Wednesday, November 18, 2009
UNESCO World Heritage Centre - UNESCO and online travel giant TripAdvisor launch World Heritage partnership
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Ancient Astronomy and the Ancestral Pueblo Anasazi Kivas to Sight Solar and Lunar Risings
Via Sacred studies : Ohio Wesleyan art professor uncovers celestial connection in desert Southwest, a November 1, 2009 article by Doug Caruso at THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Read the whole article. Here is my summary with a link to the important illustration:
Two Ohio Wesleyan professors have greatly furthered the cause of my decades-long megalithic research by confirming what I have always argued about the ancient megaliths and such megalithic sites as the Malta Temples.
They are all astronomy, here on the example of the Anasazi (Ancestral Pueblo) Kivas, as proven by Jim Krehbiel, head of the Ohio Wesleyan University Art Department, together with Barbara Andereck, a professor of astronomy and physics at Ohio Wesleyan and one of her students, Natalie Cunningham, who did important calculations.
Here is what they have discovered about the Kivas as astronomical observatories, using stone formations as lines of sight:
source of the ilustration at
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2009/11/01/graph.html
Two Ohio Wesleyan professors have greatly furthered the cause of my decades-long megalithic research by confirming what I have always argued about the ancient megaliths and such megalithic sites as the Malta Temples.
They are all astronomy, here on the example of the Anasazi (Ancestral Pueblo) Kivas, as proven by Jim Krehbiel, head of the Ohio Wesleyan University Art Department, together with Barbara Andereck, a professor of astronomy and physics at Ohio Wesleyan and one of her students, Natalie Cunningham, who did important calculations.
Here is what they have discovered about the Kivas as astronomical observatories, using stone formations as lines of sight:
source of the ilustration at
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2009/11/01/graph.html
Friday, March 06, 2009
Ancient Tides : A Blog by Gregory LeFever Linking Ancient History to Today : The Turin Canon (Turin Papyrus, Turin Kinglist)
Ancient Tides is a nice blog by Gregory LeFever with the motto "Linking ancient history to today". The blog covers current news on the topic of ancient cultures.
One posting that caught our eye is More Fragments of Ancient List Are Found, which we plan to look into more carefully soon, as the Turin list of kings is an important document for the chronology of Ancient Egypt, upon which the chronology of the Ancient Near East is also principally based.
We provide our decipherment of the Turin Canon (viz. Turin Papyrus, Turin Kinglist) here, here, here and here.
As written at LexiLine:
One posting that caught our eye is More Fragments of Ancient List Are Found, which we plan to look into more carefully soon, as the Turin list of kings is an important document for the chronology of Ancient Egypt, upon which the chronology of the Ancient Near East is also principally based.
We provide our decipherment of the Turin Canon (viz. Turin Papyrus, Turin Kinglist) here, here, here and here.
As written at LexiLine:
"As some of you know, I have several times recommended the re-study of the Turin Canon by new thermoluminescence methods, since I am sure some of the pieces of this important historical papyrus have been mis-pasted in the reconstruction process. Thermoluminiscence would easily determine where the pieces should properly be pasted (by grains on the paper, etc.). My suggestions have fallen on deaf ears in Egyptology, for the same reason as given above - the object is "too important" to study - it might be damaged.LeFever links us to a Discovery article by Rossella Lorenzi of Discovery News, Fragments of Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Found, in which Lorenzi reports that additional fragments of the Turin Canon (they call it the Turin Kinglist), an ancient Papyrus listing the rulers of Ancient Egypt, have been found. As Lorenzi writes, the fragments were found:
And so, erroneous conclusions drawn from a - surely - falsely reconstructed document are used to map the chronology of ancient Egypt, for which the Turin Canon is of eminent importance."
"[S]tored between two sheets of glass in the basement of the Museo Egizio in Turin, the fragments belong to a 3,000-year-old unique document, known as the Turin Kinglist....
Scholars from the British Museum were tipped off to the existence of the additional fragments after reviewing a 1959 analysis of the papyrus by a British archaeologist. In his work, the archaeologist, Alan Gardiner, mentions fragments that were not included in the final reconstruction on display at the museum. After an extensive search, museum researchers found the pieces....The finding could help more accurately piece together what is considered to be a key item for understanding ancient Egyptian history.
This is one of the most important documents to reconstruct the chronology of Egypt between the 1st and 17th Dynasty," Federico Bottigliengo, Egyptologist at the Turin museum, told Discovery News.
Unlike other lists of kings, it enumerates all rulers, including the minor ones and those considered usurpers. Moreover, it records the length of reigns in years, and in some cases even in months and days....
Some of the finest scholars have worked on the papyrus last century, but disagreement about its reconstruction has remained," Bottigliengo said. "It has been a never-ending puzzle....
We are confident that a new examination with modern scientific techniques will enable a much improved reconstruction to be achieved," Richard Parkinson, curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, told Discovery News."
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Phaistos Disc: An Ancient Enigma Solved : Two Corroborative Old Elamite Scripts are Ancient Greek
The Phaistos Disc: An Ancient Enigma Solved:
Two corroborative Old Elamite scripts can be deciphered using the Greek syllabic values obtained for the Phaistos Disc by A. Kaulins in 1980
- by Andis Kaulins [1]
Presented 31 October 2008 at the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE PHAISTOS DISK on the 100th anniversary of its discovery in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier. Conference location: Society of Antiquaries, London, Burlington House, Piccadilly. Organization and sponsorship: Minerva, the International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology, Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D., editor.
Figure 1 : The Phaistos Disc (from the left, sides B and A)
as pictured at the New York Times TierneyLab
as pictured at the New York Times TierneyLab
Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for attending my presentation and thank you to the organizers and staff of this conference for making it possible for me to be here. We are in the halls of the arts, the sciences and antiquity at Burlington House, and today we may see history being made – in the field of communications. The Phaistos Disk is after all a communication and storage device.
In the modern era we all have our mobile cell phones, CDs and DVDs, and many of us take them for granted, but technology was not always so easy to understand. In the early days of telecommunications, for example, Albert Einstein explained radio by saying:
In the modern era we all have our mobile cell phones, CDs and DVDs, and many of us take them for granted, but technology was not always so easy to understand. In the early days of telecommunications, for example, Albert Einstein explained radio by saying:
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.... And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." [emphasis added]
In the case of the Phaistos Disk, we have a cat, but our cat has no tail and worse still, it is not meowing, and the issue has rightly been raised now as to whether we have a real cat here at all.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE. REAL or FAKE?
That is the Shakespearean question being posed here today.
Dr. Jerome Eisenberg has observed – correctly in my view – that the symbols on the Phaistos Disk were compiled piecemeal in part from other ancient sources. I agree. The only question is, was this done in the modern era, or 3 to 4 thousand years ago? Dr. Eisenberg has concluded that it was a modern forger, an archaeologist, who did it. But I think, to the contrary, that it was the ancient Greeks themselves who did it. And we have evidence for this conclusion.
Gaius Julius Hyginus (ca. 64 BC – AD 17), who lived at the time of Christ, passed on many Greek tales in unadulterated form in his Fabulae, of which Number 277 deals with "Ancient Inventors". He writes as follows:
Gaius Julius Hyginus (ca. 64 BC – AD 17), who lived at the time of Christ, passed on many Greek tales in unadulterated form in his Fabulae, of which Number 277 deals with "Ancient Inventors". He writes as follows:
"CCLXXVII. FIRST INVENTORS. The Parcae, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos [The Parcae are the Fates, in Greek Morae, and named Nona, Decima and Morta] invented seven Greek letters - A B H T I Y. Others say that Mercury invented them from the flight of cranes, which, when they fly, form letters. Palamedes, too, son of Nauplius, invented eleven letters; Simonides, too, invented four letters – Ó E Z PH; Epicharmus of Sicily, two - P and PS. The Greek letters Mercury is said to have brought to Egypt, and from Egypt Cadmus took them to Greece. Cadmus in exile from Arcadia, took them to Italy, and his mother Carmenta changed them to Latin to the number of 15. Apollo on the lyre added the rest...." [material in brackets added]
The ancient record therefore confirms that the initial Greek letters, which constitute the origins of writing in Western Europe, were in fact a conglomeration of inputs, just as Dr. Eisenberg claims for the Phaistos Disk [we use Disk and Disc interchangeably here for the sake of the search engines since both terms are used]. Accordingly, this characteristic is no proof that the Phaistos Disk is not genuine. Quite the contrary, it is exactly what we would expect from ancient Greek letters, based on the historical record. The first Greek letters viz. symbols (or signs) were in fact taken from numerous ancient sources.
One of the inventors of Greek letters mentioned by Hyginus has a clear connection to Crete: Palamedes, son of Nauplius and Clymene, the daughter of Catreus, king of Crete, son of the first king of Crete, Minos, and grandfather of Menelaus, the Greek husband of Helen of Troy. Catreus was thus the grandfather of Palamedes.
Grandfather Catreus had numerous children. His two daughters he is said to have given to a merchant mariner, Nauplius, to be married off in foreign lands. This mariner instead took Clymene for himself and sailed off into the sunset. Where did they ultimately settle? Clymene in ancient Greek sources is also called Asia, which some allege is how the continent Asia got its name, thus pointing to a possible geographic Asian destiny. Indeed, Herodotus is puzzled by Ancient Greek usage of women's names to describe large areas such as Asia or Europe. But the answer – royal settlement - is clear.
It is her son Palamedes who subsequently surfaces as the greatest inventor in the history of Greece, for Palamedes not only allegedly invented eleven of the Greek letters, but it is also said that he invented counting, currency, weights and measures, military ranks, dice, pessoi (a type of chess), and made improvements in winemaking.
Amazing enough, but all of this could very well be true in the ancient era if the inventions of Palamedes were obtained by technology transfer from a foreign land, for Mercury (viz. Hermes) the bringer of letters, has the same meaning as "merchant". These inventions were brought to Greece from a distant land by traveling merchants.
As we have discovered, this land is Elam, the land – we claim here - where Clymene and Nauplius ultimately settled. It is the land in which letters were first stamped onto clay, just as on the Phaistos Disk, but long before it. An existing technology was thus imported into ancient Crete. We will discuss this in detail subsequently.
The second major argument raised by Dr. Eisenberg against the Phaistos Disk is the lack of corroborative texts. When Dr. Eisenberg initially asked me to present a paper at this conference, I declined, saying it was a losing proposition for me, since no probative proof of authenticity would be possible without corroborative texts. To my knowledge then, there were no such texts available, so it was pointless to come.
At Dr. Eisenberg's friendly insistence, I finally agreed to present a paper merely presenting my point of view that the Phaistos Disk was quite genuine, and giving my reasons for so believing. But in the course of research for this paper, a remarkable thing happened. I discovered two texts that contained symbols with a great deal of similarity to a number of symbols on the Phaistos Disk. These texts were from Elam and were written in Old Elamite Script. Could they be connected?
Indeed, when I applied the syllabic values for the Phaistos Disc that I had obtained 30 years previously, I was able to read those Old Elamite Scripts without difficulty. They were written in Ancient Greek language, and the author was presumably Palamedes, the son of Clymene, and the inventor of Greek letters.
One of the inventors of Greek letters mentioned by Hyginus has a clear connection to Crete: Palamedes, son of Nauplius and Clymene, the daughter of Catreus, king of Crete, son of the first king of Crete, Minos, and grandfather of Menelaus, the Greek husband of Helen of Troy. Catreus was thus the grandfather of Palamedes.
Grandfather Catreus had numerous children. His two daughters he is said to have given to a merchant mariner, Nauplius, to be married off in foreign lands. This mariner instead took Clymene for himself and sailed off into the sunset. Where did they ultimately settle? Clymene in ancient Greek sources is also called Asia, which some allege is how the continent Asia got its name, thus pointing to a possible geographic Asian destiny. Indeed, Herodotus is puzzled by Ancient Greek usage of women's names to describe large areas such as Asia or Europe. But the answer – royal settlement - is clear.
It is her son Palamedes who subsequently surfaces as the greatest inventor in the history of Greece, for Palamedes not only allegedly invented eleven of the Greek letters, but it is also said that he invented counting, currency, weights and measures, military ranks, dice, pessoi (a type of chess), and made improvements in winemaking.
Amazing enough, but all of this could very well be true in the ancient era if the inventions of Palamedes were obtained by technology transfer from a foreign land, for Mercury (viz. Hermes) the bringer of letters, has the same meaning as "merchant". These inventions were brought to Greece from a distant land by traveling merchants.
As we have discovered, this land is Elam, the land – we claim here - where Clymene and Nauplius ultimately settled. It is the land in which letters were first stamped onto clay, just as on the Phaistos Disk, but long before it. An existing technology was thus imported into ancient Crete. We will discuss this in detail subsequently.
The second major argument raised by Dr. Eisenberg against the Phaistos Disk is the lack of corroborative texts. When Dr. Eisenberg initially asked me to present a paper at this conference, I declined, saying it was a losing proposition for me, since no probative proof of authenticity would be possible without corroborative texts. To my knowledge then, there were no such texts available, so it was pointless to come.
At Dr. Eisenberg's friendly insistence, I finally agreed to present a paper merely presenting my point of view that the Phaistos Disk was quite genuine, and giving my reasons for so believing. But in the course of research for this paper, a remarkable thing happened. I discovered two texts that contained symbols with a great deal of similarity to a number of symbols on the Phaistos Disk. These texts were from Elam and were written in Old Elamite Script. Could they be connected?
Indeed, when I applied the syllabic values for the Phaistos Disc that I had obtained 30 years previously, I was able to read those Old Elamite Scripts without difficulty. They were written in Ancient Greek language, and the author was presumably Palamedes, the son of Clymene, and the inventor of Greek letters.
The 1980 Decipherment of the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins
In The Phaistos Disc: Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions, this author wrote as follows: [2]
"In ... 1977 a colleague ... at the University of Kiel departed on a vacation to Crete.... [S]he brought back a book from the Heraklion Museum in which a photo of Side A of the Phaistos Disc was pictured... Was it ... written in an Indo-European language? ... [if yes, this author concluded], it would have to bear a close relation to the Baltic languages [the most archaic still spoken Indo-European tongues], and ... in that case [yes, it should be decipherable]...."
Three years later, this author's decipherment resulted in the monograph cited above, and engendered the following reaction: [3]
"[The decipherment was shown] to a number of people [who] were of the opinion that [the] work was plausible, if speculative (especially because of the lack of corroborative additional Cretan material)."
As one would expect, the method used for decipherment of the Phaistos Disk began with a detailed review of previous publications about the Phaistos Disc as available to the author at that time 1977 to 1980 (Figure 2): [4]
Figure 2
Previous Research on the Phaistos Disc (prior to 1980)
Previous Research on the Phaistos Disc (prior to 1980)
Had anyone found the right path? Did the incomplete 1952 Ventris decipherment of Linear B as Ancient Greek indicate that Greek was the most likely language? The 45 pictographs on the Phaistos Disc appeared 241 times and appeared to be divided into words by vertical lines. [5] Were the symbols syllabic? This author sensed that statistical analysis of frequencies and distribution would help to solve the mystery.
A chart was made of the distribution and frequency of the pictographs. [6] This frequency was then compared to the distribution of letters and letter combinations found at the beginnings of words in Ancient Greek, [7] and also in Latvian and Lithuanian languages (the most archaic still spoken Indo-European tongues). [8]
Based on those stats and supported by Greek, Latvian and Lithuanian terms [9] for the objects presumably depicted by the symbols, syllabic values were derived and analyzed in a comprehensive Michael Ventris – Alice Kober type of syllabic grid, which included the major language consonants and vowels (Figure 3): [10]
Figure 3
Syllabic Grid of the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins (1980)
Syllabic Grid of the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins (1980)
As applied to the Phaistos Disc, the syllabic grid above then resulted in the Ancient Greek transcription found in Figure 4.
Figure 4
Ancient Greek Transcription of the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins [11]
Ancient Greek Transcription of the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins [11]
In English, that Greek text could be read as follows:
SIDE A:
- Foreseen (are) -as given - standing straight lines (perpendiculars)
- to be constructed (drawn). - To the side - of either such line segment
- extend - a partner line - running - alongside. - The Problem (LEMMA):
- Consider - whether these - Parallel Lines - extended - stay - Parallels.
- Consider -whether these - Parallels - extended converge (diverge).
- The synthetic - added line - would foresee - a medial (uncertain) - termination.
- Extended (beyond bounds) - a fixed (converging) - termination.
- Next to - the categorized - just constructed lines - and flat to
- the side walls' - diameter - inscribe - a closed arc - and make it so that
- the new line - curve - in its course - the side walls - diagonally - joins.
- Tie together - yoked - the branched lines.
- Connect - the standing straight lines - and branched lines.
- Run a line so that - the newly created
- geodetic lines - are met - and the branched lines - pair is yoked.
- The promised -solution - is given.
If the parallel lines B, D and C [see Figure 5]Figure 5 shows the resulting geometric figure. [13]
are extended to f and g [and beyond but short of infinity],
then the resulting angle x varies, [nearing 180 or 0 degrees]
depending on where line f and g is drawn.
Hence, the termination is uncertain.
As the parallels B, D and C are extended
beyond bounds (i.e. to infinity, or infinite ends),
then the angle x [measured from the center of the circle
to the lines drawn to the ends of the extensions
of the parallel lines B and C]
will get smaller and smaller towards D
as the lines B, D and C are extended,
thus suggesting a converging termination.
Figure 5
The Geometric Problem Presented by the Text of the Phaistos Disc
The Geometric Problem Presented by the Text of the Phaistos Disc
This pre-Euclidean "proof" anticipates a modern analysis of parallel lines by non-Euclidean geometry. It suggests that Euclidian geometry was known to the Greeks prior to Euclid, which, in view of such mathematically sophisticated ancient sources as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, [14] should no longer surprise us. Indeed, the fact that Side A of the Phaistos Disc starts with 4 "knots" [I have been told that new close-up photos indicate this is also 5 knots on Side A] and Side B of the Phaistos Disc starts with 5 "knots" could indeed indicate that these are the ancient predecessors of Euclid's later 4th and 5th postulates, [or both sides could just represent the 5th postulate alone]. The 4th postulate postulated that all right angles equal one another (the Phaistos Disk speaks of perpendiculars in starting its parallel postulate) and the 5th postulate is Euclid's "parallel postulate" (as on the Phaistos Disc). [15]
The Russian mathematician Nikolai Lobachevsky [16] in fact derived a proof in the 19th century which is similar to the mathematical proof found on the Phaistos Disk (Figure 6): [17]
Figure 6
Lobachevsky and Parallel Lines : A Modern-Day Phaistos Disc Figure
Lobachevsky and Parallel Lines : A Modern-Day Phaistos Disc Figure
"... [In the figure above] line AB is perpendicular to CD. If we permit it to rotate about A counterclockwise, it will intersect CD at various points to the right of B until it reaches a limiting position EF, when it becomes parallel to CD. Continuing the rotation, it will start to intersect CD to the left of B. Euclid assumed that there is only one position for the line, namely EF, when it would be parallel to CD. Lobachevsky assumed that there were two such positions, represented by A1B1 and C1D1, and further, that all lines falling within the angle θ, while not parallel to CD, would never meet it, no matter how far extended.
