Unravelling the Mysteries of Ancient Artifacts

www.Ancient-Origins.net

Two Year Anniversary Edition

2015

Published on 22nd of February 2015 to celebrate the Two Year Anniversary of www.Ancient-Origins.net.

This eBook wouldn’t have been possible without the contribution of the authors and writers that have supported Ancient Origins from the beginning.

Many thanks to:

Ralph Ellis, Brien Foerster, Petros Koutoupis, Maria Wheatley, Dr Rita Louise, Hugh Newman, Rand and Rose Flem-Ath, Tashi Alexander Javed, Ahmed Osman, Gary A. David, Leonide Martin, Scott Onstott, Gary Evans, and Paul Burley.

www.Ancient-Origins.net

Facebook – Google+ – YouTube – Twitter – Tumblr

Table of Contents

The Ark of Edessa by Ralph Ellis

A Mysterious Map Emerges at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization by Rand & Rose Flem-Ath

Circular Myth – The Dendera Zodiac by Tashi Alexander Javed

Eteocypriot and the Amathus Bilingual by Petros Koutoupis

The Vajra: An Ancient Weapon of War by Dr Rita Louise

Stonehenge: Mounds, Artifacts, and Intrigue by Maria Wheatley

Memnon’s Musical Statue by Ahmed Osman

Lost Ancient High Technology in Egypt by Brien Foerster

The Sacred Meaning of the Reed by Gary A. David

Mayan Women and the Coiled Snake Headdress by Leonide Martin

The Mystery of Obelisks by Scott Onstott

Ancient Acoustic Artifacts and Communication with the “Gods” by Gary Evans

Geometric Stone Spheres of Scotland… and Beyond by Hugh Newman

Orion: Overlord of Stonehenge by Paul Burley

The Ark of Edessa

By Ralph Ellis

The year was 165 AD, and the location was the Edessan necropolis at Sogmatar, in what was then northern Syria. In this year King Wa'el of Edessa had an inscription carved upon the sacred hill of Sogmatar, which said:

In Sebat of the year 476 (of the Seleucid era) ... we set up this pillar (netsib) on this blessed mountain and erected a seat (kersa) for the one who maintains it. The governor will be a budar ... and he will give the seat to the one who is going to maintain it ... If he withholds the seat or the pillar is ruined, god will be the judge. 1

Before we come onto the meaning of this inscription, lets first look at the hill of Sogmatar. It is the central focus of the Edessan royal necropolis, which lies in a very remote location in the barren rolling hills to the southeast of Edessa (modern Sanlurfa in Turkey). And the strange thing about this man-made hill, is that it is the same size and shape as Silbury Hill in England. Why and how this similarity arose, is open to speculation.

Figure 1.  The identical man-made hills of Silbury and Sogmatar. (Photo credit: Ralph Ellis)

Pillars and thrones

It was upon this man-made hill at Sogmatar, that this inscription was found. But what does it mean? The translation by Han Drijvers mentions a netsib bun 'pillar'. But Steven Ross in his analysis of Roman Edessa calls this same pillar a betyl-omphalos stone. 2 Now this is interesting, for it implies that the Edessan netsib bun 'pillar' was the same as a Judaic matseb-ah hbum. The latter is a term that refers to both a pillar and to a small pyramid (a small conical stone, an omphalos stone).

The most famous matseb was the ‘pillar of Jacob’ that Jacob anointed with oils when he was at Haran in northern Syria, as narrated in Genesis 28:18. This ritual appears to be very similar to the anointing of Hindu lingams, which are also basted with oils in exactly the same fashion. So the Syrian netsib and the Judaic matseb must have been small conical stones basted with oils. So was Jacob venerating a Hindu lingam? Possibly, but since the Hindu lingam is often basted with a Minoan rhyton, it would appear that this ritual has travelled from west to east rather than vice versa. And the most likely conduit for this transfer of veneration and ritual, would be the Indian campaigns of Alexander the Great - especially as the Greeks were also closely identified with a similar matseb omphalos stone, as we shall see.

Figure 2. A Hindu lingam, basted with oils, in exactly the same fashion as Jacob's Pillar (Jacob's small conical stone). (Photo Credit: Lotus Sculptures)

Thus the Sogmatar inscription mentions a small omphalos stone, but it also mentions a seat. But it is highly likely that the Syriac kersa 'seat' was actually derived from the Judaic korsa aork, which refers more to a royal throne than to a common seat. But what type of throne was this? Was it a throne for a king, or a throne of the gods? And where might we find a sacred stone and a divine throne in close proximity to each other? The answer can be seen in the throne of Apollo, who is often depicted sitting on a sacred stone. Remarkably, we not only see this stone on Greek coinage, but it is now in the Delphi museum (although this is a very ancient copy of the original).

Figure 3. Left: A Greek coin of Seleucus III  showing Apollo seated upon the sacred omphalos stone of Delphi. Right: This stone (or an ancient copy of this stone) still exists at Delphi. (Photo credit: Ralph Ellis.)

So the netsib-matseb conical-stone and the kersa-korsa throne were intimately related objects - they were both thrones of the gods. But it was not just the Greeks who had a sacred stone that was also a throne, so too did the Israelites.

The Ark

So when might we encounter a sacred stone within Judaism that was intimately connected to a seat or a throne? For the answer we only need to turn to the Book of Exodus which says:

And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold ... And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings ... And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the Ark of the Covenant, and in the ark thou shalt put the (two stones) that I shall give you. (Exodus 25:17-21)

Interesting. So the other ancient reference to a combination of a seat 3 and a stone from this region, refers to the Ark of the Covenant itself. But these are not the same artifact at all, readers will exclaim, because the Ark of the Covenant was a wooden box containing sacred stones while Apollo is seated on the sacred stone itself. These are different depictions, and therefore components of completely different traditions.

That would be the correct deduction, were it not for the fact that we have images of the sacred stone that was placed on the top of the hill at Sogmatar, near Edessa. These images are from the coins of King Wa'el of Edessa, the same king who commissioned the inscription. The coins depict a cube inside a small temple, and archaeologists and numismatists call this strange artifact a 'cubic betyl stone'.

Figure 4. Two examples of the Edessan betyl 'stone', housed in a small temple. The king here is King Wa'el, the same king who wrote the inscription. (Photo credit: Forum Ancient Coins.)

But is this cube really a stone? Readers may see that in the upper image the cube rests on small feet, while in the lower image it rests on spoked wheels. So is this cube a stone? Surely it would be too heavy for small feet or wooden wheels. Sometimes I despair at the illogicality displayed by academics, because it is fairly obvious that these images actually portray a wooden box: a box that contained the sacred icon of the god. The cube is called a betyl, but this does not refer to a stone, instead it is derived from beth-el la tyb meaning ‘house of god’. Thus the cube is not made of stone, it is an Ark of the Covenant that 'housed' the sacred stone icons of the gods.

Figure 5.   A computer generated image of the Ark of the Covenant. This image conforms to the specifications and measurements given in the Book of Exodus.

In the biblical quote above, the Ark of the Covenant was also being called a 'seat'. In which case, it is fairly safe to say that the Edessan kersa-korsa ‘seat’ was actually the Ark of the Covenant, while the Edessan netsib-matseb stone(s) were the two sacred stones that were placed inside the Ark. Quite obviously, the Edessan monarchs had a Judaic Ark of the Covenant at Edessa. And yet since this royal family became so influential in Judaea and Jerusalem, then perhaps we can also surmise that they had the Ark of the Covenant. Not a mere copy, but the original Ark from the Exodus.

Travellogue

But how could the kings of Edessa have come across the Ark of the Covenant? The history is tortuous, but as is described in detail in The King Jesus Trilogy, the Edessan monarchy were Judaeo-Egyptians who had been exiled to Parthia in the 1st century BC, and then further exiled to northern Syria in the early 1st century AD. It was in Edessa that this royal family converted to Nazarene Judaism, and it was from Edessa that they set out to conquer Judaea. They began this conquest with acts of philanthropy, with Josephus Flavius recording that the Edessans furnished the Temple of Jerusalem and donated its solid gold menorah. (The Syriac historians say that the Adiabene and Edessan royal family were one and the same.)

So yes, this is a family who would have been very interested in acquiring an ancient Judaic artifact like the Ark of the Covenant. And although we have no definitive evidence for the route the Ark may have taken, we have plenty of circumstantial evidence for the travels of these conical sacred stones. The original stone was the Benben stone of Heliopolis. But a very similar stone is mentioned in connection with the patriarch, Jacob - as we have seen. A very similar stone then appears in Delphi in Greece, but it seems to have migrated to Parthia (Persia) in later generations, possibly via the campaigns of Alexander the Great. But this is interesting, because the Edessan royal family came from Parthia; so is this how they acquired their sacred stone? The Edessan royalty then took this stone to Sogmatar, which is only 20 km northeast of Haran - the place where Jacob anointed his stone many centuries previously. So was Jacob at Sogmatar? Did this sacred hill exist way back in antiquity, rather than it being built in the Romo-Parthian era as the history books suggest?

The next thing to consider, is whether these Greco-Edessan-Parthian omphalos stones could even fit into the original Ark of the Covenant. According to the Torah, the Ark measured 2.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 cubits.  Since it was proven in the book Thoth, Architect of the Universe that the Torah was referring to the Egyptian thoth or royal cubit, which measured 52.4 cm, then the Ark measured 1.31 x 0.79 x 0.79 meters. Now while such a chest could not have housed the huge and ornate omphalos of Delphi, it could easily have contained a stone similar to the smaller Delphi omphalos.

That the original omphalos stone was actually fairly small, is perhaps proven by the later coinage of Emperor Elagabalus. In 218 AD, just a few generations after the Edessan coin was minted, a Syrian king from this very same region became Emperor of Rome. This was the slightly deranged Emperor Elagabalus, who was also the high priest of the Elagabal. Surprisingly, the Elagabal was this very same conical omphalos stone, and so the coinage of Elagabalus depicts yet more images of this sacred conical stone. As can be seen in fig 6, the stone is definitely conical and it is being driven around Rome in a chariot. A big heavy stone would require a cart, not a chariot (the stone is exaggerated in size, so it can be easily seen on the coin). Again, the suggestion is that the true omphalos stone(s) were small enough to travel in a chariot and small enough to fit inside the Ark of the Covenant. In fact, for two of them to fit in the Ark, they would need to measure less than 0.75 m high and 0.65 m across the base (2.5 x 2.1 ft). This is about the same size as the smaller Delphi omphalos, but still quite a weight for a small wooden box.

Figure 6.   A coin of Emperor Elagabalus, showing the Elagabal omphalos stone placed in a chariot. Note the stone has the emblem of the Phoenix embossed upon it, which demonstrates that this was a Sun-stone (possibly a meteorite). (Photo credit: Forum Ancient Coins.)

Strange powers

One final thing to explore, is the strange powers that the Ark of the Covenant is said to have possessed. Since we have conclusively linked the Ark of the Covenant with the Elagabal omphalos stone(s), did these mysterious powers emanate from the Ark itself, or from the sacred stones it contained? The Elagabal stone was supposed to be a highly magnetic meteorite, and several pieces of evidence for this were discussed in the book King Jesus, including the Arthurian tale of a sword getting stuck on this sacred stone. Although it would be entirely natural for an iron or steel sword to get stuck on a magnetic rock, in exactly this fashion, such a reaction would be totally inexplicable to the vast majority of people in the Middle Ages.

If two highly magnetic omphalos stones had been placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, then the Ark would also appear to be highly magnetic. Nothing can stop a magnetic field, not even something as substantial as gold (although some ferromagnetic materials can redirect the magnetic field). And so if someone approached the golden Ark with a ferrous artifact, like a sword, it would be instantly attracted to the Ark. Anyone unfamiliar with magnetism might become highly alarmed at such a powerful and invisible force acting upon them, and to an uneducated soldier it would seem like the very hand of god himself had just reached out and grasped their sword. How else can something move, when there is nothing touching it and nothing visible? This was not like wind, which you can feel with your hand, because if you placed your hand next to the Ark you would feel absolutely nothing. But if you brought a horseshoe close to the Ark, god himself would grab hold of it and try to take it from you!

If magnetism was the basis of the Ark of the Covenant's other-worldly powers, then many people would regard this small chest as the abode of the gods. People could come and witness that amazing power. And so the Ark became the seat of social influence and political power, for anyone who owned it. And in the 1st century the Ark was owned by King Izas Manu VI of Judaea and Edessa, who is more commonly known in the biblical accounts as King Jesus Em Manuel of Judaea.

Copyright © 2015 Ralph Ellis

End Notes

1. Han Drijvers The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa.

2. Roman Edessa, Politics and Culture on the Eastern Fringes of the Roman, Steven Ross.

3. That this 'mercy seat' was made of stone is implied by the name Kaporeth (Kaforeth) trpk which was derived from kep or kef Pk meaning 'stone'. It is from kef that the Greek Cephas was derived, the name for St Peter and meaning 'stone'. So this was a stone seat, just like the omphalos was a stone seat or throne.

About the Author

Ralph Ellis was trained in surveying and computer science. He has been touring the Mediterranean and researching Egyptian and biblical history for over 30 years, and his comparisons between the two have greatly assisted our understanding of biblical history. In addition, Ralph has also sought to understand the design of the megalithic monuments from a purely scientific and engineering viewpoint. Nevertheless, his lateral analysis of the likely possibilities for the design of these great monuments is still very novel and highly provocative.

The above article is extracted from Ralph’s book, the Gospel of King Jesus Trilogy, which includes:

Latest editions available on iPad, Kindle, Google, Kobe and Nook. Paperback copies available from Adventures Unlimited of Illinois. http://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

Website:

http://www.edfu-books.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/KingJesus

A Mysterious Map Emerges at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization

By Rand and Rose Flem-Ath

On a chilly winter day in 1929, Halil Edhem, the Director of Turkey's National Museum, was hunched over his solitary task of classifying documents.  He pulled towards him a map drawn on Roe deer skin. As Halil opened the chart to its full dimensions (two feet by three feet wide or 60 X 90 cm) he was surprised by how much of the New World was depicted on a map which dated from 1513.

Figure 1. The 1513 Piri Reis Map was drawn on Roe Deer Skin.

The document was the legacy of a pirate turned Turkish Admiral, Piri Reis (circa 1470-1554). He was born in Gallipoli, a naval base on the Marmara Sea and was the nephew of Kemal Reis, a pirate who had reinvented himself as a Turkish Admiral adventurer who had made his name in naval warfare. At the time, the distinction between pirate and Admiral was more flexible than might be expected from looking back through a Hollywood lens.

Piri Reis sailed with his famous uncle from 1487 to 1493. During these voyages he was introduced to the lucrative spoils of piracy. The fleet fought pirates and captured and plundered enemy ships. In 1495, Kemal Reis’ great skill in the art of battle earned him an invitation to join the Imperial Turkish Fleet. His nephew accompanied him to his new assignment. The pirates were transformed into respectable Admirals.

After Kemal was killed during a naval battle in 1502 Piri Reis turned his back on the seafaring life and began a second career as a map maker. A perfectionist - Piri Reis would not tolerate the slightest error in his drawings - he created his famous map in 1513 using older source maps; including charts captured from Christopher Columbus. The Turks had boarded one of Columbus’s ships before the crew had a chance to throw the charts into the sea; standard practice in a time when the contours of the planet remained veiled in mystery and maps held secrets that were invaluable to pirates, admirals, kings and queens.

A Columbus Controversy

The general public first learned of the existence of the Piri Reis map in the 27 February 1932 issue of the Illustrated London News. Entitled, “A Columbus Controversy: America – And Two Atlantic Charts”, the article noted that: “... Columbus got little further than the mouth of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, in his voyage along the coast of South America in 1498, so that the stretches of the South American coast given in the Piri Reis's chart must have been copied from other sources.”1

In the July 23rd edition of the magazine Akcura Yusuf, President of the Turkish Historical Research Society, wrote a more detailed account. The author pointed out a significant fact: “...the map in our possession is a fragment. If the Other fragments had not been lost, we should have had in our possession a Turkish chart drawn in 1513 representing the Old and New Worlds together.”2

U.S. Navy's Hydrographic Office.

An amateur scientist by the name of Captain Arlington Mallery made it his mission to determine the age of the source maps used by Piri Reis. So radical were Mallery's conclusions that he hesitated to reveal them. In August 1956 he finally decided to reveal his findings on a radio show sponsored by Georgetown University. He explained that in June 1954 he was working in the map room of the Library of Congress when his friend "... the Chief Engineer of the Hydrographic Office handed me a copy of a map which had been sent to him by a Turkish naval officer. He suggested that I examine it in the light of the information we already had on the ancient maps. After making an analysis of it, I took it back to him and requested that the Officer check both the latitude and longitude and the projection. When they asked why, I said, 'There is something in this map that no one is going to believe coming from me, and I don't know whether they will believe it coming from you.' That was the fact that Columbus had with him a map that showed accurately the Palmer Peninsula in the Antarctic continent.”3

Mr. Warren, the host of the radio show, interviewed Mallery and M.I. Walters of the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office:

“HOST: You say that these maps have been checked by the Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navy?

WALTERS: Yes.

HOST: As far as you are concerned, are they accurate?

WALTERS: Yes, they are.

HOST: How old are the maps?

WALTERS:  These maps go back 5,000 years and even earlier. But they contain data that go back many thousands of years previous to that.”

Walters remarked on the comparisons between the Piri Reis Map and the newly (1954) discovered sub-glacial features of the Queen Maud region of Antarctica:

“We have taken the old charts and the new charts that the Hydrographic Office produces today and made comparisons of the soundings of salient peaks and mountains. We have found them to be in astounding agreement. In this way we have checked the old work very closely. We put very much confidence in what Captain Mallery has disclosed.

...

HOST: Mr. Mallery, this must then lead to the conclusion that there were competent explorers and map makers along the coast of the Atlantic long before Columbus.

MALLERY: Several thousand years before. Not only explorers, but they must also have had a very competent and far-flung hydrographic organization, because you cannot map as large a continent as Antarctica as we know they did - probably 5,000 years ago. It can't be done by any single individual or small group of explorers. It means an aggregation of skilled scientists who are familiar with astronomy as well as the methods required for topographic surveying.”

Hapgood and the US Air Force Cartographic Office

One of Charles Hapgood’s students told him about the radio broadcast. The Professor was immediately fascinated and decided to: “…investigate the map as thoroughly as I could…4

Since Mallery had used the US Navy for his investigations Hapgood decided to get a second opinion from the Cartographic staff of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). The U.S. Air Force investigation came to the same conclusions as the US Navy. They determined that the southern part of the map did in fact depict portions of sub-glacial Antarctica.

Conventional wisdom dictated that the island continent hadn’t been discovered until 1818.

USAF Lt. Colonel Harold Z. Ohlmeyer wrote to Hapgood on the 6th of July 1960.

“Dear Professor Hapgood,

Your request for evaluating certain unusual features of the Piri Reis World Map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.

The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, and the Palmer Peninsula is reasonable. We find this the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

The geographic detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice cap by the Swedish-British-Norwegian Expedition of 1949.

This indicates the coast line had been mapped before it was covered by the ice cap.

The ice cap in this region is now about a mile thick. We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographic knowledge in 1513.

(signed)

HAROLD Z. OHLMEYER

Lt. Colonel, USAF

Commander”

Corresponding with Hapgood

Our adventure with the study of ancient maps began in the summer of 1977 when Charles Hapgood replied to an article we wrote outlining our belief that Antarctica was once the site of Atlantis. We’d concluded that Hapgood's theory of earth crust displacement was the missing link that could unravel the mystery of the lost island continent. Charles replied:

“August 3rd, 1977

Dear Rose and Rand,

I am astonished and delighted by your article which arrived here today. Believe it or not, it is the first truly scientific exploration of my work that has ever been done. You have found evidence for crust displacement that I did not find.

However, it would seem that you are not aware of a book I published in 1966 entitled Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings. Since you are considering presenting your article to the Royal Geographical Society (of which I was a member until I stopped paying my dues), you should examine this book, and I am mailing a copy of it to you.

What I found, after long research, was that many maps considered of medieval or Renaissance origin are in fact copies of copies of maps drawn in very remote antiquity, and among them is one showing a deglacial Antarctica. I was able to solve the projections of these maps with the help of a mathematician, and have them confirmed by the Cartographic staff of the Strategic Air Command at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. …

A week later a copy of Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings arrived. Far from dampening our enthusiasm for the idea that Atlantis may have once been Antarctica, the book had the opposite effect. We concluded that the ancient maps of sub-glacial Antarctica provided stunning evidence in support of our theory.

After the publication of the first edition of When the Sky Fell in January 1995, we returned to the Piri Reis map to determine if there were grounds to support Mallery and Hapgood’s claim that the source maps used in the construction of the Piri Reis map were hundreds of years older than the 1513 date of its construction.

Sources for the Piri Reis Map: How old?

One of the oddities about the Piri Reis map was that it had been drawn using an extremely sophisticated projection. An “equidistant projection” depicts the features of the earth from a single point on its surface. This projection can be calculated from any spot on the globe. Perhaps the most familiar equidistant projection is the blue and white flag of the United Nations, centered on the North Pole.

