Table of Contents for Old News video documentary website

get videos on iPhone, iPod touch

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:31:00 -0600

Eighteen of our favorite 3 minute video features, including the Old News trailer, can now be accessed via a mini-web page tailored especially for delivery and display on Apple iPhones and iPod touches.

Celtic-Indians before Columbus?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:30:00 -0600

Online articles and a new video clip reveal more clues that Celts and Native Americans mixed their bloodlines in the Middle Ages

Archaeology Snuffs Colo. Ogham

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:08:06 -0600

in the late 1970's, they circled the wagons, damning diffusionists

see Martin Brennan @Anubis '07 equinox

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:00:00 -0600

3 minute video of Irish megalithic art and archaeoastronomy author Martin Brennan witnessing amazing, precision shadow plays in Oklahoma's Nosepointer and Anubis caves alongside Ogham inscriptions

buy Old News DVD securely via PayPal

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:00:00 -0600

Our documentary Old News is available for purchase securely online with credit cards and via PayPal. Buy singly or at quantity discounts. Posters and books also on sale.

Celtic pronounced with a soft C

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:09:02 -0600

A video response to the many viewers who have objected to my failure to pronounce Celt and Celtic with a leading hard K, as is done in common parlance. It turns out linguistic heritage suggests the preferred pronunciation should be consistent with how the Boston NBA team name is pronounced.

Lughnasad dawn & Gemini memorial

Fri, 04 May 2007 14:00:00 -0600

View from engraved solar bullseye at a rock shelter observatory that memorializes a triple planetary alignment in Gemini before sunrise on a cross quarter holiday in August 471. 3 minute video excerpt from Old News.

Oklahoma summer solstice sunset

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:06:00 -0600

The Compass Cave in Oklahoma's Anubis Cave complex features an amazingly accurate compass rosette which defines the ecliptic, the site's latitude and the direction of the setting summer solstice sun plus a Celtic Ogham inscription on the back wall obscured fully by the shadows from the left cast by the setting sun only at summer solstice. Indeed, the inscription's own message, as translated by Barry Fell before it was ever observed, speaks to this phenomenon. 3 minute video excerpt from Old News.

Beltane 2007 dawn in SE Colorado

Sat, 05 May 2007 15:08:00 -0600

CSU-Pueblo teacher and author/editor on paganism joins Martin Brennan, Phil Leonard and me, Scott Monahan, on a cross-quarter pilgrimage to observe dawn at a suspected Lughnasad site. The sunrise position on August 7th this year is identical to where it was on May 5. See Letter from Hardscrabble Creek blog by Chas.

18 short MPEG4 and video podcasts

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:05:00 -0600

choose video podcasts, QuickTime 7 MPEG-4 pop-ups, YouTube, Google Video or downloads

1. Old News Trailer, documentary synopsis
2. Theoretical Abstract, Ancient Celts in Colorado long before Columbus
3. Seltic or Keltic?, which pronunciation is preferred linguistically
4. The Controversy, academics reject theory and will not investigate
5. Martin Brennan, who found solar alignments at Irish megaliths 25 years ago, sees Oklahoma shadow plays for the first time
6. Rollin Gillespie, archaeoastronomy pioneer and NASA rocket scientist, philosphizes on the struggle for new ideas
7. Beltaine 2007, sunrise vigil at Colorado's Sun Temple, awaiting solar disc framed in rock notch
8. Compass Cave, summer solstice sunset shadowplay exactly obscures event descriptive rock inscription
9. Lughnasad, cross quarter solar alignment at Colorado's Sun Temple
10. Crack Cave, 1984 Ogham discovery, equinox dawn light show
11. The Pathfinder, Native American site with an equinox sun dagger
12. Mithras Observatory, ancient pagan sun god inscribed in Oklahoma
13. Ancient Arab Sailors, may have explored heart of America before Celts
14. History on the Rocks, teaser for Old News prequel, 1985 KRMA Denver doc
15. Snuffing Colorado Ogham in the bud, archaeologists conspire to damn diffusionism
16. Celts and Indians, more than just cousins?, pre-Columbian contact?
17. Canadian Broadcasting, CBC Sunday Report aired on April 19, 1987
18. CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, March 23, 1987
audio. Old News in stereo, soundtrack update mid-2006, 1:23:45
artwork. movie poster and new DVD jacket available for download

