Friday, April 6, 2012

Speakers of The Atlantean Tongue



"The Turdetanians [Andalucians] are ranked as the wisest of the Iberians; and they make use of an alphabet, and possess records of their ancient history, poems, and laws written in verse that are six thousand years old, as they assert. And also the other Iberians use an alphabet, though not letters of one and the same character, for their speech is not one and the same, either." -- Strabo, Geography, Book III, Chapter 1, 1st century

"Palæolithic European man of the Miocene and Pliocene times was a pure Atlantean, as we have previously stated. The Basques are, of course, of a much later date than this, but their affinities, as here shown, go far to prove the original extraction of their remote ancestors. The 'mysterious' affinity between their tongue and that of the Dravidian races of India will be understood by those who have followed our outline of continental formations and shiftings." -- Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, 1888

"According to [F.N.] Finck [one of the greatest authorities on comparative philology], the lesser-known languages of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mediterranean region are distantly related to ancient Basque, and we know that the oldest Italic aboriginal tribe was called Osci, identical with Ausci and Vascones. If we take these and all the foregoing facts into account, we begin to get a picture of a worldwide complex of linguistic relationships that transcend time and space. We can see Basque, an oddity among modern European languages, as the last relic of a prehistoric world language that was spoken on both sides of the Atlantic." -- Otto H. Muck, The Secret of Atlantis, 1954


Above: Iberian Falcata

"Can we find any solid reasons for believing that here, in the Basques, a relic of Atlantis has been preserved? The Basques themselves provide one: they still have a clear memory of Atlantis. Ernst von Salomon mentions this in his travel book Boche in Frankreich (Boche in France). In about the year 1930, he met a Basque smuggler with aquiline features who talked to him about his people. They were, said the Basque, the finest, proudest, and most independent race on Earth, the same today as in the time described by Titus. They still wore the same costumes, used the same knives, employed the same methods of tilling their fields. Nobody ever betrayed his kith and kin; all still spoke their own language, the oldest language in the world. Von Salomon continues, 'The Basques, he said, are the last relics of a more beautiful, freer, prouder world, long ago sunk below the sea together with Altantis, one of whose last remaining pillars was the Pyrenees, and the other the mountain of Morocco...'" -- Otto H. Muck, The Secret of Atlantis, 1954

Mainstream linguists, philologists, and historians, being ignorant of all classical scholarship and especially Plato, are puzzled by so-called "language isolates." Platonists not so much: DRAVIDIAN / BASQUE ASSOCIATION.
An ancient language form that originated in the North African area of our most ancient civilizations has been studied by Nyland (2001). He found that many words used to describe names of places and things on the Indian Subcontinent seem to be closely related to the ancient language, which is being called Saharan. It appears that the Basque language is a close relative to the original Saharan. ...

We don't have to look far in India to recognize Basque-related names and words, such as:
Himalaya, ima-alaia, imajina (image, scenery) alaia (pleasing): "Pleasing scenery."

Harappa, the famous 5000 year old city in Pakistan; harapa means "plundered" in Basque, from harapatu (to plunder), which therefore can hardly be considered the true name of the city.

Goa, abbreviated from goardia (to stand guard), referring to the town's defenses.

Bihar, from bi-iha-ar, ibi-iha-arro, ibildari (nomadic) iha'urri (to scatter, to roam) arro (proud): "Proud roaming nomads." In the spoken language we find thousands of examples of words related to Basque, such as kut (in Malto) meaning "to burn", kutu (in Tamil) meaning "to be hot, to heat up", while kutxer (in Basque) means "frying pan" in which xer or xerra means "small steak" (in Basque the "x" is pronounced as "sh"). The Dravidian words ole (hearth, fireplace) and ola (inside) correspond exactly to Basque ola (cabin, hut). Being unable to read the different scripts in use by the Dravidian peoples, Edo Nyland used the transliterations and Basque translations provided by Dr. N. Lahovary in "Dravidian Origins and the West", published by Orient Longmans, Bombay, 1963. The page numbers in the following list refer to his book.