Figure 2. United Nations Flag is an equidistant projection as seen from the North Pole.

The equidistant projection was one that was very familiar to the cartographic staff of the Strategic Air Command at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. It was used to target Soviet military and economic assets. For example, a map drawn using Moscow as its center allowed the military to calculate the quickest delivery time for a missile to travel from any NATO base to the Soviet capital. The closest NATO missile base to Moscow was in Turkey. In November 1962 when Soviet missiles were introduced to Cuba, an equidistant projection map centered on Castro’s island revealed in stark detail how much United States territory could be targeted. The “Cuban Missile Crisis” was only resolved when JFK (secretly) proposed a delayed withdraw of NATO missiles from Turkey in exchange for Khrushchev’s removal of the USSR missiles in Cuba.

Charles Hapgood explained to Arch C. Gerlach (Chief of the Map Division at the Library of Congress) that the Piri Reis map: “…required more astronomy than was known in the Renaissance. The mathematics require that whoever constructed it had to know the linear distance from Syene to the North Pole to within a degree of accuracy. Piri Reis did not know that, neither did Columbus…”5

Syene or the Tropic of Cancer?

Hapgood and his students (notably Frank Ryan) spent months trying to determine the exact center of the Piri Reis Map. At first, Hapgood was convinced that it was the city of Syene where Eratosthenes, the librarian and father of geography, had made his famous calculations about the size of the earth. Hapgood submitted this suggestion to the cartographic crew at Westover Air Force Base. Captain Burroughs concurred. He wrote: "...Piri Reis' use of the portolano^6 projection (centered on Syene, Egypt) was an excellent choice..."7

The Piri Reis Map’s Projection

Figure 3. The 1513 Piri Reis projection is just a fragment of the secret map that Columbus may have possessed. If the lost map of is ever found it should depict the entire globe using an equidistance projection centered on the ancient Egyptian city of Syene.

We see above how the complete map must have looked based on the same projection used by Piri Reis in 1513. The chart Christopher Columbus carried on his voyage would have resembled this projection.

Despite the fact that professionals had verified Syene as the center of the map, Hapgood remained skeptical. He thought that the ancients would have been more likely to use the Tropic of Cancer which divides the tropical from the temperate climatic zones. Hapgood was certain that such an important global marker would have been highly significant to the ancient navigators.

Today, the Tropic of Cancer lies near Syene but not precisely over it. The difference in distance is small but Hapgood and his students wanted to be exact in their calculations. There was considerable debate whether or not to use the measurement from the ancient city or from the climatic marker. Hapgood mistakenly assumed that it had to be an either/or choice between Syene and the ‘Tropic of Cancer. It was a false choice because there was a time when the Tropic of Cancer lay directly over Syene. The clue to that synchronicity of time and place lies within the very projection of the Piri Reis Map. But first a critical question must be answered. When did the Tropic of Cancer and Syene last share the same latitude?

Astronomers have concluded that it takes a century for the Tropic of Cancer to drift 40 seconds of latitude.  This gives us a formula for our calculations and enables us to bulls-eye the date when the original mapmakers were at work. Syene is 38 minutes and 30 seconds from today's Tropic of Cancer.  This is 2280 (38 x 60 to convert minutes to seconds) plus the 30 seconds give us a total of 2310 seconds difference.  We then divide these seconds by 40 to find that the Syene was last on the Tropic of Cancer some 57.75 centuries ago. By calculating the difference in distance from the latitude of today's Tropic of Cancer (23:27N) to that of Syene (24:05:30N) we discover the answer – about 5775 years ago –that is, circa 3760 BC. It’s noteworthy that the Jewish calendar begins on this date.

The projection of the Piri Reis points like an arrow at a pivotal turning point in human history.  Archaeology teaches that Egyptian civilization dawned circa 3800 BC. Can it really be mere coincidence that the Piri Reis Map looks to date from the dawn of Egyptian civilization? Far more likely that the sophisticated source maps used by Piri Reis are remnants passed on by the survivors of a lost Ice Age civilization – a seafaring civilization that had mapped the world (including parts of Antarctica’s coastline when it was ice-free) long before the first Egyptian pyramids were built.

End Notes

1. The Illustrated London News, 27 February 1932, page 307.

2. Yusuf, Akcura "Turkish Interest in America in 1513: Piri Reis' Chart of the Atlantic" in The Illustrated London News, 23 July 1932, page 142.

3. A transcript of the entire show appears in White, John Poleshift, Doubleday, New York, 1980.

4. Hapgood, Charles H. Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age, Chilton, Philadelphia, 1966, page 2.

5. Charles Hapgood to Mr. Arch C. Gerlach, the Chief of the Map Division at Library of Congress, 30 October 1960 (Hapgood’s Archives at Yale University Box 16).

6. Portolono is a “Port to Port” map familiar to Europeans in the 16th century.

7. Captain Lorenzo W. Burroughs to Charles Hapgood, August 14, 1961, in Hapgood op cit. page 244.

About the Authors

Rand Flem-Ath is a Canadian writer, librarian and independent scholar. He has co-authored several books with his wife, writer, Rose Flem-Ath. She is a novelist and two-time winner of the Canada Council grant for Fiction. They live in British Columbia, Canada.

In 1976, Rand discovered that an ancient map of Atlantis published in 1665 by the Jesuit priest, Athanasius Kircher, featured a remarkably accurate depiction of the sub-glacial contours of Antarctica (features unknown to the modern world until 1958). Convinced that Antarctica was Atlantis, Rand sought a climatic explanation for how people could have once lived on the now icy island continent.

In 1995, Rand and Rose published the book ‘When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis’, and in 2012 they co-authored ‘Atlantis Beneath the Ice’, which updated and expanded the seventeen years of research found in When the Sky Fell.

The above article is excerpted from Atlantis Beneath the Ice.

Website:

http://www.flem-ath.com/

Circular Myth – The Dendera Zodiac

By Tashi Alexander Javed

In 1799, Napoleon and his armies were beginning to expand their presence throughout Egypt. Napoleon brought artists to record sketches of his findings of a country that was considered exotic and out of the norm from traditional European culture. One particular artist, Vivant Denon, was fascinated by a full-fledged circular zodiac that was carved into the ceiling of The Temple of Hathor, located in the village of Dendera. After thoroughly sketching the circular zodiac, Denon returned to Paris and publicly released his findings. His report was published in a work that became massively popular in England and France, as everyone seemed to be hungry for more knowledge about this strange circular design in the temple.

Figure 1. The Temple of Hathor in Dendera (public domain)

Now referred to as the “Dendera Zodiac”, several of France’s greatest scientists, astronomers and mathematicians were in an uproar, trying to find the exact dates and times of the celestial events depicted within it. Physicists Joseph Fourier and Jean-Baptiste Biot alongside astronomer Johan Karl Burckhardt spearheaded the investigation, but were puzzled by the constellations depicted on the zodiac. Were they actual astronomical calculations depicting the movements of the stars, or were they merely symbolic representations? France was beginning its study into the world of archaeostronomy.

Figure 2. Sketch of the Dendera Zodiac (public domain)

The Dendera Zodiac is the only circular depiction of astronomy to be found within Egyptian antiquity. All other references to the zodiac or astrology are either square or pyramidal in shape and design. The zodiac itself depicts the 360 days of the Egyptian year, with thirty-six decans arranged in a circular fashion. A decan represents one-third of the duration of a zodiacal constellation. Twelve signs with three decans each means thirty-six decans in total. This is a metric that western astrologers continue to use to this day.

Renowned English Egyptologist Gerald Massey was able to reconcile each of the traditional western zodiacal signs with an Egyptian counterpart. Looking at the Dendera Zodiac, The ram of Aries corresponds with the ram-headed deity Amun. Taurus corresponds with Osiris, sometimes referred to as “The Bull of Eternity”, while the two fish of Pisces is signified by two crocodiles swimming in opposite directions. For every constellation in the traditional western zodiac, there is an Egyptian equivalent with the same symbolism; ranging from Khnum the goat with the same characteristics as Capricorn, to Atum, the lion-headed deity that bears resemblance to Leo.  The image of Isis carrying Horus in her arms is synonymous with the constellation of Virgo, and bears resemblance to the image of the Virgin Mary carrying Jesus.

Figure 3. The figures represented in the Dendera Zodiac correspond to the traditional zodiacal signs (public domain)

The important question remains; what were these symbols meant to convey, and what importance did the Ancient Egyptians place on them? For the Egyptians, each zodiac sign corresponded with a season of the year that was believed to be ruled over by a specific deity. The scarab beetle signifying Cancer was symbolic of summer, while the scales of Libra signified the autumnal equinox. You may notice that although all twelve of the constellations appear in the Dendera Zodiac, the placements of some are somewhat distorted and skewed. The crab of Cancer (Number 39 in the image) seems to have been deliberately placed towards the center of the zodiac, resulting in a spiral-like configuration of the zodiac. It is uncertain why this choice was incorporated into the design; the Cancer month may have held a particular significance.

To the Egyptians, each season had a unique effect on the passing of days within the 360-day calendar. The hours in a day were not measured in a static and fixed fashion, but were subject to change from season to season. The zodiac also depicted the movement of the star Sirius; a star of foremost importance to the Ancient Egyptians. Sirius rising from the horizon marked the beginning of the New Year, however this date would change by eight and a half days every thousand years. The sign of Aquarius was given great importance, as it represented the sign of inundation, signifying a time of flood. The Egyptians would use Sirius as a marker to indicate when the annual flooding of the Nile would occur, in what we would now call the month of June.

Figure 4. Detailed view of the Dendera Zodiac (public domain)

Without a doubt, Ancient Egyptians placed a great deal of importance on astronomy and the movement of the heavens, however, where did the construction of the zodiac itself fit on the timeline?  Charles Dupuis, a pre-French Revolution scholar believed Egyptian astrology originated as far back as 14,000 years ago; 10,000 years earlier than the commonly accepted timeline of 4000 B.C. Dupuis believed the Ancient Egyptians were miles ahead of the Ancient Greeks in their knowledge of astronomy, going to so far as to label the Greeks ‘children’ in comparison.

The Dendera Zodiac portrayed the ecliptic of the sun, which refers to the circular path of the sun’s orbit. The configuration of the patterns on the zodiac indicated a strange feature; the arrangement of the constellations show a date that occurred at least 650 years prior to construction of the zodiac itself. The solstice between Gemini-Cancer shows the position of an ecliptic that should have existed in 650 B.C. French scholars believed the Dendera Zodiac to be thousands of years older than the Biblical date of creation. This undoubtedly troubled the church, whose beliefs were at risk of being turned upside down because of this strange new artifact. Jean-Francois Champollion, France’s most prominent Egyptologist during the reign of Napoleon, was able to rectify the date of the zodiac’s creation. He examined the hieroglyphic cartouches that were adjacent to the zodiac, and traced the royal names to a period of time ranging between 100-20 B.C, which was either the late Ptolemaic or Augustan time period. Champollion’s opinion carried a great deal of weight, given that he was the first to decipher the hieroglyphics on the infamous Rosetta Stone.  The Pope was so grateful for Champollion’s revision that he offered to make him a Cardinal within the church, despite him being an atheist.

In the grand scheme of things, what is the purpose of studying ancient astrology? The fact that almost every ancient civilization made a point to document the movement of the stars, and focus on twelve distinct constellations can help us piece together the larger narrative of human history. Psychologist Carl Jung believed that certain images and symbols were embedded in the subconscious of our earliest ancestors, known as archetypes.  These archetypes are universal in scope and recognizable by every human. Early civilizations transcribed their interpretations of the stars into twelve distinct archetypes that are embedded within the human psyche. We also find the number twelve recurring in many points across history and mythology, ranging from the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve trials of Hercules, to the twelve disciples of Jesus and the twelve original points of Freemasonry, and the list goes on.  The fact that depictions of each zodiac sign are echoed through nearly every civilization can lead us to believe there is some hidden significance within this continuing story, whose images are repeated throughout different periods of time. The idea of a universal monomyth has been discussed in great detail by authors Giorgio DeSantillana and Hertha von Dechend, in their book, Hamlet’s Mill, in which the authors point out distinct similarities between celestial myths of nearly all of the world’s cultures. The same conclusion was reached by Joseph Campbell, who once stated that the myths of the world “resemble each other as dialects of a single language”.

Figure 5. The Dendera Zodiac is now on the ceiling at the Louvre Museum, France

The Dendera Zodiac was eventually stolen and taken to France in 1821 by engineer Jean Lelorrain, who used gunpowder and explosives to break the zodiac free from its rightful place on the ceiling of the temple. The zodiac now rests on a different ceiling, in the Egyptian Antiquities exhibit of the famous Louvre Museum in Paris.

Copyright © 2015 Tashi Alexander Javed

Bibliography

Acharya, S. (2009) Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. Seattle, WA: Stellar House Pub. Print.

Bauval, R. (1999). Secret Chamber: The Quest For The Hall Of Records. London: Century. Print.

Bauval, R. and Thomas G. B. (2011). Black Genesis : The Prehistoric Origins Of Ancient Egypt. 19-21. Rochester, Vt: Bear & Co. Print.

Hall, M. P. The Secret Teachings Of All Ages : An Encyclopedic Outline Of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, And Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy : Being An Interpretation Of The Secret Teachings Concealed Within The Rituals, Allegories, And Mysteries Of The Ages. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2003. Print.

Laviolette, P. A. (2005). Earth Under Fire : Humanity's Survival Of The Ice Age. Rochester, Vt: Bear & Co. Print.

McCalla, A. (2013). The Creationist Debate : The Encounter Between The Bible And The Historical Mind. New York: Bloomsbury. Print.

West, John A. (1993). Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt. Wheaton, Ill: Quest Books. Print.

About the Author

Tashi Javed is an emerging author with a burning interest in history and politics. His recent work, 'The Human Anomaly' examines some of the problematic aspects of tracing human origins. His areas of focus include ancient culture and religion. Tashi Javed holds an Honors Degree from the University of Toronto.

Book Description

Several millennia ago, a revolutionary phenomenon occurred. A mysterious species arose out of nowhere with intelligence unlike any other species seen before. This new species would control the Earth with unprecedented power, but would retain little to no understanding of itself, its purpose and its relation to the grand scheme of the universe. It replaced these questions with myths, stories, and beliefs while remaining blissfully ignorant of its own potential. This dissonance would be the cause of ongoing disputes, conflicts, wars and false divisions, all stemming from the fact that our very origins are unknown. From sudden jumps in our evolution to the overly-complex design of our brain, humans occupy a strange nuance among all other species on Earth. This work examines our collective history, belief systems, religions and scientific theories to shed light on this strange territory known as the human condition. A philosophy work that draws from science, sociology, psychology and religion, The Human Anomaly explores this circumstance from a wide and unique perspective.

Purchase the book here.

www.thehumananomaly.com

Eteocypriot and the Amathus Bilingual

By Petros Koutoupis

An English architect by profession and self-trained in the discipline and studies of linguistics and ancient history, Michael Ventris would be the first to identify the Mycenaean written Linear B inscriptions (1450 - 1200 BCE) as a language belonging to a more archaic form of Greek. With the aid of John Chadwick, a full decipherment of the Late Bronze Age corpus would continue from 1951 to 1953 and in turn, published for the world to see (Chadwick, 84). Unfortunately, this milestone did not provide any more insight into the still undeciphered Linear A (2500 - 1450 BCE).

It was almost fifteen years ago that I was in college studying for my Bachelors of Science in Electronic Engineering. Ever since I was a young child, I was always fascinated with human history, but it was when I was in college that this fascination turned to an obsession. At the time, I had made a vow to myself, that I would be the one to officially translate the Minoan Linear A script. While I have yet to achieve this goal, I have made significant strides in translating what could be a very similar language. Written with a modified form of the Cretan Linear A, I speak of the Cypriot Linear C and one of the two language associated with it, Eteocypriot; the other being Greek. The purpose of this article is to bring a renewed interest into one of Europe’s ancient and undeciphered languages.

A Brief History Lesson

There was once a time when the ancient island of Cyprus had its own native language; a language which was not Greek. Modern scholars routinely refers to this pre-Greek language as Eteocypriot or “True Cyprian.” Derived from the Minoan Linear A, the language was written in the Cypriot syllabary or the Cypro-Minoan variant which would later evolve to Linear C. However, during the 10th century BCE, the language was competing with the Arcadocypriot Greek dialect and eventually became extinct in approximately the 4th century BCE. To this day, the Eteocypriot language remains undeciphered and the mystery surrounding it continues.

Initially discovered in 1913 at the acropolis of Amathus, Cyprus, and written on a black marble slab, the Amathus Bilingual (ca. 600 BCE) contains the most famous non-Greek inscription written with this Cypro-Minoan syllabary. It is a dedicatory inscription from the city of Amathus to the noble Ariston. As mentioned earlier, the script bore uncanny similarities to that of the Minoan Linear A which immediately earned its title of Cypro-Minoan. In the same fashion, as both Linear A and B, the newly discovered system of writing was identified as a syllabary, where each sign represents a consonant followed by a vowel. This Bilingual is thought to hold the key to deciphering the language of the Cypriots prior to Greek colonization. The Eteocypriots who objected to the rule of the Greeks, gathered to the south of the island at Amathus where they continued on with their Eteocypriot language and more indigenous Cypriot culture (Karageorghis, 114).

The syllabary and their phonetic values were already well known to historians and archaeologists alike. If you recall from the previous section, this script was also used to write Greek, as it was originally identified and deciphered by George Smith in 1872, the Assyriologist well known for his translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonian Flood story, with the Idalion Bilingual. Dating to the 4th century BCE, the Idalion Bilingual records a dedication to a local deity and is written in both Greek and Phoenician. Using this evidence as a guide, it has proven to later linguists and historians that the values of the signs used in the Cypriot Greek texts are the same as the values used in the Eteocypriot texts. Consisting of four inscribed lines, the top two of the Amathus Bilingual were written in Linear C while the bottom two, Greek.

Eteocypriot (Gordon, 120):

[1] a-na · ma-to-ri · u-mi-e-s[a]-i · mu-ku-la-i · la-sa-na · a-ri-si-to-no-se a-ra-to-wa-na-ka-so-ko-o-se

[2] ke-ra-ke-re-tu-lo-se · ta-ka-na-[?-?]-so-ti · a-lo · ka-i-li-po-ti

Greek:

[3] Η ПΟΛΙΣ Η АΜАΘΟΥΣΙΩΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑ

[4] ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑΚΤΟΣ ΕΥΠΑΤΡΙΔΗΝ

Transliterated Greek (Gordon, 120): hē polis hē amathousion Aristōna Aristōnaktos eupatridēn

Translation (Gordon, 120): The city of the Amathusans (honored) the noble Ariston (son) of Aristonax.

Early attempts at deciphering the Eteocypriot language have assumed it to be Semitic in origin (Gordon, 119). At the time it made sense, as there was a strong Phoenician influence and settlements on the island. Although, all attempts down this path have yielded little results. However, in recent years, many scholars have been looking to a more Indo-European origin. This is where my journey begins.

A Re-Examination of the Evidence

Working on the basis that this inscription preserved an unknown Indo-European language, it wasn’t until I saw an error in the original transliteration that my two years of work would truly blossom into something more fruitful. The original and only transliteration was published in 1966 by historian and linguist, Cyrus Herzl Gordon (1908 - 2001), and in turn, republished, unaltered, in later research.

Figure 1. The Amathus Bilingual. Source: Gordon, Cyrus H. ‘Forgotten Scripts’. 2nd ed. New York: Dorset, 1987. 145. [Print]

Based on the Greek texts written with this syllabary, we do know that the script was written from right to left with word separators identified by the dots. The error in the mistranslation comes from the third character from the right on the first line (first character to the left of the first dot from the right). Gordon misidentifies this character as holding the syllabic value of ‘ma’ when in fact, it should be identified with the character that holds the value of ‘we.’ This in turn, would transliterate the word in question from ma-to-ri to we-to-ri.

What is most interesting about this new identification is that we-to-ri resembles the Lycian wedr (sometimes written as wedri) and the Mycenean wa-tu (sometimes written as wastu); both of which are Indo-European. The Mycenean wa(s)tu correlates with the Homeric ἄστυ (Iliad II, 332+) and translates to ‘town’ or ‘city’ (Ventris, 590). This new transliteration coincides with the Greek version of the transcription ПΟΛΙΣ (polis) which also translates to ‘city.’ Here we have confirmation that the Eteocypriot language may belong to a subset of the Indo-European family of languages.

Figure 2. The Cypro-Minoan Syllabary. Source: Chadwick, John. ‘Linear B and Related Scripts’. Berkeley: University of California P, 1987. 54. [Print]

It became apparent that the word following we-to-ri, u-mi-e-s[a]-i was a rendering of the name of the city, Amathus and correlates to the Greek written АΜАΘΟΥΣΙΩΝ of line 3. So here we have a clear translation of “city [of] Amathus.”

