I'm a bit pressed for time today, so instead of a lengthy blog post, I'd like to share with you the following advertisement I received last night via email from Harry Hubbard, of the Burrows Cave affair, claiming to offer for sale a genuine ancient piece of art straight from one of the alleged Greco-Egyptian caves of Illinois. Apparently I am on his mailing list and he figured I (along with an undisclosed number of other recipients of his email) might be interested in his latest attempt to profit off the alleged patrimony of Hellenistic Egypt. As you can see from the advertisement and the accompanying photograph, there is a lot of money to be made from what for all intents and purposes appears to be banking on uncritical fringe history believers, to judge by Hubbard's slipshod authentication process and the poor quality of the "art." Dimensions He did not pay the money to document the lab findings but wants $1,650 based only on his word! This lab testing managed to confirm the item is ancient but failed to determine what the object is made out of!
Whoever pays that kind of money for this object deserves to own it.
60 Comments
666
9/29/2014 07:14:29 am
They did exactly the same thing centuries ago - Turin Shroud, Arthur's Grave in Glastonbury, etc....
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666
9/29/2014 07:24:29 am
Robert Munro, Archaeology and False Antiquities (Methuen, 1905; G.W. Jacobs & Co., 1908, HardPress Publishing, 2013).
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.
9/29/2014 08:30:45 am
Glastonbury + Arthur were connected and veryreal.
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666
9/29/2014 08:40:50 am
>>Turin Shroud is a legitimate relic
Harry Hubbard
3/21/2019 05:06:19 pm
Jason sure loves to feel big for himself. A person wanted to sell the piece, so I sent out several emails to people and just put Jason on the list. I was never trying to sell him an artifact specifically, he just received an email notice like everyone else. What a loser. Oh, the artifact sold shortly after to a happy buyer.
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Torries D Gunn
6/10/2019 06:53:15 pm
How can I contact you 11/21/2019 05:31:19 pm
Hello harry im writing to inform u that i have made a dicovery in westrrn ky somewhat like yours maybe older but just as incredible ..but i found my information first near u then followed to western ky ...a monster civilization like you i could use some help lots of artifacts to many to keep pilling up gold inbedded in the rocks that someone has placed there but please contact me please 2702011441...names kyle
James Woodard
3/16/2020 06:31:32 pm
Regardless of your motives in sending him the e-mail specifically, his points still stand. Namely: "He did not pay the money to document the lab findings but wants $1,650 based only on his word! This lab testing managed to confirm the item is ancient but failed to determine what the object is made out of!"
Shane Sullivan
9/29/2014 07:51:44 am
How many thousand non-fiction books does one have to read to fall for this?
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666
9/29/2014 08:39:30 am
>>How many thousand
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Only Me
9/29/2014 01:33:27 pm
"explore the source for a change"
EP
9/29/2014 08:59:03 am
Doesn't it just make you want to scream: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!
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Cathleen Anderson
9/29/2014 08:59:37 am
He has to be committing some sort of crime along with out and out fraud.
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EP
9/29/2014 09:10:02 am
A crime against taste! :)
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666
9/29/2014 09:11:26 am
>>fraud
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EP
9/29/2014 10:01:13 am
You know, your recent anti-psychiatry rants were more amusing. I guess you ran out of new material...
666
9/29/2014 11:43:50 am
>>>You know, your recent anti-psychiatry rants were more amusing
EP
9/29/2014 11:54:43 am
In your case, 666, it comes pretty darn close.
666
9/29/2014 11:55:27 am
In the UK a honey trap was used against a man suspected of stabbing a woman to death and the psychological profiler working for the Police was certain he was the culprit because he had a library of New Age Books and had a black room in his flat with a pentagram on the floor. This was the psychologist's reasoning.
Scott Hamilton
9/29/2014 10:07:19 am
I live in Illinois now, I wonder where the caves are supposed be. They don't let anyone know the exact location do they? Oh well. Since moving to Chicago I've been surprised how much fringe history has a connection to the city, one way or another.