20th anniversary: CBS News equinox report

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:00:00 -0600

archived full-rez MPEG-4 playback of 3 minute national broadcast segment by reporter Bob McNamara covering the story enterprised by Scott Monahan in his 1985 KRMA TV, Denver, documentary "History on the Rocks". Fair Use rationale included.

archaeology's latest heroes and zeroes

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:31:00 -0600

Towers on ridgeline in Chankillo, Peru, found to be America's oldest Solar Observatory. Meanwhile, another archaeologist goes postal over "Lost Tomb of Jesus" documentary.

windmills: past/present tech metaphor

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:02:00 -0600

comparison of windmill turbines for generating electricity with the older water-pump windmills is an analogy for our high-tech society versus the low-technology of older, even ancient cultures. Lyrics of "Windmills of Your Mind" and Don Quixote's tilting at windmills tie together other subtle themes explored in Old News documentary.

B.C. Rome's awesome celestial computer

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:01:00 -0600

Researchers confirm mystery device found abord a Roman shipwreck in 1901 was an amazing, elaborately-geared mechanical computer designed to mimic fine eccentricities in solar and lunar movements calculated --- literally cranked in by hand --- for the past, present and future. The ship went down in 65 B.C. off the coast of Greece. It had sailed from Rhodes and the Antikythera Mechanism found in the wreckage may well have been the handiwork of ancient astronomer Hipparchos.

archaeoastronomy in six Hollywood films

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:00:00 -0600

Apocalypto (2006), National Treasure (2004), Cast Away (2000), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

updates on early exploration of N. America

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:00:00 -0600

including links to these recently published online articles

Mysteries of the ancient Antikythera Mechanism revealed
Living off the sea may have helped early humans travel around the globe
Apocalypto director Mel Gibson stirring new controversies
iTunes Store's Old News documentary video podcasts
Kennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionize Continent's History
The Untold Saga of Early Man in America
Celebrating Cosmogenesis as the Triple Spiral in the Seasonal Wheel
First Americans May Have Been European
Ancient People Followed Kelp Highway to America, Researcher Says
a footnote about quality control and this website

archaeoastronomy in cinema: Cast Away

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:01:00 -0600

©2006 Twentieth Century Fox. Stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific following the crash of his Fed Ex airplane, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) constructs an analemma on a cave wall to track the daily displacement in the shaft of sunlight through a small natural portal. He explains the science and the repetitive annual figure-8 cycle to his sanity companion, Wilson, the volleyball. Fair use disclaimer for images.

Old News video podcasts, direct link on Apple's iTunes Music Store

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:01:00 -0600

The Trailer - episode 1: A thousand years before Columbus sailed the Atlantic in 1492, Celtic explorers from the Old World followed the same ocean route and penetrated deep into the heartland of America, leaving their mark. Armed with a keen sense of astronomy and inspired by the pagan sun god Mithras, a hardy band followed the Arkansas River to what is now Colorado, memorializing their presence and celestial observations in elaborate rock art including precision sundials for the equinoxes, the summer solstice and Lughnasad. But traditional American archaeologists scoff at the idea and have hoped the story would die away, as have many of its advocates whose discoveries began in 1977 and continue to this day. Highlights from the hour and a half video documentary featuring key commentary.

The Theory - episode 2: The theory that bold Celtic sailors crossed the Atlantic and navigated up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers to what is today the high plains of southeastern Colorado seems ludicrous to many people, particularly the academic community. But the evidence of surviving Ogham writing translatable via Old Gaelic and associated astronomical markings that relate to Celtic cosmology is strong. A three minute web video of excerpts from the Old News documentary summarizes some key aspects for why this theory has legs. Featured are animated graphics of the clockwise North Atlantic steering currents and an easy-to-understand lesson on 8 seasonal cusps celebrated by the ancients, the equinoxes and the solstices plus four other divisions, the cross quarters observed by the Celts: Beltaine, Lughnasad, Samhain and Imbolc. These documentary excerpts address many of the arguments dismissive of ancient Celts for lacking the ability to explore beyond Europe or to memorialize their distinctive knowledge of astronomy on North American rock walls and in caves.