Shortly after this I looked into the proper names Ariston (ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑ) and Aristonax (ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑΚΤΟΣ). It did not take much for linguists to identify these two with the Eteocypriot a-ri-si-to-no-se and a-ra-to-wa-na-ka-so-ko-o-se. What interested me most about these two nouns is the case ending of -o-se of the latter. Was this an indication of a possessive suffix in the singular genitive? If so, it would correlate well with the Luwian -assa (plural genitive: -assanz) and the Hittite -as (plural genitive: -an). This would indicate that Ariston was somehow from or belonging to Aristonax. The Greek confirms this by indicating that Ariston was the son of Aristonax.

Operating on these findings, I immediately turned my attention to the languages spoken on Anatolia, specifically Luwian. It was the Iron Age Karatepe 1 inscription (ca. 8th century BCE) that provided more insight into this unknown language.

What caught my eye was the Luwian hieroglyphic for sa-na-wí (Payne, 24). This translates to “good” in the accusative and “good(ness)” in the neuter. It bears similarity to the last two syllables of the Eteocypriot la-sa-na. Would this translate to “good” as in “good or noble blood?” This would correlate with the Greek ΕΥΠΑΤΡΙΔΗΝ (the noble). At the moment, I am unsure about the la- prefix.

Now, we are able to correlate the following words between both the Eteocypriot and Greek inscriptions:

[1] a-na · we-to-ri · u-mi-e-s[a]-i · mu-ku-la-i · la-sa-na · a-ri-si-to-no-se a-ra-to-wa-na-ka-so-ko-o-se [2] ke-ra-ke-re-tu-lo-se · ta-ka-na-[?-?]-so-ti · a-lo · ka-i-li-po-ti

[3] Η ПΟΛΙΣ Η АΜАΘΟΥΣΙΩΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑ [4] ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑΚΤΟΣ ΕΥΠΑΤΡΙΔΗΝ

Seeing how this was a dedicatory inscription from the city to the noble, it may further indicate that the Eteocypriot a-na correlated with the Luwian a-ta (also found in the same Karatepe 1 inscription and pronounced anta) which translates to “in” or “from” (Payne, 36). This would in turn translate the first three words to “in/from [the] city [of] Amathus.” This may be confirmed by another previously undeciphered Eteocypriot inscription which reads:

[1] a-na · a-mo-ta · a-sa-ti-ri

I have translated this to “from [the] mother Astarte,” in which a-mo-ta may relate to the Mycenean Greek ma-te (Ventris, 560). This bears a similarity to the Luwian word for mother, á-na-ti (Hittite: anna-). It was not uncommon to find Near Eastern deities on the island. As the Phoenicians colonized, they built temples and idols in the names of their deities, some of which assimilated with the indigenous population (Karageorghis, 104).

The last word remaining in the first line is the Eteocypriot mu-ku-la-i. While I am unable to identify the word as a whole, I am under the impression that the last syllable is an enclitic. Compared to the third person Luwian verbs ending with -i, it may signify the word “to” as in “to offer.” In our case, the enclitic appears at the end of the host word, mu-ku-la and applies toward (or is tied to) the word that follows, la-sa-na. If appropriate, this would nearly complete the literal translation of the first line and read as follows: “From [the] city [of] Amathus [ … ] to [the] noble Ariston [of] Aristonax…”

I have made little progress with the second line but speculate that the first word, ke-ra-ke-re-tu-lo-se, may be a proper noun. I only say this because of the structure of the proper nouns I have come across in my research. We already saw Ariston (a-ri-si-to-no-se) but confirmation for this claim may also be found in yet another undeciphered inscription. It is a piece of graffiti found on a vessel and it reads as follows:

[1] ta-ve-ta-re-se

The Eteocypriot ta- may relate to the Luwian pronoun of za- which translates to “this.” This in turn would translate the entire inscription to “...this [is] Vetarye.” Typical of your graffiti in which an individual writes their own name. Notice the ending of the name ve-ta-re-se. Going back to the Amathus bilingual, this structure can be observed with the same word ke-ra-ke-re-tu-lo-se. What significance this syllable has is yet to be understood. Could it represent a gender? In Mycenaean Linear B inscriptions, the ideogram “MUL” signified the name or title to be that of a female while “VIR” was that of a male. Please note that due to our limited understanding of this language, these ideogram names are transliterated into Latin and in no way represent how the Mycenaeans would have vocalized it, if at all. Ideograms for gender were also utilized in Luwian texts, where we can observe examples of “man” typically transliterated to the Latin VIR. Again, we do not know how these ideograms were vocalized. The idea of the -se syllable at the end of a noun presenting a gender does bring to mind the masculine ending of -ος (-os) for Greek nouns. This feature is common in both ancient and modern Greek and can even be observed in the Greek translation of the Amathus bilingual for the name Aristonax, ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑΚΤΟΣ (Aristōnaktos). This feature is not typical of Anatolian languages, however, it would not be too difficult to imagine the native population adopting certain traits from their Greek neighbors. Languages do evolve over time and are heavily influenced by the constantly changing world.

Conclusion

As the evidence suggests, the language spoken by the Eteocypriots during the Iron Age, which may have also been the same language spoken by the Cypriot natives in the Bronze Age, was of an Indo-European subset, closely related to Luwian; an ancient language spoken predominantly on the mainland of Southern and Western Anatolia. It isn’t too difficult to imagine the ancient migration patterns of an Indo-European stock from the mainland, moving southward to the island of Cyprus. Also, at the height of the Hittite empire, Cyprus was under the dominion and influence of the Hittites. With this knowledge in place, we are more likely to achieve full decipherment of the limited Eteocypriot corpus.

Copyright © 2015 Petros Koutoupis

Figure 3. The Hittite Empire at its greatest extent under Suppiluliuma I (ca. 1350–1322 BC) and Mursili II (ca. 1321–1295 BC). Source: Wikimedia, 2015. [Online].

Bibliography

Chadwick, John. The Decipherment of Linear B. New York: Cambridge UP, 1958. [Print]

Gordon, Cyrus H. Forgotten Scripts. 2nd ed. New York: Dorset, 1987. [Print]

Karageorghis, Vassos. Cyprus. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. [Print]

Melchert, H. Craig. Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon. Vol. 2. Chapel Hill, NC: U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1993. Print. Lexica Anatolica. [Print]

Payne, Annick, and H. Craig Melchert. Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012. [Print]

Ventris, Michael and John Chadwick. Documents in Mycenaean Greek. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 1973. [Print]

About the Author

By profession, Petros Koutoupis is a software developer and an entrepreneur. When not overwhelmed with being a good husband and an excellent father (of two), and during the little free time he may have, Petros enjoys immersing himself with topics of ancient history and theology. He is fluent in the language of Greek, and has been a self-taught student of Septuagintal Greek and Biblical Hebrew for quite some time; with additional knowledge in Aramaic, Ugaritic, and Akkadian grammar. His work focuses specifically on the Iron Age of both Mesopotamian and Levantine history and as of recent years, Late Bronze Age Greece, leading to a quest to unravel the mysteries of our history.

Author website: www.PetrosKoutoupis.com

Project website: www.AnAgeOfHeroes.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/pkoutoupis

Google+: plus.google.com/+PetrosKoutoupis

Google+ Page: plus.google.com/+Anageofheroes

The Vajra: An Ancient Weapon of War

By Dr. Rita Louise

The vajra is the most important ritual implement of Vajrayana Buddhism.  In Sanskrit, the word vajra is defined as something hard or mighty, as in a diamond.  It symbolizes an impenetrable, immovable and indestructible state of knowledge and enlightenment.

Our knowledge of the vajra goes back to deep antiquity.  Texts indicate that the vajra was not always a symbol of peace and tranquility but something very different.  It first appears in ancient India where it was the primary weapon of the Vedic sky-god Indra, the king of the Devas.  According the Hindu Puranas, the evil Asuras, Namuchi and Vritra removed all of the light and moisture from the earth.  It made the land inhospitable to living beings. Indra battled the demon gods unsuccessfully and as a last resort called upon their supreme god Vishnu for help.

Vishnu informed him that only a weapon that was neither solid nor liquid could kill Namuchi and Vritra.  Vishnu had the divine carpenter Tvashta fashion Indra a marvelous weapon he could use to vanquish the dreadful Asuras.  This new weapon, the vajra, emitted thunderbolts.  With it, Indra annihilated Namuchi and Vritra and returned the much needed light and moisture back to the earth.  The Rigveda describes this conflict thus.

Now I describe the glorious deeds of Indra, who holds Vajra. He killed the serpent and made waters flow. He broke the hearts of mountains.

He killed the serpent, which was taking refuge in mountain. Tvashta made the Vajra for him. Like the cows making sounds, flowing waters reached the sea.

Mighty Indra chose Soma, and drank from three containers. Generous Indra held Vajra in his hand, and killed first born among the serpents.

-  Rigveda 1.32

The vajra, when used, was thrown at one’s opponent.   Nitin Kumar, in his article Ritual Implements in Tibetan Buddhism, tells us, “As a hurled weapon the indestructible thunderbolt blazed like a meteoric fireball across the heavens, in a maelstrom of thunder, fire and lightning.”

Figure 1. A traditional image of a vajra

Traditional images of the vajra (Figure 1.) depict it as a metal shaft with three, five or nine prongs that emanate from lotus blossoms on either end.  Originally, according to the ancient Indian text the Rigveda, when Indra used his vajra it had open prongs (Figure 2.).  Buddhist legend suggests that Shakyamuni, the Buddha himself, took the vajra from Indra and forced its prongs closed, thus transforming it from a destructive weapon into a peaceful scepter.

Figure 2. A vajra with open prongs

Scholars contend that there is no relationship between Indian, Greek, Australian, and Norse mythology, nor the cosmology of the Americas.  They believe that each civilization conceived of their gods independently and that a deeper, older, universal tradition does not exist.  If this were the case, then the foundation of these societies; their myths, traditions, beliefs and iconography should be unique to them, their location and their history.  The tales of war, intrigue and conquest that come out of American history are vastly different from those of England, France, India and China.   So too are the customs, traditions and the symbols that represent the nation.  Yet when we look at a wide range of ancient and indigenous groups a pattern of commonality exists.  Myths and symbols found in India readily appear in the oral and written descriptions of other cultures.  They also appear in their artistic images.   These representations seem to transcend time and location.

The symbol of thunder or a thunderbolt as a tool of destruction, for example, surfaces in many ancient civilizations.   Mythology unfailingly associates lightning with a sky god, the god of thunder, who uses it as a weapon.

In the western world, the thunderbolt is most readily associated with the Greek sky god Zeus.  With it, he defeated the Titans and took control of the Greek pantheon. Myth tells us, that Zeus freed the Cyclopes, the master builders, who were imprisoned in the depths of the underworld - Tartarus.  In gratitude for their release, they gave him a marvelous weapon, the thunderbolt.  In another story, Zeus used his formidable weapon to battle the largest and most fearsome creatures in all of Greek mythology, the hundred-headed serpent Typhon.   Early images of Zeus depict show him holding a rod like thunderbolt, while others show this deadly weapon with its ends splayed into three prongs (Figure 3.).

Figure 3. Left: Zeus is depicted with a rod-like thunderbolt. Right: Zeus holds a thunderbolt with ends splayed into three prongs.

A vajra-like weapon also appears in Sumerian cosmology.  Its use is recorded in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, the Enuma Elish. A battle between the sky god Marduk (Bel) and serpent Tiamat is detailed on the fourth tablet of this ancient document.  The evil and powerful Tiamat, according to the Enuma Elish, was devising treacherous plans against Ea and the other reigning gods.  The gods were afraid to invoke her evil wrath and search for a solution.  Ea attempted to confront Tiamat, but instead of fighting, backed down.  Marduk, his son, stepped forward and volunteered to fight the enraged serpent, on one condition…  if he were successful, he would have dominion over the entire universe.

The gods agreed and provided Marduk with mighty weapons including a bow, a mace and a net to use in his battle against Tiamat.  Images of this epic scene show Marduk holding a three tipped scepter in his hand (Figure 4.).  Subsequent images clearly depict this same deadly three-pronged weapon (Figure 5.).

Figure 4. Marduk depicted with a three tipped scepter

Figure 5. Marduk fighting Tiamat with the three-pronged weapon

They gave him the unrivalled weapon, the destroyer of the enemy [saying]:

"Go, cut off the life of Tiâmat.

"Let the wind carry her blood into the depth [under the earth]."

The gods, his fathers, issued the decree for the god Bel.

They set him on the road which leadeth to peace and adoration.

-Enuma Elish

The Rigveda also offers an alternative description of the vajra.  Some texts represent it as a notched metal club with thousands of prongs.  We find this form of the vajra in numerous other cultures.  The most well-known stories that portray the vajra in its club-like form come from Norse cosmology.  They are associated with the sky god Thor.  His mighty hammer Mjölnir was the most fearsome weapon in Norse mythology.  Images of the thunder god Thor traditionally show him carrying his mighty hammer.  Some texts describe Mjölnir as a hammer, while others refer to it as an ax or club.

The master builders, the dwarfs, in the depths of the earth, made Mjölnir.  The Norse Skáldskaparmál, which can be found in the Snorri's Edda, describes Mjölnir as a hammer which would not fail.  As a weapon, it could level mountains. It goes on to state that if aimed it at anything; it would never miss its target.  It informs us that in addition to never missing its target, it would always find its way back to the hand of its owner.

Thor used his mighty hammer to battle his deadliest foe, the giant serpent Jörmungandr.  In these tales, the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr is not killed.  It would not be until near the end of the world in the apocalyptic battle of Ragnarök, that Thor would clash with Jörmungandr the final time.

In Slavic mythology, we learn of the evil serpent Veles who ascended from the underworld and stole something of value from the sky god Perun.  Perun, using lightning bolts, would vanquish Veles back to his underground realm annually. His deadly axe, like Thor’s mighty hammer was used to subdue evil and overcome the iniquitous serpent Veles.  It too would return to his hand after being thrown.

In Irish mythology, the magical weapon of the hero of Ulster Cúchulainn is the Gae Bolga or lightning spear.  Cúchulainn fought and killed his childhood friend and foster brother, Ferdia with this magical weapon. The Gae Bolga is described as a dart or spear, which separates into multiple barbs when entering the body, causing fatal wounds.  It was next to impossible to withdraw once it had impaled the body. The Irish Book of Leinster describes the devastating effects of the Gae Bolga as such:

It entered a man's body with a single wound, like a javelin, then opened into thirty barbs. Only by cutting away the flesh could it be taken from that man's body.” - Book of Leinster

In China, the legend of Hua-hu Tiao Devours Yang Chien describes a magical spike carried by Huang T'ien Hua which sounds remarkably similar to Indra’s vajra.

The Chin-kang, deprived of their magical weapons, began to lose heart. To complete their discomfiture, Huang T'ien Hua brought to the attack a matchless magical weapon. This was a spike 7 1/2 inches long, enclosed in a silk sheath, and called 'Heart-piercer.' It projected so strong a ray of light that eyes were blinded by it. Huang T'ien Hua, hard pressed by Mo-li Ch'ing, drew the mysterious spike from its sheath, and hurled it at his adversary. It entered his neck, and with a deep groan the giant fell dead. - Myths & Legends of China – E. T. C. Werner

Finding myths, with similar storylines, and their corresponding images in relatively close geographic areas, while interesting, does not fully support the universality of the gods.  When we uncover similar narratives and corresponding imagery, in remote regions of the world, this concept takes on a more serious tone.   Myths of a vajra-like weapon are found all over the world.  In Australia, the sky gods, the Wati Kutjara brothers, wield a magical boomerang, Wo-mur-rang or club. Boomerangs are known for their ability, once thrown, to return to their owner. Legend states that their father Kidili attempted to rape some of the first women.  Throwing their wo-mur-rang, they castrated their father where he disappeared into a water hole.

In the new world we encounter a similar deadly lightning weapon used by the sky gods.   In the Aztec culture there is the god Huitzilopochtli.  Huitzilopochtli, with his weapon Xiuhcoatl, “the fire serpent”, killed his sister Coyolxauhqui soon after he was born.  The Mayan rain deity Chaac and the later Aztec Tlaloc are both depicted carrying their lightning axe (Figure 6.).  Sometimes they are depicted holding snakes, which represent lightning bolts, which they would hurl from the mountaintops where they made their retreat.  In Peru, we find the god Illapa who is described as a man wielding a club in his left hand and a sling in his right.

Figure 6. Aztec god Tlaloc depicted carrying a lightning axe

A variation of the lightning motif is the concept of the thunderstone. It is believed that thunderstones fall from the sky when the gods are battling each other. This idea is widely held throughout Africa.  The Yoruba of southwestern Nigera, for example, believe their axe carrying storm god Shange creates thunder and lightning and casts "thunderstones" down to earth.  The elders of this culture would search wherever lightning struck for these magical stones.

The thunder-producing weapon, the vajra, is only one example of the enormous number of commonalities found in myth, legend, culture and iconography around the world.  Similarities exist throughout Greek, Sumerian, Norse, Aztec, Australian and American cosmology.  These parallels include the gods, their lives and their amazing weapons.  They also include the laws and customs that govern our lives - the very fabric of society.

The universality of symbolism found around the world implies something else.  Weapons, like the vajra, were not born from the imagination of man.  They did not come into being as part of a cultures evolution.  They were real.  They were tangible.  Someone somewhere in our remote past saw it and documented it.  It is only through an actual encounter with a marvelous weapon that emitted thunder that a clear and specific portrayal of it could be made.

Likewise, if tools like the vajra are genuine then we are forced to accept that the gods who wielded these weapons were factual individuals as well.  This newfound knowledge would open the door to a revolutionary new understanding of who we are.  It would challenge the basis of our society and could cause us to reevaluate not only our place in the universe, but everything we hold to be true.

Copyright © 2015 Rita Louise Inc. – www.soulhealer.com

About the Author:

Bestselling author, Dr. Rita Louise is the host of Just Energy Radio and the Founder of the Institute Of Applied Energetics. She is the author of the books The ET Chronicles, Avoiding The Cosmic 2X4, Dark Angels and The Power Within as well as hundreds of articles that have been published worldwide. She is also the producer of the videos iKon:  Deconstructing The Archetypes Of The Ancients, The Truth About The Nephilim and Deceit, Lies & Deception: The Reptilian Agenda.  Dr. Rita has appeared on radio and television and has spoken at conferences covering topics such as health and healing, ghosts, intuition, ancient mysteries and the paranormal.

Website:

http://www.soulhealer.com

Radio Show:

http://www.justenergyradio.com

Stonehenge: Mounds, Artifacts, and Intrigue

By Maria Wheatley

Stonehenge stands within a vast ritual landscape. Encircling the towering stones was once over 800 round mounds adding to the temple’s splendour. From within these enigmatic mounds some of the finest artifacts have been unearthed. They are the archaeological Holy Grail to understanding the spirituality and daily life of a culture long gone. Monuments like Stonehenge preserve their mathematical, astronomical and engineering capabilities like a megalithic library. Written in stone they are a legacy of their incredible achievements.

Bronze Age (c2500-750 BC orthodox dating) burial goods, such as jet from the Baltic, beads form Egypt and delicate and intricately designed gold artifacts reveal international trade and artistic craftsmanship. Such finds adorn several British museums attracting publicity and attention.

Yet, some of the mound artifacts are very intriguing and challenge our understanding of ancient Britain. My research has located documented evidence of an entire skeleton of a giant unearthed just one mile from Stonehenge, which was ‘13 feet and 10 inches tall’, strange metal objects and curious chalk plaques all of which were found in the round mounds of Salisbury Plain. Interestingly, the old English name for Stonehenge was The Giant’s Dance perhaps the medieval name was derived from the large skeletons that have been found in and around Salisbury Plain.

Figure 1. The Giant’s Dance - The old name for Stonehenge

Salisbury Plain

Stonehenge stands like a guardian overlooking the vast Salisbury Plain. The area is managed by the MoD (Military of Defence) and it contains numerous prehistoric monuments. I liken it to Area 51 in the USA as it contains military ‘no-go’ zones. The armed services use it to practice manoeuvres, to launch laser guided weapons and as an intense firing range. Round mounds are plentiful in and around the Plain, some of which housed burials, although not all are so easily explained. One fascinating find came from a Plain barrow that was excavated in 1955. The excavated skull showed signs of surgery. Initially, a blanket explanation was given – the skull had been trepanned. Trepanning is a surgical technique of scraping out a deep round groove in part of the skull. It was thought that prehistoric trepanning may have been applied to relieve epilepsy, serve headaches and even cataracts. Archaeologists say our ancestors thought these illnesses were caused by evil-spirits.

Thus, in one particular view, trepanning was partly a shamanic response to alleviate symptoms. One image portrays a shabby looking caveman hacking away at a skull of an uncomfortable patient which implies a primitive and superstitious people that did not fully understand the implications of their surgical actions. Such Dark Age medieval association is, I believe, at insult to our prehistoric forefathers.

