A few days ago I published a feature on my Facebook Page focusing on a site in the River Wye Valley near Ross-On-Wye, UK. I have been investigating this site for some time and it has been giving up profound new secrets relating back to very ancient times. I promised a significant new Reveal, and that is what this article is about! ….The reveal will be worth waiting for later in the article, but it is totally necessary to give you a preamble first so that everything remains in context. I ask therefore that the reader takes the few minutes to read-on first.

Considerable archaeology over many years has already established the extended area to Paleolithic times and beyond. Multitudes of exotic animals roamed the country then, many now extinct or confined to warmer countries. The tribes who shared this land are thought of as lesser intellectuals who spent their time on the basic needs of hunting and existing. The results from my digital photo-archaeological analysis tell a very different story… Imagine rock surfaces – sometimes prepared, used as a canvas to record illustrations depicting life as it was seen or remembered. The events recorded would have been like a language and classroom of illustration. However after many thousands of years, the surfaces have weathered and have suffered erosion along with the layering of calcification and other deposits. To the naked eye now, the predominant colour of the rock prevents anyone from seeing the faint remains of pigments, etchings and carvings. People look at rock surfaces and see rock surfaces! Knowledge of former illustration has been lost, so there is no expectation now to even look for them.

When an Ultra High Definition (UHD) picture of a promising rock surface is captured, the camera flattens the image. The result is a 2 dimensional representation. The depth shadows are considerably reduced. However the UHD picture retains minute differences in colour. By using the control of Digital Analysis it is possible to manipulate thousands of different combinations of settings. In this way, if a former illustrations survived faintly in the surface – it is possible for it to be revealed again… It is then possible to overcome surface damage to the rock/illustrations by delineating every minute difference of shade and colour. By this I mean working on the target at a huge magnification (The UHD ensures continued quality) ..and delineating with a dark single pixel point… When I am working a target (sometimes for hours) I am so close to the magnified image that I have no idea what kind of result I am producing. It is only when I reduce the image to screen size, that the shock hits me at what I am seeing. The images are of such complexity and sophistication that it is almost impossible to link them with the ‘primitives’ from 10,000 years or more ago as taught by traditional history. Archaeology relies on the pure science derived from what is found buried + imagination. But these illustrations, etchings and carvings tell a living story of what they saw, how they actually lived, and what they believed.

At last – let me describe the site ::::: The River Wye meanders in loops though the deep Wye Valley. The banks of the valley rise for hundreds of feet and are covered in a predominance of birch and other deciduous trees. At this site the slope rises perhaps between 40 and 50 degrees and is covered in shifting leaf litter atop slippery compacted soil… Along the whole valley there are towering outcrops and cliffs of eroded limestone… At this site there is a huge outcrop bulging from the hillside. Higher up the slope a huge tower of rock rises like a sentinel above the outcrop. A little higher, an adjacent outcrop to the left offers a small stretched cliff with a litter platform at its base. The rock tower is between 40 and 60 feet high and has a massive girth. The outcrop beneath, from its base rises in front of the tower and joins it at about half its height, so from the side, the tower appears to step down before meeting the slope again at the base of the outcrop. Let me also say for now that the tower looks West to the river, just before a major loop.

Now from below…. PS. I hadn’t forgotten to mention the tunnel entrance at the bottom of the buttress! We’ll get to that, but there are a couple more relevant observations… The whole slope approaching the tunnel entrance has been artificially hollowed a little across its width so that the entrance appears about head height from the slope. I discovered through the photo analysis that the mess of rocks there, once formed tidy steps to get to up the entrance. These rocks are also carved and illustrated as heads or animals.

Earlier in the winter I cleaned these off completely to examine them closely. Note please how the solid rock has cracked to produce a boulder immediately to the left of the tunnel entrance. In fact the tunnel penetrates due East while the tower is offset from that true line. Above the entrance to the left, rising around the outcrop, deliberate narrow terraces have been cut from the rock. You will see later why there is a significance to this… A picture follows showing one view of them.