The Controversy - episode 3: Most professional archaeologists and anthropologists deny the possibility of Europeans having voyaged to America hundreds of years before Columbus, with the lone exception of a temporary Viking presence on the coast of Newfoundland. The theory that ancient Celtic explorers could have navigated across the Atlantic and up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers to what is today southeastern Colorado often generates professional scorn, ridicule and insults. Academic archaeologists demand cultural, material artifacts as proof, but at the same time are disinclined to authorize, much less organize, any digs to search for such evidence when informed of local sites with presumed Ogham inscriptions and European archaeoastronomy. With such a "head in the sand" attitude on the part of these gatekeepers of knowledge, it is no wonder this story has struggled to gain traction and sustained recognition by the mainstream media.

The Pathfinder - episode 4: Within a narrow shelter between two huge boulders of a caprock high above the Purgatory River in southeastern Colorado is a Native American equinox site known as The Pathfinder. From a natural chimney above extends a midday sun dagger much longer than America's most famous archaeoastronomical event authored by the Anasazi atop Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon. Besides the dramatic Colorado dawn alignment and shadow play on a leaf petroglyph (which may, indeed, more accurately depict a vulva), there is an equinox sun ray that pierces a set of petroglyphs. Its inspiration seems to be from the Navajo legend of a slumbering Changing Woman impregnated with twins by a blazing sun beam.

Ancient Arab Sailors in mid-America, too? - episode 5: Present day Colorado appears to have had an attraction not just among ancient Celtic explorers. In earlier centuries, perhaps millenia, explorers from the port city of Salalah on the coast of Dhofar in present day Oman at the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, appear to have left their mark in the heart of mid-America, too.

Old News audio: This is the entire stereo soundtrack of the Old News documentary updated in mid-2006 with some minor narrative repairs and modifications. The only exclusions are the baroque oboe interludes of "Windmills Of Your Mind" omitted pending web rights clearance by EMI Music.

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Sunday Report from April 19, 1987: This is an abridged version of a television news report by Eve Savory, science specialist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which aired nearly 2 years following the premiere of Scott Monahan's "History on the Rocks" documentary on KRMA-TV, Denver. Ms. Savory requested and was provided film footage of the linguistic and archaeoastronomical evidence for an ancient Celtic presence in Colorado from the documentary. TransVision founder Scott Monahan believes this reproduction nearly 20 years later of the archived broadcast aircheck supplied to him by the CBC qualifies as "fair use" under United States copyright law, given the context of these podcast episodes. This podcast is our first public exhibition of the CBC report, reciprocity for the courtesy we extended to the CBC in 1987 and is in no way intended to infringe on CBC's intellectual property.

History on the Rocks: KRMA TV, Channel 6 in Denver, premiered Scott Monahan's ground-breaking documentary "History on the Rocks" on May 7, 1985. The broadcast led to stories in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post and by the Associated Press, and 1987 television news reports by Bob McNamara on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and by Eve Savory on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Sunday Report.

archaeoastronomy in cinema: National Treasure (2004)

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:58:00 -0600

©2004 Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Aerial shot of Independence Hall. Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) examines $100 bill.
Based on the shadow cast by the pinnacle of Independence Hall's steeple at 3:22 PM EDT, Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) pinpoints a hollowed brick on the landmark's exterior within which Ben Franklin's colored spectacles are hidden. That time of day arises from a series of clues involving a 1780's painting of the Hall engraved on the back of the hundred dollar bill with the steeple's clock reading 2:22. The hero's sidekick proudly advises Cage to offset the telltale observation moment for daylight saving. However, the screenplay seems to ignore the reality that solar spotlighting for any particular minute of the day progressively changes throughout the year. The date on which to view the shadowplay clue doesn't appear to have mattered in the story line. Incidentally, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing the clock reads 4:10 rather than 2:22, a reversal of the hour and minute hands. Fair use disclaimer for images.

archaeoastronomy in cinema: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:57:00 -0600

©1981 Paramount Pictures. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) arrives in subterranean Map Room. The 1930's archaeologist translating instructions to find the Well of the Souls. Using the Crystal atop the Staff of Ra, Jones refracts sunbeam to pinpoint Well's location. Fair use disclaimer for images.

archaeoastronomy in cinema: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:56:00 -0600

