Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1982 - 7

lb the Editor:
I look forward so much to each glorious
issue of Archaeology magazine that
it is indeed heart-breaking when a copy
arrives here in the damaged condition of
this one. My issue of March/April seems
to have been both torn and shredded to
the extent that it is impossible to read.
Do you think you might send me another
(even though it was no fault of yours)?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Anything on ancient Egypt is always
welcome.
Maynard H. Mires
Georgetown, DE
The Post Office seemed to abuse so
many of our March/ April issues that
we thought you should know we do replace damaged copies. Readers were also
plagued with late deliveries, another
Post Officeproblem due, we are told, to
bad winter weather.-Ed.

Duplicating the Shroud ?
To the Editor:
In your review of the documentary film
The Silent Witness: An Investigation
into the Shroud of Turin, the research
of Joseph Nickell, as reported in The
Humanist, is not mentioned. Nickell
discovered a technique in which images
virtually indistinguishable from the
image on the shroud can be rather easily
reproduced.His method consists of moldding a strip of wet cloth to a bas-relief,
leaving it to dry, and followedby lightly
applying a mixture of aloes and myrrh.
He used only materials that were commonly available in the area of Lirey,
France in the mid-fourteenth century,
which is the earliest known time and
place to which the shroud could definitely be traced. The images he got on
the cloth are three-dimensional, photographically negative-like, do not penetrate the cloth, and have a yellowishbrown scorch-like color.
H. Leon Abrams, Jr.
Emanuel County Junior College
Swainsboro, GA
Chinese Anchors
To the Editor:
A few years ago while studying the likelihood of early voyages to the Americas
I solved the mystery of the "Chinese
anchors," at least to my own satisfaction (see F. Frost's article in
Archaeology 35 [1982]:22-8).
I already knew that no sensible sailor
would take a large spherical rock to sea
with him. The chances of it breaking
loose as the vessel rolls and smashing its
way out through the hull are too great.
Although I never believed these
strange rocks were anchors, I was curious about their real meaning and sought

suggestions in most places. The most
likely explanation came from Frank Tàlmadge, a marine biologist of Eureka
(northern) California, now deceased....
[He believed] it is common knowledge
that some mud shrimp and burrowing
worms excrete into the area around the
mouth of their burrows. Any calcium
excreted mixes with the surrounding
mud forming hard collars .... The deep
water collars come from an area which is
fossiliferous and on some of the collars
there are fragments of fossil shell.... So
much for Chinese anchors.
Finally, the question of whether at
least a few ancient Chinese reached these
shores by ship. I believe they did, although not for reasons cited by Frost. I
would like to point out that the JomonJapanese pottery mentioned is on exhibit
in the U.S. National Museum in Washington where the placard reads (in part)
"transpacific voyagers brought Asiatic
influences to several of the prehistoric
cultures of coastal Ecuador- around
3000 B.c."
Willard Bascom
Director
Coastal Water Research
Long Beach, CA
To the Editor:
I read "The Palos VerdesChinese Anchor
Mystery by Frank J. Frost in your January/February issue with some interest.
I had hoped that he might mention the
1,400-1,000year-old Buddha in the Catalina Island Museum which was found in a
buried "Indian Treasure Chest" during a
recent building project. Since the Catalina Island Indians left Catalina in the
early 1800s (for protection in the Spanish missions), it seems probable that the
late nineteenth-century Chinese fishermen he discusses could be responsible.
Claudine Burnett
Anaheim, CA
Tb the Editor:
I received the January/February issue
of Archaeology,
and was really surprised that a publication of this stature
would publish such an unprofessional
article as that written by Frank J. Frost
on the Chinese Anchor Mystery.
His assumption may have merit, or
may even be correct, but his depreciation of other persons in the field is inexcusable. Whether or not he considers
Thor Heyerdahl "an adventurer lurking
on the outskirts of scholarship" does not
seem to have anything to do with the
subject at hand, and only depreciates
Frost's own stature as a scholar. . . .
I notice on page 12 of this issue of
Archaeology, that you begin with the
statement, "Archaeologists are a cautious breed- extremely careful not to
say too much about too little," yet you
published Frank Frost's article!
Louisa Pandulfe
Homewood, IL

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1982
May/June

Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1982

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1982