Friday, January 29, 2010

The Star of Bethlehem 32 B.C.

The book review New Book on the Star of Bethlehem and Birth Chart of Jesus » The Horoscopic Astrology Blog is by Chris Brennan who writes:
"A book just came out in which the author proposes a new theory about the Star of Bethlehem and the birth chart of Jesus.The book is aptly titled The Star of Bethlehem. It was written by a Swiss astrologer named Dieter Koch, who is primarily known for his work with the company Astrodienst, as a co-author of the widely used Swiss Ephemeris....He rightly emphasizes the importance that was ascribed to planets making a helical rising in ancient astrology, and then later adds another dimension to the argument when he takes the statement that the star “stopped” over the place of Jesus’ birth as an indication that the relevant star stationed around the time the Magi arrived in Bethlehem. (pg. 57)

Eventually he unveils the crux of his argument, which is essentially that:“Jesus was born at a heliacal rising of Venus!” (pg. 59)"

In our opinion, that theory of Koch is without substance. As Nigel Henbest writes in What was the Star of Bethlehem?
"Was Venus the Star of Bethlehem? Almost certainly not - Venus makes such regular appearances as the "Morning Star" and the "Evening Star" that people observing the heavens even thousands of years ago would have been familiar with it. The Christmas Star must have been a celestial event that was truly out-of-the-ordinary....Chinese astronomers were logging their own observations of the sky at the time, and reported no brilliant supernovae. They did, however, record two bright comets. The first was Halley's Comet, which swings close by the Sun roughly every 76 years.... But the ancient Chinese saw Halley swinging by in 12 BC - too early for the birth of Jesus.The Chinese reported another celestial visitor early in 5 BC - a"broom star" on the borders of the constellations Aquarius and Capricornus. Though some astronomers think this was a nova - an explosion on a dwarf star - Colin Humphreys, a scientist at Cambridge University, argues that it was a comet. And Humphreys is convinced that this tailed wonder was the Star of Bethlehem. The Chinese records show that the celestial visitor was visible for 70 days - long enough to guide the Magi to Bethlehem. In this case, Jesus was born in the spring of 5 BC. "
Postings by others on the topic of the Star of Bethlehem discuss yet other theories:

The Star of Bethlehem, again
at Bad Astronomy discusses a theory that the Star of Bethlehem was the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus - we do not buy that at all.

Colin Humphreys, The Star of Bethlehem, Science and Christian Belief , Vol 5, (October 1995): 83-101, suggests that the Star of Bethlehem was a comet - and that is the theory which we regard to be correct - but which comet and when?

All previous efforts to identify a comet around the era currently assigned to Christ are for naught, because there is a ca. 28-year error in current chronology - see the links below - so that what we regard as the "birth" of Christ was actually his death:

The Era of Jesus: Questions in Modern Calendration
Law, Evidence and Archaeology: Errors in Biblical Chronology
Law, Evidence and Archaeology: Errors in Biblical Chronology II

The result is then that we are looking for a comet around ca. 30 B.C. rather than 0 B.C. and there is indeed such a comet which fits the Biblical account perfectly, having appeared in February in 32 BC and appearing in the heaven's at Ying Shih, which extends into Capricorn, the traditional area of Christ's birth.

See John Williams, Observations of comets, from B. C. 611 to A. D. 1640 (1871), where he writes about the Chinese observation of a comet that appears 50th in his list and was observed in February 32 B.C.:
50 B.C. 32. February.In the reign of Ching Te, the 1st year of the epoch Keen Che, the 1st moon, there was a comet in Ying Shih : its colour was a bluish white. It was from 60 to 70 cubits in length, and about i cubit in width. [emphasis added]
As written in a review of Williams work, Ying Shih is described as follows:
"Ying Shih, or as it is more usually denominated Shih, is one of the 28 stellar divisions determined by [alpha], [beta] and other stars in Pegasus, extending north and south from Cygnus to Piscis Australis, and east and west 17 degrees, and comprising parts of our signs Capricornus and Aquarius."
David Seargent in The greatest comets in history: broom stars and celestial scimitars, Volume 725, writes:
"There seems ... to have been a comet with an exceptionally long tail in the year 32 BC., but it is mentioned - and then only briefly - in just one Chinese record. Moreover, despite noting a tail of at least 70 degrees in length, the object is described as a sparkling star, a designation more normally reserved for comets with no conspicuous tail. Maybe the tail was faint....[emphasis added]
In our view, that "sparkling star" was the Star of Bethlehem.

