Wizard battles and demon circles revealed in newly translated Christian texts

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Wizard battles and demon circles revealed in newly translated Christian texts

By Owen Jarus – Live Science Contributor 6 hours ago

The texts describing the wizard battle are from the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Egypt. This image shows the shrine of St. Macarius in the monastery.(Image: © Danita Delimont / Alamy)

Have you ever heard the story of a wizard battle that supposedly took place when an early church was constructed? Or how about the story of a border guard who defied King Herod’s orders and spared Jesus‘ life? Scholars have now translated these and other “apocryphal” Christian texts (stories not told in the canonical bible) into English for the first time.

More than 300 Christian apocryphal texts are known to exist, Tony Burke, a professor of early Christianity at York University in Toronto, Canada, wrote in the book he edited “New Testament Apocrypha More Noncanonical Scriptures (Volume 2)” (Eerdmans, 2020). “Apocryphal texts were integral to the spiritual lives of Christians long after the apparent closing of the canon and that the calls to avoid and even destroy such literature were not always effective” wrote Burke.

Ancient Christians often debated which texts told the truth about Jesus and which did not. By the end of the fourth century the church had ‘canonized’ the texts which they thought were accurate and included them in the bible.

Wizard battle

One of the newly translated texts tells of a wizard battle that took place at the ancient city of Philippi, in Greece. Shown here, the ruins of Philippi . (Image credit: Shutterstock)

One of the newly translated texts tells of a battle against ‘diabolical’ wizards who are trying to destroy an ancient church being built as a dedication to the Virgin Mary in the city of Philippi in Greece.

The text is written in Coptic, an Egyptian language that uses the Greek alphabet, and may have originally been written around 1,500 years ago, Paul Dilley, a professor of religious studies at the University of Iowa, who translated the text, wrote in the book. The story is told in two texts that were both from the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Egypt. At that time, much of the population around the Mediterranean had converted to Christianity, although some still followed polytheistic faiths.

“There was a tendency to identify the remnants of polytheism with ‘magoi’ or ‘wizards’ who posed dangers to the Christian community, sometimes openly, sometimes clandestinely,” Dilley told Live Science.

In the text, the Virgin Mary comes to Bishop Basil (who lived from A.D. 329-379) in a dream and tells him where to find an image of her that is “not made by human hands,” the translated text says. She also directs him to place the image in the sanctuary of her church on top of two columns, which he will find in a temple outside of Philippi.

“These two columns have been set up since the time of the giants. Demonic images cover them. It is not possible for anyone to take them down except through the order of my beloved son [Jesus],” the Virgin Mary says in the text.

In this story, when Basil takes a group out to the temple he is confronted by a group of wizards who knew diabolical magic. “When they heard about these plans [to move the columns], they went with great disturbance and wretchedness and they made some great diabolic illusions.”

Basil takes a staff that had been placed on a “sign of the saving cross” and puts the staff on the columns. “I placed it [the staff] upon the two columns, and immediately a great rumbling happened under the columns. Suddenly, they [the columns] leapt up at their bases and thus they rolled until they came to the place of the city’s stadia,” Basil says in the text.

The wizards stop them, and the magical tug of war between the wizards and Basil’s group comes to a standstill; as night comes, Basil decides to dismiss his group and rest.

When Basil goes to sleep, the Virgin Mary comes to him in another dream and vows that the wizards will be defeated: “Those who did this evil deed of impertinent magic, behold, they are blind, grasping,” she says.

Later on, after Basil wakes up, water bubbles up beside the columns creating a stream that miraculously heals people. The wizards were not so fortunate, as “immediately the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them,” the text says. Basil also finds that the image has been placed on the columns by the Virgin Mary herself.

Today the two surviving copies of the text are in the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Leipzig University Library.

Border guard helps Jesus

Another newly translated text tells of a bandit named Dimas (also called Dymas/Dismas) who was crucified next to Jesus. The text claims that Dimas once worked as a border guard and was crucified after aiding Jesus and his family when they were fleeing to Egypt. The text says that Jesus was a baby at the time and his family was fleeing King Herod who wanted to kill Jesus.

This apocryphal text is written in Latin and dates back to the 12th or 13th century, said Mark Bilby, a senior assistant librarian of scholarly communication and lecturer of Religious Studies at California State University, Fullerton, who translated the text. Bilby notes that during the Middle Ages there were a number of stories that claim to tell the story of the criminals crucified beside Jesus. The text was likely written in a French monastery Bilby noted.

“I think the storyline is wholly fictitious, as a legend built on top of at least 10 discrete earlier legends” Bilby told Live Science. In the book, Bilby noted that this story and others like it may have been intended “to carry an implicit call for the young to leave family, join the Crusades, and become a friend of Jesus in and around the Holy Land.”

The story takes place, according to the text, when Herod was trying to find and kill Jesus, and the guards had received orders to kill any infant boy they came across. To watch for Jesus, Dimas and his father guarded the border between Judea and Egypt, the story goes.Advertisement

In the text Dimas’ father goes off to do his rounds and tells Dimas to watch the border crossing carefully. Shortly afterward, Joseph and Mary arrive at the border carrying a poorly-clothed baby Jesus. Dimas approaches the family and asks about Jesus. Mary is afraid that Dimas is going to snatch Jesus away but Joseph talks to Dimas and convinces him to let them go.

Joseph convinces Dimas that a poor family posed no threat to Herod. “It is fitting that you all watch out for the sons of the rich men of this region who are capable of begrudging his superiority at a later time. Yet, when you see people squalid in misery, it is not appropriate to reproach them with these talks,” Joseph says in the text.