Prehistoric cancer treatment

According to archaeological dating the surgery occurred between c2000 and 1600 BC. Roger Watson, a Documentation Officer of finds, Devizes Museum, Wiltshire postulates that the young man underwent a major surgical operation for ‘a brain tumour that involved the cutting away of a disk of bone measuring 32 mm in diameter from his cranium. The cut was probably made with a blade made of flint which is razor sharp. What was used for an anaesthetic or to sterilize, to close the wound we don't know at all.’

Around the Stonehenge environs, numerous Bronze Age patients survived this type of repeated operation. Flint is razor sharp and an ideal medium for fine cutting and scraping. However, the young man whose skull was investigated by Watson lived in an era when copper was widely available. There is evidence that copper metal may have been used to make surgical instruments that supported the surgeon’s flint knife. We know that a surgeon’s operational kit is far more than just knives.

Whilst the skull is defiantly an artefact unearthed by an antiquarian centuries ago, which has only recently been re-examined by Watson, who, incidentally has pushed the boundaries of prehistoric medical awareness away from superstition into an objective surgical dimension. Thankfully, we are now eroding the restrictions of intellectual arrogance and beginning to see prehistory in a new light.

Compared to other regional monumental sites, such as the nearby Avebury Henge, or sites further afield such as megalithic sites in Scotland, the Stonehenge mounds have a statistically higher proportion of trepanned skulls.  Stonehenge may have been England’s first surgical capital.

Let us consider another unusual artefact that may have been associated with prehistoric surgery, which is worthy of our scholarly attention. Not far from Stonehenge, was an extraordinary ‘round barrow cemetery’- labelled as such by archaeologists in the 1950s - yet only a few of the mounds actually contained burials. Centuries ago, this was recognized by an antiquarian who observed: I cannot help remarking of having found so many empty cists [barrows].

Figure 2. Round mound on Salisbury Plain

One of the larger mounds, sadly removed by the plough, was the exact dimension of Stonehenge cannot be coincidental. Standing out from the other barrows due to its exalted elevation it gained the attraction of antiquarian enquiry. Deep within the mound was a cremation and a wooden box, inside of which was a wooden sheaf lined with fabric ‘the web of which could still be distinguished’ some 4200 years later – so well preserved the artefact within the confines of the mound. When opened they saw a copper (or brass) instrument which is shown below (left). Its corroded dimensions are similar to a pair of household scissors some 6.75 inches long,

Instantly explained as an ‘article of ornament rather than utility’ has stuck for centuries. The latest theory purports it to be a scarf or cloak pin; yet intriguingly it appears similar to past surgical instruments that were commonly used in the medieval period (right). Similarities like this should not be dismissed. In addition, whilst it may be a scarf pin, it must be noted that it was found in close proximity to an actual trepanned skull, which is of little consequence to the archaeological analysis of the object. By expanding the limitations of orthodox interpretation, we potentially have evidence of surgical procedures preserved in bone and brass, located close to one another amid one of the most unusual mound complexes in England. The patient went on to live for many years after his surgery testified by his perfectly healed bone.

© Maria Wheatley

© Maria Wheatley

Artifacts and strange mound burials

When it comes to artifacts the most widely documented finds in the Stonehenge environ is the famous Bush Barrow. This is because the skeleton of ‘a stout man’ was accompanied with exquisite gold burial goods. Most books and websites on Stonehenge have written of this remarkable find. However, we will focus on some more unusual and thitherto unreported finds. The following illustrations that accompany my research were taken from Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine. The extensive volumes can be easily accessed at the UK’s National Monuments Records Office, Wiltshire, UK.

A few miles south of Stonehenge and gracing the Salisbury Plain was another exceptionally large barrow that instantly aroused the attention of early excavators. Village rumours had hinted that the ancient round barrows housed gold and so shepards, farmers and small landowners believing they were about to hit a golden jackpot reached for their shovels. Previously, the mounds had stood virtually unmolested for nearly 4000 years.

If these early gravediggers did not find gold they simply threw away the artifacts. However, a few were kept and later passed on to antiquarians that were more serious.

Within one mound an extraordinary burial of an ‘extremely large man’ was unearthed and at his feet there was ‘a massive hammer of dark-coloured stone’.  Other curious finds accompanied him, one of which was an object of twisted copper or brass. Theories abound as to what it was - from a dog collar - to a bucket handle! Whilst the giant skeleton and the massive hammer may be far more interesting than the brass object, all have seemingly vanished into the ethers.

Other artifacts that were commonly found in Plain barrows were circular shaped pieces of perfectly crafted copper. Once again, we are promptly informed that they were ‘ornamental’ or ‘ritualistic’. Yet, they may have been a part of a much larger object or instrument that was ambiguously described. Long since lost, the real meaning behind these well-made metallic objects remains elusive.

I must point out that the mounds from whence these artifacts came were very different from other mound burials. Unusual artifacts were housed in unusual mounds. Mounds which were larger in elevation were often coined king or monarch mounds by antiquarians who instantly observed their distinctive traits. See for yourself how different the finds are. Most Bronze Age mounds are attributed to the Beaker people said to be European migrants entering the British Isles from c2000 BC onwards. Within these Beaker mounds, it was commonplace to have cremated bones interned in a cup or vase shaped object - called a Beaker - and often with spear like objects or beads as shown below. Rarely are beakers found alongside the more unusual artifacts.

Figure 3. Beakers found in mound burials

We are looking at two different eras of burial one of which precedes the other and unlike archaeologists; I suggest the more complex finds are earlier. We need to remember that the geological features of the Stonehenge environs are problematic to preservation. Rainwater reacts to the chalk/calcium to form a weak hydrochloric acid and alongside ploughing has removed, in places, layers of chalk, systematically erasing the past. Thus, remains are invariably found in features such as pits, ditches and burial mounds.

One pit artefact which is particularly interesting and exceptionally well preserved will be discussed. Found deep within the pit hints that it was purposely deposited a bit like a time capsule.

An image of Stonehenge?

In a previous article for Ancient Origins, I wrote about the Mesolithic activity in the Stonehenge environs, a possible Mesolithic wooden temple and a town. The Mesolithic postholes close to Stonehenge were excavated in the late 1960s by Lord and Lady Vatcher. Whilst enthusiastic about excavating the ritual landscape they lacked the high standard and requirements of modern day archaeological procedure. Nonetheless, during a dig in 1967 they located and cleared a deep and curious pit on the high ground east of Stonehenge called King Barrow Ridge. This was once the settlement area of the people that built the large Cursus monument - a massive earthen enclosure that coursed for 1.75 miles to the north of Stonehenge which looked like a gigantic container. The walls of the monument, long since ploughed, were some 6-8 feet high (c40000-3800 BC orthodox dating).

Within the pit lay two unusual chalk plaques and an antler pick which was used to carbon date the finds to c2900-2580 BC. The antler pick may have had nothing whatsoever to do with the chalk plaques yet it was used to date the entire locale. The area was also covered with Neolithic houses centuries before other domestic sites such as Durrington Walls. There were also distinct traces of a much earlier Mesolithic settlement (8000–4000 BC). Evidently, the area was known and occupied for millennia. It has been questioned whether or not the Vatchers’ excavated the chalk plagues from a Mesolithic midden pit. Debate continues.

Interestingly, one of the chalk plaques shows a stylized design similar to that of Stonehenge’s outer circle of linteled stones and may have been a sketch belonging to that era. However, if the artefact was from the Mesolithic period, the chalk plaque was some five thousand years older than Stonehenge. Thus, was the plaque a sketch of an inspired vision of that which was to come, a concept born in the so-called Dark Ages of the Mesolithic era and then ritualistically deposited into the deep pit? Understandably, one cannot place an entire plan of a

monument upon one singular stylized sketch. Nonetheless, if we overlook artifacts in a dismissive manner we will lose sight of that which we are looking for, and proverbially throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Sacred water, holy spring

Close to the deep pit was a spring that may have been revered as medicinal by our Neolithic ancestors. In the ancient world, the sign for water that transcended cultural divides was the chevron pattern and even the ancient Egypt hieroglyph ΛΛ or ‘mu’ means water, as does the zodiacal sign of Aquarius (Greek Zodiac). Another plague, which was found close to the spring, consisted of chevron patterns and I surmise that is was representative of the nearby Stonehenge spring water. Filtered through the chalk and pure subsoil’s the water would have risen to the surface mineral rich. Incidentally, as a second generation water diviner I know that underground streams ‘emit’ a chevron pattern whilst coursing through rocky subsoil’s, which was first noted by the water diviner Benjamin Tompkins in 1899, and I find it intriguing that this was a prehistoric way of expressing water.

Figure 4. King Barrow Ridge. A row of Bronze Age mounds crown the hilltop

Years later during the Bronze Age, King Barrow Ridge was a peaceful place. Numerous mounds were constructed that crowned the hilltop and eternally gazed towards Stonehenge. Undisturbed some mounds await excavation their secrets still held tight. The deep pit and old settlements were long gone by the Bronze Age. Undoubtedly, inherited memories bestowed meaning and serenity to all that visited for they knew the meaning of this evocative landscape that time has lost. Today, the fast, intrusive and ugly A303 main road drowns out the sound of the skylarks, and memories of the past, as car after car whizzes by; and more alarmingly low flying military aircraft and flares disturb the ancestors of their slumber. Counterintuitive progress creeps ever closer in the guise of road improvements. The long debated Stonehenge tunnel may well ease the sound of traffic but the air above will still be poisoned with military noise. And even if the tunnel did get the go ahead – it has been mooted prior to every general election for nearly half a century - what would they find deep in the arteries that bypass Stonehenge? Would any unusual or spectacular archaeological find be reported to the general public, to enliven the news, Facebook or Twitter? A few years ago, a stone circle was found close to the new Stonehenge visitor’s centre which at the time should have made headline news.  Around 30 metres wide and containing 22 stone (or post) holes the circle was intimately related to its parent Stonehenge. ‘Because this was a commercial operation (for clients of English Heritage), the results were confidential and the find couldn’t be revealed to the public’, reported Stonehenge archaeologist Michael Parker Pearson. Even this top expert was apparently denied the opportunity to thoroughly investigate the site and went on to say ‘without archaeological excavation it’s impossible to know when this circle was constructed. Only when it is investigated by spade and trowel will we know whether it had anything to do with Stonehenge’.

For many years now, we have known that Stonehenge has at least nine stone circles surrounding it, and I predict that there is more, probably totalling 12. Archaeological surveys in my possession some 60 years old hint that they were bluestone circles. New finds lie just beneath the surface, some of which will be shown to be over 10,000 years old and date back to the mysterious and elusive Mesolithic era, as was the case at the Blick Mead Mesolithic settlement close to Stonehenge. Let us not forget that Stonehenge was a gigantic ceremonial centre and as new information is imparted we step ever closer to the people that constructed one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Copyright © 2015 Maria Wheatley

About the Author

Maria is an international lecturer and an accomplished author.  Her latest book Divining Ancient Sites – insights into their creation explores the physical and metaphysical properties that underpin monumental sites worldwide.

Maria also leads tours of ancient sites as well as one-day workshops exploring locations such as Avebury Henge, Stonehenge and Glastonbury. In 2015, Maria will host two unique tours of the Salisbury Plain, a restricted area of MoD ownership, which houses some extraordinary monuments rarely seen or visited by the general public. For international visitors, Maria will be co-hosting an 8-day tour of some of the most spectacular ancient sites in Southern England.

Maria is also a professional tutor and runs the Avebury School of Esoteric Studies, which teaches many subjects to certificated level. The school is afflicted to the prestigious Association of British Correspondence Colleges ABCC. Maria is currently researching and writing a new book From Stonehenge to Serpent Mound and her recent discoveries unveil many new insights into European and American monumental building programme that unite distant cultures. The book explores areas of prehistory that have been thoroughly neglected and Maria will present a new, breathtaking vision of the ancient world and the profound knowledge of its architects.

www.theaveburyexperience.co.uk / mariawheatley@aol.com

Memnon’s Musical Statue

By Ahmed Osman

The most important statues in Egypt, after the Giza Sphinx, are the two Colossi of Memnon in Western Luxor. The two gigantic statues, about 3500 years old, are also known as the musical statues.

Figure 1. The two statues of Memnon

These massive twins of stone belonged to Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who is known as being King Solomon of Egypt, with a peaceful empire and many wives. The king ordered the statues to be erected in front of his memorial temple on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt, to represent the two natures of Man in ancient Egyptian belief; physical and spiritual. They depict Amenhotep III in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze facing eastwards towards the Nile. Two shorter figures are also carved into the front of the throne alongside his legs: these are of his wife Tiye and his mother Mutemwiya, while the sides depict the Nile god Hapy.

Figure 2. Side panel detail showing two flanked relief images of the deity Hapy and, to the right, a sculpture of the royal wife Tiy

These Memnon statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone, which was quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and transported 675km (420mi) overland to Thebes in the south. Including the stone platforms on which they stand – themselves about 4m (13ft) – the colossi reach a towering 18m (60ft) in height and weigh an estimated 720 tons each, while the two figures are about 15m (50ft) apart.

Egyptologists disagree on the location where the Memnon statues were carved; while some believe that the statues were sculpted in the quarry and brought by boat to their present position, others suggest that the stone was brought to the location and the statues were made there. In any case, it is believed that Amenophis, Son of Habu, the great Egyptian architect, was responsible for the building operation of both the king’s memorial temple and his statues.

Originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied. But now they are quite damaged, with the features unrecognizable, the upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later reconstruction attempt by the Romans.

The function of the Memnon Colossi was to guard the entrance to Amenhotep III’s memorial temple: a massive construct built during the pharaoh’s lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world. When it was built, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. Covering a total of 35 hectares (86 acres); even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep’s time, was smaller.

Figure 3. Aerial view of the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III

The Israel Stele

It was here at the site of Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple that Flinders Petrie, the British archaeologist, found the stele of Merneptah, son of Ramses II, which is now in the Cairo Museum, and is known as the Israel stele. Merneptah used a stele of Amenhotep III’s temple, to record on its other side the account of his victory over some Libyan invaders who came from the west, and included the Israelite among the Canaanite nations under his control. This is the only mention of “Israel” in any Egyptian text. However, while all other Canaanite nations mentioned in the Merneptah stele have a determined location, Israel has only a man and woman determinative – drawings show only a couple rather than a map – indicating that at that time they had not yet established a political entity, and were still semi-nomadic people.

Figure 4. The Merneptah Stele

Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III sat on the throne at the start of the 14th century BC, when he was just 12 years old. Although he married his infant sister Sitamun to gain the right to the throne according to Egyptian customs, Amenhotep married the girl he loved in his second year of reign, Tiye, the daughter of his minister Yuya, and insisted on making her his Great Royal Wife (Queen). To commemorate his marriage with Tiye, the king issued a large scarab and sent copies of it to foreign kings and princes. What shows how much the king loved Tiye is the fact that her name, unlike that of any other queen before, was placed in a royal cartouche, a distinction previously limited to the ruling Monarch. Furthermore, she is represented in art as being of equivalent stature to the king.

Figure 5. A marriage scarab of Amenhotep III

Leaving the royal residence at Memphis, Amenhotep built a royal palace, Malkata, across the Nile at Thebes, close to his funerary temple, and a summer palace within the border city of Zarw in northern Sinai.

Amenhotep III’s rule, which extended for about 38 years at the start of the 14th century BC, marked the zenith of ancient Egyptian civilization, both in terms of political power and cultural achievement. His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendor, when Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power. His reign was one of peace and prosperity due to more international trade and strong gold supply, not conquest and expansion. In order to keep the empire he inherited between the northern River Euphrates and southern Nubia safe, the king also married some royal princesses from Mitanni, Babylonia and Anatolia, and had a large Harem of more than 300 women.

Before the end of his life, however, Amenhotep III suffered from some painful teeth problems, which his priests could not cure, so he brought the image of the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar hoping that it could relieve his pain. The goddess, however, failed to cure Amenhotep III, who died at the age of 50.

Akhenaten

Amenhotep III was followed on the throne by Amenhotep IV, his son from Queen Tiye whom he loved. The young king, who later changed his name to Akhenaten, abandoned the traditional Egyptian polytheism, introducing the worship of one God, Aten, who is not represented in an image.

As well as religion, Akhenaten also introduced a new kind of art that completely differed from the traditional Pharaonic art of his predecessors. Colossi and wall-reliefs from the Aten Temple are highly exaggerated in relation to the formality and restraint which characterized ancient Egyptian art.

Figure 6. Bust of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)

Musical statues

With the exception of the damaged Memnon’s two Colossi, however, today very little remains of Amenhotep’s memorial temple in Western Thebes. As it stands on the edge of the Nile floodplain, successive inundations gnawed away at its foundations, and the Colossi were completely surrounded by water.

Figure 7. The Colossi of Memnon

The Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the early years of the first century AD, tells of an earthquake that took place in 27 BC, which shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up. Following its rupture, the statue was then reputed to sing every morning at dawn: a light moaning or whistling, probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock.

This was supposed to be the voice of mythological Memnon responding to the greeting of his mother, Eos, and they were equated by the early Greek travellers with the figure of Memnon, the son of Aurora whose mother, Eos, was the goddess of dawn. The legend of the “Vocal Memnon”, the luck that hearing it was reputed to bring, and the reputation of the statue’s oracular powers, travelled the length of the known world, and a constant stream of visitors, including several Roman Emperors, came to marvel at the statues.

This curious phenomenon was attributed to the passage of air through the pores of the stone, caused chiefly by the change of temperature at sunrise. Nevertheless, following the restoration of the statue by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus before the end of the second century AD, the sounds ceased.

Memnon was said to be the son of Aurora; the goddess of the morning. Memnon was also a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Aria Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. Whether associating the Colossi with his name was just whimsy or wishful thinking on the part of the Greeks – they generally referred to the entire Theban Necropolis as the “Memnonium” – the name has remained in common use for the past 2000 years.

Figure 8. Memnon in an engraving by Bernard Picart (1673–1733)

In 2014 archaeologists discovered some missing parts of the Memnon Colossi statues, buried at the entrance of Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple. A European/Egyptian archaeological mission discovered a collection of quartzite blocks that belong to the northern colossus, including a part of the statue’s arm, a painted belt and a man’s wrap skirt, which helped archaeologists in reconstructing both colossi so it can be returned to their original glory.

The quartzite blocks from the colossi have been missing since an earthquake destroyed the mortuary temple in antiquity. Little remains now on the site, besides the statues, and various pieces of the statues are still lying on the site, threatened by constant irrigation of the privately-owned agricultural fields they stand on.

Copyright © 2015 Ahmed Osman

About the Author

Ahmed Osman is an Egyptian-born author who has been trying to find the link between the stories of the Bible and ancient Egyptian history. Born in Cairo in 1934, he studied law in the university before working as a journalist. He moved to London in 1965, where he joined the Egypt Exploration Society, and studied the history and language of ancient Egypt. He also taught himself biblical Hebrew, and researched the history of both the Bible and the Kuran, before trying to look for origin of the biblical stories in Egyptian sources.

Lost Ancient High Technology in Egypt

By Brien Foerster

Most people know of the great construction achievements of the dynastic Egyptians such as the pyramids and temples of the Giza Plateau area as well as the Sphinx. Many books and videos show depictions of vast work forces hewing blocks of stone in the hot desert sun and carefully setting them into place. However, some of these amazing works could simply not have been made by these people during the time frame that we call dynastic Egypt.

Up until the 7th century BC there was very little iron present in Egypt, as this material only became commonly used once the Assyrians invaded at that time; in fact, the ancient Egyptians regarded iron as an impure metal associated with Seth, the spirit of evil who according to Egyptian tradition governed the central deserts of Africa. A few examples of meteoric iron have been found which predate the Assyrians, but this consists largely of small ornamental beads.

The very basic problem that arises is that we find at many of the ancient sites in Egypt finely crafted works in basalt, granite, quartzite and diorite which are very hard stones that can't be shaped efficiently even by hardened iron tools. For most of the history of Egypt the tools used to shape stone consisted of hardened bronze, which is much softer than iron. In this article we will see examples of ancient hard stone workmanship which simply could not have been created during the dynastic Egyptian time frame of about 2500 to 1500 BC, when most academics believe they were made. Only a few examples will be discussed, and far more can be seen and read about in my Lost Ancient Technology Of Egypt book.

We start in Aswan, which is close to the border of Sudan, and it is here that we find the famous unfinished obelisk, and another smaller one, still attached to the granite bedrock.

Figure 1. The large unfinished obelisk in the Aswan quarry

Archaeologists claim the female ruler known as Hatshepsut, who came to the throne in 1478 BC sanctioned the construction of the bigger of the two. It is nearly one third larger than any ancient Egyptian obelisk ever erected. If finished, it would have measured around 42 m (approximately 137 feet) and would have weighed nearly 1,200 tons. The greatest questions that arise are, what tools could have been used to shape this massive stone monument, and how were the Egyptians planning on raising it out of the pit in which it sits, taking into account its immense size. To the former, most Egyptologists believe that round and hand held stone dolerite pounders were the main tools being used.