©1968 Turner Entertainment Co., a Time Warner Company. Extra-terrestrial intelligence proven by lunar monolith. Huge black monolith aligns with heavenly bodies. Enigmatic, black monoliths on prehistoric earth, buried in the Tycho crater on the moon and floating in space near Saturn's moon Iapetus conspire to doom a manned mission to the ringed planet, culminating in astronaut David Bowman's fateful encounter with a huge, but proportionally dimensioned monolith to the one found buried on the moon, at 2 hours 1½ minutes into the film. Fair use disclaimer for images.

archaeoastronomy in cinema: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:55:00 -0600

©1959 Twentieth Century Fox. Sunbeam emerges from gap in Mount Scartaris, Iceland. Actors James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Pat Boone and Peter Ronson. Sunbeam illuminates entrance to adventure on opposing range. The way in to the downward journey is spotlighted by a solar beacon approximately 46 minutes into the film. Fair use disclaimer for images.

trailer at Google Video

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:00:00 -0600

direct link to 3 minute Old News documentary trailer hosted by Google Video

poster, reduced scale image of 11x17 promo poster and show synopsis

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:55:00 -0600

Rock art discoveries over the past generation demonstrate Christopher Columbus was a relative late-comer among European sailors who explored North America. The exciting evidence, dated by nuclear chemistry, is carved on the remote sandstone cliffs and within caves of the rugged Oklahoma panhandle and southeastern Colorado canyon country. Written messages in an ancient Celtic alphabet known as Ogham survive in proximity to the more abundant imagery of the wonderful petroglyphic art of the Plains Indians. "Old News" documents the passion by advocates of pre-Columbian, trans-Atlantic contact and the stunning intolerance of most professional archaeologists to seriously consider the evidence. Particularly compelling are archaeoastronomical links to the Old World. Rock art shadow plays that occur only at equinox sunrises and sunsets, a Lughnasad cross-quarter dawn and a summer solstice sunset are all accompanied by predictive Ogham inscriptions. Additionally, engraved constellation maps tie these remarkable finds to distinctively Indo-European understandings of the Zodiac in ancient times. The "Noble Twins" inscription, for example, memorializes 3 planets traveling through the Gemini Constellation, a rare and noteworthy event for ancient skywatchers, observed just before dawn on Lughnasad, August 8, 471 CE. Woven into some of the star maps are secrets of the initiates in an arcane, astral religion known as Mithraism that pre-dated Christianity. Mithras and his entourage are symbolic participants in a revealing shadowcast --- a virtual ancient motion picture --- at equinox sunset in Oklahoma's Anubis Cave. Unless professional anthropologists take an interest, all these threads to the past may simply be forgotten.

feedback, public comments welcomed at automated email form

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:54:30 -0600

cast, constellations, planets, sun, earth, moon, interviewees, crew & credits

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:55:00 -0600

Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Aries, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, sun, earth, moon, Bill McGlone, Phil Leonard, Barry Fell, John Gooding, Dennis Gallagher, Rollin Gillespie, Carl Lehrburger, Robert Mark, Evelyn Newman, Scott Monahan, Ron Dorn, Gloria Farley, Robert Meyer, Ted Barker, Ali Ahmed Ali Ash-Shahri, Sam Allen, Kathleen Cain, Michael Fox, Manoochehr Aryan, Robert Wilson, NASA, Evans and Sutherland Digital Theater, Starry Night Backyard, TransVision, Doug Brand, Studio B, GW Hannaway and Associates, Anton Antokhin, Denver HighDef, KRMA-TV

bibliography, documentary transcripts, recommended reading and resources

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:56:00 -0600

includes:
1- .pdf files of documentary transcripts available in 3 formats
2- bibliography with links and .pdf downloads of select articles
3- newspaper and television coverage
4- archaeoastronomy in cinema
5- History of Nova Scotia
6- resources on Antiquity
7- resources on Archaeoastronomy
8- resources on Diffusionism
9- resources on Discoveries
10- resources on Dating Rock Art
11- resources on Mithras
12- resources on Ogham and decipherments