Dimas lets them cross the border and even provides the family with some food. When Dimas’ father finds out, he is furious. “What will I do now? Bound by oath, I will not be able to lie. If he [King Herod] convicts me of treason, he will kill me in place of the boys,” Dimas’ father says.

Herod later summons Dimas, who tells him of the family that was allowed to escape. Dimas is disowned by his father and turns to banditry.

“Expelled from his father’s house and neighborhood, he commenced engaging in banditry, and it became a tribulation, because he was hardened with weapons and perversity…” the text says. About 30 years later Dimas is captured during the time that Pontius Pilate was prefect (governor) of Judea and is crucified beside Jesus (who is now an adult) the text says. When they are about to be crucified, Dimas confesses the sins he made as a bandit and is forgiven by Jesus.

The only surviving copy of the text is in the library of the Grand Séminaire in Namur, Belgium.

Demon trapping

Another newly translated text, this one in Greek, tells how the Apostle Peter trapped seven demons who were masquerading as angels in the city of Azotus (also called Ashdod in what is now Israel).

Though it dates to the 11th or 12th century, the story was likely originally written centuries earlier, perhaps around 1,600 years ago. “The narrative resonates with the context of the fourth and fifth-century speculations about sin, but its loose form and lack of regimentation seem to represent an early phase in that development” wrote Cambry Pardee, a visiting professor of religion at Pepperdine University, London, in the book.

The author of the text “was writing a work of fiction, valorizing the adventures of the great Christian hero Peter,” Pardee told Live Science. While the events are fictional, “it is very likely, though, that many common Christians who encountered this legend, either as a writing or in spoken form, would have believed it to be a true account, a lost story from Peter’s life” Pardee said.

In the text, Peter, who is suspicious of the “angels,” marks a circle around them and states “my Lord Jesus Christ, let your glory be revealed through the Holy Spirit. Are these, as they say, angels of your divinity or spirits who hate what is good?'” (translation by Cambry Pardee)

One translated text tells of Saint Peter using a circle to trap seven demons, while in the city of Azotus (Ashdod), which is shown here. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Six of the demons admit to Peter that they are demons of deception, sexual immorality, falsehood, adultery, avarice and slander. The seventh demon challenges Peter and asks why demons are treated so badly compared to humans, saying that human sins are forgiven by Christ but demon sins are not. “You have the partiality of Christ; for which reason he chastises us, but he spares you when you repent. Therefore when he leads a prostitute and a tax collector and a denier and a blasphemer and a slanderer into his kingdom, then he ought to gather all of us with you!” Advertisement

The demon also notes that humans should stop blaming demons for their mistakes. “I, the devil, am not their troubler, but they themselves fall down. For I have become weak and am without vigor. Therefore, I no longer have a place nor an arrow, for everywhere people have become Christians. Therefore let them guard themselves and not cast blame” the demon says. Peter then lets the demons go.

The only surviving copy of this text is in the Biblioteca Angelica library in Rome.

Originally published on Live Science.

Study casts doubt on ‘sky disk’ thought to be oldest representation of the heavens

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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Study casts doubt on ‘sky disk’ thought to be oldest representation of the heavens

By Tom Metcalfe – Live Science Contributor 4 days ago

The Nebra Sky Disk of bronze decorated with gold is one of Germany’s most famous archaeological artifacts. But a new study suggests it dates to the Iron Age, at least 1,000 years later than scientists had thought.(Image: © Anagoria/CC BY 3.0)

One of Germany’s most famous ancient artifacts may not be what it seems, if a new study is to be believed.

Fierce debate over the Nebra Sky Disk has been reignited by a new study that suggests it is at least 1,000 years younger than previously thought, and probably doesn’t have any of the elaborate meanings proposed for it.

The 12-inch-wide (30 centimeters) bronze disk inlaid with gold circles, arcs and crescents was reportedly unearthed in 1999 near the town of Nebra, in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state.

Experts have long debated where the disk originated and what meaning, if any, it holds; some have even declared it is fake (and created very recently) — although scientific tests suggest it’s an authentic artifact that may date from Europe’s pre-Celtic Bronze Age, up to 3,800 years ago.

If that dating is correct, then the Nebra Sky Disk is the oldest-known representation of the heavens anywhere in the world, said Jan-Heinrich Bunnefeld, an archaeologist at Saxony-Anhalt’s State Museum for Prehistory in the city of Halle, where the disk is now on display (The next oldest is an ancient Egyptian star map on the ceiling of a tomb from about 3,500 years ago).

“The Nebra Sky Disc features the oldest concrete depiction of cosmic phenomena,” Bunnefeld told Live Science in an email. “It is a key find, not only for the discipline of archaeology, but also for astronomy and the history of religions.”

The researchers argue that motifs of the full moon, crescent moon and stars were common in the Iron Age from about 800 B.C. to 50 B.C. — such as on this Early Celtic sword found near Munich, from about 500 B.C. (Image credit: State Archaeological Collection Munich, Manfred Eberlein)

Ancient artifact

But a new study casts doubts on the origins and meaning of the Nebra Sky Disk.

Writing this month in the journal Archäologische Informationen, University of Munich archaeologist Rupert Gebhard and Rüdiger Krause, an archaeologist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, argue that the artifact could not have been unearthed at the location near Nebra, according to a statement.

That also means the sky disk probably isn’t from the Bronze Age at all. In addition, a new examination of its iconography suggests the artifact dates to the period of the Celtic Iron Age between about 2,800 and 2,050 years ago, the researchers wrote.

The study has created outrage in parts of the archaeological scene in Germany, where the Nebra Sky Disk is considered a national treasure and an emblem of early European civilization — and where any challenges to its provenance or authenticity are aggressively confronted.

