Artifacts

Satyrs & Salt?

Courtesy of The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) Satyr? A man’s body, naturally mummified within an ancient salt mine, was found in a salt mine outside the Iranian city of Zanjan. What’s going on here? This news out of Iran is now been linked to ancient tales of satyrs and salt. Stanford University’s Adrienne Mayor, a folklorist and friend to Cryptomundo, has previously suggested that satyrs were fakes, as she notes in The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Due to this specific find, Mayor may be changing her position: Obviously, satyrs are mythic creatures [but [...]

Mall of America Mandrill

Click on image for full version of all the comic panels by Steven Stwalley. I thought you may find amusement in a comic strip I drew that is appearing in the news weekly City Pages in the Twin Cities on the “Mall of America Mandrill.” I’ve been enjoying your site for some time and put a reference to your name in there (you can take comfort in the fact that I didn’t base the character’s appearance on you!). Enjoy!Steven Stwalley I asked Steve’s permission to share his strip – please click on the above panel visible to see the entire [...]

Flash Frozen? Siberian Baby Raises Old Questions

Fifty years ago, Bernard Heuvelmans collected and published reports of modern sightings of supposedly extinct mammoths seen alive today, in the boreal forests of Siberia. Thoughts that mammoths had survived probably stemmed from finds of extremely fresh specimens thawing out of the tundra’s permafrost. Two questions, one cryptozoological and the other Fortean, nevertheless, are raised whenever there is new talk of such discoveries: (1) Did these mammoths live during contemporary times with modern humans, as discussed by Heuvelmans and others? (2) Were they frozen in a quick “flash freeze” incident, as first noted by Ivan T. Sanderson? In Sanderson’s 1960 [...]

Twisted Tales of Mystery Cat Photo

Here, below, is the one photograph that has been released, thusfar, of the Maine Mystery Cat, taken from a homeowner’s backyard in Sidney, Maine. The photo is from a digital camera, and the pixels give this felid a less than sharp configuration. But as you can see from reading the past blogs on this matter, the downloading of the camera, from the testimony of the photo lab owner, speaks well for this image to have not been Photoshopped. But that has not stopped others from using various techniques to manipulate this image. While no one seems to have seen a [...]

Cryptofiction and Coelacanth Scales: Sterling E. Lanier Dies

Sterling Edmund Lanier, 79, who just died in Sarasota, Florida, harkens back to an era of early cryptozoologists and adventurers. Lanier worked as an editor at Chilton Books in the 1960s, alongside Ivan T. Sanderson, also an editor at Chilton. Chilton Books in 1961 published Sanderson’s famous book, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life. Sanderson and Lanier moved in similar natural history and publishing circles for a few years. Lanier wrote the foreword for one of Sanderson’s friends, Roger A. Caras’ 1964 Chilton-published book, Dangerous to Man; Wild Animals A Definitive Study of Their Reputed Dangers to Man. Born in [...]

A Pterodactyl in the Pool Cabana

There’s a Pterodactyl in the Pool Cabana So Brian passed it along, With a pat on the nose and a song. From Freaky Links in the South, Yikes, look at that mouth. Thanks Patrick for taking the family heat With the head in your passenger seat. To some, it’s a bizarre abomination, Seeking love, far from its final destination. The thing is in search of its new home. The creature has more miles to roam. Does it appear as an unwelcome louse? Nay, now it’s in the pool house. No need for further trepidation, Or even swimmers’ consternation. No reason [...]