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News: Ancient documents portend major earthquake
TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- An Israeli scientist said ancient documents suggest a major earthquake triggered by the Dead Sea Fault is long overdue in the Middle East.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20071004-13492500-bc-israel-earthquakes.xml
 
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16  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:25:36 pm


Ġgantija walls made up of megalithic stones
17  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:25:10 pm
Excavations and recognition

Residents and travelers knew about the existence of the temple for a long time. In the late eighteenth century, even before any excavations were carried out, Jean-Pierre Hoüel drew a mostly correct plan based on that knowledge.[5] In 1827, Col. John Otto Bayer, the Lieutenant Governor of Gozo, had the site cleared of debris.[6][7] Unfortunately the soil and remains were lost without having been properly examined.[8] Luckily the German artist Brochtorff had painted a picture of the site within a year or two prior to removal of the debris, so there was a record of the site before clearance.[8]

After the excavations in 1827, the ruins fell into decay. The land was held privately until 1933, when the Government expropriated it for public benefit. The Museums Department conducted extensive archaeological work in 1933, 1936, 1949, 1956-57 and 1958-59. Its goal was to clear, preserve and research the ruins and their surroundings.

The Ġgantija temples were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. In 1992, the Committee decided to expand the listing to include five other megalithic temples situated across the islands of Malta and Gozo. The Ġgantija listing was renamed as "The Megalithic Temples of Malta"[9]

18  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:24:47 pm


Ġgantija Temple
19  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:24:15 pm
Excavations and recognition
Residents and travelers knew about the existence of the temple for a long time. In the late eighteenth century, even before any excavations were carried out, Jean-Pierre Hoüel drew a mostly correct plan based on that knowledge.[5] In 1827, Col. John Otto Bayer, the Lieutenant Governor of Gozo, had the site cleared of debris.[6][7] Unfortunately the soil and remains were lost without having been properly examined.[8] Luckily the German artist Brochtorff had painted a picture of the site within a year or two prior to removal of the debris, so there was a record of the site before clearance.[8]

After the excavations in 1827, the ruins fell into decay. The land was held privately until 1933, when the Government expropriated it for public benefit. The Museums Department conducted extensive archaeological work in 1933, 1936, 1949, 1956-57 and 1958-59. Its goal was to clear, preserve and research the ruins and their surroundings.

The Ġgantija temples were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. In 1992, the Committee decided to expand the listing to include five other megalithic temples situated across the islands of Malta and Gozo. The Ġgantija listing was renamed as "The Megalithic Temples of Malta"[9
20  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:24:05 pm
The Ġgantija temples stand at the end of the Xagħra plateau, facing towards the south-east.

This megalithic monument is in fact two temples, built side by side and enclosed within a boundary wall. The southerly one is the larger and elder, dating back to approximately 3600 BC. It is also better preserved. [2] The plan of the temple incorporates five large apses, with traces of the plaster that once covered the irregular wall still clinging between the blocks. [


The temples are built in the typical clover-leaf shape, with inner facing blocks marking the shape which was then filled in with rubble. This led to the construction of a series of semi-circular apses connected with a central passage. Archaeologists believe that the apses were originally covered by roofing. The structures are all the more impressive for having been constructed at a time when no metal tools were available to the natives of the Maltese islands, and when the wheel had not yet been introduced. Small, spherical stones have been discovered. They are believed to have been used as ball bearings to transport the enormous stone blocks required for the temples' construction.

The temple, like other megalithic sites in Malta, faces southeast. The southern temple rises to a height of six metres. At the entrance sits a large stone block with a recess, which led to the hypothesis that this was a ritual ablution station for purification before entering the complex.[4] The five apses contain various altars; evidence of animal bones in the site suggests the site was used for animal sacrifice.

21  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Re: Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:23:33 pm
22  Ancient Mediterranean Cultures / Mediterranean Islands / Ġgantija on: October 13, 2010, 01:23:05 pm
Ġgantija

Ġgantija (English pronunciation: /ɡænˈtiːə/, Maltese: [ʤɡɐnˈtiːjɐ], "Giants' Tower") is a Neolithic, megalithic temple complex on the Mediterranean island of Gozo. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of a series of megalithic temples in Malta. Their makers erected the two Ġgantija temples during the Neolithic Age (c. 3600-2500 BC), which makes these temples more than 5500 years old and some of the world's oldest manmade religious structures. Together with other similar structures, these have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Megalithic Temples of Malta.