“It’s like Beethoven’s Ninth,” Gebhard told Live Science, referring to the composer’s famous symphony, a nationally revered symbol of German achievement.

“That makes it difficult for me … you can understand that people are not very happy about this.”

This photograph shows the Nebra Sky Disk before restoration work was carried out at the State Museum for Prehistory at Halle. It shows the corrosion and damage to the desk, including a fragment of gold missing from the circle near the center. (Image credit: Hildegard Burri-Bayer)

Bronze Age hoard

The biggest reason the new study casts doubt on the sky disk’s provenance is that scientific evidence suggests it was not part of a hoard of Bronze Age axes, swords and bracelets allegedly unearthed by treasure hunters near Nebra in 1999, although it was initially thought to be, Gebhard said.

The collectors sold the disk and hoard to a black-market collector for around 70,000 German marks ($42,000) and it was sold on for up to a million German marks ($600,000), until police recovered the hoard in 2002 and handed it over to state archaeologists.

A court found the two treasure hunters guilty in 2005 for the illegal excavation, sentencing the pair to several months in jail.

Statements made by the treasure hunters in their attempts to appear to be cooperating with authorities explains the resulting confusion about the location of the artifacts, Gebhard said.

But archaeological evidence, soil analysis and studies of trace isotopes (variations of an element with different numbers of neutrons) in the metals of the disk show it must have been found somewhere else, and then sold as part of the hoard from Nebra: “If you go back to the basics, then you won’t find any argument that these objects belong together,” he said.

Gebhard hopes the treasure hunters will eventually explain where they actually unearthed the Nebra Sky Disk, information that would cast new light on its origins.

“I think our article now brings some movement in this story,” he said. “I hope it will be the first step to get some information about the original site.”

Disputed origins

Past analysis of the construction of the disk and the metals that were used shows the Nebra Sky Disk was made in several phases. Its creators first added a central group of gold stars, which have been interpreted as the Pleiades, and a large gold circle and crescent, which have been interpreted as the full and crescent moon.

They later rearranged some of the gold stars, also adding two “horizon” arcs to the edges of the disk which may show the movement of the sun on the winter and summer solstices.

During a later phase, the artists added an arc near the bottom edge of the disk, which was previously interpreted as a “solar boat” carrying the sun through the sky.

Proponents of the disk’s Bronze Age origins say the artifact represents a sophisticated understanding of astronomical phenomena as well as the intricacies of religious thought at the time.

Archaeologists at the Saxony-Anhalt State Museum for Prehistory in Halle, who support the Bronze Age dating, insist the latest study is wrong. They say some of the soil samples suggest the sky disk could have been part of the Nebra hoard, while chemical analysis of its metals establish its earlier date.

“Gebhard and Krause are ignoring important publications and quoting only those facts that seem useful to underline their theory,” deputy state archaeologist Alfred Reichenberger said in a statement. “The theory of an Iron Age date for the Nebra Sky Disc is demonstrably incorrect.”

But Gebhard said the iconography of the sky disk shows it was probably made in the Iron Age, possibly by peoples in the north of Germany who were strongly influenced by the Celtic civilization farther south.

Iron Age swords and other objects from the region are also decorated with symbols of the moon and stars that reflect the symbolic importance of the night, he said.

Any new interpretations of the Nebra Sky Disk would have to account for the uncertainty of its origins, Gebhard said. “We just have to start at the very beginning again.”

Originally published on Live Science.

Facial reconstruction reveals Egyptian ‘mummy portrait’ was accurate except for one detail

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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Facial reconstruction reveals Egyptian ‘mummy portrait’ was accurate except for one detail

Vikings may not have been blonde, or Scandinavian

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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Vikings may not have been blonde, or Scandinavian

By Yasemin Saplakoglu – Staff Writer 7 hours ago

The research “debunks the modern image of Vikings.”

Researchers sequenced the DNA from more than 400 Viking remains including from this female skeleton named Kata discovered in a Viking burial site in Varnhem, Sweden.

(Image: © Västergötlands Museum)

Those ferocious seafaring warriors that explored, raided and traded across Europe from the late eighth to the early 11th centuries, known as the Vikings, are typically thought of as blonde Scandinavians. But Vikings may have a more diverse history: They carried genes from Southern Europe and Asia, a new study suggests.

“We didn’t know genetically what they actually looked like until now,” senior author Eske Willerslev, a fellow of St. John’s College of the University of Cambridge, and director of The Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in a statement. The research “debunks the modern image of Vikings.”

For the study, which took six years to complete, an international group of researchers analyzed the DNA taken from the remains — such as the teeth and bones — of 442 people who lived sometime between about 2400 B.C. to A.D.1600 found in archaeological sites across Europe and Greenland. These people lived, for the most part, during the Viking Age, which lasted from about A.D. 750 to A.D. 1050. The researchers then compared these ancient people’s DNA with already published DNA sequences from 3,855 modern-day individuals and from 1,118 other ancient individuals.

This sweeping gene analysis suggested that the Vikings weren’t just the continuation of Iron Age groups who lived from about 500 B.C. to about A.D. 700 in Scandinavia before the Viking Age. Rather, the Vikings and their ancestors would have intermingled often with people from Asia and Southern Europe. Many Viking individuals had “high levels of non-Scandinavian ancestry,” the authors wrote in the paper.

Researchers analyzed the DNA from some remains found in a mass grave of 50 headless Vikings in Dorset, U.K. (Image credit: Dorset County Council/Oxford Archaeology)

“No one could have predicted these significant gene flows into Scandinavia from Southern Europe and Asia happened before and during the Viking Age,” Willerslev said. They also found that many Vikings had brown hair, not blonde blond hair as typically imagined, according to the statement.