Aristeo Canlas Fernando writes in his REVELATION AND PROOFS - based on the Bible, accounts of the respected Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, eclipse table prepared by Fred Espanek, Jewish calendars, Jewish festivals and fasts, calendar converter of Timothy James Forsythe, moon phases by Stellafane, Pasiong Mahal (Holy Passion), and the Aristean Cycle - that JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN ON MAY 23, 33 B.C.

We agree that the birth of Jesus occurred in this era ca. 33-32 B.C. and that the Star of Bethlehem was the Comet of 32 B.C.

It may or may not be coincidence, by the way, but the oldest surviving date for the Maya Long Count also falls "in 32 BC at Chiapa de Corzo, between the Olmec and Maya zones," Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube, Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens, p.13.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Haplogroup R1b1b2

Haplogroup R1b1b2

Making Sense of the Neandertal Genome | Genome Technology | Sequencing | GenomeWeb

Making Sense of the Neandertal Genome | Genome Technology | Sequencing | GenomeWeb
by Ciara Curtin
"Ed Green fell into studying the Neandertal genome. He'd arrived at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig ready to dive into a study of alternative splicing in primates. Instead, he took on sequencing the Neandertal. '[I] just happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right skill set to look at the Neandertals as this high-throughput sequencing technology was coming online,' he says. And, of course, he says it's a really interesting project.

So far, the Neandertal Genome Project has reached a little more than one-fold coverage of the genome. The challenge now, Green says, is making sense of all that next-gen sequence data...."

National Trust locations in Britain via Street View at Google Maps

Some National Trust locations in Britain can now be viewed
via Street View at Google Maps, e.g. Avebury Stones.

I have been to Avebury and can say - at the time of this posting - that the opening scene of that link has you on the wrong side of the highway for a correct start to your journey at Avebury - at least as you start your journey when you are actually at Avebury - so click the map command to go out of Street View and then move the Street View "icon person" over on the other - left hand - side of the street, where you will then see some of the main Avebury stones and those stones that a tourist first sees when he visits the Avebury site and starts to take his walking tour. There are of course megaliths on both sides of the street, so play with your location to see as much of the stones as you can.

World Heritage Centre - World Heritage List

World Heritage Centre - World Heritage List
"The World Heritage List includes 890 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

These include 689 cultural [Cultural site] , 176 natural [Natural site] and 25 mixed [Mixed site] properties in 148 States Parties. As of April 2009, 186 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention."

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Medieval News: Seven Ages of Britain series to begin on BBC

This is a bit "modern" for us, but should be interesting.

Medieval News: Seven Ages of Britain series to begin on BBC
"David Dimbleby charts a landmark history of Britain's greatest art and artefacts over 2,000 years, in Seven Ages Of Britain. The seven-part series of 60-minute programmes, shot in HD, begins at 9.00pm on Sunday 31 January 2010."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

CARNAC: In the Footsteps of France’s First Farmers

In the Footsteps of France’s First Farmers
"Carnac is a series of over 300 standing stones, spread over 4 kilometres, making up about 40 hectares. Associated excavations suggest these stone alignments are dated to between 4500 and 2500 B.C, a period that saw the beginning of sedentary existence and farming in western Europe. This makes the stones amongst the first of the monumental structures built in western Europe."

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

On the astronomical content of the sacred landscape of Cusco in Inka times by Giulio Magli

On the astronomical content of the sacred landscape of Cusco in Inka times by Giulio Magli. This is a very good read on the hermetic principle at work in Inca culture - as above, so below.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tools point to early Cretan arrivals and world's earliest seafaring - Times Online

Tools point to early Cretan arrivals - Times Online

Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent, writes:
"Evidence for the world’s earliest seafaring has emerged from an archaeological survey in Crete....

What sort of water-craft might have been used remains a matter of speculation, but it seems that our forebears were forging their way across Homer’s “wine-dark sea” tens of millennia earlier than anybody had supposed."

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Boston University archeologist’s digs uncover clues to Egyptian mariners - The Boston Globe

Boston University archeologist’s digs uncover clues to Egyptian mariners - The Boston Globe
"BU archeologist unearths clues about ancient Egypt’s sea trade

The archeological digs at Egypt’s Wadi Gawasis have yielded neither mummies nor grand monuments.

But Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt.