Now this is an assumption, and there is no sense in arguing from the diagram that it is evident that if A1B1 or C1D1 were intersected sufficiently far, they would eventually intersect CD. If, as Professor Cohen has pointed out, we rely wholly on our intuition of space, which is finite, there will always be an angle θ which grows smaller as our space is extended, but which never vanishes, and all lines falling within θ will fail to intersect the given line. [The reference is to Morris Raphael Cohen, Reason and Nature, p. 137.]"
As Steve Burdic informed this author some years ago, this mathematical figure is found not only in Euclid but also in ancient astronomy as marking the major lines of the equinoxes and Winter and Summer solstice sunrises and sunsets (see Figure 7). [18]
Figure 7
Steve Burdic - The Same Figure is found in Astronomy
Steve Burdic - The Same Figure is found in Astronomy
Nevertheless, in spite of our apparent success in deciphering the Phaistos Disc as an ancient mathematical proof written in Ancient Greek, we were – as an alleged decipherer - very unhappy with the result. Who was going to believe that the Phaistos Disc represented a pre-Euclidean text that encompassed a lost postulation regarding the paradox of parallel lines? [19]
No one was going to believe that and no one has believed it. This author would have been much happier to find a text involving a mundane funerary script or a royal laudation to a king, which is what the archaeological community could at least have treated as plausible. But to allege that this was pre-Euclidean mathematics was – for the mainstream - beyond the pale.
Moreover, there was a much more serious problem to be faced. There were absolutely no corroborative texts. How was one going to prove the soundness of an alleged decipherment if there was no way to check the correctness of the assignment of syllabic values to the pictographs, or even to prove that the disk itself was genuine?
Mainstream Archaeology and the Evaluation of Evidence
Real or fake? That is the question being asked here today about the Phaistos Disc – and it is indeed an appropriate question to be asked in view of some of the evidentiary blunders committed recently by mainstream archaeology, [20] exemplified by the fake James Ossuary, which, prior to its removal, was presented to over 100,000 visitors at the Royal Ontario Museum. [21] As we wrote to Dr. Eisenberg:
"The presence of so many fakes and hoaxes in archaeology is a function of the fact that your average archaeologist is virtually untrained in decipherment work or in the critical analysis of evidence. Archaeologists claim to have the expertise to interpret ancient texts and artifacts but in fact they generally do not have that competence. Archaeologists are for the most part diggers rather than decipherers or interpreters, who in their written allegedly scholarly work in fact often rely gullibly and uncritically on secondary sources (so-called authorities) within their own ranks, rather than engaging in independent critical thought or inquiry. The world's great decipherers have generally not been mainstream archaeologists. What the archaeologists should be doing and what they are good at is to examine the evidence of the actual PHYSICAL disk by modern dating methods to see if its age can be confirmed or amended, but exactly that is what they have not been doing. Hence, it is thus not surprising that persons such as [Dr. Eisenberg] challenge the genuineness of the Disk, an undertaking which is welcome to this writer, since it may help to force the archaeological community to get their act together and do what they are supposed to do and what they are good at doing.
At the root of the problem is also the hunger for power and authority, combined with wishful thinking. People tend to believe what serves their interests, what they want to believe and not necessarily what the evidence indicates to actually be true. Neutral objective fact-finding is thus not always present in science. One needs merely to read Breaking the Maya Code [22] by Michael D. Coe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University, for a moving account of how one self-serving and woefully erring academic authority torpedoed the correct Maya decipherment efforts of his opponents for nearly 40 years, and was even knighted for his folly to boot."
At the root of the problem is also the hunger for power and authority, combined with wishful thinking. People tend to believe what serves their interests, what they want to believe and not necessarily what the evidence indicates to actually be true. Neutral objective fact-finding is thus not always present in science. One needs merely to read Breaking the Maya Code [22] by Michael D. Coe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University, for a moving account of how one self-serving and woefully erring academic authority torpedoed the correct Maya decipherment efforts of his opponents for nearly 40 years, and was even knighted for his folly to boot."
In The Phaistos Disc: Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions, this author covered the decipherment problems involved with the Phaistos Disc in detail, writing as follows and initially quoting J. J. Gelb: [23]
"As a test of decipherment, we should insist on translation of a full text, not simply excerpts. It is frequently possible to provide a persuasive interpretation for a small portion of the text, such as a phrase or even a sentence, but this cannot be a decipherment if the rest of the text is gibberish."
E. J. W. Barber in Archaeological Decipherment, a Handbook (Princeton University Press, 1974), raises a particularly sober test for "decipherment" of the Phaistos Disc:
"For determining any particular sort of linguistic information, of course, larger amounts of text give us more reliable statistics. Anyone who claims to have deciphered a script for which only 241 signs of non-alphabetic text are known must expect his genius to go unrecognized until more texts turn up. Not only is there not enough statistical information for him to prove his claim, but by the same token there is not enough for anyone else to disprove it."...
Insofar as the Phaistos Disc is concerned, Barber's point of view must be regarded as sound in principle. Indeed, the crucial step in the work of Ventris was the subsequent discovery of additional Linear B tablets which verified in general the syllabic values assigned by him to Linear B symbols. Similarly, it is unlikely that any decipherment of the Phaistos Disc will be able to convince everyone unless additional texts in the same script can also be deciphered by the use of syllabic (or other) values assigned to those symbols found on the Disc." ...
In a similar vein, Hiller also cites the work of G. Neumann, "Zum Forschungsstand beim 'Diskos von Phaistos', Kadmos 7, 1968, pp. 27-44, which views this matter from the practical side and thus continues the work of G. Ipsen (1929) in this regard. Neumann identifies four major problems which have thus far hindered the decipherment of the Disc: 1) the Disc is the only text of its kind yet discovered in Crete: 2) the text is allegedly too short to allow sufficient statistical analysis of the distribution of symbols; 3) the circumstances surrounding its discovery give few clues as to the nature of the writing, nor does the Disc itself offer much assistance (as opposed, for example, to a grave inscription); and 4) the Disc stems from a very early period of history which allows no "antehec data" to be discovered in other sources....
One area in which progress has been made, as Hiller notes, is in the suggestion that the Phaistos Disc is not an imported isolated object but stems out of the "native" Aegean culture which existed at the time that the Disc was made (even though this culture may of course have been imported at some previous time). Accordingly, C. Devaras in "Zur Herkunft des Diskos von Phaistos", Kadmos 5, 1967, pp. 101-155, pointed out that the "crown" on the top of the head of the most frequent symbols on the disc ([the graphic in the original book is excluded here]) finds comparables in the Aegean. This observation supported work by Chapoutier (CRAI, 1937, 277f.) in showing that the symbols on the bronze axe of Arkalochori and the stone altar of Mallia were similar to those on the Phaistos Disc. Moreover, I. Pini in "Zum Diskos von Phaistos", Kadmos 9, 1970, p. 93, showed that clay impressions similar to one of the symbols on the Disc were found elsewhere on Crete as well. Lastly, comparisons to Linear A have been made by J. Raison and M. Pope in "Index to Linear A", Kadmos 14, 1975, pp. 97-101, as Hiller points out, thereby supporting similar efforts by G. Pugliese Carratelli, "Sulle epigrafi in Lineare A di carattere sacrale", Minos, 5 (1957) and Simon Davis, The Decipherment of the Minoan Linear A and Pictographic Scripts (Witwatersrand University Press: Johannesburg, 1967). All of this work has contributed to keeping scholars from looking too far away from "home" for answers to help in the decipherment of the Disc.
A critical and much disputed question over the years has been the direction of the writing of the Disc, and similar technical questions, such as which side was written first, etc. Hiller notes further in his article that great progress in this area has been made in recent years. Although it had long been suggested that the direction of the writing on the Disc was from right to left (and hence from the outer rim inwards), H. J. Hacker and E. Schellen in "Ein neues Argument for die rechtsläufige Leserichtung des Diskos von Phaistos", Kadmos, 10, 1971, pp. 20-27, challenged the old assumption with new arguments and thus forced the opposing side to establish its position on a sounder basis. This culminated in the works of J. Fauccounau, "La sens de L'ecriture du Disque de Phaistos", Kadmos, 14, 1975, pp. 94-96, J. P. Olivier, "Le Disque de Phaistos, Edition Photographique, BCH 99, 1975, pp. 5-34, A. Bradshaw, "The Imprinting of the Phaistos Disc", Kadmos 15, 1976, and Yves Duhoux, Le Disque de Phaestos. Archaeologie. Epigraphie. Edition critique. Index. (Louvain, Éditions Peeters, 1977)....
Based on careful analysis of the original Disc itself, Duhoux determined, among other things: 1) that the Disc was likely written with a ready-made "model" at hand; 2) that Side A was smoothened and flattened by hand and that Side B was smoothened and flattened as a result of the pressure applied on Side A; 3) that the clay had begun to dry during the writing process, on the basis of which the order in which the sides were stamped can be determined: namely, Side A first and Side B second; 4) that the spiral lines were drawn from the outside inwards; 5) that the symbols were stamped from the outside inwards; 6) that the separating lines were added after the symbols had been stamped: and, 7) that the writing runs from right to left."
Based on careful analysis of the original Disc itself, Duhoux determined, among other things: 1) that the Disc was likely written with a ready-made "model" at hand; 2) that Side A was smoothened and flattened by hand and that Side B was smoothened and flattened as a result of the pressure applied on Side A; 3) that the clay had begun to dry during the writing process, on the basis of which the order in which the sides were stamped can be determined: namely, Side A first and Side B second; 4) that the spiral lines were drawn from the outside inwards; 5) that the symbols were stamped from the outside inwards; 6) that the separating lines were added after the symbols had been stamped: and, 7) that the writing runs from right to left."
Corroborative Elamite Script for the Phaistos Disc
Thanks to the friendly persistence of Dr. Jerome Eisenberg, I finally agreed to attend this conference and present a paper, even though I had done no work on the Phaistos Disk in the nearly 30 years since my own publication. As I wrote to Dr. Eisenberg:
For this paper, I thus searched for a corroborative script which might have surfaced somewhere in the Ancient World as a genuine artefact in the last 30 years, and, to my own great astonishment, I did locate such a script at Omniglot (see Figure 8):[24]
Figure 8
An Old Elamite Script as Corroboration for the Phaistos Disc
An Old Elamite Script as Corroboration for the Phaistos Disc
Figure 9 (below)
Old Elamite Script in Figure 8 turned to Horizontal
Old Elamite Script in Figure 8 turned to Horizontal
What struck me immediately was the similarity, shown at Figure 10, between the first word on the Old Elamite text and the symbols on the Phaistos Disc, whereby the Old Elamite script looked like a more cursive version of the Phaistos Disc script.
Figure 10
The First Word of an Old Elamite Script and Phaistos Disc Symbols Compared
The First Word of an Old Elamite Script and Phaistos Disc Symbols Compared
The Old Elamite script in Figures 8, 9 & 10 is from Elam, the ancient kingdom east of Sumer and Akkad, with its capital at Susa, the source of the stele of the Code of Hammurabi, in what is today southwest Iran. Written records place the beginnings of Elamite culture at ca. 3200 BC. The script in question is referred to as Old Elamite, and - just like the script of the Phaistos Disc - it is still considered by the mainstream to be an undeciphered pictographic script, for whose symbols the syllabic values shown in Figure 11 have in any case been alleged to apply to Old Elamite by some researchers: [25]
Figure 11
Syllabic Values alleged for Old Elamite Script by others
Syllabic Values alleged for Old Elamite Script by others
The entire matter became provocatively interesting because the Old Elamite script in Figure 8 is clearly substantiated by a similar Old Elamite script found at Figure 12. This second script has a tremendous impact on the present subject because the second Old Elamite script has an Akkadian bilingual text, [26] which has been translated to mean that a monument of some kind was erected for or by an important personage in Susa. Since a number of symbol combinations are repeated identically on both Old Elamite scripts as found at Figure 8 as well as at Figure 12, it is then logical to presume that both Old Elamite scripts have a similar content and relate to the dedication of monuments to or by important Elamite personages at Susa.
Figure 12
A 2nd Old Elamite script from Susa with an Akkadian bilingual text
A 2nd Old Elamite script from Susa with an Akkadian bilingual text
Based on the bilingual Akkadian text of this document, the above Old Elamite script has been read to mean as follows (our translation from the German is appended): [27]
[German] "Seinem Herrn Inshushinak, dem Menschenbildner (?), 2. habe ich Shilhak-Inshushinak, 3. der Statthalter von Susa, 4. der König des Landes Elam, 5. der Shempishhukische, 6. eine Säule (?) aus Kupfer (und) Zedernholz geweiht."
[Our English translation of that error-filled conversion] "For his master Inshushinak, the sculptor of human forms (?), I, Shilhak-Inshushinak, Administrator of Susa, King of Elam, has dedicated the Shempishhukische, an obelisk (or column) (?) of copper and cedar wood."
[Our English translation of that error-filled conversion] "For his master Inshushinak, the sculptor of human forms (?), I, Shilhak-Inshushinak, Administrator of Susa, King of Elam, has dedicated the Shempishhukische, an obelisk (or column) (?) of copper and cedar wood."
If we now apply the syllabic values derived by this author in the year 1980 for the symbols on the Phaistos Disc to the pictographs found in the Old Elamite scripts at Figure 8 and Figure 12, what happens? What language results and what reading – if any – do these syllabic values provide? Based on the dual syllabic grid in Figure 13, the decipherment result is shown in Figure 14 and Figure 15, which decipher both Old Elamite scripts using the Phaistos Disc syllabic values already obtained by Andis Kaulins in 1980 and applying those same syllabic values to similar symbols on the Old Elamite scripts.
Figure 13
Dual Syllabic Grid of Old Elamite Script and Phaistos Disc Symbols
Dual Syllabic Grid of Old Elamite Script and Phaistos Disc Symbols
Figure 14 : Decipherment of the Old Elamite Script at Figures 8 & 9
via the Andis Kaulins deciphered symbols of the Phaistos Disc
via the Andis Kaulins deciphered symbols of the Phaistos Disc
The Ancient Greek text in Figure 14 (i.e. Figures 8 and 9) reads in English:
"Ruler over all (Pantarchas). In memory, the deceased in these walls of a new temple is laid to rest. The collected elders, ordained by God, and the lone (sole) companion of King Labynetus, Nitokris, administrator in death, in Susa erected this temple in memory, in sorrow created."
It is now also possible to decipher the Old Elamite Script at Figure 12, as follows:
Figure 15
Decipherment of the Second Old Elamite Script found at Figure 12
Decipherment of the Second Old Elamite Script found at Figure 12
The Ancient Greek text in Figure 15 (i.e. Figure 12) reads in English:
"This great hall of columns, Peloponessus, was erected in memory of the deceased Queen Nitokris of Mycenaean descent, separated from her home in Mycenae and now in sorrow separated in death."
Perhaps Nitokris was the true "Helen of Troy" [or Clymene] of ancient Greek legend.
The ancient name for Troy was Ilium or Ilion: [28] (Greek Τροία, Troia or Ἴλιον, Ilion; Latin: Trōia, Īlium, Hittite: Truwisa or Wilusa). Ilium thus bears a close word correspondence to the term Elam. Did both identify the same place? In Persia? We must recall that the currently accepted location of Troy [29] in Anatolia as popularized by Heinrich Schliemann and as defended in our day by Manfred Korfmann has been called a fantasy construction by Frank Kolb, and, indeed, there is almost no probative evidence proving that Hisarlik [30] in modern-day Turkey was actually Troy. Nothing in historical or archaeological data gives Hisarlik any great ancient importance.
Homer spoke of springs west of the city of Troy, but there are none at Hisarlik. But there are underground springs on the Susa plain. As written by Richard Critchfield:[31]
"At this point it should be noted that the Khuzestan Plain (which with the Zagros foothills comprised the ancient land of Elam) represents a geographical extension of the great Mesopotamian alluvial plain. Mesopotamia, literally the "land between the two rivers," the Tigris and the Euphrates, has traditionally been regarded as a trough slowly filling with alluvial soil carried down from the Anatolia and Zagros mountains. (Elam was, and is, watered by the Karun River, a tributary of the Tigris.)...
The surface gradients and underlying gravel deposits in the Susa region were advantageous in the early stages of the development of irrigation, since they permit an adequate flow during the winter growing season with relatively short and easily maintained canals. In addition, the pebbly soils in the upper portion of the Susa plain or Susiana as it was called in ancient times, receive natural subirrigation from underground springs, while rainfall from the mountains is carried out onto the plain some distance by numerous winter and spring freshets. This is one reason why the upper portion of the Susiana plains abounds in rich natural pasture land if not overgrazed and wild narcissi still flourish here. [emphasis added]
This and other evidence ... suggests that man, having learned wheat and barley cultivation and sheep herding in the foothills and mountain valleys, made the vital transition from dry farming to irrigation agriculture on the Elamite or Susianian plain around Susa and that it was here, rather than in Mesopotamia proper - which after all lies only fifty miles to the west of Susa - that civilization as we know it truly began. [It is hoped such a flat assertion might arouse controversy. Elam and Susa have been so under-publicized it was still possible last year for ... The March of Archaeology by C. W. Ceram to be published with only one mention of Susa or Elam, and that in the index.]
Many archeologists believe the earliest settlers of Mesopotamia came from Elam, where the villagers were of similar Sumerian-Semitic stock. But the origin of the Sumerians remains unestablished and we have only the Bible's "And as men migrated in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there." Certainly, the "land between the two rivers" offered many attractions to the mountaineers and newly-settled plainsmen near Susa with its fish and fowl, easily-worked alluvial soil, many date palms to supplement a cereal diet and the annual flooding that always brought a fresh top dressing of silt."
The surface gradients and underlying gravel deposits in the Susa region were advantageous in the early stages of the development of irrigation, since they permit an adequate flow during the winter growing season with relatively short and easily maintained canals. In addition, the pebbly soils in the upper portion of the Susa plain or Susiana as it was called in ancient times, receive natural subirrigation from underground springs, while rainfall from the mountains is carried out onto the plain some distance by numerous winter and spring freshets. This is one reason why the upper portion of the Susiana plains abounds in rich natural pasture land if not overgrazed and wild narcissi still flourish here. [emphasis added]
This and other evidence ... suggests that man, having learned wheat and barley cultivation and sheep herding in the foothills and mountain valleys, made the vital transition from dry farming to irrigation agriculture on the Elamite or Susianian plain around Susa and that it was here, rather than in Mesopotamia proper - which after all lies only fifty miles to the west of Susa - that civilization as we know it truly began. [It is hoped such a flat assertion might arouse controversy. Elam and Susa have been so under-publicized it was still possible last year for ... The March of Archaeology by C. W. Ceram to be published with only one mention of Susa or Elam, and that in the index.]
Many archeologists believe the earliest settlers of Mesopotamia came from Elam, where the villagers were of similar Sumerian-Semitic stock. But the origin of the Sumerians remains unestablished and we have only the Bible's "And as men migrated in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there." Certainly, the "land between the two rivers" offered many attractions to the mountaineers and newly-settled plainsmen near Susa with its fish and fowl, easily-worked alluvial soil, many date palms to supplement a cereal diet and the annual flooding that always brought a fresh top dressing of silt."
