Ancient History Blog

The False Princess: A Stranger Arrives – Part 1/7 (1791-1865)

By: The Scribe on September, 2007

It was in April of 1817 that a cobbler in Gloucestershire, England, came across a disoriented young woman, dressed in exotic clothes – and she was speaking a language that no one in the town could understand. The cobbler brought the young woman back to his home, where his wife could tend to her and decide what to do. She certainly didn’t seem to belong to a local community – her thick, black hair, dark eyes, and black turban seemed to suggest she was a foreign beggar, at best.

After allowing the woman to sleep for awhile, the cobber’s wife decided to take her to the Overseer of the Poor, whose job was to arrest anyone begging, making trouble, or running rogue across the countryside – and then either place them in jail, a workhouse, or ship them off to Australia in chains. However, the Overseer was just as stupefied by the woman as the cobbler had been, and instead decided to pass her off to the county Magistrate, Samuel Worrall, since the Magistrate and his wife had a Greek servant who spoke several European languages.

Unfortunately, neither the Worralls nor their servant could understand what the girl was saying, although Mrs. Worrall became fascinated by her looks and exotic appearance. The Magistrate tried to follow protocol: he took a suspicious view, and tried to ask her if she had any papers. Seeming to understand, the woman emptied her pockets, which contained only a few halfpennies and a fake sixpence – which, under normal circumstances, would mean the death sentence for carrying around counterfeit currency.

The only other thing the girl had with her was a bar of soap, pinned inside her clothes on a piece of linen. Uncertain of what to do, the Worralls finally realized that if she was indeed a beggar or foreign slave, her hands would tell the truth – but when they examined her hands and fingers, they were soft and clean, which were certainly not a sign of hard work. Thinking it would probably be in her best interest to stay the night at a village inn, the Worralls sent the woman downtown with two of their servants.

Upon arriving at the inn, the woman noticed a picture of a pineapple on the wall, and began to gesture excitedly, saying “Anana!”, attempting to convey that this fruit was from her own country. Since ‘anana’ was the word typically used for pineapple in several European languages, the landlady offered her some, as well as a plate of dinner. However, the woman refused and instead insisted on drinking a cup of tea – and would only drink this after holding a hand over her eyes and repeating a prayer. Then before she would drink another cup, she insisted on washing the little cup herself and then repeating the hand-over-eyes and prayer ritual.

Fascinated by the woman, the inn’s landlady agreed to allow the stranger to stay for the night, but when she was shown her room, she didn’t seem to understand what the bed was for. Instead, she lay down on the floor, and would not get into the bed until the landlady’s daughter physically showed her that the bed was more comfortable than sleeping on the floor. Consenting to use the bed, the woman kneeled, said some prayers, and then went to sleep. The next morning, Mrs. Worrall could not contain her curiosity, and decided that the girl must come back home with her for awhile…

…to be continued…

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Caraboo: The Servant Girl Princess : The Real Story of the Grand Hoax

Tomorrow: Part 2!

Getting ‘A-head’ in Ancestral Worship (ca. 1-750 AD)

By: The Scribe on September, 2007

Known best for their production of the Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert, it appears that the Nazca culture did more than just create sand art – they also created some fantastic pieces of pottery… ceramic heads, to be precise. In fact, the Nazca were rather fond of worshiping their ancestors through human sacrifice: they would decapitate their victims, modify the skull to be a ‘trophy’ head, and display this as a symbol of their worship.

The only problem is, no one is quite sure whether the victims in these sacrificial rituals were actually enemies from war or rival tribes, or if they were simply local people who offered themselves up for the sake of the group. Fortunately in 2004, an archaeologist from Texas State University discovered a Nazca burial that may help to shed some light on the dilemma.

The burial contained a rare, headless skeleton inside of a tomb-like structure, sitting cross-legged and with a ceramic ‘head-jar’ by his left elbow. By looking at the age of the skeleton and the condition of the burial – as well as taking into account the ceramic jar, painted with dual inverted faces – it has since been determined that the victim was killed and buried in a ritual of ancestral worship. At the time of death, the victim was a 20-25 year old male, and there are still visible cut marks along the neckline – meaning that not only was this person decapitated, but the cuts were made on fresh bone…ergo, it would have taken quite the effort to cut off this person’s head!

The site of the burial was at a place called La Tiza, where only several other Nazca head jars have been found before. Although they’ve typically been considered a part of high-status burial ritual, the function of the replacement head jars is also still under debate. Judging by where this man was buried and the style of death, his sacrifice was likely meant to honor the ancestors buried at this Nazca cemetery – in effect, he was killed in order to appease the ancestral spirits and ensure the fruitful continuation of the community.

Since the ceramic jar was painted with two images of a human face – which, when looked at directly, one is right side up and the other upside-down – the jar was probably meant to serve as a ‘substitute’ for the victim’s decapitated head! Based on other Nazca images in the area, it is thought that the Nazca believed a person needed a head in order to enter into the afterlife – so naturally, a replacement head would have been necessary, especially for a sacrificial victim! Of course, this generous treatment leads one to think that perhaps the ritually killed individual was a local community member after all…or, there is always an alternative possibility that the man was killed in a battle and had his body retrieved by family members who simply chose to bury him here – however, that doesn’t make quite as interesting a story.

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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard!