Análisis De Requerimientos De Software

During an investigative tour of Germany in the fall of 2002 that included some locales in Franconia (northern Bavaria), I was able to explore three sites associated with the legendary Celtic priesthood of the Druids (Nickell 2003a, 2003b). The expedition, which took place on a bleak, drizzly October 13, was arranged at the request of my excellent German guide, Martin Mahner, execu- tive director of the Center for Inquiry–Europe. Accompanying us were several intrepid members of the Bamberg Skeptics Guild and our distinguished leader, geologist Michael Link from the Paleontological Institute of the University of Erlangen. Michael was kind enough to conduct the three-site tour in English especially for my benefit.

From Bamberg, our little convoy proceeded some fifty kilometers south- east into the area known to tourists as “Franconian Switzerland” because of its mountainous terrain, caves, castle ruins, and other scenic features. It was once inhabited by the Celts, a tribe that extended into central Europe in about 1200 bc. Our first stop took us to a remote wooded hill known as Ringwall. Had we not been with Michael, we would have seen it only as a scenic place with some natural rock outcroppings. However, with his guidance, we could see distinct earthworks covered with thick moss and a stand of trees. They had been added to the limestone formations to create what was, indeed, an ancient Celtic fortress—hence the name Ringwall (“circular rampart”). Michael informed us

D O W S I N G M Y S T E R I O U S S I T E S

that excavations at the site had turned up iron implements and pottery dating to circa 500 bc.

From Ringwall we proceeded to another isolated site, about one and a half kilometers further southeast, known as Espershöhle (höhle meaning “cavern”).

Figure 16. Entrance to a German cave with a fifteen-meter-deep pit that yields evidence of apparent Druidic activity. (Photo by Joe Nickell)

Cold air emanates from this cave of Jurassic limestone, giving it the popular name Eishölle (“Ice Hell”). It may have had mystical meaning for the Celts. Having been an avid spelunker during my college years, I was an apt pupil when Michael pointed out that the amphitheater-like entranceway was the result of a cave “room” collapsing and, over time, becoming exposed at the surface (figure 16). A passageway (which is home to hibernating bats from October to April) leads to a fifteen-meter-deep pit. An archaeological excava- tion in 1937–1938 recovered artifacts that identified it as a Celtic site. The presence of skeletal remains—some bones exhibiting knife marks—suggested the practice of sacrifice (Link 2002).

The last of the three sites we visited is known as Druidenhain or “Druid’s Grove.” Arrangements of giant rocks litter the wooded area, interspersed with passageways to create a labyrinthine effect, thus inspiring the popular belief that it is an ancient Celtic site. Some have called it the “University of the Druids.” Supposedly, the Celts subjected the rocks to heating and cooling to produce fracturing and create the monoliths, leading to another sobriquet for the place: the “Franconian Stonehenge” (Link 2002). Imaginative names have been given to the formations, such as “Christening Stone,” “Bowl Stone,” “Entrance to the Underworld,” and “Sacrificial Stone,” the last based on the belief that the place was used for sacrifices—an idea that dates from 1863.

Dowsers eventually got into the game and in 1983 determined that the “Altar Stone” was at the intersection of two “earth-ray” lines. These are appar- ently similar to the earth-energy or “ley” lines that are said to connect mystical sites. The idea of leys was advanced by English beer salesman Alfred Watkins (1925), an amateur antiquarian. Dowsing is often touted as a method of detect- ing such “earth energies” (Guiley 1991, 157). Dowsing has also been used in other ways at Druidenhain. For example, dowsers employed their witching wands to determine the supposedly true nature of one of the megaliths, giving it the fanciful name “The Grave” (Link 2002).

Alas, Druidenhain has yielded no potsherds, skeletal remains, or other evi- dence of human habitation, and there is no evidence that the site is Celtic or even man-made. In fact, the array of monoliths is actually a natural formation—the product of geologic forces and erosion. During the formation of the mountain, pressure caused the rock to fracture, producing numerous faults crisscrossing

D O W S I N G M Y S T E R I O U S S I T E S

one another. These faults were then attacked preferentially by seeping water, with erosion along the fault lines eventually resulting in a multitude of rocks aligned in rows (Link 2002).

As both the Mahogany Ship and the Druidenhain cases demonstrate, dows- ing is not an effective method of archaeological investigation—whether it is considered a psychic means or not. However, science is an ongoing process, and so is popular belief. From either perspective, it is important to continue to look at significant new cases and to rework the “cold” cases—not with the mystery mongers’ desire to promote them or the debunkers’ hope to dismiss them, but as investigators trying to understand and explain them. In so doing, we can learn more about ourselves and our world—a reward that dogmatists often seem to be unaware of.

References

D’Aloisio, Peter. 2000. Interviews by Joe Nickell, November 19 and 20.

Feder, Kenneth L. 1980. Psychic archaeology: The anatomy of irrationalist prehistoric studies. Skeptical Inquirer 4, no. 4 (Summer): 32–43.

———. 1995. Archaeology and the paranormal. In Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, ed. Gordon Stein, 32–46. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

———. 1996. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries, 2nd ed., 194–210. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing.

Gardner, Martin. 1957. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. New York: Dover. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. 1991. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal

Experience, 470–72. San Francisco: HarperCollins.

Lindsay, John. 1996. The Legend of the Mahogany Ship. Warrnambool, Australia: Mahogany Ship Committee.

———. 2000. Interview by Joe Nickell, November 20.

Link, Michael. 2002. Personal communication (and numerous technical handouts), October 13.

Loney, Jack. 1998. The Mahogany Ship, 7th ed. N.p.: Marine History Publications. McIntyre, Kenneth Gordon. 1977. The Secret Discovery of Australia. Sydney, Australia:

Pan Books.

McKiggan, Ian. 1987. Creation of a legend? A liberal underview. In The Mahogany

Ship: Relic or Legend, ed. Bill Potter, 61–68. Warrnambool, Australia: Mahogany

Ship Committee and Warrnambool Institute Press.

Nickell, Joe. 1976. Not recommended for serious mineral exploration. Yukon News, September 1.

———. 2003a. Germany: Monsters, myths, and mysteries. Skeptical Inquirer 27, no. 2 (March–April): 24–28.

———. 2003b. Legend of the White Lady. Skeptical Briefs 13, no. 1 (March): 10–12. Nickell, Joe, ed. 1994. Psychic Sleuths: ESP and Sensational Cases, 11, 163–64. Buffalo,

N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

Nixon, Bob. 2001a. A fresh perspective on the Mahogany Ship. Skeptic (Autumn): 31–34.

———. 2001b. The real “secret history.” Skeptic (Autumn): 35–37.

Randi, James. 1982. Flim-flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

———. 1991. James Randi: Psychic Investigator. London: Boxtree.

Renovation work slowed after skull, bones found. 1981. Georgetown News and Times, November 5.

Watkins, Alfred. 1925. The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and

Canadian Lilian Bernas claims to exhibit—“in a supernatural state”—the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion. On March 1, 2002, I observed one of her bleed- ings (figure 17). It was the eleventh such event that “the Lord allows me to experience on the first Friday of the month,” she told the audience, “with one more to come” (Bernas 2002a). But was the event really supernatural, or was it only a magic show?