Susa and Elam are therefore of great historical and archaeological interest. Jacque de Morgan, [32] famed for having found the Code of Hammurabi [33] at Susa and called the father of prehistoric archaeology by some, wrote: [34]
"In the Nile valley I developed the conviction that the first civilizations, from which the Egyptian empire arose, came from Chaldea and that the Mesopotamian plains had therefore been the cradle of human progress. Susa, because of its very early date, provided the possibility of solving the greatest and most important problem, that of our origins. This city, in my view, belonged to that primordial world that had witnessed the discovery of writing, the use of metals, the beginnings of art. If the great problem of origins was to be solved one day, it was in Chaldea, and especially at Susa, that it was necessary to seek the basic elements." [emphasis added]
As far as the origins of writing are concerned, in fact, some of the oldest seals and stamps ever discovered have been found at Susa in Elam. [35] As on the Phaistos Disc, the ancient technology of "writing" symbols onto seals consisted of stamping carved impressions onto clay. The Phaistos Disc does not implement an unknown technology, rather, it implements a technology otherwise unknown to Crete that was surely imported from elsewhere.
The geographic placement of Troy toward Persia is also suggested by other evidence.
The Iliou persis [36] (Greek: Ἰλίου πέρσις, Latin: Iliupersis) is a lost Greek epic of the so-called Epic Cycle (also called the "Trojan Cycle") of Greek literature, of which fragments have survived. [37] The current mainstream translation of the title phrase Iliou persis as "Sack of Ilium" is unpersuasive and doubtful in view of the Ancient Greek root περσισ-(persis-, "Persian"), whereby πέρσις (pérsis) "destruction" is surely a derivative meaning attached to the folk name. Iliou persis in its original context thus most likely actually meant "Elam in Persia" or "Hellas in Persia".
In any case, it was in fact the similarly named Paris (perhaps originally "Persis", the Greek from Persia) who, according to the legend of the cause of the Trojan War, eloped with or abducted Helen of Troy, [38] the stepdaughter of King Tyndareus. That entire complex of ancient tales provides us with the necessary Mycenaean connection to Crete, as follows, according to Greek legend:[39]
"Tyndareus Τυνδαρεύς (or Tyndareos Τυνδάρεως) was a Spartan king..., husband of Leda and [step]father of Helen.... Tyndareus' wife, Leda, was seduced by Zeus ... disguised ... as a swan. She laid two eggs, each producing two children ... from one egg, Pollux and Helen were the children of Zeus; from the other, Castor and Clytemnestra were the children of Tyndareus.
When Thyestes seized control in Mycenae, two exiled princes, Agamemnon and Menelaus came to Sparta. Tyndareus received them.... Agamemnon married Clytemnestra. Helen ... had many more suitors for she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
When it was time for [Helen] to marry, many ... kings and princes came to seek her hand.... Tyndareus [would not] send any of the suitors away for fear of ...giving grounds for a quarrel.... Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with the chosen one. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Eventually, Tyndareus resigned in favor of his son-in-law and Menelaus became king of Sparta....
Some years later, Paris, a Trojan prince came to Sparta to marry Helen, whom he had been promised by Aphrodite. Helen fell in love with him and left willingly, (although it is also suggested that he may have simply kidnapped her, with neither theory being conclusively proven) leaving behind Menelaus and Hermione, their nine-year-old daughter....
When Thyestes seized control in Mycenae, two exiled princes, Agamemnon and Menelaus came to Sparta. Tyndareus received them.... Agamemnon married Clytemnestra. Helen ... had many more suitors for she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
When it was time for [Helen] to marry, many ... kings and princes came to seek her hand.... Tyndareus [would not] send any of the suitors away for fear of ...giving grounds for a quarrel.... Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with the chosen one. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Eventually, Tyndareus resigned in favor of his son-in-law and Menelaus became king of Sparta....
Some years later, Paris, a Trojan prince came to Sparta to marry Helen, whom he had been promised by Aphrodite. Helen fell in love with him and left willingly, (although it is also suggested that he may have simply kidnapped her, with neither theory being conclusively proven) leaving behind Menelaus and Hermione, their nine-year-old daughter....
Menelaus' attempts to retrieve Helen ... caused the Trojan War." [emphasis added]
The connection to Crete is strengthened by the legendary account that on the night that Helen and Paris left Sparta, they were able to do so because Menelaus had left Sparta to sail to Crete for the funeral of his grandfather King Catreus:[40]
"The myth about Catreus [son of King Minos of Crete] and his children is proof (known as well from the archaeological findings) that in the so called "heroic age" a close relation existed between Crete, Mycenae, and the other places in the Peloponnese and also between Crete and the islands such as Rhodes."
The Trojan War holds more surprises in the legendary account, some of which seem to be conveniently ignored by those who modernly discuss the location of Troy.
As written by Robert Graves (Robert von Ranke-Graves), [41] based on numerous Greek sources, Helen and Paris, after leaving Sparta, sailed to Cyprus, Sidon (Phoenicia, near Tyre) and the Nile Delta of Egypt, where, at the latter, they founded a temple on the Canopic branch of the Nile. As explained below, this could have been at Sais: [42]
"Sais or Sa el-Hagar was an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile."
The patron goddess of the "Egyptian" city Sais was Neith, whose cult at Sais is allegedly attested in texts clear back to the 1st Dynasty, but nothing archaeological has been found earlier than the New Kingdom at that alleged location of Sais, in fact "only a few relief blocks in situ". [43] Interesting then, according to legend, is that ancient Sais was allegedly built by Greeks, not Egyptians, prior to the cataclysm. [44]
"Herodotus wrote that Sais is where the grave of Osiris was located.... Diodorus Siculus attested that it was the Athenians who built Sais before the cataclysm. While all Greek cities were destroyed during the cataclysm, the Egyptian cities including Sais survived. ... There are today no surviving traces of this town prior to the Late New Kingdom (c. 1100 BC) due to the extensive destruction of the city by the Sebakhin (farmers removing mud brick deposits for use as fertilizer) leaving only a few relief blocks in situ."
Figure 16
The Legendary Route of Helen of Troy and Paris
The Legendary Route of Helen of Troy and Paris
The legendary route of Helen and Paris to Troy does not speak for Hisarlik as Troy, for Paris and Helen went to Troy after leaving Egypt, and they would not have gone that far South only to return even further to the North. [45] Troy is clearly elsewhere.
According to Herodotus, [46] the Greeks had trouble finding Troy, which would seem to exclude Hisarlik as the location of Troy, since that location would easily have been known to them, being in their own back yard.
The legend relates that the Greek warships in pursuit of Helen and Paris initially and mistakenly attacked the people called Teuthranians (we think this was the Tyranians, the people of Tyre, near Sidon) who claimed that Helen was not in their land, and put up fierce resistance, inflicting serious losses on the Greeks. Tyre would in that case then be the origin of the later name Troy, which became confused historically by the ancient writers with Ilium (Elam), the actual location of Helen and Paris.
Catreus, the grandfather of Menelaus, had numerous children, but after an oracle prophesied that one of those children would kill him, he sent his sons off to distant places such as Rhodes. His two daughters he is said to have given to a merchant mariner, to be married off in foreign lands:[47]
"Catreus [gave] two of his daughters, Aerope and Clymene, to the merchant sailor Nauplius, to be sold in foreign lands. Aerope [was] the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaus..., but Clymene was married by Nauplius, who had by her sons: Palamedes and Oeax." [emphasis added]
Clymene is a term referred to by two names in ancient Greek sources, as Clymene and as Asia, [48] thus pointing to a possible geographic Asian destiny for her together with Nauplius. It is her son Palamedes [49] who is subsequently of the greatest of interest as an inventor of letters:
"[Palamedes] is said to have invented counting, currency, weights and measures, jokes, dice and a forerunner of chess called pessoi, as well as military ranks. Sometimes he is credited with discoveries in the field of wine making and the supplementary letters of the Greek alphabet."
According to Gaius Julius Hyginus,[50] Palamedes is said to have invented eleven of the Greek letters: [51] [emphasis added]
"CCLXXVII. FIRST INVENTORS. The Parcae, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos invented seven Greek letters - A B H T I Y. Others say that Mercury invented them from the flight of cranes, which, when they fly, form letters. Palamedes, too, son of Nauplius, invented eleven letters; Simonides, too, invented four letters – Ó E Z PH; Epicharmus of Sicily, two - P and PS. The Greek letters Mercury is said to have brought to Egypt, and from Egypt Cadmus took them to Greece. Cadmus in exile from Arcadia, took them to Italy, and his mother Carmenta changed them to Latin to the number of 15. Apollo on the lyre added the rest.... Minerva first built a two-prowed ship for Danaus in which he fled from Aegyptus his brother." [emphasis added]
This invention is said to have occurred at about the time of the Trojan War, for Palamedes was a contemporary of Helen of Troy. One account reads: [52]
"Cadmus, son of Agenor, first brought seventeen Greek letters from Phoenicia into Greece: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, phi. Palamedes added three more to this at the time of the Trojan War: eta, chi, omega. After him the lyricist Simonides added three others (psi, xi, theta)."
The mythographer Hyginus says, by way of introduction, that the MOERAE invented seven Greek letters (of which only six are visible in his text): alpha, beta, eta, tau, iota, and upsilon. Then he refers to other sources which claim that Mercury (Hermes) conceived the letters by observing the flight of cranes which form letters when they fly. Then says Hyginus that Palamedes invented eleven letters, Simonides four (omega, epsilon, zeta, and phi), and Epicharmus of Sicily two (pi, and psi). He says further that Cadmus took the letters which he introduced in Hellas from Egypt, where Hermes had brought them [Fabulae 277].
Accordingly, for the era of Helen of Troy, we have substantial legendary evidence that the use of Greek letters was in its early stages at this time, and known to the Mycenaean and other Greek royal families that descended from Catreus, the son of King Minos of Crete.
As far as the origin of writing in Greece is concerned, we thus have a persuasive connection between the Crete of the Phaistos Disc and early Greek texts.
What is clear is that Helen of Troy and Paris spent the Trojan War either in Egypt or in a different land, to which they went from Egypt. The Elamite scripts suggest that Helen of Troy and Paris could have left Egypt and ultimately have arrived in Elam.
It should be noted, however, that another possibility exists for the origin of the texts, i.e. that they relate directly to Clymene and Naublius, for which reason we append that alternative explanation at various junctures in this writing.
In addition to the above connections of Helen of Troy and other essential historical personages to Mycenae and Crete by legend, there is also a potential linguistic connection to Crete in the name of Queen Nitokris (viz. Nitocris) in Egypt, who is thought to have ruled ca. 2150 BC.
The Egyptian Queen Nitokris, according to current scholarship, is regarded to be a different Queen than the "Babylonian" Elamite Queen Nitokris, but we leave a discussion of the issue of whether these were separate Queens or not to a later date, since this is a question of chronology and other matters too broad to discuss here.
In the Mycenaean context here, it is important to note that Nitokris is read Neit-krety in Egyptology and could in fact thus be read as "goddess (or woman) of Crete". In very archaic Indo-European (e.g. Latvian) the term meita is similar to neit viz. neith and means simply "girl" or "woman", so that the original meaning of Neit-krety might simply have been "girl from Crete".[53] Sais in Egypt was thus the Temple of Neith and the similarly named Susa was the city of the Queen from Crete. But that could also be Clymene rather than Helen of Troy, whose husband hailed from Crete. In case Helen of Troy remained in Egypt during the Trojan War, Neit-krety as Helen of Troy might even be related to the Egyptian Queen Nofretete.
In any case, either Helen of Troy or Clymene, probably the latter, was thus Queen Napirasu, as wife of King Untash-Napirisha (King Labynetus viz. Naublius) of Elam, whereby the similar name Na-piris-ha could speculatively be the Paris of ancient Greek legend who eloped with Helen - or in the alternative - Napirisha could be the name equivalent to Naublius, which seems more likely.
A statue of Queen Napirasu, unique for its time, composed of 3760 pounds of bronze and copper, was found in Susa, and is today a part of the Iran collection in the Louvre. In that statue we thus see either Helen of Troy or Clymene as the life-size statue of Queen Napirasu (Figure 17): [54]
Figure 17
Queen Napirasu of Elam (Helen of Troy or Clymene, wife of Naublius)
Queen Napirasu of Elam (Helen of Troy or Clymene, wife of Naublius)
The Louvre labels this statue as being:[56]
"Queen Napirasu, wife of King Untash-Napirisha [Nauplius could be the family name], circa 1340-1300 BC, Statue found at the Tell of the Acropolis, Susa, Iran, Bronze and copper, H.1.29 m; L. 0.73 m, Jacques de Morgan excavations, 1903."
The Louvre writes further in more detail:[55]
"This statue is of Queen Napirasu, wife of Untash-Napirisha, who ruled in the Middle Elamite period as one of the greatest Igihalkid kings. Under this dynasty, a great Elamite empire flourished, taking advantage of the decline of neighboring Mesopotamia. Untash-Napirisha founded the city of Al-Untash-Napirisha and filled it with monuments decorated with statues, which are remarkable proof of the standard of Elamite metalworking techniques.
Queen Napirasu, Untash-Napirisha's wife, is shown standing. The figure is life-size, but the head and the left arm are damaged. She is wearing a short-sleeved gown covered in the sort of embroidery usually found on such garments. She has four bracelets on her right wrist and a ring on her left ring finger. Although her hands are crossed on her stomach, she is not in the pose usually associated with worship. The inscription on the front of the skirt is in Elamite, reflecting the kingdom's linguistic identity. This inscription gives the queen's name and titles, invokes the protection of the gods, describes the ritual offerings made to them, and calls down their curse on anyone bold enough to desecrate her likeness. The statue is placed under the protection of the god Beltiya and three deities associated with the Igihalkid Dynasty - the god Inshushinak, the god Napirisha, and his consort Kiririsha. These three deities are also depicted on the stele of Untash-Napirisha, also in the Louvre (Sb3973).
This statue of Queen Napirasu is a rare surviving likeness of a member of the royal court during the Middle Elamite period. The sheer amount of metal used - some 1,750 kg for a single work - reflects the wealth of the Elamite kingdom during Untash-Napirisha's reign. The dimensions and the finesse of the statue also reflect the skill of the Elamite metalworkers. The work must have been cast in two successive parts: a lost-wax cast for the copper and tin shell, followed by a full cast alloy of bronze and tin for the core, rather than the more usual refractory clay. The two parts are held together with pins and splints. The sides would have originally been covered with gold or silver.
The reign of the Igihalkid king, Untash-Napirisha, witnessed the launch of a major construction program. The king ordered the restoration of a large number of temples and also built a new religious capital, Al-Untash-Napirisha (sometimes simply known as Al-Untash), on the site of modern-day Chogha Zanbil. The aim was to unite the different religions practiced in his kingdom in one place. Monuments throughout the city were decorated with numerous sculptures commissioned by the king, including this statue of his wife, which was discovered in Susa but was probably moved there from Al-Untash.
Documentation [for the above citation]:
Amiet Pierre, Suse 6000 ans d'histoire, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1988, pp. 98-99 ; fig. 57.
Benoit A. , "Les Civilisations du Proche-Orient ancien", in Manuels de l'École du Louvre ; Art et archéologie, Paris, École du Louvre, 2003, pp 358-359 ;fig. 180.
Meyers Peter, "The casting process of the statue of queen Napir-Asu in the Louvre", extrait de : Journal of Roman Archaeology, supplementary series, n 39, Portsmouth, 2000, pp.11-18."
APPENDIX 1 – A HISTORY OF ELAM
Excerpted from Khodadad Rezakhani, Elam, History of Iran [57]
"Elam, the most powerful and longest lasting civilisation of the Iranian plateau prior to the Aryan arrival, has a complex history....
[W]e do not have a reliable knowledge of Elamite origin. As far back as 4th millennium BCE, evidence of Elamite settlement in the plains of Khuz (northern Persian Gulf) exist. Researches done on the Elamite skeletons show their racial closeness to the Sumerians and Dravidians of Indus Valley, while their language, at least in its latest form, shows very little connections with these cultures. The Elamite pottery and crafts is strongly influenced by the Sumerian artifacts, as well as Muhenjudaro and Bactro-Margiana cultural artifacts. We might assume that Elamites arrived in their homeland, most likely via the sea from southern Indus Valley region, around 3,500 BCE. Prior to their arrival, the plains of northern Persian Gulf were among the oldest civilised areas in the world history and the site of Susa was inhabited as far back as 4,200 BCE and had come under the rule of the kings of Akkad. When the ancestors of Elamites arrived, they settled in that area under the rule of the Sumerian kingdom of Ur. The proto-Elamites adopted many of the Sumerian cultural characteristics such as the cuneiform writing, which replaced their own original pictographic writing system. Still, they kept their own unique cultural peculiarities such as maternal system of succession and their own religion. Women seem to have held a very important position in the Elamite society. They inherited and willed their property, they ruled and conducted business, and as mentioned before, they were agents of succession in the government. The maternal characteristics of Elamite culture survived up to the Neo-Elamite era (around 750 BCE), around which it started to give way to the Babylonian/Semitic paternalistic system of its neighbours.
[http://www.iranologie.com/history/history1.html - click to see the article and]
An aerial photo of the Ziggurat of Chogha-Zanbil,
built during the reign of Untash Napirisha (ca. 1250 BC)
to the south of Ancient Susan (courtesy of Iran Photo Album)
An aerial photo of the Ziggurat of Chogha-Zanbil,
built during the reign of Untash Napirisha (ca. 1250 BC)
to the south of Ancient Susan (courtesy of Iran Photo Album)
The Elamite history has been superficially divided into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, based on the Egyptian system adopted by early Orientalists. This division does not hold firmly for Elam, but it is generally used as a matter of convenience. The Old Elamite Kingdom started a period of growth around the early 2nd millennium BCE. They first established their roots in the Khuz area, in the site of Susa (Shusha in Elamite), where Puzur-Inshushinak ... built the first Elamite status in his own honour. Elamites initially attacked and destroyed Ur, and later invaded Babylonia around 2,000 BCE and founded the Larsa dynasty. By that time, they were already the masters of Uruk, Isin, and Babylon. Later, Hamurabi of Babylonia stopped the expansion of Elam, but Babylonians could not stop the great kings like Kutir-Nakhunte to revive the Elamite power a hundred years later (ca. 1700 BCE).
Around 1,600 BCE, Kassites attacked and invaded Elam and annexed it to their empire. This put an end to the Old Elamite kingdom which was ruled successively by Kassites, Babylonians, Hittites, and again by Kassites for another 400 years. In 1160 BCE, Shutruk-Nakhunte, a local ruler of Susa, drove the Kassites out of Elam and established a new dynasty and an Elamite Empire. The culture that allowed the foundation of the Elamite Empire created great cities of Awan, Anshan, Simash and especially Susa, the lowland capital of the Elamites. It also built the great Ziggurat of Chogha-Zanbil, the famous temple of Elam that now remains as the oldest standing archaeological building in Iran.
[http://www.iranologie.com/history/history1.html - click to see the article and]
A picture of Shush (Susa) the Lowland capital of Elam]
A picture of Shush (Susa) the Lowland capital of Elam]
The Elamite Empire was very short lived and it was soon invaded by Nebuchadnazzer of Babylonia in 1120 BCE. For 300 years, Elam, and Susa as its centre, was ruled as a Babylonian protectorate. During this time, the centre of the Elamite power was shifted to the east of their traditional territory and took refuge in the city of Anshanin the Zagros mountains. Elam once again rose to power in 750 BCE and took over their old capital of Susa. This New Elamite kingdom soon became a powerful state and started a campaign against the Babylonians and the new Assyrian Empire. This state, however powerful, could not stand against the overwhelming Assyrian expansion. In 645, Ashur-Banipal, the last powerful Assyrian emperor, invaded and raised Susa to the ground. This was the last blow on the Elamite power which at this point divided into small states and was soon ran over by the rising Median and Persian powers.
