Wadi Sura II: the Cave of Beasts

As a result of five field campaigns in the Gilf Kebir (SW Egypt), the Wadi Sura Team of the University of Cologne is pleased to announce for this summer the publication of volume 26 of AFRICA PRAEHISTORICA with the complete rock art trove of the ‘Cave of Beasts’ on 500 color pages. Please get more information from the announcement at:

http://www.egyptologyforum.org/bbs/Subscription_Wadi_Sura.pdf

River Dee

The River Dee travels through Wales and England and also forms a very beautiful border between these two historic countries. This enigmatic river rises in Snowdonia, Wales, before flowing east via ancient Chester, England and then discharging into the Irish sea between Wales and the Wirral Peninsula in England. The River was the traditional boundary of Gwynedd in Wales for centuries, possibly since its founding in the 5th century.[1]

In pre-Roman pagan Britain all natural rivers, lakes or other bodies of water were held in reverence by the inhabitants and considered to be the dwelling places of divine beings, and the majority of British rivers still retain their ancient names.

River Dee from Wales

This ancient river was recorded in the 13th century as flumen Dubr Duiu[1] and appears to derive from the Brythonic deva: “River of the Goddess” or “Holy River”[2]. She was worshipped as the warrior goddess Aerfen and gave oracles as to the results of the perpetual wars between the Welsh and the English[3]. Her shrine was at Glydyfrdwy on the River Dee. Tradition says three human sacrifices had to be drowned there every three years to ensure success in battle[4]. Her symbol was the double-bladed axe.

The river’s source can be found on the slopes of Dduallt above Lllanuwchllyn in the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales, and then passes through Bala Lake. There is an old legend which says that the waters of the River Dee do not mingle with the waters of Bala Lake but pass straight through, emerging undiluted. The river then travels south-east through the Denbigh Moors before passing through the beautiful town of Llangollen. One of the major tributaries of the Dee, the River Alyn (Afon Alun in Welsh) crosses the Carboniferous Limestone from Halkyn Mountain and runs down through the Loggerheads area before making its confluence north of Holt. Once the main River Dee approaches the Cheshire border and the Carboniferous Coal Measures, it turns sharply northwards before meandering up to Chester. This long stretch of the river drops in height by only a few feet. West of Chester, the river flows along an artificial channel excavated between 1732 and 1736. Beyond Connah’s Quay the river opens out into the Dee Estuary, forming the north-easternmost section of the North Wales coast and the western coast of the Wirral. Towns along the coast include Flint, Holywell and Mostyn on the Welsh side and Neston, Parkgate, West Kirby and Hoylake on the Wirral side.

Bala Lake, Wales

The river was the reason the Romans came to build their fort at Chester and the area below the city now called “The Roodee”, which is now occupied by a racecourse was where the harbour was located until silting of the river and the ascent of its neighbour, Liverpool, made it no longer viable for sea-going vessels.

In 2002 it was the 1100th anniversary of the arrival of Vikings on the Wirral. A group of Vikings had asked the Queen of Mercia for permission to settle on the Wirral and up as far as Solway. The settlements were initially peaceful, but it was not that long before they attacked Chester. Mersey Vikings were not only warriors but traders and farmers and fishermen. They brought their own parliaments with them called ‘Things’. Not all pagan, some were Christian and built churches. This word lives on today in such places as Thingwall. The River Dee, or Dingesmere (Dee Estuary) according to the Vikings, was their main sea route as they considered the Mersey cursed (This is now considered to be a Victorian generated myth).

Mud banks at Flint, Wales

[1] Harleian MS 3859. Op. cit. Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K. “Harleian Genealogies”.
[2] Domesday Maps. “Welsh Place Names: D”.
[3] Celtic Myth and Legend p413
[4] The Witches Goddess

In the eyes of the Ancient Egyptians the world was a dangerous place, where the unexpected might happen at any time, and its order had to be defended day in, day out. The execration rituals consisted of the destruction of dedicated objects, of animals or humans, and the recitation of magic spells, their written records being referred to as execration texts. The course of the ritual is fairly well understood, thanks to text like this one:

“You will depict every enemy of Re and every enemy of Pharaoh, dead or alive, and every proscribed deed he might dream of, the names of their father, their mother, and their children—every one of them—being written with fresh ink on a sheet of unused papyrus—and their (own) names being written on their chest, they themselves having been made of wax and bound with bonds of black thread; they will be spat on, they will be trodden with the left foot, they will be struck with a knife and a lance, and they will be thrown into the fire in a blacksmith’s furnace.” [1]

Now this post isn’t to brag or go into detail about who or why i am doing this, that is between me and my gods, i just wanted to share a cool idea i had for the execration rite. so basically most people seem to use clay pots painted red which they then smash, but i came up with the idea of using a Gingerbread man cutter to create a clay tablet in the figure of a man, after all that is relative to the cause of the problem i am looking to remove.

So first i took some air drying clay (I use DAS, but other brands are just as good) and cut off roughly the amount i would need. I also purchased a gingerbread man cutter from the same store that sold the clay.