The researchers found genetic differences among different Viking populations within Scandinavia, which suggests that Viking groups were much more isolated from each other than previously thought, Willerslev said. The coastal communities had high genetic diversity — likely due to more trading and spread of people — than communities in the heartland of Scandinavia, the authors wrote.

What’s more, by comparing ancient genes to modern-day genes, the researchers were able to confirm ideas about how the Vikings moved out of Scandinavia to raid and trade. Vikings from present-day Denmark typically went to England; Vikings from Sweden went mostly east to the Baltic region; and Vikings from Norway traveled to Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and the Isle of Man.

An artist’s reconstruction of “Southern European” Vikings. (Image credit: Jim Lyngvild)

Their finds also revealed unique cultural tidbits. A boat burial in Estonia may have been the earliest evidence of a Viking voyage, according to the paper. It’s not clear if this expedition was a raid or a “diplomatic” expedition; but the burial, made up of two boats, contained the remains of 41 men from modern-day Sweden who died violently and were buried with “high-status” weaponry. Among the burial remains were four brothers and a relative, which suggested raiding may have been a family or local activity, according to the statement. Others in the burial had similar genes, suggesting they came from the same local spot in what is now Sweden.

And it turns out, not every person treated as a Viking was genetically a Viking. In Orkney, Scotland, the researchers found two male skeletons in a Viking burial site. They were buried with swords and other Viking items, but they weren’t actually Vikings, but rather genetically similar to modern-day Irish and Scottish people.

The findings were published yesterday (Sept. 16) in the journal Nature.

Originally published on Live Science.

Mummy Found Hiding Inside Ancient Buddha Statue

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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Mummy Found Hiding Inside Ancient Buddha Statue

By Tia Ghose February 23, 2015

During routine restoration, researchers discovered a surprise hidden in an ancient gold-painted Chinese Buddha statue: a mummy hidden inside. The mummy was once the Buddhist monk Liuquan, according to text found with the statue.(Image: © ©Ben Heggelman (Meander Medical Centre, Amersfoort) / Universityhospital Mannheim)

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on March 3 at 10:10 a.m. E.T.

A Chinese statue of a sitting Buddha has revealed a hidden surprise: Inside, scientists found the mummified remains of a monk who lived nearly 1,000 years ago.

The mummy may have once been a respected Buddhist monk who, after death, was worshipped as an enlightened being, one who helped the living end their cycle of suffering and death, said Vincent van Vilsteren, an archaeology curator at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands, where the mummy (from inside the Buddha statue) was on exhibit last year.

The secret hidden in the gold-painted statue was first discovered when preservationists began restoring the statue many years ago. But the human remains weren’t studied in detail until researchers took scans and samples of tissue from the mummy late last year.

The mysterious statue is now on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. [Image Gallery: Inca Child Mummies]

Mysterious history

The papier-mâché statue, which has the dimensions, roughly, of a seated person and is covered in lacquer and gold paint, has a murky history. It was likely housed in a monastery in Southeastern China for centuries. It may have been taken from the country during the Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous period of social upheaval in Communist China starting in 1966 when Chairman Mao Zedong urged citizens to seize property, dismantle educational systems and attack “bourgeois” cultural institutions. (The current owner bought the statue legally.)

A gold-painted papier-mâché statue of the Buddha contained the mummified remains of an ancient Buddhist monk who lived during the 11th or 12th century. Here, a researcher inspects the statue. (Image credit: © Drents Museum)

The statue was bought and sold again in the Netherlands, and in 1996, a private owner decided to have someone fix the chips and cracks that marred the gold-painted exterior. However, when the restorer removed the statue from its wooden platform, he noticed two pillows emblazoned with Chinese text placed beneath the statues’ knees. When he removed the pillows, he discovered the human remains.

“He looked right into the bottom of this monk,” van Vilsteren told Live Science. “You can see part of the bones and tissue of his skin.”

The mummy was sitting on a rolled textile carpet covered in Chinese text.

Researchers then used radioactive isotopes of carbon to determine that the mummy likely lived during the 11th or 12th century, while the carpet was about 200 years older, van Vilsteren said. (Isotopes are variations of elements with different numbers of neutrons.)

In 2013, researchers conducted a CT scan of the mummy at Mannheim University Hospital in Germany, revealing the remains in unprecedented detail. In a follow-up scan at the Meander Medical Center in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the researchers discovered that what they thought was lung tissue actually consisted of tiny scraps of paper with Chinese text on them.

The text found with the mummy suggests he was once the high-status monk Liuquan, who may have been worshipped as a Buddha, or a teacher who helps to bring enlightenment after his death.

Last year, the mummy was on display at the “Mummies – Life Beyond Death” exhibit at the Drents Museum in Netherlands, before moving to the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.

Common practice

Mummies from this period are fairly common in Asia. For instance, researchers in Mongolia recently found a 200-year-old mummified monk still in the lotus position, the traditional cross-legged meditative pose.

It’s not clear exactly how Liuquan became a mummy, but “in China, and also in Japan and Laos and Korea, there’s a tradition of self-mummification,” van Vilsteren said.

In some cases, aging Buddhist monks would slowly starve themselves to eliminate decay-promoting fat and liquid, while subsisting mainly on pine needles and resin to facilitate the mummification process, according to “Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan,” (McFarland, 2010). Once these monks were near death, they would be buried alive with just a breathing tube to keep them holding on so they could meditate until death.