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H. Gomez
9/30/2014 04:55:00 am
He said to Jason in the emai, "This piece has provenance from the Marion County Illinois Tomb."
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Kal
9/29/2014 10:09:11 am
The Turin shroud is a holy relic, like the 'true cross' pieces all over the ancient world. It dates from about 1300 AD. As one poster said, it would have been cloth strips, not a whole blanket, and it certainly would not have the image of a roman looking bearded man on the face. It should look Aramaic or Middle Eastern, he would have been short and had a prominent nose, more so than an Italian. Jesus was not a Roman, he was Jewish, well half Jewish, half God. Yes, Israel was occupied by Rome, but he is not from there.
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666
9/29/2014 11:46:03 am
The Image on the Turin Shroud is NOT THREE DIMENSIONAL
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Only Me
9/29/2014 01:27:57 pm
Just your opinion, not fact.
BillUSA
9/29/2014 10:00:23 pm
666 -
Only Me
9/30/2014 12:17:18 pm
Actually, Bill, even Pope Francis stopped short of declaring the Shroud authentic. Whether you give the opinions of experts any credibility or not, the fact remains that they are still engaged in debate over the Shroud, so at least all voices are being heard.
EP
9/29/2014 10:11:47 am
Jason, I recall something about an alleged connection between Frank Joseph and the Burrows Cave. Do you know anytjing about it, or am I mixing things up?
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9/29/2014 10:23:50 am
Frank Joseph was imprisoned for child sex crimes at the prison where Burrows worked as a guard. Some believe that the two worked together in formulating the first Burrows Cave claims since Joseph worked to promote the supposed find early on after his release, when he became a fringe author.
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EP
9/29/2014 10:46:10 am
Just read about 20%... Too depressing to read all at once...
Scott Hamilton
9/29/2014 10:24:32 am
I believe the connection is that the Burrows of Burrows cave fame was a guard at the prison where Frank Joseph was incarcerated. There is some speculation that they knew each other because of that, but as with a lot of things about Burrows cave it's murky.
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EP
9/29/2014 11:29:07 am
...or very very very very unscrupulous...
on Harry Hubbard...
9/29/2014 12:42:29 pm
http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-burrows-cave-update-disturbing-efforts-to-teach-fringe-history-to-teens
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Peter N.
9/29/2014 11:07:01 am
Wow, that's just sloppy work! It doesn't even look like it's weathered, it just looks like it was made by someone who has little to no experience carving stone. Not to mention the iconographical problems. Furthermore, it's a nice, rectangular piece of stone without any indication of what it would have been used for, unlike most ancient Egyptian art, which has a purpose, and a context.
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EP
9/29/2014 11:12:06 am
It doesn't even look like a fake! It looks like something you buy at a dollar store. (I'd never have guessed anyone tried to make it look authentic.)
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DanD
9/29/2014 11:18:18 am
I like the smiley face the cobra is sporting :)
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EP
9/29/2014 11:21:07 am
@ DanD
Shane Sullivan
9/29/2014 11:36:30 am
Yeah, the little dots for eyes are my favorite part.
Not the Comte de Saint Germain
9/29/2014 03:18:54 pm
I think the line that looks like a smiley is supposed to represent the front of the cobra's head, distinct from the hood behind it. I say that as someone who doodled cobras in pencil as a kid. There are a couple of marks beneath that line that may even be little fangs, reminiscent of cartoon images of snaggle-toothed vampires. In any case, it makes for the most innocuous cobra I've ever seen, including my own deliberately silly childhood drawings.
Duke of URL
9/30/2014 03:08:00 am
Hadn't noticed that - WONDERFUL!
Mark E.
9/29/2014 02:37:55 pm
"BUCKNER, Ill. (AP) — Authorities in southern Illinois' Franklin County are trying to determine who stole two 19th-century headstones from a rural cemetery.