Starting in the middle of the last decade, the Bard-Fattovich team grabbed the attention of nautical archeologists with the unearthing of ship timbers, limestone anchors, steering oars, and hanks of marine rope. The precisely beveled deck beams, hull planks, and copper fittings belong to the oldest deep sea vessels ever found, dating back at least 3,800 years.

The craft appear to have been up to 70 feet long, powered by rowers and sail and capable of navigating deep seas.

“This is exciting stuff, important,’’ said Shelley Wachsmann, a top authority on Bronze Age ships at Texas A&M University’s Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He is not directly involved with Bard’s research.“She’s found the first fragments of an ancient Egyptian seagoing vessel - a ship that actually sailed in pharaonic times,’’ Wachsmann said."


Read the full article here
.

The Jewish Priesthood Cohanim and the Y Chromosome Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH)

Extended Y chromosome haplotypes resolve multiple and unique lineages of the Jewish priesthood, by
Hammer MF, Behar DM, Karafet TM, Mendez FL, Hallmark B, Erez T, Zhivotovsky LA, Rosset S, Skorecki K
"[Abstract (excerpt)]

The most frequent Cohanim lineage (46.1%) is marked by the recently reported P58 T->C mutation, which is prevalent in the Near East. Based on genotypes at 12 Y-STRs, we identify an extended CMH on the J-P58* background that predominates in both Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is remarkably absent in non-Jews. The estimated divergence time of this lineage based on 17 STRs is 3,190 +/- 1,090 years. Notably, the second most frequent Cohanim lineage (J-M410*, 14.4%) contains an extended modal haplotype that is also limited to Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is estimated to be 4.2 +/- 1.3 ky old. These results support the hypothesis of a common origin of the CMH in the Near East well before the dispersion of the Jewish people into separate communities, and indicate that the majority of contemporary Jewish priests descend from a limited number of paternal lineages."

Researchers Develop Method for Distinguishing Ancient Human DNA from Modern Day Contaminants | GenomeWeb Daily News | Sequencing | GenomeWeb

Researchers Develop Method for Distinguishing Ancient Human DNA from Modern Day Contaminants | GenomeWeb Daily News | Sequencing | GenomeWeb
"NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Russian Academy of Sciences have come up with a way to overcome modern human DNA contamination — a major obstacle in past ancient human DNA sequencing efforts....

Based on the DNA patterns present in mitochondria, the researchers concluded that the Russian remains are roughly 30,000 years old — in the same range as previous estimates that put the skeleton's age at between 30,000 and 33,000 years old....

The team is currently trying to collect more samples from early modern human populations. And the new method may have applications for studies of historical population patterns throughout Europe and elsewhere, Krause explained, such as the effects of an ice age occurring in Europe around 20,000 years ago."

Friday, January 15, 2010

Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Texts Suggests

Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Texts Suggests
"Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing — an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign....

'It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research,' said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text."

Stonehenge Included on ‘Most Threatened’ Sites List

Stonehenge Included on ‘Most Threatened’ Sites List

Monday, January 11, 2010

The story of civilisation in 100 objects - Times Online

The story of civilisation in 100 objects - Times Online

Prehistoric building uncovered near Tel Aviv | Science & Technology | Jewish Journal

Prehistoric building uncovered near Tel Aviv | Science & Technology | Jewish Journal

Egypt and the Pyramid Builders

Katarina Kratovic of the Canadian Press (CP) headlines the January 11, 2009 article that
Egypt says newly discovered tombs provide more evidence slaves did not build pyramids.
"[Photo] Egyptian archaeology workers dig tombs in front of the Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 11, 2010. Egyptian archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said. ([photo] THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Amr Nabil)"
The conclusion of "who" built the Giza Pyramids is not answered quite that simply, however, especially since the new tombs revealed skeletons that had suffered from hard labor and had arthritis.

As with any building project, to answer the question of "who" built something, you have to consider:

1) who gave the order to build the pyramids
2) who financed the pyramid buildings
3) who were the design architects of the pyramids
4) who were the overseers of the construction
5) who were the suppliers of the raw materials for building
6) who was in charge of transport and logistics
7) who were the skilled craftsmen required to build the pyramids
8) who were the manual laborers needed to do the heavy work of moving stones, etc.

It is typical for the tunnel-viewed Egyptologists that these questions are all tossed into one pot, rather than being handled in a sensible, differentiated manner.

Thus, as for the actual identity of the pyramid "builders", their origin may well differ according to which of the above building tasks we are talking about.