...Elam holds a great place in the history of civilisation, especially from the Iranian point of view.... While it is true that many of their cultural characteristics, especially writing system, was adopted from the Mesopotamian civilisations, it is undeniable that the Elamites possessed a distinctly Elamite culture. They kept their own religion and built great temples to their gods, including Inshushinak, the protector of Susa, and a goddess who probably became Ardauui Sura Anahita the Elamite economy was based greatly on trade, but also on mining and export of raw material such as tin that was crucial for the powerful empires of Babylon and Assyria. They also for a long while acted as a buffer zone between Mesopotamia and the internal nomads of Iran, in the process, forming a great hybrid culture of Elamite, Babylonian, and Sumerian characteristics.
of the Achaemenid religion. Their government system, especially in its succession procedure, was unique for its time. Contrary to the agricultural economy of Mesopotamian,
of the Achaemenid religion. Their government system, especially in its succession procedure, was unique for its time. Contrary to the agricultural economy of Mesopotamian,
[http://www.iranologie.com/history/history1.html click to see the article and an]
Aerial photograph of Tal-e Malyan,
now recognised as the site of the ancient Elamite
Aerial photograph of Tal-e Malyan,
now recognised as the site of the ancient Elamite
highland capital of Anshan
(courtesy of Archaeological Excavations at Tal-e Malyan)]
(courtesy of Archaeological Excavations at Tal-e Malyan)]
As far as the later civilisations of Iran are concerned, Elam was the major transmitter of the achievements of older civilisations to the Median and Achaemenid empires. The modified cuneiform that was developed by Elamites from the Sumerian models, constituted an early form of Syllabry that made it possible to create the Old Persian alphabetic cuneiform. Elamite architecture was the model of Achaemenid palaces, and the court procedure of the Persian court was completely modeled after the Elamite costumes. Also, the sciences and knowledge of Elam and Mesopotamia, mathematics and astronomy, was transmitted to the Persian Empire by the Elamite scribes who made their language one of the three official languages of the empire. Maybe the greatest tribute paid to Elam was the selection of their old capital, Susa, as the main capital of the Achaemenids. Cultural legacy of Elam has affected their successors more than many might imagine." [emphasis added]
**********
APPENDIX 2 – GENETICS:
THE mtDNA HAPLOTYPES OF EASTERN CRETE
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Volume 137 Issue 2, Pages 213 - 223
Published Online: 23 May 2008
Copyright © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company
"Middle Eastern and European mtDNA lineages characterize populations from eastern Crete"
Laisel Martinez 1, Sheyla Mirabal 1, Javier R. Luis 2, Rene J. Herrera 1 *
-1 Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA 33199
-2 Departamento de Xenética, Facultade de Bioloxia, Universidade de Vigo, Galicia, Spain 15887
email: Rene J. Herrera (herrerar@fiu.edu)
*Correspondence to Rene J. Herrera, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Room OE304, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Laisel Martinez and Sheyla Mirabal contributed equally to the manuscript.
Keywords
Minoan refugium • phylogenetic relationships •maternal lineage
Abstract
Received: 17 November 2007, Accepted: 28 March 2008, Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1002/ajpa.20857
APPENDIX 3 – GENETICS:
Y-chromosome DNA in Crete, Greece & the Levant
Annals of Human Genetics
Volume 72 Issue 2, Pages 205 - 214
Published Online: 5 Feb 2008
Journal compilation © 2008 University College London
"Differential Y-chromosome Anatolian Influences on the Greek and Cretan Neolithic"
R. J. King 1 , S. S. Özcan 2 , T. Carter 3 , E. Kalfoğlu 2 , S. Atasoy 2 , C. Triantaphyllidis 4 , A. Kouvatsi 4 , A. A. Lin 5, C-E. T. Chow 5 , L. A. Zhivotovsky 6 , M. Michalodimitrakis 7 and P. A. Underhill 5,*
-1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5722
-2 Institute of Forensic Sciences, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
-3 Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Chester New Hall 524, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, L8S 4L9, Ontario, Canada
-4 Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
-5 Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5120
-6 N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Gubkin Street, Moscow, 119991, Russia
-7 Department of Forensic Science, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
*Corresponding author: Peter A. Underhill, Department of Genetics, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5120, Fax: 650 725 1534. Phone: 650 723-5805. E-mail: under@stanford.edu
Copyright 2008 The Authors Journal compilation ©2008 University College London
Keywords
Y-chromosome diversity • Neolithic Greece • Crete • bread wheat • maritime migration • Bronze Age
Abstract
Received: 29 September 2007, Accepted: 7 October 2007, Digital Object Identifier (DOI)10.1111/j.1469-1809.2007.00414.x
Excerpts from the Text of the foregoing Article
APPENDIX 4 – GENETICS:
Which Y-DNA Haplogroup best defines the connection between Crete, Mycenae, Greece and Elam in Iran?
It is "J2 - The Phoenician Gene" -- in a dispersion most likely be sea (maritime).
J2 (Y-DNA) - "The Phoenician Gene"
From Wikipedia at
Time of origin: 18500 (+/- 3500) thousand years ago.
Place of origin: Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria, Turkey & Iran), or the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel & Jordan) or Anatolia (Turkey) or Zagros mountains (Iran)
Ancestor: J, Defining mutations: M172
Typical members: Iraqis 29.7%, Lebanese 29.5%, Syrians 29%, Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Turks 27.9%, Georgians 26.7%, Iranians 23.3%, Ashkenazi Jews 23.2%, Greeks 22.8%, Tajiks 18.4%, Italians 19.3%, North Indians 7.8% viz. 19.8%, Pakistanis 14.7%, South Arabia (Oman, Yemen, UAE) 9.7%.
FOOTNOTES to the ARTICLE by ANDIS KAULINS
[1] J.D. (Doctor of Jurisprudence) Stanford University. Former Lecturer in Anglo-American Law, Legal Research and Legal Writing, University of Trier Law School. Co-author of the Routledge & Langenscheidt German-English, English-German Dictionary of Business, Commerce and Finance (3rd ed. 2007). Author of the following: The Phaistos Disc: Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions (Darmstadt, 1980)
[2] Andis Kaulins, The Phaistos Disc: Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions: The 'Lost Proof' of Parallel Lines, Darmstadt, 1980, p. 18.
[3] Ibid., p. 19.
[4] Ibid., p. 14.
[5] Ibid., p. 22.
[6] Ibid., pp. 36-37.
[7] Ibid., pp. 26-28.
[8] Ibid., pp. 25-28.
[9] Ibid., pp. 30-33.
[10] Ibid., p. 38.
[11] The Phaistos Disk In Ancient Greek, Syllabic Script, LexiLine.com,
[12] The Phaistos Disc Decipherment, LexiLine.com,
[13] Ibid.
[14] Gay Robins & Charles Shute, The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: an ancient Egyptian text, British Museum Press, London, 1987, reprinted 1990, 1998. A. Henry Rhind was a Scottish lawyer who first acquired the papyrus in the 1850's
[15] D. E. Joyce, Euclid's Elements,
[16] Nikolai Lobachevsky, Wikipedia
[18] The Steve Burdic Phaistos Page,
[19] See D. E. Joyce, Euclid's Elements http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html.
[20] Andis Kaulins, LawPundit http://www.lawpundit.com/blog/2005_12_01_lawpunditarchive.htm
[21] Criminal case 482/04, the State of Israel v. Oded Golan and others...one of the biggest forgery scandals ever in the history of archaeology. [MSN] Israel
[22] Michael D. Coe, Breaking the Maya Code, London, Thames &Hudson, 1992, ISBN 0500050619 http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Maya-Code-Michael-Coe/dp/0500281335.
[23] J. J. Gelb (assisted by R. M. Whiting), Methods of Decipherment, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1975, No. 2, pp. 97-104, quoted in Andis Kaulins, The Phaistos Disc: Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions: The 'Lost Proof' of Parallel Lines, Darmstadt, 1980, pp. 8-11.
[24] Elamite, Omniglot http://www.omniglot.com/writing/elamite.htm
[25] Elamite, Omniglot http://www.omniglot.com/writing/elamite.htm
[26] Harald Haarmann, Universalgeschichte der Schrift, Campus Verlag: Frankfurt and New York, 1991, Sonderausgabe 1998, Parkland Verlag, Cologne, p. 374, providing the reading (in German): "Seinem Herrn Inshushinak, dem Menschenbildner (?), 2. habe ich Shilhak-Inshushinak, 3. der Statthalter von Susa, 4. der König des Landes Elam, 5. der Shempishhukische, 6. eine Säule (?) aus Kupfer (und) Zedernholz geweiht."
[27] Ibid.
[28] Troy, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy.
[29] Troja-Debatte, Wikipedia
[30] Hisarlik, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisarlik.
[31] Richard Critchfield, How Lonely Sits the City
[32] Jacques de Morgan, Encyclopaedia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/newsite/.
[33] Code of Hammurabi, Louvre Museum, France http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en.
[34] Jacques de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines des peuples du Caucase, p. 16, 1912. See http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v7f2/v7f261.html.
[35] See e.g. D. T. Potts, The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State, Cambridge World Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, 1999
[36] Iliou Persis, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliou_persis.
[37] Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, The Sack of Ilium (fragments), Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #8 http://omacl.org/Hesiod/ilium.html
[38] Helen, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen.
[39] Tyndareus, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndareus.
[40] Alena Trckova-Flamee, Catreus, Encyclopedia Mythica http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/catreus.html
[41] Robert Graves (Robert von Ranke Graves), Greek Myths and Legends (Griechische Mythologie), here citing to the German version, Vol. II, Section 159 (Paris und Helena), pp. 258-268 http://www.buchfreund.de/productListing.php?used=1&productId=36009607.
[42] Sais Egypt, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sais,_Egypt.
[43] Sais (Sa el-Hagar), Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson, British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, London, 1995, p. 250 http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Museum-Dictionary-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0714119539.
[44] Sais Egypt, Wikipedia
[45] Robert Graves (Robert von Ranke Graves), Greek Myths and Legends (Griechische Mythologie), citing to the German version, Vol. II, Section 159 (Paris und Helena), pp. 258-268
[46] Herodotus, History of the Trojan War, see http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html
[47] Catreus, Greek Mythology Link http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Catreus.html
[48] Clymene, Asia (mythology), Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_(mythology).
[49] Palamedes (Greek mythology), Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palamedes_(Greek_mythology).
[50] Gaius Julius Hyginus, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Julius_Hyginus.
[51] Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae, 277, Theoi E-Texts Library (Aaron Atsma) http://74.125.39.104/search?q=cache:poj35pwC59kJ:www.theoi.com/Text/
HyginusFabulae5.html+http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae5.html&hl=en&strip=1
[52] Cadmus: 1.3.6: Selection of Mythological Variants in Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, Greek Mythology Link http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Isidore.html
[53] The reason that the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for "neith" is formed by a symbol composed of arrows -this is our opinion only - is because of the Indo-European substratum in Old Kingdom Pharaonic language. In ancient Indo-European (e.g. Latvian) a meta is something thrown, or shot (like an arrow) so that the symbol meta (arrows) represented the nearly same-sounding word meita "girl, woman". In Elam the arrows thus also represented the term for woman, in our opinion, but in Greek this term is gynê or what might be a sibilant female comparable.
[54] Napirasu of Elam, Iran Photo Album http://oznet.net/iran/napirasu.htm
[55] Statue of Queen Napirasu, wife of King Untash-Napirisha, Louvre http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=
10134198673226452&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226452
&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500803&baseIndex=12&bmLocale=en
[56] Statue of Queen Napirasu, Louvre http://www.louvre.fr/
[57] Khodadad Rezakhani, Elam, History of Iran http://www.iranologie.com/history/history1.html
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Star Realms of the Patriarchs, Ur and Ebla
At Lexiline http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi154.htm, I present the ages of the Biblical partriarchs as reigns which were calculated and recorded by astronomy, what I call star realms.
William Walker III calculated that the star data applies only at a location around 42.5°N, i.e. supporting the idea that the Biblical Patriarchs came from the Black Sea Flood submergence. Our cardinal date for that calculation was 3117 BC, using a location at 42.5°N.
We have since recalculated the starting location of the Biblical Patriarch stellar data with the Starry Night Pro software and have discovered that the start of the data at the rising and setting of the star Arcturus, given the starting date of the Hebrew Calendar at 3761 B.C., would be in a geographic area at about 37° to 38° N, and we now think that to be the more accurate location for the astronomical start of the reigns of the Biblical Patriarchs as calculated by astronomy.
Our previous position was that the Biblical data related to a starting date of ca. 3117 B.C. In that era at ca. 3117 BC, according to Starry Night Pro, at the latitude 42°30" N, as one can see in the graphic below, Arcturus, at which the reigns of the Biblical Patriarchs begin with Adam, is more or less right at the horizon and ready in a few years to lose its circumpolar status at that latitude.
42°30" N 3117 BC
Already one degree below that at 41°30" N in 3117 B.C., Arcturus is no longer a circumpolar star in that epoch and is definitely subject to description as a rising and setting star, as in our star realms of the Biblical Patriarchs.
In terms of chronological time, Arcturus also reaches this same position at 42°30" N in ca. 2950 BC.
We thought and still think Arcturus was used as the first star of this Biblical Patriarch series because at this time in history - at the right latitude (which still remains to be fixed) - Arcturus goes from being a circumpolar star to being a star that also dips below the horizon due to the 25920 year cycle of the wobble of the earth, which leads to precession and a change in the position of the celestial equator, which then of course changes the position of Arcturus in the sky. In this epoch, Arcturus was slowly dropping.
41°30" N 3117 BC
Arcturus at the horizon is also what one would see ca. 38°N to 37°N in 3761 B.C.
Accordingly, what we wrote previously at LexiLine at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi154.htm was in the general ball park of accuracy as far as the rising and setting of Arcturus is concerned for 3117 B.C., using the reference point of 42°30" N, which William Walker calculated.
However, if our theory of the "star ages" or "star realms" of the Biblical Patriarchs is true, which we think it is, it only holds true if their reigns were recorded for posterity for a starting date of ca. 3117 BC, but using the positions of the stars at 42°30" N. But this is highly unlikely, since in 3117 BC the Black Sea was already submerged.
Accordingly, a change in the point of reference in terms of time and location is necessary.
We ourselves have never been happy with the 42°30" N latitude theory (but saw no choice but to adopt it due to the data given to us) and have always thought that the star eras of the Biblical Patriarchs must apply to a more southerly location, where the data was actually calculated and recorded by the Hebrew scholars in a later epoch.
Accordingly, instead of the 3117 B.C. cardinal date, we recently took the starting date of the Hebrew Calendar for our astronomical calculations.
We now assume that these star realms of the Biblical Patriarchs were in fact recorded taking a starting date as 3761 BC, which is the start of the Hebrew calendar.
At what latitude in that epoch would Arcturus then start its non-circumpolar status? i.e. at what latitude does Arcturus start to dip minimally below the horizon during the daily rotation of the stars in 3761 B.C.?
In the year 3761 B.C., according to Starry Night Pro, Arcturus begins its non-circumpolar status somewhere around latitude 38° N to 37°N. Above that latitude in that epoch it still remains circumpolar and would not and could not be used as a rising or setting star to calculate the star realms of the Biblical Pharaohs.
This brings us new observations. A location of 38° N to 37°N as the location for calculating the data with a starting reference date of 3761 B.C. is very interesting indeed.
According to the legends of the MIddle East, the city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, is not the Babylonian Ur, but the city of Urfa (ca. 37° N.), ancient Anatolia, in today's southeastern Turkey, just above the Syrian border.
The Wikipedia writes:
"The city has been known by many names: Ուռհա, Urhai in Armenian, ܐܘܪܗܝ, Urhāy in Syriac, Riha in Kurdish, الروها, Ar-Ruha in Arabic, Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa). For a while it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης). During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis. Although it is often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Εδεσσα, Edessa.
Burak Sansal writes:
"This is an Anatolian city which has figured in all the religions of the book. Old Testament prophets such as Jethro (Hz. Suayp), Job (Hz. Eyup), Elijah (Hz. Elyasa) and Abraham (Hz. Ibrahim) lived in this city, which in ancient times was known as Edessa, and Moses (Hz. Musa) lived in the region for seven years working as a shepherd before returning to Egypt with his staff. It was in Sanliurfa that early Christians were first permitted to worship freely, and where the first churches were constructed openly. Pagan temples were converted to synagogues, synagogues to churches and churches to mosques, resulting in a uniquely eclectic architecture."
As can be read at the site of the Sanliurfa Museum, the region is marked by numerous tumuli, many now destroýed by dams:
"A testament to the rich past of the region of Sanliurfa is the large number of tumuli and old settlements. Harran, located 44 kilometers south of Sanliurfa, is one of the most notable of these settlements and was continuously inhabited from 3000 BC to the 13th century. It was especially noted for its peculiar civilian architecture.
Salvage excavations are being conducted in the settlements threatened by the dams of Ataturk, Birecik and Kargamis. Starting from 1978, foreign teams conducted excavations in the Lidar and Hassek tumuli which were to be submerged under Ataturk Dam Lake, while the museum directorate was involved in the excavation of Cavi Field and Nevala Cori. Salvage excavations have been taking place since 1996 in Tilbes Tumulus which will disappear under the waters of Birecik Dam; Apamea, a Hellenistic city threatened by the same dam, has been excavated since 1998....
In Sanliurfa museum, pieces obtained from Harran and other cultural assets recovered from other tumuli and ancient settlements are exhibited in different cases in alphabetical order. Pieces from the time of the Assyrians, Babylonians and the Hittites are exhibited in the entrance hall.
The second and third halls of the archaeology section have cutting and piercing devices made of flintstone (8000-5000 BC), stone idols and vessels, plain and painted ceramics with geometric designs made of baked soil belonging to the period 5000-3000 BC, seals, pithoi, necklaces, pieces of imprinted cubes made of baked soil dating back to the Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC), animal figures, metal artifacts, and ornaments."
A good distance southwest of Urfa and Harran and 55 km SW of Aleppo in Syria we find the ancient city of Ebla (Tell Mardikh. In view of the name of Ebla's most illustrious king, Ebrium or Ibrium (in my opinion this could be a reference to Abraham), Ebla most certainly was Ebra and the "land of the Hebrews" at that time. Ebla has become increasingly important in archaeological assessments of the Ancient Near East (text misspellings corrected in the following quotations):
"c. 3.0 tya BCE :
Semitic people called the Canaanites inhabit ancient Palestine and Phoenicia. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan--the land of purple merchants" referring to the dye they used to color cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, Bethlehem - 'BeitLahem' in Arabic ("The house of Lahman" - a Canaanite God). The term 'Semitic' is generally synonymous with 'Jewish' but is said to include the related group of people who spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Amharic. These languages are all classified by linguists as a group of tongues constituting the Afro-Asiatic Language Family.
More recent archaeological discoveries which tend to promote the importance of the civilization centered in the city of Ebla...(as opposed to Mesopotamia)... indicate that it may be useful to name some of the levantine discoveries as "Pre-Eblaic, Elbaic or Post-Eblaic", ... the cause of the decline of this culture is not yet well elucidated."