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RLewis
9/30/2014 03:38:10 am
No context? It's obviously a land claim. The Egyptians wanted to get a piece of the profitable Great Lakes copper mines before the Templar knights grabbed it all.
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Screaming Eagle
9/29/2014 01:58:25 pm
I like the bath towel in the background. It looks like the towels my wife just bought. Very soft and absorbent but there would have to be 10 bathrooms' worth for that price.
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Gary
9/29/2014 11:35:32 pm
Assuming that it came with that towel, I believe that it must have been dropped by an interstellar hitchhiker. I interpret the hieroglyphic of a man calmly holding a cobra as meaning "Don't Panic."
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DanD
9/30/2014 01:38:34 pm
The artifact is sold with the towel so you have something to wipe away the tears after dropping $1.6K for this nonsense.
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Duke of URL
9/30/2014 03:03:38 am
He definitely "am suspect"
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Pacal
9/30/2014 08:34:56 am
What a risible piece of trash. It is just so obviously a very bad fake. But they are charging 1,650.00 for it.!!! As a piece of art it doesn't rate in my opinion 10 bucks much less 1,650.00. It reminds me of a bad doodle by a 6 year old.
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TopGunn
9/30/2014 02:11:44 pm
Even this blogging by Jason an' even after some of the quips
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Snarkey
9/30/2014 02:26:40 pm
It is obviously an Egyptian taking a dump who grabbed a cobra before it could bite him on the ass.
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EP
9/30/2014 03:04:24 pm
Don't you just hate when that happens? :)
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Only Me
9/30/2014 05:42:04 pm
Hey, a cobra in the hand is worth more than one on the tush!
EP
9/30/2014 06:24:37 pm
Better rolld for anal circumference just to be sure! :D
Mark E.
9/30/2014 04:20:19 pm
If you go back and watch the Grand Canyon Episode of AU about Egyptian treasure in America Scott Wolter identified that these types of artifacts were created from 19th tombstones.
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EP
10/1/2014 05:57:50 am
Sigh... Again... I have *known* Harry Hubbard for 25 years as both friend and professional associate...
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Only Me
10/1/2014 06:03:32 am
Okay, I'm confused! Do we take a drink per CHV's rules or not? :)
EP
10/1/2014 06:06:37 am
It's too early in the day (assuming you're in North America). If you're seriously confused about whether you should take a drink, you need to seriously reexamine your life :)
David
12/12/2014 02:11:01 am
I find this post disturbing. I think Harry Hubbards work is amazing and frankly I think the poster is a fraud. Harry originated the "Ancient Aliens" thing that is now all the crazy in his videos years ago. He even called it "Ancient Aliens". I suspect the poster of this blog is probably working for someone trying to avoid a law suit by trying to discredit Harry,
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EP
12/13/2014 05:39:17 pm
"Harry originated the "Ancient Aliens" thing"
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goatstaog
10/18/2015 11:36:42 pm
I guess you've never heard of "in search of" with Lenoard Nimoy.
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goatstaog
10/18/2015 11:35:30 pm
I was watching a few of his presentations and 3/4 the way into "cobras of columbus" he starts showing this mish mash of obviously fake 'artifacts'. One thing I notice he set's up a situation for the viewer to unlink him with a forgery as he states several times with other proven artifacts, that even though they are crude, that he couldn't possibly even draw it with a pencil. When he started to present the cobras, he shows the piece that this blogger was privy to in sale. He says I paraphrase, "here is xyz - it's in marble - it's for sale" And it's the worst representation of a melding of iconic styles you could imagine. So either he did them or some associate did them. Probably both . Saying you have verified shit yet you cannot define the stone it's carved in is an obvious red flag, aside from how shitty it looks. Shame on you Harry. As a bonus shaming, you can watch on Harry's youtube channel him 'showing off' his audio / video recording studio. He knows some technical terms, but he puts the Mixing board (a type of yamaha board with automated mixing) and he throws it in DEMO mode and pretends he's mixing !!!! It's fucking classic. Is he a liar, or a nutcase? Or BOTH???
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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