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With the violent 1990s behind them, archaeologists
in Bosnia hoped they would receive more support
for academic research; instead, they are being
pushed aside by amateurs

Mad About Pyramids

SARAJEVO—It should have been a great day for agic has uncovered stone blocks beneath the the tunnels, “if they were made by humans,
Balkan archaeology. For the first time since the hill’s surface and a system of tunnels, which without establishing their age, I would assume
bloody civil war, experts from all corners of he says are like those of the pyramids in they are part of an old mine.” Harding’s verdict:
ethnically divided Bosnia gathered for an Egypt. Osmanagic has proposed that two “It’s just a hill.”
impromptu meeting at the National Museum. smaller hills nearby are part of the same But this humdrum assessment has been
Television crews were waiting outside for “pyramidal complex.” swept aside by a pyramid-mania that has
interviews. Foreign scientists were on hand, That vision is not shared by any of a half- gripped the media. Osmanagic, aided by a
too—including the president of the European dozen archaeologists and geologists who publicist and an Indiana Jones–style hat, is
Association of Archaeologists, Anthony spoke to Science after visiting Visoko. The widely depicted as a maverick bravely pursu-
Harding of Exeter University in the U.K. truth is plain, says Stjepan Coric, a Bosnian ing his unorthodox hypothesis. Even the
But the mood was one of deep frustration. geologist at the University of Vienna, Austria, BBC contributed a wide-eyed report in April.
The journalists weren’t interested in the sci- who was invited by Osmanagic to examine The Bosnian public and politicians have
entists’ plans for restarting international col- the site: The stone slabs are nothing more than fallen deeply under his spell. Archaeologists
laborations. Nor did they want to hear about fractured chunks of sediment called breccia, are concerned that funding for real research
rebuilding the ailing university curriculum, or the remains of a 7-million-year-old lakebed projects is being drained away to support
saving the country’s archaeological assets that was thrust up by natural forces. “This is Osmanagic’s “Pyramid of the Sun Founda-
from neglect and looting. “They only want to what gives the mound its angular tion,” and those who voice dissent are receiv-
hear about one thing,” says Zilka Kujundzic- shape,” Coric says. As for ing hate mail. “To believe in the pyramids has
Vejzagic, the museum’s expert in prehistoric become synonymous with patriotism,” says
archaeology, who organized that 9 June meet- Kujundzic-Vejzagic. Worse than that,
ing: “pyramids, pyramids, pyramids.” some archaeologists say, Osmanagic is
The “pyramids” in question are 30 kilo- starting to dig up the remains of unstud-
meters northwest of Sarajevo near the town of ied human occupation, possibly a long-
BOSNIA
Visoko. A Bosnian businessman named sought medieval town. “Pyramid-mania”
Semir Osmanagic, who runs a construction Visoko will probably be short-lived, says Harding,
company in Houston, Texas, announced last but it would be “tragic” if it damaged “real
CREDIT: MARIO GERUSSI

Sarajevo
year that a 360-meter-tall hill that looms over archaeological material.”
Visoko is in fact a buried pyramid built, he
Ad Picking up the pieces
claims, by an unknown civilization 12,000 ria
tic
years ago. He has dubbed it the Pyramid of Se “Sarajevo was a real center of excellence” for
a
the Sun. With the help of volunteers, Osman- archaeology before the war broke out in 1992,

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Human design? The hill that looms over Visoko ments to complex, hierarchical societies broad patches of soil had been cut away and
resembles a pyramid. with big, dense settlements?” roped off with yellow tape. A pair of local
Buried in the soil near Okoliste are the guides pointed to the exposed crust of frac-
says Harding. But during 4 years of nonstop remains of the largest Neolithic settlement tured rock and explained, “This is the side of
shelling, “we nearly lost everyone and every- ever found in Europe: between 200 and the Pyramid of the Sun.” And pointing to two
thing,” says Kujundzic-Vejzagic, who fled to 300 houses protected by a ring of three smaller hills across the valley: “That is the
Croatia a year into the conflict. trenches and a raised bank. “I was astonished pyramid of the dragon, and that one is the
Archaeological sites were used as defen- when I realized that this defended area pyramid of the moon.”
sive positions in fierce battles, and shattered alone could have been home to as many as Osmanagic, who came up with the hills’
windows left the museum vulnerable to win- 3000 people,” Müller says. Settlements from mythical names, says he became convinced in
ter weather and animals. The timing could contemporary Neolithic cultures in Europe April 2005 that they are buried pyramids,
not have been worse, says Preston Miracle, were occupied by no more than 300. based on their shape and position. Osmanagic
an archaeologist at the University of Cam- Another research team, led by Miracle and is in love with pyramids. He says he has stud-
bridge, U.K., who has worked in the region Tonko Rajkovaca, a Bosnian archaeologist ied “hundreds” of them around the world—
for 2 decades. Just before the war, he says, also at Cambridge, has just begun looking for including the Mayan pyramids, which in his
“the senior generation of Bosnian prehistori- traces of even earlier human occupation in view were located and built with “vibrational”
ans all died,” and the generation in line to