The Eblaites, because of their writings, might be considered the descendants of the Sumerians, who were the Indo-European people of the Black Sea Flood:
"In 1964, Italian archaeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza directed by Paolo Matthiae began excavating at Tell Mardikh. In 1968 they recovered a statue dedicated to the goddess Ishtar bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla [after whom Bethlehem was named?]. That identified the city, long known from Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions. In the next decade the team discovered a palace dating approximately from 2500–2000 BC. About 15,000 well-preserved cuneiform tablets were discovered in the ruins. About 80% of the tablets are written in Sumerian, the others in a previously unknown Semitic language that is being called 'Eblaite.' Pettinato and Dahood believe the Eblaite language is West Semitic, however Gelb and others believe it is an East Semitic dialect, closer to Akkadian. Ebla's close link to southern Mesopotamia, where the script had developed, establishes further the links between the Sumerians and Semitic cultures that certainly already existed before the first texts appear in Sumer in 3000 BC. Vocabulary lists were found with the tablets, allowing them to be translated." [emphasis added]
Clifford Wilson writes about the many thousands of Ebla Tablets found at Ebla:
"When the first tablets were found, it was soon realized that this city used a very ancient language in the North West Semitic group which was previously unknown. Professor Pettinato labeled this "Paleo-Canaanite." In layman's terms, this means "ancient Canaanite." At the close of this article in Biblical Archaeologist Professor Pettinato tells us,
The Ebla tablets mention Ur (Urfa).
Yes, and there is a Pharaonic connection as well:
"Most of its trade seems to have been directed towards Mesopotamia (chiefly Kish), and contacts with Egypt are attested by gifts from pharaohs Khafra and Pepi I."
Now, why would the Pharaohs be giving gifts to Ebla unless there was a close blood relationship between them?
William Walker III calculated that the star data applies only at a location around 42.5°N, i.e. supporting the idea that the Biblical Patriarchs came from the Black Sea Flood submergence. Our cardinal date for that calculation was 3117 BC, using a location at 42.5°N.
We have since recalculated the starting location of the Biblical Patriarch stellar data with the Starry Night Pro software and have discovered that the start of the data at the rising and setting of the star Arcturus, given the starting date of the Hebrew Calendar at 3761 B.C., would be in a geographic area at about 37° to 38° N, and we now think that to be the more accurate location for the astronomical start of the reigns of the Biblical Patriarchs as calculated by astronomy.
Our previous position was that the Biblical data related to a starting date of ca. 3117 B.C. In that era at ca. 3117 BC, according to Starry Night Pro, at the latitude 42°30" N, as one can see in the graphic below, Arcturus, at which the reigns of the Biblical Patriarchs begin with Adam, is more or less right at the horizon and ready in a few years to lose its circumpolar status at that latitude.
42°30" N 3117 BC
Already one degree below that at 41°30" N in 3117 B.C., Arcturus is no longer a circumpolar star in that epoch and is definitely subject to description as a rising and setting star, as in our star realms of the Biblical Patriarchs.
In terms of chronological time, Arcturus also reaches this same position at 42°30" N in ca. 2950 BC.
We thought and still think Arcturus was used as the first star of this Biblical Patriarch series because at this time in history - at the right latitude (which still remains to be fixed) - Arcturus goes from being a circumpolar star to being a star that also dips below the horizon due to the 25920 year cycle of the wobble of the earth, which leads to precession and a change in the position of the celestial equator, which then of course changes the position of Arcturus in the sky. In this epoch, Arcturus was slowly dropping.
Arcturus at the horizon is also what one would see ca. 38°N to 37°N in 3761 B.C.
Accordingly, what we wrote previously at LexiLine at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi154.htm was in the general ball park of accuracy as far as the rising and setting of Arcturus is concerned for 3117 B.C., using the reference point of 42°30" N, which William Walker calculated.
However, if our theory of the "star ages" or "star realms" of the Biblical Patriarchs is true, which we think it is, it only holds true if their reigns were recorded for posterity for a starting date of ca. 3117 BC, but using the positions of the stars at 42°30" N. But this is highly unlikely, since in 3117 BC the Black Sea was already submerged.
Accordingly, a change in the point of reference in terms of time and location is necessary.
We ourselves have never been happy with the 42°30" N latitude theory (but saw no choice but to adopt it due to the data given to us) and have always thought that the star eras of the Biblical Patriarchs must apply to a more southerly location, where the data was actually calculated and recorded by the Hebrew scholars in a later epoch.
Accordingly, instead of the 3117 B.C. cardinal date, we recently took the starting date of the Hebrew Calendar for our astronomical calculations.
We now assume that these star realms of the Biblical Patriarchs were in fact recorded taking a starting date as 3761 BC, which is the start of the Hebrew calendar.
At what latitude in that epoch would Arcturus then start its non-circumpolar status? i.e. at what latitude does Arcturus start to dip minimally below the horizon during the daily rotation of the stars in 3761 B.C.?
In the year 3761 B.C., according to Starry Night Pro, Arcturus begins its non-circumpolar status somewhere around latitude 38° N to 37°N. Above that latitude in that epoch it still remains circumpolar and would not and could not be used as a rising or setting star to calculate the star realms of the Biblical Pharaohs.
This brings us new observations. A location of 38° N to 37°N as the location for calculating the data with a starting reference date of 3761 B.C. is very interesting indeed.
According to the legends of the MIddle East, the city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, is not the Babylonian Ur, but the city of Urfa (ca. 37° N.), ancient Anatolia, in today's southeastern Turkey, just above the Syrian border.
The Wikipedia writes:
"The city has been known by many names: Ուռհա, Urhai in Armenian, ܐܘܪܗܝ, Urhāy in Syriac, Riha in Kurdish, الروها, Ar-Ruha in Arabic, Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa). For a while it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης). During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis. Although it is often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Εδεσσα, Edessa.
'Şanlı' means great, glorious, dignified in Turkish and Urfa was officially re-named Şanlıurfa (Urfa the Glorious) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1984....
Burak Sansal writes:
"This is an Anatolian city which has figured in all the religions of the book. Old Testament prophets such as Jethro (Hz. Suayp), Job (Hz. Eyup), Elijah (Hz. Elyasa) and Abraham (Hz. Ibrahim) lived in this city, which in ancient times was known as Edessa, and Moses (Hz. Musa) lived in the region for seven years working as a shepherd before returning to Egypt with his staff. It was in Sanliurfa that early Christians were first permitted to worship freely, and where the first churches were constructed openly. Pagan temples were converted to synagogues, synagogues to churches and churches to mosques, resulting in a uniquely eclectic architecture."
As can be read at the site of the Sanliurfa Museum, the region is marked by numerous tumuli, many now destroýed by dams:
"A testament to the rich past of the region of Sanliurfa is the large number of tumuli and old settlements. Harran, located 44 kilometers south of Sanliurfa, is one of the most notable of these settlements and was continuously inhabited from 3000 BC to the 13th century. It was especially noted for its peculiar civilian architecture.
Salvage excavations are being conducted in the settlements threatened by the dams of Ataturk, Birecik and Kargamis. Starting from 1978, foreign teams conducted excavations in the Lidar and Hassek tumuli which were to be submerged under Ataturk Dam Lake, while the museum directorate was involved in the excavation of Cavi Field and Nevala Cori. Salvage excavations have been taking place since 1996 in Tilbes Tumulus which will disappear under the waters of Birecik Dam; Apamea, a Hellenistic city threatened by the same dam, has been excavated since 1998....
In Sanliurfa museum, pieces obtained from Harran and other cultural assets recovered from other tumuli and ancient settlements are exhibited in different cases in alphabetical order. Pieces from the time of the Assyrians, Babylonians and the Hittites are exhibited in the entrance hall.
The second and third halls of the archaeology section have cutting and piercing devices made of flintstone (8000-5000 BC), stone idols and vessels, plain and painted ceramics with geometric designs made of baked soil belonging to the period 5000-3000 BC, seals, pithoi, necklaces, pieces of imprinted cubes made of baked soil dating back to the Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC), animal figures, metal artifacts, and ornaments."
A good distance southwest of Urfa and Harran and 55 km SW of Aleppo in Syria we find the ancient city of Ebla (Tell Mardikh. In view of the name of Ebla's most illustrious king, Ebrium or Ibrium (in my opinion this could be a reference to Abraham), Ebla most certainly was Ebra and the "land of the Hebrews" at that time. Ebla has become increasingly important in archaeological assessments of the Ancient Near East (text misspellings corrected in the following quotations):
"c. 3.0 tya BCE :
Semitic people called the Canaanites inhabit ancient Palestine and Phoenicia. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan--the land of purple merchants" referring to the dye they used to color cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, Bethlehem - 'BeitLahem' in Arabic ("The house of Lahman" - a Canaanite God). The term 'Semitic' is generally synonymous with 'Jewish' but is said to include the related group of people who spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Amharic. These languages are all classified by linguists as a group of tongues constituting the Afro-Asiatic Language Family.
More recent archaeological discoveries which tend to promote the importance of the civilization centered in the city of Ebla...(as opposed to Mesopotamia)... indicate that it may be useful to name some of the levantine discoveries as "Pre-Eblaic, Elbaic or Post-Eblaic", ... the cause of the decline of this culture is not yet well elucidated."
The Eblaites, because of their writings, might be considered the descendants of the Sumerians, who were the Indo-European people of the Black Sea Flood:
"In 1964, Italian archaeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza directed by Paolo Matthiae began excavating at Tell Mardikh. In 1968 they recovered a statue dedicated to the goddess Ishtar bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla [after whom Bethlehem was named?]. That identified the city, long known from Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions. In the next decade the team discovered a palace dating approximately from 2500–2000 BC. About 15,000 well-preserved cuneiform tablets were discovered in the ruins. About 80% of the tablets are written in Sumerian, the others in a previously unknown Semitic language that is being called 'Eblaite.' Pettinato and Dahood believe the Eblaite language is West Semitic, however Gelb and others believe it is an East Semitic dialect, closer to Akkadian. Ebla's close link to southern Mesopotamia, where the script had developed, establishes further the links between the Sumerians and Semitic cultures that certainly already existed before the first texts appear in Sumer in 3000 BC. Vocabulary lists were found with the tablets, allowing them to be translated." [emphasis added]
Clifford Wilson writes about the many thousands of Ebla Tablets found at Ebla:
"When the first tablets were found, it was soon realized that this city used a very ancient language in the North West Semitic group which was previously unknown. Professor Pettinato labeled this "Paleo-Canaanite." In layman's terms, this means "ancient Canaanite." At the close of this article in Biblical Archaeologist Professor Pettinato tells us,
The pronominal and verbal systems, in particular, are so clearly defined that one can properly speak of a Paleo-Canaanite language closely akin to Hebrew and Phoenician.These Ebla tablets are written in a Sumerian script, with Sumerian logograms adapted to represent Akkadian words and syllables. About 1,000 words were recovered initially (hundreds more later) in vocabulary lists. The words are written out in both Sumerian logograms and Eblaic syllable-type writing. These offered an invaluable key to the interpretation of many of the Ebla texts. The vocabularies at Ebla were distinctively Semitic: the word "to write" is k-t-b (as in Hebrew), while that for "king" is "malikum," and that for "man" is "adamu." The closeness to Hebrew is surprising.""
The Ebla tablets mention Ur (Urfa).
Yes, and there is a Pharaonic connection as well:
"Most of its trade seems to have been directed towards Mesopotamia (chiefly Kish), and contacts with Egypt are attested by gifts from pharaohs Khafra and Pepi I."
Now, why would the Pharaohs be giving gifts to Ebla unless there was a close blood relationship between them?
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Gerum Cloak of Sweden is an Ancient Astronomical Sky Map
Bring on Sherlock Holmes . . .
and at least one lawyer, trained in evidence . . . pro bono publico.
THE GERUM CLOAK MYSTERY
The more than 2000-year old Cloak of Gerum (photos and info below) provides us - as we will show - with the greatest "real" (non-fiction) cloak and dagger mystery of all time, unsolved up to now, but - as we allege - for the most part solved (but not entirely) in this posting.
The technology that we use to solve this mystery is demonstrated in the following graphic - which contains a secret message - to which we give the simple and ultimately helpful clue:
42 (read further below to understand its significance in the context of this posting). Any change to this graphic by, e.g. compression, destroys the secret message:
The mainstream archaeologists recently determined,
via the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities
and the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science
(which "performs laboratory analyses of samples collected from various scenes of suspected crimes" and uses the most modern investigatory criminal forensic techniques available to man - the Scandinavians are indeed top in many scientific and engineering fields)
(stated in our free translation from the Swedish using the assistance of Systran)
that:
"[T]he Gerum Cloak has five cuts made by knife or dagger and that these stabs [if the cloak had been worn at the time] would have struck the body in the chest, abdomen, spine and neck."
This is cloak and dagger at its best. You have an - alleged - ancient cloak and you also have - alleged - multiple dagger incisions, but - thus far - you have no dagger, and no corpse.
Worse, when the Gerum Cloak was subjected to follow-up tests for blood and DNA, none were found. No human remnants. None.
How is this to be explained?
ORIGIN OF THE GERUM CLOAK
The Gerum Cloak, neatly folded and almost perfectly preserved - a great rarity for archaeology - was found in the year 19201 by peat bog diggers in Gerumsberget, Sweden, along with three small stones (found sitting on top of the cloak) which from the photos appear to be about the same size as a super-oversized computer mouse, interpreted - questionably - by the mainstream archaeologists as weights to weigh down the cloak in the bog.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE GERUM CLOAK
[Please note: All photographs below are copyrighted by their owners. We use them here in reliance on the fair use copyright exception for non-profit research. See the original linked articles for more details about each photograph. For the analysis below, one of the photos used MUST be the original, and we do use it.]
Photograph left above by ATA - Photograph right above (3 small stones) by Falbygdens museum in Falköping, which is also a very important Swedish megalithic site
Photo left above by ATA of cloak 1920 - Photo middle (virtual cloak and stones) & photo right (cloak hung) by Falbygdens museum
Gerum Cloak Overhead View
(Original Photo Essential for Forensics)
ABOVE: Overhead photograph of the Gerum Cloak by Gabriel Hildebrandt / SHM
(The discussion below shows that it is important to use the original photograph for analysis)
ABOVE: Photograph of the Gerum Cloak investigation, photograph by Christer Åhlin / SHM
PHOTOGRAPHS ARE THE KEYS TO SOLVE THE GERUM CLOAK MYSTERY
The lower two photographs above were the key photographs for the solution of this mystery:
1) the table photograph because we wondered what the white points were; and, 2) the overhead photograph because we looked for those white points, wondering where they had vanished.
HOW OLD IS THE GERUM CLOAK? IS IT REALLY A CLOAK SHAPE?
Modern chronological dating shows the Gerum Cloak to originate around several hundred years before the birth of Christ (ca. 360-100 BC). The cloak is thus at least 2000 years old and is the oldest intact piece of "clothing" (or what is alleged to be clothing) ever found in Sweden.
Given its oval nearly elliptical shape, the identification as a cloak (rather than, for example, as a tablecloth or wall tapestry) is however certainly susceptible to doubt. We have many cloaks but we have never seen one with an oval shape and with no cut or incision for the head. The peat bog finders, not knowing what else to do with their finding, threw it over their shoulders as if it were a cloak and it has been regarded as a cloak ever since, but it is most likely NOT a cloak. Indeed, if not a cloak, then the dagger marks of the archaeologists are not stab marks at all, which seems likely given their overly wide distribution on the cloak, mostly near the edges.
The shape of the cloak, as we shall see, as well as the dagger slashes on the cloak, are, however, important clues to the resolution of the real secret of the cloak.
WHAT ABOUT THE THREE STONES?
If someone had committed a murder and was trying to hide a bloodied cloak, they would not use three such unusually-shaped and differently weighted stones this small to sink the cloak in a bog, nor would they first fold the cloak neatly. The fact that the cloak was still neatly folded when found indicates additionally that the stones had no effect on sinking the cloak, which, if effective, would have destroyed the folding. Rather, it appears that the cloak and stones were intentionally and neatly hidden together - but possibly too near an inviting bog, probably by someone who thought that he or someone else might recover them soon. Perhaps they were hidden in the bog by someone thinking they could not be found there, would not sink too deeply and could be retrieved shortly. But no one came to retrieve them and so they sank slowly (retaining the folding) into the bog which preserved them for over 2000 years.
The bottom stone looks almost like an iron for ironing clothes or fabric, i.e. something to slide along a surface, and in my opinion the upper two smaller stones appear to be made to fit exactly on top of the larger stone. Each of these smaller stones has what appears to be a sculpted straight edge, suggesting a maneuverable usage intended for marking something, much like modern markers for lines or locations on a map, perhaps a kind of angle-setter? We leave this issue to the engineers out there in cyberspace.
WHAT IS THE REAL SECRET OF THE GERUM CLOAK?
Does the Gerum Cloak hide a different real secret, and if so, what is it?
We have discovered that all that is required to reveal the hidden secret of the Gerum Cloak are the right tools and the right detective work in using them.
With apologies to other forensic experts, but in the case of the Gerum Cloak, every internet user potentially possesses tools necessary for decipherment success in the instant case.
FORENSIC SCIENCE, STEP BACK : WE ONLY NEED ONE PHOTO PLUS PSP
All that one needs to decipher the Gerum Cloak are:
1) an otherwise unformatted original overhead photograph copy of the Gerum Cloak laid down flat, such as the original photograph of Gabriel Hildebrandt (who we do not know personally) reproduced above, and;
2) a graphics program such as Paint Shop Pro ("PSP", by Corel, formerly JASC) having a "threshold level" menu option for showing the most minimal color differences in any image. We use the German version of PSP 7.00, where the threshold value menu option is found under the colors menu as the option "Schwellenwert": [Farben/Farbeinstellungen/Schwellenwert]. Note that this menu is activated only after an image is loaded into PSP.
MENU OPTION FOR THRESHOLD VALUE PERMITS PRO SLEUTHING
The ability to depict very precisely the minutial differences in color of adjacent pixels on a photograph allows the identification of marks or etchings on surfaces which are as good as invisible to the human eye or which can otherwise only be found with great difficulty - or not at all - by more modern technologies. To our knowledge, we were the first ever to use precisely this graphics technology in archaeology, already applying it to the study of figures found on photographs of megaliths, megalithic sites and petroglyphs (see Stars Stones and Scholars).
GABRIEL HILDEBRANDT'S OVERHEAD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GERUM CLOAK AND THE COLOR THRESHOLD METHOD OF FINDING HIDDEN FIGURES
Using Gabriel Hildebrandt's original photograph above and available at Gabriel Hildebrandt / SHM, anyone having the graphics program Paint Shop Pro (it may also work with other graphics programs having a comparable menu option) can duplicate our results by using the threshold settings that we provide below. The three rows below show the color blue (#0000ff) progressively differentiated by 1) brightness, 2) saturation and 3) hue.
Each of the 46 colors above (48 boxes but 3 are identical) is a different RGB blue color. The differences in blue in each color row above are very hard to discern with the human eye, though the eyes do "see" these colors, as shown by our comparison of the leftmost and rightmost elements of each row (you need true color on your monitor to see all of these colors).
However, such subtle color changes, when close to each other, are turned by the brain into flowing color schemes by a process called optical mixing. This facility of our brain was exploited in Neo-Impressionism, a school of art founded by Georges Seurat, whose computer-futuristic and greatly underestimated Pointillism (try it out here) consisted of painting by small dots too small to be seen individually, which gave his paintings a tremendous brilliance because of the miniscule white space surrounding those dots. Pointillism clearly anticipated pixel technology on television screens and computer monitors.