“There are historical records of some aging monks who have done this practice,” van Vilsteren said. “But if this is also the case with this monk is not known.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to note that the current owner of the Buddha bought the statue legally.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

In Photos: Treasures of Mesopotamia

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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In Photos: Treasures of Mesopotamia

By Owen Jarus

https://www.livescience.com/37841-treasures-of-mesopotamia.html

Ram in the Thicket

This statuette, popularly known as the “ram in the thicket,” is about 17 inches (42.5 cm) tall. It shows a goat jumping up on a flowering plant or tree and is one of two examples from the “great death pit” at Ur, which also contains the remains of 68 women and 6 men who appear to have been sacrificed. It is made of silver, shell, gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian and may have been used to support a small offering table. It dates to between 2650-2550 BC and is now part of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology collection.

Goat Peering Through the Thicket

A photo of the goat peering through the thicket. Its details are remarkably well preserved despite the passage of more than 4,500 years of time.

King’s Grave Headdress

This headdress, with gold leaf pendants and beads made of lapis lazuli and carnelian, is from the royal cemetery at Ur in Iraq and dates back to around 2,500 BC. It was worn by one of many female attendants found in a tomb known as the “king’s grave.” The woman who wore this may have been sacrificed along with dozens of others.

Lapis Lazuli Collar from Death Pit

A collar consisting of gold and lapis lazuli from the great death pit at Ur. The item was worn by a woman who may have been sacrificed.

Headdress and Necklace from Royal Cemetery

The headdress on the left is from the Ur royal cemetery. It is made of gold and lapis lazuli and would have been worn by a male. The necklace in the right is made of carnelian beads. It is also from Ur’s royal cemetery and it has white etching, which was produced using a technique the Mesopotamians learned from the Indus Valley Civilization in South Asia.

Gold Cup with Long Snout

Found in the death pit of Queen Puabi, at Ur, the long snout of this cup would have been used like a straw. Researchers say that it was probably used for drinking beer and its gold would have been imported from Iran or Turkey. Puabi may have ruled as a queen in her own right. Penn Museum researchers note that cuneiform inscriptions make no mention of her husband, something unusual in Mesopotamia.

Statue of Gudea

Statue of King Ashurnasirpal II — (Image credit: Courtesy Detroit Institute of Arts)

Honanki Ruins: Photos Reveal Sprawling, Ancient Pueblos

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

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Honanki Ruins: Photos Reveal Sprawling, Ancient Pueblos

By Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher December 17, 2017

https://www.livescience.com/60659-honanki-photos.html

Many inhabitants

Early native people have long made their homes in the east-central region of today’s Arizona. The Clovis People (11,500 B.C. to 9000 B.C.) once hunted mammoths, giant sloths, bison and camels here in what was a savanna-like climate. When the big-game animals disappeared around 9000 B.C., so too did the Clovis people. Yet, the land was still rich in natural resources, and soon groups of archaic people with their hunting-gathering nomadic lifestyles moved into and across the land.

Changing habitat

By A.D. 650, another more sedentary group of prehistoric people had arrived into what was a more arid region, and they began to develop a rich culture that was located throughout the Verde River Valley to the south and northward to the Sunset Crater region near modern-day Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1583, when a group of Spanish conquistadors led by Antonio de Espejo passed through the region in search of gold, they found only ruins and non-perishable items from these prehistoric people. Espejo noted the aridness of the region and spoke of these people as the Sinagua — “those without water.”

Amazing ruins

Espejo and his conquistadors came across and documented the ruins of large Sinagua pueblos throughout the Verde River Valley. Many are today under the stewardship of the National Parks Service, such as Montezuma Castle, shown here, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki. Hundreds if not thousands of smaller villages are scattered throughout this region and are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service. One, just to the south of modern-day Sedona, is known as Honanki, and is truly worth the effort to visit and explore.

The road less traveled

The road to Honanki and its nearby sister pueblo called Palatki, is a well-maintained dirt road that leads for some 4.5 miles from AZ Route 89A into the Loy Butte region. It passes through the typical Upper Sonoran Desert life zone dominated by conifer trees such as the Arizona Cypress, Cupressus arizonica, several varieties of Pinon Pines and a variety of juniper trees. Scrub oaks, desert holly, Atriplex hymenelytra, along with various species of agave and prickly pear cacti dot the vast local chaparral. Some 15 to 18 inches (38 to 46 cm) of precipitation falls upon this land each year, and the region has an average elevation of 4,500 feet (1,371 m).

Erosion made useful

The road to Honanki ends near a high red sandstone butte — typical of the geological formations found in the beautiful Sedona area. Near the base of this sandstone butte, a small west-facing alcove has been carved over the centuries by the common blowing wind. Around the year 1130, a group of local native people, the Sinagua people, came to this alcove and began to build their multi-story pueblo within the alcove’s protection.

House of the bears

Honanki is one of the largest prehistoric pueblos in the Verde River Valley of Central Arizona. The best dendrochronological dating suggests that the pueblo was built and in use from A.D. 1130 to 1280. The pueblo was first visited by Smithsonian Institute anthropologist Jesse Fewkes in 1895 and first excavated by Fewkes and his team in 1913. The modern Hopi people claim the Sinagua people to be their ancestors, and Fewkes named the site “Honanki” which is a Hopi word that means “Bear House.”

Impressive construction

Under the alcove, Honanki once stood two stories tall with upwards of 60 ground-floor rooms running along the base of the butte for a total of 72 rooms at various points of construction and abandonment. Fewkes was so impressed with these ruins that he wrote that “this place, I have no doubt, will sooner or later become popular with the sightseer, and I regard the discovery of these cliffs as one of the most interesting of my summer’s field work.”

