They must not be in a hurry since this was originally found approximately 28 years ago. I've been trying to get legal there unsuccessfully as have others for the last 20 years. But thanks for the explanation maybe these folks are on a different timetable than your theory would suggest.
Death Traps??
- Thread starter Magnum (using a) PI
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MiddenMonster
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I don't think they are running a game. That was more humor than anything. My guess is that they don't believe there is treasure there. That said, anybody who hunts for treasure should be on constant lookout for people trying to take advantage of their dreams of striking it big. The key to any con is making the mark think they are in charge and driving the process by playing to those dreams and greed.
The owners were looking for treasure based on handed down information. They are the ones who asked my logger friends to come get me and help locate the treasure they were looking for. So obviously there was belief in the Treasure and that is not the reason for stopping me, but I appreciate your thoughts
MiddenMonster
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Here's an interesting article for the Death Trap People. Archaeologists are supposedly afraid to open the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang because of the possibility of booby traps being present. The booby traps are said to be crossbows, aimed to bust a cap in the hiney of anyone who enters the tomb. Do I doubt the existence of crossbows? Not at all. There is a good probability that they were put there as claimed. What I doubt is that they are still functional after 2,200 years, primarily because of the three main components: The trip mechanisms, the bowstrings and the bows themselves.
For starters, what would trip mechanisms have been made of 2,200 years ago? Plant fiber string? Sinew or other body fibers? None of that would have survived, and as soon as it degraded enough the bows would have fired. The same would be true for the bowstrings, which would have been made of the same material. That leaves the crossbows, whih would have been made of either wood or ox horn, though it is remotely conceivable that since it was the Iron Age they could have been made of a flexible steel. So the crossbows might outlast the string parts, but since those are gone, so is any chance of the crossbows working. The arrows themselves may well be intact, albeit lying on the floor somewhere and the only danger being someone could stub their toe on the point of one of them and pick up a deadly infection.
The real danger, as the article mentions is the presence of mercury, which was used to simulate the key rivers in the empire. And tests have confirmed that mercury levels are higher around the tomb area than they should be. But the article also mentions that the mercury rivers were designed to flow by way of some mechanical means. So because the levels are higher around the tomb it indicates to me that the "mechanics" of the flowing mercury rivers have degraded and spread mercury all over the place. So from my perspective, the risk of death might be high, but the risk of death traps is pretty low. A person is more likely to die by having one of the Terracotta Army statues fall on them than by an arrow fired from an ancient crossbow.
Here's the article:
Archaeologists are too scared to open the tomb of China's first emperor because they fear booby traps
And here's a bonus article that takes a closer look at the fact or fiction surrounding the tomb:
The Booby Traps of Qin Shi Huang’s Tomb: Fact, Fiction or Something Even Better?
Conclusion: Indiana Jones would have survived the crossbows, made it to the tomb and looted it, but would have died a horrible death by mercury poisoning shortly afterward. And that raises another question: How much mercury would have been manufactured for these rivers, and how many people died from exposure making it? I'm actually kind of suspicious that any serious quantity of mercury could have been made 2,200 years ago for this purpose, even if Qin Shi Huang reigned for 11 years.
For starters, what would trip mechanisms have been made of 2,200 years ago? Plant fiber string? Sinew or other body fibers? None of that would have survived, and as soon as it degraded enough the bows would have fired. The same would be true for the bowstrings, which would have been made of the same material. That leaves the crossbows, whih would have been made of either wood or ox horn, though it is remotely conceivable that since it was the Iron Age they could have been made of a flexible steel. So the crossbows might outlast the string parts, but since those are gone, so is any chance of the crossbows working. The arrows themselves may well be intact, albeit lying on the floor somewhere and the only danger being someone could stub their toe on the point of one of them and pick up a deadly infection.
The real danger, as the article mentions is the presence of mercury, which was used to simulate the key rivers in the empire. And tests have confirmed that mercury levels are higher around the tomb area than they should be. But the article also mentions that the mercury rivers were designed to flow by way of some mechanical means. So because the levels are higher around the tomb it indicates to me that the "mechanics" of the flowing mercury rivers have degraded and spread mercury all over the place. So from my perspective, the risk of death might be high, but the risk of death traps is pretty low. A person is more likely to die by having one of the Terracotta Army statues fall on them than by an arrow fired from an ancient crossbow.
Here's the article:
Archaeologists are too scared to open the tomb of China's first emperor because they fear booby traps
And here's a bonus article that takes a closer look at the fact or fiction surrounding the tomb:
The Booby Traps of Qin Shi Huang’s Tomb: Fact, Fiction or Something Even Better?
Conclusion: Indiana Jones would have survived the crossbows, made it to the tomb and looted it, but would have died a horrible death by mercury poisoning shortly afterward. And that raises another question: How much mercury would have been manufactured for these rivers, and how many people died from exposure making it? I'm actually kind of suspicious that any serious quantity of mercury could have been made 2,200 years ago for this purpose, even if Qin Shi Huang reigned for 11 years.
MiddenMonster
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I would certainly agree that Arizona is both geologically and climatologically stable enough. But not in the biological sense. Anything made 500 years ago from wood or other plants would be out of commission by now. Even metal death traps wouldn't last that long in Arizona because metal fatigues, and also reacts with oxygen over time. I suppose you could build a sand trap using stone blocks that would last 500+ years. But you still have to have a trip mechanism that would last that long for it to work. It's the trip mechanism that is the weak link in the chain.