Page Dravidian English Basque English

164 ura wife urruxa female
165 irru (Ta) to bring forth errun to lay eggs
165 iru to be iruditu to resemble
165 il to be illi (Berber) to be
165 ul (Ta) to exist ulertu to understand
165 aru to give birth aur child
166 ali (Ma) woman ala girl
166 ir (Brahui) sister arre sister
167 kappu (Ka) meat kaba(l) domestic animal
167 odal (Te) body odol blood
167 biho heart bihotz heart
167 pala flesh opa offering
167 iracci (Ma) meat aragi meat
168 suri (S.Dr) to pour isuri to pour
168 ana (Ka) breath asnasa respiration
168 naru (S.Dr) odor narru skin
168 usir (Ka) breath usna smell
168 u-suru nose sur nose
169 sindu (Ka) bad smell sund-da stink
169 kuku (Malto) summit kukula summit, peak
170 buru (Te) something round bular/burar breast
171 karata (Ka) skull, coconut garaun skull brain
171 mula (Ma) brain muin brain
171 kara height garai high, prominent
171 bhala forehead belar (Zuber) forehead
172 gadda chin ganga mouth
172 ba (Ka) mouth abo mouth
174 begu (Ka) to spy behatu to observe
175 kan (Brahui) to know ikan to look
175 aks (S.Dr) sight ikus to see
175 vili eye igi eye
175 mugu (Ka) face musu face
175 muso (Malto) nose musu face
175 muti (Ka) face mutur snout
175 motu (Ta) stupidity mutur snout
175 mukka-ra(Te) nose-ring moko beak
176 musu (Ka) to smell mustur snout
176 ba (Ka) mouth abo mouth
177 appu (Ka) to embrace apa kiss
178 alasu (Ta) to rinse latsatu to wash
180 ele (Te) song ele story
180 gol (Ka) throat golo goiter
180 karai (Ta) to cry out garrasi shrill cry
181 kar-utti (Ma) neck garondo nape of the neck
182 kai (Tulu) hand uka hand
183 kurukh(C.Dr) to seize kargatu to load
183 kadi (S.Dr) to steal kaldar thief, scoundrel
184 adi (S.Dr) foot adar foot of chair
184 anga (Tel) stride anka foot
186 karu (Tu) leg garra (Navar) leg
188 ola (Ka) inside ola cabin, hut
189 bikku (S.Dr) heart bihotz heart
189 alku (Ta) vulva alu vulva
190 eru (Ka) dung errai dung
191 tottu (Ma) nipple titi nipple
191 borra (Te) potbelly zilbor navel
192 pal (Ka) milk galatz milk
192 putti (S.Dr) to be born puta womb
193 pukku (S.Dr) vulva puta womb
195 tshika (Tulu) small child txiki small
195 tkuri (S.Dr) short korro short
195 tkittu (S.Dr) small kuto small
196 iri (S.Dr) sick eri sick
196 kira (Gond) old man kira age
agura old man agure old man
197 ala (Ta) affliction aldia mental disorder
197 eriyu (Te) to grieve auri lamentation
197 karai (Ta) to cry out garrasi cry, scream
197 madi (Ta) death amata to kill
197 mara (Ka) death marrakari tearful
198 malagu (Ta) to perish malgu soft, weak
199 adu (S.Dr) age adin age
199 gasi (S.Dr) hunger gose hunger
199 manku (S.Dr) staggering mainku crippled, lame
199 ala (Ta) afflicted alusu feeble, weak
199 alasu (Ka) exhausted lazu weak man
200 elli (Te) night ilun darkness
200 lamba (S.Dr) to totter laban slippery, sliding
201 ema (Ta) mother, female ama mother
201 amma (Ka) female ama mother
201 pen (S.Dr) woman pena sorrow, grief
201 ali woman alaba daughter, native of...
201 al male ar male
202 unmu (Ka) birth ume child
202 maintu (Ta) love maita love
202 maru-vu (Ta) intimacy marruskatze fondling, pawing
202 appu (Ka) to embrace apatz to kiss
203 manju (S.Dr) amiable maina liking, pampering
203 iru (Ta) come into existence iruditu to appear