Comfortable lives

The ruins of the many ground floor rooms along the edge of the butte show evidence of the rich and varied lifestyle of the Sinagua people who hunted deer and rabbit, made stone tools, tended their crops and gathered edible wild plants. A remarkable collection of perishable artifacts, such as cordage, weaving textiles and basketry have been recovered in the internal floors of these Honanki rock chambers. Evidence suggests that some rooms were used for food storage, others as family-group living spaces and one special room is believed to be a highly spiritual birthing room.

Precious cache

Honanki is a treasure trove of ancient petroglyphs and pictographs. The ancient rock art found here specifically records almost every period of human occupation of the Verde River Valley from possibly as early as 5000 B.C. Over 2,000 pictographs and petroglyphs have been documented at Honanki; they were created by early Archaic people, the prehistoric Sinagua people and even the historic Yavapai people (1400 – 1875). Big-horned sheep, mountain lions, bow hunters, ghostly figures and the sun are all seen on these rock wall panels of Honanki.

Remaining decor

Chaco Canyon Photos: Amazing Ruins from an Ancient World

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

Post 8870

Chaco Canyon Photos: Amazing Ruins from an Ancient World

By Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher October 06, 2017

Ancient civilization

In the great desolation and emptiness of northwestern New Mexico, the ruins of an advanced Pre-Columbian civilization is preserved today within a 53-square-mile (137 square kilometers) national historic park. Here, the Chacoan people from the mid-9th to early 13th centuries created along Chaco Canyon the largest, most architecturally advanced (and most archaeoastronomically aligned) series of roads, villages and solar stone structures found in North America, and arguably anywhere in the world. Fajada Butte within Chaco Culture National Historic Park is shown here. [Read more about Chaco Canyon]

Historic park

Chaco Culture National Historic Park is located in the southeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau, some 88 miles (142 km) as the crow flies from the Four Corners region. Chaco Canyon is one of hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan sites found across the 130,000-square-mile (337,000 square km) plateau. These ancient indigenous people created large population centers across the Colorado Plateau that show evidence of a very rich culture of art, trade, religion and the celestialsciences. Many suggest that Chaco Canyon was the epicenter of the Ancestral Puebloans’ world.

Geological wonder

The park is situated totally within the San Juan Basin. This high scrubland desert canyon, with an average elevation of 6,175 feet (1,882 meters), has a general northwest-to-southeast alignment. It is surrounded by ancient dune fields, ridges and three mountain ranges: the Chuska Mountains to the west, the San Pedro Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the north. Chaco Canyon was carved over time by the Chaco Wash, a seasonal stream. The layout of the 10 Ancestral Puebloan pueblos scattered along 9 miles (14 km) of the Chaco Wash are considered to be the most significant of all ancient Colorado Plateau pueblo communities.

Preserving culture

Some archeologists have long contended that the ruins of Chaco Canyon are the most significant ancient ruins in North America and even across the world. President Theodore Roosevelt recognized these alluring ruins in 1907 when he designated Chaco Canyon a national monument. The ruins were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

In 1980, the boundary of the national monument was enlarged by 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) and the monument became the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Finally, because of the exceptional architecture, skillfully engineered and constructed roads, and the influence that the Chaco culture had upon the people of the Four Corners area for more than four centuries, Chaco Canyon was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. Today, Chaco Culture National Historic Park preserves more than 4,000 cultural sites reflective of habitation by Paleo-Indians, Ancestral Puebloans, Navajo, Hopi and the Euro-American occupation.

Pueblo Bonito

The uniquely D-shaped Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for “beautiful town”) is the most famous and largest of all Chacoan great houses, hosting more than 350 ground floor rooms, three great kivas and 32 smaller kivas. At its peak, Pueblo Bonito rose some four stories along the arc of north side rooms with interior rooms from one — three stories high. Pueblo Bonito was first occupied from the mid-850s A.D. until the early 12th century. Like all the other major structures found in Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito was built with an internal geometry that aligns it to the relationships of the solar and lunar cycles. Itsnorthern back wall is built along a perfect east-west axis. In addition, Pueblo Bonito is located near the center of Chaco Canyon and plays a crucial role in the astronomical solar/lunar alignment of 10 other Chaco Canyon great houses.

Ceremonial role

The Chaco great houses found along a 9-mile (14 km) beltof the canyon floor are astronomically aligned. Some are positioned with the 18.6-year cycle of the maximum and minimum moonrise and moonset, while others were set up cardinally. Archeologist think that many of the great houses served as temples with people throughout the region making annual pilgrimages to the Chaco kivas for ceremonial activities. Chetro Ketl, shown here, contains some 500 rooms, and a Great Kiva, also found here, illustrates how the great houses of Chaco Canyon served during this time as the spiritual, administrative and economic capital of the American Southwest.

Chacoan construction

The many spectacular great houses found along Chaco Canyon remain a modern-day testament to the fact that the Chaco people were very skilled masons. Their pueblos were built in sections over hundreds of years, and archaeological architects have identified seven evolving styles. The vast majority of the great houses were built with slabs of sandstone rocks, specifically quarried and preciously stacked as if the Chacoans were following some magnificent ancient blueprint. These designs and styles allowed the people to build strong, multi-storied structures with a large number of interconnecting rooms. It is estimated that more than 240,000 ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, spruce and aspen trees were used in the construction of the floors and the roofs of the Chaco great houses. The average weight of these logs was more than 600 pounds ( 272 kilograms). Since the Chacoans had no beasts of burden (horse, oxen, mules or even cows), metal tools, nor did they know of the wheeled cart, these timbers were simply carried from forests that were upwards of 40 to 60 miles (64 to 97 km) from Chaco Canyon.

