Press release from Joshua P. Warren:
Results of a new experiment have compelled a researcher to ask scientists to re-examine the mysterious petroglyphs on Judaculla Rock, in Western North Carolina, probing whether or not ancient Native Americans carved pictures of microorganisms. If so, it could predate the European discovery of the microscope by more than 1000 years.
Judaculla Rock is on the National Register of Historic Places, located by a creek in Jackson County, near Western Carolina University. For centuries, scientists have been perplexed by the somewhat abstract carvings on the stone.
Author, and Asheville native, Joshua P. Warren, host of the iHeart podcast “Strange Things,” began studying the markings in 2002. He quickly realized the symbols resembled microorganisms.
Recently, at his laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada, Warren took materials that would have been easily accessible to the Native Americans in that area and constructed a makeshift microscope able to see amoebas, hydras, and similar microscopic life.
“The real key is the massive supply of mica in the area,” says Warren. “Mica naturally forms as thin, transparent sheets, similar to microscope slides, and using just three pieces of mica, I was able to easily see microorganisms. Maybe the Native Americans were looking at them in the nearby creek. It seems like they did a wonderful job of recording them in stone.”
Since Warren is not a microbiologist, he’s asking for scientists, especially from nearby Western Carolina University, to test his hypothesis. And he wonders if similar sites around the country can be re-examined with this new question in mind.
To watch the free video report about Warren’s experiment, please visit: www.JudacullaRock.com
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