In a similar way, the PSP threshold value menu option permits us to isolate real but otherwise imperceptible color differences between pixels and to discover actual figures present in an image which we otherwise would not recognize as such.
In PSP the color threshold settings can be given a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 255.
Below you see Hildebrandt's original photo viewed using the Paint Shop Pro color threshold settings of 81 in the first case, and 85, 86 and 87 in the second case. We presume these settings work identically on all computers running the same program. Run the threshold values on the original photograph first and not on a resized version of it, which gives less accurate results:
The Hildebrandt photograph shown at PSP threshold level 81
Look at the middle of the above 81-PSP-thresholded image. What do you see?
Lots of dots, right?
Do you see anything familiar in those dots?
The Hildebrandt photograph shown at threshold levels 85, 86 and 87
-
-
We call your attention again to the center of those three Gerum Cloak images, using PSP threshold settings of 85, 86 and 87, and we ask you, what do you see? If you see nothing recognizable, we suggest you call in your resident astronomer for advice and assistance.
DECIPHERMENT OF THE GERUM CLOAK
Do not read further here
if you do not want us to tell you what you see
and/or if you want to decipher the Gerum Cloak on your own. Otherwise, read on.
What those images clearly show in the middle of the Gerum Cloak - thresholded at 81 by PSP - are the stars of Ursa Major (the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, the Wain), Virgo, Boötes, Hercules and Lyra - and they show those stars pretty exactly. Recall that we are seeing here just a tiny photographic image of a large piece of fabric. More sophisticated photo equipment taking OPTICAL close-ups of sections of the Gerum Cloak will give even better results.
Below are two digitally-made close-ups of the Gerum Cloak photo. In the first we compare the Gerum Cloak with the stars of Ursa Major, Virgo, Boötes, Hercules and Lyra as shown by Starry Night Pro. We have a clear match of stars.
In the second close-up we view the images representing the threshold values of 85, 86 and 87 as compared to the stars produced by Starry Night Pro. Opposite of Ursa Major we clearly find the stars of Draco marked on the Gerum Cloak (this is at the North Ecliptic Pole):
Some of the star groups in the course of life of the Gerum Cloak appear to have been painted over with an appropriate figure, for example, Cygnus, which is shown as a bird (head at the top middle) at threshold level 74, although the stars iota and kappa Cygnii are clearly identifiable:
Also important are the images which result for the stars Orion and Scorpio - which are across from each other in the heavens and build a traditional historic ancient celestial meridian. At the identical PSP threshold value of 54 for both of these groups of stars, a threshold identity which suggests that these stellar groups were both marked on the Gerum Cloak in the same manner at nearly the same time, the main stars of Orion and Scorpio can clearly be identified (see the close-ups in the final decipherment image below.
Knowing now the position of the above stellar groupings on the Gerum Cloak, we can possibly identify the knife or dagger marks on that cloak, as intentional dagger slashes acting as permanent edges for major astronomical lines of orientation, specifically the Equinoxes and Solstices and the 24° degree axis tilt of the Earth relative to ancient cardinal points at Orion and Scorpio. Perhaps the cloak was hung on an ancient wooden wall using sharp objects at the focal areas. Seasonally seen - the tilt of the Earth's axis is "equalized" at both the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes, when the days and nights are equally long everywhere, and when the ecliptic (angled 24° to the celestial equator) crosses the celestial equator at the two crossing nodes.
THE FINAL DECIPHERMENT GRAPHIC FOR THE GERUM CLOAK
Armed with the above knowledge, knowing that an oval viz. elliptical shape is the shape of the heavens, it is easy to see, using the threshold value of 81 as the basis for the graphic below, that the Gerum Cloak is a sky map of the heavens of the northern hemisphere. It is an ancient planisphere.
We have added the positions of the North Ecliptic Pole and the North Celestial Pole to our decipherment graphic for purposes of understanding, but these circles are not marked on the Gerum Cloak directly as far as we can tell, although the fact that the heaven's pole positions are centered in the middle of the cloak would seem clearly to demonstrate a knowledge of those positions on the part of the cloak's makers, as we have seen for Scandinavia in the rock drawings.
If the Gerum Cloak is a cloak at all, then it is similar in function to the heavenly cape found in e.g. Verse 33854 of the Latvian Dainas,2 where the Moon is seen to ride his steed in the sky with a cape of stars on his back. It was surely an important motif in ancient astronomy. Indeed, Johann Bayer, a German lawyer and amateur astronomer, published his famous star atlas Uranometria in the year 1603 with Diana pictured on the front cover of the book as the Moon goddess wearing a cape of stars. When we view some smaller modern fabrics, such as "banners", for example, the flags of the United States of America or the European Union, then we see that the stars have not lost their importance as symbols of choice.
We hope that the archaeologists in Sweden, perhaps with the help of this posting, may elevate the Gerum Cloak to the noble position in ancient astronomy which it would seem to deserve.
42.
___________________
1 Post, L.v., Waltersdorff, E.v. & Lindqvist, S., Bronsåldersmanteln från Gerumsberget i Västergötland. (Der bronzezeitliche Mantel von Gerumsberget in Västergötland.) 1924–25. Out of print.
2 Latviešu tautas dziesmas, (Chansons populaires lettonnes), in 12 volumes, volumes I — XII, edited by Arveds Švābe, Kārlis Straubergs, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma, Copenhagen, Imanta (publishers), 1952-1956, Vol. XI, p. 375. In Latvian, Verse 33854 of the Latvian Dainas reads [with our translation next to it]:
[Daina number 33854]
Mēnesītis nakti brauca, [The Moon rides the heavens,]
Zvaigžņu deķis mugurā; [A blanket of stars on his back;]
Rīta zvaigzne, vakarāja, [The Morning Star, (and) Evening Star]
Tie Mēneša kumeliņi. [Are the steeds of the Moon.]
This electronically searchable text of the Latvian Dainas at the University of Virginia is one of the great book digitization achievements of historical literature in the modern era and we heartily congratulate all of those who made it possible, some of whom are listed here and here.
UPDATE, FEBRUARY 10, 2007
We were of two minds about our initial result for the astronomical lines on the Gerum Cloak, so that we have recalculated the entire thing by placing several layers of thresholded pictures on top of one another to give a composite photograph - which allows a more accurate placing of the lines, and give the somewhat amended results below.
The positions of the stars have not changed, but we do interpret the lines a bit differently. Theoretically, the angle between the vertical celestial meridian running between Scorpio and Orion and the dagger mark on the upper left edge of the cloak (presumably the Autumn Equinox) gives an angular separation by Starry Night Pro of about 30°, which would in fact correspond to around 300 BC, the date to which the Gerum Cloak is dated by the archaeologists.
As for the Spring Equinox (the right lower corner of the Gerum Cloak), this is a troublesome cloak region for interpretation. We previously calculated it as 24°, measured from Orion's bow viz. shield, which gave us a date of ca. 1750 BC, so that we were concerned about that date, as it did not mesh with the archaeology dating of the cloak at ca. 300 BC.
In the recalculation above we now have the alternatives of 15°, measured from Bellatrix, i.e. the right edge of Orion, which would measure to Aldebaran and the Hyades, whereas 30° would measure from Bellatrix to the Pleiades and it is about a 50° angular separation to the Spring Equinox in 300 BC. This corner of the decipherment one can best view as "unclear" and we have marked it so in the revised decipherment above. Perhaps the ancients marked Aldebaran and the Hyades and the Pleiades in that era, but we are sceptical.
What should happen now?
The first thing that must be done - based on the results of our work - is for the Gerum Cloak to be examined in Sweden by the forensics experts there to confirm or deny whether stars of the heavens are marked on that Gerum Cloak, as we allege they are.
The second thing to be done by the forensic experts in Sweden is to mark exactly the contours of the dagger incisions (i.e. the slits in the cloak made by some kind of a sharp object) and then to draw the various possible lines which can be drawn to and from these various slits (both from the back as well as the front of the slits) across the cloak to see what kinds of exact angle measurements one obtains.
Only then would one be in a position to determine exactly where the lines were originally intended to run and then one could measure the resulting angles exactly, thereby permitting a more dependable interpretation.
Even then, we have no assurance that the astronomy depicted on the cloak necessarily coincides with the era in which the cloak was made. The cloak could be a copy of an earlier cloak or some other planispheric object. (We have this problem, for example, with chronologies found on cuneiform tablets - which in part have simply been copied from much earlier predecessors - see our discussion of MUL.APIN ).
We think that our discovery of star representations on the Gerum Cloak can be reproduced and substantiated. We think it is less clear as to how the lines of astronomical orientation on the cloak may ultimately be interpreted.
Technorati Tags: Sverige, Sweden, Gerum, Gerum Cloak, archaeology, astronomy, archaeoastronomy, planisphere, sky map, Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Paint Shop Pro, forensics, PSP, photographs, photographic analysis, history, ancient history, ancient world
and at least one lawyer, trained in evidence . . . pro bono publico.
THE GERUM CLOAK MYSTERY
The more than 2000-year old Cloak of Gerum (photos and info below) provides us - as we will show - with the greatest "real" (non-fiction) cloak and dagger mystery of all time, unsolved up to now, but - as we allege - for the most part solved (but not entirely) in this posting.
The technology that we use to solve this mystery is demonstrated in the following graphic - which contains a secret message - to which we give the simple and ultimately helpful clue:
42 (read further below to understand its significance in the context of this posting). Any change to this graphic by, e.g. compression, destroys the secret message:
The mainstream archaeologists recently determined,
via the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities
and the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science
(which "performs laboratory analyses of samples collected from various scenes of suspected crimes" and uses the most modern investigatory criminal forensic techniques available to man - the Scandinavians are indeed top in many scientific and engineering fields)
(stated in our free translation from the Swedish using the assistance of Systran)
that:
"[T]he Gerum Cloak has five cuts made by knife or dagger and that these stabs [if the cloak had been worn at the time] would have struck the body in the chest, abdomen, spine and neck."
This is cloak and dagger at its best. You have an - alleged - ancient cloak and you also have - alleged - multiple dagger incisions, but - thus far - you have no dagger, and no corpse.
Worse, when the Gerum Cloak was subjected to follow-up tests for blood and DNA, none were found. No human remnants. None.
How is this to be explained?
ORIGIN OF THE GERUM CLOAK
The Gerum Cloak, neatly folded and almost perfectly preserved - a great rarity for archaeology - was found in the year 19201 by peat bog diggers in Gerumsberget, Sweden, along with three small stones (found sitting on top of the cloak) which from the photos appear to be about the same size as a super-oversized computer mouse, interpreted - questionably - by the mainstream archaeologists as weights to weigh down the cloak in the bog.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE GERUM CLOAK
[Please note: All photographs below are copyrighted by their owners. We use them here in reliance on the fair use copyright exception for non-profit research. See the original linked articles for more details about each photograph. For the analysis below, one of the photos used MUST be the original, and we do use it.]
Photograph left above by ATA - Photograph right above (3 small stones) by Falbygdens museum in Falköping, which is also a very important Swedish megalithic site
Photo left above by ATA of cloak 1920 - Photo middle (virtual cloak and stones) & photo right (cloak hung) by Falbygdens museum
(Original Photo Essential for Forensics)
ABOVE: Overhead photograph of the Gerum Cloak by Gabriel Hildebrandt / SHM
(The discussion below shows that it is important to use the original photograph for analysis)
Gerum Cloak "On the Table View"
ABOVE: Photograph of the Gerum Cloak investigation, photograph by Christer Åhlin / SHM
The white points on the cloak here played a role in our solution of the mystery.
PHOTOGRAPHS ARE THE KEYS TO SOLVE THE GERUM CLOAK MYSTERY
The lower two photographs above were the key photographs for the solution of this mystery:
1) the table photograph because we wondered what the white points were; and, 2) the overhead photograph because we looked for those white points, wondering where they had vanished.
HOW OLD IS THE GERUM CLOAK? IS IT REALLY A CLOAK SHAPE?
Modern chronological dating shows the Gerum Cloak to originate around several hundred years before the birth of Christ (ca. 360-100 BC). The cloak is thus at least 2000 years old and is the oldest intact piece of "clothing" (or what is alleged to be clothing) ever found in Sweden.
Given its oval nearly elliptical shape, the identification as a cloak (rather than, for example, as a tablecloth or wall tapestry) is however certainly susceptible to doubt. We have many cloaks but we have never seen one with an oval shape and with no cut or incision for the head. The peat bog finders, not knowing what else to do with their finding, threw it over their shoulders as if it were a cloak and it has been regarded as a cloak ever since, but it is most likely NOT a cloak. Indeed, if not a cloak, then the dagger marks of the archaeologists are not stab marks at all, which seems likely given their overly wide distribution on the cloak, mostly near the edges.
The shape of the cloak, as we shall see, as well as the dagger slashes on the cloak, are, however, important clues to the resolution of the real secret of the cloak.
WHAT ABOUT THE THREE STONES?
If someone had committed a murder and was trying to hide a bloodied cloak, they would not use three such unusually-shaped and differently weighted stones this small to sink the cloak in a bog, nor would they first fold the cloak neatly. The fact that the cloak was still neatly folded when found indicates additionally that the stones had no effect on sinking the cloak, which, if effective, would have destroyed the folding. Rather, it appears that the cloak and stones were intentionally and neatly hidden together - but possibly too near an inviting bog, probably by someone who thought that he or someone else might recover them soon. Perhaps they were hidden in the bog by someone thinking they could not be found there, would not sink too deeply and could be retrieved shortly. But no one came to retrieve them and so they sank slowly (retaining the folding) into the bog which preserved them for over 2000 years.
The bottom stone looks almost like an iron for ironing clothes or fabric, i.e. something to slide along a surface, and in my opinion the upper two smaller stones appear to be made to fit exactly on top of the larger stone. Each of these smaller stones has what appears to be a sculpted straight edge, suggesting a maneuverable usage intended for marking something, much like modern markers for lines or locations on a map, perhaps a kind of angle-setter? We leave this issue to the engineers out there in cyberspace.
WHAT IS THE REAL SECRET OF THE GERUM CLOAK?
Does the Gerum Cloak hide a different real secret, and if so, what is it?
We have discovered that all that is required to reveal the hidden secret of the Gerum Cloak are the right tools and the right detective work in using them.
With apologies to other forensic experts, but in the case of the Gerum Cloak, every internet user potentially possesses tools necessary for decipherment success in the instant case.
FORENSIC SCIENCE, STEP BACK : WE ONLY NEED ONE PHOTO PLUS PSP
All that one needs to decipher the Gerum Cloak are:
1) an otherwise unformatted original overhead photograph copy of the Gerum Cloak laid down flat, such as the original photograph of Gabriel Hildebrandt (who we do not know personally) reproduced above, and;
2) a graphics program such as Paint Shop Pro ("PSP", by Corel, formerly JASC) having a "threshold level" menu option for showing the most minimal color differences in any image. We use the German version of PSP 7.00, where the threshold value menu option is found under the colors menu as the option "Schwellenwert": [Farben/Farbeinstellungen/Schwellenwert]. Note that this menu is activated only after an image is loaded into PSP.
MENU OPTION FOR THRESHOLD VALUE PERMITS PRO SLEUTHING
The ability to depict very precisely the minutial differences in color of adjacent pixels on a photograph allows the identification of marks or etchings on surfaces which are as good as invisible to the human eye or which can otherwise only be found with great difficulty - or not at all - by more modern technologies. To our knowledge, we were the first ever to use precisely this graphics technology in archaeology, already applying it to the study of figures found on photographs of megaliths, megalithic sites and petroglyphs (see Stars Stones and Scholars).
GABRIEL HILDEBRANDT'S OVERHEAD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GERUM CLOAK AND THE COLOR THRESHOLD METHOD OF FINDING HIDDEN FIGURES
Using Gabriel Hildebrandt's original photograph above and available at Gabriel Hildebrandt / SHM, anyone having the graphics program Paint Shop Pro (it may also work with other graphics programs having a comparable menu option) can duplicate our results by using the threshold settings that we provide below. The three rows below show the color blue (#0000ff) progressively differentiated by 1) brightness, 2) saturation and 3) hue.
Each of the 46 colors above (48 boxes but 3 are identical) is a different RGB blue color. The differences in blue in each color row above are very hard to discern with the human eye, though the eyes do "see" these colors, as shown by our comparison of the leftmost and rightmost elements of each row (you need true color on your monitor to see all of these colors).
However, such subtle color changes, when close to each other, are turned by the brain into flowing color schemes by a process called optical mixing. This facility of our brain was exploited in Neo-Impressionism, a school of art founded by Georges Seurat, whose computer-futuristic and greatly underestimated Pointillism (try it out here) consisted of painting by small dots too small to be seen individually, which gave his paintings a tremendous brilliance because of the miniscule white space surrounding those dots. Pointillism clearly anticipated pixel technology on television screens and computer monitors.
In a similar way, the PSP threshold value menu option permits us to isolate real but otherwise imperceptible color differences between pixels and to discover actual figures present in an image which we otherwise would not recognize as such.
In PSP the color threshold settings can be given a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 255.
Below you see Hildebrandt's original photo viewed using the Paint Shop Pro color threshold settings of 81 in the first case, and 85, 86 and 87 in the second case. We presume these settings work identically on all computers running the same program. Run the threshold values on the original photograph first and not on a resized version of it, which gives less accurate results:
Lots of dots, right?
Do you see anything familiar in those dots?
--DECIPHERMENT OF THE GERUM CLOAK
Do not read further here
if you do not want us to tell you what you see
and/or if you want to decipher the Gerum Cloak on your own. Otherwise, read on.
What those images clearly show in the middle of the Gerum Cloak - thresholded at 81 by PSP - are the stars of Ursa Major (the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, the Wain), Virgo, Boötes, Hercules and Lyra - and they show those stars pretty exactly. Recall that we are seeing here just a tiny photographic image of a large piece of fabric. More sophisticated photo equipment taking OPTICAL close-ups of sections of the Gerum Cloak will give even better results.
Below are two digitally-made close-ups of the Gerum Cloak photo. In the first we compare the Gerum Cloak with the stars of Ursa Major, Virgo, Boötes, Hercules and Lyra as shown by Starry Night Pro. We have a clear match of stars.
In the second close-up we view the images representing the threshold values of 85, 86 and 87 as compared to the stars produced by Starry Night Pro. Opposite of Ursa Major we clearly find the stars of Draco marked on the Gerum Cloak (this is at the North Ecliptic Pole):
Some of the star groups in the course of life of the Gerum Cloak appear to have been painted over with an appropriate figure, for example, Cygnus, which is shown as a bird (head at the top middle) at threshold level 74, although the stars iota and kappa Cygnii are clearly identifiable:
Also important are the images which result for the stars Orion and Scorpio - which are across from each other in the heavens and build a traditional historic ancient celestial meridian. At the identical PSP threshold value of 54 for both of these groups of stars, a threshold identity which suggests that these stellar groups were both marked on the Gerum Cloak in the same manner at nearly the same time, the main stars of Orion and Scorpio can clearly be identified (see the close-ups in the final decipherment image below.