Network of roads

Another stunning achievement of the Chaco people was their large and carefully engineered series of roads found both within the canyon and extending from the canyon to the far outlying Chaco villages. Some 250 miles (400 km) of road were built by these industrious people. Within the canyon, the roads were about 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, while the roads leaving the canyon were nearly twice as wide. These roads are incredibly straight and when they come to a mesa or cliff face, steps (like the ones shown here) were cut, never wavering from the road’s straight alignment. Why would a people with no beast of burden nor wheeled carts build such an extensive system of wide roads? Archeologist can only speculate that the roads were used for large ceremonial and religious parades, yet their actual purpose may forever be lost in the dust of history.

Cosmic connection

Archeologist and astronomers both agree that Chaco Canyon just might be the greatest example of an archaeoastronomy site found anywhere in the world. The scientific knowledge and mathematics needed to accurately position and then build each of their great pueblos aligned with the cosmos would take generations of astronomical observations. Some suggest the mathematics for such construction came from trade and influences of the Mayan people of the Yucatan. Whatever the origin, the ancient people of Chaco were an intelligent and creative people. Today, the Chaco Observatory continues the centuries-long tradition of watching the nighttime sky started by the ancient Chacoans. This photo, of the famous Horsehead Nebula, was taken by one of the telescopes working at the Chaco Observatory.

Dark skies

The Chaco Culture National Historic Park was designated a “gold-tier” Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2013. The park’s observatory staff oversees the Chaco Night Sky Program, which aims to not only educate but also continue to advocate for the elimination of the effects of light pollution upon the park’s amazing nighttime sky. Some 14,000 visitors come to the Chaco Observatory each year for the superior views of the cosmos that can be seen here. These dark skies are threatened by recent coal mining activities on nearby federal lands of the San Juan Basin.

Impressive archaeoastronomy

At the 480-foot (146 m) summit of Fajada Butte is found one of Chaco Canyon’s most impressive archaeoastronomy sites. Here, the ancient Chacoans perfectly aligned three large slabs of sandstone for specific astronomically significant days, like the seasonal equinoxes and solstices. On these days, a narrow shaft of light falsl upon two, spiral petroglyphs. This light, shown here and known as the Chaco Sun Dagger, also tracks an 18 1/2-year lunar cycle. Such an astronomical site is found nowhere else among North American Indian cultures. But, such solar/lunar sites were once common to the Toltec and Mayan people of central and southern Mexico. For many archeologists, the Chaco Sun Dagger, along with the copper bells, mother-of-pearl and macaw feathers found among Chaco ruins, confirms the theory that Chaco Canyon was once the terminus of the great Toltec trade route.

Pottery patterns

It should be no surprise that Chaco pottery was also unique and beautiful in its design, function and quality. Plain, clay cooking pots first appeared at Chaco around 450 to 500 A.D. More durable and easier to make than baskets, pottery artisans became an indispensable part of the Chacoan culture, producing both plain and ornate ceramics for cooking, serving and the storage of food supplies. Chaco pottery makers soon began using black paint to decorate their pottery with geometric designs, as seen in this photo. This black-on-white painted pottery is the hallmark of Chacoan pottery. Archeologists find great value and insight in studying pottery because variations in pottery design reflect the peoples’ cultural changes.

Park animals

Chaco Canyon is located in an arid region with a characteristic high desert and a xeric scrublands biome. The flora throughout the region is similar to what is typically found within all North American high deserts, areas with short growing seasons, long winters and minimal rainfall. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata() a variety of cholla with a mingling of piñon and juniper trees are typically found. A wide variety of high desert animals, such as elk (Cervus elaphus), American badger (Taxied taxes), black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and the bobcat (Lynx rufus), shown here, are just some of the many mammal species that have long made Chaco Canyon their home.

Rich history

Chaco Canyon was the major center of the ancient Pueblo Peoples culture between 900 to 1150 A.D. The great houses that they built were the largest building in North America until the 19th century. At its zenith, the population of Chaco probably never exceeded more than 6,000 people, but their influence spread across the Colorado Plateau and southward to their trading partners within the large Mesoamerica cultures ofcentral Mexico. Exactly why the people eventually abandoned Chaco Canyon is not known, but an extensive drought that began around 1130 A.D. may have been a major contributing factor. The bumpy journey across the unpaved roads that lead even today to Chaco Culture National Historic Park is well worth the effort for visitors to explore firsthand the amazing ruins still found in Chaco Canyon.

Woman seeks man in ancient Egyptian ‘erotic binding spell’

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

Post 8869

Woman seeks man in ancient Egyptian ‘erotic binding spell’

By Owen Jarus – Live Science Contributor 8 days ago

The spell called upon a ghost to drive a man mad with desire.

A closeup of the papyrus showing the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis shooting Kephalas with an arrow. Kephalas is depicted nude with an enlarged penis and scrotum. The arrow Anubis shoots is supposed to make Kephalas lustful for a woman named Taromeway.

Scholars are translating an 1,800-year-old Egyptian papyrus describing what scholars call an “erotic binding spell,” in which a woman named Taromeway tries to attract a man named Kephalas.

On the papyrus, a drawing shows the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis shooting an arrow into Kephalas, who is depicted nude. The arrow Anubis shoots is intended to inflame Kephalas’ lust for Taromeway, researchers say.

The spell is written in Demotic, an Egyptian script, and calls upon a ghost —the “noble spirit of the man of the necropolis” — to find Kephalas and “give to him anxiety at midday, evening, and at all time” until Kephalas seeks Taromeway in lustful desire with “his male organs pursuing her female organs.”

“His emphasized penis and scrotum surely are intentional as the ‘male organs’ she specifically wants to pursue her,” said Robert Ritner, an Egyptology professor at the University of Chicago who is translating the spell.

