Ancient Megalithic Stonework

In ancient period, several large monuments and megalithic structures were built across the world which was presumed to be built by different cultures who constructed pyramids and other pyramid like structures. Megalith means `giant stone’, which include Stonehenge, the giant stone figures on Easter Island, the Great Pyramids, the massive obelisks in Puma Punku – Bolivia including much bigger ones in Baalbek, Lebanon and beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There are certain walls consisting of very heavy interlocking stone blocks of various sizes which have been seamlessly placed together forming a puzzle without the use of any composite building material. This stonework all over the globe is so massive and precise that in spite of sophisticated modern technology, it would be impossible to duplicate them or even resemble them. There are several mysteries with regards to the construction of these megalithic structures and many were constructed with the use of massive and very heavy stones. Many have debated on their efforts for going into such trouble of using these heavy stones instead of using lighter and smaller stone, or if there was any specific reason behind it.

The mysterious giant stone balls of Costa Rica in Diqius Delta are clearly man made though their purpose and who created them is unknown. Majority of these stones are made of granoduirite, which is a hard igneous stone and their size ranges from the size of a tennis ball to a huge 8 feet in diameter weighing around 16 tons, with its spherical precision and smoothness of amazing perfection which would be impossible to recreate them without the use of power tools. Another amazing fact on this mystery is that it is also found in several other areas of the world which include New Zealand, Malta including Easter Island. There are speculations with regards to these stone balls that these were once star maps, aligned to planets and stars, if they had never been moved. Prehistoric megalithic site namely Stonehenge, situated in the English Amesbury in Southern Wiltshire was developed by a culture which left behind no written records and archaeologists are puzzled on the purpose of the Stonehenge structure. According to some it could have been used as an astronomical observatory, a place for ceremonies and ritual use, or a healing center.

Many archaeologists around the world are of the opinion that the megaliths are the outcome of many hands that used primitive tools over the years while intervention theorists disagree over this issue. They find it absurd to believe that primitive people who with the help of fiber ropes and stone tools could cut some of the hardest stones on earth and build giant structures with such precision which is unmatched in present times. The Tiwanaku site known as Puma Punku is Aymaran and when translated means `Door of the Cougar’ are huge stone blocks, some of the heaviest block weighing 440 tons which were supposed to be part of a huge ancient architectural advanced structure. Its walls were made of solid multi ton blocks of diorite, an extremely hard rock which were interlocked and carved with accurate shape and angles with some even having indication of tool marks resembling advanced techniques like drilling and frasing. Stone cutters experts believe that it would be difficult for humans in modern times to acquire this precise cutting technique using primitive tools. In the city of Cusco, Peru, enormous stone blocks of different shapes form the walls of the complex known as Sacsayhuaman which are fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was earlier thought to be a fortress though researchers are not sure about it anymore. The weight of some of these stones are around 500 tons and 27 feet in height where these types of interlocking stones are also found in various other megalithic structures in Peru – Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Egypt and Easter Island.

Within the mountain ranges of Hayu Marca in Peru, mysterious structures around 35 km from Puno to Lake Titicaca, was recently found in the year 1996, though locals already knew of its existence. It resembles a carved rock which measures around 7 meters high with 7 meters wide with a 1.5 meter wide niche at the center giving the impression of a door. According to local legend, these structures including Tiwanaku were known as `Portal to the Gods’, or the Portal to Heaven which was constructed by Lord Muru, a ruler from the land of Mu – an ancient sunken continent once situated in the Pacific Ocean. It was also known as the `devil’s door by the locals since some claimed that people disappeared and in some cases reappeared near the door and yet others related of strange tall men accompanied by glowing balls of light walking through the doorway. The purpose behind this structure is a mystery and some speculate that there were possibilities that it may have been used as a quarry like the strange quarry in Ollantaytambo which was located in southern Peru. Evidence show that the stones are cut out of the rock and were carved in such a manner leaving behind a smooth finish with traces of horizontal lines at the bottom as though it had been cut with laser technology.

In Baalbek, Lebanon, a complex temple was built by the Romans which were built on a foundation of the biggest and heaviest stone in the world that were carved and placed accurately into position. Blocks of around 10 meters length, 5 meters high and 3 to 4 meters deep were found, weighing around 450 tons per block and above these megaliths blocks, three blocks much heavier, weighing more than 1000 tons known as Trilithons or Triliths were placed. In another stone quarry neighboring it, the biggest stone weighing approximately 1158.696 tons, called the `Stone of the Pregnant Woman’, was found while another ancient monolith in the same quarry was discovered in 1990. This surpasses the dimension of the Stone of the Pregnant Women with its estimated weight of around 1242 tons. All these structures have given room for thought on how these megaliths have been transported and placed in perfect position with the help of manpower, ropes or primitive tools.