Figure 2. Dolorite pounders on top of a piece of pink Aswan granite

In basic terms, any tool should have a greater hardness than the material being cut or shaped. The pink granite of which the unfinished obelisk is composed has a Mohs hardness that sits between the scale of 6 and 7, (the maximum being diamond at 10) and thus is more or less the same hardness as dolerite, making the latter a poor material for shaping the former. And bronze, the other tool substance known to and used by the ancient Egyptians is much softer, being on average 3.5 on the Mohs scale.

Other problems encountered at the unfinished obelisk is that there is very little room inside the trench to be able to create a hard blow, and such repeated efforts could also break the dolerite tool. According to engineer and expert machinist Christopher Dunn, author of Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs:

'The unfinished obelisk offers compelling indirect evidence regarding the level of technology its creator’s had reached – not so much by indicating clearly what methods were used, but by the overpowering indications of what methods could not have been used.'

The idea that hand held pounders were responsible for the shaping of the unfinished obelisk has to be dismissed, and yet, what kind of technology could possibly have been responsible? Chris Dunn's opinion is that if one observes the pattern left by the tool which did the actual shaping, especially in the walls of the trenches that surround the unfinished obelisk, there is an even pattern which would unlikely have occurred if hand tools such as the pounders were used. According to Chris:

'The horizontal striations are typical in cutting when the feed of a tool that is removing material pauses along its path, withdrawn to remove waste, and the interruption of the tool leaves a mark on the surface. Also, it could be that as the tool was rocked back and forth against the walls of the trench to clear the waste on the vertical wall, horizontal striations appeared where the tool pressed the cutting surface against the side wall to keep the trench from narrowing.' In other words, some form of technology which the dynastic Egyptians simply did not have. And so this begs the question; if the dynastic Egyptians could not have done this work, and the later Greeks and Romans were not responsible, then who did and when? We have no choice but to entertain the idea that a civilization existed before what we call the pharaohs and in fact had forms of what we would call high technology, and that these people lived in the area prior to 3100 BC.

Figure 3. “Scoop marks” beside the smaller of the two obelisks

Many will of course ask where the tools are that could have done work such as this. We do know that strange devices and materials have been found in archeological sites in different parts of the world, and have been labeled, boxed and hidden out of view because they do not fit the conventional historical paradigm. Sir William Flinders Petrie was one of the great Egyptologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Petrie found a number of core drills, many of which are now housed in the museum named after him at the University College London in London England. The actual hollow drill bits have not been found, but the cores made of limestone, alabaster, granite and other stones have.

Chris Dunn spent hours in the Petrie museum and was allowed to personally examine some of the drill cores. Here he discusses the characteristics of one of them:

'The most fascinating feature of the granite core Petrie describes is the spiral groove around the core indicating a feed rate of 0.100 inch per revolution of the drill. It was 500 times greater than modern diamond drills, but the rotation of the drill would not have been as fast as the modern drill's 900 revolutions per minute.'

Figure 4. Granite drill core in the Petrie Museum

The often times quoted idea that these drill cores were achieved using a bow and copper tube with sand used as an abrasive must be thrown out, as no modern replication of these cores has been done to the level of efficiency as discussed above.

Making excavations in 1936, in the archaeological zone of Saqqara, Petrie discovered the Tomb of Prince Sabu, who was the son of Pharaoh Adjuib, governor of the I Dynasty (3,000 BC.) Between utensils of funeral objects that were extracted, Emery's attention was powerfully drawn to an object that he initially defined in his report on the Great Tombs of the I Dynasty as: 'a container in the form of schist bowl.' Years later, in his previously mentioned work, Archaic Egypt, he commented on the object with a word that perfectly summarizes the reality of the situation and the discomfort the object causes; "cachibache" (a small hole that threatens to become a much larger hole.)

According to the typical and expected view of the archaeologists and Egyptologists, this object is no more than a tray or the pedestal of some candelabrum, with a design a product of blind chance. I am personally quite amazed that such a controversial piece is still on display in the Cairo museum, and wonder what even odder objects are hidden away in their warehouses.

Figure 5. The famous schist bowl or disk

At Karnak, which is a huge temple complex, we find many examples of ancient core drill holes, and one whose diameter is greater than a human hand. As you can see in the photograph the wall of the drill itself was thinner than 21st century examples, and even engineers and mining experts that have seen it cannot explain what material the drill would have been made of to maintain its shape and stability at being so thin.

Figure 6. Large drill core at Karnak

Another perplexing site is what is called the Serapeum at Saqqara, containing massive granite boxes which many academics believe were created during dynastic times. However, the boxes in the Serapeum are examples of what engineers such as Chris Dunn, I, and members of the Khemit School have major problems with as regards the conventional Egyptologists’ explanations. According to the latter, in the 13th century BC, Khaemweset ordered that a tunnel be excavated through the solid limestone bedrock, with side chambers designed to contain large granite sarcophagi weighing at least 70 tonnes each, to hold the mummified remains of prize Apis bulls.

Manufacturer Chris Dunn is a man who knows what precision surfaces look like, as he has been involved in making complex metal parts for the aviation industry for decades. He has studied the boxes in the Serapeum many times, and has been able to measure the flatness of their granite and limestone surfaces using precise gauges. The following are his thoughts, as found in an article on his website www.gizapower.com:

'The granite box inside Khafre's pyramid has the same characteristics as the boxes inside the Serapeum. Yet the boxes in the Serapeum were ascribed to the 18th dynasty, over 1100 years later when stone working was supposedly in decline. Considering that this dating was based on pottery items that were found and not the boxes themselves, it would be reasonable to speculate that the boxes have not been dated accurately. Their characteristics show that their creators used the same tools and were blessed with the same skill and knowledge as those who created Khafre's pyramid. Moreover, the boxes in both locations are evidence of a much higher purpose than mere burial sarcophagi. They are finished to a high accuracy; their corners are remarkably square, and their inside corners worked down to a dimension that is sharper than what one would expect to find in an artifact from prehistory. All of these features are extremely difficult to accomplish and none of them necessary for a mere burial box.

Figure 7. Yousef Awyan feeling the smoothness of the surface

The manufacturers of these boxes in the Serapeum not only created inside surfaces that were flat when measured vertically and horizontally, they also made sure that the surfaces they were creating were square and parallel to each other, with one surface, the top, having sides that are 5 feet and 10 feet apart from each other. But without such parallism and squareness of the top surface, the squareness noted on both sides would not exist.

While it may be argued that modern man cannot impose a modern perspective on artifacts that are thousands of years old, an appreciation of the level of precision found in these artifacts is lacking in archaeological literature and is only revealed by an understanding what it takes to produce this kind of work. As an engineer and craftsman, who has worked in manufacturing for over 40 years and who has created precision artifacts in our modern world, in my opinion this accomplishment in prehistory deserves more recognition. Nobody does this kind of work unless there is a very high purpose for the artifact. Even the concept of this kind of precision does not occur to an artisan unless there is no other means of accomplishing what the artifact is intended to do. The only other reason that such precision would be created in an object would be that the tools that are used to create it are so precise that they are incapable of producing anything less than precision. With either scenario, we are looking at a higher civilization in prehistory than what is currently accepted. To me, the implications are staggering.

Figure 8. Astonishing precision of one of the Serapeum boxes

This is why I believe that these artifacts that I have measured in Egypt are the smoking gun that proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that a higher civilization than what we have been taught existed in ancient Egypt. The evidence is cut into the stone.'

What we also have to take into consideration is that most of the boxes in the Serapeum were made of granite, and most likely stone brought from the quarry at Aswan, about 500 miles from Saqqara. Not only that, but the lid of each box was cut from the same stone as the box itself. Why would the makers go to such trouble if bulls, no matter how prized, were the contents? It would appear, as Dunn alluded to, that the Serapeum boxes were not created in the 18th Dynasty and not by the dynastic Egyptians at all, but are remnants of an older and more technologically sophisticated culture, possibly those that are known as the Khemitians.

What you have seen and read here are but a few of multiple examples of artifacts that do not fit the paradigm of the dynastic Egyptians. These artifacts could not have been created by these people, and thus we must conclude that they are older. More information can be gleaned from my book Lost Ancient Technology Of Egypt.

Copyright © 2015 Brien Foerster

About the Author

Brien Foerster is an independent researcher and author of fifteen books centered around Peru, the Inca, elongated skulls, and lost ancient technology, which are available from his website www.hiddenincatours.com.

He also writes articles for Graham Hancock, and was associated with the late Lloyd Pye of the Starchild project, who analyzed the DNA of elongated human skulls of the Peruvian Paracas culture on his behalf. He has become an authority on the megalithic works of South America and the perplexing ancient Elongated Headed people of the area, and divides his time between Paracas Peru, and Cusco.

His explorations have now been expanding into Egypt, which he visits once a year with www.khemitology.com. Here, he along with Stephen Mehler and Patricia and Yousef Awyan are avidly continuing the work of Abd’El Hakim Awyan, who spent decades finding evidence of the existence of a highly technological culture that existed in Egypt thousands of years prior to the pharaohs.

www.hiddenincatours.com / www.hiddenhumanhistory.com

Connect with Brien Foerster on Facebook.

The Sacred Meaning of the Reed

By Gary A. David

Many cultures around the world either place a special importance on the hollow-stemmed reed plant or recognize a certain “place of the reeds” within their territory. Legends of the Hopi tribe in Arizona, for instance, tell of the previous world-age that was decimated by a great flood, mythological variations of which exist in most cultures across the globe. The few virtuous Hopis who still followed the ways of the Creator escaped the rising waters by crawling up through a bamboo reed that pierced the sky and stuck up into the next world like a kiva ladder. (A kiva is a subterranean, communal prayer-chamber.) This happened at an actual location called the Sipapuni in the bottom of Grand Canyon. In an alternate version of the legend, the Hopi escaped the deluge by sailing eastward on reed boats across the Pacific Ocean to dry land. In a ceremonial context, the Hopi use smaller reeds to make a storage case for a woman’s wedding robe woven of white cotton that will be buried with her after her death. The first village settled on the Hopi Mesas was called Songòopavi (Shongopovi), literally “place of the reeds,” and the tribe still has a Reed Clan. In addition, this clan is associated with the celestial “Heart of the Sky” god named Sótuknang. In fact, the Hopi word for the Milky Way is songwuka, literally “the big reed.”

Figure 1. Hopi bride carries a reed mat that contains her wedding blanket. She wears this blanket at the naming of her first child. In the end it becomes her shroud.

Mesoamerica also has a number of locations designated by the reed. The ancestral home of the Aztecs was known not only as “place of the herons” but also the “place of the reeds.” The Aztecs initially assumed that Hernando Cortés was the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl making his prophesied return. Cortés and his conquistadores arrived on the Atlantic coast on Easter 1519, which was the Aztec year Ce Acatl, or One Reed. This year marked the end of a fifty-two year cycle when the world would either be renewed or destroyed. Sadly for the Aztec leader Moctezuma of Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the latter occurred.

The apotheosized chieftain of the Toltecs of northern Mexico was called Mixcoatl, or “Cloud Serpent.” About 900 AD his son, who was named Ce Acatl Topiltzin (a.k.a. Quetzalcoatl), founded the city of Tula, or Tollan. Its name again means the “place of the reeds.”

Figure 2. Atlantes (Toltec warrior statues) at Tula, Hidalgo, known as “place of the reeds.”

The late Linda Schele, expert on Mayan iconography, speculates that the original “place of the reeds” was the Gulf Coast swamps of the Olmec heartland, where civilization, writing, the arts, and organized warfare for this whole region began. Later the name was applied to the major Toltec center of Teotihuacán. Maya cities with this same identification include Uxmal, Copan, Tikal, and Utatlán

In Peru the pre-Incan Uros people living around Lake Titicaca claim to be descendants of the builders of the Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco). Some archaeologists estimate this grand city to be an astounding 15,000 to 20,000 years old. The Uros still reside on floating islands made of totora reeds. As the bottom of the islands rot away, they add more reeds to the top. This quintessential reed culture lives in reed houses, sails on reed boats, and weaves reed handicrafts. Totora was also used by the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for thatching and to make swimming floats. North and South America are not the only places where the reed gained cultural significance.

Figure 3. Uros island made of reeds near Lake Titicaca.

Similar to the Greek Elysian Fields, the ancient Egyptian afterlife was called the Field of Reeds. An oasis called the Faiyum southwest of Giza was probably the naturalistic origin of this concept. Some of the vignettes in the Egyptian Book of the Dead depict the “heron of plenty,” otherwise known as the phoenix, perched on a small pyramid. It is interesting to note that the hieroglyph of a heron on a pyramid corresponds to the word bah, meaning “to flood, to inundate.” This, of course, is just the type of environment where reeds grow. In papyrus illustrations of the Field of Rushes we also find either the falcon or a small, human-headed bird representing the ba, sounding the same as the word bah previously mentioned. The ba, or “soul,” perches atop a pylon, which is a massive rectangular gateway to a temple or hypostyle hall. Thus, the pylon is a perfect symbol for a portal or stargate. In addition, the walls of the Field of Rushes were made of iron, presumably meteoric iron, which further stresses its celestial meaning.

Other vignettes show a celestial ship containing a staircase, which looks like half of a stepped pyramid cut vertically. These stairs represent transcendence and rebirth. In addition, the massive stone blocks of the Temple of Amun at Karnak were carved to give the illusion of being made of reed and papyrus. We furthermore remember that the sacred djed pillar was constructed of reeds. This symbol of stability was figuratively referred to as “the backbone of Osiris,” the god of the underworld that is associated with the constellation Orion.

Figure 4. Celestial barque from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Figure 5. Papyrus-shaped columns at the Temple of Amun, Luxor.

Figure 6. Heron or bennu bird (phoenix) atop a pyramidal perch.

Figure 7. Left: Egyptian djed pillar, anthropomorphized with flail and crook. Right:  The Egyptian ba represented the “soul.”                                                                       Standing on a pylon, this therianthrope raises his hands in prayer or praise.

In his book Starwalkers, “investigative mythologist” William Henry identifies ancient Egypt as another “place of the reeds,” or what he calls the Dimension of the Blessed. “The metaphor of the reed continues in the afterlife Field or Place of Reeds where it signifies the unfolding of a life in a finer realm, along the heavenly Nile, the Milky Way. Time and again we see paintings of priests and priestesses sailing on the waters of the heavenly Nile in the Blessed Field of Reeds. They are sailing the stars.”  Or in other words, “As here, so hereafter.”

Figure 8. Norwegian explorer-author Thor Heyerdahl’s ‘Ra II’,  reconstructed from ancient Egyptian drawings and models.

The more mundane usage of the reed was connected to writing. The reed’s cultural significance is emphasized by its use as both an instrument for writing and the material for making papyrus.

Music is also an earmark of culture. Reeds of different lengths are put together to form the panpipe, or syrinx. The Greek nymph Syrinx was lasciviously pursued by the satyr Pan and changed into a reed to escape violence.

The Babylonian creation myth called the Enuma Elish envisions a primeval time before reeds grew. Used for building houses and boats, the reed would become an essential cultural artifact for the ancient marshland dwellers of southern Iraq. One version of the creation describes the dragon slayer Merodach (Marduk) laying a reed upon the surface of the water and pouring dust upon it to create humankind.

The Sumerian custom of human burial was called “laying the body in the ‘reeds of Enki’,” Lord of Earth. This might refer to placing a corpse in a small reed boat to float downstream into the canebrakes. The late author Philip Coppens in his book The Canopus Revelation stresses the cultural importance of the reed: “Throughout history, the center of worship of Enki in Eridu was the reed hut, even though it was surrounded by impressive temples. The reed hut was the original temple and it is important to note that despite technological advances, at the core of the religious belief, a simple hut remained. It shows that the Sumerians never forgot where they came from.”

Figure 9. Temple-like reed guesthouse, or mudhif, in southern Iraq (Mesopotamia).

The Japanese creation myth says that the first object to arise out of the ocean of chaos was a reed named Kunitokotachi, the eternal ruler of land. In Philippine mythology the first man and woman named Sikalak and Sikabay came out of a split bamboo reed. In China the bamboo was a symbol of longevity and was one of the Four Noble Plants. Its fiber was also used to make paper.

Given the variety of geographical locations across the globe for the “place of the reeds,” we may conclude that it is much more than a reference to flora. Ultimately the reed or bamboo designates a place of high culture and ancient wisdom—the sort of location where astronomer-priests would normally scan the heavens for doorways through which the soul could make its passage to the afterlife. For the Hopi Indians of Arizona the reed certainly represents migration, a vast journey across either an ocean of salt water or an ocean of stars.

Whether used for houses, boats, ropes, writing implements, paper, musical instruments, or passageways to higher dimensions, the reed resonates through the winds of time, playing upon our imagination.

Copyright © 2015 Gary A. David

Bibliography

E. A. Wallis Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Vol. I & Vol. II (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1978, 1920).

Phillip Coppens, The Canopus Revelation: Stargate of the Gods and the Ark of Osiris (Netherlands: Frontier Publishing, 2004).

David Freidel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker, Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993).

Graham Hancock and Santha Faiia, Heaven’s Mirror: Quest For the Lost Civilization (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1998).

William Henry, Starwalkers and the Dimension of the Blessed (Kempton, Illinois: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2007).

Norman Bancroft Hunt, Gods and Myths of the Aztecs: The History and Development of the Mexican Culture (New York: Smithmark Publishers, Inc., 1996).

Ekkehart Malotki, editor, Hopi Dictionary: A Hopi-English Dictionary of the Third Mesa Dialect (Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1998).

Edmund Nequatewa, Truth of a Hopi: Stories Relating To the Origin, Myths and Clan      Histories of the Hopi (Flagstaff, Arizona: Museum of Northern Arizona, 1967, reprint 1936).

New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1972, reprint 1959).

Evelyn Rossiter, editor, The Book of the Dead: Papyri of Ani, Hunefer, Anhaï (London: Miller Graphics/Crown Publishers, Inc., 1979, 1978).

Frank Waters and Oswald White Bear Fredericks, Book of the Hopi (New York: Penguin Books, 1987, reprint 1963).

Paul Westheim, The Art of Ancient Mexico (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday & Co., 1965).

About the Author

Gary A. David is an author, independent researcher, and archaeo-astronomer. For over twenty-five years he has studied the archaeological ruins and rock art of the American Southwest. His nonfiction books explore Hopi mythology, star knowledge, and rituals, along with the traditions of other ancient cultures in Arizona and New Mexico.

Latest book:

Upcoming tours that Gary David will host in 2015:

Email: garydavid52@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.theorionzone.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garydavid

Mayan Women and the Coiled Snake Headdress

By Leonide Martin

The coiled snake headdress is a significant artifact connected with Mayan women, both ancient and modern.  Images of ancient Mayan women wearing this distinctive headdress have been found carved on stone monuments, painted on ceramics and murals, and drawn in screen-fold bark paper books called codices.  Similar headdresses are worn today by Mayan women who practice healing and midwifery in the tradition of the goddess Ix Chel.  Every village has its curendera, a medicine women who uses plant-based remedies for a wide variety of conditions, ranging from respiratory and intestinal ailments to spiritually-caused illnesses such as mal ojo or evil eye.  For all these practitioners of Ix Chel medicine, the coiled serpent holds special significance.

Figure 1. The coiled snake headdress

Snakes are a powerful symbol among the Maya.  In their primal form, snakes represent the surge of life force that brings all things on earth into manifestation.  One who has mastered snake energy controls forces of creation and destruction, and understands the secrets of existence.  Snakes are connected with water and the rainy season, a time of returning fertility as soils become ready for planting.  The coiled snake headdress is worn by Ix Chel in her moon goddess aspect, associated with women's menstrual cycles and resultant fertility.  Among a group of contemporary Mayas living near Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, the womb is visualized as a coiled snake.  The moon goddess frequently pours water from a jar, symbolic of women's fecundity and the watery nature of pregnancy and childbirth.

Ix Chel appears as a healer wearing the coiled snake headdress in both young and old goddess forms.  Images of these goddesses appear in both the Madrid and Dresden Codices, screen-fold books full of hieroglyphs and illustrations painted by the Postclassic Maya, probably in the 15th-17th centuries.  Of the thousands of hieroglyphic manuscripts painted by the ancient Mayas, only four are known to have survived:  The Madrid, Dresden and Paris Codices, named after the cities where they are currently housed, and the Grolier Codex discovered in a cave in Chiapas in the 1960s.  The codices are concerned with astronomical phenomena, such as lunar and solar eclipses, calculating Venus and other planetary cycles, and the 260-day sacred calendar or tzolk'in, which interacts with the 365-day solar calendar or haab, to create repeating 52-year cycles.  These almanacs relate the timing of various ritual and secular activities to different calendrical cycles, and portray women in various everyday roles in the idealized guise of goddesses.

Other connections between Ix Chel and the tzolk'in calendar include the duration of pregnancy and the timing for planting maize (corn).  The Mam Mayas of highland Guatemala link the earth, the moon, and maize in a sacred trinity which they call "Our Mother."  Among the Quiché of Guatemala, the moon governs both women's menstrual cycles and planting the maize crop.  The 260-day calendar is used to plan conception and maize planting; both childbirth and harvesting are expected to occur 260 days after conception or sowing.