The spell makes astronomical allusions, at one point calling upon Kephalas to traverse Ursa Major, a constellation that never sets below the horizon, until he is “wandering after [Taromeway] while there is no other woman on Earth whom he desires, as he madly pursues her.”

Other so-called erotic binding spells are known from ancient Egypt, although they were more commonly used by men seeking women, wrote Ritner and Foy Scalf, the head of research archives at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Ritner and Foy described their ongoing translation of the spell in an article that was published recently in the journal Göttinger Miszellen.

Part of an 1,800 year-old papyrus written in Demotic, an Egyptian script, containing what scholars call an "erotic binding spell." Experts are currently creating a full translation of the papyrus. — Part of an 1,800 year-old papyrus written in Demotic, an Egyptian script, containing what scholars call an “erotic binding spell.” Experts are currently creating a full translation of the papyrus. (Image credit: Photo courtesy University of Michigan)

Who were they?

It’s unknown why Taromeway wanted Kephalas so badly or whether she actually got him. “Taromeway must have been both motivated and with some disposable means,” Ritner told Live Science, noting that Taromeway likely paid an expert, such as a priest, to write the spell.

It’s possible that Taromeway and Kephalas were from different ethnic groups. “While she is certainly Egyptian, Kephalas and his mother have Greek names,” said Ritner. Ancient Egypt was under Roman control at the time the spell was written; during this time, Egyptians did adopt Greek names, “but it may be the case that Taromeway’s sexual fixation on Kephalas crossed ethnic bounds,” Ritner said.

Once written, the papyrus was probably placed in a tomb, and the “ghost” invoked in the spell would have been the spirit of the person buried there, said Ritner.

The papyrus, which has not been translated before, is now in the collection of the University of Michigan, which acquired it in November 1924. Records are unclear about which site the papyrus is from, though many of the other papyri that were acquired along with it are from the Fayum area of Egypt, according to previous research.

Originally published on Live Science.

This Is ‘Lola,’ a 5,700-Year-Old Woman Whose Entire Life Is Revealed in Her ‘Chewing Gum’

Anthropology & Archaeology Corner

Post 8858

This Is ‘Lola,’ a 5,700-Year-Old Woman Whose Entire Life Is Revealed in Her ‘Chewing Gum’

By Yasemin Saplakoglu – Staff Writer December 18, 2019

This is an artistic reconstruction of Lola, a 5,700-year-old woman whose appearance was reconstructed from DNA analysis of a chewed piece of birch pitch.

Thousands of years ago, a young Neolithic woman in what is now Denmark chewed on a piece of birch pitch. DNA analysis of this prehistoric “chewing gum” has now revealed, in remarkable detail, what she looked like.

The team nicknamed the young Neolithic woman “Lola” after Lolland, the island in Denmark on which the 5,700-year-old chewing gum was discovered. The Stone Age archaeological site, Syltholm, on the island of Lolland, pristinely preserved the gum in mud for the thousands of years after Lola discarded it.

It was so well-preserved that a group of scientists at the University of Copenhagen were able to extract a complete ancient human genome — all of the young girl’s genetic material — from it. They were also able to extract DNA from ancient pathogens and oral microbes that she carried in her mouth.

This is the first time that an entire human genome was extracted from something other than human bones, according to a statement from the University of Copenhagen. The team’s analysis revealed that the chewer of the prehistoric gum was female, and likely had dark skin, dark hair and blue eyes. They found that Lola’s genes matched more closely to hunter-gatherers from the European mainland than those who lived in central Scandinavia at the time.

This piece of birch pitch from Syltholm preserved Lola's entire genome. — This piece of birch pitch from Syltholm preserved Lola’s entire genome. (Image credit: Theis Jensen)

The ancient chewing gum also held traces of plant and animal DNA, such as DNA from hazelnuts and duck, which might have been part of Lola’s diet, according to the statement. Finally, scientists found genes associated with “lactase non-persistence,” meaning Lola likely didn’t digest dairy very well.

Other previous archeological finds from the site had suggested “that the people who occupied the site were heavily exploiting wild resources well into the Neolithic, which is the period when farming and domesticated animals were first introduced into southern Scandinavia,” lead author Theis Jensen, a postdoctoral fellow from the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said in the statement.

Finally, the researchers found DNA from oral microbes in the chewing gum, including DNA that could belong to the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis, otherwise known as “mono” or the “kissing disease.”

The birch pitch is a blackish-brown substance that’s created by heating up birch bark. This substance has been used since the Paleolithic era as glue for hafting stone tools, according to the statement.

But previously, pieces of birch pitch have been found with tooth marks, so archeologists think that as the pitch cools and solidified, it was chewed to make it moldable again before using it to glue.

Other theories suggest that people chewed the slightly antiseptic birch pitch to relieve toothaches or other illnesses. Birch pitch might also have been used for toothbrushing, to suppress hunger or even just for fun as chewing gum, according to the statement.

Ancient “chewing gums” are a relatively new source of DNA to analyze, and can help reveal the microbiome of our ancestors. It may also help explain how bacteria and viruses have changed over time.

“It can help us understand how pathogens have evolved and spread over time, and what makes them particularly virulent in a given environment,” senior author Hannes Schroeder, an associate professor from the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement. “At the same time, it may help predict how a pathogen will behave in the future, and how it might be contained or eradicated.”

The findings were published on Dec. 17 in the journal Nature Communications.

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Originally published on Live Science.

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Woman seeks man in ancient Egyptian ‘erotic binding spell’

Who were they?

This Is ‘Lola,’ a 5,700-Year-Old Woman Whose Entire Life Is Revealed in Her ‘Chewing Gum’