203 uru (Ta) to give birth aru (Berber) to be born
204 atta (Malto) grandfather aita father
204 apa (S.Dr) father ata father (child's)
204 ana (Ta) brother anai brother
204 asa (Kui) daughter aizpa sister
204 ari she arreba sister
205 ila (Ta) youth iloba niece
207 maran (Ta) bravery mardul robust, strong
207 marru enemy amarru cunning, shrewd
208 buti (Ka) man servant botoi man servant
210 burade (S.Dr) head buru head
210 bhuka opening bukatu to end
210 kara height garai high
210 gubbi (Ka) hump gupi deformed spine
210 kerki (Tulu) throat gurka throat
210 suri (S.Dr) to pour isuri to pour
210 khala thief kaldar thief
210 kiram (Ta) old kira period of time
210 konku curved makur roundness
210 in (Brahui) to say min tongue
210 pura (Malto) belly para belly
358 ari rock arri rock
359 kabi cave, hollow kabia nest, hollow
360 kam something round kamuts blunt
360 kuku summit, peak kukula summit, peak
360 men (Ma) mound, hillock mendi mountain
360 murru wall, quarry murru wall
361 padu village padur etxe lake dwelling
361 turu hill, mound torre tower
361 mugul (Ka) flower bud mugil flower bud
362 bar (Ka) stream, to flow ibar river valley
362 ala (Te) wave, surge olatu wave
362 garo (Kui) deep hollow,dig goratu to raise, to carry up
362 tura-i stream, ond iturri source of water
362 sala (Ka) to enter salazar country house
363 kara (Ta) to wash garastatu to sprinkle, to water
363 pani (Ta) rain panin (Zuber) water
GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS:
The well-known Basque linguist A. Tovar followed this method to measure the degree of kinship of Basque with other languages of non-Indo-European origin. The closest relationship he found was with Berber (11%) followed by Circaskian/Kirrukaskan (7.5%), Coptic (6.5%), Arabic (3.25%). Then he asked Dr. Lahovary to try this method on Dravidian, with the astounding result of 50+%. This meant that, of all the languages tested so far, the Dravidian language was closest to Basque by far. However, the ease with which Edo Nyland assembled the long list of related Basque-Ainu words, makes it likely that Ainu could even be closer to early Basque than Dravidian. A student of Lexico-Statistical Method should test this possibility.
COMPARISON OF THE DRAVIDIAN AND GUANCHE LANGUAGES.
In his book, Linguistic Archaeology, Edo Nyland compared the Dravidian language with that of Guanche. He stated that, “Guanche is the name of the language which was spoken by the native population of the Canary Islands until the Spaniards came and massacred a large number of the inhabitants around 1,500 A.D. Mr. Arysio Nunes dos Santos discovered a relationship between Guanche and Dravidian, similar to what the eminent linguist Dr. N. Lahovary had described between Basque and Dravidian in his book: “Dravidian Origins and the West. What we are likely dealing with in these languages is remnants of the original language spoken in the Neolithic Sahara. This happened at the time of the disastrous desertification of that part of the world (see Climate), which had scattered the population to almost all ocean shores of the earth. That original language is not the same, of course, as the Basque spoken today, but a much earlier form of it, without the invented, formulaically enhanced VCV vocabulary added in. “