Air Dry Clay and Gingerbread Man Cutter.

This was then kneaded to make it more flexible, before rolling it out. The gingerbread cutter is then used to create as many “little men” as possible from the clay.

Roll out clay and use cutter to make little men

I then placed the clay on a rack so that it could air dry.

Clean up the edges and leave to one side to dry.

In the next part i will be preping the “little men” for the rite itself.

[1] Dunand & Zivie-Coche, p.126

Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus’ crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text  — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.

The discovery of the text doesn’t mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book “Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ”(Brill, 2013).

Copies of the text are found in two manuscripts, one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City and the other at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the translation comes from the New York text, because the relevant text in the Pennsylvania manuscript is mostly illegible.

Pontius Pilate has dinner with Jesus

While apocryphal stories about Pilate are known from ancient times, van den Broek wrote in an email to LiveScience that he has never seen this one before, with Pilate offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus.

“Without further ado, Pilate prepared a table and he ate with Jesus on the fifth day of the week. And Jesus blessed Pilate and his whole house,” reads part of the text in translation. Pilate later tells Jesus, “well then, behold, the night has come, rise and withdraw, and when the morning comes and they accuse me because of you, I shall give them the only son I have so that they can kill him in your place.”

In the text, Jesus comforts him, saying, “Oh Pilate, you have been deemed worthy of a great grace because you have shown a good disposition to me.” Jesus also showed Pilate that he can escape if he chose to. “Pilate, then, looked at Jesus and, behold, he became incorporeal: He did not see him for a long time …” the text read.

Pilate and his wife both have visions that night that show an eagle (representing Jesus) being killed.

In the Coptic and Ethiopian churches, Pilate is regarded as a saint, which explains the sympathetic portrayal in the text, van den Broek writes.

The reason for Judas using a kiss

In the canonical bible the apostle Judas betrays Jesus in exchange for money by using a kiss to identify him leading to Jesus’ arrest. This apocryphal tale explains that the reason Judas used a kiss, specifically, is because Jesus had the ability to change shape.

“Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him [Jesus], for he does not have a single shape but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man …” This leads Judas to suggest using a kiss as a means to identify him. If Judas had given the arresters a description of Jesus he could have changed shape. By kissing Jesus Judas tells the people exactly who he is.

This understanding of Judas’ kiss goes way back. “This explanation of Judas’ kiss is first found in Origen [a theologian who lived A.D. 185-254],” van den Broek writes. In his work, Contra Celsum the ancient writerOrigen, stated that “to those who saw him [Jesus] he did not appear alike to all.”

St. Cyril impersonation

The text is written in the name of St. Cyril of Jerusalem who lived during the fourth century. In the story Cyril tells the Easter story as part of a homily (a type of sermon).  A number of texts in ancient times claim to be homilies by St. Cyril and they were probably not given by the saint in real life, van den Broek explained in his book.

Near the beginning of the text, Cyril, or the person writing in his name, claims that a book has been found in Jerusalem showing the writings of the apostles on the life and crucifixion of Jesus. “Listen to me, oh my honored children, and let me tell you something of what we found written in the house of Mary …” reads part of the text.

Again, it’s unlikely that such a book was found in real life. Van den Broek said that a claim like this would have been used by the writer “to enhance the credibility of the peculiar views and uncanonical facts he is about to present by ascribing them to an apostolic source,” adding that examples of this plot device can be found “frequently” in Coptic literature.

Arrest on Tuesday

Van den Broek says that he is surprised that the writer of the text moved the date of Jesus’ Last Supper, with the apostles, and arrest to Tuesday. In fact, in this text, Jesus’ actual Last Supper appears to be with Pontius Pilate. In between his arrest and supper with Pilate, he is brought before Caiaphas and Herod.

In the canonical texts, the last supper and arrest of Jesus happens on Thursday evening and present-day Christians mark this event with Maundy Thursday services. It “remains remarkable that Pseudo-Cyril relates the story of Jesus’ arrest on Tuesday evening as if the canonical story about his arrest on Thursday evening (which was commemorated each year in the services of Holy Week) did not exist!” writes van den Broek in the email.

A gift to a monastery … and then to New York

About 1,200 years ago the New York text was in the library of the Monastery of St. Michael in the Egyptian desert near present-day al-Hamuli in the western part of the Faiyum. The text says, in translation, that it was a gift from “archpriest Father Paul,” who, “has provided for this book by his own labors.”

The monastery appears to have ceased operations around the early 10th century, and the text was rediscovered in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, it was purchased, along with other texts, by American financier J.P. Morgan. His collections would later be given to the public and are part of the present-day Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. The manuscript is currently displayed as part of the museum’s exhibition “Treasures from the Vault” running through May 5.

Who believed it?

Van den Broek writes in the email that “in Egypt, the Bible had already become canonized in the fourth/fifth century, but apocryphal stories and books remained popular among the Egyptian Christians, especially among monks.”

Whereas the people of the monastery would have believed the newly translated text, “in particular the more simple monks,” he’s not convinced that the writer of the text believed everything he was writing down, van den Broek said.

“I find it difficult to believe that he really did, but some details, for instance the meal with Jesus, he may have believed to have really happened,” van den Broek writes.  ”The people of that time, even if they were well-educated, did not have a critical historical attitude. Miracles were quite possible, and why should an old story not be true?”

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Here’s the BBC TV promo information for the Life and Death in Ancient Egypt documentary. The dates are different to those originally given, so here it is. This should be really awesome.

“It is one person who ennobles another; a man works for his predecessors, through the desire that what he has done will be embellished by another who shall come after him.”
– from the Teaching for Merikare (Middle Kingdom, Faulkner translation)

One of the cornerstones of the faith, and indeed one of the hallmarks of African traditional religions, is the veneration of ancestors. It gives us roots and a sense of being, after all you are a product of your ancestry. Within you is the building blocks of life that have been forged and moulded through generations and generations. Our DNA isn’t picked from the ether; it comes directly from our parents. And where did they get theirs? Their parents. And so on, and so on. We are a reflection of every single person who has passed before us, this is why it is important to work with the Akhu.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you cannot be a Kemetic if you do not work with the Blessed Dead. It is just in my personal practice I keep being told by my Names that I really need to be working with my ancestors. After all they have had a huge influence in my life, from directing me in everyday choices to influencing who I ended up marrying! But it does not come without its difficulties, which is what I want to talk about here.

“This [funerary offering] is the breath of the mouth, excellent for the noble dead!
It is nothing wearisome. You shall be an imperishable star, a star in ‘She-of-a-thousand-(shining)-souls.’”
– from the stela of Nebipusenwosret (Middle Kingdom, Parkinson translation)

You see I have two major issues when it comes to working with the Akhu, one more serious then the other. First of all I live quite far from the location of the family cemetery. Now I know this doesn’t seem like the biggest issue in the world. But because of this I am unable to tend their graves and make offerings directly at the burial sites. First world problems I know, but it seems to make it harder for me to connect. I have a Akhu altar in my living room which holds images of mine and my wife’s ancestors. Every week I make a offering of food and always make sure there is water available, along with daily burning of incense and candles. But this just doesn’t seem enough, I feel like i’m missing something that I should be doing.

PaganPickles Anku Altar

The next point I would like to make comes with a trigger warning. If you are easily offended then please skip this part.

This is really not easy for me to talk about. I have never really talked about this much in real life let alone to the whole internet. I really cant bring myself to honouring my mother who passed 10 years ago, in fact I am not even sure that she would be an Akhu! You see my mother had serious mental health issues, she suffered from Münchhausen and Münchhausen by proxy, amongst other things. I spent the first 8 years of my life being physically, emotionally and sexually abused by the woman you should be able to trust the most. Now i’m not looking for sympathy as I have come to terms with what has happened to me and moved on. But for the life of me, I cannot being myself to honour her. Also there is the fact that she may not, and probably shouldn’t, have made it passed the weighing of the heart. So in fact she might not even be an Akhu!

“Well just don’t honour her then!” I hear you say, and that is a great point. But, this leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. How can I work with the shining ones if that doesn’t even include my own mother? I really don’t know, I guess that’s one of my lessons I will have to work through.

Pyramids and other momuments are under threat

EGYPT faces the permanent loss of its most sacred historical treasures unless President Mohamed Morsi takes immediate steps to control illegal development and curb looting, warned the country’s most eminent archaeologist last night.

Theories of what Stonehenge was include a temple, observatory, calendar, a site for fairs or ritual feasting, or a centre for healing. Photograph: Eyebyte/Alamy

Dating cremated bone fragments of men, women and children found at site puts origin of first circle back 500 years to 3,000BC

Centuries before the first massive sarsen stone was hauled into place at Stonehenge, the world’s most famous prehistoric monument may have begun life as a giant burial ground, according to a theory disclosed on Saturday.

More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team led by archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has been working at the site and on nearby monuments for decades. He now believes the earliest burials long predate the monument in its current form.

The first bluestones, the smaller standing stones, were brought from Wales and placed as grave markers around 3,000BC, and it remained a giant circular graveyard for at least 200 years, with sporadic burials after that, he claims.

It had been thought that almost all the Stonehenge burials, many originally excavated almost a century ago, but discarded as unimportant, were of adult men. However, new techniques have revealed for the first time that they include almost equal numbers of men and women, and children including a newborn baby.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

Really interesting article

I really do, recently i have been suffering horrible nightmares. This is really unusual for me as it has been years since i have experianced one, but in the past couple of weeks they have been coming thick and fast. The topic is not always the same, ranging from freinds turning into demons to me being killed.

I am stating now to whatever is causing these (subconsious, diety, Akhu, ect) that i have had enough, i am exhausted and feel so down its not even funny any more. It is starting to effect my everyday life and causing me to lose my temper in situations i really shouldn’t

My relationship with my wife is starting to suffer too with her seemingly not wanting to be near me for too long Shit times are apparently… well, shit.

In other news its nearly 5 years since my stupid attempt at suicide failed What a silly boy i was back then.