Knowing now the position of the above stellar groupings on the Gerum Cloak, we can possibly identify the knife or dagger marks on that cloak, as intentional dagger slashes acting as permanent edges for major astronomical lines of orientation, specifically the Equinoxes and Solstices and the 24° degree axis tilt of the Earth relative to ancient cardinal points at Orion and Scorpio. Perhaps the cloak was hung on an ancient wooden wall using sharp objects at the focal areas. Seasonally seen - the tilt of the Earth's axis is "equalized" at both the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes, when the days and nights are equally long everywhere, and when the ecliptic (angled 24° to the celestial equator) crosses the celestial equator at the two crossing nodes.
THE FINAL DECIPHERMENT GRAPHIC FOR THE GERUM CLOAK
Armed with the above knowledge, knowing that an oval viz. elliptical shape is the shape of the heavens, it is easy to see, using the threshold value of 81 as the basis for the graphic below, that the Gerum Cloak is a sky map of the heavens of the northern hemisphere. It is an ancient planisphere.
We have added the positions of the North Ecliptic Pole and the North Celestial Pole to our decipherment graphic for purposes of understanding, but these circles are not marked on the Gerum Cloak directly as far as we can tell, although the fact that the heaven's pole positions are centered in the middle of the cloak would seem clearly to demonstrate a knowledge of those positions on the part of the cloak's makers, as we have seen for Scandinavia in the rock drawings.
If the Gerum Cloak is a cloak at all, then it is similar in function to the heavenly cape found in e.g. Verse 33854 of the Latvian Dainas,2 where the Moon is seen to ride his steed in the sky with a cape of stars on his back. It was surely an important motif in ancient astronomy. Indeed, Johann Bayer, a German lawyer and amateur astronomer, published his famous star atlas Uranometria in the year 1603 with Diana pictured on the front cover of the book as the Moon goddess wearing a cape of stars. When we view some smaller modern fabrics, such as "banners", for example, the flags of the United States of America or the European Union, then we see that the stars have not lost their importance as symbols of choice.
We hope that the archaeologists in Sweden, perhaps with the help of this posting, may elevate the Gerum Cloak to the noble position in ancient astronomy which it would seem to deserve.
42.
___________________
1 Post, L.v., Waltersdorff, E.v. & Lindqvist, S., Bronsåldersmanteln från Gerumsberget i Västergötland. (Der bronzezeitliche Mantel von Gerumsberget in Västergötland.) 1924–25. Out of print.
2 Latviešu tautas dziesmas, (Chansons populaires lettonnes), in 12 volumes, volumes I — XII, edited by Arveds Švābe, Kārlis Straubergs, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma, Copenhagen, Imanta (publishers), 1952-1956, Vol. XI, p. 375. In Latvian, Verse 33854 of the Latvian Dainas reads [with our translation next to it]:
[Daina number 33854]
Mēnesītis nakti brauca, [The Moon rides the heavens,]
Zvaigžņu deķis mugurā; [A blanket of stars on his back;]
Rīta zvaigzne, vakarāja, [The Morning Star, (and) Evening Star]
Tie Mēneša kumeliņi. [Are the steeds of the Moon.]
This electronically searchable text of the Latvian Dainas at the University of Virginia is one of the great book digitization achievements of historical literature in the modern era and we heartily congratulate all of those who made it possible, some of whom are listed here and here.
UPDATE, FEBRUARY 10, 2007
We were of two minds about our initial result for the astronomical lines on the Gerum Cloak, so that we have recalculated the entire thing by placing several layers of thresholded pictures on top of one another to give a composite photograph - which allows a more accurate placing of the lines, and give the somewhat amended results below.
The positions of the stars have not changed, but we do interpret the lines a bit differently. Theoretically, the angle between the vertical celestial meridian running between Scorpio and Orion and the dagger mark on the upper left edge of the cloak (presumably the Autumn Equinox) gives an angular separation by Starry Night Pro of about 30°, which would in fact correspond to around 300 BC, the date to which the Gerum Cloak is dated by the archaeologists.
As for the Spring Equinox (the right lower corner of the Gerum Cloak), this is a troublesome cloak region for interpretation. We previously calculated it as 24°, measured from Orion's bow viz. shield, which gave us a date of ca. 1750 BC, so that we were concerned about that date, as it did not mesh with the archaeology dating of the cloak at ca. 300 BC.
In the recalculation above we now have the alternatives of 15°, measured from Bellatrix, i.e. the right edge of Orion, which would measure to Aldebaran and the Hyades, whereas 30° would measure from Bellatrix to the Pleiades and it is about a 50° angular separation to the Spring Equinox in 300 BC. This corner of the decipherment one can best view as "unclear" and we have marked it so in the revised decipherment above. Perhaps the ancients marked Aldebaran and the Hyades and the Pleiades in that era, but we are sceptical.
What should happen now?
The first thing that must be done - based on the results of our work - is for the Gerum Cloak to be examined in Sweden by the forensics experts there to confirm or deny whether stars of the heavens are marked on that Gerum Cloak, as we allege they are.
The second thing to be done by the forensic experts in Sweden is to mark exactly the contours of the dagger incisions (i.e. the slits in the cloak made by some kind of a sharp object) and then to draw the various possible lines which can be drawn to and from these various slits (both from the back as well as the front of the slits) across the cloak to see what kinds of exact angle measurements one obtains.
Only then would one be in a position to determine exactly where the lines were originally intended to run and then one could measure the resulting angles exactly, thereby permitting a more dependable interpretation.
Even then, we have no assurance that the astronomy depicted on the cloak necessarily coincides with the era in which the cloak was made. The cloak could be a copy of an earlier cloak or some other planispheric object. (We have this problem, for example, with chronologies found on cuneiform tablets - which in part have simply been copied from much earlier predecessors - see our discussion of MUL.APIN ).
We think that our discovery of star representations on the Gerum Cloak can be reproduced and substantiated. We think it is less clear as to how the lines of astronomical orientation on the cloak may ultimately be interpreted.
Technorati Tags: Sverige, Sweden, Gerum, Gerum Cloak, archaeology, astronomy, archaeoastronomy, planisphere, sky map, Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Paint Shop Pro, forensics, PSP, photographs, photographic analysis, history, ancient history, ancient world
Tanum Rock Drawings Sweden Deciphered as Astronomy
This posting is not about modern law but about ancient law. It was the ancient ordering of the stars of the heavens, which, according to Bertrand Russell, gave men their first conceptions of natural law.
We have been successful - so we allege - in deciphering the entire complex of Scandinavian rock drawings at the World Heritage Site of Tanum, now in Sweden, and formerly in Norway (until the year 1658 - see the Treaty of Roskilde).
Our decipherment shows that the more than 1500 petroglyphs (rock drawings) at Tanum and its rock art affiliate locations form an enormous ca. 70 square kilometer planisphere (sky map of the heavens).
This sky map forms a shape of the stars along the Milky Way which was probably intended by its makers to represent a heavenly boat of the ancient Nordic seafarers. We have drawn in the line of the Milky Way to show this, but it is not, as far as we know, actually drawn on the ground.
As we shall be presenting a paper on this topic in May of this year in Horn / Bad Meinberg, Germany, at the Machalett Conference on Preshistory and Early History, this posting just contains the basics of our discovery.
It was 30 years ago in the year 1977 that this author first visited the petroglyphs (rock drawings) of Tanum, located in Tanumshede, Västra Götaland (historically Bohuslän), about a two-hour drive north of Göteborg (Gothenburg). Tanum was not well known internationally in 1977, in spite of over 1500, in part gigantic, rock drawings.
Tanum includes the following petroglyphic locations covering many square kilometers of countryside: Vitlycke (where the museum is located), Tanum, Tegneby, Aspeberget, Gerum, Ryland, Oppen, Slänge, Varlös, Fossum, Lycke, Hoghem, Västerby, Ljungby, Tuvene, Litsleby, Kyrkoryk, Orrekläpp, Rungstung, Satetorp, Ryk, Tyft, Hovtorp, Björneröd, Bergslycke, Kalleby and Trättelanda.
One key to our decipherment was the Tanum rock drawing location map foundat the World Heritage Site for Tanum. Without such a complete overview of the area, such a decipherment as ours would be impossible, since it is the entire complex of petroglyphs which builds the secret to this enormous site. All of these petroglyphs as a whole represent the stars of the heavens, with multiple petroglyphs in clusters representing constellations of stars known to us today. Many of these along the ecliptic of course form our modern Zodiac.
One cannot escape the feeling at Tanum that we are witnessing the birth of modern astronomy among the ancient seafarers, whose need for a knowledge of star orientation in sea navigation is beyond dispute.
These ancient men formed these constellations primarily for practical purposes and not, as mainstream archaeology persists in advocating regarding these petroglyphs, for unproven rites and rituals, which may have been a part of the complex of the ancient world, but certainly not as its moving force.
It is in fact little wonder that there are so many boats (ancient ships) represented in the petroglyphic figures. To the seafaring ancients, the night sky was a sea of stars. We think it possible that this might be the location at which our modern stellar constellations were initially "grouped" by European man - for purposes of navigation in seafaring travel.
There are other proofs - beyond the evidence of the rock drawings themselves - that this astronomical decipherment is correct, e.g. the names of locations at which the rock drawings are found, but these proofs will first be discussed in a paper in German to be presented to the 41st Conference of the Machalett Study Group on Prehistory and Early History in May of this year.
We have been successful - so we allege - in deciphering the entire complex of Scandinavian rock drawings at the World Heritage Site of Tanum, now in Sweden, and formerly in Norway (until the year 1658 - see the Treaty of Roskilde).
Our decipherment shows that the more than 1500 petroglyphs (rock drawings) at Tanum and its rock art affiliate locations form an enormous ca. 70 square kilometer planisphere (sky map of the heavens).
The graphic presentation of the decipherment is found below:
The Decipherment of the Tanum Petroglyphs by Andis Kaulins 2007
This sky map forms a shape of the stars along the Milky Way which was probably intended by its makers to represent a heavenly boat of the ancient Nordic seafarers. We have drawn in the line of the Milky Way to show this, but it is not, as far as we know, actually drawn on the ground.
As we shall be presenting a paper on this topic in May of this year in Horn / Bad Meinberg, Germany, at the Machalett Conference on Preshistory and Early History, this posting just contains the basics of our discovery.
It was 30 years ago in the year 1977 that this author first visited the petroglyphs (rock drawings) of Tanum,
Tanum includes the following petroglyphic locations covering many square kilometers of countryside: Vitlycke (where the museum is located), Tanum, Tegneby, Aspeberget, Gerum, Ryland, Oppen, Slänge, Varlös, Fossum, Lycke, Hoghem, Västerby, Ljungby, Tuvene, Litsleby, Kyrkoryk, Orrekläpp, Rungstung, Satetorp, Ryk, Tyft, Hovtorp, Björneröd, Bergslycke, Kalleby and Trättelanda.
One key to our decipherment was the Tanum rock drawing location map found
One cannot escape the feeling at Tanum that we are witnessing the birth of modern astronomy among the ancient seafarers, whose need for a knowledge of star orientation in sea navigation is beyond dispute.
These ancient men formed these constellations primarily for practical purposes and not, as mainstream archaeology persists in advocating regarding these petroglyphs, for unproven rites and rituals, which may have been a part of the complex of the ancient world, but certainly not as its moving force.
It is in fact little wonder that there are so many boats (ancient ships) represented in the petroglyphic figures. To the seafaring ancients, the night sky was a sea of stars. We think it possible that this might be the location at which our modern stellar constellations were initially "grouped" by European man - for purposes of navigation in seafaring travel.
There are other proofs - beyond the evidence of the rock drawings themselves - that this astronomical decipherment is correct, e.g. the names of locations at which the rock drawings are found, but these proofs will first be discussed in a paper in German to be presented to the 41st Conference of the Machalett Study Group on Prehistory and Early History in May of this year.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Herodotus in his travels was the first to refer to the "wonders" of the world and Callimachus of Cyrene in the 3rd century BC as a scholar at the library of the Alexandria Mouseion wrote A Collection of Wonders around the World .
The original idea of identifying Seven Wonders of the Ancient World comes from a list originally compiled in the 2nd century BC by Antipater of Sidon, who, instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria listed below, included the Ishtar Gate.
These wonders, however, were not wonders of the natural world, but were all man-made engineering and construction wonders which the ancient Greeks as travelers (tourists) could visit several thousand years ago.
Listed in their order of construction, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were:
Various locations accessible to travelers in the Middle Ages - and some of these of course were totally unknown to the ancient Greeks - have been included by various sources among the much later Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. This is our selection from a longer list of alternatives:
Modern archaeological discoveries have also opened up our eyes to new, previously unknown wonders which fully qualify as Ancient Wonders of the World, of which this list, created by us, is only a limited example:
As world populations and technology have expanded, it has become more difficult to pick out just seven world wonders from the many now available. The Seven Wonders of the Modern World according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (in 1994) were:
In our view, a number of new building structures definitely fall into the category of world wonders:
The World's Tallest Man-Made Structures and Buildings
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and Emporis have partnered recently and rank the world's tallest structures and buildings. As written at Emporis: "Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building, surpassing the height of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur in late August 2003."
See the Wikipedia for a current list of tallest buildings and structures in the world, ranked by category. Many of these man-made structures are true world wonders in our modern age. See also a list of the historical development of the world's tallest man-made freestanding structures on land.
Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century
The National Academy of Engineering has a list of their selection of the Greatest Engineering Achievements of the just past 20th century but none of these are architectural or archaeological tourist travel sites, even though they are world wonders in their own right:
Herodotus in his travels was the first to refer to the "wonders" of the world and Callimachus of Cyrene in the 3rd century BC as a scholar at the library of the Alexandria Mouseion wrote A Collection of Wonders around the World .
The original idea of identifying Seven Wonders of the Ancient World comes from a list originally compiled in the 2nd century BC by Antipater of Sidon, who, instead of the Lighthouse of Alexandria listed below, included the Ishtar Gate.
These wonders, however, were not wonders of the natural world, but were all man-made engineering and construction wonders which the ancient Greeks as travelers (tourists) could visit several thousand years ago.
Listed in their order of construction, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were:
- The Great Pyramid of Giza
- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- The Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus
- The Colossus of Rhodes
- The Lighthouse of Alexandria
Various locations accessible to travelers in the Middle Ages - and some of these of course were totally unknown to the ancient Greeks - have been included by various sources among the much later Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. This is our selection from a longer list of alternatives:
- Stonehenge
- Colosseum of Rome
- Great Wall of China
- Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
- Hagia Sophia
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Taj Mahal
Modern archaeological discoveries have also opened up our eyes to new, previously unknown wonders which fully qualify as Ancient Wonders of the World, of which this list, created by us, is only a limited example:
- The Tomb of Tutankhamun and other tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt (see National Geographic presentation) and the King Tut artifacts now found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (see also an interpretation of these artifacts at Ark of the Covenant)
- Lascaux (also here), France, a cave featuring early human art (see decipherment)
- Chauvet-Pont-D'Arc, France, a cave featuring early human art
- Catal Huyuk, Anatolia (today Turkey), one of the most ancient Neolithic settlements
- The Temples of Malta and Gozo, early megalithic buildings
- Schliemann's Troy
- Evans' Knossos, Crete (see Phaistos Disc and the Lost Proof of Parallel Lines)
- Machu Picchu, Peru, lost city of the Incas
- Easter Island (see also Easter Island Script)
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia, a temple (see Sacred Sites)
- Val Camonica (see also here), ancient rock drawing site
- The Temple of Petra and the Nabateans in Jordan
- Yin Xu (Yin Ruins), Anyang, Henan, China, root of Chinese culture
- Emperor Qin's tomb and its terracotta army in China
- The Pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico
- Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois, USA (see this interpretation)
- Qumran Caves, Israel (West Bank), where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found (see the Mishnayot and explanatory materials)
- Nazca Lines and Figures, Peru
- Pompeii, Italy, the buried, forgotten city
- Ur and the Great Ziggurat, Sumer in Mesopotamia, today Iraq
- Newgrange in Ireland (see alleged astronomical connection)
- Balnuaran of Clava, the Clava Cairns in Scotland (see alleged astronomical connection)
- Carnac, France (see alleged astronomical connection)
- Ancient World Megaliths and Megalithic Sites
As world populations and technology have expanded, it has become more difficult to pick out just seven world wonders from the many now available. The Seven Wonders of the Modern World according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (in 1994) were:
- The 31-mile Channel Tunnel under the North Sea, linking Britain and Europe
- The CN Tower in Toronto, the world's tallest freestanding structure on land
- The Empire State Building in New York City
- The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay
- The Itaipu Dam between Brazil and Paraguay
- The Netherlands North Sea Protection Works
- The Panama Canal
In our view, a number of new building structures definitely fall into the category of world wonders:
- - The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge on the Kobe-Naruto Route, Japan, is the world's longest suspension bridge.
- - The Oresund Bridge linking Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Malmö), is the world's longest single bridge for both road and railway traffic (see NASA photo)
- - The Viaduct de Millau in France, the world's highest road bridge, is higher even than the Eiffel Tower (beautiful opening page) (for the Viaduc de Millau see also the French sites here and here).
- - The Troll A Gas Platform is the world's largest offshore gas platform (Norway)
- - The Millennium Dome at Greenwich, United Kingdom, is the world's largest dome and was built on the Meridian Line in Greenwich (Longitude 0° 0' 0") from which world time is measured and world location is reckoned.
- - The Laerdal Road Tunnel, Norway, is the world's longest road tunnel, on the road connecting Oslo with Bergen.
- - The Falkirk Wheel, Scotland, is the world's first and only rotating boat lift.
- - The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest dam in the world.
The World's Tallest Man-Made Structures and Buildings
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and Emporis have partnered recently and rank the world's tallest structures and buildings. As written at Emporis: "Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building, surpassing the height of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur in late August 2003."
See the Wikipedia for a current list of tallest buildings and structures in the world, ranked by category. Many of these man-made structures are true world wonders in our modern age. See also a list of the historical development of the world's tallest man-made freestanding structures on land.
Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century
The National Academy of Engineering has a list of their selection of the Greatest Engineering Achievements of the just past 20th century but none of these are architectural or archaeological tourist travel sites, even though they are world wonders in their own right:
- Electrification
- Automobile
- Airplane
- Water Supply and Distribution
- Electronics
- Radio and Television
- Agricultural Mechanization
- Computers
- Telephone
- Air Conditioning
- and Refrigeration
- Highways
- Spacecraft
- Internet
- Imaging
- Household Appliances
- Health Technologies
- Petroleum and
- Petrochemical Technologies
- Laser and Fiber Optics
- Nuclear Technologies
- High-performance Materials
Monday, October 30, 2006
Happy Halloween 2006 : The Ancients Revered Cats
Happy Halloween 2006 : This is our "Ancients" Cat Pumpkin
The ancients revered cats
The ancients revered cats
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Cahokia Deciphered as a hermetic Sky Map
Cahokia Mounds (see photo gallery ) in Collinsville , (southwest) Illinois comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as written there:
"Cahokia Mounds, some 13 km north-east of St. Louis, Missouri,
is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. "
Cahokia Decipherment by Andis Kaulins
My decipherment of the Cahokia Mounds was made possible through the map recently sent to me by Steve Burdic.
My decipherment shows that the Cahokia Mounds were intended as hermetic representations of the stars of the heavens, including stars from the following modern constellations: those marking the four seasons in the heaven of stars - Aquila (Winter), Scorpio (Autumn) Perseus (Spring) and Leo (Summer).