Aramaic Bowl Spells – Its Beliefs and Practices

Aramaic Bowls known as magic bowls are a kind of amulet comprising of incantation written on earthenware that were used by various Aramaic speaking communities which lived during the Sasanian Mesopotamia period. The corpus of these bowls is the most important source in obtaining information about daily beliefs and practices of the Christian, Jewish, \Mandaean, Zorastrian, Manichaean and Pagan communities on the eve of the conquest of Islam. These bowls are from Schoyen Collection with around 650 texts in different types of Jewish Aramaic, Syria, and Mandaic, all forming the largest collections found anywhere across the globe in which the volumes portrays edition of sixty four Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls together with translation, introductions, photographs, philological notes as well as indices. Moreover the themes also includes magical divorce together with accounts of the wonder working sages, Joshua bar Perahia, and Hanina ben Dosa and is one of the first multi volume project focused on publishing the Schoyen Collection of Aramaic incantation bowls.

These incantation bowls were also known as demon bowl or devil trap bowl, a form or ancient protective magic found in present Iraq and Iran which were usually inscribed in a spiral starting from the rim and going to the center with most of the inscription done in Aramaic language. The bowls were placed facing downwards with the intention to capture the demons and were commonly placed under the threshold, in the corner of the homes of recently deceased person or in the graveyards and courtyards. The Aramaic incantation bowls are important source of information about Jewish magical practices especially the 80 Jewish incantation bowls found in Sassanid Babylon between 226-36 BC from the Jewish Diaspora settlement in Nippur. The bowls were used to protect them from evil influences like evil eye, Bagdana and Lilith where these bowls were used by the members of the Jewish community.

On excavation one will find that practically every house in the Jewish home in Nippur was in possession of these bowls. There are at least 2000 bowls in existence in museums as well as private collections out of which less than 25% have been published and the majority of them are written in Aramaic dialect, a few in Pahlavi with a couple in Arabic. Besides these, a significant number of texts are also written in pseudo scripts and the kinds of Aramaic presented in prevalence order are Aramaic square script – 60%, Mandaic script- under 25%, and Syriac scripts under 15%. A very interesting aspect of the incantation bowls is the way the text is inscribed on the surface of the bowls in various ways, the most common being spiral which begins in the middle of the concave side of the bowl, moving in a clockwise direction towards its outer edge and the skill displayed suggest a need to produce manuscripts on conventional type of material like parchment.

The Aramaic bowl text are intriguing and claim to protect their owners from various misfortunes including difficulty during child birth and rearing, poverty, illness as well as afflictions caused by supernatural and human foes. Moreover the texts also contain adjuration of supernatural beings to curb other beings or entities which may be the cause of adversity. The literature of these bowls indicates a rich theatre where various communities of angelic and demonic kinds and individuals are portrayed in a drama of war and conflict. The incantations are also styled and structured consisting of various elements like opening formulae, sequence in mystical as well as liturgical styles, name invocation, biblical quotations, historical tales of magical incidents of well known figures like great sages and prophets who had successfully eliminated demonic forces. Often, the incantation in the bowls are accompanied with graphic images which are commonly depicted as bound demons while other types of image are a variety of animals and abstract magical symbols or characters.

The Jewish incantation bowl texts are eclectic since they are of literary materials which can be traced to canonical literature namely the Mishna, the Old Testament, the order of liturgy or mystical literature while other element occurred seemed to be either culled or borrowed from literary works which are unknown and some which indicate that they are not Jewish.

The individuals who commissioned the amulets are mentioned within the text making them a source for study of personal named in late antique Mesopotamia and a study of male to female ratios, the makeup and size of families together with households listed as well as the types of afflictions mentioned, contribute to the study of social history of these people, responsible in creating and using these objects. Majority of the names are Persian, indicating that non Jews obtained the services of Jewish amulet practitioners and there is an instance in which a client obtained bowls made by both Jews as well as non Jews while another case shows that there bows made by different faith groups were also found in the same house.

Unique Desert Environment – Botswana Safaris

Botswana itself a desert, is one of Africa’s most favored destinations for safari, with wildlife areas to explore, which is located in the north of the country. Due to this, the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and Central Kalahari Game Reserve provide a unique desert safari environment and though their arid dry areas are not often visited it forms a startling contrast to the other safari areas further down north. The Okavango Delta Safaris are the main focus for most of the trips for Botswana Safaris, though there are other well known sites namely Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe and Linvanti. All their vast tracts of wilderness in pristine condition are classic viewing areas home of phenomenal concentration to huge herds of game as well as some of Africa’s awesome camps. Roaming is unrestricted between the Kalahari’s plains as well as the waterways of the Okavango and is an appropriate safari holiday for those interested in wildlife.

