An understanding of prehistory depends on four fundamental strands of accredited material, and logical references and interpretation of them. A. Geology - an acceptably dated 'natural' background. B. Anthropology - a stratigraphically controlled history of the occurrences of bony human remains. C. Archaeology - an ordered account of the evolution of early human existence, inventions, and activities. D. Traditional Knowledge - traditional 'history' : accounts of particular outstanding past events and figures, and/or anthropomorphized explanations of otherwise misunderstood natural phenomena. All four 'strands' exhibit a 'hiatus' or 'break', generally centred on or around the end (c.11-12,000 years B.P.) of the geological period (Strand A). A, B and C usually conceive this as a terrestrially induced lengthy glacial (ice) age or series of ice ages. D. usually conceives this (on the basis of alleged human recollection) as a cosmically induced world conflagration extinguished by a global Flood of devastating suddenness but brief duration. Strands B and C promote evidence for the existence of various unsophisticated anthropoidal beings prior to the 'hiatus', with only sophisticated skeletal development arising in post 'hiatus' times. D however, records these as having been present before the 'hiatus'. A also records numerous finds of sophisticated artefacts (and human skeletons) in geological strata (even back to 5,000,000 year old Pliocene deposits) long antedating the 'hiatus'.

Many of these artifacts repose in museums, cabinets, etc., and have been scientifically described, monographed, or photographed/mapped, etc., yet are excluded from standard texts associated with 'strands' A, B, and C. These scientifically 'incompatible' elements are accordingly 'scientific' enigmas or puzzles. They are aspects of a controverting edifice of prehistory.

We can have a good idea of what music was like thousands of years ago by plotting certain triangulation points : pitch systems, instrumental techniques, and instrumental designs of the present day that are similar or identical to those of ancient times. One example is the famous Silver Pipes of Ur, discovered in a grave in the excavation of Ur in 1927. They are a pair of parallel-holed pipes designed to be played simultaneously by one musician, exactly as we see in the iconography of Greece and Egypt . They have been dated to 2,500 BCE. The finger holes are equidistant and of similar dimensions to reeded pipes of that part of the world in use at the present day. We can fairly reliably assume that, as the instruments have not changed much in the last 4000 years, the type of music played on them has not changed much, although there are distinct variations in regional style today as it is reasonable to assume there were then.

I was born in Egypt in 1950 and lived in Kenya till 1961, experiencing two ancient cultures just before westernisation took over. This is probably what drew me to study a number of ancient musical traditions, predominantly from the countries of the near East, the Balkan peninsula and East Africa, with some study of India , Indonesia and the far east. I have acquired skills on the wind instruments of these areas : flutes, shims, reed pipes and bagpipes, and to some extent stringed instruments and percussion. I have also made a special study of the wind instrument music of Ireland and Scotland , particularly the music of the uilleann pipes, highland pipes and flute, and the close structural relationship of this music with Celtic knot work. www.dirkcampell.co.uk

The existence of a monumental pyramidal complex, stone spheres and tunnel systems in Central Bosnia (town of Visoko ) has caught the world by surprise and shaken the global scientific community, because it may require a part of the world history to be re-written. Sam Semir Osmanagich discovered these amazing structures in 2005, and an Egyptian team of experts confirmed in September 2007 that these structures in Visoko were man-made. With a total of five huge stone structures, perfectly oriented, followed by the network of the underground tunnels, it represents a sensational archaeological discovery, and it serves as a testimony about one civilization that we know nothing about.