The temples were possibly the site of a Fertility cult; archeologists believe that the numerous figurines and statues found on site are connected with that cult. According to local Gozitan folklore, a giantess built these temples and used them as places of worship.[1]

23  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:21:38 pm
In popular culture
Some authors,[8][9][10] taking up themes from the pseudohistorical book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, suggest that Sarah was the daughter of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. These ideas were popularized by Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code and is also the main plot in Eron Manusov's novel Ahavah's Dream.

In Paulo Coelho's novel "The Witch of Portobello", St. Sarah is mentioned several times.
In Gypsilands 2000 Album 'Viva La Musica", track thirteen is titled "Santa Sarah". This Track Pay homage to the Patron saint of the Romani People St. Sara-Kali.
24  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:21:11 pm
Cultural references
The statue of Saint Sarah makes an appearance in Tony Gatlif's 1993 film Latcho Drom (Safe Journey) where it is carried to the sea, and her landing is re-enacted.

In the Chilean telenovela "Romané", the main character is a Roma woman named Jovanka, a devotée of Saint Sarah. She swears in Sarah's name that she'll never reveal which of her daughters is her true child.

25  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:20:54 pm
Pilgrimage

The day of the pilgrimage honouring Sarah is May 24; her statue is carried down to the sea on this day to re-enact her arrival in France.

Some authors have drawn parallels between the ceremonies of the pilgrimage and the worship of the Indian goddess Kali, subsequently identifying the two.[5] Ronald Lee (2001) states:

If we compare the ceremonies with those performed in France at the shrine of Sainte Sara (called Sara e Kali in Romani), we become aware that the worship of Kali/Durga/Sara has been transferred to a Christian figure... in France, to a non-existent "sainte" called Sara, who is actually part of the Kali/Durga/Sara worship among certain groups in India.[6]

Walter Weyrauch (2001) notes that,

The ceremony in Saintes-Maries closely parallels the annual processions in India, the country in which the Romani originated, when statues of the Indian goddess Durga, also named Kali, are immersed into water. Durga, the consort of Shiva, usually represented with a black face, is the goddess of creation, sickness and death.[7]

26  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:20:02 pm


Interior of the shrine of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
27  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:19:29 pm
According to various legends, during a persecution of early Christians, commonly placed in the year 42, Lazarus, his sisters Mary Magdalene and Martha, Mary Salome (the mother of the Apostles John and James), Mary Jacobe and Saint Maximin were sent out to sea in a boat. They arrived safely on the southern shore of Gaul at the place later called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. In some accounts Sarah, a native of Upper Egypt, appears as the black Egyptian maid of one of the Three Marys, usually Mary Jacobe.[2]

Though the tradition of the Three Marys arriving in France stems from the high Middle Ages, appearing for instance in the 13th century Golden Legend, Saint Sarah makes her first appearance in Vincent Philippon's book The Legend of the Saintes-Maries (1521), where she portrayed as "a charitable woman that helped people by collecting alms, which led to the popular belief that she was a Gypsy." Subsequently, Sarah was adopted by Roma as their saint.[3]

Another account has Sarah welcoming the Three Marys into Gaul. Franz de Ville (1956) writes:

One of our people who received the first Revelation was Sara the Kali. She was of noble birth and was chief of her tribe on the banks of the Rhône. She knew the secrets that had been transmitted to her... The Rom at that period practiced a polytheistic religion, and once a year they took out on their shoulders the statue of Ishtari (Astarte) and went into the sea to receive benediction there. One day Sara had visions which informed her that the Saints who had been present at the death of Jesus would come, and that she must help them. Sara saw them arrive in a boat. The sea was rough, and the boat threatened to founder. Mary Salome threw her cloak on the waves and, using it as a raft, Sarah floated towards the Saints and helped them reach land by praying.[4]

Another belief is that Saint Sarah was the daughter of Mary Magdalen and Jesus. This account states that Sara's role as a servant girl was to protect her identity as the twelve year old daughter of the Christ and his supposed wife.

28  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Re: Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:19:14 pm


The shrine of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
29  The Crusades, Templars & the Holy Grail / the Da Vinci Code / Saint Sarah on: October 13, 2010, 01:18:41 pm
Saint Sarah

Saint Sarah, also known as Sara-la-Kali ("Sara the black", Romani: Sara e Kali), is the mythic patron saint of the Roma (Gypsy) people. The center of her veneration is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place of pilgrimage for Roma in the Camargue, in southern France. Legend identifies her as the servant of one of the Three Marys, with whom she is supposed to have arrived in the Camargue.[1]

30   Mythology / Mythology / Re: Flood myths on: October 13, 2010, 01:17:46 pm


"The Deluge", by John Martin, 1834. Oil on canvas. Yale University
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