Nyland also noted that a few linguists have identified a large number of languages which also belong to this group: Numidian, Tuareg, Western Berber (Zenaga), Northern Berber (Tamahac), Southern Berber (Tamazheq), Eastern Berber (Siwa, Awjila-Sokna, Ghadames), Atlas (Shilha, Tamazight), Kabyle, Zenati (19 dialects) several of them still spoken. To this Neolithic group must also be added the large group of Dravidian languages spoken in India by some 160 million people, the Ainu language of Northern Japan with 17,000 speakers and Ancient Egyptian (extinct), including Coptic, which is still spoken as a liturgical language. Even the Polynesian languages seem to fit in this group.

Nyland found that Arysio Nunes collected as many Guanche words as possible and then compared them with Dravidian. Dravidian equivalents were obtained from “A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary” by T. Burrows and M.B. Emeneau (Oxford 1984). Arysio added that one should pay attention to the phonetic correspondences only, disregarding the actual spelling, because of the Dravidian alphabet being different from the Roman one adopted for the Guanche language. It must be assumed that he did his work well, because Nyland was unable to verify it.

Nyland continued that “A similar Guanche-Basque list could easily be made, e.g. achimencey (king’s relative) relates to atxikidura (family relation), achaman (heaven) comes close to akabu (death, supreme), ara (goat) and Basque aragi (meat), kara (goat) and Basque kara (in heat), Arautapola (capital of the Taoro kingdom) and Basque arautu (to legislate) etc. It looks to me like Guanche is derived from the original, unmanipulated Saharan language, just like Basque, Berber, Tuareg and Ainu.”

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Lewis Spence: The History of Atlantis



"When was the human race destroyed by a flood? Was it not before us? When was the world set on fire, and reduced to coals and ashes? Was it not before us? When were the greatest cities engulfed in the billows of the sea? Was it not before us? When were wars waged with wild beasts, and battles fought with lions? Was it not before us? When was ruin brought upon whole communities by poisonous serpents? Was it not before us?" -- Arnobius, author, 4th century

"... let it be remembered, that the very site of Nineveh was forgotten, that until a century ago only the barest outlines of Babylonian and Egyptian history were known to us, that their written hieroglyphs were undecipherable." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"... it is merely childish to refuse to believe the main details of Plato's story." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"Nine thousand years before Solon's day, or about 9600 B.C., war broke out between the the nations within the Pillars of Hercules and those beyond them." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"The name of the eldest son [of Uranus/Poseidon] was Atlas, who was king of the entire island [Antarctica/Atlantis/Ogygia], and from him the Atlantic Ocean takes its name. His twin brother was called, in the Atlantean language, Gadir, and in the Greek Eumolus." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"Uranus had forty-five children by various wives, and eighteen by Titea or Terra, who thus came to be known as Titans, or the Terrene people." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"Diodorus, in his Fifth Book, also states that a certain Atlantic island was discovered [sic] by some Phoenician navigators, who, while sailing along the west coast of Africa, were driven by violent winds across the Ocean [like Odysseus]. They brought back such an account of the beauty and resources of the island, that the Tyrrhenians, having obtained the mastery of the sea, planned an expedition to colonise the new land, but were hindered by the opposition of the Carthaginians. Diodorus does not mention the name of the island; and he differs from Plato by referring to it [Antarctica] as still existing." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

"Pomponius Mela (b. A.D. 80) expressly affirmed in his First Book the existence of such an island as Atlantis, but places it in the Southern temperate zone [Antarctica/Terra Australis]." -- Lewis Spence, author, The History of Atlantis, 1927

Thursday, September 29, 2011

George Sarton: What Did Homer Teach?



"What did Homer teach? In the first place, he taught the Greek language. His immortal works helped to standardize that language, or rather to lift it up to that level of excellence and dignity which can be reached only by means of literary masterpieces. His writings became for the Greek people a kind of Bible, to which they were always ready to listen and which gave them and their children patterns of honor, of good breeding, and of good language. In spite of its mythological contents, the Bible was a lay Bible; that is, there was nothing sacerdotal in it, and it was remarkably free of magic and superstitions. The Ionian poet was truly an ancestor of the Ionian scientists whose achievements will be explained later. In the second place, the Iliad and the Odyssey taught history, the history of the Minoan and Mycenaean origins, which were in some respects dim and distant, yet in other respects near enough in the form of tools, usages, words, and folklore to be easily recognized and understood by the listeners. It is the very function of epic poetry to record the past for posterity and prevent it's oblivion."