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replace them scattered.
Ten years on, the community still has not
recovered, “but at least it is clear what needs to
be done to get us back in shape,” says
Kujundzic-Vejzagic, who returned in 1998
and has remained at her post in Sarajevo. The
first priority is “to assess and protect” the
endangered archaeological riches in the coun-
try, now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This roughly Switzerland-sized territory has
been continuously occupied all the way back
to the last Ice Age and beyond.
Little is known about the f irst Slavic
tribes that arrived some 1500 years ago, says
Kujundzic-Vejzagic. Even less is known
about the people who preceded them,
the Illyrians, who held sway from around
1300 B.C.E. until the Romans took over.
Learning more about their interactions with
neighboring cultures, especially the Greeks,
would shed light on the technological revolu-
tions that changed Bronze and Iron Age Big dig. Semir Osmanagic (in hat) and Ivica S̆arić, Sarajevo’s minister of culture, with volunteer excavators
Europe. “All of these settlements and graves at the “pyramid” site. Archaeologists worry that valuable material may be stripped away.
are just waiting to be studied,” she says,
although “we’d do better to leave everything northern Bosnia; the area is thought to be technology inherited from the lost civiliza-
in the ground” until resources are secured to one of the last refuges of the Neandertals. tions of “Atlantis and Lemuria.”
protect against weather and looters. “Despite the richness of this record,” says He says he has sought the help of experts
Deeper in time, fundamental questions Miracle, the region “remains poorly known to make “serious scientific argumentation.”
about Neolithic society have sustained one and understood.” One of the first was Amer Smailbegovic, a
of the few remaining international collabo- With relatively untapped heritage geophysicist who runs a surveying company
rations in Bosnia. Over the past 4 years, a resources, academic archaeologists say, the and teaches at the International University of
team led by Kujundzic-Vejzagic and Bosnian government should be trying to help Sarajevo. “I noticed that the area has a pecu-
Johannes Müller, an archaeologist at the in any way possible. But instead, many liar triangular-sided feature you don’t see too
University of Kiel, Germany, has been researchers feel that the country is turning often in a temperate environment,” says
exploring a site near the town of Okoliste, 7 km against them. Smailbegovic, who analyzed satellite
away from the pyramid hunt. It has been imagery for Osmanagic. Thermal and radar
identified as part of the Butmir culture, a When hills become pyramids imaging also made the hill seem “out of the
source of richly decorated pottery and intri- If you stand in the right place in Visoko, the ordinary,” he says. So Smailbegovic wrote to
cate statuettes discovered in 1893. Research largest of the nearby hills almost looks like a Osmanagic that “there are anomalies present
CREDIT: MARIO GERUSSI

on these artifacts and related 7000-year-old pyramid. At least, two of its sides are more or in your area of interest, and you may have
dwelling sites could help answer one of the less flat, although the rest is lumpy. During a something there. I suggest you find yourself
central questions of prehistoric archaeology, tour of the site by Science in June, freshly an archaeologist and geologist to help you
says Müller: “How and why did we go from dug earthen stairs led up the slope through validate the area.” But “the next thing I
simple, egalitarian societies of small settle- the trees, slick with rain. Along the way up, know,” Smailbegovic says, “there was a