In addition, Cahokia shows the Pole Star position as well as the position of the North Ecliptic Pole.
Lastly, stars of Ursa Major, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Ophiuchus, Bootes, Virgo, Coma Berenices, and Leo Minor are shown.
There may be solar lines here, but that is not my interest at the moment. The major "architectural" features of Cahokia are intended to represent the starry constellations at night.
The correspondences are not always perfect, but the relationship is clear when one views the whole.
The Ursa Major equivalence, e.g. is very well represented. Cepheus and Cassiopeia are both excellently reproduced. Scorpio on the other hand is missing one star at the head, the left one - although this was the first group of stars identified nevertheless due to Antares. Some of the other alleged star positions show too few stars to be certain. Nevertheless, that the mounds represent the stellar heavens is clear, and the principle used is the same as we previously have found throughout the world, also e.g. at Tikal
(see http://www.megaliths.net/mesoamerica.htm).
Using the positions of the stars as obtained, the original plan of Cahokia must be substantially older than currently dated by the scholars - or - their builders relied on long outdated stellar parameters.
Some other sites of interest in this regard are:
Cahokia Mounds Topography - Maps of Cahokia - http://www.museum.state.il.us/vrmuseum/jshape/cahokia2.html
Cahokia Site Map and Virtual Tour - http://www.cahokiamounds.com/virtual_tour.html
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency - http://www.illinoishistory.gov/hs/cahokia_mounds.htm
Archaeological Sites - Cahokia - http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/cahokia.html
Cahokia Mound 72 - http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001augustmound72excavation1.htm
National Park Service - Cahokia - http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/cahokia.htm
Mississippian Civilization - http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/up/upi.html
Mississippi Artifacts - http://www.mississippian-artifacts.com/
Gottschall Site - http://www.tcinternet.net/users/cbailey/Gottsiteoverview.html
Indian Mounds of Mississippi - http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/mounds/
FAMSI - http://www.famsi.org/
"Cahokia Mounds, some 13 km north-east of St. Louis, Missouri,
is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. "
Cahokia Decipherment by Andis Kaulins
My decipherment of the Cahokia Mounds was made possible through the map recently sent to me by Steve Burdic.
My decipherment shows that the Cahokia Mounds were intended as hermetic representations of the stars of the heavens, including stars from the following modern constellations: those marking the four seasons in the heaven of stars - Aquila (Winter), Scorpio (Autumn) Perseus (Spring) and Leo (Summer).
In addition, Cahokia shows the Pole Star position as well as the position of the North Ecliptic Pole.
Lastly, stars of Ursa Major, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Ophiuchus, Bootes, Virgo, Coma Berenices, and Leo Minor are shown.
There may be solar lines here, but that is not my interest at the moment. The major "architectural" features of Cahokia are intended to represent the starry constellations at night.
The correspondences are not always perfect, but the relationship is clear when one views the whole.
The Ursa Major equivalence, e.g. is very well represented. Cepheus and Cassiopeia are both excellently reproduced. Scorpio on the other hand is missing one star at the head, the left one - although this was the first group of stars identified nevertheless due to Antares. Some of the other alleged star positions show too few stars to be certain. Nevertheless, that the mounds represent the stellar heavens is clear, and the principle used is the same as we previously have found throughout the world, also e.g. at Tikal
(see http://www.megaliths.net/mesoamerica.htm).
Using the positions of the stars as obtained, the original plan of Cahokia must be substantially older than currently dated by the scholars - or - their builders relied on long outdated stellar parameters.
Some other sites of interest in this regard are:
Cahokia Mounds Topography - Maps of Cahokia - http://www.museum.state.il.us/vrmuseum/jshape/cahokia2.html
Cahokia Site Map and Virtual Tour - http://www.cahokiamounds.com/virtual_tour.html
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency - http://www.illinoishistory.gov/hs/cahokia_mounds.htm
Archaeological Sites - Cahokia - http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/cahokia.html
Cahokia Mound 72 - http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001augustmound72excavation1.htm
National Park Service - Cahokia - http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/cahokia.htm
Mississippian Civilization - http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/up/upi.html
Mississippi Artifacts - http://www.mississippian-artifacts.com/
Gottschall Site - http://www.tcinternet.net/users/cbailey/Gottsiteoverview.html
Indian Mounds of Mississippi - http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/mounds/
FAMSI - http://www.famsi.org/
Chinese Neolithic Stone Carving of Big Dipper (Ursa Major) Discovered
The Xinhua News Agency reported on August 16, 2006 that a Neolithic stone carving of the stellar constellation of the "Big Dipper" (Ursa Major) has been discovered in China on Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They write as follows:
"Neolithic Stone Carving of Big Dipper Discovered
2006-08-17 11:16:01 Xinhua News Agency
A neolithic stone carving of the Big Dipper star formation has been found on Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to experts.
The stone carving was discovered by Wu Jiacai, a 50-year-old researcher in literature and history with Wongniute Banner of Inner Mongolia.
Wu found a large yam-shaped stone, 310 centimeters long, onto which 19 stars had been carved. The representation of the Big Dipper is on the north face of the stone.
The stars are represented by indentations in the stone. The biggest indentation is 6 centimeters in diameter and 5 centimeters deep, said Wu.
"The stone was carved by neolithic dwellers," said Gai Shanlin, researcher with the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (IMICRA) and an expert in stone carving.
The carving style proves this, said Gai. Astronomers' conjectures about the shape of the Big Dipper some ten thousand years ago also match the carving.
"Finding a stone carving in China‘s desert hinterland is a rare occurrence," said Tala, director of IMICRA, who said it might help prove how ancient celestial bodies evolved.
Apart from the Big Dipper, Wu also found some "unexplained images" on the stone. He thinks they may depict ancient gods, such as the god of the sun and the god of horses. Further study would be needed to determine when the pictures were painted.
Many neolithic jade articles from the Hongshan Culture -- such as a dragon with a pig's mouth and a cloud-shaped pendant -- have already been unearthed around Baimiaozi Mountain.
The Hongshan Culture was an aboriginal culture that existed in northern China about 6000 years ago.
Tala believes the discovery will contribute to knowledge about the origin and spread of Hongshan Culture.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2006)"
This discovery fits in with the ancient hermetic system of land survey by astronomy discovered by Andis Kaulins in China (see Stars Stones and Scholars), according to which the Great Wall of China marks the Milky Way as the Dragon of Heaven and where e.g. Yumen marks Gemini at the West end of the Great Wall and Shanhaikuan and this region of China mark the Head of the Azure Dragon (Tang Shay) in the East.
Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is located near the area where the eastern part of the Great Wall of China ends and many other ancient artefacts have been found in this region.
"Neolithic Stone Carving of Big Dipper Discovered
2006-08-17 11:16:01 Xinhua News Agency
A neolithic stone carving of the Big Dipper star formation has been found on Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to experts.
The stone carving was discovered by Wu Jiacai, a 50-year-old researcher in literature and history with Wongniute Banner of Inner Mongolia.
Wu found a large yam-shaped stone, 310 centimeters long, onto which 19 stars had been carved. The representation of the Big Dipper is on the north face of the stone.
The stars are represented by indentations in the stone. The biggest indentation is 6 centimeters in diameter and 5 centimeters deep, said Wu.
"The stone was carved by neolithic dwellers," said Gai Shanlin, researcher with the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (IMICRA) and an expert in stone carving.
The carving style proves this, said Gai. Astronomers' conjectures about the shape of the Big Dipper some ten thousand years ago also match the carving.
"Finding a stone carving in China‘s desert hinterland is a rare occurrence," said Tala, director of IMICRA, who said it might help prove how ancient celestial bodies evolved.
Apart from the Big Dipper, Wu also found some "unexplained images" on the stone. He thinks they may depict ancient gods, such as the god of the sun and the god of horses. Further study would be needed to determine when the pictures were painted.
Many neolithic jade articles from the Hongshan Culture -- such as a dragon with a pig's mouth and a cloud-shaped pendant -- have already been unearthed around Baimiaozi Mountain.
The Hongshan Culture was an aboriginal culture that existed in northern China about 6000 years ago.
Tala believes the discovery will contribute to knowledge about the origin and spread of Hongshan Culture.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2006)"
This discovery fits in with the ancient hermetic system of land survey by astronomy discovered by Andis Kaulins in China (see Stars Stones and Scholars), according to which the Great Wall of China marks the Milky Way as the Dragon of Heaven and where e.g. Yumen marks Gemini at the West end of the Great Wall and Shanhaikuan and this region of China mark the Head of the Azure Dragon (Tang Shay) in the East.
Baimiaozi Mountain near Chifeng City in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is located near the area where the eastern part of the Great Wall of China ends and many other ancient artefacts have been found in this region.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Brazilian Stonehenge at Amapa - Survey Line by Astronomy to Nazca & Machupicchu
According to a May 13, 2006, BBC News article by Steve Kingstone out of Sao Paulo, Brazil, titled " 'Brazilian Stonehenge' discovered ", Brazilian archaeologists have found a large megalithic site in Amapa, Brazil. The site consists of 127 megaliths. Archaeologists see a relation to astronomy and the marking of the Winter Solstice, which is probably true.
In addition, however, I would like to call attention to the ancient survey lines that I have drawn for South America at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi228.htm
As one can see there clearly, the lowest left most southerly survey line in South America, which points NE, if extended, would hit Amapa. This line appears to run from Nazca to Machupicchu to Amapa.
Although I do not yet have the precise coordinates for the megaliths found, I would predict here that the Amapa megaliths are thus part of the survey by astronomy that I have discovered and that I describe in my book, Stars Stones and Scholars and about which I post here regularly at the LexiLine Newsletter.
In addition, however, I would like to call attention to the ancient survey lines that I have drawn for South America at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi228.htm
As one can see there clearly, the lowest left most southerly survey line in South America, which points NE, if extended, would hit Amapa. This line appears to run from Nazca to Machupicchu to Amapa.
Although I do not yet have the precise coordinates for the megaliths found, I would predict here that the Amapa megaliths are thus part of the survey by astronomy that I have discovered and that I describe in my book, Stars Stones and Scholars and about which I post here regularly at the LexiLine Newsletter.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Santorini Explosion on Thera Redated in Science Magazine - The Ancient History of the Aegean, Egypt and the Middle East must be Corrected
Santorini Explosion on Thera Redated in Science Magazine - The Ancient History of the Aegean, Egypt and the Middle East must be Corrected
For years, we have argued that the mainstream chronology of the Aegean, Pharaonic Egypt and the Middle East was wrong, based in part on our setting the explosion of Santorini on Thera at August 4, 1627 B.C. Now we can report that this is a fundamental pillar of the chronology of the ancient world on which we have been right for years and the mainstream very wrong.
See in this regard our postings on the dating of the explosion of Santorini to August 4, 1627 BC based on astronomical and dendrochronological considerations, plus Flinders Petrie, Santorini and Pottery Chronology , Chronology and Santorini and postings by others at The Eruption of Thera and Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Dating.
Science magazine, 28 April 2006 issue, Vol. 312, no. 5773, pp. 508 - 509, DOI: 10.1126/science.312.5773.508, in its News of the Week for archaeology has a summary of "New Carbon Dates Support Revised History of Ancient Mediterranean" by Michael Balter, writing:
"Two new radiocarbon studies on pages 548 and 565 of this issue of Science claim to provide strong support for the earlier of the two sets of dates that have been proposed for the Late Bronze Age eruption of the Aegean volcanic island of Thera."
These very important studies can be accessed at the links below, which are taken straight out of Science magazine. As you can read there, the eruption of Santorini is now in fact dated to the time period of 1627-1600 B.C., with 1627 B.C. being a cardinal date that we have been using for years:
Brevia:
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 B.C. by Walter L. Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Michael Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier, Tom Pfeiffer, and Sahra Talamo
Science, 28 April 2006: 548 Abstract Full Text PDF Supporting Online Material -->
Reports:
Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C. by Sturt W. Manning, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Walter Kutschera, Thomas Higham, Bernd Kromer, Peter Steier, and Eva M. Wild
Science, 28 April 2006: 565-569 Abstract Full Text PDF Supporting Online Material
The significance of the new dating to our entire view of ancient history should not be underestimated. It is not merely significant to the dating of the Aegean civilizations, but applies directly to the chronology of Egypt and the Middle East.
Exodus and Moses are traditionally tied to the explosion of Santorini, but as we have argued for years, based on the biography of Moses by Artapanus, Moses was born ca. 1707 BC and Exodus took place ca. 1627 B.C and not several hundred years later, as alleged by the current totally erroneous mainstream view.
Also Egyptian and Biblical chronology are totally wrong, and there is no doubt now about this whatsoever. Here is what is written at the abstracts of the two Science articles:
1. Science 28 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5773, p. 548, DOI: 10.1126/science.1125087,
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600:
"Precise and direct dating of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera) in Greece, a global Bronze Age time marker, has been made possible by the unique find of an olive tree, buried alive in life position by the tephra (pumice and ashes) on Santorini. We applied so-called radiocarbon wiggle-matching to a carbon-14 sequence of tree-ring segments to constrain the eruption date to the range 1627-1600 B.C. with 95.4% probability. Our result is in the range of previous, less precise, and less direct results of several scientific dating methods, but it is a century earlier than the date derived from traditional Egyptian chronologies."
2. Science 28 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5773, pp. 565 - 569 DOI: 10.1126/science.1125682,
"Radiocarbon (carbon-14) data from the Aegean Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C. show that the Santorini (Thera) eruption must have occurred in the late 17th century B.C. By using carbon-14 dates from the surrounding region, cultural phases, and Bayesian statistical analysis, we established a chronology for the initial Aegean Late Bronze Age cultural phases (Late Minoan IA, IB, and II). This chronology contrasts with conventional archaeological dates and cultural synthesis: stretching out the Late Minoan IA, IB, and II phases by 100 years and requiring reassessment of standard interpretations of associations between the Egyptian and Near Eastern historical dates and phases and those in the Aegean and Cyprus in the mid-second millennium B.C." [our addition of the color and emphasis]
The corrected Egyptian and Biblical chronology will accord with our chronology of the Ancient World, a chronology primarily derived from astronomy and solar eclipse data, plus dendrochronological studies such as those by Hollstein, which we were the first to comment positively on the internet and based on an identification of fundamental errors in chronology committed by Flinders Petrie at Tell el Hesy.
It is always remarkable for me to see that I, one person alone, working without funding or pay of any kind, am able to come up with better, earlier, more accurate work than literally thousands of professors working for substantial pay and with tremendous funding at the universities in these fields. These people are smart enough to see the light, but they are mostly too weak to go against establish schools of thought and to examine available evidence neutrally and independently, and that is the Achilles heel which keeps most of them in ignorance.
We thank those scholars involved in these studies, as published in Science, studies which we hope will make their academic colleagues to finally arise from their Rip van Winkle somnambulation and to encourage them to start to write history as it really was and not as it has been - thus far - erroneously written by them.
For years, we have argued that the mainstream chronology of the Aegean, Pharaonic Egypt and the Middle East was wrong, based in part on our setting the explosion of Santorini on Thera at August 4, 1627 B.C. Now we can report that this is a fundamental pillar of the chronology of the ancient world on which we have been right for years and the mainstream very wrong.
See in this regard our postings on the dating of the explosion of Santorini to August 4, 1627 BC based on astronomical and dendrochronological considerations, plus Flinders Petrie, Santorini and Pottery Chronology , Chronology and Santorini and postings by others at The Eruption of Thera and Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Dating.
Science magazine, 28 April 2006 issue, Vol. 312, no. 5773, pp. 508 - 509, DOI: 10.1126/science.312.5773.508, in its News of the Week for archaeology has a summary of "New Carbon Dates Support Revised History of Ancient Mediterranean" by Michael Balter, writing:
"Two new radiocarbon studies on pages 548 and 565 of this issue of Science claim to provide strong support for the earlier of the two sets of dates that have been proposed for the Late Bronze Age eruption of the Aegean volcanic island of Thera."
These very important studies can be accessed at the links below, which are taken straight out of Science magazine. As you can read there, the eruption of Santorini is now in fact dated to the time period of 1627-1600 B.C., with 1627 B.C. being a cardinal date that we have been using for years:
Brevia:
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 B.C. by Walter L. Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Michael Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier, Tom Pfeiffer, and Sahra Talamo
Science, 28 April 2006: 548 Abstract Full Text PDF Supporting Online Material -->
Reports:
Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C. by Sturt W. Manning, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Walter Kutschera, Thomas Higham, Bernd Kromer, Peter Steier, and Eva M. Wild
Science, 28 April 2006: 565-569 Abstract Full Text PDF Supporting Online Material
The significance of the new dating to our entire view of ancient history should not be underestimated. It is not merely significant to the dating of the Aegean civilizations, but applies directly to the chronology of Egypt and the Middle East.
Exodus and Moses are traditionally tied to the explosion of Santorini, but as we have argued for years, based on the biography of Moses by Artapanus, Moses was born ca. 1707 BC and Exodus took place ca. 1627 B.C and not several hundred years later, as alleged by the current totally erroneous mainstream view.
Also Egyptian and Biblical chronology are totally wrong, and there is no doubt now about this whatsoever. Here is what is written at the abstracts of the two Science articles:
1. Science 28 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5773, p. 548, DOI: 10.1126/science.1125087,
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600:
"Precise and direct dating of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera) in Greece, a global Bronze Age time marker, has been made possible by the unique find of an olive tree, buried alive in life position by the tephra (pumice and ashes) on Santorini. We applied so-called radiocarbon wiggle-matching to a carbon-14 sequence of tree-ring segments to constrain the eruption date to the range 1627-1600 B.C. with 95.4% probability. Our result is in the range of previous, less precise, and less direct results of several scientific dating methods, but it is a century earlier than the date derived from traditional Egyptian chronologies."
2. Science 28 April 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5773, pp. 565 - 569 DOI: 10.1126/science.1125682,
"Radiocarbon (carbon-14) data from the Aegean Bronze Age 1700-1400 B.C. show that the Santorini (Thera) eruption must have occurred in the late 17th century B.C. By using carbon-14 dates from the surrounding region, cultural phases, and Bayesian statistical analysis, we established a chronology for the initial Aegean Late Bronze Age cultural phases (Late Minoan IA, IB, and II). This chronology contrasts with conventional archaeological dates and cultural synthesis: stretching out the Late Minoan IA, IB, and II phases by 100 years and requiring reassessment of standard interpretations of associations between the Egyptian and Near Eastern historical dates and phases and those in the Aegean and Cyprus in the mid-second millennium B.C." [our addition of the color and emphasis]
The corrected Egyptian and Biblical chronology will accord with our chronology of the Ancient World, a chronology primarily derived from astronomy and solar eclipse data, plus dendrochronological studies such as those by Hollstein, which we were the first to comment positively on the internet and based on an identification of fundamental errors in chronology committed by Flinders Petrie at Tell el Hesy.
It is always remarkable for me to see that I, one person alone, working without funding or pay of any kind, am able to come up with better, earlier, more accurate work than literally thousands of professors working for substantial pay and with tremendous funding at the universities in these fields. These people are smart enough to see the light, but they are mostly too weak to go against establish schools of thought and to examine available evidence neutrally and independently, and that is the Achilles heel which keeps most of them in ignorance.
We thank those scholars involved in these studies, as published in Science, studies which we hope will make their academic colleagues to finally arise from their Rip van Winkle somnambulation and to encourage them to start to write history as it really was and not as it has been - thus far - erroneously written by them.
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