Botswana’s Safari – Private Reserves

A major part of Botswana’s important safari regions is separated in private reserves resulting in price hike with a level of privacy which accounts for the high ranking of the country on the list of its visitors. Privacy and wilderness are the main attraction with a Botswana safari since most of the lodges can accommodate around 8 to 20 guest and if one opts for a camp, one may find few tourist but plenty of game. An addition to the flavor of excitement is the arrival by light aircraft at the lodge for the safari, which is beyond compare. There is lots of excitement in store for the tourist in these private reserves where most of the camps offer game drives during the day and at night, walking, fishing, boating with Botswana’s Okavango trademark – mokoro activity which is awesome. Driving at night in these parks is forbidden with strict parking rules to be maintained since conducting walking safaris or driving off road could cause annoyance especially when an interesting game is spotted away from the track.

Professional Safari Guides with Open 4WD safari Vehicles. 

All of Botswana’ safari camps are equipped with professional safari guides with open 4WD safari vehicles which are of comfort nature. The chalets as well as the tents have en-suite flush toilets with hot and cold showers with most of them having fans and air conditioning.

Amazing Discoveries of the Cave of Manuscripts- Dunhuang Library Cave

Over a thousand years ago, a chamber had been sealed in a cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert outside the town of Dunhuang in Western China. The said chamber contained more than five hundred cubic feet of heaped manuscripts which lay hidden for hundreds of years. The room which came to be called the Dunhuang Library was finally opened in 1900 which gave way to remarkable archaeological discoveries of the twelfth century estimating to 40,000 manuscripts, booklets, scrolls, paintings on hemp, silk and paper, besides Tutankhamum’s tomb and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the middle Ages, this city had been a flourishing city and was famous as a center for Buddhist worship where pilgrims from distant places came to visit the cave shrines.

These shrines comprised of various lavishly decorated caverns which were carved into cliffs on the outskirts of the city. The treasure of these caves were probably collected between the ninth and the tenth centuries AD, by Tang and Song dynasty Buddhist monks who could have carved the cave and then heaped them with the ancient manuscripts which varied from philosophy and religion, history and mathematics, folk songs and dance. In the early 20th century, this city became the backwater with its caves in need of repairs and Wang Yuanlu an itinerant Taoist monk took upon himself to be its caretaker. The library was discovered by accident when one day, he notice his cigarette smoke wafting towards the back wall of a large cave shrine.

This led him to curiosity and he knocked down the wall and found to his amazement a heap of documents piled above ten feet high in the cave. Though he could not read the ancient text, Wang knew that he had found something amazing of great significance and got in touch with the local officials and offered to send the findings to the provincial capital, but they being preoccupied with the Boxer Rebellion and strapped for cash denied him any support. Soon the news spread about the discovery along the Caravan routes of Xinjiang and the Hungarian born Indologist and explorer Aurel Stein, who was in the midst of his second archaeological expedition to Central Asia got to know about the same and rushed to Dunhuang. Stein on rushing to Dunhuang had to wait for two months before finally meeting Wang where the negotiation for the manuscripts seemed to be very delicate.

Wang was careful in not letting the documents fall out of his sight and felt uncomfortable about selling the same. Stein persisted in persuading the monk by invoking his patron saint, Zuanzang, a Chinese pilgrim who had made a journey to India in search of religious text toward the seventh century and claiming to be his follower he managed to convince the monk to sell some of the manuscripts and painted scrolls for a hundred and thirty pounds. From the inscriptions, it is understood that the original librarian in the cave was a Chinese monk called Hongbian who was the leader of the Buddhist community at Dunhuang and in 862, after his death, the cave was consecrated as a Buddhist shrine with his statue, while some of the manuscripts thereafter could have been left as offerings. Some were of the opinion that as other caves were emptied and reused, the storage overflowed and could have ended up in Cave 17.

Cave 17 being one of the many 500 manmade caves was known as the Magao Ku or Mogao Grottoes, dug into cliff of approximately 25 kilometers southeast of the town of Dunhuang, northeastern China in Gansu province having an oasis which was an important cultural and religious crossroad on the well known Silk Road. From the five cave temple complexes, Magao Cave complex in that region were excavated and maintained by the Buddhist monks till they were hidden and sealed until they were rediscovered in the year 1900.The variety of the scripts and languages that have been found among the manuscripts are of multicultural nature of the region during the 1st millennium AD where the major part of the manuscript was written in Chinese in classical and to a lesser extent, in vernacular Chinese.

Moreover most of them included Buddhist text written in regular script or Kaishu and others in running script or the cursive Xingshu. One amazing feature of the manuscript from the 9th and the 10th centuries was that they appeared to have been written with a hard stylus instead of a brush which was due to the lack of material for constructing brushes in that town after the Tibetan occupation towards the later part of the 8th century, according to Akira Fujieda. These manuscripts are some of the earliest samples of Tibetan writing, where some of the styles portray the later Uchen and Ume script styles.

