By: The Scribe on Friday, March 22, 2013
Oh, those Egyptians. They have so many beautiful tomb paintings, papyrus scrolls full of art, and sculptures, and look at all those lovely people holding beautiful white and blue flowers… they must really love their flowers. Who wouldn’t, right?
But, wait… why are they all holding the flowers to their noses and mouths? Surely everyone wasn’t sniffing their flowers all the time, were they?
Actually, maybe they were, but probably not for the reason you think. Rather, they were likely, uh… getting high.
However, first it’s worthwhile to mention that the blue lotus isn’t actually a lotus. It’s a water lily, but we’ll be using the word “lotus” for the sake of convenience and familiarity. This particular flower was closely linked with the rising & setting sun for the ancient Egyptians, and was the flower belonging to the god of the sun and perfume, Nefertem.
Apparently, Nefertem brought a blue lotus to the sun god Ra in order to help “ease the suffering of his aging body.” The perfume of the flower was thought to have a healing quality, so the Egyptians liked to sniff it at parties, when they felt they needed healing, or as part of rituals… however, the exact details on this are still under debate.
Some studies were done on the blue lotus to see if it had any psychotropic or narcotic effects, and conclusions were a little shaky—one thought was that the flower was infused with wine to change its chemical content, and after a period of fermentation, the wine would be drunk. However, the lack of a control group meant the results were unreliable, so it remains unknown if this theory holds any weight.
That said, it seems fairly well accepted that the blue lotus has a somewhat hypnotic effect at low doses, along with being a mild stimulant for the libido.
Whether used for perfume, for healing, just to get high, or to get one’s mojo back, the ancient Egyptians definitely had a use for the flower… there’s a reason it shows up in their artwork so often!
By: The Scribe on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
The ancient Celts liked to do things a little differently when it came to their gods. They took one look at the Greco-Roman god Apollo and thought “no way dude, that guy’s boring… pretty sure the god doesn’t look like that.” (What, you don’t think the ancient Celts talked like that?)
Nope, they thought, the god definitely looks like something more… well… four-legged. And pointy-nosed.
In fact, they were so convinced that they named him Moritasgus, which scholars have analyzed and believe means… Great Badger. Or maybe Sea Badger. Either way, he’s a giant badger god of healing.
The god’s epithet (or, what they called him) has been found on four inscriptions at the ancient city site of Alesia, and two of those are what identify him with Apollo. Moritasgus also had a consort named Damona who—in keeping with the animal-epithet tradition—means “Divine Cow.”
The ancient Celts liked to devote various objects to the Great Badger, most of which were models of affected body parts like limbs, internal organs, genitals, and eyes—and archaeologists have also found surgeons’ tools near these votive offering sites, which may suggest that the god’s priests acted as surgeons in their duties to the healing god.
The ancient city site where the inscriptions were found is also the site of a shrine dedicated to Moritasgus, near a spring believed to have healing properties. Pilgrims to the shrine would have bathed in the pool and also journeyed to the god’s nearby temple.
Why a great badger? Badgers do burrow in the earth and re-emerge, which has been thought to symbolize death and rebirth—so it may make sense to give this epithet to a healing god. The concept is also reminiscent of the Celtic belief system’s origins, which were highly animistic.
By: The Scribe on Friday, March 15, 2013
No self-respecting actress would be caught dead on the red carpet wearing the same dress two years in a row… how horrible would that be? *dramatic swoon*
Even your average high school prom queen wouldn’t wear the same dress twice, much to the dismay of Mom and Dad. But if history is any indication, this isn’t unusual behaviour—in fact, it’s been going on for tens of thousands of years!
Scientists have discovered that ancient humans were no different from the fashionista next door, with some ancient people in a South African cave avoiding fashions they considered “outdated”… 75,000 years ago!
Archaeologists consider things like necklaces and bracelets to be marks of symbolic behaviour, because they represent individual identity or indicate one’s membership in a group. In Upper Palaeolithic sites from 40,000 years ago in ancient Europe, archaeologists have found many, many necklaces and bracelets made of materials like bone, ivory, stone, mollusc shells, and even human teeth!
But 40,000 years is nothing compared to what’s come out in a study published in the Journal of Human Evolution—according to a team led by archaeologist Marian Vanhaeren (University of Bordeaux), a cache of beads found in Blombos Cave in South Africa has revealed a change in how beads were strung together between 75,000-72,000 years ago.
This period was part of something called the “Still Bay Tradition”, which included bone awls, spear points and knives, and sixty-eight types of the south African tick shell all clustered together—each shell with a single hole, indicating they likely used to be strung individually on bracelets and necklaces.
The team studied the wear on the beads, re-strung them, and subjected them to a battery of tests to mimic human wear and sweat! And within the analysis, the team discovered that the wear patterns showed the way the beads were strung didn’t last long—like all fashions, the way they were worn changed time and time again.
This was apparently the earliest “evidence of a shift in ‘social norms’ or ‘customized style’, a change that ‘parallels the many similar changes in symbolic norms observed among more recent and historically known societies’.” Did the residents of Blombos Cave change their fashion ideas on their own, or did some other group influence their concepts and preferences with their own fashions? Who knows!
Either way, the changing fashion preferences of these ancient peoples shows that this period was one of dynamically shifting cultural innovation—especially considering that soon after the Still Bay period, the fashions changed yet again to use styles of decoration made with stone and bone tools.
They were certainly a long way from Forever 21’s ever-changing stock catalogue, but you can now rest assured that your ancestors also could not wear last year’s styles… perish the thought!
By: The Scribe on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Recent excavations at Luxor’s west bank in Egypt have uncovered a previously undiscovered collection of black granite statues that depict the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet in her lioness form. The excavation is part of an ongoing project at King Amenhotep III’s funerary temple at Kom Al-Hittan.
These aren’t the first statues from the funerary temple, either—the Egyptian-European project (led by German Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian) has uncovered 64 other statues of Sekhmet in a variety of shapes and sizes.
And typical to depictions of Sekhmet, the goddess is depicted in the new collection of statues with a human body and the head of a lioness, and sitting on a throne.
Finding so many statues of Sekhmet at this one location says a lot about the temple and the time period. The goddess played an important role during the 18th Dynasty, particularly during the reign of Tutankhamun’s grandfather, King Amenhotep III.
According to Egypt’s minister of state for antiquities, “some Egyptologists believe that King Amenhotep constructed a large number of goddess Sekhmets in an attempt to cure him of a specific disease that he suffered during his reign.” Although the goddess is best known for her aspect as goddess of war and destruction, she was also considered to have the ability to cure serious diseases.
Of the new statues found, they’re considered “very well preserved”, and one of the figure is over two meters tall!
And apparently this wasn’t the only place the lioness goddess held sway—on Luxor’s east bank, the temple of the goddess Mut also held numerous Sekhmet statues. The west bank temple, according to Luxor’s supervisor of antiquities, was a “symbol of stability and prosperity” during King Amenhotep III’s reign.
…or maybe he just really liked lions.
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