Figure 2. Ix Chel as healer with coiled snake headdress, carved slate from San Ignacio, Belize (2003). Photo by author, 2015

Ix Chel - The Triple Goddess

While Ix Chel is a triple goddess with three forms - maiden, mother and crone - she wears the coiled snake headdress in only two of these.  As the maiden she is called Goddess I in the codices, the young moon goddess.  She wears the coiled snake headdress to signify her powers of healing and intuitive knowledge, her skills at medicine and midwifery, and her ability to control earthly forces.  She often has the glyph sak, Mayan word for white, in her headdress to indicate visible phases of the moon.  Women prayed to her for fertility and successful pregnancy, believed she was responsible for the development of the fetus and determination of its sex.  They placed carved images under their bed to sustain pregnancy and provide safe childbirth.  Ix Chel's name means "Lady Rainbow" where Ix signifies divine feminine, goddess and woman and Chel means rainbow or translucent light.  She is closely associated with water, including lakes, rivers and oceans where it is common to see rainbows.  Continuing into modern times, women sleep beside waters and pray for her guidance in dreams.

Figure 3. Maiden Ix Chel, Young Moon Goddess. Dresden Codex, Forstemann version, with permission of FAMSI.

In the form of mother, Ix Chel takes on blended qualities of both moon and earth goddess.  She is still called Goddess I in the codices, but given the additional name Ixik Kab, which translates as "Lady Earth."  Her headdress contains a cotton coil and spindles, both associated with weaving and the dry season.  Her headdress may have the sak glyph, linking her to the moon in its waxing aspects and the whiteness of cotton.  It is said that her headdress does not contain the coiled serpent because she is too busy as wife and mother to attend to healing needs.  She is associated with sexual desire, fertility, motherhood, weaving, the earth and crops.  Images in the codices portray her in amorous scenes, some picturing explicit sexual union.  She is also depicted with an enlarged pregnant belly, carrying children on her back, and offering burdens that include maize and fish.  At times she has a bird perched on her shoulders, which might represent disease or could prognosticate a coming astrological sign.  Ethnographic accounts have reported Maya beliefs that the waxing moon brings illnesses such as infections, tumors or pustules.

Ixik Kab - Ix Chel has a roving eye, depicted in codices paired with many different male figures.  These sexual unions represent planetary and stellar conjunctions, and relate to contemporary folktales that describe the Moon - Earth Goddess as a deity with many romantic partners.  The moon has many lovers because it moves rapidly through the sky, frequently encountering planets as it circles around.  These folktales tell that the young Ix Chel was independent and headstrong, and eloped to marry the Sun God.  But she would not obey him, so he got angry and mistreated her until she ran away with the Morning Star God (Venus).  Following his celestial movements, she hid much of the time from her angry husband.  Soon the Morning Star God became weary of her refusal to obey him and he locked her up, but she escaped and ran away with the Vulture God.  The Sun God heard about this and planned to retrieve her by covering himself in a deer skin, pretending to be dead.  When the vultures came to eat, the Sun God grabbed one by the wing and was carried to the house of the Vulture God.  They fought furiously, but the Sun God won and took Ix Chel back.  His jealousy wearied her again, and they quarrelled causing the heavens to thunder and shoot bolts of lightning to earth.  In his anger, the Sun God took away Ix Chel's brilliant rainbow colors and left her with only the pale light of the moon.

Ix Chel as moon mother appears in an incised ceramic vessel now in the American Museum of Natural History.  On the vessel, a large snake with mirrors on its body loops around many images.  One shows a lunar crescent enclosing the Moon Goddess holding a rabbit.  She wears a short latticed bead skirt and her headdress contains maize foliation, merging her with the Maize God and reiterating her fecundity.  In Maya folklore, Ix Chel took her pet rabbit (symbol of fertility) and hid herself in the moon to escape the Sun God's fury.  She wanders the night sky making herself invisible whenever her husband shows his fiery head.  During the dark days of the moon, she rests from her travels.  When the moon is full, you can see her sitting in the moon holding her rabbit while she watches over the earth, taking care of women and children and guiding healers.

In her crone aspect, Ix Chel is often called aged Goddess O, explicitly named in codices as Chak Chel.  She wears the coiled serpent headdress in both her life-giving and destructive forms as a Grandmother Earth Goddess of the moon, rain, medicine and death.  The serpent headdress signifies her abilities in medicine, healing, intuitive wisdom and spiritual powers.  She often functions as the aged female curer (curendera), diviner and midwife who also eases people in their dying process, absorbing bodies of the deceased into her physical body, the earth.  This is a role still frequently undertaken by old women in Mesoamerica.  Chak Chel - Ix Chel has many attributes, portrayed in codices as a beneficent water goddess frequently paired with the rain god Chaak, as the female member of the creator couple paired with Itzamna, and as a world destroyer shown with bestial characteristics and death symbols.

Figure 4. Old Moon Goddess, Beneficent Chak Chel. Dresden Codex, Forstemann version, with permission of FAMSI

Chak can mean either red or great, evoking Chortí images of the full moon with a red glow as a sign of heavy rains.  Chel means rainbow or arch of heaven, so the Chak Chel name could be the "red rainbow moon," another image of the rainy-season moon.  Depictions in codices show Goddess O wearing a coiled serpent headdress and holding an overturned water jar pouring water.  This symbolizes the connections between rain and serpents; when the serpent rainbow surrounds the moon it signifies there will be rain.

In her beneficent aspects, Chak Chel pours water from a clay pot shaped like a womb onto the earth to prepare soils for planting and restore the waters of lakes and streams.  This symbolizes her pouring of blessings and healing onto the world.  In two scenes from the Madrid Codex, Chak Chel emits water from her pelvic region and armpits, variously interpreted as depicting the rush of amniotic fluid before childbirth or the symbolic power of menstrual blood and body fluids to bring fertility.  This aspect of the crone goddess is associated with the waning moon.

Figure 5. Old Moon Goddess Destructive, Chak Chel. Dresden Codex, Forstemann version, with permission of FAMSI.

In her destructive aspects, Chak Chel has monstrous appearance with sharp claws and a skirt full of crossed bones.  Her clawed hands and feet seem to be those of a jaguar, and sometimes she has a jaguar-spotted eye.  When pouring water in this aspect, she sends forth storms, floods and hurricanes.  One depiction in the codices shows her pouring huge amounts of water in collaboration with a serpent, thought to represent the deluge that destroyed the second Maya creation of mud people.  Another dangerous aspect pictured in the Dresden Codex shows Goddess O as the new moon threatening to eclipse the sun.  She pours rainwater marked with glyphs referring to an 1,820-day cycle, the cycle associated with solar eclipse images in the Paris Codex.  There is increased incidence of solar eclipses during the new moon, and the Mayas feared that eclipses might bring destruction to the world.

The Legacy of Ix Chel and the Coiled Snake Headdress

Ix Chel in her aspects as healer wearing the coiled snake headdress continues to wield strong influence in Mesoamerica, with recent branching to North America and Europe.  Traditional Maya medicine is still widely practiced in villages, brought to the attention of contemporary healers through the work of Dr. Rosita Arvigo.  Rosita’s healing career started as a Doctor of Naprapathy (similar to Chiropractic) in the USA.  After moving to Belize she met Don Elijio Panti, perhaps the last great h’men (one who knows) trained in ancient Mayan knowledge.  She apprenticed with him for 13 years and devoted her life to preserving traditional Maya healing.   She has lived among the Maya in San Ignacio, Belize for the past 35 years, where she cataloged and preserved thousands of healing plants and trees of Belize through her work with Dr. Michael Balick of The New York Botanical Garden and the Belize Ethnobotany Project (1987-1996.)

Rosita learned about Ix Chel from Don Elijio, and was immediately fascinated by this Goddess of the Americas.  She named her tropical homestead in Belize the Ix Chel Farm and later founded the Ix Chel Tropical Research Centre, developing Maya Abdominal Therapy and the Maya Spiritual Healing Association under the Goddess' patronage.  Many healing practitioners from around the world come to study in Dr. Arvigo's programs, then bring these ancient remedies and skills into their own practices.  According to Rosita, no modality she found in over four decades of specializing in women's care has been as effective as the Maya abdominal massage and steam bath system.  Ancient midwives on the island of Cozumel, sacred to Ix Chel, used pelvic and abdominal massage to center the uterus, re-position a fetus and strengthen uterine ligaments and muscles.  This allowed for an unimpeded flow of chu’lel (vital force or chi).

Cozumel Island, called Cuzamil in ancient times, holds an Ix Chel temple sanctuary for women, abandoned during the 10th century.  Maya women went to Cuzamil for training in healing and women's mysteries, and every woman sought to make two pilgrimages in her lifetime, at menarche and menopause.  Thousands made this pilgrimage, traveling by canoe from present-day Playa del Carmen, a treacherous 12-hour journey.  Today in Yucatan, this crossing, La Travesia, is re-enacted each May with canoes from Tulum to Cozumel.  In 2008 a Canadian journalist described this "remarkable cultural, spiritual and theatrical experience called the Sacred Mayan Journey" as the recreation of the ancient Cuzamil pilgrimage lost for over 500 years. Wearing a coiled snake headdress, a modern representative of Ix Chel gave her message to pilgrims as they complete the sacred journey.

Dr. Arvigo's organization of Maya Abdominal Therapists makes a semi-annual pilgrimage to Cozumel Island offering gratitude and prayers to Ix Chel, their patroness.  Before their research, publishing images and articles, and passing down ancient teachings, Ix Chel with the coiled snake headdress of healer-midwife was unknown to all but a small group of Mayan healers.  Now according to Rosita, "in keeping with the Maya promise of a resurgence of the Divine Feminine Principle after 2012, she has been enthroned in her former glory. . . assuring that Ix Chel is never again a forgotten Goddess."

Figure 6. Shrine of Ix Chel on Isla Mujeres, sacred pilgrimage island near Cozumel. Photo by author, 2009.

Copyright © 2015 Leonide Martin

Bibliography

Ardren, T (editor). (2002). Ancient Maya Women. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.  Ch. 11, "Representations of Women in Postclassic and Colonial Maya Literature and Art" by Gabrielle Vail and Andrea Stone.

Arvigo, R. (1994). Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer.  Harper San Francisco, CA.

Arvigo, R., and Balick, M. (1998). Rainforest Remedies: One Hundred Healing Herbs of Belize.  2nd Edition.  Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, WI.

Förstemann, E. (2003). The Dresden Codex.  Originally published 1880 & 1882, FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies) Website Publication 2003.  Date accessed 1-26-15. Available from: http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/dresden.html

Mallin, L. Sacred Maya Journey to the Goddess.  http://lornemallin.blogspot.com/2008/06/sacred-maya-journey-to-goddess.html

Milbrath, S. (1999). Star Gods of the Maya.  University of Texas Press, Austin, TX .  "The Young Moon Goddess in Colonial and Postclassic Times" pp. 138-141, "The Aged Moon Goddess in Colonial and Postclassic Times" pp. 141-147, "The Classic Maya Moon Goddess" pp. 150-155.

Courses in the ARVIGO™ Techniques taught by Certified ARVIGO™ Teachers around the world.   https://arvigotherapy.com/

Maya Spiritual Healing Workshops in Belize.   http://rositaarvigo.com/workshops/

About the Author

Leonide Martin is a retired California State University professor, former Family Nurse Practitioner, and currently an author and Maya researcher.  Her books bring ancient Maya culture and civilization to life in stories about both real historical Mayans and fictional characters.  She has studied Maya archaeology, anthropology and history from the scientific and indigenous viewpoints.

Books

Website:

Mists of Palenque: http://mistsofpalenque.com/

Author Blog:

https://leonidemartinblog.wordpress.com/

Author Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/leonide.martin?ref=hl

The Mystery of Obelisks

By Scott Onstott

Stories of tall, narrow four-sided tapering stone monuments capped with pyramid-like forms are fascinating—especially the dramas of how these great masses were transported and raised. What I intend to introduce you to in this essay is a great mystery, one encoded in the present-day locations of obelisks.

The ancient Egyptian culture invented the tekhenu, something the Greek historian Herodotus recorded as a pointed pillar, which in Greek is obeliskos—forming the basis of our present word obelisk. The oldest obelisk still in its original position is in the ruins of Heliopolis, Egypt. The 120-ton obelisk of Senusret I is the only surviving artifact of this ancient Sun City. The ancient Egyptians believed the obelisk form literally housed part of their Sun god Ra’s spirit. It has been said that obelisks might be an architectural version of Sun pillars^1, a visual phenomenon created by sunlight reflecting off ice crystals in the atmosphere that can resemble vertical pointed pillars in the sky.

Another fascinating atmospheric phenomenon, popularly known for centuries as the Lighthouse of Maracaibo, is an epic display of lightning centering on a point where the Catatumbo River empties into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The phenomenon consists of almost continuous electrical discharges between 2 km and more than 10 km in height. Wind, seeping methane, and uranium in the bedrock have all been advanced as possible explanations but no one really knows why this mega light show goes on upwards of 160 nights per year, 10 hours per night, and up to 280 times per hour^2 in this specific location.

The Lighthouse of Maracaibo is 6666 miles from Heliopolis. Is the obelisk of Heliopolis acting as some kind of acupuncture needle in the Earth? Let us set aside the question of units of measure until later and simply appreciate this resonance with repeating digits.

Thinking more about lighthouses, I drew a line in Google Earth from the sole obelisk in Heliopolis to the location where the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria once stood, where a replica now stands. I continued the line to see if it would hit anything else of significance and discovered something amazing—the alignment continues to the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, which is another replica of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. This lighthouse is located in Alexandria, Virginia and measures 333 feet in height. The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry has 33 degrees, which also fits this pattern of repetitive digits.

Alexandria is a suburb of Washington DC, where America’s most famous obelisk, the Washington Monument stands approximately 555.5 feet or 6666 inches tall (see my article entitled, “Mathematical Encoding in the Great Pyramid”3 to learn how this measure is encoded in the pyramid). Rather than a monolithic piece of stone, the Washington Monument is a work of both operative and speculative masonry^4. Curiously, the Washington Monument is 333.333 km from the modern obelisk-like architectural spire atop the Bank of America Tower in New York City.

Figure 1. Distance between the Washington Monument and Bank of America Tower

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt is 3333.33 km from the center of the Ménec alignments, the most well known of the standing stones in Carnac, France. Thousands of prehistoric stones marching across the landscape resemble undressed obelisks, needling the Earth in long rows. Perhaps the ancients practiced an Earth science we can only guess at today. The alignment between the Heliopolis obelisk and the two Lighthouses of Alexandria (ancient and modern) is on a far grander scale and I suppose it is probably symbolic rather than acting as a possible waveguide for telluric energies, but who really knows?

Figure 2. Monuments in relation to the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt.

Incidentally the center of the Ménec alignments in Carnac is 6666.6 km from the Freemason building in the International Peace Garden on the US/Canada border. This enigmatic building was constructed literally as the square and compass emblem of freemasonry, perceptible only when seen from above. The Freemason emblem building is located at 100° 3’ 33.33” west longitude.

Figure 3. Distance between the Freemason Emblem building and the Menec Menhir Alignments

The distance from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt to the Eiffel Tower in Paris is 3033.33 km. This is especially interesting in light of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval’s research revealing that the name Paris may indeed come from Pharia-Isis, a name used to identify the Lighthouse of Alexandria by the Greeks in antiquity^5. The Eiffel Tower can be thought of as an iron obelisk or lighthouse symbolizing Paris and even France itself. The annual Bastille Day fireworks emanating from the Eiffel Tower are certainly spectacular and qualify it as a literal Pharia-Isis Lighthouse.

The mathematical constant e, (approximately 2.71828…) is of eminent importance in mathematics^6, being the base of the natural logarithm. I discovered that the distance from the Eiffel Tower to the church of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is e million feet. The spires of Gaudi’s famous structure resemble a forest of obelisks, each one capped with a Sun disc. That’s funny because the Sun’s circumference is e million miles^7!

Figure 4. The mathematical constant ‘e’

There is one ancient Egyptian obelisk in Paris at the center of La Place de la Concorde. This obelisk came from the Temple of Luxor in Egypt, some 33° distant as the crow flies. Robert Bauval realized there is an uncanny similarity between the 6° bend in the Louvre/Historical axes of Paris and the 6° bend in the Luxor/Karnak temple axes in Egypt,8 but that is another story. Suffice it to say that it is especially appropriate that the obelisk in Paris came from Luxor.

The Luxor obelisk is 666 meters away from the center of the large round water basin in the adjacent Tuileries Gardens. If the Luxor obelisk is symbolic of a lingam then you might think of the round basin as a yoni. The round basin represents the holy of holies in Solomon’s Temple of Jerusalem, according to the analysis shown in my film, Secrets In Plain Sight Volume 1. It’s curious also that Paris is 3333 km from Jerusalem^9.

Figure 5. Distance between the Luxor Obelisk and the Round Basin of Tuileries Gardens

Let us follow a new trail starting at the round basin that will lead us to more obelisks. The distance from the center of the round basin in the Tuileries Gardens to the rond-point of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (the terminus of the traditional Catholic pilgrimage) is 666.66 miles.

Figure 6. Distance between Santiago de Compostela and the Round Fountain of Tuileries Gardens

The distance from the round basin to Bugarach Peak near Rennes le Chateau in southern France is 666.66 km. Bugarach Peak has long been a site of new-age pilgrimage.

“For decades, there has been a belief that Pic de Bugarach, which, at 1,230 meters, is the highest in the Corbières mountain range, possesses an eerie power. Often called the “upside-down mountain” – geologists think that it exploded after its formation and the top landed the wrong way up – it is thought to have inspired Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since the 1960s, it has attracted New Agers, who insist that it emits special magnetic waves.

Further, rumors persist that the country’s late president François Mitterrand was transported by helicopter onto the peak, while the Nazis, and later, Israel’s Mossad, performed mysterious digs there. Now the nearby village is awash with New Agers, who have boosted the local economy, though their naked group-climbs up to the peak have raised concerns as well as eyebrows.”10

If you draw a line from the rond-point of the cathedral of Santaigo de Compostela in Spain through Bugarach peak, it continues directly to the Sallustiano obelisk at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. The distance from Bugarach Peak to this obelisk is 33,003,300 inches. The Sallustiano happens to be an ancient Roman copy of an Egyptian obelisk.

The most famous obelisk in the city is of course the one standing in St. Peter’s square in the Vatican. Erecting this obelisk was one of the greatest engineering feats of the Renaissance, requiring some 140 horses and 800 men who barely managed to hoist it into position^11.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the enigmatic Edward Leedskalnin, who built Coral Castle in the early 20th century, claimed to have lifted megaliths into place all by himself using a mysterious magnetic technology based on ancient Egyptian science. While it is certainly unexpected that the distance from the center of Coral Castle to the Vatican obelisk is exactly 330,330,000 inches, Coral Castle is located in US zip code 33033 (zip code 33333 doesn’t exist, by the way). The coincidences with repetitive digits, and particularly with threes, keep piling up!

Figure 7. Distance between Coral Castle and the Vatican Obelisk

The largest standing ancient Egyptian obelisk in the world is in Rome, in front of the Lateran Basilica, seat of the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope). This obelisk originally came from Karnak and was paired with another matching obelisk, both of which were moved to Alexandria in antiquity. The first ended up in Rome and the second was moved to Istanbul several generations later by Roman emperor Theodosius I. Drawing a line starting at the obelisk in Istanbul through its sibling in Rome, the line extends all the way to Madrid. Specifically this alignment bisects the ancient Egyptian Temple of Debod^12 in central Madrid, which was moved there from Aswan in the mid-20th century. Rome is almost exactly^13 at the midpoint of this alignment between Istanbul and Madrid. What are the chances that these cities and monuments within them should line up so perfectly?

Figure 8. Alignment between Temple of Debod, Lateran Palace and Obelisk of Theodosius

The most famous of all ancient Egyptian obelisks would have to be the matching pair of “Cleopatra’s Needles” as they are known—even though they have nothing to do with the intriguing final Pharaoh and were erected in Heliopolis thousands of years prior to her birth. One of Cleopatra’s Needles is now in New York City’s Central Park adjacent to the Met (which contains the Temple of Dendur, also from Aswan). The distance from Cleopatra’s Needle in NYC to Bugarach Peak is 3303.33 nautical miles.

Figure 9. Distance between Cleopatra’s Needle and Bugarach Peak

The sister Cleopatra’s Needle currently rests in central London on the bank of the Thames, a river known upstream as the Isis. The needle in London is located 3333.33 km from where it once stood on the harbor wall in Alexandria for nearly two millennia, not far from the famous aforementioned Lighthouse.

Figure 10. Distance between Cleopatra’s Needle in London and Cleopatra’s Needle in Alexandria

In my numerical and metrological research I have come to understand that resonances with repetitive digits occur in various systems of units (inches, feet, miles, kilometers, and nautical miles) because the dimensions of the Earth—the basis of sacred geometry, define each unit.

The Sun is 333,000 times more massive than the Earth^14. There are 333 million cubic miles of water on Earth. Only 3% is in the atmosphere and 0.3% of that is fresh water on the surface.15 How can this be, and why are the numbers so perfect?

