KARL SHUKER
finds a tantalising new clue in the case of the mystery mosaic macaw
SOLVING A ROMAN RIDDLE?
In last month’s column, I drew attention to a curious marble mosaic panel identified by auction house Christie’s as being of Roman origin, dating from approximately the 2nd century AD, and sold as such by them on 11 December 2003. What made this mosaic panel so curious was that in addition to depicting four familiar species of European bird around a drinking vessel (although three of these were misidentified in the catalogue listing), it also depicted a blue-and-yellow macaw Ara ararauna. This exotic species of parrot is native to South America, a continent that would not be discovered by the West for another 1,300 years. So how could its presence on a Roman mosaic be explained? If assumed to be a genuine mosaic, as deemed by Christie’s, it would constitute significant evidence that the Romans were trading with South America many centuries before the continent’s existence was known to Europe. Yet if this were so, why had the macaw mosaic not attracted attention from historians and archaeologists? My detailed online search had failed to uncover any evidence of such attention.
I was mystified, but have since obtained some information that may solve the puzzle. After reading my previous report, fellow cryptozoological investigator Andy McGrath informed me that he had discovered that the mosaic panel in question had featured on the cover of Christie’s sale catalogue. This fact proved invaluable in uncovering some additional information. In early 2021, a fascinating book entitled Hitler’s Horses (Random House, 2021) by art detective Arthur Brand was published. It documented the extraordinary story of how ‘Striding
Horses’ by Nazi sculptor Josef Thorak – a spectacular statue featuring two gigantic bronze horses, which had been a favourite of Hitler but had later vanished, assumed destroyed during the bombing of Berlin – was rediscovered via some complex, dangerous sleuthing.
Brand recalled a conversation with an enigmatic figure from the art world named Michel van Rijn, during which van Rijn had shown him an auction catalogue whose cover depicted a Roman mosaic panel depicting five birds around a drinking vessel, one being a South American blue and yellow macaw! Laughing, Brand asked where this “forgery” had originated. Here is van Rijn’s reply: “Tunisia, I think. There’s a village just south of Sousse where they churn out fake Greek and Roman mosaics. A regular goldmine.”
I am unaware of any formal confirmation that this particular artefact is indeed a fake. Yet in view of what van Rijn had said about it and the mosaic fake factory operating near Sousse, this may be why the macaw mosaic panel has failed to overturn the accepted mainstream views concerning early Roman trading! Andy McGrath, pers. comm., 25 Feb 2021.
HERE BE DRAGONS?
In a major new scientific scheme to highlight the dire biodiversity shortfall in which the vast number of species currently alive today remain undiscovered, ecologists Prof. Mario Moura (now at Brazil’s Federal University of Paraiba) and Dr Walter Jetz (of Yale University) have created a model that extrapolates where undiscovered terrestrial vertebrate species may still exist. They have achieved this remarkable feat by incorporating biological, environmental and sociological factors that are associated with the 30,000+ terrestrial vertebrate species already known to science, because the chances of being discovered early are not equal among species. That is to say, the more obvious ones have probably already been found. Consequently, large known species with broad distribution ranges are less likely to have still-undiscovered relatives than are smaller known species inhabiting tiny, relatively inaccessible habitats.
Having said that, the preponderance of large new mammal species discovered in Indo-China during the 1990s, plus the ongoing stream of new monkeys in Brazil and lemurs in Madagascar, demonstrates that large unknown mammals can certainly exist in more discrete, inaccessible, unexplored regions. And indeed, Moura and Jetz consider that the most likely regions to harbour undiscovered vertebrate species are Madagascar, Indonesia, Brazil and Chile, collectively possessing the potential to reveal as many as a quarter of all future discoveries of new vertebrates, and with about half of all vertebrate unknowns likely to be discovered in tropical moist broadleaf forest environments. Their map may not reveal any hidden dragons in the way that early maps were liberally annotated with fire-breathing fauna, but if it can reveal where to look for still-undiscovered vertebrate species and thereby save them from vanishing before their existence had even been confirmed, it will be a truly marvellous creation. www.sciencealert. com/new-map-reveals-all-the-places-onearth-where-undiscovered-creatures-maybe-lurking; www.nature.com/articles/ s41559-021-01411-5.