trailer, 3 minute web video synopsis of documentary in multiple formats

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:57:30 -0600

viewing options:
1- widescreen (5:3 aspect ratio) MPEG-4 using QuickTime 7 browser plug in at 640x384 rez (9.1 MB download with embedded display)
2- widescreen (5:3 aspect ratio) MPEG-4 using QuickTime 7 browser plug in at 432x256 rez (5.6 MB download with embedded display)
3- standard 4:3 aspect ratio QuickTime 6 .mov with refresh rate of 15 f.p.s., at 240x180 rez (6.1 MB with embedded display)
4- standard 4:3 aspect ratio Windows Media .wmv with refresh rate of 15 f.p.s., at 240x180 rez (6 MB with embedded display)
5- standard 4:3 aspect ratio Real Video .rm with refresh rate of 15 f.p.s., at 240x180 rez (6.1 MB with embedded display)
6- downloadable, enhanced 4:3 QuickTime 6 .mov with refresh rate of 30 f.p.s., at 320x240 rez (13.8 MB)
7- downloadable, enhanced 4:3 Real Video .rm with refresh rate of 30 f.p.s., at 320x240 rez (13.9 MB)
8- donwloadable, widescreen 5:3 .mp4 with (H.264 codec QuickTime 7 required) with refresh rate of 30 f.p.s., at 640x384 rez (16.9 MB)
9- downloadable, enhanced 4:3 Windows Media .wmv with refresh rate of 30 f.p.s., at 320x240 rez (13.1 MB)
10- assorted video podcasts comprised of three minute excerpts on the iTunes Music Store, keyword search: Old News documentary

documentary, theory of ancient Celts exploring mid-America

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:58:00 -0600

Old News is a 1½ hour video documentary suggesting western European Celts explored America's heartland by the Middle Ages, perhaps even before Christ. The theory of pre-Columbian, Old World visitors is controversial. Initially, most people are skeptical. So, here's a 3 minute video that provides some foundation for our theory. Maybe you'll agree the possibilities are not so crazy after all! Our story is a feature documentary in English shot on 16mm film, analog and digital video, written, produced and narrated by former Denver television news reporter Scott Monahan. It updates a preliminary report based on limited rock art treasures found in southeastern Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle introduced in Monahan's 1985 Denver PBS documentary "History on the Rocks". The new, revolutionary evidence for an ancient Celtic presence in America's heartland is persuasively assembled along with the old in a careful, methodical and dramatic fashion. Ancient Celtic Ogham writing, archaeoastronomical alignments, engraved constellation maps and anthropomorphic carvings tell a story that overwhelms traditional archaeologists and anthropologists. They refuse to seriously investigate the claims, wedded to their status quo mantra that European culture could not possibly have had contact with Native Americans any earlier than 514 years ago. The bright pathway of the Zodiac and our sun's predictable lap-markers in the sky are the genuine stars in our reality-centric story. Come and imagine how different life was before high technology! Then, see if you'll agree with our recognition that America's earliest, alphabetically written history must be rolled back by at least a millennium.

home, exposition introducing Sun Temple, Crack Cave and Pathfinder sites

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:59:00 -0600

Old News: the oldest motion pictures in the world, discovered, examines discoveries over the past 25 years that indicate Plains Indians had visitors from the far side of the Atlantic a thousand years before Columbus sailed from Iberia. More than a half dozen archaeoastronomical panels are documented with timelapse film and videography on the equinoxes, the summer solstice and Lughnasad. Only after translations of the associated grooved writings were these solar alignments first observed. We examine the nature of Irish Ogham and how it compares to the consonantal variety found in America, show the sort of explosive reaction this subject ignites among American archaeologists, follow a researcher as he applies his nuclear chemical analysis to dating some Ogham rock writings, propose that these foreigners may have worshipped Mithras revealed by their layered iconography and specific Indo-European star charts detailing Mithras' regulation of orderly celestial cycles, discuss the humanity of these powerful discoveries, and conclude with a postscript suggesting an even earlier expedition from a seaport on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula based on the unique Dhofari alphabet found on other heavily patinated rocks in America's heartland. "Old News" also introduces a Native American equinox site known as The Pathfinder with a midday sun dagger, much longer than the USA's most famous archaeoastronomy by the Anasazi on Fajada Butte. Our Colorado equinox sun ray pierces a set of petroglyphs seemingly inspired by the Navajo legend of a slumbering Changing Woman impregnated with twins by a blazing sun beam.