"Homeric poetry offers us a mirror of the Mycenaean age, which was then vanishing, yet was vividly and joyfully remembered by the old people and the minstrels. Like every epic, it was turned toward the past; it is thus a little paradoxical to call it the harbinger of a new age. It is a climax or an ending rather than a beginning yet it proivided the new people, the Greeks, with a solid foundation upon which to establish a new culture; it provided them with a standard of propriety and a guide of conduct; it gave them pride and dignity. To put it otherwise, I am more and more convinced that the Greek culture of Homeric days was not something radically new but rather a sec ond growth of the Aegean culture which had been completely destroyed, however; consider, for example the rich growth of plants in a region devastated by volcanic eruptions or desiccated by a long drought. One might think that everything is dead, but it is not. Life is dormant and may remain so for a long time, yet let the blessed rain fall and the mercy of heaven permit it, and it will soon reappear as vigorous as ever. Much is lost in the process, of course, and new elements are mixed with the old ones. The new Greek culture was a revival of the old one; that revival was deliberate, at least from the point of view of the minstrels and their patrons. It was different in many respects from the Aegean one, for the conditions of life were deeply modified. For one thing this was the age of iron; the days of bronze could never come back."

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

George Sarton: The Father of the History of Science



"It is childish to assume that science began in Greece...." –- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

Greatest zinger ever?

Thus Harvard professor George Sarton considered all Darwinists, especially Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, to be immature thinkers and mere children.

"It is childish to assume that science began in Greece; the Greek ‘miracle’ was prepared by millennia of work in Egypt, Mesopotamia and possibly in other regions. Greek science was less an invention than a revival." -- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"Some of the conclusions reached by Eudoxos and Aristotle are still essential parts of the knowledge current today." -- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"We well know that whatever amount of civilization we enjoy today is the gift of many nations; we do not know so well that the same was already true thousands of years ago. Prehistorians have proven beyond doubt the existence of sophisticated cultures at very early times in many places." -- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"Some people are more advanced than others, nor do they all pass through the same stages. The passage from nomadic to settled life occurred many millennia ago in some places, yet it has not been completed today by the Arab Bedouins." -- George Sarton, professor, Historian of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"No savages have ever been found near water who were not able to navigate it...." -- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"According to the Norwegian archaeologist Anton Wilhelm Brogger, there was a golden age of oceanic navigation during the period roughly defined as 3000 to 1500 B.C., that is, before the days of Phoenecian navigation." -- George Sarton, professor, History of Science (Harvard University), Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, April 18th 1951

"We have already referred to the prehistoric knowledge of herbs and other drugs, knowledge distilled from immemorial empiricism, trial and error doggedly continued for hundreds and thousands of years. It is impossible for us to understand how such vague and casual experiments could be repeated long enough, their results taken note of and transmited from generation to generation, but the fact is there: our prehistoric ancestors, like the primitive people who can still be observed, had managed to try many plants and other objects and to classify them in various groups according to their utility or danger."

"We have already spoken of the stars. It was impossible for any reflective man to observe them night after night without asking himself a number of questions, which were primarily scientific questions."

"It is not necessary to emphasize the antiquity of Egyptian medicine...."

"The people [Darwinists] who speak of Hippocrates as the father of medicine should bear in mind that Hippocrates comes about half way between Imhotep and us. That would improve their perspective of ancient science."

"... will the scientists of the year 5000 think as favorably of our methods as we do ourselves?"

"Some readers having at the back of their minds the prejudice that science is a Greek invention (have not scholars repeated that for centuries?) will insist and say, 'That may be science, but not pure science.' Why not? At the end of his admirable investigation of the Smith papyrus, Breasted concluded: Indeed these two men, the surgeon who was the original author of the treatise, and his later successor, who wrote the glosses forming the ancient commentary, both living in the first half of the third thousand years B.C., were the earliest known natural scientists. In the long course of human development they are the first men whom we can see confronting a great body of observable phenomena, which they collected and stated, sometimes out of interest in scientific truth, as inductive conclusions which they drew from observed fact."

"Let us repeat once more that the whole Greek science (as opposed to Hellenestic and Roman science) was developed in a period of time that was not only preceded but followed by Mesopotamian (and Egyptian) activities. If we replaced time by space, we might visualize Greek science as a small island surrounded by an Oriental sea."

