Anubis – Ancient Egyptian god of death and the dead.
Many people believe that Australia in the distant past was visited by ancient explorers i.e. Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek and possibly even the Chinese. It is also claimed that these explorers came here in the search of gold and other precious minerals, and that these visitors have left their mark. E.g. The Gympie Pyramid. The Gympie area in particular has turned up many such artifacts. The Gosford Hieroglyphs are claimed by some to be one of these ancient sites.
The Gosford Hieroglyphs are located at Kariong (near Gosford) NSW Australia in the Brisbane Water National Park. Apparently the glyphs have been part of the local folklore for around a century. At different times the have been discovered, lost again and then rediscovered. No chance of that today as the site is easy to find with a few simple directions and the tracks are well worn.
I am not going to go into what the glyphs are supposed to say (there are a few sites out there that do that, see links below) but I am going to offer only my impression of the site.
Several theories exist about who wrote the Hieroglyphs:
* Ancient explorers from Egypt carved the symbols after they were stranded and their captain was killed by snake bites.
* A Veteran from WWI that learned the style of writing whilst stationed in Egypt who settled on a farm nearby carved the glyphs in his spare time.
* University students camped in the area for some time or on repeated visits carved the symbols as a prank.
* Someone copied them straight from an ancient Egyptian text found in a book or photograph.
Thoughts and Impressions
* The Hieroglyphs are supposed to have been written in an Archaic Egyptian style (according to White, 1996) which is quite different from middle Egyptian which most Egyptologists learn. Which in itself (if true) lends some credibility to the legitimacy of the claim they are ancient. Who would know this archaic style?
* There are 3 different cartouches carved into the rock:
1) The Pharaoh Khufu’s cartouche appears 3 times in several places.
2) The cartouche of Pharaoh Snefru is also present.
3) The third cartouche is unknown at least to me.
* The cartouches are rectangular – usually they have rounded ends.
* A figure of Anubis the god of embalming appears to be cut less deep into the rock than the other symbols.
* Some glyphs have obviously been added recently as they are poor carvings compared to the originals.
* Some of the glyphs are written rather sloppily, a professional ancient Egyptian scribe would be much neater and organised.
* Hieroglyphs are written in a certain direction, i.e. toward the face of animals or people. Some of these glyphs face opposing directions.
* Hieroglyphs in a box I translated as NFRSDB without vowels added. (If this is incorrect please educate me?)
* If the site is not ancient it is a very elaborate hoax that would have taken a long time and effort.
My Conclusion
Over the last few weeks before and after my visit to the site I have tried to learn a little about Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs (AEH). In my research I found that AEH changed very little over the course of 3000 years of Egyptian civilisation. And that the supposed Archaic style was well before the reign of Snefru and Khufu who were both 4th Dynasty Kings. (Archaic being Dynasty 0-1st) Which one translation (White 1996) dates this site as being around the third. The fact that the some of the hieroglyphs are spelt wrong (i.e. opposing figures) and the lack of neatness and organisation of the carvings suggest that an ancient scribe did not write the symbols. It could be argued that a scribe was not present or had died leaving someone less educated to draw the glyphs.
In my opinion the Hieroglyphs are not Ancient. Not to say that they are forgeries or fakes the fact is that they are there to be seen proves they are real – they just are not ancient. As for the rumors and theories I believe that the most likely story is that Uni students carved them or someone copied them right out of a book. And that those person(s) had a lot of spare time on their hands.
This does not negate the belief that Australia has had Ancient visitors. I find it hard to believe that ancient explorers never came across the land down under at some stage. But unfortunately I believe the Gosford Hieroglyphs aren’t part of that saga.