The Phaistos Disc: Two Corroborative Old Elamite Scripts Deciphered Using the Greek Syllabic Values Obtained for the Phaistos Disc by Andis Kaulins

Just for the record, I am posting this, although it is a while back.

from Minerva - The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology

International Phaistos Disk Conference 2008 - sponsored by Minerva

Society of Antiquaries, London 31 October – 1 November 2008

ABSTRACT

"Andis Kaulins, J.D., Traben-Trarbach, Germany

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

Genuine or fake? This important issue was raised about the Phaistos Disk by Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D., editor of Minerva. How can anyone prove, without any other probative evidence, that a virtually isolated artefact, one of a kind, is the real thing, and, similarly, how can one establish the correctness of an alleged decipherment of an isolated script without the presence of any corroborative texts? Eisenberg had hit the nail on the head. The Phaistos Disk presented the scholarly world with a vexing problem. This problem led Andis Kaulins, author of an alleged decipherment of the Phaistos Disk in the years 1977-1980, to look for a potentially corroborative script from the Ancient World that might have surfaced in the intervening 30 years. To the author’s own great surprise, two allegedly corroborative scripts were found, Old Elamite scripts from the distant culture of Elam, which the author has deciphered to be Ancient Greek text via his deciphered Greek syllabic values for symbols found on the Phaistos Disk as applied to the nearest similar pictographs found in Old Elamite, a script also not yet fully deciphered. The Old Elamite scripts are shown to be funerary dedications, one to the ancient ‘Babylonian’ king Labynetus, by his wife and companion Nitokris, and the other to Nitokris herself, identified as a Mycenaean, far from home. Perhaps Nitokris was the true ‘Helen’ of Troy of ancient Greek legend."


Deforestation Unveils Lost Amazon Civilization : Discovery News

Deforestation Unveils Lost Amazon Civilization : Discovery News

Thursday, January 07, 2010

The Gravettian of Moravia – The Pavlovian and the Willendorf-Kostenkian

This is an interesting website relating to European Prehistory from the Czech Academy of Sciences, translated into English by Vit Lang (original text and illustrations by Libor Balák) about:
"Moravia, northern Austria and southern Poland, about 33,500 – 27,500 years ago (29,000 – 23,000 radiocarbon years before present). The era of the great European cultures of the Northern-type hunters."

Most Popular Posts of All Time

Sky Earth Native America


Sky Earth Native America 1:
American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
,
Volume 1, Edition 2, 266 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Sky Earth Native America 2:
    American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
    Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
    ,
    Volume 2, Edition 2, 262 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Both volumes have the same cover except for the labels "Volume 1" viz. "Volume 2".
    The image on the cover was created using public domain space photos of Earth from NASA.

    -----

    Both book volumes contain the following basic book description:
    "Alice Cunningham Fletcher observed in her 1902 publication in the American Anthropologist
    that there is ample evidence that some ancient cultures in Native America, e.g. the Pawnee in Nebraska,
    geographically located their villages according to patterns seen in stars of the heavens.
    See Alice C. Fletcher, Star Cult Among the Pawnee--A Preliminary Report,
    American Anthropologist, 4, 730-736, 1902.
    Ralph N. Buckstaff wrote:
    "These Indians recognized the constellations as we do, also the important stars,
    drawing them according to their magnitude.
    The groups were placed with a great deal of thought and care and show long study.
    ... They were keen observers....
    The Pawnee Indians must have had a knowledge of astronomy comparable to that of the early white men."
    See Ralph N. Buckstaff, Stars and Constellations of a Pawnee Sky Map,
    American Anthropologist, Vol. 29, Nr. 2, April-June 1927, pp. 279-285, 1927.
    In our book, we take these observations one level further
    and show that megalithic sites and petroglyphic rock carving and pictographic rock art in Native America,
    together with mounds and earthworks, were made to represent territorial geographic landmarks
    placed according to the stars of the sky using the ready map of the starry sky
    in the hermetic tradition, "as above, so below".
    That mirror image of the heavens on terrestrial land is the "Sky Earth" of Native America,
    whose "rock stars" are the real stars of the heavens, "immortalized" by rock art petroglyphs, pictographs,
    cave paintings, earthworks and mounds of various kinds (stone, earth, shells) on our Earth.
    These landmarks were placed systematically in North America, Central America (Meso-America) and South America
    and can to a large degree be reconstructed as the Sky Earth of Native America."


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