Is it all evidence of a vast conspiracy spanning the centuries or do you take this as evidence of deep numerical patterning in the cosmos itself? Could both be true simultaneously? Who are the encoders? What does their encoding reveal? These are some of the many questions I enjoy exploring in my work at www.secretsinplainsight.com.

Copyright © 2015 Scott Onstott

End Notes

1. Patricia Blackwell Gary and Richard Talcott, "Stargazing in Ancient Egypt", Astronomy, June 2006, pp. 62-67.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

3. http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa-opinion-guest-authors/mathematical-encoding-great-pyramid-002323

4. http://www.mastermason.com/wilmettepark/intro.html

5. Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, “Talisman” (2004) pp. 202-203.

6. Howard Whitley Eves, “An Introduction to the History of Mathematics” (1969).

7. The statement that the Sun’s circumference is e million miles is 99.9% accurate according to NASA data: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sun&Display=Facts

8. Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, “Talisman” (2004) pp. 431-434.

9. The distance from the center of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to the center of La Place de la Nation in Paris is 3333.33 km.

10. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hippies-head-for-noahs-ark-queue-here-for-rescue-aboard-alien-spaceship-7584492.html

11. Peter Tompkins, “The Magic of Obelisks” (1981) p. 32.

12. This alignment was discovered by Kevin McMahon: http://peacegardensecrets.com/2014/05/

13. The distance from the Temple of Debod in Madrid to the Lateran obelisk in Rome is 99.97% equal to the distance from the Lateran obelisk to the obelisk of Theodosius in Istanbul.

14. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html

15. http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

About the Author

Scott Onstott is the creator of the Secrets In Plain Sight video series, an inspiring exploration of great art, architecture, and urban design unveiling the unlikely intersection of geometry, mysticism, physics, music, astronomy, and world history. Secrets In Plain Sight Volume 1 has more than 4 million views to date. Scott is the author of 11 exoteric books on architectural software and 4 esoteric books. He recently published Quantification, a book of color illustrations highlighting patterns in the Great Pyramid, the human body and in the Earth, which also reveals uncanny distances between sacred sites. Scott Onstott has a degree in Architecture and worked for a decade designing corporate interiors in San Francisco before becoming an independent teacher, author and filmmaker.

Books:

Website:

www.secretsinplainsight.com

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/scottonstott

Ancient Acoustic Artifacts and Communication with the “Gods”

By Gary Evans

In this article, I will introduce the subject of Archaeoacoustics and ancient “musical instruments”. As we will see, these can be used in conjunction with a number of ancient sites from around the world.

Archaeoacoustics

Archaeoacoustics is the use of acoustical study within the wider scientific field of archaeology. This includes the study of the acoustics at archaeological sites, and the study of acoustics in archaeological artifacts. Over the last 40 years it has become increasingly obvious that studying the sonic nature of certain areas of archaeology can help us understand ancient cultures. Archaeoacoustics  is an interdisciplinary field, it includes various fields of research including: archaeology, ethnomusicology, acoustics and digital modelling. These form the larger field of music archaeology.

One of the leading research groups publishing new papers on Archaeoacoustics is SB Research Group. (SBRG) is a multidisciplinary university project supported by University of Trieste, Italy “that aims to study from 2010  the architecture, geometry, shape and materials of ancient structures in Europe”.

“Archaeoacoustics is an interesting new method for reanalyzing ancient sites, it uses different study parameters to re-discover forgotten technology which operates on the human emotional sphere.” (SBRG).

Research over the last few decades is starting to shed light on the connection between ancient instruments and ancient sites. At Chavín de Huántar, Peru. Miriam Kolar of Stanford University reports in her article, “The Code of the Conch - How the science of sound explained an ancient Peruvian oracle”:

“Archaeoacoustic research—sonic science applied to archaeological evidence—has revealed secrets built into Chavín’s architecture, unlocked by the sound of conch shells that were buried for millennia.”

“Performing a replica shell horn inside Chavín’s galleries, I can feel through my body the resonances between instrument and architecture, a physically and emotionally transformative experience that would have been similarly sensed—but interpreted differently—by humans in the past”.

Purpose and use of ancient conch (pututus) musical instruments.

Chavín de Huántar and the work carried out by Stanford University provide us with a window into the acoustic past. A solid case has been made for the use of certain sound frequencies affecting the human emotional sphere, possibly in conjunction with psychotropic plants. We are generally led to believe that our ancestors were superstitious people who gleaned no real material benefit from their “rituals”. The evidence appears to be slowly eroding this theory. For example, if we combine the work carried out by Stanford with the work carried out by UCLA, it becomes clear that certain sound frequencies are capable of changing regional brain activity. From my own research and experience, I can add, whilst inside certain Egyptian pyramids, being immersed in these sound frequencies has a more pronounced effect than simply listening to the sound frequency on headphones.

To gain a clearer understanding I recommend you listen to a short (2 mins 15 secs) audio clip recorded by Stanford inside Chavin. The web link is provided at the end of this article.

Certain notes produced by the conch shell are amplified by the chamber it’s played in. I can say from personal experience, once a stone structure’s resonant pitch has been matched, you can feel sound waves entering the body. On the tours I help organise, the first contact people have with this effect can often be very surprising. In this setting the human voice can often sound like a didgeridoo, in the past, Australian guests have looked around for someone playing a didgeridoo! Even though the sound is simply my voice, creating vowel sounds, which are then amplified by the chamber.

Figure 1. An Aztec conch shell trumpeter called a "quiquizoani" in Nahuatl from the Codex Magliabecchi

People of the past may have experienced similar astonishment. Once the initial surprise is out of the way, I explain how altered states can be accomplished. This is where the practice of meditation can help. A quiet mind is key. Many of us have trouble simply sitting in silence; this can act as a barrier to the effects of sound. Relaxation and attention help to facilitate the process.

Peruvian Whistling Vessels

Another interesting ancient musical artefact is documented in a 1974 article from The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, “Double-chambered whistling bottles:  A unique Peruvian pottery form” by Daniel K. Stat.

This article gives the results and conclusions of a seemingly innocent ancient artefact. Archaeologists had previously dismissed these “whistling bottles” as simple entertainment while pouring a drink. However, upon detailed study and analysis the intricacies of design and the acoustic properties have come to light. Human trials were conducted by the Franklin Institute and Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia. The sound level and range of frequencies produced by these artifacts was found to alter “heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration”.

Figure 2. A Maya whistle

Conclusions from the above article.

“Is it possible that for thousands of years Peruvian civilization utilized sound to effect psycho-physiological reactions?  Perhaps because of a more esoteric approach to life, the Andeans discerned a reality not readily apparent to modern mankind”.

Analysis of worldwide ancient sites with acoustic properties.

Part of my research has centred on investigating the global spread of ancient sites demonstrating acoustic resonance properties. One question I wanted to try and answer was, “did a number of ancient cultures have an understanding of sound and use it for altered states of consciousness?”. Based on my own experiences at various ancient sites, it has become clear that archaeologists are generally misunderstanding our ancestors. Something they often label as “communication with the gods or spirit world” which is a type of catch all explanation that explains very little. Once the connection between acoustics and ancient sites had been revealed, a pattern could be found around the world. From Egypt to Peru, throughout the Mediterranean, across Europe to Scotland, as well as in the far east including India, a connection between sound and historical locations can be discerned.

Ancient acoustic artifacts and buildings analyzed through the lens of modern science are starting to reveal some tantalizing clues. A number of ancient peoples appear to have had an understanding and sacred science based on resonance and sound frequency. For more on this I suggest you read this fascinating article “The Fall and Rise of Resonance”. This article provides a great overview starting at various cultures and metaphysical beliefs in the Neolithic, which included resonance concepts. These include: The Egyptian Hermetecists, Hebrew mysticism and Gnosticism and the Greek Pythagorean school.

A central tenet  of these various schools was the understanding of how to use certain places and sound frequencies. They may have thought of this as contacting the great spirit or their ancestors. Or perhaps they understood more than what we give them credit for. Modern science is revealing that certain areas of the brain “light up” when exposed to certain sound frequencies. Creativity, intuition, deep personal insights, epiphanies of understanding are all possibilities under these conditions.

There is an increasing body of scientific research (references at the end of this article), confirming that many ancient sites were built with acoustics as a central feature. We may find in time that many other sites like Chavin were built with this in mind. The acoustics features at Chavin seem to have dictated the entire layout of the site, including the diversion of two rivers. A massive task of human labour, planning and endeavor. This tells us something; the result of all this work was considered worthwhile. In the 21st century we also put huge amounts of effort into engineering projects, such as dams; we do this because we can derive a noticeable benefit from all of the work – power to run our homes and machines. Did the people of Peru also gain a noticeable benefit justifying their time and effort? Something we have forgotten or misunderstood?

Figure 3. Chavín de Huántar archaeological site in Peru

Articles on ancient acoustics are now becoming common place in the mainstream press; here is a recent example from October 2014. The International Business Times published an article “Stonehenge Was a 'Giant Echo Chamber to Summon up the Ancient Spirits'”.

The article goes on to say. “Ancient man's greatest monuments were giant echo chambers to create vast soundscapes to speak to the gods, according to new research.”

Figure 4. Stonehenge has been likened to a giant echo chamber

Pyramids in Egypt

I could easily dedicate an entire article to the subject of acoustic chambers inside the pyramids of Egypt. I visit Egypt and the Great Pyramid on a regular basis, (at the time of writing I have been there around 25 times). Great minds and ordinary people have marvelled at the Great Pyramid for thousands of years – was it just a tomb as we are told by archaeologists? One fact that can’t be argued is that the main chamber of the Great Pyramid amplifies sound. I expect there are a number of academics who would like to dismiss this fact as a “coincidence” caused by the construction material. They might point out rooms constructed of stone as well as caves produce an acoustic effect. However, there are a large number of engineering features inside the Great Pyramid and surrounding the Kings Chamber that enhance the acoustic effect. Was all of this time and effort put in for no other reason than constructing a nice sounding room for the pharaohs’ body?

Sir Flinders Petrie in his book (8) “The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh” gives us some tantalizing information in his description of the Kings Chamber and the Great Pyramid.

“On the E. and W. are two immense limestone walls wholly outside of; and independent of; all the granite floors and supporting blocks. Between these great walls all the chambers stand, unbonded, and capable of yielding freely to settlement.”

“But the floor of the chamber is raised above the base of the walls; a peculiar arrangement for which some reason must have existed.”

Sir Flinders Petrie assumed the free movement design of the King’s Chamber was due to settlement. If we combine the free movement with the raised floor, a picture of a chamber designed to resonate freely starts to form. For the purposes of this article I must be brief. I could also talk at length about the acoustic properties of the Grand Gallery leading up to the Kings Chamber. Suffice to say, with dimensions of 8.6 metres (28 ft) high and 46.68 metres (153.1 ft) long, it acts as an amplifier leading into the Kings Chamber. A footstep on the metal ladder at the bottom of the Grand Gallery can be heard in the King’s Chamber. An astonishing feature!

The crystal “shrine” at Karnak

At Karnak Temple, which is often referred to as the world’s largest temple, although a “temple city” might be more fitting, is a little known outdoor museum. As you enter the main entrance at Karnak head left; once you walk outside the main temple head back on yourself. You will see a ticket booth and a line of Sekmet/Mut statues. The extra ticket is a reasonable price and allows you to enter an area normally devoid of other tourists. Once inside head towards the back, you will soon see a row of crystal “shrines” as pictured below.

Figure 5. Crystal ‘shrine’ at Karnak

The main “shrine” of interest for acoustical purposes is in the far back corner. These shrines have been re-constructed; originally they would have been solid crystal and must have had incredible acoustics. Even today they sound remarkable and respond very well to the human voice. For anyone with an interest in crystals, the opportunity to stand inside what we can call a “crystal room” albeit with open ends, is very enjoyable. Crystal bowls are used as part of sound therapy at yoga centers around the world. There is a good reason for this, the vibrations from crystal bowls can penetrate inside the body. I would argue, in a similar way to this crystal shrine.

The effects of sound frequencies on the body

For the purposes of this article, I won’t go into a long exposé. My main intention for writing about sound and archaeoacoustics is to encourage others to get involved. This is a subject I love, I love experiencing sound for its emotional uplift. Sharing something so meaningful is a true joy, to watch others experience the sites and frequencies as I do, is very touching. Part of the reason I love this whole area is, everyone is aware of how music can affect them emotionally. Certain music can make us feel irritated or angry, other music has the ability to make us cry, with a range of emotions evoked in between the two extremes.

Sound therapy builds on this. I would recommend reading this article based on research conducted at UCLA: “Ancient Architectural Acoustic Resonance Patterns and Regional Brain Activity”.

This article illustrates how certain sound frequencies in the 110hz range alter brainwaves and stimulate different areas of the brain. I could write at length concerning the interesting experiences I have had at ancient sites. This includes feedback from groups of people ranging from 20-80 years of age from around the world. Suffice to say, sound therapy is a personal experience and can help each of us in different ways. If I have piqued your interest, I suggest you check the website Meetup for local events, or contact local yoga studios. Sound therapy is a rapidly expanding area in the west, it has been used for thousands of years in the east. In my opinion, sound therapy is a wonderful tool for emotional healing, a subject we seem to have very little understanding of in the west. Give yourself a chance to try it, you might surprise yourself with the positive results.

Miriam Kolar of Stanford very kindly provided me with this quote.

“The necessity of visiting the site in person to understand its particular resonances (both acoustical and personal). Perhaps learning about an archaeological site can be part of a personal journey for understanding. Knowing takes different forms, and means different things depending on context. What we know from an archaeological standpoint is strongly based on describing material evidence (for something about which we can only speculate, albeit make informed interpretations).”

Copyright © 2015 Gary Evans

Bibliography

1. Miriam Kolar. “The Code of the Conch - How the science of sound explained an ancient Peruvian oracle”.

2. Miriam Kolar. Tuned to the Senses: An Archaeoacoustic Perspective on Ancient Chavín

3. This is a recording of Peruvian musician Tito La Rosa playing two of the Chavín pututus in the Museo Nacional Chavín, September 2008.

4. Sb Research Group (SBRG)

5. “Double-chambered whistling bottles:  A unique Peruvian pottery form” by Daniel K. Stat

6. The Fall and Rise of Resonance Science, J. Mortenson General Resonance, LLC, Havre de Grace, MD, USA

7. International Business Times: Stonehenge Was a 'Giant Echo Chamber to Summon up the Ancient Spirits'

8. “The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh by Sir Flinders Petrie. Published by the Royal Society 1883”

9. Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology Consciousness and Culture, March 2008, pp 95–104. Ancient Architectural Acoustic Resonance Patterns and Regional Brain Activity, Ian A. Cook, Sarah K. Pajot, Andrew F. Leuchter

About the Author

Gary Evans has been studying ancient cultures and Earth mysteries for 20 years. His keen interest in an unfamiliar chapter of pre-history, before Sumeria (3500BCE), has led to the website http://www.AtlantisEvidence.com and various lectures around the UK, US and Egypt. He is a regular contributor to international radio shows.

Gary also helps organize and lead tours to some of the most powerful ancient sites around the world. He has become increasingly interested in sound resonance and its potential to change our state of consciousness and often leads toning workshops on location.  On tours, Gary leads groups with an  “experiential approach” in efforts to help guests “tune in” and experience the sites in a far deeper way. Additionally, Gary actively helps to promote greater awareness of ancient mysteries to the public as the PR agent for a number of bestselling alternative authors.

Website: Infinite Connections

Connect with Gary Evans on Facebook

Gary Evans on Twitter

Geometric Stone Spheres of Scotland… and Beyond

By Hugh Newman

“Only in the period when Megalithic Man was setting out the sophisticated stone rings has a sufficiently high standard of mathematical knowledge and skill ever been reached before the fifteenth century AD. Even today there are few archaeologists capable of appreciating the underlying geometry.” - Prof. Alexander Thom

Figure 1. Geometric stone spheres. (Photo Credit: Martin Morrison, taken at Hunterian Museum, Glasgow)

Four hundred and twenty geometric stone spheres have been found in the vicinity of Neolithic stone circles in Northern Scotland, with 169 coming from Aberdeenshire alone. Outside Scotland, examples have been found in Ireland at Ballymena, and in England at Durham, Cumbria, Lowick and Bridlington. One was recently spotted by the author over 6,000 miles away that came from an important megalithic pyramid site in South America.

Figure 2. Geometric stone sphere found in Cumbria, England

Most of the Scottish spheres are around 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter, with some examples 3.6 inches (9 cm diameter) and date from 3200 BC to 1500 BC. Some show beautiful craftsmanship and symmetry, others show artistic mastery, while some look rough, badly made, or unfinished. However, some of the better preserved examples have a diameters within one millimeter of each another. Most were all discovered within the vicinity of Neolithic monuments known as recumbent stone circles. The type of rock varies from easily carved sandstone and serpentine, to difficult, hard granite and quartzite. One of the most striking aspects of the spheres is the intricate geometry that appears to show the five Platonic Solids, a long time before Plato was born.

Figure 3. From left: Cube, Tetrahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron, Octahedron

They fit nicely into one’s hand and this convenient size saw them described as hunting projectiles, fishing weights, and in 1876, J. Alexander Smith said they could have been attachments to wooden handles to make axe-like weapons. In her exhaustive study of the balls, (in 1976-77 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland), Dorothy N. Marshall replied, “when one appreciates the skill and time which has been used in the fashioning of these balls, it does not seem possible that the owner would have risked their loss or damage in war or chase.”  As no evidence of damage has been found on them, she might be right. Marshall also relates the theory that the balls may have been used in competitive throwing games, but argues “if this had been the case, surely more balls would have been chipped.”

Figure 4. Stone sphere distribution

Several further theories have surfaced since then. In 1914, Ludovic Mann suggested they were used as weights as part of some kind of scales, due to their exact size and geometry. One hypothesis says they were used to roll the megaliths across vast distances. Another theory is that the balls were used as oracles by rolling them on the ground and interpreting the future from both the way they rolled and their positions at rest. Author Laird Scranton noticed some artists rolling similar balls around in a small sand-bowl. He concluded: “..it looks like an artistic hobby (carving the stone balls) likely produced sand-art toys”.

Figure 5. Stone balls used by artists (Photo credit: Laird Scranton)

Recent research has speculated they are representations of pollen, or even atoms. How they would have been able to see microscopic particles like this was not confirmed. They have been described as ceremonial ‘talking balls’, which one would hold whilst speaking in a group.

The best explanation I have heard comes from researcher Jeff Nisbet, who believes they were used by budding megalithic architects as a symbol of their skill of working stone. I think Jeff is on to something here, as they are all following a certain design spec, that stretches all over Scotland (and northern England). Your carved stone sphere represented your current skill-set. Much like a CV or Resume of today, however, the lack of them found in graves may indicate that they were not considered to belong to individuals, so may have been passed on to the new graduates.

The Scottish stone spheres were labelled as “projectiles” for almost a century. Originally they were thought to be Iron-Age Pictish creations, as many of them were found in their territory. However, further discoveries pushed the origins back to at least 2500 BC due to their proximity to stone circles. As Jeff suggested, these strange spheres may have been part of the megalith-builders tool kit. It is the fine carving of precision spirals that resemble many found in megalithic sites such as Newgrange. The famous Towie Stone is the most accomplished sphere, with beautiful workmanship and artistic flair (see pic below).

Figure 6. The Towie Stone

On the other side of the Atlantic, near the incredible megalithic pyramid site of Tiwanaku, a solitary and unique stone sphere was discovered, alongside identical spiral carvings like those we find in Neolithic Britain (and Malta, New Zealand etc). I visited the Tiwanaku museum in La Paz, as part of the annual Megalithomania tour with Brien Foerster in November 2014. On display was something that took my breath away. It was one of the Scottish stone spheres! It has six knobs on it; the most common style found in Scotland (around 200 in total) and the size and style matched their transatlantic fellow masons eerily perfectly. How did this find its way 6,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, down the Amazon, and into the highlands of Bolivia?

Figure 7. Stone sphere in the Tiwanaku Museum in La Paz

On a previous visit to Tiwanaku in 2007, I spotted a double spiral pattern on one of the blocks in the on-site museum that, again, had an uncanny resemblance to Scottish stone carving from the Neolithic era (the original was a quadruple spiral, but the stone broke in two – see Figure 8). It is hard to ignore the megalithic technology present in both these parts of the world. Did the megalithic Scottish stonemasons really make their way to South America in prehistory?

Figure 8. Double spiral pattern on a block in the Tiwanaku Museum

With a geometers eye, Keith Critchlow, author of Time Stands Still: New Light on Megalithic Science, saw something in the spheres that no-one had spotted before: sophisticated 3D geometric forms that look surprisingly close to the Platonic Solids. He saw all five Polyhedra, and intricate combinations of them, in a continuous fashion that suggested they understood, and excelled at 3D spherical geometry. Critchlow writes, "What we have are objects clearly indicative of a degree of mathematical ability so far denied to Neolithic man by any archaeologist or mathematical historian."

