O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? I Corinthians 15:55
We tried to dig the fucker up so I could shoot him again. We Still Kill the Old Way 2014 starring Ian Ogilvy & Alison Doody & Danny Boy Hatchard & Chris Ellison & Lysette Anthony & Tony Denham & Red Madrell & Nicky Henson & Stephen Berkoff & Danni Dyer & Adele Silva & James Cosmo et al, director Sacha Bennett
The first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds – the cemeteries – and they’re a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here. Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchres – palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay – ghosts of women and men who have sinned and who’ve died and are now living in tombs. The past doesn’t pass away so quickly here. Nova: Storm that Drowned a City, PBS 2005
This grave alone contained 3,000 bodies … More than 180 graves containing an estimated 300,000 bodies. The Real Saddam Hussein, National Geographic 2017
This dramatized programme is inspired by an actual 1972 document entitled The 12 Devil’s Graveyards Around the World. The Devil’s Graveyards: Vile Vortices Revealed, caption, History 2020
Dr Joseph Spencer, biologist: As we travelled further, the dog started … The dog went mad. Why? Why this desert? Why are there no animals, no insects, nothing? It’s unheard of in biology. ibid.
This area of the Algerian desert is known locally as La Zona Morta ... It’s a thousand-square-mile area where there’s hardly life as far back as human record exist. Local tribesmen will tell you that animals don’t live here, and the animals that accidentally enter almost always die trying to escape. ibid. commentary Don Murphy
Here in Algeria all around there’s these unusual events: in Adrar swarms of locusts were showing up regularly [80 km inside the Zone of Death]; in Quargla various species of birds were becoming physically unable to fly and died … large flocks of birds falling from the sky, fish are dying in record numbers, insects are showing up in territories where they’ve never been seen before. But there’s a pattern. ibid. Spencer
We checked for radon, CO2, methane: nothing … Magnetism was a possibility … Out here there are wild fluctuations … huge waves of pulsating magnetic energy everywhere, because all animals can sense magnetic fields. ibid.
There’s not only one Vortex, there were more than one: it had already been discovered: Bio-Vortices. ibid.
Ivan T Sanderson: educated at Cambridge University, Sanderson founded the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained. ibid. commentary
The Indian Ocean vortex … The vessels that went missing were concentrated to twelve places on the globe: there were four vortices in the Pacific, the west-Pacific vortex just off the coast of Japan, the South Pacific vortex off the coast of New Zealand, the Pacific vortex near Hawaii as well as the Easter Island vortex just west of South America. Then perhaps there is the most infamous vortex: the Bermuda Triangle. ibid.
It seemed these vortices not only impacted animals and machinery, but their awesome power impacts the world’s weather patterns as well. ibid.
It has to do with the Earth’s magnetics … It wasn’t until I started researching the vortices at the poles that I realised my suspicions were confirmed. ibid. Spencer
Just beneath the surface he found a blue-coloured substance. Running a geiger-counter over it Dr Spencer found the topsoil had unusually high levels of radiation, just like at the South Pole … What was causing the radiation? … The aluminium isotope [26] they are finding on the Earth’s surface and that is abundance at all the vile vortices is somehow reacting with the metal at the Earth’s core to create these magnetic anomalies. ibid. Murphy
It’s a GPS system, a way to achieve global positioning … These vortexes post a serious threat to all life on Earth. ibid.
Each vortex appears to be a thousand square miles. ibid.
Hawaii: the United States’ government had unknowingly wiped out one of the twelve positions that was putting a drag on the world’s rotation. ibid.
[Experiment] These capacitors are loaded with power; when we drop those switches, the power’s going to hit here – boom – the protons are going to shoot into the ground and zap isotope 26 rendering harmless aluminium oxide. ibid.
Euston Station in Central London: one of the capital’s biggest train terminals. Tucked alongside it is St James Gardens. On the face of it, an ordinary park. But look closer and you’ll find clues that there’s a hidden history here. An incredible window into London’s past. Because beneath these seemingly unremarkable gardens lies a vast cemetery, and now part of Britain’s biggest ever archaeological dig. Britain’s Biggest Dig, BBC 2020
The huge excavations here at St James’s: it’s part of major investigations along the 150-mile route of HS2, the new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham and beyond. But before a track is laid, archaeologists will investigate every hill and valley along the route. The law requires them to excavate and rebury any human remains. ibid.
The cheapest plots were in the east, and the highest status burials were in the west: closer to the chapel, closer to God. ibid.
We move up the line to another gigantic excavation to uncover how Victorian Birmingham grew into a boom town of the industrial revolution. Britain’s Biggest Dig II
London, Spring 2019: next to Euston Station the excavation of the 230-year-old St James’s burial ground is reaching its peak. Hundreds of archaeologists are unearthing the largest cemetery ever dug up in Britain. ibid.
During the Second World War this part of London was targeted by the Luftwaffe, and many bombs detonated in and around the cemetery. ibid.
Digs have already started along the route of HS2. Surveys indicate an important site awaits to be unearthed on average every mile along the route. ibid.
Summer of 2018: Next to the City’s famous Bullring, the Fox & Grapes pub, once part of a vibrant working-class community, is being demolished after it is being surveyed by archaeologists. Across the road lies the giant Park Street burial ground where archaeologists face another huge task … excavations will range over five hectares … making way for the next 7-platform terminus of HS2. ibid.
At the start of the eighteenth century Birmingham was a market town of just 15,000 people. ibid.
Birmingham: Rare grave goods and coins left on the bones are revealing much about these people’s origins, beliefs and living conditions. And several skeletons show evidence of having been dissected. Britain’s Biggest Dig III
This whole area is destined to become the new 7-platform HS2 railway station. But before construction can begin and to the east of the cemetery site, archaeologists are hoping to find further evidence of the oldest surviving railway terminus in the world. Next to Park Street stands the last remnant of Curzon Street Station. Opened in 1838, less than 10 years after the pioneering locomotive, Stephenson’s Rocket, made railways a viable form of transport. Its neo-classical architecture mirrored the original Euston Station long since demolished at the other end of the line. ibid.
Over the road Boulton built the world’s first factory to pioneer mass production. But by 1848 that factory had closed and few factories like it were built in the city … Birmingham became an industrial boom town but without the factory revolution that was the hallmark of so many other industrial cities. ibid.
I will not rest until I see you in your graves. Boardwalk Empire s5e5: King of Norway, Nucky, HBO 2014
In the heart of London archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery – a lost graveyard from the 17th century … These bones have 20,000 stories to tell. Secret History: London’s Lost Graveyard, Channel 4 2015