Mass grave found in Barcelona with 234.576 corpses
“Ecotopia biketour saved the bycicles”
Venezia 17 Septembre 2012
Remains were found in the Collserola mountains surrounding Barcelona but do not belong to victims of the Spanish Civil War. Radiocarbon dating by Palaeontologists at the Sorbonne led to the surprising conclusion they are much older. In fact, they hark back 250.000 years B. P., a time conventionally accepted as marking Homo Sapiens’ appearance on earth. Even more surprising is the fact these remains are not human but, wait for it… bicycles. Between the Pliocene and Pleistocene there was a populous civilisation of bicycles most of which were murdered and buried in the land that would later become Spain. Who could have murdered and buried 234.576 bicycles? “Bicycles existed long before humans did,” declared researchers Joao Taborda and Alison O’Rourke from an international research team, “and it was humans who killed them.” According to a study by the two experts, thousands of bicycles once happily circulated along European pathways until hominids, in their evolutionary path to consciousness, took possession of the continent. For centuries bicycles and hominids lived together, perhaps without touching or even looking at each other. Coexistence came to a crashing end when humans attempted to tame bicycles and subject them to their will. The Collserola mass grave is a testament to the fury of their final battle.
The paradox of all this is that after having destroyed the bicycles that pre-existed them, it took humans 246.000 years to invent the very same beings. Even more paradoxical: now that bicycles are their invention, humans are killing them yet again
The Ecotopia biketour is a way of saving bicycles from those who want to imprison them between speed and profit. People who this summer got on their bikes and rode along the roads of Catalonia, France and Italy have engaged in an act of resistance that is without limits because their journey never ends. Every project opens a new possibility; every encounter creates a new destination.
Legs might stop pedalling but the heart keeps going.
Thank you Ecotopia Biketour¡
David.
(Thank you for the traslation to Sergio)