"'Babylonian' science is prior to the first millenium, that is, it is completely prior to Greek 'historic' times, prior to Homer and Hesiod, not to mention the Ionian philosophers."

Friday, September 16, 2011

Democritus Guesses Again



Science in cryptomnesia:

"He [Democritus] said that the ordered worlds are boundless and differ in size, and that in some there is neither sun nor moon, but that in others, both are greater than with us, and yet with others more in number. And that the intervals between the ordered worlds are unequal, here more and there less, and that some increase, others flourish and others decay, and here they come into being and there they are eclipsed. But that they are destroyed by colliding with one another. And that some ordered worlds are bare of animals and plants and all water." -- Hippolytus, priest, 2nd century

Discovery News: WEIRD [sic] EXOPLANET DISCOVERED ORBITING TWO STARS.

If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-16b, you'd have two shadows. At sunset, you would see an orange star about the size of the sun and next to it a much fainter red star. As the stars slipped toward the horizon, they would change places in the sky, like partners in a square dance.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Carbon In Deep Mantle



An old rediscovery = science in cryptomnesia.

Science Daily: Carbon Cycle Reaches Earth's Lower Mantle: Evidence of Carbon Cycle Found in 'Superdeep' Diamonds From Brazil.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2011) — The carbon cycle, upon which most living things depend, reaches much deeper into Earth than generally supposed -- all the way to the lower mantle, researchers report.

The findings, which are based on the chemistry of an unusual set of Brazilian diamonds, will be published online by the journal Science, at the Science Express Web site, on 15 September. Science is published by AAAS, the non-profit, international science society.

"This study shows the extent of Earth's carbon cycle on the scale of the entire planet, connecting the chemical and biological processes that occur on the surface and in the oceans to the far depths of Earth's interior," said Nick Wigginton, associate editor at Science.

"Results of this kind offer a broader perspective of planet Earth as an integrated, dynamic system," he said.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Precious Metals From Meteorites



Science Daily: Where Does All Earth's Gold Come From? Precious Metals the Result of Meteorite Bombardment, Rock Analysis Finds.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011) — Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth by researchers at the University of Bristol provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after Earth was formed.

The research is published in Nature.
During the formation of Earth, molten iron sank to its centre to make the core. This took with it the vast majority of the planet's precious metals -- such as gold and platinum. In fact, there are enough precious metals in the core to cover the entire surface of Earth with a four-metre thick layer.

The removal of gold to the core should leave the outer portion of Earth bereft of bling. However, precious metals are tens to thousands of times more abundant in Earth's silicate mantle than anticipated. It has previously been argued that this serendipitous over-abundance results from a cataclysmic meteorite shower that hit Earth after the core formed. The full load of meteorite gold was thus added to the mantle alone and not lost to the deep interior.

To test this theory, Dr Matthias Willbold and Professor Tim Elliott of the Bristol Isotope Group in the School of Earth Sciences analysed rocks from Greenland that are nearly four billion years old, collected by Professor Stephen Moorbath of the University of Oxford. These ancient rocks provide a unique window into the composition of our planet shortly after the formation of the core but before the proposed meteorite bombardment.

The researchers determined the tungsten isotopic composition of these rocks. Tungsten (W) is a very rare element (one gram of rock contains only about one ten-millionth of a gram of tungsten) and, like gold and other precious elements, it should have entered the core when it formed. Like most elements, tungsten is composed of several isotopes, atoms with the same chemical characteristics but slightly different masses.

Isotopes provide robust fingerprints of the origin of material and the addition of meteorites to Earth would leave a diagnostic mark on its W isotope composition.

Dr Willbold observed a 15 parts per million decrease in the relative abundance of the isotope 182W between the Greenland and modern day rocks. This small but significant change is in excellent agreement with that required to explain the excess of accessible gold on Earth as the fortunate by-product of meteorite bombardment.

Dr Willbold said: "Extracting tungsten from the rock samples and analysing its isotopic composition to the precision required was extremely demanding given the small amount of tungsten available in rocks. In fact, we are the first laboratory world-wide that has successfully made such high-quality measurements."