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headline in the Bosnian papers: Satellite By assuming that the hills are pyramids from Osmanagic says he is aware that he is dig-
imagery confirms Osmanagic’s discovery of the very start, says Müller, “that’s all he’ll ging through layers of occupation and claims
pyramids in Bosnia.” This would prove to be the ever see.” For example, he points out, Osman- he will publish his results “in a peer-reviewed
start of a barrage of “sensationalism,” he says. agic’s deduction of the age of the pyramids at journal” in November. “But I am not inter-
Osmanagic says he invested $20,000 of 12,000 years old is based on nothing more ested in the approval of elite scientists. This
his own money to hire dozens of people, than the depth of the soil over the stones that project is for the people.”
including a public relations manager, and he claims are masonry. While clearing away
established a tax-exempt foundation to pay that soil, Osmanagic’s volunteers have found Popular archaeology
them. He also placed an advertisement in the engraved stones and a skeleton. Imamovic In spite of the protests from academic quar-
listings of the Archaeological Institute of worries that these may be signs of a long- ters, public and political support for Osman-
America for someone who could do Pale- sought necropolis or a lost town mentioned in agic seems to be growing. The government
olithic f ieldwork. Among those who Byzantine texts. Osmanagic says the skeleton has granted him all the necessary permits and
responded was Royce Richards, an archaeol- “is being analyzed,” but he believes it was has even helped finance his excavations. “It is
ogist who works for the Australian govern- recently interred. shocking” that public funds are flowing to
ment as a heritage officer in Adelaide. Osmanagic also says he has uncovered a Osmanagic instead of the country’s desperate
In January, “things got very strange,” says stone layer that is “the pyramid’s face” on one archaeologists, says Müller. But Osmanagic
Richards. In newspaper articles around the of the smaller hills. A European archaeologist says that only 10% of his current budget—the

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world, he was named as one of the main working in Bosnia who had a look for himself total is about $300,000, he says—comes from
“expert advisers” on an international dig that says, “There is a real wall there, but it looks to government support, while the rest is from
has discovered “evidence of Bosnian pyra- me like part of a small Middle Age rain reser- “private funds and corporate sponsors.”
mids.” Osmanagic’s foundation Web site had voir.” The archaeologist, who requested One expert says it’s easy to understand why
included Richards in the “advisory committee anonymity for fear of losing permission to people seeking a national identity would
of experts,” even though he never visited work in the country, says he is not surprised embrace the Visoko phenomenon. “Osman-
Bosnia nor confirmed that he would partici- that diggers have uncovered signs of human agic’s pyramid fantasies are exactly what the
pate. Other academics say they were listed occupation: “People have been here for mil- majority of Bosnians want to hear,” explains a
although they had never asked to be involved. lennia.” But after Osmanagic is done with Bosnian sociologist who spoke on condition
One of them, Bruce Hitchner, head of the Visoko, “we may never know what was really of anonymity. There are also economic moti-
archaeology program at Tufts University in here,” he says. The real archaeological mate- vations. Last month, Osmanagic announced
Medford, Massachusetts, objected when he rial is between the surface and the bedrock, he plans to build three “archaeological parks”
learned that his name had been hijacked. says, “but for a pyramid-hunter, that is just dirt across the country that will “rewrite world his-
Osmanagic has removed all the expert advis- to strip away.” tory” by revealing more evidence of Bosnia’s
ers’ names from his Web site but prehistoric “supercivilization.” New high-
says, “I did nothing wrong.” ways and hotels are part of the plan.
Smailbegovic visited Visoko Crude as it may seem, pyramid-mania
in April to see the project for him- could be a boon over the long term, says
self. “The situation was chaotic,” Miracle: “If the energy and interest in
he says. Osmanagic’s volunteers archaeology can be redirected into Bosnia’s
are digging up the area, but rich heritage, then this affair would not be
Smailbegovic didn’t see much such a fiasco after all.” But few are opti-
effort directed at “answering the mistic. Kujundzic-Vejzagic says she is on
question of why there are geo- the verge of quitting. She says she’s been the
spatial anomalies in the Visoko target of hate mail from the pro-pyramid
valley.” Smailbegovic and other movement; no one in government has
geologists conducted their own stepped forward to defend her. If she goes,
field study of the Visoko valley in the entire Butmir project will probably fold,
May and June. He says Osmanagic says Müller. “There is no other prehistoric
has ignored their detailed reports, archaeologist in the country,” he says. “She
which conclude that natural is our only partner.” Bosnia’s other archae-
forces created “the majority of ologists are in an equally precarious position.
the landscape features” and that A Visoko municipal off icial recently
“meticulous archaeological announced that all critics of Osmanagic’s
work” is needed to determine project should be denied access to research
whether humans had any part in it. locations and have their degrees revoked.
Osmanagic says he is doing Descending the hill back down to Visoko,
CREDIT: J. BOHANNON/SCIENCE

just that, but archaeologists are a visitor wades through the friendly locals
outraged. “This is the equivalent selling official “Pyramid of the Sun” T-shirts
of letting me, an archaeologist, and mugs. One thing is clear: Some people
perform surgery in hospitals,” will benefit from the hunt for a prehistoric
says Enver Imamovic of the Uni- Bosnian civilization. But they may not be
versity of Sarajevo, a former The real thing. Archaeologist Zilka Kujundzic-Vejzagic holds a pot academic archaeologists.
director of the National Museum. from the Butmir culture that flourished in Bosnia 7000 years ago. –JOHN BOHANNON

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