The tunnel mouth is a little way beneath the forward edge of the lower terrace in the picture. Now that I have set the scene I can begin to put some colour to the site. Firstly, the Tower, the Outcrop, the tunnel entrance, the whole interior of the tunnel and the mini cliff above the tower are all covered in profound etchings, carvings and sophisticated illustrations! Scenes depict the drama of life and most often seem obsessed to show activity involving boats. In a similar way to illustrations found in other countries, alongside normal looking figures, there is an abundance of theriomorphic figures. These depict mostly either canine or bovine type heads, but sometimes can be distinguished as reptilian. Internal of the tunnel, there is a miniature carved throne with wings of a snake and a bovine. The tunnel penetrates about 14 feet before turning about 45 degrees to the right and rising at least 50 degrees for approximately 12 feet. At this point it opens left, to an ovoid hewn chamber. Although I have gleaned much more, I am still analysing from all these features.

One feature I ‘will’ share now:: I believe on the top of the tower there is a full sized boat and crew carved from the stone. The tower is very high and dangerous and it will take professional help to do better than my efforts so far. Having failed to use the only (unsafe) closest thin tree I climbed the nearest manageable tree. I got level pics, but a branch failure had me upside-down at the top, saving myself with an instinctive grab during the swing. My arm still isn’t back to normal yet hehe! … Here is one distorted (zoom) pic…….

Hard to determine from the poor quality pic above, but I can still see the features that led me to the conclusion of a stone carved boat and figures on top. …Just to mention also in my last Facebook Article I published a video of my full exploration through the tunnel. (About 20 mns) It is among the pics of the posting gallery but I have had a lot of requests for it to be republished separately, so maybe after the link to this article is done.

Before you view the first REVEAL picture I have to give VERY important advice…. The picture contains great detail which will be impossible for you to see properly unless you do this :::::: Copy and Save-As ….along with following pics to your own computer picture folder. Open them there where you can zoom in and examine the detail properly… No good returning with a negative comment if you have not done this because you will not have examined the detail properly… Here is the first Pic::::::::

The next picture is of the over-exposed right hand side of the rock. I was not prepared for what it revealed. Before seeing the second REVEAL pic. everyone needs to keep a few facts firmly in mind :::::: The tower shows a strange tunnel at its base ::::: The Outcrop has terraces cut to the left and above the tunnel :::::: The Outcrop rises to meet the front of the tower about half way up ::::: The Tunnel and everything surrounding has fabulous illustrated images :::::: The tower has wide bands recessed and cut into its high girth – which are decorated with carved/illustrated images :::: The tower appears to have a significant feature on its top which lends itself to a perfect lookout over an important part of the river (which would have been much wider in ancient times) The tower has an ancillary illustrated cliff just up the slope to the left ::::::: NOW with those features in mind….. look what else was illustrated at the mouth of the tunnel by the very hand of those who lived there in very ancient times

Note the lookouts at the top. Note the carved bands around it. Note the cliff off behind to the left. Note the tunnel. Note the theriomorphic figures standing at the tunnel base in an approximation of where the narrow terraces actually are. Note the Outcrop meeting the tower about half way up its height. Note also, the tower is depicted immediately alongside the illustration of all those boats and activity in the other pic… which themselves are orientated to the tower depiction….  It is perfectly clear these illustrations came from those who were witness to the occupation of the site, and although I have made a start to reveal and decipher them, I have only scratched the surface. Archaeologists look below ground. Until now no one has looked at what is hidden in plain sight. Photo-Archaeological analysis has never been used in this digital way and there is a whole truth of history out there just awaiting this non-invasive discipline.By the way…. I hadn’t mentioned…. There are a couple of other bonus pictures to show for now…. I already described the mini-illustrated-cliff just above the tower…. Well here is a preliminary pic I have been working on from a part of the cliff surface. I have not yet finished with it, but I think you will discern a little of the wonder that is revealing itself to me.