thing, the troops were better armored though.

[grey_whiskers]

Aye. I stand convicted of exaggeration, thereby being hoist on me'own petard. A'RRRRR.

Cheers!

[SunkenCiv]

[’Civ shoots a rubber band at GW while he’s looking the other way]

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, sorry!

Thanks SolidWood

[edcoil]

Shah’s are all gone. I know a lot of Iranians and a lot in my daughters school and they prefer to say they are from Persia. I always ask where is Persia. Just to tick them off.

My experience.

[grey_whiskers]

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Great story!

[decimon]

Slideshow here.

[Verginius Rufus]

Herodotus 3.26 (Robin Waterfield's translation):

...As for the detachment he [Cambyses] had sent to attack the Ammonians, they set out from Thebes with guides, and they clearly arrived at the town of Oasis. This is a town which is inhabited by Samians who are said to belong to the Aeschronian tribe, and which is seven days' journey from Thebes across the desert; the name of the place, translated into Greek, is the Isles of the Blessed. So by all accounts the army reached this place, but after that the only information available comes directly or indirectly from the Ammonians themselves; no one else can say what happened to them, because they did not reach the Ammonians and they did not come back either. The Ammonians, however, add an explanation for their disappearance. They say that after the army had left Oasis and was making its way across the desert towards them--in other words, somewhere between Oasis and their lands--an extraordinarily strong south wind, carrying along with it heaps of sand, fell upon them while they were taking their midday meal and buried them.

[TruthConquers]

An early forerunner of Jimmy Carter.

[Fred Nerks]

I'll have to post some of the archival stuff from my folder, "Cambyses' Lost Army". Meanwhile, Happy Belated Birthday, Herodotus, oh Father of History!

OH HAPPY HAPPY DAY! I HAVE ALSO BEEN WAITNG FOR THIS.

There will be images soon, I hope.

[JoeProBono]

[decimon]

There will be images soon, I hope.

Link in post #23.

[G8 Diplomat]

Yeah, they say they’re Persian because they are Persian. But just because you’re Iranian doesn’t mean you’re Persian. Iran is full of other ethnic groups besides the Persians.

[Fred Nerks]

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/cambyses-lost-army-images.html

IMAGES SLIDE SHOW!

[LibWhacker]

Nice, thanks!

[eleni121]

Thanks for posting one of my favorite fun reads. His inquiries are fascinating and make more sense than some of the rubbish being published today.

[LibWhacker]

I mean, can you imagine a sandstorm so powerful it buries you in place? Wow!

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200304/df20030404.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Looks like they outsmarted themselves. They took a secondary route between oases to the south to avoid fighting Egyptian garrisons on the main route that historians were looking on. The Persians dug and lined with clay pots wells along the way. (The aquifer was not so deep 2500 years ago.) But when they arrived at what they thought was the oasis of the temple of Amon, it turned out to be another oasis 60 miles to the south of the right one. While they were trying to figure it out, the sandstorm hit.

[edcoil]

Yes, I believe they call them slaves.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. Fascinating.
Further investigation of the remains should prove whether they are this Persian army.

[JDoutrider]

.

[wildbill]

Wasn’t this report by Herodotus one of those that were considered fables by historians for centuries?

[null and void]

I shoulda turned left at Albuquerque

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8TUwHTfOOU

[null and void]

Darn you.

[Daniel II]

Fascinating. Thanks.

[SolidWood]

know a lot of Iranians and a lot in my daughters school and they prefer to say they are from Persia.

True, but that's just a reflective response to dissociate themselves from the current Islamic Republic of Iran.

After 1979 for many Americans Iran equated the Ayatollah, so saying you are "Persian" was a convenient way of dissociation.

[SolidWood]

In case of interest, regarding the renaming of Persia as Iran: there is that persistent "urban legend" (rather historical misconception) that Reza Shah named Persia "Iran" 1935 in order to impress upon Germany. That's not true at all. "Iran" was for Iranians always (proven since antiquity) the name for their land. "Persia" was the name of only a portion of Southern Iran, but the West (Greek and Romans) used Persia to describe them all.

This pattern continued with imperialist Britain and Russia, while Iran remained continually the internal term.

1935 was a year of great reforms in Iran (the veil was abolished, men were ordered to wear Western dress, the language was cleaned of arabisms, Ferdowsi the author of "Shahname", where BTW Iran was the name used, was celebrated the year before) and the Shah decided that in order to shed of the past of being a semi-colony of Britain and Russia, "Persia" was only to be used to describe the inglorious past of weakness, while the hitherto internal term "Iran" was to be used also by the outside to mark a new beginning.

After studying primary sources, I stumbled upon the memoirs (published in the 1950's) of Wipert von Bluecher, the German ambassador to Persia from 1932-1935. He and Reza Shah hated each other, because the Germans back then were involved in numerous scandals in Iran. Bluecher makes many accusations against Reza Shah in his memoirs. He seems to be the primary source of the rumor that "Iran" was chosen to please the Germans. His "source" reveals the reliability of that claim: Allegedly he heard after the war from an unnamed friend that the suggestion of renaming the country internationally came from the Persian embassy in Berlin.

Given that... I think the official Iranian reason given above is more veritable than von Bluechers rumor.

[edcoil]

Given the people and religion there live in the 7th century, anything from a short time of the 1900’s would not be recognized.

In my discussions with “iranian’s” here - they call it persia because they are embarrassed by their home country because after 1,000’s of years of history, its only achievement was to create a place they had to flee.

[LibWhacker]

Yessir. The MSNBC link I posted mentions that briefly. You’ve got to wonder how many other historical fantasies are true.

[G8 Diplomat]

Wow...I never knew that. I heard the German story in school & Wikipedia. The need updating...

[Verginius Rufus]

I was in Europe at the time of the hostage crisis and met a Kurd from Iran who said he was from “Persia.” He was apologetic over the hostage outrage, but more concerned with the mistreatment of Kurds in Iran, naturally.