Figure 9. A stone cube-octahedron

All five platonic solids are represented: octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, tetrahedron, and cube. There is also a cube-octahedron (see Figure 9.), where both these solids ‘nest’ within each other. “Nesting” was noted by Plato, and is integral in studying the liberal arts, and shows they were experimenting with various geometries. The Greeks taught that these five solids were the core patterns of physical creation. Four of the solids were seen as the archetypal patterns behind the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), while the fifth was held to be the pattern behind the life force itself, the ‘ether’. The fact that many of them are exactly the same size (with 1mm difference), does also suggest a standard unit of measure was being used, much like Alexander Thom’s Megalithic Yard, but on a much smaller scale. However, many of them were not ‘perfect’ Platonic Solids, rather very close approximations showing obvious variations in the stonemasons skills. This variation can be seen on these three spheres on display at the British Museum, London.

Figure 10. Three stone spheres on display at the British Museum, London

Recently, a stone sphere was found at the Ness of Brodgar on the island of Orkney, Scotland, a Neolithic settlement covering 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres) between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness. York University archaeologist Professor Mark Edmonds stated "The density of the archaeology, the scale of the buildings and the skill that was used to construct them are simply phenomenal.” Other spheres had been found on Orkney previously, but this new discovery made me question if this settlement was the first “megalithic university” of the British Isles (it is at least 500 years older than Stonehenge).  Was it here the megalithic yard was devised, where the stone spheres were manufactured, and a major center of learning thrived in the ancient world?

“London may be the cultural hub of Britain today, but 5,000 years ago, Orkney was the centre for innovation for the British isles. Ideas spread from this place. The first grooved pottery, which is so distinctive of the era, was made here, for example, and the first henges – stone rings with ditches round them – were erected on Orkney. Then the ideas spread to the rest of the Neolithic Britain. This was the font for new thinking at the time.”

Figure 11. Stone sphere found on Orkney. (Photo credit: Orkney Archaeology)

The number of knobs on the objects ranges from 3 to 160 - quite a remarkable feat considering their size. “All show an appreciation for symmetry in the design” said Alison Roberts, curator at the museum. She is right, because one example is 14-sided, corresponding to a form with two opposite hexagons, each surrounded by six pentagons. However, Dr. Alison Sheridan of the National Museums of Scotland questions the evidence for advanced geometry. She says that the interpretation “fails to take into account their archaeological background, and fails to explain why so many do not have the requisite number of knobs! It's a classic case of people sticking on an interpretation in a state of ignorance. A great shame when so much is known about Late Neolithic archaeology.”

Alexander Thom disagreed with Sheridan: “The most perfect proof of the ability of Megalithic Man to understand and use solid geometry…..it appears they had a perfect mastery of their subject.”  (“The Metrology and Geometry of Megalithic Man, in Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom (Thom & Thom 1986), edited by Clive Ruggles. p148-149). Thom’s work is now being taken seriously, and perhaps these geometric spheres should be too.

Keith Critchlow looked at as many of these spheres as he could and compiled the geometries into one unified system (see Figure 11.) and concluded that they were… “for the study, comparison, and analysis of spherically determined systems of geometry”.  Remarkably, the final analysis was an almost perfect match for the controversial ‘Earth Grid’ hypotheses that I cover in detail in my 2008 book.

Figure 12. Unified system of geometries compiled by Keith Critchlow

Originators of the ‘Earth Grid’ theory were University Professors Bethe Hagens and William Becker. They were the first to see the resemblance, having studied the stone spheres.  They described them as “planning models, not only for charting the heavens and building calendrical monuments, but were also used for meteorological study; to develop and refine terrestrial maps for predicting major ley lines of telluric energy; and, in conjunction with stone circles, were used to construct charts and maps for worldwide travel long before the appearance of the pyramids.”

This is quite a claim, but the location they were found in is an unusual zone on earth. Northern Scotland and the Orkney Islands, are at latitude where it is ideal to observe the minor and major lunar standstills that stretch across an 18.6 year cycle. I had the pleasure of viewing this in Callanais in the Outer Hebrides in early June 2006 - where I witnessed the moon rolling across the landscape, rather than setting or rising. It moves along what is called the “The Sleeping Goddess” mountain range on the horizon.

"The study of the heavens is, after all, a spherical activity, needing an understanding of spherical coordinates. If the Neolithic inhabitants of Scotland had constructed Maes Howe before the pyramids were built by ancient Egyptians, why could they not be studying the laws of three-dimensional coordinates? Is it not more than a coincidence that Plato as well as Ptolemy, Kepler, and Al-Kindi attributed cosmic significance to these (geometric) figures.”

The earliest written evidence of these geometries goes back (or forward) to the era of Pythagoras and Plato [427-347 BC]. Plato writes in the Phaedo [110b]:  “The real earth, viewed from above, resembles a ball made of twelve  pieces of leather, variegated and marked out in different colors...”. In the Timaeus, he also says the Demiurge used a twelve-sided form as a pattern for the World. Both of these descriptions appear to be describing the earth as a dodecahedron.

Perhaps the sphere carvers intuited the nature of spherical geometry. When looking at atoms, pollen, viruses and other microscopic phenomena, these geometries certainly pop up. In the work of Hans Jenny, and in his cymatic experiments, droplets of water were played various frequencies and unlikely 3D geometric patterns would form. This principle could be applied to any other sphere, even planets and moons. So if they could somehow see atoms and pollen, why not see the hidden geometries within other celestial bodies? (see my Earth Grids book for examples of these planetary geometries).

I’ve always been interested in the energetic qualities of rocks and crystals, especially relating to megalithic sites. As noted earlier, many types of rock and even quartz spheres have been discovered. Where these balls were found “is also the area of good land which today, as well as in antiquity, can support the largest population” (Marshall). Why would this be? Perhaps they were ceremonial objects that would be buried in the fields of crops and were seen as fertility offerings that they believed would help the season’s crops. But is there any evidence to back up this hypothesis?

Figure 13. Two stone spheres found in Ireland

In Ireland, two further intriguing stone spheres were discovered (see Figure 12.). One was “a brown ironstone ball, three inches in diameter, and well rounded.” The other was granite. These perfectly spherical stones were found at the megalithic site of Loughcrew. One is paramagnetic, the other was diamagnetic - opposing forces that can stimulate growth in seeds.

Michael Poynder, author of Lost Science of the Stone Age, suggested the ancient megalith builders had advanced knowledge of magnetism and telluric earth energy currents. The monoliths may have acted as antenna, and the spheres were moved around the landscape to redirect, and even charge up the telluric currents to enable crops to grow effectively, as demonstrated scientifically by John Burke and the BLT Research Team at hundreds of ancient sites worldwide. Similar tests are being carried out to positive effect worldwide where the placement of ‘charged stones’ is increasing growth rates in crops (see Stone Age Farming by Alana Moore, and Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty by John Burke). The lack of balls found in graves may indicate that they were not for ‘individuals’, and were ‘left’ in the fields near the stone circles for other purposes.

Figure 14. (Photo Credit: Martin Morrison)

If they did have energetic properties, could these spheres also have been used for healing? They are a perfect fit for one’s hand, so applying pressure to someone’s body, when the ball is ‘charged’ could have a powerful healing effect. The shapes of them also suggest they would be ideal for working on tight muscles. To push this hypothesis ‘fifty shades of grey’ further, could they have been sex toys? This may have also have had a ceremonial propose, and then placed within fields of crops to imbue them with this ‘fertility’ energy, like an offering to the earth goddess, with the geometric design symbolizing varying aspects of her true geometric nature.

Figure 15. Stone sphere discovered at Lochnagar

Interestingly, the spirals could be referencing telluric currents that move in similar configurations, plus geometric shapes in ancient traditions, were thought to have an effect on consciousness. Even modern technology is mostly based on the twin variables of ‘shape’ and ‘material’, where different shapes create different energetic effects, just as different materials offer different useful energy qualities. Like the geometric temples of the megalith builders, perhaps their hand-held ‘devices’ were as powerful then, as modern hand-held devices today. My smartphone has compass, GPS, Theodolite, Magnetic Variation detectors, and give off light and sound - but would be almost useless as a hunting projectile. These spheres could have been the Neolithic elite’s magical device that had hidden knowledge carved on them, been a healing tool, and even guaranteed your crops success.

Copyright © 2015 Hugh Newman

Bibliography

Bethe Hagens & William Becker, in Anti-Gravity & the World Grid.  DH Childress, ed. 1986

Bruyn, L. Monsters and Moonshine. Universiteit Antwerpen.

Critchlow, K. (1979). Time Stands Still: New Light on Megalithic Science.

Hart, G. (1998). Neolithic Carved Stone Polyhedra. George Hart.com.

McKie, R. (2012). Neolithic discovery: why Orkney is the centre of ancient Britain. The Guardian.

Newman, H. (2008). Earth Grids: The Secret Patterns of Gaia's Sacred Sites.

Poynder, M. (2005). Lost Science of the Stone Age.

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland (1976-77)

Thom & Thom (1986). The Metrology and Geometry of Megalithic Man, in Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom, edited by Clive Ruggles, 149.

About the Author

Hugh Newman is an author, conference organiser, world explorer, tour host, and Megalithomaniac. His most recent book, Earth Grids has been published by Wooden Books. He has released numerous DVDs of his multi-media presentations and has articles published in well-known magazines around the world. As well as organizing the Megalithomania conferences, he has spoken at events in the UK, Malta, France, Peru, Egypt, Bosnia and North America. He has appeared on BBC TV, Sky Channel 200, Bosnian TV and the History Channel in the last four seasons of Ancient Aliens, and in Search for the Lost Giants, and is co-authoring a book with Jim Vieira called Giants on Record. www.megalithomania.co.uk / www.hughnewman.co.uk

See the Scottish stone spheres & Orkney on a Tour to Scotland.

Join Hugh in Peru & Bolivia and see the Tiwanaku stone sphere.

Orion: Overlord of Stonehenge

By Paul Burley

In the 1960s, a portion of a ditch excavated into chalk bedrock west of the henge at Stonehenge was discovered during construction for the pedestrian underpass that provided access to Stonehenge until a year ago. By 2014, geophysical testing confirmed that the ditch stretches over 900 meters from southwest of the Stonehenge henge to a point near the south ditch line of the Greater Cursus, northwest of Stonehenge (Figure 1). The ditch is generally oriented SW-NE and nearly straight for much of its length, before it curves counter clockwise toward the northwest as it approaches the ditch of the cursus. It has a V-shaped cross section about 1.2 m wide and 1.3 m deep.

Figure 1. Location of the ditch extending nearby and northwest of Stonehenge. View is toward the northwest. The Greater Cursus is located in front of the line of trees. (Photo credit: cbc.ca)

Discovery of the location and size of the ditch was a surprise in itself, but what became more curious was the finding of large diameter post holes along the bottom of the ditch for its entire length. The post holes ranging from about 0.25 to 0.4 meters in depth, such that the depths of the post holes are as much as 1.7 meters below the ground surface. The width and depth of the post holes has led archaeologists to conclude the posts must have attained a height of about 6 to 7 meters, or roughly 20 feet.

Archaeologists have found similar structures elsewhere, concluding they are remnants of palisades each consisting of tall wooden posts set to form an alignment, the purpose of which often remains unknown.

There is one other fact that remains curious about the ditch adjoining Stonehenge. Its SW-NE alignment terminates in Stonehenge Bottom about 2 m from the west ditch of the Stonehenge Avenue before making its left hand turn toward the cursus. Thus there appears to be an intentional geographical arrangement between the Palisade, Avenue, Greater Cursus and Stonehenge itself (Figure 2).

1)

b)

Figure 2. Plan views of the Stonehenge Sacred Landscape. Stonehenge Palisade shown in red. Stonehenge shown as circular structure south the palisade. The Avenue extends between Stonehenge and the river Avon. a) North toward top of the page. b) North toward the left. (Illustration by author)

Archaeologists consider alignments of large post holes along ditchways to be remnants of palisades - fences or walls constructed of timber posts often but not always used as a defensive structure (Figure 3). Like stone tools, bone pins and clay jars, palisades are artifacts of ancient cultures except in this particular case we have a massive artifact nearly a kilometre in length and with most of its original composition weathered away. It is an artifact of a prehistoric culture, and an enigma.

Palisades were built by many cultures throughout time and around the world. The conclusion that the Stonehenge Palisade was a massive fence 20 feet tall was the result of estimating its height by the size of the postholes along its length. The buried portion of a fence post is typically about 25 to 30 percent of the total length of the post. With a post hole extending 1.7 meters (5.6 ft) below ground surface, the post may well have stood about 18 to 22 feet above ground.

Figure 3. Example of a palisade constructed as a defensive structure. (Photo Credit: http://www.uk-archaeology.tv/)

Given the sacred nature of the Neolithic and Bronze Age Stonehenge landscape, archaeologists conclude the reason for constructing such a massive fence alongside Stonehenge must have been related to whatever ritual activities were being performed inside the henge. The fence must have been built to prevent direct physical and visual access to Stonehenge from the west (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Archaeologists propose Stonehenge Palisade was built to prevent direct physical and visual access to Stonehenge from the west. However, it would have prevented persons at Stonehenge from viewing astronomical events to the west, northwest and north. (Photo credit: Gary @ Celtic Myth Pod Show)

That is a strange conclusion to make given the architecture of Stonehenge is well known to be related directly to the four cardinal directions (including due west and due North), as well as the northwestern direction of sunset on the evening of summer solstice. The 20 ft high wall proposed for the palisade would have prevented views toward two of the four cardinal directions and one of the most important solar events of the year. People northwest of Stonehenge might have been prevented from looking into Stonehenge, but those inside the henge would have been unable to experience events held sacred toward the north, northwest and west. Why would such a structure have been built and re-built over the course of hundreds of years, beginning shortly after construction of megalithic Stonehenge ca. 2500 BC?

Simply put, all evidence we have supporting our current understanding of the purpose of Stonehenge and its sacred landscape does not support the theory of the Palisade as a massive wall. So, if not a palisade, then what was it?

In 2014, I proposed a Grand Design was constructed across the Stonehenge Sacred Landscape (Burley, 2014). The design was the product of translocating the asterism known as the Winter Hexagon onto Salisbury Plain. The accurately surveyed and positioned structure remains in place on the landscape with specific monuments representing stars. It extends from the top of Larkhill to Normandy Down, and from Durrington to the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre. All archaeological evidence gathered to date from across Salisbury Plain supports the theory that this Grand Design was indeed designed and built across the landscape.

The Winter Hexagon was believed by many Neolithic cultures – Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese, Maya, and others - to be the cosmic womb and source of the spirit of life in the universe. The constellation of Orion is situated within the hexagon. Contemporary with culture(s) which built Stonehenge and the Palisade, Pre-dynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt believed Orion represented Osiris, psycho pomp of the dead in the Duat, receiver and protector of the spirit of each pharaoh. The pharaoh’s spirit travelled from Earth to Orion via spirit road, the Milky Way from Sirius to Capella.

Included within the Winter Hexagon on Salisbury Plain is Orion. Alnitak, one of the three stars of Orion’s Belt, is represented by the Heel Stone at Stonehenge, the megalith adjoining the womb of Earth represented by the henge and iconic stone structure. The Greater Cursus represents the Milky Way between the star Sirius (west end of the cursus) and ecliptic (long barrow Amesbury 42) where the path of the sun intersects the galactic plane. Farther east, Woodhenge represents the star Capella in the constellation of Auriga, the shepherd. The book ‘Stonehenge: As Above, So Below’ (2014, New Generation Publishing, London) details the planning, design, construction and use of the Grand Design at Stonehenge.

During or soon after construction of megalithic Stonehenge, the Avenue was built between the Heel Stone and River Avon to the east. As demonstrated in the book, by about 2480 BC the Grand Design included the Avenue as a representation of Orion’s right arm reaching out to receive the body of the dead as it was brought to land after being floated down river from Durrington Walls. Upon the Stonehenge landscape is Orion – overlord of the spirit world - prepared to receive not only the body along the Avenue to Stonehenge, but the spirit of the dead via the spirit path represented by the Greater Cursus, from Sirius to Capella. The scenario parallels the ancient Egyptian understandings. The body remains with Mother Earth, the spirit returning to the sky and Orion.

Importantly, these constructions occurred during the mid- to late Neolithic, and early Bronze Age. Hunting and gathering was replaced rapidly by agriculture and domestication of animals. Far more ancient religions and sacred lifeways were evolving to incorporate Neolithic culture, applying the Neolithic ‘tool kit’ to create amazing architectural structures such as the pyramids of Egypt and more to the point, Stonehenge and its associated landscape.

By 2500 BC most of the massive monuments were in place on Salisbury Plain. One of the last few to be built was Stonehenge Palisade. It was constructed nearly a thousand years after the Greater Cursus and symbolic Winter Hexagon, and not long after the Avenue (Orion’s arm) reached out from Stonehenge to accept the dead. The Neolithic cultural revolution was complete. Agricultural activities dominated the region. Grain had become a stable in the diet.

One of the most important tools used by early Bronze Age farmers was the scythe (Figure 5). The blade could be held and operated in hand, or a wooden handle was attached to the blade, allowing the user greater reach and improved efficiency of harvest (Figure 6). It was a dangerous tool to use, slicing through the crop with ease. It is no wonder Celtic myth employed the scythe as the weapon of choice in the metaphor of ripe grain as the mature king of life, sacrificed at first harvest so that the people could survive another winter before new life returned the following spring.

Figure 5. Blade of bronze scythe (Photo credit: Dan Dunkley)

Figure 6. Scythe blade attached to wooden handle (Photo credit: miliki)

Comparing the Bronze Age scythe with handle shown in Figure 6 with a plan view of the Stonehenge landscape including the Palisade, we see immediately that the shape of the Palisade accurately reflects the shape of the implement (Figure 7).  The constellation of Orion is shown upon the landscale, scaled per the size and orientation of the constellation’s right arm extending eastward as the west portion of the Avenue.

Figure 7. Compare the shape of a scythe (left) with the shape of Stonehenge Palisade (right, in red) (Illustration by author; photo credit: miliki)

The symbolism expressed on the ground – the Sky God, psycho pomp, protector of the spirit of life, set within his cosmic domain– with scythe placed at Orion’s side is in keeping with what we know of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age agrarian life in central south England. The scythe was an appropriate addition to the monuments that were constructed across the landscape over the previous 1000 years. It represented the annual harvesting of life sustaining grain for both human and animal consumption. It was the implement of choice in a ritual killing of the King, sacrifice of the old in favour of the new. Indeed, the reaper of grain is the reaper of death, and this was the Sky god’s calling. Orion, protector of the spirit of life, was also the receiver of the dead. The body was received and interred to the earth goddess from whence it came, while the spirit was provided means to travel back to its source in the cosmos, at Orion’s side.

Symbols of cosmic Orion, overlord of Stonehenge, and his scythe remain on Salisbury Plain. The Celtic festival of Lughnassadh provided means for the people to participate in one of the important events in the cycle of life, events that were deemed vital enough to be forever carved symbolically as artifacts coverings the Stonehenge Sacred Landscape. The Stonehenge Palisade is but one of many. Whether it was built 20 ft tall or finished to the grade of the adjoining ground surface, the symbolism is clear.

Copyright © 2015 Paul Burley

About the Author

Paul D. Burley earned Bachelor of Civil Engineering and Bachelor of Science – Geology degrees from the University of Minnesota, and began his career as a construction engineer. After a few years in construction and project management, he turned to the consulting arena in the areas of geotechnical engineering and environmental geology.

Over the course of 30 years, Paul investigated physical landscapes and historical cultural developments of thousands of sites across North America.

In tandem with his professional services, Paul has always had particular interest in the history of architecture, engineering, science and technology, and indigenous and ancient cultures.  In 2003, he turned to intensive study of world mythology and the extensive record of pictographic and architectural symbolism expressed by secular and spiritual traditions around the world.

Paul is the author of ‘Stonehenge: As Above, So Below’ (2014) and ‘The Sacred Sphere’ (2012).

Website: www.asabovesobelow-pauldburley.com

www.Ancient-Origins.net

Table of Contents

The Ark of Edessa by Ralph Ellis

A Mysterious Map Emerges at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization by Rand & Rose Flem-Ath

Circular Myth – The Dendera Zodiac by Tashi Alexander Javed

Eteocypriot and the Amathus Bilingual by Petros Koutoupis

The Vajra: An Ancient Weapon of War by Dr Rita Louise

Stonehenge: Mounds, Artifacts, and Intrigue by Maria Wheatley

Memnon’s Musical Statue by Ahmed Osman

Lost Ancient High Technology in Egypt by Brien Foerster

The Sacred Meaning of the Reed by Gary A. David

Mayan Women and the Coiled Snake Headdress by Leonide Martin

The Mystery of Obelisks by Scott Onstott

Ancient Acoustic Artifacts and Communication with the “Gods” by Gary Evans

Geometric Stone Spheres of Scotland… and Beyond by Hugh Newman

Orion: Overlord of Stonehenge by Paul Burley