Besides Aurel Stein who visited the caves in 1907 – 1908 and the French sinologist, Paul Pelliot, there were others like the American Langdon Warner, Russian Sergei Oldenburg and other explorers and scholars who visited Dunhuang, taking with them relics which are now in museums all around the world. Research on paper making and inks by Richardin together with his colleagues was done on two of the manuscripts from the Pelliot collections in the National library of France which were collected from Cave 17 by Paul Pelliot in the early 20th century.

The inks utilized in the Chinese scripts contain reds which was derived from a mixture of hematite and red with yellow ochre. Red paint on the murals of other Magao caves were made of ochre, synthetic vermillion, cinnabar, organic red and red lead while black inks was made of carbon with a combination of ochre, calcium, quartz, kaolinite and carbonate and the wood from the papers in Pelliot collection had salt cedar. Resent study in environmental issue with regards to the ambient air quality on the scripts with the ongoing deposit of sand from surrounding areas in the Magao caves indicate threats to the Library Cave as well as the others caves surrounding it.

History mystery: Palimpsest – Ancient Manuscript

The word Palimpsest is derived from the Latin word palimpsestus and from Ancient Greek, palimpsestos, meaning scratched or scraped again, originally from palin meaning again and psao, scrape, which literally means scraped clean and used again. Earlier, the Romans wrote on wax coated tablets which could be smoothed and then reused and the term palimpsest by Cicero was referred to this practice. A Palimpsest is a manuscript in codex or roll form, of earlier text that had been partly erased and apparently having an additional text underneath it and the underlying text is considered to be `in palimpsest’ where the vellum or parchment can be reused.

It was a common function especially during the medieval ecclesiastical time, to erase an earlier existing piece of writing with the aid of washing or scraping of the manuscript and then to prepare it for a new text. The idea of making palimpsests could have been economic and reusing the parchment which was cheaper than getting hold of a new one. Another option could have been directed by Christian piety, in the conversion of a pagan Greek script by overlaying it with the word of God.

Before the 20th century, faint legible text were read through technique that helped to make text readable and scholars of the 19th century used chemicals to read palimpsests which were at times very destructive, using tincture of gall and later ammonium bisulfate. Present day historians interested in ancient writing, employed infra red and digital enhancement techniques, to restore the erased text, very often with successful result. From the various important palimpsests, the most notable one being the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus from which, only 299 leaves are available.

Since parchment which was prepared from animal hides is considered more durable than paper or papyrus, most of the palimpsests are parchment which was popular in Western Europe after the 6th century. The papyrus was in common use then and reuse as writing media was less common since papyrus was much cheaper than costly parchment. The writing from the parchment or vellum was washed with milk and oat bran and with the passage of time, the faded remains of the earlier text would reappear so that scholars could discern the text known as the scriptio inferior, meaning the underwriting, enabling them to decipher the same.

Towards the later stage of the Middle Age, the surface of the vellum was scraped with powdered pumice resulting in losing the text and the most valuable palimpsests are the one that were overwritten in the early Middle Ages. The Medieval codices were developed in `gathers’ that were folded and stacked together in the form of newspaper and sewn together at the fold. The prepared parchment sheets have retained the original central fold with each fold cut in half making a quarto volume of the original folio and the overwritten script running perpendicular to the effect manuscript.

Several ancient works have been restored only as palimpsests and Vellum scripts were overlaid with the intention of reducing the cost or dearth of the material. With regards to the Greek manuscripts, the consumption of old codices in terms of the material was essential that a synod decree of the year 691 restricted the destruction of the manuscripts of the Scriptures or the church fathers which was only permitted for imperfect or badly affected volumes. This resulted in mounted pressure in retrieving the vellum where the secular manuscripts were texted and the decline of the vellum trade with the introduction of paper being scarce lead them to reuse the material. Besides this, the cultural considerations also lead to the creation of palimpsest.

Most of the text which were prone to being overwritten included obsolete liturgical and legal, at times, of intense interest to the historian or scholar. The Scripture translation of Early Latin was rendered obsolete by Jerome Vulgate and the text might have been either in foreign languages or in some unfamiliar scripts which could have become illegible over the years or the possibility that the codices could have been damaged or incomplete.

The Heretical text were dangerous to hold since there was a compelling religious and political reason to eliminate texts viewed as heresy and reusing the media was economical than to burn the books. Major destruction of the broad quartos during the early centuries happened during the period following the fall of the Roman Empire though palimpsests created in the form of new text were needed during the Carolingian renaissance.

A valuable Latin palimpsests which was found in the codices was remade from the early large folios during the 7th to the 9th centuries and it has been indicated that no complete work is found anywhere in the original text of the palimpsest but sections of many works have been gathered to make a single volume. Overall, the Early Medieval scribes were not indiscriminate to supply material from old volumes which were available at hand.